TSHP316: Can a higher IQ help you to live longer?

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What’s Coming This Episode?

Sean has been looking at some research that suggests people with a higher IQ live longer. Why might this be? Do we have much say over our intelligence or can we game the system and live longer?

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Do intelligent people live longer?

I have a fascination with people. I am continually intrigued by the way that we think, feel and act and as I observe the world around me and my fellow human beings I often ask ‘why’? Why are they saying that or doing that? Where does that feeling come from and what does it mean?

As I observe behaviour I see one fundamental difference in people that is to do with what I like to call ‘awakeness’. Some people are really awake and aware. They are engaged and actively involved in life. They have a drive to experience and learn and continue to develop as a person. Over all it seems that this has nothing to do with age. Strangely I see people in their middle age at 40 to 50 who have old minds, brains and ideas and I see people at 80 and 90 who are as bright as buttons still engaged and learning.

Now, I would say that answer to the above question is ‘yes’. I believe that people that are intelligent live longer but I also believe that intelligence can be learned. I accept that we all have a genetic predisposition to develop in certain ways but for all of us this is only a starting point. Our brain and our mind is no different to a muscle in our body. If you exercise a muscle it grows bigger and stronger. Exactly the same is true of your brain and your mind. The more you exercise it the more it grows and develops. The majority of intelligence is learned. I am sure that the nature nurture debate will roll on but in neuropsychology we know that the brain has plasticity and will grow change and develop if we exercise it.

If we practice playing a piano our brain will develop in ways that accommodate this. The same is true of every skill and habit that we have developed throughout life. In most cases what we call intelligence is simply one of the habits that we taught our brain. The ability to think clearly, to discriminate and to analyse are skills that can be learned. Those people that do have a flexibility in both their thinking and their feeling. Strangest of all is that those people also seem to maintain physical flexibility as well.

I see this every time I go to the University of the Third Age, the organisation for life long learning. When I give talks the average age is 80 the younger ones are in their 70s and the older ones in their 90s. I am forever astounded at the flexibility of their minds but also the flexibility of their bodies.

With what are now beginning to understand about the gut brain and the heart brain it is becoming clearer that both the brain and body run together, they work together. Flexibility of mind and body seems to naturally go together.

I suspect that the greatest effect on longevity, alongside medicine, is the printing press, education and books. We know that reading develops the brain but so much more…

Research shows that reading not only helps with fluid intelligence, but with reading comprehension and emotional intelligence as well. You make smarter decisions about yourself and those around you. Reading does in fact make us more intelligent. 

Ref: bigthink.com

…reading gives muscle to your memory. While the brain isn’t actually a muscle, it can still benefit from a good workout. Furthermore, it’s surprising just how reading can make you healthier.

I am suggesting that you might like to check out this article. One of the issues it talks about is how Alzheimer’s can be held off through the simple act of reading. Which was the main theme of international book week this year.

Be happy and grab a good book

Take care

Sean x

TSHP315: How to be a great leader

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What’s Coming This Episode?

What does good leadership look like? What does it mean? Are YOU a good leader? This week, Sean and Ed discuss what it takes to use the power we all have…

Enjoy the show and take care, it’s The Self Help Podcast!

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How to be a great leader

What a subject and what a time to be talking about it. Somebody once said something like, ‘those that want to be leaders should never be allowed to do so’. This was something that I didn’t really understand until I began working with managers. Oh my, there  are some awful managers out there and many of them are supposed to be looking after our health and/or wellbeing.

There is a part of me that feels we should never be talking about Brexit and there is a part of me that is both intrigued and annoyed with it all. I am appalled at what a total mess our leaders have made of the whole Brexit business. From Cameron onwards  we have had disaster after disaster and now we are in such a sad state that we are about to have yet another leader and we still haven’t resolved Brexit.

I am very clear that I think Brexit is one of the stupidest things we could possibly do. I do not think that the EU is perfect and I believe that it needs reforming and developing. However the idea of people coming together and working together makes total sense to me and fulfils the aim of the European project of creating peace and not war.

As I watch the mad people take over the asylum we have Boris, BoJo, here, Trumpy in the states started his next election drive, surely to God we do not need another term of him, and we have Iran stretching its muscle and Korea wondering what to do next. I could go on but I will climb off this hobby horse.

Okay, to me it looks like this, leaders by definition are there to lead. With a bit of hope and a good wind they will lead us in a positive direction. The problem is that to be a positive leader you need to have insight. Around me I can not a see a single leader who has insight.

The spectrum of psychopathy begins with those around us who lack insight and empathy and are generally insensitive people and ends with murderers, mass murders and, sad to say, some politicians. For someone to say something or tweet something and then completely deny that they did does not suggest a person with insight. To feel able to lie about the funds that would supposedly be freed from EU contributions and used for the NHS does not suggest insight. And to be a socialist leader with splinters in their bottoms because they are unable to get off the fence does not suggest insight.

I think that we are in the era of the successful psychopaths and they are now taking power. Because these psychopathic traits of insensitive leadership are gaining in popularity they are on the rise. We now find them in organisation and the public services at all levels of management and leadership. This draconian approach to social interaction and management moves clearly away from the socialist models that developed after the last war with the NHS and the welfare state. This all suggests to me that society, in the normal ebbs and flows of social change, is lurching to the right. When this happens it can so easily lead to fascism, nationalism and isolation. This is exactly where we are, in Europe, before the Second World War and after all that ended we thought that we had learned that lesson. It was then that we created the United Nations, and eventual the EU.

This is one of those times in the social cycle when we need a leader to appear. A real leader who has both insight and empathy and can truly represent the ideals of all humanity and not be stuck social or religious factionalism.

My favourite phrase is…

…if we all look a few each other we will all be okay… 

Take care and be happy and if the storm does come then we will need to learn to dance in the rain.  

Take care

Sean x

TSHP314: How to be happy when it rains

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What’s Coming This Episode?

It’s raining. A lot. Everyone is talking about it (it’s what we do in the UK). Can we be happy when it rains or are we programmed to be glum and miserable? Let’s find out!

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Learning to dance in the rain

In virtually all forms of symbolism water represents emotion and creativity especially in the magic of dreams and visions. When we dream of water it is an expression of inner emotions being processed. The dreams may be hard, easy or simply interesting or mystifying. Each dream is an expression of what is going on inside us. Often the dream is a symbolic message in which we are attempting to resolve our inner conflicted feelings.

If in the dream the water is calm, deep and peaceful then so are our emotions. If we find ourself being tossed around on a turbulent and rough sea we are processing deep and troubled emotion. Should we be lost at sea in a rudderless boat then we are lost and directionless in life. If the well has run dry or the rivers are empty and the land is cracked, we are in an emotional drought and have run out of all feelings and are left barren and our life has become meaningless. If we find our self drowning in the water we are being overwhelmed by the emotions that we are having to deal with in our life.

We also have images of water as the bringer of life. In the symbol of Aquarius water is being poured on the ground. This is not being thrown away it is feeding the ground allowing the plants to grow, develop and bear fruit. This is an act of creation. In Genesis in the Bible  God said… 

…“Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven.

Water is a magic symbol for many reasons mainly because it has so many unique qualities. The first is that it comes about by the mixing of two gases together, oxygen and hydrogen. This combination forms H2O that has three forms, water as liquid, ice as a solid and steam as a gas. 

There is the astronomical aspect as the tides are formed by the moon pulling the body of water around the earth. The tides become higher when the elliptical orbit of the moon brings it closer to the earth and increases the gravitational effect.

Water has another magical property in that it cannot be compressed. If you fire a small ball of water at speed it will react like a bullet and even go right through a steel plate. This why water can be so painful when we belly flop when diving.

Water is also the symbols of cleansing. Pontius Pilot washes his hands to symbolise that he is washing away his responsibility for the fate of Jesus. The priest will either  dunk you in water or wash your forehead to wash away your sins. In Shakespeare Lady Macbeth attempts to wash away the ‘damned spot’ of her guilt that she sees on her hands.

Water can be pure emotion. Bad weather and rain can drive us indoors to huddle by the fire and cosy up. We, in Britain, live with rain but we love to moan about it. As they say…

…there is never bad weather only the wrong cloths.

When we look at the emotions of life that may be our hurts, losses and fears we can either huddle away from them or we can embrace them and learn to live with them in a very real sense.

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass

It is about learning to dance in the rain. 

And if you get good at it you might just be able to boogie in a thunderstorm, jive in a hail storm and fly in a tornado.

Stay happy and don’t worry about getting wet.

Take care

Sean x

TSHP313: A Day in the Life of a Freelance Designer, Dad and Environmental Crusader

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What’s Coming This Episode?

Last week we let Sean talk about a particular day in his life played out. This week, it was Ed’s turn! A Dad, a hubby, a self employed designer and a thinker, he has quite a busy little life. Let’s find out what a day looks like for him…

Enjoy the show and take care, it’s The Self Help Podcast!

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A Day In Your Life

Over the last two podcasts Ed and I have been looking at our own days, what we do, and how that works for us. So, mine was a day in the life of a psychotherapist and this week we did a day in the life of ED. It was, for me, quite strange doing it because it made me think about what I was doing and the effects that it has on me and those around me. The result is that I am leaving my NHS role so that I can have more time to be sane and spend more time with the family. This move will mean my working week will go from 60 to around 30 hours. I suspect that it will feel a bit like part time but it will enable me to get on with those things that I want to do more of such as writing and creating audio and ebooks.

Taking the time to stop and look at what it is that we are doing is like doing a personal audit, a self audit. It is a time to stop and reflect and look back at what it is that we are doing and to decide whether or not we want to take this into the future. It is useful to have a plan in life and to have some idea of where it is that we are going. This should not be confused with the mindful idea of living in the present and not projecting anxiously into the future. Positive future projection is creativity. All creativity begins with an image that once considered turns into a plan. We then need to resource the plan, test it and then make it happen. This is the creative process.

I have been doing some work with the University of the Third Age, The U3A. This is an organisation committed to life long learning. In front of me are a group of thirty people. The majority are in their eighties, the young ones are in their seventies and the older ones are in the nineties. Looking at them you wouldn’t believe their ages. The magic thing that they all have in common is that they are all active, engaged, and as fit as they possibly can be. Their activity is strong and intense involving activities from learning Japanese to developing computer skills. The key for them all is that they are having fun. They have a common belief that…

You do not stop playing because you get old

You get old because you stop playing

They are still playing and enjoying it.

I see people in their thirties and forties that act like they are old people. They have given up, stopped learning and are feeling depressed. The thing that Ed and I both have in common is that we both enjoy what we do with our lives and yes, we are busy but we are having a good time. Those people in the U3A are also having a good time.

So, here is the deal. Spend the next week writing down what it is that you do everyday. At the end of the week review what you have written and score each thing that you have done with 10 being the best and one being the worst. Accepting that we have to do some things that we don’t feel that good about, most of your scores should be 7 or more, 8 or 9 is really good and 10 is amazing.

Think about it. How do you feel about your scores? If they are not too good it is time to change. What can you do about it?  If they are good do more of what you are doing now, if it works for you.

Take care and be happy

Sean x