Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your Life

Break out of negative patterns, relieve anxiety, build new habits, and find fresh motivation by using the groundbreaking "sense foraging" technique 

How do you make a change in your life when the tools you used to rely on start letting you down? Whether we’re struggling with a problem, a bad habit, or life in general, we often think we need to “tough it out” or “try harder.” But when we do that, our brains double down on the patterns that got us stuck in the first place. Fortunately, the science of sensation provides the key.

In Better in Every Sense, neuroscientist Norman Farb and clinical psychologist Zindel Segal explain that the brain has two networks—the rapid problem-solving (habit) network and the sensory network, which is devoted to fresh insight. By tuning into sensations—from the feeling of our feet on a crowded street to the sound of birdsong in the park—we can engage the sensory network. When we’re stressed or stuck, we can use the technique of "sense foraging" to boost our resilience, well-being, health, and creativity wherever we are.

Grounded in decades of scientific research and filled with simple exercises and practical mental techniques, Better in Every Sense explores the power of sensory experiences to liberate us from ruts and dead ends—and handle all of life’s challenges.

Norman Farb is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, where he directs the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics laboratory and the Psychedelics Studies Research Program.
 
Zindel Segal is Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto. He co-developed mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), a psychological treatment that prevents relapse in clinical depression on par with antidepressant medication.