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Big History — the history of our world in 18 minutes by Professor David Christian:
Big Physics – the universe in a nutshell (in 42 minutes) by Professor Michio Kaku:
Big psychology: The psychology of everything by Professor Paul Bloom (48 minutes):
Big chemistry: A three-part BBC series by Professor Al-Khalili:
Part 1: Discovering the Elements:
1. Nassim Taleb’s Anti-fragility:
2. Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of skill acquisition:
Wow! Awesome! Michio Kaku is the father of string theory. In this 42 minute video, he explains the history of physics and the universe. He’s a brilliant mind and a brilliant communicator. Everyone should watch this!
This is a big breakthrough. Click the link below to read the scientific paper:
Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
The relaxation response (RR) is the counterpart of the stress response. Millennia-old practices evoking the RR include meditation, yoga and repetitive prayer. Although RR elicitation is an effective therapeutic intervention that counteracts the adverse clinical effects of stress in disorders including hypertension, anxiety, insomnia and aging, the underlying molecular mechanisms that explain these clinical benefits remain undetermined.
To assess rapid time-dependent (temporal) genomic changes during one session of RR practice among healthy practitioners with years of RR practice and also in novices before and after 8 weeks of RR training, we measured the transcriptome in peripheral blood prior to, immediately after, and 15 minutes after listening to an RR-eliciting or a health education CD.
Both short-term and long-term practitioners evoked significant temporal gene expression changes with greater significance in the latter as compared to novices. RR practice enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance, and reduced expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways. Interactive network analyses of RR-affected pathways identified mitochondrial ATP synthase and insulin (INS) as top upregulated critical molecules (focus hubs) and NF-κB pathway genes as top downregulated focus hubs.
Our results for the first time indicate that RR elicitation, particularly after long-term practice, may evoke its downstream health benefits by improving mitochondrial energy production and utilization and thus promoting mitochondrial resiliency through upregulation of ATPase and insulin function. Mitochondrial resiliency might also be promoted by RR-induced downregulation of NF-κB-associated upstream and downstream targets that mitigates stress.
In summary, we conducted the first study to employ advanced genomic analysis methodology and systems biology analysis to examine temporal transcriptional changes during one session of RR practice and found that RR practice induced upregulation of ATPase and insulin function. This suggests that RR elicitation may enhance mitochondrial energy production and utilization. At the same time RR induced downregulation of NF-κB-dependent pathways, with effects on upstream and downstream targets that may mitigate oxidative stress. These findings, while preliminary, suggest that RR practice, by promoting what might be called mitochondrial resiliency, may be important at the cellular level for the downstream health benefits associated with reducing psychosocial stress [68]. Mitochondria have evolved the capacity to modulate specific anabolic and catabolic circuitries that control programmed cell death and autophagocytosis. They also confer an ability to sense the intracellular environment and help the cell adapt to a variety of stressors [69].
The RR significantly affects multiple pathways through mitochondrial signaling that may promote cellular and systemic adaptive plasticity responses. In essence these adaptive responses become markers of what might be called mitochondrial resiliency or mitochondrial reserve capacity. The gene expression data indicate the RR specifically upregulates energy production of ATP through the ATP synthase electron transport complex. This might result in an enhanced mitochondrial reserve providing the capacity to meet the metabolic energy demands required to buffer against oxidative stress that emerges in many stress related diseases. Depending on variables such as genetic endowment and epigenetic interactions with micro- and macro-environmental circumstances, different mitochondria will have variable capacities to dampen the pathogenic effects of oxidative stress, and this has sometimes been referred to as differential mitochondrial reserve capacity [70]. When cells experience severe oxidative stress through increased cellular metabolic demands, there is a loss of mitochondrial reserve capacity contributing to a fall in mitochondrial resiliency, which may be a major contributor in disease vulnerability.
An earlier paper by the same group reporting supporting findings:
Click on this link to read the paper: Genomic counter-stress changes induced by the relaxation response.
Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Mind-body practices that elicit the relaxation response (RR) have been used worldwide for millennia to prevent and treat disease. The RR is characterized by decreased oxygen consumption, increased exhaled nitric oxide, and reduced psychological distress. It is believed to be the counterpart of the stress response that exhibits a distinct pattern of physiology and transcriptional profile. We hypothesized that RR elicitation results in characteristic gene expression changes that can be used to measure physiological responses elicited by the RR in an unbiased fashion.
We assessed whole blood transcriptional profiles in 19 healthy, long-term practitioners of daily RR practice (group M), 19 healthy controls (group N(1)), and 20 N(1) individuals who completed 8 weeks of RR training (group N(2)).
2209 genes were differentially expressed in group M relative to group N(1) (p<0.05) and 1561 genes in group N(2) compared to group N(1) (p<0.05). Importantly, 433 (p<10(-10)) of 2209 and 1561 differentially expressed genes were shared among long-term (M) and short-term practitioners (N(2)). Gene ontology and gene set enrichment analyses revealed significant alterations in cellular metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, generation of reactive oxygen species and response to oxidative stress in long-term and short-term practitioners of daily RR practice that may counteract cellular damage related to chronic psychological stress. A significant number of genes and pathways were confirmed in an independent validation set containing 5 N(1) controls, 5 N(2) short-term and 6 M long-term practitioners.
This study provides the first compelling evidence that the RR elicits specific gene expression changes in short-term and long-term practitioners. Our results suggest consistent and constitutive changes in gene expression resulting from RR may relate to long term physiological effects. Our study may stimulate new investigations into applying transcriptional profiling for accurately measuring RR and stress related responses in multiple disease settings.
| It’s a Wonderful Life | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story “The Greatest Gift“, which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and privately published in 1945.[3] The film is considered one of the most loved films in American cinema and has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season…
The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.
Despite initially performing poorly at the box office due to high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic and is a staple of Christmas television around the world.[4]
The film was nominated for five Oscars and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made,[6] placing number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list, and would also place number one on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.[7]
Some wise words from David Burns (author of multi-million copy, best-selling book Feeling Good) on dealing with other people’s judgements of us, good or bad:
Let’s consider your belief that it would be terrible if someone disapproved of you. Why does disapproval pose such a threat?. . .Suppose you were visiting the psychiatric ward of a hospital. A confused, hallucinating patient approaches you and says,
“You are wonderful. I had a vision from God. He told me the thirteenth person to walk through the door would be the Special Messenger. You are the thirteenth, so I know you are God’s Chosen One, the Prince of Peace, the Holy of Holies. Let me kiss your shoe.”
Would this extreme approval elevate your mood? You’d probably feel nervous and uncomfortable. That’s because you don’t believe what the patient is saying is valid. You discredit the comments. It is only your beliefs about yourself that can affect the way you feel. Others can say or think whatever they want about you, good or bad, but only your thoughts will influence your emotions.
. . .Imagine that you made a second visit to the psychiatric hospital ward. This time a different hallucinating patient approaches you and says,
“You’re wearing a red shirt. This shows you are the Devil! You are evil”
Would you feel bad because of this criticism and disapproval? Of course not. Why would these disapproving words not upset you? It’s simple–because you don’t believe that the statements are true. You must “buy into” the other person’s criticism–and believe that you are in fact no good–in order to feel bad about yourself.
Did it ever occur to you that if someone disapproves of you, it might be his or her problem? Disapproval often reflects other people’s irrational beliefs.
(from Feeling Good:The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns, p 291-2)
I have created this website to show you simple, proven ways to improve all aspects of your life.
I hope the practical ideas I present in Practical Savvy help you become happier and more effective in all aspects of your life.