focus – East Coast Life Solutions

In today’s hyper-connected, fast-paced environment, the challenge more than ever is to have the discipline to slow down. Modern-day technology also inundates your life with distractions that draw your focus outward. It’s possible to mask chronic stress and other unhealthy psychological states, but society has begun to recognize the need for a counter movement.

Taking a “brain break”—relearning how to slow down and go inward—has become increasingly popular. That may be due, in part, to recognized meditation benefits for the brain.

Meditating is a great way to ease the frantic state of mind many find themselves in. Once thought to be an enigmatic practice, meditation has gained traction in recent years. One study shows regular meditation by adults tripled from 2012–2017. The growing literature on the benefits of meditation is expansive and promising.

The practice of cultivating mindfulness through meditation can be achieved in many ways. Put simply, it’s being aware of where you place your conscious attention. What comes up may be pleasant or unpleasant. But as you practice this inward dive with nonjudgmental attention, you’ll be able to access an inner peace that already exists within you.

Anyone can start a mindful practice of meditation to find a new level of calm. It’s all about the discipline of sitting down and going inward.

Big Brain Benefits

Meditation benefits for the brain are abundant. Meditating strengthens neural connections and can literally change the configuration of these networks. With regular practice, you can cultivate a more resilient neurobiology that:

Contributes to a greater sense of well-being
Helps to maintain brain health as you age
Aids in alleviating mental stress
Promotes healthy, sustained focus

And with practice, meditation can also help you develop empathy and be more compassionate.

Sound amazing? Read on to reveal even more meditation benefits for the brain.

Mindfulness to Manage Your Mood and Well-Being

Like exercise for your body, meditation helps to condition your mind. Confronting and letting go of unwanted psychological states, like anxiety and fear, releases their hold and the associated conditioned response. Studies now prove control over your internal experience, once thought to be fixed, can be altered with the simple practice of mindfulness.

Though not a cure for chronic emotional and psychological stress disorders, meditation has many extraordinary benefits for mood and overall well-being. A few minutes of mindfulness and meditating can help hold off overwhelming emotion and guard against the powerful thought patterns that fund unproductive worries.

Here’s a small slice of the research backing mindfulness and meditation benefits for the brain:

One randomized controlled study found mindfulness-based therapy over 56 weeks significantly reduced the period of time before relapse of episodes of low mood. It also helped with long and short-term healthy mood maintenance. Participants reported experiencing a better quality of life.
Another study showed eight weeks of mindfulness-based therapy improved participant’s mental health scores. This lead to important conclusions, like relief of anxiety in the mind from meditation being tied to the regulation of self-referential thought processes. Anxiety is a cognitive state that occurs when you’re unable to control your emotional state due to perceived threats.
After an eight-week mindfulness course, participant MRI scans showed a reduction in the brain’s fight or flight center associated with fear and emotion. The amygdala—a part of the brain that controls your body’s stress response during perceived danger—is a key biomarker of stress in your body.

Tune into Greater Attention and Focus

Everyone’s mind gets distracted. It could be putting off homework, losing track of your words mid-sentence, or thinking about work while your significant other tells you about their day. Humans developed selective focus as a coping mechanism for dangerous threats in the ancient past.

Today, there are fewer physical threats to worry about. Instead, people ruminate psychologically, letting worry and anxiety overtake the present with past emotional pain or future anxiety.

Your brain naturally, easily slides into boredom, so it may welcome distractions. A default-mode network of neurons is associated with mind wandering—also called the “monkey mind.” But scientists have found that abnormalities in this system of the brain can lead to anxiety, depression, attention disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Meditation allows you to be in the present moment, a timeframe associated with feelings of happiness. It can increase your attention span and combat mind wandering and excessive self-referential thoughts. With over-activity, these unhealthy states of mind can lead to a state of unhappiness.

Mindfulness helps you focus and ignore the distractions around you. It also helps to hone your ability to notice more in your environment. This gives you access to the present moment with a fuller perspective of your experience. Managing your monkey mind through daily meditation is a simple and easy first line of defense for endless modern-day distractions.

Play the Long Game: Aging and Brain

Free to all, meditation is a fountain of youth for mental aging. The human brain naturally begins to deteriorate in your 20s. Maintaining a healthy brain can be supported with the powerful practice of meditation.

Meditation is shown to thicken the pre-frontal cortex. This brain center manages higher order brain function, like increased awareness, concentration, and decision making. Changes in the brain show, with meditation, higher-order functions become stronger, while lower-order brain activities decrease. In other words, you have the power to train your brain.

Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist from Harvard Medical School, found consistency with meditation is key. In her study, she discovered that experienced meditators 40-50 years old had the same amount of gray matter as an average 20-30-year-old. In this older group, the health of the frontal cortex was maintained.

Brain Structures and Neuroplasticity

Mindful meditation can create physical changes in the brain through neuroplasticity.

This increasingly popular concept refers to the brain’s ability to reorganize and change continuously throughout your lifespan. Behavior and lifestyle are major influencers on the brain. So, your life makes your brain constantly create new neural connections. That’s because neurons (nerve cells) actively adjust to compensate to changes in your environment.

Brain cells go through a process of reorganization, dynamically adapting by creating new pathways inside the brain. How you think and feel changes these neural structures. By flexing the muscle of thoughtful attention, again and again, you effectively change the “physique,” or shape, of your brain. And it’s doesn’t take much time, either.

Studies have shown it only takes eight weeks to change the shape of your brain, including an increase of gray matter volume. Gray matter is found in your central nervous system, and makes up of most of your brain’s neuronal cell bodies. This type of tissue is particularly important in areas responsible for muscle control, sensory perception, emotion, memory, decision-making, and self-control.

Through neuroplasticity, you can create and improve the connections between neurons as you alter the density of gray matter. You can effectively change your brain in just a few minutes a day.

Seeing the Brain Through Meditation

The gray matter in your brain tells a lot about what happens as you sit down for brain training. The many meditation benefits for the brain triggered by daily practice are staggering. But what happens, exactly, to produce these exciting effects?

During the first few minutes of your meditation session, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is the first area to light up. This part of the brain filters experiences through a self-referential lens. As you ease into a meditative state, your brain is still bouncing from thought to thought—the monkey mind active in the trees. Thoughts that surface can be exaggerated outcomes due to your lived experience.

When you’re able to rein in your attention, the lateral prefrontal cortex activates. Regardless of the method you use—a mantra or breath—this shift can help you override the “me” from moments earlier. Thoughts during this phase are more rational and balanced, helping you see a more neutral perspective. Now you’ve settled into the sweet spot of meditation.

Practice for several weeks (8 to 12) activates the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. In this state, empathy can develop, and compassion easily arises. This range of activation in the brain becomes stronger the longer you practice. The dedicated practice creates a gateway to a dynamic, gracious life.

Release Chemical Helpers with Mediation

Your brain naturally releases key neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that help regulate the balance of vital hormones. They influence systems throughout the mind and body.

Studies show practicing meditation can directly impact the level of these crucial neurotransmitters produced in the brain. Mindfulness can have a measurable impact on these brain chemicals:

Serotonin—increases this “feel good” chemical to help regulate mood
Cortisol—decreases this stress hormone
DHEA—boosts levels of this longevity hormone
GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid)—improves the calming effect of this major inhibitory transmitter in your central nervous system (CNS)
Endorphins—increases the “natural high” of this overall happiness neurotransmitter
Growth Hormone—elevates levels of this youth-preserving chemical that naturally declines with age
Melatonin—boosts this “sleep hormone” responsible for restful sleep and helps with mood regulation

Moving Towards Alpha

Your bustling brain is a continuous source of electrical activity. It makes sense. Neurons communicate with each other through electricity.

Brainwaves convey information through a rate of repetition—oscillations so powerful they can be detected. An electroencephalogram (EEG) machine measures five basic types of brainwaves, at different frequencies, slow to fast. Corresponding to Greek letters: delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma. As you might guess by now, meditation allows you to manipulate the frequency of your brainwaves.

Meet the 5 Main Types of Brain Frequencies

Gamma brainwaves: The fastest measurable brainwaves detected by EEG. This quick, oscillating brainwave is associated with heightened mental activity including perception, learning, consciousness, and problem solving. They’re active when your brain is processing information from different regions simultaneously.
Beta brainwaves: Detected during active, alert, and busy thinking. They are present at times of concentration, conversation, or when you focus on a task.
Alpha brainwaves: Identifiable when the mind is in a calm, relaxed, yet alert state. They are present during creative activities, found right before you fall asleep, and increase during meditation.
Theta brainwaves: Measured during deep meditation, day dreaming, or REM sleep. They can also be detected while performing automatic, repeated tasks that disengage the brain, like showering or washing dishes.
Delta brainwaves: These slow brainwaves occur during deep, restorative sleep where you lose body awareness altogether.

Your brainwaves are just one aspect of the complex processes in the mind that produce your experience. And meditation can help you control them.

As you meditate and turn attention within yourself, alpha and theta waves increase. Producing alpha waves helps you tap into the voluntary onset of rest and relaxation. This wave comes over you when you’re not focusing with effort on anything in particular.

Dipping into alpha oscillation through meditation can also fuel your creativity. A 2015 study showed a surge in creativity induced by producing more alpha waves. Moving towards alpha waves isn’t a magic elixir, but it’s a promising start to accessing a calmer, more imaginative life experience.

Your Mindful Destination

For a beginning practitioner, developing mindfulness takes dedication. But as you deepen your craft through physical repetition and mind-body connection, you’ll experience the mediation benefits for the brain. Increased research on meditation presents proven benefits for well-being, enhanced memory and attention, a boost in serotonin, and the list keeps growing.

Training your brain to still fluctuations is easier than it sounds. If you haven’t tried it, meditation is simple. It requires no extra equipment, no previous training. Simply sit in a comfortable position, either in a chair on the floor, and begin to focus on your breath. When your attention strays, gently bring your thoughts back to your breath.

Countless methods exist to practice creating a healthy brain and body through meditation.

Try varying your technique by trying out vipassana, breathwork, transcendental meditation, chanting, focused attention, and moving meditation, to name a few. Each of these can be guided or silent.

Seek out the method that’s best for you. But just trying it on for size is the important part. Step off life’s crazy ride for a few minutes each day to go deeper into the mechanics of your own mind. With regular training, you’ll bring resilience to your mental state, better manage high levels of stress, and become more agile in the face of distressing thoughts, anxiety, and distraction.

Meditation, just like exercise, can transform your brain. As a more mindful individual, you’ll create a more whole, conscious experience with more meaningful connection. It’s within your power to change your brain—start today.

References

Coast Lifestyle

IN NEED OF DECLUTTERING YOUR LIFE? HERE’S SOME HELP

15 January 201915 January 2019 tdslsupport

Take a deep breath and get ready to turn the page. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the start of a new year or just time for a change. Whatever the last period of your life represented, now is the time to plan ahead and shift your energy in a new, better direction. Forget what’s bogging you down and focus on simplifying so you get down to the important things in life. That starts with decluttering. Rid yourself of unnecessary worries mentally, while also decluttering your physical spaces.

Decluttering can go deeper than just cleaning or organizing, too. It’s a chance to focus on choosing what’s really needed and what’s not. Making these decisions is paramount. That’s because it’s never a bad time to hit the reset button. You just have to be willing to take the required steps to do so. Whether that’s throwing away clothes that have sat in your closet for too many years, or even taking a break from continuously scrolling social media. Everybody needs a little push when searching for ways to declutter physically and mentally.

If you’re overwhelmed with everyday life, or have a hard time taking a break for yourself, you’ve come to the right place. With a little help from the list below, you can find what’s most important and methodically trim everything else. And whittling your life down to the essentials can help you focus and feel less overwhelmed.

Follow this rundown to identify issues, digesting what’s wrong, and find different decluttering methods and set yourself up for future success.

Item 1. Identifying the Clutter in Your Life

Clutter is everywhere. In your house. In your head. On your phone.

It’s nearly impossible to escape from your busy life these days. And the more you take on, the more clutter creeps in. Disorder takes you away from everything else on your to-do list. It preoccupies you with routine tasks rather than focusing on truly experiencing your life and planning for a better future.

To tackle the clutter, first you need to identify what truly has sentimental value, what you cannot live without. So, you have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes brutally so. Look closely at that old gift on your desk. Forget about what it might’ve cost a friend five years ago and ask what it means to you now. Think about the decorations you’ve been keeping in the closet just in case. Will you ever use them?

List what’s really important in your life and make those your categories to label items. Identify what fits in each category. And as for everything else? If it doesn’t fit in a category, serves no proper function, or has no emotional importance, chuck it. If you have too many of the same sort of item, get rid of the extras. Decluttering your life can help you take control.

Item 2: Focus on Decluttering One Spot at a Time

It’s easier to target a certain spot in your house when starting a serious clutter detox. Otherwise, the task can feel too big to tackle. Remember, little bites will still get the task done. So, make a game plan—breaking the task into parts will help you—and follow it as closely as possible.

Start with an easy spot. Getting that first decluttering win will give you momentum. The desk in your home might be the easiest spot to target. That’s where work and life clutter seems to collide most often. But it’s also small, contained, and can count as impacting two aspects of life. First, find defined areas for work and home. One side of your desk could be business-specific: notes, files, projects, etc. The other can be where you store day-to-day items like headphones, checkbooks, and more. (Don’t forget to weigh what’s important and what’s just clutter.)

Next, open the fridge and toss out anything that looks bad or smells worse. If you haven’t used something but need to, plan a meal around the foods or condiments in your fridge that are nearing their end. You’ll feel better than just dunking it in the trash. Same goes with the freezer. If you get a little angry with yourself every time you open it up, commit to making the best possible meal with what’s packing the freezer.

Now you have momentum and can start tackling the bigger areas of your house. Work your way up to what is likely the most arduous task—tackling your sleeping quarters head-on.

Your bedroom can be a sanctuary for self-care and a place to get good sleep. But it probably could use some decluttering.

Luckily, there’s a four-container method you can use. Make four piles: trash, give away/sell, storage, and put away. By containing the clutter in specific categories, you’re better able to distance yourself from what is an absolute must and what no longer qualifies. Anything you don’t need or want, toss it in the trash or give-away pile. If something is broken and doesn’t need fixing, toss it. For necessary, important items, place them in storage or just put them in their proper place.

And the four-container method isn’t just for the bedroom. It can be applied to any room in your house.

One more tip: If you’re having a hard time parting with some things, think of the decluttering like this: you’re making room for the things that matter.

Item 3. Decluttering Your Digital Spaces

If you can’t find that photo of an old vacation you want to share on social media, consider this: Compartmentalizing and decluttering your life digitally might be just as important as in real life.

Now that everyone is glued to screens nearly every day, your digital life should be as comfortable and clutter-free as your physical one. Start with your phone.

Better organize your apps. Putting them in folders or creating some kind of order helps a lot. That way, the next time you really need your travel app you can scroll right to it.

If you’re on your desktop or laptop, trash files that aren’t useful anymore. And organize those that remain. Accessing your own vital information should be easy—instead of a chore. Just like you can do on your phone, organize everything into folders on your desktop to avoid searching for documents with names you can’t exactly remember.

And if you’re really looking to trim down the digital clutter, consider the amount of devices you have. Do you really need a laptop, smartphone, and a tablet? You can also put respective time blocks on each, making sure that when your allotted time on each is reached, you put it down.

Item 4. Be Screen Savvy for Some Mental Decluttering

There is more clutter in life than too many clothes or cramped desk space. One of the most important of all detoxes could be one from the world you live through your smartphone. All the stimuli from social media and other screen-based time drains.

New operating systems now update you weekly about how much screen time you’re averaging a day. If you need another reminder that your life is dominated by screens, take a look. The reports might help shape your behaviors. Depending on what you see, you might want to declutter your mental state by cutting out some screen time.

Studies show social media detoxes might be worth it because they can help improve your overall mood. It might also help you feel less competitive with strangers that always seem to be living their best life. You can also conquer your FOMO (fear of missing out). This type of detox (even if it’s brief) can slow the digital stimuli to help you live more in the present and realize that life before social media was just as rewarding.

Cutting yourself off from social media altogether might not work for you. There are plenty of good things about social media (like the Ask the Scientists Facebook page!). But placing limits can help you declutter your mind and your life. And the free time and mental energy you obtain can be put to good use in different ways that you might’ve forgotten about since the apps have taken over.

Item No. 5 Decluttering Your Schedule

Finding room for yourself in the midst of your to-do list is another key decluttering task. The good thing is, you have some control to prioritize your schedule the way you want.

But sometimes that means skipping events—especially those you know will be disappointing or underwhelming. Saying no isn’t bad. So, rid yourself of that stigma.

And remember, it’s OK to put yourself first, too. There’s nothing wrong with rolling with an urge to see a movie, take a walk, or sit in a coffee shop reading a book. You don’t always have to be making others happy. Declutter your schedule so you have time to enjoy yourself.

Item No. 6 Exhausted? Remember Why You’re Decluttering

Mental clutter so often generates stress, which has ties to several negative effects on your mind and body. But physical clutter can also be stressful.

Researchers discovered a direct correlation between clutter and stress. They explored the relationship between 32 families and objects in their homes. Turns out, clutter has a serious effect on mood and overall self-esteem. So, more stuff, more dishes, and more clutter equals rising anxiety.

Physical clutter has damaging potential, too. It can be a serious fire and tripping hazard in your home. Physical clutter might also be a resting place for dust, mold, and animal dander. All of these can be harmful to those who suffer from allergies and asthma.

There’s No Better Time Than Now to Declutter

You have so many different ways to declutter. Embrace the diverse options for ridding yourself of things you don’t need or harmful habits. There is nothing like a fresh start. So, instead of putting things off, instead of ignoring it all over again, get to work.

Do your best to simplify and rid yourself of the trinkets you don’t use. Give away the clothes you don’t wear. Cut down your digital stimuli by limiting screen time.

The clutter doesn’t have to stress you out. So, take a breather. Get to work and see just how much you can accomplish when you take a step back and realize how freeing decluttering your life can be.

Had to share this article it has many great tips and tricks to help you with beginning the years off lighter and clutter-free. It’s very liberating, like lifting a weight off. We would love your feedback of what you thought and the steps you are talking to de-clutter.

Coast Lifestyle

The Significance of Being Significant

9 March 2018 tdslsupport

What is your significant gift?

A powerful mentor in my life once shared with me, “We are all given one unique and significant gift that only we can give the world — what is your gift?” I persistently ask myself this question and ask this of others. The responses vary from a smile to laughter, confusion to a lengthy pondering pause or even an “I don’t know” reaction. It seems that many people have been “programmed” to focus on their weaknesses and make those stronger, rather than nurture their strengths and gifts.

What are you focused on? Is that focus serving or hindering you?

A strategy that I have found beneficial for enhancing focus and finding strengths is to consider some of your qualities, e.g., loyal, generous, persistent, dedicated, kind, patient, funny, honest, strategic.

ACTION: Identify two or three qualities you believe are your strengths. Then determine how they can be leveraged for the greater good of all. This understanding can give you inner peace. When you are at peace, you are in a position of power.

What makes you significant?

Once I was speaking with a woman who expressed concern for her current and future business success. Her unease was based on a belief that she didn’t have a “wow” story. She saw everyone around her sharing a captivating message about their business and their life. This self-sabotaging thought was impacting her confidence and follow-through.

Consider how you define a wow story. Is it connected to what you have done? E.g., years in the business, rank advancement or promotions, money earned, the house you purchased, relationships you have fostered, the health and well-being of others, the freedom that comes with being your own boss, the opportunity to travel the world, or the fulfillment of having a career you love.

Or is your “wow” story about who you are? E.g., I am happy, I am healthy, I am wise, I am successful, I am positive, I am confident, I am enthusiastic, I am blessed, I am victorious, I am valuable, I am free, I am determined, I am empowered.

You are significant and your wow story is natural, normal, and often unrecognizable by you because it has been a part of who you are throughout your life. Your gift is unique to you and significant to others.

ACTION: Determine how you would like to define your wow story. Is it based on what you have accomplished, who you are, or both?

How can you acknowledge the significance in others?

I have discovered there are many benefits to asking questions. The Dalai Lama once said, “When you talk, you’re only repeating what you already know. If you listen, you may learn something new.” One way to acknowledge the significance in others is to ask empowering questions with curiosity and to listen completely.

Ask open-ended questions that begin with who, what, when, where, and how.

These often become thought-provoking questions that give others an opportunity to reflect, ponder the question, awaken their creative genius, prompt their inner wisdom, produce a spark that becomes a defining moment, and ignite their passion. In some ways, one simple conversation can exponentially serve every life they will reach beyond your time together.

Remember, your experiences up to this point are a reflection of how you SEE yourself, what you SAY to yourself about yourself, and who you FEEL you are.

ACTION: Recognize your significance and be significant.

Special thanks to Grace Keohohou Hao

I loved this article because it makes you think and also helps you recognize that you matter. Take some time today, and ponder who you are and what you want to be doing

instead of just going through the motions. Be honest!

Tag: focus

Change Your Mind: Meditation Benefits for the Brain