HealingandCancer.org

How understanding your braincan empower your life

with Dr. Rob Rutledge, Oncologist

Associate Professor, Dalhousie University

The Healing and Cancer Foundation

HealingandCancer.org

Goals of people who have been given a cancer diagnosis

• Maximize the chance of recovery

• Feel better physically and emotionally

• Think more clearly and function better

HealingandCancer.org

Overview

Setting the intention

Complete cancer care

Empowering your brain physically

Practical neuroscience

SKILLS

Stress and relaxation

Meditation

Reframing difficult thoughts

Taking in the good

Questions

Setting the Intention

In preparation of going into any situation:

How do you want to be in the world?

What do you hope of yourself?

What’s your intention for this conference?

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HealingandCancer.org

What is Complete Cancer Care?(Integrative medicine)

• Understanding what’s happening

• Cancer Information Service – 1 888 939 3333

• www.Cancer.ca www.willow.org

• Getting the best from the medical system

• Empowering body with healthy lifestyle

• Exercise, diet, maintaining reasonable weight,

sleep, relaxation techniques

• Healing skills – level of the mind

• Nurturing a spiritual life / perspective

HealingandCancer.org

The Mind-Body and Body-Mind connection

• The nervous system includes the ‘body’

• Enteric (gut) nervous system

• The nerves around the heart

• Relaxing the body will settle the mind

• Eg. for insomniacs

Willpower and healthy habits(Dr. Kelly McGonigal)

Conflict between immediate gratification and

long-term goals and values

Maps to two different parts of brain

When our prefrontal lobe is active we’re

much more likely to choose wisely

Health habits promoting frontal lobe activity:

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SLEEP

Sleep Hygiene?

• NAP!!

• Improved ability to remember and

learn new skills post nap

• Improved quality of sleep at night

• Feeling more rested next morning

Brain derived growth factor

EXERCISE

Low glycemic diet /

plant-based diet

HealingandCancer.org

Meditation & relaxation

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FOCUSING ON THE MIND

Thanks to author Rick Hanson!!

Buddha’s Brain and Hardwiring Happiness

www.RickHanson.net

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Your Brain: A Product of Evolution

~ 4+ billion years of earth

3.5 billion years of life

650 million years of multi-celled organisms

600 million years of nervous system

~ 200 million years of mammals

~ 60 million years of primates

~ 6 million years ago: last common ancestor with chimpanzees,

our closest relative among the “great apes”

2.5 million years of tool-making (starting with brains 1/3 our size)

~ 150,000 years of homo sapiens

~ 50,000 years of modern humans

~ 6000 years of blue, green, hazel eyes

Living in tribes of 100-150, competing for food, tribal warfare

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Evolutionary History

The Triune Brain

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Three Motivational and

Self-Regulatory Systems

Avoid Harms:

Predators, natural hazards, aggression, pain

Primary need, tends to trump all others

Approach Rewards:

Food, shelter, mating, pleasure

Mammals: rich emotions and sustained pursuit

Attach to Others:

Bonding, language, empathy, cooperation, love

Taps older Avoiding and Approaching networks

Each system can draw on the other two for its ends.

Many pathways to STRESS!!!

Real threat to your life

Jumping out of way of a runaway car

Perceived threat to your life

Worrying about the test results

Ego/Social threats

Argument over who does more housework

Public speaking (threat of being ostracized)

Fear of the unknown

Financial

Relationships 20

Stressor Perception Stress

HOW DO YOU EXPERIENCE

STRESS?

• What are your triggers ?

• What happens in your body?

• What emotions do you feel?

• What happens to your thinking?

• What thoughts do you have?

– What do you say about yourself?

– How do you label other people/situations?

TIME TO DE-STRESS

• Press the ‘pause’ button

• Be very curious about the physical

sensations

• Four slow breaths into the abdomen

• Reassure yourself with wisdom and

kindness

Stress is not all bad

• If you believe stress is not harmful to

your health….

• Stressful life is associated with a life

of meaning, fulfillment, and joy

• Stress connects us with others

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Your Brain: The Technical Specs

Size: 3 pounds of tofu-like tissue

1.1 trillion brain cells

85 billion “gray matter" neurons =

Activity: Always on 24/7/365 - Instant access to information on demand

20-25% of blood flow, oxygen, and glucose

Speed: Neurons firing around 5 to 50 times a second (or faster)

Signals crossing your brain in a tenth of a second

Connectivity: Average neuron makes ~ 5000 connections with other neurons:~ 500 trillion synapses

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The Connectome - 2

Hagmann, et al., 2008, PLoS Biology, 6:1479-1493

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Facts about Brain and Mind

As the brain changes, the mind changes.

Mental activity depends upon neural activity.

As the mind changes, the brain changes.

Transient: brainwaves, local activation

Lasting: epigenetics, neural pruning, “neurons that fire

together, wire together”

Experience-dependent neuroplasticity

You can use the mind to change the brain to change

the mind for the better: self-directed neuroplasticity.

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The Rewards of Love

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Tibetan Monk, Boundless Compassion

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Christian Nuns, Recalling a

Profound Spiritual Experience

Beauregard, et al., Neuroscience Letters, 9/25/06

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Lazar, et al. 2005.

Meditation

experience is

associated

with increased

cortical thickness.

Neuroreport, 16,

1893-1897.

Meditation – A life skill

The Hand Model of the brain

My meditation practice

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Meditation - Neural Benefits

Increased gray matter in the:

Insula - interoception; self-awareness; empathy for emotions

Hippocampus - visual-spatial memory; establishing context;

inhibiting amygdala and cortisol

Prefrontal cortext (PFC) - executive functions; attention control

Reduced cortical thinning with aging in insula and PFC

Increased activation of left frontal regions, which lifts mood

Increased gamma-range brainwaves - may be associated with

integration, “coming to singleness,” “unitary awareness”

Preserved telomere length

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Meditation: Physiological Benefits

Decreases stress-related cortisol

Stronger immune system

Helps many medical conditions, including

cardiovascular disease, asthma, type II diabetes,

PMS, and chronic pain

Aids wound healing and post-surgical recovery

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Meditation: Psychological Benefits

Improves attention (including for ADHD)

Increases compassion

Increases empathy

Reduces insomnia, anxiety, phobias, eating disorders

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for depression

decreases relapse

Feeling Better by

Examining and Changing

Your Thoughts

With Mindfulness

Awareness & Kindness(based on David Byrne’s Feeling Good)

You can change your mind

• You can change the way you think and

look at things

• You can change your underlying beliefs

and thought patterns

• These will change how you see your self,

your life, others, the world

• This will change how you feel, emotions,

moods, outlook, attitude and productivity

STEP 1

Mindful of

Distressing

Thoughts

STEP 2

Awareness and

Inquiry

STEP 3

Kind & Rational

Response

-Acknowledge the difficulty

with kindness

-Look at the situation from

another perspective

-Encourage yourself: “I can..

Situation:

Mindful of

Distressing

Thoughts

Awareness and

Inquiry

Kind &

Rational

Response

Situation: Tired and irritable during chemo

Mindful of

Distressing

Thoughts

It’s no use!

I don’t have the

strength to get

through this.

Awareness and

Inquiry

Kind &

Rational

Response

Situation: Tired and irritable during chemo

Mindful of

Distressing

Thoughts

It’s no use!

I don’t have the

strength to get

through this.

Awareness and

Inquiry

1. What emotions

follow from this way

of thinking?

2. How does my body

feel?

3. Is this a helpful or

harmful thought?

4. Exaggerated,

irrational?

Kind &

Rational

Response

Situation: Tired and irritable during chemo

Mindful of

Distressing

Thoughts

It’s no use!

I don’t have the

strength to get

through this.

Awareness and

Inquiry

1. What emotions

follow from this

way of thinking?

2. How does my

body feel?

3. Is this a helpful

or harmful thought?

4. Exaggerated,

irrational?

Kind &

Rational

Response

Who says you

always have to

be strong.

Sometimes to

cry and fall apart

is the best thing

to do. Then it

seems I find an

inner strength or

higher power.

Situation: Tired and irritable during chemo

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Honoring Experience

Your experience matters.

Both for how it feels in the moment

and for the lasting residues it leaves behind,

woven into the fabric of your brain and being.

Building Inner Strengths

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Inner strengths are grown mainly from positive mental

states that are turned into positive neural traits.

Change in neural structure and function (learning,

memory) involves activation and installation.

We grow inner strengths by internalizing positive

experiences of them and their related factors.

Growing Inner Strengths

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Inner Strengths Include

Capabilities (e.g., mindfulness, insight, emotional intelligence,

resilience, executive functions, impulse control)

Positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, self-worth, love, self-compassion,

secure attachment, gladness, awe, serenity)

Attitudes (e.g., openness, determination, optimism, confidence,

approach orientation, tolerance, self-respect)

Somatic inclinations (e.g., vitality, relaxation, grit, helpfulness)

Virtues (e.g., wisdom, patience, energy, generosity, restraint)

What inner strength

would you like to build?

Or what are you struggling with – and find the

antidote positive state?

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Inner Strengths Are Built From Brain Structure

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The Brain’s Negativity Bias

As our ancestors evolved, avoiding “sticks” was more important

for survival than getting “carrots.”

Negative stimuli:

More attention and processing

Greater motivational focus: loss aversion

Preferential encoding in implicit memory:

We learn faster from pain than pleasure.

Negative interactions: more impactful than positive

Easy to create learned helplessness, hard to undo

Rapid sensitization to negative through cortisol

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Velcro for Bad, Teflon for Good

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Taking in the Good

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Need activation and instillation of the positive!

Without this installation, there is no change in the

brain - no useful learning, no healing, no growth.

Positive activation without installation is pleasant,

but has no lasting value.

Meanwhile, negative mental states are being

preferentially installed into neural structure.

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The Negativity Bias

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Learning to Take in the Good

Have a Good Experience

Enrich It

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“Enriching” Factors

Duration

Intensity

Multimodality –perception, emotion, desire, action

Novelty

Personal relevance

Absorb It

Link Positive and Negative Material

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HEAL by Taking in the Good

1. Have a positive experience. Notice it or create it.

2. Enrich the experience through duration, intensity, multimodality,

novelty, personal relevance.

3. Absorb the experience by intending and sensing that it is

sinking into you as you sink into it.

4. Link positive and negative material. [optional]

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Your Turn

1. Have a positive experience. Notice it or create it.

2. Enrich the experience through duration, intensity, multimodality,

novelty, personal relevance.

3. Absorb the experience by intending and sensing that it is

sinking into you as you sink into it.

Praise for The Healing Circle

“A book for anyone who has ever sought their wholeness in the midst of a cancer crisis. Don’t go to your Doctor’s office without it”Rachel Remen MD, Kitchen table wisdom

“By drawing on the wisdom and experience shared in this book, life’s difficulties can truly become blessing which help us heal our lives.”Bernie Siegel MD, Love, Medicine and Miracles

“The Healing Circle takes us into the realm where integration of body, mind and spirit –our true wellness – can be found.”Gabor Mate, MD, When the Body says No

To learn more or to order books please visitwww.healingandcancer.orgor email info@healingandcancer.org

Questions

Rob.rutledge@cdha.nshealth.ca

HealingandCancer.org

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Some Types of Resource Experiences

Avoiding Harms

Feeling basically alright right now

Feeling protected, strong, safe, at peace

The sense that awareness itself is untroubled

Approaching Rewards

Feeling basically full, the enoughness in this moment as it is

Feeling pleasured, glad, grateful, satisfied

Therapeutic, spiritual, or existential realizations

Attaching to Others

Feeling basically connected

Feeling included, seen, liked, appreciated, loved

Feeling compassionate, kind, generous, loving

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The Homeostatic Home Base

When not disturbed by threat, loss, or rejection [no felt

deficit of safety, satisfaction, and connection]

The body defaults to a sustainable equilibrium of

refueling, repairing, and pleasant abiding.

The mind defaults to a sustainable equilibrium of:

Peace (the Avoiding system)

Contentment (the Approaching system)

Love (the Attaching system)

This is the brain in its homeostatic Responsive,

minimal craving mode.

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Some Benefits of Responsive Mode

Recovery from “mobilizations” for survival:

Refueling after depleting outpourings

Restoring equilibrium to perturbed systems

Reinterpreting negative events in a positive frame

Reconciling after separations and conflicts

Promotes prosocial behaviors:

Experiencing safety decreases aggression.

Experiencing sufficiency decreases envy.

Experiencing connection decreases jealousy.

We’re more generous when our own cup runneth over.

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But to Cope with Urgent Needs,

We Leave Home . . .

When disturbed by threat, loss, or rejection [felt deficit

of safety, satisfaction, or connection]:

The body fires up into the stress response; outputs

exceed inputs; long-term building is deferred.

The mind fires up into:

Fear (the Avoiding system)

Frustration (the Approaching system)

Heartache (the Attaching system)

This is the brain in allostatic, Reactive, craving mode.

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Choices . . .

Or?

Reactive Mode Responsive Mode

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“Anthem”

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in

That’s how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen

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Feeling Cared About

As we evolved, we increasingly turned to and relied

on others to feel safer and less threatened.

Exile from the band was a death sentence in the Serengeti.

Attachment: relying on the secure base

The well-documented power of social support to buffer

stress and aid recovery from painful experiences

Methods: Recognize its kind to others to feel cared about yourself.

Look for occasions to feel cared about and take them in.

Deliberately bring to mind the experience of being cared about in challenging situations.

Be caring yourself.

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Pain network: Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), insula (Ins), somatosensory cortex (SSC),

thalamus (Thal), and periaqueductal gray (PAG). Reward network: Ventral tegmental area (VTA),

ventral striatum (VS), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and amygdala (Amyg). K. Sutliff, in

Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2009, Science, 323:890-891

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Self-Compassion

Compassion is the wish that a being not suffer, combined with

sympathetic concern. Self-compassion simply applies that to

oneself. It is not self-pity, complaining, or wallowing in pain.

Studies show that self-compassion buffers stress and increases

resilience and self-worth.

But self-compassion is hard for many people, due to feelings of

unworthiness, self-criticism, or “internalized oppression.” To

encourage the neural substrates of self-compassion:

Get the sense of being cared about by someone else.

Bring to mind someone you naturally feel compassion for

Sink into the experience of compassion in your body

Then shift the compassion to yourself, perhaps with phrases like:

“May I not suffer. May the pain of this moment pass.”