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.

Kansas City residents tried for 26 years, unsuccessfully, to identify their Secret Santa, who turned out to be Larry Stewart, a wealthy 58 year old business man. Larry’s handouts of $100 bills to people down on their luck - came from a personal experience when his own luck ran out and he ended up living in a car.

Check out the stories at CBC Radio and Staulkvalley.com to see how it all started when Larry lost his job and stopped into a diner for breakfast after two days without food. He claimed to have lost his wallet when the check came. Suddenly the diner’s owner came to his table, stuffed a $20 in Larry’s hand, and asked… “Drop this?”

In 1979, and after he’d landed work, Larry handed a young waitress a $20 at a car hop and her tears of gratitude “almost ripped his heart out,” he told reporters 26 years later. The serotonin that shot through Larry’s brain through that handout - brought him to the bank for $200 in $5s and $20s, and the Secret Santa drove around looking for people who could use a break.

Eventually reporters caught up, and Larry had them swear to keep his anonymity, through what amounted to handouts that totaled $1.3 million - to strangers in need during Decembers. The neuro and cognitive sciences tell that whenever we give to others unconditionally, we increase the serotonin hormone for well-being in our own brains.

An organic neurotransmitter, serotonin enhances our health, holds back stress, raises the immune system, as well as helps memory, moods and sleep. What’s equally as impressive, those who observe or receive our kindness,  often experience similar shots of serotonin that bring that added euphoria.

After 26 years of serotonin benefits, this year Larry faces a recent diagnosis of cancer and he decided to tell his story as a way to inspire others to give when he is gone. His life inspires us to try a few random acts of kindness of our own over this holiday season.

I think I’ll  adopt Larry’s  anonymity and mix in my own creativity- because the Secret Santa  showed how serotonin, and holiday handouts  - bring their own unique rewards. How about you?

Tony Blair told leaders in Pakistan today what many mid-lifers said all along, that “Force alone can’t beat terrorism.” Baby boomers live in ideal spaces - somewhere between cruel ravages of yesteryear’s wars, and lively prospects for peace that could distinguish a new era. Luckily research shows novel ways that human brains adapt from traditions of battle - into legacies of peace. Why so many wars then, as we’re reminded in Brad DeLong’s more than fair daily journal?

It takes jumpstarting a brain’s working memory for tactics that rewire old basal ganglia habits. Those well-reinforced words images and traditions for violence unfortunately control a whole cultures’ basal ganglia. You may recall from earlier posts how the basal ganglia stores and resurfaces mental habits. Because of war words, battlecry images, the basal ganglia holds us in ruts with routines for tough talk and one-upness that lead to war.

In contrast, peace plans rewire human brains for remarkable benefits, when leaders draw from hidden or unused parts that rejuvenate the brain’s working memory for change. Yes, even a warrior’s brain rewires when peaceful benefits override the horrors from war. It starts with one act of peace, because the brain reshapes itself based on stimulation from what we do.

Not surprisingly, the brain’s plasticity is rewired for non-violent solutions, when peacemakers lead us to question, target, expect, move, and reflect our way to redirect our brains toward the power of peace. In the past week, I’ve run into several such leaders - who show how the minds of peacemakers work.

One such remarkable leader at Strong Hospital, Reg Stewart, pulls together diversity that draws the best from people’s cultural background as well as their unique intellectual strength.

Reg Stewart’s brain-based-peace-plans inspire us to QUESTION … “What if people come together to build on every person’s strengths in ways that that would benefit their entire communities?

When we question to ask, “What if…” as Reg does, the brain builds new neuron pathways for peaceful benefits on both sides of any challenge. Peacemakers spark amazing mental acumen - that removes guns from the equation - and offers peace possibilities in place of battle plans. Have you noticed how great questions tend to target action?

You may remember Crash Davis, a baseball great played by Kevin Costner, in the movie “Bill Durham,” who described a TARGET to peace. Do you recall Davis’ plan for people to come from all over the place philosophically and “have some fun at the same time?”

Target peace, as Crash Davis did, and you also release serotonin … a chemical that surges through the brain to increase non-violent solutions through cooperation and well being that shows up in respect for others. Serotonin is less available to those who wage wars to get their way. Instead, its enemy hormone, cortisol tends to rage through brains of people lash out… strike back… or seek revenge…. Spark this chemical and war’s a done deal, because it is the brain’s hormone for violence and self-serving.

EXPECT your brain to show you exceptional solutions with hope for more global interests, when you draw from Dr. Howard Gardner’s wider mix of intelligences. Dr. Gardner prospers peace and we-being by helping peacemakers to rewire their brains for words and images that spark success from multiple angles. Expect your best options, see the benefits, and it’s time for action before any lasting peace plan takes root. Moves from peacemakers are easily missed by those who bank on armies. Mother Teresa showed us why….

MOVE peace forward the way Mother Teresa did, and you experience its advantages in smaller packages at first. She simply followed a call to act peacefully on a daily basis, and her brain rewired for goodwill that followed. In spite of criticism from many groups, Mother Teresa moved from one needy person to another, and refused to be intimidated by big groups organizing to fix the “bad guys.” She taught teachers one at a time under trees, airlifted sick babies to hospital after commissioning enemy airplanes, refused payoffs, and took time to hold the hand of one person at a time in spite of many who clamored for her help. For the brain to light pathways to peace, it needs time and space to reflect on war in all its horror and rewire victory in non-violent ways.

REFLECT for peace as a tool for the next overwhelming dilemma you face and share with one other person how peace replaced war to bring victory. It’s too early to tell, but New US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, took advantage of the brain’s plasticity to reverse trends of war-wired brains, when she broke traditions of scraping with political opponents and spoke of freedom that follows when leaders listen to, respect, and work with the other side. Wow – let’s support these words and images of peace that could mean change for Western nations. Imagine new neuron pathways in minds that prosper peace and preclude wars.

Never have we faced a better time to celebrate diplomats like King, Gandhi, the Dali Lama, or contemporary ambassadors of harmony listed here. With their skills for humanity, they also refuel a brain’s basal ganglia where the mind stores peace and reverses violence.

What makes you happy? Adults do pretty much anything to get babies laughing, and who can deny that their laugher’s contagious. For instance, who could keep a straight face around these laughing quadruplets?

Recently, Adrian White a University of Leicester psychologist came out with a ‘world map of happiness.’

Data analyzed for this study came from UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the UNHDR, to create a first world map of happiness.

Interestingly, the study came from findings of over 100 different studies around the world, which questioned 80,000 people worldwide. For this study data was analyzed for people’s responses to health, wealth and access to education.

The 20 happiest nations in the World are:
1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
4. Iceland
5. The Bahamas
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Bhutan
9. Brunei
10. Canada
11. Ireland
12. Luxembourg
13. Costa Rica
14. Malta
15. The Netherlands
16. Antigua and Barbuda
17. Malaysia
18. New Zealand
19. Norway
20. The Seychelles

Other interesting results listed:
23. USA
41. UK
62. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia

The least happy nations listed included …
176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe
178. Burundi

What makes you happy? My more important question is … “Why do kindergarten age children laugh 300 times a day and adults laugh on average only 17 times a day?” What makes babies happy that we mid-lifers sometimes miss?

Hey, move me to Denmark - they seem to get it….