self help

Self Growth Generally Doesn’t Happen in a Recliner

by Joi

comfy recliner

This morning I went about my normal, blissful, much-beloved morning routine. I fed my inside cat, Alexa. I fed my outside cat Ming Li and tried to catch a site of Ming Li’s kittens and baby daddy. The daddy (Jet Li) was nowhere to be found, but the adorable babies were running amok.

Then I came back inside to pour myself and my husband some Heaven – also known as coffee. None of our daughters are ever awake at this point, and they look as cute sleeping now as they did when they were 4, 3, and 1.

My beautiful, picturesque morning came to an end when I remembered what was at the top of my “To Do” list for today. I glanced at the notebook I keep such lists in and could have sworn I heard thunder clap and demons shriek as I opened it up to today’s list. Sure enough, there at the top was the task that I was dreading. I won’t bore or frighten you with the details – besides, unless you’re a web publisher/designer you wouldn’t fully grasp the horror.

Suffice to say, the task that lies before me is one that summons up all of my attention, all of my mental resources, all of my courage… oh, it sucks a gravedigger’s big toe, okay? The left one.

It’s a particular task that I swore I’d never do again because it’s so tedious. It’s a completely different detour from the path my days normally take and, frankly, I love my normal path!

Alexa and I were both glaring at the list when I remembered a quote by Anais Nin: Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

Oh. Okay.

Then as I was getting my mind around that quote, another one came to mind: Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ronald E. Osborn

That’s a good one, isn’t it?

The next time you’re up against something that’s intruding upon your blissful, happy, comfortable setting – thank it for its arrival. It bears good fruit.  Self Growth generally doesn’t happen when we’re comfortable.  It’s when we step out of our comfort zone that our potential to grow escalates.   So, I guess it should be something we welcome rather than try to dodge?

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

More quotes about self growth can be found in Self Help Daily’s Inspirational Quote collection. But be careful, they’ll affect you in a powerful way!

Self Help Resources That’ll Help You Finish Strong

by Joi

Runners Crossing the Finish Line
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May 18. Do you realize how far away from January 1 we are?!  So many days have passed since we made our New Year’s Resolutions that I don’t even want to think about it.  If you also had a few resolutions that were easier to make than to keep, you know exactly where I’m coming from.

Ah, but here’s the rub:  There are even more days until December 31!  That’s right – we still have time to steady our legs and finish strong.  This race isn’t over.  In fact we aren’t even in the home stretch yet. So, I want you to sit down and think about your resolutions again.

Ask yourself a few questions:

  • Where did I slip? Did you get overly comfortable and confident?  Back up and give yourself a fresh start!
  • Why have I lost my focus? Identify your distractions and find a way to deal with them.
  • What do I need to do to get back on track? Surround yourself with supportive people and realize that you ARE stronger than the thing you are up against.  Renew your determination now and you’ll have even more reasons to celebrate when December rolls around.
  • How can I keep from slipping again? The bad news is you slipped once.  The good news is you know what to watch out for next time.

Finally, the  best advice I can give you (and myself for that matter!) is this:  Set yourself up for success. The surest way to do that is to give yourself an advantage.  Below you’ll find some amazing resources, or advantages,  that want to help you cross the finish line in whatever race you’re in.

  • Want to lose weight and be healthier?  The Denim Diet by Kami Gray MUST be the next book you buy.  Please click the link to read more about this book.  This book could easily be the advantage you need.
  • Want to stop drinking?  For help with this admirable, yet often difficult goal, please go immediately to How to Stop Drinking and read every single word.  You don’t have to do this alone.  People are very eager to help you.  Support is never more important than it is when you’re looking for a victory over an addiction.  Click the link and you’ll find the support you need.
  • Prevention.com is another excellent (and free!) source of inspiration and motivation when you’re trying to eat healthier and become more physically fit.
  • If time management is something you struggle with, first of all, welcome to the club – have a seat if you can find one!  The video you’ll find HERE will prove to be a great, great advantage for you.  Grab a pen and paper and take notes.  The speaker is Randy Pausch and he’ll rock your clock.

Another great resource for self improvement can be found HERE.  You’ll find a free guide based on Dale Carnegie’s amazing and potentially life-changing book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Remember, it’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it that counts!

Make each stride count double,
~ Joi

The Enemy Known as Saturated Fat

by Joi

Saturated fat is the main dietary cause of high blood cholesterol. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals and some plants. Foods from animals include beef, beef fat, veal, lamb, pork, lard, poultry fat, butter, cream, milk, cheeses and other dairy products made from whole and 2 percent milk. All of these foods also contain dietary cholesterol. Foods from plants that contain saturated fat include coconut, coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil (often called tropical oils), and cocoa butter. - American Heart.org

I suppose that, even though we don’t always show it, we do know that saturated fats are bad for our hearts. Do you ever wonder what it would take for us to finally “get it,” and to “get it” to the point of giving our daily diet a complete overhaul?

I’m afraid I already know the answer – it would take a doctor’s serious, concerned expression as he/she told us that we have high blood pressure, heart disease, or something else incredibly fun and exciting. THEN the light bulb would go off and we’d say, “Wow. I need to start eating right. My life is more important that any burger, steak, fries…whatever.”

How about it, let’s start making changes before it gets to that point. Then, maybe we’ll never have to hear the words come out of our doctor’s mouth in the first place.

As if heart health wasn’t enough, here’s a fact that might just push you into action: Those who eat more saturated fat double their risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. DOUBLE. So, if you currently have a 40 percent chance of getting Alzheimer’s Disease, if you keep consuming a lot of saturated fats, you can shoot your percentage of getting Alzheimer’s Disease all the way up to 80 percent!

Time for action? Time for action.

Make a concentrated effort to remove as much saturated fat from your diet as possible.

  • Read labels.
  • A grilled chicken breast without skin contains a third less saturated fat than with skin, so ditch the skin – it’s kind of nasty anyway.
  • Look for healthier butter and margarine spreads – and go as lightly as possible.  I love butter more than anyone in the world loves butter, but even I have found that you can use less without missing it.  I don’t even butter my popcorn anymore.  Also, cornbread and biscuits are just as delicious with fruit preserves.  Especially blackberry!
  • Grill, bake, steam, boil or poach foods rather than frying them.  Grilled or steamed fish, with the right seasonings, is even better than fried and grilled chicken beats fried chicken any day of the week. (As a matter of fact, I’d give anything right this minute for some of my husband’s marinated grilled chicken and pineapple slices.)
  • We can mess up a perfectly healthy salad by throwing fatty dressings on top.  I like to experiment with different flavors rather than allowing the dressing to steal the show.  The next time you make a salad, try tossing in a little fresh cilantro, as much diced jalapeno as you can tolerate, and some green onion.  When you put it onto your plate, simply spritz it with a little fresh lime and lemon juice.  It doesn’t take much, but it’s wonderfully fresh and delicious.
  • It may seem drastic (especially to those of you who see Hamburglar when you look into the mirror!), but cut way back on the number of hamburgers you eat.  Experiment with healthier alternatives (Subway, Penn Station, Quiznos) and healthier choices (grilled chicken,grilled fish, salads, etc.)  Pick a day of the month as your “Burger Day,” if you have to and treat yourself to a burger only on that day.
  • It’s worth mentioning again, so I’m going to mention it again – read the labels when shopping and choose the healthier foods.  Every little bit count because every little bit adds up.

When you start to feel weak, reciting the following will strengthen your resolve:  Those who eat more saturated fat double their risk of Alzheimer’s.

Make each moment healthy!
~ Joi

DID YOU KNOW?
Learn more about Penguins!

  • Penguins mate for life.
  • Penguins can walk faster than humans.  Well, actually it’s more of a waddle…
  • Penguins are very social birds and live together in colonies called rookeries.
  • Penguins communicate with one another through body language.
  • Penguins pick up stones and store them in their crop. This helps them to float when they are in water.
  • When a mother penguin loses a chick, she steals another mother’s chick!
  • There are 17 species of penguins with the Emperor and Adelie penguins being the largest

Penguins

Protect Penguins!

QUOTE
Happiness is not created by what happens to us, but by our attitudes toward each happening. – Walter Heily

Thinking Outside of the Box is Still The Only Way to Think!

by Joi

Vintage CorvetteI was going back and forth, having a great conversation, with someone through e-mail recently about Thinking Outside of the Box.  Yes, it’s a phrase that has been around the bend a few hundred thousand times, but like vintage corvettes – it’s still a beautiful ride.

Both of us were totally on board.  Come on, if people had never thought outside of confining boundaries (whether self imposed or not), we wouldn’t have the luxuries we enjoy today.  People who stay inside of expectations and never color outside of the lines (even for effect), aren’t the trail blazers, inventors, or lightning bolts of the world.   They never give the world a fresh breath because they never take one themselves.

Our conversation even prompted me to begin writing an article on the subject.  I filled my coffee cup and checked my e-mail one final time before I started writing.  The story below came floating through the inbox on the wings of irony.  I thought, “Hmm, nothing I could have written would have been better PR for Thinking Outside of the Box than this is, so…”  You guessed it, my coffee cup and I decided to print the story.  Enjoy!

The Right Answer

You are driving down the road in your Corvette on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:

  1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
  2. An old friend who once saved your life.
  3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your Corvette? Think before you continue reading.

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application. You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first. Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS……. The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. He simply answered: ‘I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.’ Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to ‘Think Outside of the Box.’

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

racing flags

Improving Your Memory is A Lot Easier Than You Think

by Joi

ronwhitesmemoryinamonthAs I’ve said before, I’ve got it bad, bad, bad for books and magazines.  My husband doesn’t complain, he just buys me more shelves.

One of the magazines I most look forward to the most each month is SUCCESS. February’s issue has one of the most respected men in the world on the cover, Mr. Colin Powell.

A favorite magazine and a favorite person together in one place? When this issue came in the mail, it was like, “Out of my way, I’m going to disappear for about two hours of glorious reading.” And then I did.

One of my favorite articles was about Memory (Memory Marvel) – specifically about ways to improve and nurture our memory. The article is actually an interview with Ron White, author of Ron White’s Memory in a Month. In addition to writing three books, Ron White has also recorded eight audio programs and delivered workshops for General Motors, Microsoft, Toyota, Honda, American Airlines, Cisco Systems, the Boy Scouts of America, Lexus, Coldwell Banker, Pfizer, and Century 21.

Apparently there’s a great deal of respect attached to Ron White’s name!

The audio cd pictured above is Ron White’s Memory in a Month. You can find it on Amazon by clicking the link.

From Amazon:
Ron White’s Memory in a Month A Unique Memory Skills Designed to Accelerate Your Goals Learn to : Give speeches without notes, Memorize chapters of books, Inprove study skills and grades, Recall product knowledge, Retain information from classes or seminars, Recall names and faces, Memorize notes, Increase your efficiency by retaining more information, Recall phone numbers or product codes, Much,much more. 6 Audio CD’s & Workbook.

In the interview in February’s SUCCESS magazine, Ron White talks about the potential we all have within us – a potential for greater brain power than we even realize we have. We complain about not being able to remember things, yet there are simple actions we can take to greatly improve our memory. It’s like complaining about not having enough money while sitting on gold mine. Break out the tools!

Below is an excerpt from the interview. Do yourself a huge favor and buy the issue as well as Ron White’s audio cd and workbook.

The human brain has the ability to memorize a Shakespearean play word for word or memorize the stats of every baseball player for the last 100 years. And the human memory is capable of recalling every single name after meeting 100 people in 20 minutes!…… The potential for a trained memory is not simply memorizing long strings of numbers. it is building your confidence in public speaking; building relationships and your business by recalling names and faces; and memorizing product knowledge, information from business or success books, knowledge from workshops and more.

He goes on to talk about memory training, using your memory to enhance your success at work, and even gives some of his favorite tips for recalling names.

Where in the world was Ron White when I was in school? I could have used an edge when it came to remembering all those dates in history. The mind’s a complex and amazing thing, I can still remember every word to every single John Mellencamp, Prince, Joan Jett, and Madonna song – but World War II dates? Not so much. (Note to self: Buy a few WW II books)

Make each moment count double!
~ Joi

So, What Exactly is Normal Anyway?

by Joi

Have you ever been guilty of mumbling one of the following statements – either loudly or under your breath?

  • Why can’t my life be normal?
  • Why can’t so and so act normal?!
  • I can’t wait for life to get back to normal…

I’m afraid I’ve been guilty of the “I can’t wait for life to get back to normal…” moan.  In fact, pretty recently!  I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on this particular blog before (I have more than 10, so who knows?!?) – but my spoiled, pampered, much beloved youngest cat, Alexa, recently broke one of her legs in two places.  A normally VERY active cat has had to be confined to total bed rest (we got her a dog kennel/large cage).  Because she’s accustomed to being by my side all the time, I spend a lot of time lying in the floor by her.

Last night, as I sat by her, petting her head and feeling helpless to help my little girl heal any faster – I thought, “I can’t wait for life to be normal again.”  I caught myself almost immediately and wondered, “And just what would that be?”

I mean, just because something in our life is currently stressful doesn’t mean life is all of a sudden abnormal.  Truth be told, isn’t something at least a little to the right or left of our “normal” always taking place?

Granted, some “lefts” or “rights” are more extreme than others.  Some feel like our “normal” has been given a sound beating and left for dead!  This summer, I battled an extreme case of poison oak for two months.  I had it on my face, my arms, legs, stomach, and back. I was covered with pink calamine lotion head to toe.  Misery!  To compound the suffering, I have major allergies and asthma and each responded badly to the poison oak.  Two months. Eight weeks.  Over 50 days.

One night I woke up scratching myself so hard that I started bleeding.  When I went to the bathroom to smear back up with calamine lotion, I sat on the side of the tub and just laughed. I guess sometimes you have to.

Other times, the “right” or “left” feels more like your normal just has a headache.  That’s where I am right now.  I know my beautiful cat is going to be okay and will, in fact, be herself again in a few weeks.  I’m thrilled she wasn’t hurt worse.  She had taken a running jump at an ironing board that, in turn, fell on her.  I’ve thanked God many times that there wasn’t a hot iron on the board.  My normal has a migraine, and when that’s the case - sometimes all we can do is wait.  Time is the aspirin and the only solution to a lot of problems.

Chasing Normal

Money troubles, relationship problems, ill (or broken!) pets, dead-end jobs, lay-offs, etc – life doesn’t think inside the box.  Heck, it’s not even aware that a box exists.

In fact, I guess it’d be safe to say that expecting or looking for normal would make as much sense as a dog chasing a car.  We aren’t going to catch it – and even if we did, we wouldn’t know what to do with it once we had it.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting peace, happiness, and smooth sailing. Wouldn’t we be simpletons if we didn’t want these things in our life?! But, if one gets to the place that they think they can only be happy, pleasant, or in a good mood when every t is crossed and every i is dotted – well, that’s going to be one miserable person.

Do What You Can and Try Not to Worry About the Rest

When you feel like you’re chasing normal, ask yourself a few questions.

  1. Is my situation one I can change?
  2. Is my situation one that I’ll simply have to “ride out”?

If your normal has a headache that you can cure – what are you waiting for?!  Do what you can to make the situation better.

  • If you have relationships in your life that feel strained and you find yourself arguing more than ever, swallow your pride and do your part to make things better.  If you need to forgive… forgive.  Make the first move, you’ll be the winner in the end.
  • If you’re overwhelmed at work or at home, sit down and make a list.  Divide the things you have to get done into “bite sized” chunks.  Take each, one at a time, and put a glorious line through each as it becomes a done instead of a to do.
  • If there’s something troubling you that you have no control over (such as an illness), find a way to cope.  Sometimes, it helps to remind yourself that “It is what it is.” None of us get through life unbruised.  God’s own Son faced more adversity, pain, hatred, betrayal, and poverty than any of us ever will… and look Who He knew!  In fact, there are people, even now, who have it much, much worse than we’ll ever have it.  When we remind ourselves of that fact – it makes our burdens seem smaller.

Above all, remember this:  The next time you’re looking for normal – look around you. It may have a few scrapes, it may have an itchy rash (!!!), it may be short on funds – but it’s all normal.  It’s life… and very often, it IS what we make it.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

A Thought or Two (Maybe Three) About Setting Yourself Up for Good Mental Fitness

by Joi

Clear Your Mind of Can't



Clear Your Mind of Can’t Art Print
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I often overhear my husband talking on the phone to people he does business with.  A common theme he points out to people is this:  You either set yourself up to succeed or you set yourself up to fail. I have no idea which of his favorite speakers or authors initially said it, but he firmly believes in its worth. The point is always followed up by examples of setting oneself up to fail (like not listening to details, not putting customers/consumers/buyers first AND last, taking shortcuts, etc.) and examples of setting oneself up to succeed (getting your priorities straight, outworking everyone else, going above and beyond, etc.)

Of course, this same sort of philosophy can spill into other crevices of life as well.  Since we’re most interested in Mental Fitness and Mental Health on this particular blog, we’ll stick with that subject.

 

Ways We Set Ourselves up to Fail OR Ways we Sabotage Our Mental Fitness!

Unhealthy, Poisonous Thoughts - Rightfully at the top of the list.  Whether we use our thoughts to worry about things that haven’t even happened or use them to re-hash and re-live bad experiences, we stab ourselves in the foot with negative, destructive thinking. 

I’ve never understood people who relive bad things.  I overheard a woman tell her husband recently, “I remember when you said blah blah blah… That really hurt!”  He was like, “I said I was sorry.  That was over 20 years ago!”  I wanted to lean over to their table and tell her that if she has to go back 20 years to find something clumsy that came out of her man’s mouth, she should get on her knees and thank God right now! 

Why relive bad things – the first run was enough, right?  I can understand reliving the good moments, it makes you feel good all over again.

Think about it this way, when we engage in thoughts and memories, our psyche experiences it all over again.  How healthy do you think it would be to keep exposing our psyche to bad experiences?  It would think we had the most profoundly miserable life in the world.  Healthy?  Not even close.

How about worry? It makes your psyche a basket case – and, again, that isn’t at all productive for one’s mental fitness.

Let things go.  If you think you’re harming someone else by holding onto them, you are dead wrong.  You’re only harming one person and if you want to see who that is, find the nearest mirror.

I have countless bad traits – from spending money like I have an orchard of money trees to driving like I’m qualifying for the Daytona.  But one thing I actually nailed early in life was this:  You have to let go of the bad as soon as you possibly can.  That’s why I don’t hound my husband with things he said years, months, or even days ago.  Doesn’t matter.  Truth be told, since I never make it a point to dwell on negatives, they disappear from my mind very quickly.  Only things we think about fairly frequently stay with us.

Why do you think things we learned in school disappear so soon after we leave school.  We don’t think about the Mayflower Compact, Spanish verbs, Diagramming sentences, or (for crying out loud) calculus on a regular basis.

If you have negative thoughts or worries lingering in the halls of your mind, chase them out with a broom.  They aren’t helping you set yourself up for good mental fitness or happiness at all. They’re setting you up for gloom, failure, and a sick psyche.

By Becomming Mind Sloths!  -  If we aren’t careful, when we least expect it, an epidemic reaches down and claims us.  It’s the Mind Sloth epidemic and it’ll turn your mind to mush. 

What are the symptoms of this epidemic? 

  1. Frequent television watching and/or internet surfing without balancing the time with frequent reading and mental challenges.
  2. Saying, “I can’t do this so I’m not even going to try!”
  3. Being unable to name the last book you read.
  4. Being unable to carry on a conversation on topics plucked from the daily newspaper.
  5. Being unable to name your daily newspaper!
  6. Being content and comfortable with the knowledge you have at this point.

If you recognize any of these symptoms, there’s hope.  But you have to ACT, no one’s going to do it for you.

  1. Broaden your horizons.  There’s NOTHING wrong with watching television, there’s NOTHING wrong with going online – but they mustn’t become your identity.  If someone thinks of one of these activities when they hear your name, you may need to do a little soul searching.  Read more books, research things that interest you, read the newspaper.
  2. When you come face to face with a challenge, don’t immediately run the other way.  A great sense of pride, self-confidence and accomplishment come with every battle you win.  However, each battle you walk away from weakens your resolve and throws ice water on your self confidence.  You never know what you can do until you try.  You very well may find out you have more knowledge, creativity, and ability lying inside of you than you ever suspected.  When you wake it up, it might just blow your socks off!
  3. Never be content with what you know.  There’s so much to learn – the world’s a huge, fascinatiing place.  The more you learn, the more you realize how much you have left to learn.  Pick a country, an animal, a period of history, an event, an individual – and learn everything you possibly can about them.

By Being Physically Unhealthy. Our physical fitness and health affects our mental fitness and health.  We should strive to be as physically and mentally fit as possible – the two work together brilliantly. 

  1. Get at least 30 minutes of activity daily.  Take walks, clean your house, work in the yard, put on Motown and dance… Whatever you want to do, just get moving.
  2. Eat healthy.  Research shows that the foods that are good for us, physically, are also good for us mentally.  Fish, berries, spinach, oranges, green tea, coffee… they’re all good for us from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes.
  3. Get plenty of fresh air and natural sunlight.  Go outside and take healthy, long deep breaths several times a day.  It just down-right feels good!  Plus, it benefits the cells of your body and mind greatly.
  4. Avoid the things that are bad for you physically.  Smoking, overeating, inactivity – they’re not just unhealthy for your heart and lungs, your brain doesn’t appreciate them either.  At all!

Are you setting yourself up to be as mentally fit as possible or are you sabotaging and sacrificing your mental health.  I want you to also realize that there’s something else to keep in mind.  It isn’t talked about as much as mental fitness or physical fitness, but it’s every bit as important – and that’s Emotional Fitness.  The things you just read about matter as much to your Emotional Fitness as they do your mental and physical fitness. They all go hand in hand, cell in cell.  When one’s strong, it encourages the others to be as well.  When one’s weak, however, it drags the others down with it. 

If you’re guilty of sabotaging your mental fitness, you might as well say that you’re also sabotaging your physical fitness and your emotional health as well.  Don’t wait for tomorrow to do something about it.  Stop whatever you’re doing right now and give yourself a little pep talk.  You know what things you need to start doing and what things you need to stop doing.  When you pinpoint each, write it down.

Then go over each point and come up with a plan for each.  If a plan eludes you, do a little research – or e-mail me and If I don’t already have some advice in my pocket, I’ll do the research for you.

Make each moment a healthy moment, first, and then make it count double!
~ Joi

Brain Foods – Foods That Help Your Concentration

by Joi

What we eat and drink directly affect more than just our weight and energy levels. Making the right choices can actually help our concentration. WebMd.com (love them!) has put together a fascinating slideshow packed with a ton of useful information and delicious-looking images.

Click the link below and see how many of these brain-y foods you see regularly, and which you need to introduce yourself to.

Can What We Eat and Drink Really Increase Our Focus and Concentration?

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Ten Steps to A Better Memory Are Ten Steps to Decreasing Your Odds of Getting Dementia

by Joi

Memory of the Time



Memory of the TimeArt Print
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Lately, I’ve noticed that fewer and fewer people are making jokes about “senior moments” or harmless lapses in memory. I’m not so sure that political correctness or sudden cases of sensitivity are the reasons. In fact, I’m 100 percent certain that the increased attention we’re all giving to Alzheimer’s and Dementia is the reason.

I just want to say, “Thank goodness!” for all the atttention. Everytime I see a news story or article about Alzheimer’s or Dementia, I get excited. The more attention we bring to mental health, the better the odds become of defeating the beast once and for all.

Sadly, we haven’t defeated it yet. 5 percent of people aged 65 and older fall victim to Alzheimer’s while a much larger portion over 80 fall victim. So, no, the world doesn’t find “innocent” little lapses in memory to be as funny as we once did.

The good news is therre is a swelling amount of evidence that memory lapses DO NOT necessarily foreshadow dementia. Best of all, the tendency to have lapses in memory can be lessened while REDUCING YOUR RISK OF DEMENTIA.

The solution? Mind aerobics!

Below is a 10 Step Memory Workout courtesy of the AARP.

  1. Exercise regularly.  Study after study prove that aerobic activity reduces the loss of brain tissue common with aging.  The brain LOVES the increased oxygen.
  2. Stick to a healthy diet.  Avoid sugar and saturated fat.  Eat lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, spinach, and beets.  The magnesium found in dark green, leafy vegetables appears to help maintain memory.
  3. Learn new things.  Aim for learning something new everyday as well as learning as many new activities as you can.  Embrace stretching your mind and horizons.  Some examples are:  Learn a new language, learn to play the piano, learn to play the guitar, take up a new sport such as tennis, golf, or bowling, learn card games, throw yourself into animal activism, take up bird watching, etc.  Basically, just stimulate your neuron activity by exposing it to something brand new and exciting!
  4. Get enough sleep.  This is one a lot of people overlook, but it’s very important.  Too little sleep impairs concentration as well as hinders your body from repairing itself when needed.  Be certain you’re getting enough sleep!
  5. Get organized.  Searching for missing keys, cellphones, or other personal properties can be frustrating and time-consuming – to say nothing of the blow it deals to your ego.  Designate a particular place for everything.  If you carry your cellphone from room to room, make a certain spot in each room where you’ll ALWAYS place it.  When it turns up missing (and, come on, let’s be honest – it will!), it can only be in a certain number of spots.  When you travel, keep a checklist for medications, vitamins, eyeglasses, toiletries, and so on.
  6. Devise memory strategies.  Make notes or underline key passages to help you remember what you’ve read.  Invent mnemonics formulas to help you remember things.  These memory aids are usually verbal “tricks” to help the individual associate certain facts.  “i before e except after c” is one of the most popular ones, while “In 1942 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” is another one.  When I was homeschooling my daughters, I had a lot of fun coming up with little poems or sentences to help them remember facts that could otherwise be nightmarish.
  7. Socialize.  Carrying on positive conversations with others helps maintain brain function. 
  8. Turn off the tube.  Experts say too much TV can weaken the brain.  However, educational television shows can help you in your quest to learn something new each day.  Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, and the History Channel all provide great “lessons” in the comfort of your own living room!
  9. Jot down new information.  Writing things down helps transfer the information from short to long-term memory.  That’s why you’ll never see me reading anything without pen and paper nearby.  I learned in elementary school that if you write something down, it’ll stay with you MUCH longer than it will if you don’t.
  10. Solve brainteasers.  Crossword puzzles, card games, and board games (Scrabble, Trivia Pursuit…) improve your memory.  Make it a point to work the puzzles in your newspaper each day.  It’ll become a daily routine that’ll serve you well.  I LOVE the mind games found HERE - I play them every single day and can practically feel the rush my brain gets!  Street of Dreams and Wild Word Garden are probably my two favorites, but if I ever branched out I’m sure I’d discover other great games, too.  Give them a try, I promise you’ll get hooked.  And your brain will thank you for it.

Make each moment count double!

~ Joi

Psychology Today Blogs

by Joi

An exciting fender bender has happened on the information highway.  One of my favorite magazines, Psychology Today, has bumped into the community of Blogging.  The result is positively traffic-stopping!

As the magazine editor, Kaja Perina, writes in her column (June 2008 issue):

Imagine a gathering where relationship gurus, experimental psychologists, and renowned writers drop by for frequent chats – and urge you to join the conversation.  They ponder whether it’s possible to love two people at once, extol Beavis and Butt-head’s unwitting grasp of human nature, and challenge you to whittle your life story down to six words.  And that’s just before appetizers.

If that sounds as intriguing to you as it does to me, I’ll see you there!
blogs.psychologytoday.com
 

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