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Thread: The 6month challenge

  1. Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Thanks! I should be able to start as soon as my stuff arrives.. if ever.. living so far away creates these types of problems.

  2. Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Ive been on my challenge for a total week now. I have been using proteus nearly daily, and around 30min sessions on average 6 days a week. I am using hte mindlab learn sessions and no alpha atm. (however i should)

    I am also taking all those other supplements and have noticed a major increase in my study ability. My mind alone is like a big sponge and whatever im reading is absorbed. However when I use my proteus it seems to 'stick'. I have noticed a BIG increase in ability to grasp large abstract concepts and place htem all together.

    One down side I am noticing is that I become alouf. Especially when speaking to people, I ask them questions and register their answer but I forget later on and then sometimes end up asking them teh same question.(for instance my friends at uni and the subjects they are taking) Or my friend's speakers on her computer are not working, and i keep sending her sounds to hear and I forget that she doesn't have workign speakers. However as soon as she reminds me I remember.

    Could this be attributed to the large amounts of beta waves? During my study week it was basically ALL beta, and since mainly beta(mindlearn sessions). This problem has risen since then.

    Another factor COULD be the large amounts of omega3 epa/dha ratios im taking. However from what I have read there are only benefits from taking these fish oils and little side effects.

    This is the 8th day of taking the vitamins, sleeping in proper patterns and having regular and healthy eating habits. Along with the proteus sessions for study I have noticed an increase. And infact, I scored 90% in a quiz today and I was on the top 5% of my entire course with this grade.

    Its only up from here! P.S I am going to post a video on youtube about my experiences / kind of like a journal that will probably bring some traffic here.

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    Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Hi Meow,

    First, I'd like to thank you for posting the results of your study as you go! I find it very interesting to read about what you are experiencing and hope you continue.

    One down side I am noticing is that I become aloof. Especially when speaking to people, I ask them questions and register their answer but I forget later on and then sometimes end up asking them the same question.(for instance my friends at uni and the subjects they are taking) Or my friend's speakers on her computer are not working, and i keep sending her sounds to hear and I forget that she doesn't have working speakers. However as soon as she reminds me I remember.

    Could this be attributed to the large amounts of beta waves? During my study week it was basically ALL beta, and since mainly beta(mindlearn sessions). This problem has risen since then.
    Well as you are discovering, Beta is really good for helping you increase your ability to concentrate and process information quickly. "Beta 1 - 12 - 16 Hz is associated with higher cognitive processes and rational analytical, problem-solving thinking."

    From what you are describing, your long term memory in some areas seems to be affected. You mentioned that the material you are studying is staying in your memory, so you are processing the information well enough. This also tells me that your brain is producing enough Theta (which is needed for long term memory processing). If your brain had too much Beta - without the balance of the other brain waves kicking in when appropriate, you would likely experience feelings of anxiety, moodiness and sleeping difficulties. This is not happening to you.

    There is an explanation as to what could be happening and it has more to do with how certain information is processed, or in your case, not processed and remembered. We've all experienced these things you are talking about - for example, we get introduced to someone and 30 seconds later we forget their name. Or, as you mentioned, someone tells us something and we forget what they said a short time later.

    Long term memories can take a while to become embedded (up to two years). During that time, the memory is fragile and can be easily wiped out.

    In the example above where we are given the person's name and then forget it, what happens is, at the time we are given the person's name we are also likely processing other information about the person. We are told the name and then we are distracted by the conversation or other thoughts. The information had nothing to anchor it and so it is forgotten.

    If you felt a strong emotion about the person you were being introduced to, you would likely remember that person's name because emotions are strong memory anchors.

    The more associations you can attach to a piece of information, the more likely it is that you will remember that piece of information. This is why books on memory suggest that when you meet someone one and are told their name, you take a minute to think about their name, maybe ask them to spell it and then think of who they remind you of, make a rhyme out of their name etc. If you make these associations immediately with the information, then you will remember it longer.

    The more important the information is to you (emotional anchor) the more likely you will be to remember it.

    So - when your friends are telling you something that you forget right away, it's likely that you got distracted by something shortly after they told you and/or your mind is otherwise occupied by other things (perhaps your studies) and so the memory would fade rather quickly.

    In review, the things that influence information to become a memory are: repetition, linking associations and the intensity of experience (significance to you).



    Another factor COULD be the large amounts of omega3 epa/dha ratios I'm taking. However from what I have read there are only benefits from taking these fish oils and little side effects.
    All these would do is help nourish your brain. A lack of certain vitamins such as B12 would affect your memory and ability to think. If this was happening, then you would have problems remembering and thinking in many areas - it would be difficult to retain what you are learning in school.

    This is the 8th day of taking the vitamins, sleeping in proper patterns and having regular and healthy eating habits. Along with the Proteus sessions for study I have noticed an increase. And in fact, I scored 90% in a quiz today and I was on the top 5% of my entire course with this grade.
    Hey good for you! Beta training is reputed to help increase IQ.

    Its only up from here! P.S I am going to post a video on youtube about my experiences / kind of like a journal that will probably bring some traffic here.
    Sounds great. Make sure you post a link from here when you do so we can go see it.

    Thanks again for your input! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my comments.

    M.

  4. Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Hi,
    you are totally right, because since posting this your answer has become apparent to me lol! Just through daily thinking / observation of why im forgetting the names, and SINCE then I have been able to make an overall effort to be 'with the information' when i receive it and because of this, my memory has improved dramatically.(In review, the things that influence information to become a memory are: repetition, linking associations and the intensity of experience (significance to you)

    I think your also right on the attachment factor to the information, when it comes in blindly it goes out blindly. When you attach it or 'anchor' it to somethign else then it is more likely to be stored. I have been able to be aware of this more often so that the 3 things are kept in mind when information is being processed.

    My verbal iq has increased exponentially, without effort my brain wants to find different ways of explaining things and using different words and even thinking out different ways to explain the same thing. For example i will say something, then think about what I have said, analyse it, think a bit more about it and from just saying this one thing come to a conclusion of where it came from, what it means, how I could say it in a more deeper and meaningful way. This was not happening before.

    This week I have slipped a bit, my eating and sleeping habits have been messed up, no gym and no proteus, but its sunday tommorow so I plan to reorganise my week so that I can make up for the indiscrepencies this week.

    Regarding b12, I take a b12 supplement everymorning on an empty stomach along with folic acid. It is a 1000mcg b12 supplement from natures own. The folic acid is 400mcg. I do also take a b-complex however i usualy take that at the end of hte day so it kind of evens out. Morning and afternoon/night intakes of B vitamins.

    I am noticing I can learn anything incredibly fast without troubles and remember it at a later stage without trouble. ASLONG as I remember teh memory rule which is I have to touch on the stuff i studied a few days after i first learnt it otherwise i forget it incredibly fast. The vitamins have not helped here.

    I have decided to keep my journal and put it up all at once instead of bit by bit. It would be very boring for peopel to watch me just rant on about this so rather than weekly, i will just make a complitation at hte end of hte interesting bits.

    There is a downside, and this is a big one. Because I am having such good highs with this and enjoyable times are much more enjoyable once I become bored i go into a depressed state. And it spirals out of control if I allow it, I am able to curb it by doing a few things or seeing people but it comes back. I dont know why it is happening because I haven't experienced this before. So I am relating it to what I am doing / taking.

    Also if you are able to help out I am looking for food ideas, I've got some but its a pain. Trying to eat right is one thing, wanting to eat right is another thing, knowing what is the right things to eat is a differnet area alltogether. The first two come from within where as the other comes from the external.

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    Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Quote Originally Posted by me0w View Post
    Hi,
    There is a downside, and this is a big one. Because I am having such good highs with this and enjoyable times are much more enjoyable once I become bored i go into a depressed state. And it spirals out of control if I allow it, I am able to curb it by doing a few things or seeing people but it comes back. I don't know why it is happening because I haven't experienced this before. So I am relating it to what I am doing / taking.
    None of the supplements or L&S will cause depression. Are you feeling stressed at all? Stress can lower your serotonin levels and cause depression. If so, you may want to try taking some St. John's Wort.

    Or, add DHA to your diet (Salmon, tuna, sardines) or the capsule supplement. 300 mg daily.

    And, practice "thought stopping" and "thought redirecting" exercises - which are basically done by 1) recognizing the mood change at the onset, 2) change your body posture (sit or stand up straight and look up), 3) change state by doing something different - maybe something silly - anything that will divert your attention from what you were doing previously.

    Thought Stopping: Recognize unwanted thought at on-set, Say "Stop" or "Cancel, Cancel" ... "rewind" then tell yourself what you want to think about - use positive language. Example... negative thought ....STOP....I'd rather think about cappuccino mmmm cappuccino. Repeat every time the negative thought begins to appear. Avoid letting the thought form. The thought spirals out of control because you are letting the though form. It's like indulging a kid who is having a temper tantrum ... you want to nip it in the bud ... stop it before it forms into a tantrum. Does this make sense?

    You have a good mind, now that you are in school, it's a good time to learn how to program your mind. This is the start. You have control over your mind and emotions - not vice versa. Mental discipline reminds me of dog training. The dog will challenge you for leadership, sometimes in the most sneaky ways. You have to be on top of it and not let the dog con you out of your leadership. It's the same with the mind, if you don't stay aware ... your mind can create all kinds of trouble for you.

    Become aware of what you think about and how you think. Once you know how you think, you can change it. http://www.ayrmetes.com/articles/changing_behavior.htm In the second part of the article, it describes how to change emotions and response.

    If this sort of thing interests you, I've found sources of information in Buddhist books (believe it or not) such as "Training the Mind" by Chogyam Trungpa and there are a few books by the Dali Lama on the subject that are pretty good; Dr. Wayne Dyer has some good books on the subject, though his latter books are a bit on the Christian side (which can be good or not); Anthony Robbins books are also good; and, if you like Carlos Castaneda then you'll really like "On the Toltec Path" by Ken Eaglefeather (this book gets more into training of the mind, especially Perception).

    Also if you are able to help out I am looking for food ideas, I've got some but its a pain. Trying to eat right is one thing, wanting to eat right is another thing, knowing what is the right things to eat is a different area altogether. The first two come from within where as the other comes from the external
    .

    I'm afraid I'm not much help here. I'm a really picky eater and a vegetarian. I also like lots of stuff that is bad for you ... chips ... chocolate .... mind you, I read that chocolate (dark) is actually good for the brain. Yay! I'd say just use common sense in your eating and avoid over-indulging in stuff that is bad for you.


    M.

  6. Default Re: The 6month challenge

    i think what is turning me is my environment.. and that one thing was leading to another and i was going off my plan..

    but you are also right, and im going to try use those techniques when it happens..

    i also believe that having control over my mind is probably the best thign i can do, especially if i am able to control myself and my emotions properly.. not letting them control me as you said.. this stuff does intrest me and i have seen some stuff on the toltecs and they are very interesting, at the moment i dont have much time to go reading into these topics but I will in a few weeks.

    Regarding DHA i am defently getting enough of that. I am taking an omega3 supplement with 400mg of EPA and 200mg of DHA, i take about 4-5 per day so I am doing allright there.

    p.s while we are on this topic of mind control, here is some pretty awesome mind control http://youtube.com/watch?v=kmGGvBZGAhY

    Cheers!!

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    Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Welcome to the forum Agodney!

    Quote Originally Posted by agodney View Post
    Hello MeOw and Marisa
    This is my first posting on your site, so if I am not fitting in with etiquette I apologise ;o) If I should start a new thread and not cloud yours - please advise me.
    You know, you bring up a good point - albeit indirectly. We could continue our conversation here - that's no big deal - but there may be others who would like to participate on this discussion (improving memory & learning) that would not find this message because of the thread it's under .. so, I'm going to start a new thread and answer your questions there.

    http://www.mindplacesupport.com/foru...hread.php?t=80

  8. #18

    Default Re: The 6month challenge

    Back in the late 90s we funded a two-University study, principal investigator was Tom Budzynski, to test effects on academic performance. The protocol in this case (as I recall without re-reading the paper) was to alternate 11 Hz, GSR relaxation training, 22 Hz, GSR, for five minutes each. The LS portion was intended to activate both alpha and beta--but the 22 Hz will also cause some alpha activation as a subharmonic. The GSR was intended to produce relaxation, for those who grow tense at test time for example. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in grade point averages. This group did not report ADHD. The studies Dr Harold Russell did with ADHD showed significant verbal IQ enhancement--but those scores were probably being brought up to parity with performance rather than actually increasing someone's IQ below theoretical baseline (that is, it brought the scores up to what they would be without ADHD). The changes were still in effect upon retest 16 months after the study.

    Robert

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    Default Re: Study on Cognitive Performance and Neurofeedback

    This is what I found on Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...arch&DB=pubmed

    1: Int J Psychophysiol. 2003 Jan;47(1):75-85. Links
    The effect of training distinct neurofeedback protocols on aspects of cognitive performance.

    Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Behaviour, Imperial College London, Charing Cross Hospital, St. Dunstans Road, London W6 8RF, UK. d.vernon@ic.ac.uk
    The use of neurofeedback as an operant conditioning paradigm has disclosed that participants are able to gain some control over particular aspects of their electroencephalogram (EEG). Based on the association between theta activity (4-7 Hz) and working memory performance, and sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) activity (12-15 Hz) and attentional processing, we investigated the possibility that training healthy individuals to enhance either of these frequencies would specifically influence a particular aspect of cognitive performance, relative to a non-neurofeedback control-group. The results revealed that after eight sessions of neurofeedback the SMR-group were able to selectively enhance their SMR activity, as indexed by increased SMR/theta and SMR/beta ratios. In contrast, those trained to selectively enhance theta activity failed to exhibit any changes in their EEG. Furthermore, the SMR-group exhibited a significant and clear improvement in cued recall performance, using a semantic working memory task, and to a lesser extent showed improved accuracy of focused attentional processing using a 2-sequence continuous performance task. This suggests that normal healthy individuals can learn to increase a specific component of their EEG activity, and that such enhanced activity may facilitate semantic processing in a working memory task and to a lesser extent focused attention. We discuss possible mechanisms that could mediate such effects and indicate a number of directions for future research.
    PMID: 12543448 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

  10. Default Re: The 6month challenge

    my results.. this is a two semester before and after..
    1st semester
    the before, was where i put in lots of hard work, didnt use the proteus, however i did take some omega3 fish oils during first semester finals. These were my results.

    Pass, Pass, Pass, Credit.

    2nd semester
    this semester I took vitamins, used proteus, and tried to stick to a regime that was beneficial to my mind in terms of learning and memory.
    Credit, Credit, Credit, High Distinction.

    pass 50-64
    credit 65-74
    distinction 75-84
    high distinction 85-100

    So that is a pretty big change. I've learnt alot more about everything in the second semester than I did in the first. And im more 'awake', this being concious of everything. I feel I am able to better express my self aswell as being more calm and confident in tough situations. Also I have learn't to be more 'aware' of my mental states, and thus being able to improve my learning. Eg, I wont study if I know my mind is cloudy and really having trouble focusing.

    I don't know how you want to interpret the results but, the way I am looking at them is this. Baseline it will improve my grades 1 grade, however it has the potential to go all the way if I put my mind to it.

    Another side effect is that, even though I have never ever ever been able to sit down and read a book. I am finding myself more and more being able to sit down and read. Im going through books like potato chips.

    I decided not to youtube things, because they would be boring.

    This is only the start, I am going to continually aim for the original plan until I fulfill it. Aswell as continually improving myself! Skies the limit!

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