One Brain's journey

I have been fascinated by the idea of mindfulness ever since I first heard it described in a bar by a tennis pro who was trying to seduce my tennis partner…the most unlikely circumstances indeed. I have headed down a lot of blind allies since then including attending a class on mindfulness meditation by some well-meaning practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. For awhile I thought that I was confused about the idea of separating mindfulness from meditation or was it the idea that I could be meditating and doing something else such going for a walk or eating a meal? Recently, in bookstore specializing in psychology and spirituality I came across a most-unlikely guide–The Idiot’s Guide To Mindfulness. In this book was all that I had been searching for–instructions on how to practice mindfulness in any activity and completely removing it from its Tibetan Buddhist roots (not that I have anything against Tibetan Buddhism). Now it is quite possible that it is entirely coincidental but since I began reading the book and trying to be completely in the moment I have felt better, happier. In addition, a few weeks ago, I started Nordic walking in the cemetery right across the street from where I live. Nordic walking is an exercise that seems to lend itself to mindfulness practice.

While doing it, you are traveling much slower than you would if you were running. The rhythmic nature of using the poles and swinging your arms is quite natural and requires little attention from the conscious mind so you are more aware of your surroundings and you walk more upright than you would if you were…well just going for a walk. All of this adds up to the perfect setting for the practice of mindfulness. I have been seeing the cemetery in whole new ways and I have lived beside it, or near it, almost all of my life.

Now I have come across a study that concludes that mindfulness, which the study defines as the ability to be aware and attentive of the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility, improves working memory as well as mood.

In the next post I will talk more about this study.

I have been a fan of natural health products since I managed to lower my blood pressure with Omega 3 capsules and so am a little more friendly to reports such as this one from a study conducted at the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Guosong Liu, the center’s director, found that magnesium, “led to significant enhancement of spatial and associative memory in both young and aged rates.” Magnesium is found in some fruits and most leafy vegetables but the study made use of a new magnesium compund–Magnesium-L-threonate (MgT)–but the new compound was just a more efficient way of delivering magnesium to the brain. Mr. Liu said, “Half the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficiency which only worsens with age.” He went on to say, “If normal or even higher levels of magnesium can be maintained, we may be able to affect cognitive function.” Mr. Liu is a former professor at MIT in Boston and is co-founder of Magceutics, a California-based company developing pharmaceuticals for the prevention and treatment of age-dependent memory decline and Alzheimer’s disease. He claims that if you consume less than 400 milligrams of magnesium per day, you could be at risk for allergies, asthma and heart disease.

Just last week, I was telling a friend about this research and he mentioned that he had been told by a natural health practitioner to take a magnesium supplement for Restless Leg Syndrome, (RLS) a condition in which, legs at rest, usually when you are just lying down to go to sleep, feel as if they are twitching. I have RLS and thought that perhaps a magnesium supplement would improve my cognitive functioning as well as my sleep if it could stop that dreadful sensation of leg twitches. I would love to report at the end of this post that I immediately went out to the health food store and got some but…I forgot.