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Science of the SpiritS
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describe the power that presents visual imagery to our minds. I find research like this irresistible. It coaxes me to think about ways to experience life that are radically different from my own, and it offers clues to how the mind works. And in this instance, I played a small part in the discovery.
In 2005, a 65-year-old retired building inspector paid a visit to the neurologist Dr Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter Medical School. After a minor surgical procedure, the man - whom Adam and his colleagues refer to as MX suddenly realised he could no longer conjure images in his mind. Adam couldn't find any description of such a condition in medical literature. But he found MX's case intriguing. For decades, scientists had debated how the mind's eye works, and how much we rely on it to store memories and to make plans for the future. MX agreed to a series of examinations. He proved to have a good memory for a man of his age, and he performed well on problem-solving tests. His only unusual mental feature was an inability to see mental images.
From caffeine to specific herbs, memory can be enhanced in so many ways. However, drawing pictures of information that needs to be remembered has been found to be a strong and reliable strategy to enhance memory.
The study showed that drawing helps to create a more cohesive memory trace that better integrates visual, motor and semantic information.
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I know we all live in a culture of "more is better." At various points of my life I've been tempted by that siren song. (I am a former Cardio King after all.) And yet the last few decades have affirmed a very different truth for myself and for others I've observed.
Because of the work I do, I meet a lot of people who are motivated to live a healthier life. It's one of the things I love most about what I do in fact. And, yet, as a result I also see the full spectrum of behavior around "healthy" action.
Comment: Dr. Gabor Maté goes into an extensive study on what happens to people when they refuse to say no when they need to: in short, their body says "no" for them through illness and breaking down. Whether a person is pushing themselves too hard or feeling outside pressure to push past their limits and boundaries, eventually the body will say no. Pushing oneself to excel is certainly a good thing overall, but one must respect one's own limits and boundaries and find balance in their lives and their pursuits. For more information:
- Dr. Gabor Maté: "When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection"
- When the Body Says No: Caring for ourselves while caring for others - Dr. Gabor Maté
Positive memories could be used as a way to help boost mental well-being, new research finds.
Therapists have traditionally focused on addressing negative emotions, as these are most pressing.
However, researchers are now looking at how positive emotions can be used in the therapeutic process to aid healing.
"We pitted drawing against a number of other known encoding strategies, but drawing always came out on top," said the study's lead author, Jeffrey Wammes, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo.
"We believe that the benefit arises because drawing helps to create a more cohesive memory trace that better integrates visual, motor, and semantic information."
Most of us battle with an internal voice of self-criticism. A recent psychotherapy review sheds light on how to listen to your inner critic and respond.
This morning, I accidentally knocked over a can of food that splattered all over the floor. Instantly, a voice in my head rang, "Rina, how could you be so stupid? You've wasted food and time!"
Sound familiar?
This is the voice commonly referred to as our "inner critic." In ancient yoga philosophy the inner critic is considered a manifestation of the ego, or ahamkara. As much as ahamkara is involved with deceptively enjoyable vanity and conceit, it can also be the source of painful self-criticism. Peace of mind and self-love, yoga says, come when none of these "snares" of ego entrap us. According to yoga, it is then that we are truly free.
In research terms, the inner critic is defined as a "well-integrated system of critical and negative thoughts and attitudes of the self that interferes with the individual's organismic experiencing process." In other words, it is the criticism we hear in our minds that gets in the way of life enjoyment.
© Ohio State UniversityTest subjects in an Ohio State University study were shown a series of photographs of different facial expressions. Researchers pinpointed an area of the brain that is specifically attuned to picking up key muscle movements (here, labeled AU for 'action units') that combine to express emotion.
The researchers also found that nerve patterns within the pSTS seem to be programmed to recognize movement in certain areas of the face. For example, one neural pattern identifies a furrowed brow and another detects the upturned lips of a smile, the researchers said. "That suggests that our brains decode facial expressions by adding up sets of key muscle movements in the face of the person we are looking at," study author Aleix Martinez said in a university news release. Martinez is a cognitive scientist and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State.
© Photographee.eu, Shutterstock.com
The best response is something along the lines of, "I'm so sorry to hear the news. I'll be here to support you in any way I can," sociologists told Live Science. But you'd be smart to tweak this message on a person-by-person basis.
"There are no easy answers to what you should say or what you should do," said Amanda Gengler, an assistant professor of sociology at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
Comment: See also: Dandelion root: Immune system builder & anti-cancer properties