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A Basis for Pre
and Post Retirement Coaching:
-Brain
Research Institute UCLA -includes Extracts from USA
Today, Aug. 2005 and
Washington Post, Aug. 2005
Baby Boomers Bonus
Whilst experience and knowledge are critical
elements to success in any endeavour, their effectiveness
is severely impacted when names, words and ideas get stuck or
lost in a mental fog. Sluggish thinking and failing memory and are not
inevitable cohorts of aging. Those in their forties and
beyond now have the ability to maximize their cognitive
skills and enhance the quality of life in their older years.
Knowing they'll need a nest egg for later years, sensible
middle-aged adults may put their stockbroker on speed-dial and
keep their retirement funds updates handy. But how about building a "cognitive reserve" account
their brain can draw on at older ages when memory problems are
most serious?
It's more than
just a clever idea. A rapidly growing body of evidence suggests that adults might be able to delay or prevent
cognitive decline.
The major resource
for the brain is structured mental coaching exercises:
A recent number of studies have found that mental
exercises can actually boost brain function.
Even senior leaders who go through coachng to sharpen their
wits, for example, score much better on thinking tests for
years afterward. The minds of younger people who also drill
their memories seem to work more efficiently.
Many scientists
are now engaged in a wave of research to determine what
works and why by employing high-tech brain scans.
"We're right
at the cusp of understanding this," said Sherry Willis of
Pennsylvania State University. "Because brain imaging
work has become so much more technologically sophisticated,
we're now at the point where we literally look inside people's
brains to try to understand what's going on."
Cutting-edge
research on the payoffs of planning ahead for people who may
live to be 80 or longer was also reported at the
American Psychological Association meeting in August, 2005.
"We've
been surprised to find out how malleable the brain is,"
says psychologist Randy Buckner of Washington University in
St. Louis.
The evidence that
mentally challenging lives boost brain power comes from large,
worldwide samples of people who have been followed over time.
Scientists compare those who maintain good mental function
with those who don't. Recent research findings tend to
support the population findings, Wagster says.
"What we have
is fairly compelling and worth paying attention to now,"
says neurologist David Bennett of Rush University Medical
Center in Chicago. "Don't wait till you're
80."
Never too
late?
Yaakov Stern of Columbia University College of Physicians and
Surgeons conducted studies using high-definition PET brain
scans of adults with the same cognitive ability scores and
found greater physical changes linked to Alzheimer's disease
in those with better educations. In other words,
better-educated people can sustain more brain damage before
they lose mental ability.
"I'm
convinced they have resources that provide a reserve,"
Stern says.
Adults who lead
stimulating lives may develop more neurons, more connections
between neurons or more efficiency in using their brain cells
so they need fewer, Bennett says. They also may create needed
detours around brain blockages in response to the demands of
daily life, much in the way a commuter is able to find quicker
routes home.
University of
Illinois psychologist Denise Park delivered an eight-week mental exercise
program for senior professionals. On completion, the participants improved significantly on mental ability tests, compared with
a control group that did nothing new.
Baby Boomers
and the Need for
Pre-Retirement Coaching
The potential for preventing or delaying dementia by building
brain reserve earlier in life is tantalizing, Park
says.
Bottom line
-whilst experience and knowledge are critical elements to success
in any endeavour, their effectiveness is severely
impacted when thoughts, ideas and names get stuck or lost
in a mental fog.
According to Rush University Medical Center
epidemiologist Denis Evans, about 76 million baby boomers are headed
towards Alzheimer's disease.
Says Park:
"Even very modest delays of mental decline could have a
huge impact on public welfare."
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"It's really
critical that we find ways to prevent, or at least delay the
onset of, cognitive decline," said Neil Buckholtz of the
National Institute on Aging. "Once the pathology is
established in the brain, it's very difficult to treat. We
need better ways to prevent the disease in the first place,
which could make a huge difference for the future." |
In one of the
first major attempts to test whether mental coaching works, a federally funded study involving more than 2,800
senior people found that those who received 10 brain-training
lessons scored much better on thinking tests, and the effect
lasted for at least three years. Mind exercises taught
strategies aimed at improving reasoning skills, the processing
of new information and memory.
"It was
pretty amazing," said Michelle Carlson of Hopkins, whose
team found that the volunteers scored much better on
problem-solving tests and that their frontal lobes seem to
have been reinvigorated. "We observed changes that
appeared to show that their brains were functioning more like
younger adults'."
So why do
senior Managers / Leaders enlist coaches who have been
trained to us use Dr Skiffington's Mind WorkOut Coaching Tools?
- They want to regenerate
their ability to undertake more demanding tasks and to
take risks.
- They want to learn new
skills and use new technologies.
- They have some difficulty
remembering new things.
- They have some trouble attending
to details.
- They want to stimulate their
visual perception.
- They have some difficulty
multitasking.
- They may have problems going
from one task to the next.
- They feel "out of the
loop" and want to maintain an interest in their
professional life and
new things.
Dr Skiffington's Mind WorkOut
Coaching Tools are designed to help all individuals improve
their mental agility, problem solving and memory.
Professionals who have participated in the coaching programs,
conducted by graduates of Dr Skiffington's Master Coach
Course, say that they concentrate
better, have become better communicators, and feel far more
confident in their ability to handle their day-to-day working lives
Learn
More
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Mental
exercises can give our
senior leaders an extra 14 years of effectiveness
-UK Telegraph 08/09/2005
Senior professionals can gain up to an extra 14
years of "cognitive youth" by doing mental
exercises, scientists said yesterday.
Volunteers who did just 10
hours of special coachingsessions to improve their memory,
problem-solving and reaction times had mental abilities
equivalent to people between seven and 14 years younger than
those who did not.
Ian Robertson, a professor of psychology at
Trinity College in Dublin, speaking at the recent BA Festival of
Science, said that increasing life expectancy and better
knowledge of ways of slowing the effects of ageing on the
brain were leading to a growing gulf between biological and
chronological age. "Our bodies are getting healthier and
we are living longer. The main threat to being able to
function effectively in old age is the functioning of our
brains."
What neuroscientists have discovered is the
human brain is plastic, or shaped by what you learn, at all
ages. We all know 80-year-olds who are pretty sharp and people
in their fifties or sixties who have lost a lot of cognitive
function. There is now strong evidence that when you get over
50 the degree to which you maintain your function is down to
just a handful of factors. Diet, exercise, mental stimulation,
mental training and stress are all key factors in determining
whether the middle-aged executive can continue to succeed in
their later working years.
Learn
More
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Maintaining
and Enhancing Cognitive Function
-Minnesota
Humanities Commission
The
Need
to develop a Mental Skills
Coaching
Program
-Simon Fraser
University Research on Mental Fitness
Coaching Programs
Research conducted at Simon Fraser University
explored the
development and impact of mental fitness programs with older
adults in enhancing brain function and overall wellness. Their
findings support the theoretical conclusions of researchers in
neuroscience and psychology.
Working with one
group of senior
people researchers
developed a series of mental fitness workshops.
Participants learned how old attitudes and beliefs about
declining mental abilities restricted their options for a
productive old age. They learned how to change limiting
beliefs to positive beliefs that reflected their potential for
growth in later life, and they learned to speak the language
of limitless possibility. They learned how to get "out of
the box", to think and act creatively; to appreciate
diversity and differing perspectives; and to listen to each
other with renewed respect. Everyone who completed the program
benefited-all reported dramatic increases in their level of
mental fitness, many had improved memory.
Dr
Skiffington's invitational,
fast-tracked, 4 Day, Very
Small Group Certified
Master Coach Course (conducted in N.Y., London,
Sydney etc) meets the critical needs for coaches to be trained and mentored in the use of
validated, reliable psychology-based tools and techniques.
Read More >....
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