Mind over Mood

I recently came across a tweet about Deeprak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi;s  book, "Super Brain", I was attracted by the tweet which talked about improving memory and preventing Alzheimers. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and it's not a disease I hope to inherit. 

Their premise seems simple:  our brain is a tool which we can sharpen and control. Similar theories have already been  promoted, and I myself am aware that we can teach ourselves new skills by a lot of repetition. By repeating the task, sport, maths, etc, we create new neuron pathways which ease the way for us to do these new tricks. 
Now they take this one step further by saying that we can control our moods by telling our brains very clearly how they should be feeling! 
The idea being that it is our mind - consciousness (which has no physical counterpart) that controls our physical brain. I like the idea, as well as the other ideas they mention, such as a certain kind of deep sleep (not just REM) that helps us retain memory. How to get to that deep sleep is another issue...! Since I read it, I've been trying desperately to relax, relax, de-stress and relax so I can fall to that wonderful place of deep sleep!

I have no idea whether their ideas all work, and I haven't yet read the whole book, but I do like the idea that we can take part in our own healing, and not just be at the whims of our hormones, brains etc.