Figit and Learn

Are you one a person who begins to fidget soon after sitting down? This may be especially true if you've been told to be still. Some brains really need to move to learn. For them, to figit is to learn. Of course, this makes the traditional educational model of "sit down, be quiet, and be still" a nightmare for many. The conclusions from a groundbreaking study conducted by a team at the University of Central Florida could help to change this educational model. "Could" being the key word here. The brains of many individuals (e.g., extraverts, and ADHD children in this study) may be stifled unless they are allowed to move while they learn. For example, some kids (especially those with ADHD) may tap their feet, swivel in their chairs, or bounce in their seats while their brains are busily figuring out a math test or some other educational equivalent.

Nasreddin's Grapes

Have you heard of Nasreddin? In some parts of the world this man is so famous, in Turkey for example, that an annual festival is celebrated in his honor every year. And UNESCO declared 1996–1997 to be International Nasreddin Year. According to Wikipedia, the oldest manuscript of Nasreddin dates to 1571. Depending on whom you talk to, this Ottoman Turk was a wise philosopher or an unenlightened fool. Or maybe both. One anecdote attributed to him could apply to several different areas in life. The story goes that Nasreddin had a vineyard. One day he was returning from said vineyard, two large basketfuls of grapes loaded on his faithful donkey. Some children saw him, gathered around, and begged to be given a taste. Nasreddin picked up a bunch of grapes and handed each child one single grape. The children complained that he, who had so much, had given them so little. Nasreddin replied: "There is no difference whether you have a basketful or a small piece. They all taste the same.” Hmmm.

Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology (PNI)

Are you aware of the tight connection between your brain and your body? It is impossible to separate mind from body or emotions from illness. Socrates was teaching that thousands of years before the advent of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology. Okay, PNI for short. Current studies are validating Socrates’ position. According to Gabor Maté, MD, author of When the Body Says NO – Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection, individuals typically do not become ill despite their lives but rather because of their lives. The body is a fount of innate wisdom. Much disease could be healed and much prevented if people understood the existing scientific evidence verifying the mind-body connection. Knowledge is power and it is often life-saving. The goal is to identify a relationship between stress and illness as a physiological reality. It can be literally lifesaving to use the information one uncovers to promote learning and healing.

Protective Anger

How do you typically deal with the emotion of anger? It's a challenge for most people. In this society, culture has said that it's more okay for males to exhibit anger than for females. Do you become frightened by your anger and try to repress it? Do you let it hang out all over everyone and everything or blame others for it? Do you allow it to drive your behaviors or do you simply recognize what the emotion is trying to tell you (e.g., that your boundaries are being actually or potentially invaded) and decide whether you just need to file away the information and do things differently next time or take some action right now? Therapist Joann Peterson put it this way: “Anger is the energy Mother Nature gives us as little kids to stand forward on our behalf and say I matter. The different between the healthy energy of anger and the hurtful energy of emotional and physical violence is that anger respects boundaries. Standing forward on your own behalf does not invade anyone else’s boundaries.”

The Many Facets of Assertion

How assertive are you? Do you know what being assertive really means? Typically in this culture, assertion has the connotation of stepping up to the plate and taking some bold action. Gabor Maté, MD, author of When the Body Says NO – Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection, presents an interesting perspective on assertion. He asserts that it may have little to do with taking action. Rather it is the declaration to oneself and to the world that I am and that I am who I am. Assertion in the sense of self-declaration is deeper than the limited autonomy of action. It not only challenges the core belief that you must somehow justify your existence, but also demands neither acting nor reacting. Assertion may be the very opposite of action, not only in the narrow sense of refusing to do something you do not wish to do but also in letting go of the very need to act. Assertion is being, irrespective of action.

Chimp Genius

Smarter than the average chimp? Well, it appears that (just like humans) some chimps are smarter than others. One of these is a female chimp named Natasha, a resident of the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda. This adult female chimp in her 20s scored off the charts in a battery of tests. The findings, published in the latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggest that geniuses exist among non-humans. So far researchers have not been able to identify a general intelligence factor. Rather, Natasha’s performance might be a bundling of skills related to learning, tool usage, understanding of quantities, and an ability to reach conclusions based on evidence and reasoning. They do surmise, that a willingness to learn and a positive attitude seem to make as big of a difference in dogs, chimps, and other animals as they do in humans.

Bilinguality and Alzheimer's

Did you know that being bilingual offers some protection against Alzheimer’s? Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, studied 450 Alzheimer’s patients (half monolingual and half bilingual). Bilingual patients with Alzheimer's symptoms were diagnosed between four and five years later than the monolingual patients with Alzheimer’s symptoms. Mastering a second language appears to strengthen the brain in ways that seem to delay developing Alzheimer's disease later on. Just as a regular physical exercise program can keep your physical body in good shape well into your senior years, an effective mental exercise program can do the same for your brain. If you’re not bilingual and don’t want to learn another language, stimulate your brain daily with challenging brain aerobic exercises.