Messing With Your Appetite - Breathing Space Blog

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite is compelling reading, perhaps the most eye-opening book on our relationship to food and how to reclaim it that I have ever encountered.

With a laser-like focus, author Dr. David Kessler, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, explains in graphic terms how -- through no mass conspiracy to make us fat -- food manufacturers, producers, and servers offer us caloric bombs which we willingly wolf down. He pinpoints how, within the last few decades, 10,000 years of human consumption patterns have been completely overturned.

Let Your Unconscious Decide - Breathing Space Blog

'Sleeping on it' is best for complex decisions!

From the February 16, 2006 issue of New Scientist (vol 311, p 1005):  “Complex decisions are best left to your unconscious mind to work out, according to a new study, and over-thinking a problem could lead to expensive mistakes. The research suggests the conscious mind should be trusted only with simple decisions, such as selecting a brand of oven glove. Sleeping on a big decision, such as buying a car or house, is more likely to produce a result with which people remain happy than consciously weighing up the pros and cons of the problem.”

“Thinking hard about a complex decision that rests on multiple factors appears to bamboozle the conscious mind so that people only consider a subset of information, which they weight inappropriately, resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with.”

Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands says “We found that when the choice was for something simple, such as purchasing oven gloves or shampoo, people made better decisions – ones that they remained happy with – if they consciously deliberated over the information.”

“But once the decision was more complex such as for a house, too much thinking about it led people to make the wrong choice. Whereas, if their conscious mind was fully occupied on solving puzzles, their unconscious could freely consider all the information and they reached better decisions.”

The unconscious mind appears to need some instruction. “It was only when people were told before the puzzles that they would need to reach a decision that they were able to come up with the right one.” If they were told that none of what they had been shown was important before being given the puzzles, they failed to make satisfactory choices.

“At some point in our evolution, we started to make decisions consciously, and we’re not very good at it. We should learn to let our unconscious handle the complicated things,” Dijksterhuis says.

Virtues of Reading - Breathing Space Blog

Here's a surprising finding: "Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer" according to an article in Time Magazine. "'Deep reading' is vigorous exercise from the brain and increases our real-life capacity for empathy," not to mention bestowing upon us a sense of Breathing Space.

The Truth & Consequences of Distracted Driving - Breathing Space Blog

Best of bikers at www.bestofbikers.com/texting-and-driving offers a sobering look at the staggering toll that distracted driving wreaks upon society.  Here is but a brief sampling of the information provided:

• Each year, more than 1.3 million people die in road accidents.
• Statistics show that in 2015 alone, more than 3,477 people died because of motor vehicle crashes involved distracted drivers.
• In the same year, 391,000 people received serious injuries due to distracted driving.
• Distracted driving is among the leading cause of motor vehicle crashes with more than 9 people losing their lives every day because of distracted driving.
• Well over half of all fatal road accidents involve young adults between 15 and 44 years of age.
• You increase your risk of having a crash by 23 times just by texting while driving.
• More than 400,000 people under the age 25 die while driving.

The Privileges of Privacy - Breathing Space Blog

Here is a link to a wonderful TED talk: 

    "The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research -- including a project that shows how easy it is to match a photograph of a stranger with their sensitive personal information."

An Excerpt for the Ages - Breathing Space Blog

From I am That by Swami Muktananda:

Man goes to great trouble to acquire knowledge of the material world. He learns all branches of mundane science. He explores the earth and even travels to the moon. But he never tries to find out what exists within himself. Because he is unaware of the enormous power hidden within him, he looks for support in the outer world.

Because he does not know the boundless happiness that lies inside his heart, he looks for satisfaction in mundane activities and pleasures. Because he does not experience the inner love, he looks for love from others.

The truth is that the inner Self of every human being is supremely great and supremely lovable. Everything is contained in the Self. The creative power of this entire universe lies inside every one of us. The divine Principle that creates and sustains this world pulsates within us as our own Self. It scintillates in the heart and shines through all our senses. If, instead of pursuing knowledge of the outer world, we were to pursue inner knowledge, we would discover the effulgence very soon.

The Many Benefits of Sleep - Breathing Space Blog

Beside the daily benefits in store for each of us, the discovery discussed below could lead to better treatments for Alzheimer’s disease: www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-allows-brain-wash-out-junk