Chasing Peace: A Story of Breakdowns, Breakthroughs, and the Spiritual Power of Neuroscience

Chasing Peace is a guide for turning emotional breakdowns into breakthroughs with the insights of modern neuroscience. It’s the story of a lifelong seeker who suffered years of escalating depression and anxiety, then discovered that the latest practices from brain science offered a path to the peace he longed for.

AN OPEN FIELD PUBLICATION FROM MARIA SHRIVER

Tom Rosshirt, like millions of people chasing peace, put his faith in the scripture of our culture: we find peace by becoming who we want to be. So Tom aimed high, worked hard and excelled. But instead of peace, he experienced debilitating anxiety, depression, and discouraging bouts of brain fog that forced him out of his life. He was one of a rising number of people now getting sidelined by conditions doctors can’t cure. Many sufferers never find their way back, but Tom got lucky. After another dead-end session with a psychiatrist, Tom heard about self-directed neuroplasticity—a daily practice of retraining the brain based on the discovery that pain and illness often start in the brain’s neural circuits, and what the brain learns, the brain can unlearn. After months of using this approach, Tom began to see an alignment between neuroplasticity and the principles of spiritual practice. Reversing the patterns that made him ill did more than make him well; it opened the path from stress to peace—from striving to be who we want to be to becoming who we are.

Brimming with hope, Chasing Peace is for anyone who is sick of chasing peace—but might be willing to read one more book.

Tom Rosshirt is a co-founder of UNITE, a co-creator of The Dignity Index, and an editor of The Call to Unite. Previously, Tom was a high school teacher, a Capitol Hill press secretary, a White House speechwriter, and a co-founder of West Wing Writers.