Tag: brain

Multitasking in our technology-overloaded lives is a given. Many of us still believe in the myth that we are more productive when we multitask, but research proves us wrong. Single tasking, one focused assignment after the other, is the most effective method for accomplishment. Daily juggling dilutes, depletes, depresses and oh that stress! But it’s not over. How many of you take your smartphones to bed with you? So why do we still multitask?

Sex lies at the root of life, and we can never learn reverence for life until we know how to understand sex. ~ Henry Ellis

Sex scandals are us. The news is replete with what seems an endless account of seemingly good people whose sexuality has literally transformed them into a criminal. The stories of childhood sexual abuse are deeply troubling and extend into the millions when you consider the many youths sold into the global sex trade. Yet, stories of coaches and kids in locker rooms hit an even deeper nerve because they make us question, at the deepest level, our own sexual urges. We are all caught in the conundrum of longing to experience our sexual depths, while simultaneously being terrified of whether our fantasies are normal or even dangerous.

Our heart is hands down our hardest working organ. It never sleeps, beating over two billion times in a lifetime and circulating 50 million gallons of blood. It is the first organ structure that comes to life in the embryo and holds us until our last breath.

It is hard to imagine how we could ever take this life-sustaining organ for granted, but so constant is the heart that we rarely stop to celebrate its function or recognize and listen to its needs.

A surprising source of simmering female resentment is the myths generated about men. These fictional stories have the power to stress a marriage by triggering habitual ways of listening and responding because you already know character and plot. However, once women become aware of the myths they have been fed, they realize that men are complex and multi-dimensional and worth exploring. Consider this analogy: We like to travel to exotic places, enthralled by the type of people we ignore at home. Therefore try seeing your home like a first-time visitor, and that includes "him."

Here’s a typical scenario: You and your spouse have been looking forward to spending the evening together. You get home early and begin dressing for dinner at your favorite special restaurant. The phone rings. It’s your spouse telling you they have been asked to stay late to prepare for an upcoming client meeting. You feel a flash of anger. Suddenly you find yourself thinking that perhaps your spouse is not as disappointed as you are. Now you’re really angry. You answer, "Fine! I didn’t want to go anyway!" Your spouse, who is as disappointed as you are, withdraws. You sense some rough times ahead.

Today, 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. By 2050 the number is projected to grow to nearly 14 million. Bracing against the disease while standing alongside those diagnosed are family and friends wrapped in an intricate web of perplexing emotion.

Dementia plays out in stages. I think about the arc of my mother’s life as college sorority sister, to wife, mother and career, through my father’s passing, followed by her 18-year dementia journey and, ultimately, her death.

Do you find yourself frustratedly stuck in the same patterns? You may not even notice it’s a pattern. However, if you spend some time to think on it, you’ll see a pattern. We all have them.

Maybe it’s a tired argument with your partner/spouse. Perhaps it’s a certain frustrating dynamic between you and someone else. How about this one? You want to get something done but you decide to take a peek at social media… and 2 hours later… nothing is done.