Neuroplasticity and the Sudoku myth
You may have heard that maintaining high cognitive function and memory is a simple as doing your daily Sudoku or crossword puzzle thanks to the wonders of Neuroplasticity. REALLY? Will doing Sudoku really change your brain at all? It turns out that the answer IS yes…. but only because everything does. However if you think […]
Continue ReadingThe Fibromyalgia Test and what it means
The Fibro Diagnositic Test- Better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick (because that would hurt EVERYONE). There is normally a large and exhaustive range of tests that people undergo on their journey to get a diagnosis. But the simple diagnostic test for Fibro is pretty straight forward. Prod someone in various […]
Continue ReadingStress? Coping well vs just not doing it. You CHOOSE.
You may know the boiled frog experiment. Put a frog in a pot of warm water and it will detect the warmth and jump out. But the bizarre thing is if you put it in a pot of water at room temperature then heat it slowly, the frog can’t detect ANY change and will stay there […]
Continue ReadingCute rabbits, perception and the brain
What can a fake rabbit teach us about neuroplasticity and the brain? There is a neat experiment known as the cutaneous rabbit illusion. If you tap two spots at distant places on your forearm in a particular timing, you experience the sensation of being touched in the middle of the two places as well. The brain […]
Continue Reading5 Stages of Change
Why is making change effortless for some people yet for others it seems impossible? This has been one of the driving questions that has influenced my work for many years. The Lightning Process training programme is a tool to make change. People who take the training are signing up to learn how to change their […]
Continue ReadingDepression – Beyond the myth of a Chemical Imbalance
Beyond the myth of “Chemical Imbalance” Many of the people I see with chronic illness will also suffer from depression. Some come to me with depression as their primary issue while others develop depression as a consequence of having another illness like chronic pain, anxiety or debilitating fatigue. A critical step in making change […]
Continue ReadingWhere is pain?
Understanding Pain I recently read an article about fibromyalgia that read “Pain is the body’s way of alerting your brain that there is a problem”. This fundamentally misunderstands modern pain science and that misunderstanding can get in the way of people beating many chronic pain conditions. Pain is not your BODY’S way of alerting your brain there is a problem. […]
Continue ReadingTrauma and the brain
Why do we remember anything? We clearly don’t remember everything. So why bother remembering anything at all? It’s pretty clear life would be difficult and potentially dangerous without memories. Memories play an important role in keeping us safe. We learn from a bad experience so we don’t make the mistake again. So while many of […]
Continue ReadingThe day I broke my back
Back pain can be debilitating. I know. I’ve been there. I remember waking up one morning with horrific pain shooting through my back. The sort of explosive pain that stops you breathing and feels like a full body explosion. I lay there for hours until I realised I needed to get help. I slowly rolled […]
Continue ReadingNeuroplasticity and Anxiety
Neuroplasticity has been talked about as the greatest medical breakthrough in the last few hundred years. The idea that our brain can change its structure and function through mental experience was considered heresy only a few decades ago. Now we know that the brain is CONSTANTLY changing and adapting to experience. So not only were […]
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