Come to the calm of a well functioning brain.
What makes a face beautiful and how does it affect other people in our environment? First of all a women's face should have exaggerated features, with large eyes and a small jaw. The male face should represent a more aggressive features. His face should be more square and have heavier eyebrows. Are we getting the picture. Scientists are actually studying these features to see what is behind these ideal features.
If a women has the attractive facial features then they are supposed to be healthier. They have higher levels of sex hormones and are resistant to infectious diseases. They will make a good mate. The males are supposed to be able to climb the highest mountain and bring home dinner. They should have larger structures and square features. What if this ideal has been shook up. Resent research has shown that the correlation to attractiveness and the brain's encoding of health and good off-spring is false. So all of the average people out there can breathe easier. LENS neurofeedback can cut through the clutter and get us up and running at an optimal rate. Give it a try.
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Forgiveness.... There are so many different levels of this subject. So what is at the bottom of it? Finding compassion for those that have hurt us in the past and ourselves? Forgiveness could mean being able to see this life in the light of the present. Are you carrying around a big bag of resentment that is weighing you down? How do you drop it? Is it an act of self compassion to say, WOW that could have changed at the time but it did not. I was not able to show up at the time. And the other person was not able to show up either. That was part of their ability to function at the time and mine also. We can blame many things, environment, being in a stressful situation that caused failure. People (including ourselves) not having the skills at the time to function in the best way. We do not have to return to the same relationship or accept harmful behaviors from others who have hurt us. We can walk away. What if it was sexual abuse? We could always not forgive. This is an option. But wait a minute is that festering stuff inside me tied to that ugliness? What do I do with this stuff. Get some help if you need it. Would writing about it help? Sometimes this has a denial piece about it. The family is all against it. Where do I go from here? Many times the wrong things have been said. Forgiveness can be challenging. What if the other party cannot offer a sincere apology or anything. Again what if they deny the offense? What is the healthiest path? We need to know that the wound is there, understand the other person, process the emotions. What if we have harmed the other person? Take responsibility, and acknowledge our mistakes. There are three levels of forgiveness. First, I forgive you and we are OK. We can reset the situation and go on. Second, I forgive you but this has happened in the past and I am having a hard time with trusting you. I don't know if I can continue the way we were before. Third, there is no way that I will forgive you, I do not trust you and we will not be LENS neurofeedback can help to muck out the junk and create a healthier brain environment. I wish you courage to be warm when the world would prefer that you be cool. I wish you success sufficient to your needs; I wish you failure to temper that success. I wish you joy in all your days; I wish you sadness so that you may better measure joy. I wish you gladness to over balance your grief. I wish you humor and a twinkle in your eye. I wish you glory and the strength to bear its burdens. I wish you sunshine on your path and health to carry you on your journey. I wish you peace—in the world in which you live and the smallest corner of your heart where truth is kept I wish you faith--to help define your living and your life. More I cannot wish you-except perhaps love—to make the rest worthwhile. Robert A Ward I have read some articles lately that have really intrigued me. One of the articles was about how scientists have found that there are still connections in the brain of a mouse, even when those connections have been severed and put into close proximity to each other. The other article that I will talk about more today is about our brains ability to continue to store the memory of a limb that is no longer there.
We have places in our brain that directs the processes of our body. Scientists have discovered these places for where fingers should be when they are no longer there. They have also investigated if these places would be apparent in the brains of people that were born without a limb or fingers. They have been unable to find the brain response to these areas of no limbs, with someone that was born without a limb. What is next for this kind of research is that they will try to find if the brain can be stimulated to help the people that have an artificial limb. We are amazing! I read another article about replacing the limb with a graft from another person. They have had varied results, mostly because our bodies are programed to reject anything that is foreign. There are drugs, but the effectiveness of these drugs can cause problems with the other systems in our bodies. LENS helps with getting the brain up and running in the correct way. I have not been able to work with people with missing limbs. It would be interesting to try. I do not claim to be able to grow another limb but it could help with the mental anguish that would go along with this problem. We all have a certain level of fear. This could be a life saving kind of, get me out of this dangerous situation (Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH My....) However, when these fears become overwhelming, when the situation is relatively harmless, help is needed. When a memory is formed in the brain, proteins are formed. And when the memory is retrieved then a new protein is formed. Scientists are researching how to interfere with this new protein formation with targeted medications.
But here is the rub (is that why my right shoulder is in pain?). What memory do we suppress? There could be links to other situations that create the fear. Other ways that they are researching memories is associated with the heart beat. Researchers are trying to match the heart beat with an image. If the image of a spider is presented (if you have a fear, I just don't like that bite.), if it is presented with the heart beat then the fear decreases. This is called exposure therapy. This is found to not be very effective with PTSD. Anyway, why not try LENS neurofeedback. We do know that it calms down the brain so that it is not so tangled up. We can stop the tango and just get calm. We all have a certain level of fear, this is a normal, I need to get away from this situation that is bad
As we age there are toxins that collect in the neurons. These brain toxins are called Tau Proteins and Beta-Amyloid Plaques. These gummy things can be increased by stress (I need to find a nursing home now), alcohol and lack of sleep (quality and quantity).
However, to counter-act this the brain uses a system that we call neuroplasticity. What neuroplasticity can do is work with neurogenesis. This means that the brain can create new brain cells. This happens rapidly in babies and children. The adult brain has this happen in the hippocampus, which is in charge of memories. Here are a few of the things that we can do to get this wonderful brain of ours up and running in the best manner possible. Get your heart rate up. Do this in areas that are not polluted. Pollution can create neural decline. Increase your social interaction. We are social beings that need others. If you can get into an exercise with someone where you have to increase your hand to eye activity then you are getting a nice increase in your brain pathways and structure. This helps to have a better thinking process. Ping pong anyone? Watch your eating patterns. Intermittent fasting creates neurogenesis, which improves cognitive function and brain structure. What to do? Watch your refined sugar intake. One time a month water fast for a day. Reduce your calorie intake by 50 to 60 percent two days a week, do this for a couple of months. Find two days a week that are non-consecutive and reduce your calories by 20 percent, do this 3 or 4 times a year. Eat only between 8 am and 8 pm or 12 noon to 8 pm. Sleeping is the time that the brain uses to detox. A lack of sleep can impact your I.Q. Find a meditative or relaxing video on you tube if getting to sleep is your problem. Aim for 7 to 9 hours a night. If you like to nap then dig in. LENS is like drano for the brain. It helps it to detox and work better. . The research is showing us that multitasking is actually the wrong way to go. We have became so dependent on emails, cell phones, and other electronic devices that our overworked brain is actually getting rewired and not in a good way.
The researchers at the University of Michigan have found that when we multitask we are actually forcing the brain to refocus each time that we bounce from the email to our phone and run into the telephone pole because we where somewhere else. This can cause a reduction in productivity by 40 percent. And it also reduces the quality of our work. The researchers at the University of Stanford have also found that your brain rewires with multitasking, which can cause fractured thinking, lacks of concentration and brain fatigue. Here are a few ideas to help you with your stress and multitasking situations. Don't let email and text pings interrupt a task. Delegate tasks, so that you have more time to focus on one thing at a time. Slow down the pace. Prioritize tasks and just do one thing at a time. Keep it simple, the brain likes that. Find ways to be in the present moment. Breathing, sitting, all help. Saunter to tasks and just do one at a time. Talk to others around you. Learn to let go with walking and meditation or what ever you like to do. LENS neurofeedback can help to calm down the brain to help you be more focused. We have so many obligations these days. We have multiple areas that we need to delegate our time too. Here are some ideas to help you trim off the excess that we tend to acquire.
One time saver is to ask questions. So your on a new job and the boss hands you something that makes no sense. Do I look foolish and ask more questions or do I forge on. Many times asking for clarification can help with the issue and save time. Ask for others expertise with a problem and they will be happy to comply. If you act like you already know the solution when you don't, then you create a barrier to gaining a better relationship. Children always ask questions, what prevents you from doing the same. Have you been in a relationship that just keeps getting worse? Do you keep trying or have you given up. When is the best time to exit? Is this a bump in the road, or is the pattern so ingrained that you can't get around it? We don't like rejection, and we don't like to do it to others. We want to be liked and will keep going back into the situation to find a level of self-esteem. What if this is just a bad match of being similar to another human being? Step back and take a look at all angles including your own. We are all good at dwelling on our old mistakes and shortcomings. What if we just allow ourselves to fail As Albert Einstein stated, "Failure is success in progress". I was once in a position of trying to please a person that was in charge of my life with my education. I was very dedicated to making my way through this experience. No matter what I did, I could not please this person that was in charge of my life. I had to find another way out. So I did. I have came to a place in my life where I will work with myself to find my fault in any situation and try to not react with the amygdala. If that doesn't work then I move on. I will at times express my anger, in a short boundary setting way. Goodbye! This is getting too long. I hope to see you at LENS soon to get your brain up and running well. It helps with keeping this life of ours calm and centered. Here are some suggestions for helping someone that is struggling with mental health problems.
One of the best things to do is to listen. Listen deeply, with your whole self. If you don't know how to respond, just listen. Do not tell stories of your struggles or offer advice. They have probably already considered many options. The person that is talking is offering you some of themselves. They trust you to be there for them. Just do that, LISTEN. Follow their lead. If they feel like joking around, then do that. If the conversation is deep and dark try to follow. If the conversation is too much of the dark stuff, step out of the conversation and take care of yourself. If the person is talking about hurting themselves or others, find some help. Many times when people are stuck in grief, they have a hard time reaching out to others. Offer them some specific actions. Say you will meet them for coffee on a certain day. Or that you will meet them for food or take out. This offer is good since the person that is struggling doesn't want to ask for too much or too often. Offer them LENS neurofeedback. It can help the brain to calm down and work at it's best. |
AuthorHello, my name is Dana Lee Collins M.A.,L.P.C. I am a psychotherapist that has been trained in the art of neurofeedback. This science helps to heal the brain of trauma. I am dedicated to helping people heal. Archives
January 2021
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