Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a war in its defence.

Across all studies, anxious conditions caused participants to become more eagerly engaged in their ideals and extreme in their religious convictions. In one study, mulling over a personal dilemma caused a general surge toward more idealistic personal goals. In another, struggling with a confusing mathematical passage caused a spike in radical religious extremes. In yet another, reflecting on relationship uncertainties caused the same religious zeal reaction.

Researchers found that religious zeal reactions were most pronounced among participants with bold personalities (defined as having high self-esteem and being action-oriented, eager and tenacious), who were already vulnerable to anxiety, and felt most hopeless about their daily goals in life.

A basic motivational process called Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) is responsible, according to lead researcher Ian McGregor, Associate Professor in York’s Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health. “Approach motivation is a tenacious state in which people become ‘locked and loaded’ on whatever goal or ideal they are promoting. They feel powerful, and thoughts and feelings related to other issues recede,” he says.

“RAM is usually an adaptive goal regulation process that can re-orient people toward alternative avenues for effective goal pursuit when they hit a snag. Our research shows that humans can sometimes co-opt RAM for short term relief from anxiety, however. By simply promoting ideals and convictions in their own minds, people can activate approach motivation, narrow their motivational focus away from anxious problems, and feel serene as a result,” says McGregor.

Researchers also measured participants’ superstitious beliefs and deference toward a controlling God in order to distinguish religious zeal from meeker forms of devotion. “Anxiety-provoking threats sometimes also cause people to become paranoid and more submissive to externally-controlling forces, so we wanted to rule out that interpretation for our results,” he says. Anxious uncertainty had no effect on either superstition or religious submission.

Findings published last year in the journal Psychological Science by the same authors and collaborators at the University of Toronto found that strong religious beliefs are associated with low activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that becomes active in anxious predicaments.

“Taken together, the results of this research program suggest that bold but vulnerable people gravitate to idealistic and religious extremes for relief from anxiety,” McGregor says.

Exercise May Be an Effective and Nonpharmacologic Treatment Option for Alcohol Dependence

Alcohol abuse is highly disruptive of circadian rhythms, and circadian disruptions can also lead to alcohol abuse as well as relapse in abstinent alcoholics. Circadian timing in mammals is regulated by light as well as other influences such as food, social interactions, and exercise. A new study of the relationship between alcohol intake and wheel-running in hamsters has found that exercise may provide an effective alternative for reducing alcohol intake in humans.

Results will be published in the September 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

“Alcohol abuse, characterized by routine craving for and consumption of alcohol as well as an inability to function normally without it, disrupts both the timing and consolidation of daily circadian rhythms — when to sleep, eat, and mate — driven by the brain circadian clock,” explained J. David Glass, professor of biological sciences at Kent State University and corresponding author for the study. “With continual alcohol use, one may go to bed too early or late, not sleep across the night, and have an unusual eating regime, eating little throughout the day and/or overeating at night. This can lead to a vicious cycle of drinking because these individuals, in response, will consume more alcohol to fall asleep easier only to complain of more disrupted sleep across the night and additionally have a greater craving for alcohol.”

In other words, said Alan M. Rosenwasser, professor of psychology at the University of Maine, chronic alcohol abuse and circadian disruption become reciprocally destructive and result in negative effects on physical and emotional health. “It is therefore very interesting that access to running wheels or other forms of voluntary exercise in animal experiments has emerged as a powerful environmental factor influencing brain health, circadian rhythms, and emotional well-being,” he said.

Glass agreed, noting that exercise is important in the non-photic regulation of circadian timing. “Restricting animals from exercising,” he said, “such as blocking access to a running wheel as we did in this study, had a significant stimulatory effect on alcohol consumption.”

Glass and his colleagues tested for three things: the effects of wheel-running on chronic free-choice consumption of an alcohol (20% v/v) and water solution; the effects of alcohol consumption on wheel-running in alcohol-naïve hamsters; and the influence of constant light (LL) on both alcohol consumption and wheel-running behavior.

“In this study, we found that the more the hamsters ran, the less they consumed alcohol,” said Glass. “The ‘lazier’ hamsters that did not run as much had a greater craving for and consumption of alcohol, suggesting that exercise may be an effective, beneficial, and non-pharmacologic treatment option for alcoholism.”

“It seems that alcohol intake and voluntary exercise represent two forms of inherently rewarding behavior,” added Rosenwasser, “and the rewarding effects of these two behaviors may partially substitute for one another. This finding suggests that the two behaviors are regulated by overlapping systems in the brain.”

Glass agreed, noting that exercise appears able to alter the chemical environment of the brain in a manner similar to alcohol. “Dopamine is the primary chemical released within the brain in response to any type of reward, including exercise, drugs, food, and sex,” he said. “For humans, exercise may be an effective, beneficial, and naturally rewarding substitute for any type of addiction. It may also reduce the risk of addiction in individuals who have a family history of it, in addition to significantly reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and mood disorders. But like all rewards, exercise should be used in moderation, and not interfere with an individual’s normal daily functioning.”

A second key finding was that hamsters that displayed greater sensitivity to the disruptive effects of constant light on circadian rhythms also craved alcohol less. “Thus, there may be an underlying genetic predisposition for alcohol dependence and abuse that is expressed under challenging circadian conditions,” said Glass, “such as shift work, sleep problems or repeated jet-lag exposure.”

“Several research groups have recently become interested in relationships between circadian clocks, exercise, and alcohol and drug abuse,” said Rosenwasser. “In general, research in this area has shown that alcohol abuse can dramatically disrupt biological rhythms, that these disruptions can promote subsequent alcohol abuse, and that exercise is an important environmental factor influencing both circadian rhythms and alcohol drinking. These studies have opened several new directions for alcohol researchers, and raise the hope that circadian-based and/or exercise-based interventions may be developed for improved management of the serious and debilitating disorders associated with excessive drinking.”

“Many members of the general public, and indeed, many medical professionals, continue to view alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction as character flaws and as failures of ‘willpower,’” said Rosenwasser. “Findings such as these help put alcohol abuse disorders in a broader biological context, and show that both physiological and environmental factors contribute to excessive alcohol intake. Accordingly, these physiological and environmental factors will need to be addressed in order to effectively control alcohol abuse and other forms of excessive behavior.”?

LONG-term mobile phone users could face a higher risk of developing cancer in later life, according to a decade-long study.

The report, to be published later this year, has reportedly found that heavy mobile use is linked to brain tumours.

The survey of 12,800 people in 13 countries has been overseen by the World Health Organisation.

Preliminary results of the inquiry, which is looking at whether mobile phone exposure is linked to three types of brain tumour and a tumour of the salivary gland, have been sent to a scientific journal.

The findings are expected to put pressure on the British Government – which has insisted that mobile phones are safe – to issue stronger warnings to users.

It’s the last set at Wimbledon and Serena Williams needs a little magic to take the match. Her opponent makes an amazing shot, but Williams somehow knows where the ball is going, and she’s there. How could she have read her opponent’s mind?

She didn’t. But she may have been helped by a kind of human memory that scientists have been struggling to understand. Using her “implicit” memory, a short-term memory that people are not consciously aware they are using, Williams could have recognized her opponent’s moves just before she hit that amazing shot, because she had seen the same moves a few minutes earlier when her opponent made a similar shot.

Of course, that’s not the only thing that got Williams to the finals. Athleticism, conditioning, hard work and talent were the main reasons. But she had something else at work, and the rest of us use it all the time even if we don’t know it. Sometimes, when we have to make a quick decision, we may think we’re guessing, but we may be basing that “gut response” on real information, collected a few minutes earlier.

That’s the implication of long-term research at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., by psychology professor Ken Paller and Joel L. Voss, who is now at the Beckman Institute, an interdisciplinary-research facility affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their research did not specifically involve athletics, but the results are consistent with work by other researchers who are studying how top athletes can make split-second decisions with very little information. How does a batter hit a fastball when he has to start swinging the bat before the ball even leaves the pitcher’s hand? He relies on visual cues, even if he doesn’t know it.

“Athletes learn to predict based on very little information,” Paller said in a telephone interview.

In their most recent research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Paller and Voss reveal a surprising discovery. Participants in that study were purposefully distracted while trying to quickly memorize visual patterns with their implicit memory and, quite surprisingly, did better when distracted than when they weren’t.

Not Just a Gut Reaction

“That’s a very striking part of the testing and a little perplexing,” Paller said. “We know that when you pay less attention, that seriously disrupts normal memory,” but a little distraction helped short term memory, at least in this experiment.

A dozen students were recruited for the project. That’s a small sample, but the results are consistent with earlier experiments involving far more participants, and all of the experiments yielded similar results: When forced to make a quick decision, we may be relying on real data, not just a gut reaction.

Paller and Voss took their research a step further in this experiment. They plastered the heads of the participants with sensors that recorded brain waves. “The different types of memory have a different electrical pattern that we record,” Paller said.

Short-term memory is also stored in a different area of the brain than long-term memory. The patterns produced during the experiment revealed that short-term memory was indeed the key to success in recognizing images the participants had seen a few minutes earlier.

“Our study is new in a few ways,” he added. “We showed that implicit [short-term] memory can actually help you when recognition memory is being tested. People weren’t sure it helped you pick which things you’ve seen before, so we were able to show that the unconscious type of memory can help.”

Participants sat in front of a computer monitor as multicolored patterns flashed on the screen. Later, they were shown two images and asked to immediately identify which of the two images they had seen before, even if they had to guess. But it turned out that even when they thought they were guessing, they got the right answer most of the time, so they were doing more than guessing. They were also drawing on their short term, unconscious memory.

During parts of the experiment, participants were distracted from their visual assignment when they were ordered to remember a spoken number because they would have to identify it later. Distractions are known to impair the capture of long-term memories. We have to focus to remember well.

Help With Amnesia Patients

But that’s when the surprise came.

“Remarkably, people were more accurate in selecting the image they had seen before” when asked to pick which of two images they had seen, Paller said. “They also were more accurate when they claimed to be guessing than when they registered some familiarity with the image.”

It’s not clear why the distraction helped instead of hindered. Paller suspects that one reason the distractions didn’t hurt is that they involved the auditory system, not the visual system used in the recognition of colorful patterns. But that doesn’t explain why people knew the answer when they thought they were guessing.

The real-world implications for this research are also unclear, at least at this time. Paller thinks it will be helpful in his long-term study of amnesia patients who retain some short-term memory but not long term. But will this really help Williams capture another trophy?

Maybe, if we understand it better, and that’s the point of this kind of basic research. The work shows we have a tool we didn’t know we had, a knowledge-based short-term memory that can be called upon for split-second decisions. That’s a lot better than a guess.

The medicine has been designed originally to help treat Alzheimer’s disease, but could be adapted and licensed for sale in a weaker form within the next few years.

One brand of memory-enhancing pill is being developed by the multinational company AstraZeneca in collaboration with Targacept, an American company, while Epix Pharmaceuticals, also from the US, is developing another.

Both have “cognitive-enhancing effects” which are aimed at treating patients with age-related memory loss.

Steven Ferris, a neurologist and former committee member of the Food and Drug Administration in the US, has predicted that a milder version will be available for healthy consumers as a “lifestyle pill” available over the counter.

Dr Ferris said: “My view is that one could gain approval, provided you showed the drugs to be effective and safe. It could be a huge market.”

There is anecdotal evidence that mind-improving drugs are already being taken in Britain by healthy users.

Provigil, used to treat narcolepsy, is being taken by some students to help them stay awake, while Adderall XR and Ritalin, treatments for attention deficit disorder, are being used to help promote concentration.

A spokesman Adderall XR said: “We get a lot of calls from college campuses asking about it.

“There are risks though. It can raise blood pressure, people shouldn’t do it.”

The Department of Health said it was not illegal to buy the medicines over the internet, but it was not recommended.

Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge, said: “It’s hard to quantify the scale of the phenomenon but it’s definitely catching on.

“The reality is we’re not always at our best. After being up at night looking after the kids or travelling, many people would love to have something to sharpen them up. It’s not taboo to drink Red Bull. The principle with cognition enhancers is not so different.”

They say misery loves company, but the same may be even more true of happiness.

In a study published online today in the British Medical Journal, scientists from Harvard University and UC San Diego showed that happiness spreads readily through social networks of family members, friends and neighbors.

Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself, the study found. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6% boost.

“Your emotional state depends not just on actions and choices that you make, but also on actions and choices of other people, many of which you don’t even know,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and medical sociologist at Harvard who co-wrote the study.

The research is part of a growing trend to measure well-being as a crucial component of public health. Scientists have documented that people who describe themselves as happy are likely to live longer, even if they have a chronic illness.

The new study “has serious implications for our understanding of the determinants of health and for the design of policies and interventions,” wrote psychologist Andrew Steptoe of University College London and epidemiologist Ana Diez Roux of University of Michigan in an accompanying editorial.

Christakis and UCSD political scientist James H. Fowler examined the relationships of nearly 5,000 people who were tracked for decades as part of the landmark Framingham Heart Study.

They discovered that happy people in close geographic proximity were most effective in spreading their good cheer. They also found the happiest people were at the center of large social networks.

In many regards, they concluded, happiness is like a contagious disease.

“We know people who are most susceptible to HIV are people who have lots of partners,” Fowler said. “This is the same thing.”

This isn’t the first evidence that emotions can spread like a virus. Studies have found that waiters who offer service with a smile are rewarded with bigger tips. On the flip side, having a mildly depressed roommate made college freshmen increasingly depressed themselves.

Fowler and Christakis thought they could document the spread of happiness more convincingly by studying the copious records of participants in the Framingham study, a massive effort launched by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in 1948 to find common causes of cardiovascular disease. Participants gave researchers the names of their parents, spouses, siblings, children and close friends, including many who were also study volunteers. That allowed the researchers to track multiple relationships for each participant out to several degrees of separation.

Fowler and Christakis focused on 4,739 people who were part of the second-generation cohort that joined the study in 1971, in part because many of them had parents and children in other cohorts. The researchers rounded out their networks by using home addresses to locate neighbors and employment information to identify co-workers. Altogether, they constructed a social network that included 12,067 study volunteers who were linked to each other through 53,228 ties.

In earlier studies of the network, Fowler and Christakis showed that obesity and smoking spread among groups of friends and relatives.

To assess happiness, the researchers relied on how much the volunteers said they agreed with four statements like “I was happy” and “I enjoyed life.” The questions were asked three times between 1983 and 2003.

The results were striking:

A happy friend who lives within a half-mile makes you 42% more likely to be happy yourself. If that same friend lives two miles away, his impact drops to 22%. Happy friends who are more distant have no discernible impact, according to the study.

Similarly, happy siblings make you 14% more likely to be happy yourself, but only if they live within one mile. Happy spouses provide an 8% boost — if they live under the same roof. Next-door neighbors who are happy make you 34% more likely to be happy too, but no other neighbors have an effect, even if they live on the same block.

“We suspect emotions spread through frequency of contact,” Fowler said. As a result, he said, people who live too far away to be seen on a regular basis don’t have much effect.

The one exception was co-workers, perhaps because something in the work environment prevented their happiness from spreading, the study found. The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Shigehiro Oishi, a University of Virginia psychologist who studies the causes and consequences well-being, said the importance of geography was a profound finding.

“Although we are connected with friends and family members who live far away via cellphone and the Internet, these results indicate that there is nothing like a face-to-face interaction,” Oishi said. “We are told to get connected by cellphone companies, but in order to get connected you really have to live close by and interact face to face.”

Fowler and Christakis said they didn’t know the mechanism by which happiness spreads. One possibility is that happy people spread their good fortune directly by being generous with their time and money. Evolution may have encouraged infectious happiness if it helped hominids and early humans enhance their social bonds so they could form successful groups, the researchers said.

UC Irvine sociologist Katherine Faust, who studies social networks, said the study might overstate the role of social ties in transmitting happiness. Many of the Framingham volunteers are the parents, siblings and children of other volunteers, and their propensity toward happiness could be grounded in their genes, she said.

But Richard Suzman, director of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, said Fowler’s and Christakis’ work was persuasive enough to force policymakers to rethink the importance of social ties when contemplating happiness or obesity or smoking.

“You can’t just treat individuals; you have to treat networks or communities,” he said.

TUESDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) — Although commonly taken to improve memory, new research suggests that the herb ginkgo biloba won’t help prevent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

“We found that giving a standardized dose of ginkgo biloba over a period of time does not slow down the incidence rate of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Steven DeKosky, who was chair of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Medical Center at the time of the study.

The findings were published in the Nov. 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, currently affects about 5 million people in the United States, according to background information in the article. Dementia is a significant cause of age-related disability and the need for long-term nursing home care, the study reported.

There are currently no medications that have been approved for the primary prevention of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. However, previous small, short-term clinical trials have suggested there might be a small benefit from ginkgo for people with dementia. Sales of ginkgo biloba are almost $250 million each year in the United States, according to the study.

The current study included almost 3,100 community-dwelling adults aged 75 or older. Most had normal cognition at the start of the study, while 482 had mild cognitive impairment when the study began.

The study volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either a twice-daily dose of 120 milligrams of ginkgo biloba extract or a twice-daily placebo. The study participants were assessed for signs of dementia every six months, and the average length of study participation was just over six years.

During the study period, 523 people developed dementia, and 92 percent of those cases were classified as possible or probable Alzheimer’s disease.

Overall, the dementia rate for those taking ginkgo was 3.3 per 100 person-years of follow-up versus 2.9 per 100 person-years for the placebo group.

“If you’re in your 70s or 80s, and you’re contemplating taking ginkgo to prevent Alzheimer’s or dementia, the idea that it can prevent these is not true,” said DeKosky, who is vice president and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.

But, said DeKosky, the good news from this study is that there appear to be “no major problems for safety” where ginkgo is concerned.

However, the author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal, Dr. Lon Schneider, director of the State of California Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Clinical Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, pointed out that for people with a history of cardiovascular disease, there was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke in the group taking ginkgo, though the difference didn’t reach statistical significance. Eight people in the placebo compared to 16 in the ginkgo group had a hemorrhagic stroke, Schneider noted.

He also pointed out that at least one smaller trial found an increased risk of the more common type of stroke, ischemic stroke, and transient ischemic attacks, in people taking ginkgo.

“In the absence of efficacy, people should be fairly careful about taking a drug anyway, and here, we’ve seen no evidence for potential gain, and there’s some reason to be concerned about its use in the long term,” said Schneider.

A popular epilepsy drug can reverse the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have discovered.

Treatment with valproic acid stops further damage to the brain and improves memory, tests show.

The experiments in mice have proved so successful that the researchers are now testing the drug on Alzheimer’s patients.

With the disease affecting around 500,000 Britons and the number forecast to double within a generation, there is an urgent need for new treatments.

Current drugs can halt the progression of the disease but do not work for everyone and their effects wear off over time.

In addition, a decision by the drugs rationing body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence means they are not available on the NHS to all who would benefit from them.

Valproic acid, which is used to treat manic depression and schizophrenia as well as epilepsy, blocks production of the patches of sticky protein, or plaques, that clog the brain in Alzheimer’s.

Professor Weihong Song, who led the research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said: ‘We found that if we used valproic in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, in mice, it reduced plaque formation and further prevented brain cell death.

‘The drug also improved performance in memory tests. We are very excited about these results.’

A pilot trial testing the effect of valproic acid on Alzheimer’s patients is under way with results expected next year.

The drug, which is also known as Convulex, had less of an effect as the disease progressed, the Journal of Experimental Medicine reports.

Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘Although this is encouraging evidence, valproic acid is a licensed epilepsy drug that has a number of side effects.

‘We wouldn’t currently recommend it as a clinical treatment for Alzheimer’s. We look forward to the results of ongoing human trials.’

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Despite some recent dramatic failures, Alzheimer’s disease researchers say they have never been more encouraged by the wealth of promising new treatments being studied for the brain-wasting disease.

“Twenty years ago we were at zero,” said Dr. Steven DeKosky of the University of Pittsburgh, who has been studying the problem of addressing Alzheimer’s for three decades.

DeKosky led one of three panels focused on new therapies featured this week at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Chicago.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, and current drugs merely delay symptoms a bit.

While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers got their first look at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.

One, a nasal spray made by Allon Therapeutics Inc (NPC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), improved some measures of memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer’s, researchers reported this week. They said findings from the three-month study were strong enough for a longer, larger study.

Another, called Rember, is a refined version of an older drug used to treat urinary tract infections called methylthioninium chloride or methylene blue.

Researchers said the drug significantly improved key measures of thinking and memory in some people with moderate Alzheimer’s disease for more than a year and a half.

TARGETING THE TANGLE

“We now show for the first time it is possible to halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by targeting the tangle,” Claude Wischik, of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and chairman of TauRX Therapeutics in Singapore, told the meeting.

Wischik said he thinks the compound keeps the tau protein from forming tangles inside brain cells and eventually from bursting them open.

“I can’t make any statements about safety and efficacy,” he added.

Another promising drug is Medivation Inc’s (MDVN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Dimebon, developed in Russia as an antihistamine. An 18-month study of 183 patients done in that country showed it was safe and produced a persistent benefit.

How Dimebon works is not clear. Researchers said it may help protect mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of cells.

“It has many effects as opposed to having one single effect,” said Dr. Scott Turner, the incoming director of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington.

Turner said more studies will be needed to show whether Dimebon offers an advance over current treatments.

New attempts at targeting beta amyloid include a drug called PBT2 from Prana Biotechnology Ltd (PBT.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which aims to keep beta amyloid from interacting with copper and zinc in the brain, a process involved in plaque formation.

In another new approach, Baxter International Inc (BAX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said an intravenous therapy of antibodies derived from human plasma called Gammagard helped preserve and in some cases improve cognitive function in a nine-month study.

“We’re fascinated by the mechanism, but we know nothing about whether it will be useful long-term,” DeKosky said of the study.

DISAPPOINTING PATH

This path of attempting to alter the course of Alzheimer’s by attacking beta amyloid has been littered with disappointments.

Last August, a drug by Canadian biotech Bellus Health (BLU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), formerly known as Neurochem Inc, failed to show a benefit in a study of more than 1,000 patients.

Last month, Flurizan, also known as tarenflurbil, failed to help patients in a pivotal clinical test, dealing a blow to its backers Myriad Genetics (MYGN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Lundbeck (LUN.CO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

This week, shares of Elan (ELN.I: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Wyeth (WYE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plunged on news of a weaker-than-hoped-for response in a mid-stage study of its new antibody therapy bapineuzumab. Researchers are still hopeful this drug, or one like it, will work.

“There are lots of curve balls in this research and we are not having an easy time,” said Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of Alzheimer’s research at the National Institute on Aging.

Meanwhile, the need for effective therapies is pressing.

Do you ever get so busy with the details of your life and the countless things you need to complete, that you end up feeling exhausted and disconnected?

The result: Your mind becomes clouded and unable to focus and you start to make poor decisions regarding your priorities. You end up working hard instead of working smart.

What do you do when this happens? Do you take the time to step out of the situation to regroup? Or do you continue with what you’re doing, all the while feeling that you’re running out of time, besides you still have a massive list of tasks to complete. In the past, my natural inclination was to do the latter and, in the end, I would be left feeling burnt out with my spirits down.

Lately I’ve been running around preparing for several major changes in my life. I’ve felt my mind becoming consumed by the problems revolving around these changes. My eating schedule became irregular and my decisions felt clouded. When my clarity started to fizzle, I found myself making decisions and judgments based on emotions rather than on logic or intuition arising out of clarity.

The following is a simple technique I’ve used to reconnect myself to what’s most important: my inner self. In doing so, Clarity came.

Clarity Day

I’ve always been attracted to the idea of a Spiritual Day or a Clarity Day, in which you spend the whole day disconnected from the information world and the many distractions of modern life, and start to connect within yourself.

If this sounds too mystical, don’t get caught up with the words, they are just linguistic symbols to communicate ideas. When you really get into such a day, it can become a source of great bliss and understanding of one’s self. During these times, we can experience tremendous personal growth, peace, and satisfaction.

This is also the perfect chance to clear out the noise and mental clutter that collects in our inner space from the hectic demands of our life. Through better understanding of ourselves and our surroundings, we gain more than clarity, we gain self confidence.

Similar to Self Dates or Alone Time, on a Clarity Day your goal is to spend an enjoyable day on your own and away from everyday distractions. Aim for minimal planning, so that you spend the day following your heart and enjoying the spontaneous expressions of the present moment.

Here’s an example of how I spent this past Saturday, when I deeply needed clarity and to connect with myself:

* Basics – From 8am to 8pm. I was doing everything on my own, without friends or family. All distractions such as cell phones, home phones, computers, and TVs, were turned off.
* Salon – I’ve always enjoyed getting my hair done. My favorite salon straightens my hair at each appointment. I sat there with my eyes closed and enjoyed being there. The girls kept asking me if I needed a magazine, and I would say “No thanks. I’m happy just sitting here.”
* Walk – I walked out of the downtown Salon and drifted randomly uphill to the Capital Hill neighborhood. The day was so beautiful. I enjoyed looking up at the sky and passing by families of tourists and Saturday shoppers.
* Café – I found a comfortable corner seat by the large windows at a local café. I pulled out my book and my journal. Periodically, I would sit back with my book in my lap and enjoy watching people. People are so interesting, and if you try, you can sense what people are feeling. I had a fantastic seat for people watching and deeply enjoyed the experience.
* Meet a Stanger – I started talking with an interesting new friend who sat next to me. We talked about happiness, art, and creativity. It was very simulating and felt good to connect with another human being; they add meaning and dimension to your life.
* Read – I read Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. A short but enlightening read. It is full of bite sized wisdom to help find the stillness within you.
* Meditation – 35 minute guided meditation. When I opened my eyes after the meditation, I felt like I was seeing the world with new eyes. I felt calm and happy. I followed this up by lying down on my yoga mat and visualizing all of the things I am grateful for. I got up feeling incredibly centered and present.
* Journaling – with my new found clarity, I wrote out my thoughts and feelings. In doing this, it gave me a chance to organize my thoughts (which were the source of my problems), along with options for dealing with them. I’ve learned that recording emotional events and personal realizations in a journal can be a fulfilling experience. Especially when you read the entries several years later.

I stepped out of the day in a peaceful state and had regained my clarity. I felt like my spirit had been recharged. It also became clear that my problems are only as big as I perceive them to be, in my mind.

How to Start

Despite the unplanned mantra of a Clarity Day, some level of planning is still beneficial for the sake of those around us. Here are some simple steps to start incorporating these blissful days into your life.

1. Time – Set aside a full day (8 hours minimum). Setup an appointment with yourself. Block out the time on your calendar, if necessary.

2. Communication – Let people know what you are doing, especially people you live with. You can either coordinate with your spouse, such that they are away from the house during this time, or you can plan to be away.

3. Turn off All Distractions – Turn off the TV, phones, blackberries, computers, radios and video games. Reduce exposure to public media: put away the newspapers, magazines, & fliers.

4. List Ideas – Answer the questions “What do I enjoy doing? What would I want to do if I had the time? What activities do I want to try?” List all your ideas down on paper. Making a list is not absolutely necessary, but it will encourage you to look forward to your day, and it also provides guidance if you aren’t sure what you want to do. The only rule is that these activities cannot involve the devices you’ve turned off in step 3.

5. Follow Your Heart – Go out and start doing these things. When you feel that you are done doing something, ask yourself “What do I feel like doing now?” If you are unsure, refer to the list you’ve created from step 4.

6. Awareness – Become present and enjoy everything that you are doing, as you are doing it. When you find your mind wondering off, bring your awareness back to the activity you are doing. For example, if you are taking a walk, bring awareness to your every step, or bring awareness to the details of your surroundings: the people passing by, the trees, the sky, the sidewalks, etc.

7. Remember to Breathe – Remember to take deep breathes. This will help you relax.

8. Wins & Realizations – Throughout the day, or at the end of the day, write out what you’ve learned about yourself, or other self realizations. Everything we experience can be taken as a learning experience; either as a lesson of appreciation or to gain wisdom and understanding.

Ideas for Clarity Day

The steps are pretty simple. Any activity that you enjoy not involving exposure to media will do wonders for your personal wellbeing.

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Photo by Kara Pecknold

If you need, here are some ideas of potentially enjoyable activities to get you started.

* Brain Dump – Start writing on a piece of loose paper all the random thoughts coming out of your head. Write everything down, without editing, as fast as you can. It’s interesting to see the randomness of the clutter in our mind, often full of worry.
* Hiking – Spend a few hours communing with nature.
* Biking – Ride your bike around the city or park.
* Working Out – Head to the gym and get a good workout.
* Swimming & Running- great stress releases and excellent cardio workouts.
* Writing in a Journal – Record your thoughts and current state of mind in a journal.
* Yoga Class – Take a yoga class at your local gym or yoga studio. Alternatively, get a beginner’s yoga DVD. I recommend Rodney Yee.
* Book Store – Browse through a bookstore.
* Clean Up – Take some time to clean up and clear out the physical clutter in your living space.
* Read a Book – Curl up with a good book you’ve wanted to read. I prefer inspirational books on these types of days.
* Reorganize – Reorganize your bookshelf or CD collection
* Listen to Music – Put on something you enjoy and try just sitting there listening to the music. Put all your awareness into the sound, and take notice of how your body is responding to the sound.
* Meditation and Breathing – Try a guided meditation or spend 10-30 minutes in silence. Close your eyes and put all your awareness onto your breath. When you find your mind wandering off with random thoughts (and it will), simply let go of any self-criticism and return your focus back to your breath.
* People Watch – Sit quietly at a café, restaurant or park, and observe the people around you, the people walking past you.
* Draw a Picture – draw or paint. If you believe that you can’t draw, I highly recommend this book.
* Take 100 Photos – Select a random number, say 100. Go out with a camera and take 100 pictures.
* Sitting Outside – On a nice day, sit on your patio or balcony with a refreshing drink. Alternatively, go to a peaceful park. Feel yourself relaxing.

* Communing with Nature – If you have access to a body of water or a stream, or views of mountains, or access to a forest, be with them. Sit in front of them and admire their enormity. Connecting with nature helps us to connect with ourselves.
* Spend Time with your Pet – Take your pet on a walk. Play with them and pet them. If you have a dog, teach them a new trick or take them to a doggie class.
* Stretch
* Discover Your Life Purpose
* Goal Setting – Write out your goals. For each goal, list out a set of sub goals which contributes to the larger goal. For each sub goal, list out a set of small projects to help you achieve them. For each project, list out a series of tasks and action items. Prioritize the tasks. Schedule to execute the tasks.
* Soak in a Bath – This can be quite a relaxing and enjoyable experience. I prefer to listen to soft music and do some simple visualization while in the tub.
* Visit the Zoo – Random, but can be fun. Brings out the child in you.
* Simplify Your Life – Gather unwanted or unused stuff into a box. Donate it.
* Visit the Library – Remember to avoid the magazine section on this day.
* Gardening – Spend a few hours puttering in the backyard.
* Gratitude – Focus on the things you are thankful for. You can either list them out verbally or write them out on a piece of paper.
* Get a Massage – Threat yourself to a massage. You can often get discounted prices from a massage school clinic.
* Symphony – Attend a symphony or local music event.
* Meet 2 Strangers – Make it a goal to meet X number of strangers. I picked 2 randomly.
* Do your laundry
* Mindful Eating – Cook a healthy meal and practice eating mindfully: Take a small bite, put the fork down, and focus all your attention on the food in your mouth. Pick up the fork only when you have completely swallowed the last bite. When your mind wanders, bring your awareness back to the food or your breath.
* Dance in the Living Room

What are some things you’ve wanted to do, but have not found the time to do? What would you like to do on your solitude day? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. See you there!