Mindframe

Chai tea and Tai Chi: a tongue twister, the first involving the tongue and the second some twisting. Chi running, on the other hand, is a whole different kettle of fish. So what does any of this have to do with my goal of learning the long form of Tai Chi? Our brains are associative in structure, driven to seek connections. From words to ideas to shapes––you name it––your brain is pattern-hungry. Have you ever seen the face of Elvis in your peanut butter and banana sandwich, or Madeline Albright’s eyebrows in a low hanging cloud? If so, your brain is doing just what it was designed to do: voraciously hunting for patterns in everything it encounters. The memory palace is built on this blueprint. Invented by Greek poet Simonides of Ceos around 500 BC, it’s arguably the most enduring memory trick known to humankind. And it works like this: take a place that you know really well, like your childhood home. When you want to recall a list of anything, you imagine yourself walking through yo...

Why would I attempt 14 goals and put them right out there in public like the unwashed hands of a Taco Bell employee? The neuroscientists among you know the answer. It's called the Optimism Bias. 80% of us sinners are consistently overly optimistic about the outcome of events we personally undertake. Now, I knew about the OB before I began, so I am not offering this as an early mea culpa; I’ve got plenty of excuses queued up for later, when the going gets rough. I’m not worried, because I have a secret weapon. It’s called the myelin wrap. Not to be confused with the Crunch-Wrap Supreme, which delivers a whopping 560 calories, 70 grams of carbs, and 1350 milligrams of salt. This from a cow that’s been genetically engineered to produce the very meat it consumes, thereby creating the perfect loop of self sustaining Taco Belldom; technology’s Möbius strip of meat consumption. In Daniel Coyle’s, The Talent Code, he explains how the myelin wrap is the holy grail of acquiring skills. Myeli...

Boise, Seattle, and Portland: three cities, three days. I’ve just concluded my lecture tour out west, leaving behind tidbits of neuroscience, and the sad remnants of abandoned hotel soap. I suspect in many cases the soap may last longer than the fleeting electrical/chemical neural pathways I’ve attempted to forge among my seminar attendees. A couple of observations about being on the road (142,000 air miles last year). An airplane is essentially a Greyhound bus with wings, although GH buses don’t include ‘doody’ pockets. The doody pocket is, of course, the little pocket attached to the seat in front of you, and with the possible exception of the men’s room at O’Hare’s concourse F, the filthiest place on earth. It is, I’ve discovered, the repository for soiled diapers, used barf bags, unwanted pets (goldfish are not particularly good flyers, especially when water has not been provided ahead of time), half-eaten omelets, and headless Ken dolls. Yep, Barbie may look innocent enough, b...

As the late great Rodney Delane Gleason liked to say, "The fat's in the fire now." Goal number 14: Eat more slowly.  Says Casey Gleason Best, "I suppose you threw in the eating more slowly goal as a sacrifice to the Goal Gods since you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of achieving it." And this illustrates the beauty of friendship. In the darkest hour of doubt––or in this case, progeny doubt––David Michael Freeman has weighed in to save the day. See his comment . Using the right brain, the part that does the heavy lifting for building heretofore unconnected associations into epiphanies, he offers up the novel and ingenious concept of 'Total Chewing." Think Chuck Norris's TOTAL Gym, and Iron Chef Mario Batali's new ABC talk show The CHEW. Voila, you have Total Chewing, a perfect marriage of the mind/body experience. Which means, Casey, goal #14, albeit a long shot, is still in my sights. (Notice that "stop procrastin...