See one, do one, teach one

A lesson from Medical School

Monkey see, monkey do

It may seem strange that one of the most valuable lessons I learned in Medical School was not how to save lives, but how to save the living. In my own point of view all life is sacred, but what's the use of saving a life when living has such a limited value?

Ethics has always been one of my favorite subjects, and the example of what do you do in the case of a suicidal emergency probably still feature as one of the classical questions that young medical students are required to answer to them self.   

The "rules" that govern conscious awareness haven't changed much over the last 3000 years, and then as now it is known that when you have to act in an emergency, ethical questions cloud your ability to think clearly, which compromise your ability to perform, and has a negative effect on the outcome.   

When your intention is clear, then saving the lives that has been placed in your care demand clear thought, a sharp mind, and sure action. Making judgement calls about quality of living, living standards or life choices make our actions inefficient, our decisions questionable, and our performance incompetent. 

Strong emotions makes people's brains 'tick together'

Human emotions are highly contagious. Seeing others' emotional expressions such as smiles triggers often the corresponding emotional response in the observer. Such synchronization of emotional states across individuals may support social interaction: When all group members share a common emotional state, their brains and bodies process the environment in a similar fashion.

Researchers at Aalto University and Turku PET Centre have now found that feeling strong emotions makes different individuals' brain activity literally synchronous.

Learn more at: Synchronized Brain

Rapid-fire Media May Confuse Your Moral Compass, Study Suggests

“For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people’s social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection,” said first author Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of the USC Rossier School of Education. Humans can sort information very quickly and can respond in fractions of seconds to signs of physical pain in others.

Admiration and compassion - two of the social emotions that define humanity - take much longer, Damasio’s group found. Their study appeared online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more at: Science Daily

Haunted by a memory?

Thinking over and over about how unsafe the world is after you’ve been victimized might ultimately do your head more harm than good. Finding something positive to think about–for example, how you were able to think and act under stress, or how people supported you afterwards–can help you fit the memory into your life in a positive way. Post-traumatic growth, they call it.

In addition, it appears that writing about the thoughts and emotions connected to an event can help post-traumatic growth. (The “thoughts” part is important. Just writing about emotions attached to it is not as helpful.)

Find out more about it: PsychCentral

Do more by talking about it!

Nine better ways to wake up!

Scientific research has shown that different people take different times to wake up, and that there are even people who only really wake up in the afternoon when most of us are getting tired and thinking of going home. But for those people who have difficulty getting out of the bed in the morning there may be hope. 

Various studies have confirmed that there are many things that we can do to make sure that we wake up in the morning.

As a bonus many of these also enhance your mood, give you more energy and lower your stress.

So if you have difficulty in waking up in the morning, and even if you don't, why not try some of the following 9 things, you have nothing to lose and it may just change your life for good!

• ensure that there are no unresolved issues of the day before you go to bed. Waking up with the knowledge that there are problems to be faced could be enough reason to stay in bed.

• change your alarm ringtone. Most people believe that they will only wake up with the loudest, worst sounding tone imaginable. While this may be true for some, most other people will wake up much better with something bright and happy.

• get up as soon as you hear the alarm. There is a reason why we do not hear people lament the woe's of getting up immediately. Just as the previous sentence is difficult to make sense of, it is difficult to understand why anyone would press snooze just once.

• sing a happy tune first thing in the morning. A simple song like "Bare nesessities" from Jungle Book can put a smile on your face and a skip in your step before any of the days worries can weigh you down. And once you are going it takes much more to slow you down.

• stretch in the morning, even before you get out of bed. Scientists have found that people who stretch are less stressed, more relaxed and more awake then those who do not.

• change your routine, or get one. Eat serial before you drink coffee or brush your teeth first thing after you get up.

• take 10 minutes of the morning and spend them outside. There is nothing that can beat the crisp morning air to clear away the fog of a nights sleep.

• tune in to your senses. Our modern day morning routines provide us with ample opportunity to stimulate all of our senses and it makes good sense. Research even proved that the smell of coffee can stimulate the brain to a wakened state in he same way as caffeine.

• do a 10 minute exercise routine each morning. Science tell us that any morning exercise that cause us to break a sweat increase our metabolism significantly for the rest of the day, and a higher metabolism means you are more awake.

Knowledge is only the key, it is up to us to turn it!