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Mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion can help us lead hap­pi­er, health­i­er lives … at least accord­ing to sci­ence. Yet many of us still balk at the idea of prac­tic­ing it our­selves. Per­haps we fear that med­i­ta­tion is too new agey, or it might slow us down or lead to com­pla­cen­cy. Some might fear mind­ful­ness could come at the expense of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, Read the rest of this entry »

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The Big Myth About Teenage Anx­i­ety (The New York Times):

“We hear a lot these days that mod­ern dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy is rewiring the brains of our teenagers, mak­ing them anx­ious, wor­ried and unable to focus.

Don’t pan­ic; things are real­ly not this dire.

Despite news reports to the con­trary, there is lit­tle evi­dence of an epi­dem­ic of anx­i­ety dis­or­ders in teenagers …  Some would argue that young peo­ple today are more wor­ried because the world is now in a more par­lous state, what with intense com­pe­ti­tion for col­lege and the lin­ger­ing effects of the Great Reces­sion, among oth­er fac­tors. Sure, but then that anx­i­ety is an appro­pri­ate response to life’s chal­lenges — not a dis­or­der…

So don’t assume that there’s some­thing wrong with your kid every time he’s anx­ious or upset. Our teenagers — and their brains — are up to the chal­lenges of mod­ern life.”

News in Context:

• Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress
• What Edu­ca­tors and Par­ents Should Know About Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and Dance
• New book high­lights con­tin­ued brain devel­op­ment through­out ado­les­cence, even into our 20s

“Sev­er­al years ago, sci­ence writer Helen Thom­son, con­sul­tant to New Sci­en­tist and con­trib­u­tor to the Wash­ing­ton Post and Nature, decid­ed to trav­el around the world to inter­view peo­ple with “the most extra­or­di­nary brains.” In the process, as described in Unthink­able: An Extra­or­di­nary Jour­ney Through the World’s Strangest Brains (Ecco/Harper Collins 2018), Thomas dis­cov­ered that “by putting their lives side-by-side, I was able to cre­ate a pic­ture of how the brain func­tions in us all. Through their sto­ries, I uncov­ered the mys­te­ri­ous man­ner in which the brain can shape our lives in unexpected—and, some cas­es, bril­liant and alarm­ing ways.” Thom­son wasn’t just learn­ing about the most extra­or­di­nary brains in the world, but in the process was “uncov­er­ing the secrets of my own.” Keep read­ing book review Here, over at the Dana Foun­da­tion.

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Evi­dence That Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Works (Psy­chol­o­gy Today)

“Many peo­ple use com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing with the hopes of pre­vent­ing men­tal decline or improv­ing men­tal per­for­mance. But do these brain train­ing games actu­al­ly work?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Here’s a men­tal health work­out that’s as sim­ple as ABC (The Con­ver­sa­tion):

“While we take phys­i­cal work­outs very seri­ous­ly, there is much less said about the “work­outs” that help us remain men­tal­ly agile and healthy. But just as with phys­i­cal health, there are sim­ple and prac­ti­cal ways that can help every­one to enjoy good men­tal health. Read the rest of this entry »