MEET NEAL O’FARRELL, CREATOR OF BRAINISPHERE
Neal O’Farrell is an award-winning cybersecurity expert who hacked his own brain to try and figure out mental and brain health. His and others.
After his own brain finally broke under the weight of decades of untreated mental illnesses, he spent years hacking brain health. Investigating every theory, treatment, and therapy, what worked and what didn’t work and most important of all, the science behind them. And then trying these ideas on himself, a human lab rat.
The results of his research is the Brainisphere. 15 science-supported strategies, habits, and values that not only have the capacity to significantly improve brain and mental health, but can improve every part of your life.
He’s used that research to create the PsyberResilience project and help address the mental health and chronic stress problems experienced by cybersecurity professionals, the world’s digital first responders.
He authored a proposal for the UNDRR, the United Nation’s agency for disaster risk reduction, to incorporate emotional and psychological resilience into disaster recover planning and especially in the face of climate change.
He also created a mental health action cluster as part of the NIST Global City Teams Challenge to explore how future smart cities could sync with and improve the brain and mental health of their residents.
If you’re interested, you can read his full security bio here.
We Are Not Our Thoughts
I was closing in on 60 years old and reflecting on a life that been completely shaped by mental illnesses. Every decision, every relationship, every business and career path, and every outcome.
I understood enough about mental health to guess that it might be a little late to change anything, reverse it all, untangle all the tangled wiring.
But I was still curious. I bought a book in the 1980s called The Mind Machine and was hooked on understanding how cleverly the brain ran everything about us – and how much control we could exercise over that management.
What if at least I better understood why I was the way I was, maybe poke around, prod a little, even untangle some of it just a little – hack the machine!
I’d spent 40 years in the world of hacking and hackers, maybe it was time to use some of those skills on myself.
So I did. And it wasn’t just brain changing but life changing. Best of all, the brain doesn’t just provide all the tools and secrets to get the best from it but will reward the effort with a better life.
The result is what I nicknamed my brainisphere – a collection of 15 life and lifestyle choices, behaviors, even disciplines that I call Pillars. Each one of them backed by solid science and credible and in some cases decades of research.
And each one shown to not only improve brain health and function but also lead to a longer, happier, and more productive and successful life.
One of the most profound statements I heard in my journey was that “you’re not your thoughts, you’re not what you think, but you are how you think.” And that’s something we absolutely can take charge of.”
“Neal received our Highest Attendee Satisfaction Survey Results. 95% Overall Value and 93% Education Value. Huge!”
The Silicon Valley Business Travel Association
