Is your brain older than you are?

You’re striving to stay on top of your career, managing complex decisions, coming up with creative solutions, and working with younger colleagues whose brains process information quickly. You want to maintain your edge in the workplace, keeping pace with the flow of ideas that sustain and drive forward your business.

At the same time, you’re working to secure your retirement. You’ve put money away. You’ve taken relatively good care of yourself. You’ve paid off your mortgage. In short, you’ve ensured that you have the external resources to live out the rest of your life in comfort. So what have you missed?

What if despite all of your efforts to secure your future you’ve neglected to maintain your brain? If you lose your faculties, your ability to enjoy that future and your independence will be in jeopardy.

If you’re in your 40′s or older, you may have already noticed signs of mental decline. Do you sometimes forget where you put your keys? Do you have a hard time remembering names? Does the word you mean to use escape you, and you find yourself scrambling for synonyms? These are all indications that you have begun to lose your neuroplasticity. Not only are your retirement years at risk, because your cognitive abilities are stuck in the rut of habitual thinking, you are potentially jeopardizing your creativity and ability to stay competitive in the marketplace.

Not to worry. Your brain is capable of regaining much of what you’ve lost.

Think back to when you were a child. You constantly had to learn new things: how to walk, talk, dress yourself, read and write – to name a few. Gradually, you came to master these skills and more. Your mind was in a constant state of intense concentrated learning, ensuring that your brain maintained its plasticity.

As we move into adulthood and become established in our careers, our daily routine often presents fewer opportunities to learn new skills. Instead, it becomes incumbent upon each of us to seek them out. Why? If we don’t, our brains begin to lose their neuroplasticity. They becomes fixed in their functions, and we start to lose our cognitive abilities. We process information more slowly and have more difficulty recalling facts and figures. Our response time is affected and even our problem-solving skills.

We become creatures of habit as we age, choosing a daily routine that has very little change. As we get older, we tend to stay within our comfort zones. With nothing to shake up our world, we stop learning new skills. Instead, we simply build on the ones we’ve already mastered. To build new neural pathways in the brain, it’s imperative that we learn new skills on a regular basis, or we risk atrophy.

Neuroplastician, Michael Merzenich, in The Brain That Changes Itself, concludes that, “…when you are eighty-five, there is a forty-seven percent chance that you will have Alzheimer’s disease… We’ve got to do something about the mental lifespan, to extend it out and into the body’s lifespan.”

Some of Merzenich’s suggestions for fighting cognitive decline include:

1. Learning a new language.

2. Learning new physical activities that require concentration.

3. Solving challenging puzzles.

4. Changing to a career that requires the mastery of new skills and material.

Today, there are a number of programs available through the Internet that can improve our mental faculties. Merzenich is the developer of Posit Science, a series of brain training programs designed to address age-related cognitive decline, which attacks memory, thinking, and process speed. Posit Science has dropped its prices considerably since their programs first came out on the market $690 for the complete program to $345. The site includes sample games you can try, as well as an opportunity to test your brain.

A popular site that allows users to compare their cognitive abilities with their peers is Lumosity. Users go through a training program for a very reasonable cost. $200 will buy you a lifetime membership. You can pay considerably less if you want to give the program a trial run of a shorter period of time. Lumosity fans can even participate in scientific studies that use their stats to understand neuroplasticity and other aspects of brain science. Lumosity also offers a smartphone app so that some games can be played while mobile.

Another program, Cognifit allows users to unlock applications by inviting Facebook friends to participate. Cognifit uses a more general comparison of a user’s score to that of the world in general, but also breaks it down by profession, gender, age and country of origin.

Regardless of which program you gravitate towards, don’t fool yourself into thinking that these computer-based tasks are going to cut it. Get exercising, eat right, get enough sleep, and drink in moderation. Avoid excessive TV time or video game play. A well-rounded life leads to healthier grey matter.

Whether you are in the work world and want to stay competitive with your peers or you are planning for a fulfilling retirement, ensure you stay sharp. Maintain your brain!

On Uprooting Oneself…

Most people have excellent intuition. The challenge arises when they are called upon to trust it and heed its guidance – even when it means moving to the other side of the country.

Here I was, living in Ontario, with a thriving practice as an intuitive and as a yoga instructor, when I began at the start of the year to sense that I was no longer where I belonged. It started with feeling displaced, as though the town I had been calling home since the mid-90′s no longer felt that way. People continued to be friendly and welcoming, and indeed, there was no end of work for me. I could have tried to stay in Kingston and continued doing what I was doing, but the call to move was too strong. I had no choice but to listen. I kept hearing the word “Kelowna” in my mind.

Now, this is where an intuitive has no choice but to put her money where her mouth is. I had to listen to my intuition and make the move and accept whatever changes that brought forth in me, or I would become a disingenuous person, giving advice to my clients that I was not myself willing to heed. I committed to making the move, but my ego wanted a safe, cushy period of time to prepare for the shift. However, once I had stopped deliberating and the decision was made, circumstances made it so that I had less than 30 days to do the deed.

This is not uncommon when we make a decision based on intuition. The universe gives us a test. Often, the time period to accomplish the task is sped up. It’s as though God is asking how serious we are about our decision. Will we act even though things are occurring outside of our conscious control? Will we go anyway or will we cling to the familiar and miss our opportunity? I knew I had to go, even though it meant leaving friends and family behind, and embarking on a journey to a place where I knew no one and knew nothing about where I was headed.

Packing to leave Kingston

There was no time to spare. Within 24 hours of getting clear on my decision, on August 2nd, I had arranged to stay at a condo at Big White Ski Resort and had purchased a plane ticket to fly out on September 3rd. Next came organizing movers, finding work in BC, and packing my stuff. I won’t say that the move was easy. Plenty of tears were shed for the folks I was leaving behind, and it was a scary proposition to uproot myself and go to parts unknown. But, what an adventure!

The Rockies from the plane

Kelowna from the air

I had never been further west than Manitoba, and here I was, flying over the Rockies, in awe of the magnificence of this mountain range that just seemed to go on and on…  The hours spent on the plane, watching the landscape pass by below, gave me time to wonder at the monumental decision I had made. Here I was, moving on my own away from the province where I had spent most of my life, having moved to Ontario from Quebec when I was five years old. What was I doing, moving to BC? All I knew was that I was moving where I was being called to go, and I would have to trust that, even though I knew next to nothing about Kelowna.

Touching down in my new hometown, I realized that I had been given a tremendous gift – the opportunity to live in a place of such beauty in all directions, with people who welcomed me before I even arrived.

Near the top of Big White, looking at the chalets below

During my last month in Ontario, I had sent out emails to yoga studios and other contacts provided me by friends in the know, and I felt encouraged by the responses I received. Brenda Wowk of Kelowna Hot Yoga Studio was the first to connect with me. Her warm welcome made me feel right at home, and I began teaching Yin yoga at her studio the week I arrived.

My first night in Kelowna, I drove for an hour up the dark mountainside to Big White, making hairpin turns, passing steep dropoffs, and dodging deer. In the morning, I walked to the top of the mountain and surveyed the range, marvelling at the green expanse before me. For several days, I drove up and down the mountain, exploring Kelowna and looking for a place to live, since the condo was a temporary rental before the start of ski season. My ears popped each day, during the sharp descent into the Okanagan Valley. I came to realize that the wildlife own the roads in these parts. One night on my way back up the mountain, I had to stop half a dozen time for deer crossing the road. During my forays into the city, I would drive around the ducks near city park. They are quite clear on their ownership of the road and are not the least bit fussed about traffic.

The ducks own the road.

In that same first week, I found a carriage house to rent in West Kelowna surrounded by vineyards, fields and mountains, bought a car, and began to make friends in my new community. I hiked in the mountains with Brenda, and with my yogi friend, Dawn and her three rescued dogs. I attended the Wise Women Festival in Penticton, where I became gloriously lost in the dark on the way home, finding myself at Okanagan Lake at midnight. I found a park near my home where I could sit on a bench and look across the water at Kelowna and take in the beauty of the lake and the mountains. I found myself laughing at the flocks of quail that would run along in front of me and hide in the bushes where I passed, looking much like old ladies in cocktail hats toddling off for their afternoon tea.

So, I take this adventure a day at a time, humbled and grateful to have been led here, looking to continue learning what my higher wisdom wants me to know, and recognizing that I am indeed taken care of, and that God/the Universe/All That Is reaches out to me through my mind, my heart, the mountains and the wind, and every smiling face that welcomes me, and all those in kindness who wish me well wherever I walk the earth. Namaste and blessings to you all.

A Fitting Card for New Year’s Eve

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

It’s fitting that I’ve pulled Temperance for this evening, not just because it’s a time of year when we can get carried away with celebration, but also because it’s wise to remember “all things in moderation” when it comes to making New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re looking to make some positive changes this year, make a decision to work on achievable goals. Be realistic about how much time you can devote to the gym or to developing a new skill.

If you do decide to expand your scope in life, come up with specific tasks you can assign yourself that will get you that much closer to realizing your goal. If you want to lose 10 lb., come up with a plan of action and a timeline. If you want to meet someone special, join groups or plan to attend events that will put you in circulation with like-minded folks.

Make a resolution this year to be kind to yourself and gentle in your approach to self-improvement. You’ll make slow but steady progress if you’re realistic in your goal-setting.

Happy New Year to all, and may you be blessed to receive all that you need on your path.

To thine own self be true – The Emperor

The Aquatic Tarot. Author/Artist: ©Andreas Schröter 1995-2002

As we contemplate what we wish to accomplish in the coming year, the Emperor challenges us to look to our true calling and not just be swayed by the desires and opinions of others. The Emperor is independent and decisive. We can access this active, masculine principle within ourselves by connecting with our passion. To “follow your bliss”, as Joseph Campbell put it, you have to know what that is.

So, consider what activity gives you the most joy – even if it’s one you’ve never attempted but always wanted to try – and make a list of steps you would need to take to make that a significant part of your life, maybe even your worklife. Then, take the first step. Don’t worry about how long it will take to achieve the final goal. You’re an eternal being. Just walk each step with joy and a sense of self-discovery. The experience on the way to the goal is far more important than its achievement.

The Emperor trusts his intuition, so ask the universe for clarity if you can’t think of what your passion might be. Then, watch for the answer to arrive. It can come from anywhere – a TV show, a book, a dream, snatches of conversation from passersby, a poster at a bus stop. Be open to receiving the information you need. Then, have the courage to act upon it.

Life on earth is too short to ignore your dreams. Make this the year to make them come true.