More We and less I = A longer life

Dr. Dean Ornish, the author of "Eat More - Weigh Less" knows the secret of a long and happy life.

He is an expert in preventive medicine who found that 99% of patients could reverse the progress of their heart disease. And just because you have heart disease, it does not follow it will always get worse.

Our bodies have an amazing capacity to heal themselves. Faster than you might think. So if you stop doing whatever is causing the problem the chances are you will start to get better. And it works just as well for old as well as young people.

When Dr. Ornish started an institute to train hospitals and their staff, on preventive approaches, the health insurance companies got very excited. They discovered savings of $30,000 per patient, because when we make these changes, most of us can avoid expensive surgery to keep us alive.

We all know what's bad for us. Smoking, drinking and eating too much, working too hard and not enough exercise. Thirty per cent of Americans smoke. In some countries it's 80 per cent. And we watch too much television.



But the real epidemics are loneliness and depression. We eat when we get depressed, alcohol numbs the pain and some people think of a packet of cigarettes as 20 friends.

Two thirds of American adults are now overweight! An obesity epidemic. To lose weight you should either eat fewer calories or burn them off with exercise.

It's also better to eat lower calorie foods. Fat has 9 calories per gram, carbohydrates four. A big fatty meal makes you sleepy. It slows down the blood flow. And we rest instead of exercising.

We eat too many simple carbohydrates which have all the fiber removed such as sugar, white flour, white rice and alcohol. When you eat simple carbs, your blood sugar zooms up and your pancreas has to work overtime to make insulin to bring it down. And so diabetes has become an epidemic.

Unrefined carbs like fruit, vegetables and whole wheat flour are rich in fibre fill you up and you don't get the rapid rise in sugar levels. If you eat less of the energy intensive foods, you feel hungry less often.

However, not all fats are to be avoided. There are some good fats, like the omega-3 fatty acids. Three grams of fish oil every day, can reduce the risk of heart attack and sudden death by 50 to 80%.

So, if you change the behaviors which cause you to be tired, depressed, lethargic and impotent, your brain will get more blood, you will have more energy and your sexual function will improve, and you will have more fun.

Another secret to a happy, healthy life is to have more we (we-llness), and less I (I-llness). Numerous studies show that lonely or depressed people are five to ten times more likely to get sick and die prematurely. So phone a friend. Be of service to others. Give. Be compassionate.

Here's a workshop to explore Dr. Ornish's ideas:

1. Brainstorm a list of what you will do a) to connect more with others (friends, family), b) be more compassionate, c) give more and d) be of service to others to improve happiness and reduce depression.
2. Knowing that fats have 4 calories and carbohydrates have 9 calories per gram and fibre (fruit, vegetables and wholemeal flour) fills you up, design a breakfast, lunch or dinner which will help you reduce your calorie intake.
3. Make a list of all the foods that are high in fats, and which will make you sleepy and not want to exercise, that you plan to eliminate from your diet. e.g. sausages, bacon and eggs for breakfast.
4. Make a commitment to live an extra 10 years by making a list of all the extra fun things you will be able to do. e.g. 520 extra romps in the hay. 3,650 walks in the bush or along the beach.

Humans, the second replicator

First there were genes. And now there are memes.

According to paranormal sceptic and scientist, Susan Blackmore, humans have let this second replicator out of the box....Pandora's Box...and it's here to stay. Like it or not.

Blackmore, who began her scientific career in the hope she would be able to demonstrate evidence for paranormal activities, has found none, and is now a confirmed skeptic.

She says that memes came about because humans imitate each other, like how to light fires, wear clothes, or perch sunglasses on our foreheads. Or how we fold the ends of the toilet paper over in hotel bathrooms.



The word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene. Blackmore took the idea and turned it into a full fledged theory.

Memes are parasites of our brains, a symbiant. In the same way that genes survive in the members of our species that have competed and survived, so too do memes. It's all copying with variation and selection. The best memes live on and are transmitted from one generation to the next.

In a sense, when a new gene or meme survives, or is selected, you get design out of nowhere with no conscious designer in sight.

According to Blackmore, memes have forced us to have big brains, to use fatty tissue called myelin to insulate the neurons. Brains that love music, religion and art.

And because we all now have big heads, it it dangerous to give birth to new members of the species, which places our memes and our species at long term risk.

So be warned. There's another replicator lose in the world and its called a Teme, or technological meme. Temes are the tools we use, such as the motor car, washing machine or computer. And they are becoming smarter every day, and could soon live on without us.

So here's a series of questions to explore these issues:

1. Give examples of "genes", "memes" and "temes", that explains the differences between them.
2. In what ways might the transmission of "memes" have an influence over the genes that are transmitted? Think about the consequences of memes such as medicine, social welfare etc.
3. Explain how the idea of a "meme" is itelf a meme.
4. If memes are "design out of nowhere", how did the concept of "meme" get started and develop? Was it Richard Dawkins, Susan Blackmore, the universe, the "system", ancestor memes or what?
5. What influence might genes have on the development of "memes" and "temes"?
6. At what stage of human development might "temes" take on a life of their own, and how might this happen?
7. What factors might contribute to a meme or teme dying out?

Products that make us feel happy

Don Norman is an anthropologist who explores the modern day world and helps us understand how product's make people happier. Or feel they are beautiful. Or simple to use. Or add to our power or status.

It all begins with our emotions, and how they change the way we think.

When people are anxious or fearful, neuro-transmitters are squirted into the brain that cause you to focus on the presenting problem. Its "depth-first" thinking, which is good for getting you out of the mess you are in, quickly. When people are happy, dopamine is squirted into the frontal lobes, which leads to "breadth-first" thinking, which opens us up to possibilities and is good for brainstorming, or planning new projects.



There are three levels of emotional functioning of the brain:

* Visceral - that monitors inputs from our senses - sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell - and sneakily controls much of what we feel, so we automatically dislike bitter tastes, loud sounds or extremely hot and cold temperatures, but we equally and automatically love, symmetrical faces or the bright colors of fruits and plants with which we have adapted.

* Behavioral, which monitors our automatic learned actions, that enable us to converse, operate a computer, drive a car or give a speech, without having to consciously think about it, and whose emotions give us feedback about how well we are doing; and

* The Reflective, "thinking" or conscious level of the brain, which does not control anything - either the sensual inputs or our motor actions - but whose emotions give us feedback about everything else, a kind of global view of our performance.

Well-designed products appeal to all aspects of brain functioning. As designers we need to be mindful of these different ways of responding to the products design.

Designers grab our attention with an appeal to the senses by creating bright red motor cars that might otherwise be a lemon, or make bottles with such a beautiful symmetry we want to keep them after we have consumed the contents, or products we never use, but which are so stunning, we put them on show and never use them for their intended purpose.

We can "wow" the customer by attending to functionality and usability and appeal to the emotions that give feedback about our automatic actions. With products that are simple and easy to use, the simpler the better. Like the powerful sharpness of Global knives, the sensuousness of the Kohler shower, or the elegant simplicity of the Ronnefeldt tilting teapot, which keeps the tea leaves out of the liquid.

Or designers can appeal to the "thinking brain" that weighs up what is "good" or"bad", "beautiful" or "ugly", "expensive" or "cheap" or "why are you doing that?". Like the way we decide whether the purchase of a house or a motor car might add to our status. Or if it will help us live a better life? Or make us happier?

You can even get emotions to compete with each other for your attention, so one over-rides the other. Take for example the Jake Cress chair, where one leg has lost its' ball, and the visceral part of our brain says beware, that's looks dangerous, and our reflective brain says, "its OK, its just a designer's playful trick."

So here's a workshop to play with some of Don Norman's ideas:

1. What kinds of products do you associate with fun and enjoyment?
2. What kinds of products do you associate with powerful and useful?
3. What kinds of products do you associate with beautiful?
4. Visceral emotions: Choose one of your senses - sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell. Close your eyes and thinking about that sense, recall/imagine the most wonderful feeling you have ever experienced about a product. Describe the product and the emotion/feeling.
5. Behavioral emotions: Close your eyes and think of a time when you used/experienced a product, how perfectly easy it was to use, or how powerful it felt, how in-tune with your body and the way you act/perform. Describe the product and the emotion/feeling.
6. Reflective emotions: Close your eyes and think of a time when you used/experienced a product when you decided it was the best, the greatest, the most amazing, the most prestigious you had ever experienced. Describe the product and the emotion/feeling.
7. What kinds of emotions are associated with the visceral - the automatic and direct experience via the senses?
8. What kinds of emotions are associated with the behavioral - the automatic experience of our muscles in use?
9 What kinds of emotions are associated with the reflective - the thinking/decision making aspects of our being?
10. Think of the worst, ugliest, most difficult product you have ever used/experienced. Using the three different kinds of emotional experiences, what could you do to transform it?

Thinking in pictures

Animals think in pictures. And so does Temple Grandin, a famous autistic and expert on animal behavior. Whose life story recently became an inspiring tele-movie starring Clare Danes.

Her brain works like Google for Images. Or movies in your head. Similar to the way animals see the world, through direct experience. But also via the senses of hearing and smell.



Grandin's "disability" is also the source of her amazing ability. Autism helped her discover what makes cattle balk. To see the world from a cow's point of view. Flags waving. A coat on a fence. A hose on the floor. A chain hanging down. Rapid movement.

Animals see a man standing or riding as different things. They might be spooked by all men with black hats, even if the men are different people, simply because they appear identical to a feared situation.

She gives the example of the power of direct experience, that human's have lost since we have become verbal thinkers because we now mostly think with words.

The dog that sniffs a fire hydrant can tell straight away who has been there, when they were there, if they are a friend or foe or suitable for mating.

Her way of seeing the world from an animal perspective led to revolutionary designs for cattle handling chutes and races, that are both more efficient and more humane. She found she could play a movie in her mind to visualize how the different parts of something new would work.

Autistic minds attend to details. Bottom up thinking, how to put all the pieces together, like a jigsaw puzzle. It's also a continuum from the extremely severe to the mildly autistic but includes, at the top end, brilliant scientists and engineers. If we had no more autism there would be no Silicon Valley.

So it's hard to tell where autism ends and nerds begin. Grandin speculates that in this day and age, Einstein, Mozart and Tesla would have been diagnosed as autistic. We have autistics to thank for inventing our way out of the cave.

For parents of autistic children she has this advice. Get help as soon as you can. Start with activities that have a hands-on practical bent, like designing and making things. Cookery. Art. Woodwork. Do "visual" geometry and trigonometry and forget about "verbal" algebra. And because autistic minds tend to fixate on something, connect the fixation to something else, so the new activity is motivating. As a child, Hardin was fixated on horses. Over time her fixation with horses became a career with animals.

And for the rest of us. We need to redesign the education system, so it caters for all the different kinds of minds. The verbal, the visual, the pattern finders and the kinesthetic. But most important of all, she says kids need to also learn the basics. Table manners. Punctuality. Respect. If they are to succeed in the real world. And engage with mentors who have a practical bent developed in the real world, like the NASA space scientist who became her teacher. Who recognized her amazing visual and spatial abilities, believed in her, and steered her on a pathway to success.

So here's a workshop to explore these ideas:

1. In what ways do you feel you are different to other people? Give examples.
2. Describe some mental, physical or social skill you always wished you had, and how this could change your life.
3. Describe, what for you, is the most unusual way that other people think you can not understand/comprehend. Why is this way of thinking/acting so puzzling?
4. What are you really good at and how does this possibly relate to the quirky ways your mind works?
5. You can see the world in pictures like Temple Grandin. How could you use your powerful visual skills to design something practical to benefit the world.
6. You have developed a super-sensitive ability for smells, similar to a dog. What could you use this new-found ability in a career e.g. relationship consultant who helps people better deal with body odors.
7. Imagine one of your senses has been damaged e.g. taste, smell, vision, hearing. In what ways might you develop the other senses to acquire extra powers?
8. Thinking of the issues/thing about which you are passionate/fixated. Imagine you have acquired some new physical/mental powers that help you achieve your goals. What are they and how do they work?
9. You have the job of redesigning schools/lessons/activities to better suit the way you engage with the world. Describe an activity you would really enjoy.
10. Describe a person you have meet from real life who you think would make a wonderful, practical mentor for children.

The two faces of happiness

There's a big focus on happiness these days. Over 40 books on the subject and happiness coaches in abundance. But are people any happier?

Daniel Kahneman, who founded the field of behavioral economics, and jointly won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 2002 for his work with Amos Tversky on irrational decision making, is an expert in how people make less than perfect choices.

He shows there can be a significant differences about life as we experience it, and life as we remember it. When the doctor asks "Where does it hurt?" she is talking to your experiencing self. When the doctor asks "How have you been feeling lately?", she is engaging with your remembering self.



Often, an unfortunate event ruins the memory of an entire experience. The operation that ends in severe pain. The memory of the motor car accident on the way home from vacation that overwhelms an otherwise enjoyable experience. The pathetic movie ending that spoils a great story. The scratch at the end of a recording that renders irrelevant an hour of listening to celestial music. The loss of your credit card after paying the bill for a delicious meal.

The psychological present is about three seconds long. And most of the 600 million moments we all experience during a lifetime are lost forever. Research shows that money and goals are important to happiness. In the USA, happiness starts to deteriorate below $60,000 per annum. Earn more, and you dont get any happier. Earn less and your misery escalates the less you earn.

Perhaps the way to happiness, is Kahneman's idea of "adversarial collaboration," where two different kinds of mind pursue research as a joint enterprise, to openly and fairly critique each other's work to arrive at the truth, together.

So here's a workshop to explore your experiencing and remembering happiness/misery.

1. Your experiential self: How happy are you now and what contributes to that feeling?
2. Your remembering self: Thinking about life's journey and all the happy and sad moments, how happy have you been overall and why?
3. When during your life were you the most miserable? What were your circumstances at the time?
4. When during your life were you the most happy? What were your circumstances at the time?
5. Your remembering self: Describe the worst thing that ever happpened to you while on holidays and how did it influence your enjoyment of that holiday?
6. Comparing two experiences. Think of two different movies you have seen, houses you have purchased or meals you have eaten out. Compare the experience of each and what was notable about them....the whole meal and the finale?
7. Significant moments and endings: Describe an event in your life where a significant moment or ending spoiled the rest of the experience for you?
8. Describe how you could alter the experience of a product or service so that the ending was always fabulous/amazing/memorable?
9. Think of something you purchased today e.g. at the supermarket, delicatessen. What influenced your purchase?
10. In what ways was your purchase today, rational/irrational and influenced from memories of past experiences?
11. Remember back to your most recent major purchase e.g. house, car. What prior experiences with houses or cars influenced your decision?
12. What's the most irrational decision you can ever recall making? And how did that happen?
13. Offbeat - How could you use "adversarial collaboration" in pursuit of truth and happiness?

Too much choice is bad for your health

We used to think that choice = freedom. But, says Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, too much choice results in decision paralysis.

We find it hard to choose. Which starts us down the slippery slope to raised expectations, dissatisfaction and ultimately, clinical depression.

Walk into any supermarket, electrical goods or clothing store and you instantly face a bewildering array of choices. Hundreds of salad dressings, breakfast cereals and detergents. Multiple brands of music players, washers, dryers and coffee makers. Computers with more features than you will ever use. Jeans used to come in one style. Now they're slim, easy fit, distressed, stone-washed...



In the old days, the doctor gave you advice. Now she gives you options, each with different benefits and risks. The phone company used to rent us one-size-fits-all phones; now we buy our own cell phones, which comes in different colors, shapes, sizes and a flotilla of bells and whistles. We used to get married as soon as we could, now we worry whether to have a career or family first, or whether the girl or guy we're dating is the best we can get.

The problem with too much choice, is if you make a purchase, and it's not as good as expected, you may come to regret your decision. Which detracts from your satisfaction. With so much choice, there's many more ways be disappointed.

Then there's the opportunity cost - the benefits foregone by ignoring other choices. Like the case Schwartz cites of a guy "relaxing" on the beach in the New Hamptons pre-occupied with the idea that, with all his neighbors on holidays, he's unable to benefit from a rarely available parking space on the streets of Manhattan.

It turns out that when we make a choice, we often think it's the wrong choice, and blame ourselves, which detracts from enjoyment of the experience. Or we avoid making a purchasing decision, and miss out in other ways. Contributing further to our misery.

But not all the world is drowning in choice. Schwartz points out that in some parts of the world there is little or no choice. In the poorer countries of Africa, South America, the Middle East or Asia. He wonders whether we in the West could shift some of our surplus choice to where it is needed more.

So here's two workshops to explore how to reduce choice, increase satisfaction and experience happiness:

For customers

1. Make a list of all the things about products/services that make you unhappy, angry, disappointed or concerned.
2. Make a list of all the things about products/services generally that make you happy, delighted or excited.
3. Thinking about a product or service you recently purchased. What was it, what other choices were available and what were there main features/benefits?
4. How satisfied/happy are you now with your recent product/service purchase? How does it compare with other choices?
5. Describe a product or service that has a ridiculous number of features and options that make it diffcult to choose what to buy.
6. Describe a time when you avoided making a purchasing decision because you could not decide.
7. Describe another time when you made a product/service purchase, only to later feel you could have made a better choice.
8. If you had responsibility for the design, manufacturing and retailing of a product/service you are currently considering purchasing, what would you expect in order for you to be pleased, delighted or surprised.

For organizations

1. Think of a product/service category that you offer and describe all the different choices that people have available.
2. Make a list of all the different products and services and the variations available that compete with your product or service?
3. How could you change/transform your product or service so that it either sits within a different product/service category or gives the customer fewer clearer options to choose from?
4. What marketing strategies could you pursue so that you simplify the customer purchase options and at the same time satisfy unique market segments.e.g. separate sales channels only available in the specific geographical regions for the segment you serve.

Starting powerful conversations

Since 1996, when The Vagina Monologies was first performed in New York, thousands of women, and vagina-friendly men, have been inspired or empowered to become "vagina warriors", to fight against the rising tide of violence perpetrated against women.

Stripped of every right, subjected to genital mutilation, gang-raped in parking lots, murdered to satisfy family shame, disfigured as a payback, or simply disappeared. Powerless in the face of brutal husbands or companions, testosterone-laden thugs, archaic cultural practices or warring families, tribes, sects and countries.

Now, thanks to Eve Ensler and her very famous play, women everywhere are claiming back their rights, their bodies and their lives.



The Vagina Monologues tells the intimate stories of hundreds of women she interviewed about their sexual experiences, their feelings, themselves and their bodies. What began as a one-night affair with Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg, has now played in 120 countries and 45 languages.

Back then, women rarely spoke about or even had the time to look at their vaginas. All that has changed. Now, woman everywhere, are able to talk openly about issues they face. And work powerfully together to turn back the tide.

Along the way Eve Ensler has found that serving a higher purpose is the key to happiness. That your Mr. Alligator moment (a character she invented to rescue her from the hands of a brutal and sexually abusive alcoholic father), shows up, not for you, but for someone else, who is saved from a similar fate as a result by the collective efforts of a movement that you started. Which indirectly heals that damaged part of you.

And which comes about by giving away what you most want.

So here is a workshop to explore how you too might start an important conversation, about which few dare to speak, and unleash powerful symbolic forces. So the core idea goes global.

1. What do you go weeks, months or even years without noticing, that is really important to you, and could be more center stage in your life.
2. What really important conversation do you need to start so it becomes your "important thing", of equal or more importance to the Vagina Monologues?
3. Make a list of all the common/uncommon names for your "important thing."
4. What powerful symbolic social/theatrical/physical event could you stage which ensure your conversation becomes contagious?
5. To be really happy, how can you give away what you want the most?
6. How do you keep going, when, by pursuing your life's most important work, you become an outcast in your community, exiled and slandered for daring to do something vitally important?
7. What for you could become your most fabulous Mr. Alligator moment, which may not rescue you from your troubles at the time, but when the day arrives, rescues others, and in the process, heals the broken part in you too?
8. What powerful symbols could you employ that summon others to your cause?