How to Eat to Promote Sleep

It seems like every time I turn around these days I come across another book about the adrenal glands. Who knew that these tiny little glands that sit atop the kidneys could be so interesting?

The latest tome to grace my nightstand is entitled The Adrenal Reset Diet: Strategically Cycle Carbs and Proteins to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, and Move from Stressed to Thriving, by Dr. Alan Christianson, NMD. Here are the key messages that I got out of his book.

The adrenal glands produce cortisol, the hormone that opens up cell walls to let other hormones in. They are also implicated in regulating our electrolyte balance, immune function, fight-or-flight response, blood sugar, and sleep-waking cycles. The latter is of particular interest to me.

The adrenal gland works in tandem with the pineal gland to manage our circadian rhythm – that is, our wakefulness and sleepiness across a given 24 hour day. The adrenal gland produces cortisol which acts as a stimulant. The pineal gland produces melatonin, which makes us sleepy. When we’re operating at peak efficiency, our blood levels of these two compounds looks something like this:

We run into trouble when our cortisol is too low in the morning, thereby denying us that jolt of energy that we need to greet the day and sustain our energy. We also suffer if we get an undesirable boost of cortisol in the evening, causing us to be wakeful when we should be sleeping.

According to Dr. Christianson, meals with a higher percentage of protein and fat cause more cortisol to be released as an aid to digestion. It also has the effect of decreasing fat storage. By contrast, a higher intake of carbohydrates causes less cortisol to be released. With that in mind, he advocates the following pattern of eating:

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Protein	One serving (roughly the size of the palm of your hand)
Fat	One smallish serving
Carbohydrate	1 serving	2 servings	3 servings

Carb cycling keeps the cortisol levels at the proper levels given the time of day.

Protein must be high quality protein – e.g., free range poultry, grass-fed beef, mercury-free fish, protein powder (from a reputable source). Carbohydrates must come from whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, and nuts. No processed foods! Whole foods with a high fiber to fructose ratio are preferred.

Skipped meals are a big no-no. It amps up cortisol as a means of helping the body adjust to its depleted energy resources. This is bad news for those of us who don’t feel hungry in the morning! However, his protein shake recipe looks appetizing and relatively easy to prepare: 1 scoop protein powder, 1/4 cup berries, 1 cup unsweetened nondairy milk, 2 TBSP flax seeds, 1 handful of frozen spinach, and 1/4 cup cooked navy beans.

Dr. Christianson favors outdoor exercise where possible. Apparently, fresh air is good for the daily biorhythms. Exercise should be limited to yoga or walking after 2 pm to avoid an inauspicious jolt in cortisol. A gentle 10-15 minute walk after dinner helps the body prepare for sleep.

The optimal biorhythm? Early to bed (no later than 10 pm) and early to rise… Not so good for the night owls among us!

How to Protect Against Cybercrime

This week’s post makes a sharp U-turn from last week’s sublime contemplation of consciousness expansion. I’ve decided to address strategies for reducing one’s exposure to cybercrime.

We’re living in an era where more and more of our personal and professional lives are conducted on-line. We keep up with friends and family via text, email, and social networks. We shop on-line and enjoy the convenience of doorstep delivery. We manage our finances and investments via the web. We even interact with our healthcare providers via their medical information portals.

If we care about protecting our digital footprints, our personal information, and our financial resources, we need to take cybersecurity seriously. Here are the top 7 things I recommend to thwart cybercriminals.

ONE: Equip your computers with firewalls, anti-virus protection, and spyware deterrents. Keep the software current and run partial- and full-system scans routinely. Don’t visit websites unless they are “approved” by the cybersecurity software.

TWO: Password management is a critical line of defense. Passwords should be at least 8 characters long and include elements from each of the following categories: upper case letter, lower case letter, number, and special character. Don’t include dictionary words, proper names, places, or other recognizable references. Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts.

For those of us with LOTS of login credentials, there are on-line services that will store individual site data and allow access via a master login-password. However, if that master account ever gets breached, the hacker will have access to all of those individual logins and passwords.

It would be lovely to delete logins/passwords from websites that are no longer in use. Unfortunately, most won’t let you do that. I’ve opted to change those passwords to random collections of 12 or more letters, numbers, and special characters. (Norton’s password generator helps!) It’s highly unlikely these passwords would ever be hacked, and inactive accounts tend to purged… eventually.

THREE: Manage email with care. Don’t open mail from sources that aren’t familiar. Avoid clicking on links embedded in emails unless you really trust the sender. Even then, take note of the URL on the lower part of your screen as you hover over the link before you click to ensure that it’s legitimate. Don’t open executable files transmitted as attachments even from a “safe” source. Don’t send sensitive information in the body of an email or in an attachment. Email is a lot like sending a post card by mail but with many more “eyes” lurking around to read the contents.

FOUR: Never provide personal information to unknown callers or email senders. Be especially wary of folks who claim to be computer support personnel, government representatives, or financial services providers. They like to create a sense of urgency and panic as incentive to get wary consumers to let their guards down.

FIVE: Check credit reports periodically. Each of the three major credit bureaus provides a free copy of your credit report annually. These reports tend to cover the same information. As such, you can ask for a report from 1 of the 3 bureaus every 4 months or so and keep a regular watch on your credit. Report unusual entries immediately.

We made the decision to place a “freeze” on all of our credit reports. We were among the millions of people whose sensitive information had been compromised by the Equifax breach. While that prevents us from gaining new credit without lifting the freeze, it protects us from unauthorized access by persons of nefarious intent. And it’s not that big a deal to “unfreeze” the accounts.

SIX: Wherever possible, delete credit card information from on-line accounts. If the vendor’s security measures get breached, credit card data joins all the other personally identifiable information to which the cybercriminal gains access. Several big name companies have already fallen prey to such attacks. When I place orders on-line, I cycle back to my account profile and delete the credit card information once I’ve received confirmation that the order has been processed.

SEVEN: Reconcile individual credit card slips against the monthly bill. Make sure there are no unexpected entries that suggest the presence of a third party with unauthorized access to the account. This review also helps answer the question: On what am I spending all my money?

Renewed Interested in Mind-Expanding Substances

If you were old enough to experience the cultural tides of the 1960s, you most certainly would have heard of Dr. Timothy Leary. He was the flamboyant Harvard professor whose research on psychedelics led him to believe that “the effects of consciousness expanding drugs will… transform our concepts of human nature, of human potential, of existence.” In that spirit, he also admonished America’s youth to: “Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.” Such commentary and the associated moral panic contributed to rendering all such drugs illegal in 1970.

That’s pretty much all I knew about psychedelics until I picked up Michael Pollan’s latest book, How To Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. He serves up a modern history of these substances, a first-hand account of their use, and a bit of neuroscience to explain their effects.

Scientific research on psychedelics started in the mid-20^th Century after a Swiss biochemist by the name of Albert Hoffmann synthesized LSD in 1938. He was searching for pharmaceutical relief for those with terminal illness or psychiatric disorders. His invention did not gain much traction until he took a second look at it in 1943. He used himself as a test subject and realized that he had something very powerful on his hands. In 1958, he identified the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms (psilocybin) and devised a mechanism to synthesize it.

Psychedelics were used successfully in the 1950s and 1960s in controlled settings to treat addiction, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, autism, and end-of-life anxiety. Forty thousand people participated in clinical trials, and thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers were published. Unfortunately, all of the countercultural baggage associated with psychedelics put the kibosh on funded laboratory research.

For the next 25 years, psychedelic experimentation went underground. A dedicated group of practitioners continued to deploy these substances to help their patients. They acknowledged the importance of “set and setting” in delivering experiences that would prove forwarding. They knew that psychedelics had expectancy effects – i.e., one tended to have the experience for which one was primed. As such, patients had to be screened carefully, and trained guides needed to provide suitable instructions prior to administering the drug. Treatment rooms were appropriately pleasing with soothing sights, sounds, and smells abounding. And patients were told that they would not be left unattended during any part of their experience.

While many practitioners focused on attending to persons with physical or psychological challenges, another collective conducted experiments to measure the ways in which psychedelics might improve the lives of “healthy” individuals. Early research suggested the potential to transcend mental limitations and improve problem-solving skills. (Apparently, many Silicon Valley pioneers found this possibility compelling.) They could also become less judgmental, less rigid, more open, and less defended. Many participants reported that their use of mind-expanding substances occasioned mystical experiences for which there was sustained personal and spiritual significance.

In 2006, funded (legal) psychedelic research began anew to address intractable psychiatric problems for which the earlier research had shown promising results. These renewed efforts had the advantage of brain imaging technology that would enable neuroscientists to understand what was going on inside the brain during psychedelic trips. The results proved fascinating.

It turns out that our brains have what’s called a Default Mode Network (DMN) that sits atop the functional hierarchy of the brain. It filters incoming sensory data while coordinating signals across the brain regions. Formed in late child development, it is closely associated with our egos – who we believe ourselves to be, how we see ourselves in relation to the world, what we like/dislike, what we deem right/wrong, etc. While it gives us a sense of self, it also creates a sense of separation from others.

Test subjects demonstrate decreased blood flow (i.e., activity) in the DMN on psychedelics. When this part of the brain goes “off line,” a wholly new state of consciousness can emerge – one that opens the floodgates to sensory data while diminishing boundaries between “ME” and everything else. It also creates the opportunity for the disparate brain regions to forge new connections. As Pollan says, when the “superhighways” in the brain stop working, the regions start using the old country back roads to communicate. Lasting change can occur when exercising these new connections.

So why have these drugs been effective for treating folks in challenging circumstances? An overactive DMN can trap people in an endless loop of rumination. Breaking that cycle can provide relief. For example, patients with terminal illness can break free of their anxiety, depression, and “Why Me?” thoughts and focus on a heightened sense of connection with loved ones. Persons suffering with depression can experience relief from the mental prison that renders feelings of disconnection. Addicts may see the world as offering so many wonders that they’ll forgo destructive behaviors that rob them of exploring these possibilities.

As an interesting aside, highly experienced mediators generate states of consciousness (as measured by brain scans) that bear a striking resemblance to persons on psychedelic drugs. It’s yet another argument for finding a comfortable lotus position and developing this skill.

Pollan does a yeoman’s job describing the erstwhile indescribable feeling of being under the influence of a psychedelic substance. As one who went into the experience with a healthy dose of skepticism (and trepidation), he gives the experience its due without underselling or overblowing its merits. Suffice it to say, it piqued my interest.

Survival Overdrive Syndrome

I’ve just finished reading the latest book by a physician/author who has answered the call to help patients (and the general public) de-stress in an overstressed world. Dr. Aviva Romm, MD provides “a proven 4-week program to rescue your metabolism, hormones, mind, and mood” in The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution.

The opening chapters introduce the reader to case studies of folks enmeshed in “survival overdrive symptoms” (S.O.S.) – fatigued, running on empty, foggy, groggy, hormonally imbalanced, achy, and frustrated. These conditions occur when the body has been overloaded chronically by stress, poor diet, lack of sleep, toxicity, and stealth viral infections. In Part I, Dr. Romm dives into root causes while giving her readers a basic primer in our biological systems and how they work. She also provides questionnaires to help readers discern which factors might contribute to their S.O.S.

Part II provides the 5 R’s of Dr. Romm’s 4-week plan to lead readers toward vibrant health. Here’s a brief summary:

REBOOT begins with saying YES to healthy foods and NO to a host of others. Adherents completely eliminate all artificial ingredients, poor quality oils and fats, sugar, refined carbohydrates, gluten and cross-reactive grains (e.g., barley, corn, millet, oats, rye, wheat), and dairy products. They also avoid common food triggers (e.g., nightshade vegetables, nuts, soy, yeasted products), alcohol, caffeine, and any personally known allergen. What’s left? Meat, poultry, fish, beans, legumes, whole grains (e.g., brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat), energy vegetables (e.g., beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, winter squashes), leafy greens, rainbow vegetables, fruits, fermented foods, herbs and spices, and healthy oils and fats. She offers recipes and a day-by-day eating plan to get readers started.

REFRAME encourages readers to give themselves permission to pause. Several behavioral patterns need to get put on the shelf – i.e., perfectionism, stress addiction, approval addiction, worry, Fear Of Missing Out (a.k.a., FOMO), and scarcity thinking. Practical strategies for creating new thought patterns include:

Stay present. Don’t expend needless energy regretting the past or worrying about the future.
Be your own best friend. Don’t let negative thoughts take root. Let them pass by like dark clouds. Replace them with positive ones. Count your blessings and your good deeds.
Quit “should-ing.” Quit comparing. Find ways to translate your “I have to…” statements into “I get to…”
Tend and befriend. Be there for others and reach out to them when you need support.
Take breaks proactively. You can: Find a space to relax in solitude. Take quick meditation breaks. Do yoga. Soak in Epson salt and lavender. Journal. Get some fresh air. Play.
Get at least 7-8 hours of restorative sleep every night.

REPAIR focuses on gut health to make sure it can properly absorb nutrients, regulate our immune systems, and support detoxification. Start by eliminating (or minimizing) gut-disrupting medications – i.e., antibiotics, NSAIDs (e.g., ibuprofen, Aleve, Motrin), proton pump inhibitors used for acid reflux, and Tylenol. Adjust the diet to get rid of overgrowth of bad bacteria. (I’ve used The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates.) Take digestive enzymes to aid digestion and high quality probiotics to populate the gut with good bacteria.

RECHARGE takes aim at nourishing the overtaxed adrenal glands and thyroids through adaptogens that restore the weakened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. They help calm inflammation, regulate immunity, enhance memory, boost energy, and restore health and vitality.

The REPLENISH phase allows for reintroduction of foods that were temporarily eliminated provided that they do not cause an adverse reaction. The plan entails testing one food every three days by adding in a couple of servings on a given day. If there are no reactions, that food can remain in the diet.

I find books like The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution helpful in that they provide a good overview of the body’s systems, how they can go awry, and what we can do about it. I choose to work through these paths under the auspices of a trained naturopath and leverage the benefit of her expertise and watchful eye on my progress. But if one lacks access to this resource, Dr. Romm’s book is worth a careful and considered read.

On Becoming My Parents’ Business Manager

Four years ago this week, my family dynamic changed. In the wee hours of September 4, 2014, my elderly father fell en route to the bathroom and couldn’t get off the floor. My husband and I rushed to the apartment and (barely) managed to get him back on his feet and into bed. Within the week, his care needs argued for placement in a skilled nursing facility. In the process, Mom asked me to step in and take charge of their financial and administrative affairs.

As several of my friends find themselves on the cusp of assuming a similar role, I thought I’d share some insights from my experience.

Trust is a prerequisite for success. Turning over one’s financial affairs is akin to placing one’s life in another person’s hands. There’s a very real sense of vulnerability that accompanies the surrendering of control. My parents would not have taken that step unless they had absolute confidence that I would act in integrity and pursue their wishes to the letter. For peace of mind, I made sure to review the state of their affairs at regular intervals.

It helped to have my name on their checking account in advance. We added that provision when they moved to the area to make sure that I could jump in and pay bills at a moment’s notice. When Mom decided that she was ready to relinquish her money managing responsibility, it was easy for me to pick up the reins. It also enabled me to balance the check book while assessing their liquidity and cash flow.

My parents each signed a Power of Attorney (POA) to empower me to act on their behalf. They’d previously executed POAs naming one another as their preferred agent with me as a back-up. In that arrangement, I was told that each would have to either formally disavow that role or have the court declare incompetency before I could act. Suffice it to say, it was much easier to prepare new documents while both parents were mentally up to the task. It was a little tricky getting a Notary Public to Dad’s room given his incapacity, but we managed just fine.

I worked with their financial institutions to register the POAs. This task was a bit tricky as it takes more than simply presenting the documents to get it done. Each institution had a separate document to accompany the POA in which I had to declare my willingness to serve as a fiduciary. While I certainly understand the rationale for taking this step, the branch personnel had trouble figuring out how to do it. Word to the wise: Get this step done well in advance of needing to take action.

I sent forms into the federal and state tax authorities to allow me to act in my parents’ behalf. The federal and state governments do not recognize POAs. They’ve got their own forms. It’s not a big deal; it’s just something that has to be done. However, the federal form demands that you name the tax years for which you’ll be granted POA. You can specify all prior years and up to 3 years in the future. If you’ll be taking care of your parents’ returns for many years to come, you’ll need to renew the federal form periodically.

I should have worked with my folks’ retirement and health benefit providers to set up the POAs before I needed them. Most of my parents’ benefits were issued in my father’s name. There was a fair amount of activity surrounding the transition to Mom’s name after Dad passed. It took 6 weeks from the time I submitted Mom’s POA to the legal department for review/approval until the document was in force. During that interval, I had to get Mom on the phone every time I needed to contact the center.

Dad and Mom made all of their final arrangements long before they needed them. They signed a contract with a funeral home that specified in detail what they wanted done with their remains. Their estate plan allows for an orderly transition of financial assets and personal property. These plans ensure that their wishes are followed. They also create the space for loved ones to grieve without the burden of navigating the court system to settle their affairs.

I understand why people avoid working through all of the foregoing. The subject matter is unpleasant, and it can be awkward to talk about it. I would argue that a little bit of planning and preparation makes life much easier for all concerned in the long run. And just because you put these plans in place doesn’t mean you have to act on them. Your parents can continue managing their own affairs until they choose to relinquish control or circumstances arise that force a decision.

A Business Model for Change Management

In an earlier post, I covered the psychology of change as interpreted by Drs. Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente, all PhDs. It wasn’t my first introduction to the subject matter. I’d heard about it from a colleague at Vanguard Communications when he launched a company dedicated to this discipline.

A former engineer and program manager with Bell Labs, Jeff Hiatt made the astute observation that superior technical solutions combined with expert project management proved insufficient to guarantee success. The missing ingredient was the “people side of change.” When people embrace and adopt change, things can go swimmingly. When they don’t, things can go awry.

Since 1994, Jeff and his colleagues at Prosci have conducted research and developed best practices help people and their organizations embrace and adopt change. They provide “best in class” training and materials and partner with corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profits.

I mention Jeff’s work because the model he developed to support organizational change is equally relevant to personal change. It’s called ADKAR to reflect the 5 basic steps of effective change management:

Awareness represents an individual’s consciousness of a need for change and the risk of doing nothing. While there may be external drivers to create the impetus for change, the person needs a clear understanding of “what’s in it for me.”

Desire represents the willingness to move forward and make the change. In otrher words, the “what’s in it for me” is noteworthy enough to get on the priority list and motivate behavioral adjustments.

Knowledge represents the information and training necessary to make the change. It may include facts, systems, processes, skills, and behaviors.

Ability represents the capacity to turn knowledge into action. It’s more than well-intentioned activity; it implies a level of performance that will produce the desired results.

Reinforcement represents the internal and external actions, processes, rewards, recognitions, et al, that stoke the fires of change and keeping it going.

It’s easy to remember the acronym – ADKAR – and apply it to any situation. And it doesn’t take a fancy plan to put it into effect. Here’s an example from my household:

Awareness: My husband’s primary care physician was concerned about cholesterol and its potential for harm as my husband ages. The doctor wanted him to consider taking a statin.

Desire: We have friends who’ve taken statins and had unpleasant side effects. Our research on the drug did not evoke enthusiasm. So we opted to explore opportunities to lower cholesterol naturally.

Knowledge: We read several books on the whole food plant based diet and watched the Forks Over Knives video. These materials created a compelling case that a dietary shift could result in a substantive drop in our cholesterol.

Ability: I purchased several whole food plant based cookbooks and trained myself on meal planning and cooking without using meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or eggs. We also decided to cut way back on salt, sugar, and fat.

Reinforcement: We’re compiling a collection of delicious recipes that are just as satisfying (if not more so) than our prior eating habits. We both realized impressive drops in blood serum cholesterol which elicited praise from my husband’s physician.

In sum: If you’re a business manager who worries about change management for your organization, check out Prosci. If you aren’t ready to make that investment personally or professionally, try giving the model a test drive!

First Steps Toward Financial Freedom

I learned two very important lessons early in my career. I learned that two professionals can pull down decent money yet still fall short of their expectations for savings. And I learned that job security is an illusion – a point driven home painfully when one of us fell unexpectedly out of work. Fortunately, a friend and colleague suggested I read Your Money or Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial independence, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

The book’s title comes from the assertion that we’d all gladly give up our wallets when confronted with an armed robber. In that moment, we’re crystal clear that it’s more important to give up our cash than risk bodily harm or death. But we fail to have that blinding insight in the day-to-day management of our lives. We trade away vast quantities of our lives for the sake of earning money, often at jobs that we find unfulfilling, aggravating, stressful, or some combination thereof.

The authors acknowledge that it takes money to finance life’s basic needs along with the range of diversions that make life interesting. But they advocate for an elevated consciousness surrounding money to avoid falling into the trap of working more and enjoying less. To that end, they offer up the following definition:

Money is something for which we choose to trade our life. We “pay” for money with our time.

They don’t judge the choices any of us makes. They simply want us to respect our life energy enough to make these choices consciously. That respect leads to gaining clarity on:

What we really need versus what we think we want
What purchases genuinely bring us fulfillment
What constitutes “enough” for each of us

They provide a nine step plan for raising consciousness and taking action on those insights. Two of those steps proved especially valuable for me.

They challenge readers to calculate their bottom-line hourly wage – i.e., the cash that finds its way into the pocket in exchange for the hours expended. That calculation demands a close accounting of the actual hours invested in working that would not be expended absent the job – i.e., all paid shifts, overtime, after-hours work at home, commuting, business travel, etc. It also calls for tallying up all of the expenses that go along with working – e.g., taxes, FICA, transportation, wardrobe, daily Starbucks, eating out for lunch, eating out after work if too tired to cook, child care, household help, etc.

It sounds rather tedious to go through the exercise of figuring out what an hour of one’s time is actually worth. But that figure becomes the bellwether for a whole range of impulse decisions. I ask myself regularly, “Do I really want to give up X amount of time in exchange for Y? Is it really worth it to me?

The second impactful exercise was definitely tedious, but well worth it. They challenge readers to track every single penny they spend and add them up by category. The big ticket items were easy to identify – mortgage, car loans, student loans, utilities, healthcare premiums, health club membership. Credit card spending and loose cash took more work, but it wasn’t all that tough. We kept a notepad in the kitchen and “balanced” our cash on a daily basis.

Our big lesson: Loose cash creates a big drain on resources when you don’t pay attention to it… and that’s a lot of life energy to squander! We found that we were spending an inordinate amount of money on dining out. We didn’t eat in fancy restaurants. But we ate out several nights a week at sandwich shops, inexpensive ethnic food restaurants, and fast food restaurants. Even low budget dining out racks up a lot more spending on a monthly basis than eating in. So we found low effort ways to eat at home and saved a bunch of money!

Here’s another way to think about it. The daily $5 latte may not seem like a big deal. After all, it’s just $5. But if that’s an indulgence enjoyed every working day, it adds up to over $1,000 per year. Is that the best use of $1,000 of money?

At the end of the day, conscious spending is not onerous; it’s liberating. Through conscious spending, we’ve paid off our debts, contributed consistently to savings, and developed our roadmap to a secure retirement. It reflects another keystone definition from the book:

A frugal lifestyle reflects the virtue of getting good value for every minute of life energy and from everything for which you have use. A frugal life is characterized by a high Joy-to-Stuff ratio!

Each of us must ask ourselves: What am I willing to give up to achieve financial independence? Mr. Dominguez and Ms. Robin helped me find my answer.

Is Play Necessary?

In the far Northern reaches, a group of sled dogs gain a much-needed rest from their master. Off in the distance, a hungry polar bear approaches, causing great alarm among the pack and their master. When the bear arrives, the lead dog signals the intent to play, and the bear goes along. Threat averted!

Play is pervasive in the animal kingdom. Yet it’s incredible to think that the desire for play can take precedence over the survival instinct. After all, to the casual observer, play is a seemingly purposeless expenditure of time that provides a pleasant diversion from the ordinary business of life. But the impulse to play is a biological drive. And as Dr. Stuart Brown details in Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Integrates the Soul, play has been proven scientifically to be an incredibly useful activity.

Our brains self-create as a function of the environments in which they operate and the experiences they amass. Play stimulates secretion of brain-derived neurotropic factors (BDNF) that the brain uses to build and maintain its cellular circuitry. BDNF improves neural function and helps enrich and shape neural connections. Play also helps the brain gain experience in contrived settings that can be deployed in real life circumstances – e.g., practicing karate with friends at a dojo that can be used if and when a physical threat arises. And, of course, play provides a low-risk setting to discover and cultivate all those wonderful skills.

Play optimizes the mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation. Transforming a learning experience from rote memorization to a playful game vastly improves engagement in the moment and retention after the fact. The more experimentation with the “game,” the greater the comprehension of how the subject matter at hand works.

Play confers skills that bolster emotional intelligence. Players learn how to cooperate, how to navigate difference, and how to establish and maintain trust. They also learn how to discern who has their backs and who is gunning for them. Belonging is an outgrowth of social play.

Play is essential for aging gracefully. Studies consistently link favorable health outcomes with adults who continue to explore, play games, and learn throughout their lives. They’re not only less susceptible to dementia, they’re less likely to suffer from heart disease and other ailments seemingly unrelated to the brain.

Play and work are mutually supportive. In both, we learn new things, exercise our creativity, develop our skills, forge relationships, stretch ourselves, and achieve goals. Play helps us cope with work-related stress and personal difficulties while providing a sense of expansiveness that allows for clear thinking. It can provide the space for the critical insight that solves a problem or illuminates an opportunity. And, as Dr. Brown notes, “true play that comes from our own inner needs and desires is the only path to finding lasting joy and satisfaction in our work.”

How Do We Get Rid of Bad Habits?

Popular software programs provide a feature that enables users to capture programming sequences that they use habitually. It saves time and improves accuracy on repetitive tasks.

As it turns out, our brains have a similar mechanism. It manages this function in our behalf automatically. In fact, a 2006 study by Duke University revealed that 40% of our daily activities take advantage of these stored sub-routines. Charles Duhigg explores this fascinating subject in his book in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

The brain’s basal ganglia provide the means to capture and store patterns of behavior, a process referred to as “chunking.” When chunks combine to form habits, our brains can process other thoughts, or simply enjoy a quiet moment.

Other members of the animal kingdom form habits. In fact, they’ve helped researchers figure out how habits work.

For example, scientists measured brain activity in rats as they learned to navigate a maze in search of cheese. During the learning phase, brain activity remained high from the time they entered the maze (their behavioral “cues”) until they reached their rewards (cheese). Once they’d mastered the routine, brain patterns were only elevated when encountering the initial cue and when reaping the fruits – or should I say, cheese – of their labors.

Of course, we don’t lock in on every pattern of behavior in which we’ve engaged. The reward must be sufficiently compelling to fuel anticipation for it. Craving powers the habit loop.

Once we’ve learned a habit, it remains in our memory banks indefinitely… or, at least, a really, really long time. Unfortunately, our brains don’t discern between “good habits” and “bad habits.” Even when we work hard at bypassing the latter, “bad habits” can re-emerge at any time.

So how can we reset our wiring so that we don’t get tripped up by our “bad habits”?

First and foremost, we need to amp up our awareness so that we don’t get caught operating on autopilot. We need to identify our “cues” – that is, the triggers that cause us to launch our bad habit loops. We also need to get crystal clear on the rewards that fuel these loops.

For example, suppose I find that I consistently break away from my home office at 3 pm to watch a little TV and nosh on whatever happens to be readily available in the refrigerator. I’d ask myself: What’s really going on at 3 pm that triggers this behavior? Am I bored? Fatigued? Restless? Tapped out? What payoff am I getting from watching TV? Am I simply looking for a way to give my mind a break? Or do I really think that I’m getting some form of creative input by my daily dose of Netflix? Moreover: Am I really hungry, or am I simply finding another avenue to relieve boredom?

After getting a handle on the cues (triggers) and cravings for reward, it’s easier to think creatively about launching different routines. For example, if my 3 pm date with the TV and the refrigerator reflects a need to take and break and clear my mind, I could simply take a short walk with my dog when the urge strikes.

Duhigg describes the Golden Rule of Habit Change as follows: Keep an old cue, deliver an old reward, but insert a new routine. A “competing response” disrupts an old habit. However, a new routine can only replace the old one when it is accompanied by faith that it will work – that is, faith that things will get better, and faith in one’s coping mechanisms when facing temptation, discomfort, or suffering.

When substantive lifestyle changes are at stake, it’s helpful to identify and strengthen keystone habits. When these habits shift, they have the power to dislodge and remake other patterns. For example, the keystone habit of regular exercise tends to make people eat better, smoke less, improve sleep patterns, experience higher productivity, and feel less stress. It creates a structure in which other forwarding habits flourish while delivering a series of self-reinforcing “small wins.”

Within the realm of keystone habits, willpower reigns supreme. Strengthen willpower in one area of your life, and you reap benefits in others. The bad news: Willpower is a bit like a muscle that can get fatigued by excess use. The good news: It is aided and abetted by tactics that conserve its energy – e.g., removing temptations, drawing attention away from triggers, consistently focusing on the prize.

Finally, as social creatures, we’re often helped (or sabotaged) by the company we keep. We increase our odds of success by placing ourselves within communities that support and reinforce habits that we hope to manifest every day.

The Relaxation Response

As a young cardiologist in the 1960s, Dr. Herbert Bensen noticed a trend among his patients that suggested a link between stress and hypertension, a precursor for heart disease. Many exhibited falsely high blood pressure at the doctor’s office. His colleagues routinely dismissed the phenomenon, ascribing the elevated readings to nerves. But the experience stimulated his curiosity.

If the body has a built-in mechanism to make adjustments physiologically in response to stress, might it also have a mechanism to calm itself down?

Bensen left private practice and joined the faculty of his alma mater, the Harvard Medical School, to answer that question.

Bensen confirmed his hypothesis through studies conducted with practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. He dubbed the phenomenon The Relaxation Response and authored a best-selling book by that name. Here were his findings.

When subjects entered a meditative state, they exhibited lowered heart rate, respiration, and oxygen consumption. The latter indicated that the body’s energy resources had been given a break, since cells consume oxygen when metabolizing sugars and fats for fuel. Meditation also produced a marked decrease in blood lactate, suggesting an anti-anxiety influence. Taken together, these metrics speak to decreased activity of the sympathetic nervous system and reflect a state of deep restfulness. In short, it’s the antithesis of the fight-or-flight response!

Bensen also demonstrated that the physiological impact of meditation is distinct from sleeping. During sleep, oxygen consumption decreases progressively to about 8% less than wakefulness. By contrast, mediation induces a rapid decrease in oxygen consumption within the first 3 minutes of practice and resets to normal at the end of a session. Alpha brain waves manifest prominently during meditation but are not common in sleep. Meditation does not induce Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

In sum: If you need a break from stress, meditate!

Since the 1975 publication of Bensen’s book, meditation has gone from a quasi-cult phenomenon to a mainstream practice with scads of research to supports its efficacy. There are lots of techniques for evoking the relaxation response and varying price tags associated with learning them. Bensen advocates a straight-forward approach that anyone can implement:

Pick a focus word, short phrase, sound, or prayer that carries meaning within your belief system.
Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
Close your eyes.
Engage in progressive muscle relaxation to relieve tension in the body, starting with the muscles in the feet and toes and working up through the calves, thighs, abdomen, arms, shoulders, head, and neck.
Breathe in slowly and naturally; say your focus word, phrase, sound, or prayer to yourself as you slowly exhale.
Take note when other thoughts attempt to intrude on your session and simply let them go. Gently return to your practice without judgment or concern no matter how many times this happens.
Continue for 10-20 minutes.
Sit quietly for a couple of minutes as you prepare to move forward with the affairs of the day. Open your eyes and wait for another minute or two before rising.
Meditate once or twice daily. Good times for practice include just before breakfast and just before dinner.

Healthy Lifestyle

Ideas to Nourish the Body, Mind, and Spirit