Last week found me down with strep throat and fevers and I am glad it’s over. I especially missed golf and walking, but as I lounged around drinking tea, I thought about the relationship between walking and focusing. No wonder we create more when we walk. You could say that kinesthetic intelligence works in your favor - while you simply enjoy the ride, or more precisely - the walk.

Those who created the scholar’s walk, with 40 bur oak trees and monuments to celebrate innovation and success at the University of Minnesota, remind us that walking and accomplishments have a great deal in common. Have you found that to be the case?

To walk for focus is to gain benefits that research has barely begun to tap. We become mindful of things otherwise missed when we walk. Not only do the sounds, sights and aromas bring an awareness of things outside ourselves, but experiencing wind, sun, and sounds of nature stirs up new reactions that draw from different parts of the brain.

When your body’s in motion your mind grows more alert due to the extra surge of oxygen it gets from the exercise. Some people describe experiences that bring immense enjoyment when they walk - and that experience also triggers serotonin to the brain. When you consider that the brain requires 21% of the body’s oxygen, you see why we need that daily stroll just to focus in on daily challenges we all face.

If you are not used to walking, you might enjoy starting in an area close by, and walking briskly for about 20 minutes at first. Open spaces work well, and if you can avoid heavily traffic areas, that too is good for the focus you can expect here. After twenty minutes ask yourself this question…. What one insight did this walk bring, that could zip in some area of my life? The answer to that question will likely also add incentive to tie on those hiking shoes for another round.

It’s not major surgery - but it’s surgery nonetheless. Brainlifts can leave an aging brain in both quicker and sharper condition. Dr. Katrina Firlik said in her new book, Another day in the Frontal Lobe, I usually do these procedures on Friday and my clients are actually back to work by Monday

A brainlift is even easier than getting a facelift - and is slick enough to hide bruising. Hair parting is used rather than shaving and stitches are hidden. Ready to sign on the dotted line? If I decide for a brain I plan to contact Dr. Firlik, whose brilliant book I just completed. She said…

This is not brain surgery per se. We map out your memory network based on functional MRI - that’s completely painless of course. Then we take you to the OR and you’re put under general anesthesia…. We make a small incision - half an inch - in the scalp overlying each major node in the memory network, create a small hole in the skull, and insert a neat little metal plug, similar to a watch battery, that contains both a stimulator-electrode and battery. We close everything up with fine absorbable sutures, and that’s it.

Another advantage of a brainlift? It’s nearly impossible for anyone to tell you even had surgery.

The low grade stimulation delivers constant help to your brain’s operation. Batteries are charged every 3 years through the scalp, in the doctor’s office - without need for surgery.

Questions continue to arise about the ethical outcomes of cognitive enhancement, in much the same way that debates raged about the ethics of plastic surgery. Balance perspectives have yet to emerge through all the chatter - and Firlik maintains…

Brainlifts will go through the same cycle as plastic surgery: they’ll gain broader acceptance, the debates will eventually die down, the procedure will become more commonplace.

My question is … “Will they become affordable to even the middle class?” Hey, maybe some folks we work for out there, would be glad to ante up for a few brainlifts, simply to see more finely tuned minds at work. After all, we’re not just talking a tighter face here. What do you think?

We know that humor promotes health and fires up the brain’s engines to learn more. But have you ever considered what makes us laugh and what does not? In The Scientific Quest for the World’s Funniest Joke, we read three conditions for funny jokes.

Apparently jokes are funniest when we come away feeling superior, while others look stupid. For example, “A guy walks past an asylum, and can hear inmates inside screaming, “Thirteen! Thirteen! Thirteen!” he presses his face to a hole in the fence and suddenly feels a jab in the eye, followed by shouts from inmates…”Fourteen! Fourteen! Fourteen!.

We also laugh more at events that we’re taught to take seriously. How about this one listed… “For eighteen years my husband and I were the happiest people in the world. Then we met.”

It seems people also laugh most at incongruity, puns and word plays. Here’s the joke quoted to illustrate a play on words…” Guy comes to a local gym and asks… “Can you teach me how to do the splits?” Coach replies … “How flexible are you?    man shoots back … “I can’t make Tuesdays.”

What do you find funniest in a joke?

The book also tells us what makes people laugh least. People said they disliked jokes about fellow countryfolk. Check out this one to see if you agree…

When NASA first signed up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens do not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to create a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface - including glass - and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees Celsius. The Russians used a pencil.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what makes mid-lifers laugh, and what doesn’t. Would you have chosen these for the top jokes in the world? What makes you laugh and what does not?

Three crows jockeyed for the highest perch in an oak tree outside my window yesterday for the better part of the afternoon. Two screamed at a contender who positioned on higher limbs, and the three yelled back relentless caws, to stake their claim on a top branch.

Then this morning, on my drive home a Rotary breakfast meeting,  I heard NPR’s Morning Edition announcer speak of the power of power to alter moods. Studies, for instance, show a marked increased in serotonin, when people gain power.  Good or bad?  You’d likely be interested  to make people drunk.

Have you noticed power’s ability to anger crows or inebriate people?Coincidentally, I dropped into Starbucks for a latte and a New York Times, only to read another “power story.”  Pankaja Mishra’s article titled … “Gaining Power, Losing Values,” claimed that “India, like China, is putting growth ahead of morality.”

What are the benefits or drawbacks of power in your life? Has it changed the way you think or act?

Seems quite a coincidence that within one morning two very different sources pointed to power’s effect in the brain and in people’s lives. What do you think?