Living More Zen

by: Matthew Krajewski

So I am probably the furthest thing from a Zen monk, but found this blog posting about living more Zen, and thought I would summarize a few points from it, since everyone could use a little Zen, and by association, a little less stress and little more happiness in their lives.

Ecckhart Tolle’s new book, The New Earth, is also cause to write about living more Zen, since most of what he writes about is a distilled spiritualism without identifying with any particular major religion, unlike such sects as Sufism, Kabbalah, and Zen. They are all paths pointing spiritual seekers to the same place: a more fulfilling existence.

So how do you live more Zen?

1. Don’t multi-task

This sounds completely counter to our modern culture, but multi-tasking, even if you can do it and do it well, divides your minds attentions so that your are never fully present in any activity. A key to Zen is to be present in everything that you do, from cleaning the toilet to running a marathon, each activity deserves a fully present mind.

2. Clean it yourself

Zen monks consider cleaning a form of meditation. Even if you have someone to clean your house for you, try cleaning yourself, it is humbling and forces you to think about what you are doing. This will force you to be more present.

3. Keep it simple

This is perhaps one that sounds easy enough, but in practice can become hard to do. Only keep in your life the things you need. Don’t clutter your mind or space with anything that detracts from what you absolutely need to survive. This can be interpreted many ways, but it is up to you to decide what surviving means for you.

For more see the Zen Habits blog posting to bring more Zen into your life.

Gym Etiquette

by: Matthew Krajewski

So I came across this great blog posting via Digg on Ploomy regarding gym etiquette. Don’t even get me started…

But since I’m writing this, I’ve already started, and will continue a lá Ploomy.

I’ve taken to going the gym pretty regularly, at first it was in the evenings, but for some reason lately my local gym is getting packed in tighter than a Rolling Stones concert at Madison Square Garden, so I’ve taken to the morning shift. Ah! Mornings at the gym when nobody is around to do any of the annoyances I’m about to list below. Usually…hopefully…who am I kidding, I’ll probably run into the same bozos when they also figure out that the gym is empty in the mornings. Oh, well, bliss for now, and I can vent about proper gym etiquette in the meantime.

Stop grunting like an animal

This is the one that annoys me the most. Just because you’re at a gym is not an excuse to grunt like an animal. It is a shared public space, and I’m always taken aback when some guy on the bench press starts grunting through his reps…probably means you should lighten up on the weight you’re lifting.

Leave the bike shorts for outdoor biking

I’ve got nothing against biking or bikers, but leave the apparel for outdoors and racing. Like they said in the Ploomy post, stick to loose fitting clothing, and reserve the tight fitting stuff for the proper venue… like a nightclub.

Don’t be a klept-o or a mess-o

Don’t be a kleptomaniac or leave a mess anywhere in the gym. This means jacking the disinfectant spray near the towels to go wipe down your machine. Spray your towel first, and leave the bottle, so you don’t leave three people waiting around for you to play Mr. Clean! Also, put the weights back where you found them, in the right place. They’re labeled for a reason.

Leave the conversation for the coffee shop

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had my workout tainted by the chatty-kathys that are talking one machine over from me. And because there are about fifty machines and loud music, they have to talk over all of the noise, so that everyone around them can hear them. Focus on your workout, and chat afterward, not during. Jeez!

Well, I think that about wraps it up; so just sweat as much as you want (wear deodorant, please!), but be polite about it, it isn’t your personal gym after all.

Does the brain possess superpowers?

by: Matthew Krajewski

Rebecca Sato of the blog Daily Galaxy recently posed the interesting question, “Does the brain possess superpowers?” I was so tickled by the post, and the interesting cases she summarized, I wanted to share the premise with RightHealth readers, and explore other realms of the brain, myth and reality, that may be of interest.

With the recent phenomenal success of NBC’s Heroes, to the lucrative Marvel and DC comic franchises that include the X-Men, Superman, and many other figures numbering too many to list here, people are culturally enamored with the idea of heroes and superpowers. The idea of heroes aside (one person can make a difference and so on…), the idea that there are hidden, untapped superpowers latent in human beings always seems to grip our cultural interest.

Sato recounts savants that have abilities that echo the characters found in the NBC hit Heroes. Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic savant that can draw anything he sees with just a quick glance at the object. Orlando Serrell developed the ability to calculate complex calendrical equations only after being struck with a baseball to the head. These are two of the cases Sato relates in her article, posing the quandary of why if it is an evolutionary attribute of human beings to filter irrelevant facts do some human beings possess the extraordinary ability to lack this filter and produce incredible results like Serrell or Wiltshire? Do all human beings possess some “superpower” that is blocked by this evolutionary filter?

Perhaps we believe that the brain possess hidden superpowers, because there is so much we don’t understand about it, and it tends to play tricks on us. Lifehack related some of these brain tricks in a recent post. Like our short term memory, we can only store about five to nine items in our short term memory, hence why phone numbers average seven numbers, the same average as our short term memory. Also, your long term memory shuts down when you sleep, hence why you can’t remember all those dreams you had when you were asleep, only fragments, there was no long term memory operating to store them.

One of the hot trends right now, as the craze for antioxidants dies down, is to find nutrients that benefit certain parts of your body, particularly your brain (and digestive track, but that’s another blog post on the way). Leftofzen posted a great list of twenty brain foods that will keep your brain humming. I found the benefits of walnuts particularly interesting, since they have been known to produce serotonin, and may counter some conditions such as insomnia or depression.

So even if we can’t answer if the brain possess superpowers, at least we know what to feed it to keep it healthy, and we can even learn a little bit more about the tricks it plays on us! Read more on the Brain on Righthealth when you get a chance.

World Autism Day

by: Matthew Krajewski

We all know that our global community is becoming smaller and smaller, with issues such as environmental protection lauding a place on the international stage rather than just national. The health of people worldwide is taking center stage for the first time this April 2^nd to mark the United Nation’s adoption of World Autism Awareness Day as spearheaded by the nation of Qatar. This marks the first in a new series of official disease or condition awareness days to be introduced by the United Nations. World Autism Awareness Day is intended to raise international public awareness of autism; as well as encourage early detection, new research, and ground-breaking therapies.

 

Autism is a complex developmental disability that can manifest in a plethora of ways, but the commonality of all sufferers is a lacking of the ability to communicate and interact effectively with others. Autism manifests early in a child’s life, typically in the first three years, but can be mistakenly diagnosed as other conditions such as retardation. With a record high of children being diagnosed as autistic worldwide, and with controversy surrounding the actual causes of autism, World Autism Awareness Day could not have been introduced at a more crucial time. Without being able to identify the cause of autism, awareness and continued research is the best path available to those afflicted or affected by autism.

 

Since communication is a personal form of expression, each individual usually has specific traits that reflect their personality and the way they choose to communicate, and autistics are no different. For this reason, the symptoms of autism can be varied, but all have some sort of communicative idiosyncrasy. This can include aloofness, tantrums, refusal to socialize, extreme emotional reactions, repetition of words and phrases, and being non-responsive to verbal cues among other traits.

 

Although the causes of autism are still under dispute with people looking at vaccinations, and the environment as factors, the medical community is in general agreement that there is a link between genetics and autism. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article identifying a structural variation of chromosome 16 boosting the risk of autism. This finding can help pave the way for new drug treatments targeting the chromosome, as well as more effective testing to diagnose autism. Today, most parents of autistic children employ singular or multiple progressive options to nurture their children; these options can include diet, behavioral therapies and drugs. There is still much to be learned from all of these techniques, but clearly demonstrates that pharmaceuticals are not always the solution.

 

 

New Scientist recently published an article detailing how El Kaliouby, Rosalind Picard, and Alea Teeters of MIT are currently constructing a device to run software that can gauge the emotional reactions of others. This device could be invaluable to the autistic since understanding social nuances was once an insurmountable obstacle for those afflicted with autism. The device would be a small camera that could hang onto the side of a pair of glasses, which would be connected to a small buzzer in the user’s palm that would vibrate if the person being addressed becomes disinterested or annoyed.

With such an impairment of ability to communicate, it is no small wonder that people tend to write off the autistic due to their failure to interact “normally,” thereby dehumanizing them. ABC News reported on the remarkable story of Carly Fleischmann, who through an innovative therapy was able to match pictures and symbols on a keyboard to articulate her thoughts and feelings (Carly had never spoken in her life due to her particular manifestation of autism). Her writings revealed an aware individual that internally struggled with her condition and her surroundings. As Carly says herself, “It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can’t talk or I act differently than them. I think people get scared with things that look or seem different than them.”