Improve your brain health

We can improve our brain health. First let's have a look at some theories about use of brain to see that we can do better by proper use of our brain skills.

** We have shown that working memory can be improved by training” – Dr. Torkel Klingberg, Professor at Karolinska Institute, and Director of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, part of the Stockholm Brain Institute

** “Learning is physical. Learning means the modification, growth, and pruning of our neurons, connections–called synapses– and neuronal networks, through experience...we are cultivating our own neuronal networks.”- Dr. James Zull, Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at Case Western University.

** “Exercising our brains systematically ways is as important as exercising our bodies. In my experience, “Use it or lose it” should really be “Use it and get more of it”.- Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, neuropsychologist, clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, and disciple of the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria.

** “Individuals who lead mentally stimulating lives, through education, occupation and leisure activities, have reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms. Studies suggest that they have 35-40% less risk of manifesting the disease”- Dr. Yaakov Stern, Division Leader of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York.

** What research has shown is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically." - Dr. Daniel Gopher, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Human Factors Engineering at Technion Institute of Science.

** There are four important pillars which can help in improving our brain health and as a result get most of our mind skills.

1- Physical Exercise
2- Mental Exercise
3- Good Nutrition
4- Stress Management

Physical Exercise
* Start by talking to your doctor, especially if you are not currently physically active, have special health concerns, or are making significant changes to your current program.
* Set a goal that you can achieve. Do something you enjoy for even just 15 minutes a day. You can always add more time and activities later.
Schedule exercise into your daily routine. It will be become a habit faster if you do.
* Do something cardiovascular, meaning something that gets your heart beating faster. This includes walking, running, skiing, swimming, biking, hiking, tennis, basketball, playing tag, ultimate Frisbee, and other similar sports/activities.

Mental Exercise

* Do a variety of things, including things you aren't good at (if you like to sing, try painting too)
* Work puzzles like crosswords and sudoku or play games like chess and bridge
* Try a computerized brain fitness program for a customized workout
* Learn something new every day.

Good Nutrition
* Eat a variety of foods of different colors without a lot of added ingredients or processes.
* Plan your meals around your vegetables, and then add fruit, protein, dairy, and/or grains
* Add some cold-water fish to your diet (tuna, salmon, mackerel, halibut, sardines, and herring) which contain omega-3 fatty acids.
* Learn what a portion-size is, so you don't overeat
* Try to eat more foods low on the Glycemic Index
* Eat more vegetables, particularly leafy green ones.

Stress Management
* Get regular cardiovascular exercise
* Try to get enough sleep each night
* Keep connected with your friends and family
* Practice meditation, yoga, or some other calming activity as way to take a relaxing time-out (maybe a bath)
* Try training with a heart rate variability sensor, like the one in emWave (formerly known as Freeze-Framer)
* Set aside 5-10 minutes to just breathe deeply and recharge

Source Link: Easy steps to improve your brain health

You can cultivate your ability to heal yourself!

Self growth, self improvement and self help are the main topics of this blog, and there are a lot of helpful studies, researches, articles which teach you to lead a healthy, meaningful and improved life style. I do believe that healing is from your inside, and everyone has those healing abilities, to cure oneself.

Here is an article from “The Healing Mind”, by Dr. Martin Rossman, who has over 35 years of experience in the field of imagery for self healing.

“It’s just common sense that it is the body’s natural healing abilities more than medicine that causes us to heal. A surgeon may stitch the edges of the skin together but it is the body’s response that heals the wound. A physician can prescribe antibiotics for an infection, but without an effective immune response, the patient will not recover. Healing is an innate property of life, and learning to support that property is critical to a truly good medicine.

A Tale of Two Gardeners

When my first daughter was a year old, we moved to a new home. In the back of the house, adjacent to her room, were half a dozen plants that were obviously in poor condition. The stems were virtually bare of leaves, and those that remained were curled, browned and discolored. There were no flowers or buds. I am not much of a plant person, but even I could tell that these plants were not doing well.
I called a gardener. A leather-skinned old fellow, he looked at the plants for less than a minute and told me that they were infested and diseased. He then recommended treating them with strong pesticides. The plants were right around our daughter's room and I wondered if the pesticides might be toxic.

Concerned about the potential risks of this approach, I got a second opinion from an organic gardener, a pleasant young man who carefully examined the plants and their environment. He agreed completely with the first gardener about the infestation, but his treatment plan differed markedly. He said, "You know, these plants haven't been looked after for some time, and they are pretty sick. If they were healthy, they would naturally resist these infections. We might have to use some pesticides, but first, let's give them some help and see what they can do on their own." He then showed me how to prune the deadwood, aerate the soil, fertilize the plants, and get them on a regular watering schedule. He cut the plants down to the ground so they wouldn't be putting energy into non-productive growth. I was amazed that they could survive but he explained about roots, "There's as much of that plant underground as above ground and from those invisible roots the new growth will emerge if we nourish it properly." In the next few months, new shoots grew, and healthy leaves appeared. The next year, we had beautiful blossoms.

I use this story to illustrate two very different approaches to medicine and healing. One seeks to cooperate with, stimulate, and work with natural healing abilities, while the other goes to war with nature, and attempts to conquer her. Sometimes one works better than the other, sometimes both work, and sometimes neither. There is no reason that they need to be mutually exclusive, and there are many times over the past 30 years when I have worked with patients using both approaches side by side.

We have all been blessed with a mind that can evoke, understand, interact and cooperate with our natural ability to heal. The human mind can be our best friend and ally on our journey to healing.
Here’s a brief example: a young woman named Alexandra developed some breast lumps, and in spite of many assurances from very good doctors that they were benign, couldn’t stop worrying that they were malignant. With my guidance, she took few deep breaths, relaxed, and imagined that she could take her mind inside her breast. She invited an image to form that could tell her something useful about these lumps, and to accept and explore the image that came, whether or not it made immediate sense to her.

She reported that she saw a small stream, with a number of small stones partially obstructing the flow. As she looked more closely, she said that the stones actually looked like pearls, and began talking about how oysters formed pearls as a response to irritation, and that they were an attempt to protect the oyster from these irritations. She realized that she had been stressed and keeping a demanding schedule, and to keep up, she had been drinking more coffee, eating poorly, not resting enough, and feeling run down. She felt this was likely the cause of the lumps. She ended her guided imagery meditation with a feeling of appreciation for the wisdom of her body, and a sense that she could and would resolve these issues. As she reworked her schedule, balanced her attention between others and herself, ate better and eliminated coffee, the lumps went away.

Alexandra, and other people who stop to consider what their inner wisdom is telling them through their bodies, learn that the wisdom of nature is built into them, and that they can access it by getting quiet and inviting its guidance. Seen in this light, symptoms are just a way our inner wisdom gets our attention. By respecting your wisdom, asking for its guidance, and paying attention in the special way guided imagery provides, you will often find that illness can teach you about health and wellness. You learn that you can cultivate your ability to care for and learn from the healing nature that lies within you, and you can re-own your respect for the healing marvels that you truly are.

To get more information about this healing program:
The Healing Mind.org

Related posts:

* Know your biorythms for self growth
* Self growth or self development in your way
* When a journalist devoted his life
* Improve your brain health
* Amazing story of a sick woman who cured herself