"… Starting With Mine."

You’ve likely never read the tagline for this blog - it’s in fine print all the way up in the top right oops.. left… corner, and part of it is in ghostly gray and hard to read on some monitors.

Here, I’ll use my finely tuned copy and paste skills, for your convenience.

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Fixing the world, one mind at a time
(starting with mine).

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It’s that bit at the end that we’re concerned with today. You see… my own mind definitely needs tweaking, and the brain that supports it hasn’t been working quite right lately, either.

Fortunately, as the expert *cough* brainhacker that I am, I can do something about it. I can even benefit the community in the process, by serving as a positive role model -and if I don’t succeed? My mangled brain and I will serve as warning.

Why do I think there’s something wrong? My neurotic need for privacy prevents me from sharing details, but I’ve had a rough couple of years. I’ve found my way through a dense emotional fog rather well, but it’s left a legacy of motivational, memory and focus issues that still need dealing with. It’s not severe enough to require medication, just an annoyance that I am not as sharp as I should be.

So the plan is to develop a personalized Tweak-The-Brain regime. (Actually, I started it earlier this week and I’m just now telling you, but you don’t mind, do you?)

Here’s a general overview of the plan:

Pick up a copy of Mind Stereo (the brainwave entrainment
music player software with the pretty pictures. Check! I’ve been using it sporadically, trying different settings to see how they work and what my response to them is. An ongoing sinus headache this week has prevented me from really assessing some of the results.

Sign up for one of the brain-training programs I’ve been blathering about so much. I picked Lumosity - it was the only one I could afford (and I had that beta discount) Check! I’ve been working through the sessions daily for a week, and do note improvement not only in the game but outside of it. My scores, though, do show a clear impairment from the previously mentioned headache.

Start Taking St John’s Wort (again) St John’s Wort is a much over-hyped herbal treatment for a variety of things, including mild depression. Studies suggest its anti-depressant effects are real, but limited, and that its not the cure-all that herbal marketeers would have you believe. But my issues are mild, and I’ve had good results with it in the past. It seems to give me just that half-step-up boost to get me doing the other things I need to do, things like….

Attend To General Brain Health. Ideally, this means lots of healthy habits. Water, a healty diet, the right supplements, excercise, etc: a lot of things which I’ve let gradually slide. Trying to start them all at once is overwhelming, so I’m hoping that the brain-training programs will sort of stairstep me up to these. But without making a conscious choice, I am drinking more water. Changes in brain bloodflow tend to make you need more water, and I am finding I crave it lately (maybe because of that need, maybe because of suggestion) so that’s a good thing.

Ok, now.. specific goals for this week.

• Play Lumosity Daily (minimum goal -5 times)

• Use Mind Stereo Daily (minimum goal - 5 times) on either the depression relief or SMR setting

• Drink Plain Water Daily

• St John’s Wort Twice A Day (minimum goal -5 times)

• Track the whole business on JoesGoals.com (a free, web-based goal tracker)

I’d like your help, too.

I’m very bad at tracking things. (Remember that whole motivation/focus/attention thing? Yeah. It’s an issue.) Joe’s Goal’s allows me to put a nifty real time graph badge of my progress here on the blog… check this out:

I’ll put the badge in the sidebar, for a while, at least. And each week, I’ll try to post a summary of my progress. If you notice a fall off in the graph (or I get lazy and don’t post a summary) give me a little nudge, please? I’d really appreciate it.

If any of you would like to start a mind-tweaks routine of your own, I’ll be happy to set up a separate page for the progress graphs, and we can keep watch on each other. If not… just enjoy watching me struggle with it ; )

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MindTWEAK: Blessed are the forgetful; for they get the better even of their blunders. - Nietzche
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