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 […]
Are You Training Your Brain to Beat Depression?
It actually seems like it should be a no-brainer (pardon the pun) at this point, but science is still experimenting with using positive imagery to beat depression. Fortunately, they are still finding that it does. The most interesting new finding in this study is that positive imagery coupled with the knowledge of WHERE in the […]
Pay Attention to Your Life, Your Memory Depends on It
The mystics say to “be present”, and now science gives us a good reason why. The basics of neuroplasticity explain that focused attention combined with experience enable us to create neural maps. This means when we pay attention to the experience we’re having we encode that experience much more strongly, making it an accessible memory […]
Germs in Your Mind
What if your behaviors were like a groove in a record and once you got locked into it you played the same song, over and over? What if you could simply pick up the needle and play a different song? Would you? The laws of neuroplasticity say that we can. In an interview with David […]
Your Outdated Treasure Map
What if that one imaginary treasure map you drew as a child was the only map you were ever allowed to follow for the rest of your life? Could you get to all of the many places you’d need to go as you grew and life expanded? Not likely. This is exactly what can happen […]
Wait Until Your Father Gets Home!
Remember that statement when you were a kid, and how it filled you with a sense of dread when you were in trouble? The insula is important in our social brains. It’s involved with processing events in the future based on our current body states, and it deals specifically with pride and disgust. Studies published […]
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 […]
Anti-depressants vs. Meditation
IF you are on antidepressants…PLEASE understand this post is not meant as a critique of your healing process. Based on many studies, including one published in JAMA in 2010 by Fournier, antidepressants were no more effective in changing serotonin levels than the placebo in mild to moderate depression. HOWEVER, both the placebo and drugs had […]
Reprogramming the Machinery of the Brain
According to Dr. Norman Doidge in The Brain that Changes Itself, “Michael Merzenich is a driving force behind scores of neuroplastic innovations and practical inventions.” One of the groundbreaking devices he developed enabled cognitively deaf children to hear. He supports that “brain exercises may be as useful as drugs to treat diseases as severe […]
