Rockford Counseling-Did you notice anything new on my page?
Rockford Counseling-
You are correct, it is the Google+ icon which just got released today. So now my Google Places page and my Google+ business accounts are are built and linked, and I am amazed that Google has done this just one day after the “gomo” or Google mobile campaign was released yesterday. Guess Google wants to put their purchase of Motorola to work.
If you search for Logan Counseling on your mobile you should get our mobile page, at least I did here when I tried it on my wife’s smart phone. Their is some design work to do, because I am not a design guy, so it is functional, as it should be for a mobile webpage. Directions, intro, contact, and we can add in many other pages as needed, or delete too. Very flexible. More very soon, folks. Mike
Rockford Counseling Discovery-How Exercise Can Strengthen the Brain
Rockford Counseling Discovery-
Those of you follow this blog know that I have been curious about brain fitness for several years, and that I have even bought and tried out a few of the online brain fitness programs, including the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program to see what the results would be for my Boomer-soon-to-be-Senior-Brain, and believe it or not, the three that I tried all made a difference. I also began to read the literature about the Pillars of Brain Fitness and discovered that neurogenesis, or the growth of new brain cells and neuroplasticity, which is the term used to describe how neurons connect to each other, could be encouraged by attending to the pillars of brain fitness. In fact neurogenesis was not even discovered until about 20 years ago, and did not have much support in the neurological sciences until about 10 years ago, and now folks are saying that we can encourage neuroplasticity and neurogenesis by living a life that is a brain fit life, which means we get some physical exercise daily, we eat foods as grown, get good sleep, manage our stress, and engage in novel learning experiences. The most important of those is physical exercise, and that may conjure up images of gyms, sweat, heavy barbells, and pain, but that is not the level of exercise required for neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. In fact, in today’s NY Times there is an article discussing How Exercise Can Strengthen your Brain
If you want to hop on over to the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program and try it out, click the link below. Your brain will thank you.
10% Off Brain Fitness Programs by Posit Science. Clinically Proven. Coupon Code PSCCJ1009
Rockford Counseling Discovery-How your brain reacts to mistakes depends on your mindset
Rockford Counseling Discovery-
OK, so I quoted quite a bit from the Science Daily article, and here is why. This article speaks to how fast our brain processes data, in this case 1/25th second, which is not a lot of time to make a decision that can change the course of one’s life. For example, I do poorly on a Science test, and decide to give up Science even though I have an aptitude and curiosity for it. If I could train myself to be aware of my interpretation of the score, I might put off a decision about continuing science until I was more relaxed about the test score, and I certainly do not want to build any automatic negative thoughts about science based on one test score.
And if I am a recovering addict who relapses, or creates a really hard to release resentment, then a low awareness of the process described below, which happens so fast, could cost me my life, if I decide that I can never be sober. So let’s all get switched over to the next right thing to do mind set, which helps me learn about my mistakes.
“ScienceDaily (2011-09-30) — “Whether you think you can or think you can’t — you’re right,” said Henry Ford. A new study finds that people who think they can learn from their mistakes have a different brain reaction to mistakes than people who think intelligence is fixed…While doing the task, the participant wore a cap on his or her head that records electrical activity in the brain. When someone makes a mistake, their brain makes two quick signals: an initial response that indicates something has gone awry — Moser calls it the “‘oh crap’ response” — and a second that indicates the person is consciously aware of the mistake and is trying to right the wrong. Both signals occur within a quarter of a second of the mistake. After the experiment, the researchers found out whether people believed they could learn from their mistakes or not.
People who think they can learn from their mistakes did better after making a mistake — in other words, they successfully bounced back after an error. Their brains also reacted differently, producing a bigger second signal, the one that says “I see that I’ve made a mistake, so I should pay more attention” Moser says.
The research shows that these people are different on a fundamental level, Moser says. “This might help us understand why exactly the two types of individuals show different behaviors after mistakes.” People who think they can learn from their mistakes have brains that are tuned to pay more attention to mistakes, he says. This research could help in training people to believe that they can work harder and learn more, by showing how their brain is reacting to mistakes.”
