Thoughts influence Matter
Dr. David Perlmutter and Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. note in Power Up Your Brain that Neural networks are created by focused, engaged stimulation. . .the choices you make actually do influence the physical structures, the neural networks, in your brain. ‘Experience coupled with attention leads to physical changes in the structure and functioning of the nervous […]
Cultivating Compassion, Navigating Crisis
Professor Kristin Neff of the University of Texas is considered a leading researcher in the field of self-compassion. Her research is showing that those who cultivate self-compassion by exercising gentle and non-judgmental self-talk bounce back more quickly during crisis. The growing evidence is indicating that you can “you can cultivate your self-compassion through meditation and […]
Can you Deconstruct Your Thoughts for Enhanced Innovation?
As humans who’ve developed a complex language that involves a system of categorization and labeling, is it possible that this very skill can limit our innovative or problem-solving potential? What if by calling something a finite name we then give it a finite definition in our minds, locking that concept into a very narrow definition? […]
Starving Your Brain and Over-eating Because of Your Sleep Patterns?
Your sleep patterns could be contributing to an exhaustion in your prefrontal cortex and a strong propensity to over eat. When your prefrontal cortex is exhausted it’s much more difficult to regulate emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. In recent studies published in March in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and the American Journal of […]
Rewiring through Compassion
In the foreword to New Beliefs, New Brain, Dr. David Perlmutter notes “When His Holiness the Dalai Lama counseled that ‘The brain we develop reflects the life we lead,’ it is important to understand that his statement reflects not only a call for us to live a life of compassion based on his spiritual pursuits, […]
Oxytocin…it isn’t all good!
In Dr. Stephen Porges’ profound book The Polyvagal Theory, he notes the “neuroendocrine and autonomic systems that permit high levels of social behavior and social bonds regulate the management of stressful experiences and the capacity of the mammalian body to heal itself….In the context of safety or comparatively mild or acute stressors, the release of oxytocin […]
Can Multi-tasking Impair You?
This is a controversial subject with some science noting that multi-tasking improves cognitive abilities, and other science saying it impairs it. Mindfulness practices note that by paying focused attention and being in the present moment, we can be at peace and be our best. From the mindfulness model I equate a focus on multi-tasking as […]
Where the Gray Matters
Recent neuroscience is showing that the more we move into fear and threat response, the more we exercise and strengthen the neural pathways around the limbic brain which is our fight -or-flight center. We also end up shrinking or pruning back the neural pathways in our prefrontal cortex which then inhibit our abilities to see […]
Turning Back Your Own Clock
BDNF–Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor–is a key growth hormone. It protects the structure and integrity of our neurons, enables our neuroplasticity–that’s our ability to create new neural maps, and promotes neurogenesis–our ability to grow new brain cells. By creating new pathways we empower ourselves to shift patterns, trauma, and open to new skills and abilities. Neurogenesis […]
Us and Them
“As the world has sped up and become more efficient, we have the luxury of time in which to think, reflect, ponder, stew, and even fester. how I define me derives from a story I constantly tell myself, and the premise this: I am a unique individual separate from “you”. To me, this is our […]
