Lisa’s Note of the Day: Conscious Mind
Our conscious minds, which use most of our brain’s energy, only account for 5 percent of our brain’s activity. 95 percent of what goes on is in the subconscious and zombie programs as David Eagleman calls them. So, when your logic mind tells you that you KNOW what’s going on it behooves you to question […]
Lisa’s Note of the Day: 85 BILLION NEURONS
Science now says we have 85 billion neurons in the brain. There are 5 times as many neuronal networks allocated for threat detection than there are for non-threat input. This is why negativity is so easy to default to AND so contagious. Believe it or not, positivity can be trained and strengthened. What are you […]
Lisa’s Note of the Day: Exercise Your Cortices
Your cortices, like muscles, grow with use. So if you use your limbic brain to function mostly–in fear and threat–you strengthen that part of the brain so it dominates. If you use your prefrontal cortex mostly–for higher level thought like compassion, empathy and learning–that part of the brain gains dominance. What muscle are you exercising? […]
Befriending Fear by: Travis Rumsey
This time of year, we love playing with fear. Some of us love terrifying ourselves at haunted houses, while others get a thrill out of curling up under the covers and watching a scary movie. During the rest of the year, there is no shortage of other ways to scare ourselves; roller coasters, rock climbing, […]
Walk Your Own Path by Travis Rumsey
Our culture teaches us that we should be strong and resilient. Weakness is frowned upon, and asking for help is seen as a weakness. Am I telling you anything new yet? I’m all for asking for help – but only as a concept apparently, because I’m terrible at asking others for help. It’s just not […]
Adapting to a Changing World by Vija Rogozina
We live in a paradox: change is the only constant yet human psyche resists change. Ability to adapt to new circumstances has always been a powerful driving force of human evolution. Yet human brain finds comfort in the sense of predictability, perceiving the unknown as a threat. We tend to cling to the known undesirable […]
Lisa’s Note of the Day: Hormones, Neurotransmitters, and Brains Oh MY!
As we know our brains and emotions are intimately linked in a dance facilitated by hormones, neurotransmitters, and a myriad other stimuli. So it stands to reason that if women experience a radical hormonal flux each month, that their brains might respond accordingly. Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz, author of The New Feminine Brain notes that “before ovulation, […]
Lisa’s Note of the Day: Insidious Stress
Your thoughts and perception create the environment of the brain and vice versa. It’s the chicken and egg conundrum–is the thought the signal for the strss response, or is the brain chemistry the signal for the thought? No matter which comes first, stress is insidious. Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz does an amazing job of succinctly […]
Lisa’s Note of the Day: Present Moment
The Insula is important in our social brains. It’s involved with things like processing events in the future based on our current body states, and it is active when dealing with pride and disgust. Studies published in last year’s Journal of Cerebral Cortex noted that a sense of uncertainty increases insula activity and level of […]
Self Care Expands Your Experience by: Kelley Seriano
Like most of us, I spend a ton of time with my community or just out and about the town. In the past, the holidays would sneak up and before I knew it, HA CHU! I would get so run down that I would not have the energy to continue on. When my body is […]
