Oprah's Definition

Did you realize that when you give the gift of forgiveness to yourself or to others, it’s primarily for you and not for them? Forgiveness can be one of the most difficult concepts to grasp. Even definitions differ. One of the best definitions I’ve heard was attributed to Oprah Winfrey: Forgiveness is to accept the fact that the past can’t change. That definition may also help to explain why forgiveness is one of the most difficult and greatest gifts to give. To refuse to give this gift, you actually give the other individual the power to make you live as if you were still a victim.

Sleep Bulimia

Do you suffer from sleep bulimia? Cognitive neuroscientist Robert Stickgold has equated sleep deficiency to an eating disorder. Sleep bulimics is a new term that describes a culture of individuals who purge on sleep during the weekdays and binge on the weekends; who try to compensate for sleep deprivation during the week by catching additional winks on the weekend. Not so fast. According to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, sleep deprivation is one of society’s most detrimental epidemics. You can make up for acute sleep deprivation once in a while. Not so with chronic sleep deprivation, which can seriously affect your health. Sleep deprivation is expensive, too. In the US, sleep deprivation accounts for over 16 billion dollars in medical costs and over 50 billion dollars in lost productivity—annually.

Diet and Cancer

Have you see the TED presentation by Dr. William Li who heads the Angiogenesis Foundation? It's entitled, "Can we eat to starve cancer?" Dr. Li said, “We’re treating cancer too late in the game, when it’s already established and, oftentimes, it’s already spread or metastasized. The obvious thing is to think about what we could remove from our diet. But I took a completely opposite approach and began asking: What could we be adding to our diet that could boost the body’s defense system? In other words, can we eat to starve cancer? Imagine that one medical advancement held the promise to conquer cancer, perhaps within your lifetime … the potential to also end more than 70 of life's most threatening conditions, affecting one billion people worldwide. This is the promise of angiogenesis, the first medical revolution of the 21st century." You might want to check this out. I’ll be adding a few more things to my diet! (http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html?source=email#.T8Fhm4DlLUw.email)

Longevity

Did you know that your level of conscientiousness may impact how long you live? Studies at UC-Riverside (Friedman and Kern) found that people who were less conscientious were 50% more likely to die at any given age, on average, than those of the same age who scored highly. Living a scrupulous life appears to prolong one’s life even more than socioeconomic status and intelligence. (Health Psychology, DOI: 10.1037/0278-6133.27.5.505). http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026794.800-conscientiousness-is-the-secret-to-a-long-life.html)

Neuron Variation

Some neurons fire in response to a specific sensory stimulus. Others fire in response to simultaneously occurring sights and sounds, sounds and touches, sight and touches, sounds and touches, and so on. They are found throughout the cortex and in the superior colliculus (midbrain region densely packed with multisensory neurons)as well. (Macknik, Stephen L. PhD and Susana Martinez-Conde PhD. Sleights of Mind. P 116-120. NY:Henry Holt and Company, 2010.)

Brain Binge

Did you know that binge drinking accounts for more than half of the estimated 80,000 average annual deaths and three quarters of $223.5 billion in economic costs resulting from excessive alcohol consumption in the United States? Not only that, an estimated 2.3 million years of potential life was lost in the USA each year during 2001-2005 from excessive alcohol use (e.g., defined by CDC as consuming four or more drinks per occasion for females or five or more drinks per occasion for males). According to the Centers for Disease Control 2010 data, binge drinking is reported by one in six adults in America. Binge drinking prevalence (28.2%) and intensity (9.3 drinks) were highest among persons aged 18–24 years while frequency was highest among binge drinkers aged ≥65 years. Choose to protect your brain and your safety on this Memorial Day Weekend. Have a wonderful holiday and make choices that increase the likelihood you'll be around next year at the same time.

Artists and Cognition

It was painters, not scientists, who first figured out the rules of visual perspective and occlusion. Knowing these rules permitted painters to make pigments on a flat canvas appear like a beautiful landscape, rich in depth. Magicians are just a different type of artist. Instead of using color and form, they manipulate the brain’s attention and cognition. (Macknik, Stephen L. PhD and Susana Martinez-Conde PhD. Sleights of Mind. P 4-6. NY:Henry Holt and Company, 2010.)