sparkmygenius.com

By Ninah Kessler LCSW

Senior in the work place

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is progressive and degenerative. As we age the risk of Alzheimer’s disease increases.  While one person in eight has Alzheimer’s at age 65, almost half of those over 85 are affected.) With the graying of the American work force we will see an increase in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Additionally 200,000 Americans with Alzheimer’s who are younger than 65.

 Alzheimer’s disease has reached epidemic proportions in the country and the problem will only grow as we live longer.  According to the Alzheimer’s association, 5.3 million people in the US have the disease and “the direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias to Medicare, Medicaid and businesses amount to more than $148 billion each year.”

Memory loss is one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. The general rule is that if you are concerned about memory loss, you probably don’t have it. You don’t have to worry if you lose your car keys, but watch out if you don’t know what your car keys are for. Employees can forget things for many reasons besides dementia including psychological stress, grief reactions, physical illness, sleep problems and dehydration. Some of these problems are easily correctible. An employer cannot tell if an employee has dementia, but certain things may heighten their suspicion.

 Here are some things an employer might want to look for:

1.   A consistent pattern of forgetting that cannot be explained by other causes. 

Short-term information is one of the first things to go in dementia.     Employees don’t remember things because it’s forgotten almost as soon as it’s said.  When an employee doesn’t show up for a meeting and you question him, he says, “What meeting?”

 2. Trouble with self-expression

The employee cannot find the right word, saying “the cold box in the kitchen” instead of the refrigerator

 3. Difficulties with orientation

The employee is late for out of the office meetings because he got lost on the way to a familiar location.  A sales rep will forget what shopping center he needs to go to.

4. Unpredictable mood changes

An outgoing employee becomes quieter and more moody. An employee becomes angry for no apparent reason.  Often people with dementia slip into their own worlds because the outside world is too challenging.  They respond from that world and it confuses others.  Mood changes can also be cause by depressions and anxiety, which can also accompany dementia.

5.   Difficulty learning new technologies or new procedures

As we age we have more trouble multitasking and learning new things but we make up for it with wisdom and resilience.  Seniors and those with dementia can learn new things but it takes them longer and they do better with spaced retrieval and errorless learning.  They have a better chance when things are explained one at a time with opportunities for practice. 

6.   Poor Judgment and difficulty with decision making. 

The employee may have difficulty making decisions or makes poor decisions. The cause of these poor decisions may be hard to pinpoint. Among other causes difficulty with decision making has been linked to “disproportionate, age-related decline in specific neural systems crucial for complex decision-making.” (Brain Anomalies and Poor Decision-making in Older Adults  http://dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=23106)

 The symptoms of Alzheimer’s can vary from person to person, but there is likely to be a distinct change from what the person previously was like.

In The Art of Power, Thich Nhat Hahn writes about five spiritual powers that are the foundation of happiness—faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration and insight. Let’s focus on diligence, the notion that can train ourselves to come back to our best and highest self.

Imagine that we have seeds in our consciousness such as joy, forgiveness, peace, anger despair and hate. These seeds can be awake or asleep. If you live in a positive environment seeds like anger, fear, despair, violence and craving are sleeping and not touched. If you live in a negative environment these seeds are touched, watered and begin to grow.

“So it is wise for you to choose a good environment that will prevent these negative seeds from being touched often. You should not allow other people around you to touch these seeds, and you should not allow yourself to water them.” This is diligence.

“When you read an article full of violence or watch a violent television program you turn on the seed of violence. The first step of diligence is not to turn on these negative seeds and not to allow the environment to turn them on…Try not to expose yourself to sights and sounds that stimulate the seed of craving or the seeds of anger in you…You need diligence to practice this, and you may need a community or group of friends with similar values to help you create a good environment.”

I was thinking of this while reading The Paranoia Switch, a book about how terror rewires our brains by Harvard psychologist Martha Stout. She asks one question: What were you doing on the morning of September 11, 2001?

Dr. Stout claims we all have immediate and vivid memories of 9/11 that we will carry to our graves. “We will be able to recall small details—the weather where we were, what we had been up to but stopped doing, exactly which telephone we picked up—as if we had had tiny videotapes in our heads.”

She also claims that, based on neuropsychological research, the 9/11 attack turned on our “fear switch” by traumatizing our brains and causing overreactions to the reality of life.

The following is some of the information presented:
1) Immediately after the attack eight out of ten women and six out of ten men were depressed.
2) Three to five days after the attack, 44% of Americans reported at least one symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
3) Two months later 31% of respondents to a L.A. Times poll felt their personal sense of security was still “a great deal” shaken.”
4) One year later, 30% of Americans said they still thought about 9/11 every single day.
5) A study published in 2005 that followed the infants of 38 mothers who had been at or near the World Trade Center attack reported that at one year old the babies of mothers who had PTSD showed low cortisol levels —linked to being vulnerable to post-traumatic stress. In other words, “…maternal post-traumatic stress disorder may have transgenerational effects beginning when the child is in utero…”

What’s the point? The point is that “When you read an article full of violence or watch a violent television program you turn on the seed of violence.”

Diligence is the practice of training ourselves to come back to our best and highest self.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

There are many reasons to adopt an attitude of gratitude. Some have a philosophical basis, others spiritual, health, moral or even scientific.

Gratitude is a key component of popular movie “The Secret,” which demonstrated how gratitude can jump-start the “law of attraction” to bring more health, happiness and wealth into your life.

Gratitude is one of the key components of reducing stress with the emWavePC stress relief system.

Gratitude is also a key component to the healthful and beautiful “Journey to the Wild Divine”

Gratitude is a key component of health. In “Boost Your Health with a Dose of Gratitude” we learn that “Grateful people — those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a temporary state of mind — have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health, according to Emmons’ research on gratitude. Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations,” care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations.”

Gratitude is also a stress buster and an immune booster.

For an uplifting experience of gratitude see “A Good Day” at http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Zl9puhwiyw.

–Dr. Rohn Kessler

Is my child going to the right school?

Deciding this seemingly simple question can be agonizing for parents. Not only are some schools “objectively” better (lower teacher student ratios, more enrichment programs, etc) but one kind of child could fail in the same school where a different child would thrive. It happened to Albert Einstein. He hated school in Munich because of its rote memorization and constant drills. He prospered at a Swiss school where they taught visual thinking. The things that he learned there enabled him to be……well, Albert Einstein. Visual thinking enabled him to create experiments in his head. Einstein was probably a visual learner and this school played to his strength, enabling him to develop his spark of genius.

There are some things to look for when you are school shopping and these criteria can be helpful in assessing whether your child’s needs are being met in his present academic environment.

First of all, what are the strengths of your child’s school? Do they foster independence or provide adequate structure? In an extreme example, a bright motivated student like Einstein might benefit from a Montessori type open classroom with resources for him to explore his own interests and to progress at his own pace.

But this type of approach could leave an autistic child staring at the lights. For these children, one of the most successful approaches is called Applied Behavioral Analysis, with constant repetition, positive reinforcement and prompting. Additionally a child with attention issues can be overwhelmed if too much is happening in the classroom.

It’s also important to assess how much individual instruction is available. An introverted, introspective child who could get lost in the shuffle or for a child with attention problems who needs more redirection can really benefit from customized attention.

Then you need to know your child’s strengths. Is there a match? Does this school stimulate your child’s spark of genius? It can be helpful to ask the school who would be a successful learner there.

Of course, your child’s teachers make a difference here too. Sometimes a child will do poorly one year and really come around the next because the teacher understands what the child needs to succeed. Parents and teachers are the most important part of any child’s learning team, and it’s important that they work together. Find out the best way to communicate with your child’s teacher and stay abreast of what’s happening in the classroom.

Now I am thinking about this at the beginning of school here in Florida and I don’t want parents to second guess themselves and wonder if they made the right school decision. I believe that everything happens for a reason and that we can learn something from every experience. Remember that Einstein was at the “wrong” school in the beginning, but maybe memorizing equations gave him the building blocks he needed for revolutionizing physics.

Remember that finding the right education for your child is a process. Any steps that you take to ensuring a better fit between your child, the teacher and the school will benefit your child’s sparks of genius.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

Tip 1: Don’t smoke.

Smoking represents a major risk factor for cancer, heart disease and stroke. These leading causes of death represent an ongoing concern for all Americans. Nonsmokers might consider taking an empathetic approach to smokers who are trying to quit, and parents might use a “tough love” approach with their children to make sure they don’t even start.

Tip 2: Follow your physician’s advice.

Your relationship with your physician is critical to your health. Remember, though, that as a consumer of health services your doctor is your employee, so establish a good working relationship based on the understanding that you are the boss of your body. We must develop a proactive attitude toward maintaining our health and take responsibility to change those aspects of our lifestyles that are minimizing our longevity potential. Our physicians can help guide this process.

Tip 3: Exercise regularly.

Exercise and physical activity continue to emerge as primary components of a healthy lifestyle at any age. Aerobic exercise, weight training and recreation are critical not just to our cardiovascular health but to our brain health, as well. Every time our heart beats, 25 percent of its output goes to our brains-quite a large market share! Clearly, maintaining efficient blood flow to our brains through regular exercise promotes health. If you don’t exercise regularly, start by walking around the block tonight and build from there.

Tip 4: Reduce the overall calories you consume daily.

We Americans tend not to under-consume anything…including food. Yet the leading factor for longevity in animals is caloric restriction. This finding has yet to be demonstrated in humans. However, provided you get your daily nutritional needs from the USDA’S food pyramid, you should pay close attention to how much you eat. Follow the advice two physicians gave me: N ever go to bed stuffed, and eat only 80 percent of what you intend to consume at every meal.

Tip 5: Socialize and have fun.

We Americans specialize in stress, with little understanding of how to have fun. We need more time to socialize, celebrate and laugh! Some of us have walls around us that keep other people away. As humans, though, we need to be engaged and to be social. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, once stated that every time “we lose an elder from our village, we lose a library.” If we begin to think of everyone as a library, it becomes clear that we can learn from others.

Tip 6: Develop your spirituality.

Evidence continues to emerge that prayer is a health-promoting behavior and that attendance at formalized places of worship may have more significance to our health than we understand. Meditation, yoga, relaxation procedures and prayer have neurophysiological bases. They help to alter our existing homeostasis for the better. Praying or meditating daily can help us combat the stresses of life and focus on the challenges ahead.

Tip 7: Engage in mentally stimulating activities.

“Mental stimulation” refers to the ways our brains respond to stimuli in the environment. Novel and complex stimuli are health-promoting for the brain. New learning translates to neurophysiological growth and to mental stimulation in the same way that aerobics translates to cardiovascular health. We can benefit from being challenged, from learning information and skills that we do not yet understand, and from engaging in pursuits that are initially hard for us!

Tip 8: Maintain your role and sense of purpose.

Retirement as it is presently envisioned in this country is not good for the human brain, which benefits from environments rich in novel and complex stimuli. Retirement by definition reinforces disengagement and passivity. Our nation might consider prioritizing social engagement across the lifespan-from a brain-health perspective. Although it is important to allow elders to choose more passive lifestyles, many may benefit from an understanding of the importance of actively participating in society and finding personally relevant roles and senses of purpose.

Tip 9: Seek financial stability.

Research clearly demonstrates that having some money late in life correlates with better health. Therefore, a practical tip for maintaining lifelong health is to hire a financial planner and begin a savings plan that will provide some money late in life. Financial planners do not consider themselves to be health promoters, but they are. We are never too young or too old to begin saving, and the less money we make the faster we need to get started!

Tip 10: Engage family and friends.

Developing and maintaining a social network of relationships is important from a health perspective. Our friends and family help us stay active and involved in the fabric of society. They can provide us with emotional support and can nurture trust. Our roles in life, from child to parent to grandparent, exist within the family; they provide much health and human enrichment across the lifespan. And intimacy, broadly defined, is itself a health-promoting behavior at any age.

Many adults today are not ADD (Attention Deficit) but have many of the symptoms and suffer from “a severe case of modern life.”

The Wild Trees is a spellbinding story about some daring, adventurous botanists and amateur naturalists who discover a lost, world — the unexplored, untouched canopy three hundred feet high in the coastal California redwoods, the world’s tallest trees. The book was just what I needed at the time to relax, unwind and imagine. It brought back many happy memories of my years in the Pacific Northwest.

The experience was relaxing and healing and brought back many happy memories of my years in the Pacific Northwest.

And then bam, I was back at work, the CEO of a growing company. Looking for a great blog topic, I picked up, what else, Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked and About to Snap, by Dr. Edward Hallowell, the author of many books on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The main idea is “Welcome to the Attention Deficit World: Frantic, Free and out of Control.” This world is one that is busy, fast, wired and going who knows where. In fact, it is the world of attention deficit disorder. Hallowell explains:

“People with untreated ADD rush around a lot, feel impatient wherever they are, love speed, get frustrated easily, lose focus in the middle of a task, or a conversation because some other thought catches their attention, bubble with energy but struggle to pay attention to one issue for more than a few seconds, talk fast or feel at a loss for words, often forget where they’re going or what they’re going to get, have bright ideas but can’t implement them, fail to complete what they’re doing, have many projects going simultaneously but chronically postpone completing them, make decisions impulsively because their brain’s circuitry is overloaded, feel they could do a lot more if they could just get it together, get angry easily when interrupted, feel powerless over the piles of stuff that surrounds them, resolve each day to do better tomorrow, and in general feel busy beyond belief but not all that productive.”

Sound familiar? Many adults today are not ADD of but have many of these symptoms and suffer what Hallowell calls “a severe case of modern life.”

Just as I find deep peace —reading, playing the violin, walking with my wife, being at the ocean with our children and grandchildren, engaging in prayer/meditation— everyone must find their unique formula for living fully, healthfully and artfully in this fast, frenzied world.

I also use technology to de-stress, and we use it in our business, Sparks of Genius.

Two programs come to mind.

One is the emWave® PC Stress Relief System, which will help you transform stress and anxiety into vibrant positive energy. You can learn more here:

The other is Journey to the Wild Divine, unique biofeedback adventure games for mind and body which create a beautiful, enlightening experience of deep peace and relaxation.

These computer programs teach us how to shift from a negative emotional state to a positive one. Negative emotions, just like frantic multi-taking, shut down the frontal lobes of your brain. This causes stress, disorganization and poor decision-making.

Part 2 is here!

-Dr. Rohn Kessler

Does it seem like 80% of the people you work with are touched in the head? Eighty percent of people will sustain a brain injury and not get adequate treatment. Think you’re safe just because you don’t skateboard or Rollerblade?

Wrong. Brain injury is an enemy that infiltrates all social classes and cultures.

Most victims will suffer financial, emotional and physical limitations for the rest of their lives. Why is this silent epidemic…well, silent? Unless victims sustain a coma or cannot walk and talk, then the concept of brain injury is casually dismissed by society and the courts.

It is no coincidence that many cases of teenage rebellion coincide with an earlier bump on the head.

The effects of brain injury may not surface in entirety until many months after the injury. Most of us think that unless someone needs stitches, they haven’t sustained a “serious” injury. The scary truth is that a head injury can occur faster than it takes to form a thought or even say a word. Adults are prone to shaken baby syndrome too. There is help and there are signs.

Adults are prone to shaken baby syndrome too.

Try the complimentary 39 Point Learning Assessment to see if you can be set free from brain fog and live in the land of clarity! CDC has published a very helpful guide about what to do if you or a loved one has experienced a head injury.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/tbi/tbibook.pdf

Dr Amy Price

Dr Amy Price is a Patient Volunteer & Executive Director
at the Spinal Injury Foundation
http://www.spinalinjuryfoundation.org

ROWE, ROWE, ROWE your boat…at work but not at school. ROWE stands for Results Only Work Environment. Long story short: let people work how they want, when they want. Only measure the results. Performance and morale improve.

There workers can come in at four or leave at noon, or head for the movies in the middle of the day, or not even show up at all. It’s the work that matters, not the method. And, not incidentally, both output and job satisfaction have jumped wherever ROWE is tried.

Full article here.

How can we use Results-Only to get our kids to perform?

The bottom line for teachers and parents is that they need to get cooperation from 1-150 kids on tasks that, lets be honest, often aren’t interesting to them. If the child has ADD or a Learning Disability, the challenge is even greater.

Are our schools results oriented?

With few exceptions, in my opinion, No. This does vary from school to school and teacher to teacher, but overall I think that the atmosphere in America’s classrooms (big generalization here) is one in which students are evaluated on a mixed curriculum of education and discipline. In other words, the student’s grade is determined by both his or her mastery of the material and by how well he or she fits into the stereotypical pigeon-hole of a “good student”.

It is not enough for a student to learn the curriculum. He or she must also meet the teacher’s expectations of behavior and discipline or their grades will suffer. Which means that their collegiate futures are at risk. Which means their behavior in and around the classroom will in part determine their future.

Why is this bad? In my opinion, it is appropriate to evaluate behaviors, rule-following, conscientiousness and sociability. However, this evaluation needs to be made separate from an academic evaluation. Not merely out of fairness but because a student’s behavior does not reflect his or her mastery of the material. If the student has mastered the curriculum, and demonstrates that mastery on assessments, then his or her grade should reflect that mastery.

Further, teachers evaluate behavior based on their biased backgrounds. Students with different backgrounds are unfairly penalized. Since most teachers are middle-class, poor students suffer.

What do I mean? I mean that the student should not be penalized because he or she did not complete a non-assessment assignment (busy-work) or was disruptive in the classroom, or had a poor attendance record. Notice that each of these items are strongly correlated with poverty and a low socio-economic status. They also fit the profile of kids with Learning Disabilities.

In my opinion, when teachers mix assessment grades with behavior grades, they are doing these kids a major disservice. I am especially thinking of my LD students. These kids’ futures are already at risk. If they are graduating on a regular diploma, and most are, then they need every point they can get on their GPA. When I go into an Individualized Education Planning (IEP) meeting for a student, and I see that his assessment grades are A’s, B’s and C’s but his report card is full of C’s, D’s and F’s I conclude that the student’s needs are not being met. Isn’t it obvious? He can ace the exam, but has seven zeros for homework assignments…he’s learned the material. Even more, he did it without doing the homework. For him, the homework was really just busy work.

The goal of our schools should not be to pump out mass-produced cookie-cutter worker.

Corporate America is realizing that if you let good people make choices about how and when to work, everybody wins. Lets take that lesson home and into the classroom. Recognize that people have different learning styles and preferences and that the goal of our schools should not be to pump out mass-produced cookie-cutter workers.

Teachers: create multiple routes to success. Keep behavior and academic evaluations separate.

Parents: realize that your kid needs breaks. LD and ADD kids need LOTS of breaks. Split their homework session in two. Have a physical activity planned for in between.

One last quick story: a student of mine often comes in completely brain-fried. You know, that horrible feeling that you can’t even spell your own name right…for no reason! Once I realize we are up against the wall we go for a ten-minute walk and talk about video games. This lifts the mind-fog and learning can begin again.

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin

“I don’t know what’s happening with my life.” Who hasn’t felt that way? Life moves at breakneck speed and that can lead to stress, anger and heart attacks. Is there a way out without $150 per hour therapy and $25 per pill medications? Here are some free techniques to help you de-stress and feel good at any age.

A client was having trouble getting her son to his appointment.

“My mother broke her arm and is living with me. I don’t know what’s happening with my life.” Those of us in the sandwich generation get pushed at both ends, and we have our own issues. “I need my reading glasses, but I can’t remember where I put them.” We’re having increased responsibilities to others while at the same time our physical and mental abilities are declining.

Now it doesn’t have to be as bad as it sounds. Life does not have to be a xanax moment. Some things are inherently on our side and there is more we can do to stack the deck.

Journey of the Wild Divine is one of the cutting-edge tools we use at Sparks of Genius to help our students learn to manage stress, regulate their body rhythms and heighten attention. You can try it at home for free, and train with it too if you are out of area.

The Benefits of Age

Aging is more than high cholesterol and cellulite. We can also gain wisdom and calmness from life experience. Instead of breaking all my crystal when I am angry, I can just imagine smashing it and avoid the cleanup. If I am really desperate, I can throw some ice. I can recognize my feelings and think about how to use them productively. My mind tells me the consequences of my actions because I have been at this juncture before.

When I was younger I was tossed about by my emotions. Now I have my lifelines. I remember the ring of Solomon which states, “This too will pass.” I ask myself if this will really matter in 1000 years. I go for a walk, call a friend or ask the audience. I have an arsenal of techniques keep me sane. This doesn’t mean that I’m always in control. When I get to be an enlightened being I’ll let you know. But things that would have set me off in the past have lost of their potency and I have gained some of mine.

Better Living through Technology

At Sparks of Genius we use some technological innovation to help with stress.

HeartMath® technology teaches you how to shift from a negative emotion to a positive one. When you do this, your heart rhythms automatically shift to a state of coherence, releasing a cascade of positive neural, hormonal and biochemical events.

When they are using the Harmony Sparking Station in our electronic playground, HeartMath® computer, we teach our clients learn the Quick Coherence Technique, so that they can see the changes in their heart rhythms in real time. If you want to get ahead of the game, you can practice this technique on your own.

Step 1 – Heart Focus

Focus your attention on the area around your heart.

Step 2 – Heart Breathing

Pretend you are breathing through your heart area. Breathe slowly to a count of 5 or 6.

Step 3 – Heart Feeling

Continue to breathe through your heart and find a positive feeling. You could remember an appreciation for someone, a fun activity or a time in your life when you felt at peace. Think about one of the many things that you could be grateful for. Once you have found the positive feeling, sustain it with heart focus, heart breathing and heart feeling.

Do this exercise several times a day. Make it part of yourself. You can even make it a point to practice when you are stopped for a red light. Then it can become a life line.

As soon as you feel angry, practice heart focus, heart breathing and heart feeling. Once you have those positive feelings flowing, ask yourself how you could best handle your situation. Do you need a time out or is there something that you could do or say that will help. Do you need to journal, jog or schedule an appointment with your life coach?

Remember that if we are lucky enough to stay around on this planet, we will all grow older. The gift is being able to grow wiser.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach