In this new book, the author of the New York Times best-seller The Gratitude Diaries explores a new science-based mega-theme: the ineluctably profound mind-body connection, how the body, more often than not, provides our brain with key information, not the reverse and when the mind and body work as a seamless team, we feel a true sense of wellness and flow.

YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND:
Discovering the New Science for Happiness, Gratitude, and Joy
by Janice Kaplan
Sourcebooks, 2024
(via The Martell Agency)

YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND couldn’t be more relevant or important as we increasingly rely on technology to give our brains key information. Do we really need a smartwatch to tell us how we slept? Your body tells you that when you wake up, we’ve just stopped listening. Instead, we’ve come to see our bodies as something we need to take care of, so that our minds can function and manage life. But our feeling bodies are often smarter than our thinking minds. Of most importance, research across a wide range of fields in science, shows that when the body and mind work together, we experience a deep sense of pleasure and happiness.
In this new book, Janice will explore the myriad ways that our physical and psychological and spiritual beings are profoundly linked and collaborate in often surprising overlapping patterns in all human experience. YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND will interweave intriguing new scientific research from experts around the globe in many disciplines — from psychologists to neuroscientists to environmentalists — with a powerful personal narrative, as Janice in her own life seeks hardcore scientific research which proves how much our minds rely on the actions and responses of our bodies. For example, the act of smiling can improve your mood. When you pass a dark alley and your body tenses and your heart starts pounding, your cardiovascular system is sending a message to your brain to be frightened, rather than the other way around.
The book will provide tips and strategies about how to rediscover this vital connection, so your mind and body can work, as they should, as a seamless team. A major strength of Janice’s approach is that, unlike an expert in a given field drilling down on one theory, one core premise, to the exclusion of all else, Janice will integrate the ground-breaking discoveries of multiple experts who study mind-body connectivity from many different angles. This makes the premise of the book far more powerful and wholly credible. And as is essential, Janice is expert at making complex research and information interesting, accessible, and relevant to a general reader.

Janice Kaplan has written more than a dozen popular books including the New York Times bestseller The Gratitude Diaries. She was editor-in-chief of Parade when it was the biggest magazine in America with 32 million copies circulating each week and began her career as a writer and producer at Good Morning America and went on to be the executive producer of more than 30 network television specials. She has appeared regularly on national TV shows including GMA, Today, and CBS This Morning and continues to be a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows. Janice hosted the podcast “The Gratitude Diaries” for iHeartMedia, attracting a large audience for the 120 episodes. Since the publication of The Gratitude Diaries and her most recent book The Genius of Women, she gives dozens of talks each year and has become a popular keynote speaker at corporate and non-profit events. The Templeton Foundation is very enthusiastic about the concept and is prepared to get behind the book, as it did for The Gratitude Diaries.