This year on Untangle we covered everything from happiness to biohacking to the neuroscience of love with experts on mindfulness, brain health, relationships, performance, and so much more. We culled some of our favorite books from those interviews to help you kickstart your 2020 mindfulness practice and have the best year yet. Here they are:
Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence by Dr. Rick Hanson Rick shares how we can hardwire our brains for happiness using practices that help us cultivate and experience the good in our lives while reducing our natural negativity bias.
Untangle Podcast: Top Five Ways to Be Happier in 2019
From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness by Mark Coleman Mark gets to the heart of what mindfulness really is and introduces practices that you can use in your everyday life to bring you more peace.
Untangle Podcast: Quiet the Ruminations, Story Spinning, and Judgments for Good
Undo It:How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases by Dr. Dean Ornish Lifestyle medicine pioneer Dr. Dean Ornish shares what it takes to be the best version of yourself, including how you can reverse heart disease by optimizing fourimportant areas of your life: stress less, love more, eat well, and exercise.
Untangle Podcast: How to Be the Best Version of Yourself
Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression by Dr. Alex Korb Alex explains how to take control of your wellbeing with the power of neuroscience. He discusses the neural nature of happiness and provides practical tips to increase your happiness levels.
Untangle Podcast: Wired for Joy: The Neuroscience of Happiness
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski A leading voice in the end-of-life care movement, Frank shares comforting and inspiring truths on how we live and die, and on what matters most. When we get to the end of our lives, the two questions most often asked are: Did I love well? and Am I loved? His teachings show us that we can live with joy and sorrow, and live a rich life filled with love.
Untangle Podcast: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Love and Living Fully
The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life by Todd Herman This elite performance coach discusses how top performers create alter egos that allow them to unlock characteristics of success that they otherwise might not be able to access. He shows us how we can use these techniques to increase our own productivity and success.
Untangle Podcast: How Identity Traps Us and How Alter Egos Can Help You Excel
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeons Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James Doty An accomplished neurosurgeon and entrepreneur tells the story of how a magic shopkeeper transformed his life by teaching him the magic of meditation! He attributes much of his success to this early event in his life.
Untangle Podcast: A Neuroscientist Walks into a Magic Shop
Unstoppable: A 90-Day Plan to Biohack Your Mind and Body for Success by Ben Angel Ben shares how his early depression and lack of energy led him to find solutions he never imagined would make him feel better, making it his mission to explore alternatives beyond medicine and self-help. The book shows us how to get fired up and focused with tools that may have the power to change our lives forever.
Untangle Podcast: Find Your Way to Peak Productivity
Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love by Dr. Helen Fisher Anthropologist Helen Fisher shares whats actually happening in our brains when we fall in love. She and a team of scientists scan the brains of people in love to see where different areas of the brain get a boost of blood flow, building the case that romantic passion is hardwired into our brains.
Untangle Podcast: Wired for Love: The Neuroscience of Sex, Lust, Affection and Lasting Love
Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance by Emily Fletcher This book covers three main topics: mindfulness,meditation, and manifesting. Emily shares why this system helps optimize performance at work and at home. She includes practical, easy practices to support each main topic and builds a case for how her system improves your health and sleep as well.
Untangle Podcast: Stress Less, Accomplish More for Extraordinary Performance
About Untangle
Untangle is the podcast from 5-star app Meditation Studio and Muse, the brain sensing headband that gives you biofeedback on your meditation practice. Hosts Patricia Karpas and Ariel Garten interview thought leaders, authors and experts in areas related to mindfulness, neuroscience, brain practices, happiness, relationships, resilience and much more. https://meditationstudioapp.com/podcasts
About Patricia Karpas
Patricia Karpas is the co-founder of Meditation Studio, head of content for Muse, the brain sensing headband and co-host of the Untangle Podcast, where she has interviewed over 200 experts, thought leaders and authors on how mindfulness, contemplative and brain-focused practices change us.
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More:
10 Books to Make 2020 Your Most Amazing Year Yet - Thrive Global
- Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasnt Solved Brain Disordersand How We Can Change That, an excerpt - The Transmitter - June 10th, 2025 [June 10th, 2025]
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