Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Returning to the Land of Oz: Your Miracle Brain

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Returning to the Land of Oz: Your Miracle Brain: Brain cells have the amazing ability to grow new communication pathways to take over the jobs of non-functioning or under-performing cells. ...

Returning to the Land of Oz: Your Miracle Brain

Brain cells have the amazing ability to grow new communication pathways to take over the jobs of non-functioning or under-performing cells. Entire networks of brain cells can be routed around damaged areas of the brain, bringing back skills that were lost due to traumatic head and brain injuries. Plasticity is the brain’s ability to rewire itself and to grow new communication links. It is the brain’s ability to adapt and change throughout our life. Because of the brain’s plasticity, damage caused by free radicals and other factors are repaired to insure that our brain cells continue doing what they were created and programmed to do, which is to help us to learn, to remember, and to expand our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. It is as if within the fluid structure of the brain is a guardian angel protecting it to make sure it grows, expands, and heals. 

I have worked in the capacity of Executive Director for two traumatic head and brain injury facilities and have marveled at the incredible healing that occurred with people who one would think would never recover, due to the seriousness of their accidents. Using a combination of brain building exercises, group support, recreation therapy, adaptive physical education, speech therapy, relaxation,  meditation, and creative imagery processes, I witnessed dramatic improvements in the lives of dozens and dozens of patients.

The brain is amazingly resilient and can repair itself with the proper interventions. Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz was correct in wanting a brain so that he could think, communicate, and problem solve. Have no doubt about it, you possess a miracle brain and the aging process will not significantly impact the full functioning of your brain IF you continue to learn new things, build your attention skills, read and ponder the storyline and themes in the books and articles you read and the films you watch, draw upon creative solutions to daily life experiences AND feed the brain healthy and nourishing food. If you take care of your miracle brain it will surely take care of you. 

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com both as a paperback and as and e-Kindle book and Nook book.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: 5 Gifts: Hope, Mind, Love, Courage and Imagination...

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: 5 Gifts: Hope, Mind, Love, Courage and Imagination...: I believe that the Wizard of Oz , the famous children’s classic, is the perfect metaphor for the issues facing us as we age. Both the book w...

5 Gifts: Hope, Mind, Love, Courage and Imagination

I believe that the Wizard of Oz, the famous children’s classic, is the perfect metaphor for the issues facing us as we age. Both the book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 film based upon Baum’s book focused on 5 main themes: Hope, mind, love, courage, and imagination.

As we age we certainly need hope. Doubt and hopelessness are depressive states that make life difficult. When you lack hope your life begins to close in on you and your world gets smaller and smaller. Hope revitalizes the spirit and opens doors.  When Dorothy landed in the Land of Oz, Glinda the Good Witch gave her hope by telling her that the Wizard of Oz could help her get back home. She gave Dorothy a protective kiss on the forehead and a pair of Ruby Red Shoes to safely guide her journey. We need hope, inspiration and the reassurance that we will be OK. How do we keep the fires of hope burning? We need to keep our expectations positive and trust that we can make healthy decisions and choices. We need to have things and activities to look forward to. We need to continue to dream about the enjoyable things we want to do and to join forces with others who are currently doing these things or want to do them in the future. We must always hold onto the belief that we are not alone in our dreams and wants and there are others out there who can and will join us on our journey.

The first person Dorothy meets on the Yellow Brick Road is Scarecrow who is stuck on a pole. He believes that he doesn’t have a brain. This is one of the greatest fears instilled in us, especially as we get older; that we are going to get some kind of dementia or Alzheimer’s, the brain cells are going to die and we are slowly going to lose our mind and brain power. Dementia and Alzheimer’s do not have to play a part in the aging process. Beliefs are powerful and the pharmaceutical companies and the medical profession have done us a disservice by telling us over and over again about the deterioration our brain is going to experience as we age. This repetitive negativity creates doubt and fear. If doctors would spend more time educating about proper nutrition, exercise, brain enhancing educational activities, mediation and relaxation techniques, we would probably see a dramatic drop in dementia. But most doctors have very little education or training in nutrition and brain enhancing activities. Their training is mostly in pathology.

Abraham Maslow eloquently wrote about this phenomenon in his book, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. He said that if we continue to study mental illness and think that it will give us a better understanding of the full spectrum of human nature we are sadly mistaken. All we will have is a sick psychology. He believed that in order to heal we need a psychology of wellness and therefore need to study people who are psychologically healthy. What we have today is a sick-illness oriented field of medicine that primarily addresses problems with pills and surgical procedures.

The fact is, the brain has a remarkable ability to heal and expand its communication network between and among brain cells. I have seen these miraculous changes take place as a former director of two brain injury facilities. This phenomenon is called neural plasticity. The human brain has over 100 billion brain cells that make over 1,000 trillion connections with a vascular network of over 400 miles of blood vessels. Keep your brain active by learning new things, nurture it with healthy and nutritious food that soothe it rather than inflame it, participate in ongoing exercises that enhance it, and incorporate daily meditation and self-hypnosis techniques and processes that create optimism and release the ‘feel good’ hormones, and you are on your way to having an amazing mind and brain, just like the Scarecrow wanted.

We want love and an open heart. Love is vital to our health and wellness, yet as we age we feel more isolated and lonely. Love is what connects us and joins us together. The Tin Woodman wanted a heart because when he was in love he was the happiest man on earth. He said he needed a heart to love and be loved again. How can we open our hearts more as we age? We need to participate in activities with others, to spend our time with people who are caring and nurturing, to try new things and add more fun, play and joy into our lives. Perhaps we can volunteer and help others who are less fortunate than we are. Perhaps we can go to adult education classes and explore topics like building self-esteem, vegetarian cooking, meditation, loving relationships, and learn more about the biology and psychology of beliefs and how they impact the heart and our miracle brain. Perhaps we will radically alter our diet and tell the pharmaceutical companies, “No thank you, my heart is healthy as ever because I am feeding it the beliefs, food and activities it requires for optimal functioning. “

As Dorothy continued down the Yellow Brick Road she was startled by the roar of a large lion. The three of them recoiled in fear as the Cowardly Lion made his big presence known. When he frightened her dog Toto, Dorothy smacked him across the snout and the Lion began to cry. As we get older, courage may seem to be in smaller supply. But why does it have to? Courage is that inner force within us that inspires us to stand up for ourselves, the guts to try new things, the daring to take risks, the bravery to move away from an isolated life and to open the door to something new and different. Courage helps us to defy fear. Fear is there but we don’t let it stop us from doing the things we want to do and taking the risks we want to take. And like the Wizard of Oz teaches us, we oftentimes need the help of others to make changes. Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the Lion could not have gotten to Oz alone….they needed each other to get beyond the barriers and challenges they met along the way. They needed each other’s support, encouragement, and creative problem solving to get to the Wizard of Oz.

Imagination is one of the greatest gifts of all. If we are feeling stuck in life, imagination is our way out. When we were children we literally lived in the imagination. As we get older, imagination can play a smaller role as practical concerns take precedence. Your brain thrives on positive thinking and imagination. Your heart splendidly relaxes as it is inundated by the chemistry released by imagination. Courage is your constant companion in an environment that bathes in the rapture of imagination. A positive imagination is always your antidote to the doldrums of fear, anxiety, and depression. Let these 5 gifts and themes of the Wizard of Oz take you and your life to new heights of enjoyment and fulfillment.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of Love and be Loved and a new book, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road which is available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com both in paperback and as an e-Kindle book and Nook book.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Aging Wisely

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Aging Wisely: We live in very stressful times and it is a known fact that stress ages us. Stress interferes with collagen production and our skin suffe...

Positive Aging

We live in very stressful times and it is a known fact that stress ages us. Stress interferes with collagen production and our skin suffers. Under the constant duress of stress, we look older, feel older, and lose our vitality. When we are constantly under stress and the natural stress response is not completely shut off, we experience a chemical imbalance eventually damaging  joint tissues and blood vessel linings. In short, when the natural stress response is not turned off, the body is constantly on the defensive and inflammation ensues.

Chronic inflammation is central to many common diseases and health problems that develop causing deterioration of the joints and surrounding tissues, mobility challenges, pain, and digestive problems. In regard to the latter, a growing number of medical researchers are finding that inflammation begins in the digestive tract. Anxiety, depression, fear, anger, resentment, and diet all directly affect the proper functioning of the digestive system.

30 million Americans take anxiety medication on a regular basis and an equal number take prescribed and over-the-counter remedies for indigestion. In addition, current research shows that 60 million Americans have problems with sleep. Poor digestion is one of the main causes of interrupted and poor sleep. In teaching often in other parts of the world, I have discovered that these conditions are prevalent in many other countries and cultures.

What can we do? The first thing to address is diet. “Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinella, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science. “Diet, exercise, and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health. This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage, and counteracting the effects of aging.”

We are a country of junk food junkies. We buy our food at huge super markets that, in most cases, do not care about our health and well-being. Do not entrust this responsibility to your doctor, the pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, or the food industry. Your health is in your hands and it is up to you to educate yourself on how to take care of your body, your miracle brain, and your wellness.

In an article I read the other day, medical researchers estimated that at the current rate, 1 out of 3 people will have diabetes in America by 2050. Think about it. If an engineer told you that in 5 years your home would most likely slide off of its foundation would you do nothing? The point is, we are in the midst of a health crisis in America and things do not seem to be getting better.

To dramatically improve your health, you need to radically alter your diet. Eat organic fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants and lots of whole grains. The average soda contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar and Americans consume 150 pounds of sugar per person a year! Eat foods abounding in omega-3 fatty acids like wild salmon, walnuts, and flax seeds.

Learn effective stress management techniques, relaxation techniques, and mind enhancing reframing skills. Listen to relaxing music.. Learn natural pain management skills and participate in fun and enjoyable exercise, such as dancing, swimming, walking, and hiking. Take time to play. Play with your loved ones, your animals, your children, and your mate. Spend lots of quality time in nature. Trees, plants, flowers, the ocean, rivers, lakes, and forests, are naturally healing and harmonizing. Take good care of your skin. Use quality products daily and make sure you and your loved one give each other a facial and massage at least once a week.

The fact is you have the power to make positive changes in your life that will impact your health for years to come. You can age wisely and gracefully. Begin now! You have that power.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on your Yellow  Brick Road, now available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and BarnesandNoble.com and available as an e-Kindle book and Nook book.

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Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Five Amazing Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Five Amazing Lessons from the Wizard of Oz: The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz , and L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , present five themes over and over a...

Five Amazing Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, and L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, present five themes over and over again: hope, mind, heart, courage, and imagination. These five themes successfully address most of the issues and struggles we face day to day.

I was watching the fantastic film, The Shawshank Redemption, last evening and there was one scene where Tim Robbins said to Morgan Freeman, “Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things.”

Many of the students I have had the pleasure to work with in my seminars are dealing with this exact issue, hope. Hope is an amazing quality to possess. When we don’t have it and don’t feel it, life seems to be out of reach and we struggle to gain our footing. Hope keeps the inner fires burning. I remember years ago reading Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. He recalled when he was in a concentration camp and knew when others had lost hope. He could see it in their faces, hear it in their voices, and feel it lacking in their movements. He said, “Those who had lost hope died within a short time.”

I remember when my mom had a heart attack in 2005 and the attending Cardiologist told her that she might not pull through because her heart had so much damage. When I entered her room in the ER, she was crying and told me what he had said. I reassured her that she would pull through. I went to the nurse’s station and called him on the phone and asked him why he told her such a negative thing when she was so vulnerable and struggling for her life. He told me that he told her the truth. I told him that he told her HIS version of the truth, not necessarily the truth. I told him that as a doctor you always give the patient hope because you never know what they are capable of. He disagreed. I fired him, hired another Cardiologist, and told him how I wanted him to communicate to my mom. He agreed. That was 6 years ago. My mom pulled through, lives independently, cooks, cleans, bakes, watches movies, watches the LA Dodgers, and is enjoying life again in her 90’s.

In the Wizard of Oz, the first person Dorothy meets when she arrives in the Land of Oz is the Good Witch Glinda. Glinda gives Dorothy hope. She gives her a pair of magical Ruby Red Shoes, tells her that the Wizard of Oz may be able to help her get back home, and then kisses her on the forehead and proclaims, “No one can harm a person who has been kissed by the Good Witch of the North.” Dorothy is sent on her way with both a feeling of hope and a feeling of safety and protectiveness. Isn’t it a great feeling to know that we are protected and are safe?

Once on the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow who is stuck on a pole. Through their interactions, she helps free him from his confinement on the pole and he joins her to see if the Wizard of Oz will give him a brain. He doesn’t think he has one but challenge after challenge proves that he has a great and creative mind. Belief systems are so important in life. What we believe is true is true for us BUT not necessarily the truth. Like the first Cardiologist that saw my mom, what we think is true and what really IS true might be poles apart. Scarecrow had a great mind and an amazing brain. He just didn’t know it. He just needed the opportunities to allow his creative mind to work.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow met Tin Woodman rusted and immobile standing in the woods. He persuaded them to find an oil can and oil his joints. Once mobile again, he told them his story of how he lost his heart. He was deeply in love years ago, the relationship ended, and he lost his heart in the process.  Tin Woodman told Dorothy and Scarecrow that a person without a heart cannot love and love is the greatest experience in life. He asked them if The Wizard could give him a heart again. They asked him to join them, giving him hope and inspiration.

Love is an amazing force. Some say that it is the greatest power, the most precious gift, the most fulfilling experience in life. In the film, Don Juan de Marco, Johnny Depp said,” There are 4 questions to ask ourselves.  What is sacred?  Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for?” He then tells Marlon Brando that the answer to all 4 questions is love.

Years ago I had the good fortune of spending time with Elizabeth Kubler Ross, MD author of, On Death and Dying. Elizabeth told me a story about one of her psychiatric residences. She worked at a facility where there were 4 children’s wards. The children in one of the wards were experiencing great physical and emotional improvement, so much so that it called for a meeting of the entire medical staff. The question posed was, “what are we doing differently on that unit that is resulting in this amazing improvement?” Meeting after meeting did not result in any clarity so Elizabeth took it upon herself to visit that ward to see if she could find any clues. The first 8 hour shift provided nothing out of the norm. The second shift provided no clues either. But, on the late night shift, Elizabeth observed something utterly amazing. The housekeeper picked up each child one by one, held them lovingly, rocked them in her arms, and played with them. The vast improvement was the result of loving touch and loving communication. What is equally amazing is that the medical staff with all their degrees and expertise didn’t think of doing what the housekeeper did.

Further down the Yellow Brick Road Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman come upon a very loud and angry Lion who attempts to scare and attack them. Dorothy walks up to him and slaps him across the snout! The Lion immediately stops his rants and begins to cry. He reveals that he has always been afraid and lives within a very small space in the jungle. “Can the Wizard give me courage, he asks?

While the four of them are walking along the Yellow Brick Road, they come across a big divide on the path. This gulch is so wide that the four of them sit down to discuss if they will be able to continue on their journey. Scarecrow says that if they cannot come up with a solution, then their journey will have to end. The Lion rises up, assesses the situation, and then says, “I can jump over it.” To this the Scarecrow adds, “If you can do that, then take each one of us one at a time, on your back over to the other side. And so he did with each marvelous leap, one at a time.

Hope, love, courage, mind, imagination….these are the gifts of the soul, the qualities that help us get through the challenges that life presents us with.  Remain hopeful;  keep your heart open and your thoughts positive and uplifting;  express your courage and draw upon inner and outer resources; and let your imagination be your constant companion.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Barnesandnoble.com, and as a Kindle e-book and Nook book. His dynamic workshops in the USA, Canada, and Scandinavia show participants how to creatively use the power of the mind and the wisdom of the imagination to successfully achieve goals, improve health, and make positive life changes.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Maintaining Your Focus on the Yellow Brick Road

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Maintaining Your Focus on the Yellow Brick Road: It is a welcomed sight to see the Occupy Wall Street protests growing. Protesters in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle a...

Maintaining Your Focus on the Yellow Brick Road

It is a welcomed sight to see the Occupy Wall Street protests growing. Protesters in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and Oakland are beginning to define their message. Maintaining their focus and poise are extremely important.

Chanting, “Banks got bailout. We got sold out. Hey Chase, what do you say? How many houses did you take today?” the protesters are defining something that has been happening all across America. Banks got bailed out and kept the money. They didn’t provide the necessary assistance to homeowners. They let the loan rates get higher and took over millions of homes, flooding the market with foreclosures that sank the housing market. Once you sink the housing market, you destroy millions and millions of jobs. States do not collect much needed taxes from foreclosed homes. When a home is foreclosed, electricians, plumbers, painters, carpenters, and contractors lose jobs. In addition, the stores that sell home improvement products and merchandise lose millions of customers. When you ‘sack’ the housing market you put the entire nation at risk because the housing industry is one of the major sources of employment and revenue.

In Oakland, the protesters are rallying at the Oakland Port where huge shipments of Chinese imports arrive daily. Importing just about everything from China is so destructive to our economy. Chinese workers and Chinese imports have taken millions of jobs away and forced the closure of millions of small businesses and hundreds of corporations all across America. The current Republican platform calls for giving more tax incentives to American businesses and corporations. They mistakenly believe that if you give even more tax breaks to the wealthiest, they will use their tax savings to hire American workers. What foolishness. Corporations will take their tax savings and import more goods from China.

When the bailout happened, there were no oversights imposed. The plan should have been to have banks work with American homeowners to lower their interest rates so they could stay in their homes. What are the Republicans suggesting? That we lower the interest rate for the corporations??? Hello?? Is anyone home?? Republicans and Democrats have their heads deeply embedded in the sand. No one knows what to do.

What was that great line from the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy asked Scarecrow, “How can you talk if you don’t have brains? “I don’t know,” responded the Scarecrow. “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?”

America, keep on protesting! Your message is getting clearer and making more sense every day. But remember the wisdom of Gandhi and Martin Luther King: Keep your movement peaceful!

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the Author of, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, Barnesandnoble.com and as an e-Kindle book and Nook book.