First Post Part 6

[johnsmith]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge...

says:

“

A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.

“

“

...Nudges are small changes in environment that are easy and inexpensive to implement.[7] Several different techniques exist for nudging, including defaults, social proof heuristics, and increasing the salience of the desired option.

A default option is the option an individual automatically receives if he or she does nothing. People are more likely to choose a particular option if it is the default option. For example, Pichert & Katsikopoulos found that a greater number of consumers chose the renewable energy option for electricity when it was offered as the default option.

“

The counselling industry has been using the nudge as a means to get people to believe certain things that may not be true in order to get people to part with their money. This may not persons as such and may be government or local councils to part with money in the form of grants. Because the government or local councils believe they are given to a good cause which they believe can help people.

People like counselling because we all like to talk. Talking has the danger that it provides no solutions and can trap people into highly unpleasant states which last far longer than they would have without the talking.

Antonio Damasio is an author worth reading.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton...

Antonio Damasio (Portuguese: António Damásio) is a Portuguese-American neuroscientist. He is currently the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Southern California and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. Damasio heads the Brain and Creativity Institute, and has authored several books: his most recent work, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain (2010), explores the relationship between the brain and consciousness. Damasio's research in neuroscience has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision-making.

I have read his books “The feeling of what happens” and “the strange order of things”. These books gave me the words and confidence to challenge some of the things I know to be incorrect put out by psychologists and psychiatrists.

I have been studying how movement and posture modifies emotions. I have found movement can dissipate the negetive emotions and clear the way for better thinking. The movement of going for walks. Gardening and simple DIY. It is not just any movement. It is skilled gentle and flowing movements with a purpose in mind.

As a result of my chronic health disability I am quite close to the stress break down point on occasion. Pacing up and down a hallway while talking to myself dissipates unexpected stresses that may have arrived by phone call or letter or from a uncomfortable meeting with someone. Duing the pacing one can think what one likes and not get caught out by the rules of the thought police. One can think of all the unpleasant things you want to say to someone without the repercussions of being beaten up or having a visit from the police for having broken some PC law. I have an aunt who when she was upset about something used to go out and buy second hand cheap plates. She would put this in the garden and then smash all up as a therapeutic exercise. It was a lot cheaper and less time consuming than counselling or CBT.

One of the things we lose when we move from childhood to adulthood is ability to move in accordance to the spinal reflexes. An Adult tends to ignore spinal reflexes. This can result to damage to the various structures of the body. The adult reaches for the pain killer instead of asking what did I do that may have caused the difficulty I have now. This is a matter for a person to investigate. Certain movements like putting on socks need to be done in a particular sequence in order to avoid difficulty. There is a tendency to ignore the required sequence as if it did not exist and force the muscles in all sorts of places in putting on socks. I leave it to the reader to investigate this.

Another issue is the putting on ones underpants or knickers. There is a bending of the back to try and get nearer to the pants or knickers held in the hand. The bending of the back actually impedes the putting on the knickers or underpants. One needs to resist the bending of the back and bend from the hips with a straight back with its natural curves. I have trouble describing this accurately. You need to experiment and investigate.

AS we get older we can tend to get plagued by muscle cramps which come out of nowhere. One needs to sensitive to when this starts to happen and to stop what one is doing instantly.

A nerve impulse in a major nerve travels at about 30 metres a second. When we detect a movement going wrong we cannot correct it in mid movement. For example: we are 2 metres tall and we are moving our foot. It takes 1/15th of a second to detect something is wrong in our foot. We then have to send a correction. This will take 1/15th of second to reach our foot as well as the thinking time needed for the brain to decide what to do say 1/15th of second. By the time the corrected instruction reaches the foot the corrected instruction is wrong because the activity has moved muscles into a different position. The best thing to do is to stop. Do nothing and start again. Try it and see what happens. This technique can work reasonably well with backs to prevent us from forcing a movement that can potentially damage a structure.

In the body there are several types of muscle. The main ones in every day movement is fast muscle and slow muscle. Fast muscle can generate a lot of power and has low endurance. Slow muscle generates little power and has high endurance. When conducting a task requiring high strength it is best to apply high strength in short bursts as this uses the fast muscle. Long bursts cannot use high power because the endurance of the fast muscle has been deleted. If I remember right. A fast muscle has about 10ms of action available for a task.

A person using fast muscle accidentally can damage things. How many vertebrate have been damaged because a person has used fast muscle to force a movement without realising it. This is for the reader to investigate.

A scientific American special “Top stories of 2018” on page 23 has an article: “The brain reimagined” by Douglas Fox. It describes a theory of how nerves function very different from the medical model. The article considers that nerve cells communicate with mechanical pulses not electric ones. Much of the evidence given in the scientific American article makes sense from my experience. This needs to be investigated by the person with the chronic health disability. If the medical model is wrong then a lot of treatment visited upon patients by neurologists could well be wrong.

I consider certain types of arthritis a brain problem. The brain needs to learn to move a better way. As a suggestion before engaging in full blown movement with the resultant aches and pains try moving the problematic limbs in a barely perceptible back and forth movement. Proprioceptors switch off when they are not moving. Adults move very little. Older adults move even less. A child primes their limbs before moving. Moving the problematic limbs in a barely perceptible back and forth movement before doing a full blown movement switches proprioceptors back on so that the brain has a better idea where things are in space.

Muscles have nerve inputs to instruct a muscle to contract. There are no nerve inputs which instruct a muscle to uncontract. Muscles are uncontracted by other muscles. In my previous Post I mentioned Fascia. Fascia when it is allowed to not move gets stuck. Not sure how correct this is. This is for the reader to investigate. By moving the problematic limbs in a barely perceptible back and forth movement before doing a full blown movement helps to unstick the fascia. It is worth experimenting to see if this holds with approximate accuracy or not and see if it makes a movement more comfortable.

[katieoxo60]

Interesting and sure much of this is true, many meetings I have been too lately are offering fruit and water rather than tea & biscuits. As for socks it is difficult to find an easy movement to get them on especially if bending causes breathing difficulties as well as pain , some people just continue doing it in the painfull way. Ladies tights and bras are other dressing obstacles, in respect of tights I advise knee highs with loose tops, and socks mean't for diabetics are easier to get on plus made of more softer material a bit like bed socks. Bras have several options nowadays, front fasten, no fasten sport bras, comfort bras. I turn to the side when going down stairs /steps however it does put extra strain on the foot & hip you step down with. How do we persuade people to do things differently but not stop movement just change it?? In our city we have exercise classes to instruct on this in gym style environment, however we do not seem to have light exercise classes for those with illness that needs more gentle work out as in chair exercises for those with breathing difficulties or older persons.

Oh how I agree with you about talk. The expression is actions speak louder than words. Too many hours are spent talking about the same thing to different groups & often coming up with the very same ideas including some that have already failed at the first hurdle. The National Walk programme has worked quite well in many areas but only appeals to those who like walking or are able. Tia Chia is another option of lighter movements and can be practiced in the home if housebound just to boost moral as well as keep active. Even wheelchair users have varied sport that can be performed from adapted wheelchairs. The objective is how do we nudge the inactive and convince them into better lifestyle activities even if only light exercise. i.e COPD sufferers are adviced on chair activities and to walk up the garden (if they have one) at least once a day. The objective is little and often helps the lung capacity, in the case of arthritis its called move it or loose it. All must be within the persons stamina level, & stamina even in chronic illness can be improved in small stages, but how to convince the person is another matter. With pain people often stop doing what causes pain but even the little and often theory can work to lessen pain, acceptance of disablement & no cure is where it has to begin with nudges I think.

[johnsmith in reply to katieoxo60]

I can do a post on putting on socks or underpants/knickers or going up and down stairs.

Which would you like me to do first?

[katieoxo60 in reply to johnsmith]

maybe a short post might help on all these items, as your experience is tried and tested and bound to work for some. Only a minority will try I guess which is what we want people to do to see which is best for themselves.

[deejames]

Talking sense John Smith. I don't agree about talking therapies but your thoughts on movement are well worth Co sidering and experimenting with. Thanks

[johnsmith in reply to deejames]

In reply to katieoxo60

I can do a post on putting on socks or underpants/knickers or going up and down stairs.

Which would you like me to do first?