Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Short essays on what a brain is actually for. Her answer: mostly running the body's energy budget, by predicting what is coming rather than reacting to it. It changes how a bad day reads. A heavy mood is often the body's budget running low (sleep, food, people, movement), not a verdict on your life.

Worth knowing: Barrett's view that emotions are built by the brain rather than triggered as fixed programmes is one side of a live scientific debate, and she says so.

How to start: One lesson per sitting. Each is about twenty minutes.

Find a copy · the research behind it: Does naming a feeling change it?