North Star Mental Fitness Blog

Mental Fitness Programs Are Not the Same

Cognitive fitness and mental fitness programs are becoming more popular and prolific.  When I first began the North Star Mental Fitness Program in the late 1980s, mental and cognitive training programs did not exist. 

The North Star Mental Fitness Program is really a Life Fitness program designed to make the mind function in a more organized, efficient, confident and focused manner. 

Repetition of successful thought patterns is the basis of this program.  The thought patterns were discovered in the process of psychological counseling of hundreds of clients.

The North Star Mental Fitness Program consists of 15 thought patterns or exercises.  This program, for example, provides exercises to help people make choices to:

• Learn how to become free from your past or current problems,
• Learn how to recognize when you need to make changes in your life,
• Learn how to maintain successful life focusing,
• Learn the three step process for success,
• Learn the successful strategy for coping with frustration,
• Learn how to turn self-defeating problems into successes,
• Learn to live a balanced life,
• Learn how to live in the present,
• Learn how to have satisfying and sensitive relationships. 

Don't Forget The Importance of Our Minds

The possibility of retraining the brain has perhaps been the greatest discovery in the last century.  For years, the possibility of training or retraining the brain did not exist.  Now that we realize that the brain operates under neuroplasticity, a new frontier is in front of us.

Michael J. Formica, MA wrote an interesting article, Neuroplasticity:  the Revolution in Neuroscience and Psychology.  Michael wrote,  "Do I sound excited? I am. When I was first introduced to the idea of neuroplasticity, I thought it was interesting. The more I learn about the subject, the more I realize that we are on a frontier."

Sharon Begley wrote the book "Train Your Mind and Change Your Brain".  Sharon emphasized the importance of training one's mind to to change the brain.  In this book, she presents the exciting research regarding changing brain.  The excitement of discovering neuroplasticity had placed a great emphasis on the brain. 

Sharon Begley wrote in Train Your Mind, Kick the Habit"

"Just to be clear, if cognitive-behavior therapy works to reduce drug cravings—and years of research on addiction treatment has suggested that it can, at least in some people—then that should be enough. But there is no denying the power of the neuro-paparazzi: When scientists can produce a dramatic picture demonstrating how some intervention alters patterns of brain activity that underlie a disease or problematic behavior , it is more persuasive than if they merely reported that people's behavior had changed."

Researchers have developed numerous programs to change the brain.  In our excitement to change the brain, let's not forget the importance of changing our minds.  It is extremely important to perform exercises to change our minds in order to improve the quality of our lives. 

Let's not lose sight of the importance of changing the quality of our lives, which we can do by changing our minds.

Remember, We Live within the Environment Created by Our Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

Do We Have Freedom of Choice?

"Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them"!

This was the intriguing article in Nature Neuroscience, which was reported in Wired.com and Rowan's Blog.

If a brain scanner can predict your choices before you consciously make choices, do we have freedom of choice?  If choices are made in the subconscious mind, are we deluding ourselves by thinking that we are consciously making choices?

This was the intriguing first line.

"You may think you decided to read this story-- but in fact, your brain made the decision long before you know about it.

In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's reactions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them."

What You See and Hear Is Wired By Experience

Research in brain neuroplasticity is destroying the simplicity of my understanding of our brains, senses and perceptions of reality.

Before I began reading about brain neuroplasticity, my understanding of the brain and senses was unsophisticated, logical and supported by traditional knowledge.

I am wrongly believed that my eyes communicated to my brain what was in my eye's view.  Likewise, I was again wrong in believing that what was my ears heard was heard by everybody the same way as long as their ears were functioning well.  I thought what I heard was accurately sent through my ears to the brain.

New research has shown that what we see, hear or sense is determined by past sensory experience.  In other words, what we see is determined by past visual experience and what we hear is determined by past auditory experience.

Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. and Sharon Begley reported some very exciting research in their book, The Mind and the Brain, Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force.

This research is very important for parents.

Chronic Pain Can Change Your Brain

"Chronic Pain Harms the Brain" was the title of a research study reported by Dante Chialvo, lead author and associate research professor of physiology at the Feinberg School at Northwestern University.

Now there is evidence that people just don't suffer from chronic pain in the injured or ill parts of their bodies.  When people have chronic pain, there can be changes in the brain.  People with chronic pain can also experience a breakdown in their brain functioning.

Now there may be a physiological explanation to account for pain sufferer's chronic poor sleep, depression, anxiety and their inability to make decisions. 

These symptoms are not only associated with the source of pain in the body.  These symptoms can be associated with changes in the brain associated with chronic pain. 

When people have chronic pain, they may have a dysfunction in the cortex of the brain associated with the emotions.  When there is chronic pain, the emotional part of the brain doesn't turn off.

"Chialvo hypothesized the subsequent changes in wiring may make it harder for you to make a decision or be in a good mood to get up in the morning. It could be that pain produces depression and the other reported abnormalities because it disturbs the balance of the brain as a whole."

Sorting Out Brain, Cognitive and Mental Fitness

Today, I went to sort out different forms of fitness.  Sometimes it can become confusing in understanding fitness concepts.  Cognitive fitness has different meanings, depending on the orientation of the writer.

Physical Fitness is probably the most familiar and recognized form of fitness. 

Cognitive fitness has become very popular during the last 10 years due to the remarkable research on the neuroplasticity of the brain. 

Also the importance of cognition in changing feelings, behavior and coping with problems in everyday living has been the basis of many psychological forms of therapy and programs for change people's lives.   

Realizing, I am risking oversimplification, I would like to sort out the meaning of various forms of fitness. 

Freedom from OCD

The power of the mind and choice making for changing the brain and improving quality of life has been one of the professional foci of Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D.  Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley wrote a book entitled The Mind and the Brain, Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force.

Dr. Schwartz studied how to help patients with a diagnosis Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.  He studied the functioning of the brain and also developed a cognitive procedure for overcoming symptoms such compulsive hand washing.

Dr. Schwartz's brain research into why people have these symptoms is very enlightening.  Therefore, I recommend this book to you.  He has a four step cognitive process for overcoming these symptoms. 

Chicago Cubs: Curse Or Conditioned

Chicago Cubs Curse - Do you believe that the Chicago Cubs are cursed?  99 years without a World Series Championship! 

How can you explain the demise of the Chicago Cubs in the last playoff series with the Arizona Diamondbacks?  The Chicago hitters couldn't hit.  The pitchers weren't really bad, but not good enough to get one win out of three attempts. The team looked defeated after the first loss.

The Chicago Cub's losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks doesn't mean there was a curse.  If there is no curse, how could such a successfu team during the last half of the  baseball season fail so miserably.

Was the Chicago Cub's agony of defeat a result of a curse. I don't believe it was a curse, although it sure feels like a curse! 

Before making my point that the Chicago Cubs are not cursed, I would like to refer you to the following article and Norman Rockwell's picture of "The Dugout".  This famous picture, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in September of 1948, is certainly relevant for the Chicago Cubs in 2007.