Thinking ‘Counter Clockwise’ To Beat Stress

Mindful Health And The Power Of Possibility

In the 1970s my colleague Judith Rodin and I conducted an experiment with nursing home residents.1 We encouraged one group of participants to find ways to make more decisions for themselves. For example, they were allowed to choose where to receive visitors, and if and when to watch the movies that were shown at the home. Each also chose a houseplant to care for, and they were to decide where to place the plant in their room, as well as when and how much to water it. Our intent was to make the nursing home residents more mindful, to help them engage with the world and live their lives more fully.

A second, control group received no such instructions to make their own decisions; they were given houseplants but told that the nursing staff would care for them. A year and a half later, we found that members of the first group were more cheerful, active, and alert, based on a variety of tests we had administered both before and after the experiment. Allowing for the fact that they were all elderly and quite frail at the start, we were pleased that they were also much healthier: we were surprised, however, that less than half as many of the more engaged group had died than had those in the control group.

Over the next several years, I spent a lot of time thinking about what had happened. READ MORE + AUDIO

To Boost Memory, Shut Your Eyes and Relax

Previous research has already shown that both the young and the old have better recall of, say, a list of words if they’re allowed to rest for a few minutes in between learning the words and then regurgitating them. What this latest study adds, however, is evidence that a few minutes of wakeful rest may have an effect even on long-term memory consolidation. READ MORE

10 Ways A Great Relationship Can Save Your Life

Men, you’ve all heard the jokes about how wives and girlfriends can curb a man’s lifestyle. Ladies, you embrace your independence, and the fact that you can change your own oil, pay your own bills and enjoy your weekends with your girlfriends.

All this said, both men and women, deep down, know that a good relationship makes life better, smoothing out life’s rough edges, calming you down, building you up…and making you healthier. READ MORE

Mental hygiene: The Realization of an Idea

In 1893, Isaac Ray, a founder of the American Psychiatric Association, provided a definition of the term mental hygiene as “the art of preserving the mind against all incidents and influences calculated to deteriorate its qualities, impair its energies, or derange its movements. The management of the bodily powers in regard to exercise, rest, food, clothing and climate, the laws of breeding, the government of the passions, the sympathy with current emotions and opinions, the discipline of the intellect—all these come within the province of mental hygiene.” (Rossi, A., Some Pre-World War II Antecedents of Community Mental Health Theory and Practice. Mental Hygiene, 1962, 46, 78-98). READ MORE

EXTREMELY RIPPED 46 YEAR OLD!

Barstarzz, Calisthenics Professionals giving you the inspiration and tools to build a great body anywhere. Berry showing his amazing body and workout at 46 years old. A south beach Miami natvie. READ MORE