Barbara Strauch, deputy science editor and health and medical science editor at the New York Times, maintains that middle-aged brains “are surprisingly competent and surprisingly talented.” As humans reach midlife, Strauch argues, their brains begin to reorganized – to act and think differently. In her well researched and highly accessible book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind, Straunch offers a lot of good news. Among other things, scientists have found that moving into middle age generally offers a journey into a happier time, in part because of how you start to use your brain. And, while losses occur by middle-age, they are neither as uniform nor as drastic as science had once feared. There are distinct declines in neurotransmitters that keep you alert and on the move. There are decreases in brain branches, where neurons communicate. And there is the emergence of a default mode – a daydreaming state of quiet and continuous inner chatter - to which your brain increasingly goes as you age – that leaves you a bit more distracted. But, people in middle age begin to use both sides of their brains instead of one - called bilateralization - pursuant to which you learn to recruit the strength of your brain’s remaining prefrontal cortex, as a sort of “cognitive reserve.” Moreover, there is science to support that activities as simple as continuing education or work activities can create a formidable buffer against the effects of aging. Keep Reading »
Posts Tagged ‘Happiness’
Middle Aged Brains
Recalibrating Careers
My friend, Frank Yatsu, M.D., died shortly before a 5000 doctors survey conducted by The Doctors Company, the nation’s largest physician and surgeon medical liability insurer, revealed that 9 out of 10 of the country’s physicians are unwilling to recommend the profession to others. Frank, an emeritus UT Professor of Neurology and former Department Chair, and I had intended to write an article for a medical journal career on job dissatisfaction in medicine.Don’t Wait A startling 43% of surveyed physicians further declared that they are contemplating retirement as result of “transformative changes” in health care system, which will only exacerbate the existing physician shortage. That’s is not great news, as the federal Affordable Care Act adds an additional 32 million Americans into the healthcare system by 2014. Keep Reading »
Blessings of Age
I sat with a young colleague the other evening who was bemoaning his fate as he crossed into his mid forties. He couldn’t carouse as he used to. He was losing muscle mass and stamina. His hairline was receding. Some of the early ticks of memory were beginning to show. He wasn’t sure how he could keep up with his youthful expectations at the rate of decline that he was experiencing. He turned to me and asked, “How do you continue to do it at your age?”
I was glad that he asked. This is what I told him:
I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to mature! I get up every morning with gratitude for the fact that I am still here. I love and am loved by my family and a few friends. I am privileged to do work that I love. I am not pursuing anything that is not consistent with my constantly evolving sense of my life’s purpose. I continue to evolve the manner in which I practice law to bring a more refined and subtle integrity to what I do, serving my clients while creating the most abundant outcomes for all parties involved. Keep Reading »
Five Regrets
I was forwarded, by one of you, an article from a British newspaper on the forthcoming publication of a book by Bronnie Ware entitled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departed. While I only just have ordered the book, I thought that its themes, as described in The Guardian article, were worthy of discussion now. Ware had served as a palliative care nurse in Australia, caring for patients at the end of their lives. She had collected their end of life observations and written about them at her Inspiration and Chai blog. Much as I have observed, Ware began to see common themes and extraordinary wisdom that seems to blossom in people as their lives draw to a close. Interestingly, Ware heard about “regrets,” a topic not as common to me in my work. But she recorded the end of life epiphanies as a lesson plan for the living and moved from blogging into authoring her book. Keep Reading »
Don’t Wait
“Don’t Wait” is the fifth and final of the Five Precepts of Hospice Care developed by the Zen Hospice Project, which directs our hospice volunteer activities at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital. I only had recently written about the Five Precepts, explaining as to the fifth, “You only have this moment in which to be of service. If you are aware and attentive, you will do your best. If you wait, the moment will pass and you only will have regret. And, while your are regretting, another moment will pass. Now is the only time for caring, for serving, for doing your best.” I didn’t realize how quickly I was about to again encounter the poignancy of that precept.
I had met Frank Yatsu at a dinner honoring Louise Renne, the former San Francisco City Attorney, for her efforts in bringing about the construction of the new Laguna Honda Hospital which had only recently opened its doors. I serve with Louise on the Laguna Honda Foundation Board which raises funds to supplement hospital services and programs. Frank was a longtime friend of Louise. The event, held in a delightful, small restaurant along San Francisco’s northern waterfront began with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and was followed by one of those sumptuous San Francisco cuisine meals. I don’t believe that I had met Frank before the dinner. And we did not sit at the same table during dinner. But as dinner began to wind down, there began a series of short testimonials, honoring Louise for her work in handling the various legal issues that threatened to close the old hospital, the efforts to secure funds for the new hospital, and her continuous leadership in preventing this monumental project from being sidetracked by the myriad of “only in San Francisco” regulatory and political snares. Following the planned remarks of several speakers, the evening’s emcee and Louise’ husband, Paul Renne, asked if anyone had anything else to add. I volunteered with remarks directed toward the remarkable people who served the largely indigent San Francisco population resident at the hospital as well as that population itself. Keep Reading »
Stand Up Meetings, the latest “new” thing
An early February article in the Wall Street Journal described the practice for daily meeting attendance at Atomic Object, a Grand Rapids Michigan software development firm. The early-morning daily meetings are subject to a few strict rules: mandatory attendance; minimum chit chat; and everyone has to stand. Sitting is equated with sloth. There is no room for long-windedness. Tables even have been removed to prevent “leaning.” The meetings generally last about 5 minutes, followed by a quick stretch, then everyone is “off to work.” While standup meetings are nothing new (military leaders did it during World War I and various companies have adopted standup meetings over the years), the current inspiration is being attributed to the growing use of “Agile,” an approach to software development, which according to the Journal was “crystallized in a manifesto published by 17 software professionals in 2001.” It calls for compressing the development projects into short pieces and involves daily standup meetings where participants quickly update their peers on three things: what they have done since yesterday; what they will do today; and any obstacles that stand in their way. Keep Reading »
Crowdsourcing For Revelation
On February 10, 2012, Nancy and I met with about ten volunteers from the Peninsula Humane Society at the end of the day to discuss our book, #DOG Tweet – 140 Perspectives On What Our Dogs Teach Us About Being Human. The volunteers care for and train surrendered dogs and other animals, preparing them for adoption. We had gathered to engage in what I had imagined to be a “crowdsourcing” event, designed to test the approach and validity of our book’s content. Crowdsourcing, according to Wikipedia, “is a problem-solving and production process that involves outsourcing tasks to a network of people, also known as the crowd.” Whether or not we fit the evolving definition of crowdsourcing, we hoped to bring people together to share their perspectives on what makes these dog/human relationships so special. This was to be more than “brainstorming” as we did not wish our colleagues to limit their perspectives to the cognitive domain. We wanted to hear about the emotional, somatic, social and even spiritual contributions dogs made to the lives of others. We wanted to know how those contributions might enable us to improve ourselves and our relationships with others, and human and nonhuman alike. And we were not disappointed. Here are some of the thoughts that arose out of our conversation. Keep Reading »
The Working Brain, Part 3
When I advised you that I would be reviewing David Rock’s Your Brain at Work, Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, I imagined that I would provide an informed summary in one or two posts, at most. As I now sit here, preparing part 3, I recognize how rich Rock’s book to be. Recognize that I’m only scratching the surface of the material that he supplies. My purpose here is to intrigue you sufficiently about this work and its relationship to other forthcoming volumes that I will review, to read, indeed study, this work yourself. I purposely have not referenced Rock’s specific discussions of the brain’s anatomy, beyond the introduction of the prefrontal cortex, because to do so would too severely tax this blog’s format. Suffice it to say that the advice he renders is fully supported by a discussion of modern brain science. Keep Reading »
What’s Next?
If you have been following my writing for any appreciable period, you will see that one of the foundational elements of fulfilled living is awareness. I sometimes referred to it as spacious awareness, to emphasize that you frequently underestimate how profound awareness can be and how, once you have the opportunity to plumb its depths, awareness can begin to change your life. Look at the subjects we have covered in recent months – parenting, forgiveness, atonement, learning disabilities, listening and storytelling. All provide the opportunity for richer and more engaged lives. But all rest on the foundation that you are sufficiently aware of yourself, the parties with whom you are engaging and the environment you inhabit in order to produce positive outcomes. Keep Reading »
Awareness and Parenting, Part 7 – More Than Me
I am wary of the term “spiritual intelligence” for the misdirection it may infer. Spiritual intelligence (SQ) has no necessary connection to religion. There are many humanists and atheists who have very high SQ, while there probably are an equal number of outspoken religious devotees who have very low SQ. I am a secularist. I prefer to reference this intelligence as “more than me” intelligence (MTM), simply to confirm its secular base. This intelligence includes the ability to create a life dedicated to the benefit of all beings, not just you, your family, friends, cohort or clan. It rests on an awareness of and assessment of meaning and value, with which you can place your actions and lives into a wider, richer context. It manifests in your ability to initiate and sustain practices that strengthen your connection to all people and all living systems. It is an intelligence that is suffused with awareness, empathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, and wisdom.
Danah Zohar and Dr. Ian Marshall write in SQ,The Ultimate Intelligence,
Human beings are essentially spiritual creatures because we are driven by a need to ask “fundamental” or “ultimate” questions… We are driven… by a specifically human longing to find meaning and value in what we do and experience. We have a longing to see our lives in some larger, meaning-giving… context we have a longing for something towards which we can aspire, for something that takes us beyond ourselves in the present moment, for something that gives us and our actions a sense of worth… Keep Reading »
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