How to Increase Your Cognitive Flexibility....

This is the time of year when we are sometimes challenged with social interactions.  There is a place in the brain that is in charge of shifting attention and it is called the anterior cingulate gyrus or ACG.  This area of the brain can get stuck, so there is limited ability to be mentally flexible.  This leads to the hamster on the wheel syndrome, which is a mind stuck in the same thought pattern.  This all relates back to the serotonin that is available in the brain. 
Here are a few tricks to help with keeping your brain a little more flexible.   There is a correlation to the foods that we eat and the serotonin in the brain.  Try eating more chickpeas and sweet potatoes.  L-Trypohan is a building block of serotonin and can also be found in some foods such as, chicken, turkey, salmon, beef, nut butter, eggs and green peas.  Exercise can help to keep the repetitive thoughts at bay.  Start out with 10 minutes and work up from there.  Writing down thoughts can also help to get them out of the mind and out of the wheel of repetition.  If you are prone to saying "no", then take a breathe and give yourself time to rethink the reaction.  Get the frontal area of the brain working better, it is slower that the reactive lower brain area. 

I hope that your holidays are filled with the beauty of love and understanding. 

LENS neurofeedback is a noninvasive gentle way of healing.  It can help to create a smoother and less anxious thought process.