How to Accomplish More Every Day!

 

I’m a believer that the most critical thing I can do is be mindful of my evening routine.

By the time evening rolls around for most people, they don’t have a lot left to give. They get up, get ready for work, get the kids off to school, work all day, take the kids to afterschool activities, deal with chores around the house like cooking and laundry. The evening is either a time to continue working or a time to collapse in a heap.

Before I made the decision to be mindful of my evening routine, I did pretty much all of that. I worked hard all day, and very often would continue to work all evening until I simply didn’t have anything left to give. I said that I wanted to do other things. I thought about how I wanted to diet or exercise or do things just for my own self improvement, even just my own pleasure. I put them off, though. I kept telling myself that I could do all that, just later. I would start tomorrow.

So, what’s the difference now? Now that I’ve made the decision to be mindful of my limited time, by deciding that it is important to me that I have an evening routine, I don’t tell myself that I’ll try again tomorrow. I make the choice to take care of myself each evening.

No, the evenings aren’t extensions of the day. They are my time to invest  in myself, to set the stage for my unconscious to take over as I sleep. It goes into high gear, repairing itself and relaxing, accepting the changes

I am consciously trying to invite it to grab onto.

An example? Prior to going to sleep, I spritz my pillow with a very pleasant orange and grapefruit scent. I know it’s there and I’ve taken care to place it there.

Another example? Reading or writing about healing for at least 30 minutes before bed.

I feel that I have better rest when I am mindful of what I am doing before I fall asleep.

Puzzles can lead to numerous health benefits including increased life-expectancy?!?!

 

“The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.” Doug Horton

To reinforce my short-term visual memory so that I can have a fighting chance for healing my brains ability to remember something seen very recently I am focusing on manipulating one of two puzzles and a series of Lumosity games.

“Research backing the provider of UK’s largest selection of jigsaw puzzles shows that using jigsaws to keep the mind active can lead to numerous health benefits including increased life-expectancy. ” http://www.prlog.org/11727889-health-benefits-of-jigsaw-puzzles-revealed.html

I need to look at these web pages:
http://www.ldonline.org/article/25152/
http://www.all-about-jigsaw-puzzles.com/solve-jigsaw-puzzle.html.

Can raise my mental capacity by raising my self-esteem?

“We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more then we think we are worth.” ~ Iyanla Vanzant

All I need to do is know more about things that are worthy and valuable to myself and to others.
Sounds simple enough, yes?

Rotation Matrix on Lumosity

Lumosity challenged me by rotating my matrix. Now that’s very good for my mind!

Video: Rotation-Matrix-2012-08-26

What can the brain be trained to exaggerate?

Can the use of color in this Lumosity game, Color Match, be training my brain to exaggerate what it sees so it can perceive distinctions in information more?

 

I wondered this after reading this quote, “[O]ur brains [can be] trained to exaggerate the distance between shades of color if these have different names in our language.” from Color Plays Musical Chairs In the Brain, by Megan Erickson.

I hope so.

Do these errors point toward a level of perfunctory analysis?

What should I think of the “Mr.” and “himself” typing errors
in my Neuropsychological Evaluation? Do these errors point toward
a level of perfunctory analysis?

Overview of Testing	1985	2008	2012
Verbal IQ (VIQ)(The resource for ranges on table below? The best one that I could find in Google was at: http://childparenting.about.com/cs/learningproblems/a/wisciii_2.htm) Very Low:  – 73 Low: 74 – 81Below Average: 82 – 88 Low Average: 89 – 96 Average: 97 – 103 High Average: 104 – 111 Above Average: 112 – 118 High: 119 – 126 Very High: 127 – “Your VIQ score is indicative of your ability to work with abstract symbols, your verbal memory skills and fluency abilities, as well as the amount of education you have had, and whether you actually benefited from that education.” From http://provereal.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-fsiq-viq-piq-general-discussion.html	121	89	102
IQ (PIQ)“Your PIQ score indicates your ability to work with concrete situations, to work quickly, to integrate perceptual stimuli with motor responses, as well as your visual spatial ability.” From http://provereal.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-fsiq-viq-piq-general-discussion.html	126	81	106
Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ)(The resource for ranges on table below? The best one that I could find in Google was at:http://childparenting.about.com/cs/learningproblems/a/wisciii_2.htm)Intellectually Deficient: <69 Borderline : 70-79 Low Average: 80-89 Average : 90 and 109 High Average : 110-119 Superior: 120-129 Very Superior : 130+	113	84	104

Why does the summary not note a change in my JOLO (Raw Score): 22 in 2008 => 29 in 2012? Why don’t I understand how to see a recommendation for that strength? Did I miss something?

Social Media Research is a Matter of Personal Interest

 

I believe that social media has helped me healing, though I don’t know how to measure it.
Scott Husband notes a study finding a correlation between the size of some areas of the brain and the use of
Facebook on his blog: http://thebrainexplained.com/facebook-grows-your-brain/

I remember choosing to join Facebook towards the end of my Communications Therapy. I had felt like I had come so far in this therapy. I was driven to remain mindful for the rest of my life of consciously including more nouns, instead of pronouns, and the 5Ws. Facebook gave me a place to go to try to comment.

When the schedules of my friends couldn’t allow them to stop over to visit me, and transportation was difficult for me to arrange, and I was tired from a medical crisis, I wasn’t as isolated, because I could log on to touch-base through social media.

I guess this is my thinking on the supportive role of social media and the Internet in general in my healing thus far I was very excited to come across this post. Thanks, Scott!

I’m looking for more awareness…Can you help?

Could eye exercise as simple as watching television while wearing pinhole glasses effectively be an exercise for my brain?

I’m pretty sure no scientific evidence that could suggest “yes” exists, though I haven’t really tried to Google this question.

Many of the things that I try to do are ideas I come across that I think of in terms many people may see as out of the box thinking.

If you can help me in my search for more awareness by sharing an idea with me, please do. My e-mail address is 4happyme@gmail.com.

The truth is you can’t hid your discoveries, you just have to run with them as far as you are able!

Daily Activities

List I Focus On:

Transition to/from sleep with harmony using my Peaceful Progression Wake Up Clock
Take the time to taste what I eat – especially strawberries!
Do Energy Exercises
Try to recall the sound of C (When does a C sound like a C?!?!)
Try to recall images and words on my homemade flashcards
Read and write
Work with photos
Practice piano scales
Train in Lumosity training
Train in the Khan Academy

===============
Master List

See something. Outline it afterward.
Memorize music
Exercise peripheral vision
Do a jigsaw puzzle
Play with a basketball
Use my left hand
Walk on uneven surfaces
Sleep well
Eat dark chocolate
Eat fish
Practice Stoicism
Notes (often) from: http://www.positscience.com/human-brain/brain-fitness/brain-fitness-tips
Kinds of Memory
Autobiographical Memory
Explicit Memory
Implicit Memory
Long-Term Memory
Short-Term Memory – passive
Short-Term Memory – working memory (using it, storing it, and so on)
Memory Measurements
Attention (how one acquires memory through attention to detail) 1. Focused attention, 2. Sustained attention. 3. Divided attention.
Speed (how one accesses memory and draw connections between memories)
Flexibility (how one draws new connections)
Location memory
Math processing speed
Processing speed
Short term memory (per sort memory)
Spatial memory
Visual memory
Speed
Sense memory (Visual, Feeling, Hearing, Touch, Smell – elements within working memory)
Does experience emotionally belong here? Do we experience emotions like we sense?
Abstract concepts (an element of working memory)
Internal Noise
doubt
fear
impulse
imagination
resist
pain
adrenaline
Habits
See something. Outline it afterward.
Memorize music
Exercise peripheral vision
Do a jigsaw puzzle
Play with a basketball
Use my left hand
Walk on uneven surfaces
Sleep well
Eat dark chocolate
Eat fish
Practice Stoicism
Notes (often) from: http://www.positscience.com/human-brain/brain-fitness/brain-fitness-tips
Learn to juggle
Repeat to remember. Remember to repeat
Memorize something every day.
Smile more often.
Start your day off right. Wake up and set aside an hour for personal development activities
Utilize ‘The Burning Method.’
The Rubber Band Method
Meditate everyday for at least 20 minutes.
Work out those abs.
Read something inspirational right before bed and after waking.
Notes (often) from: http://www.highexistence.com/life-secrets-and-tips/

Defining the problem: Coming to the Point

Recently, before I started this blog, I was watching an episode of the television series Farscape called Exodus. When Zhaan said she felt “like we’re imprisoned in this room with the ship just out of reach. I was within my own mind but I couldn’t reach past and feel what I wanted,” I paused the show and said to my husband that that is my reality.

It must be a reality that someone else is familiar with or it couldn’t have been written into the script.

Now the hard part for me is communicating in a way that others can understand the point I am trying to make, as in this blog entry with this opening. Why is this hard for me to do? I cannot say.

I can come in close proximity to the substance of what I want to say, but I cannot say it. Saying it is unreachable for me today.

This reality is true is spite of the fact that I have so much capacity that I use effectively day in and day out.

What I often find myself doing rather than coming to the point and addressing the issue, whatever it happens to be, is speaking in metaphors. For example, as I was composing this post, I tried to find a way to fit in a thought about how mathematics (specifically finance) is a language which I don’t really understand, yet. Now, this metaphor made perfect sense to me, but when I mentioned it to my husband, Bear. He got that vacant, blank expression on his face — that told me he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

That is part of the issue – I sometimes can only recognize that I’m trying to make a point. I often try to find a  metaphor. The metaphor can be too obscure for other people to follow.

How a Brain Tumor Survivor Makes a Better Life

My name is Stephanie Henderson and my issue is that today I live with results consistent with the removal of a slow-growing, brain-invasive, left-hemisphere, meningioma. The pathology report of the tumor suggests that an increased likelihood of recurrence of the mass exists.

The invasion and my medical care have altered my ability to communicate and my memory.

My intent for this site is to explore my deficits to the deepest levels that I can and to expose them for the medical community to digest, to help me and others in the long run.

I am trying to make a better life by structuring this blog in a way that binds me to my purpose and with any luck followers who can join me, that doesn’t allow me to escape in thought or deflect in clever witticism, by being plain and transparent. I am trying to do this in a way that is focused and requires a healthy amount of effort, of routine awareness, brutal honesty and structured chaos.

I’m just trying to reclaim as much of my health as I can and to put myself out on the Internet to see what happens.

My hope is that I will be able to increase my mindfulness through exercises (both physical and mental), and to relate to commonalities with other patients or the recommendations of care providers.

I hope to learn how to integrate the techniques of the routine exercises into my everyday life so I can draw on them so I can feel whole again.

I want to do things that feel right in my gut, and to feel liberated from the diminished capacities left by the resection and the medications and the increased likelihood of recurrence.

Will my survivor plan meet the test of time?