7 Ways to Tone Your Vagus Nerve for Better Mental Health
The vagus nerve is the most complex and important nerve in the entire human body. This nerve connects the gut to the brain and serves as a crucial player in the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) branches of the autonomous nervous system. Feel full and sleepy after a big meal? Heart […]
How to Beat the Anxiety Epidemic – It Starts With Exercise: Interview with Dr. Jennifer Heisz
Can exercise really beat anxiety? Can it be used as medicine to treat both the mind and body? According to an expert in brain health, Dr. Jennifer Heisz, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Dr. Heisz is a neuroscientist, the Director of the NeuroFit Lab at McMaster University, and the author of the book, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: […]
Stress, Personality, & College Students: What New Study Finds and Where to Go From Here?
Since the pandemic, college students’ struggle with mental health concerns has increased two-fold. According to a recent college mental health survey, nearly 75 percent of college students said COVID-19 had worsened their mental health. With this in mind, a new study claims that certain personality traits helped students deal with stress better than others during the pandemic. Though […]
Is Covid Aging Us? What Experts Reveal and How Exercise Combats the Pandemic’s Physical Toll
As Covid-19 waxes and wanes, we might feel we’re aging faster than ever. The truth is – we are. Accelerated aging can result from many factors, including dealing with a global pandemic. Issues such as infectious disease exposure, chronic stress, and loneliness can speed up aging. But there is something that can be done to […]
Social Stress: What is It and How to Tackle It Head-On
When feeling worn down, stressed, and burned out starts to cloud the mind, it’s time to pinpoint the cause and tackle it head-on. Millions of articles talk about how stress affects a person’s psychological health and wellbeing. But what about the cause of stress? Does a person’s social environment play a role? It absolutely does, […]
Time to End the SAT? How the Pandemic is Exposing Standardized Testing Bias in High Schools
“Since the inception of standardized tests almost a century ago, they have been instruments of racism and a biased system,” states the National Education Association (NEA). The NEA report goes on to reveal, “Decades of research demonstrate that Black, Latin(o/a/x), and Native students, and students from some Asian groups, experience bias from standardized tests administered from early […]
Stress: How it Affects Workplaces from the Classroom to the Boardroom & Breaking the Cycle
The American Psychological Association (APA) surveys people across the U.S. about stress. However, their 2020 survey was a game-changer. It revealed that Americans have been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and that the external factors Americans have listed in previous years (such as economic, job, and societal issues) as significant sources of stress remain present […]
How Combining SEL & Neuroscience Can Break Teachers Stress Cycle
“Teachers are the engine that drives social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in schools and classrooms, and their social-emotional competence and wellbeing strongly influence their students. But when teachers poorly manage the social and emotional demands of teaching, students’ academic achievement and behavior both suffer.” This quote is from Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, the NoVo […]
Trauma & Stress on First Responders: How Exercise May Be the Intervention Needed to Increase Resilience
First Responders are expected to maintain high-performance levels and make the right decisions under extreme conditions. However, exposure to violence, human suffering, and aspects of the job itself, such as physical work demands and unpredictable schedules, are demanding, taking a heavy toll on these frontline workers. These demands can lead to stress, anxiety, trauma, suicide-ideation, […]
Genes Related to Inflammation Shed Light on Depression and How Exercise Can Help
Depression affects more than 168 million people worldwide and is one of the significant causes of disease. We understand that depression has substantial effects on overall health and wellness; however, evidence-based research on treating depression is still lacking. Now scientists are looking at our genes to develop new ways to manage mental health disorders. A recent study […]