Run Your Own Race

Last weekend, I attended the New York City Marathon for the first time, as a spectator and fan of an online friend. Reading that there were to be 40,000 runners and an expected 2 million people watching, I wasn’t sure what to expect, except to say that I anticipated a very intense day. I met up with a friend in the city and we headed to First Ave and 85^th Street, which was mile 17 for the runners and a spot where we hoped to meet our mutual friend for the first time.

From the moment we arrived, the enthusiastic roar of the crowd along the sidelines invigorated me and I soon became aware that I was part of something much more than a race. It seemed as if everyone was there to cheer on someone and it didn’t matter how fast they ran or where they were in the lineup, the fact that they were running at all was enough for them to attract the tremendous support of their family, friends and even additional onlookers. They were there to run their own races and I felt that this was a common thread weaving it’s way through us all and uniting us. I felt that we were all inspired by the runners that we knew and didn’t know, and at the same time, the runners gained motivation and energy from the fans. I couldn’t help but feel that the endless amount of strength and positive energy present galvanized us all. The intensity that I was anticipating was an uplifting intensity; a divine elevation, a feeling that I will never forget and I am so thankful for such a memorable experience.

We met our friend at mile 17 for a very exciting moment. He was on fire and there was no stopping him crossing the finish line. We and many other friends had been following his training progress and offering support online for several months. What was so special about this marathon for him was that it represented what he considered a transcendent goal – one that accomplished so much more than completing a 26.2 mile run. It was about eating healthier, losing weight, becoming more fit and the idea of focusing on something significant and the entire experience brought all of these things into his life and then some. Through no intention of his own, he developed a following online and with the people closer to home and he inspired everyone to make positive changes. And minutes after completing the run, he was already thinking about his next challenge and how to keep the momentum going. It was all about what he had accomplished and how to use that as the starting point for his next goal. You can see him and some of the day here in the two following videos:

Part 1 and Part 2

The lesson for us all is continuous self-improvement. Not competing with someone else, but with ourselves by running our own races. We should set out to reach a goal that we define by identifying what our passions are and on what we want to spend our time and energy. We determine what is best for us and develop the steps necessary to achieve our goals. If we approach them in this way, then we will always come out ahead.

Entering the Discomfort Zone

Many of us have developed routines in our lives and a typical day might sound like this for some: we get up, get ready for work, send the kids off to school, spend the day at work, exercise, head home, have dinner, watch TV and finally prepare for the following day. For some things, a consistent schedule is good. For example, setting a specific workout schedule everyday makes good sense because it helps to instill the habit of taking care of ourselves physically and mentally and our health, without a doubt, the sets the stage for how we perform with every other facet of our lives.

What is common, though, is that it’s this same routine, day in and day out that often stifles us, makes us feel unfulfilled and creates the strong impression that something’s missing. We live our lives in autopilot in the comfort zone. I for one have my moments and days in this mode like anyone else. But they do little to advance my personal growth and they certainly don’t make me feel alive. Papa Wallenda said, “Life is lived out on the wire, the rest is just waiting.” What he’s saying is that it’s when we are challenged, scared, buzzing with excitement and anticipation that we enjoy life and the more we look for these opportunities, the less our lives will feel routine.

With our busy schedules during the week, plunging into something daring or exhilarating may seem unrealistic, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be anything that will lead us into our discomfort zones, such as introducing ourselves to someone new at work that we look up to, or taking a class to explore a new hobby, or trying a new restaurant. Anything, however insignificant it may seem, that can get the heart pumping, wake up our brains, or even make us feel slightly off balance will do the trick. Over the weekend, I participated in something that, for me, accomplished those things and so many more. I competed in the NY Regional/Tristate Yoga Asana Championship in New York City. You can see some of the event here:

This entire day took me out of my comfort zone on so many levels. For example, I took a class in NYC before the competition at a studio where I’ve never practiced before. That in itself would get the blood pumping. But more dramatically, it was the first time I’ve ever performed anything athletic alone on stage. Except for giving talks, the last time I performed solo in front of an audience was in sixth grade at a school concert, singing “Let Me Be There”, by Olivia Newton John and I don’t have that on video : ) But thinking back to that night, it was one of the most fun and rewarding times of my life. Other challenges to this past weekend: I knew I would be competing with women who had been here many times before, who had been training for much longer than me and whose yoga practices were far more advanced than mine. I was floored and inspired by their abilities. Just look at the woman below who took first place!

So knowing all of this, when I decided to enter this competition, I took it as a personal challenge to do my best and to have fun and that’s what I did. Despite the butterflies and the extreme talent around me, I was able to have fun and feel a very strong sense of accomplishment when it was over and I wouldn’t want to change any of it.

Another gift from this event was the support and encouragement from everyone: the other competitors, judges and organizers, the audience, and especially my friends who came to NYC to watch the event and cheer us on. And my willingness to take the risk in the competition has inspired some of them to enter the competition next year.

Whatever the outcome would have been, my courage to take a chance was the most significant lesson and triumph for me here because it gave me the confidence to believe that if I could do this, there’s no telling what I can accomplish!!! So challenge yourself; step into your discomfort zone and live…

Pump Up Your Brain With Exercise

I’ve been reading Spark by John J. Ratey, MD, who is a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. Based on a wealth of research, he describes the intimate link between exercise and the brain. In addition, he beautifully distills down and simplifies the complexities of brain function for everyone to comprehend, which is fundamental to understanding the connection. Just as working out can strengthen our cardiovascular system and muscles, so too can it strengthen and enhance brain function. The mind becomes more alert and can better focus. Tension is reduced. Moods improve and lead to an increase in motivation, drive and vitality. And since the brain is ultimately overseeing the function of every system within the body, its condition directly influences the body’s overall health.

A landmark study outlined in the beginning of the book demonstrated how exercise before school primed the brains of students in such a way that it enhanced the absorption, processing and remembering of information, resulting in better test scores, more confidence, higher levels of motivation and creativity, and in other words, greater success. But how does exercise do this? Fundamentally, it positively supports a property of the brain referred to as neuroplasticity. To say that the brain is plastic simply means that it is changeable. It is sculpted by the inputs it is given in an almost infinite number of combinations. Not surprising – the brain is composed of 100 billion neurons that inter-communicate to control our mind and body. And because our brains are always receiving new sensory inputs, they must continuously identify, sort through, interpret, catalog, cross-reference, retrieve and eliminate information. The ability to do this efficiently rests on the “physical” health and function of the neurons and their ability to interact with one another and regular physical activity helps to ensure that they do this at their optimum. There are three major ways that exercise supports brain health:

1. It increases the levels of neurotransmitters and balances neurochemicals in the brain

Nerve cells (or neurons) communicate with one another and eventually “bind” through a region of the cell called the synapse, a site where chemicals termed neurotransmitters (NTs) are released through structures called vesicles, to be take up by an adjacent cell. See figure below:

There are two major NTs, glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Glutamate is a stimulatory molecule, meaning that it promotes a connection between cells and a subsequent signaling network to develop. GABA is inhibitory, helping to balance the activity of glutamate. When the molecule glutamate is released from one cell’s synapse and accepted by a neighboring cell, it establishes the early signs of a connection that can initiate a signaling cascade involving the “firing” of many cells. Repeated firing between a set of cells will induce the formation of additional synapses that further strengthen the connection (see #3 below). This wiring process, which is set in motion by glutamate is a crucial step in learning.

A number of other NTs exist, but the following three, which are discussed frequently in the book are highly influential yet only produced in one percent of the brain’s neurons. They perform many functions but primarly act as regulators of information to ultimately balance brain neurochemicals:

Serotonin: Helps to control excessive brain activities that deal with mood that can lead to such things as aggression and impulsive behavior. Prosac is often prescribed to restore serotonin levels and to relieve depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Norepinephrine: also enhances mood and boosts signals related to attention, perception, motivation and arousal.

Dopamine: functions in learning, satisfaction, attention and movement. It is this NT that is elevated by Ritalin, the drug to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

It is pointed out that taking drugs to elevate the levels of a single NT may not necessarily restore the overall balance of neurochemicals in the brain. However, this is one of the things that exercise does naturally. For example, running elevates the levels of both serotonin and dopamine.

2. It encourages the development of new cells

A greater pool of cells to participate in learning. For a long time, it was believed that we were born with all the brain cells we would ever have, however, over ten years ago, it was discovered in the hippocampi (a region of the brain required for learning and memory) of terminally ill cancer patients that neurogenesis does occur after the brain has fully developed. This phenomenon has also been identified in chickadees that are learning new songs and interestingly, in mice that run on an exercise wheel, suggesting a link between exercise and neurogenesis. In addition, these newly formed cells can participate in learning.

New experiences promote the survival of new neurons. Although exercise helps to increase the pool of cells available for learning, it then comes down to our environment or the richness of our experiences that determines how many of them survive. In other words, without some sort of stimulation that activates the cells, i.e., without something new to learn, the cells have no reason to stick around. Indeed, many new cells do die from lack of use. And the numbers are the same in the brains of exercisers versus non-exercisers. The important thing is that there is a larger population of cells in brains that have “worked out”. And those brains are in a healthier position to want to learn.

Exercise can reverse degeneration. Studies focused on aging have also reported that the frontal cortex and temporal lobes in the elderly can increase in volume in response to exercise, presumably through the growth of new blood vessels as well as new neurons and connections. Better performance on test scores that target these regions have also observed in those that participate in aerobic activity. The prefrontal cortex is involved in high order brain functions, yet, ironically, it includes those things that we take for granted, like how to tie our shoes or drive to work. The temporal lobe is intimately connected with the hippocampus. It catalogs words and proper names and helps to maintain long-term memory. It is also a brain region that atrophies in Alzheimer’s Disease. As you can expect, it would be almost impossible to function on a day-to-day basis without these basic abilities. We would very quickly lose our independence. The good news is that physical activity can preserve our brain health, as well as our physical strength as we age, allowing us to care for ourselves for as long as possible.

3. Exercise encourages stronger connections between cells

Exercise increases levels of BDNF. Another class of chemicals acting in the brain is referred to neurotrophic factors. They help to assemble and maintain the infrastructure. One in particular, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has a number of functions within neurons, including strengthening the cells, protecting them from cell death, regulating the production of NTs such as serotonin and strengthening the connections between neurons through the sprouting of new branches, as discussed above. As a result, BDNF has been called “MiracleGro for the Brain”. This strengthening allows for something called long term potentiation (LTP), a process that increases the affinity between neuronal connections and allows learning to become sticky. This phenomenon occurs, for example, when you encounter something over and over again. If we learn something for the first time, an initial connection/circuit will be established, however, if we practice it repeatedly, the circuit becomes stronger through the formation of stronger and additional synapses. As expected, a lack of use will cause the connection to whither.

BDNF is required for laying down circuitry and its levels increase during learning as well as during physical activity. As mentioned above, the hippocampus is required for learning and is also susceptible to degeneration. In support of this, it’s been demonstrated in mice that the levels of BDNF increase in the hippocampus as a result of exercise. In addition, a study concluded that the rate of learning increases after exercise and this finding also correlated with levels of BDNF. Conversely, taking away BDNF was found to inhibit the learning process. This suggests that exercise is pivotal in keeping the learning process and a healthy brain alive.

Exercise alleviates the stress that can erode connections. We hear a lot about cortisol and how, through stress, it can ultimately lead to an increase in fat around the gut which is a high risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In the brain, cortisol is involved in the distribution of glucose, the primary source of energy. During an acutely stressful situation such as one that initiates the fight-or-flight response, the body is mobilized to take action, cortisol levels are driven up in the brain and glucose is conserved by diverting it from regions involved in thinking. In today’s world, that acute level of stress is frequent but rarely necessary and the body often does not follow through with sufficient movement that would dissipate the body’s biochemical reaction. This form of chronic disconnect that takes energy away from major parts of the brain such as the hippocampus, for example, eventually induces the degradation of its synapses and results in cell death. With regard to learning, the hippocampus is responsible for the who, what, when, where and how of our memories and works with another brain region called the amygdala that registers the emotional component. The hippocampus can be “taken over” by the amygdala if it breaks down and this imbalance contributes to the development of anxiety, fear, and depression.

Exercise also allows the resting tension in the body to drop, which also cuts off the stress signaling to the brain through the heart. An exercise-induced increase in heart rate triggers the production of atrial natiuretic peptide (ANP), which can dampen or block a stress response in the brain. It also leads to an increase in the production of GABA and serotonin, which can alleviate anxiety.

Exercise upregulates the production of growth factors. Exercise boosts the production of three growth factors (GFs) in the brain as well as throughout the body that are then transported to the brain via the blood stream and through the blood brain barrier:

1. IGF-1 works to help deliver fuel to the muscles. In addition, exercise promotes the production of insulin receptors on cells within the body that work with IGF-1 to promote the uptake of glucose and an increase in energy production. In the brain, IGF-1 plays a role in neurogenesis and LTP and it induces the synthesis of the NTs serotonin and glutamate.

2. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) functions to increase oxygen delivery by helping to sprout additional capillaries in the body as well as in the brain.

3. FGF (fibroblast growth factor) promotes tissue growth in the body and is instrumental for LTP in the brain.

Exercise is a mild stress that strengthens neurons. The increase in GFs supplied through exercise strengthens neurons. Exercise is considered a mild stress for the brain because it generates molecular by-products such as free radicals that can damage cells. Through the help of increased GFs, neurons turn on genes that repair the damage, leaving the cells stronger. Additional, mild stresses include caloric restriction, learning and low levels of toxins such as those that naturally occur in food. One such toxin is sulfurophane, a compound made in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli to ward off bugs. In the body, it induces our cells to turn on genes that produce their own arsenal of antioxidants. So although broccoli contains its own antioxidants, perhaps the greater benefit from eating it lies in its ability to exert our cells to ultimately make them stronger. Just as resistance training builds muscles by initially breaking them down, mild stresses such as exercise makes brain cells more resilient by working them more intensely as well.

So if you’d like to increase your vitality, improve and balance your mood, sharpen your learning capacity and memory and melt away stress, try pumping up your brain with exercise then give it something new and fascinating to do with all that power. It wants to be pushed and challenged regularly and will serve you well for far longer as long as it is.

Put Health First

Many of us don’t realize the impact that good health has on our daily lives until we get sick. Then, it’s the only thing on our minds. We become paralyzed, unable to live our lives and accomplish our goals. It feels as if the World is passing us by. I’ve experienced this in my own life with illness. I’ve seen a headache prevent a mother from seeing her children experience something for the first time. And years of bad eating habits lead to heart disease and surgery. And the toll that stress can have on someone who is overworked or ignores their need for sleep. And the feeling of discouragement and lack of motivation from constant fatigue.

When you experience amazing health you understand it’s value. The condition of our physical health is the foundation for everything else and it shapes our mental and emotional states. To live at our best, to grow, to help others, to have a fulfilling family and social life, do our best at work, to dream and aspire to do great things requires energy, stamina, a positive outlook, a strong will and mental determination. They also require that we love ourselves first. And that begins with respecting and caring for our bodies because they are the only vehicles we have to carry out our days.

There are times, yes, where life can be busy and seem like it’s spinning out of control and the thought of our health may take the back seat. But if we make it a priority, allow it to become habit and integrate it into our lifestyle, then we don’t necessarily have to think about it; it becomes a part of us, something we are naturally. We also become less vulnerable to setbacks and recover from them more easily which makes our lives more effective, more meaningful and happier. So if you want to raise the bar in every area in your life, put your health first and watch how it elevates your World. You will be grateful for this gift that you give to yourself. And so will those whose lives you touch.