From Timid to Warrior: Boosting Self-Esteem

 

Low self-esteem can be described as lacking self-confidence, and self-worth, in one’s abilities. So, how to transcend it, not let it hold us back?

My definition of a warrior is someone who acts in spite of fear. Fear is normal – even healthy when an action for survival is required. Too often, though, we live our lives in self-limiting ways, our potential undermined by various factors, causing us to see situations through the half-empty, rather than the half-full glass – dwelling on the negative, disregarding our achievements; thinking others are better than us; poor self-image; that we don’t deserve to enjoy; self-criticism; fear of making mistakes, avoid taking risks, fear of failure, or success, feelings of incompetence.

Many factors can cause or lead to low self-esteem: parental abuse, that is emotional, sexual, physical, neglect, parental or authority figure disapproval, (‘you’ll never amount to anything!’); bullying’ academic difficulties; social shaming, poor performance, poor body self-image; perception of not belonging; war; chronic stress.

To boost self-esteem, we can find support by joining groups; celebrating achievements, especially under adversity; being around those who make us feel good, versus those who don’t treat us well; good health practices; doing things we enjoy, start something new; treatment alternatives, including LENS neurofeedback, which, by helping to balance and regulate the nervous system, together with supportive counseling, goal-setting, healing techniques, can get us in touch with buried, suppressed aspirations, foster self-growth, self-assurance, energy and impetus for new life directiorns.'

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Smoke gets on the brain

Health impact studies of air pollution, including wildfire smoke, have mostly focused on the lungs. But toxicologist Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque is looking at the brain.

In a study of the inflammatory effects of smoke PM_2.5 on the brains of mice, Campen and colleagues found that inflammation in the lungs was modest compared with the “profound” inflammation in the brain, Campen says. Given what’s known about how damaging smoke can be in the lungs, to find even greater effects on the brain is troubling, he says.

The inflammatory effect on the mice’s brains was almost immediate, within 24 hours of exposure, the researchers reported in the March Toxicological Sciences. The particulates enter the body through the respiratory system, get in the blood, and are small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and start affecting the brain. Inflammation has been linked with dementia in older people and neurodevelopmental issues in younger people, plus mood disorders like anxiety and depression, Campen says.

“I’m hoping that our study with mice spurs… epidemiologists to take a look,” he says. “The effects we see are much stronger and more worrisome than what we see in the lungs,” he says, but we don’t know yet at what PM_2.5 levels the danger begins. “We need to explore this more rigorously.”

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The Vast Potential of the Vagus Nerve

 

Some say a cure for ailments like anxiety is flowing from the brain. But much is unknown.

By Christina Caron

In recent years, the vagus nerve has become an object of fascination, especially on social media. The vagal nerve fibers, which run from the brain to the abdomen, have been anointed by some influencers as the key to reducing anxiety, regulating the nervous system, and helping the body to relax.

TikTok videos with the hashtag “#vagusnerve” have been viewed more than 64 million times, and there are nearly 70,000 posts with the hashtag on Instagram. Some of the most popular ones feature simple hacks to “tone” or “reset” the vagus nerve, in which people plunge their faces into ice water or lie on their backs with ice packs on their chests.

Now, wellness companies have capitalized on the trend, offering products like vagus massage oil, pillow mists, and vibrating bracelets. These products claim to stimulate the nerve, but they have not been endorsed by the scientific community.

Researchers who study the vagus nerve say that stimulating it with electrodes can potentially help improve mood and alleviate symptoms in those who suffer from treatment-resistant depression, among other ailments. But are there other ways to activate the vagus nerve? Who would benefit most from doing so? And what exactly is the vagus nerve, anyway? Here’s a look at what we know so far.

What is the vagus nerve?

The term “vagus nerve” is actually shorthand for thousands of fibers. They are organized into two bundles that run from the brain stem down through each side of the next and into the torso, branching outward to touch our internal organs, said Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, a neurosurgeon and president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Northwell Health’s research center in New York.

Imagine something akin to a tree, whose limbs interact with nearly every organ system in the body. (The word “vagus” means “wandering” in Latin.)

The vagus nerve picks up information about how the organs are functioning and sends information from the brain stem back to the body, helping to control digestion, heart rate, voice, mood, and the immune system.

For those reasons, the vagus nerve – the longest of the 12 cranial nerves – is sometimes referred to as an information super-highway.

Dr. Tracey compared it to a trans-Atlantic cable.

“It’s not a mishmash of signals,” he said. “Every signal has a specific job.”

Scientists first began examining the vagus nerve in the late 1800s to investigate whether stimulating it could be a potential treatment for epilepsy. They later discovered that a side effect of activating the nerve was an improvement in mood. Today, researchers are examining how the nerve can affect psychiatric disorders, among other conditions.

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Mom’s voice loses its grip for teens

 

As kids grow up, unfamiliar voices get more interesting

By Laura Sanders

Young kids’ brains are especially tuned to their mothers’ voices. Teenagers’ brains, in their typical rebellious glory, are most decidedly not.

That conclusion, reported on April 28 in the Journal of Neuroscience, may seem laughably obvious to parents of teens, including neuroscientist Daniel Abrams of Stanford University School of Medicine. “I have two teenaged boys myself, and it’s a kind of funny result,” he says.

But the finding may be deeper than a punch line. As kids grow up and expand their social connections beyond family, their brains need to be attuned to that growing world. “Just as an infant is tuned into a mom, adolescents have this whole other class of sounds and voices that they need to tune into,” Abrams says.

He and colleagues scanned the brains of 7 to 16-year-olds as they heard the voices of either their mothers or unfamiliar women. To focus the experiment on just the sound of a voice, the words spoken were gibberish.

Abrams and colleagues have previously shown that in kinds ages 7 to 12, certain regions of the brain – particularly those parts involved in detecting rewards and paying attention – respond more strongly to mom’s voice than a voice of an unknown woman. But in these same brain regions in teens, the new study finds, unfamiliar voices elicited greater responses than mom’s. The shift seems to happen between ages 13 and 14.

It’s not that these brain areas stop responding to mom, Abram says. Rather, the unfamiliar voices become more rewarding and worthy of attention. That’s how it should be, Abrams says. Exploring new people and situations in a hallmark of adolescence.

Voices can carry powerful signals. Biological anthropologist Leslie Seltzer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues have found that when stressed girls hear mom’s voice on the phone, their stress hormones drop. The new results support the idea that the brain changes to reflect new needs, Seltzer says. Though, she notes, the results might change across varying mother-child relationships.

For now, teens and parents frustrated by missed messages can take heart, Abram says. “This is the way the brain is wired, and there’s good reason for it.”

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Tinnitus | LENS treatment in Tarrytown | Energy Healing Therapies in Sleepy Hollow

 

In the brain, not the ears

Although tinnitus may begin as an injury to ear cells, it’s accepted science now that the condition has implications beyond the ears to the brain. Josef Rauschecker and his colleagues in the Department of Neuroscience, the Division of Audiology, and the Department of Otolaryngology at Georgetown University have used brain imaging studies to reveal some other scary results: they observed a significant loss of volume in an area located in the frontal lobe of the brain in people with tinnitus.

Researchers at the University of Illinois found that chronic tinnitus is also linked to changes in a region of the brain called the precuneus, part of the parietal lobes that sit near the top of the skull. The precuneus is connected to two inversely related networks in the brain: the “dorsal attention network,” activated by stimulation from incoming sensory information like touch and noise, and the “default mode network,” which operates when the brain is at rest and not occupied by anything in particular.

“When the default mode network is on, the dorsal attention network is off, and vice versa. We found that the precuneus in tinnitus patients seems to be playing a role in that relationship,” said tinnitus researcher Sara Schmidt.

The University of Illinois team found that in patients with chronic tinnitus, the dorsal attention network is working more often than the default mode network, which means the brain isn’t relaxing and disengaging from surrounding stimuli, creating the potential for mental fatigue. And the more severe the tinnitus, the more activated the dorsal attention network.

“This could explain why many reports being tired more often. Additionally, their attention may be engaged more with their tinnitus than necessary, and that may lessen their attention to other things,” University of Illinois professor of speech and hearing science Fatima Husain said. “If you have bothersome tinnitus, this may be why you have concentration issues.”

Interestingly, patients with recent-onset tinnitus did not show differences in their precuneus network connections compared to controls, suggesting that the changes in the brain come on after the tinnitus, not the other way around.

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This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain
Instead of Relying on Diets, Learn to Train Your Brain

Recharge Your Brain | Neurofeedback Armonk

There’s a gentle, but effective way to brain fitness and lasting relief from neurological conditions in adults and children, such as Anxiety, Depression, ADHD in kids, without the need for medications: with LENS Neurofeedback.

Neurofeedback – or EEG Biofeedback – uses sensitive technology to track and release ‘stuck’ or disregulated brainwave patterns, thereby helping to restore harmony and balance to the central nervous system. The LENS ( Low Energy Neurofeedback System) carries a tiny signal from and back to the brain in a way that is conducive to the brain self-adjusting – a kind of reset bringing peace, clarity and resilience.

The LENS is user-friendly, quick, given with the eyes closed, and requiring no effort – important for fidgety children, and those having difficulty attending to prolonged auditory / visual stimuli. It has even been used effectively on dogs, horses and other pets.

The recognition of neuroplasticity in neuroscience – the brain’s ability to change and improve function at any age, in adults as well as children – has given hope to many. Parents concerned with prolonged drug use in children diagnosed with ADD / ADHD, now seek alternative approaches like neurofeedback. Know more....

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Long Term Benefits | LENS Neurofeedback Research in Tarrytown

LENS Neurofeedback is a clinically effective, drug-free alternative for helping people find lasting relief from neurological symptoms, clarity and balance in their lives.

How LENS Neurofeedback can help

Alleviate many neurological conditions associated with dysregulated brainwave patterns including:

– Anxiety, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Panic Attacks, TBI
– Children with ADD / ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disorders
– Relieve Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia, Migraines, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, regain energy
– Sleep Disorders, Addictions, by reducing the need to self-medicate

Changes and improvements following a course of treatment with the LENS, once attained, tend to persist and endure. Gains can be seen in as little as 5-10 sessions:

A study at Stone Mountain Center demonstrated a 50% improvement in 20 sessions and less over a range of symptoms. ( 100 Person Study, Journal of Neurotherapy, Winter,2006: issue devoted to the LENS. Conclusion: LENS therapy appears to be very efficient and effective in rapidly reducing a wide range of symptoms. It particularly produces rapid movements in the first 5-10 sessions.)

In tracking gains during a course of LENS treatment, family members, friends, teachers and parents of younger children may notice and give positive ‘feedback’ on beneficial changes in function, behavior and relationships. 

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