MOODSTRControl Your Mood – Control Your Life

Description

This book describes techniques for improving mental abilities. Some of the things it can help you to achieve include the following: Depending on circumstances, use different lifestyles that improve one or another mental function.Experience euphoria without drugs and come up with new ideas, when needed.Slow down and prevent yourself from making rash, impulsive decisions, when necessary.Sharpen your wit, become more talkative, and entertain people.When necessary, lower your mood and increase emotional tension, which can reduce procrastination.Increase your score on intelligence or general aptitude tests.Concentrate on reading and writing for many hours daily.Increase your grade point average if you are a student or improve your job productivity if you are a knowledge worker.Get along with people and live without arguments and conflicts.     The proposed methods are brief cooling or heating of the body (water thera- py) and three different "smart diets," each suitable for a different type of task. The text also describes a "depressant diet," which is not a smart diet but can im- prove self-control and sleep. Readers don't need to use the strict diets on a per- manent basis and the book recommends the conventional food pyramid most of the time. The text also discusses several useful social skills and studying/writing techniques as well as the role of luck in personal achievement.      Most authors in this field will tell you that you should read more books, solve mental puzzles, buy their nutritional supplements, sleep well, and exercise in or- der to get smarter. In contrast, this book is proposing moderately cold hydrother- apy and a smart diet (which involves avoiding all dietary supplements). To give another example, most books on anger management say that you should try to change your thinking in order to overcome anger, while this book suggests hot hydrotherapy and the exclusion of certain foods from your diet. The main focus of discussion in this text is on changing the biological workings of the brain, not on pop psychology. In particular, the book describes various combinations of diets and hydrotherapy that have the following effects: sedative/sleep-promoting, stimulant/wakefulness-promoting, attention-enhancing, antianxiety, antidepres- sant, mood-stabilizing (mood-lowering), and euphoriant. In addition, the book presents existing scientific evidence of pain-reducing, fever-reducing, anti- fatigue, immunostimulatory, antinausea, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory effects of hydrotherapy. The text also discusses the possible side effects of the diets and hydrotherapy.      Despite its technical content, the book is written in an accessible language and has an informative summary for each chapter and a list of key points at the end of each section. The book supports most of the claims in the bulleted list above with a theory and the author's personal experience (a healthy subject). Previously published scientific studies directly support about a half of these claims, including the claim about intelligence tests. The author's academic transcripts and test scores have been documented and can be verified independently.