Dr. Renee Clauselle of Child & Family Psychology appeared on ABC’s Eyewitness News First at 4 to talk about how children can exercise their brains through imagination and unstructured playtime. Watch the segment here!
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7 Quick Tips to Trick and Train your Brain to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions Only less than 10% of us will keep our New Year’s resolutions, so how can we break bad habits and replace them with new ones? And stick to them? “Train your Brain,” says psychologist Dr. Renee Clauselle. TV personality, Dr. Renee Clauselle, of Child and Family Psychology, has 6 very engaging tips to share so “The Resolute” among us can confidently make their lists, go for their goals and positively impact their lives. Habits are just behavior performed so routinely that it becomes almost automatic and rewarding for us in some way. Our brains develop neural pathways to lead us to a reward, triggered a dopamine release, also known as the pleasure hormone and the more times this pathway is traveled to and rewarded, the stronger the habit will become. The good news is that objects or sensations that are pleasing or necessary for us can also be employed to motivate us to establishing good habits. The key is attach new pleasurable associations as cues to new routines. To make it easier to stick with your New Year’s resolution, think of the things you find pleasure in, these increase your dopamine release, therefore, attach those things to your new routine or new plan. Specific tips for Creating New Habits Step 1: First, use Creative Awareness and “un-charge” old habits and all of their effects of pleasure to shift the associated remorse or guilt in fun ways. For example, imagine you are on a reality show coached by a team of experts or imagine that old reward, such as ice-cream, melting instead into a huge pair of old pants to be discarded from the “past” or the “before” picture of the heavier you. Step 2: ID your new habits and practice experiencing their associate rewards. What habits would you like to create? Find images of the habits, put your face on that fit body in the ad, and envision or visualize a pleasure response to attach to that habit. For example, visualize and practice actually experiencing the endorphin rush you will get from running five miles or sticking to your exercise routine. Step 3: Score the Music. Put your favorite up-tempo song on your iPod and link that song with the process of going to the gym or the health food store, or even thinking about it, or when the excuses begin to creep in. Thus, the pleasure received from hearing your favorite song will be attached to the process and new habit. Step 4: Laughter is the Best Medicine and it’s own reward. Use your humor to spur you on. Invent fun things like calendar reminder calling you to “Wake up Gorgeous” timed to the alarm to get up to go to the gym or put an image of an unattractive and overweight person inside the cookie jar. The laughter and the reminder of your own support of yourself is a strong reward. Step 5: Linked in: Associations Habits are more easily broken when surrounding associations are changed as well. Think of triggers for your old habit and change what they mean to you, for example, don’t equate coffee with cigarettes; begin to equate it with something else, like a crossword puzzle or calling a friend. Repeat the linking process several times until it becomes automatic. Step 6: Set your brain up for success. Perhaps your goal is to lose 10 pounds. Link and create a visual “reward” tied to the success of that goal to something familiar and easily seen in your environment, like a red car. Every time you see a red car, you’ll be reminded that you will lose 10 pounds, are on your way to losing 10 pounds and therefore “success” is all around and already happening. Step 7: It Takes A Village. Line and link up your family and friends as buddies for a no-fail system of mutual support. If you want to see your teenager save some money, maybe they put $10. into a bank each time you go to the gym or you cooking a healthy meal at home equates to your husband taking you on a movie date. Try to change only one habit at a time. Break your goal down into more specific, smaller, trackable parts, if possible. Instead of making a resolution to be healthier, create a goal of walking 30 minutes a day, three times a week. This way you can celebrate your success incrementally instead of playing that old song of not keeping your New Year’s Resolutions, because this year you have ” trained your brain.” What are your tips? Please share in the comment section below! Dr. Renee loves Pump It Up for kids and she will talk about it today on “Eyewitness News First at 4.” Don’t forget to tune in! These are smart toys that boost developmental skills and are fun! We will be featuring one toy for a specific age group each week during the holiday season. These toys can be purchased right from the link on the blog.
10 years to 12 years. “For middle schoolers and tweens, it is all about reading skills and vocabulary because SATs are right around the corner. Konexi is a word-building game of skill and chance in 3D. It’s great for family game nights. It’s a game that keeps everyone stimulated and on the edge of their seats playing it, while reading and writing skills improve!” To buy Konexi, click here!
I love, love, love Reptangles, Winner of the 2010 Parent’s Choice Award. What a way to teach analytic thinking, problem solving, creativity and development for fine motor skills. These clever and colorful turtles snap and slide together in over 100 incredible ways. Dr. Renee Clauselle appeared on ABCNews.com to offer tips on how to avoid spoiling your child this holiday season. Dr. Renee Clauselle recently appeared on ABC News.com’s “Healthy Living” segment to discuss ways parents can deal with their child’s temper tantrums. She also showed parents how they can understand and control their child’s emotions. These are smart toys that boost developmental skills and are fun! We will be featuring one toy for a specific age group each week during the holiday season. These toys can be purchased right from the link on the blog.
3 years to 5 years: The Mini-Kick Scooter develops visual motor skills and developing eye motion coordination, skills which later affect math skills, geometry, building blocks, and other visual spatial types of games, plus scooting is just fun! These are smart toys that boost developmental skills and are fun! We will be featuring one toy for a specific age group each week during the holiday season. These toys can be purchased right from the link on the blog.
9 mos. to 2 years: “The reason I love Cloud B Twilight Turtle Constellation Night Light’s full night sky projection for ceiling and walls is that it really plays to the sensory development that is happening in babies. Muscular and eye tracking development are enhanced. I also love that, as a stuffed toy, it can grow with kids as they get older as a cuddle friend for bedtime.” You can purchase the Twilight Turtle Constellation Night Light by clicking here! The holiday season can be a very stressful time. In fact, most mental health professionals find that the number of clients they see doubles, even triples, during this time. Dr. Renee provides holiday stress busters to help us cope and manage stress more effectively. 1) Remember to practice breathing techniques. It sounds simple, but breathing correctly and starting a “breathing practice” is an instant stress buster. If you need a quick way to begin your breathing practice, visit http://tinyurl.com/72wwgqt for free downloads of simple breathing techniques. 2) Control what you can and forget the rest. Planning ahead and organizing yourself can help reduce your anxiety. Reduce your anxiety over the things you CAN control. You cannot control how your Aunt Susie will act at the dinner table, or if Cousin Sally will like her gift, but you can organize yourself in effort to control your own anxiety. 3) Do not use or think the words “should,” “must” or “ought to be.” Throw out other people’s expectations and fantasies of what a holiday “should be” and live out your own, or do what makes you happy. When I see clients who are depressed or anxious regarding the holidays, most of the time it is because they are trying to make everyone else happy or make other people’s fantasies about the holiday come true. The truth is, you cannot make everyone happy, so work on you and your intimate circle. Who do you want to be with? What do you really want to do? Of course, there will be some traditions that you want to uphold, but the key is to think in shades of gray, not absolutes (black and white); for example, a shade-of-gray solution may be to uphold the tradition, but only visit for a short while. Try to find a compromise that makes you happy and also honors the traditions in your life. 4) You don’t have to become Martha Stewart for the holiday season. Do what works for you and what causes you less stress. Who cares if you did not bake the cake from scratch? Give the neighborhood bakery a call and make their day! 5) Repeat this mantra: “Holidays are not about consumerism.” Try to banish other thoughts that make you spend too much money during this time of year. Try to put boundaries on your gift giving, especially with kids. 6) Learn to say “no.” This is the biggest stress reducer. Do what you can do and say “no” to the rest. |
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