On average I read eight to ten books a month, fiction and non-fiction, for a couple hours at the end of my day in bed. Since July, after landing the book deal with W.W. Norton, I’ve also been reading one book—The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Ian McGilchrist, MD, a British psychiatrist and philosopher—for a couple hours most mornings at the desk after a few cups of coffee.

How many pages do I read in two hours? About ten. The material is so dense, I have to take notes to stay focused. (More on that in a few paragraphs.) I haven’t worked this hard since medical school!

Intriguing title! I thought. What does the back cover say? My reader taste buds tingling, I plucked the book off the shelf of the wall book display. (Is there anything better than browsing a curated indie bookstore?) I flipped it over.

“ A tale so mind-blowing as to be the stuff of legend.” –The Denver Post

Isolated by Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury.

What?! As a physician and failed jogger (all pain, no gain), these words stopped me short. Deadly? Blissful? Ability to run hundreds of miles? Without rest or injury?

In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets.

I bought the book.

The opening “Half Lesson” is titled: Your Brain Is Not for Thinking. It’s not? No. Your brain’s most important job is predicting your body’s energy needs before they arise so you can efficiently make worthwhile movements and survive to pass your genes to the next generation.

This short, accessible, frequently amusing and deeply subversive book exploded pretty much everything I’ve understood about the brain and how it works. That’s quite a statement given I’m a psychiatrist—my medical specialty is the brain.

For example, memories are not filed like paperwork—that’s a metaphor. They are actually recreated on demand. What! Yes.

…Briefly, after Biden’s inauguration, my fear eased. But, once again I am losing sleep. And what good is that?

It’s National Mental Health Awareness month? How ironic. Two months in to this pandemic, I’m well aware—no, I’m hyper aware that most people’s mental health, including my own, is under siege. It’s impossible to ignore. There is just too much uncertainty. And too many feelings to deal with, from bowel-churning terror to metal-melting rage and everything in between. But now that I think about it, that’s proof I’m well and healthy, and so are you, if you’re swinging the same. How could it be any other way? These are simply psycho-logical responses to an increasingly psycho reality.