North Star Mental Fitness Blog

Attention Improves Memory

Have you ever wondered why your child not only doesn't do what you ask, but can't even remember what you asked?

Have you ever wondered why the person you love "doesn't get it"?  You have taken great pains to communicate accurately and carefully to no avail.  Why are you always disappointed?

Have you ever wondered why your coworkers and bosses continue to make bad choices?

Have you ever wondered why agencies and clients are resistant to change?

An answer has been discovered in the world of science!

Attention!  People with ADD or ADHD are not the only ones who need to be concerned about their ability to attend!

Sharon Begley wrote "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain".  She reported on a conference with leading scientists assembled at the invitation of the Dali Lama.

Sharon summarized the research:

"Without attention, information that our senses take in-- what we see and hear, feel, smell and taste-- literally does not register in the mind.  It may not be stored even briefly in memory.  What you see is determined by what you pay attention to".

Communication in relationships, no matter what the nature of the relationship, will improve, when attention is present.   

• Too often we begin talking before we have the attention of others. 
• Too often we do not focus on what people are really saying, and 
• Too often we appear to be paying attention, but, in reality, we are not. 

Poor attention deprives us of important information and discounts the importance of the other person in our relationships.

When you talk to your child, remove competing distractions and make sure your child is attending.  In our adult relationships, it is important that we attend and and only communicate when we have the attention of others.

Remember,

• Without attention there is no memory! 
• Without attention there can be no responsiveness in relationships! 
• Without attention there can be no success! "

You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

Proving Theories of Mental Fitness

Performance of physical fitness exercises for increasing muscle mass, flexibility and improving health is unquestionably believed and has been experienced by most people.

Since physical exercises are so important for developing physical health, it seemed natural to assume that mental fitness exercises would create mental health.

This assumption has been validated as reported by Sharon Begley who wrote the book, "Train Your Mind Change Your Brain".  Sharon wrote: about the power of a thought:

"Something as seemingly insubstantial as a thought has the ability to act back on the very stuff of the brain, altering neuronal connections in a way that can lead to recovery from mental illness and perhaps to a greater capacity for empathy and compassion."

"By thinking differently about the thoughts that threaten to send them back into the abyss of despair, patients with depression have dial up activity in one region of the brain and quieted it in another, reducing the risk of relapse."

There is now greater hope for people suffering from anxiety, worry, depression and other symptoms of mental illness, because of the scientific findings reported by Sharon Begley.

Just thinking a new thought once or infrequently is not sufficient to change your brain and improve your  Mental health.   Repeating healing thoughts and thoughts to make the brain function successfully is necessary for mental fitness.  Thoughts need to be repeated to be powerful enough to change the brain. 

Sharon Begley wrote "Buddhism has long taught that mental training, in which focused attention is key, can alter the mind".  Focused attention and repetition of thoughts can create mental fitness and mental health.

Rene Descartes is famous for his thought "I Live Therefore I Am" as presented in Sebastian O'Brien's essay, philosophy 'Mind -- Body' Dualism Essay.

Neurolinguistic Programming and Rational Emotive Therapy have all emphasized the importance of thinking in order to change the quality of one's life and perception of one's world.

Now all these theories and beliefs have been validated.  There is scientific evidence that the brain changes and grows as a result of repetitive thinking.

Repetitive mental fitness training not only will improve the quality of your life, but will also change your brain to further generate greater health and satisfaction in living for you.

Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

 

Changing Your Brain

You Live within the Brain Created by Your Choices!

When I first began writing I Live within the Environment Created by My Choices, I was motivated to show the power of the mind in creating our identities and every day environments.

Scientists historically believed that the adult brain was fixed and immutable.  It was believed that the mind could not change the brain.  Recent research proves these beliefs to no longer be true.

Find out more about the amazing discoveries that you can change your brain as well as your environment!

Sharon Begley wrote "Train Your Mind Change Your Brain, How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves".  This book is a collaboration between Neuroscience and Buddhism.  The Dalai Lama and a group of scientists convened to share their findings about the mind and brain.

These are some of the earth-shaking discoveries:

"The very structure of our brain-- the relative size of different regions, the strength of connections between one area and another-- reflects the lives we have led.

Like sand on a beach, the brain bears the footprints of the decisions we have made, and skills we have learned, the actions we have taken.

Mind-sculpting can occur with no input from the outside world.

That is, the brain can change as a result of the thoughts we have thought."

Wow, can you believe that!   Your brain, my brain, and everybody's brain changes on the basis of our thinking and experiences.

I marvel at the power of the mind.  The mind has the power to change our brains and what happens inside of our bodies.  The mind has the power to create our momentary experiences and the nature of our feelings, behavior, relationships, activities and environments in which we live.

There is a scientific evidence supporting the affirmation:

I Live within the Environment Created by My Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

Nancy Fontaine reveiwed Sharon's book and wrote "One scientist suggested a mental fitness culture might arise from this research.

Six Benefits From Phone Consultations

"Phone Counseling Helps Patients Improve Eating and Exercise Habits," grabbed my attention.  This was the name of an article in NEWSWISE.  MaxHealth and John M Grohol, Psy.D. at PsychCentral also wrote about this article.

"There’s an important use for the telephone in delivering support for making changes to physical activity and diet,” said Elizabeth Eakin, Ph.D., lead study author, at the University of Queensland in Australia".

Phone counseling was beneficial in a research study.  Did you know phone counseling is not a benefit paid for by insurance companies.

One of the big advantages of coaching is providing of services via the phone.  It is much easier to integrate phone coaching into a person's busy lifestyle than preparing for a trip to a counselor's office.

What would your benefits be for enrolling for phone consultation?

Planting Daffodils in Your Life

Karen from Live the Power has a motivating story for all of us.  She entitled her work Daffodil.  Karen shared with her readers the story of Alma (Gene) and her husband Dale Bauer, who created a masterpiece of daffodils in the San Bernadino mountainside.I

"It is the story of how one woman took one step at a time and created a glorious masterpiece of beauty for the world to enjoy", reported Karen.  Take time to enjoy the daffodils in The Daffodil Garden.

Gene not only planted daffodils on the mountainside.  Visit The Daffodil Garden and let her plant ideas in your mind.

Seung-Hui Cho and the Power of Perception

THIS IS NOT A PIPE!

It is a picture of a pipe.  It is not a pipe.  "PERCEPTION ALWAYS INTERCEDES BETWEEN REALITY AND OURSELVES," according to René Magritte.

surrealistThe Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte illustrated the concept of "perception always intercedes between reality and ourselves"^[2] in a number of paintings including a famous work entitled The Treachery of Images, which consists of a drawing of a pipe with the caption, Ceci n'est pas une pipe ("This is not a pipe").

My association of René Magritte's painting of a pipe and Seung-Hui Cho's senseless murders at Virginia Tech is not motivated to minimize the atrocities committed by Seung-Hui Cho or to be insensitive to the families and friends who are experiencing unimaginable loss and grief.

The media has saturated us with national concerns regarding protecting our society from the violent, mentally ill and reopened the issue of gun control. There is no doubt that these are important issues for our society to debate. 

It is important for us not to dismiss Cho's thinking and behavior as only due to mental illness.   Painfully, Cho has shown us the power of perception.

Is there anything we can learn from Cho's thinking and rampage?    What is important for all of us to learn about reality and perception?

Cho's perception and thinking were reported by MSNBC reporter, Kari Huus's article, Can Cho's Writings be Dissected. 

1.  Our perception of reality is not reality.  Seung-Hui Cho's perception of reality was not reality.  Our perceptions and thinking about reality create an image of the world in our mind.  Our beliefs about our world and ourselves are subjective and not objective reality.

Neurolinguistic programming emphasizes the separation and differences between objective reality and our subjective perceptions of reality.  According to Wikipedia:

"NLP epistemology" follows Alfred Korzybski (1933) and Gregoy Bateson''s (1972, 1979) postulations that there is no such thing as "objective experience." The subjective nature of our experience never fully captures the objective world. In the view of NLP, whether or not there is an objective absolute "reality", individual people in fact do not in general have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but in fact only have access to a set of beliefs they have built up over time, about reality.

Significance - It is considered crucially important when working with people to focus on the understanding that their beliefs about reality and their awareness of things (the "map") are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of ("the territory"). Put another way, NLP does not claim that one is working with reality, ie the "territory", but only with peoples subjective perceptions and beliefs about reality, ie some or other "map".

2.  Our perceptions of reality are believed to be real.  Cho is not alone in thinking that his perceptions are reality.  Don't we all believe our perception are real?  According to Wikipedia:

NLP calls each individual's perception of the world their 'map'. NLP teaches that our mind-body (neuro) and what we say (language) all interact together to form our perceptions of the world, or maps (programming). Each person's map of the world determines feelings and behavior. Therefore, impoverished - and unrealistic - maps can restrict choices and result in problems. As an approach to personal development or therapy it involves understanding that people create their own internal 'map' or world, recognizing unhelpful or destructive patterns of thinking based on impoverished maps of the world, then modifying or replacing these patterns with more useful or helpful ones

3.  Our perceptions of reality are often wrong, but still feel right.  Most people would agree that Cho's perceptions were wrong, distorted and warped.  Our perceptions always pale in regard to the brilliance of reality.  Also, our perceptions distort reality, because of our past memories, thoughts, feelings and relationships.  The world created in our mind limits us and can lead to significant misperception.

4.  Our perceptions are powerful.  Even though our perceptions are not an objective assessment of reality, our perceptions are powerful.  Our perceptions are powerful, even when our perceptions are wrong.  Cho's violent rampage shows the power of perception.  Perceptions are powerful in determining our behavior.  Perceptions determine how we relate to others.  Our perceptions create reality for ourselves and others.

I hope we can learn from Cho that our perceptions are not reality. If only Cho would have realized his perception of his world was wrong and not reality.   

Our perceptions can lead to devastation and abundance in our lives and world.  If your perceptions could have devastating effects on your life or others, challenge and change your perceptions and your perception of the world in your mind.

Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

 

Do You Want Elite Fitness?

It's time to leave my comfort zone.  My comfort zone has become too uncomfortable.  With a welcomed medical release from my physician, I have reintroduced myself to my exercise equipment.  As usual, I find myself wanting to put it off or wanting to rush into physical activity.

As I stand in a familiar, comfortable, but discouraging place in my life, I am looking forward to actualized my dream for physical fitness.

As I start again, Greg Glassman coached me well.  I appreciate the following words of caution, clarification and challenge from Greg Glassman of Cross Fit Eastside  in his posting, Intensity, comfort and results.

These are the words of Greg, who calls it the way it is:

The Power of Asking Questions and the Law of Attraction

Actualizing affirmations and energizing the Law of Attraction can be accomplished by asking questions.

Rowan from the blog, Rowan's Future of Choice, wrote an intriguing article "Finding the Right Question to Ask".

Affirmations and visualizations are methods used to release the Law of Attraction, improve performance and develop mental fitness. 

You can increase the power of affirmations, visualizations and the Law of Attraction by asking the right question!

4 Sources of Errors

Robyn McMaster from Brain Based Biz wrote a post asking this important question: How Do Doctors Think and How Do You? 

"Do you take time to step back and take a good look at the basis for your decisions"?

Robyn also went on to say: 

"Jerome Groopman, hematologist at Harvard University took an in-depth look at doctors' decision-making and concentrated on what leads to mistakes. Groopman's findings not only teach us how to approach our doctors with a little more savvy, but also prod us to think deeply about decision-making.

You'd be surprised to know that 80% of medical mistakes are the result of logical fallacies, not being aware of all possibilities and communication with the patient."

What are the four causes of errors?

Counseling, Coaching or Mental Fitness Coaching?

Coaching or Counseling was the name of a post written by Dr. Tara J. Palmatier,  She asked:

What’s the difference between coaching and counseling? How do I decide which is right for me? These are good questions. I asked myself these questions when I first heard the term “life coach.

What more did Dr. Palmatier say?

What is my new analogy to explain the differences between counseling, coaching and mental fitness training?