On-A-Whim Redefinition

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Rose

*Dear K, if you are reading this, please don’t feel that I have deceived you because I am now always who I was when I was with you. R.

In my mind, I’ve always held this “honourable” view.

I don’t know where I get it from, because I’ve never met anyone who shares it to the extent that I do, and I’ve had it at least since I was seven.

The view was “You should keep your word; any words you use are a promise, and if you break a promise, you deserve to die.”

I remember so clearly the day I cried because in my heart, I felt I didn’t deserve to live because I’d not been able to keep a promise; I’d been too scared to move.

Yet, as I aged, I found myself telling the odd half-truth, and I remember exactly when I made the last three promises. One was April / May 2007. One was in April 2005 and they promised me the same back. The other was a couple of years even before that.

I learnt not to promise, never to “give my word” and I began to hedge everything with ifs and buts.

Magic: The Opening

In 2009, three other students and I were looking around a student house when I recognised the photo of my friend in one of the bedrooms. He wasn’t in, but I asked his housemate, K, if he lived with my friend.

I also noticed some “magic: the gathering” cards on K’s shelf and commented that I used to play it at college.

He said “I’d be happy to take you to the SWARM society and we could play a game” and I, barely hearing him, said “I’ll think about it” in such a noncommittal manner, I saw his face fall.

Something struck me then. The memory of me as a child, of my word, of honour and honesty. I’d said it, so now I had to think about it.

I saw his face and tilted my head to catch his eye. “I mean it, I really will.”

He didn’t seem convinced, which strengthened my resolve further. To cut the long story short, I contacted my friend and asked if K would give me the details of SWARM. I won the game on a technicality (more than I ever did at college, so yay!) and we’re still friends.

This guy, K, did business studies. When he took me to my first ever gig with another friend of ours, he talked a lot about how the recession was affecting things and how it would continue to affect us. I nodded and only half paid attention again; it was late, my attention was all about seeing a band live (for the first time!) and I had no prior knowledge of business or money to add this new information to.

The next morning, I vaguely remembered having said I’d love to see his essay report on how the financial affairs had come about, once he’d given it in for his coursework. I don’t remember why I’d said that, but I had and thus, a month later, I emailed to ask if I could read it. It was actually very enlightening to read, but the main reason was to keep up this belief (to him and to myself) that I’m still a decent, honest person.

The Point

I didn’t realise it at the time, but in keeping this façade of being an honourable human with just one person, I have come to really value the power of the word; the strength of relationships built on true listening and hearing of each other (these days I listen intently to and understand his business talk).

And it has spread out to other areas of my life. It may take me 6 months, but if I tell you that I’ll do something for you; I will.

- If I say “you know where I am if you need me”, I’m not being polite. I’m seriously passionate about making sure you have the support you need. I have had friends ring me at 2am on the verge of suicide. And I am 100% happy to deal with that.

- I can help you define where you want to be a month from now, and I don’t mind you coming on skype in tears to ask me for that help. Or just for a hug and to listen. If I message you to say I’m here for you, I truly mean it.

Your Turn

In the end, this redefinition was all about my intense need to be in line with my values. I hate hypocrites and I value honour – thus I became honourable.

If you want to redefine how you act and what views you hold, try to be the “new you” with someone you’ve just met. It’s easier if they’re not friends with your closest friends; but even so, in time you’ll be like that with everyone. You can change things slowly, one thing at a time.

What would you shift?

Pick one thing, meet one person (or just change that aspect with someone you don’t know too well yet) and go with it. Leave a comment if you’d like some support or a little nudge in how to go about it all. Seriously.

I think for my next introduction, I’ll practise speaking without “like” or “you know” in every sentence. I’d like to change that about myself.
– Rose –

* That picture is from March this year, sharing a drink at midnight. I kept my word.

Brain Exercises for the New Year

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Rose

As I write more about the four areas of interest on my general blog, I mentioned the ways I’m keeping everything in balance – with food and exercise changes for my physical body, and mental challenges for my brain (which it makes sense to share here).

The Aim

I want my brain to be as efficient and as developed as it can (considering I only have 1/3^rd of the neurons I had when I was born – there is hope as this is now stable until I hit about 45 it seems. And even then, it’s a gradual loss in most cases), and this means exercising it often!

I’ve used my knowledge of plasticity, or neuronal chemical messengers and of how the drugs work to keep those levels constant in order to give my brain the best chance to use all of its capacity; in each area/lobe and thus to expand all my skills; from language and numeracy to balance and creativity.

The Exercises

Some simple tasks to get your brain in learning mode (good to do during a lunch break when you still have to go back to working and don’t want to fully switch off but need a rest from that type of work):

- Mentally add up the price or calories or some number of products around supermarket/in your basket

- Read a book a fortnight

- Count to 8 and back down to 1 and back up 8 while doing some spatial task

- Put both hands in the air in front of you. Using your index/pointer finger, draw a triangle with one hand and a square with the other. Move one side with both fingers at the same time.

Work out how many times you need to go round to get both fingers to the starting point again (1:1, 2:2 3:3 4:1 1:2 2:3 3:1 4:2 etc)
Now make one go clockwise and the other anti-clockwise (this is basically shivanata’s principle)

- Do the above, while reciting a famous literary poem or quote, or doing long division in your head.

- Practise shivanata every 2-3 days – as both teacher and student positions

- Colour code lecture/work/any notes

- Make every 3 programmes you watch educational/informational (Horizon: Seeing Stars, The Story of Electricity, Beautiful Equations, The Great Barrier Reef)

- Study Anything not part of your job (for me, druid lessons weekly (even if only one page a week))

- Find an academic paper on something interesting (Go to google and type in “google scholar” – then type in your topic.)

- General knowledge quiz shows are also good (mastermind or eggheads particularly due to the details)

- Count the number of times “X word” comes up in a book or article. Choose any word. Or make a phrase (A Red Car?)– find the words of that phrase in that order (so A on one line, Red on another page, Car next chapter”, and count that as one instance.

- Explain something to a child. Anything. I gave a talk to learning disabled adults about subatomic particles (quarks make up protons which are in the nucleus of atoms).

- Say everything in different voices/accents, or better yet, other languages.

Alongside meditation, enough sleep and healthy eating; my brain should be very good at multi-tasking and communicating. To boot, my balance, numerical, linguistic and spatial abilities will also gain height.

However, there are plenty of other exercises which will help to link various brain areas together, such as to read/watch emotionally stimulating books/films, to write both by hand and typing (and typing on a phone keypad for extra connections!), and to use (your own versions if you’d like) sign-language symbols when making notes.

If you enjoyed these ideas and want to know more about how you can improve your brain and body connections, pick up my free mental guide, or sign up for my library letters to find out how I’m getting on with these plans, and to access the extended mental health guide.

– Rose –

New Year’s Theme: Connect With The Phoenix Mind

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Rose

January’s step forward to get my brain in gear is to write this post and reach out, as part of my word for 2012: Connect.

Without this step, my brain would be going “yeah yeah, connect, whatever”. But by stepping up on day 3 of the year and saying “right, I want to connect with everyone, about everything which relates to my passions, my experience, my potential and to connect them with their potential and here is how I’m doing it”, I’m taking the most important step in saying that I’m serious about this.

Not only have I made a space for you to connect with me, I’m even telling you about it NOW (the very next day). That give sit flow (make it day 3, share it day 4, get some feedback on day 5) and also brings up the extra motivation of public expectation and making sure this works; not letting you down as readers.

The Theme

This year, I am connecting. I have four aspects to connect with:

Space, Spirit, Emotions & Potential

However, I also have my Phoenix Mind themes, which began to fall into place last year:

Mental health, Neuroscience, Shivanata, Psychology

So, for this year, I’m beginning a new section of the blog about Connecting, and of course, I want to hear your views and your questions. And then share them on the blog to connect you and I to others!

*It’s all Win.*

The Form & Topics

I’ve made a little page for your queries here.

Head to this page to ask any question or request a blog post covering anything on the topics of:

science (biology, psychology, physics, chemistry),
mental health (illnesses, charities, lifestyle choices, volunteering),
being a student (of psych, neuroscience, Msc, in England, at Sussex) or about
Shivanata (as a practise, with habits, as a teacher, as a student, with a fear of doing things wrong).

Or anything else you think I could help with:
(linguistics, languages, buddhist meditation, emotions, anger management, quantum mechanics, falconry, literature, sustainable living, herbal teas…)
but these may get lower priority over blog-related queries.

This is your time to say what you really want to see on The Phoenix Mind Blog and will direct the news I share about recent studies you’ll hear about within the newsletter too.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H599QK9

It’s all anonymous and could all be shared on the blog unless you say “please don’t share this, here’s my email address for a private reply”. That’s totally fine too, just make sure you let me know.

Happy New Year, I look forward to connecting and I’ll see you there,

Rose.

The 2012 Term Overview

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Rose

So; another year, another term… what will I be doing this term (and thus what will I be posting about here)? A lot of this year will also involve my volunteering so I’ll mention that here too.

Currently, the plan looks like this:

THURSDAY

Weeks 1-3 (& Week 6 Practical): Basic Neuro-Anatomy

- Brain circuits and projections
-     Cytoarchitecture of the brain
-     Models
-     Anatomical features of the Brain

Weeks 1-10: Sensory and Motor Functions

- Visual cognitioN
-          Connections between functions
-          Cross-modal interaction
-          Electrophysiological studies
-          Movement perception
-          Plasticity of the nervous system

FRIDAY

Weeks 1-10: Advanced Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

- Analysis of results
- fMRI Techniques

- Pre-Processing

- Stastistical Parametric Mapping

Weeks 1-10: Neuroscience of Consciousness

- Neglect

- Meta-knowleDge

- Hallucinations

- Cortical plasticity

- Phantom Limbs

- Computational Models

In terms of Volunteering, I’ll be working at the Resource Room on Mondays and/or Wednesdays, I’m helping out at one more Anger Management course and still attending fortnightly activities meetings with Right Here.

Word-of-the-Year 2012: Connect

If you’d like a breakdown of my 2011 word “strength”, please see this post and a longer version of my 2012 choice can be found here. However, here’s is a rough breakdown for those interested in the odd reference I will likely make to my books and knowledge.

I’m looking to connect with:-

My space; through minimalism and through meditation

My spirit; of the land and of my heritage

My emotions; of compassion and inner peace

My potential; integrating knowledge and practice.

Therefore posts of emotions, meditation, reiki, shivanata and knowledge may be mentioned here in relation to these foci.

Happy Holidays

– Rose –

The Library Code

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Rose

Psst… this is a little note from the library, so here’s a quiet note… (as library’s like to be quiet)

Want tips on looking after your inner phoenix, keep up to date on amazing new science finds and some cute pictures? Sign up for access to the library and get my monthly library letter, The Phoenix Within and exclusive products and freebies.

Email subscribers get access to exclusive content, including…

Access to products before anyone else.
The Free Guide to Mental Health – e-book for the mind, body and soul, including worksheets
The Checking-In process with prompt cards
Cthulu’s Tips for Changing Habits with your Brain’s support
A monthly email with a balance of interesting research, updates on my student journey, tips and hints on igniting your passions, cute pictures of animals and an instalment of how my brain-goals are shaping up, including how I deal with the set-backs.
Early access and information about works in progress.

If I don’t think you’ll be interested, I won’t send it. It’s as simple as that.

Sign Me Up!

Skype Shivanata – The Launch Party

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Rose

It’s November, a time of year where I usually hide under the blankets and eat junk food. I don’t want to exercise, I don’t want fresh air and I have an unquenchable thirst for video games.

I certainly don’t want to trek out in the snow to a dance class where the windows are open and I‘m told that if I dance faster, I’ll warm up.

It’s winter; a time when a lot of people struggle to keep their commitments thanks to colds, flu and exhaustion at work. We try to fit in present shopping for various festivals and in my case, many birthdays happen around December-January too.

We’re a good fit:

- If you find it hard to keep the momentum up during the cold months, or in general and want some accountability with your shivanata practise (or anything.. shivanata untangles our patterns); I can help.

- If you’re stuck with your practise or want to give this wacky habit-changing, brain-growing practise a go but can’t find a class nearby, I can help.

- If you want to work on your practise with someone else; but don’t want to trek out in the snow or can’t make it every week, I can help you.

Introducing Shivanata: The Skype Sessions Edition. *round of applause*

Password: cthulu (password no longer required)

Three Massively Important Points:

- This is an online Shivanata class for:

* complete beginners who want to know what this is about;

* those in need of guidance through levels 1-3

* if you just want to hang out and practise together up to level 5

- This is a session of brain-training, body-toning and mind-blowing dance practise. With epiphanies.

- I will run classes at any time that meets both our schedules [my timezone is GMT], which could be twice a week or once every 6 weeks. It’s totally up to you how often we practise.
* If you just want one “show me everything for Level X then let me be” lesson (though hard to cover in one hour) I’m happy to try.

Any questions?

Ask away by e-mailing Rose [at] ThePhoenixMind [dot] com

Plasticity, the Phoenix and your Patterns

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Rose

So, what’s with this Phoenix in The Phoenix Mind?
Here’s the Meaning in Myth and in Science.

Redefinition

The Phoenix is a mythological creature who is a bird-like creature of the element of fire. They are made of flames, or have the plumage of flame-colours.

At the end of their life-cycle, which is usually considered to be at least 100-years, they burn to cinder; turning into a pile of ash.

From this ash, comes another Phoenix. Different sources hold different views on the “who” this is; the same phoenix re-born or a new phoenix from the old material.

Whichever is true; the Phoenix has been redefined.

The Phoenix in Our Brain

There’s a phenomenon in brain science right now called ‘plasticity’, or ‘long-term-potentiation’.

The brain is comprised of many neuronal strings, or wires; called neurons. These are cells which can fire energy along their string to the next neuron.

As we grow, experience and learn, these wires become stronger or become weaker. Like a muscle, the more a neuron is firing, the stronger and more efficient it becomes. It has more energy along it so it gets wider, puts in shortcuts and has many more exits at the end so the energy won’t have to queue.

This is how the brain works.

Strength and Atrophy

When we act, neurons fire. Thinking, speaking, moving our arms or eyes, or hearing – neurons in each cortex fire energy towards the next neuron in the string. So millions of neurons create little strings from the motor cortex to the muscles of the arm.

The more you move the arm, the stronger and more efficient these tubes become.

The less we use a skill, the thinner and weaker the wire becomes, until it dies and a little protein comes and cuts off the dead branch. However, a new sapling can grow there again; whether you’re 5 or 95, your brain can create new neurons and get them up to that efficient stage again.

Neuro-plasticity in Practise

So here at The Phoenix Mind, I’m focused on those thoughts, actions and experiences which will keep the neurons you want to use a lot strong and any actions or habits you dislike; help you to ignore those neurons or create a fork in the road so they have a different outcome.

We’re here to grow the strong neurons of compassion, learning, communication and positive connotations. We can equally re-wire bad habits and negative thoughts to connect with happy and productive experiences instead.

Three Instant Actions to Support Neuronal Growth:

Move your body. In new ways. Put your arms above your head. Now touch your lower back.
Mix up your senses. Read out loud. Do simple mathematics while dancing or re-name different letters with emotional words.
Learn another language. Sign language, Esperanto or the language of the brain: using words like “cognitive” “phenomena” and “imaging”. If you don’t have the resources; Make a Language Up. Seriously. Talk it with your child or teach your dog to fetch/sit to the command; assign meanings to strings of syllables.

For more information on general practises to improve your mind and body, sign up to the library letter and gain access to my free guide to well-being.

Got any tips to share or questions? Want to ask if X activity will help? Want more details on plasticity? Share in the comments!

– Rose –

Your Choices: Q & A

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Rose

This weekend, I’m listening to my body and taking time away from the computer. My back and neck have been screaming at me, and my other half is currently on placement near to Stonehenge, which is a place I’d like to see with my own eyes; sense with my own energy.

As I’m away from the blog, I wanted to leave the floor open to you, my readers:

Q&A

Introducing the Question and Answer section :: this will be a space to learn more about what interests YOU. I don’t know what your favourite or most interested-in aspects are; so this is your time to let me know.

I don’t mind really specific questions or vague categories; or even just a “ like everything, I just come for the work party”. Tell me what’s working for you, and what isn’t.

For example, I’ve had a couple of requests for the Workparty to move to the weekend/Monday, and plan to implement this on Monday. Any feedback is welcome.

If you could understand any aspect of neuroscience, the brain, the mind, consciousness, mental health, thoughts, perception or psychology; what would you ask about?

Perhaps you want more quantum physics; more on energy healing or there’s a practise you don’t think is scientific but know there are theories behind?

The comments section is below, and yours for the taking. Nerdy or basic; no one will judge you here. If you don’t know where the brain is (our stomachs are actually another brain, technically) or if you just want a post of random pub-quiz style facts; that’s fab. Let me know.

Have a great weekend,

– Rose –

Mental Health – Investing in Each Other

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Rose

Stepping out of the Neuroscience for a bit, I want to talk about Mental Health. This is a topic I’ll be mentioning a little throughout this blog, as my Neuroscience interests often overlap with those of clinical disorders.

I’m partly bringing this up now because I think it’s important for people to know about it, partly because I’m searching for volunteering experience and am thus reflecting on my own experience of it, and partly because it is World Mental Health Day today.

This year’s theme is “investing in mental health” and aims to get people talking openly about mental health and about how much time and money is spent on it.

This year, I’ve written a short guide to mental health with a few simple steps to increase your mind and body well-being in just ten minutes a day. If you’d like to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, you can access the guide and a few other freebies.

Personal Experience

From an early and impressionable age I grew up around stories of family member’s dementia, suicides and psychosis. I grew up around one parent with a heavy temper and another parent with low self-esteem. I have one set of grandparents who are very judgemental, outspoken and set in their ways. Then I have the other set; whose highest priority in life is to be welcoming to everyone. I grew up with mixed messages and struggled to keep my own mental wellbeing healthy.

When I turned 11, depression found me. Then I noticed my temper flaring up to beyond the accepted norms, and began experiencing vivid nightmares where I would run until I fell off objects, feeling safe only when I hit the ground. At 15, I began showing ‘more-than-the-normal-level’ of OCD symptoms and developed routines to deal with them. Around this time I also had my first panic attack, complete with out of body experience/black-out.

My mental health is, as with anyone’s, always changing. I get stressed, I lose track of things. I’ve stayed awake all night to finish essays and had auditory hallucinations from the sleep deprivation. Yet, if you saw me in the street at 15, or tomorrow; you’d see a smiling girl in jeans and t-shirt. Mental health is not always visible.

I’ve experienced mental well-being, and mental unrest. We all have (mental) health, be it bad health or good health. It’s a commonality between all humans. It connects us.

My Motivation

I made two best friends when I was 14, who are survivors of domestic abuse and had been victimised throughout their lives. I was the port of call throughout some of their experiences. They’re still my best friends and thankfully, are safe from those situations now. However, I remember not knowing of any place to ask for help for them.

I’d heard of services, and I distinctly remember thinking “once we’ve all left home, I can call child-line and get them help”. I saw it as a justice-aftermath option, not a supportive service for the now.

And that knowledge hurts. I don’t feel guilt because I couldn’t have done anything at that age, with my knowledge and skills of the time.

And that means it’s very possible that others are in that same space.

It hurts to know that there ARE options and yet people don’t know how to reach them. Awareness is Vital.

And this is what World Mental Health Day is about. We want to get the word out, to make people more aware of how they can aid themselves and others. Before we reach that though, people need to be able to discuss mental health without the stigma.

For me, my friend’s abuse is a key part of my motivation for working in mental health. I didn’t know where to turn. My two friends didn’t have anyone but me, a girl on the other side of a PC screen, to turn to.

A key aspect of their situations that I’m aware of is that abuse is difficult to fight because it usually involves some form of manipulation.

When a child grows up hearing “it’s not abuse if it doesn’t leave marks” from a young age; who are they to question it? It’s not like it comes up in conversations at college or at work.

This alters the ability of that person to seek help. Those posters around school; they don’t apply to everyone. My friend used to say “It’s not real abuse” because she was taught that abuse only involves physically marking someone. Therefore, she felt that the posters about child abuse couldn’t help her.

This Monday is about raising Mental Health Awareness, and the project I volunteer for, Right Here are holding an event in Brighton to bring a greater awareness about well-being and to raise the mental health of the people who live here. If you live nearby, we’d love you to join us.

What Can Be Done?

I grew up in a family where “you must have OCD” was used to insult people who had different priorities to them; usually aimed at people who don’t have any particular symptoms of it. My family often described my great-grandparents as “going-loopy” because they suffered from dementia and experienced hallucinations.

- Don’t stigmatise mental health. If you need support or knowledge about mental health and well-being, please take a look at the resources below.

- You could mention to your friends that it’s mental health awareness day and actually speak out loud about it?

- Keep an eye out for signs of behaviour change or emotional difficulties in your friends, and family.

- If you feel your mental health needs a boost, Speak Out; please. Look at the resources, go speak to your GP. Tell someone. Email me if you don’t trust anyone in your life.

- Read up on mental health and see how you can help the charities and people in your area. Here are a couple of resources:

Mind (UK)

http://www.mind.org.uk/help/information_and_advice

http://www.mind.org.uk/help/mind_in_your_area

Mental Health Foundation (UK)

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/current-campaigns/

Right Here (16-25 year olds – UK)

http://www.righthere.org.uk/

http://right-here-brightonandhove.org.uk/

National Institute of Mental Health (US)

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml