Improve Cognitive Function in Minutes HOWMEDITATION HELPS YOU MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BRAIN
TheHippocampus Your hippocampus helps you process and formnewmemories, and it’s very sensitive to stress. In fact, research shows that your hippocampus will shrink in response to stressful situations and chronic stress.
Meditation has often been touted by NewAge gurus as a way to find inner peace and stillness. But what if meditating could reduce the effects of aging on your brain? According to research, taking a fewminutes out of your day to meditate may improve cognitive function. As meditation’s popularity has spread, so have studies of the practice. An article in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience gives an overview of some of the studies examining cognitive effects of meditation. All show evidence of improvements in psychological and cognitive functions. Some of the results are intuitive, such as howmeditation helps us deal with stress. But other results are incontrovertible, like the scans taken by Dr. Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, showing that meditation causes structural changes in the brain. For people facing age-related changes like memory loss, the results of these tests are especially relevant. The studies point to evidence that meditation can strengthen certain areas of the brain—the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala—that weaken as we age. The Prefrontal Cortex Your prefrontal cortex thins with age, which is associated with decreased cognitive function in your later years. However, meditationmay reduce this age-related thinning. Dr. Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist specializing in the effects of yoga and meditation on cognitive and behavioral function, reports that long-time meditators don’t show a decline in the thickness of the prefrontal cortex.
The remedy? Meditation. Dr. Lazar’s study showed a positive correlation betweenmeditation and a higher concentration of gray matter in the left hippocampus. The Amygdala Often called the fear center of the brain, the amygdala is triggered by stressful situations. But unlike the hippocampus, which shrinks in response to stress, the amygdala has been shown to become denser. In another study conducted by Dr. Lazar, people who attended mindfulness meditation classes showed a smaller stress response in brain scans compared to those who did not attend the classes. Meditationmay help to decrease the density of the amygdala and therefore increase your ability to handle stress. Of course, in addition to these benefits, there’s a good chance that five minutes of meditation each day will simply make you feel better. People who meditate report an increase in overall well-being. Why not give it a try? Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3903052/ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/meditation-health-benefits_n_3178731.html https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/use-your-mind-change-your-brain/201305/is-your- brain-meditation suggests we’re overdue. That said, every 1–2 years, the S&P 500 has a -10 percent pullback, as we saw this year. Many financial analysts called it an expected pullback. Ten years following the financial crisis, a lot of people are still worried about the possibility of another recession. For those approaching retirement, market drops are a big concern. When the markets take a hit, it can be harder to recover, especially if you are investing more conservatively as you get ready to retire and rely on your retirement accounts as a primary source of income. With these things inmind, when the market experiences volatility, one of the best strategies is to “wait and see.”Weather the storm. Investing for the future and for retirement is about long-term investing. The type of volatility we’ve witnessed this year is short-term volatility. If you do have questions, be sure to consult with your financial advisor. Ask questions, and avoid making rash decisions based on what you think might happen. Content is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.
What to DoWhen the StockMarket Goes Volatile Manage your Emotions, Your Money, and Your Retirement
It has been a wild ride for the stock market this year. The year started strong, but by February, the market started to correct itself. On February 8, the S&P 500 was down by 10 percent. In April it was
down again. These downs (and ups) leave people with a lot of questions: What should I do? Should I be worried? Are my investments at risk? Is my retirement at risk? If you are invested, it’s always good to pay attention to what is going on. But acting on emotion—that is, buying or selling in response to suddenmarket changes—can cause more harm than good to your portfolio. Even for folks who aren’t invested in the stock market, seeing the S&P plunge 10 percent (or any market fall by a large percentage) can be disconcerting. The truth is, these kinds of corrections are expected, though there is no practical way to predict them. At the moment, we are in the second longest bull market in history. And looking at the markets from a historical perspective brings things into better focus. The S&P 500, for instance, has a -5 percent pullback roughly 3–5 times every year. The last -5 percent pullback was two years ago, which
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