Audio Books - Get Healthier And Younger While LEARNing About Your Body

Do you long to get on the road to good health but find yourself making up every type of excuse; " I just can't seem to find the right program for me, I just don't have enough time, or I want to be healthy, but I just don't know where to start"? You're not alone. Most folks don't know a whole lot about their own bodies much less what their ideal lifestyle and diet should be.

Wouldn't it be great if you could not only get healthier and feel young again, but also LEARN what makes your body tick; what each and every body part and organ's function is right down to your fingernail, and what foods make it function better and have more than a few laughs along the way?

Authors and Doctors, Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen have cooked up a real pull up a chair and listen project that is now available on audio book CD. "YOU: The Owner's Manual, An Insider's Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier And Younger".

The title may put you off initially and sound too good to be true, but this guide is a practical down-to-earth hands on resource designed with every type of LEARNer in mind. This audio book, instead of being intimidating, is full of amazing facts and information that even the most knowledgeable and informed scholar will enjoy discovering. For those who had to tough out every subject in school, wishing that LEARNing about tough stuff could be fun, Drs. Oz and Roizen must have read your thoughts, because that is exactly what they did in this audio book. They give a good dose of humor to help you understand the very serious subject of understanding your body. In a recent post on Amazon.com, Dr. Oz says about the audio book, "Mike Roizen and I wrote YOU: The Owner's Manual to help you understand that 70 percent of how long and how well you live is in your hands. But we wanted to go one step further and move you from just knowing the rules to really understanding how your body works."

The passion and style in which this reference audio book is written is contagious and is certain to keep you interested and enthusiastic as you LEARN and put into practice what you come to understand and retain about the inner workings of your own body. Imagine visiting your doctor one day soon, and for the first time the medical jargon doesn't go way over your head. You will be able to converse intelligently with your doctors and other care providers about what may be wrong or going awry in your body at the time, and participate in the decisions about what treatments are available and what actions to take next in your care.

You will know and understand for yourself why you should reach for the carrot instead of the creampuff, or take that walk instead of sitting in front of the TV. You will finally have the motivation you need to take charge of your own health because you will be more informed and have a strong incentive to take care of YOU.

Congratulations on your new health adventure. Don't forget to get a copy for a friend too. You wouldn't keep all this good information to yourself, would you?

 

 

LEARNing Buddhist Beliefs - An Elegant Introduction

In The Heart of Buddha's Teaching, Thich Nhat Hanh introduces us to the core teachings of the Buddha. Namely, he outlines The Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eight-fold Path and several other basic buddhist teachings. Hanh also works into the text well translated ancient buddhist texts as well as several parables from the Buddha himself as well as general buddhist tradition. Hanh references his own life as a monk in Vietnam on occasion, both in times of war and peace.

This is the first book I've read on Buddhism, and Hanh, with elegant prose opened my eyes to a new world of spiritual belief. I've read quite a bit of Western Philosophy and although I've found it both interesting and well grounded, there has always been something of a lack of passion to it. Not so here. Hanh's writing reminds my old boss, for a job I had a few years ago as a web developer. He managed to inspire my co-workers and I to create great software, with great care and efficiency. No one else since has been able to create that kind of profession motivation in me. Like my old boss's kind and soft words, Hanh's prose inspires. The Buddhist ideas he teaches regarding ending suffering, mindfullness and right action are as logical as any philosophy of the time, but they also invoke some kind of true inspiration.

Unfortunately, no book is perfect and this is not without its shortcomings. Primarily, the book is filled with lists of interconnected ideas that are often difficult to keep straight. At points the book mentions something such as the Third Noble Truth while explaining one of the Twelve Links, and how that relates to the second noble truth. After a while, all of these enumerations, some with 40-50 entries can make ones head spin.

Also, the book does seem to assume some prior knowledge of some Buddhist or Hindu culture and beliefs. A few eastern terms we unfamiliar to me and not fully explained. While this was somewhat frustrating, I could figure meaning from context and it didn't really negatively effect my experience with the book a great deal.

Overall, I would recommend reading this work.

I'll leave you with the following small sampling of some of the interesting ideas I took from the book and facts about buddhist beliefs:

  • Buddhism isn't in conflict with most other religions. In fact, some of the Buddha's own students were monks of other "faiths"
  • Some beliefs in buddhism relate directly to the symbols of chinese writing
  • After years of only oral tradition keeping Buddhism alive, two different groups decided to write down the Buddha's teaching. Thus, what is known of Buddhism today comes from two sources which can be compared and scrutinized against one another for accuracy.

 

 

How to Reduce High School Dropouts by Half

Interview with Dr. Brian E. Walsh, Author of "Unleashing Your Brilliance: Tools & Techniques to Achieve Personal, Professional and Academic Success."

Reader Views’ Managing Editor, Irene Watson, is pleased to interview Dr. Brian E. Walsh. Dr. Walsh is the author of Unleashing your Brilliance: Tools & Techniques to Achieve Personal, Professional and Academic Success.

Irene: What inspired you to write a book that deals with LEARNing patterns of the brain?

Brian: I became a hypnotherapist a few years back. Part of my study included brain hemispheric differences. One of the most intriguing aspects was that, not only do we have a dominant brain and hand, we also have dominant feet, eyes, and ears. How an individual is neurologically wired can result in one of 32 possible LEARNing styles. How many teachers and trainers know that? This information sparked my interest in accelerated LEARNing. Actually, I prefer the term enriched LEARNing. It isn’t speed, it’s the quality of LEARNing that that is critical.

Irene: In your book you talk about the various forms of intelligence. The one that we are most familiar with is the “IQ” measurement. Two that you mention are spatial and musical. Explain some of the other forms that we possess.

Brian: Well the “IQ” measurement is not only ethnocentric, but is also bias against students who have smarts in intelligences other than mathematical, logical, and linguistic. School systems cater to the left-brain, and students wired that way do well in school. The other intelligences are, spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and the most under-appreciated: kinesthetic intelligence. Kinesthetic people need to move, touch, and experience in order to LEARN. Those high in this intelligence often have a very difficult time in school. Occasionally, they are mistakenly labeled as hyperactive, and subsequently drugged. A large number of high-school dropouts are kinesthetic LEARNers.

Irene: By hyperactive, do you mean many young children are diagnosed as having ADD or ADHD? If so, why do you believe they are misdiagnosed and drugged?

Brian: Yes, I do mean ADHD, and I am not saying that misdiagnosis takes place in the majority of cases. ADD and ADHD are simply behavioral disorders. Not all cases should be treated with drugs. Most teachers and physicians are ignorant of the basic three LEARNing styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Few teacher colleges include these concepts in their curricula. Often the approach is to just cure the symptom. An overworked physician reverts to drugs as the easy way out. There are a number of programs available to deal with these issues, Brain Gym being just one of them.

Irene: You believe that creative and critical thinking are not common skills. It is believed by some, however, that logical concepts of everyday reasoning and problem-solving are innate. What is your basis for your theory?

Brian: I agree that these skills are with us naturally at first. Unfortunately, in school, there is greater reward for being right instead of exploring alternatives. We become programmed to find the “right” answer, then stop looking. This results in limited thinking. When I say that these are not common skills, I mean that students are encouraged to get the test answers right rather than explore unorthodox concepts.

Irene: Give us some examples of unorthodox concepts.

Brian: Perhaps a better phrase would be to allow random, intuitive, creative discovery -- to permit, indeed encourage, out-of-the-box thinking. By narrowing the scope to the one correct answer, open frank, and expanded thought is inhibited.

Irene: Discipline, and how it is administered in schools, is a touchy subject. You have expressed that classrooms actually work against LEARNing. Please explain your thinking.

Brian: This is a reference to the kinesthetic LEARNers. For them to sit still in class is hell. They squirm, they fidget, they drum their fingers, they shake their legs. They often thrive in the earlier grades, because there is some activity. As they get older, they are expected to “act” more maturely. Most teachers haven’t a clue about the advantages of kinesiology exercises, such as the cross-crawl. A host of these activities can drive fresh oxygenated blood to the brain, and concurrently stimulate cross-hemispheric brain activity. Whole brain LEARNing is achieved. While I’m on this subject, water is crucial to energy and LEARNing. Dehydration is a major cause of fatigue and impaired brain functioning. A person who is just 5% dehydrated has already lost 30% of cognitive ability.

Irene: The cross-crawl exercise is also used by some people with dyslexia to stimulate cross-hemispheric brain activity. The results have been notable. Do you believe that dyslexic people are often misdiagnosed also?

Brian: Well, dyslexia is a label indicating a specific LEARNing disability that is neurological in origin. It shows up in reading and spelling. Strange that dyslexics are called disabled, since many are average to above average intelligence. To answer your question, absolutely, some people are misdiagnosed. I am so encouraged by the great research of Dr. Carla Hannaford in hemispheric dominance. I believe that kinesiology will play a greater role in education in the years to come.

Irene: In chapter nine of Unleashing Your Brilliance you cover the benefits of hypnosis for the purpose of a student having more discipline and organization in their LEARNing structure. What other practical reasons would a student benefit from hypnosis?

Brian: I am careful in my use of the words hypnosis and trance in reference to LEARNing. Let me put it this way: The ideal LEARNing state is known as “relaxed alertness”. In actuality, this is a light trance. Most people do not understand that information hits the subconscious mind first. Only a very little of the incoming data reaches the conscious mind. This is the central theme for my book. If you truly understand that information is processed by the subconscious first, then you can adapt your LEARNing methods to take advantage of this fact.

Irene: Basically, you are talking about being in the Alpha level of consciousness. Would you explain to our reading audience the various levels and what activity occurs in those levels.

Brian: The brain wave frequencies are designated by the terms Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta. Our normal state of consciousness oscillates between Beta (full awareness) and high Alpha (light level of trance - daydream). Some hypnotherapy is accomplished at various levels of Alpha since a person is highly suggestible in this state. The deeper level of Theta is reached in hypnosis, meditation, and light sleep. Twenty minutes of Theta trance is as beneficial as a few hours of sleep. The Delta level (very slow brain wave frequency) is occasionally reached in hypnosis, and is reached during dreamless deep sleep in the first few hours of sleep. This is the most valuable period of the night’s sleep, since it is in Delta that the necessary cell repair and regeneration takes place.

 

 

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