I was reading an article about the brain, it was all about how the brain  is not equipped to multi-task.  Then, I remembered a conversation I had with my daughter  about her New Year’s resolution:

“Focus more and to block out distractions”.

She felt that she spent too much time reading various websites, taking in information from blogs, news headlines, and a variety of news  sources,  to the point it became a virtual news-knowledge-information fire hydrant slamming her in the mind.  She said while all this information was interesting, it seemed to keep her from actually “doing” anything”.  So  instead of finishing the “Brain:” article I was reading I immediately e-mailed the website to her.  What the!

No, that ain’t right!

I realized,  I was  doing precisely what she was trying to stop.  I was attempting to give her yet, another distraction and a the same time I was distracting myself by not focused on the article at hand.  My mind took off on it’s own trying to be in 10 places at once.  Even now,  at this minute, I just heard the dryer in my apartment stop and my mind is saying, “get up and get the clothes out of the dryer before they wrinkle!”    And yet, I know that my mind is simply creating thoughts that I really do not need to pay attention to.

Who’s the Boss!

My conscious mind is always creating havoc!  There is always drama going on in there!  Thoughts filled with negative messages that may or may not help me get through the day.  Negative thinking.  Thoughts that do not benefit me, making me the “victim”.  A Ha!  the “Brain”  article says, one of the symptoms of multi-tasking too much is “negative” thinking.  See!  Here is proof!

Then the phone rang.

The voice was a woman’s and it was filled with emotion and cracking with the urgency of someone in distress.  She had been referred to me by a friend and she was pacing in a parking lot, smoking and in need of some kind of comfort.  She was filled with adrenaline and she wanted relief!   Man, was her mind racing as she was trying to describe the problems she faced.  Her tongue could not keep up with all the negative thinking that was bombarding her.  She was definitly a victim of her wild mind’s thoughts, and she wanted help….right now!

Hysteria is just a frame of mind!

I told her,
“The first step you can take  is to calm down.”  Hard to do but it is possible if you  understand the emotional process.

Something bad happened.

Someone or something made this happen.

It will continue to happen unless you calm down.

The only way to change about these circumstances is to take control of your own mind.

Because you cannot change anyone else, the only thing you can change is YOU.

So you need to witness, recognize and observe your thoughts.

Before you can focus your attention, you need to take charge of your negative emotional wild thoughts (worry, anger, sadness, irritation).

This is your wild mind, and it  impairs and overwhelms your pre-frontal cortex, the brain’s driver.  When your driver is impaired you can’t make sense of your thoughts.   You can not come to solutions and you have impaired decision making.

Too many negative thoughts and stress damages your ability to focus and it harms your health.  You can change that outcome by taking control of your mind.  Recognize the negative thinking, re-frame thoughts to control the outcome.  For instance, if your thoughts are telling you, “My family is against me, I am the victim of their accusations!  You can re-frame to say, “These accusations are false,  I will present myself and my mind in a rational way to prove them to be wrong”.

How do you get there?  How do you take control of your “wild” thoughts?   You can employ the same things that improve your health.

Breathe!  Sleep well, exercise, do a mindfulness practice, take some time to notice what you are doing in this very moment. When you control your thoughts you will control your brain.

First step?  Stop being distracted, focus on one task at a time.  Finish that task and then take on another.  In other words stop the distractions, and focus.  Because when you organize your life and focus on what needs to be done right now.  You will benefit because your mind will be clear, less stressed and ready for the next task.  Your mind will become more orderly as well.

The payoff is that you will be in control, of your life and your mind.  Why not be the “captain” of your own life the master of your thoughts!

When was the last time you sat down at the computer and just focused on one project, one issue, for one hour, without being distracted or checking your email, or finding out the latest celebrity gossip, or seeing how your sports team did, or finding a really funny video showing a cat water-skiing.

Yeah, I thought so. Me neither. But don’t worry. You are not alone. OK, we are not alone.

Short attention span

According to a new study, in the past decade the average attention span has dropped dramatically from 12 minutes to five minutes. Five minutes. That’s barely enough time to boil a hard-boiled egg. Hardly enough time to make a decent cup of tea. You wouldn’t even be halfway through the Derek and the Dominos classic  “Layla” (OK, that dates me) before your time is up.

The study says that today the average office worker checks their email 30 to 40 times an hour. An hour. It’s like a Pavlovian response. The little image appears in the corner of your screen or a sound goes off telling you there’s a new email in your inbox and you rush there to check it out. Odds are it’s going to be worthless or something that could have waited a few minutes, or quite  honestly a few hours, or days or weeks or you could even ignore it completely and life would go on. Yet still you feel the need to go and check it out right, right, now.

To delay might mean. Well, what!

Exactly. We are rushing around from one thing to another and not necessarily doing anything better or more skillfully or thoughtfully. All we are doing is doing it faster. The downside of that is that anything that forces us to slow down, or – god forbid – stop – then just drives us crazy. We’re addicted to speed. Addicted to multiple stimuli at the same time.

Addicted is the right word to use in this context. This new study found that social media may even be changing the way our brains work, re-wiring our circuitry, making us impatient and forgetful and distracted.

OK, what was I saying?

Slow down, let it sink in

Think about it. When was the last time you watched a video – other than a movie – that lasted more than a few minutes. How often do you just dismiss out of hand anything that looks as though it might take a few minutes to watch or read. How often do you just move on from an article that actually requires some real thinking, maybe even reading it a couple of times to understand it.

We are trying to save time. Instead we are losing our minds.

We enjoy reading “News” sources in order to be more informed of what happened and analysis on what it all means, however,  since Tina Brown took over as editor of “Newsweek”, it seems to have become “Newsweek Light”, all about Celebrities with a little “relevant news” thrown in.  I probably will not renew my subscription but there is one section that I do like.  So I’m still on the fence.  It’s the last page of the magazine.  “My Favorite Mistake”  which is usually a short interview of an actor like Ben Kingsley being called suburban, or Dr. Phil making a decision on his own that would affect his and his wife’s life which he regretted, or the famous musician, Lars Ulrich, who talks  about the time that Quentin Tarentino sent him a script written with each scene choreographed supported by music of Metallica (Lars’s Group).  It was an honor, Lars knew it in his gut but he simply did not understand the concept !  Lars didn’t get it!  It was for the movie “Kill Bill”! He didn’t do it. Big Mistake!

Sometimes, none of us get it!  We try to be aware of opportunities, make the right decision, or simply understand; but we just don’t get it.

Listen and You Will Hear

The other day, I was in the coffee shop and a young woman walked in, she was  in a hurry.  There was a short line but it seems she was a regular, so she asked the clerk if she could just grab a cup and begin getting her coffee.  She would pay later.  A woman who was in line in front of her said to the Barrista, “She’s in a hurry, let me pay for her coffee.”  Nice huh?

When the harried gal came back, full cup in hand to pay, the barrista said “Your coffee has been paid by that woman”.   This gal was so involved with being in a hurry, she missed the point entirely.  She said, ” Well, I still need change for the bus!”

Really!  There was no “Thank You”, NO Acknowledgement of a random act of kindness.  No nothin’!

She simply could not get out of her experience of  being harried, that she literally could not see a kindness in her path.  It might have changed the way she saw her entire day.  It could have changed her whole attitude about her life… (well, maybe not).

It did make me think, “What do we miss everyday.”  What wonderful things happen each day that we over look.

What did you overlook today?

Magic? Goodness? Perhaps a miracle?

Oh, and here’s what I like about “My favorite Mistake”; it is that reflection that each mistake is a lesson.  We did not understand the lesson at the time, but when it evolves we can see it very clearly in the rear view mirror.  Perhaps if we slowed down just a little we would have a better view of the experience as it happens.

Hey kids!  Want to live longer, have a healthier body and mind, have a better outlook on life, and enjoy an enormous surge in endorphins, serotonins, and even, boost your immune system?  Get yourself a girlfriend! Yes, that is right!  Sisterhood can increase all of the above! That’s not just wishful thinking, that is research from Dr. David  Spiegel (co-chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University Medical Center).

A helping hand, or two

Dr. Spiegel studied the effect of emotional, mental, social, spiritual and behavior factors on health. The study was targeting women with breast cancer, one of life’s ultimate stressors.  When diagnosed with breast cancer most women feel like they have just been hit in the face by a fire hydrant.  Emotions, rational, consequences, prognosis, I mean…really, your life races before your eyes in a slow motion cloud of unrelenting scenes of possible outcomes – most of them not good ones. There is no computer generated movie that can duplicate the stuff that fills up the mind when it comes to facing a life threatening disease like cancer. But one of the best things you can do is have a friend to help you face the fire hydrant!

No matter what kind of cancer you have…You have Stress!

Dealing with stress can wear down the body’s ability to fight disease.  That means your immune system, endocrine, and nervous systems are compromised by stress!  How do you relieve stress?  Dr. Spiegel says, “Psychosocial support and stress management to augment medical treatment has been shown to improve cancer outcome and quality of life.”   Translation:  Getting together with friends and family while you are undergoing treatment and after can make your outlook better, increase your immune system to fight the cancer and create a more positive outcome.

Talking, Sharing and Being Realistic Is Healthy

Facing life’s realities with the support of friends, social communities, or a loving spouse, will help you cope and help diminish the feelings of depression and detoxify the fear.  So expressing emotions with friends and family, and clarifying problems brought on by having cancer can help you to cultivate better relationships and share the feelings of crisis with everyone in your inner circle. It spreads the weight of the diagnosis and everyone does a little lifting.  Much better than denial!

You Don’t Have To Have Cancer To Get The Benefits!

But guess what?  You don’t have to have cancer to reap the benefits of this study!  You just have to have friends, someone to talk to when you feel down.  Spiegel reveals in this landmark study that found women with advance metastatic breast cancer who are involved in support groups, not only had less anxiety, depression and pain, but survived an average of 18 months longer.  His conclusion was psychosocial interventions improve not just the quality of life but the quantity of life too.

So diminish your stress, be happier, and prolong your life!  Get some friends!

How many times have you thought “Oh my giddy aunt, what was I thinking?” after you have made a decision that was – in retrospect – clearly a big, fat blunder. We’ve all done it. Bought a shirt, dress, pair of trousers that at the time seemed like a good idea but after you have taken them home and looked at them a second time, thought “dear god, purple velvet flairs! Why, why dear lord!”

Well the reason may not be that you suddenly lost your mind, it may be that your mind simply gave up and took the easy way out.

Mind what you do

A fascinating article in the Sunday New York Times magazine – To Choose is to Lose – explores the science behind why we make decisions, particularly why we make bad ones. It shows how we have a limited ability to keep making good, thoughtful, well-balanced decisions. That the more decisions we make in a single day the more we deplete our brain’s ability to make good ones so that by the end of the day, or at the end of a long stretch of forced decision making, we simply go for one of a few options, either decide not to decide, or go for the easiest option – which is not always the best one.

It explains an awful lot about why decisions we make turn out to be bad ones even if our intentions are good. Our brains are just tired and running low on energy so they switch to an energy-saving mode by making quick, poorly, thought out choices.

Fueling your brain

Decision overload

One of the keys to keeping your brain sharp, or at least sharper, is to keep it fueled (it’s like a muscle and needs energy to be able to function well) and that means eating well. Which may be one of the reasons why so many people on a diet fail to stick with it. It’s fairly straight forward. If you think about it, when you are on a diet you spend the entire day making decisions about what to eat or not eat, and you spend a lot of time telling yourself not to make bad choices – not to eat that cake, that chocolate, that extra cheesy pizza. To lose weight on a diet you have to constantly make better choices about what you eat. But to keep making those choices you need to eat to fuel your brain so that it functions well. Lack of food = poor choices = falling off the diet wagon.

Food for thought

That doesn’t mean you can’t manage to stick with a diet,  and it may be the reason why people who graze – eating healthy food, in small amounts, throughout the day – do better at losing weight than people who stick to the more traditional three-square meals a day.

It also may help explain why at the end of the day it’s probably not a good idea to make monumental decisions about anything more complicated than whether to have one or two olives in your martini. You may wake up to regret the results.

My hypnotherapy clients come in for all sorts of issues that are getting in the way of them living the life they want!  Whether their problem is poor self-esteem, weight, anxiety, blocks, or addiction, they all want to be free of the problem.  Yet their problems have become so familiar and comfortable to them they almost hold it like an old teddy bear, taking it with them where ever they go or what ever phase of their life they embark upon.

They feel safe and comfortable with this annoying, unwelcome friend until, finally, they decide to let go.

That’s when I come in

I’ll have a client tell me, “Well, I’ve always been anxious and worried”.  I wonder, did someone tell them that?  How does one become “labeled” with a behavior?  Is it like being told you are “gifted” or “smart”?   If it’s that simple, then all of us would tell our kids, “Gee, you are so smart” or “talented” or “gifted” right?  But I find that many latch on to sour labels, negative thinking and they live their lives thinking that they have no choice.

That’s when I tell them about imagination.  You know imagination don’t you?  Look around at where you are sitting right now….Everything you see is there because someone “imagined” it.  Right.  The lamp, the rug, the desk the computer I’m typing on was the result of someone’s imagination.  I just love that!

It's All In Your Mind!

I help my clients see the power that imagination has in our lives.  It is a very powerful thing and I don’t have to prove it to them because they can see the proof right before their eyes.  Then I tell them, if someone used their imagination to create all the things we see before us, why can’t you use imagination to create the life you would like to live?   Imagine what life would be to be free of the problems you have been hauling around.  Think of it, you can be free of thinking about weight, free of creating worry in your life, free of being afraid and anxious.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?  I had someone tell me long ago, “Wow, right…if it was only that easy.”  Well, it isn’t that easy, because you have to re-train your brain.  That’s right, we all have thoughts and those thoughts turn into choices and those choices become behaviors, and those behaviors become the way you live your life.  So if you worry about the past or the future you make the choice to drag it around with you and you feel anxious or fearful or just simply not complete which causes you to feel anxious.  If you feel anxious you become tense, your nervous system is put on alert your body creates stress to deal with the anxious feeling.  The stress and the tension create a tense, unhealthy environment and your body can’t work to it’s fullest potential so all systems are compromised, like your immune system, and your heart, and your quality of health.

You have the choice

Maybe it isn’t a conscious choice but one that is subliminal, as David Eagleman observes in his book about the mysteries of the brain, “Incognito”, “Brains are in the business of gathering information and steering behavior appropriately.  It doesn’t matter whether consciousness is involved in the decision making.  And most of the time, it’s not.”  When I work with guided imagery and hypnosis, we give the subconscious “new orders” and that information will be put into the mix and worked on day and night to achieve the wanted outcome.

Do It Yourself!

You too can re-train your brain to notice the thoughts that do not benefit you.  It’s just your ego needing some drama to keep you worried or anxious, but you have the right to choose which thoughts you have in your mind.  You have the right to let go of thoughts that no longer benefit you.  You can re-train your brain and create a life you want.  It’s all perception anyway.  You have the right to create a “belief” system that works for you and be the master of your own thoughts.

Just imagine.

So many of my clients come to me and say, “I’m so stressed out!”  In fact, just walking down the street you can see for yourself the people who look like they simply hate their world.  I have a simple 6 step remedy to take some of the stress out of your life so you can put a smile on your face and a snap in your step.

You might feel like you have too much to do and you  never get it all done.

1) Get a To Do List

Make a list each day of the things you absolutely have to do, things you need to do, and things you’d like to do.  That way you can meet your deadlines and get things done with a confident, focused mind.

You might feel like everyone is asking you for something.

2) Learn to say No.

Be polite, be apologetic, be filled with regret, but be honest.  If you can’t do what you are being asked to do, or if doing it would cause you a lot of grief and stress…just say no!

You might be in a rush to get things done.

3) Do it right the first time.

Often we think we can cut corners and rush something through.  When we do something slap-dash, oftentimes we have to do it again. It may take a little longer to do it right the first time, but it will save you time on the redo.

You might feel like you procrastinate.

4) Use the 10 minute rule.

Pick a task you don’t want to do, and spend ten minutes doing it.  Chances are that at the end of the 10 minutes the task is done or well on it’s way.  If it’s done, it won’t be hanging over your head or keeping you awake at night.  If it’s begun you might feel like spending a little more time to finish or feel thankful that it is on it’s way to being completed.

You might feel tired, bored, or listless.

5)  Sleep and exercise regularly

Burning that midnight oil makes you tired, cranky and inefficient.  It also impairs your immune system, making you vulnerable to sickness.  Exercising regularly keeps you healthy, reduces your stress level, and gives you energy.  Take care of yourself and you’ll stay focused, productive, and efficient.

You might feel overwhelmed.

6) Take a break.

Stop, breathe, have a cup of coffee or tea, go for a walk, read a magazine or a book for a few minutes.  Just break away, even briefly from what you are doing.  The odds are that you’ll feel sharper and be better able to focus on the task at hand after you’ve taken a mini-break from it.

The lesson here is to take care of yourself!  Listen to your mind and body.  Treat yourself like you were your own best friend.  You are worth it!

Did you ever read an article and think, ‘wow, that was really interesting, I must remember it” and then a week or so later you can barely remember the fact that you read it let alone any of the details? Well, I have discovered a great way to embed certain things in your brain permanently. Simply follow whatever it is you are trying to remember with a life or death experience!

That just happened to me. I just finished reading a fascinating article in the New Yorker magazine by Burkhard Bilger called “The Possibilian”. It was about a scientist called David Eagleman who was fascinated by – among other things – the perception of time slowing down at moments of heightened tension or drama. He had done a number of studies to try and understand what happened and how our brains reacted to these kinds of situations, and to see if in fact time did appear to slow down at extreme moments in our lives.

I could have saved him the bother because, today, I just proved it. The fabulous Shirley and I were driving back to San Francisco from the Russian River. It was a gorgeous early spring day, sun shining, hills a lush green landscape dotted with dazzling spring flowers. We took the quieter country road because we wanted to enjoy the scenery. A number of other cars had the same idea and soon there was a line of about six cars. As we neared a farm the front car indicated it was going to turn left into the driveway and slowed down, I was behind it and I slowed down. Unfortunately all the other drivers seemed to be too busy enjoying the scenery to notice what was happening up ahead because none of them showed any signs of stopping.

It’s a really rather uncomfortable feeling, sitting in your car, unable to move ahead without hitting the car in front, and seeing all these other cars coming at you very fast. There’s nowhere to go, nothing to do, except, sit, and wait, and hope. Finally, the driver behind me saw what was happening and slammed on her brakes, and that started a cascade of red lights and screeching tires as each car in turn tried to avoid a pile-up.

The last car in the caravan wasn’t so fortunate. It was a big SUV and it was hauling a speed boat and it was going too fast to be able to stop in time. So, instead of piling into the car in front of him the driver steered his car to the side of the road, smashing through the long grass and flowers, narrowly missing all the other cars until he eventually came to a halt, level with us.

A quick look over and it was clear the folks in the car were shaken, but not hurt. They were incredibly lucky, had there been a ditch they would have almost certainly rolled over. Had there been a tree or fence in the way, they would have come to a much more abrupt halt. As it was, probably the only damage was to their nerves.

It all happened in a flash, a matter of seconds, yet it seemed to go on for ages. I can recall looking in the rear view mirror and seeing the look of terror on the face of the woman coming up fast behind me when she realized I had stopped. I can recall the individual sounds as the other drivers all took evasive action. And I can still hear in my head the shwssssshhhhhhh sound the last car made as it raced through the long grass and flowers.

The New Yorker article describes that moment perfectly; “in life-threatening situations, time seems to slow down…. It’s a moment of absolute calm and eerie mental acuity.”

And it’s true. I don’t recall being scared as I witnessed all this happening, just very aware that this was something over which I had no control. You become almost detached, standing off to the side watching your life take a direction you hadn’t planned on.

Suddenly the lessons and conclusions of the article were firmly embedded in my brain, not in my short-term but in my long-term memory. The piece itself goes on to follow Eagleman as he tried to answer the question “Why does time slow down when we fear for our lives? Does the brain shift gears for a few suspended seconds and perceive the world at half speed , or is some other mechanism at work?”

For me it was also a reminder that our lives are really rather precarious. Even when we do everything right, things may turn out wrong because we have no control over others. Their actions, as much as our own, determine what will happen to us. Our fate is in the hands of a man driving a large SUV, towing a big speed boat, who is not really paying attention to the world in front of him.

This time it worked out. But what about the next time. Or the time after that. And maybe the time after that the person not paying attention will be me. Will I be so lucky to react quickly enough to avoid a crash?

Hopefully this experience will make everyone involved in the different cars be more aware of what’s happening around them, what they are doing and what others are doing. Not just when they are driving but in other aspects of their life. Just to be focused on where you are and who you are with and what you are doing can really change the way you see the world around you. And change the way you see the people around you. And probably for the better.

As for the rest of the New Yorker article and its conclusions about time, well it’s fascinating stuff, and well worth reading.

As for me. I think I’ve done enough research for today. I need to go lie down.

I have just been back from my first day of “Level 7 Hypnotherapy Class”  …Oh my dears… I have been practicing hypnotherapy for 11 years and I learned soooo much today!   Really, I mean.  This class is so

wonderful.  Filled with possibilities.  Okay, I sat next to a man, named Tony who escaped from Hungary in 1979, when it was still part of the Soviet Union!

Tony planned his escape for 11 years!  He had nightmares….no duh, and he came to the United States and created a life for himself.  How can you not believe in miracles!

When he got to the border to cross over into the west the fellow in front of him was pulled out and sent back.  Can you imagine how terrified he was as he handed over his fake passport to the border patrol?  What courage it must have taken to look completely stern and fine as the officer looked over his papers and waved him through.

You would think, after he got across and was safe in his rented room, that he would feel an elation, a sense of freedom, an  overwhelming sense of relief after the journey he just made. But it was not to be.  Eleven days after his escape,  Tony began to experience such horrendous nightmares that he willed himself to suppress any dreams that came to him.  Shut them off.  Stop remembering anything that would disturb him.  And so that went on for 32 years.  No Dreams, none that he could remember for 32 years!

And then, he decided to study hypnotherapy, a therapy that uses relaxation to find answers from the subconscious mind.  He went to the Hypnotherapy Training Institute in Corte Madera  California.  People come from all over the world to attend classes there and learn hypnotherapy.

One of the founders,  Randal Churchill is an expert in “Dream Work”  he suggested to Tony, “You are safe now, why not remember your dreams?”  That night, Tony remembered his first dream in 32 years!  It was a lovely dream, full of possibilities, confidence, comfort and calmness.

Tony loved it!

So do I.   You just don’t know what is possible, do you?  Little miracles and some surprises can change your life. Every day.

Just imagine, there is a wonderful luscious chocolate cake in front of you.  It’s fresh and it has soft creamy frosting dancing in swirls all over the top and the sides.  The chef didn’t skimp on anything and you have a slice of this delicious, delightful delicacy on a plate right in front of you. But that’s not all!

Along with this beautiful piece of cake is a dollop of french vanilla ice cream.  The ice

cream is just beginning to melt and some of the edges are dripping down the side of the cake.  You can see it and as you do you take up the fork and scoop a corner off the piece of cake you can see the tiny fragments of cake fall to the plate, and as you lift the fork you reach for just a little ice cream to add the lovely creamy cold flavor to the forkful of cake.

You bring the fork to your mouth and you can feel the sensation of cold from the ice cream and you detect the scent of the vanilla just before it hits your palate, quickly followed by the chocolate frosting, so rich and creamy, a lovely contrast to the taste of the cake, so light and smooth. You take the time to just experience the sensations in your mouth and you finally swallow.   Mmmmmmmm. wasn’t that wonderful?

All in the mind not the mouth

Guess what!  You didn’t gain a pound, but you enjoyed it completely, right?  That’s because it was in your imagination.  Did you begin to salivate?  So did I.

So if you have gone along and imagined with me and experienced eating the cake and ice cream with all your senses – taste, feel, smell, sound, sight – you actually experienced the food.  You actually fooled your mind into thinking that you did eat the cake and you enjoyed the cake.  It’s not all in the imagination. There is actually some solid science that says if you use your mind to “experience” the food, you are more likely to eat less of  it.

Mindful munching

There is a study done by Carnegie Mellon University, published in Science Magazine, that suggests that the more you imagine eating a certain food the less of that particular food you will actually eat.  Can you imagine that?  What an amazing diet. Just by imagining the food you crave you won’t crave it anymore.

M&M’s mmmmmm

The study involved 300 participants who did not know they were in a eating habits study.  They thought they were in an imagery and size perception study.  The control group imagined inserting 30 quarters into a laundry machine (in San Francisco we’d be putting them into a parking meter, but I digress). Another group was asked to imagine putting 30 quarters into the laundry machine and then imagine eating 3 M & M’s.  A third group was told to imagine putting 30 quarters into a laundry machine and then imagine eating 30 M & M’s one by one.  When they were through they were told the study was over, and each group was given a bowl of M & M’s, and invited to go ahead and  eat them.

Check this out, the people who imagined eating 30 M&M’s actually ate fewer than the participants in the other two groups!   The experiment was repeated with multiple cubes of cheese with the same results.  You can hear a podcast interview of Carnegie Mellon University’s assistant professor, Carey Morewedge by clicking here – he works in the social and decision sciences area.

It’s fascinating isn’t it to think that you can cut down your intake by just imagining eating too much!  But wait, Carey Morewedge says the study seems to show that people need to focus on certain foods and there is more work to be done on addictive beverages like alcohol or drugs in order to find out if people can seriously change their habits just by using their mind!

Imagine that!