I’ve been on the island of Gili Trawangan for the last week. I’ve been here for one particular reason, to learn to dive. A few days ago I completed my open water diving course allowing me to dive up to 18m deep! Half of the course was theory based (yay…), where I learnt about all the complications of diving. Its safe to say that I had no idea how much could go wrong under water!  Pressure Difference The main thing I learnt about was the pressure difference when diving deeper and deeper. As you dive down, the air pressure increases which can cause some problems for a diver and their brain ..read more

Mindfulness is being. Being aware of your environment. Being in the moment. Being in touch with your body. Again, as I have said before, mindfulness is not sitting crossed legged humming, that is meditating, a bridge to mindfulness. Being in the moment through mindfulness has been associated with experiencing more in every moment and increasing our quality of life. A quality of life can be hard to find when something traumatic happens to you. People who have suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from a split-second incident are a good example. I cant even contemplate how hard it must be for ..read more

In this Blog Last week I asked a question on my Instagram account about what my next blog should be about. I had a few suggestions, but one resonated - Brain Injury Recovery. As you know, I myself have not suffered a brain injury. So in this blog post, I am going to spread awareness of the research into brain injury recovery. This blog post will cover: Molecular and physical changes after suffering a brain injury Fatigue post injury injury Cognition post injury Factors that affect stroke recovery Important factors in recovery Throughout all these topics, I also offer my own insight into what ..read more

Ask someone about meditation and the likelihood is that they will picture a long-haired, cross-legged man humming in front of a sunset. However, this is not what it means to meditate. Meditation is a bridge for practising mindfulness. There are many different types of meditation, breathing being the most common. Mindfulness is becoming globally renowned for positively impacting individual wellbeing and reducing the perception of pain. These two domains, wellbeing and happiness are commonly affected areas in those who have suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Thomas Harttung Nassif looked ..read more

If you follow my social media pages, you will know that I have just recently completed a 30-day gratitude journal. This meant that everyday for 30-days I documented 3 things that I was grateful for in the day. In this blog post I am going to discuss: What research suggests about practising gratitude Why I wanted to do my gratitude journal How the gratitude journal went What I got out of practising gratitude Practising gratitude: what the research suggests The first study I found when researching gratitude looked at 293 students from an American university. These students were all seeking the ..read more

The main reason I started my research blog was to spread awareness about the brain and what damage to the brain can do to you.  The Temporal Lobe In this blog post I aim to tell you: Where the Temporal Lobe is located What the Temporal Lobe is responsible for What damage to the Temporal Lobe could do to you The brain is an extremely complex structure with many different regions, structures and pathways. To make the brain a bit easier to understand, it is split into 4 different lobes; the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe and the parietal lobe.  The first lobe I covered i ..read more

When working with clients I work within Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs). The MDT includes different professionals such as Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists (OTs). In this blog post I am going to discuss: An OTs role in rehabilitation The research behind an OTs input How it has been for me working with OTs What is an OTs Role in Rehabilitation? The goal of occupational therapy is to 'maximise independence in all areas of occupation' (pg 135-161, Acquired Brain Injury). Areas of occupation include activities, daily living skills, rest and sleep, educati ..read more

All of us at some point, have played a video game. Video games are one of the most popular sources of entertainment and they have been for some years. Tyson Fury and Joe Joyce (professional boxers) both say that they video games before a big fight. Many successful entrepreneurs say that they video games to zone out and wind down. There are mixed views on whether video gaming is good or bad for us. Is it good or bad for our brain? Let's find out. In this blog post I will go through: What happens to your brain when you play video games How video games affect your cognition Addiction to video ga ..read more

Sleep is very complex. We have been investigating sleep for decades but we still aren't sure what all the functions of sleep are. In this blog post I discuss What happens when we sleep The activity in our brains when we sleep Mental health and sleep Implications of sleep deprivation (loss of sleep) What Happens When We Sleep? Sleep Stages Sleep is categorised into 2 stages, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-rapid Eye Movement (NREM). REM Sleep REM sleep is the sleep stage associated with greater dreaming. Your brain is highly active when in REM sleep. Your brain is just as active in REM slee ..read more

Yoga aims to connect your mind, body and soul. To be honest, I’m not much interested in that. I’m interested, in what yoga connects in your brain. This weeks blog post will: Explain what yoga is Go through research into yoga and it’s effect on the brain Discuss what these effects to your brain mean in everyday life What is Yoga? Yoga is used a lot in relation to mindfulness. Chances are if you have a friend who meditates, they have also tried yoga. Yoga is a mind-body practice. This means it seeks to connect your mind to your physical body through practising yoga. Yoga involves lots of diffe ..read more