neuroplasticity Archives - Amazing Health Advances

How to Balance Your Brainwaves, the Different Brain Frequencies & How They Impact Your State of Mind + The Difference Between the Mind & Brain

AHA Publisher — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 07:00:20 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #406) and blog, I talk about what brain waves are, why they are important and how we can balance our brain waves to improve our mind and brain health. Our brain waves are active all the time because the brain is always active. The brain is active 24/7, 7 days a week! Our brain waves change in terms of how they move through the brain, which is based on what we are thinking, doing and feeling. When slower brain waves are dominant, we often feel tired, slow, sluggish, or dreamy, and are not able to process information or emotions very well. When the higher brain wave frequencies are dominant, we can feel wired or hyper-alert, like there is just too much going on in our brains. A healthy brain tries to balance these extremes. How our brainwaves function and our daily experience of the world are inseparable because the mind moves through the brain, and the brain responds to the mind. When our emotions are out of balance or very negative (like when we aren’t rising to the challenge and building new knowledge into our brains daily, or when we are responding in chaotic and reactive ways to the chronic and acute stressors of life), this will be reflected in our physiology (blood, hormones and so on) and in our brainwaves, which will be out of balance. Consequently, our self-regulation and self-assessment can be affected because we experience our mind in our brain and body. There is a corresponding relationship between the mind and brain that plays out in our mental, emotional, neurological and physical health. When we change our perceptions, however, as we observed in our most recent research study, we can potentially change our brain’s response, our physiology and our cellular health, which plays back into our minds because of the feedback loop between the brain and body. For example, stress, when managed in a healthy way, can be a real asset to how we function, and we can see this in the brain. When we use stress to our advantage, we essentially use our more aware and ready state of mind to spring into action—we see balance, coherence and connectivity in the brain. On the other hand, prolonged and unmanaged toxic stress can result in anxious, racing and chaotic thoughts in the brain, which can, in turn, affect the physiological system. This appears physically in a myriad of ways, from GI symptoms like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and digestive difficulties to migraines, fatigue, sleep issues, phobias, skin problems and so on. Long-term exposure to chronic stress (the day-to-day events of life) and acute stress (the unexpected stuff that blindsides us and often gets worse before they get better) can negatively affect our neurophysiology (brain), physiology (blood, hormones, immune system and so on) and mind (mental processing and emotional control). Essentially, the connectivity and balance that the mind, brain and body crave can be disrupted when we don’t manage our minds properly. Because of the neuroplasticity of the brain, if we aren’t changing our reactions to the stress, then we are reinforcing them—they don’t just go away. We are either reconceptualizing our reactions into something better or they are being strengthened into something worse, making it even more difficult for us to react well to life and make decisions. If we choose to stay in a negative state, this can create a toxic response in the brain that can impact every system in the brain and body. The converse also applies; if we choose to start developing a “possibilities mindset”, seeing every opportunity as a chance to learn, grow and overcome, and we find the positive in the negative, our hope starts coming back, and we can positively affect our brainwaves and body – down to the cellular level! With brain imaging technology like qEEGs, we are literally able to see learning taking place and healing energy moving through the brain as we do this! Why? As we think, feel and choose, the energy frequencies in the brain respond to our mind-in-action. This is the same for the preparation “work” being done just prior to the building of the thought, as well as the work done during the process of building the new thoughts with their embedded memories, which can eventually turn into habits. It is at this point that we, with our mind-management skills, need to intervene to direct our brainwaves, taking over the process of neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change in response to external and internal factors). Let’s look at a wave analogy to better understand how brain waves and neuroplasticity work. Imagine you are paddling out on a surfboard, far beyond the breakers, and the sea swells up around you. This is the delta wave, which has a frequency of 0-4hz (cycles per second). Delta waves are the slow, massively deep and powerful high voltage waves that are dominant in dreamless sleep, called non-REM (NREM) sleep, as well as intensely spiritual, nonconscious states. Delta is also associated with repairing thoughts and complex problem-solving. Very high amplitudes of delta are also found in people who are in touch with the nonlocal spiritual mind, even when they’re wide awake! The brains of meditators, intuitives, and healers have much more delta waves than the average brain. When we have unmanaged, chaotic minds, these swells become unmanageably huge, affecting our sleeping patterns as well as our daytime functioning. Now, back to you on the surfboard: as you turn towards the shore, the waves peak a little more and move inwards a little faster. This is the theta wave, which has a frequency of 4-8hz and is often referred to as the healing and creative wave. It is very active when we are in REM sleep – the dream state. Theta is also associated with creativity, insight, healing, and light sleep, and is a dominant frequency in healing and highly creative states. It’s also very active when we remember emotional experiences; both good and bad memories can trigger theta bursts, while theta and gamma rhythms are associated with memory processes such as retrieval and encoding, and these rhythms increase when we regulate our thoughts. As you move towards the shore, the waves start becoming almost like moving bridges, carrying you forward on their crest but also keeping you connected to the deeper swells. This is called the alpha bridge, as it bridges the nonconscious mind and conscious mind, reflecting the subconscious activity of the mind I spoke of in part one of this book. At 8-12hz, it reflects a peaceful calmness and a readiness to action. Alpha is associated with alertness, reflecting a mind in a state of peacefulness, readiness, meditation and self-regulation. Alpha connects the higher frequencies—the thinking mind of beta and the associative mind of gamma—with the two lowest frequency brain waves, which is why it is like a bridge between the conscious and nonconscious mind. As you move even closer to the shore, the waves get faster and busier—the brain is “online”, which is low beta, 8-15hz. This is the wave you stand up on with your surfboard to ride to the shore with intense, focused and sustained attention. Low beta is associated with deep processing, focus and attention. Finally, the waves crash onto the beach with a high, short and impactful burst of purpose, and you go with the flow, lying low on your surfboard. This is high beta, 15 – 40hz, and is an intense and focused wave that is paying deep attention—this is the actual choice you make. High beta are the brain waves associated with intense thinking, paying attention, and the actual making of a choice as the wave collapses, in a figurative and quantum sense. As the wave runs up the beach in very fast ripples and rolls back, it leaves a mark in the sand. This is gamma, the high speed, low amplitude learning wave, which creates, innovates, and integrates information. Gamma flows from the front to the back of the brain at 40 times a second and contributes to our subjective experience of consciousness – our self-awareness. So, when we gather awareness, as in step 1 of the 5 steps, gamma is active, which indicates introspection, memory retrieval, high level learning, deep intellectual function, association and creative inspiration, thus integrating information from different parts of the brain and encoding memories. A brain producing lots of gamma waves reflects complex neural organization and heightened awareness, which means deep, integrative learning is taking place with heightened awareness and compassion. This is why alpha and gamma rhythms are related to visual processing prioritization, and whole-scalp gamma frequency synchronization is associated with consciousness. Now, you may be thinking, all this sounds really complicated to manage, but it is something you can learn to do! I recommend doing a Neurocycle to help you recognize and manage mental stress and negative mindsets that can throw your brainwaves off balance, which is the 5-step mind-management system I have developed over the past 38 years and is based on my research and practice. (I discuss this in detail in my book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, my app Neurocycle and in my recent clinical trials.) The 5 steps are: Gather awareness of how you are feeling emotionally and physically Reflect on why you feel the way you do. Write this down to organize your thinking and observe your patterns of thinking and responding. Recheck how you can see this in a different way; what is your thought “antidote?”, Practice your new way of thinking by VENTING YOUR JOY! Maybe you are celebrating a promotion, a great meal, a wonderful chat on a walk, an exciting new adventure coming up in your life, playing with your puppies…whatever brings you joy in life! As you vent your joy, visualize yourself on that surfboard riding those waves like I described above. The visualization will speed up and stabilize the balancing of your brainwaves, which will help you manage stressful situations and challenges better! To read the original article click here.

The post How to Balance Your Brainwaves, the Different Brain Frequencies & How They Impact Your State of Mind + The Difference Between the Mind & Brain appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

3 Ways to Boost Your Mental Energy When You Are Tired & Overwhelmed

AHA Publisher — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 07:00:58 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #364) and blog, I talk about three tips to boost your energy when you are tired and overwhelmed. Why do we get tired? Our nonconscious mind never stops. It’s always trying to make us aware of issues that are damaging our resilience and causing neurophysiological disruptions in our brain and body. However, the conscious mind and brain do get tired because they work on energy, like our phones. This is kind of like when we have a whole lot of apps open, the brightness is on full and we are constantly using our phone—very soon the battery will die. And, like you need to recharge your phone, you also need to recharge your brain and conscious mind. It’s best we do this in a regular way, by incorporating periods of rest into our daily schedule to keep the brain charged all day long. This will also help us better know when to switch off at the end of the day. If we go for too long without rest, we may think we are okay, but the next day we won’t feel as rested as we should, and may notice our creativity or ability to think clearly is off because we didn’t recharge regularly the day before and pushed the conscious mind and brain to the limit. As we go through our day, everything we experience is processed by our conscious mind, nonconscious mind and brain. During this time, a lot of neuroplasticity (brain change) is occurring—we will have built about 8000+ new memories in thought tree clusters into our brain. This activity makes our brain, conscious mind and body pretty tired because they have limited energy, but the nonconscious mind never gets tired because it operates at a different level. The conscious mind and brain will get tired even if we can have a lot of good stuff happening in our lives. This is often why, even when things are going well, we can feel a loss of drive and creativity, and maybe even a little depressed. This is completely normal! The key to managing this activity is to become very self-regulated so that you don’t burn out. You can start practicing this by: Pausing every 30-45 minutes and going into what I call a “thinker moment” for a few minutes, when you switch off to the external and onto the internal and just let your mind wander and do a bit of daydreaming. (I discuss this in greater detail in my book Cleaning Up the Mental Mess.) Just stare out the window or sit outside and close your eyes—just let your mind wander. The great news is that the more you do this the more you will sense when you need to do it! Taking a longer break after every three hours of work. Eat something, grab a coffee or cup of tea, go for a walk, do some push-ups or yoga, play with your pets, chat with a loved one—whatever works for you! Limiting the intensiveness and length of your work. This could mean purposefully going to bed a little earlier, working out a little longer or shortening your work day. Be as deliberate about switching off as you were about switching on. Schedule in periods of “off time”, such as taking a hot bubble bath or shower or watching your favorite TV show. Remember, you can just “get away with it”. You can’t escape the way your mind and brain works—there are no tricks to “hack” the system. Overworking yourself will result in poor quality sleep and thinking the next day, which can have a ripple effect in your life and on your health. I personally find that I am more edgy, get more frustrated, and become more reactive when I am tired versus when I have more energy, patience and peace. To read the original article click here.

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Healthy Ways to Process Grief

AHA Publisher — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 05:22:00 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #360) and blog, I am going to talk about grief and answer some of your questions about dealing with and managing grief. Since grief is inescapable and can come about for all sorts of reasons, it’s important to accept that it’s an intrinsic part of being human, instead of trying to avoid or suppress the emotion. Below are some of the main questions I have received over the years, and some answers and tips to help you better deal with and manage grief: -Why is grief such a difficult feeling to process? Dealing with loss and the grief that comes with this feeling often means facing something that is both final and unchangeable, which makes grief very hard to manage. And, contrary to popular opinion, time doesn’t just “heal” this feeling of loss. Rather, time helps to create the space necessary to come to terms with the inevitability of the loss. In many cases, feelings of loss and grief are compounded by a sense of regret or even guilt, which can also be very hard to process. -Why isn’t grief linear? The five stages of grief model, otherwise known as the Kübler-Ross model, suggests that people experience grief through a series of five emotions: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Although this model has gained popularity, it is not supported by empirical studies—many people argue that this model is incomplete and unhelpful for people trying to manage their grief. Research shows that grief doesn’t unfold along predictable lines and differs greatly based on a person’s makeup and circumstances. People naturally move back and forth through different stages and expressions of grief. Consequently, it can be harmful to force people to try to fit their unique experiences into a set pattern of grief. We all experience grief in waves and cope in different ways. We should not judge ourselves if we feel great one day and terrible the next. -What are some healthy ways to process grief? As mentioned above, we all experience grief in waves and cope in different ways, so you shouldn’t judge yourself if you feel great one day and bad the next day. Remind yourself that there is no one way of experiencing grief, and there is no one way of getting through grief. Remind yourself that grief is a part of life, and that it isn’t shameful to ask for help or need support. Don’t just assume that you must talk about and express your grief openly as soon as possible or you won’t get through it. This has been shown through extensive research to not to work as well as was previously believed. You may find a temporary distraction helpful when dealing with grief—it can give you time and space to deal with grief in your own way in your own time. Deep, meaningful connections can really help us manage and process our grief. Never feel ashamed of asking for help. We should all try to be there for someone who is grieving, so long as we DO NOT try to force them to get what they are feeling out or “get over it”. In these situations, it is far better to ask the person what they need instead of basing our words and actions off what we think they need. Remember, we are not experts on anyone else’s feelings! Therefore it’s important to acknowledge a person’s unique grief experience, which will help them activate the resilience they need to process and move through their grief in a way that works for them. You do you! No one should be pressured into trying to feel more deeply or be more expressive than suits their unique style and time frame. If you are grieving, I recommend acknowledging your grief, and then decompressing until you feel ready to face your grief. When ready, work on embracing, processing and reconceptualizing your feelings and experiences in organized cycles of 63 days, which is the time it takes to rewire new thoughts. Some people may need to do many of these cycles, and that’s okay! In the case of grief, people begin to feel stronger when they develop new ways of thinking about their loss and adjusting, so take all the time you need to get to this place! To do these 63 day cycles, I recommend using my Neurocycle mind-management technique, which I discuss in detail in my latest book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, and app Neurocycle. The Neurocycle is a way to harness your thinking power through mind-management that I have developed and researched over the past three decades. First, calm the brain down by breathing deeply. I recommend breathing in for 5 counts and out for 11 counts, and repeating this technique 3 times (for around 45 seconds). Then, GATHER awareness of the emotional and physical warning signals your body is sending you, such as tension in your shoulders, which can be a sign of fear of sleep. Embrace these signals; don’t judge them or try to suppress them. (Spend around 30 to 45 seconds doing this). Next, REFLECT on what these signals are pointing to. Ask, answer and discuss why you are feeling the way you do. Use specific sentences, like “I feel this sadness because …”. What are the details associated with this thought? What other thoughts are coming up that are associated with this thought? After reflecting, WRITE down what you feel and why. This will help you gain clarity into your thinking and behavior. Then, RECHECK what you have written, looking for your grief triggers and thought patterns you may have developed. For example, if you are grieving the end of a romantic relationship and feel sad, you might unconsciously think, “I could’ve done more to stop the breakup”. Why do you feel this way? What triggered this thought? How do you know this to be true? Or are you making an assumption based on how you feel now about something that happened the past? What is your thought “antidote”? How will you reconceptualize this way of thinking and feeling? What could you think, feel and choose instead?Lastly, take action to practice this new way of thinking. I call this step the ACTIVE REACH. This can be anything from a positive statement that validates your feelings to an action you do when you catch yourself ruminating on your grief. Based on the example above, you could practice saying, “I know the relationship was over, and that is okay. It is also okay to grieve the end of this relationship”. -How can someone feel/process their grief without becoming consumed or immobilized by it? Recounting your grief (again and again) is not necessarily required for your psychological health. There is a substantial body of research suggesting that the constant expression of feelings is not always the best way to manage grief and may even lead to more sorrow. In fact, when you are sad and grieving, your mind tends to access other sad memories stored in your brain, and you can get stuck in a cycle of negativity that will potentially drag you down. Similarly, wired-in neural networks of memories can be activated even when there isn’t a direct relationship to what you are going through, so ruminating can lead to all sorts of mental issues, setting off a cycle of pessimism that can affect your concentration, decision-making and motivation, which can make your problems can seem overwhelming. When this happens, you can become immobilized or consumed in your grief. However, there is a natural cycle of remission we can tap into, which is where healthy distractions can come in handy. Your ability to distract yourself until you are ready to process your grief, as briefly mentioned above, can be a good way to help you recover without feeling stuck or immobilized. Don’t try to rush the process if you don’t feel strong enough to work through everything. Yes, you don’t want to ignore your grief or avoid processing it, but you do want to get to a point where you are able to process everything that has happened without becoming immobilized, which usually involves having a support system in place and building up your own mental resilience. -What can happen if a person doesn’t process their grief or ignores it? This is often referred to as delayed grief. Although there is not much research on the effects of delayed grief, we do know that suppressing how we feel in the long term can end up making our mental health worse, as I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. However, grieving is a complex process that we need to be allowed to move through in our own idiosyncratic ways. We don’t want to conceal our intense sadness from ourselves or others, but we do need to be allowed to process these feelings in our own way. -What are examples of things people might grieve besides death? Love, loss of childhood, etc.? Why is it important to recognize these types of grief too, outside of death-related grief? There are many things that we can grieve over, including being bullied, feeling lonely, the loss of time, the loss of friends, breakups, the loss of connections when moving cities, countries or schools, illness or injury, the loss of a happy childhood due to traumatic experiences and so on. It is important to recognize that grief is related to loss, even when there may not have been a death. Some people may not even realize that the deep sorrow they are feeling is actually grief! Experiencing a loss is a very hard emotional process, and recognizing it as grief can allow people to make more sense of what they are feeling and experiencing. In fact, recognizing different types of grief can help assuage feelings of guilt associated with loss. For example, if someone is feeling down from something like a breakup and is feeling guilty about being sad, helping them understand that they may be grieving can help them identify their pain and start the process of working through it. No matter what type of loss someone has experienced, they should understand that their grief is valid. -Can you explain how the pandemic has added another layer of grief to life? Besides the obvious impact of massive uncertainty and loneliness, many adults, teenagers and children have had to develop a whole new way of life, which has resulted in feelings of loss and grief for what could have been. Whatever we experience with the mind changes the brain (through the process of neuroplasticity) and body, right down to the level of the telomeres on our chromosomes, which shows up in how we function and feel mentally and physically. We do not live in a vacuum. There have been major changes in the mind, brain and body from the pandemic, and we need to help adults, adolescents and children manage these changes because unmanaged toxic stress from major adverse circumstances like the pandemic can result in physical and mental ill-health. However, if we constantly focus on the problem, it can get worse. As I always say, whatever we think about the most grows. We also need to focus on the solution, and I recommend doing this in a “ratio” of 1:3—one part “this is the problem/what has happened” and 3 parts of “what I can do about it”. It’s also important to not only focus on our feelings, because feelings are only one part of the mind—the other two parts are thinking and choosing. When we just focus on how we feel, we can get stuck because we are going against the natural functioning of the mind, which is to think, feel AND choose. When we consciously keep the balance between our thinking, feeling and choosing through self-regulation (or mind management), this can help us prevent overthinking and ruminating on the negative, which, in turn, helps us develop cognitive resilience and allow for the natural remission of grief to happen. We need to guide ourselves and our children to...

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How Trauma Impacts Memory

AHA Publisher — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 07:00:37 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #322) and blog, I am going to talk about how memory changes over time, what influences memory loss, and how we can all improve our memory. Contrary to popular belief, memory doesn’t just get worse as we age. It changes from being detail-focused to becoming more conceptual and integrated based on our many experiences. The brain is in fact the only organ that can get better with age, which is great news! But there is a caveat: to get better, we need to know how to use the brain well. If we don’t use our brain properly, then memory, amongst other things, can decline. We need to remember that the mind is separate from the brain and powers the brain; the brain responds to our mind. The mind is like the power that charges your cellphone and computer, which are like the brain and body parts. Whatever we do with our minds will affect our brains. The mind is the phenomenal and powerful ability we have as humans to think, feel and choose. (These three are a triad and can never be separated.) Through our minds, we process information from the world into our brains. This processing of information changes the way energy flows through the brain, creating a neurochemical, electromagnetic and genetic response in the brain, which results in a thought being built from proteins into the brain that looks like a tree. This whole process is called neuroplasticity. Like a tree is made of branches and roots, a thought is made up of “branches and roots”, which are our memories. Memories are literally what is inside a thought: all the knowledge in the form of details, information, emotions, choices, and perceptions. The causes of memory loss are multiple, including: 1. TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) 2. Learning disabilities 3. Dementias 4. Autism 5. Brain tumors 6. Substance addictions 7. Suppressed trauma and toxic habits Uncontrolled toxic thinking has the potential to create a state of low-grade inflammation across the body and brain, affecting cortisol levels, hormones, inflammatory factors, brain functionality and even the telomeres on chromosomes, all of which can impact our memory. Toxic trauma involves something that happened to us that was out of our control, and often results in a pervasive feeling of threat. It includes things like adverse childhood experiences, traumatic experiences at any age, war trauma, and all forms of abuse, including racial aggression and socioeconomic oppression. Trauma is probably the hardest thought pattern to work on, but it is so essential because trauma is built into the brain, mind and body as an actual physical structure made of proteins and has high energy and intensity due to the data and emotions attached to the event. They are volcanic and will explode, and if undealt with, can contribute to cognitive decline. Toxic trauma requires a lot of work, time, grace, and self-compassion, as it involves embracing, processing, and reconceptualizing things that are generally incredibly painful and upsetting, which is why I always recommend working through this process with a mental health professional. Toxic habits are negative behavioral patterns that have been established over time, like getting irritated in traffic, snapping at a loved one, or allowing ourselves to go down worry “rabbit holes” by always seeing the negative. Because we build toxic habits into our mind over time and repeat them often, they can feel like they’re a natural part of us. But they really aren’t, because we aren’t wired for toxicity. They’re destructive habits that can cause lots of toxic stress in our brains and bodies and impact our memory. They need to be identified, uprooted, and reconceptualized into constructive thinking habits. For more on toxic thoughts and trauma, see my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and my recent clinical trials. 8. Unmanaged toxic stress. If we aren’t managing the stressors of life, this can affect our protein thought trees with their memories, which, in turn, can create a lot of mini patterns of brain damage. Over time, this damage can negatively impact the memories inside of our thoughts, as well as the process of memory-building. Indeed, it’s a well-established fact that unmanaged, chronic stress can damage the brain and body, increasing our vulnerability to disease and affecting memory over time. There is a significant amount of research indicating that suppression of thoughts, which causes mental distress, is related to telomere shortening (shortening the ends of chromosomes), biological aging and cognitive decline. (For more on this also see my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Messand my recent clinical trials.) 9. Not learning. Our brain is a hungry organ when it comes to knowledge. We need to be learning and brain-building every day or, over time, we can build up toxic waste in the mind and brain, which can also affect memory, as I spoke about in detail in a recent podcast and blog. 10. Lack of sleep. We know a lack of good quality sleep has a negative impact on memory formation, amongst a myriad of other factors. One of the main reasons people don’t sleep well is because of unmanaged mental health, which can create a dysregulated pattern in the brain that affects the processing of information. 11. Diet and exercise. Other lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, are also important to consider when it comes to memory. 12. Changes in the brain’s biology. Some of the changes in the brain associated with unmanaged minds include brain mass shrinkage, brain inflammation, changes in the DNA (such as shortening of telomeres), damage to neurons, reduced blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and incoherent brainwave patterns in different areas of the brain (such as the entorhinal cortex, which is very important in the processing of information, and the hippocampus, which is involved in the conversion from short to long-term memory in thoughts). There are many factors that can affect the brain’s biology, including those discussed in the previous points above. But the great news is that it is possible to protect memory and improve brain health, even as you age! You can do this by: 1. Leading a life of mind-management: This means developing the habit of self-regulating how you think, feel and choose in response to the experiences of life for pretty much the whole time you are awake. The mind-brain-body (psychoneurobiology) link is well established in the scientific literature, and what it consistently shows is that it’s important that we learn how to catch and alter our thoughts and reactions before they become toxic neural networks and habits that damage the mind, brain and body. Toxic thoughts, depression and anxiety are signals of a mental mess—something that we, as humans, all experience. Indeed, a mental mess isn’t something we should be ashamed of; rather, we need to learn how to manage this mess and listen to our mind and body’s signals so that they don’t increase our vulnerability to disease and cognitive decline. One of the best ways to manage your mind and deal with everyday stressors is to make self-regulation a daily habit. To this end, I recommend using my Neurocycle mind-management technique, which I discuss in detail in my latest book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and my app Neurocycle. The Neurocycle is a way to harness your thinking power through mind-management that I have developed and researched over the past three decades; any task that requires thinking can use it, which means everything can, because you’re always thinking! This de-stressing, self-regulation technique can really work with any issue, and can be done anywhere, any place and at any time—all you need is you! First, calm the brain down by breathing deeply. I recommend breathing in for 5 counts and out for 11 counts, and repeating this technique 3 times (for around 45 seconds). Then, GATHER awareness of the emotional and physical warning signals your body is sending you, such as tension in your shoulders, forgetfulness or feelings of unease. Embrace these signals; don’t judge them or try to suppress them. Now, REFLECT on how you feel; ask, answer and discuss why you are feeling the way you do. Use specific sentences, like “I tend to forget things when…”. What is happening during the day that may be affecting how you manage your life experiences and build thoughts into your brain? After reflecting, WRITE down what you feel and why. This will help you gain clarity into your thinking and behavior. Then, RECHECK what you have written, looking for your triggers and the thought patterns you may have developed that are affecting how you build memory. For example, you may notice that you start stressing before work, which affects how you function at the office. What is your “antidote”? How will you reconceptualize this way of thinking and acting to improve how you manage this stress? Lastly, take action. I call this step the ACTIVE REACH. This can be a positive statement that validates your feelings, or an action, such as having more “thinker moments” in your day, where you switch off to the external and onto the internal and just let your mind wander and daydream for about a minute. These thinker moments help calm down anxious thinking and reboot your mind, improving your brain health and ability to build memory. This mind-management process is also a great way to detox trauma and negative thinking habits that can affect memory, as discussed above. 2. Recognizing that “young” is often a feeling: Recent research highlighting the effect of chronic unmanaged stress and cognitive decline shows an interesting link between subjective age and health. It appears that people who feel younger, regardless of their actual age, tend to have a greater sense of wellbeing, better cognitive functioning, better memory formation, less inflammation, lower risk of hospitalization and longer lifespans. It appears that thinking about “feeling younger” can act as a stress buffer and improve overall wellbeing, which is why it is important to remember that age is often just a number! 3. Brain-building: As mentioned above, learning and brain-building is so important when it comes to memory formation and the overall health of our brains. Brain-building means training the brain to learn how to learn in an organized and meaningful way, and it is something that everyone can learn how to do! Throughout the brain-building process, it is important to remember that our mind and brain health depend on healthy, strong thoughts. When we stop learning and thinking deeply, we negatively affect our brain health, building up toxic waste in the brain that can set us up for cognitive decline. So, brain-building helps you with the harder work of detoxing. Just like not cleaning your teeth will affect your dental health, not learning can damage the brain, setting off a cascade of consequences. You need to keep learning every day for mental health! The actual process of brain-building is quite rapid. Genes are activated within a few minutes, and a single neuron may gain thousands of new dendritic branches in a very short time. My early researchshowed up to 75 percent improvement in academic, cognitive, social, emotional, and intellectual function when people were taught how to build their brain and harness deep, intellectual thought. When you build your brain, you build your resilience and your intelligence. This changes the way that energy flows through the brain, optimizing its function and cognitive flexibility. Brain-building also uses the thousands of new baby nerve cells that are born when we wake up each morning in a process called neurogenesis. Some great ways to brain build are: Make a list of books you have been meaning to read, and schedule in time to read them!If you are not a big reader, or if your list is really long, you may be interested in the app Blinkist, which teaches you key ideas from thousands of bestselling non-fiction books in a short period of time. (For a free week see https://blinkist.com/drleaf). Audiobooks are also great if you are not a big reader, or if you are doing things around the house like cleaning...

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Top 6 Natural Ways for How to Improve Memory

AHA Publisher — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 07:00:20 +0000

Jillian Levy, CHHC via Dr. Axe – If you’re relatively young and healthy, improving your memory may not be the health goal you’re currently most focused on. However, memory impairment is an issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly, considering one’s memory is tied to many other brain functions and serves as a window into their overall cognitive health, and it’s never too early to find ways for how to improve memory. Is it really possible to improve your memory? Research suggests that yes, it is. Experts’ advice regarding how to improve memory and other cognitive functions, such as concentration and decision making, include: learning new information regularly eating an anti-inflammatory diet exercising getting enough sleep potentially trying certain supplements, including nootropics Top 6 Ways for How to Improve Memory How exactly can you improve your memory and concentration? Here’s what to focus on and how to improve memory naturally: 1. Keep Learning New Things Challenging yourself with new tasks and “breaking out of your comfort zone” is a great way to encourage neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections in response to learning and experiences. Neuroplasticity basically describes how your brain literally adapts to challenges and things you do over and over again by forming new connections, and it’s a great way for how to improve memory. It can be easy to get into a monotonous routine in older age, but continuing to develop new skills is essential for keeping the brain sharp and attentive. The best brain-boosting exercises to try are those that require concentration, full engagement and a bit of mental effort. Any activity or hobby that requires hand-eye coordination and complex motor skills is also great for the brain. Ideally you want to practice exercises that you can become increasingly good at over time, since progress is rewarding and fun. Some examples include: learning a new instrument or language building things with your hands playing chess dancing golfing doing crossword puzzles or playing board games 2. Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Diet One important aspect of improving your memory is providing your brain with the fuel it needs to protect against damage (like free radicals and oxidative stress) and operate at its best. That’s why eating an anti-inflammatory diet is among the natural ways for how to improve memory. A diet aimed at protecting cognitive function should be one filled with produce that is packed with antioxidants (colorful fruits and vegetables) plus protein, healthy fats and other anti-inflammatory ingredients. You’ll want to include plenty of “brain foods” that support focus and memory, such as: Healthy fats, such as olive oil, avocado, coconut, nuts like walnuts, egg yolks, ground flaxseed and flaxseed oil High-antioxidant foods, such as leafy greens, peppers, onions, citrus fruits, berries, broccoli, dark cocoa, acai, turmeric, herbs, etc. Cold-water “fatty fish,” such as salmon, tuna, halibut, trout, mackerel, sardines and herring Superfoods like wheatgrass, seaweed and algae Green tea and coffee in moderation Wine in moderation (about one glass a day for women, two for men) 3. Exercise Getting regular exercise has been shown in studies to help protect both short- and long-term memory. It helps your brain stay sharp by: Increasing circulation and oxygen to your brain Boosting neuroplasticity by stimulating growth factors and neuronal connections Managing inflammation and supporting a healthy immune system Reducing the risk for disorders that can contribute to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease Building resiliency against stress Reducing fatigue Releasing endorphins that fight depression Aerobic exercises like brisk walking, swimming and cycling are among the best options for older adults for how to improve memory through exercise. 4. Get Enough Sleep Sleep makes a big impact not only on your energy level, but also your focus, memory, problem-solving abilities, emotion regulation and creativity. Researchers have even found that getting enough sleep plays in a role in memory consolidation, which takes place during the deepest stages of sleep. On average, adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep per night to feel their best. Some tips for getting better sleep include: Stick to a regular schedule to support your circadian rhythm (aka your internal clock). Go to bed at the same time every night, and get up at the same time each morning. Limit screen time at night, and instead do something relaxing, such as reading, mediating or writing. Blue light emitted by electronics such as TVs, tablets, phones, and computers can mess with your ability to sleep well. Soothing activities, such as listening to music, meditation or yoga, can improve cognitive abilities, including focus, creativity, memory and learning. One study found that meditation and music significantly enhanced both subjective memory function and objective cognitive performance in adults with cognitive decline. Cut back on alcohol, caffeine, sugar and spicy foods, especially close to bedtime. Taking a nap, especially after learning new information, may also help you remember things more easily, according to some studies. 5. Prioritize Relationships to Fight Loneliness Studies show that meaningful relationships in one’s life and a supportive social circle can actually help defend the brain against damage, since these decrease loneliness. To boost your mood and brain function, make an effort to maintain relationships and reach out to others often. Try finding a community that you can actively engage in, such as a church or faith group, fitness center, sports team, volunteer organization, etc. Laughing with others, as well as physical affection, also help release “happy hormones,” such as oxytocin, that can aid in cognitive health. Intentionally seek out and spend time with positive people. Playing with children and pets is another great stress-reducer that can make life more playful and help you to take things less seriously. Here’s a tip: If you find it difficult to keep up with an active social life and remember events, try staying organized with help from calendars, planners, maps, shopping lists, file folders and address books. Doing these types of things has been shown to be associated with enhanced memory among older people. 6. Consider Taking Supplements Like Nootropics How can I improve my memory fast? Let’s say you’re cramming for an exam and looking for ways to help you retain information. Nootropics may come into handy. These supplements, some of which contain caffeine or other stimulating ingredients, tend to help with focus and possibly memory. Nootropics cover a broad range of focus–boosting drugs, herbs and supplements, such as: Adaptogen herbs, like ginseng and rhodiola Medicinal mushrooms, such as cordyceps Amino acids, like L-carnitine Creatine DHA/fish oil B vitamins, especially B12 Coffee or green tea extract Gingko biloba Theobromine A number of others Each nootropic supplement works in a unique way and has its own specific mechanisms of actions. Many are capable of altering levels of certain neurotransmitters, enzymes or hormones in the brain, such as: acetylcholine adrenaline dopamine serotonin GABA This allows these supplements to increase energy and motivation, promote blood flow and help protect the brain from oxidative stress — another option for how to improve memory. If you’re more focused on short-term information recall than preserving your long-term memory, other tips for improving memory include: Studying in a place free of distractions (no television, music, phones, etc.). Utilizing mnemonics, which are associations you make between terms and something else you’re familiar with. You can also add in humor to make ideas more memorable. Learning the information over a longer period of time rather than cramming. Focusing on the big-picture concepts. Grouping similar concepts and terms together, so you mix new material with things you already know. Using visualization, photographs, charts and other graphics. Rehearsing the information out loud to yourself. Risk Factors for Memory Impairment Researchers have found that a number of lifestyle habits and health conditions are often associated with memory loss. Some of the biggest risk factors for experiencing cognitive decline and memory impairment include: Having a history of heart disease or diabetes. Eating a diet that’s low in antioxidants and healthy fats but high in processed foods, added sugar and saturated fat (such as from foods like factory-farm red meat, whole milk, cheese products, and desserts like and ice cream). Hormonal issues, including thyroid imbalances, low testosterone and low estrogen. Chronic stress. Too much stress can actually damage brain cells due to its effects on hormone levels, inflammation and even gut health. Taking certain medications, such as cold and allergy medications, sleep aids, and antidepressants. A sedentary lifestyle. Having an unhealthy balance between work and leisure time/not enough time for relaxation. Loneliness and having few close relationships. Conclusion How can I sharpen my memory? Based on available research, here’s how to improve your memory: Keep learning, and try neuroplasticity to increase your cognitive abilities, enhance your ability to learn new information and improve your memory at any age. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. Exercise. Get enough sleep. Prioritize relationships to fight loneliness. Take supplements, such as nootropics. To read the original article click here.

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How the COVID Pandemic Changed Our Brains + How to Mentally Prepare for a Re-Opened Society & Going Back to “Normal”

AHA Publisher — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 07:00:27 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #296) and blog, I talk about the impact of COVID on the brain, how we can manage COVID-related mental health struggles, and more! A lot has changed over the past year, including our brains! Or, rather, re-shaped, since our brain is changing all the time (this is called neuroplasticity). With our mind, we experience the events and circumstances of life and build these into our brain as actual physical structures made up of proteins. Understanding this mind-brain-body connection (otherwise known as psychoneurobiology) is the key to both recognizing the effects the pandemic has had on our brain and biology and empowering ourselves to manage these changes. But what exactly is the mind? This can be a tricky concept, so it’s best to start with what I believe, based on my practice and research, the mind is not. Your mind/consciousness is not just your brain, just as you are not just your brain. The mind is separate, yet inseparable from, the brain. The mind uses the brain, and the brain responds to the mind. Contrary to the way we tend to speak about the mind, the brain doesn’t just produce the mind. The mind changes the brain. So, when we speak about the pandemic, we need to realize that the brain didn’t re-shape itself during the pandemic; the brain was reshaped by our mind, which was processing our individual and communal experiences of COVID-19. I believe this is a better way to understand how the past year may have affected us. Rather than just saying “this is your brain on COVID”, we can recognize that our unique minds filter our unique experiences, and we can learn how to manage this. This gives us a sense of agency in a world that often feels like it is spinning out of control! Indeed, there would be no conscious experience without the brain, but our experience cannot be reduced to the brain’s actions. The mind is energy; our “aliveness”. It generates energy through our thinking, feeling, and choosing. (I call this our mind-in-action.) We generate energy through our mind-in-action 24/7, and this is part of the activity we pick up using brain technologies like qEEG. When we generate mind energy through thinking, feeling, and choosing, we build thoughts, which are physical structures in our brain. This is called neuroplasticity. In our most recent clinical trials, we saw how the energy in the brain changed as the subject thought, and this stimulated neuroplasticity, which I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. The brain responds to the person experiencing “something” with their mind (and in this discussion, the something would be the pandemic). We need to understand that the brain is an extremely complex neuroplastic responder. Each time it is stimulated by your mind, it responds in many ways, which includes neurochemical, genetic, and electromagnetic changes. This, in turn, grows and changes structures in the brain, building or wiring in new physical thoughts. The brain is never the same because it changes with every experience we have, every moment of every day. And the good news is that we can learn how to manage these changes through our unique thinking, feeling, and choosing (our mind-in-action). We use our mind to use our brain. We are the architects of our brain! When we experience something as traumatic as the pandemic, it’s nice to know that, even though we can’t change that it has happened to us, we can influence what happens in us, and how it plays out in our mind, brain and body—and we can do all this with our minds! Of course, this is easier said than done. This past year has been incredibly hard, and both individual and collective healing will take time. If you still feel anxious, worried or vulnerable, there is nothing wrong with you! These are normal human reactions to life’s challenges. We see this in the data. Anxiety levels have dramatically increased over the pandemic, which has impacted how our brains function on a day-to-day level, especially if left unmanaged over long periods of time. In addition, the negative impact on our brains and bodies from social isolation (which is often, paradoxically, at odds with our deep need as human beings for meaningful connection), the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, the physical symptoms associated with contracting COVID, financial loss, and grief are are incredibly adverse circumstances, and anxiety and depression are normal responses to these kinds of situations, not brain malfunctions. In fact, our brains should change in response to adversity, or we wouldn’t be very good at being human! All our experiences are wired into our brains as habits by our mind, as I mentioned above, and this takes place in cycles of around 63 days. These habits then become behavior changes. If the habits and behaviors are negative, then our mind, brain and body generate emotional and physical signals to warn us that we need to pay attention to what is happening and process what going on, or things may get worse. Over the past year, we all have had many “toxic” pandemic experiences. (There are a quite a few 63-day cycles in a year!) This means we have had plenty of opportunity to wire negative experiences into the brain – experiences that can impact both our mental and physical health. Not only has the virus created physical changes in the brain of those who contracted it, but the toxic pandemic situations we have all experienced and our reactions to these experiences have also changed the brain and body, right down to the level of our chromosomes. But these changes are not set in stone. As I mentioned above, there is hope. As our mind changes, our brain and body changes. And, with directed mind input, or what I call “mind-management”, we can learn how to shift these neuroplastic changes in our brain. The mind is made up of trillions and trillions of thoughts. A thought is a real physical thing that occupies mental real estate in the brain and the mind. A thought is built into the brain as we use our mind, or as we think, feel and choose. Thoughts look like trees in the brain. A thought itself is the concept, the big idea. Inside the thought are the embedded memories. So, a thought is made of memories, and there can be any number of memories (thousands even!) in a thought, just as there are hundreds or even thousands of branches on a tree. For example, a thought could be the fear that “I am concerned about the impact not going to school has had on my adolescent child” or “I have just graduated – there is no hope for my future!”Within this thought, there will be hundreds of memories related to the fear or concern. Now, these are very valid thoughts about the pandemic, but if these thoughts are not processed, they can damage the brain and body, affecting the brainwaves and the oxygen and blood flow to the different parts of our brain. This, in turn, can manifest as impulsive thinking, inflexible cognition, reduced creativity, feelings of depression and anxiety, a nagging sense of dread, and so on. The key to managing these effects is to embrace and rewire the negative thought, not suppress it or ignore it. We need to transform our fears by embracing, processing and reconceptualizing them. Otherwise, we will transmit them, and they can potentially take over our thinking and life. I cannot overemphasize the importance of regulating our thoughts—we shouldn’t just let any random thing occupy our mental real estate. To help people learn how to do this, I have developed a 5-step system over the past 38 years based on my clinical research and practice, called the Neurocycle. I discuss it in Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess and my app Neurocycle. Moving through the steps in the sequence increases the resilience and efficiency of the brain, helping us manage and deal with negative thoughts and memories. Using the Neurocycle, you can process trauma and reconceptualize it so that you can cope, begin healing and move forward. As you do these five steps over cycles of 63 days, you can rewire the toxic patterns you may have developed during the pandemic into healthy patterns in your brain. In fact, as you progress sequentially through the 5 steps, you are essentially driving healing energy through the brain, increasing coherence between the two sides of the brain and increasing blood flow to the front of the brain. The five steps are: 1) Gather awareness of the emotional, physical and behavioral warning signals you are experiencing (for example, are you feeling depressed, do you have excessive heart palpitations, do you feel very withdrawn?) 2) Reflect, or get curious about what you have gathered awareness of (for instance, you would ask yourself “what does this pattern of depression look like/ how often/when/what triggers it?) 3) Write what you have gathered and reflected on in the previous two steps (just pour it all out on paper or on your device, and don’t worry about being organized or it making sense), which helps draw memories out of the depths of your consciousness 4) Recheck what you have written, organizing it to make sense of what you have put down on paper to start reconceptualizing/reimagining it (for example, how do you want this to turn out in your life?). 5) Active reach, which is a simple statement or action that sums up the work you have done in the previous four steps that anchors you in positivity as a way of moving forward. This could be something as simple as the statement “I am not depression. This does not define the whole of me. I am depressed because of what has happened to me during the pandemic and I am working on how to manage this.” As you go through this process, remember that you won’t solve everything in one cycle. As I mentioned above, you will need to do this over at least 63 days, processing a little each day, to see any kind of sustainable change in your life. I also recommend going through this process with a therapist, counselor or trusted confidant, as other people can help us stand outside of ourselves and develop a different perspective on how to deal with our issues. Plus, we are often better at giving others advice than following our own advice! Interestingly, a recent study from the university of Connecticut found that older adults are managing the stress of the pandemic better than younger adults and reporting less depression and anxiety despite experiencing greater concern for their health. Researchers suggest that this may be because older generations are more inclined to be satisfied with life, as they have experienced a lot already and may have a broader perspective. On the flip side, they suggest that younger people may find it more challenging to imagine a good future, even if they have more technological expertise. One other possible way of moving forward and finding healing could be to encourage people of different ages to communicate and discuss their unique experiences and expertise. Perhaps both groups could benefit and learn from each other after the pandemic! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

The post How the COVID Pandemic Changed Our Brains + How to Mentally Prepare for a Re-Opened Society & Going Back to “Normal” appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Why We Shouldn’t (and Can’t ) Just “Forgive & Forget”

AHA Publisher — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 07:00:45 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #272) and blog, I talk about why forgetting doesn’t fix or heal something. As much we would love to permanently forget the bad things that happen to us, we can’t just erase traumatic events from our memory, as they impact our brain and body. As I have said many times before, thoughts are real physical structures we build into our brain with our mind in response to what we experience. Here’s how this works: how we react or respond to various life situations and the world around us is called the mind-in-action. The mind-in-action is how you uniquely think, feel, and choose. This mind-in-action changes the way your brain is shaped (through neuroplasticity) and how it functions, as well as your biochemistry, and the genes associated with mental and physical health, which is why mind-management is essential! Let’s look at a traumatic experience we are all too familiar with. Our personal experience of COVID-19 is quite literally a physical tree-like structure in our brains with all the associated memories of our unique experiences, which can affect us mentally, emotionally and physically. No matter how much we pretend that this pandemic doesn’t exist, or want to shut our eyes and hope it goes away, we cannot, as it does exist, and our unique experience of it affects us all in different ways, and we all need to find different ways to manage these effects. That is not to say all types of forgetting are bad. We may distract ourselves temporarily to cope in the moment or compartmentalize our experiences to deal with another pressing matter, which is fine and a very human thing to do! However, we cannot escape the long-term mental and physical repercussions of a traumatic experience because it is as real as a virus like COVID-19, eliciting the same immune responses in the brain and body. We cannot just “forget”; we have to learn how to reconceptualize our pain and fears through mind-management, as I discuss in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. In fact, there are some great ways to distract your mind in a healthy way, like the box and windows technique, where you make a mental note to start dealing with the root of the trauma or pain when you are ready. But, at the end of the day, you need to learn to become a healthy responder instead of just reacting to what happens to you, or trying to forget or avoid it. You, with your mind that is always in action, are powerful; you are the ultimate change agent in your life. What does this look like? When you learn how to manage your mind and self-regulate your thinking, this builds healthy neural networks in your brain, which lay the foundation for more cognitive resilience and healthier responses to stressful events. The more you practice this way of thinking, the more you can learn to be a “first responder” in every and all situations. Essentially, you are learning how to catch and edit your thoughts and reactions before they trigger toxic chain reactions and become ingrained neural networks, a.k.a. bad habits. Mind management also teaches us how to embrace, process, and reconceptualize thoughts that have already become enmeshed in the networks of our minds as trauma reactions and negative thinking patterns. This is a lifelong journey, a lifestyle, but one that’s well worth the effort! Indeed, if we don’t transform our pain through reconceptualization, we can transmit it, and it can take over our thinking and relationships. We can get ourselves into serious cycles of toxic rumination and worry if we refuse to face our issues head-on. As I always say, it is in the breakdown that we break down toxic thoughts, habits, and trauma. We all need to learn how to reflect on our experiences in a way that helps us accept that even though we may not be able to make sense of them, we can still deal with them and move forward! To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

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Using the Neurocycle to Break Cycles, Heal Generational Trauma & End Toxic Family Patterns

AHA Publisher — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 08:00:35 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #261) and blog, I talk about how to use the Neurocycle to break the toxic cycles we have in our lives, whether these come from our own past or are a pattern that is inherited as generational trauma. When it comes to the mind-brain connection, we don’t have to be beholden to the past. We can change how these cycles play out in our future. Our thinking, feeling and choosing changes our genetic expression. We switch genes on and off with every thought we have, and every thought we have is a response to how we perceive our life and the world around us. In fact, as I discuss in detail in my latest book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, research has shown that around 5% of genetic mutations cause disease; an estimated 95% of genes are influenced by our environment and lifestyle factors. What does all this mean? The way that you think also contributes to this environment. Your genetic activity is significantly determined by your thoughts, attitudes, and perception, which collectively create the environment of your mind, brain and body. Even though this may sound overwhelming and a little scary, it is actually very hopeful! The science of epigenetics shows that our thoughts can control our biology, and we can control our thoughts, positively directing genetic expression in our body and passing these genetic markers through the generations. Essentially, this means that what you are thinking at any one moment is vitally important because your thoughts affect the signals your genes receive. By managing your mind, you are in effect managing these signals and how they impact your genetic expression and biology. So, how does this all work? Epigenetics shows us that our thoughts are a predominant factor controlling genetic expression; our mind controls what we think, eat, exercise, respond to and so on—it controls how we live our lives. Epigenetics shows us that how we think, feel and choose (our mind-in-action) will influence the behavior of our genes and our subsequent mental and physical wellbeing. These epigenetic changes represent a biological response to an environmental signal. The response can be inherited through the generations via epigenetic markers. However, if you remove the signal, the epigenetic mark can fade. If you choose to add a signal, on the other hand, the epigenetic mark can be activated. In sum, we are not merely our genes or biology. Our past doesn’t have to be our destiny. How we think and choose to live our lives impacts a big part of the picture! What you are thinking at any one moment is vitally important because this is the signal your genes receive. This means that when you learn how to manage your thoughts through managing your mind, you can change your thoughts. And, by changing your thoughts, you can change your genetic expression; you rewire your brain (through neuroplasticity), which then impacts your biology. Research studies, including mine (which I discuss in detail in my latest book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess) show that managing your mind can even influence how you age and your vulnerability to disease, while there is strong scientific evidence that controlling one’s inner thought life and detoxing the mind is preventative against cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s! So, how do we start breaking these cycles? As I talk about in Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, this process begins with deliberate and intentional mindfulness that activates our self-regulation, which then helps us go beyond mindfulness and into mind-management. To do this, I recommend using the mind management technique I have researched, developed and applied clinically over the past three decades, which is called the Neurocycle. The kind of self-regulation that is achieved using the Neurocycle is a great way to deal with the root of the toxic generational cycles in your life, reconceptualizing them and how they impact your genetic expression. It is done in 5 steps: Gather awareness of what you are feeling emotionally and physically as you work on a toxic cycle in your life. Reflect on why you feel the way you do—be as specific as possible. Write this down—this is way to help organize your thinking and gain clarity. Recheck what you have written. Look for patterns in your work life, your relationships, your responses, your attitudes and so on. Take action. I call this step an “active reach”. It is essentially an action you take to reinforce the new, reconceptualized pattern of thinking you want in your life (which is replacing the old, toxic cycle). To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Leaf click here.

The post Using the Neurocycle to Break Cycles, Heal Generational Trauma & End Toxic Family Patterns appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

How Trauma Causes Inflammation & How to Begin Healing

AHA Publisher — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In Western thought, we see mental and physical health as two separate things, but this is not the case. Our thoughts and emotions, choice, life events, trauma and so on affect both our mental AND physical wellbeing. In this podcast (episode #225) and blog, I speak with leading functional medicine practitioner Dr. Will Cole about this mind-body connection, ways to reduce stress-induced inflammation, what adaptogens we should be taking to strengthen the mind and body, the best supplements for brain health, how to recognize and heal orthorexia, and more! When it comes to the mind-body connection, how we handle stress is incredibly important. Stressful life events and situations amplify our fight or flight state, which impacts the body’s adaptation to stress (through the HPA axis) and can negatively affect our health if not dealt with. In fact, although the stress hormone cortisol is designed to help regulate inflammation, if we are constantly stressed out, the flight or fight state upsets our natural cortisol cycles. This, in turn, can have many health repercussions because it throws the body into a state of disordered inflammation. Our body essentially starts working against us instead of for us! One example of this is adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue does not just have to do with our adrenal glands; it is a brain-based issue, and it is related to our stress response and the HPA axis. It is related to how stressed we are, and for how long. If we want to start combating the negative effects of toxic stress on the body, we need to look at our lifestyle choices, including what we eat. As Dr. Cole notes in his book, The Inflammation Spectrum, every food we eat either fuels inflammation or fights it. This means that our ability to handle stress and deal with trauma will be affected by our diet. Food is medicine, yes, but this also means you should find out what your body loves—what is medicine for you? There is no cookie-cutter approach for everyone. Processed and refined sugar, for example, is an inflammatory food for everyone, but we will react to sugar in different ways and at different levels. There is an inflammation spectrum—everyone’s body is different. Just because it is your experience, doesn’t mean it is someone else’s experience. One thing that everyone can benefit from is adding adaptogens to their diet. As Dr. Cole describes in both Ketotarian and The Inflammation Spectrum, adaptogens are plant and earth medicines that are found all over the world. They have been used in traditional medicine to help bring balance to the body and promote healing and longevity. Science is only now starting to study adaptogens and showing how many of these plants (like holy basil and rhodiola) can bring back homeostasis in the brain and body by balancing the HPA axis and reducing toxic stress-induced inflammation. They are accessible, easy to use and are a great complement to any wellbeing regimen, as Dr. Cole noted in a recent guest blog on our site. They also help with memory formation and can improve our ability to handle anxiety. Adaptogens like chaga and lion’s mane mushrooms, for example, can boost brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps grow new neurons and improve neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change, adapt and grow). They essentially make us more resilient physically, which helps us deal with our issues mentally! Certain supplements can also help boost our diet and ability to handle stress: 1. Methylated B vitamins, which are needed for a healthy brain, hormone levels, immune system and so on. How much you need will depend on your unique health needs and biology, so see your health professional before taking any B vitamin supplements. In fact, methylation helps support good genetic function in the brain and body. How? As we now know, our genetics are not our destiny. They are light switches that are being constantly regulated by the choices we make every day and the environment we live in. Methylation is one way to make sure these light switches function as they should by switching on more good genes and switching off more bad genes. 2. Vitamin D3 and K2 is very important for the brain and immune system. D3 acts like a hormone and helps regulate many biological functions. K2 is also important and helps regulate inflammation and keep the body running well. Many people can’t get K1 from the plant foods they eat because their gut microbiome is comprised, so adding K2 to the diet through foods like organ meats, ghee, certain fermented foods and supplements can be helpful. 3. Curcumin, which helps balance inflammation levels. This gives turmeric its rich, yellow color. 4. Omega fish oil. You can get shorter train omegas from nuts and seeds, but the conversion is not always great. Fish or Krill oil supplements and wild-caught fish contain longer chain omegas, which are more bioavailable. 5. Probiotics, which help balance the microbiome and make sure the gut-brain connection functions as it should. Prebiotics, which are fibers in plant food that help feed the healthy bacteria in your gut, are also important. All these supplements are available on Dr. Cole’s website. Remember, when it comes to supplements and health products, you often get what you pay for. Mass-produced, cheaper health products generally do not always work or give you all the health benefits you expect. Some may even cause more harm than good, so always try find reputable companies that sell tested and good-quality products. And make sure to consult your health professional before taking any supplements, as everyone’s physical needs are different. We also need to remember that we cannot supplement our way out of a poor diet or toxic mindset. What we eat affects how we think, and what we think affects how we eat and our overall health, as I discuss in my book Think and Eat Yourself Smart. Mind management and self-regulating our thinking is essential when it comes to our health! We can go several weeks without eating, but we cannot go a few seconds without thinking. How we think about food is also important when dealing with disordered eating patterns like orthorexia. As Dr. Cole describes in his guest blog for our site, orthorexia is related to healthy eating—someone with orthorexia is hyper-focused and obsessed with healthy eating. Some of the warning signs (in context) are: A fear of food and how the body reacts to food Constantly judging others for eating a certain way Feeling isolated and avoiding going out to eat with friends If you or someone you know is battling with orthorexia, remember that you cannot stress and obsess your way into wellness. Just start where you are and at your specific capacity. Start low and slow, and don’t feel like you must solve all your problems over night. Try make incremental changes over time. The more you feel healthy, the more you will be healthy and make good lifestyle changes to sustain your sense of wellbeing. It is also important to remover that any wellness practice can be abused if your mind is not in a good place. So, always examine your intentions. Why are you doing this? What is your goal? How is it affecting you? Is this practice benefiting, or harming, your mental health?

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