{"id":212,"date":"2009-08-20T14:20:58","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T21:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bbyfastforword.wordpress.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2013-08-30T06:09:25","modified_gmt":"2013-08-30T13:09:25","slug":"train-your-mind-change-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/train-your-mind-change-your-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Train your mind – Change your brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bk_trainyourmind\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Sharon Begley is a Newsweek science writer who has a gift for making science accessible and meaningful.\u00a0 This book is a compiled set of learning stories from the Mind and Life Institute\u00a0conferences (participated by the Dalai Lama and a group of neuroscientists).\u00a0 Pioneering research in neuroplasticity from many sides are brought together – works such as Michael Merzenich, Paula Tallal, Fred Gage, Richard Davidson…<\/p>\n

Besides the story on Fast ForWord, I was intrigued by Philip Shaver’s story on prosocial behaviour (compassion, empathy, altruism…).\u00a0 He suggests that whether a person acts with compassion or not reflects the person’s sense of emotional security (eg. whether they know there is someone to turn to in tough times).\u00a0 This bridges\u00a0 to Attachment theory where having emotional security or not explains why different children react differently to situations.\u00a0 Those experiences early in life extend into adult life.\u00a0 There is growing evidence that interventions to enhance emotional security also help grow compassion.\u00a0 If we combine this with our understanding of how the brain\u00a0needs\u00a0attention and experiences to change and that this is possible throughout life (plasticity), then we have another level\u00a0of conversation.\u00a0 Especially when we’re talking about social responsibility or Restitution <\/a>practices, which our district is strongly in support.<\/p>\n

Another one that stood out was Fred Gage’s work on results on voluntary and involuntary exercise. Voluntary exercise (eg. running, swimming) promoted neurogenesis. When this happened, there was also the presence of theta waves in the brain (like when you pay attention to something).\u00a0 Theta waves aren’t present during activities of eating, drinking or other things of an autopilot nature.\u00a0 As theta waves can also occur without physical activity, there is a suggestion that the voluntary component could be a key to the increase in neurogenesis.\u00a0 I wonder if this is suggesting that its another plus for leading an active life.\u00a0…. get out those running shoes!….<\/p>\n

Ultimately the book gives hope; hope that through attention and experiences the brain changes and that it’s not all genes (Schwartz<\/a> proved that with his strategies for patients with OCD); hope that neuroplasticity provides an answer to our aging memories and the host of health related issues associated with age; hope that we can do something about it.\u00a0 The question for us as educators, may be ‘what might we do with all\u00a0this growing body of evidence’?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 Sharon Begley is a Newsweek science writer who has a gift for making science accessible and meaningful.\u00a0 This book is a compiled set of learning stories from the Mind and Life Institute\u00a0conferences (participated by the Dalai Lama and a group of neuroscientists).\u00a0 Pioneering research in neuroplasticity from many sides are brought together – works…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83,84],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/fastforword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}