The Summit Center
for Ideal Performance Blog

Eight US Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its extraordinarily long deployment, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao disclosed in September 2026. No service members died by suicide. The disclosure followed months of concern from sailors’ families and lawmakers about the psychological toll of extended combat operations and conditions at sea. Stars and Strips

A major new study by D. Daneshvar and C. Nowinski et al., published on August 25, 2026, on the prevalence of CTE at death in NFL players added urgency to a question football has faced for two decades: How much risk to the brain are we, as parents, coaches, healthcare professionals, and neuroscientists, willing to accept for the sport that is widely loved?

The University of Michigan is preparing to introduce a pass/no credit grading pilot for first-year students in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts beginning in fall 2027. The controversial plan is intended, in part, to reduce college student stress and support mental health—but critics question whether it could lower academic standards and leave students less prepared to cope with adversity.

Are you aware, like I am as a Master Neuroplastician, that your children are born with “Mirror Neurons,” a 21st century neuroscientific finding, which is why children copy parents and mimic everything they say and do, both positive and negative?

Are you excited about FIFA coming to your town in the US and all the hype and promise it has for business, American society, solidarity between nations, especially during wartime, and for the sheer love of the game of soccer? As a peak performance coach, who works with Mindful Toughness skill sets to assist young people to succeed, I am!

Among all the hoopla and celebration that occurred before, during, and after the finals of the 2026 Knicks Championship Game was the incredible story of Jalen Brunson.

Do you know that reading skills and literacy are on a downward slide in the US, and declining standards and low expectations are destroying education? Well, it is, according to journalist Idrees Kahloon in a 10/2025 piece in The Atlanta.

Do you know that researchers now recognize loneliness and social isolation as a major public health concern associated with risks of anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and declining mental wellness?

Did you know that exercising with other people may help you live longer—not just exercise more? Yes, simply being a part of a group of exercisers can have positive health benefits beyond motivation to exercise. This was shown in a large-scale review reported in Public Library of Science (PLOS) Medicine that examined 148 studies of 309,000 individuals with an average age of 64 and found that having strong social connections increased the odds of survival by 50 percent compared with those who have weaker societal bonds. What is important to note is that the result remained constant over age, gender, health status, length of follow-up period, and cause of death.

What if the key to lasting health and fitness isn’t more motivation—but a shift in identity? Did you know that researchers who focus on lifestyle changes are showing us that our habits, both healthy and unhealthy ones, determine who we think we are. Yes, people who link their habits to their identities the most had higher levels of self-esteem and were more driven towards reaching their ideal self, according to a Frontiers in Psychology study.

Why do some people struggle to stay consistent with exercise—even when they know it’s good for them? The answer isn’t physical. It’s emotional. And if you don’t address it, it will quietly sabotage every fitness goal you set.

Ever notice how hard it feels to start exercising—but easy to get stuck? But what if one simple incentive could flip that equation and make movement feel rewarding instead of draining?

As I reminisce to days long past, i remember visiting my elderly German/Hungarian grandparents during a holiday when I was a child, and my younger brother and I could not touch the highly polished furniture or sit on the couch with the adults in the living room. This is because our “sticky fingers” might make a mark. While being secluded from the adults on the front enclosed sunporch on the second floor of their rental, we sat under a hand-carved German-made clock that announced the hour and half-hour while the dancing children dressed in “Swiss Alps” attire emerged with the sound of the cuckoo, cuckoo!

When we were children, anyone older seemed “old.” By the time we looked at our grandparents, aging often appeared synonymous with decline. frailty, and loss. But neuroscience is now telling a very different story—one that could completely change how you experience the rest of your life.

Growing up in New York City as a Catholic girl in Far Rockaway, Queens, I never heard the word “Islamophobia,” that is, until the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, when it became common vernacular. Twenty-five years later, how is islamophobia defined today? It is the fear, hatred, or prejudice directed at Muslims or those perceived to be Muslim, often manifesting as racism, discrimination, and violence, which stereotypes all Muslims as a uniform, threatening group. It is often fueled by media coverage and politics, such as it is currently during the Iranian-Israeli-US War in the Middle East.