When we choose a kinder inner mindset, regardless of our age, our IQ grows. We can remember more when inner criticism becomes kindness and self-care in advance of hosting a dinner party, for instance. Take tonight, I am serving dinner to favorite cousins from New Brunswick. They will be here... Read more ..read more

Start with an awareness of our inner voice and two opposing voices emerge, love and fear. Love is fueled by serotonin, the brain’s aha chemical. Fear is driven by the toxic chemical, cortisol, that keeps us worrying that other seniors have more confidence ..read more

How many seniors tell us they long to join a local care center? Or how many crave a move into senior living sites? If the answer is few or none, then we may wish to ask why. Some say that senior live-in centers are hugely money makers for business owners... Read more ..read more

How can we seniors practice a growth mindset to communicate better with a difficult friend or opinionated relative? How do we move beyond conflicts when closed minded critics insist on the veracity of their strongly stated fixed mindset? How can we prevent that shutting down of peaceful solutions that require growth mindset approaches? First let’s recognize that our goal is not to have the final say, change the other person, or win an opinion match over somebody who differs. Second let’s use silence as a sacred space to step back and see the other person’s view with compassion as we recommit ..read more

Problems between seniors and their adult children weigh heavily on some seniors who struggle to work through problems and retain relationships. Times have changed, and yet a growth mindset helps us to understand both worlds and to do what it takes to bridge gaps with healthy bonds that bring families closer together, while detaching them from ties that tear them apart. 1. Offer them freedom and space to pursue interests and friends on social media. Rather than expect any adult child to share private details of their lives avoid the temptation to try and read between the lines of their online p ..read more

When we see the namungos as part of our brain, we can begin to choose their ability to help us and support good choices. Whether we are aware or not, namungos are part of our lives and they can work for or against our mental and emotional health. An awareness of namungos helps us to cultivate a growth mindset by asking questions such as: 1). How does each namungo apply to daily choices? 2). What risks will I take? 3). How can we make this fun and adventurous? 4). How will our past mistakes help? 5). How will we launch the new idea and organize a new way forward? 6). What is our best approach ..read more

Namungos are fictitious characters with real brain parts. These little critters show us where senior growth mindsets stand, predict our ability to embrace challenges, build resilience, and thrive! Our senior brains hold remarkable tools to ensure we enjoy life to the fullest, in spite of traps that may try and trip us or snares that sometimes catch seniors unaware and slow us down! The namungo family represents six often hidden and unused mental tools embodied in these fiction characters with real brain parts. They will show us new neural discoveries, represented in their animated possibilitie ..read more

When we act kindly and when we run from cruelty we also tame our brains emotional control center by adding another dose of calm to our amygdala or mental mood center. Our emotions survive after memories vanish because we store these tamed or untamed emotions listed in the chart below with every action that engages them. For example, smile and we store serotonin and space for more smiles. Smirk and we store cortisol and more smirks. No wonder our moods and behaviors sometimes seem so predictable and seem to control some seniors. Years of storing these moods or chosen emotional reactions literal ..read more

Neurodiversity practices bring seniors’ benefits especially when engaged actively through imagination. Neurodiversity practices remind us that seniors experience and bring to life their world views in unique and significant ways! As we engage imagination, these differences can open new opportunities if we help seniors see their approaches as diverse rather than as deficits. Neurodiversity often helps us to support seniors who experience other neurological or developmental conditions that include ADHD. These may include seniors who tell us they suffered in their youth with learning disabilities ..read more

Our basal ganglia (one of our brain’s memory systems) opens wonderful windows into past memories and events on one hand, while it can also shut down our ability to risk change and avoid adventures the next. Think of the brain’s basal ganglia as a backpack that contains everything we ever did or experience. It holds our best advances and our worst mistakes. When we reach for an object without much effort or step up stairs without having to think about each step, we can thank our basal ganglia’s built in memory for movement.  The opposite is also true, when we face criticism for faring poor ..read more