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Welcome from Mike Logan
Brain Function MemoryBrain MemoryBrainfit For Life-A Users Guide to Life Long Brain Health and FitnessCurious about brain fitness programs? Is there anything to them besides smoke and mirrors? I have been using four of them, and I like them, and I believe that they work. Dr. Simon Evans and Dr. Paul Burghardt from the University of Michigan have written an informative e-book that explains how brain fitness can be induced or practiced. Their e-book draws on their professional expertise to explain in a humorous way that brain fitness is certainly something we can cultivate. Want just a chapter, and not the e-book? No problem, but for $17.00, how can you go wrong? Remember, everything starts in the brain. That is correct, if you want to pick up a fork to eat apple pie, your brain is what moves your body and picks up the fork.Once you have read the book, look for links below to exceptional brain fitness tools used and recommended by me. "Dr. Simon Evans and Dr. Paul Burghardt draw from their brain science research and extensive speaking experience to mix important health messages with an entertaining journey into your brain and mind. BrainFit For Life will motivate, educate and delight you on your way to a healthier brain and more enriched life. After all, thoughts are things. They are electrical and chemical pulses that change your brain by their very existence. BrainFit for Life gives you the tools to change your brain for the better and achieve life-long brain health and fitness." Thoughts about your perceptions do change your life, and fast. You change your hormonal bath with a thought twice as fast as you can blink your eyes. (You may have dated your significant other for a long time, and when you made the words "I love you", your life changed didn't it)?
I found the following material at Dialogue on Learning, and I think it is important for a couple of reasons. In looking at how various brain fitness programs work, I definitely want to work on the on neural circuits and enhance their function when I do my brain fitness workout. I do not just want to get better at the trial. Which makes what the authors say in the last paragraph so interesting to me, "With practice and review, the connections between the neurons become stronger and stronger and the information is more easily recalled." This is the entire section on memory, and the link is at the bottom of the page to the site I am quoting. I also use a version of this in my anger management class, focusing on the emotional memories, because, "Under Stress We Regress," and we access a behavior when under stress which worked for us when we had a more primitive (read younger) repertoire of behaviors. I guess the operative word is tantrum, but a tantrum mixed with a knife or gun is deadly. So where does nutrition or brain fitness programs fit into education or memory enhancement or even memory recovery, in the case of folks using the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program? Well, the research is showing thus far that taking omega 3 in the diet or supplementing it is helpful, as is getting some blueberries in the diet for their antioxidant capacities. (There are many good fruits available besides blueberries, but blueberries show the strongest antioxidant capabilities. "In the process of encoding information in long-term storage, the memories are broken into components and stored throughout the brain. One can also say that memories are "filed" in different ways. Memories can be classified in two ways: nondeclarative and declarative. Nondeclarative memory, sometimes called implicit memory, includes procedural memory, motor skill memory and emotional memory. Procedural memory consists of things like typing, riding a bicycle or tying a shoelace. They are performed without conscious thought or attention once the procedure has been learned. Motor skill memory involves many of the things we do every day: our morning grooming and breakfast rituals, driving to work. How many times have you arrived at work in the morning, only to realize you don't really remember driving to work, as if you were on automatic pilot. Emotional memory is often called "flashbulb memory" because emotionally laden events are easily retrieved. Examples include the Challenger disaster or the assassination of JFK. Declarative memory, also called conscious or explicit memory, on the other hand, involves the recall of facts. In educational settings, we are most concerned with declarative memory. There are two types of declarative memory: episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic memories are connected with events that occurred in our lives at a specific time and place. Semantic memory deals with facts and information not directly linked to events in our lives. Episodic memory is retained more easily than semantic memory. With practice and review, the connections between the neurons become stronger and stronger and the information is more easily recalled. Again, this has enormous implications for the way we present information to our students." I think every learning environment should include brain fitness programs like the Lumosity or Mind Sparke tool.
Would You Share Something That You Are Grateful For?
When I was beginning my personal growth journey, a wise person told me that when I was feeling resentful or afraid or sad, that I should remember the phrase "gratitude is the attitude" when I was ready to feel better. That phrase has helped me feel better tens of thousands of times.
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