2021 Starts Off With a New Book Club at the Manor of Hope!
What we are reading: The Craving Mind, by Dr. Judson Brewer
This month the newly formed Manor book club has chosen Judson Brewer’s, The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits for our groups’ collective study. Brewer is an internationally recognized psychiatrist, researcher, and author who leads Brown University’s Mindfulness Center. Some members of the Manor of Hope community had the chance to see Dr. Brewer present at a past Caron Foundation symposium and were intrigued by his philosophies on mindfulness and recovery.
The Craving Mind explores the root causes of our addictions.
Dr. Brewer argues that addiction is the hijacking of our brain’s natural habit-forming mechanisms and that we are all susceptible to this danger. He cautions readers to be even more vigilant as our current society has made it easier and easier to indulge in the highly stimulating activities that so easily become compulsions. This warning caused our book club members to examine closely their own engagement in activities such as social media, online shopping, and others.
Dr. Brewer finishes his book by giving readers useful tools to help us step out and away from our addictions. Many of the techniques involve mindfulness, which is familiar ground for our book club members. Mindfulness practices play an integral role in daily life at the Manor of Hope.
This book is useful for all people who wish to gain a better understanding of addictive behavior and who are looking for practical tools to help make real change. To learn more about the book or about Dr. Brewer’s work you can find his website here. Happy reading!
