Dr. Earl Henslin - This Is Your Brain on Joy: A Revolutionary Program for Balancing Mood, Restoring Brain Health, and Nurturing Spiritual Growth

THIS IS YOUR
BRAIN ON JOY

OTHER BOOKS BY DR. EARL HENSLIN

Your Fathers Daughter

Man to Man

Forgiven and Free

Off the Cliff: 10 Principles of Business Success

Intervention: Seven Life-Saving Steps

BOOKS COAUTHORED BY DR. HENSLIN

Secrets of Your Family Tree

Inside a Cutters Mind

2008 Earl Henslin

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., 10152 S. Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80130, www.wordserveliterary.com.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

This Is Your Brain on Joy provides information of a general nature and is not to be used as an alternative method for conditions requiring the services of a personal physician or other health-care professional.

Information contained in this book or in any other publication, article, or Web site should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified doctor to address individual medical needs. Individual facts and circumstances will determine the treatment that is most appropriate. This Is Your Brain on Joy publisher and its author, Earl Henslin, PsyD, disclaim any liability, loss, or damage that may result in the implementation of the contents of this book.

To protect the privacy of individuals, some names and details have been changed, and some stories are composite characters. All of the contextual elements and results, however, are true. Permission has been granted for use of the real names of some clients.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used in this book are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Henslin, Earl R.
This is your brain on joy : how the new science of happiness can help you feel good and be happy / Earl Henslin, with Becky Johnson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7852-2873-8 (hardcover)
1. Joy-Religious aspects-Christianity. 2. Happiness-Religious aspects-Christianity. 3. Joy. 4. Happiness. 5. Brain research. I. Johnson, Becky Freeman, 1959- II. Title.
BV4647.J68H46 2008
248dc22

2008038242

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Richard and Marie Henslin.
I want to dedicate this book to you, Mom and Dad.
Thank you for your unfailing love, sacrifice, and the wonderful brain
and heart that you gave me. Thank you for your willingness to share
the stories of our family so that God could use them to help others.
Thank you for your example of growing and changing throughout life.

I love you!
Your favorite oldest son,
Earl

Pleasure comes and goes, but joy has eternity in it.
HEATHER KING IN REDEMED

CONTENTS

Dr. Daniel G. Amen, MD

I am honored to introduce you to my friend, Dr. Earl Henslin. We have been colleagues in helping people through the area of brain study for over a decade.

At the Amen Clinics our mission is to help balance troubled brains. We have seen tens of thousands of patients from all fifty states and sixty-eight countries. We see small children, the elderly, and everyone in between. One of the reasons people come to our clinics is because we use sophisticated brain imaging technology to help us understand and treat our patientssomething youll learn more about in the following pages.

It is through the lens of our brain imaging work that we discovered that when we improve how your brain functions, we help you not only to overcome problems, such as ADD, anxiety, depression, obsession, addiction, and anger, but also to become more thoughtful, creative, energetic, focused, loving, and effective. It is clear to me that a balanced brain is the foundation for a life that is happier, more joyful, wealthier, and wiser.

One question people often ask me is whether the mind is separate from the brain. The answer, after looking at nearly fifty thousand scans over the past twenty years, is no. The mind and the brain are completely intertwined. Just think about Alzheimers disease, which is clearly a brain illness. Do people with Alzheimers lose their minds? Yes, they do as the disease progresses. When you lose brain tissue, you lose your memory and your ability to be rational.

Or lets consider brain trauma. I recently saw a soldier whod returned from war. His brain was damaged in an explosion in Iraq, and hed been discharged from the Army within a year of his injury because he kept getting into fights with other soldierssomething that did not happen before the injury. Does brain damage affect a persons ability to get along with others? Of course it does! Damage the brain and you damage the mind, and usually most everything else in your life.

But what about when we improve the brain? Does that improve the mind? Does it improve the quality of ones life? Yes. Heres an example. When Edward came to see us, he was driving a truck for a living. He had just split from his second wife and frequently had the urge to drive his truck off a bridge. As a child he did poorly in school, and as an adult he struggled to keep both his jobs and his relationships. His scan was consistent with ADD, attention deficit disorder. The very next day, with the right treatment, his brain had already shown improvement. Edward was a gifted artist but was never able to finish the projects he started. As he continued on his treatment, he finished paintings and sold several at a local gallery. Over the next year the demand for his work increased and he was able to stop driving the truck and do the work he loved.

This Is Your Brain on Joy is a thoughtful, practical, life-changing book that will help you take advantage of the latest neuroscience research, combined with biblical insights, to bring more joy and love into your life. This book has wide-ranging implications for individuals, families, the church... not to mention our society as a whole.

In my years as a friend and colleague to Dr. Earl Henslin, I have referred many, many people to him, including members of my own family. He is a brilliant, competent, kind, caring man. Early on, he immediately understood the importance of using neuroscience to help individual clients and families and has helped to pioneer this work among psychologists, businesspeople, and church leaders across the United States.