Blog Post

Ever failed an exam, bungled an interview, screwed up a relationship, broken your diet, or stuffed up at work?

Okay, that sounds like most of us, but what if we could learn to maybe not keeping doing that? (Or do it less at least.)

Here's a book that not only is a good read - it might actually be a useful a ‘life manual’ for yourself, your friends, family, and anyone else tackling issues such as motivation, stress, time-management, or relationship maintenance who seek a change for the better.

The authors of The Rubber Brain are five of Australia's leading psychological educators working in the area of student wellbeing. Their skills, knowledge, and years of practical dedication to improving the learning experience of young people have for the first time been brought together in one handy book.

A book? Well, a manual for life really - something to give the reader a practical guide to improve their thinking, decision-making, motivation and approaches to all that life will throw at them. And it's based on solid science with a load of helpful information and practical exercises to try.

It shows you simple tools derived from a wide range of areas covering everything from positive psychology to goal setting, from mindfulness to CBT, and from emotional regulation to moral reasoning. That puts it quite apart from the pop psychology texts you’ll see in your local bookshop.

The Rubber Brain is for all aged 17 to 107 but definitely a great resource for younger people in transition from school to uni or uni to work. Its already garnered quite a fan base among UNSW students and staff with a faculty head declaring it should be compulsory reading for all first year students.

The book is all about learning how to ‘rubberise’ your brain, making it more flexible and resilient to better deal with challenges in an optimal way, and ‘bounce’ back from adversity.

Using a model the authors have developed over years of study and application it shows how resilience and psychological flexibility combine to allow you to choose ways of thinking in response to different situations that will produce the best outcome for you for that situation.

It’s the kind of book I love to publish. Well written by Australian psychologists who know their stuff and believe that the way forward for us all is more application of psychology to everyday life and less frothy pop advice.