Legendary Blog

Adam Galluccio believes in breaking barriers. Living the life he wants to live, Adam plays on the freshman basketball team at Manchester Regional High School.  With 11 points under his belt, strong camaraderie with his friends, and a dedication to the team, Adam has been an absolute inspiration. Adam, is also autistic.

The day fliers got posted around the school for basketball tryouts, Adam knew, this is what he wanted to do.  He shot hoops at home, went to all the practices leading up to tryouts, and talked basketball constantly.

“I like to play a lot,” said Adam, 15, and his belief in his ability earned him a spot on the team.  He did not allow his condition to belittle his potential.

Adam saw something he wanted and went after it.  He didn’t just go out on a whim, he took action. Practicing, shooting, playing, talking, his actions revolved around the idea that he could do this.

Once we get that idea in our head...once it ignites that itching drive, that unquenchable thirst for fulfillment, we begin to realize what capabilities really are - limitless potentials.

What is the good life?

Why do we seek it? Why is it so elusive?

Formulas have been written to try and obtain it.  Philosophers have spent careers thinking and writing about how to capture it.  Still answers are vast and indefinite.  It’s like a non-fictional journey to the fountain of youth. Everyone wants a sip, but no one is quite sure how to get there.

BREAKING NEWS. You are already there.

The good life is not something to be obtained or captured or metaphorically drunk.  It is your life. This, now, wherever you’re at, whatever you’re doing. Nothing gets better than this moment.

The placebo effect is simple.  It is a play on our expectations.  We expect to feel less pain - we feel less pain.  We expect a surge of energy - we are wide awake.

It turns out that the placebo effect actually induces a neurological response.  A few years ago a neuroscientist named Tor Wager put together a study.  He gave participants tiny electric shocks.  One group was shocked on their bare skin while a second group was given a pain relieving creme.  The catch, the creme was fake. It was a moisturizer you can buy off the shelf at CVS, but this group reported experiencing significantly less pain.

To take a deeper look at this, Wager had participants hooked up to an fMRI machine.  The expectation of a reduction of pain actually created a neurological effect.  The frontal lobes of the these participants brains responded by inhibiting activity in the parts of the brain that normally respond to pain.

Decision making occurs on a moment to moment basis. Sometimes it is automatic. We make decisions that are so second nature we don’t even realize they’re decisions. Sometimes we think long and hard. We try and gather all the information we can and rely on reason to guide us on making the right choice.

Rationality is a powerful agent in the decision making realm, but what is truest in its rawest form are our emotions.  Basically put they outline and motivate us toward our instinctual desires - what we really want.  But more times then not, we are met with decisions that we try to over think, causing the outcome to actually fall astray from what we really want.