A curated list of mind hacking related resources.
Using the theme of the awesome lists and topic, this is a list of resources in the spirit of the Mindhacking book and promotion of good mental health in general.
- Mindhacking by John Hargrave - the book covers many topics including mindfulness.
- The Brain at work by David Rock - working hacks and neuroscience research.
- Your Memory by Kenneth Higbee - essential reading if you're studying and learning something new.
- Teach Yourself CBT - a lot of the Mindhacking book and technique borrows techniques from CBT, but packages the CBT triangle into a slightly more evolved METAL format. This book is probably the easiest and most accessible CBT book.
- Introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Udemy, free - The Mindhacking book has some techniques that NLP tutors might recognise. This video course is a good intro to NLP and is entertaining throughout.
- You're It by Alan Watts - focused on philosophy of mind and some meditation.
- The art of Presence by Eckhart Tolle - similar to Alan Watts he focuses on mindfulness. All his work is good and worth listening to.
- Headspace - still the best meditation app in my view, and worth the subscription.
- Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn - light hearted look at mindfulness similar to Ekhart Tolle's audiobooks.
- Mindfulness a Practical Guide by Mark Williams is a very gentle mindfulness book and course, which is as the author explains is used with patients at a medical center in the UK.
- Awareness by Anthony De Mello is a great book in a similar vein to Alan Watts and Eckhart Tolle, if slightly Guru-ish in places.
- 5-2 diet - lots of research behind this fasting diet shows its benefits. If you do it for just a day you might change your outlook on food.
- Kevin Rose also has a fast tracking app available for Android and iOS.
- Ketogenic diet - low carb diet with the goal of entering ketosis. Has a growing wealth of research around its benefits.
- Rhonda Patrick's Macronutrient Smoothie - expensive set of ingredients but variations of it work just as well.
- Rhonda Patrick - both her podcast and youtube videos are full of cutting edge research.
- Several Joe Rogan podcast guests have focused on nutrition and longevity research.
- Probiotics and the gut biome - this video explains it best, in particular the bacteria's effect on serotine production.
- Kimchee - known for its probiotic effects. It's essentially cabbage, onion, radish, carrots in a salt, 1ugar and chilli brine, left to ferment for a week.
- Kefir - known for its probiotic effects. You can buy it from supermarkets and is similar to probiotic yoghurt.
- High fibre superfoods - tick the probiotic box as well as having their own benefits from the fibre and extra macronutrients you're digesting.
- The fast mimicking diet has some evidence pointing to its health benefits, including research showing its effectiveness during chemotherapy. Voltar Longon is one expert on the topic. This diet involves only eating during a "window" in the day, usually 8-10 hours.
This could be a readme in itself. Nootropics are supplements aimed increasing brain function in some way, typically to increase your brain performance. Some good resources can be found on reddit.
Dave Asprey is a good place to start for this.
As far as vitamins are concerned, the most commonly recommended supplements are:
- A multi-vitamin with A, B and C
- Double or more dosage of the RDA for Vitamin D (Rhonda Patrick talks about this a lot).
- A probiotic.
- An Omega 3 and 6 supplement, in equal measures. Chia Seeds or Fish Oil offer 3 in abudence, nuts and seeds for 6.
As the Mindhacking book described, exercise is important to build into your daily life.
- Yoga - is an essential if you have a desk job. It's worth doing at a class so you're forced to do it for a set amount of time rather than at home.
- Trigger Point Therapy Workbook - if you do a lot of exercise or just injure yourself this is good self-help book for deep-tissue style self-massage.
- Park Runs - for UK runners only - a free well organised run every Saturday in various park locations.
- Four hour Body by Tim Ferris - excellent book focused on finding exercises with the most effect in the shortest period of time.
- Sauna research has recently shown benefits in reducing strokes.
- Vim Hoff Technique has been shown the benefits of cold exposure when done in a control way.
- Jocko Willink is an ex-Navy Seal and leadership coach. He has a good podcast and Twitter feed if you need some inspiration.
- Pat Mcnamara is in a similar vein to Jocko.
- I am not your Guru by Tony Robins - if you don't have Netflix then Russell Brand's podcast with him is a good start.
- Russell Brand's Under the Skin Podcast
- How to win friends and influence people By Dale Carnegie - if you don't have time to read this (it's not about how to make friends) then the wikipedia article has a good summary.
- 12 rules for Life by Jordan Peterson - he's infamous for his political views but is also a clinical pyschologist with this book of advice.
- Self Authoring also by Jordan Peterson - an accompanying website to the above.
- Dr Phil on Joe Rogan - a good collection of tips from Dr Phil.
- Tricks of the Mind - Derren Brown has a few chapters in his book that talk about the techniques he adopted for changing his thinking patterns.
- A year in Pixels (Android) - as the Mindhacking book repeats, writing down your thoughts or moods is a proven technique for making your happier. This app gets you to pick an face and colour that represents your day and plots them as pixels.
This is a fast growing subject, based around a lot of research on the negative effects that mobile devices are having on Western populaces.
- Tristan Harris has lot of information on the subject and a podcast via Humane Tech.
- One of the podcasts with Johann Hari details a lot of current research linking device usage addiction with depression and loneliness.
- Why We Sleep is an essential read, giving a tonne of fact-based evidence for sleeping more, quality of sleep, and how sleep deprivation is linked to modern health issues. There is a summary version too.
- Flux A free app for controlling the blue light your desktop/laptop emits by controlling the brightness of the screen. iOS and Android devices have their own versions of this built in now.