Preventing Dementia and Cognitive Decline: Two Interesting Ideas: Part 2

The two ideas for preventing cognitive decline I will outline here involve a particular food, and a way of living.

The food is chocolate, specifically dark chocolate with at least 70% genuine cocoa.  Small amounts.  The flavonoids help break up brain plaques, according to an analysis of 14 small studies, reported in a reputable nutrition journal.  We all believe that one because it's what we want to be true!!  

The way of living that has also been shown to be a powerful preventer (unless, like my mother, grandmother and aunt, you have a strong genetic driver; thank god I'm adopted) is continuing to stress your brain by making it learn new things.  The reason I say stress is that stem cells in your hippocampus won't be stimulated to create new neurons if you give yourself challenges that are easily achieved.  So take classes at the local universities "senior college."  I teach at the OLLI associated with Southern Oregon University, and it's great fun to teach as well.  I take tough and complicated classes free online through Coursera.org, a consortium of major universities, including Princeton, Harvard, U of Copenhagen (origin of the universe and life, 12 weeks, incredible) and U Alberta (that amazing 3 course sequence on dinosaurs, OMG!), Caltech, MIT, Harvard - you get the picture.  Really fun.  Really mentally challenging, even more so than my OLLI, because I have tests during the video lessons and at the end of each week's work.  I don't HAVE to pass, that's why it's free, but I WANT to test myself.

Books clubs, if they are run by serious, challenging thinkers, can work the same way.  [Some are more opinions than "backing up conclusions with facts" types of groups, so they are social rather than brain-stimulating.  Both types have their value!]

Reading non-fiction is something that you can do on your own.  Do comprehensive, clearly-articulated "book reports" on your blog or Facebook page.  Hell of a lot more interesting for your readers than what you had for lunch or how bummed out and bored you are because it's raining, right?  If you don't have friends who appreciate that kind of post, Friend me, because *I* do!

Learning a language is a perennial good idea.  It might take you longer to get fluent than it would have when you were younger, but that's not a reason to never start, right?  If you travel, set yourself a goal of knowing 10 key phrases and have a vocabulary of at least 50 additional words before you leave.  I have found that basic conversation, even if you are stammering and mis-pronouncing, signals to others that you are making an effort to meet them on THEIR ground, and generates reciprocal kindness.  Which you need when you are traveling, amen.

Just being able to read signs is a confidence booster.  I remember being in Moscow when my host stopped to gas up the car and I tried reading the signs.  One interesting one was "motor masla."  Motor was a car but masla was butter.  Butter in your car?  Then my brain crunched on butter, kinda-like oil, and the answer was clear.  Or when driving in rural Quebec and saw signs for "Maiz" (or was it maz?).  God bless my large English vocabulary.  Maize is another name for corn.  Yeah!  I can read French!


Explore more ideas at www.soaringdragon.biz.  Check out my newest book (Oct 2017):

https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Blue-Heart-Victoria/dp/1974032272/   

Being in Pain = Shorter Life! And it's not for the reason you think.....

A comprehensive medical study in the UK says that we can say that being in chronic pain by itself is enough to boost your chances of dying in the next year by a statistically-significant amount.

"Just" pain, say people who don't know what they're talking about. But, as I explain in my new class

http://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/pain-free-without-drugs

I DO know, as a health coach and transformational healer, and as a former sufferer.

Why the higher % of death? The side effects of constant pain: lack of exercise; going for comfort food rather than veggies and nutrition, sedentary life; stress, worry, anxiety.

So my mini-course becomes even more relevant. If you're in pain, you need to get it to stop, using non-drug methods that work. And you have to be aware of the gentle exercise [see my min-course] and the easy healthy eating [101 Healhy Meals in 5 Minutes or Less http://www.amazon.com/101-Healthy-Meals-Minutes-Less/dp/] and you need to find ways to distract yourself from the worry-thoughts [101 Stress Busters https://www.amazon.com/Busters-Healthy-Longevity-Through-Barriers-ebook/dp/B01MZ4HNRZ].

Inspiration and Meditations from Yellowstone

Some of these will be folded into my new Fall releases of online classes, so if you want to be a beta-tester (some of the classes are free, but some are not, so you can save some money by seeing the early versions!  Just email me at victoria@soaringdragon.biz).

Enjoy!  [Want a continuing connection to high-quality inspiration and meditations?  Join my Soaring Dragon tribe by subscribing to monthly updates.]



Y-stone series: 
Road out of Overwhelm: Trees  : https://youtu.be/k60K9K08kzcRoad out of Overwhelm:  Norris   https://youtu.be/EUVLzw91BSE

Inspiration: Beauty All Around  https://youtu.be/S2cf38HaPEUInspiration: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the power of water   https://youtu.be/bdtKUZu2-4E
Inspiration: Lehardy Rapids  https://youtu.be/sajc85OoamI

Inspiration: Power of Unity    https://youtu.be/bGenGcDOawE
Inspiration: Power of water  https://youtu.be/rws8N9rjFFgInspiration for Entrepreneurs:  What is Negative?  https://youtu.be/v_jJCNZ5d5w

How to Tame Anxiety    https://youtu.be/7pBstbOppQw

Listen to your Deep Unconscious   https://youtu.be/cGBA2JOPTvU
5 Breaths in Y-stone   https://youtu.be/DP5OFNo36E0

Why Soaring Dragon?         https://youtu.be/jcqBw2GqSKI

When is a Rainbow Not a Rainbow?

I've never seen this before:  all the colors of the visible spectrum projected on a cloud, but not in an arc..... more like the chakra colors in a palette.

Glorious and gorgeous.

I had been focused on the purpose of my trip to Yellowstone - recording video for the fall online classes that I am releasing soon.  But as soon as I saw this, my executive-functioning, git 'er done stopped cold and I slipped straight into moment by moment pure sensation-focusing.  Just absorbing the glory of that precious beauty.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  Indeed.  And now you can enjoy it too.

More ways to use beauty to reduce the physical effects of stress..... 101 Stress Busters for Energy, Joy & Healthy Longevity. 

https://www.amazon.com/Busters-Healthy-Longevity-Through-Barriers-ebook/dp/B01MZ4HNRZ

Free Online Class:       https://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/106742

5 Reasons Why You Need and Deserve a Retreat....

I’m just back from a 4 day in-home spiritual retreat.  Phone and internet OFF.  No nasty political news.  None of the things we all react to.  No bills, no hassles, no external demands.  

For 4 days, I took guided hypnotherapy journeys with Belleruth Naperstek CDs, and my own specific journeys, and I posed issues to myself to resolve through insight-journaling – pages and pages of insight and solutions and pain and sunlight at the end of the battle.  Exercise taking care of ¾ of an acre on the weekend, when my usual gym classes don’t run; no diminution of my traditional good sweat every day.  Healthy eating. 5 hours of Reiki energy healing every day.  A long, detailed visit with angels, goddesses and the Runes. 

The results were as amazing as always: insights and ideas for action pouring from my pen; powerful journeys that left me lighter of the barriers and darkness that bedevil our lives.  Staring into the abyss, alone with myself, until the abyss started to yield answers.  Inviting levels of unexpressed pain, because it’s through pain getting out of our bodies that we become free.  Realizing how much there is yet to do. 

Engel’s book on traumatic shame is must reading for anyone who has experienced childhood abuse or neglect, especially, although it is also a factor in adult traumas as well.  The emphasis on being strong can be so cruel when circumstances are truthfully that no one could be physically strong enough, or emotionally strong enough (unless you’re a sociopath). 

My work involves powerful transformations through reaching skillfully into the deep unconscious to change, eliminate, add beliefs and conclusions that are absolutely not accessible through ordinary (surface) means like affirmations and “thinking positive.”  So the healer needs to take time to heal herself from time to time.

I recommend these concentrated retreats!  Find a friend or relative who needs a house-sitter for a few days and hole up.  Nix the social media.  Say sayonara to the news.  Turn it all OFF and listen to the sound of your heart and soul.  

After you stop screaming, the insights will come tripping lightly or exploding into existence; each breakthrough has its own sound and flavor.  But they will come.  Get Dr. Naperstek’s CDs or get a session with me.  Bring some creative exploration from my new book 101 Stress Busters for Energy, Joy and Healthy Longevity.

You’ll be glad you did!

FREE Resource: Meditation Videos

Are you feeling tired, stressed, frustrated?  Of course ypu are, from time to time or most of the time, depending on your circumstances.  If you're thinking I'm going to ask you to sit quietly and "think about nothing" as one of my clients put it - nah.  [My new book 101 Stress Busters has lots of walking meditation and active visualizing meditation, along with 86 really fun and very powerful creative arts that will induce relaxation among other important medical changes.]  

Slowing the adrenal cascade improves your blood pressure which protects your sexual health, as well as protecting you from deadly strokes and kidney failure.  It also protects your brain from loss of memory and general dopiness - powerful medicine for everyone from full-time parents to small business owners and entrepreneurs.  

If you're an entrepreneur, it WILL boost your income - giving you great new marketing ideas, boosting your energy to work, and wiping out the worries that sap your productivity. 

How about taking 45 seconds to a minute and a half to contemplate a really beautiful natural scene while you take 5 slow, deep breaths?  Here are some examples:

https://youtu.be/aGuUCEoSfD8

https://youtu.be/teQds4mz_C8

https://youtu.be/Bdz_UmDXFvs     for entrepreneurs

https://youtu.be/wYAmJyOfsMw

https://youtu.be/T7KSbv8cXag     end of day, gratitude

https://youtu.be/hLbwlDiYduY     walk in the woods

Join my mailing list for inspiration, to get first crack at free beta test enrollment of my new online classes, and special offers just for subscribers.  email victoria@soaringdragon.biz

www.soaringdragon.biz