Your Brain Just Got an Upgrade
During your teenage years, your brain is going through one of the most powerful upgrades of your entire life.
New connections are forming. Old ones are being rewritten.
The experiences you have now are shaping the person you will become.
The teenage brain is one of the most powerful learning systems you will ever have. It is constantly adapting to experiences, relationships, stress, and the environments around you.
In Neurons & Narratives, Mark Linsenbardt explains what is actually happening inside your brain during this critical stage of development-and why the stories you believe about yourself can shape the direction of your life.
Inside this book you'll learn how to:
- Understand what is really happening inside the teenage brain
- Recognize the hidden stories shaping identity and behavior
- See how stress, friends, and family influence decisions
- Break out of negative patterns before they become habits
- Build a stronger story about who you are and where you're going
The story your brain is writing today can shape the life you live tomorrow.
This book is written for teenagers who want to understand their own minds, make smarter decisions, and take control of the direction their life is heading.
If you want to understand how your brain works-and how to use it to build a better future-this book will show you where to start.
Linsenbardt, Mark A.: - "Mark A. Linsenbardt has spent more than twenty years working with parents, teenagers, professionals, and judges - teaching the science of how brains work and what people can do with that information. His Neurons and Narratives series is the distillation of that work: a Parent Edition, a Teen Edition, and a Family Workbook currently in development, each written to give families the neuroscience of adolescence in language built for real life, not a classroom.The books draw on research in developmental neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and family systems theory - and on the understanding that none of us operate in a vacuum. A teenager's behavior makes sense inside their family system. A parent's response makes sense inside their own history. Neurons and Narratives was written to both sides of that dynamic because changing one without the other rarely works.For nearly all of the past twenty years, Mark has worked directly with teenagers - teaching leadership to young people in JROTC programs nationwide, and working alongside teens navigating addiction, legal trouble, and the hard work of rebuilding. That direct experience shapes everything about how the Teen Edition is written. Written not at teenagers, but with them in mind as the actual audience, with the respect that comes from knowing what those teens are genuinely capable of.For fourteen years, Mark has facilitated family workshops through ResetYourLife and conducted Recovery Camps for specialty courts - drug courts, juvenile courts, and court-mandated family programs where the stakes are as high as they get. He has delivered workshops and keynote addresses on trauma to a wide range of audiences, including judges and judicial employees throughout Nevada, and has spent more than two decades on stages ranging from intimate seminars to large conferences.As chief officer of content development for Sapient America, Mark has built tools - books, discussion cards, educational games, and guided programs that serve the recovery and mental health community. Neurons and Narratives is an extension of that mission into the family system, bringing the same science-based, plainly communicated approach to the parents and teenagers who need it most.Mark has been writing and publishing since 1997. A Las Vegas native, he is a popular speaker for conventions, conferences, and judicial training events throughout the region and nationwide."
