Six years meditating… (Part Two)

Long-term meditation practice is also associated with a physical reduction in the size of the amygdala region of the brain (the "fight or flight" center). This leads to permanent lowering of baseline anxiety. At the cellular level, long-term meditation appears to slow down the "clocks" inside our cells. Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of our chromosomes. 

Short telomeres are markers of aging and disease. On that subject, a study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology showed that long-term meditators (averaging 5+ years) have significantly higher telomerase activity. This is the enzyme that repairs telomeres, suggesting that daily meditation may actually slow cellular aging and increase longevity.

In addition, our brains have a "Default Mode Network" (DMN) that is active when we are not doing anything specific, like "mind-wandering" and worrying about the past/future. A Yale University study found that in experienced meditators (10+ years), the DMN is permanently transformed. 

They don't just "quiet" their minds during meditation; their brains have a new "default" state where mind-wandering is reduced, leading to higher levels of daily happiness and presence. This said, some of the most extreme results come from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which studied intense meditators (10,000 to 50,000 hours of practice). 

These showed massive increases in Gamma wave activity—the highest frequency brain waves associated with peak concentration, "flow" states, and feelings of universal compassion. Crucially, these high levels of Gamma activity stayed even when they were not meditating, suggesting that after 10 years, the "state" of meditation becomes a permanent "trait" of the person. 

Clearly, the more years and minutes we put into meditation, the more our brain changes for the best. Pretty cool! Do you need more incentive?

Six years meditating… (Part One)

It’s been more than six years that I’ve been meditating daily and from what I have realized, this practice has changed my life and has been the best thing that recently happened to me. That prompted more research on my part to understand what scientific studies had found on the subject. 

What I’ve been able to find is that studies on the effects of meditation over 5 to 10 years move us away from the "feel-good" temporary benefits of the practice and into the domain of permanent structural and biological changes. 

Because it’s jstf to keep a control group from meditating for a decade, most research in this time span is cross-sectional (comparing "expert" meditators with 5–10+ years of experience against "novices"). However, the results are remarkably consistent across various peer-reviewed studies.

Beginning with the physical brain structural neuroplasticity, the most significant finding is that meditation "thickens" the brain in areas responsible for attention and sensory processing, while "shrinking" the areas responsible for stress. 

A landmark study by Dr. Sara Lazar (Harvard/MIT) found that long-term meditators (average 7–9 years of practice) had increased gray matter thickness in the prefrontal cortex—the area responsible for decision-making and executive function. Most importantly, Lazar found that 50-year-old long-term meditators had the same cortical thickness as 25-year-old non-meditators. Meditation appeared to offset the natural thinning of the brain that occurs with age. 

There’s even more to this and I’ll share it with you tomorrow...

Skiing with family or friends

Any time I ski with family and friends, my old ski instructor background and attitudes come to the fore. Here I am literally putting myself on the skis of my guests as long as they are a tad less proficient than myself, which, it seems to me, at least, continues to be the case. I pick runs and conditions that I feel are best adapted to them and that they will thoroughly enjoy in perfect safety.

As much as humanly possible, I always preselect the itinerary I chose beforehand to make sure it’s appropriate. This is my top priority. When we stop, I ask them how they do, if they’re hot or feel too cold, tired or are having any problem, if their equipment works okay for them and if everything feels great. 

As I precede them and ski down the mountain I turn my head around and look behind me as regularly as I can to make sure they’re still following and see how they’re doing. By doing so my enjoyment shifts from a personal one to a much greater, richer one as their welfare, safety and own enjoyment takes precedence over my little person. 

Call this the pleasure of sharing what I love, pleasing those I value, the true joy of giving!

Surviving a “down” cycle? (Part Two)

Anyone who sustains long-term projects doesn’t stay motivated all the time. People just stay connected to why they started, even when the emotional charge goes down temporarily. Sometimes it helps to write down the reason we care and revisit it during low-energy phases and remind us that the work still matters even when the spark dims. 

During these times, it’s also helpful to break the mission into something small enough to succeed at today. 

This is understandable, because when we’re in a down cycle, the big picture can feel overwhelming and shrinking its scope is more likely to help us stay in motion without burning out. 

This could be illustrated by small actions like: 

• “I’ll make one phone call” 
• “I’ll write for ten minutes” 
• “I’ll fix one small thing in the house” 

Easy, small wins rebuild momentum faster than waiting for inspiration to return and can put us back on the rails. In addition, let’s never forget to reconnect with people who share our values as isolation amplifies discouragement but connection dissolves it. Even a short conversation with someone who knows how to deal well with “ups and downs” can reset our emotional compass. 

We don’t need a pep talk, just a reminder that we’re not carrying the world alone will suffice! In conclusion, we always need to keep the long view in mind, as any meaningful effort whether it’s personal, political, creative, or social experiences “seasons” like Growth, Plateau, Doubt and fortunately Renewal. 

A down cycle is often the precursor to the next insight or breakthrough, like the compost that feeds the next growing season. When we zoom out, the dip becomes only one part of the story, not the end of it. Lastly, sometimes the most courageous thing we can do is stop pushing for a moment. 

Rest isn’t quitting, it’s just maintenance for the part of us that keeps showing up. We can’t lose momentum by resting — we lose that momentum if we ignore the need to rest!

Surviving a “down” cycle? (Part One)

Sometimes it's hard to remain optimistic and charged up, no matter what. Everything is cyclical and when the "down" cycle comes, how to keep the faith in what we're doing without getting discouraged? I know that it’s completely human to feel that dip — that moment when the energy drains out of the room and the purpose that felt so clear yesterday suddenly feels foggy.

When that happens to the best of us, we’re not doing anything wrong. we’re just brushing up against the natural rhythm of being people who care deeply and pushes too hard. So how can we stay steady through these cycles? 

First, we need to remember that down cycles aren’t signs that we’re off‑track. They’re just part of the track. We ought to treat the “down” cycle as information, not judgment and not think things like “Something’s wrong with us”, “Maybe we’re not cut out for this” or “Why can’t we stay motivated?” But in reality the dip is often simply our mind saying: 

• “I need rest” 
• “I need perspective” 
• “I need to reconnect with meaning” 

All this means that we must re-frame the dip as a signal, rather than see it as a failure. Above all, we must remember that if motivation is cyclical, commitment should remain steady. A good example is to see the two elements as follows: Motivation is like weather — it shifts, sometimes dramatically. Commitment is like climate — it changes slowly, with intention. 

In the next blog, we’ll see how to handle dips in order to re-emerge much stronger, so please, stay tuned!

I hate Trump, what can I do?

Since I can't stand Trump and his regime, what can I do to make it bearable, and better yet, what steps can I take to fight it effectively? I know that I’m not alone in feeling this way, and it makes sense to want both emotional resilience and effective action when political leadership feels incompetent, cruel and misaligned with our values. Here are a few ways we can address that quandary. 

All are constructive, grounded ways we can choose to take when we feel politically discouraged or want to create change. The first thing we all can do is make the situation more bearable. Political stress is real, and it can drain our energy if we don’t systematically manage it.

So here are a couple of ideas that should work for us, starting by protecting our mental space, limit “doom‑scrolling” on our smartphones and instead choose a few trusted news sources instead of the mindless feeds that are served to us. We must also set boundaries around political conversations that leave us depleted. This isn’t avoidance, it’s simply preserving our capacity to act. 

We must also make sure to stay connected to people who share your values as community as a powerful antidote to political frustration. Of course, we must focus on what we can change or influence, so when national politics feel too overwhelming, local action often has more immediate impact and is emotionally grounding. 

This said, I vote in every election, encouraging others to register and participate. I also regularly communicate with my Senators and my Representative (that happen to be all Trump supporters as we live in a Republican, fascist state). I do it concisely but as forcefully and originally as I can so my message can’t get ignored. 

If you live outside of the United States and don't appreciate Trump, it's easy to boycott everything US from Amazon to X (ex-Tweeter) including Apple, Boeing, Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc. You have plenty to do if you muster the courage to just do it!

In the end, I never miss an opportunity to speak up my mind and tell things the way I see them. Freedom and democracy are too important to me!

Running the world with AI? (Part Three)

Well, you’ve now discovered most of the answers to my question. All of these answers are, for the most part, hypothetical. This said and with all of its flaws, I still believe AI management would be far preferable to Trump, Putin or Netanyahu’s horrible style of leadership. Also, AI is self-learning and as long as it is programmed to behave well and follow a world’s constitution, there are very good reasons that it can keep going in the right direction for an indefinite amount of time. 

Again, I believe that given the dismal state of our political leadership, we have to worry about humanity being able govern itself wisely in an era of climate instability, resource pressures, rapid technological change, ideological polarization, short-term political incentives, views and programs, widespread corruption, as well as whether a system grounded in shared global principles could help us avoid self-inflicted disasters. 

That’s an urgent, serious and very human concern. If the question is what an “AI guided by global ethics” would look like, an AI guided by global ethics isn’t a robot president or a digital dictator. It’s more like a planetary operating system that helps humanity make wiser choices while staying anchored in shared moral commitments. 

Think of it as a system that blends technical intelligence with ethical guardrails drawn from global frameworks like the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and climate‑sustainability principles. 

Something that could be kept accountable whether it is supposed to help with climate, conflict, or inequality and the many times human leadership has failed due to bias or short-term approaches. 

In conclusion, my vision of running the planet with AI is a vision of perfection, but when you think about it, there’s might be nothing as boring and demotivating as perfection. Of course, the day we change our mind we quickly long for the good old day when Trump, Putin or Netanyahu did not exist as politicians! Could we all live with that concept and who among us really wants it or needs it?