3 Simple Practices to Train your Brain, Mitigate Stress and Be in the WOW! – By Shanti Medina
Neuroscience has shown that we can train our brain to create a new mind/body map with the choices we make on how we mitigate stress and subsequently grow a new brain. In order to make such choices and shifts in our neurology, we need to feel safe and empowered to down-regulate and re-calibrate our nervous […]
What are You Feeding Your Neurons?
I’ll bet you’re thinking that your neurons, aka brain cells, are in your brain. That would make sense, but that’s only partly true. We have many different types of neurons and they are located in the brain, spinal cord and the gut. These complex and magnificent cells are responsible for just about everything we do […]
It Takes a Village — a Community of Neurons
To be our animated best selves requires us to be in a graceful electro-chemical choreography. All of our actions, thoughts, desires, emotions and behaviors are physiologically the result of networked neural activity in the brain. One neuron’s “voice” alone does not result in a smile, a hug, or a memory; however that one neuron’s voice singing […]
Fear: One of the Strongest Brain Mapping Emotions
Fear is one of the strongest mapping emotions in the brain. We have approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain mapping to thoughts, behaviors, patterns, and physiology. About five times more of those neurons are allocated to threat detection or fear than to seeing things on the bright side. The more we fear something, the […]
Wake Up or Die More Quickly Trying
Wake up or you might continue to experience each day primed for disease and negativity. Our prefrontal cortex regulates attention and thoughts with vast amounts of neural connections and a system of arousal and neurotransmitters. If we take no action, our default system favors error detection, threat response, excessive stress, and even disease. Science shows […]
There is Power in the Pause
When we are moving too fast, speeding ahead without pause or breath, we can not integrate the lessons and experiences we’ve had. Without the pause, perhaps we do not assimilate to give our spirits time to expand with seniority. Our neurology tells us about the importance of this pause. Neurons fire or don’t fire actions […]
Brushing Your Teeth to Keep Your Brain Healthy?
Neuroplasticity is our ability to rewire new brain connections, learn new things, and create new neurons. All of this magic keeps us cognitively young, sharp and engaged in life. A key part of this process is long term potentiation (LTP). In order for LTP to happen which is critical for higher level performance, memory encoding, […]
Thoughts Shaping Your World
Neuroplasticity is the ability of our mind to rewire itself. It can manifest as a changing of the strength of the connection between neurons, by adding or removing connections, or by adding new cells. An amazing catalyst for all of this is our perception. When we “perceive” an event in the mind’s eye, even if […]
Can the Thin Veils between Sleep and Wakefulness Confuse our Consciousness?
Recent studies done in 2011 by Tononi and researchers at the University of California, LA are showing that “sleep and wakefulness can coexist in the brain.” (Scientific American Mind, July). In sleep deprived brains certain areas of neurons stopped firing during the waking state. This increased with the level of sleep deprivation. And interestingly, during […]
Who’s in the Mirror?
In neural imaging studies done in 1996, it was found that viewing images of fearful, stressed, or angered faces activated the viewer’s fear response in the amygdala. Take a look in the mirror today and make note of the expression on your own face at various times. Do you have a furrowed brow? Are your […]
