Forgive You First

Did you know that is order to be able to genuinely forgive others you must first learn to forgive yourself? Self-forgiveness means taking a nonjudgemental stance in your own thoughts and actions, knowing that being human means you are allowed to make mistakes, and that you can learn from them. Forgiveness is immensely beneficial but never easy and it takes time. It requires reconditioning of one’s thinking and unlearning a justice-seeking (e.g., revenge) mindset, replacing ill-feelings with feelings of love and compassion. The past cannot be changed but, by forgiving, you can change the future.

Automatic Pilot

Part of one's day is spent in a state of hyperconsciousness (e.g., logical, rational, decision-oriented, verbal mode) in which one foreces the mind to attend. At other times, one operates in an altered state of consciousness. THink of it as the "automatic pilot effect" (e.g., you are driving and many miles have gone by outside conscious awareness). Most of what one is capable of is determined by part of the mind of which you can never become aware: the unconscious mind. 

Heart-Intuition Take Two

Your heart is involved in the processing and decoding of intuitive information. Previous studies by Childre and McCraty (2001) suggested that the heart’s field was directly involved in intuitive perception through its coupling to an energetic information field outside the bounds of space and time. Additional studies provided evidence that both the heart and brain receive and respond to information about a future event before the event actually happens. Even more surprising was that the heart appeared to receive this intuitive information even before the brain received it. This puts another spin on the importance of paying attention to your intuition. It appears that your heart and brain are not just whistling Dixie.

Your Brain's Switchboard Operator

Did you know that deep within your brain there is a swithboard operator? It's the pulvinar. Its job it to regulate communication between clusters of brain cells as your brain focuses on the people and objects that need your attention—to make sure that separate areas of your visual cortex are communicating about the same external information. The pulvinar appears to provide guidance for your behaviors. For example, without the pulvinar, your observation of an oncoming semi-truck as you start to cross a busy street might get lost in a jumble of other stimuli. fMRI study results of the pulvinar could assist with developing treatment strategies for medical disorders characterized by a failure of attention mechanisms (e.g., ADHD, schizophrenia, spatial neglect that involves an inability to detect stimuli often observed following a stroke). Results of the Princeton study suggest that visual information is not transmitted solely through a network of areas in the visual cortex, but involves the pulvinar as an important regulator of neural transmission.

Cancer Risk and Alcohol

Almost a third of a century after discovery of a link between alcohol consumption and certain types of cancer, scientists have reported the first human research evidence of how the popular beverage may be carcinogenic. As the human body metabolizes alcohol in beer, wine, and hard liquor, acetaldehyde is produced. Acetaldehyde attaches to DNA in humans in a way that results in the formation of a ‘DNA adduct’ that is linked to an increased risk of cancer. Most people have an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase, which quickly converts acetaldehyde to acetate, a relatively harmless substance. About thirty percent of people of Asian descent, however, (almost 1.6 billion people) have a variant of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene and are unable to metabolize alcohol to acetate. That genetic variant results in an elevated risk of esophageal cancer from alcohol drinking. Native Americans and native Alaskans have a deficiency in the production of that same enzyme. Study results were reported at the 244^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Do You Get 1/3

Did you know humans are designed to spend a third of their lives sleeping—on a regular basis? That is a "yes" according to performance-therapist and medical researcher Robert Rudelic. Sleep deprivation can lead to a laundry list of short-term and long-term effects. In the short-term, the individual may experience irritability, quick temper, edginess, pessimism, negative attitude, lack of focus, poor eating choices, and a higher risk of getting sick or of getting into an accident. Long-term effects (over the course of a few months to a year or longer) may be as severe as type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, obesity, heart disease, depression, anxiety, stroke, gastrointestinal problems, and even premature death.

Photographic Memory

Do you have a photographic memory? Do you know someone who does? Photographic or eidetic memory refers to the ability of an individual to recall large amounts of detailed and vivid visual images, sounds, and/or objects. Studies have found that children with photographic memory, after being shown a picture and asked to study it for about thirty minutes, are able to recall and maintain the image in their memory as vividly as if it were still there after the image has been removed.