Hidden Barriers to Happiness Blog
Have you always wondered about the invisible forces that affect your health, wealth, relationships and happiness?
For over 25 years, first as a neuroscientist, then epidemiologist, and now as a Holistic Brain Health Practitioner, I’ve been passionate about identifying underlying causes of mental and cognitive health challenges. This blog reveals my discoveries from my academic training, my passion for functional medicine, psychology, sociology, energy medicine and what I’ve learned from identifying secrets held by the subconscious.
If you want more health, wealth, better relationships and more happiness, find out what could be getting in the way! When you sign up to get my Top 10 Tips for a Happy & Healthy Brain, you’ll also get 2-4 newsletters per month featuring my blog, “Hidden Barriers to Happiness”.
What are you waiting for? Knowledge is power!
7 Signs of Decline to Watch for With Your Aging Parents
If you plan to see your aging relatives this season, one of the most loving things you can do for them, is to do a thorough check to make sure they are still able to appropriately care for themselves.
Why? Because if they are at any risk of developing any type of dementia or other chronic diseases common in the elderly, catching it early is essential to a good prognosis.
For example, before getting a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, a patient will often have several years of Mild Cognitive Impairment, which may or may not progress to Alzheimer’s Disease. After 18 years of research in Alzheimer’s disease, the one thing that I consistently saw, was that for interventions in the Western medical sciences, chances of recovery, or halting the progression of dementia were only possible for those at the Mild Cognitive Impairment stage. Alzheimer’s Disease is extremely costly and an incredible emotional and physical burden to the family, so catching and preventing any further decline can literally prevent a family from emotional and financial bankruptcy!
A colleague of mine, Frank Simons, who is an Elder Care Advisor recently gave us a wonderful list of things we should look out for during the holidays, to keep our loved ones healthy and cared for.
5 Essential Tips to Curb Emotional Eating
You know that you aren’t hungry… after all, you’ve eaten your regular meals, but you are craving your favorite snack again. Maybe it’s in the middle of the afternoon, or more commonly late at night.
Why do we have these cravings, and what can we do to stop our emotional eating?
Have you noticed that we are more prone to giving into these cravings when you are stressed or late at night? Why? Because that is when our willpower is weakest. Willpower is limited, and if we are using it all day to effectively deal with existing stresses, then we will have less of it to resist those cravings. But there are tricks we can do to maximize our willpower and minimize our emotional eating habits.
What are the tricks to curb our emotional eating habits?
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Do You Have a Heart Wall?
Are you uncomfortable with others getting too close?
Are you struggling to connect with what brings you joy?
If so, you may have a heart wall. 1
What is a heart wall?
The Power of Believing You can Improve
People are too willing to give up on me.
As a child, I remember a teacher who told me I shouldn’t be in a dance performance that I wanted to participate in. In graduate school, I was encouraged by more than one teacher to drop out. They thought that because I struggled in the classes, that I didn’t have what it takes to get my Ph.D. I’ve been fired from jobs, and people who’s friendships really mattered to me, stopped returning my calls.
As painful as these rejections have been, I’ve always strived to learn from them. While my heart has been broken too many times, and much of that grief set me back for a long time, there’s been an important part of me that has been determined to learn the lesson from the experience, and resolve to do better in the future.
And I have. With my determination and the discovery of powerful techniques like the Emotion Code, the Body Code and EFT, I’m reaching goals that I couldn’t even envision in the past because they seemed so far away from possible.
So why have others been so willing to give up on me even when I haven’t?
How to Have a Better Relationship
My client Rachel came to me consumed by anger with her ex. She said that he just knew how to get under her skin. She felt like he could reach from the depths of her soul and tear her heart out. She had believed that he was her soul mate. But she couldn’t get over the story that severed their relationship years ago: when she had felt like he had purposely tried to undermine her career.
When couples don’t get along
When clients come to me because a relationship isn’t working, sometimes they are full of blame. Other times, they feel guilty because they get angry and frustrated too easily, and they end up regretting their actions. Sometimes they aren’t clear on why they aren’t getting along, but they know that they still want to try to find a way to have a better relationship with their partner.
Why can’t we just get along?
Top 10 Hidden Causes of Anxiety and One Amazing Tip
Have you been struggling with anxiety?
In graduate school, I used to have so much worry and stress about getting it all done, that I wouldn’t be able to sit still or concentrate. I’d find myself having to go on epic bike rides just to calm myself down enough to focus.
I had generalized anxiety, social anxiety and performance anxiety. And EFT, the Emotion Code and the Body Code made a huge difference!
These days I hardly worry at all, and I spend more time focusing on getting things done! My generalized and social anxiety are gone, and I’m comfortable standing up and speaking in front of crowds!
I remember, I was working with another practitioner at the time on my social anxiety. I went on a date with someone I liked right after my session, and more often than not in those days, I had a hard time relaxing around people I liked, so my dates weren’t much fun. I remember feeling so excited because I finally felt like I could relax, have fun and be myself, and I knew it had nothing to do with him!
I got rid of my anxiety by addressing the underlying causes.
Find out what those underlying causes of anxiety are by watching this:
9 Hidden Reasons Why We Can’t Focus
Are you struggling to focus?
Are you having trouble getting things done?
Is it getting in the way of your career or ability to earn money?
Are you worried that you might lose clients, or get fired from your job?
I used to have the hardest time concentrating on my work! I would do everything I could to tune out external distractions, I’d get exercise and enough sleep, and still my work was slow moving, and I’d need frequent breaks. Because I wasn’t very productive during my work days, I’d try to work longer hours to make up for it. I was caught in an endless cycle of workaholism, and it led to burnout and fatigue and depression.
These days, my mind is usually clear, and on the few days when I’m having trouble focusing, I address the underlying problems and that is enough to get my brain working at its best.
How have I gotten this far?
I found 9 underlying reasons that were getting in the way:
Why We Lack Control Over Our Thoughts
My friend Jim Kellner performs “mental magic” to audiences around the country. Technically, he’s a stage hypnotist and a couple of weeks ago, he did a performance where he hypnotized a few people, including a friend of mine, Brian. Here’s just a little taste from the show. (Warning: you might not want to drink anything while watching. It could get messy!)
I talked to Brian a few days afterwards, and asked him how it was, and he said, “it was the weirdest thing, but I don’t remember anything about it!”. I just remember waking up and feeling really relaxed!
I confess, as a person that is less susceptible to hypnosis, I marvel that some people can get that deeply hypnotized. Furthermore, his shows really awaken my curiousity! What is going on in their brains that make them so highly suggestible?
How to Deal With Bullies, Trolls and Haters
Last week, I submitted a comment on a blog, and got back the wrath of what I like to call an “angry man-child”. This person insulted me and everything that I said, and it was clear that he was ready to pick a fight. I felt myself getting defensive, and I started to think how I’d retaliate. But I quickly realized that my emotions were getting in the way of me. I decided that I’d try to call him out on his behavior by labeling it, and then I tried to respectfully use reason to argue my point.
I had hoped that I would increase his awareness of how he came across, but he came back with more vehement insults and lambasted me for not addressing his points.
I knew that he was an angry man-child, and that he was trying to defend an ego that someone in his past had insulted. But I still wanted to find a way to silence him. I wanted him to realize he was spreading anger and hatred that only hurt people and himself.
I couldn’t seem to let the issue go! (more…)
Does Punishment Really Work?
I have always been interested in the question of what inspires people to be their best. Why do some people have a tendency towards violence or addiction or cruelty? Why are there people that only seem to care about themselves? And what makes someone spend their entire life dedicated to serving others?
America is a punitive society and has grown increasingly more so in my lifetime. Our prison population has had about a 8.5x increase since 1980! We have the 2nd highest per-capita incarceration rates in the world. Most prisoners are not violent when they go into prison, and are at higher risk for deviant behavior when they leave.
Parents and teachers also struggle these days with difficult children who are disrespectful , argumentative or uncooperative. The default approach stems from the belief that punishment is a deterrent.
But is punishment really an effective deterrent?
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