Naps Make You Smarter, Increases Learning Ability & Helps Clear Space for New Info

23. February 2010 by John Schinnerer.

A new study from my alma mater, University of California at Berkeley, shows that a one-hour nap can significantly restore your mental capacity, make you more intelligent and clears out old information to make way for new learning.

On the other side of the coin, the longer you go without sleep, the more we lose mental clarity and become increasingly foggy.  As any new parent knows, interrupted sleep makes one grouchy, irritable, and what’s more, poor sleep makes one less able to concentrate effectively.

When I was in college, I had classmates that would pull all-nighters to cram for finals. I never pulled an all-nighter,  partly because I just couldn’t operate the next day without sleep. The study from UC Berkeley showed a marked difference in the learning ability of students who pulled an all-nighter versus those who got their z’s in. Remarkably, those students who studied all night without sleep showed a 40% decline in their ability to learn new facts due to a shutdown in their hippocampus, a brain area associated with fact-based learning.

The hypothesis which is gaining support from research is that the hippocampus eventually becomes overloaded and sleep gives it a chance to empty itself out, similar to deleting your junk mail  folder in Outlook. Space is freed up so it can be used in new, more constructive ways.

For more information and the full article, please click here.

Have an incredible week!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Bay Area, California

Posted in Memory and recall, Sleep research, San Ramon CA, Therapist, Optimal Human Functioning, San Francisco Bay Area, Alamo CA, Circadian rhythms, Danville CA, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Guide to Self, Life coach, Consciousness, The human brain, Emotion & learning, National speakers, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

A Fantastic Way to Start 2010!

8. January 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Check out this 40 minute Quicktime presentation on positive psychology from a humorous perspective. It will provide you with a much needed boost - laughter, motivation, insight and challenge.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D. speaking on positive psychology, resiliency and emotional management.

http://www.jobconnections.org/speaker4.shtml

Keep up the courage. Stay the course. Look for little steps of improvement. Make your resolutions habitual. You can do it!

Happy New Year!

John Schinnerer, PhD

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Danville CA, National speakers, Awareness, Overcoming failure, San Ramon CA, Positive emotions and job search, Brain plasticity, Optimal Human Functioning, Visual Attention, Executive coach, Psychological Humor - Jokes, Hope, Mindfulness, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Emotional mind, Anxiety, Guide to Self, Managing stress, Dr. John Schinnerer, Emotional management, Managing Anxiety, The human brain, Resiliency, Consciousness, Managing Sadness, Anger Management, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Positive Psychology – The Science of Optimal Human Functioning with Dr. John Schinnerer - One hour teleclass 12/8/09

9. December 2009 by John Schinnerer.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Partial script for 1-hour teleclass on 12/8/09

Welcome to what I hope will be a wonderful talk on positive psychology. I will be your host tonight. My name is John Schinnerer. I hold a Ph.D. in educational psychology from U.C. Berkeley. In 2007, I wrote a positive psychology book called ‘Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion & Thought’ which was awarded Best Self-Help Book of the year. In 2006, I hosted a daily primetime radio show here in the SF Bay Area. Currently, I do keynote speaking, teach and see private clients.  I also collaborate with the University of New Zealand on the International Wellbeing Study which you can participate in at www.wellbeingstudy.com. 

Just a bit of housekeeping…If you have questions during the talk, please email me at john@guidetoself.com and I will do my best at the end to answer them. Your end of the phone has been muted as there are over 500 people on this call.

     I like to start off my talks with a joke to put you in a positive frame of mind. So here it goes…

A psychologist is holding a group therapy session in which there are four young mothers, each of whom has a small child with her. The psychologist gazes at the four women and blurts out “You’re all obsessed. And your obsessions show up in the names of your kids.”

He points to the first mother and calmly states “You are obsessed with spending money & shopping…you named your daughter Penny.”

The shrink points to the second mother and dryly adds “And you are stuck on the issue of eating. You went so far as to name your daughter Candy!”

As the remaining two mothers shift uncomfortably in their seats, the psychologist continues, pointing to the 3^rd mother, “While you have a drinking problem which shows itself in your daughter’s name – Brandy.”

     ……

At that point, the fourth mother, who can’t contain herself any longer, stands up, grabs her son by the hand and says …

“Come on Dick, we’re getting out of here!”

 

     I told this joke on the radio to thousands of listeners and got a landslide of positive feedback ….initially. One lady, who was driving when she heard it, said she had to pull over to the side of the freeway because she was laughing so hard. However, the show was rerun and then we started to get a few complaints. So the station owner called me in to tell me we couldn’t run the show anymore. I asked why not. He said because the joke was dirty. I knowingly asked what was dirty about it. He said it was the reference to sex. I told him that there was no mention in the joke as to whether or not the sex was taking place in a marriage. You see, the dirtiness of this joke is truly in the mind of the listener. If one assumes the sex is taking place within a marriage, there really is nothing dirty about the joke (unless you think sex in general is aversive).  The reason I tell this story is to point out that there are many different way of seeing the world, different ways of viewing the actions of others and even various ways of relating to your own mind, your thoughts, and your feelings.  And I’ll discuss a few of these points today.

Now that you are prepped to learn something new, let’s talk about positive psychology because it holds great promise. Just to be clear, positive psych is not a self-help movement. It is not as simple as positive thinking. It has no relation to books such as The Secret. It is not a passing trend.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal functioning, the applied approach to human flourishing. The lessons of positive psychology are beneficial for everyone – teenagers, executives, managers and the elderly. Even the Army is currently training thousands of sergeants in positive psychology to boost the resiliency of troops and to decrease the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder. While our Army troops have always been physically fit, we are now seeing a momentous shift in thinking which will enable them to become psychologically fit as well.

So this class and positive psychology in general definitely has something to offer you and it is as valuable in your personal life as in your professional life. At the heart of positive psychology are a number of research based findings into how and when people function at their very best.

Most of us spend a great deal of our time worrying over what might go wrong, or beating ourselves up over what we think did go wrong, or feeling disappointed over the inherent unfairness of life. Recent research shows that we are hard-wired to pay closer attention to this that go wrong than things that go right. And from an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense. Being overly vigilant for threats and problems helped keep us alive from predators back when sabre-toothed tigers roamed the earth.

However, this hard wiring focused on the negative does not serve us well in modern day life.  Events such as childrens’ skinned knees, missed deadlines, speaking in public or bumper-to-bumper traffic may feel frustrating, scary or stressful but they are not matters of life and death.

So take a quick moment to ask yourself,

‘How much is my focus on what might go wrong helping me?’

‘How much are my negative emotions, such as fear and anger, assisting me in reaching my goals?’

To these questions, positive psychology provides a somewhat unusual answer:

spend more time focusing on what is going right with your life,

focus more on what may go well in the future,

and see how much that approach helps you reach your goals.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that you only have a positive perspective. I am not suggesting that you be foolishly optimistic. There is a great deal of merit to accurately foreseeing and planning for potential problems. It’s a matter of balance. How much of your mental time is spent focusing on problems as compared to looking at the positives. Positive psychology has found that there are tremendous benefits to learning to focus more on what is right with us and what may go well in the future.

One of the basic assumptions of Positive psychology is that all people are ‘Born to be Good’ to quote the title of Dacher Keltner’s book and that we can become better, happier and more productive.  Let me repeat that, we can learn to be happier. Your happiness is not written in stone. You can learn techniques to increase your satisfaction with life.

What makes the crucial difference between positive psychology and traditional self-help books is the mountain of research upon which positive psychology is built. At this point, there are over 50,000 studies having to do with happiness, realistic optimism, human strengths, life satisfaction and more. Empirical researchers across the world are looking for testable theories and explanations supported by hard data. It is, in simplest terms, a powerful movement from faith to facts. So everything I write about, everything about which I speak, is based on scientific studies and replicable data.

The biggest shift towards a positive psychology took place in the late 1990s when Martin Seligman, as president of the American Psychological Association, began asking the question “what is right with people?” For over 100 years, medicine and psychology had both focused on what was wrong with people and how problems could be fixed. Seligman used his influence to create a new branch of science termed positive psychology focusing on what is right with us, how we can lead more thriving, fulfilling, and meaningful lives.

Seligman and Mike Csikszentmihalyi brought together some of the top young researchers in psychology to study topics such as hope, happiness, gratitude, wisdom, creativity and optimal human functioning. From there it spread to include researchers in humanistic psychology, philosophy, executive coaches, sports psychology, developmental psychologists and many more areas. It continues to spread to business, education and counseling.

The best part is that positive psychology works and works well. Positive psychology exercises have been shown in numerous studies to promote strengths, improve optimal functioning, to increase realistic optimism and to increase the frequency of positive emotions.

Some of you may be skeptical. I completely understand this. I was skeptical at first too.  I was brought up to focus on the negative.  Most of us were. And most clients that I see focus first and foremost on problems, such as how to help under-performing workers, or how to shore up the weaknesses of people they manage.

One of the greatest contributions of Positive psychology is the finding that by focusing energy and attention on strengths and by tapping into positive emotions, all of us will enjoy more success than if we focus on weaknesses and problems.

In terms of using positive psychology in the workplace, the Gallup Organization has shown that disengaged workers cost firms billions of dollars per year in accidents, sabotage, turnover costs, lost customers and healthcare. Engaged or happy workers have a higher probability of making more money, innovating, being on time to work, being healthier physically, receive higher ratings from supervisors and customers, and help out coworkers more frequently. Happiness doesn’t just feel good, it is good for the bottom line and good for employees.

To give you an example, last year, I did some consulting with the executive board of a large insurance company. They were having trouble with several vice presidents who were holding grudges over an incident that happened over many years ago. Two of the vice presidents were actively sabotaging one another’s projects resulting in increased costs to the company. As part of my time there, I gave a two hour talk to the executive board on positive psychology, and I specifically focused on what the research has to say about forgiveness  based on research from Stanford University – what it is, what it is NOT, how to do it and why you want to do it. To me, forgiveness is the best single way to wash out all that stale anger you’ve been hiding for years. At the end of my talk, I suggested to the 11 executives that they try forgiving each other for past transgressions. After a long pause, I watched as all of the executives stood up, and began forgiving every other person in the room.  They hugged; they apologized to each other; and they forgave one another. It was powerful. And it changed the way in which they interacted from that day forward. The vice presidents were more supportive of one another, more cooperative, and they stopped their internal sabotage.

 Positive psychology is filtering into education as well. I do a monthly speaking series at a continuation high school where the students are sent if they are behind on credits, if they have behavior problems, emotional difficulties, or are coming out of juvenile hall. So it’s a pretty hard crowd.  One of the more difficult cases was an African-American female student who challenged me during a presentation “You aren’t black. You aren’t female. And you don’t live in a group home. Why should I listen to anything you say?!” It was a valid question. My response? “You’re absolutely right. I’m a totally bald, white, 42 year old man who lives with his wife and four children. And on a physical level you are correct. We share little in common. Here is what I can tell you…that on an emotional level, everything you have ever felt in your life – fear, anger, despair, happiness, pride, love – everything you have felt, I have felt also. So, on an emotional level we are nearly identical. I have been studying emotions for the past 12 years and I’ve found some tools that really work to help manage negative emotions and cultivate more positive emotions. So it’s your choice – you can listen and try some of the tools for yourself, see if they work, or you can ignore me. Either way, it’s up to you.” From that moment on, she was a fan - engaged, interested and willing to learn. She went on to work at a hospital this summer and now is looking at attending community college when she graduates at the end of this school year.

The Power of Positive Emotions

One of the areas I have researched over the past dozen years with great curiosity and passion is emotions. I have found that there is tremendous power in our emotions. Emotions are the social glue that binds our relationships.  The effective use of emotions, or leveraging emotions to your benefit, is what draws people to leaders. Emotional leverage is what separates truly great leaders from average executives. Emotions may initially be a bit frightening. Many people spend a great deal of energy trying to suppress or contain emotion. Yet, emotions have been with the human race for millions of years. Each emotion serves a purpose. Anger, for instance, helps move past obstacles or challenges. It helps us stand up to social injustices. Sadness keeps us close to home after suffering a loss. Fear keeps us safe from perceived danger.

Take a moment to think back to the last time you experienced an intense emotion. It may have been surprise, fear, rage, disappointment, sorrow, joy, awe or pride. It may have been pride due to your child’s outstanding grades, or joy watching your team win a close game, or frustration at yourself for making a mistake at work, or the feeling of contentment while working in your yard. What we’re finding is that emotions transcend our physical bodies. They are contagious. You can catch feelings from others around you. Studies have shown that happiness is contagious just like anger. Emotions are also closely and powerfully linked to what and how you remember the past. Look through an old photo album and you will clearly see the sway emotions have over your memories. What’s more, emotions play a large role in learning, communication, and even in our morality.

So it is critical to understand and learn to leverage emotions. In particular, you must understand the purpose and strength of positive emotions, because you can put them to great use in your daily life. Expertly leveraging emotions will help you be more successful.  As Robert Biswas-Diener puts it, ‘positive emotion is one of the greatest resources you and your clients, colleagues or students are currently overlooking.’

Emotions may be best thought of as a guidance system for your life. When you experience guilt, for example, it’s a sign that your actions are not in keeping with your values. And the unpleasant feeling motivates you to bring your actions back in line with your values. When things are going smoothly, your guidance system lets you know with an all clear signal – positive emotions such as peacefulness or contentment.  Of course, this guidance system is not perfect. We occasionally misinterpret our emotions, and sometimes our emotions are just plain wrong like when we feel highly fearful before speaking in public. However, our emotions give us important and valuable feedback the majority of the time. And there is power in learning how to be aware of emotions, in learning how to correctly read emotions, and greater success lies in the ability to cultivate more positive emotions.

 

 

So what can positive emotions do for you?

One of the biggest breakthroughs for positive psychology comes from Barbara Fredrickson at UNC Chapel Hill who came up with an evolutionary explanation for the existence of positive emotions. Barbara’s hypothesis is that the primary function of positive emotion is to broaden and build.  That is, they broaden our thought processes and they build lasting internal resources. Positive emotions, such as awe, peacefulness and love, allow your mind to blossom, creating more options, more possibilities, in terms of thoughts and actions.  Positive emotions help us be more creative, imaginative, and innovative. If you need to brainstorm for a new marketing slogan, you’ll do a better job if you are happy when you do it.

In addition, positive emotions have long-term beneficial effects because they build internal resources which may be used to help assist others in need or to manage future threats. In other words, positive emotions fill up your gas tank.  This means that positive emotions fill your emotional reservoir with positive emotional energy to increase your sense of well-being and physical health and which you can share with others when they need support and love.

What’s more, positive emotions have been shown to undo the lingering physiological effects of negative emotions. Positive emotions act as the hidden RESET button to the bodily changes caused by negative emotions, changes such as elevated blood pressure and increased cortisol levels in the blood stream.

      In the workplace, positive emotions are related to higher salaries, less sick days, better relationships with coworkers, better supervisor ratings, better customer ratings, and reduced employee turnover.

      In terms of physical health, positive folks are less likely to get ill, live longer, experience less pain, have fewer hospital visits, and when in a good mood, have faster cardiovascular recovery times. On the other hand, those with depression are more likely to engage in smoking, drug abuse, suicidal attempts, and have more emergency room visits.

In psychology, it is generally understood that bad is stronger than good, or the negative is stronger than the positive.  Bad events have a greater power over us, our emotions, thoughts and behaviors, than do good ones. You are more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones. You are quicker to form bad judgments of other people than good ones. It takes approximately 5 compliments to undo the negative effects from one insult. Your brain processes negative information more thoroughly than it does positive information. So it’s great news that the harmful effects of negative feelings can be undone by positive emotions.

While we could come up with a list of hundreds of emotion words, there are ten positive emotions that have been verified in studies. From the most frequently occurring to the least frequent, they are… love, joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration and awe. And we know from research that positive emotions are fleeting and fragile. They are easily done away with and they are generally less powerful than negative emotions. So you have to increase your awareness of and be on the lookout for positive emotions throughout your day.

A Few Positive psychology Exercises:

Okay, let’s turn to some of the interventions that have been proven to boost your happiness.

The Blessings Exercise

One study done by Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania sought to help 50 severely depressed people. These were folks that stayed in bed most of the day, crawled out occasionally to check their email, and then returned to bed. They were asked to do one thing every day for two weeks.

            Write down three things that went well today and why they went well.

This daily gratitude journal is a powerful yet simple way to redirect the mind to the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. After two weeks of doing this exercise, the majority saw a significant improvement in their depressive symptoms.  People frequently report feeling happier and more positive after this assignment.

Mental Scrapbook of Positive Memories

Another exercise that has been shown to increase positive emotions is reliving positive memories. This exercise is as simple as focusing your attention on a positive event in your past. It might be a big athletic event, a wedding, the birth of a child, finishing school or a promotion. This activity may be combined with actual physical reminders of the past, such as photos, ticket stubs, trophies, college degrees, and printed testimonials.  You can also create your own positive scrapbook using most cell phones these days. Simply create a folder in which you keep photos of positive events. Start your own collection today. The main idea here is to savor the experience, to pay close attention to sensory details, to squeeze every last ounce of positive emotion out of the experience.

The extent to which you experience positive emotions is largely based on your thinking. Overthinking kills positive emotions. Worry, doubt, and stress drown out positive emotions. Emotions are highly individualized. They vary from person to person and what evokes one emotion in one person may not do the same in another. What makes one person recoil in disgust may make another person laugh. Emotions depend on how you interpret events. You have to take a moment (in the moment) and look for the good in the situation. Once you find the good, you must intentionally magnify it, and let it grow.  You have the power to turn positive emotions off and on.

Look at the room you’re in right now.

Ask yourself:

What’s going right for me right now?

How am I fortunate/blessed to be here?

How does being here benefit me?

What meaning can I take away from this situation?

When you take time to think this way, it builds gratitude in you.

By the way, it is normal if positivity feels unusual or weird at first.

Capitalizing on Love

One of the foremost researchers in the area of love and marriage is Shelly Gable, an assistant professor of psychology at UCLA. Most researchers looking at marriage work on conflict management, how to create more harmony between partners, and how individuals in a couple cope with traumatic events.  Gable is one of a handful of researcher who looks at what makes a thriving marriage. Her work provides some valuable insights if you are interested in transforming your good relationship (e.g., friendship, marriage, parent or child) into a great one.

Gable looks to see how you respond when your spouse tells you that he’s just been promoted, or your child tells you that she won Class President, or when your mother tells you she won a tennis tournament, or when your friend tells you she just won a huge lawsuit. Gable puts your responses into four different categories which break down as follows:

1.      An enthusiastic reaction such as “Wow! That’s tremendous. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week. I’m sure there are more great things to come for you. You’ve definitely earned it. Congratulations!” This reaction is called the active-constructive response by Gable.

2.      A more subdued reaction where you share your happiness but say little. For example, “That’s nice dear.” This is the passive-constructive response.

3.      Or perhaps you point out some of the potential pitfalls or negatives within the good event. For instance, “Wow, I sure hope you can handle all that extra responsibility. Does this mean you will have to work extra hours?” Gable refers to this as the active-destructive response.

4.      Or, you might respond with disinterest and not respond to the good news at all. Most folks do this by merely changing the subject, “Yes, but what do you think about the weather outside?” This is known as the passive-destructive response.

The first type of response, the active-constructive one, is called “capitalizing” by Gable and here’s the fascinating part…capitalizing amplifies the pleasure of the good event and creates an upward spiral of good feelings.

Gable has shown that capitalizing is one of the keys to strong, supportive, thriving relationships. 

So how do you respond to good news from other people?

Are you a “capitalizer” who creates upward spirals of positive emotions?

Or do you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the good news of others?

The consequences of learning how to be more of a “capitalizer” are impressive and robust. Couples who describe themselves as having a spouse who is active and constructive in response to their good news are more committed to the relationship, more in love, and happier in their marriage.  Think about that the next time your mate comes in the door with exciting news.

Closing Remarks

            I’ve found a large number of people are passionate and excited about positive psychology. It offers an energizing approach to your personal and professional life. Hopefully, by sharing some information about positive psychology, you’ve become excited about the possibilities also.

Again my name is John Schinnerer. I’m happy to speak to those interested in future keynote presentations or seeing clients privately. My book is entitled ‘Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion & Thought’ and may be purchased at Amazon.com, or Target.com. My email address is John@GuideToSelf.com.  My website is www.GuideToSelf.com. Please feel free to go and sign up for my newsletter by clicking on Email Sign Up on the left of the screen.

Now to your questions…

 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Have a wonderful evening,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

913 San Ramon Valley Blvd.

Danville, CA 94526

 http://www.guidetoself.com

---

 

Posted in Gratitude, Energy psychology, Curiosity, Science of love, National speakers, Overcoming failure, Awareness, Hope, Organizational psychology, The human brain, Relationships, Resiliency, Altruism, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Memory and recall, Executive coach, Meaning-making, Therapist, Optimal Human Functioning, Brain plasticity, Positive emotions and job search, San Ramon CA, Emotion & productivity, Positive expectations, International Wellbeing Study, Corporate Culture, Employee engagement, Men's emotions, Subconscious mind, Emotional IQ, Guide to Self, Anxiety, Social anxiety disorder, School psychology, Customer Engagement, Life coach, Creativity, Forgiveness, Positive Psychology, Business & psych, Realistic optimism, Dr. John Schinnerer, Happiness, Ethics, Managing Anxiety, Emotional management, Anger Management, Managing Sadness, Consciousness, Emotional mind, Rational mind, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Morals and values, Depression, Nature vs. nurture, Parenting, Sports Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Football and Brain Damage - Should You Let Your Child Play Football?

23. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

I am an avid football fan and have been since I was six years old. I grew up down the street from Gene Upshaw, Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders, and Head of the Player’s Union for years. I love football.

That said, my 12-year-old son and I have an ongoing debate over whether or not he can play PeeWee Football (in the San Ramon Valley it’s called Thunderbirds). I have told him repeatedly that the damage done to his body, in particular his brain, is not worth any success that may be had playing football.

The brain is the consistency of a wet sponge or a soft boiled egg. The human skull is hard to keep your brain safe from injury. However, the inside of the skull has pointed ridges which can damage the brain when the head and body are stopped suddenly, such as that which happens on many plays in football. Even those hits which don’t result in a ‘concussion’ still bruise the brain to an extent. It’s not as simple as one has a concussion or one does not. It’s not black and white. Damage to the brain occurs on a continuum. Think of it as a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being uninjured and 10 being a severe concussion.

Even lesser hits in football can result in minor bruises to the brain, bruises which may not be considered even mild concussions. But there is still a cumulative negative effect on the brain. And we’re beginning to see the results thanks to former NFL and college players who have donated their brains after death.

We’ve known for roughly 20 years that ex-NFL players suffer from the degenerative brain disease known as CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is the only fully preventable cause of dementia of which we know.

A new study has revealed that the brain of a deceased 18-year-old former college football player showed early signs of CTE. This is the youngest age that signs of CTE have been found, to my knowledge.

The same study also report that Mike Borich, a former college football player who passed away at the age of 42, showed advanced signs of CTE. This is the first time that advanced signs of CTE have been identified in a former college player who never played in the NFL. It is also the first time that CTE signs have been found in one who played the position of wide receiver. This means that the damage done to the brain in high school and college football is taking a toll on the brain that adversely affects quality of life later on. Adverse effects of CTE may include symptoms such as change in personality, self-destructive behaviors, addictive behaviors, memory loss and more.

According to Dr. Robert Cantu, a leading sports concussion expert and clinical professor of neurosurgery at Boston University School of Medicine, ‘It is our hope that this evidence helps draw the focus of the CTE discussion to amateur athletes, where it belongs. Young men and women are voluntarily exposing themselves to repetitive brain trauma without full knowledge of the potential consequences, and the rules of the games are designed without an appreciation for the risks carried by the players.’

Cantu and the other co-directors of the BUSM CSTE, Robert Stern, PhD, and Chris Nowinski, a former division I football player, published a paper that reported these CTE findings in the July issue of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology (2009, vol.68¸ pp. 709-735). The results were also presented to the NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee and NFL Players Association.

As long as I’m in charge of my son’s health, he won’t be playing football. The risk is too high. The importance of a healthy brain is too great. Odds are, he will be angry with me for some time. I’m willing to risk it.  

All the best,

 

John Schinnerer, PhD

Guide To Self, Inc.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, The human brain, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Football and concussions, Brain plasticity, Men's emotions, Consciousness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Abusive Coaches, Life coach, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Anger Management, Parenting, Mean coaches | Print | No Comments »

Humans Can Learn To See Previously Invisible Stimuli - New Max Planck Institute Study

22. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 21, 2009) — Although we assume we can see everything in our field of vision, the brain actually picks and chooses the stimuli that come into our consciousness. A new study in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s Journal of Vision reveals that our brains can be trained to consciously see stimuli that would normally be invisible.

 

Lead researcher Caspar Schwiedrzik from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany said the brain is an organ that continuously adapts to its environment and can be taught to improve visual perception.

“A question that had not been tackled until now was whether a hallmark of the human brain, namely its ability to produce conscious awareness, is also trainable,” Schwiedrzik said. “Our findings imply that there is no fixed border between things that we perceive and things that we do not perceive — that this border can be shifted.”

---

1.      Schwiedrzik et al. Sensitivity and perceptual awareness increase with practice in metacontrast masking. Journal of Vision, 2009; 9 (10): 1 DOI: 10.1167/9.10.18

 

For full article, please click here.

 

I have done a number of presentations on visual attention, perception and mindfulness. It never ceases to amaze audiences when they miss obvious stimuli, such as a unicycling clown, right in front of them.

There are many powerful exercises to demonstrate to audience members that their visual attention is a limited capacity. In other words, we are not consciously aware of everything that comes in through our five senses.

We miss a lot of ridiculously obvious things depending on what we are attempting to do with our attention. For instance, if we are focusing on looking for grammatical errors (proof-reading), we may miss contextual or factual errors. If we are in an angry mood, we look for information that perpetuates that anger.

 There is a great Frank & Ernest cartoon that provides a nice metaphor for this phenomenon.

‘ When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail.’  To put it another way, when you’re angry, everything looks to reinforce that anger (via your perception of things).

The other extension of this is ‘When you’re a nail, everything looks like a hammer.’ That is, when you’re in a sad funk, everything you see seems to reinforce and extend that sad feeling or depressed mood.

 

 

Have a Thriving Thursday!  Just for today, don’t be a nail or a hammer. Chose to learn today. Opt to be optimistic!

Cheers,

 

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

 

Posted in National speakers, Positive expectations, Brain plasticity, Visual perception, Curiosity, Awareness, Life coach, Guide to Self, Consciousness, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Many Cell Phone Users Don’t See What’s Right In Front Of Them - A Unicycling Clown Passing Them

21. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Everyone tends to float off into space once in a while and fail to see what is sitting there right in front of them. Recently researchers decided to put the theory of “inattentional blindness” to the test: the unicycling clown test. They documented real-world examples of people who were so distracted by their cell phone use that they failed to see the bizarre occurrence of a unicycling clown passing them on the street.

The study is published in an upcoming issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Compared with individuals walking alone, in pairs, or listening to their ipod, cell phone users were the group most prone to oblivious behavior: only twenty-five percent of them noticed the unicycling clown. The walkers not using a cell phone noticed the clown over fifty-percent of the time.

Furthermore, the cell phone users had difficulties performing even the simple task of walking, an action that should require relatively few cognitive resources. They walked more slowly, changed direction more often, were prone to weaving, and acknowledged other individuals more rarely.

Dr. Ira E. Hyman, Jr. at Western Washington University, head researcher of the study, says: “If people experience so much difficulty performing the task of walking when on a cell phone just think of what this means when put into the context of driving safety. People should not drive while talking on a cell phone.” Furthermore, the research shows that the level of familiarity with the person’s real-world environment does not affect their attentional awareness.

 For full article, please click here.

Is it possible that using a cell phone makes us more mind-less? Perhaps it disconnects us from what is going on within our bodies and immediately around us outside our bodies. Use caution when talking on the cell while driving.

 

Latest stats show that driving while talking on cell is as dangerous as driving drunk. It simply overtaxes our minds and our attentional capabilities.

 The take home point is that our attention is limited in nature, not limitless.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.
Danville, CA 94526

Positive psychology coach

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Executive coach, Psychology and technology, Visual Attention, Therapist, Emotion and technology, Awareness, Guide to Self, Life coach, Consciousness, The human brain, Mindfulness, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

The Human Mind is a Meaning-Making Machine

19. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

This Is Your Brain on Kafka

 

By: Tom Jacobs  |  September 16, 2009  |  08:55 PM (PDT)  |

Absurdist literature, it appears, stimulates our brains.

Does absurdist literature make you smarter? Giraffe carpet cleaner, it does!

The befuddled tramps in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are a poetic personification of paralysis. But new research suggests the act of watching them actually does get us somewhere.

Absurdist literature, it appears, stimulates our brains.

That’s the conclusion of a study recently published in the journal Psychological Science. Psychologists Travis Proulx of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Steven Heine of the University of British Columbia report our ability to find patterns is stimulated when we are faced with the task of making sense of an absurd tale. What’s more, this heightened capability carries over to unrelated tasks.

In the first of two experiments, 40 participants (all Canadian college undergraduates) read one of two versions of a Franz Kafka story, The Country Doctor. In the first version, which was only slightly modified from the original, “the narrative gradually breaks down and ends abruptly after a series of non sequiturs,” the researchers write. “We also included a series of bizarre illustrations that were unrelated to the story.”

The second version contained extensive revisions to the original. The non sequiturs were removed, and a “conventional narrative” was added, along with relevant illustrations.

All participants were then shown a series of 45 strings of letters, which they were instructed to copy. They were informed that the strings, which consisted of six to nine letters, contained a strict but not easily decipherable pattern.

They were then introduced to a new set of letter strings, some of which followed the pattern and some of which did not. They were asked to mark which strings followed the pattern.

Those who had read the absurd story selected a higher number of strings as being consistent with the pattern. More importantly, they “demonstrated greater accuracy in identifying the genuinely pattern-congruent letter strings,” the researchers report. This suggests “the cognitive mechanisms responsible for implicitly learning statistical regularities” are enhanced when we struggle to find meaning in a fragmented narrative.

[snip]

To Prolux and Heine, these finds suggest we have an innate tendency to impose order upon our experiences and create what they call “meaning frameworks.” Any threat to this process will “activate a meaning-maintenance motivation that may call upon any other available associations to restore a sense of meaning,” they write.

So it appears Viktor Frankl was right: Man is perpetually in search of meaning, and if a Kafkaesque work of literature seems strange on the surface, our brains amp up to dig deeper and discover its underlying design.

For full article, please click here.

Smile, you’re alive!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

A Curious Guy

Guide To Self, Inc.

Danville CA 94526

Posted in Corporate Culture, Emotion & learning, Curiosity, Employee engagement, San Ramon CA, Meaning-making, Unsconscious mind, Executive coach, Awareness, Consciousness, Guide to Self, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Unique marketing research, Chief Marketing Officer, Rational mind, Customer Engagement, Business & psych | Print | No Comments »

How The City Hurts Your Brain…And What You Can Do About It

19. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

By Jonah Lehrer from Ideas

January 2, 2009

 

THE CITY HAS always been an engine of intellectual life, from the 18th-century coffeehouses of London, where citizens gathered to discuss chemistry and radical politics, to the Left Bank bars of modern Paris, where Pablo Picasso held forth on modern art. Without the metropolis, we might not have had the great art of Shakespeare or James Joyce; even Einstein was inspired by commuter trains.

And yet, city life isn’t easy. The same London cafes that stimulated Ben Franklin also helped spread cholera; Picasso eventually bought an estate in quiet Provence. While the modern city might be a haven for playwrights, poets, and physicists, it’s also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place.

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it’s long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

“The mind is a limited machine,” says Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan and lead author of a new study that measured the cognitive deficits caused by a short urban walk. “And we’re beginning to understand the different ways that a city can exceed those limitations.”

One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment overlooks a grassy courtyard. Even these fleeting glimpses of nature improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental break from the urban roil.

This research arrives just as humans cross an important milestone: For the first time in history, the majority of people reside in cities. For a species that evolved to live in small, primate tribes on the African savannah, such a migration marks a dramatic shift. Instead of inhabiting wide-open spaces, we’re crowded into concrete jungles, surrounded by taxis, traffic, and millions of strangers. In recent years, it’s become clear that such unnatural surroundings have important implications for our mental and physical health, and can powerfully alter how we think.

This research is also leading some scientists to dabble in urban design, as they look for ways to make the metropolis less damaging to the brain. The good news is that even slight alterations, such as planting more trees in the inner city or creating urban parks with a greater variety of plants, can significantly reduce the negative side effects of city life. The mind needs nature, and even a little bit can be a big help.

Consider everything your brain has to keep track of as you walk down a busy thoroughfare like Newbury Street. There are the crowded sidewalks full of distracted pedestrians who have to be avoided; the hazardous crosswalks that require the brain to monitor the flow of traffic. (The brain is a wary machine, always looking out for potential threats.) There’s the confusing urban grid, which forces people to think continually about where they’re going and how to get there.

The reason such seemingly trivial mental tasks leave us depleted is that they exploit one of the crucial weak spots of the brain. A city is so overstuffed with stimuli that we need to constantly redirect our attention so that we aren’t distracted by irrelevant things, like a flashing neon sign or the cellphone conversation of a nearby passenger on the bus. This sort of controlled perception — we are telling the mind what to pay attention to — takes energy and effort. The mind is like a powerful supercomputer, but the act of paying attention consumes much of its processing power.

Natural settings, in contrast, don’t require the same amount of cognitive effort. This idea is known as attention restoration theory, or ART, and it was first developed by Stephen Kaplan, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. While it’s long been known that human attention is a scarce resource — focusing in the morning makes it harder to focus in the afternoon — Kaplan hypothesized that immersion in nature might have a restorative effect.

Imagine a walk around Walden Pond, in Concord. The woods surrounding the pond are filled with pitch pine and hickory trees. Chickadees and red-tailed hawks nest in the branches; squirrels and rabbits skirmish in the berry bushes. Natural settings are full of objects that automatically capture our attention, yet without triggering a negative emotional response — unlike, say, a backfiring car. The mental machinery that directs attention can relax deeply, replenishing itself.

“It’s not an accident that Central Park is in the middle of Manhattan,” says Berman. “They needed to put a park there.”

In a study published last month, Berman outfitted undergraduates at the University of Michigan with GPS receivers. Some of the students took a stroll in an arboretum, while others walked around the busy streets of downtown Ann Arbor.

The subjects were then run through a battery of psychological tests. People who had walked through the city were in a worse mood and scored significantly lower on a test of attention and working memory, which involved repeating a series of numbers backwards. In fact, just glancing at a photograph of urban scenes led to measurable impairments, at least when compared with pictures of nature.

“We see the picture of the busy street, and we automatically imagine what it’s like to be there,” says Berman. “And that’s when your ability to pay attention starts to suffer.”

This also helps explain why, according to several studies, children with attention-deficit disorder have fewer symptoms in natural settings. When surrounded by trees and animals, they are less likely to have behavioral problems and are better able to focus on a particular task.

For full article, click here.

 

Posted in National speakers, Curiosity, Awareness, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Unsconscious mind, Executive coach, Mindfulness, Resiliency, Guide to Self, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Anxiety, Anger Management, The human brain, Consciousness, Managing stress | Print | No Comments »

When Unconscious Thought Is Superior To Conscious Thought - APA Study

16. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

APA, Science Directorate, Volume 23: No. 10, October 2009

The Beautiful Powers of Unconscious Thought

by Ap Dijksterhuis

“When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters however…the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves.”

Sigmund Freud

When you are facing an important decision, others will sometimes tell you to postpone your decision and “sleep on it” first. In my case it was often my grandmother who gave me this advice. It is a belief many people intuitively share: It helps to put a problem aside for some time in order to arrive at a better decision. Somehow, waiting seems to help us to differentiate between the vital and the futile. Postponing a decision helps us to base our decisions on the appropriate reasons.

But does this “folk belief” hold in a scientific experiment? A few years ago, we conducted an experiment in which we had people choose between four hypothetical apartments. The information was constructed in such a way that one of the four apartments was objectively more desirable than the other three, in that it possessed more positive and fewer negative qualities. However, this was not immediately evident as the apartments were described with a great deal of information. After our experimental participants read all the information about the apartments, they chose their favorite one either immediately or after a period of distraction during which they did some other things. Our hypothesis was that the latter group would continue to “unconsciously think” about the apartments while they were distracted. Indeed, our findings showed that 37 % of the participants who decided immediately chose the appropriate apartment, whereas 60 % of the unconscious thinkers chose the best one (see Dijksterhuis, 2004; Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). Postponing a decision helps, even if one does not consciously think about it anymore.

The next question was whether unconscious thought could be even more helpful than an equal period of conscious thought. Traditionally, most scholars on decision making have assumed that thorough conscious thought is the best strategy to arrive at sound decisions. This is without doubt sometimes true, but as a general principle it needs to be qualified. We know that under some circumstances (e.g., Wilson & Schooler, 1991), conscious thought deteriorates the quality of decisions. In another experiment we conducted (Bos et al., 2009), our participants chose between six houses that were on sale in our home city, Nijmegen. We simulated the website on which these houses were advertised but removed the asking price. Our participants were given a few minutes time to navigate our “website,” and some participants were then given as much time as they wanted to think about the houses, and to further browse through the information. Others were distracted for about 45 minutes (they actually did other experiments) before they decided. Finally, participants chose their favorite house and they were asked to estimate the asking price for each of the six houses based on the information provided. The unconscious thinkers - that is, the ones that were distracted - performed significantly better than the conscious thinkers, a finding that has now been replicated a number of times (see Strick et al., 2009, for a meta-analysis).

In other experiments (Dijksterhuis, Bos, van der Leij & van Baaren, 2009), we asked immediate decision makers, conscious thinkers, and unconscious thinkers to predict the results of soccer matches that were to be played in the near future. The accuracy of the predictions did not differ much for people who didn’t know much about soccer. For fans, however, the results did differ. Fans who thought unconsciously made better predictions than fans who thought consciously or fans who guessed immediately. Interestingly, for both immediate decision makers as well as for conscious thinkers, knowledge of soccer did not correlate with the quality of the predictions. Only among unconscious thinkers was this correlation obtained, indicating that the benefits of expertise, at least within the confines of the present paradigm, become apparent when one thinks unconsciously rather than consciously.

For the entire article, including when, how and why unconscious thought may be better than conscious thought, click here to go to the APA site.

Become more aware. Cultivate mindfulness. Have an enjoyable weekend!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Executive Coach

Danville CA 94526

 

Posted in National speakers, Danville CA, Executive coach, Unsconscious mind, Awareness, Mindfulness, Psychology & soccer, Rational mind, Consciousness, Subconscious mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Positive Emotions, Optimism Key to Landing That New Job in Current Environment says University of Missouri Study

14. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

‘ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2009) — With America’s unemployment rate higher than it has been in decades, many people find themselves looking for jobs. The process can be tiring and, in such a competitive climate, receiving that final job offer is challenging. In a new study, researchers at the University of Missouri focus on what job seekers need to get ahead of the competition. The Mizzou scientists found that certain planning activities and positive emotions have a large impact on success in finding a job. 

“We found it most interesting that metacognitive activities — thinking about a plan, acting on a plan and reflecting upon that a plan — were important early in the job search while having positive emotions were important later in the job search,” said Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management in the MU Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business.  The study found that metacognitive activities, including goal setting and plan development, affect resume submission and success in first interviews, while the ability to maintain positive emotions plays a larger role during second interviews and receiving a final job offer. The researchers also examined how the personality traits of extraversion and conscientiousness affect metacognitive activities and positive emotions. Extraversion, how energetic and outgoing a person is, influenced both metacognitive activities and positive emotions. Conscientiousness, a person’s self discipline and dependability, affected metacognitive activities and directly influenced the number of final job offers received. “Perhaps, conscientious job seekers conducted better quality job searches by scrutinizing their fit with prospective employers more carefully or more effectively following up with employers,” Turban said.

The researchers administered three surveys to 327 job seekers. The first survey measured personality and demographic information, while the second survey measured positive emotions, metacognitive activities and employment outcomes. A third survey, measuring tapped employment outcomes, was sent to those still job hunting four to five months after the second survey.’

For full article, click here.

Keep on smiling!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Helping folks mitigate negative emotions and

cultivate positive emotions

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Curiosity, Awareness, Positive expectations, Emotion & productivity, Positive emotions and job search, San Ramon CA, Employee engagement, Corporate Culture, Hope, Resiliency, Life coach, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Organizational psychology, Consciousness, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

The Healing Power of Water - Immersion Activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System Leading to Greater Calm

9. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

I was practicing mindfulness while watching and listening to the ocean waves.

I’ve always felt that water has some healing properties. It has a restorative power. Then, I recently discovered that immersion in the water activates the parasympathetic nervous system which leads to greater peacefulness and calm. I have not verified this with research. Interesting idea, however.

Here’s a video so you can catch the feeling!

Mindfully,
John Schinnerer, Ph.D.
Positive Psychology Coaching
Guide To Self, Inc.
San Ramon Danville Alamo

Posted in Hope, Mindfulness, Energy psychology, Gratitude, Positive expectations, The human brain, Consciousness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Staying calm, Happiness, Emotional mind, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Lines Between Waking & Sleeping States Blurring - Are You Really Awake?

8. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

A fascinating, recent article from New Scientist and Laura Spinney on the recent findings around the blurred lines between being awake, being in REM state, and being in a non-REM sleeping state.

• 07 October 2009 by Laura Spinney, New Scientist

‘EARLIER this year, a puzzling report appeared in the journal Sleep Medicine. It described two Italian people who never truly slept. They might lie down and close their eyes, but read-outs of brain activity showed none of the normal patterns associated with sleep. Their behaviour was pretty odd, too. Though largely unaware of their surroundings during these rest periods, they would walk around, yell, tremble violently and their hearts would race. The remainder of the time they were conscious and aware but prone to powerful, dream-like hallucinations.

Both had been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder called multiple system atrophy. According to the report’s authors, Roberto Vetrugno and colleagues from the University of Bologna, Italy, the disease had damaged the pair’s brains to such an extent that they had entered status dissociatus, a kind of twilight zone in which the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness completely break down (Sleep Medicine, vol 10, p 247).

That this can happen contradicts the way we usually think about sleep, but it came as no surprise to Mark Mahowald, medical director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center in Minneapolis, who has long contested the dogma that sleep and wakefulness are discrete and distinct states. “There is now overwhelming evidence that the primary states of being are not mutually exclusive,” he says. The blurring of sleep and wakefulness is very clear in status dissociatus, but he believes it can happen to us all. If he is right, we will have to rethink our understanding of what sleep is and what it is for. Maybe wakefulness is not the all-or-nothing phenomenon we thought it was either.

Received wisdom has it that at any given time, healthy people are in one of three states of vigilance: awake, in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or in non-REM (NREM) sleep. Each state is distinct and can be recognised by a characteristic pattern of brain activity, as measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) (see chart, right). Wakefulness is easy to detect. Apart from the fact that a person’s eyes are open and they are responsive, their EEG shows a pattern of high-frequency, low-amplitude waves. NREM sleep is divided into four stages, each of which has its own distinctive EEG pattern. REM is trickier to spot because in EEG terms it closely resembles stage 1 NREM sleep. So to be sure it really is REM, researchers also look for the telltale rapid eye movements and a slackening in the muscles of the chin and jaw.

Mahowald is not the only person to have questioned these neat distinctions. David Dinges, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, has probably deprived more people of sleep in the name of science than anyone else. In one such study in the late 1980s, Dinges and his team revealed how easily the different states of vigilance can become intermingled. When volunteers were subjected to tests of working memory in which they had to subtract numbers, they could do an average of 90 sums in 3 minutes with few errors. After 52 hours deprived of sleep, their performance fell to around 70 subtractions, with not many more errors. However, after they had slept for 2 hours the change was dramatic. “When we woke them up abruptly, and they rated themselves as alert and ready to go, they couldn’t do even one subtraction,” says Dinges. People even seemed to be dreaming as they attempted the task. One subject mused: “What if people ran faster than normal people run home,” in the middle of a string of incorrect responses.

Known as sleep inertia, a less extreme version of such disorientation is now generally recognised as the cause of the grogginess some people get after their alarm clock goes off. It is as if they are socially awake but functionally asleep; as if the brain circuits underlying responsiveness are up and running, but those mediating working memory are still offline. Mahowald is convinced that it is just one of many disorders that can be explained as a breakdown in the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness. He lists a whole raft of such conditions in the same issue of Sleep Medicine as Vetrugno’s description of people with status dissociatus (vol 10, p 159).

One is REM behavioural disorder (RBD), in which people in REM sleep act out their dreams because the temporary paralysis, or cataplexy, that normally accompanies this state is replaced by the full mobility of wakefulness. In sleep paralysis the opposite is true. Here, cataplexy intrudes into wakefulness, and a person wakes to find him or herself unable to move. It is estimated that up to 40 per cent of people have experienced this disturbing phenomenon. Also surprisingly common are hypnagogic hallucinations - sensory illusions that occur on the cusp of sleep when the dreaming component of REM intrudes into wakefulness. Mahowald’s list also includes sleepwalking, night terrors and narcolepsy, which is an inherent instability in vigilance state boundaries characterised by rapid cycling between states and the tendency to fall asleep mid-sentence. Controversially, the list also includes near-death experiences and alien abductions. It is no coincidence, he says, that alien abductions almost always occur in the recumbent position, in the transition from wakefulness to sleep.

It is no coincidence that alien abductions tend to occur in the transition from wakefulness to sleep

Sleep is a highly complex phenomenon in which changes in sensory, muscular, hormonal and neural systems must be coordinated to create a particular state of vigilance. “When you think about it, there are billions of people in the world who are shifting between wakefulness, REM and non-REM multiple times every 24 hours,” says Mahowald. “It’s amazing that the switching is as accurate as it is.” This accuracy suggests that there is a strong adaptive drive to be fully in one state or another. But he also thinks that state dissociation - the presence of more than one vigilance state concurrently - is more common than anyone previously suspected.

The boundaries between sleep and wakefulness are particularly blurred when we are sleep-deprived. Around a decade ago, Dinges realised that although his sleep-deprived volunteers seemed to be awake, they were in fact experiencing momentary lapses, or microsleeps. Since then, he has discovered that these fleeting naps last between half a second and 2 seconds, and become increasingly frequent the longer we are deprived of sleep, until finally we cannot recover and nod off. Dinges sees them as the outward sign of a tug-of-war between neural systems that are trying to initiate sleep, and others that are trying to maintain wakefulness.

This chimes with the ideas of James Krueger of Washington State University in Pullman, who has argued that the individual processing units in the brain - known as cortical columns - fall asleep independently when they become tired. In his view, shifts between wakefulness and sleep occur when enough columns are in one state or the other (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol 9, p 910). Krueger believes this mosaic pattern of sleep explains sleep inertia and sleepwalking.

Some people are more prone to microsleeps than others. In a 2007 study, Dinges and his colleagues showed that there are enormous differences in people’s ability to resist the lure of sleep when tired. Among a group of healthy, non-sleep-deprived adults, the differences in alertness are small. “But as soon as we provoke the system with some sleep deprivation, those differences get larger and larger,” he says (Journal of Sleep Research, vol 16, p 170).

This has implications for all of us, especially those in professions where staying awake is a life-or-death matter. “If you’re doing 100 kilometres per hour on a highway and you have a lapse, your fingers go lax on the steering wheel and you drift off the road at a 4-degree angle,” says Dinges. “Two seconds is all it takes to be completely out of your lane.” Up to 20 per cent of traffic accidents are fatigue-related.

Brain imaging has recently revealed a mental back-up system in people who remain alert when sleep-deprived (Journal of Neuroscience, vol 29, p 7948). While other people have reduced brain activity when tired, sleep-resistant individuals manage to maintain their brain activity levels. More interestingly, they also recruit new areas to help compensate for having been awake for so long. These people were selected for the study because they had a gene variant found in around 40 per cent of people that is thought to be associated with resistance to sleep deprivation. It seems likely that such people are also less prone to state dissociation, although this has not yet been tested.

Another group who appear to be more vigilant than most are people who suffer from primary insomnia - insomnia not associated with any other condition. There is evidence to suggest they are in a constant state of hyperarousal, with relatively high metabolic rates and high levels of the stress hormone cortisol. “It’s as though somebody just cranked up their alertness over 24 hours, so they are more alert at night, but they are also more alert in the day,” says Mahowald.

As the blur between sleep and wakefulness becomes more widely accepted, researchers are devising techniques for capturing the brain’s fleeting lapses and vacillations. For example, neuroscientist Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is eavesdropping on sleeping brains using EEGs with 256 electrodes rather than the more usual 32, to improve spatial resolution and help him catch the brain in the act of mosaic napping. Microsleeps are just the tip of the iceberg, Tononi says. He is particularly concerned by the possibility that parts of our brain might be going offline without us even realising it. “In many respects, it would be like having a temporary mental disorder without anybody, including yourself, being aware of it,” he says. Forgetfulness and daydreaming could be examples of this, but so could more bizarre and even criminal behaviours (see “When a crime is not a crime”).

It is like having a temporary mental disorder without anyone, including yourself, being aware of it.’

 

For full article, click here.

 

So, first we have microexpressions, where humans leak emotional expressions at a rapid speed (less than 1/3 of a second).

 

Now we have microsleeps, where we catch a 1-2 second snooze to rest the brain.

 

What’s next…micro-sex? Oh, wait, I’ve done that already (pre-premature arousal)! :>)

 

Say, I could use some 1 second micro-eating!

 

How about some grueling 3 second micro-exercise routines?

 

What new micro-routines can you come up with - real or imagined?

 

Have a great day!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Guide To Self, Inc.

www.GuideToSelf.com

 

Posted in The human brain, San Ramon CA, Sleep research, Subconscious mind, Consciousness, Anxiety, Emotional management, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Body Posture Affects Your Belief In Your Own Thoughts, Ohio State Study Finds

6. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2009) — Sitting up straight in your chair isn’t just good for your posture – it also gives you more confidence in your own thoughts, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who were told to sit up straight were more likely to believe thoughts they wrote down while in that posture concerning whether they were qualified for a job.

On the other hand, those who were slumped over their desks were less likely to accept these written-down feelings about their own qualifications.

The results show how our body posture can affect not only what others think about us, but also how we think about ourselves, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

“Most of us were taught that sitting up straight gives a good impression to other people,” Petty said. “But it turns out that our posture can also affect how we think about ourselves. If you sit up straight, you end up convincing yourself by the posture you’re in.”

Petty conducted the study with Pablo Briñol, a former postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State now at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, and Benjamin Wagner, a current graduate student at Ohio State. The research appears in the October 2009 issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology.

For full article, click here.

All the best!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Danville, CA 94526

Guide To Self, Inc.

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Positive expectations, Employee engagement, Body posture & the mind, Awareness, Mindfulness, Happiness, Guide to Self, Consciousness, Subconscious mind, The human brain, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Negative Subliminal Messages More Powerful Than Positive Ones

1. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Science Daily

‘Today, the journal Emotion publishes a study by a UCL team led by Professor Nilli Lavie, which provides evidence that people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images and demonstrates conclusively that even under such conditions, information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.

In the study, Professor Lavie and colleagues showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on-screen for only a fraction of second – at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word. The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or ‘emotional’ (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.

The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words – even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.

‘There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words,’ says Professor Lavie. ‘We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.’

‘Clearly, there are evolutionary advantages to responding rapidly to emotional information. We can’t wait for our consciousness to kick in if we see someone running towards us with a knife or if we drive under rainy or foggy weather conditions and see a sign warning ‘danger’.’

This is a favorite subject of mine - the unconscious mind and things that affect it. Priming is an amazing example where the unconscious mind is influenced by messages that are flashed for less than .33 seconds (the point at which a stimulus is too quick for our eyes to consciously pick up and be aware of). The unconscious mind can be dramatically influenced by subliminal messages, and even sentences in which the words are mixed up.

When I present, I make a point of using such techniques to lead the audience to a more positive emotional state (e.g., joy, contentment, curiosity, awe, surprise, pride, happiness, or interest). I always tell the audience what I am doing and why. Then I let them know just how easy it is to influence the mind by way of these techniques. The scariest part, to me, is that Madison Avenue is aware of such techniques as well. And while there are laws to prevent the use of subliminal messages in advertising. There are no laws of which I know that prohibit techniques such as scrambling the words in a sentence or the letters in a word as was recently done in a Kaiser Permanente Thrive campaign ad. Fortunately, the word that is scrambled is ‘thrive’ so, in my mind, there is little or no negative impact on viewers.

However, it is to our benefit that we be mindful, cautious and aware of these techniques that speak to the unconscious mind as they do influence our behaviors, often outside of our conscious awareness.

Stay awake!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in Awareness, Mindfulness, National speakers, Emotion & learning, Subliminal messages, Danville CA, Subconscious mind, Consciousness, Innovative brand research, Dr. John Schinnerer, Unique marketing research, Brand Equity, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Mindfulness - Life is a Series of Moments

25. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

How engaged are you in each moment of your life?

The video below provides a tremendous reminder that life is a series of brief moments strung together. As we become more mindful and nonjudgmental, each moment becomes a treasure unto itself. The less we judge moments as good OR bad, the more likely we are to be able to appreciate them for what they are - life.

What’s more, one of the three paths to happiness is to string together series of moments infused with positive emotion (e.g., awe, surprise, curiosity, love, contentment, relaxation, pride, delight, joy, excitement).

Directed by William Hoffman (www.anyoneeverything.com)

Have a fantastic, mindful weekend!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Dr. John Schinnerer, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Is Music a Window Into the Soul of Autistic Children? What Powers Does Music Possess?

24. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

A reader turned me onto a blog by J. Henrique Alves in Perth. I found some fantastic writings on Henrique’s experiences with music sparking a connection with his autistic son. It is as I’ve said in the past, there is something quite powerful inherent in music. The perfect note, the right tune, the proper tempo have a way of connecting people in a deep and meaningful way, even those of us who typically are unable to connect.

Here is an excerpt:

‘In the last few years, I’ve discovered still another magical side of music, through the relationship with my 8-year old autistic son. While practicing the bass, I could notice how his attention would shift from whatever he would be doing, drawn by my plucking of the strings, and the simultaneous sound this would produce through the speakers of my little practice amplifier. I’d then lay the bass on the bed, so that he could explore the sounds, plucking gently the strings, showing some surprise with the connection between his touching the strings, and a matching sound being produced. Throughout the years, he has consistently shown a higher level of interest in our musical exploration sessions than he would typically demonstrate in other activities.

[snip]

Based on our experience, it was not surprising to find out that results published this year from a recent study conducted by Dr. Ami Klin, of the Yale Child Study Center, have confirmed that the synchronous nature of sound and movement captures consistently the attention of autistic children, more than any other form of interaction with objects or people (such as eye contact, touch, or movement and sounds in isolation). In a recent interview, Klin said:

“I and colleagues looked at a way […] 2-year-olds with autism would look at adult care givers, […] and those children spend less time looking at people’s eyes and more time looking at people’s mouth […] And that was puzzling because the eyes are really the window for the soul, they are the way that we experience people, their emotions and their intentions. And so we are puzzled by the fact that they showed increased attention to the mouth. With […] the new insights, we raised the hypothesis that the reason why they were looking at mouth is because the mouth is the part of the face that contains the greatest audio-visual synchrony, lip movements and speech sounds co-occurring.”

Our experience with music, which is a generalization of this synchronicity between movement and sound, provides, in our minds, a further confirmation of the results published by Dr. Ami Klin and his colleagues at Yale. His new insights provide further, scientific proof, to why music therapy programs, such as the few we have contacted here in Australia to strengthen the basis of our daily interactions with our son, are so successful, providing not eyes, but music as a window to the souls of autistic children. ‘

The full post is here…

http://beachesfromafar.blogspot.com/2009/05/music-is-magic-for-autistic-children.html

Henrique has other tremendous posts as well about music, autism, science and more. Thanks for sharing, Henrique!

All the best,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in Awareness, Hope, Music psychology, Curiosity, Emotion & learning, Science of love, Relationships, The human brain, Positive mood music, Creativity, Parenting, Emotional mind, Consciousness, Emotional management, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

Champions of Free Will Celebrate! Seminal 1983 Study on Response Potential Called Into Question

24. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Apparently humans have some free will after all.

From New Scientist…

Champions of free will, take heart. A landmark 1980s experiment that purported to show free will doesn’t exist is being challenged.

In 1983, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet asked volunteers wearing scalp electrodes to flex a finger or wrist. When they did, the movements were preceded by a dip in the signals being recorded, called the “readiness potential”. Libet interpreted this RP as the brain preparing for movement

For full article, click here.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

913 San Ramon Valley Blvd. #280

Danville, CA 94526

Posted in Curiosity, Danville CA, The human brain, Consciousness, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Rational mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

SYMPTOMS OF INNER PEACE AND MINDFUL AWARENESS

4. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Here is a heart-warming piece written by Saskia Davis:

 

SYMPTOMS OF INNER PEACE

A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

A loss of interest in judging other people

A loss of interest in judging self

A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others

A loss of interest in conflict

A loss of ability to worry

Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature

Frequent attacks of smiling

An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than to make them happen.

An increased susceptibility to love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it

WARNING: Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many already have been exposed; and it is possible that people, everywhere, could come down with it in epidemic proportions.

This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.

If you have some or all of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of inner peace may be too far advanced to be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk.

Source: http://symptomsofinnerpeace.net/Authors_Website/Wall_Poster.html

Be sure to find your own  inner peace!

Blessings,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

P.S. If you are over 16, be sure to take 25-30 minutes to take the survey at www.wellbeingstudy.com to help us with the first International Wellbeing Study! You might win $100 gift certificate and help humanity at the same time! Please use the code ‘JSWEB’ so I can track respondents. Thank you!

Posted in Gratitude, Awareness, Hope, Mindfulness, Curiosity, Science of love, Positive expectations, Danville CA, Emotion & learning, Altruism, Resiliency, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Forgiveness, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Consciousness, Emotional mind, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

Do We See Reality As It Is, Or Do Emotions Color Our Perceptions?

3. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2009) — Folk wisdom usually has it that “seeing is believing,” but new research suggests that “believing is seeing,” too – at least when it comes to perceiving other people’s emotions.

 

An international team of psychologists from the United States, New Zealand and France has found that the way we initially think about the emotions of others biases our subsequent perception (and memory) of their facial expressions. So once we interpret an ambiguous or neutral look as angry or happy, we later remember and actually see it as such.

 

The study, published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, ‘addresses the age-old question: ‘Do we see reality as it is, or is what we see influenced by our preconceptions?” said coauthor Piotr Winkielman, professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. ‘Our findings indicate that what we think has a noticeable effect on our perceptions.’

 

‘We imagine our emotional expressions as unambiguous ways of communicating how we’re feeling,’ said coauthor Jamin Halberstadt, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, ‘but in real social interactions, facial expressions are blends of multiple emotions – they are open to interpretation. This means that two people can have different recollections about the same emotional episode, yet both be correct about what they ’saw.’ So when my wife remembers my smirk as cynicism, she is right: her explanation of the expression at the time biased her perception of it. But it is also true that, had she explained my expression as empathy, I wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch.’

 

‘It’s a paradox,’ Halberstadt added. ‘The more we seek meaning in other emotions, the less accurate we are in remembering them.’

 

The researchers point out that implications of the results go beyond everyday interpersonal misunderstandings – especially for those who have persistent or dysfunctional ways of understanding emotions, such as socially anxious or traumatized individuals. For example, the socially anxious have negative interpretations of others’ reactions that may permanently color their perceptions of feelings and intentions, perpetuating their erroneous beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Other applications of the findings include eyewitness memory: A witness to a violent crime, for example, may attribute malice to a perpetrator – an impression which, according to the researchers, will influence memory for the perpetrator’s face and emotional expression.

 

The researchers showed experimental participants still photographs of faces computer-morphed to express ambiguous emotion and instructed them to think of these faces as either angry or happy. Participants then watched movies of the faces slowly changing expression, from angry to happy, and were asked to find the photograph they had originally seen. People’s initial interpretations influenced their memories: Faces initially interpreted as angry were remembered as expressing more anger than faces initially interpreted as happy.

 

Even more interesting, the ambiguous faces were also perceived and reacted to differently. By measuring subtle electrical signals coming from the muscles that control facial expressions, the researchers discovered that the participants imitated – on their own faces – the previously interpreted emotion when viewing the ambiguous faces again. In other words, when viewing a facial expression they had once thought about as angry, people expressed more anger themselves than did people viewing the same face if they had initially interpreted it as happy.

 

Because it is largely automatic, the researchers write, such facial mimicry reflects how the ambiguous face is perceived, revealing that participants were literally seeing different expressions.

 

‘The novel finding here,’ said Winkielman, of UC San Diego, ‘is that our body is the interface: The place where thoughts and perceptions meet. It supports a growing area of research on ‘embodied cognition’ and ‘embodied emotion.’ Our corporeal self is intimately intertwined with how – and what – we think and feel.’

The full article can be read at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090902161116.htm

Heading further down the rabbit hole,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in National speakers, Curiosity, Awareness, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Positive expectations, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Guide to Self, Life coach, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

U.S. Army Working With Univ. of Pennsylvania to Develop Master Resiliency Program Using Positive Psychology

7. August 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 From a press release from the U.S. Army

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 5, 2009) — The Army has been working with the University of Pennsylvania to develop master resiliency training that will soon be taught to Soldiers, family members and Army civilians.

The resiliency training is part of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, which focuses on the five dimensions of strength: emotional, social, spiritual, family and physical.

“As people develop their holistic fitness strength, they develop psychological resilience to not only bounce back, but to thrive under challenging conditions,” said Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, CSF director.

“We’ve been working for about the last year on Comprehensive Soldier Fitness,” said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., chief of staff of the Army. “It’s designed to bring mental fitness up to the same level that we give to physical fitness. In this era of persistent conflict, we’ve found that the vast majority of Soldiers deploying have a positive growth experience because they’re exposed to something very difficult and they succeed. Our goal through Comprehensive Soldier Fitness is to ensure all Soldiers have the skills to grow and succeed.”

Master resiliency training is being adapted from the Positive Psychology Program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. UPENN instructs teachers (middle and high school) on how to impart resiliency skills to their students during the school year. More than a dozen scientific studies have shown positive results in students whose teachers have been trained in this program - including better grades, less dropouts and less behavioral issues.

Potential master resiliency trainers participated in an informational session in May. At this session 32 Soldiers and Army civilians received the civilian version of the UPENN course. In June and July a smaller focus group attended the course in an effort to tailor the current curriculum for Army use. Another training pilot program is scheduled for Aug. 10-19 at the school.

“The training is informative and motivational,” said Dana Whitis, an Army employee who attended the five-day course.

“Resilience training encourages a person to take a mental note of their past behavior and present situation and promotes alternative ways to view the occurrence,” explained Whitis, who works for the Family, Morale Welfare and Recreation Command. She went on to say that resiliency training will eventually be offered to Army family members.

“It will augment existing Army family program structure and programs,” Whitis said. “I look forward to family members receiving resilience training.”

Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King, who is stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., said the training has equipped her “to be more resolute in bouncing back from adversities and instead of using a negative or pessimistic approach, I now view what I decide are negative situations as an opportunity for growth, through positive thinking.”

King said she is “happier” since the training and feels she has a better understanding of her peers, Soldiers, friends and family members.

The Army is now incorporating practices learned from the UPENN program as the building of MRT continues.

MRT will operate as a “train-the-trainer” program, and aims to turn participants into fitness experts able to train others and strengthen the force as a whole. MRT will eventually be taught during basic combat training, at officer schools, and throughout all levels of the Army, Cornum said.

In the first five days of the MRT course, students learn the basic tenants of resiliency training. The remaining days focus on how to teach the material.

Sgt. Maj. James Whitfield, who attended the five-day seminar at UPenn, said the “train-the-trainer” program covers subjects such as avoiding thinking traps, building resiliency and surveying individuals’ strong points and “not-so-strong points.”

The course overview received great reviews from the participants who said it has potential to be beneficial to the leader-Soldier bond. The Army will continue to adapt the program to make it more relevant for Soldiers as the curriculum-development continues, officials said.

Phase two of the program calls for establishing an MRT school to train leaders (squad leaders, platoon sergeants, etc.) on how to impart resiliency skills through daily education and training. Phase three will allow for voluntary participation by family members and Army civilians.

“The Army is committed to a true prevention model aimed at the entire force, not only Soldiers and civilians in the throes of a crisis,” said Lt. Gen. James D. Thurman, deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7.

CSF recognizes the absolute necessity of a comprehensive, coordinated effort to enhance the fitness and resiliency of our Army, particularly important during this era of persistent conflict and most importantly into the foreseeable future. Ultimately, Soldier fitness in the comprehensive sense is, and has always been, the business of leaders.

http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/08/05/25494-army-developing-master-resiliency-training/

Posted in Mindfulness, Resiliency, Consciousness, Assertiveness, Hope, Emotion & learning, Curiosity, Gratitude, Managing Sadness, Managing Anxiety, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Forgiveness, Creativity, Guide to Self, Emotional management, Happiness, Anxiety, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »