Philip Braham's latest book "Don’t Think of the Black Cat and Other Aphorisms to Make Your Life Easier"

A few words said at the right time can achieve far more than a thousand words said indiscriminately. These phrases have come about from years of counseling and dealing with people in different situations. Read and understood in the right time and place, these aphorisms could be better than a year of therapy.

Buy 'Don't Think of the Black Cat and other aphorisms to make your life easier'

Here are some extracts from the book:

From the introduction
Some of these sayings appear to contradict each other. It’s very easy with pithy sayings to take them on without understanding the context. If someone were to tell you that you should think before talking, it would certainly be appropriate in some situations. On the other hand, there are people who think too much, and in conversational situations by the time they have thought of what to say the conversation has moved on. Sometimes it may be appropriate to simply say what’s on your mind without thinking too hard about it.
     In therapy there is a process called ‘reframing’, where a client is shown how to see a situation in a different way. As an example, instead of seeing a work colleague as a gossip and a nuisance, they may learn to see them as person with problems who they should feel sorry for.
     The ways these sayings have been organised can have a similar effect. You see a situation in a different way.

You have to taste to know.
It’s sometimes said that you can’t describe colour to a blind person. Language is simply a metaphor: you create pictures and you assume that the person listening is forming the same picture as you are. If you are describing something that the other person has no experience of, you can use analogies but you are not going to pass on true understanding.
     For example, if I said to you ‘imagine the taste of sour plums’ and you’ve tasted sour plums, you could probably feel the taste in you mouth. If you have never tasted sour plums I could explain that it’s similar to tasting lemons but this only approximates to the sensation.
     People who are colour blind may be in their teens before they realise that they are colour blind. They don’t appreciate that they are missing something. Similarly, if you have not had the experience that I’m describing you may think you understand what I’m saying, even though you really can’t, or you may dismiss what I’m saying as nonsense.

"How to Tame the Mind"

As result of a number of years of study and working as a hypnotherapist, Philip has at last published a book that gives an insight into how we think as we do and how we can change our habits.

Buy "How to Tame the Mind" Online

Here are some extracts from the book:

From the Introduction
There are estimated to be around 125 billion (125,000,000,000) galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy varies in size but the Milky Way (our own galaxy) is estimated to contain around 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars. What we know of the universe is tiny.
In Seattle, Washington, is one of the world’s largest buildings, the Boeing Aircraft assembly plant. It is 13.3 million cubic metres, so big it has its own climate. Imagine an ant in one corner of this building. It knows nothing of the vast body of the building that is out of its view and, of the purpose behind the building, it can have no comprehension. We are like that ant in a corner of a universe which we can hardly comprehend.
And yet, out of all the wonders of the universe and countless galaxies, the most wondrous thing in the universe is right here in our heads. The human brain and the mind.

Sequential and holistic learning
We have seen the four stages of learning and how the process moves from the left to the right hemisphere of the brain but how we learn is also related to left and right brained thinking. People learn in different ways. The two extremes of this are what I would call 'Sequential Learning', which is left-brain based, and 'holistic learning' which is right-brain based. Sequential learning is learning in a step-by-step process: this happens, then that happens. Sometimes there is a series of procedures: you do this, then that. Holistic learning is like seeing the situation as a picture. Initially, the picture is fuzzy and out of focus, then as understanding builds up, parts of the picture come into focus.