DR. JAY KUMAR

As we celebrate the long Thanksgiving weekend and the beginning of the Holiday season, it's easy to forget the true meaning and purpose of this time of year. Even though Thanksgiving is a North American holiday, its significance is universal regardless of your nationality, spiritual faith, or cultural believes.

For those not familiar with the holiday, Thanksgiving is an annual feast that honors the bounty of the autumn harvest and celebrates the abundance that nature provides. For millennia, both the European and Native American cultures marked the harvest time by giving thanks to the plentitude and nourishment that the earth gives for our livelihood. Eventually the European and Native American traditions merged into what we now know as Thanksgiving. In essence, Thanksgiving is truly much more than a North American holiday, as it is a way for all of us to "give thanks" and to express gratitude for all that we have in life–health, abundance, love, family, friends, and, of course, the traditional Thanksgiving feast.

In our modern culture, Thanksgiving sadly also has become synonymous with shopping and consumerism. Contrary to what we hear and see on TV, billboards, and internet, the essence of the Thanksgiving holiday is not about getting the best deals on Black Friday or to be swept up in the shopping frenzy of the Holidays. Rather, it is a time to pause and reflect on all that truly is of value in life. As I like to say the key to happiness and true joy is, "Not Buy More, Be More!”

However you ultimately choose to mark and honor this Thanksgiving weekend and the upcoming Holidays I invite you to remember their original significance–that is to give thanks and cultivate an attitude of gratitude for all the abundance in our life. In fact, new studies of the brain from neuropsychology state that gratitude is one of the easiest and healthiest ways to experience overall wellbeing in body, mind, and spirit. In the past few years, scientists now recognize that gratitude is one of the most powerful and healthiest of human emotions. Studies at University of Miami, UC Davis, and other universities successfully demonstrate that remembering to be grateful for what we have in life can greatly outweigh any sadness, stress, or challenges we might currently experience.

The reason why expressing gratitude has such a strong effect is its ability to connect us to other people. Generally, when we express thanks we acknowledge the actions of others. Being grateful enables us to expand our thoughts away from our own individual concerns so that we remember the joy and happiness that others provide. You can learn more about the Neuroscience of Health & Happiness here.

Basically, when we experience gratitude we hit the proverbial “pause button” in our mind. We shift away from our repetitive thoughts, our worries, and anxiety and begin to focus on happiness, joy, and love. From the perspective of neuroscience, the part of our brain that fires when we give thanks is the left pre-frontal cortex, the same area responsible for feeling love and compassion. In addition to boosting your emotional and psychological health, cultivating an attitude of gratitude has physical benefits. As we experience greater levels of gratitude, neurotransmitters in the brain release chemicals to stave off stress, depression, and anxiety.

One of the easiest ways that I find to generate feelings of gratitude is to make a list of all that you’re grateful for in life. Your list might include your family, spouse, partner, children, pet, or possibly even your health, the beauty of nature, and the very fact of being alive. Make copies of this list and place them by your bed, on your office desk, or on the fridge, or places that are most visible to you. Every time you look at this list, repeat out loud to yourself one thing on your list that you are grateful for in life. Not only verbalize the statement but truly feel it. Envision that person, place, or idea in your thoughts and connect to the emotion of gratitude and joy that accompany the memory. Like with our body, neuroscience also states that our mind is also a muscle that can be trained and developed. As we cultivate greater gratitude for what we have in life, we automatically experience a healthy attitude toward life! Read full article on the neuroscience and psychology of gratitude here.

As you enjoy and commemorate this Thanksgiving weekend always remember all that you're grateful for in life. Never forget that the greatest gift is actually your presence in the world. According to the eloquent words of Melody Beattie,"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Keep on Living Your Light® as you enjoy this Thanksgiving weekend in gratitude, abundance, joy, and wellbeing.

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
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Twitter – docjaykumar 

So what makes you happy? What is the connection between your brain and health? You may be surprised to learn that recent advances in neuroscience offer a deeper understanding of how a healthy brain equals a healthy body and being! A phrase I advance is that happiness is not something that happens to you, but rather happiness is something you choose. We all want to lead a happy and healthy life, but one key to cultivating health and happiness may reside in your brain, and more specifically with the power of your thoughts. In this first of two posts, I discuss the neurobiological component to happiness and what the latest research in neuroscience provides for you to cultivate more happiness and wellbeing in your life.

One of the greatest discoveries to come out of neuroscience in the past couple of decades is the concept of neuroplasticity. Basically, neuroplasticity describes the ability for our brain to rewire and restructure its neural structure and anatomy. A key phrase in neuroscience is, “Neurons that fire together wire together.” What this means is that over time our collective experiences and thoughts that we repeat about who we are and our environment become neurologically wired in our brain. In essence our psychology creates our biology. As we experience the various thoughts and feelings throughout our day, they actually leave traces behind in the neural structure of the brain. If you spend your entire day worrying about what others think about you or thinking about how miserable your life is, those very thoughts begin to form a neural network that wires together cementing that concept in your mind. Conversely, if we can cultivate more gratitude, self-forgiveness, and compassion toward ourselves, we can begin to rewire these “neural nets of negativity” into a healthy brain and being.

The neuropsychologist, Dr. Rick Hanson, nicely states, “The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.” I’m sure many of us can relate to this idea, but why is that our minds tend to remember the painful, negative experiences but not so much the joyous, happy moments? There’s actually a neurobiological answer that has to do with something called a “negativity bias.” At the University of Washington a study revealed how a negative experience remains wired into our brain more strongly than a positive one. In fact, it takes up to five positive experiences to outweigh a negative thought! Neurobiologists believe that this “negative bias” of the human brain was an evolutionary trait that helped early humans survive by allowing the brain to react to, remember, and recall life-threatening experiences. Imagine you were an early human chased by a lion; your brain would store that information into a neural net, recalling that memory as a survival mechanism. The lesson is that in order to experience authentic happiness, we actively have to focus on the positive to overcome the negative experiences in our life that our brain has imprinted into our consciousness.

The last item to mention is that of mirror neurons. In the past 15 years, neuroscientists discovered that our brain possesses mirror neurons that are responsible for us to feel compassion and empathy toward others. There exists a part of the human brain known as the insula, which is the area activated when we tap into our internal feelings and sensations. So when we dance, do yoga meditate, focus on our breath, swim, run, or are in nature we begin to connect to the internal terrain of our body. The insula gauges how we’re feeling and what we’re experiencing within our body and mind in the present moment. Since neuroplasticity demonstrates that the brain is capable of growing at any age in life, we can enhance the development of the insula. So why is this so important, you may wonder? Brain scans reveal that people with more developed insula tend to have more developed mirror neurons, which enable us to become more self-aware, compassionate, caring, and empathetic toward others. It is this notion of compassion and empathy toward others that allows us to experience greater happiness and wellbeing on a daily basis.

The more we can begin to focus on all the abundance, gratitude, and joy inherent in our life rather than going through life in worry, doubt, pessimism, and fear, the more healthy and vibrant our brains become. When the human brain and body are healthy and strong we tend to cultivate the “four C’s” of calmness, contentment, caring and creativity. In the next entry, I’ll discuss specific ways in which we can entrain our brain to create more healthy neural pathways through daily exercises and techniques to cultivate a happy brain, body, and being. Finally, I leave you with this empowering message, “No external conditions are required for happiness. Happiness is who you are!” Until then, keep on thinking happy thoughts as you continue Living Your Light®. 

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
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Dr. Meg Jordan on 'Medicine in the 21st century: Emergence of a new Global Health Paradigm' (Dec. 16, 2010)

So what will health and medicine look like in the 21^st century? What are the challenges that humanity faces in order to achieve authentic health? How do media and culture influence our individual and collective perceptions of illness and wellness? Helping us explore these questions on today’s show is my guest today, Dr. Meg Jordan.“Medicine in the 21^st century: Emergence of a new Global Health Paradigm” 

 

Meg Jordan PhD, RN, is a woman who has motivated millions to live healthier, more fulfilling lives. Author, speaker, international health journalist, registered nurse and a clinical medical anthropologist, she is one of the most recognized names in health and wellness reporting. Dr. Jordan is Department Chair and Professor of Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.  She is also known as the "Global Medicine Hunter" for syndicated radio on Health Radio Network, host of “Healthy Living on Global TV and numerous specials for NBC “Today,” Discovery and CNN. Dr. Jordan searches the globe for healing remedies, traveling to remote and exotic places, confirming the best of traditional practices with modern science. Her books include The Fitness Instinct and a forthcoming Adventures of a Global Medicine Hunter. You can learn more about Dr. Meg Jordan at www.megjordan.com

 

 

 

What is consciousness, what is the Self, what is the mind? How do our thoughts and beliefs influence and shape our reality, both individually and collectively? Tune in to this weeks' show - 'Psychology and the Emerging Transformation in Global Consciousness' as we explore these topics with Dr. Ralph Metzner.

Dr. Metzner is an acclaimed author, clinical psychotherapist, and pioneer in the field of transformational consciousness. He earned a BA in philosophy from Oxford and a PhD in psychology from Harvard. His books Maps of Consciousness and The Unfolding Self have been widely acclaimed to be at the forefront of transformational studies. Hear Dr. Metzner discuss how humanity is awakening and evolving to a new global consciousness.