Come to the calm of a well functioning brain.
Scientists at the Salk Institute are trying to figure out how fear and anxiety work, with a worm. The worm is small and called a nematode. It was soaked in a chemical, called a sulfolipid, that induces an avoidance reaction. The chemical is from the worm's natural predator. They used this worm because it is so simple and they could measure the 302 neurons. When the worm was then soaked in Zoloft the fear reaction (not laying eggs) stopped.
Scientists have been trying to figure out how the fear response is created for the last 30 to 40 years, using mice and other creatures. Because each person's response is different they have found it difficult to find the neural pathways that create the response to fear or anxiety. It is estimated that 1 in 6 Americans take a psychiatric drug. The clinical response to these drugs get mixed results. Try LENS neurofeedback. It can help you to get off of the drugs to create a better, balanced brain environment.
0 Comments
Beliefs can help us to understand the world around us. This can be interpreted as a pattern formation. The ability to see patterns around us helps us to make sense of the world. Other people are not able to see patterns around us so they get swapped by information, all of which seems equally important. These people are considered to be in the autism spectrum disorder. Failure to see subtle patterns leads to concrete mindedness and the inability to understand metaphors. These people are considered on the Ausberger's syndrome spectrum. Too much pattern making can lead to people seeing things that are not there, or make links that are not actually connected, some would consider these people to be superstitious or magical thinkers.
Beliefs are driven by parts of the brain that works with the emotions, not the rational part. Belief activates the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which processes reward, emotion, and taste. While disbelief is registered by the insula, which generates feelings of disgust. This is where we have to be careful to understand the way that people think and how their belief systems are what they have learned or experienced in life. We are not all the same. What ever your belief system, know that LENS can help to get the brain up and running in a short amount of time. Here are some brain facts...
The brain is highly compact. If it was smoothed out, the area would be 2.5 square feet. The brain has around 100 billion neurons, there are more potential connects in the neurons then there are atoms in the universe (this is out of a scientific book, not science fiction). A fetus grows neurons at a rate of 250,000 a second. (A quick trip to the moon and back anyone?) We have many of our neurons at birth but the connects still need to be created. The brain works at lighting speed. The transmitting rate is 3 to 330 feet per second. (Moon landing!) The brain uses the whole area, not 10 percent. The areas involved in memory are many. You do not loose neurons as you grow older. Some of the areas may decline, but we can exercise it's capacity. The brain does not have pain receptors. It does register pain through out the body. Making the brain function at it's best is the result of LENS neurofeedback... Let's get started soon. Love after Love
by Derek Walcott The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at each others welcome. and say sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, who you ignored for another, Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life. People working the the human services arena believe that they must be objective enough to be effective. So that in the long run everyone has negative effects from not being objective enough, even the clients or patients. If the effects of care-giving or working with people that are sick either physically or emotionally add up and the mask keeps going up... There is a problem with people in the health field that get to the point that they don't let others see them. They start hiding... The negative effects need to be shared with someone. There is nothing wrong with this attitude, it is suffering that does not need to happen. Some call this the "wounded healer".
We all could learn the lesson from Victor Frankel who wrote a book called, "Man's Search for Meaning". He was a neurologist that spent 31/2 years in a Nazi prison camp. He learned to have "positive expectancy". When pain is inevitable we need to learn acceptance. When pain happens there are neural pathways to the brain that send off an electrical energy, but the central nervous system gets set back to constant. When there is suffering the pain is conceived as threatening, then the central nervous system gets set into an increased sympathetic response, the muscles stay tight, and we are stuck in fight, flight or freeze. So off we go to the dissociative behaviors and have one more beer or one more piece of cake or..... I worked with a missionary that could not even fill out the paper work when he first came in to see me. He had been in and seen many bad things. He left saying this is like cool, calm waters.... LENS has been proven to help to reset the brain. Welcome to the calm waters.... What is the buzz about? Do..Be..Do..Be..Do...
A little insight? What is presence? Should we dip our toe in? Presence could be defined as Practicing Being Human. While the default is the practice of of listening to the small self and all of the chatter. But the chatter is still there when I am practicing presence. How about accepting the chatter and welcoming it. Let it in the door, welcome it. So it is beating you up, there is malice, anger, someone (yourself) calling you names. I'm not good enough, I really messed up...Etc... If we practice, presence, we soon learn that the chatter is what we have been programed to know; from my environment and people around me. We do have the answers, if we will stop long enough to listen. Get off of the phone, the computer, facebook. Look at the emptiness, the loneliness, find out what it wants to teach you. Take a look at nature. Is that flower beginning to grow, not just outside but on the inside too. There are infinite ways to suffer. There are infinite ways to wisdom. Please tell me what you know, I am interested. I want to hear the stories. I know that I am not the only one. LENS can help to find this presence, this practicing being human. It can be like a soft spot, cool calm water, when there is turbulence all around. Shall we take a look at the disease called motor neuron disease? MND has a sub-catagory of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and has also been called Lou Gehrigs disease. The body starts losing it's ability to function correctly. This is caused by a steady death of the nerve cells in the central nervous system (CNS) that control voluntary movement. The nerve cells stop working they can no longer move muscles when we speak, walk, swallow and move our body. The heart still beats but all of the muscles start shutting down. The brain then loses the ability to start and control voluntary movement. There is no cure for this disease. This leads to a progressive disability and eventually to death. These people still have the same intelligence, memory, and personality.
Stephen Hawking died at home at the age of 76. He contributed a great deal to science, even though he had been diagnosed with this disease at the age of 22. What can we achieve even though we have a sound body and mind. Let's make the body and mind as sound as possible. LENS neurofeedback can help the progression of these diseases to slow down. It is not known to stop a disease like ALS or any other disease that involves the autonomic system. I have been working with someone with an autonomic disease and it has gotten her off of her prescription drugs. Call today 719-930-8732 I am sitting here looking at 2 brains that have been scanned by MRI's. One brain is of a women in her 50's that has been eating a mediterraean-style diet. This person has less amyloid plaques, which can lead to extreme cognitive decline such as Alzheimer's in the future. The brains also had less fluid in the areas of the Ventricles, Hippocampus (memories), and the Temporal lobes. With the western diet that is full of meat and sugars there is a big difference in the areas just mentioned. There are holes, in the areas of the brain that were just mentioned, that can lead to the affects of Alzheimers. Anyone ready to change their diet? Cognitive decline is not fun, unless you have a lot of money and can find someone kind to take care of you.
Lisa Mosconi PhD., from Cornell University Alzheimer Clinic, scanned the brains of 52 people to see what the effects of the diet can bring. The Mediterranean Diet wins by a long shot. The diet uses fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and beans. The next step up in the pyramid is whole grains, minimally processed. Then they use fish. Meat and cheeses are used only occasionally. They will have some sweets on the weekend that are made from natural sugars, honey and molasses with seeds and nuts. They also use olive oil and red wine with all of their good components. They also have a good life style of exercise, and a rich social life. Add a mix of a positive outlook on life and I am ready to move. Try LENS neurofeedback and have a friend over for some dinner.... Things will get better. Have you felt this....being alone... no one to talk to ....where can I go from here?
See if these things can work... Do talk to strangers. I just takes 30 seconds to connect with someone at the store,,, standing next to you...looking at you... Give it 7 minutes. I takes that long to know if someone or the subject is going to be interesting to you...get rid of the distractions and be a connector. Schedule face time. This helps to create more endorphins those brain chemicals that help to reduce pain and enhance well-being. Being with the person is best .... but Skype or Face Time will help. Use Facebook Wisely. Find a way to interact meaningfully. Create an on line book club... Be a Good Neighbor. Find ways to interact with the people that live around you. "Neighborhood social cohesion" lowers the level of heart attacks. Throw a dinner party. (one of my favorites) Eating together is a form of social glue. Get creative... Join an art class, dance, You don't always have to talk about your feelings but you can draw them. Talk about it....We can all benefit from talking to others. Find someone that can listen. (I love stories) Reach out and touch someone...literally. The physical touch can lower the stress response. LENS neurofeedback can help to get the feel good back.... What are some of your favorite memories? It could be getting married, a child being born, or seeing a dear friend that you haven't seen in awhile. Some bad memories are also ingrained in our brains, someone dying or a car accident. What scientists are finding is that these memories can be subject to change. When you have a memory of yesterday, today that memory is implanted on top of the original memory. It is as if it happened now with a new imprint.
What happens, when faced with a emotionally charged event, the body releases the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. This then triggers the amydala to release norepinephrine. Norepinephrine has 2 jobs. First it sets the body autonomic system into overdrive, so the heart beats faster, we start breathing faster, and the muscles tense to get ready to get going. The second function of norepinephrine is to put the senses on high alert and to get the brain to remember what is going to happen in the next few minutes. We do not want to become a meal for the tiger. What the researchers believe is happening with PTSD is that the neurochemicals that are in charge of this neural loop stay in that pattern that is hard to change. LENS neurofeedback can change the neurons in the brain so that they are working in the correct way and keeps the compensation from running the show. |
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
Categories |