Top-10 Tips For Living A Longer, Better Life

The quest continues for ways to live longer AND better. This article presents the top-ten ways that there is general agreement about adding years to your life and life to your years. Read the full article.

Secret Principles of Immortality, Edition 21

Secret Principles of Immortality, Edition 21
One angle is that the four categories are types of knowledge: (A) Omniscience, (B) Metaphysics, (C) ~Temporality, (D) Cognition. It is possible that we are falling short of actual apprehension of what is meant, but it is intriguing how similar these four categories are.

Understanding Lip Enhancement Injections

Enhancing your lips by way of lip augmentation injection is a great idea. This modern procedure is very safe and effective. You'll have celebrity-like lips in no time! Here is the full post.

Turning Back the Hands of Time - Anti-Aging Is As Smooth As Chocolate

Turning Back the Hands of Time - Anti-Aging Is As Smooth As Chocolate
Going back to our youth in appearance and spirit is easier nowadays. With health and nutrition as well as skin care. Anti-Aging is more than a buzz word, but you need to sift through all that is available out there. As a journalist as well as a marketing professional, I know how to ask questions and put products and claims to the ultimate test. For the past two years, I have been doing exactly this with a series of healthy chocolate based products. I am satisfied to say my research is exhausted and now is the time to share my findings. I hope you enjoy the honesty and integrity in which I provide my product reviews and insights on the subject matter of Anti-Aging.

Enough! Reduce What You Eat

While most people know what to do, they just don't do it. They know, for example, that, within reason, eating less can increase longevity and lead to a longer, better life. This article suggests some straightforward ways to reduce caloric intake. For complete story, click here.

How to Reverse Grey Hair

An authors journey on how she reversed her own grey hair. She takes you through her triumphs and struggles along the way. Full article

LOOK: A Short Meditation For The Time-Deprived

LOOK: A Short Meditation For The Time-Deprived

Get Back
On Course.
Download
GPS for
the Soul

The stress and strain of constantly being connected can sometimes take your life -- and your well-being -- off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance.

GPS Guides are our way of showing you what has relieved others' stress in the hopes that you will be able to identify solutions that work for you. We all have de-stressing "secret weapons" that we pull out in times of tension or anxiety, whether they be photos that relax us or make us smile, songs that bring us back to our heart, quotes or poems that create a feeling of harmony, or meditative exercises that help us find a sense of silence and calm. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and tranquility.

When we’re meeting-hopping and priority-juggling, finding just a few minutes to meditate at work can seem impossible. Fortunately even a brief five-minute meditation exercise can help clear your mind and calm your system.

If you’re pressed for time -- and feeling under pressure -- author Daniel Goleman suggests a simple countdown exercise you can practice anywhere to help you relax. Best of all, you don’t need any prior meditation experience.

Goleman’s GPS Guide below offers easy-to-follow steps in the 10 to 1 countdown meditation. Remember, with any of relaxation or mindfulness methods, the more you do it, the more powerful it becomes.

While at Harvard, "Emotional Intelligence" author Daniel Goleman’s research focused on methods that counter the impacts of stress. He found that some people experience stress in the form of worries and anxieties, while for others it manifests in physical problems, such as muscle tension or stomach pain. His colleagues have also found that different people get greater benefit from some methods of relaxing than from others.

Listen to a sample track from Goleman’s Relax: 6 Techniques to Lower Your Stress, a 45-minute audio program to help you naturally reduce stress. The CD is available from More Than Sound. Follow Dr. Goleman on Twitter: @DanielGolemanEI

For more GPS Guides, click here.

Also On HuffPost: 7 Unusual Mediation Techniques

• Buddhism Boot Camp

  In our frantic, fast-paced lives, it can be difficult to completely switch gears and let go of our competitive natures, even when we're trying to slow down and find balance. Touting itself as an "ideal training method for this generation's short attention span," <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Buddhist-Boot-Camp-ebook/dp/B00860MX8S"><em>Buddhist Boot Camp</em></a> is a new title instructing readers on the basics of Buddhism and meditation using a no-nonsense approach.

• Labyrinth Meditation

  If you're looking for a mesmerizing moving meditation, try a practice of walking through a labyrinth. Many churches, gardens and other outdoor spaces feature labyrinths that are available for public use. It's said that the combination of left and right-brain activity required of navigating a labyrinth can <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/meditation-tips-garden-meditation_n_1855487.html#slide=1470189">help with problem-solving </a>and can even spur unexpected epiphanies.

• Journey Meditation

  Journey meditation can transport your mind, using visualization, to a more quiet and serene state. To try this type of meditation, simply imagine yourself in a beautiful place completely separated from your everyday life; somewhere you feel safe. Try starting for five to 10 minutes, visualizing a garden, tropical island or peaceful mountaintop to slow down the mind and remind yourself of the world's beauty.

• Laughter Meditation

  Laughter, and even the mere anticipation of impending laughter, can reduce damaging stress hormones -- and it can also <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407114617.htm">boost levels of healthy hormones</a>. Laughter meditation, then, can be a particularly effective way to relieve stress. The powerful act of mindful laughter anchors us in the present and brings us to a place of joy. Try starting out with a five to 20 minute <a href="http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2005/584.html">laughter meditation</a> by imagining humorous situations and letting yourself laugh fully and deeply, ending with a brief silence.

• Fire Meditation

  There are several different ways to benefit from the energy of the fire element in your meditative practice. One <a href="http://www.meditationsociety.com/week34.html">common method</a> is to focus on the flame of a candle that you've placed three to six feet in front of you. After you've gazed at the flame for several minutes, close your eyes and imagine it: Send anything that threatens your balance and peace into the flame, and feel yourself becoming more light and pure. You can also try simply <a href="http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2005/370.html">visualizing a fire</a> and throwing your worries -- and bits and pieces of emotional baggage, no matter how big or small -- into the fire, asking for forgiveness as you go.

• Koan Meditation

  We've all heard the old riddle, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" But you may not have realized that this and other philosophical questions can form the basis for a meditative practice called <a href="http://www.wonbuddhist.org/meditation/koan-meditation">Koan Meditation</a>. It's a Buddhist technique in the zen tradition that involves asking a question that cannot be answer through reason alone as a way to see the true nature of the Buddha. <a href="http://www.wonbuddhist.org/meditation/koan-meditation">Click here </a>for a list of potential questions to explore in your practice.

• Crystal Meditation

  Crystals can be used as part of a meditative practice to help target specific emotions and reach particular spiritual goals. Calming blue stones, for instance, can help clear the mind and body, while purple or clear stones aid in achieving elevated states of consciousness (calcite, for instance, symbolizes enlightenment). If you have a particular goal for your practice, try getting there by holding or wearing crystals with the healing properties that can guide you.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Why A Regular Bedtime Is Good For People With Sleep Apnea

Why A Regular Bedtime Is Good For People With Sleep Apnea

People with sleep apnea -- a sleep disorder where breathing is disrupted during sleep -- are more apt to comply with treatment if they go to bed at a regular time each night, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Penn State University School of Nursing found an association between increased regularity in bedtime and greater compliance with using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which is considered the best therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. Using a CPAP involves wearing a mask over the face during sleep; the mask delivers air to keep a person's airways open using air pressure.

"Long-term use of CPAP, such as after the first month or longer, requires regular routines that are conducive to establishing a new health behavior, study researcher Amy M. Sawyer, Ph.D., R.N., an assistant professor at the university, said in a statement.

The findings will be presented at the annual SLEEP 2013 meeting, and were recently published in an online supplement of the SLEEP journal.

The study included 97 adults who had just been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. They kept a sleep diary for seven days before starting CPAP treatment where they noted their bedtimes, and then researchers monitored their compliance with the CPAP for the next month.

Adherence is important for sleep apnea treatment because evidence shows it can help decrease daytime fatigue. According to an article in the journal Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society:

Patients will describe the effect as emerging from a daytime fog and being able to live a productive and healthy life. CPAP, the primary treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), has been shown to normalize sleep architecture, reduce daytime sleepiness, enhance daily function, elevate mood, reduce automobile accidents, and decrease blood pressure and other cardiovascular events.

Also on HuffPost:

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

5 Reasons Why You Should See an Antiaging Doctor

5 Reasons Why You Should See an Antiaging Doctor
An antiaging doctor can be the answer to a longer life and a better quality of life for you and your loved ones. These doctors take a very different approach to healthcare than standard docs. In this article, I will explain why this is true.
Source: EzineArticles.com

Mark Hyman, MD: The Most Important Thing I Learned From My Mother

Mark Hyman, MD: The Most Important Thing I Learned From My Mother

It's Mother's Day, a time to celebrate the person who brought us in to this world, who taught us the basic lessons of life and planted the seeds for who we become.

Today, I want to celebrate my mother because she taught me something so essential and enduring that it has become my greatest passion: cooking. And through cooking, touching, feeling, preparing, and savoring good, real food made from real ingredients, I get to inhabit fully my home and my kitchen; to heal my body; and to connect with friends, family, the Earth, and the larger community in which I live.

Cooking, I have come to see, is a truly transformational act. The closer we can get to the food we eat, the shorter the link between field and fork, the better off we will all be. We have outsourced our cooking to the industrial food system. By taking back our kitchens -- which we can do simply, easily, and inexpensively -- we can create a tidal shift in our food system.

Mothers are exactly the allies we need to lead this food and cooking revolution. Sadly, most mothers today were not taught by their mothers to cook. The food industry deliberately celebrated "convenience" 50 years ago and in so doing, disenfranchised an entire generation of Americans from their kitchens and the essential act of cooking, the glue that delicately holds together our society, our health, and our connection to the Earth and to each other.

So, for Mother's Day, I asked my mother to share her connection to food, handed down through her mother, which she then gifted to me, helping me learn the beautiful connections between gardening, cooking, eating, and wellness. And I have taught that to my children who have become wildly gifted cooks, making delicious home-cooked meals from real ingredients.

Here is what my mother shared with me:

My mother, Mary, was born in 1908 and was raised primarily in the country, when she was not boarding at the Lexington School for the Deaf. Her language, as was my father's, was sign language. Today, it is called ASL, or American Sign Language.

Making food for her family was her passion. She shopped every day for food, so that it was 'fresh.' Everything she bought was organic. There were no mass pesticides, no destruction of the soil with chemical infusions, no spraying of plants before World War II or immediately after.

She cooked every day, three meals a day for my brother, my father and me. Her instructions to me were clear when I married, "Buy fresh; eat fresh." I do remember her hands flying in sign language as she instructed me in the purchase of cauliflower. "Make sure it is white without spots." As for tomatoes and apples, she ignored the local inhabitants, the worms, and said, "Cut them out. Good enough for the worms, good enough to eat for you." Summer corn was always a treat, dropped into boiling water, lid on, stove off. "Don't spoil the vitamins."

She saved the water in which she sometimes overcooked the green beans, the corn, the peas, and the asparagus. It was the base for her soups, which were legendary. Sometimes, a cooked chicken leg was thrown in for flavor, lots of minced garlic, a can of whole tomatoes. And oh, her cabbage soup sweet and sour was wonderful.

I still prepare her cabbage soup. A fresh young cabbage, sliced as one would for coleslaw. Put it in the pot; salt it a bit with kosher salt, so that it wilts. Then, add a whole onion, a carrot or two, sliced in chunks, one parsnip, and a can of whole tomatoes squished in my hands. Let it cook down for about 20 minutes. Cut half a juicy lemon, slice two quarters, squeeze and drop into the soup, rind and all, add one tablespoon of brown sugar. A little water if necessary. And simmer for about an hour. It is delicious, and purely vegan. You can put in a small beef short rib, and that will give it yet another flavor.

My mother spoke with her fingers and cooked with her knowing fingertips. No recipes, not ever. Her mother, my grandmother Fanny, was a part-time caterer. So, cooking was probably in their DNA, as it is in mine and in my son Mark's.

Her philosophy was clear. Be kind. Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your body. Know what your body wants.

My father Ben came home each night in anticipation of my mother's aromatic cooking. Her meals were simple: a protein, a carbohydrate, and a green vegetable, usually peas. We ate meat from time to time -- mostly chicken -- and fish and spaghetti. We all loved her spaghetti, her version. Pasta, tomato sauce, a bit of butter, and that was it.

The whole concept of shopping for fresh food changed when we moved as a family to Europe, particularly to Spain where Mark was born. Food shopping happened daily; there were no supermarkets. There was the butcher, the baker, the produce stalls, the herb stalls -- all housed separately in a market. The most famous of these was the Ramblas in Barcelona, a treat for the eye, where rabbits were butchered as you watched, where Mediterranean fish gleamed on cabbage leaves, where piles and piles of fresh fruit and vegetable teased the eye, cheese makers with local Manchego, bakers with crusty bread all waiting for me, the customer, with a story to go with my purchase.

Just enough food for the day. We had no refrigeration, just an icebox. Each morning, the iceman arrived, extracted any bit of ice left, and put in that day's ice. Left over food was slipped in to a large pot of continually simmering liquid to create the next day's soup. No scraps for the garbage can. Everything was used.

When we moved back to North America and settled in to the suburbs of Toronto, Canada, we had a large backyard. I took a portion of that yard and planted a vegetable garden. Mark helped. We planted marigolds around the perimeter to keep out pests. No pesticides. We had fun. We had our hands in the soil, dirt under our fingernails. We raised scraggly carrots, beans, lettuces, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and had the enormous pleasure of eating our own produce.

We learned that food takes time, that life takes time. It was all part of nourishing the family, at the source whenever and wherever possible.

On this Mother's Day, I wish all families a happy cooking day, a happy cooking life. But today, do make sure someone else cooks for Mom.

Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below -- but remember, we can't offer personal medical advice online, so be sure to limit your comments to those about taking back our health!

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a five-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook, and subscribe to his newsletter.

Follow Mark Hyman, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markhymanmd

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Ali Ansary: Validating Mrs. X

Ali Ansary: Validating Mrs. X

Mrs. X is a 46-year-old mother of two and wife to an Iraq war veteran. On this particular day, she meets with her oncologist to follow up after treatment for skin cancer. Beyond her well-groomed hair, thick plastic-framed glasses and coral-red manicured toes, she doesn't have a clear agenda for her appointment, and expectations have only been vaguely outlined. However, this will change.

Wired Magazine asked Mucca Design in 2010 to re-imagine the blood test report, and the result was an inspiring new way of communicating with patient. The year 2011 marked the launch of the Tricoder X-Prize, worth $10 million, supported by X-Prize Foundation and Qualcomm. The goal is to bring to life the fictional Star Trek multifunctional handheld medical device that can scan, analyze and produce results with a goal to diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians. And while 2012 launched a series of new medical innovations that leverage the power of the mobile device, 2013 will be a time to bring together these technologies into a web of interconnectedness.

In 2013, Mrs. X and her mobile device will have access to a digital medical record that gives access to prior appointment notes, recorded videos from remote mobile appointments with her team of physicians, and yesterday's blood work results. New innovations in medicine will create a foundation for Mrs. X to have better access to care, translate her behavior into actionable data all being tied together to provide what is most important: validation.

The gaming industry is a perfect example, validating users from the moment they begin playing. Users are shown that they are needed and thrive when they can contribute. Harnessing these technologies into health care and implementation of a medical game theory can empower patients to play a more proactive role in their own health care, the goal being to keep patients engaged by constantly being the thread between compliance and improved health not missions and badges.

By the time the data arrives to a physician's office, diagnoses and treatment plans have already been outlined. When Mrs. X sees her physician now, their role is to reinforce what the up-to-date information being collected by Mrs. X's devices have shown about her health. It's the new way of understanding data that needs to be fashionably delivered to a patient who can look at the handout and understand the clear implications of their disease. Mrs. X in this world will play an active, not passive, role in making the decisions about her own health.

Empowered patients can now take ownership of their health, to be proactive given the vast amount of available resources. Concurrently, the role of the health care provider will continue to shift to effectively provide personalized health care. The combination of these two changes will thus provide greater reinforcement for behaviorally changes by increasing compliance through creating goals and providing validation. Validation in much the same way playing Xbox's Halo keeps users engaged by constantly challenging and rewarding.

Reinventing health care begins with allowing patients to be part of the decision making process, as lab results become more meaningful than a set of numbers that can either fall below, above or in between the normal range. For Mrs. X, her knowledge about her hemoglobin and hematocrit are just as important as knowing whether or not to fuel her car with unleaded or diesel.

A physician also benefits from this new paradigm we are preparing for. Communication through platforms that allow the free flow of information securely such as chat/video or behavior monitoring can allow a physician to spend less time with collecting preceding information about a patient and more time with actually touching and feeling a patient, speaking to them and creating an intimate connection. An intimacy that had once been the fundamental key in allowing physicians to access their patients and gain their trust.

By 2014, the rate-limiting step is no longer whether or not we can screen for cancer using a mobile device or if meaningful data can help patients more engaged in their own health. Rather, the real barrier will be how quickly we can adopt innovative technologies into our health care system. Tools that improve patient care decrease inefficiencies and provide validation to both patients and physicians.

This post initially appeared in The Health Care Blog.

For more health news, click here.

For more by Ali Ansary, click here.

Follow Ali Ansary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aliansary

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

How To Prevent Age And Liver Spots

How To Prevent Age And Liver Spots
When discussing how to age gracefully, more often than not the focus is on how to eliminate wrinkles and keep the skin smooth. While a good wrinkle reducing cream can work wonders on smoothing over fine lines in the skin, you may have noticed that wrinkles aren't the only thing that can make your skin look old.
Source: EzineArticles.com

Stephenie Zamora: The 4 Things You Must Be Doing to Build a Life Around Your Passion

Stephenie Zamora: The 4 Things You Must Be Doing to Build a Life Around Your Passion

If you're like me, there's probably something in your life that you're deeply passionate about. You would love to build your life around this passion, your purpose, or your craft, but you "just can't."

After all, you have responsibilities. To your family, maybe even your children or your spouse. Maybe you have a responsibility to that bank that holds your car loan. You can't just give your whole life two weeks' notice and start living your dream tomorrow. Besides, what would people think?!

So you continue to work at that job that pays well, you socialize with the people in your life, you do the things that everyone else is doing. You figure that you'll create a life around your passions, later. When the bills are paid and the timing is right.

But you're not happy, because you want more. You want a life that's centered around the things that light you up. A life surrounded by people that you connect with on a deep level. Where you're doing things that nurture your soul. You want to be great and live an amazing life filled with joy, passion and fulfillment. And you also know that you shouldn't have to wait for the time "to be right."

So what's a gal to do?

How to Build a Life Around Your Passion

Commit 100 Percent to Becoming the Person You're Meant to Be

The most important thing that you can do is commit 100 percent to becoming the person that you're meant to be, living the life you so deeply desire to live. This means more than just saying, "I want this." It means that you will go after this dream of yours with every ounce of energy that you have!

It means structuring your life in a way that can only support your success. You may have to work at a job you don't like in an unrelated industry, that's okay. If you're ready to commit to making your dream a reality, then find a job that allows you to be done at the end of the day. Don't look for the competitive position with room for growth, look for something that pays and lets you leave when the day is over.

Committing 100 percent means you don't waste time sitting on the couch watching hours of mindless television. It means you're reading, practicing, applying, writing or doing something that moves you closer to your goal. It's all about hustle, baby!

Yes, take breaks, care for yourself, but commit to making it happen by eliminating anything in your life that does not support your growth, or making the necessary changes (like with your job) so that it's more supportive of your dream.

Give Yourself Proper Nourishment: Mind, Body and Soul

In this day, it's so easy for our mind, body and soul to be completely depleted of any energy, inspiration or joy. Between stressing about the bills, relationship troubles or the never-ending stream of online information and entertainment, we've lost sight of what's really important to our success.

Your dream may require that you spend hours online hustling, but your dream also requires that you spend hours nurturing your mind, body and soul. Without your physical and emotional well-being, you're nothing. Literally. Nothing.

Making sure that you move your body, fill your tummy with healthy foods, and spend time meditating, writing in your journal, or doing any form of contemplative practice is essential to your success. Without the energy, mental clarity and spiritual strength that these practices give you, you'll only find yourself more stressed, more lost and more out of sorts than ever before.

It is a priority to care for yourself.

Write in your journal, take hot baths, drink tea and read a good book, daily. Meditate, practice yoga, walk, pray... do whatever it is that brings you peace and clarity, daily.

Train and Practice Constantly

I don't think there's a single great writer, speaker, athlete, artist or other professional that started out at the top of their game. First, it takes discovering what it is that they're passionate about, then it takes learning how to do it, and most importantly, it takes practice! Constant practice is the key to mastering whatever it is that you want to master in your life.

If your dream is to be a world-renowned author, you had better be writing every day. Reading books, practicing your craft, trying new things and growing. You can't find your voice, hone your skills and blow the minds of this world if you aren't writing all the time.

If your dream is to create beautiful art and make a lot of money doing it, you had better be making art as often as possible. Capturing ideas, filling the inspiration well, trying new techniques, turning sketches into finished pieces... you have to be practicing your craft constantly.

If you want to be great, and live an amazing life doing what you love, you can not overlook the parts that require you to work hard at being the best that you can. People who are making a living doing what they love: They know how important it is to constantly learn, grow, try new things, fail, and try again.

Practice, practice, practice, but also train. Train with the masters, with your idols and with anyone who can teach you something that you need to know. There's no sense in being prideful -- yes, if you wanted to, I know that you could learn whatever it is you need to learn totally on your own. But someone else has already spent years learning what you need to know and can literally teach it to you in a matter of hours. Let them teach you. You'll get there faster.

Surround Yourself With the Right Team

It is so, so, so important to surround yourself with the right people. If you're trying to commit to your goals and your dream, but no one in your life cares enough to check in on you or support you, then it's time to find a new support system.

Find people who are passionate like you are -- it doesn't have to be the same field, and it doesn't mean these people don't know how to have fun or talk about other things, the point is that they will support you. They will understand what you're going through as you push hard, learn, grow and hit unavoidable bumps in the road.

They will cheer you on and keep you motivated when you've lost steam. They will remind you to take those necessary breaks, to nurture your soul and to remember the end goal when you feel like giving up.

No matter how strong or independent you may be, you need this support system for when things get hard, because things getting hard is unavoidable. You will hit bumps in the road, obstacles, setbacks and emotional breakdowns. You don't want to be surrounded by people that don't support your dreams when this happens. You want people who know how much it means to you so that they can remind you of this when you've forgotten in the midst of stress.

Take Action Now

Do you have a dream or passion in your life? Have you committed to it 100 percent? Leave a comment below sharing your passion along with three things you're going to implement or change in your life to show your commitment to making it happen.

Not sure what you want out of life? I'm getting ready to launch a program that will help you not only determine what it is you really want out of life, but what steps you need to take to get there, fast. Subscribe to my list below and receive a special discount when it launches!

For more by Stephenie Zamora, click here.

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Follow Stephenie Zamora on Twitter: www.twitter.com/StephenieZ

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture: A Natural Beauty Alternative

Facial rejuvenation acupuncture can address several cosmetic issues including small lines and deeper wrinkles, drooping eyelids, puffy skin, dark circles, large pores, scarring and acne. Treatments do not involve bleeding, scarring or down-time and effects build up over several treatments. If FRA is performed by a licensed Acupuncture therapist you may also be treated for other conditions including stress, fatigue, sleeping problems and muscular tightness during your course of treatment. Read here

Dr. Ted George: Get A Grip! How To Control Unruly Emotions

Dr. Ted George: Get A Grip! How To Control Unruly Emotions

It's happened to all of us: You're driving home from work, someone cuts you off and you become enraged and go after the other driver. Or, a friend, family member or even a pet dies and you can't get your balance back. Depression overwhelms you for months. Maybe you experienced a trauma -- a natural disaster, abuse or domestic violence, or a near-fatal crash -- and the numbness you felt afterward has evolved into post-traumatic stress disorder.

Extreme emotions, along with the destructive behavior that follows, can sweep over a person any time. This is a good thing -- strong emotional reactions are essential for survival. They trigger healthy defense reactions, like preparing us for fight-or-flight, slowing down the body so that the mind can recover from an emotional blow, or putting you on full alert so that you are not traumatized again.

As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I have been treating and researching such emotions for almost 30 years. For a long time, I was baffled by them. It was a patient who admitted, "Doc, sometimes I'm afraid I'm going to lose control and hit my son. What do I do?" who made me determined to learn more. I began searching for a neurological explanation to people's behavior and out-of-control emotions. I wanted answers to such questions as:

• Why does anger trip into rage and even violence in one person but not another?
• Why are some people overcome by fear even through there is no apparent danger?
• How does depression become so overpowering that it shuts down a life?
• When do an abuse victim's healthy fears morph into PTSD?
• What are the emotions that turn someone into a predator or stalker?

The answers came from two sources -- patients with a wide range of emotional problems and findings through my career as a neuroscience researcher, along with those of other researchers. My patients taught me about how extreme emotions and behavior can derail a life and research provided insights into how the brain processes emotions. It turns out that there is an area deep in the brain that functions like a switch for emotions and behavior. My new book, Untangling the Mind, explains how this switch works and gives people insights and ideas for learning how to control it.

Called the "periaqueductal gray" or PAG, the switch can be flipped on at the right time or wrong time. It's arranged into four clusters of neurons, each organizing a particular emotion and behavior. I think of these clusters as buttons. An anger button triggers aggressive or fighting behavior. A fear button sets off flight behavior, as with panic or great anxiety. The depression button launches a severe form of bleakness I call "shutdown." And the fourth button suppresses a person's emotion, which produces the kind of behavior seen in a predator, like stalking.

Of course, the critical question is what flips the switch. The answer, I found, is embedded in our neurological survival network. The PAG is connected to the amygdala as well as cortical structures, which are in charge of survival responses. Essentially, one of the buttons is pushed when a person feels threatened. The threat may be physical, like from a would-be mugger, or psychological, like the challenge to a person's self-image.

Reacting to a legitimate threat, whether it's by fighting back or running away, is a sensible response. In some circumstances, however, a person sees a threat where there is none or misreads a situation. This person's PAG responds as if survival is being threatened. Its buttons are pushed, sparking strong emotions and extreme behavior to deal with the challenge. Worse yet, it may stay on alert long after the threat is gone. For some reason, the brain goes into survival mode and remains there.

Much of my treatment is aimed at helping patients learn how to override their brain's survival reactions and seize control of their emotions. I explain to people what they can do to control how their PAG reacts. So does a person get a grip over powerful emotions? I emphasize that a person needs to take personal responsibility for emotional behavior and not just blame the brain. I also offer these practical suggestions:

• Recognize what sensory stimuli make you feel under attack and get away from it. Do certain sights, sounds, or even smells make you feel like you must protect yourself?
• Assess whether you're reacting to a genuine threat to your physical or psychological well-being or to a fictitious threat. Keep in mind that threats come in all shapes and sizes -- not just from a mugger, but also from internal emotional or physical reactions and from your environment.
• When you feel threatened or afraid, realize that your brain's survival machinery reacts automatically. This sparks instant emotions and behavior -- so fast that you may be unaware of why you're feeling or reacting the way you do.
• Talk to a spouse, friend or colleague about what sets you off. Verbalizing your reaction and feelings is enormously helpful in defusing explosive emotions.
• If fear is a constant element in your emotions, examine it closely. Make a list of your fears and think about how to handle each. Confrontation? Avoidance? Repeated exposure so it loses its power? Understand that you may not be able to defuse a fear and need to learn to live with it.
• If you are overreacting, you can slow down your brain's survival response by pausing to think. Ways of pausing include making lists, plans, talking to someone and taking a deep breath, which helps reset your nervous system. (In this way, you impose cortical control over your amygdala, which directs survival responses.)
• Watch your alcohol intake. Ditto for caffeine or other stimulants. These make it harder to control your emotions.

For more by Dr. Ted George, click here.

For more on emotional wellness, click here.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Secret Principles of Immortality, Edition 18

In previous articles we have considered categories such as the following sixteen: architecture, moderation, success, lucidity, agency, resurrection, glory, realism, life-force, brain-power, discretion, patience, forgiveness, strength, wisdom, and Agea; The context of that set was the general existential context of the river of life, bodily vitality, bitterness, and statues. The understanding of the sixteen categories was meant to convey a sense of mirth or exorbitant knowledge about the immortal condition, the key example of which was the four categories. Now I will take an opportunity to elaborate the more elaborate significance of the sixteen categories, as it is clear enough... Read here