#Dave with Normal Cognitive Abilities

[chloessleepystories]

Sisters part 9

Sisters … Sisters …

There were never such devoted sisters …

Time seemed to slow, and Chloe had a moment of feeling like she was stuck in one of her video games, the ones where you had to make choices and they all had consequences and sometimes none of the options looked any good. Kenzie had fled the room, having regained a sliver of her cognitive abilities at exactly the wrong time, possibly because of Chloe’s new programming and more likely because of the shock of seeing her mother and aunt in a passionate, nude 69. Mom and Aunt Lydia had transferred their worship of each other to devotion to Chloe, pulling at her clothes and begging to serve her. And Chloe’s father was at the door outside, demanding to be let in.

And the music, full of hypnotic subliminals, was still pouring from the speakers, as it had been for a couple hours without Chloe consciously realizing it. The music was making it really hard to think straight … but it didn’t even occur to her to turn it off …

Chloe shook her head. “Mom, can you – Mom, focus. Let go of me.” She grasped her mother’s forearms in both hands, looking into her glazed eyes. “Ugh, why are you naked?”

Her mother just giggled, then looked skyward as she drunkenly tried to formulate an answer.

“Never mind. Just – listen, I gotta deal with Kenzie, OK? I’ll be right back. You – Lydia, stop touching me there – no, don’t pout – Mom, you and Aunt Lydia *stay here*, don’t leave the living room. Stall Dad, I still gotta figure out what to tell him.” Her mother nodded, her grin a little sloppy as she lovingly studied her daughter’s face.

“You’re so pretty …”

Chloe sighed. Her mother’s face was shiny and smelled like pussy. “And leave Aunt Lydia alone for a minute. OK? No more sexy stuff with each other until I get back.”

Helen looked like a sullen teenager for a moment – a dumb, horny, sullen teenager.

“Promise?” said Chloe.

“I promise,” Helen sulkily replied, but then trembled, her eyes rolling back. Happy chemicals coursed through her, replacing her dopey smile. “Oh fuck it’s so good to do what you tell me …”

Chloe exhaled. “Hoo boy. Uh, good girl. I’ll be right back. Kenzie!!”

Whatever Chloe wants … Chloe gets

As soon as she was gone, Lydia moved in to pinch Helen’s nipple. Helen gently moved her hand away and, as she opened her mouth, another knock came from the front door.

“We gotta do something about Dave!” Helen hissed to her sister.

“Is that who that is?” Lydia ran to the picture window and looked out, not trying to cover herself. “It is!! It’s your ex! And … Ooh, he grew a beard!” She cocked her head, running her tongue over her lips. “You know, that’s working on him …”

“Hi Dave!!!” Helen trilled, through the door. “The kids will be with you in a minute!! They’re just getting themselves together!”

“Sorry I wasn’t here earlier,” he called. “Some … stuff came up.”

Normally, Helen would have been pissed at his cavalier attitude about when he showed up to spend time with their children, but today she couldn’t access negative emotions, it seemed like … or be cross at any man for any reason. “No big deal! It’s been a weird day around here!!” She giggled, looking at her sister’s curvy, luscious form. “Some stuff came up for me too!”

He knocked again, a solid pound-pound-pound. “Can you let me in?”

Lydia bounced over to her, taking her sister’s hands in hers. “What do we do?”

“Helen! Let me in!!”

A shudder ran through Helen’s body, and her nipples stiffened.

“Weellll … the best way to stall him is to let him in. Right? Then we’re obeying both Chloe and Dave. And … and if I have to leave *you* alone … what a great time for us both to pay attention to *him*!”

Lydia gave a breathy little squeal. “That’s so hot that you figured that out!!” She kissed her passionately, her arms going around Helen’s still-slender waist, and Helen went along with it for a moment before pushing her gently away.

“Nuh-nuh-nuh …” she gasped …

Meanwhile, Dave was getting real tired of standing on the porch. He was just reaching into the pocket of his jeans to grab his phone and text the girls when he heard the door lock click.

“About time,” he muttered. Aloud, he said, “Is everything Ohhhh …”

His nearly-ex-wife stood in the doorway, gloriously, shamelessly nude in the afternoon sunlight. She had never been more breathtakingly beautiful. She seemed to glow. A flush colored her chest and her cheeks, and her wide smile and lidded eyes sent a shock straight to his libido.

“Come in,” she breathed. “Please.”

She took his hand and he stepped slowly over the threshold, in a daze. There was some kind of music playing, but he barely registered the tune.

He stopped dead at the sight of his hot sister-in-law reclining on the couch, also, spectacularly, perfectly nude. Behind him, he was aware of Helen closing and locking the front door.

Lydia rose gracefully and glided to him, her eyes seductive, as Helen reached around him from behind and began unbuttoning his shirt. He could feel her warm bare breasts pressing into his back. Lydia’s hands touched the fur on his chest as she looked up at him, then slowly, never breaking eye contact, began to kneel.

“Ohhh … Fuck me,” he whispered in disbelief as she took hold of his zipper, already massaging his hardening cock through his jeans.

Helen’s breath was hot on his ear. “I’m choosing to take that as a command,” she murmured …

[hotchscotchh]

Reimained; Chapter 7 - Chad Brown

Hey y’all! I’m sorry this took so long to get out, I needed a little break from being so serious. This chapter is much less serious than previous ones. Anyway, I posted two other oneshots in the meantime, one hotchreid and one moreid. They’re posted in my masterlist which you can find in my pinned post! I hope you enjoy this chapter <3

Summary: Aaron and Spencer are surprisingly close in the aftermath of the anthrax case and some of the team begins to suspect their recently found friendship might be something more.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Spencer Reid

Warnings: Mentions of poison, hospital setting

Word count: 2k

Read on AO3

Chapter 6 --- Chapter 8

Based on 4x24 Amplification

The team had been sitting with Reid in shifts, unwilling to let him wake up alone in a hospital room, but still needing to get back to the local precinct and get their paperwork wrapped up. Morgan ended up being the lucky one that got to see him wake up for the first time. Morgan couldn’t help the intense wave of relief that washed over him at the sight of Spencer Reid’s eyes opening. He also couldn’t help the laugh he let out when the kid’s first barely understandable words were to ask for Jell-o. After their small interaction, Spencer asked Moran to call Hotch, saying he knew Hotch would want to know as soon as he woke up. Morgan was surprised by that; Spencer had never said anything like that when waking up in the hospital before. Obviously, their supervisor needed to know that he was awake, but Derek couldn’t help but be surprised that Spencer asked for it.

Morgan was even more surprised when Hotch turned up way faster than he should’ve. He wondered how many traffic laws the man had to have broken to get there that fast. Hotch ordered Morgan back to the police station, saying he would take the rest of Morgan’s shift and the next, which was already his. Morgan tried to fight him on this but was immediately silenced by the Hotchner Glare™. He was confused by the interaction the entire way back to the police station but placed it in the back of his mind to think about later. They needed to get the paperwork done so they could all be with Spencer.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Hotch was holding Reid’s hand and very close to tears.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I let this hap-”

“Aaron, please don’t take this the wrong way, but shut the hell up. This was in no way your fault. I knew there was a possibility of something being in that room and I went anyway. You weren’t even there.” Reid finished his rant by bringing Aaron’s hand up to his mouth and giving it a small kiss. “I’m fine. For the most part. But I do need water, my throat is really scratchy.”

“Of course, Spence, anything,” Aaron said, standing up and rushing out of the room to find water.  

While he was gone, Spencer pressed the call nurse button on his bedside remote. He figured they should probably know he was awake, and he needed to know if he had been given narcotics. He knew the antidote had been administered soon enough to have prevented cuts in his skin and it was unlikely that he had been given pain medicine at all, but he needed to know. He didn’t feel high, so that was a good sign, but it didn’t really mean anything at the moment.

The nurse came into the room at the same time that Aaron returned with his water.

“Hi Spencer, I’m glad to see you awake. My name is Maria, I’m one of the nurses on duty for the next few hours. If you need anything, just press your call button and myself or one of my colleagues will be back to assist you as soon as possible. Dr. Kimura will be back to see you as soon as she can. How are you feeling?” the nurse asked.

“Fine, my throat is scratchy but that’s to be expected after being unconscious. Aaron already got some water for me. I know it’s unlikely that I was administered any pain medication, but I need confirmation that I was not given any narcotics,” Spencer replied, slightly winded as he had said it all in one breath, wanting to get the question out as quickly as possible.

“Of course, sir,” the nurse said with a smile. “Let me check your chart.” After a brief, but tense, pause, the nurse turned back to him and said, “As far as I can tell, you weren’t given any medication other than the antidote for the poison you ingested, but Dr. Kimura will confirm that when she comes to see you. Now, is there anything else that I can do for you? A dinner tray will be sent up in about half an hour.”

“I just have one question,” Spencer said, the tension draining from the air. “Can I shower?”

That made both Maria and Aaron laugh. Spencer had almost forgotten the man was standing there and jumped at the sound of his voice. “Absolutely, but you’ll need help. Let me just get this I.V. out. You’ve been given a liter of fluid, but as long as you keep drinking you should be okay without it.”

Spencer nodded, even more relieved now. “Good thing you’re here instead of Morgan, Aaron. Let’s do this now, I’m sure the team will be here soon.”

Maria smiled again, looking between the pair, and left the room. Aaron helped Spencer drink some water before assisting him out of the bed. Spencer was glad the nurse had warned him he’d need help. His knees buckled under his weight, but since they had been warned, Aaron was there to hold him up. “I don’t think I can walk there, Aaron. My legs are too shaky.”

“Of course, Spence,” Aaron said, snaking an arm under Spencer’s and bending down to hook the other around the bend in Spencer’s knees. He straightened up with the man in his arms and Spencer wrapped his own around Aaron’s neck, burying his face there too.

“Do you have any idea how disappointing it was to see Morgan sitting there instead of you when I woke up?” Spencer said, teasingly, his voice muffled by Aaron’s shoulder.

Aaron chuckled. “I’m sorry, hon, but the team insisted on taking shifts waiting for you to wake up. It would’ve been suspicious if I pushed staying. I think Dave is starting to suspect something anyway.”

“Of course he is,” Spencer answered with a weak laugh.

Aaron gently set him on his feet in front of the sink in the bathroom. He opened the curtain and found some travel sized shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and a chair sat in the middle. “Do you want to sit in the chair or would you rather I helped you stand?”

“Do you mind heling me stand? I’ll be able to wash my hair better that way,” Spencer replied, almost shyly.

“Do you think I would have offered if I didn’t want to, Spence,” Aaron shot back, humor in his voice.

Spencer ducked his head and made quick work of undoing the ties on his hospital gown, letting it fall to the floor and finding he had nothing on underneath, while Aaron turned the water on and adjusted the temperature. He reached out to grab Aaron’s arm and let himself be guided into the shower. He had a little difficulty getting over the lip on the edge, but they figured it out without incident. Aaron closed the curtain most of the way and turned around, leaving his arm available for Spencer to grab, in an effort to give the man some semblance of privacy.

It took Spencer longer than normal to clean himself, given his lethargic state, but when Aaron heard the water tun off he opened the curtain again and unfolded a towel to hold out for him. Spencer dried himself off and Aaron guided him to sit down on the toilet. Aaron went back to the main part of the hospital room to get some clothes for Spencer so he wouldn’t have to put the hospital gown back on, only to find Dr. Kimura waiting for him there.

“Hello, Agent Hotchner, I have a fresh gown here for Spencer. I’d love to let him put his regular clothes on, but we need to do one more x-ray of his lungs to make sure the antidote worked fully,” the woman said. She gestured to the wheelchair next to her that had a gown sitting in it. “I thought this might make it a little easier. Maria tells me he is very weak.”

“He is, thank you,” Aaron responded. “I’ll get him dressed. It’ll only be a few minutes.” Dr. Kimura nodded and turned back to what she was working on. Aaron took hold of the wheelchair and maneuvered it into the bathroom, only to find Spencer half asleep on the toilet. “Spence,” he whispered, hoping to startle the man as little as possible.

Spencer jumped. “Aaron! You scared me. What’s that for?”

“Dr. Kimura brought it for you. I was going to get regular clothes for you, but they need to do one more x-ray of your lungs.”

Spencer nodded and reached for the gown. Aaron handed it over and had settled leaning against the sink when his phone chimed. He took it out and quickly read over the text that had come from JJ. “The rest of the team is going to be here in about fifteen minutes. They just finished.”

Spencer just nodded again. He looked thoroughly exhausted. “Let’s get you in this wheelchair and out to the x-ray so you can get back here and rest.”

----

Half an hour later, the team and Spencer’s dinner tray had arrived (Aaron had requested extra Jell-o, obviously) and they were just waiting on Spencer to come back from his x-ray. The door opened and conversation stopped. Dr. Kimura wheeled Spencer in and the man looked like he was about to fall asleep. He looked up at the team and gave a small smile. “Hey, guys.”

JJ stepped up first, leaning down to give him a brief hug. “Hey, Spence, I’m so glad you’re okay.”  There was a chorus of agreement following that statement.

“Let’s get you into bed and fed so you can get some sleep, Reid,” Hotch said, slipping back into his unit chief persona. Spencer looked at him for a few moments, confused by the use of his last name, before remembering why and nodding.

Morgan immediately moved to help him, and Hotch let him. Once Spencer was seated and comfortable, his dinner tray was brought over, and Dr. Kimura started speaking. “Okay, Dr. Reid. Your x-ray looked great. You can expect shortness of breath for a week or two, but I’m not noticing any lasting affects of aphasia or any other cognitive abilities. I can also confirm that you were not given any narcotics.”

Reid nodded and mumbled a “thank you” around a mouthful of food. Dr. Kimura gave a smile and a wave and backed out of the room.

Emily spoke up once she had left. “Well, I think it would be best if we all headed back to the hotel and let our strong doctor here get some sleep. Did you want someone to stay with you, Spencer?”

Spencer looked up and yawned before turning to Hotch and nodding his way. “Please?”

“Of course, Reid. You guys go ahead back to the hotel. We’ll be okay here.”

In the past weeks, they team had noticed the pair getting closer. They had assumed it was just as friends, but after that request if had a few of them (Morgan, Rossi, and Prentiss) wondering if it wasn’t more. Usually, Reid would’ve asked for Morgan or JJ to stay with him, they never expected him to ask for Hotch.

But they went with it, leaving the two in the hotel room to get at least a sorry excuse for rest.

As soon as Aaron finished ushering the team out of the room, Spencer reached for him and quietly requested “lay with me?” Aaron nodded and made his way over to lay next to Spencer, pulling the man close to his chest. Sleep took over both of them easily that night.

Taglist: @wheelsup​ @endingsbeginnings​

[hello-thefatlosshabit-blr]

 “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they’ll eventually conquer you.” – Rob Gilbert

This week’s challenge is to identify ONE bad habit and replace it. Everyone has bad habits because we are both emotional and logical beings. Bad habits exist because we rationalize the behavior with fallacious logic. For example, a person that is drowning in debt will rationalize another purchase they cannot afford with the old standby, “what the hell, I’ll never get out of debt anyway.”

Somehow this logic makes sense to us, but could you imagine Spock from Star Trek saying that, or even budgeting expert Dave Ramsey saying it? Of course not. That is the erroneous logic that created this person’s crisis in the first place. Most crises are an accumulation of bad decisions. Rarely is it one gigantic error in judgment.Most crises in our life are the result of bad habits. Repeating the same bad decisions until their effects can no longer be dismissed or ignored. The results of bad habits aren’t immediate, so we don’t equate them with the future disaster they will bring about. Habits, good or bad, compound over time; that is why they shape our lives. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” Confucius

Bad habits are easy to form if you aren’t mindful of your decisions and patterns of behavior. At the most fundamental level, PAIN and PLEASURE are the two forces that steer our decisions.  Every motive can be boiled down as an effort to avoid pain or seek pleasure. Our desire to avoid pain is powerful, even more, powerful than our desire to seek pleasure because it is more closely linked to our survival.

Knowing our desire to avoid pain is greater than our desire to seek pleasure can help us to break a bad habit. The reason bad habits form and persist is that we are linking the behavior to the PLEASURE it provides, and not the PAIN of its long-term consequences. Creating a strong linkage of pain with the behavior can help you to end the bad habit.

Negative is natural. It isn’t good, but it is normal. Weeds don’t have to be nurtured. In the absence of light, there is darkness. In the absence of diligence, neglect will pervade. Bad habits form naturally, without any effort. The linkages of pleasure to the behavior form unconsciously.

Diligence isn’t required to link eating a piece of cheesecake to the delight it brings to our taste buds. We don’t have to try to link pleasure to purchase a new tech toy we cannot afford. No, these linkages form naturally. They aren’t good, but they sure feel good, and they are so easy to do.

Interrupting a bad habit requires us to change our opinion of it. We must see it as a problem. We have to link it to the pain it is causing us. We are logical beings. We don’t like when our behaviors and attitudes are misaligned. It causes us emotional distress. The mental state of having inconsistent attitudes and behaviors is called cognitive dissonance.

Our minds seek to reduce the conflict and minimize our discomfort. We have three options for minimizing this conflict between our attitudes and behaviors. The first is to change our attitude. The second is to change our behavior. The third and most effective method is to change both.

Bad habits are natural. They are easy to form, and they usually don’t produce any immediate ill effects. It is easier to change our attitude toward a bad habit than to change our behavior because it doesn’t require any sacrifice. It allows us to continue to indulge in the instant gratification it produces. No sacrifice is required. All that is required to continue the behavior is a flawed rationalization to ourselves; a flimsy excuse.

A lazy worker will excuse their poor performance by saying, they don’t pay me enough to work that hard. They will do just enough to avoid getting fired. They will think themselves clever for getting the most benefit from the least amount of effort. This poor attitude will produce poor results over the course of their career. This poor attitude is born from a lack of gratitude.

Obviously, breaking a bad habit requires us to change our behavior, but we can make the process easier by also changing our attitude towards it. If we can linkPAINto the behavior, it will not feel like a sacrifice. The stronger we can link the harmful effects it’s having on our lives, the easier it will be to give up.

In the example I have provided, the worker could more easily change his behavior by changing his attitude toward doing the minimum. If he associated his poor attitude to poor results, he could more easily improve his attitude. If he equated doing the least amount of work with poor economic results, it would help him change his behavior. The key is linking the long-term effects with the behavior, instead of the immediate gratification. “Do more than you are being paid to do, and you’ll eventually be paid more for what you do.” Zig Ziglar

When we neglect to exert control over the linkages between our actions and outcomes, which are constantly being formed, we allow them to form on their own, at the subconscious level. At that cognitive level, the linkages are always made based on the immediate results they produce, and not the long-term results produced.

Our greatest gift as human beings is our ability to link long-term results to our short-term behaviors. When we fail to make these connections, we are not operating at the highest level of our existence. We are essentially operating at the same level as the animals.

Bad habits are natural. That is why everyone has a few. In the absence of diligence, the weeds move it and take over, but weeds cannot stand up to diligence. The longer the weeds grow, the deeper their roots will be, more determined we must be to rip them out, roots and all. If we don’t change our attitude toward the behavior, it is like leaving the roots under the surface to grow again once we let our guard down.

We must see that bad habit as the problem it really is. In this example, he must make the linkage of pain to that bad attitude as strong as possible. Lasting change requires that we change not only our behavior but our attitude toward the old behavior. In this example, he must equate minimal effort to holding his career back and hurting his family’s long-term economic prosperity. To reinforce the new behavior of doing more than he is paid for, he needs to equate it to new opportunities to advance his career. He must believe a better attitude will produce better results.

Bad habits and bad attitudes are normal. They aren’t beneficial, but they are normal. Cultivating a great attitude and productive habits require discipline and effort. They don’t happen by accident; progress is always intentional. Great achievements are never accidental. They are the results of diligent effort over time.

On the weekends, I typically indulge in a drink or two, but a year ago I developed the habit of drinking every night. It began with me having a drink after a particularly long stressful day at work, then it progressed to an everyday occurrence. What was once a weekend ritual became a nightly one.

HABIT LOOP

Clock image by The Clear Communication

At the core of all habits is a neurological loop consisting of three components: a CUE, a ROUTINE, and a REWARD. The cue, in this case, was me arriving home after work, tired and stressed. The routine was drinking a cold refreshing alcoholic beverage. The reward was a sense of relaxation.

When you are trying to break a bad habit, it is always a great idea to let supportive friends and family know what you are trying to do. Not only will they provide a layer of accountability and encouragement, often they can help you formulate a plan. We lack objectivity when we are solving our own problems.

My beautiful wife asked me why I drank. I told her that it helped me to relax and I enjoyed the cold refreshing beverage after a long day. She suggested that I substitute the alcoholic beverage for some Topo Chico with a slice of lime. The calorie-free mineral water would give me the sensation I was craving without the unwanted alcohol and empty calories. An additional benefit was waking hydrated, instead of slightly dehydrated from the previous night’s drinking.

Substitution is a very effective way of breaking a bad habit. Typically, the cue, in this example, me arriving home isn’t something we can change, but my routine can be. We cannot always control the cues and events in our lives, but we can always decide what they mean and how we will react to them.

The most effective substitutions are those that provide similar rewards. In this example, the Topo Chico provided a cool refreshing sensation that helped me to unwind after a stressful day of responding to the numerous demands of my job. If you don’t have someone to help you solve your problem, I recommend you brainstorm on a piece of paper. Jot down the cue, routine, and reward associated with the bad habit. Then determine what new routine can provide some of the same benefits that the bad behavior provided.

Another technique you can use is shaping your environment. In this example, eliminating alcohol from our home would have eliminated the temptation of drinking. I didn’t choose that option, but I did shape my environment by ensuring I always had lime and a couple of cold bottles of Topo Chico in the refrigerator.

Perhaps you want to replace the habit of staying up late watchingTVwith nightly reading. You could shape your environment by setting-up an ideal area to readin. Ensuring that you always have a great book, adequate lighting, a bookmarker, a highlighter, and your journal to capture your notes in would foster the new behavior.

With a little imagination, you should be able to figure out how you can interrupt a bad habit and replace it with a good one. It isn’t difficult, but it does require effort and diligence. It is easy to do, but what is easy to do is even easier to neglect. Neglect is normal. Bad habits are normal. Success isn’t common. Jim Rohn like to say “success is doing what the failures won’t do.”

Reading this can potentially change your life, but knowledge isn’t power. Knowledge is potential power. Application of knowledge is power. Execution produces results. Ideation without execution is the beginning of delusion. Reading a great self-improvement book won’t change your life, but repeatedly applying what you have learned until you do it naturally will.

Thus far I have provided you with the tools, the mechanics of breaking a bad habit, but I haven’t addressed the Elephant in the room. In the New York Times bestselling book, The Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, the authors describe the struggle we all face when we make a change in behavior.

The struggle is between the logic driven part of our brain, the Rider, and the emotion-driven part of our brain, the Elephant. The Rider is weak and prone to overthinking things, becoming overwhelmed by decision fatigue and analysis paralysis. The Elephant, on the other hand, is powerful, fueled by emotions and primal urges.[i]

The Elephant can easily overwhelm the smaller Rider, especially when the Rider is uncertain of which direction to go. Having a plan and pre-deciding what you will do when the cue presents itself will prevent your Rider from hesitating, but you still need to motivate that Elephant.

The longer you have held the bad habit, the deeper its roots. Warren Buffett compares bad habits to chains to light to feel, until they are too heavy to break. But break them we must. Our success in life is determined by our ratio of good habits to bad habits. “Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” – Benjamin Franklin.

Interrupting a bad habit can be difficult, especially if you have had it for a long time. You must be mentally prepared for the struggle. It is like the military axiom, the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. The better prepared you are, the better you will do.

Logic and reason will only get you so far. If we aren’t doing what we know we should be doing, it is because our WHY isn’t inspiring. Our reason must be bigger than our excuses. All actions flow from the head to the heart to the hand. If our hands aren’t moving; if we aren’t doing what we need to do, it is because our heart isn’t in it.

Without urgency, desire has no pull. When we are put in a do or die situation, we tend to do. The problem with most people is that their WHY is so weak, that any excuse is enough to sabotage their progress. If we are trying to lose weight, we have to equate eating that junk food in the breakroom with pain. The pain of remaining trapped in a body we aren’t proud of. The extra 20 pounds we are carrying around. “The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit is to love something greater than the habit.” Bryant McGill.

Success is not one giant effort. It is a lot of small decisions made correctly. A powerful WHY will give you that little nudge you need to make the right decision, time after time until it becomes a habit. Eventually, it will become a lifestyle.

“If you know the why, you can live any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

Fortunately, after approximately two months, the new habit will be established. Maintaining the new habit will not require nearly the same amount of energy to sustain as it did to form. Motivation is most important when forming a habit, but I think it is important to understand that the herculean effort it takes to form the habit will not be the same effort required to sustain it.

Besides reconnecting with your WHY each day, listening to a motivational video each day can provide a real boost. Cynics will tell you that motivation doesn’t last, and they are correct, but what does? Perhaps we should stop brushing our teeth and showering. They don’t last either. Being a cynic is easy.

Being negative is easy. Don’t fall into that trap. If you make motivation a habit, you’ll become a more motivated person. Motivation is the most powerful catalyst for action. Energy is more important than intelligence. Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied. Keep your motivation tank topped off and start attacking each day with more drive a determination.

A fantastic video to get you started is Morning Motivation by Video Advice.

 Until next week, good luck!

Our success is based on our ratio of good habits to bad habits. Change your habits, change your life! 

[i] Chip Heath, and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Crown Business; 1st edition (February 16, 2010)

Learn more, Discipline & Procrastination are Habits, NOT Personality Traits

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"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. " -Benjamin Franklin  “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.” - Rob Gilbert…

[tefltraininginstitute]

Why Students Don't Like Language Class (With Dave Weller)

We discuss what we can apply to the language classroom from Daniel Willingham’s book “Why Don't Students Like School?”, with friend of the podcast (and fellow Daniel Willingham fan), Dave Weller.

Why Students Don’t Like Language Class (With Dave Weller) - Transcription

 Tracy Yu:  Welcome back to our podcast, everybody. We've got our favorite guest. Can you guess who he is?

Dave Weller:  Hurrah!

Tracy:  [laughs] Let's welcome Dave Weller. Hey, Dave.

Dave:  Hi.

Ross Thorburn:  What are we talking about today?

Dave:  I think we decided to do something almost akin to a book review on Daniel Willingham's book on cognitive psychology and neuroscience, "Why Students Don't Like School."

Ross:  We're going to try and apply what we read and what we remembered. We're going to go further outside taxonomy...

Dave:  Oh, no.

[laughter]

Ross:  ...and try and apply it to language teaching.

Dave:  The book is about neuroscientific principles. The blurb is, "A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom." He's picked nine very robust findings from the field of psychology. Now, I hope you've done your homework, and you've read the book as I have.

Ross:  I think it says a lot about us. Dave, for this, read the book twice. I read it once. Tracy read it...

Tracy:  The last 10 minutes.

[laughter]

Dave:  All it means is Tracy is a very fast reader.

Ross:  [laughs]

Dave:  What we decided when we set ourselves this challenge was that it'd be really interesting to take a book that was designed with general education in mind and see how well we could transfer the principles across to language teaching.

Ross:  Absolutely. We often comment that there's not enough taken from general education and applied to the field of language learning.

Dave:  Hopefully is we'll find out that a lot of the principles can equally apply in the language classroom as in normal classrooms.

Ross:  Great.

Dave:  Ross, one of the things I liked from his introduction was talking about why teachers are naturally skeptical of theory. There is a big gap between theory and practice. Even mental processes aren't isolated in the classroom, whereas they are in research.

A classic example he uses is that about drilling. In the lab where you isolate drilling and see the effect that it has on learning is wonderful. [laughs] The more you drill, the more you repeat, the more you learn.

However, any teacher that steps into a classroom knows if you drill your learners for an hour straight, the drop in motivation is not going to make up for the effectiveness of that technique in learning. This is why that he's taken a very teacher‑centered view of research and only picked principles he thinks can be used effectively in the classroom.

Ross:  Whatever you do read in a book, you're passing it through your own filter of what you think is going to be personally useful for you. A lot is going to get filtered out. How about for this podcast, we pick out some of the main principles?

He's got nine cognitive principles. They relate to things that happen in the classroom. How about we pick some of the most interesting ones? We can talk about how we feel language teachers might be able to apply those in their classes. Should we get started?

Tracy:  Yeah.

Dave:  With this one, the principle of that people are naturally curious, but they aren't naturally good thinkers. For me, when I read this, what struck me was how similar it is to the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, Lev Vygotsky idea.

He talks about oftentimes we think about what the answers are that we want our students to get. If we're trying to say, "What's the answer to this grammar question? There's a word that means this. What's the word?" We should be trying to engage them with the questions and leading them to the answer.

Ross:  He says, "It's the question that peaks people's interest. Being told the answer, it doesn't do anything for you." Have you seen "The Prestige" before?

Dave:  I've downloaded it. You asked me that the other night, but I haven't watched it yet.

Ross:  In The Prestige, they talk about this. As a magician, if you do a magic trick, people are amazed by it. As soon as you show them how to do the trick, people are completely unimpressed by it.

Dave:  Maybe, that's one of the reasons that task‑based learning or test‑teach‑test lessons can work well, is because you put this question at the beginning. You put the hardest part first, putting students into a position where it is difficult for them. It gets them to think about it.

It's the question that's interesting. Then it leads to the answer later on, whereas something like PBP, which we know gets a lot of bad press, doesn't put the question at the beginning.

Tracy:  That's something related to the teacher's role in the classroom. They're not just to spoon‑feeding the students. They have to make sure what kind of questions they can ask the students. They facilitate the learning.

You don't want to mix the prompting questions which scaffold student learning with guessing what's in my mind.

Dave:  Totally agree. Yes, it's a good example from real life, Tracy. One of the things to be careful with this one though is to be careful the questions you pose aren't too hard as well as grading your language, grading your instructions.

If you ask students a question and it's very specific, there's only one possible right answer, it's really difficult. They're beginner students, A1 level maybe, and you ask them, "So the past perfect continuous, when would you use this?" They immediately look up and go, "I don't know. There's no way I can know," and they immediately check out.

Daniel Willingham says, "Respect students' cognitive limits. Don't overload them with information. Don't make the instructions or grade your language too much," is how I would interpret that for TEFL. Also, "Make sure the questions you ask them are within their ability to answer."

Ross:  How about we move on to another principle, then? My personal favorite, and probably yours as well, Dave, is, "Memory is the residue of thoughts."

Dave:  No, I hate that one. Leave that one out.

[laughter]

Tracy:  Can you guys explain this a little bit?

Dave:  Yeah. From "Memory is a Residue of Thought," I think what Daniel Willingham is saying is that students remember what they think about. In your class, if they're thinking about your flashy warm‑up where you jumped up and down and screamed around like a monkey, then they're going to remember, "Hey, teacher screamed like a monkey today. That was really funny."

That's what they'll tell their parents. Whereas if they do a task where they have to figure something out and talk to their friend about the best way to negotiate with somebody or the best way to get to the train station, and they're using English to do that, then that's what they'll remember.

One of my biggest takeaways from the book is that he suggests that to review your lesson plan in terms of what the students will think about. Every task you have, every activity, every stage, put yourself in your learners' shoes, and imagine what they're going to think about as they're completing that.

My suggestion on top of that would be, "Do the same thing for the language use." Look at your lesson plan, or imagine it. Think about it from your learner's point of view. What language would you use to complete that task?

Ross:  Something else I found interesting, it was a quote from him. He said, "Fold practice into more advanced skills," which got me thinking. The way I would apply that to the language classroom is when your students advance a little bit...

Say they've moved up from present simple, and now they're doing past simple, just a cliched example. Instead of practicing just that skill of past simple, make sure they get a chance to use prior practice.

Make sure they get a chance to use the skills and recycle a language from previous classes. When they're practicing past simple, they're also integrating present simple and the other things and the other vocabulary that they have learned.

You don't just focus only on the target language for that particular lesson, but you bring in the other language that you used previously. I find a lot of teachers don't do that. They're so focused on the target language for that one lesson, they forget the previous lessons.

Ross:  That might be one of the reasons why extensive reading works so well, is because all of the forms and grammar that you might have learned previously are all going to be recycled in natural stories.

That's maybe why also genuine tasks where you don't prescribe the language for the students to use in some sort of prior practice can also be beneficial because students will get to bring in language that they've used from previous lessons.

For teachers, if you're using a great textbook that automatically recycles or has in it recycled language from previous units, that's great. Even if you don't, you can just pause in lessons and say, "What is there from previous lessons that we've learned that you could also use in this task or in this activity that could help you," and think about that when you're planning as well.

Before we finish, I wanted to talk about the very last chapter of the book which is about helping teachers improve. He makes this nice distinction between experience and practicing. Teaching, like any other complex skill, must be practiced to be improved.

It reminds me, I think the same author Rubinstein, the pianist, says something like, "I play the piano for nine hours a day, but I only practice for one." There's a nice difference there between what you're actually doing and then when you're making a deliberate effort to get better.

One of the things is that teachers are very busy. It's very easy for all of your classes to just go by in a whirlwind, but if you can find the occasional class or the occasional thing to work on for an hour a week, in the long term, that can improve your teaching.

Dave:  Actually, he suggests a good method, which I'm very eager to adopt. To find another teacher he wants to improve, he says, "Perhaps watch a video of another teacher teach and comment together jointly on that so you gain each other's kind of levels and things you talk about."

After you've done that almost bonding experience, then film yourself and swap it with the other person so then they comment on yours. Of course, be nice.

Ross:  A couple of other points on that. He says, "When you video yourself, spend time observing. Don't start by critiquing."

Dave:  I remember the first time I videoed myself or saw myself teaching. I was amazed at how many unconscious habits I had. I presented myself entirely differently than the way I thought I did. It's almost like watching a stranger teach.

It was that difference in my expectation. The image I had in my head of myself teaching was clearly very different to that. You can only see that if you have that visceral experience, when you see yourself teach.

Ross:  The purpose of watching your partner teach is to help them reflect on their practice. Often, when people do peer observations, it's so easy to just say, "Oh, you did this wrong. You need to change this. This didn't work," but the purpose of it isn't to just throw out a few quick fixes. It's to get the person to engage in their own teaching and reflect.

Tracy:  Sometimes, I don't blame the teachers. Their experience is like that because they have been criticized from day one. Even if they did something nicely, still their trainer or their manager will just pick the area that they didn't do very well.

Also, for a positive reinforcement, people are more likely to change their behavior if you tell them what they did really well. Then they could keep working on it rather than just starting from the negative aspects, and then you didn't do it very well.

I don't blame the teacher sometimes because that's what they were told. That's how they train. That's how they experience. That requires the trainers to understand how to balance it and how you demonstrate this to your teachers from day one.

Dave:  Totally correct. I think you've hit the nail on the head there, Trace, by saying what would change the behavior of the teacher, because they can't. You need to take the tack if the teaching is very directed feedback and that will work, then do that.

If they're unconfident, nervous, anxious, you need to tell them what they've been doing right as well. Don't change everything. Keep what good they have been doing and then tweak a little bit.

Ross:  If you've been convinced at all by the last 14 minutes that this book would be useful, it's by Daniel T. Willingham. It's called Why Students Don't Like School. It's subtitled "A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means to the classroom." I highly recommend it.

Also, since we're on the topic of books and you're about to plan a lesson, I highly recommend...

[laughter]

Tracy:  Wow, good. Nice segue.

Ross:  ..."Lesson Planning for Language Teachers ‑‑ Evidence‑Based Techniques for Busy Teachers" by...

Tracy:  By Dave Weller. Congratulations, Dave.

Dave:  Thank you.

Tracy:  Hope you guys enjoyed the podcast. See you next time.

[googlenewson]

Elon Musk has made plenty of claims about Neuralink, his brain-machine interface company. On Twitter and on podcasts, the billionaire has touted abilities that sound nothing short of miraculous: easing depression, helping with obsessive compulsive disorder and treating traumatic brain injuries.

Now, Neuralink, whose work has largely been shrouded in secrecy, is set to give a public “progress update” on Friday.

In the run-up to the big reveal, Musk has allowed some glimpses at the company’s technology. An early look came a year ago, when the Neuralink team showed off tiny electrodes on thin, flexible probes they said would be able to penetrate brain tissue with minimal damage, and ultimately help restore brain function to people with traumatic brain injuries. The team has already been placing them in rats and primates.

Will the devices actually be able to achieve the breakthroughs Musk says they can? Here’s a rundown of what we know so far about Musk’s startup—the most recent claims, the technology, and what neuroscientists say is actually possible.

Claim: Neuralink will soon be able to implant its technology in humans

On May 7, Musk appeared on the popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, and made a distinctive claim about Neuralink: The startup would “be able to implant a neural link in less than a year in a person, I think.”

The prediction is not actually as groundbreaking as it might sound. Musk was describing a procedure that happens fairly routinely to treat conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s, despite potentially fatal risks such as brain hemorrhages.

Justin Sanchez, who helped fund research done by Neuralink scientists when he ran the biological technologies office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, estimates that about 200,000 people globally have some sort of neurotechnology implanted in their brain. In fact, the technology is so well developed at this point that the Battelle Memorial Institute, where Sanchez is a fellow, has developed a neurotechnology-based non-implanted device aimed at nothing more grandiose than helping people improve their golf swings.

The other important element of Musk’s statement was that Neuralink is on track for human trials by next year. To test so quickly in humans, the company would need to get an exemption from the normal multi-year regulatory process from the Food and Drug Administration. That may be possible—other brain implants have received exemptions. But Neuralink’s device could face additional challenges.

Currently, the company uses flexible polymers, which are unlikely to last a decade in the human body—the minimum timeframe the FDA likes to see in medical devices that can’t easily be removed. “If you want to test whether something can last 10 years, you really have to wait 10 years,” says Matt Angle, chief executive of Paradromics Inc., an Austin, Texas-based brain-machine interface company.

A report in health news site Stat News this week detailed internal tensions at Neuralink, citing former employees who said the company culture could be chaotic and that it quickly cycled through scientific talent. According to two anonymous former employees, it had explored possibly by passing the U.S. regulatory process by pursuing human trials in China or Russia.

Claim: Neuralink devices will be able to treat addiction and depression

On July 10, Musk took to Twitter with another notable statement. A Twitter user asked Musk if Neuralink could be used to retrain the part of the brain that causes addiction and depression. Musk replied, “For sure. This is both great & terrifying.”

Neuroscientists agree that placing electrodes in the brain could help mitigate those conditions. In fact, researchers beyond Neuralink are working on it now, including Alik Widge, a psychiatrist and biomedical engineer at the University of Minnesota. The treatment involves applying electrodes to a spot in the brain called the internal capsule, and works by stimulating connections to the prefrontal cortex to improve cognitive functions such as perception and judgment. About 200 patients worldwide have tried the technique for depression, Widge said. 

In several countries opioid addicts have had electrodes implanted into the areas of the brain that control addiction. That includes the U.S., where a West Virginia man underwent the procedure late last year at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. He has abstained from opioids since, a spokeswoman said. A second opioid patient underwent the same surgery earlier this month.

While there are hurdles to wide adoption, there is no reason Neuralink couldn’t push into these areas in the future. In a 2018 review of studies of deep brain stimulation and its effects on depression, scientists said the results “showed promise” but the technique remained experimental. “The psychiatrists I talk with say that they want to see much stronger efficacy data,” Widge said.

Claim: The startup will be able to mitigate conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder

On July 18, a Twitter user asked if Neuralink could help patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and if it could stimulate the release of oxytocin, serotonin and other chemicals. Musk replied simply, “Yes.”

Programs around the country already do this, so it’s plausible that Neuralink could one day achieve the same, experts said. However, scientists’ grasp on exactly how the technology works is still evolving. “We just have the understanding of bits and pieces,” said Rachel Davis, director of OCD and neuromodulation programs at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, which is working on the technology.

Many scientists see big potential here, mainly because existing drugs often fall short when it comes to OCD and related conditions. “The next big wave for these stimulation technologies is going to be mood,” said Dave Rosa, CEO of NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corp.

Claim: Neuralink could “solve” brain injuries, and treat conditions like autism and ALS

On July 18, responding to Musk’s call for job applicants who wanted to help “solve” brain and spinal injuries, a Twitter user asked if Neuralink could also help disabled people living with injuries, autism and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Musk replied it had that potential.

Deep brain stimulation, or treatment via electrodes implanted into the brain, is already used for traumatic brain injuries. Many patients have already undergone the procedure with promising results. Encouraging signs are also emerging that such technologies could help address autism. Implanting electrodes in the brains of autistic people has helped improve symptoms in many cases.

Treating ALS, however, may be more difficult. Vikash Gilja, a former Neuralink employee who now teaches at the University of California, San Diego and runs a translational neural engineering research lab there, says that would be a tough disease to combat with brain-machine interfaces, because it affects such broad areas of the brain. “We’re more likely to see pharmaceutical treatments for that,” Gilja said. 

Claim: The company will be able to stream music directly into people’s brains

On July 19, a Twitter user asked if someone with a Neuralink implant would be able to stream music “directly from our chips,” calling it a “great feature.” Again, Musk replied with a simple “Yes.”

While it sounds far-fetched, neuroscientists say this feature wouldn’t differ markedly from existing technology. “That’s very technically feasible,” says Angle of Paradromics. “The auditory pathway is very well mapped.”

Some in the scientific community have watched the company’s promises warily, fearing that they might prompt afflicted people to delay necessary procedures. “One issue that has come up time and time again is the ethics around creating false hope” around unknown timelines, said Gilja, the UCSD professor and former Neuralink employee. “Creating hope in a patient population can be a good thing, but it can be a negative if a patient is trying to determine whether to get treated.” They may believe a better solution lies in the near future, when in fact it could be years out.

Musk doesn’t claim that Neuralink can do everything. Over the years, he has ignored questions ranging from the creepy (such as whether it will facilitate head transplants) to the quotidian (such as whether it will help with balance). “What will Neuralink do for the culinary arts?” asked one tweeter. Musk’s answer: silence.

More must-read tech coverage from Fortune:

By one key measure of tech prowess, the U.S. ranks dead last

Gamers, get ready: Nintendo’s Switch should be available again soon. But maybe not for long

Why Apple let WordPress walk but continues to fight Fortnite’s Epic Games

50 new planets, including one as big as Neptune, are identified using A.I.

How Cessna made history by taking off and landing with no one aboard

from Fortune https://ift.tt/2YXtqnZ

[kristablogs]

Inhaling pure oxygen could keep your brain younger for longer

Subjects take part in hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Florida. Many showed increased cognitive response after a three-month trial. (The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research/)

No matter how much retinol cream and hair dye we slather on our faces and roots, we’ll all succumb to age eventually. There’s no cure for it, and it’s much more than skin-deep—aging takes a severe toll on our neurological well-being. Although biologists recently discovered how to reprogram the molecular processes of aging in yeast cells, we haven’t yet cracked the mysteries behind aging in the human brain. Nearly 16 million people in the US struggle with cognitive impairment, a debilitating condition that eventually robs individuals of their independence by chipping away at their memory, motor functions, and ability to concentrate or learn.

But neuroscientists in Israel are trying to turn back the biological clock with one simple ingredient: oxygen. Shai Efrati, a physician and director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at the Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Israel, has developed a new type of hyperbaric oxygen therapy that increases blood flow in the brain to prevent declining cognitive function in the brains of healthy, older adults. His team’s results were published in the journal Aging this month.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing in pure, highly concentrated, oxygen in a pressurized chamber for a long duration, allowing a person’s lungs to collect three times the normal amount of oxygen from air. With elevated blood-oxygen levels, body tissues supposedly heal at increased rates by stimulating the formation of new vessels at sites of injury. Historically, doctors have used the therapy to treat carbon monoxide poisoning, skin burns, traumatic brain injuries caused by strokes, and gas embolism, a condition that impacts deep-sea divers when nitrogen bubbles form in the circulatory system. More recently, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been advertised as an all-encompassing treatment for many diseases—though the FDA emphasizes that the therapy hasn’t been clinically proven to treat cancer, diabetes, and autism.

In this recent study, Efrati tested the therapy on normally aging adults without preexisting conditions to improve their cognitive function. For three months, 63 adults aged 65 and older spent five days a week, two hours a day in a pressurized chamber, breathing in concentrated oxygen at levels 1,500 times higher than that in the atmosphere. By the end of the study, Efrati discovered that blood flow in the brain increased. Frequent cognitive assessments also revealed that patients scored much higher on attention and information-processing speed tests than prior to the experiment.

The study results showed an uptick in blood flow and oxygen levels in certain regions after the hyperbaric oxygen therapy. (The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research/)

Here’s how the researchers say it works. By dramatically raising blood-oxygen levels in aging patients, Efrati harnessed oxidative stress to prompt some brain cells to go into survivalist mode. Oxygen atoms are free radicals—at concentrated amounts, they scour the body, damaging DNA, cells, and proteins in a phenomenon called oxidative stress. “These short periods of high oxygen actually impose a mild beneficial stress on cells in the brain,” says Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. This pressure might promote neurogenesis, a process in which stem cells form new neurons and brain cells, essentially making the central processing unit look and run “younger.” Exercise and intermittent fasting invoke similar reactions in the brain, Mattson says, without extreme adverse impacts.

It’s not just about raising oxygen levels, however: Fluctuation is also key. During the study, Efrati instructed patients to keep oxygen masks on for 20 minutes, then remove them for five-minute breaks. “You put the mask on and breathe 100 percent oxygen,” says Alexander Alvarez, a physician at Aviv Clinics, who administers hyperbaric oxygen therapy. “Then, when you take off the mask, the body thinks it’s in trouble.”

Patients must spend at least two hours, five days a week in the oxygenation chamber at Aviv Clinics. (Dave Globig/)

Efrati thinks that stress caused by fluctuating oxygen levels in the blood might stimulate stem cell growth. But this chain of events hasn’t been scientifically proven yet, says Uri Ashery, a professor of neuroscience at the Sagol School of Neuroscience in Israel. “The mechanisms behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy are unknown,” he notes. When asked if increased blood flow means more brain activity, as indicated in the study, Ashery also hesitated. “Not necessarily,” he says. “It can allow the brain to be more active since it brings in new oxygen. But it doesn’t always mean the brain is more active.”

But what about the patients’ high scores on cognitive assessments after the treatment? While there’s no direct evidence of stem cell proliferation, the study participants exhibited better short term memory, longer attention spans, and the ability to process information at faster speeds than before. Cognitive performance peaked after 20 treatments, Alvarez says, and remained elevated six months after therapy. It did drop off eventually—and scientists still aren’t sure how long the effects last. The treatment doesn’t last forever, Ashery explains, and its longevity depends on each individual’s genetics and lifestyle.

Despite those caveats, the waiting list for the hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the Florida-based company Aviv Clinics is already starting to grow, says CEO Dave Globig. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, adults 55 years of age and older have been scrambling to get appointments since the treatment was first rolled out in mid-June. While most clients come from the Villages, a sprawling retirement community that hems the clinic, Globig anticipates taking on patients coming from all over the world. Each treatment package costs $60,000 and spans sixty days, requiring individuals to commute to the clinic five times a week for two-hour sessions.

After their 60 days are up, patients will continue to be monitored with a wearable medical device. If their cardiovascular or cognitive health declines, they’ll be invited back for a physical test and perhaps another round of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Alvarez says.

Ashery hopes that one day the treatment might be popularized enough that it becomes accessible for more populations. “This is something that the government could invest in,” he says. “The scientific and medical communities show that it is quite helpful and prevents a lot of care later on, so this could easily become part of our regular treatment for older adults.”

Efrati, meanwhile, dreams of an aging community that’s completely independent and well-functioning. Longevity isn’t enough—a high quality of life is what these neuroscientists strive for. “We will all die someday,” Efrati says. “But we want to die when we are functioning. We want to go down with our heads up, not when we are debilitated.”

[scootoaster]

Inhaling pure oxygen could keep your brain younger for longer

Subjects take part in hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Florida. Many showed increased cognitive response after a three-month trial. (The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research/)

No matter how much retinol cream and hair dye we slather on our faces and roots, we’ll all succumb to age eventually. There’s no cure for it, and it’s much more than skin-deep—aging takes a severe toll on our neurological well-being. Although biologists recently discovered how to reprogram the molecular processes of aging in yeast cells, we haven’t yet cracked the mysteries behind aging in the human brain. Nearly 16 million people in the US struggle with cognitive impairment, a debilitating condition that eventually robs individuals of their independence by chipping away at their memory, motor functions, and ability to concentrate or learn.

But neuroscientists in Israel are trying to turn back the biological clock with one simple ingredient: oxygen. Shai Efrati, a physician and director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at the Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Israel, has developed a new type of hyperbaric oxygen therapy that increases blood flow in the brain to prevent declining cognitive function in the brains of healthy, older adults. His team’s results were published in the journal Aging this month.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing in pure, highly concentrated, oxygen in a pressurized chamber for a long duration, allowing a person’s lungs to collect three times the normal amount of oxygen from air. With elevated blood-oxygen levels, body tissues supposedly heal at increased rates by stimulating the formation of new vessels at sites of injury. Historically, doctors have used the therapy to treat carbon monoxide poisoning, skin burns, traumatic brain injuries caused by strokes, and gas embolism, a condition that impacts deep-sea divers when nitrogen bubbles form in the circulatory system. More recently, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been advertised as an all-encompassing treatment for many diseases—though the FDA emphasizes that the therapy hasn’t been clinically proven to treat cancer, diabetes, and autism.

In this recent study, Efrati tested the therapy on normally aging adults without preexisting conditions to improve their cognitive function. For three months, 63 adults aged 65 and older spent five days a week, two hours a day in a pressurized chamber, breathing in concentrated oxygen at levels 1,500 times higher than that in the atmosphere. By the end of the study, Efrati discovered that blood flow in the brain increased. Frequent cognitive assessments also revealed that patients scored much higher on attention and information-processing speed tests than prior to the experiment.

The study results showed an uptick in blood flow and oxygen levels in certain regions after the hyperbaric oxygen therapy. (The Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research/)

Here’s how the researchers say it works. By dramatically raising blood-oxygen levels in aging patients, Efrati harnessed oxidative stress to prompt some brain cells to go into survivalist mode. Oxygen atoms are free radicals—at concentrated amounts, they scour the body, damaging DNA, cells, and proteins in a phenomenon called oxidative stress. “These short periods of high oxygen actually impose a mild beneficial stress on cells in the brain,” says Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. This pressure might promote neurogenesis, a process in which stem cells form new neurons and brain cells, essentially making the central processing unit look and run “younger.” Exercise and intermittent fasting invoke similar reactions in the brain, Mattson says, without extreme adverse impacts.

It’s not just about raising oxygen levels, however: Fluctuation is also key. During the study, Efrati instructed patients to keep oxygen masks on for 20 minutes, then remove them for five-minute breaks. “You put the mask on and breathe 100 percent oxygen,” says Alexander Alvarez, a physician at Aviv Clinics, who administers hyperbaric oxygen therapy. “Then, when you take off the mask, the body thinks it’s in trouble.”

Patients must spend at least two hours, five days a week in the oxygenation chamber at Aviv Clinics. (Dave Globig/)

Efrati thinks that stress caused by fluctuating oxygen levels in the blood might stimulate stem cell growth. But this chain of events hasn’t been scientifically proven yet, says Uri Ashery, a professor of neuroscience at the Sagol School of Neuroscience in Israel. “The mechanisms behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy are unknown,” he notes. When asked if increased blood flow means more brain activity, as indicated in the study, Ashery also hesitated. “Not necessarily,” he says. “It can allow the brain to be more active since it brings in new oxygen. But it doesn’t always mean the brain is more active.”

But what about the patients’ high scores on cognitive assessments after the treatment? While there’s no direct evidence of stem cell proliferation, the study participants exhibited better short term memory, longer attention spans, and the ability to process information at faster speeds than before. Cognitive performance peaked after 20 treatments, Alvarez says, and remained elevated six months after therapy. It did drop off eventually—and scientists still aren’t sure how long the effects last. The treatment doesn’t last forever, Ashery explains, and its longevity depends on each individual’s genetics and lifestyle.

Despite those caveats, the waiting list for the hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the Florida-based company Aviv Clinics is already starting to grow, says CEO Dave Globig. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, adults 55 years of age and older have been scrambling to get appointments since the treatment was first rolled out in mid-June. While most clients come from the Villages, a sprawling retirement community that hems the clinic, Globig anticipates taking on patients coming from all over the world. Each treatment package costs $60,000 and spans sixty days, requiring individuals to commute to the clinic five times a week for two-hour sessions.

After their 60 days are up, patients will continue to be monitored with a wearable medical device. If their cardiovascular or cognitive health declines, they’ll be invited back for a physical test and perhaps another round of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Alvarez says.

Ashery hopes that one day the treatment might be popularized enough that it becomes accessible for more populations. “This is something that the government could invest in,” he says. “The scientific and medical communities show that it is quite helpful and prevents a lot of care later on, so this could easily become part of our regular treatment for older adults.”

Efrati, meanwhile, dreams of an aging community that’s completely independent and well-functioning. Longevity isn’t enough—a high quality of life is what these neuroscientists strive for. “We will all die someday,” Efrati says. “But we want to die when we are functioning. We want to go down with our heads up, not when we are debilitated.”

[trevortgranberry]

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

Today we’re sharing with you our favorite tips to biohack your life and eliminate unwanted stress. And they couldn’t come at a better time! During these days of unprecedented events, lots of people are experiencing not only more stress, but new kinds of stress every day. 

Mental Health Month

This month also marks the 71st Mental Health Month, as observed by Mental Health America. We all face challenges that can impact our mental health, and 1 in 5 of us will experience a mental illness during our lifetime. 

The events of the last couple of months have shined a particularly bright light on the importance of taking care of our mental health. During a time when our physical health is at the forefront of our minds, our mental health needs to be treated with the same care. In fact, many of us are feeling like our mental performance and health is suffering due to stress.

Before we discuss what we can do to manage our stress levels, we’ll explore exactly what stress is. 

Understanding Stress

When you hear the term stress, you might associate it with something like how you feel being under a tight deadline or when you’re stuck in traffic. This is known as acute stress which we’ll discuss, but we’ll also share the other types of stress and how they can affect you.

Acute stress

The most common form of stress is acute stress. Reactive thinking to a perceived threat (including a specific phobia like spiders or clowns) usually causes it. This perceived threat can be either physical, emotional, or psychological. Acute stress can be associated with varying forms of emotional and physical distress. These include physical symptoms like stomach problems, headaches, and an increased heart rate.

Episodic acute stress 

People who experience frequent bouts of acute stress could be diagnosed with episodic acute stress disorder. The extended frequent over-arousal or extended hyper-arousal of your nervous system can lead to ongoing physical and emotional anguish. Episodic acute stress is also associated with more obvious or serious physical and mental symptoms. These include extreme emotional distress, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even immune system compromise. 

Chronic stress

Chronic stress is the type of stress that lasts over time, and it can lead to irreversible physical and mental damage if left untreated. This can include impaired cognitive performance, heart disease, and many other serious side effects. Things like negative childhood experiences or a traumatic event later in life could cause chronic stress. 

A certain level of stress is inevitable in life. But if left unmanaged, it can have dangerous side effects on not only our mental health, but our physical health, as well. 

While we shared that 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, the American Psychological Association shares another startling statistic: “more than three-quarters of adults report physical or emotional symptoms of stress, such as headache, feeling tired or changes in sleeping habits.” 

Many people are experiencing more stress than usual as they struggle to cope during this global pandemic. For tips on navigating emotional hardship, have a look at this blog post. 

Meet Biohacking

How can you counteract the effects of stress, improve sleep quality, boost your mood, and improve your overall health? Many people turn to biohacking. You might also hear of biohacking as DIY biology. These terms refer to the ways you can “manipulate” your brain and body to perform at its best. 

It’s important to remember that effective biohacking is different for everyone. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next. Though it requires some level of self-experimentation and patience, it’s worth the effort. There are also some virtually effortless ways to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. We’ll get to those in a bit. 

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

In addition to eliminating unwanted stress, many of these biohacks have additional health and wellness benefits. 

Blue light blocking

You may have noticed your sleep quality decreases as your stress levels increase. It can also become increasingly difficult to get a good sleep if you’re experiencing frequent or extreme stress. Luckily, there are biohacks meant to improve your quality of sleep. At the same time, they help to ensure you’re well-equipped to manage stress. One such biohack that can improve sleep quality AND stress levels is called blue light blocking.

Blue light blocking glasses filter out the blue and green wavelength color spectrum from both artificial and natural light. They’re meant to be worn while looking at screens or under artificial light, particularly at night. In addition to protecting eye health, blue light blocking glasses may also improve your sleep quality and your circadian rhythm. 

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new concept, but it’s experiencing a recent surge in popularity. The benefits of intermittent fasting are said to be vast. They range from everything from fat and weight loss to increased energy and lower blood sugar levels.

It can also promote mental clarity and cognitive function, both of which play powerful roles in reducing or managing stress levels. When our mind is free of clutter, we’re better able to concentrate, focus, and even cope with stressors.

Specific plans vary, but intermittent fasting entails limiting the hours of the day (or the days of the week) that you consume food. The three common methods are known as alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feeding.

Alternate-day fasting: Simply put, this type of intermittent fasting involves eating what you want one day, fasting the next, and so on. 

Periodic fasting: This type of fasting can mean not eating for one or two whole days, and eating normally the following days of the week. 

Daily time-restricted feeding: This fasting method is the most common in today’s world. A common example is what’s known as 16:8 fasting. It means fasting for 16 hours of the day and eating normally for the other eight. Another biohacking advantage of this type of fasting is that it’s said to leverage circadian rhythms. 

Bulletproof coffee

Dave Asprey is the Father of Biohacking. On his blog, he shares how certain hacks, including mindfulness, breathwork, and light therapy can increase cognitive function, reduce stress, lose fat, and increase productivity. 

He’s also the creator of Bulletproof Coffee. This is a recipe he developed with a unique blend of coffee mixed with healthy butter and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil. In addition to the energy-boost and other positive effects of caffeine, many people credit Bulletproof Coffee with increased mental clarity and alertness. 

According to Asprey, “The core definition (of biohacking) is changing the art and science of the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your biology.”

And when it comes to maximizing your own body’s ability to control and manage stress, stimulating the Vagus nerve can’t be overlooked.

The Vagus nerve

The Vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system or ANS is the system that regulates a variety of body processes that take place without conscious effort. This nerve’s strength is called “vagal tone.” When vagal tone is low, it links to chronic health conditions, mood problems, inflammation, and even mental health issues.

We know there’s a lot more to discuss about the nervous system and the Vagus nerve. Want to dive deeper on the topic? Have a look at this post.

Benefits of Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)

Researchers are discovering the Vagus nerve has a powerful impact on improving the symptoms of a variety of disorders. In fact, evidence shows stimulating and strengthening the vagus nerve can reduce the symptoms associated with depression and the effects of anxiety. 

Remember how we mentioned there’s a virtually effortless biohacking method to reduce stress levels?

Ear-based vagus nerve stimulation is a form of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). It has been successfully studied in numerous individuals for a variety of purposes. These include improving mood, sleep, focus and cognition, and athletic performance recovery. 

That’s why stimulating the Vagus nerve is one of our top tips to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. In the past, effectively stimulating the Vagus nerve required more invasive measures. But today, it’s easier and more accessible than ever thanks to Xen by Neuvana technology. 

Interested in learning more about stimulating the Vagus nerve? Take a look at this video on vagus nerve stimulation.

Xen by Neuvana

Xen is a wellness technology designed to gently deliver electrical signals through specialized earbuds to your Vagus nerve. Vagus nerve stimulation sends a message to the brain to generate calming sensations in the body. This helps to promote a more relaxed state. 

This technology may also make stress more manageable. At the same time, it can help your body recover from stressful events. It could also make you feel less anxious and while helping your body cope with the effects of stress. 

An app on your phone controls a handheld device that connects to the Xen by Neuvana Headphones. The device then generates an electrical current to stimulate the vagus nerve. It’s “virtually effortless” because it can all be done while you’re listening to music or sounds and going about your day. 

Do you have more questions about biohacking vagus nerve stimulation and Xen by Neuvana technology? Visit our FAQ page where we cover what it feels like to use Xen headphones when to use this technology, and much more.

Shop the entire Xen by Neuvana collection here.

If you enjoyed this post, you won’t want to miss these either:

People Who Can Benefit from Wearing Neuvana Stress-Reducing Earbuds

Stress Relieving Benefits of Xen

The Science of Growing New Brain Cells

from Neuvana https://neuvanalife.com/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress/ from Neuvana https://neuvanalife.tumblr.com/post/618016949944893441

[normahwilbert]

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

Today we’re sharing with you our favorite tips to biohack your life and eliminate unwanted stress. And they couldn’t come at a better time! During these days of unprecedented events, lots of people are experiencing not only more stress, but new kinds of stress every day. 

Mental Health Month

This month also marks the 71st Mental Health Month, as observed by Mental Health America. We all face challenges that can impact our mental health, and 1 in 5 of us will experience a mental illness during our lifetime. 

The events of the last couple of months have shined a particularly bright light on the importance of taking care of our mental health. During a time when our physical health is at the forefront of our minds, our mental health needs to be treated with the same care. In fact, many of us are feeling like our mental performance and health is suffering due to stress.

Before we discuss what we can do to manage our stress levels, we’ll explore exactly what stress is. 

Understanding Stress

When you hear the term stress, you might associate it with something like how you feel being under a tight deadline or when you’re stuck in traffic. This is known as acute stress which we’ll discuss, but we’ll also share the other types of stress and how they can affect you.

Acute stress

The most common form of stress is acute stress. Reactive thinking to a perceived threat (including a specific phobia like spiders or clowns) usually causes it. This perceived threat can be either physical, emotional, or psychological. Acute stress can be associated with varying forms of emotional and physical distress. These include physical symptoms like stomach problems, headaches, and an increased heart rate.

Episodic acute stress 

People who experience frequent bouts of acute stress could be diagnosed with episodic acute stress disorder. The extended frequent over-arousal or extended hyper-arousal of your nervous system can lead to ongoing physical and emotional anguish. Episodic acute stress is also associated with more obvious or serious physical and mental symptoms. These include extreme emotional distress, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even immune system compromise. 

Chronic stress

Chronic stress is the type of stress that lasts over time, and it can lead to irreversible physical and mental damage if left untreated. This can include impaired cognitive performance, heart disease, and many other serious side effects. Things like negative childhood experiences or a traumatic event later in life could cause chronic stress. 

A certain level of stress is inevitable in life. But if left unmanaged, it can have dangerous side effects on not only our mental health, but our physical health, as well. 

While we shared that 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, the American Psychological Association shares another startling statistic: “more than three-quarters of adults report physical or emotional symptoms of stress, such as headache, feeling tired or changes in sleeping habits.” 

Many people are experiencing more stress than usual as they struggle to cope during this global pandemic. For tips on navigating emotional hardship, have a look at this blog post. 

Meet Biohacking

How can you counteract the effects of stress, improve sleep quality, boost your mood, and improve your overall health? Many people turn to biohacking. You might also hear of biohacking as DIY biology. These terms refer to the ways you can “manipulate” your brain and body to perform at its best. 

It’s important to remember that effective biohacking is different for everyone. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next. Though it requires some level of self-experimentation and patience, it’s worth the effort. There are also some virtually effortless ways to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. We’ll get to those in a bit. 

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

In addition to eliminating unwanted stress, many of these biohacks have additional health and wellness benefits. 

Blue light blocking

You may have noticed your sleep quality decreases as your stress levels increase. It can also become increasingly difficult to get a good sleep if you’re experiencing frequent or extreme stress. Luckily, there are biohacks meant to improve your quality of sleep. At the same time, they help to ensure you’re well-equipped to manage stress. One such biohack that can improve sleep quality AND stress levels is called blue light blocking.

Blue light blocking glasses filter out the blue and green wavelength color spectrum from both artificial and natural light. They’re meant to be worn while looking at screens or under artificial light, particularly at night. In addition to protecting eye health, blue light blocking glasses may also improve your sleep quality and your circadian rhythm. 

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new concept, but it’s experiencing a recent surge in popularity. The benefits of intermittent fasting are said to be vast. They range from everything from fat and weight loss to increased energy and lower blood sugar levels.

It can also promote mental clarity and cognitive function, both of which play powerful roles in reducing or managing stress levels. When our mind is free of clutter, we’re better able to concentrate, focus, and even cope with stressors.

Specific plans vary, but intermittent fasting entails limiting the hours of the day (or the days of the week) that you consume food. The three common methods are known as alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feeding.

Alternate-day fasting: Simply put, this type of intermittent fasting involves eating what you want one day, fasting the next, and so on. 

Periodic fasting: This type of fasting can mean not eating for one or two whole days, and eating normally the following days of the week. 

Daily time-restricted feeding: This fasting method is the most common in today’s world. A common example is what’s known as 16:8 fasting. It means fasting for 16 hours of the day and eating normally for the other eight. Another biohacking advantage of this type of fasting is that it’s said to leverage circadian rhythms. 

Bulletproof coffee

Dave Asprey is the Father of Biohacking. On his blog, he shares how certain hacks, including mindfulness, breathwork, and light therapy can increase cognitive function, reduce stress, lose fat, and increase productivity. 

He’s also the creator of Bulletproof Coffee. This is a recipe he developed with a unique blend of coffee mixed with healthy butter and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil. In addition to the energy-boost and other positive effects of caffeine, many people credit Bulletproof Coffee with increased mental clarity and alertness. 

According to Asprey, “The core definition (of biohacking) is changing the art and science of the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your biology.”

And when it comes to maximizing your own body’s ability to control and manage stress, stimulating the Vagus nerve can’t be overlooked.

The Vagus nerve

The Vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system or ANS is the system that regulates a variety of body processes that take place without conscious effort. This nerve’s strength is called “vagal tone.” When vagal tone is low, it links to chronic health conditions, mood problems, inflammation, and even mental health issues.

We know there’s a lot more to discuss about the nervous system and the Vagus nerve. Want to dive deeper on the topic? Have a look at this post.

Benefits of Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)

Researchers are discovering the Vagus nerve has a powerful impact on improving the symptoms of a variety of disorders. In fact, evidence shows stimulating and strengthening the vagus nerve can reduce the symptoms associated with depression and the effects of anxiety. 

Remember how we mentioned there’s a virtually effortless biohacking method to reduce stress levels?

Ear-based vagus nerve stimulation is a form of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). It has been successfully studied in numerous individuals for a variety of purposes. These include improving mood, sleep, focus and cognition, and athletic performance recovery. 

That’s why stimulating the Vagus nerve is one of our top tips to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. In the past, effectively stimulating the Vagus nerve required more invasive measures. But today, it’s easier and more accessible than ever thanks to Xen by Neuvana technology. 

Interested in learning more about stimulating the Vagus nerve? Take a look at this video on vagus nerve stimulation.

Xen by Neuvana

Xen is a wellness technology designed to gently deliver electrical signals through specialized earbuds to your Vagus nerve. Vagus nerve stimulation sends a message to the brain to generate calming sensations in the body. This helps to promote a more relaxed state. 

This technology may also make stress more manageable. At the same time, it can help your body recover from stressful events. It could also make you feel less anxious and while helping your body cope with the effects of stress. 

An app on your phone controls a handheld device that connects to the Xen by Neuvana Headphones. The device then generates an electrical current to stimulate the vagus nerve. It’s “virtually effortless” because it can all be done while you’re listening to music or sounds and going about your day. 

Do you have more questions about biohacking vagus nerve stimulation and Xen by Neuvana technology? Visit our FAQ page where we cover what it feels like to use Xen headphones when to use this technology, and much more.

Shop the entire Xen by Neuvana collection here.

If you enjoyed this post, you won’t want to miss these either:

People Who Can Benefit from Wearing Neuvana Stress-Reducing Earbuds

Stress Relieving Benefits of Xen

The Science of Growing New Brain Cells

Source: https://neuvanalife.com/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress/

from Neuvana https://neuvanalife.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress/

[cherylpflinchum]

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

Today we’re sharing with you our favorite tips to biohack your life and eliminate unwanted stress. And they couldn’t come at a better time! During these days of unprecedented events, lots of people are experiencing not only more stress, but new kinds of stress every day. 

Mental Health Month

This month also marks the 71st Mental Health Month, as observed by Mental Health America. We all face challenges that can impact our mental health, and 1 in 5 of us will experience a mental illness during our lifetime. 

The events of the last couple of months have shined a particularly bright light on the importance of taking care of our mental health. During a time when our physical health is at the forefront of our minds, our mental health needs to be treated with the same care. In fact, many of us are feeling like our mental performance and health is suffering due to stress.

Before we discuss what we can do to manage our stress levels, we’ll explore exactly what stress is. 

Understanding Stress

When you hear the term stress, you might associate it with something like how you feel being under a tight deadline or when you’re stuck in traffic. This is known as acute stress which we’ll discuss, but we’ll also share the other types of stress and how they can affect you.

Acute stress

The most common form of stress is acute stress. Reactive thinking to a perceived threat (including a specific phobia like spiders or clowns) usually causes it. This perceived threat can be either physical, emotional, or psychological. Acute stress can be associated with varying forms of emotional and physical distress. These include physical symptoms like stomach problems, headaches, and an increased heart rate.

Episodic acute stress 

People who experience frequent bouts of acute stress could be diagnosed with episodic acute stress disorder. The extended frequent over-arousal or extended hyper-arousal of your nervous system can lead to ongoing physical and emotional anguish. Episodic acute stress is also associated with more obvious or serious physical and mental symptoms. These include extreme emotional distress, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even immune system compromise. 

Chronic stress

Chronic stress is the type of stress that lasts over time, and it can lead to irreversible physical and mental damage if left untreated. This can include impaired cognitive performance, heart disease, and many other serious side effects. Things like negative childhood experiences or a traumatic event later in life could cause chronic stress. 

A certain level of stress is inevitable in life. But if left unmanaged, it can have dangerous side effects on not only our mental health, but our physical health, as well. 

While we shared that 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, the American Psychological Association shares another startling statistic: “more than three-quarters of adults report physical or emotional symptoms of stress, such as headache, feeling tired or changes in sleeping habits.” 

Many people are experiencing more stress than usual as they struggle to cope during this global pandemic. For tips on navigating emotional hardship, have a look at this blog post. 

Meet Biohacking

How can you counteract the effects of stress, improve sleep quality, boost your mood, and improve your overall health? Many people turn to biohacking. You might also hear of biohacking as DIY biology. These terms refer to the ways you can “manipulate” your brain and body to perform at its best. 

It’s important to remember that effective biohacking is different for everyone. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next. Though it requires some level of self-experimentation and patience, it’s worth the effort. There are also some virtually effortless ways to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. We’ll get to those in a bit. 

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

In addition to eliminating unwanted stress, many of these biohacks have additional health and wellness benefits. 

Blue light blocking

You may have noticed your sleep quality decreases as your stress levels increase. It can also become increasingly difficult to get a good sleep if you’re experiencing frequent or extreme stress. Luckily, there are biohacks meant to improve your quality of sleep. At the same time, they help to ensure you’re well-equipped to manage stress. One such biohack that can improve sleep quality AND stress levels is called blue light blocking.

Blue light blocking glasses filter out the blue and green wavelength color spectrum from both artificial and natural light. They’re meant to be worn while looking at screens or under artificial light, particularly at night. In addition to protecting eye health, blue light blocking glasses may also improve your sleep quality and your circadian rhythm. 

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new concept, but it’s experiencing a recent surge in popularity. The benefits of intermittent fasting are said to be vast. They range from everything from fat and weight loss to increased energy and lower blood sugar levels.

It can also promote mental clarity and cognitive function, both of which play powerful roles in reducing or managing stress levels. When our mind is free of clutter, we’re better able to concentrate, focus, and even cope with stressors.

Specific plans vary, but intermittent fasting entails limiting the hours of the day (or the days of the week) that you consume food. The three common methods are known as alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feeding.

Alternate-day fasting: Simply put, this type of intermittent fasting involves eating what you want one day, fasting the next, and so on. 

Periodic fasting: This type of fasting can mean not eating for one or two whole days, and eating normally the following days of the week. 

Daily time-restricted feeding: This fasting method is the most common in today’s world. A common example is what’s known as 16:8 fasting. It means fasting for 16 hours of the day and eating normally for the other eight. Another biohacking advantage of this type of fasting is that it’s said to leverage circadian rhythms. 

Bulletproof coffee

Dave Asprey is the Father of Biohacking. On his blog, he shares how certain hacks, including mindfulness, breathwork, and light therapy can increase cognitive function, reduce stress, lose fat, and increase productivity. 

He’s also the creator of Bulletproof Coffee. This is a recipe he developed with a unique blend of coffee mixed with healthy butter and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil. In addition to the energy-boost and other positive effects of caffeine, many people credit Bulletproof Coffee with increased mental clarity and alertness. 

According to Asprey, “The core definition (of biohacking) is changing the art and science of the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your biology.”

And when it comes to maximizing your own body’s ability to control and manage stress, stimulating the Vagus nerve can’t be overlooked.

The Vagus nerve

The Vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system or ANS is the system that regulates a variety of body processes that take place without conscious effort. This nerve’s strength is called “vagal tone.” When vagal tone is low, it links to chronic health conditions, mood problems, inflammation, and even mental health issues.

We know there’s a lot more to discuss about the nervous system and the Vagus nerve. Want to dive deeper on the topic? Have a look at this post.

Benefits of Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)

Researchers are discovering the Vagus nerve has a powerful impact on improving the symptoms of a variety of disorders. In fact, evidence shows stimulating and strengthening the vagus nerve can reduce the symptoms associated with depression and the effects of anxiety. 

Remember how we mentioned there’s a virtually effortless biohacking method to reduce stress levels?

Ear-based vagus nerve stimulation is a form of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). It has been successfully studied in numerous individuals for a variety of purposes. These include improving mood, sleep, focus and cognition, and athletic performance recovery. 

That’s why stimulating the Vagus nerve is one of our top tips to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. In the past, effectively stimulating the Vagus nerve required more invasive measures. But today, it’s easier and more accessible than ever thanks to Xen by Neuvana technology. 

Interested in learning more about stimulating the Vagus nerve? Take a look at this video on vagus nerve stimulation.

Xen by Neuvana

Xen is a wellness technology designed to gently deliver electrical signals through specialized earbuds to your Vagus nerve. Vagus nerve stimulation sends a message to the brain to generate calming sensations in the body. This helps to promote a more relaxed state. 

This technology may also make stress more manageable. At the same time, it can help your body recover from stressful events. It could also make you feel less anxious and while helping your body cope with the effects of stress. 

An app on your phone controls a handheld device that connects to the Xen by Neuvana Headphones. The device then generates an electrical current to stimulate the vagus nerve. It’s “virtually effortless” because it can all be done while you’re listening to music or sounds and going about your day. 

Do you have more questions about biohacking vagus nerve stimulation and Xen by Neuvana technology? Visit our FAQ page where we cover what it feels like to use Xen headphones when to use this technology, and much more.

Shop the entire Xen by Neuvana collection here.

If you enjoyed this post, you won’t want to miss these either:

People Who Can Benefit from Wearing Neuvana Stress-Reducing Earbuds

Stress Relieving Benefits of Xen

The Science of Growing New Brain Cells

from https://neuvanalife.com/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress/

from Neuvana - Blog https://neuvanalife.weebly.com/blog/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress

[neuvanalife]

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

Today we’re sharing with you our favorite tips to biohack your life and eliminate unwanted stress. And they couldn’t come at a better time! During these days of unprecedented events, lots of people are experiencing not only more stress, but new kinds of stress every day. 

Mental Health Month

This month also marks the 71st Mental Health Month, as observed by Mental Health America. We all face challenges that can impact our mental health, and 1 in 5 of us will experience a mental illness during our lifetime. 

The events of the last couple of months have shined a particularly bright light on the importance of taking care of our mental health. During a time when our physical health is at the forefront of our minds, our mental health needs to be treated with the same care. In fact, many of us are feeling like our mental performance and health is suffering due to stress.

Before we discuss what we can do to manage our stress levels, we’ll explore exactly what stress is. 

Understanding Stress

When you hear the term stress, you might associate it with something like how you feel being under a tight deadline or when you’re stuck in traffic. This is known as acute stress which we’ll discuss, but we’ll also share the other types of stress and how they can affect you.

Acute stress

The most common form of stress is acute stress. Reactive thinking to a perceived threat (including a specific phobia like spiders or clowns) usually causes it. This perceived threat can be either physical, emotional, or psychological. Acute stress can be associated with varying forms of emotional and physical distress. These include physical symptoms like stomach problems, headaches, and an increased heart rate.

Episodic acute stress 

People who experience frequent bouts of acute stress could be diagnosed with episodic acute stress disorder. The extended frequent over-arousal or extended hyper-arousal of your nervous system can lead to ongoing physical and emotional anguish. Episodic acute stress is also associated with more obvious or serious physical and mental symptoms. These include extreme emotional distress, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even immune system compromise. 

Chronic stress

Chronic stress is the type of stress that lasts over time, and it can lead to irreversible physical and mental damage if left untreated. This can include impaired cognitive performance, heart disease, and many other serious side effects. Things like negative childhood experiences or a traumatic event later in life could cause chronic stress. 

A certain level of stress is inevitable in life. But if left unmanaged, it can have dangerous side effects on not only our mental health, but our physical health, as well. 

While we shared that 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, the American Psychological Association shares another startling statistic: “more than three-quarters of adults report physical or emotional symptoms of stress, such as headache, feeling tired or changes in sleeping habits.” 

Many people are experiencing more stress than usual as they struggle to cope during this global pandemic. For tips on navigating emotional hardship, have a look at this blog post. 

Meet Biohacking

How can you counteract the effects of stress, improve sleep quality, boost your mood, and improve your overall health? Many people turn to biohacking. You might also hear of biohacking as DIY biology. These terms refer to the ways you can “manipulate” your brain and body to perform at its best. 

It’s important to remember that effective biohacking is different for everyone. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for the next. Though it requires some level of self-experimentation and patience, it’s worth the effort. There are also some virtually effortless ways to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. We’ll get to those in a bit. 

Our Top Tips to Biohack Your Life & Eliminate Unwanted Stress

In addition to eliminating unwanted stress, many of these biohacks have additional health and wellness benefits. 

Blue light blocking

You may have noticed your sleep quality decreases as your stress levels increase. It can also become increasingly difficult to get a good sleep if you’re experiencing frequent or extreme stress. Luckily, there are biohacks meant to improve your quality of sleep. At the same time, they help to ensure you’re well-equipped to manage stress. One such biohack that can improve sleep quality AND stress levels is called blue light blocking.

Blue light blocking glasses filter out the blue and green wavelength color spectrum from both artificial and natural light. They’re meant to be worn while looking at screens or under artificial light, particularly at night. In addition to protecting eye health, blue light blocking glasses may also improve your sleep quality and your circadian rhythm. 

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new concept, but it’s experiencing a recent surge in popularity. The benefits of intermittent fasting are said to be vast. They range from everything from fat and weight loss to increased energy and lower blood sugar levels.

It can also promote mental clarity and cognitive function, both of which play powerful roles in reducing or managing stress levels. When our mind is free of clutter, we’re better able to concentrate, focus, and even cope with stressors.

Specific plans vary, but intermittent fasting entails limiting the hours of the day (or the days of the week) that you consume food. The three common methods are known as alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feeding.

Alternate-day fasting: Simply put, this type of intermittent fasting involves eating what you want one day, fasting the next, and so on. 

Periodic fasting: This type of fasting can mean not eating for one or two whole days, and eating normally the following days of the week. 

Daily time-restricted feeding: This fasting method is the most common in today’s world. A common example is what’s known as 16:8 fasting. It means fasting for 16 hours of the day and eating normally for the other eight. Another biohacking advantage of this type of fasting is that it’s said to leverage circadian rhythms. 

Bulletproof coffee

Dave Asprey is the Father of Biohacking. On his blog, he shares how certain hacks, including mindfulness, breathwork, and light therapy can increase cognitive function, reduce stress, lose fat, and increase productivity. 

He’s also the creator of Bulletproof Coffee. This is a recipe he developed with a unique blend of coffee mixed with healthy butter and Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil. In addition to the energy-boost and other positive effects of caffeine, many people credit Bulletproof Coffee with increased mental clarity and alertness. 

According to Asprey, “The core definition (of biohacking) is changing the art and science of the environment around you and inside of you so that you have full control of your biology.”

And when it comes to maximizing your own body’s ability to control and manage stress, stimulating the Vagus nerve can’t be overlooked.

The Vagus nerve

The Vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system or ANS is the system that regulates a variety of body processes that take place without conscious effort. This nerve’s strength is called “vagal tone.” When vagal tone is low, it links to chronic health conditions, mood problems, inflammation, and even mental health issues.

We know there’s a lot more to discuss about the nervous system and the Vagus nerve. Want to dive deeper on the topic? Have a look at this post.

Benefits of Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)

Researchers are discovering the Vagus nerve has a powerful impact on improving the symptoms of a variety of disorders. In fact, evidence shows stimulating and strengthening the vagus nerve can reduce the symptoms associated with depression and the effects of anxiety. 

Remember how we mentioned there’s a virtually effortless biohacking method to reduce stress levels?

Ear-based vagus nerve stimulation is a form of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). It has been successfully studied in numerous individuals for a variety of purposes. These include improving mood, sleep, focus and cognition, and athletic performance recovery. 

That’s why stimulating the Vagus nerve is one of our top tips to biohack your life and reduce unwanted stress. In the past, effectively stimulating the Vagus nerve required more invasive measures. But today, it’s easier and more accessible than ever thanks to Xen by Neuvana technology. 

Interested in learning more about stimulating the Vagus nerve? Take a look at this video on vagus nerve stimulation.

Xen by Neuvana

Xen is a wellness technology designed to gently deliver electrical signals through specialized earbuds to your Vagus nerve. Vagus nerve stimulation sends a message to the brain to generate calming sensations in the body. This helps to promote a more relaxed state. 

This technology may also make stress more manageable. At the same time, it can help your body recover from stressful events. It could also make you feel less anxious and while helping your body cope with the effects of stress. 

An app on your phone controls a handheld device that connects to the Xen by Neuvana Headphones. The device then generates an electrical current to stimulate the vagus nerve. It’s “virtually effortless” because it can all be done while you’re listening to music or sounds and going about your day. 

Do you have more questions about biohacking vagus nerve stimulation and Xen by Neuvana technology? Visit our FAQ page where we cover what it feels like to use Xen headphones when to use this technology, and much more.

Shop the entire Xen by Neuvana collection here.

If you enjoyed this post, you won’t want to miss these either:

People Who Can Benefit from Wearing Neuvana Stress-Reducing Earbuds

Stress Relieving Benefits of Xen

The Science of Growing New Brain Cells

from Neuvana https://neuvanalife.com/our-top-tips-to-biohack-your-life-eliminate-unwanted-stress/

[hello-thefatlosshabit-blr]

 “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they’ll eventually conquer you.” – Rob Gilbert

This week’s challenge is to identify ONE bad habit and replace it. Everyone has bad habits because we are both emotional and logical beings. Bad habits exist because we rationalize the behavior with fallacious logic. For example, a person that is drowning in debt will rationalize another purchase they cannot afford with the old standby, “what the hell, I’ll never get out of debt anyway.”

Somehow this logic makes sense to us, but could you imagine Spock from Star Trek saying that, or even budgeting expert Dave Ramsey saying it? Of course not. That is the erroneous logic that created this person’s crisis in the first place. Most crises are an accumulation of bad decisions. Rarely is it one gigantic error in judgment.Most crises in our life are the result of bad habits. Repeating the same bad decisions until their effects can no longer be dismissed or ignored. The results of bad habits aren’t immediate, so we don’t equate them with the future disaster they will bring about. Habits, good or bad, compound over time; that is why they shape our lives. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” Confucius

Bad habits are easy to form if you aren’t mindful of your decisions and patterns of behavior. At the most fundamental level, PAIN and PLEASURE are the two forces that steer our decisions.  Every motive can be boiled down as an effort to avoid pain or seek pleasure. Our desire to avoid pain is powerful, even more, powerful than our desire to seek pleasure because it is more closely linked to our survival.

Knowing our desire to avoid pain is greater than our desire to seek pleasure can help us to break a bad habit. The reason bad habits form and persist is that we are linking the behavior to the PLEASURE it provides, and not the PAIN of its long-term consequences. Creating a strong linkage of pain with the behavior can help you to end the bad habit.

Negative is natural. It isn’t good, but it is normal. Weeds don’t have to be nurtured. In the absence of light, there is darkness. In the absence of diligence, neglect will pervade. Bad habits form naturally, without any effort. The linkages of pleasure to the behavior form unconsciously.

Diligence isn’t required to link eating a piece of cheesecake to the delight it brings to our taste buds. We don’t have to try to link pleasure to purchase a new tech toy we cannot afford. No, these linkages form naturally. They aren’t good, but they sure feel good, and they are so easy to do.

Interrupting a bad habit requires us to change our opinion of it. We must see it as a problem. We have to link it to the pain it is causing us. We are logical beings. We don’t like when our behaviors and attitudes are misaligned. It causes us emotional distress. The mental state of having inconsistent attitudes and behaviors is called cognitive dissonance.

Our minds seek to reduce the conflict and minimize our discomfort. We have three options for minimizing this conflict between our attitudes and behaviors. The first is to change our attitude. The second is to change our behavior. The third and most effective method is to change both.

Bad habits are natural. They are easy to form, and they usually don’t produce any immediate ill effects. It is easier to change our attitude toward a bad habit than to change our behavior because it doesn’t require any sacrifice. It allows us to continue to indulge in the instant gratification it produces. No sacrifice is required. All that is required to continue the behavior is a flawed rationalization to ourselves; a flimsy excuse.

A lazy worker will excuse their poor performance by saying, they don’t pay me enough to work that hard. They will do just enough to avoid getting fired. They will think themselves clever for getting the most benefit from the least amount of effort. This poor attitude will produce poor results over the course of their career. This poor attitude is born from a lack of gratitude.

Obviously, breaking a bad habit requires us to change our behavior, but we can make the process easier by also changing our attitude towards it. If we can linkPAINto the behavior, it will not feel like a sacrifice. The stronger we can link the harmful effects it’s having on our lives, the easier it will be to give up.

In the example I have provided, the worker could more easily change his behavior by changing his attitude toward doing the minimum. If he associated his poor attitude to poor results, he could more easily improve his attitude. If he equated doing the least amount of work with poor economic results, it would help him change his behavior. The key is linking the long-term effects with the behavior, instead of the immediate gratification. “Do more than you are being paid to do, and you’ll eventually be paid more for what you do.” Zig Ziglar

When we neglect to exert control over the linkages between our actions and outcomes, which are constantly being formed, we allow them to form on their own, at the subconscious level. At that cognitive level, the linkages are always made based on the immediate results they produce, and not the long-term results produced.

Our greatest gift as human beings is our ability to link long-term results to our short-term behaviors. When we fail to make these connections, we are not operating at the highest level of our existence. We are essentially operating at the same level as the animals.

Bad habits are natural. That is why everyone has a few. In the absence of diligence, the weeds move it and take over, but weeds cannot stand up to diligence. The longer the weeds grow, the deeper their roots will be, more determined we must be to rip them out, roots and all. If we don’t change our attitude toward the behavior, it is like leaving the roots under the surface to grow again once we let our guard down.

We must see that bad habit as the problem it really is. In this example, he must make the linkage of pain to that bad attitude as strong as possible. Lasting change requires that we change not only our behavior but our attitude toward the old behavior. In this example, he must equate minimal effort to holding his career back and hurting his family’s long-term economic prosperity. To reinforce the new behavior of doing more than he is paid for, he needs to equate it to new opportunities to advance his career. He must believe a better attitude will produce better results.

Bad habits and bad attitudes are normal. They aren’t beneficial, but they are normal. Cultivating a great attitude and productive habits require discipline and effort. They don’t happen by accident; progress is always intentional. Great achievements are never accidental. They are the results of diligent effort over time.

On the weekends, I typically indulge in a drink or two, but a year ago I developed the habit of drinking every night. It began with me having a drink after a particularly long stressful day at work, then it progressed to an everyday occurrence. What was once a weekend ritual became a nightly one.

HABIT LOOP

Clock image by The Clear Communication

At the core of all habits is a neurological loop consisting of three components: a CUE, a ROUTINE, and a REWARD. The cue, in this case, was me arriving home after work, tired and stressed. The routine was drinking a cold refreshing alcoholic beverage. The reward was a sense of relaxation.

When you are trying to break a bad habit, it is always a great idea to let supportive friends and family know what you are trying to do. Not only will they provide a layer of accountability and encouragement, often they can help you formulate a plan. We lack objectivity when we are solving our own problems.

My beautiful wife asked me why I drank. I told her that it helped me to relax and I enjoyed the cold refreshing beverage after a long day. She suggested that I substitute the alcoholic beverage for some Topo Chico with a slice of lime. The calorie-free mineral water would give me the sensation I was craving without the unwanted alcohol and empty calories. An additional benefit was waking hydrated, instead of slightly dehydrated from the previous night’s drinking.

Substitution is a very effective way of breaking a bad habit. Typically, the cue, in this example, me arriving home isn’t something we can change, but my routine can be. We cannot always control the cues and events in our lives, but we can always decide what they mean and how we will react to them.

The most effective substitutions are those that provide similar rewards. In this example, the Topo Chico provided a cool refreshing sensation that helped me to unwind after a stressful day of responding to the numerous demands of my job. If you don’t have someone to help you solve your problem, I recommend you brainstorm on a piece of paper. Jot down the cue, routine, and reward associated with the bad habit. Then determine what new routine can provide some of the same benefits that the bad behavior provided.

Another technique you can use is shaping your environment. In this example, eliminating alcohol from our home would have eliminated the temptation of drinking. I didn’t choose that option, but I did shape my environment by ensuring I always had lime and a couple of cold bottles of Topo Chico in the refrigerator.

Perhaps you want to replace the habit of staying up late watchingTVwith nightly reading. You could shape your environment by setting-up an ideal area to readin. Ensuring that you always have a great book, adequate lighting, a bookmarker, a highlighter, and your journal to capture your notes in would foster the new behavior.

With a little imagination, you should be able to figure out how you can interrupt a bad habit and replace it with a good one. It isn’t difficult, but it does require effort and diligence. It is easy to do, but what is easy to do is even easier to neglect. Neglect is normal. Bad habits are normal. Success isn’t common. Jim Rohn like to say “success is doing what the failures won’t do.”

Reading this can potentially change your life, but knowledge isn’t power. Knowledge is potential power. Application of knowledge is power. Execution produces results. Ideation without execution is the beginning of delusion. Reading a great self-improvement book won’t change your life, but repeatedly applying what you have learned until you do it naturally will.

Thus far I have provided you with the tools, the mechanics of breaking a bad habit, but I haven’t addressed the Elephant in the room. In the New York Times bestselling book, The Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, the authors describe the struggle we all face when we make a change in behavior.

The struggle is between the logic driven part of our brain, the Rider, and the emotion-driven part of our brain, the Elephant. The Rider is weak and prone to overthinking things, becoming overwhelmed by decision fatigue and analysis paralysis. The Elephant, on the other hand, is powerful, fueled by emotions and primal urges.[i]

The Elephant can easily overwhelm the smaller Rider, especially when the Rider is uncertain of which direction to go. Having a plan and pre-deciding what you will do when the cue presents itself will prevent your Rider from hesitating, but you still need to motivate that Elephant.

The longer you have held the bad habit, the deeper its roots. Warren Buffett compares bad habits to chains to light to feel, until they are too heavy to break. But break them we must. Our success in life is determined by our ratio of good habits to bad habits. “Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.” – Benjamin Franklin.

Interrupting a bad habit can be difficult, especially if you have had it for a long time. You must be mentally prepared for the struggle. It is like the military axiom, the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle. The better prepared you are, the better you will do.

Logic and reason will only get you so far. If we aren’t doing what we know we should be doing, it is because our WHY isn’t inspiring. Our reason must be bigger than our excuses. All actions flow from the head to the heart to the hand. If our hands aren’t moving; if we aren’t doing what we need to do, it is because our heart isn’t in it.

Without urgency, desire has no pull. When we are put in a do or die situation, we tend to do. The problem with most people is that their WHY is so weak, that any excuse is enough to sabotage their progress. If we are trying to lose weight, we have to equate eating that junk food in the breakroom with pain. The pain of remaining trapped in a body we aren’t proud of. The extra 20 pounds we are carrying around. “The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit is to love something greater than the habit.” Bryant McGill.

Success is not one giant effort. It is a lot of small decisions made correctly. A powerful WHY will give you that little nudge you need to make the right decision, time after time until it becomes a habit. Eventually, it will become a lifestyle.

“If you know the why, you can live any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

Fortunately, after approximately two months, the new habit will be established. Maintaining the new habit will not require nearly the same amount of energy to sustain as it did to form. Motivation is most important when forming a habit, but I think it is important to understand that the herculean effort it takes to form the habit will not be the same effort required to sustain it.

Besides reconnecting with your WHY each day, listening to a motivational video each day can provide a real boost. Cynics will tell you that motivation doesn’t last, and they are correct, but what does? Perhaps we should stop brushing our teeth and showering. They don’t last either. Being a cynic is easy.

Being negative is easy. Don’t fall into that trap. If you make motivation a habit, you’ll become a more motivated person. Motivation is the most powerful catalyst for action. Energy is more important than intelligence. Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied. Keep your motivation tank topped off and start attacking each day with more drive a determination.

A fantastic video to get you started is Morning Motivation by Video Advice.

 Until next week, good luck!

Our success is based on our ratio of good habits to bad habits. Change your habits, change your life! 

[i] Chip Heath, and Dan Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Crown Business; 1st edition (February 16, 2010)

Learn more, Discipline & Procrastination are Habits, NOT Personality Traits

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Are you ready to reboot and reset your relationship with food and exercise? Most programs focus on the mechanics of weight loss but fail to adequately address the psychology of change required. Most people know more than enough about nutrition and exercise to lose weight, but fail to act. This book takes a new approach to getting leaner, fitter, and stronger. 

The Fat Loss Habit: Creating Routines that Make Willpower and Fat Loss Automatic takes a new approach to getting leaner, fitter, and stronger. The program uses high-impact change strategies that make the process of adopting a healthy lifestyle easier. The nutrition and workout program, like the change techniques, have all been proven effective, and are all backed by research and scientific studies.

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"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. " -Benjamin Franklin  “First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.” - Rob Gilbert…

[psychic-readingonline]

Psychic Damage Definition

Contents

Creature takes normal

Lord takes 3d6 [psychic

Reinforces perceived damage

Empathy include cognitive empathy

Mid-nineties onwards (

Modern english usage

Psychic Abilities Mind Reading Psychic Powers In Anime Online shopping from a great selection at Movies & TV store. psychic twins afterlife earth can have a higher spiritual consciousness. But even though earth life can never be like heaven life, it can evolve to a much higher spiritual consciousness than it is now experiencing. Comments about this clairvoyant experience. Psychic Powers In Anime Online shopping from a great selection at Movies & TV Store. Psychic Twins Afterlife Earth can have a higher spiritual consciousness. But even though earth life can never be like heaven life, it can evolve to a much higher spiritual consciousness than it is now experiencing. Comments about this clairvoyant experience. The following comments are

Psychic damage is a concept used in the field of social psychology to describe the negative effects of stereotypes on individual members of stigmatized groups.

Psychic Xena Let us jump-start your research, with reviews of several Life Reader psychics. … Xena's claim to fame is her nickname, “The Clairvoyant's Clairvoyant”. The power to use the traits and powers of Titans of Greek Mythology. Variation of Transcendent Physiology and Greek Deity Physiology. User can draw power and abilities connected to the Titans, the

How does DR (damage reduction) interact with magical effects that deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage? Although the definition of damage reduction says “The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even non-magical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities,” that’s actually just referring to damage that isn’t specifically called out as being of …

The lord takes 3d6 [psychic] damage and begins to twitch frantically. … so can be utilized in a session as one of many versions of this definition.

Jun 13, 2013 … The Meaning of Psychic Pain … But each repetition of this process reinforces perceived damage and … Controlling the Meaning of Your Life.

Psychic Z Move Name The Z-Move that a Pokémon can perform depends on the Z-Crystal it holds. … of the original moves, having a Z- prefixed to the start of the status move's name. ….. Light Screen · Psychic, Special Defense ↑, Raises Special Defense by 1 stage … A Z-Move is not an extra move the Pokémon learns, but

Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. There are many definitions for empathy that encompass a broad range of emotional states.Types of empathy include cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and somatic empathy.

Psychic Source Raquel Psychic Type Youtube Psychic Unity Of Mankind Anthropology, one was the psychic unity of mankind, the other cultural relativism. Both proceeded from over a hundred years of study of the products of human … Jun 8, 2011 … The origins of Anthropology are varied and, in much of the literature of the behavioral sciences, these origins

Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 1997.It was derived from miniature wargames with a variation of Chainmail serving as the initial rule …

Psychic Abilities Metaphysics The next children to come along after the indigo generation, are the crystal children. They are mostly born from the mid-nineties onwards (though some were born earlier as ‘scouts’ on earth), and many of whom are born to lightworker parents. These children are all about peace, love and acceptance. The primary purpose of the College

From these, there are no general rules on how psychic damage works. … Which means the manifestations become physical if the object is …

an emotional shock or injury or a distressful situation that produces a lasting impression, especially on the subconscious mind. Some causes of psychic trauma …

In more modern english usage, the term "adobe" has come to include a style of architecture popular in the desert climates of North America, especially in New Mexico, regardless of the construction method.. Composition. An adobe brick is a composite material made of earth mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung.The soil composition typically contains sand, silt and clay.

[todaynewsstories]

U.S. benefits manager baulks after Novartis values gene therapy at $4-5 million

ZURICH (Reuters) – Just weeks after Novartis floated the idea that $4-5 million was fair value for its new gene therapy against a deadly neuromuscular disease, a major benefits manager is pushing back.

Eight-year-old Victoria Gusset sits in her wheelchair as she plays in her room at home in Heimbach, Switzerland October 31, 2018. Picture taken October 31, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

The Swiss drugmaker’s assessment of AVXS-101’s value for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has put the company front-and-center in the debate over what “super drugs”, for rare diseases afflicting relatively few patients, are really worth.

Among the first to react was pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts, which helps U.S. employers manage workers’ prescription costs.

Its chief medical officer, Steve Miller, told Reuters he “loves the science” behind Novartis’s therapy, a potential cure for newborns who are diagnosed early.

But $4 million or more per patient?

“You just can’t keep pushing these price points up,” Miller said. “I just don’t think we can allow it. It is not sustainable over time.”

Novartis, which bought U.S.-based AveXis for $8.7 billion in April to add the SMA therapy to its portfolio, is still mulling its asking price as it awaits U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, likely in early 2019.

But the company has begun its campaign to convince insurance groups and governments to cover AVXS-101, contending the one-and-done infusion will save society money over the long haul, even with a cost near the highest ever for a one-time therapy.

There’s now only one approved drug for SMA, Biogen’s two-year-old Spinraza, and it is listed at $750,000 for the first year and $350,000 thereafter. Spinraza is not a cure and must be taken indefinitely.

“When we look at 10-year costs, you see somewhere between $2.5 million to $5 million being spent by societies to care for these types of patients,” Dave Lennon, AveXis’s president, said.

“Four million dollars is a significant amount of money, but we believe this is a cost-effective point.”

Though newborns may stand to benefit the most from AVXS-101, depending on the durability of its effect, the therapy is also being tested in older SMA patients with more advanced disease in hopes it will improve their symptoms, too.

A CHILD’S LIFE

A diagnosis of SMA, which affects one in 10,000 live births, is devastating. Forty percent of victims have the severest form and historically die within months.

Children with less severe SMA can live to adulthood, although with profound physical disabilities. Though cognitively normal, many cannot feed themselves and require 24-hour care, wheelchairs and machines to help them breathe and cough.

Janice Kress, a Pennsylvania woman, lost her grandson to the disease at 5 months.

Today she volunteers for SMA charity events and knows families who have fought their U.S. insurers for access to Biogen’s Spinraza, as payers seek to rein in costs using eligibility criteria like age or when symptoms began.

“A child’s life — how can you say no?” Kress said.

PRICE WATCHDOG

As Novartis prepares to launch AVXS-101, it also hopes for tacit endorsement of its pricing strategy from the non-profit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), which is currently reviewing the cost-effectiveness of SMA therapies.

The Boston-based non-profit, established in 2006, carries out cost-benefit analyses on drugs that it calls independent of “Big Pharma”, insurers and government.

Unlike European price regulators, ICER cannot dictate costs.

But it has steadily gained influence in the U.S. pricing debate, as companies like Express Scripts and CVS Caremark and governments rely on its analyses.

ICER has conducted 11 assessments in 2018, some covering multiple drugs.

In seven of the reviews, it concluded drugs’ prices aligned with their benefits, like when it said Roche’s $482,000 hemophilia medicine Hemlibra could save the U.S. system up to $1.9 million for the hardest-to-treat patients.

Four times, however, ICER concluded drugmakers were asking too much, giving payers ammunition to bargain them down.

For instance, the New York Department of Health told Reuters that ICER’s finding that a $270,000-per-year cystic fibrosis drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals represented “low long-term value” helped underpin the state’s demand for a steep discount.

JUST ONE FINGER

Novartis and Biogen, as well as Switzerland’s Roche, which also has an SMA drug in development, are all lobbying ICER to broaden what it considers a meaningful benefit, potentially helping their therapies fare well in the group’s review.

The ability to move one finger might not seem like much, but Biogen told ICER such a measure should be considered, since it might allow somebody with SMA to steer an electric wheelchair and maintain a level of independence.

“We recently spoke with a young man who is…now losing ability and power in his fingers,” said Sangeeta Jethwa, Roche’s head of patient partnerships, told Reuters.

“He wants to be able to go out with his friends and open his own bottle of drink. That for him is fantastically meaningful.”

For its SMA review, ICER aims to quantify factors like quality of life, direct medical costs and how patient and caregiver productivity losses may burden society.

A head-to-head comparison of Spinraza’s and AVXS-101’s financial impacts over time is also planned before ICER issues its final report in March.

ICER spokesman David Whitrap said ICER’s review takes eight months so it can “rigorously evaluate all of the available evidence.”

The stakes are high for Biogen, after Britain’s healthcare cost agency, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, has concluded Spinraza was too expensive to be cost-effective.

Though Spinraza, whose nine-month 2018 sales hit $1.25 billion, is available in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, Biogen wants to avoid a negative ICER assessment that gives payers more leverage to demand rebates.

“We are confident in the evidence supporting the value it provides,” a Biogen spokeswoman said.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS

Treatments for rare diseases like SMA are increasingly popular among drugmakers, because they command high prices while insurers are hard pressed to reject claims, especially for sick children.

Sales of rare disease therapies will rise 11 percent annually, nearly twice the overall market rate, through 2024, when they’ll hit $262 billion, consultancy Evaluate Pharma has forecast.

Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan, with ambitions of treating hundreds of SMA patients annually, highlights 90 kids in AVXS-101 trials over four years, including some who would otherwise have been incapacitated and fed through tubes.

“With AVXS-101… patients are alive and thriving,” Narasimhan said.

There were no SMA therapies, however, when Victoria Gusset, an eight-year-old Swiss girl with a shy smile and love for horses, was diagnosed as a toddler after failing to stand independently.

Today, Victoria is in a trial testing how Spinraza may improve muscle control or halt its decline in older children.

Every four months, Victoria and her mother, Nicole Gusset, load her electric wheelchair into their van and drive two hours from their home near Bern to a German hospital for a spinal infusion.

Victoria looks forward to each trip, though she sometimes suffers from nausea and headaches following treatment.

“I get to go shopping with mum,” she said.

After her daughter’s diagnosis, Nicole Gusset founded an SMA patient organization and has been lobbying the Swiss government to expand access to Spinraza. Children under 20 have coverage, but most insurers refuse to pay for adults.

Slideshow (6 Images)

Gusset said Novartis’s $4 million announcement sent shockwaves through Switzerland’s SMA community, heightening fears that escalating costs will keep new treatments out of reach for some who might benefit.

“The best therapies are useless if patients cannot get them,” she said.

(the story vorrects paragraph 22 to show ICER conducted 11 assessments in 2018, not reviewed 11 treatments)

Reporting by John Miller in Zurich, Deena Beasley in Los Angeles and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Mike Collett-White

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Dave Palumbo Keto Diet Plan

Developed for employ by bodybuilders, the ketogenic diet is an effective method of losing fatty rapidly while preserving muscle mass. One modification of this diet is the Palumbo Keto Diet, which follows a terribly strict nutrition convey at specific interims. Memo that any keto diet must be followed accurately to avoid health risks; these nutritions are intended for very active jocks exclusively and for periods of no more than 2 month. Nonetheless, even athletes should consult their consultants before originating a new food or struggle regimen.

Identification

Keto diets are temporary eating proposed that consist of a high protein intake along with a moderate quantity of obesities and very low carbohydrate intake. The most important principles behind these foods is to sit your figure into both governments of ketosis, a temporary society in which the body is deprived of blood glucose and is forced to seek alternative sources of energy -- in that case, person flab. It is necessary to regulate the states of ketosis, as protracted time in this position can be harmful to the body.

The key to a successful keto diet is to continue to perform defiance training courses and aerobic undertaking at regular intervals. Resistance teaching is necessary to deplete muscle glycogen and encourage ketosis as well as to preserve muscle mass and singe glut calories. Aerobic activity is not as all-important but can speed up the fat-loss process.

How Ketogenic Diets Work

The primary energy sources for the body is glucose, which is metabolized and transported all over the intelligence and organization to fuel daily operations. When the diet scarcities plentiful carbohydrates, nonetheless, "were not receiving" informant of glucose and the body is forced to seek a permutation -- overweights. Flabs are broken down into fatty acids and ketone torsoes which provide oil via different pathways.

When regular opponent schooling is played, the needs of the of helping muscles require additional oil; this forces the body to answer these necessities by divesting establishment fatty in addition to providing fatties destroyed in your diet.

Ketogenic diets require a reporting period ketosis followed by a brief carbohydrate re-feed. This allows the body to normalize and refuel the ability and organization with glucose, allowing for optimal cognitive capacity and maintenance of muscle mass.

Layout

Professional bodybuilder and fitness consultant Dave Palumbo enunciated the Palumbo Keto Diet to enforced a one-day chisel dinner to perpetuate ketosis and promote speedy solid loss.

The Palumbo Keto diet compels enjoying between 1 and 1.5 g of protein per pound of bodyweight( for men and women) per age, about 0.5 g of overweight per pound, and very low carbohydrates -- no direct commencements. These macronutrients are to be split up into six dinners each day for six days a week. Total calorie uptake should be reduced to for the purposes of the upkeep rank to exhortation solid loss.

On the seventh daylight, you are allowed to eat a" misinform snack ," which are able to consist of carbs and generally unhealthy foods. This reintroduction of carbs allows the body to briefly differ ketosis and sucks enough glucose to keep it use efficiently. This reduces cortisol ranks and saves muscle, as well as effectively resets the metabolism to allow fat loss to continue.

Types of Foods

Acceptable brand-new sources of menu can come from whole fleshes like chicken, fish, beef, lamb and turkey, as well as entire eggs. It is important to get slay of omega -3 and omega -6 all-important fatty battery-acids in your diet by expending slay of eggs, fish or fish lubricant, and olive oil. Almonds and peanut butter are likewise a great generator, but they do contain carbohydrates as well and should be avoided in excess.

Avoid all sources of sugar and starches except during the course of its crook banquet. Outcomes are also not permitted during this time. Fiber will aid in digestion and promote anxieties of satiety. Fibrous veggies like broccoli and spinach" mustve been" spent regularly.

According to Palumbo, the defraud banquet can consist of any type of menu in any segment for the very last meal of the seventh time of each week.

Additional Considerations

It starts three to four daytimes to enter ketosis initially, so is not be alarmed if it is not immediately envision. Ketosis can result in a period of lethargy and change in sensibility for a brief straddle while their own bodies adjusts. Try to avoid extravagance tonics, as it is able to create cortisol positions and hobble solid loss. Formerly overweight loss begins to slow, increase the frequency of cardio to prolong developing. Preserve aerobic undertaking at a very low verve to precaution muscle mass.