The myth is the older you get, the poorer your mental agility becomes. But I do believe that you can keep a sharp mind and a keen intellect at any age with the right combination of nature’s ‘smart nutrients’.

As a psychologist, I was taught that this was impossible – but I didn’t believe it, so I set out to prove it was true. I helped conduct a study, giving school children a high-strength multivitamin or a placebo and testing their IQ before and after. The children who took the multivitamin had a 9% increase in non-verbal IQ! The good news is that you don’t just have to be a child to benefit from these findings.

Dr Rakesh Chandra from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada decided to test whether supplementation with vitamins and trace elements in modest amounts could improve memory and mental performance in healthy, elderly subjects. He gave 96 such men and women over the age of 65 either a daily supplement or a placebo for 12 months. Those taking the supplements showed substantial improvement in short-term memory, concentration and problem-solving skills.

Now that’s from just taking a good multivitamin. I’ve since pinpointed some key nutritional factors that I believe give you the edge on focus and concentration, memory and mental agility. I call these ‘smart nutrients’ and they include nutrients such as DMAE and phospholipids, which may directly support brain function. I personally take these nutrients every day and I’m convinced that they’re the best way to sharpen your mind and protect yourself against memory decline.

Brain Friendly Diet

The starting point for tuning up your brain is to follow an optimum nutrition diet and take daily
supplements. Here are the ten golden rules to follow to make sure your diet is maximising your mental health.

1. Eat wholefoods – wholegrains, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and vegetables – and avoid refined, white and overcooked foods.

2. Avoid any form of sugar – in biscuits, cakes, confectionery and also foods with added sugar in the forms of syrups, dextrose and maltose.

3. Eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily – choose dark green, leafy and root vegetables such as watercress, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, spinach, green beans or peppers, all raw or lightly cooked. Choose fresh fruit such as apples, pears, berries, plums, melon or citrus fruit. Have bananas, grapes and potatoes in moderation only (they contain a lot of natural sugar). Dilute fruit juices and only eat dried fruits infrequently in small quantities, preferably soaked.

4. Eat four or more servings of wholegrains daily – such as rice, millet, rye, oats, wholewheat, corn or quinoa as cereal, breads and pasta.

5. Combine protein foods with carbohydrate foods by eating wholegrain cereals and fruit with raw, unsalted nuts or seeds, and ensuring you eat starchy foods (potatoes, bread, pasta or rice) with protein-rich fish, lentils, beans, eggs or tofu. If eating animal protein, choose lean, white meat or preferably fish, organic whenever possible.

6. Eat eggs – preferably free-range, organic and high in omega-3s. Aim for about 3-5 a week.

7. If eating animal protein, choose cold-water carnivorous fish – A serving of herring, mackerel, salmon or trout two or three times a week provides a good source of omega-3 fats and protein.

8. Eat raw, unsalted seeds and nuts. The best seeds are flax (or linseed), hemp, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame. You get more goodness out of them by grinding them first and sprinkling on cereal, soups and salads.

9. Use cold-pressed seed oils. Choose an oil blend containing flaxseed oil or hemp oil for salad dressings and cold uses, such as drizzling on vegetables instead of butter. Don’t cook with these oils as their fats are easily damaged by heat.

10. Minimise your intake of fried food, processed food and saturated fat from meat and dairy to prevent damage to brain fats.

The good news is that mental decline is not inevitable and you can boost your memory and mental alertness at any age. Research shows clearly that healthy, well-nourished and well-educated people show no signs of declining mental function with age. What’s more, while it is true that brain cells die with age, you can also build new brain cells at any age. How? By feeding your brain, both with the right nutrients and the right information.

Source: http://www.patrickholford.com

Aerobic exercise is great for the brain!

But anaerobic exercise seems to have little effect on cognitive function. Weight lifters and other strength trainers, take note: blood flow throughout the body will help neural circuitry and neuroplasticity, but targeted exercise doesn’t achieve that flow and fails to show any effect on the brain.

Strenuous aerobic exercise sets off a chain reaction of growth factors that require additional blood flow, which can only be supplied when the body is moving at a rate that prompts unusually high blood flow.

These findings are the result of several studies conducted in rats and humans that tested abilities to perform higher cognitive functions before and after aerobic exercise. In one experiment, published by the American College of Sports Medicine, college students were asked to memorize a string of numbers, which they were tested on after they’d either sat down, lifted weights, or run on a treadmill. Each student was tested after each activity. Students performed much better after running than after either of the other activities.

Similarly, elderly patients were tested on cognition after either brisk walking or stretching. The walkers improved on cognitive tests whereas the stretchers did not, showing that even moderate aerobic exercise can be good for maintaining and even increasing what we usually think of as “intelligence!”

The first step to using the Law of Attraction as presented in the movie “The Secret” is to clarify exactly what you want. Remember—determine, write down and talk about what you do want, not what you don’t want. Be as specific as possible. Once you have clarified what you want, do the following each and every day.

1. Morning Intention, Visualization and Releasing

As soon as you wake up in the morning, take about 5 minutes to focus your mind on your desires, goals and intentions. Start by sitting in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and visualizing your desires and goals as already being fulfilled. Spend 30 seconds to a minute on each of your core desires and goals. You can also take a few moments to visualize your day going exactly as you would like it to.

When you do this, you will often find negative limiting beliefs that are the result of negative programming from your childhood will come up. You may hear thoughts like “I could never afford that,” “there’s no way I’ll ever get that,” or “who am I kidding?” coming up. If you do, use one of the many releasing techniques that are available (see the list below) to release the negative thought. Don’t fight or argue with the thought; just release it. Remember to also spend several moments feeling the feelings you would feel if you had already manifested your desire in your life. The intensity of the feeling is what fuels the intensity of the attraction.

Powerful releasing techniques:

The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin (www.sedonamethod.com)
The Work by Byron Katie (www.TheWork.com)
The Emotional Freedom Technique (www.emofree.com)

2. Use external images to keep you focused on your desires and goals.

To keep yourself focused on what you want to manifest surround yourself with visual images of the things and experiences you want to attract into your life. There are many techniques you can use for this.

1) Cut out pictures of the things you wish to own (like your ideal car or home) and pictures that represent the experiences you want to have (like the perfect relationship, your ideal job, perfect health, being at your ideal weight, more joy, inner peace or balance in your life)to remind yourself of how you want it to be. Tape them up where you will see them every day—on the mirror, the refrigerator, or your bulletin board. You can also scan them into your computer and make them into a screen saver or a continuously running PowerPoint program.

2) Combine your pictures and words that you cut out into a collage on a large piece of poster board.

3) Make a Dream Book by putting the pictures into a 3-ring binder pasted onto the pages or slid into plastic page protectors.
When you look at any of these pictures, do what Bob Doyle, who is featured in “The Secret” teaches— think the thought, “THIS IS MINE NOW! THIS IS WHO I AM!”

3. Think a Better Feeling Thought

Start paying attention to the many times during the day that you have emotional responses (to other people, experiences, or your own thoughts) that are not in alignment with having or producing your desires. Pay special attention to when you feel disappointment, resentment, frustration or anger about your experiences and circumstances.

Remember, it’s your feelings (which are created by your thoughts, opinions, and beliefs) that are attracting your current circumstances. You must make a vibrational shift by changing your thoughts to ones that make you feel better (i.e., raise your vibration). Remember that you must become a vibrational match for the things and experiences that you want to attract into your life. It is especially important to focus your thoughts and behaviors on things that cause you to feel joy. Focus your thoughts on thoughts that bring you joy (your lover, your best friend, your grandchildren, your favorite vacation spot) and your actions on doing the things you love to do (pet your cat, work in your garden, listen to your favorite music).

4. Have an attitude of gratitude.

It is critical to take time each and every day to focus on what you are grateful for. Some people do this in the morning before or after they visualize their desires; others prefer to do it in the evening. Focus on all of the things in your life (most of which you take for granted) that you are grateful for—your health, your children, your job, the nice weather, electricity, running water, a nice stereo system, your flower garden, your pets, your friends). No matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for. The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more things and experiences you will attract to be grateful for. You may wish to carry a “gratitude rock” like the one Lee Brower talks about in “The Secret.”

5. Take action.

There are two kinds of actions you can take. Obvious actions are things like, if you want a better car, going to test drive all of the models you are interested in and choosing the exact car you want to have, and saving 10% of your income in a “car account.” If you want to be a doctor, apply to medical school.

There are also what I call “inspired actions.” Once you begin to do the things described above, the universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result. You are going to find that you have inspired ideas; you must act on them. You must follow those gentle proddings from the universe. Often these intuitive impulses will have no seeming connection to achieving your goal, but if you follow them, they will lead you down a path of wonderful fulfillment.

Here’s a quick way to know if the actions you’re taking are taking you closer to the fulfillment of your dreams and desires. If you are feeling joy while you are doing them, then you are on the right path. Remember, joy is your internal guidance system, just like the GPS system in a car, telling you are taking the right actions. Follow your joy.

6. Acknowledge that it is working.

If you start to see something change for the better, acknowledge that it is happening. Appreciate it. When you find the perfect parking space, acknowledge it. When you get the table you want in the restaurant, acknowledge it. When you receive unexpected income, acknowledge it. When you meet someone who can help you achieve your goal, acknowledge that Law of Attraction is working. The more you acknowledge that it’s working, the more it will work. It’s that simple.

If you are attracting things into your life that you don’t want, remember the Law of Attraction is still working. Instead of thinking or saying, “It’s not working,” ask your self, “What am I focusing on, thinking about, talking about, feeling or doing that is attracting this into my life?” If you want to know what you are thinking about, notice the results you are producing in your life. To change those results, you will first have to change your vibration by changing your thoughts and feelings.

While there are many techniques that are variations on these themes that you can apply, there’s nothing else you have to do.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance.

Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul: 101 Stories
By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Heather McNamara (Click here)

The Secret Daily Teachings
By Rhonda Byrne (Click here)

Most Americans just don’t get it when it comes to having a healthy diet. Fast food is easily attainable and who has time to cook a decent meal, right? Yet now is the most important time in your life to be thinking about this. What you eat plays a large role in maintaining a healthy body. If you don’t eat well, you are more prone to having to deal with wrinkled skin among a host of other things. If you would like to reduce wrinkles, one of the best things for you to do is to eat a well balanced diet.

There are many things that play a role in the health of your body. While germs and heredity do play a role to some degree in your wrinkles; that is not all that effects it. Many women and men will have wrinkles well before the age deems it to be necessary. This has a lot to do with the healthy diet that you may not getting.

Dieting For Wrinkles?

How can your diet actually affect your wrinkles? Understand that wrinkles can be caused by a number of things including the inability of the body to keep hold of a substance called collagen. When your body loses this, it your skin will become looser and that leads to wrinkles. Give your body the right nutrients to power through these situations. You can actually walk away with fewer wrinkles and improve skin care if you do.

Consider eating more fruits and vegetables. They contain antioxidants which fight many health risks. These compounds get into your blood stream and literally clean out the cells. By doing this, they allow blood to easily work through the body. When that happens, your skin looks amazing and full. Antioxidants are a key role playing in reducing your wrinkles.

To reduce the wrinkles that you currently have or to help prevent even more from showing up, consume a diet that is rich in antioxidants. Eat a diet that is balanced in fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and unsaturated fats. These things will lead to a healthier diet that offers many benefits to your overall well being. When you give your body the tools that it needs, it will be better able to reduce wrinkles and give you glowing beautiful skin.

As your body ages, each part of it seems to function less optimally. That’s where the problem often lies. You can successfully manage to provide for the needs that your body is now lacking, however. You may actually be able to successfully find the rewards that you are looking for and at least look as young as you feel.

Anti-aging options are many. That’s the first thing that you will see when you do a simple search for them. But, before you do, look at what it is that your body is requiring. Often, it is just a matter of providing for the new needs your body has. As you age, you need to consider your body’s new needs and provide for them. What does your body require that you are not providing for? One of the first things to consider is calcium for strong bones. Without added calcium, your body’s need still increases and to get the calcium that is required it must go to your bones to get it. That weakens bones, causes pain and even can lead to additional injury.

WHY Water is Critical to Your Good Health

Your body is designed to be approximately 70% water.  The most critical fluid in your body, your blood, is mostly water.  Your muscles, skin, and vital organs all contain and need large amounts of water for optimal health.  Water also transports oxygen to your cells, delivers nutrients, removes waste, and provides energy to your body.

Your body loses approximately 2.5 liters of water every day just through normal bodily functions.  You lose water through urination, respiration, and perspiration.  If you are physically active or athletic, you lose even more water.  Although thirst is an obvious sign of dehydration, the truth is your body is in need of water long before you feel thirsty.

Symptoms of mild dehydration include chronic pains in joints and muscles, lower back pain, headaches, and constipation.  A strong odor to your urine, along with a yellow or amber color indicates that you are not getting enough water.

Ultra-Longevity: The Seven-step Program for a Younger, Healthier You (Thorndike Large Print Health, Home and Learning)
By Mark Liponis (Click here)

Aging With Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Lives
By David Snowdon (Click here)

If you don’t keep your mind active, studies show that your brain loses some of its functionality as you age, which causes memory loss, brain fog, and even Alzheimer’s.

A well-stimulated brain also elevates your mood, which helps you feel better on the inside.

Here are 15 brain boosting activities:

1. Play games that challenge and stimulate your mind. These include:

* Picture Puzzles
* Strategy Games
* Crossword Puzzles
* Card Games
* Deduction Games (such as Clue)
* Visualization Puzzles
* Optical Illusions

2. Reading stimulates the brain as it activates your imagination. Reading also helps with memory retention and problem solving, especially if you’re reading a mystery. Also, self-help books stimulate your brain by helping you to think for yourself, as well as find solutions in your mind.

3. Exercising helps circulate blood that carries oxygen to your brain. Over the long-term, exercise is proven to increase brainpower and even create new neurons.

4. Stimulate your brain with meditation. Meditation has been shown to increase your IQ, relieve stress, and promote a higher level of brain functioning. Meditation also stimulates the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area of the brain responsible for advanced thinking, ability and performance. (check this out for information on a great meditation practice: Core Energy Meditation)

5. Deep breathing helps deliver oxygen to your brain. Oxygen helps you be more alert and awake. As little as 10 to 15 minutes of deep breathing daily can increase brain functionality.

6. Taking fish oil supplements is literally like membrane material for the brain. The two primary components in fish oil, DHA and EPA, strengthen the emotional center of the brain and boost focus.

7. Studies have proven that listening to music strengthens the right hemisphere of the brain and actually changes the structure of it. Also, people who listen to music are shown to be more emotionally intelligent than those who don’t.

8. Writing improves memory and thought expression. Writing articles, blogs, or journal entries stimulates thought processes, which also enhances brain function.

9. Sleep clears out brain clutter and reduces brain fog. When you don’t get enough sleep at night, your memory and normal brain function suffers.

10. Painting is shown to be an effective brain booster in that it sparks the creativity within you. Even if you’ve never tried painting before, give it a shot. You’ll find that you feel more creative and may actually enjoy it.

11. Starting the day out with a good breakfast has been proven to supply energy to the brain and body for the whole day. When you skip breakfast, you’re missing out on a powerful edge, both physically and mentally.

12. Walking allows you to clear your mind and thoughts. Not only is it good exercise for your body, walking gives your brain a chance to wander freely, clearing it of any troublesome thoughts.

13. Drink a serving of pure fruit juice. Fruit juice contains nutrients that revitalize and refresh the brain. Juices to drink are pomegranate, blueberry, and cranberry as they deliver more focus and energy.

14. Students who drink some caffeine before an exam typically have higher scores than those who don’t. This is because caffeine stimulates activity in the brain, which produces better focus and thinking ability. Don’t overdo it though!

15. Draw a picture. Like painting, drawing stimulates the creative side of your brain. So get out some colored pencils and start boosting your brainpower.

To get the most out of these brain boosting activities, mix them up and do a variety of them at different times. Just choosing one won’t boost your brainpower, however, combining and alternating them will give your brain the added boost you need now and in the long run.

Super Brain Builders Library Recommends

Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks
By Marilyn vos Savant, Leonore Fleischer  (Click here)

Super Brain: 101 Easy Ways to a More Agile Mind
By Carol Vorderman  (Click here)

article by Eldon Taylor

I have often struggled with ideas that can communicate the power of a single thought. Our brains have been labeled as the 3 pound universe and in many ways this is totally appropriate. But if our brains only weigh three pounds and we have literally millions and millions of thoughts stored somewhere, what does a thought weigh? That seems like kind of a non-sense inquiry-but wait a minute.

It has been estimated that we think some 60,000 thoughts every day. In addition to our thoughts, we handle tens of thousands of bits of information as a result only of external stimuli. Others have approximated the amount of negative information each of us process to be representative of at least 90% of the stimuli we process. Indeed, I would add that for many, the vast majority of their inner thoughts are also negative.

Now if you think of our 3 pound universe that way, then how much does all of the negativity weigh? Perhaps the true weight loss program we should all endeavor to maintain is the one that’s aimed at losing those negative thought patterns. All of the no-don’t, you can’t, you’ll never succeed at that, etc. and so forth. In other words, every self-limiting, self-imposed notion that proscribes what we will try and how well we will do at it. This is the kind of weight loss that applies to most of us.

The role the subconscious plays in limiting one’s success, in motivating their buying patterns, in establishing their beliefs, in fact–in literally every aspect of one’s life cannot be understated. Indeed, the evidence is in: the subconscious instructs the conscious what to do, what to say, when to act and more and it does so as much as 60 seconds before the conscious mind responds. The mind is very much like a large container that you can fill with anything you want, but then that input becomes it program. Years ago I likened this to the old computer programmers GIGO meaning Garbage In Garbage Out.

Most of us desire to change something. We want to improve our lives in some way. Change-that seems to be the theme of the day everywhere. During this last election cycle I found myself doing several radio interviews regarding subliminal communication and the art of persuasion. There were subliminal ads aimed at both political parties and there were a number of other psychological techniques employed to gain your vote, but then there’s nothing new about that. What did impress me was the number of people on both sides who were just totally fired up about the election. There was a new level of energy, a higher sense of enthusiasm and as a result, some deeper divides. Passion-that is the word I would use to describe this last presidential election; passion on both sides of the aisle.

Pundits for both sides had plenty to say but ultimately everything came down to one word– “change.” The dynamics of the election were such that change was virtually assured in some way regardless of who emerged victorious. Change is what the world wanted as well, and change is what the world celebrated when President Obama was chosen by Americans. Our time now is a time of change and change is what we want and change is what most people resist when it gets right down to it. Change is actually attenuated by fear-fear of the unknown.

My staff has asked me over the years about our products and our philosophy. Whenever I am asked this question I think of Bill Gates and his book, “Business at the Speed of Light.” Gates explains in this book how the railroad companies used to think of themselves as in the business of trains. Had they recognized that their business was transportation, there would have been a different future in front of them then that of trains alone.

Whether it’s about business or a matter of a more personal nature, change begins in the mind. Real change is not possible until there is agreement between the subconscious and the conscious mind. Claiming your right to succeed consciously may well be later undermined by unconscious/subconscious beliefs, motives and mechanisms.

Think for a moment, what would you like to change? If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? What would you change that is changeable? Would you like more energy and enjoy feeling and looking much younger? Would you like a greater sense of inner peace? Would you benefit from a better memory or an enhanced learning ability? Would you like to improve or attract a relationship in your life? Would you like to find the perfect employment? Would you like to change your body image or end some addiction? Or how about becoming fitter and/or more athletic? Again, what would you change?

My research over the past 30 years has repeatedly verified a simple hypothesis. In order to truly change-you must change your mind.

About the Author:
Eldon Taylor has made a lifelong study of the human mind and has earned doctoral degrees in clinical psychology and pastoral psychology. He is a New York Times best selling author and the CEO of Progressive Awareness Research, an organization dedicated to researching techniques for accessing the immense powers of the mind.

Super Brain Builders Library Recommends

Mind Programming: From Persuasion and Brainwashing, to Self-Help and Practical Metaphysics
By Eldon Taylor  (Click Here)

by L. Charles Burch

Most of us had algebra classes in middle school and high school.  Can you remember a simple algebra equation today?  Mathematics was one of my favorite subjects in school second to science.  Science was the study of our environment and mathematics was the universal language of it.  In college, I took advanced algebra classes and scored a 4.0 grade point average on through trigonometry up to beginning calculus.  I later got into professional driving which required no more than elementary school arithmetic.  Should the day come when algebra would save my life, I would fail pathetically.  Though the knowledge is still in my head, the neural pathways to that storehouse of memories have atrophied for lack of use.

Your brain is a marvelous organ.  It can repair itself and create new neural pathways of thought and memory.  Like the muscles in your body, proper exercise and nutrition is needed to keep your brain healthy and sharp.  The key to health, happiness and longevity is the balance of care you give to your spirit, soul and body.  Without getting too deep into the spiritual aspects of the human experience, I will simply say that spiritual exercise is the mastery of your thought life.  Many people neglect or outright deny the spiritual dimension of their lives.  This is unfortunate because this is where wisdom is gained over knowledge.  One of the best descriptions of the spiritual life is done by The Secret movie.  Though it is an incomplete overview of the spiritual life, it is a good place to start.  Click here to watch the first 20 minutes.  If you are a Christian believer, I highly recommend GodResources.org for Bible studies and archeology findings.  Click here for GodResources.org.

Your soul is comprised of your mind, will and emotions.  This is were Super Brain Builders comes in.  Keeping your brain healthy and sharp will improve your life by clarity of mind and better decision making.  This site will be dedicated to bringing you the latest information on brain building, health and longevity.  Different studies have shown that keeping your brain activity levels high lessens the likelihood of experiencing brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia and senility.  Click here for a free PDF from ALZ.org.  Click here for more of ALZ.org.  Also, in the right column of this site you may find other resources for brain health useful, such as Lumosity and Focus Up.

Here is a very good article from BNET’s Health Publications by author Susan McQuillan.  Click here for BNET’s Health Publications.

Sustain your brain: keep your mind sharp and nimble with these seven super-smart strategies

by Susan McQuillan

June, 2009

MICHELE, 48, heads up the stairs in her home and by the time she’s climbed the 15 steps to the top, she has no idea why she’s there. It’s been happening for years, she says.  Lori, 38, talks to Michele, her cousin, while she races around town, checking in at all the places she had stopped that morning, hoping to find her misplaced cell phone. When Michele asks her what she’s using to talk to her at that moment, Lori stops short, looks in her hand, and sheepishly replies, “Um … my cell phone.”

“SENIOR” MOMENTS. The scariest thing about lapses like these is that they start happening long before you’re eligible for senior-citizen discounts. The brain power you build up throughout your life peaks as early as age 39 or 40, at which point some of your cognitive functions, including short-term memory and information processing, begin a slow but continuous decline.

TAKE ACTION. The things that are good for your body–healthy eating, exercising, managing stress, being social, and having a generally positive outlook–are also good for your brain. They help slow that steady ride down the cerebral slide.

Here are seven smart things you should do–and seven dumb things to avoid–to delay senior moments indefinitely.

1 DUMB IDEA: Cling to a meat-and-potatoes Western diet

SMART IDEA: Adopt a Mediterranean style diet

A typical Western diet can promote inflammation, and supplies few protective antioxidants. The smarter way to eat is to adhere to a Mediterranean-style diet, which includes lots of grains, antioxidant-rich fresh vegetables and fruits (especially berries), olive oil, and seafood, with very little dairy, meat, or sweet treats, says Piero Antuono, M.D., director of the Dementia Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

HOW IT HELPS: Studies have shown that healthy people who follow such a diet have less risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and those who already have Alzheimer’s who start following the diet may decline more slowly. Scientists think the diet may help protect your brain by reducing inflammation, improving cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and supporting blood vessel health.

2 DUMB IDEA: Eat food high in sugar

SMART IDEA: Choose whole foods (with less starch and sugar) Recent studies have shown that even slightly elevated blood sugar levels (between 140 and 200 mg/dL may indicate a prediabetic condition; higher than 200 mg/dL may indicate diabetes) can damage the brain. To keep your levels normal, avoid sugary drinks and processed foods, and eat balanced, calorie-controlled meals. To be sure you’re getting the right balance, fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, or a salad. Fill only one quarter of your plate with whole grains, rice, beans, or whole-grain bread or pasta, and the remaining quarter with protein such as broiled salmon, tofu, or boneless chicken breast.

HOW IT HELPS: Maintaining normal blood sugar levels may protect you from several diseases, including diabetes. People with insulin resistance–a precursor to diabetes–also show cognitive deficits, especially in memory function, says Susan De Santi, Ph.D., a brain researcher at New York University School of Medicine.

3 DUMB IDEA: Watch too much TV

SMART IDEA: Read, surf the web People who watched TV for more than seven hours a day in later years were 50 percent more likely to develop memory loss than those who watched television for less than seven hours a day. A recent UCLA study showed that both reading and conducting web searches (which involves surprisingly complex brain processing) increased activity in the parts of the brain that manage language, memory, and visual abilities.

HOW IT HELPS: The more stimulating and interactive any activity, the more you will get out of it. One 2009 study found that during late senior years (after age 70), reading books, playing games, using a computer, and doing crafts led to a 30 to So percent decrease in the risk of developing memory loss compared with people who did not do those activities.

4 DUMB IDEA: Be a couch potato

SMART IDEA: Exercise Increased brain volume has been found in older people who participate in aerobic activity, but not in those who simply do non-aerobic (stretching and toning) exercises.

HOW IT HELPS: Regular aerobic activity brings more blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the brain, protects against cell death, and encourages the growth of new brain cells. Exercise also helps repair nerve cells (resulting in improved memory and information processing), reduces overall stress, and keeps blood sugar stable.

5 DUMB IDEA: Stress out

SMART IDEA: Practice patience and learn to meditate Cortisol, a hormone your body releases during times of stress and anger, damages brain cells, interferes with neurotransmitters that brain cells use to communicate, and wears down the myelin coating that protects nerve cells. Ongoing stress that results in a continuous supply of cortisol can seriously damage your brain and interfere with short-term and long-term memory retrieval. Relaxation exercises such as meditation or guided imagery help defend your brain from the cognitive erosion caused by chronic stress. Just a few minutes of quiet, deep breathing sprinkled throughout your day can help, says Jay Winner, M.D., author of Take the Stress Out of Your Life (DaCapo Press, 2008). (To listen to a free six-minute relaxation exercise, go to Winner’s website at stressremedy.com.)

The Stress Answer: Train Your Brain to Conquer Depression and Anxiety in 45 Days By Dr. Frank Lawlis  (Click here)

Learning to Speak Alzheimer’s: A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease By Joanne Koenig Coste  (Click here)

Chapter Eight

How We Get Programmed

“There are two kinds of people in this world: those that enter a room and turn the television set on, and those that enter a room and turn the television set off.”  –  Raymond Shaw, the protagonist in the movie The Manchurian Candidate

Here’s the chapter you’ve all been waiting for. It’s all about how to manipulate people, using memes and genetic buttons, into doing exactly what you want them to do. Heh-heh.

You know what a meme is-a thought, belief, or attitude in your mind that can spread to and from other people’s minds. You know that we human beings are the medium for the evolution of memes. You understand how evolution works by natural selection-survival of the fittest. And you’ve seen how our own genetic evolution gives us buttons: tendencies to pay special attention to certain things-especially danger, food, and sex-which helped us survive and reproduce in prehistoric times. Now comes the scary, upsetting part.

In this chapter, I’ll show how we get programmed by new memes and start to discuss what we can do to prevent being infected by unwanted programming.

Meme Infection

We get infected by new memes in three ways. I’ll introduce each of the ways now, then discuss each in more detail later.

- The first way we get infected is through conditioning, or repetition. If we hear something repeated often enough, it becomes part of our programming. Advertisers and salespeople know this well. Any good book on sales will tell you that most customers don’t buy until they have been asked five to seven times. It takes that many repetitions to implant the Buy me meme in the customer.

- The second way is through a mechanism known as cognitive dissonance. When things don’t make sense, our minds struggles to make them make sense.

Imagine, for example, that a friend is upset with you, but you don’t know why. You have two memes that conflict-that are inconsistent: friend and upset with me. You resolve the conflict, or dissonance, by creating new memes, by rearranging your memetic programming so that things make sense again. Ah, Bill’s upset because he’s paid for lunch the last three times, you might conclude. Right or wrong, you now have a new meme about Bill and lunch that will influence your future behavior. I’ve heard it said that geniuses develop their most brilliant original thoughts through self-imposed cognitive dissonance. As you might guess, then, as a programming method it is particularly effective with intelligent people, because you actually believe that the new meme is your own idea.

- The third way new memes enter our minds is by taking advantage of our genetic buttons in the manner of the Trojan horse. As we have seen, because of our nature there are certain things we tend to pay special attention to, such as warnings of danger, cries of children, and sexual attractiveness. We are susceptible to bundles of memes that push our buttons to get our attention and then sneak in some other memes along with them.

Simply getting programmed by new memes isn’t the same as catching a full-blown mind virus, but viruses of the mind take advantage of one or all of these methods to make their initial inroads into our minds. At the end of this chapter, I’ll put it all together and show how these various ingredients combine to make viruses of the mind.

Conditioning

Conditioning-programming by repetition-is the easiest way to acquire memes that don’t push any of your buttons effectively. For instance, if you want to learn French, you listen to people speaking that language as you study the lexicon. At first it just sounds like people clearing their throats and moaning, but after many repetitions, you begin to be programmed with distinction-memes. Soon you can begin to distinguish French words and sentences where there was meaninglessness before.

Remember elementary school? Learning to read and write? Memorizing the multiplication table? I have two memories from first grade. One is being incredibly bored by doing arithmetic problems over and over and over again. The other is being incredibly frustrated by the teacher’s reading of the same page of “See Spot run” over and over and over again. Frustrated or bored, it didn’t matter: conditioning by repetition works.

Elementary-school programming by conditioning was not limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic. We pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America every morning. Repetition. Conditioning. And there’s one thing all native-born Americans know for sure: the United States is one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right?

That patriotism didn’t spontaneously arise in each of us out of our spiritual nature: we were programmed! And it wasn’t presented to us as a reasoned, logical argument: we just said it and heard it enough times and-poof!-it became one of our beliefs, our values, our memes. Long-term prisoners can become “institutionalized”-they become so conditioned to the culture inside prison that they no longer want to live outside. They try to get back in once they’re released. There’s no reason to think that the long-term conditioning of a bad job or a bad marriage doesn’t have the same effect.

Children typically get programmed with religious beliefs through conditioning by repetition. Whatever the religion, children go from zero beliefs to full-fledged faith, or as “fledged” as they get, by being told about the divinity of God or Jesus or David Koresh over and over again until it becomes real-those memes become programmed.

If you listen repeatedly to religious speech, after enough repetitions you will actually begin to notice God and His works where there was just chaotic life going on before. What was formerly chance becomes a miracle. What was pain is now karma. What was human nature is now sin. And regardless of whether these religious memes are presented as Truth or as allegorical mythology, you’re conditioned just the same.

In psychology, the word conditioning often refers to implanting association-memes. Pavlov’s dog was conditioned to associate the ringing bell with yummy food. When the Coca-Cola Company pays millions of dollars to show you young people in bathing suits having a good time drinking their products, they are conditioning you to associate good feelings with their brands. The repetition of that commercial creates association-memes in your mind so that when you push your shopping cart down the soft-drink aisle, you get an irrational urge to buy Coke. It’s possible to override that urge through conscious intention or the fact that other memes are stronger, but the urge makes a difference in their bottom line* or they wouldn’t be spending the money. _____________________________

*At least they think it makes a difference. They may be fooled by their own memetic programming! More on this in Chapter 9.

There’s also a term for the use of repetition to create strategy-memes: operant conditioning. Viewing commercials or listening to bells ring is passive; it involves no activity or strategy. When you behave in some way and that behavior gets rewarded, that is operant conditioning. The reward creates and reinforces strategy-memes.

The classic example of operant conditioning is teaching a rat to run a maze. At first, the rat just wanders around. But soon he discovers there is a yummy piece of cheese tucked away in one corner-a reward. Quickly, the rat learns to run directly to the cheese rather than just wandering.

We use operant conditioning on our children constantly: grading their schoolwork, praising them when they do things we like. The repetition of these rewards conditions the children to behave in a certain way. It creates and reinforces strategy-memes that, if we are good parents and teachers, will serve them as adults in their pursuit of happiness.

However, operant conditioning can be used for many other purposes besides training you to pursue happiness. Whenever you’re in a repeated situation in which a reward is available for certain behavior, you are being conditioned.

Cognitive Dissonance

Another programming technique is creating mental pressure and resolving it-cognitive dissonance. Why do high-pressure sales tactics exist even though people universally despise them? As with any “why” question in the world of memetics, the answer is: because the meme for it is good at spreading. Salespeople get infected with the high-pressure sales meme and go about acting on it, regardless of whether it’s the most effective means at their disposal. There’s no question, however, that it does work on some people some of the time.

High-pressure sales work by making you mentally uncomfortable-by creating cognitive dissonance. You enter the situation with some strategy-memes that make you resist buying: perhaps they are something like Look before you leap or Shop around before you buy. The salesperson programs you with a meme making it attractive to buy immediately: If I don’t buy now, I’ll miss a window of opportunity or even simply If I buy now, the salesperson will like me.

There are two ways to release the pressure caused by cognitive dissonance: buy in or bail out. If you bail out, it’s likely to be because you’ve resolved the dissonance by creating a meme such as The salesperson is a jerk. But some people buy, creating instead a meme like I really want to buy this. Once you create that meme, it’s yours, and a smart salesperson will reinforce it by telling you what a smart decision you’ve made and even calling a few days later and congratulating you on your purchase.

Cognitive dissonance can be used to create a meme of submission and loyalty to whatever authority is causing the dissonance. Fraternity hazings, boot camp, and some religious or spiritual disciplines put people through difficult tests and may demand demonstrations of loyalty before releasing the pressure. That creates an association-meme between the demonstration of loyalty and the good feeling caused by the release of pressure.

Prisoners of war have been programmed to submit and be loyal to their captors through this method.

One interesting result of research in operant conditioning on people is that it works better-creates stronger memes-to give the reward only occasionally than it does to give it all the time. That could be because withholding the reward adds cognitive dissonance to the operant conditioning. So a truly manipulative meme programmer will withhold the reward most of the time even if the subject performs flawlessly, knowing this will create stronger programming.

The ramifications of this research are interesting. People often say that the teachers who made the most difference in their education were the tough graders-the ones who withheld the A’s much of the time. The occasional A reinforces the Work hard meme more than the constant A because it adds cognitive dissonance. Talk shows are filled with people who stay involved in relationships they say are awful most of the time-perhaps the conditioning and dissonance of the occasional reward in a cruddy relationship reinforces the strategy-meme Stay together more than it does in a relationship that’s good most of the time!

Trojan Horses

The Trojan horse method of programming works by getting you to pay attention to one meme, then sneaking in a whole bundle of others along with it. If you’re an intelligent, educated person, you may be thinking, Wow! You must have to be pretty gullible to fall for that! Tell that to the Trojans.

There are any number of mechanisms for doing the meme bundling. For one, a Trojan horse can take advantage of your instinctive buttons, pushing them to get your attention and then sneaking in another agenda. The simplest example of a button-pushing Trojan horse is the advertising truism “Sex sells.” Why does sex sell? Because the sex pushes your button, draws your attention, and acts as a Trojan horse for other memes bundled into the advertisement. Of course, danger, food, crisis, helping children, and the other buttons all sell, too, if not quite as well as sex. Much more on this in Chapter 9.

A Trojan horse can also take advantage of the strategy-memes you’re currently programmed with having to do with learning or believing. For example, people who have the strategy-meme If I trust someone, believe what they say are susceptible to new memetic programming coming from people they trust. People who have the strategy-meme Believe things consistent with what I know; be skeptical of all else are susceptible to new memetic programming that seems consistent with what they already know. If you’re programmed to believe what X says because it is the voice of God-where X is a person, a book, or even a practice such as meditation-you’re easily programmed with any additional memes that come from X.

The simplest bundling technique, one used frequently by politicians and trial lawyers, is simply saying the memes one after the other, in decreasing order of believability. The credibility of the first statements seem to carry over to the unsupported ones. For example:

• We all want freedom!
• We all want democracy to work for everyone!
• And we all want a national health-care system that makes that possible.

Now it’s a bit of a stretch to conclude that federal management of health care has anything to do with freedom, democracy, or the American Dream, but juxtaposing the statements like that seems to turn off people’s natural skepticism.

Bundling the statements together like that is one form of a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) technique known as embedding, or packaging memes to make people more susceptible to them.

A related NLP technique is anchoring: taking some image, sound, or sensation and linking it to an unrelated idea. For example, a political candidate who gestures at himself when talking about a rosy future and at his opponent when preaching doom and gloom is actually anchoring good feelings to himself and bad feelings to his opponent. The repeated bundling of the gestures with the good and bad feelings creates association-memes in your mind, which will later influence the way you vote.

You can use anchoring on yourself to quickly put yourself in a good or enthusiastic mood! Close your eyes and imagine a time when you were excited and motivated. Create a vivid mental picture. Now, when you are immersed in that motivated feeling, lightly scratch the pad of your index finger with your thumbnail. You’re anchoring that state of mind to that sensation.

Open your eyes and come back to the present. Repeat this a few times over a period of days or weeks, and you’ll find that next time you want to motivate yourself quickly, a gentle scratch of the pad of your index finger with your thumbnail will get you in the right mood.

As with many of the techniques in this chapter, embedding and anchoring are used a lot by sophisticated salespeople. The whole point of sales is to influence people’s beliefs-infect them with certain memes-for direct economic gain. It’s natural that we’d see many effective meme-spreading techniques used by salespeople; for that reason, many of the examples in this chapter have to do with selling.