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New book provides practical guidance for women (and men) to rebalance our lifestyles and build Cognitive Reserve

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On one of our “walk and talks” around the lush trails of Rock Creek Park in DC sur­round­ed by bik­ers, run­ners, cars and the occa­sion­al deer, Wendy and Lisa talked about aging. Wendy’s moth­er, who had her chil­dren in her ear­ly 20s, was still join­ing the family’s gru­el­ing sum­mer hikes with her chil­dren and nine grand­chil­dren well into her 60s. Wendy mused about how much old­er she would be when their kids could have their own kids. It dawned on her that her health was not just a here and now issue, but an invest­ment in that future. We agreed to help each oth­er cul­ti­vate the habits and make time to build strength as well as reserves, both phys­i­cal and men­tal, for the long-term. Their goal: to enjoy being active in their 40s and 50s while also lay­ing the ground­work to con­tin­ue being active into their 60s, 70s, and beyond. [Read more…] about New book pro­vides prac­ti­cal guid­ance for women (and men) to rebal­ance our lifestyles and build Cog­ni­tive Reserve

Shape your environment, shape your mind

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One of the biggest con­trib­u­tors to our hap­pi­ness is some­thing we bare­ly pay atten­tion to: the voice inside our own heads.

As psy­chol­o­gist Ethan Kross describes in his new book Chat­ter, that voice is con­stant­ly ana­lyz­ing the sit­u­a­tions we’re in, reflect­ing on the past and future, and telling us who we are. While some­times friend­ly and optimistic—it’s OK, everything’s going to work out!—it can also be crit­i­cal and down­beat. Our inner voice can berate us for mis­takes or decide our life is ruined. It can rumi­nate on neg­a­tive emo­tions and expe­ri­ences, dredg­ing them up with­out any kind of con­struc­tive resolution.

Accord­ing to Kross, there are three main ways we can turn down the chat­ter in our heads: shift­ing our per­spec­tive so we’re not so immersed in our prob­lems, talk­ing with oth­ers to get sup­port, and chang­ing the envi­ron­ment around us. [Read more…] about Shape your envi­ron­ment, shape your mind

Neuroscientist Lisa Genova, author of the beautiful novel Still Alice, releases non-fiction book on Memory

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A Neuroscientist’s Poignant Study of How We For­get Most Things in Life (The New Yorker):

Any study of mem­o­ry is, in the main, a study of its frailty. In “Remem­ber,” an engross­ing sur­vey of the lat­est research, Lisa Gen­o­va explains that a healthy brain quick­ly for­gets most of what pass­es into con­scious aware­ness. The frag­ments of expe­ri­ence that do get encod­ed into long-term mem­o­ry are then sub­ject to “cre­ative edit­ing.” To remem­ber an event is to reimag­ine it; in the reimag­in­ing, we inad­ver­tent­ly intro­duce new infor­ma­tion, often col­ored by our cur­rent emo­tion­al state. A dream, a sug­ges­tion, and even the mere pas­sage of time can warp a mem­o­ry. It is sober­ing to real­ize that three out of four pris­on­ers who are lat­er exon­er­at­ed through DNA evi­dence were ini­tial­ly con­vict­ed on the basis of eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. “You can be 100 per­cent con­fi­dent in your vivid mem­o­ry,” Gen­o­va writes, “and still be 100 per­cent wrong.” [Read more…] about Neu­ro­sci­en­tist Lisa Gen­o­va, author of the beau­ti­ful nov­el Still Alice, releas­es non-fic­tion book on Memory

To prevent “cognitive entrenchment,” think like a scientist and be wrong often

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In a rapid­ly chang­ing world, it’s impor­tant to be able to adapt and change rather than stub­born­ly adher­ing to old ideas and opin­ions. This was one of the lessons of 2020, a year that forced us to ques­tion many of our assump­tions about what behav­iors are safe, how work and school can be con­duct­ed, and how we con­nect with others.

“In a chang­ing world, you have to be will­ing and able to change your mind. Oth­er­wise, your exper­tise can fail, your opin­ions get out of date, and your ideas fall flat,” says orga­ni­za­tion­al psy­chol­o­gist Adam Grant, author of the new book Think Again: The Pow­er of Know­ing What You Don’t Know.

In his book, Grant explains why it’s so impor­tant for peo­ple to be hum­bler about their knowl­edge and stay open to learn­ing and chang­ing their minds. The book is filled with fas­ci­nat­ing research and guid­ance on becom­ing more flex­i­ble in our think­ing, while help­ing oth­ers to be more open-mind­ed, too. This skill is cru­cial not only for fac­ing crises like the pan­dem­ic, but also for nav­i­gat­ing com­plex social issues, mak­ing good busi­ness deci­sions, and more. [Read more…] about To pre­vent “cog­ni­tive entrench­ment,” think like a sci­en­tist and be wrong often

How Wonder and Awe help us transcend self, regulate stress, and improve well-being

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What is awe?

We have all expe­ri­enced it, even if we didn’t know what to call it. Whether we’re over­look­ing a beau­ti­ful view after a chal­leng­ing hike or watch­ing a new leaf grow on the plant we’ve been nur­tur­ing in lock­down, the feel­ing we get in that moment—amazed, inspired, transported—is what researchers call awe.

In his new book, Awestruck, psy­chol­o­gist Jon­ah Paque­tte explains the process under­ly­ing the expe­ri­ence of awe and uncov­ers both its com­plex­i­ty and its val­ue to our well-being. Walk­ing read­ers through var­i­ous sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, he shows that awe helps improve our rela­tion­ships, decrease our stress, and make us hap­pi­er. By illus­trat­ing awe’s many ben­e­fits, Paque­tte gives us a rea­son to seek more awe expe­ri­ences in our lives—and then shows us how to do it. [Read more…] about How Won­der and Awe help us tran­scend self, reg­u­late stress, and improve well-being

On becoming a psychotherapy pioneer and bestselling writer: A fantastic memoir by, and window into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom

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If you’re inter­est­ed in the life of the mind, here you have an awe­some win­dow into a unique mind — a pro­found mem­oir by best­selling writer and psy­chother­a­py pio­neer Irvin D. Yalom. It was pub­lished back in 2017 but, like good wine, it has aged well and is more rel­e­vant today than ever.

Irvin D. Yalom, MD, is an emer­i­tus pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty and a psy­chi­a­trist in pri­vate prac­tice in San Fran­cis­co. He is the author of many books, includ­ing Love’s Exe­cu­tion­er, The The­o­ry and Prac­tice in Group Psy­chother­a­py, and When Niet­zsche Wept. He lives with his wife in Palo Alto, California.

Descrip­tion: Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of inves­ti­gat­ing the lives of oth­ers. In this pro­found mem­oir, he turns his writ­ing and his ther­a­peu­tic eye on him­self. He opens his sto­ry with a night­mare: He is twelve, and is rid­ing his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morn­ing, he calls out, hop­ing to befriend her, “Hel­lo Measles!” But in his dream, the girl’s father makes Yalom under­stand that his dai­ly greet­ing had hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empa­thy; he would not for­get the les­son. [Read more…] about On becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: A fan­tas­tic mem­oir by, and win­dow into, the unique mind of Irvin D. Yalom