Dr. Norman Doidge | The Power of Thought

My very favourite subject of all - neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to change itself.

Dr Doidge's books 'The Brain that Changes Itself' and 'The Brain's Way of Healing' are inspirational and well worth reading, giving hope to those afflicted with chronic pain, deafness and helping even with blindness, symptoms of Parkinsons, stroke and much more.

We truly are incredible beings with powers untapped and unused.

Neuroscience Finds The Happiest Song Which Isn’t Pharell’s “Happy”

Drop everything (including the bass), because a neuroscientist has found the happiest song in the world, and it’s the only thing you should really be listening to!

The University of Missouri conducted a study wherein people heard “upbeat” music for two weeks and it became clear that regardless of genre, listening to music made people happy, reported The Independent.

The study established that people actively improved their mood and boosted their happiness over a span of two weeks.

As scientists tried to distill the music, one neuroscientist Jacob Jolij studied 126 songs from a 50 year span of time. A British electronics company Alba surveyed Britons on the music they thought was the happiest.

Jolij took their answers and found a pattern of the songs chosen.

"The pattern was very clear – the average tempo of a ‘feel good’ – song was substantially higher than the average pop song. Where the average tempo of pop songs is around 118 BPM, the list of feel-good songs had an average tempo of around 140 to 150 BPM."

The one song that got two-third of the votes to become the happiest song?

 Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen!

There were people who were opposed to it and said that how happy the song would make a person would vary across languages and countries.

Others said that 2,000 people cannot decide what song is the happiest, since they were all from Britain and did not take into account different languages.

Whatever it may be, Queen’s music makes us happy and it can definitely make your weekday-workday just a little bit happier!

Source: Akriti Paracer 
https://www.thequint.com/social-buzz/2016/09/21/neuroscience-finds-happiest-song-which-isnt-pharells-happy-freddie-mercury-queen-dont-stop-me-now
And The Independent

A first-ever study to train cats and their people for better health

Eight kittens wearing tiny harnesses explore what looks like a kitty playground of feather toys, stuffed mice, and an obstacle course of carpets, tunnels, and tents. A gray kitten named Sophie is focused on a chopstick her owner holds at knee level, following the tip that’s been dipped in baby food. After a successful walk across the room, they stop and the little gray kitten licks off her reward.

Sophie just completed her first lesson in a training class that will teach her to walk on a leash, come, sit, stay, and stand. She might even learn to play fetch.
Why would anyone want to teach a cat to fetch?
“I would ask, why do people take their dogs to puppy training or take them on walks?” says Kristyn Shreve. “You do it because it’s fun, for you and for your dog. You want to form a bond. It’s the same for cats.”
Shreve is a National Science Foundation graduate fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in animal sciences at Oregon State University. As part of Monique Udell’s Human-Animal Interaction lab, Shreve’s research focuses on cat behavior, cognition, and human-cat interactions. She’s had her share of people wonder why—or even if—cats can be trained and socialized.

Americans love their pets, and more people keep cats as pets than dogs—95.6 million compared to 83.3 million dogs, according to a 2013–2014 survey by the American Pet Products Association. Shreve sees potential in strengthening those millions of bonds.
Strong bonds between people and pets can improve the emotional and physical health of both people and their pets, says Shreve. Recent investigations by the National Institutes of Health have shown that caring for pets can help improve a person’s cardiovascular health. People who own a pet were found to have lower heart rates and blood pressure, whether at rest or when undergoing stressful tests, than those without pets. Pet owners also seemed to have milder responses and quicker recovery from stress when they were with their pets than with a spouse or friend. Research at NIH suggests that the human-animal bond has value in child development, elder care, mental illness, physical impairment, dementia, trauma recovery, and the rehabilitation of incarcerated youth and adults.

Shreve’s research is focused on developing that human-animal bond from the point of view of the animal. She hopes that her first-of-its-kind study will show that well-trained cats lead to happier cats, happier people, and stronger bonds.
“Cats play important roles in the lives of their owners,” says Udell, project leader and associate professor in OSU’s department of animal and rangeland sciences. “They can provide companionship, even if they can’t respond exactly like a human. The cat’s need for care often serves to give their owners purpose.” Cats might be the preferred pet for people who live in small apartments or nursing homes. They’re small enough to easily ride under seats in airplanes, buses, or trains.
The cat’s happiness and welfare depends on its human, and like any relationship, success takes work from both participants. Unless cats get the opportunity to socialize with humans and other cats, they’re less likely to learn how to form emotional bonds and achieve good quality of life. At best that’s a lonely life for a cat. At worst, it leads to negative behavior, the reason most people abandon their pets.
Training classes—just like puppy kindergarten—present a perfect opportunity for socialization. But research into human-cat bonding and its benefits lags 15 years and hundreds of studies behind that of dogs. Thanks to a grant from Nestle, Shreve and Udell will begin to fill the research gap.

“Some of these things that people think are species differences could be experience differences,” Shreve says. “What would children be like if never given the opportunity to socialize?”

Before starting the class, Shreve puts the kittens through a series of cognitive-behavioral tests. She uses behavior to measure the way a cat’s brain processes information, much like tests to gauge a baby’s perception of the world.

For one of these tests, Elikamida Toran sits cross-legged on a padded floor in Udell’s lab on the OSU campus. Pocket, her 4-month-old calico kitten, roams the room, returning periodically to nudge attention from her human companion. Shreve observes the kitten’s response to a series of tests and challenges. When Toran steps out of the room, Pocket follows her to the door but soon returns to her exploration. Shreve notes Pocket’s response to two unfamiliar people, one who pets her, another who does not. When Toran returns to the room, Shreve observes the kitten’s response to various cues from Toran as streamers flutter from a fan.

All these tests add up to a cognitive-behavioral profile of little Pocket. Shreve will test the kitten again following the 6-week class, along with untrained kittens as controls. Her results will begin to fill gaps in our understanding of the human-cat bond, inching closer to the extensive work already done on the human-dog bond.

Katie O’Neil and her husband Shawn are quick to show off what their two cats learned in Shreve’s class. On command, black-cat Sterling Cooper “sits” and “stands.” When Katie holds a tiny treat 5 feet off the floor, white-and-gray Byron Bojangles IV makes an impressive leap straight into the air. Both cats love to walk on leash and Bo happily takes on a game of fetch. No matter the command, Katie says, the kittens think, then respond.

Curiosity got the best of Sarah Montoya, a student in veterinary medicine at OSU. How much could her two kittens, Max and Franklin, possibly learn? And what would she learn about cat behavior that she could someday pass along to her clients? It didn’t take long to find out. The first night of kitten class, 7-month-old Max and Franklin were terrified; they wouldn’t come out of the corners, not even to eat. After six weeks of training, Montoya now takes the kittens on walks around their neighborhood and to a friends’ house for play dates.

“Many people see cats as couch potatoes or house decorations,” Montoya says. “This class blows that theory out of the water. You can have a complex relationship with a cat. That bond gets stronger over time, so it’s important to have a well-trained pet.”
And there are useful roles for cats that go beyond engaging companionship. Cats with appropriate training are beginning to serve as therapy animals in hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare institutions, especially in situations when people fear dogs or where only a small animal will fit. Shreve points out that, with their amazing noses, cats may sniff out seizures or panic attacks. For search and rescue missions, it’s not hard to imagine cats squeezing into spaces too tight for dogs or climbing to heights too precarious for dogs.

“Let’s debunk a myth,” Udell says. “The key for training any animal to be successful in any working role is to have a strong understanding of what their strengths are and what advantages that particular species might have over another. For some circumstances, cats are an obvious choice.”
“Unfortunately, too many cats get abandoned or dumped in shelters by disillusioned owners who failed to develop a bond or understand cat social behavior,” Shreve says. If people knew that certain behaviors, like scratching, are normal and can be redirected using the training techniques she teaches, they’d be less likely to abandon their pets.


Back in the classroom, Shreve mills among the cavorting kittens. As a teacher, researcher, and animal lover, she translates for the other humans the kittens’ purrs and trills, their head bumps and nose-to-nose hellos. Class begins.

Source:
https://scienceblog.com/488033/first-ever-study-train-cats-people-better-health/



A first-ever study to train cats and their people for better health

Professor Richard J Davidson on "Change the Brain by Transforming the Mind"

Negative Thoughts 'Make You Ill'

Having negative thoughts really could make you more illness-prone, say scientists.

A study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences links "negative" brain activity with a weakened immune system.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied people with high levels of brain activity in a region linked to negative thoughts.

Those with the highest activity levels responded worse to a flu vaccine.

Scientists already knew that pessimists - people rated as more sensitive to negative events - show more activity in a part of the brain called the right pre-frontal cortex.

More activity in the left pre-frontal cortex is linked to positive emotional responses.

Happy thoughts

Dr Richard Davidson, who led the research, studied 52 people aged between 57 and 60.

Each of them was asked to recall one event which made them feel very happy, and one which left them feeling sad, afraid or angry.The electrical activity in these parts of the brain was measured to check whether their left or right pre-frontal cortex was more active.

Afterwards, each volunteer was given a standard flu vaccine shot.

Vaccines work by eliciting an immune response which should hopefully persist and help the body tackle a genuine infection threat if it should arrive.

Each research subject was tested over the following six months to gauge the success of the vaccine by measuring the levels of antibodies generated by the vaccine.

Those who had shown the most powerful right pre-frontal cortex activity also had the worst immune reactions.

The reverse was true for those who had the most powerful reactions in their left pre-frontal cortex, the side associated with happy reactions.

Dr Davidson said: "Emotions play an important role in modulating bodily systems that influence our health.

"We turned to the brain to understand the mechanisms by which the mind influences the body." 

Source:  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3198935.stm

I’m A Failure!

During my career in Academia, I have noticed an unhealthy trend among students. It’s not drinking or the latest designer drug, but it can be more harmful than both. The trend is the obsessively self-critical thinking that happens when students do something that doesn’t go “right”. They fall into the judgmental trap of thinking they are a failure or something is wrong with them.

We, as a society, are taught from an early age that being hard on ourselves is the only way to make things better... or make us better. We are taught that being self-critical is the driving factor for success.

There is a side effect to this kind of thinking. As students find out that they are not the best in class, or that the projects they created don’t receive the applause they think they deserve, many immediately turn to an obsessive, self-critical way of thinking. They bash themselves and judge themselves negatively. As a result, students become more stressed out, feel insecure, become depressed, and question their own self-worth. If not addressed early on, this kind of thinking can make the college experience a miserable time for any student.

There is a way to fix this kind of thinking, but few talk about it. One of the greatest keys to being successful in life and eliminating obsessive self-criticism is having Mindful Self-Compassion. Yep, that’s right. Compassion for your “self.”

Wait, what? Self-compassion? I know, it sounds somewhat odd to say out loud, but rarely do we consider showing ourselves kindness. We often show friends more caring and compassion than we show ourself. We’ve been trained to be self-critical and self-judgmental. Self-compassion goes against the natural order... or so many think. Some even think that if we are self-compassionate, we are being lazy and complacent.

But research has found that self-criticism only sabotages us and produces a variety of negative consequences. According to Kristin Neff, Ph.D., Associate Professor in human development at the University of Texas at Austin, self-criticism can lead to lowered self-esteem, anxiety and depression. Mindful self-compassion, on the other hand, can lead to greater understanding and peace of mind... and yes, personal and professional success.

So what is “Mindful Self-Compassion”? Actually, it’s quite simple. It can be broken down into three parts.

1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is about slowing your mind down to become aware of what you are thinking or doing in the present moment. It involves turning off your autopilot response and noticing what is going on, meaning that you pay attention to your thoughts and feelings without attaching any judgment to them.

Being mindful creates a distance between your thoughts or experiences and your reaction to them. It’s almost like observing your thoughts in the third person. You become aware of your thoughts and just notice what’s going on... you don’t sweep them under the rug and you don’t need to obsess about them either. You become aware, make a nonjudgmental note about the thought, (i.e. “There’s Mr. Negative again”.), tell yourself you’re okay, let the thought go, and return to the present moment.

Being mindful of self-critical thoughts will help you to be more objective about any emotions that may try to hitch a ride.

2. Self-kindness: Accept that it is okay to be kind, gentle and understanding with yourself when you’re suffering.

It’s easy to be loving and kind to our friends. It’s time you do the same for yourself. If you mess up on a test, don’t beat yourself up. Think about why you did badly, then plan on studying more next time or find a tutor. People don’t think your project or assignment is the best? So what. You are learning, and making mistakes is part of that process. Take the criticism as tips on how to do better next time. Accept that you aren’t going to be perfect... no one is. Frankly, I don’t know anyone who is “perfect”... and those who think they are fall into the “ego-maniac” category. That’s not where you want to be.

3. Common humanity: Recognize that you are not alone in the self-criticism struggle. We are all struggling. We often think we’re the only ones to make mistakes, feel rejected or fail. Guess what? We all have these experiences; it’s part of being human. We tend not to discuss our struggles, but if you share your experience with others, I bet you’ll find that they have felt the same way at some point. You are not alone. Talking about it may help to negate the power of negative self-talk and criticism.

I know... it’s easier said than done. When you are stuck in a self-criticism rut, try the following mindful self-compassion exercise:

• Sit somewhere quiet and pay attention to your breath going in and out of your nose or mouth. Notice how your breath feels as it enters and exits. Stay focused on this for a couple of minutes and then repeat to yourself, “May I be kind to myself, may I know that I am a good person, may I be at peace, may I know that all is well.” Do this for two or more minutes when you feel the negative thoughts creeping in.

This exercise will slow down your thoughts, help train your mind to let go of negative self-talk, and accept that you are okay. For more exercises on gaining mindful self-compassion for yourself, check out the meditations here:

A couple notes for the nay-sayers:

1. Self-compassion is not self-pitying.
Self-pity is being obsessed and immersed in your own problems and forgetting that others struggle, too. Self-compassion is much different. Being self-compassionate is seeing things as they are —while not giving critical self-talk power. Self-compassion focuses on alleviating suffering while self-pity leaves you rolling in self-loathing.

2. Self-criticism is not an effective motivator.
Challenging yourself, recognizing weaknesses and growing from them are productive. However, there’s actually nothing productive or motivating about criticizing yourself. When you criticize yourself you are creating fear of failure and you may wind up losing faith in yourself. Even if you do achieve great things, you’re often miserable because you live in a world of self-loathing and criticism. That doesn’t sound like a very happy world.

I wish you the best. Be kind to yourself!

To read more articles by Dr. Brian Harke: www.brianharke.com


Follow Brian Harke Ed.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Brianharke

Source:  Brian Harke, Ed.D., Dean of Students  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-harke/im-a-failure_b_11781144.html

How to Become Happy -- The Secret of Happiness by Richard Bandler

I love this guy - funny and very clever - haven't trained with him yet but did an NLP course run by two of the trainers who help with his courses - well worth it.

Happiness Is for the Sheep, Not the Wolves

Hi - I am presenting articles here regarding happiness and how to find it for yourself.  I do not necessarily agree with everything I post but believe that people should have a wide range of resources available so they can try out things for themselves and make their own choices.  

Go well.

Jennie

Many of us live life on the deferred payment plan. We tell ourselves, I'll be happy when I'm successful, when I'm married, paid off the house, bought that car, saved enough. The rules to happiness only get more complex as we get older, as we compare ourselves to other people, as we reject ourselves, and not live our purpose. This psychological trap guarantees that you will never be happy. The longer you wait to think and feel happy thoughts, the more likely you will think of your unworthiness, and feel miserable for not feeling happy.

Most of us are reacting to life like puppets. External events, such as getting a raise, new car, or relationship, signal to us now is the time to feel happy, excited, and love life. Likewise, external events such as getting laid off, car accidents, or divorce, signal now is the time to get angry, frustrated, or pissed off. You are letting external things control how you think, feel and behave. You are acting like a sheep. Obediently taking orders, passively accepting whatever is happening to you, not taking responsibility, and thinking you're a victim. The more passive you are and become hypnotized by these beliefs, the more likely you will think and feel that you are a helpless, and the lower your self-esteem will be. The more dependent you are on people, things, and events to make you happy, the longer you will wait, and probably die unhappy. Many people confuse stimulation with happiness. You might feel stimulated by making lots of money, but that feeling will surely be gone weeks or months later. Happiness is a mental attitude, cultivated in the present moment, and feels like soothing background music, not a concert. Happiness is inner contentment.

You need to do the opposite, and use self-esteem as your weapon. You need to exercise control, responsibility, self-acceptance, assert yourself, and think for yourself. Understand, no one is coming to make you happy. It is psychologically and physiologically impossible because no one can think or feel for you. When you feel happy or any other emotion, who gave you those feelings? It was you. Taking responsibility for you happiness, and emotional needs puts life back in your hands. You become the driver, and not the passive passenger in the backseat. Cultivate this mental attitude. Self-reliance and responsibility are mental habits that you can cultivate. The sheep are the passive recipients of life, waiting for happiness to come to them. The wolves are the ones that exercise self-responsibility and self-reliance, and go after their goals to achieve happiness. Who do you identify with?

Article Source: Younes Y
http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Younes_Y/2319365

Age is nothing but a number: This bodybuilder is 60

How To Start Living The Life Of Your Dreams

We all want to live the life of our dreams, don’t we? However, very few people are truly willing to do what it takes to actually make it happen. There always seems to be some excuse or obstacle in the way and most people aren’t willing to get out of their comfort zone and start doing something different. Changing the way you do things can be the ultimate determinant of whether or not you will change your life for the better and the sooner you realize that the power is in your hands, the sooner you can transform. If you are ready to start living the life you have always imagined for yourself, here are some tips to get you started.

Save More Than You Spend

Having enough money to do the things you want to do in life is huge. Living pay check to pay check is no way to get ahead. Whether you earn a lot or a little, adjust your life to start saving more money than you are spending. Make a spreadsheet on a computer or paper and start tracking all of the money that you bring in and all of the money that you spend each month. Evaluate the sheet and see which of your spending can be cut out or narrowed down. You can use apps or online programs to help you keep track too. Choose a percentage of each pay check (10 percent is a good start) and begin putting it into a new savings account every week.

Get Rid of Bad Habits

While people don’t always like to admit this, everyone has bad habits. Whether it’s watching too much television, sleeping in, being lazy, spending too much money or binge drinking; it’s important to be honest with yourself in recognizing them. It is often these habits that hold us back from doing the things that we really want and many times we don’t even realize it. Take a good look at your habits and problems and start making progress in changing them. See a counselor, go to rehab, hire a mentor, join a support group or start self disciplining with punishments and treats to help you get out of your slump.

Surround Yourself With The Right People

The people around us have a huge effect on our lives, even without us realizing it. Think about the life you want to lead, the job you want to have and the outlook on life that you prefer and find other people who either want or have those things. It’s even better to surround yourself with people who have what you already want so that you push yourself harder to achieve those same things.

Think Positive

There is plenty of evidence throughout the decades that positive thinking can lead to big things in life. Books like The Secret and Think And Grow Rich are popular for a reason as they preach ways to change your life through simply thinking positive. If you keep a healthy outlook on your life and future, tell the universe what you want and keep an eye out for opportunity, it is bound to come along.

Invest in Self Care

An investment of time and money in self care can be one of the greatest things you can do to change your life. Make the time to eat healthy and exercise, take pride in your appearance and tend to your mental health each day. Meditate, spend time with uplifting friends, relax and do the things that you love. Also take the time to continue learning by reading books, watching documentaries, taking workshops and classes that will help educate you in ways that can lead to new opportunities and a career that you will love.

Source: Shannon Ullman, Writer, blogger, teacher 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannon-ullman/how-to-start-living-the-l_b_11923308.html

Follow Shannon Ullman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/livesabroad1

Carol Dweck 'Mindset - the new psychology of success' at Happiness & Its...

5 Obstacles to Success and Happiness That I Overcame

For most of my life, I just accepted what came to me. I worked hard and moved through the ranks of my chosen profession. With that plan I did ok. I got several promotions and increased my income modestly over the years. I was a steady, efficient, and capable workhorse.

But I was just, OK.

I saw people around me and on television who were doing things, different things. The type of things I never considered possible for me. They were building businesses, becoming media moguls, traveling around the world. The only thing I was doing was helping others build their dreams and lifestyle. Mainly because I just didn’t see how someone like me could ever be anything other than just a workhorse.

My family, in general, was just that, workhorses. They are a proud bunch that’s for sure but not very entrepreneurial. Most worked the same job their entire lives or at least the same type of jobs and for the most part never left the area of central Alabama we were born. Now I am not saying any of this is bad or wrong; there is certainly something to be said for sticking to your roots. I just knew at an early age it wasn’t for me. Even with that knowledge, I wasn’t doing anything about it.

I always held myself back, I never pushed the envelope or challenged the status quo. In fact, I began to mock and degrade those who were trying to do something different. I became a voice of discouragement. Instead of living my dream, jealousy made me want to stop others from living theirs.

That all changed a few years ago, I decided that for my family and me to gain everything we wanted and desired, I had to do things differently. That has lead to taking a new job on the opposite side of the country, taking vacations to places I would never have visited before, and becoming a writer that has been published on some of the biggest websites in the world. I am far from where I want to be, but I am on the path, and I can see what I want within reach.

Here are the steps I had to take to make these things begin to happen:

I confronted my depression and anxiety- Depression and anxiety will cripple you. By telling you constantly that you’re not capable or even worthy of success. If you are suffering from either or both of these demons, you will struggle to reach any goals until you confront it head on. I found treatment and put myself on the correct mental path to begin accomplishing the goals I had in life.


I stopped being a people pleaser- I grew up only wanting to make other people happy. I always put the needs of others ahead of my own. Again, this isn’t a negative trait in general. The problem was that it began to impact my happiness and well-being. My needs and the needs of my immediate family sometimes suffered due to the fact I was always helping someone else. Generally, these were financial issues, but sometimes it was purely emotional support. I will still help whoever I can whenever I am able, but never again will it be to the detriment of my own tribe.

I started selling myself - The one thing I have learned in this process is never to expect that anyone will ever put you ahead of them. Even though I did it myself many times, I found that it was almost never reciprocal. Bosses, coworkers, business partners, and friends will almost always let you down when you solely rely on them to help promote your talents. In business as in life, it truly becomes a dog eat dog world. Sitting back hoping that you’ll be noticed will almost assuredly mean that you will be in the same spot a year from now. You have to take the bull by the horns and push your agenda and your desires for success.


I stopped living others fears - There were many voices, and there still are, that said things like “oh that’s too hard.” or “that isn’t possible.” For most of my life I listened to them, and when I shared a dream, they shot it down. When I finally realized that the advice they were giving was really just their personal fears or even their feelings of regret for not experiencing life to the fullest, I stopped listening. Allowing these life suckers to permeate your thoughts are an instant dream killer. Taking responsibility for your own dreams and goals is the only way they will happen.

I stopped just dreaming - As I said, I had a lot of dreams. I knew the things I wanted to do, and I knew deep down what I was really capable of. The only thing I ever did with any of this knowledge was to dream about what was possible. I finally decided that dreaming wasn’t enough to be happy. I started putting action to my thoughts. Less than a year of writing my first article for public view for The Good Men Project, I had been published on sites like Babble, The Huffington Post, Fatherly, and The Libertarian Republic. Thousands of people have read my words, and it just took me finally deciding to take action.

By no means have I reached the goals I have set. Truthfully I don’t want ever to get to a point where I am satisfied. The thing is, now I can see the path clearly, and I know that I do have within myself the ability to reach my dreams. There are a lot of “gurus” out there selling happiness, just remember before dealing with any of them, only you truly have any control over your future.


If there is something you want to do, dream you want to accomplish, or place you want to go. Remember one thing. You can!

Source:  J.W. Holland
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/4-obstacles-to-success-and-happiness-that-i-overcame-jhld/

Swimming for Seniors. Dr Jane Katz and Joyce Orton

A couple of You Tube videos on swimming for seniors for you to enjoy

5 surprising reasons swimming will increase happiness while aging

It’s no surprise that taking the plunge at the local pool has been a favored form of exercise for older adults. It’s easy on joints, reduces the risks of injury and improves cardiovascular strength. But there are other advantages to swimming as we age.

Studies show that hitting the pool is just as beneficial to the mind as it is the body. Here are five reasons why you could feel happier if you swim for exercise.

Eliminates the risk of falling

Along with swimming, the most common form of exercise for aging adults is walking. By adding swimming, older adults can develop strong core muscles that improve balance control. In short, adding exercise in the water will improve your performance on land. Improved balance creates more confidence when walking, and that peace of mind makes for a happy person.

Builds brain power

Swimming may not turn you into a genius, but it can make your brain work more efficiently. An article in the New York Daily News referred to a study conducted by Howard Carter of the University of Western Australia School of Sports Science that suggested “immersing the body in water to the level of the heart increases blood flow through the brain’s cerebral arteries, thus improving vascular health and cognitive function.” The results of the study showed a 14 percent increase in blood flow to the middle cerebral artery and a 9 percent increase to the posterior cerebral artery when test subjects were immersed in water.

Relieves stress

In an article written by James Thornton, this master swimmer and psychotherapist describes swimming as the “alternating stretch and relaxation of muscles while simultaneously breathing in a rhythmic pattern” that echoes the movement of many forms of yoga or muscle relaxation exercises. “Swimming in open water can be a great stress reliever and an opportunity to make great memories with people who share the same interests,” added Scott Hansen, executive director of Lake Ridge Senior Living.

Author Therese Borchard added that swimming “stimulates brain chemicals that foster the growth of nerve cells. Exercise also affects neurotransmitters such as serotonin that influence mood and produces ANP, a stress-reducing hormone, which helps control the brain’s response to stress and anxiety.”

Waves off depression

“All aerobic workouts release endorphins while helping to block stress hormones and produce serotonin that can relieve depression,” Borchard said. “However, swimming is particularly effective at shrinking panic and sadness because of the combination of stroke mechanics, breathing, and repetitiveness. It’s basically a form of whole-body, moving meditation.”

Immediate sense of accomplishment

There’s no delayed gratification here. A swimmer can see the distance, the calories burned, the toned body, and the improved technique directly following a round of swimming. And that motivates a swimmer to return the next day.

If you are looking for a form of exercise that can remain a part of your daily fitness routine as you age, consider swimming. It improves balance, increases brain function, relieves stress and depression, and acts as an effective motivator. And that’s worth diving into.

Source:  Amy Osmond Cook
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/swimming-728239-brain-stress.html

Amy Osmond Cook is the Executive Director of the Association of Skilled Nursing Providers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about best practices in senior care. 

Mindful Listening and Body Language

“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Interviewing Stanford University Cultivating Compassion Training facilitatorsMargaret Cullen and Erika Rosenberg about their experience of motherhood for my mindfulness4mothers program was a restorative process in itself.

Even after two full days of leading us in a discovery of the power of compassion and kindness toward ourselves and others, they were able to listen with gentle care and interest.

I have often been curious about how they listen that makes it so restorative for the speakers. How can I too give that gift of mindful listening to my children, my husband, and my friends — indeed, everyone I meet — so that they too bloom like flowers?

This is how Margaret and Erika listened, and indeed how we all can listen to heal and communicate care:

• Listening mindfullyWhen someone only gives us their partial attention, we feel the difference. Checking the phone for messages or opening the mail while someone is sharing something doesn’t feel like a gift at all. It feels like an effort. You have to work harder to be heard and it doesn’t feel like there is any real care or interest in what you are sharing. For children, it communicates that whatever else has your attention is more important than they are, surely not what we want them to feel.Margaret and Erika, long-time mediators and mindfulness teachers, rested their attention lightly and without distraction on my questions and only responded when I had finished speaking. They were 100 percent present and tuned in to our conversation.

• Listening with their whole bodiesTheir whole bodies faced me, not just their heads. They didn’t sit there with their arms folded, slumped down in the chair. They had no cell phone, notepad or other objects in their hands. They were leaning slightly toward me, which subtly communicated an “approach” orientation, rather than in any way physically pulling away, withdrawing or closing off to me and our conversation.Their whole bodies reflected their act of mindful listening. Their body language was consistently communicating what their attention was too: I was important enough to merit their full attention.
• Listening softly with their eyesThis comes back to the lightness of their touch. It was neither pressured and intense or distracted or absent.They maintained soft eye contact. Mindful body language that communicates presence with kindness doesn’t avoid eye contact. But the most supportive and comfortable eye contact isn’t overpowering, either. They took breaks. I didn’t feel like I was being stared down or that I was locked in their gaze. Instead, their focus was soft enough to take in me and what I was saying, but we also felt comfortable taking breaks easily and naturally as the conversation unfolded.
• Listening with mindful body movementGiving someone your undivided attention doesn’t mean being still like a statue, either. Although Margaret and Erika’s body language communicated mindful listening, it was not rigidly attentive.It is possible to listen without breaking your attention and still move at the same time. When someone starts walking away as you are speaking to them, even if they are encouraging you to continue, it can feel like their attention is split between listening to you and some other agenda. But Margaret and Erika were able to communicate connection with what I was saying by nods, gentle smiles, and even changes in their posture.
  Rather than interrupting me, I actually felt encouraged to continue by these small gestures and movements. That was important to me. I was so thrilled to be interviewing them, I could easily have become nervous if they had not so powerfully communicated their gentle care, interest and acceptance in each of these ways.
  The result? I felt connected, valued, heard and safe to speak openly. Truly a powerful gift to give anyone, and one we can offer freely.

Picture Designed by Freepik

May you, as I have, be inspired by their example and give this gift most especially to your children, who sometimes don’t have the size or status to command attention in our busy achievement-focused world.

May they too, bloom in the light of your loving mindful listening and body language.

Be well.

Source:  By Kellie Edwards 
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2016/09/05/mindful-listening-and-body-language/

Mindfulness Advantage Peak Brain Performance Training (Neuroplasticity)

Game your brain: the new benefits of neuroplasticity

A bit of a long read - but well worth it - Jennie

One day in January 2007, a US federal government construction contractor called Doug Reitmeyer arrived at the offices of a brain-fitness software company called Posit Science, in downtown San Francisco. Reitmeyer's son, Ryan, had had a devastating boat accident two years earlier. At about 9.45pm, four of Ryan's friends had asked him to take them back to their car across the lake. Ryan, 29, was driving the small Sea Ray boat across lake Travis, a reservoir on the Colorado River in Texas, when it collided with a ten-metre black Carver cabin cruiser that had no lights on. The Sea Ray's five occupants went overboard and Ryan's head was crushed between the two boats. Surgery to remove the shattered bone that had pierced his brain lasted several hours and he was in a coma for two weeks. Surgeons had to remove part of his brain's frontal lobes, leaving him with an indentation in his head, where parts of his brain and skull were missing. When Doug Reitmeyer asked the surgeon if he could save his son's life, the surgeon said that he could, but that Ryan would probably never be able to speak or live independently again. Reitmeyer was willing to prove the medics wrong, so he took early retirement and dedicated his life to helping his son make a full recovery. He researched brain-damage therapies and attended conferences and seminars, until he came upon the work of Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, and founder of Posit Science, a company pioneering brain-fitness software to improve memory and processing speed in older adults. Reitmeyer scheduled a meeting.

Merzenich has silver hair and exudes bonhomie. He talks with the confidence of someone who believes he's usually right. One of his mantras is to hear, feel and taste as if he were a child again.

Every day he goes for walks and, comically, he varies his pace and the length of his stride, as a way of exercising his brain. He drives a Fiat 500 and refuses to use a GPS, or indeed any other technology that may act as a substitute for his brain. At the weekend he usually repairs to his villa in Santa Rosa, a 60-minute car journey north of San Francisco, where he tends to a small vegetable garden and vineyards. (His wife calls him "the farmer and the farmer's wife".) He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and, despite not being a medical doctor, is also a member of the Institute of Medicine, making him one of the few to have been elected to both academies.

Merzenich listened as Reitmeyer described the challenges facing his son Ryan, whose daily schedule at the time included sessions of neurofeedback, speech, physical and occupational therapies. Ryan had made some progress recovering his speech and movement but his memory and cognitive control remained deficient: Reitmeyer could take Ryan to a restaurant and his son would ask him when they were going to eat right after they'd had a meal. Merzenich reviewed Ryan's brain scans and medical records. Ryan was highly cognitively impaired, "down in the first few percentiles in cognitive ability".

He had very restricted syntactic ability. He couldn't hold much of a conversation. He couldn't sustain attention and couldn't memorise something for more than a couple of minutes. Merzenich's software had been tested on patients with traumatic brain injury, but this case was so severe that Merzenich didn't even know if Ryan would be able to initiate the exercises. But when Reitmeyer asked Merzenich if he could help his son, the doctor said of course he could.

Merzenich tailored a programme of regimented brain-fitness training for Ryan. It was heavily focused on redeveloping language and auditory abilities, with further emphasis on other skills, such as cognitive control and visual-processing. Ryan had spent more than 50 hours completing Posit Science's brain-fitness exercises when he came to see Merzenich some months later. "They came to thank us and to show how well Ryan was doing,"


Merzenich recalls. Ryan had recovered his memory and had made astonishing progress with his language and ability to control his attention. He could also hold a conversation and even use wit in his responses. Merzenich recalls Reitmeyer asking Ryan to pick something from a local drug store a couple of blocks away, a neighbourhood where Ryan had never been before. "And he did it.

That would have been impossible a few months ago. They were so thankful. They knew that Ryan had come back into real life from such a deep hole," Merzenich says.

Merzenich keeps in touch with the Reitmeyers. Last time he spoke to Ryan, he was driving again, playing the guitar, had a job and was talking about getting married. "I choose not to talk about these things publicly, because I don't want people to think that if you have 30 per cent of your frontal lobes removed you can expect this kind of recovery," Merzenich says. "One thing is clear though.

Ryan would have never have recovered from such an injury if the human brain didn't have a remarkable capacity to change."

Merzenich is one of the few scientists and doctors who, in the past 30 years, have transformed the field of neurology by overturning the dogma that our mental abilities are immutable and fixed early in life. Cognitive impairment associated with neurological maladies, such as schizophrenia, strokes, autism and traumatic brain injury, were considered largely untreatable. Normal age-related cognitive decline was considered unavoidable. The capacity to train and improve the diverse mental abilities that make up our intelligence was not considered possible. But Merzenich and other researchers have shown that the brain is what they call "plastic" -- it can physically remodel itself. The notion that the brain we are born with is not a fixed structure with a set of weaknesses and strengths, but a mutable organ that is adaptable and can be trained to overcome its deficiencies, has profound implications for how we perceive our brain and its associated capacities. Not only can brain plasticity be manipulated in ways that treat and prevent neuronal disease that was deemed permanent, but it can also keep our brains fit and resilient. "It means you're not stuck with it," Merzenich says. "We can improve and often fix it, whether you're 90 or when you're nine."

In 1968, Merzenich made his first breakthrough. He was a recent neuroscience graduate, studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the supervision of a neurophysiologist called Clinton Woolsey. Merzenich was an expert in a technique called "micromapping", a precise but time-consuming way of finding which parts of the brain responded to external stimuli, using extremely small electrodes that measure the electrical activity of a single neuron. Merzenich used macaque monkeys, measuring neuronal activity as he tapped different parts of the monkey's hand, in order to see which areas of it stimulated electrical activity in the monitored part of the brain. Mapping a whole hand using this method could take between 20 and 40 hours.


When he arrived at Madison, Woolsey asked Merzenich to supervise two young neurosurgeons, Ron Paul and Herbert Goodman, and the three set out to find what happened in the brain of adult macaque monkeys after a severe hand injury. The mainstream view at the time was that the brain reached a fixed state after just one year of existence. If, for instance, one of the main nerves in the hand were cut, then the corresponding area in the brain was supposed to be rendered silent and unused from the lack of sensorial input.

Merzenich, Paul and Goodman, however, found that this wasn't the case. After the injury, neighbouring areas in the brain would expand into the vacant territory. Later, as the nerve regenerated, its corresponding brain connections would reclaim much of its original neurological real estate. This dynamic remodelling of the brain that Merzenich and his colleagues observed was completely at odds with the conventional view that the structure of a brain was immutable. In their scientific report, they wrote a lengthy discussion section about what these observations implied. Woolsey thought it was too conjectural and deleted it.


When, in 1971, Merzenich moved to the University of California, San Francisco, he continued his experiments at the department of otolaryngology, and showed again and again that adult brains remained plastic. The scientific establishment, however, was slow to accept it. Early reviews of his scientific papers often came back with sarcastic comments, and at conferences he was subjected to insults. That didn't bother him. He was sure that the scientific truth always wins in the end. "What irritated me is that I was also arguing that this discovery could be used for all sorts of therapies," Merzenich says. "I became a sort of missionary going to people and saying, 'Listen, you should take this research seriously, it can help people.'" It took a couple of decades. In the late 80s, he met a neuroscientist from Rutgers University in New Jersey, called Paula Tallal. Tallal was interested in children who had difficulties reading and speaking, such as dyslexics. Her studies showed that children with dyslexia had something wrong with their brains. At the time, scientists believed that dyslexics had a deficiency with their eyes, but Tallal suspected that instead their brains were too slow in processing sound. "People thought dyslexia had something to do with seeing letters backwards," says Tallal. "However, words are made of smaller units of sound represented by letters. It was becoming clear that the majority of dyslexic children find it difficult to be aware that words can be broken down into sounds.

This in turn will affect their reading ability, because reading stands on the shoulders of spoken language. And because learning to read requires matching symbols to sounds, the child will be affected in understanding words and speech."

At the time, Merzenich had been conducting experiments with adult macaque monkeys that showed how radically their brains rewired after they learned new skills, such as being able to distinguish sounds in shorter and shorter periods of time. "We would progressively train them to an extent that their initially sluggish brains were fast and accurate," Merzenich says. When Tallal told him about her findings, Merzenich wondered if he could train these kids who lacked the necessary neurological circuitry to process sounds at speed. "Paula, if these kids were monkeys, I'm almost certain I could fix them," he told her.

Tallal and Merzenich decided to collaborate. In six months, with the help of a team of language specialists, neuroscientists and computer scientists, they developed language-training software called Fast ForWord. Fast ForWord consisted of games that used acoustically enhanced speech, which initially made very rapid acoustic changes longer and louder and then would slowly revert back into a normal speech range. For a month during the summer of 1994, seven dyslexic children came to Tallal's lab in Newark, New Jersey, to exercise their brains with the software. "At the time, the software was still very limited," Merzenich says. "The difference it made on the children, however, was amazing."


He remembers a quiet five-year-old boy who had the language abilities of a 30-month-old. "He was very limited, but when we returned to Newark after the tests he was a confident chatterbox.

His tests indicated that his language ability was now normal after a month," Merzenich says.

Tallal and Merzenich decided to conduct a larger-scale controlled trial with improved software and more children, the results of which were later published in the journal Science. Within days of the report coming out, Merzenich and Tallal received thousands of messages from parents and therapists desperate to try the new treatment on their children. In 1996, Tallal and Merzenich, along with two other neuroscientists, founded the Scientific Learning Corporation, a company that produces Fast ForWord today. It was the first company to provide a brain-fitness programme online. To date, according to Tallal, Fast ForWord has helped more than two million children overcome learning disabilities.

Merzenich was CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation for only 18 months. He returned to the lab to continue to file patents for brain-plasticity-based methods that could help adults with normal, age-related cognitive decline and clinical impairments such as schizophrenia, autism and brain trauma. At board meetings he would insist the company needed to invest in plasticity therapies for adults, but the board wanted to keep the focus on treating children with learning disabilities. He was proud that they could help children to read and write, but that wasn't enough. So in 2003, he cofounded Posit Science with the goal of using the science of brain plasticity to help everybody else.

Merzenich runs Posit Science from a suite of offices in downtown San Francisco. He has a team of 36 people, including neurologists, computer scientists and game designers. Using the same brain-plasticity principles that he and Tallal used to treat children with Fast ForWord, Posit has developed an online software package called BrainHQ, a set of brain-training exercises aimed not only at treating neurological conditions, but also to arrest the normal cognitive decline that comes with age, and to improve the cognitive abilities of normal individuals. "I've looked at old brains, brains of animals we'd expected would die within months," Merzenich says. "And you look at the various capabilities of these brains and everything that disadvantages them. And which of these capabilities can we reverse by intensive, progressive training? All of them. Their decline is inherently reversible. As far as we can see, the same is true for humans."

To understand how Posit Science tackles neurological diseases, let's consider schizophrenia. Schizophrenics typically suffer from hallucinations, delusion and disorganised reasoning. These symptoms result from an excess of dopamine and noradrenaline, the neurotransmitters that modulate the reward feedback-loop control-arousal levels in the brain. Underlying this chemical reaction are what Merzenich calls "failure modes of the plastic brain": weaknesses in the neurological apparatus, specifically in working memory -- a cognitive skill that indicates a person's capacity to manipulate information, such as computing sums -- and the ability to make predictions. Antipsychotic medication, which suppresses these neurotransmitters, is effective in mitigating symptoms such as hallucinations but doesn't fix the cognitive structure.

"Drugs are an extremely primitive method to treat the neurology," Merzenich says. "We're manipulating machinery that is controlled by dozens of variables, by powerfully distorting one particular chemical. What we're doing instead is replacing that chemical approach with strategies that actually correct the neurological underpinnings of these problems. And the only way is to have the brain correct itself." Using BrainHQ, monitored schizophrenic patients can work on computer exercises that specifically target those cognitive weaknesses. Two recent studies led by Sophia Vinogradov, vice chair of psychiatry at the UCSF, have shown that 50 to 80 hours of using BrainHQ significantly improved not only patients' working memory and learning, but also their social functioning and ability to distinguish reality. Posit Science is currently conducting studies to gain US Food and Drug Administration approval to treat schizophrenia, brain injury and stroke. "We're transforming neuroscience-based software into medicine," Merzenich says.

To show how BrainHQ's exercises work, Merzenich instructs Wired to take a 36-part cognitive assessment that lasts three hours and purports to measure everything about cognitive abilities. "It allows us to tailor a programme to someone's specific needs," says Merzenich. In all, there were more than 40 exercises. One, called Hawk Eye, aims to sharpen visual perception and expand one's field of view. A set of identical birds flashes briefly on-screen, except for one of a different colour that needs to be identified. A simpler exercise is Sound Sweeps, which tests auditory accuracy by requiring subjects to identify whether a sound, which might last only milliseconds, is going up or down in frequency. Even harder is Mixed Signals, which requires subjects to watch a string of symbols, listen to a piece of information and react when they match. As new levels are unlocked, colourful fireworks explode on-screen. The exercises in Merzenich's brain gym are simple but strangely compelling.

On average, cognitive decline in humans starts when we're between the ages of 20 and 30. At the onset of this steady downfall, the brain slows down and its reliability deteriorates. Listening becomes less accurate. Peripheral vision narrows. Attention and memory begins to falter. To make matters worse, this gradual decline is usually accompanied by social withdrawal, egocentrism and a loss of confidence. As Merzenich likes to put it, everything is going to hell.

This problem is compounded by our laziness. When we get older, we rest on our laurels, auto-piloting our behaviours, operating effectively throughout the day using skills that we learned when we were younger. The problem with that approach is that our brain can be maintained only by a life of continual learning -- but, as older people effectively decide to stop challenging the brain, like an unused car, the learning machinery slowly seizes up. "Like every organ in our bodies, the brain undergoes changes in how it performs. You see it in your muscles, your bones, your hair -- and you feel it in your brain," says Adam Gazzaley, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. "That is not helped by people seeking comfort and a less demanding life when they are older. The fact is that the brain is still plastic even when they are 70 or 80 years old. It can still be optimised -- but instead, many people unwittingly accelerate its deterioration."

Gazzaley is best known for demonstrating some of the mechanisms behind cognitive decline. He showed, for instance, that as we get older we are more susceptible to interference -- be that in the form of distractions, irrelevant information or multitasking. The problem with older adults is that they don't filter information, and consequently they overprocess irrelevant information that they can't seem to ignore. One of the consequences of interference is poor memory: it's difficult to recall something that was never properly imprinted in the brain in the first place.

One evening in 2008, Gazzaley had a strange, vivid dream about a video game. In that game, the player was driving a car along a winding road in the mountains and, at random intervals, a sign would pop up on the screen. If the sign had the right shape and colour, the player had to shoot it down while steering the car.

Gazzaley realised that he could design a video game to induce improvements in the brain. Later that day, Gazzaley called Matt Omernick, a friend who worked at the now-defunct games company LucasArts Entertainment, and recounted his dream. Omernick liked the idea and spoke to Eric Johnston, the legendary games developer who created the classicMonkeyIslandseries, and Noah Falstein, who had been one of LucasArts' first game designers and was now Google's chief game designer. "I explained to them the concept and Matt drew it out," Gazzaley says. "I didn't have any funding, but they wanted to work on it anyway. They said to me, 'We spent our whole careers teaching teenagers how to kill aliens. We're ready to use our skills to do something of impact.'"


Like Fast ForWord, Gazzaley's game, called NeuroRacer, was designed according to the rules of how plasticity is induced in the brain. Gazzaley's team used an "adaptive staircase algorithm" that constantly matched the difficulty of the game to the player's skill. "Adaptivity is at the core of our game mechanics because that's how you tap into plasticity," Gazzaley says. "Between 70 to 80 per cent difficulty is the sweet spot. That's where the player gets into a flow state and plasticity is maximal." When the game was completed, Gazzaley recruited 174 people, with ages ranging from 20 to 80. In the first phase of the study, they tested the multitasking skills of their participants, confirming that older players had more multitasking deficiencies than younger ones. They then recruited 46 participants aged 60 to 85 and put them through a four-week training period with NeuroRacer. "After the training period, the multitasking skill levels of the older guys exceeded even the levels of the 20-year-olds who had played the game once," says Gazzaley, "Those levels were sustained six months later." Also, Gazzaley found that the older players not only improved their ability to multitask, which the game explicitly trained, but other abilities, such as working memory and sustained attention.

Last year, Gazzaley cofounded a company called Akili Interactive Labs, which is developing an upgrade of NeuroRacer called EVO. Like Posit Science, Akili is seeking FDA approval forEVOas a possible software-based treatment for ADHD. "Most people associate medicine with drugs, and that's the result of a big, successful brainwashing campaign by pharma companies,"

Gazzaley says. "But when it comes to brain health, drugs don't work very well -- and the drug companies know that. If you look across the world's top-ten pharma companies, four have withdrawn research from neuroscience. That's not because we've cured any of these diseases. Hopefully now we'll start thinking of software and hardware as a form of medicine."

Gazzaley has been preparing to open a new neuroscience laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. "We're going to be able to record real-time EEG data as you play one of our games," Gazzaley says. "The challenge won't just be correlated to your performance, but also directly by neural processes in your brain." He gives Wired a copy of the November 2013 issue of the scientific journal Nature. The cover headline is "Game Changer" and the image shows the cartoon of an old balding man driving a car through NeuroRacer's mountainous roads. "Before I'd developed NeuroRacer, I used to give talks to groups of colleagues and present my data on cognitive decline and its mechanisms, and they would love it, find it fascinating.

But when I gave a talk about it to a public audience of older people, like the American Association of Retired Persons, it was horrifying. If you give a lot of talks you get good at reading subtle signs in the audience. Every year at the AGM, I had over a thousand people in the audience, all grey, and at the end of my talk, I could just see them asking "Is this it? Is this the end of the movie?" There was this feeling like that was not really the right ending." He points to the Nature cover. "That is the right ending."

Older adults are often advised to keep their minds sharp, but such advice is so general as to be useless. "It's true that we lose abilities as we get older, but I believe that most of that loss is driven by a lack of effort to sustain brain fitness," says Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School and one of the most-cited scientists in the field of brain plasticity. "We're lazy, we don't get out of our comfort zones, we stop learning new things. The fact is that whatever you do, from activities to relationships to thoughts, ultimately enters the brain and affects it. But we can harness that property of the brain for our own benefit. Ultimately, it's a message of hope for people."

The science of neuroplasticity illuminates the dynamic evolution of our brains throughout life, documenting how different experiences can dramatically change it. Its most pertinent insight, however, is that we can take control of such transformation.


Merzenich's and Gazzaley's brain-training exercises provide us with a tool to do it. They are a gym for the brain, a place where we can go to strengthen and expand our cognitive capabilities, which, to a very large extent, define who we are and determine what we are capable of.

Source:  By João Medeiros - Science Editor for Wired
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/game-your-brain