The Success Zone

Such an important skill - for many of us it has to be taught.

Just Breathe Original Film In this beautiful 4-minute video, called "Just Breathe", kids teach us about handling difficult emotions with breathing and mindfulness.

A skin cancer driven fear of the sun may have unintentionally created low levels of Vitamin D in our bodies. Research is suggesting many brain benefits of this vitamin, including memory decline as we age:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2015/09/memory-loss-the-vitamin-that-provides-triple-protection.php

Memory Loss: The Vitamin That Provides Triple Protection - PsyBlog People with low levels of this vitamin decline three times faster.

This breakthrough video shows the huge complexity of a fraction of a mouse cortex - stunning research!
http://www.nature.com/news/crumb-of-mouse-brain-reconstructed-in-full-detail-1.18105

Crumb of mouse brain reconstructed in full detail Digital map is step towards reconstructing a whole human brain.

Webinar details for registered participants (for today's YH Success Zone webinar): https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/438554837
(These details have been emailed to participants previously).

global.gotomeeting.com

Finally the popular press is getting it. If you read no other part of this interesting Huffington Post piece, just rest your eyes on the graphic and the first five, short sentences:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-barry-kaufman/the-real-neuroscience-of_b_3870582.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&ir=Healthy%20Living

The REAL Neuroscience of Creativity The latest findings from the real neuroscience of creativity suggest that the right brain/left brain distinction is not the right one when it comes to understanding how creativity is implemented in the brain.

This video post is a fascinating insight into habit formation in the brain. There are so many wonderful illustrations of neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to change), and how this relates to age and how the habit circuit has been used by the brain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133 Patreon Support Link: http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday Free Audio Book ⇒ http://bit.ly/AudibleSED ⇐ (I really do love the Commander's book!) Tweet ⇒ ht...

Interesting research on multi-tasking:

"...when there are two concurrent goals, the brain divides in half"... "When the scientists asked the study participants to attempt yet another task, they found that the participants regularly forgot one of the three tasks they were asked to perform.

The participants also made three times as many errors as they had made when attempting only two tasks. Koechlin says the study demonstrates that while we can readily switch between two tasks, we “might be in great trouble when we try to juggle more than two tasks, simply because we have only two frontal lobes.”

The older you get, the harder multi-tasking becomes, with more errors made.

http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/awareness-and-attention/articles/2013/the-multitasking-mind/

The Multitasking Mind - BrainFacts.org You may think multitasking makes you more productive. In actuality, it slows you down, increases the mistakes you make, and temporarily changes the way your brain works.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dyslexia-can-deliver-benefits/?WT.mc_id=SA_MB_20150114

Dyslexia Can Deliver Benefits With reading difficulties can come other cognitive strengths

"His idea really started to gather momentum in 1936 after American writer Lowell Thomas, taking full advantage of poetic licence, put a figure on it—that humans only use 10 per cent of their brain.

Unfortunately, while it’s likely we have some unutilised brain power, it seems the 10 per cent figure was plucked from thin air and is a gross overestimation."

Such an exciting time to live for unlocking and unleashing the brain!

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/new-advances-in-neuroscience/5871850

New advances in neuroscience Scientists from around the world are competing, and collaborating, to radically advance our current understanding of neuroscience, writes Katie Silver.

Blueberries=Blue Zone: more evidence of the powerful effects of dark berries on the brain. Interestingly (and not covered in this short video), freezing blueberries increases the anthocyanin antioxidant availability when consumed. We buy and freeze blueberries, and add them daily to our morning 'happy juice'...

How to Slow Brain Aging by Two Years | NutritionFacts.org The consumption of blueberries and strawberries is associated with delayed cognitive aging by as much as 2.5 years, thought to be because of brain-localizing anthocyanin phytonutrients, as shown on functional MRI scans.

Blue and Red Zones Primer update as the latest post at:

http://www.andrewmowat.me/blog/2014/8/13/mind-zones-a-red-and-blue-zone-primer

Be a visionary.
Look at the big picture.
Ask not how you will
get there but why and
grace will take care
of the how.
- David Cuschieri