FAP Courage, Love, Risk and Behaviorism

Thich Nhat Hanh | If You Say Something Kind

You are like a candle.

Imagine you are sending light out all around you.

All your words, thoughts and actions are going in many directions.

If you say something kind, your kind words go in many directions,

and you yourself go with them.

We are transforming and continuing in a different form at

every moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Source: no death, no fear – p122

Food Addiction Counseling | It is Not Just Psychological!

Morphine, morphine everywhere . . .

In common cow’s milk, the protein casein breaks down during digestion into a range of casomorphin peptides, while modern (routinely genetically modified) wheat contains several gluten exorphins. Both casomorphins and exorphins are closely related to the well-known opioid, morphine, and exhibit many of its insidious addictive properties. The so-called ‘food opiates’ are powerful psychoactive substances. You only have to look at the effect of morphine and heroin addiction to appreciate that they are some of the most addictive substances known to man.

ACT Therapy Seattle | Musing Within The Happiness Trap

Talks at the Rubin Museum In Memoriam: Philip Seymour Hoffman. Just over a year ago philosopher Simon Critchley met with Philip Seymour Hoffman for the final evening in a series of on-stage conversations called Happy Talk. In a delightful and searching dialogue, that in hindsight seems prescient, the actor wrestles with the concepts of happiness, love, and death with the same courage and compelling insight that he brought to his role

Psychotherapy With the Brain in Mind | Relational Neurobiology

The Construct “MindSight” and Relational Neurobiology

What is Mindsight?

“Mindsight” is a term coined by Dr. Dan Siegel to describe our human capacity to perceive the mind of the self and others. It is a powerful lens through which we can understand our inner lives with more clarity, integrate the brain, and enhance our relationships with others.

Mindsight is a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds. It helps us get ourselves off of the autopilot of ingrained behaviors and habitual responses. It lets us “name and tame” the emotions we are experiencing, rather than being overwhelmed by them.

Mindsight Skills allow one to distinguish “I am sad” vs. “I feel sad”

As similar as those two statements may seem, they are profoundly different. “I am sad” is a kind of limited self-definition. “I feel sad” suggests the ability to recognize and acknowledge a feeling, without being consumed or “cognitively fused” to it. The focusing skills that are part of mindsight make it possible to see what is inside, to accept it, and in the accepting to let it go, and finally, to transform it.

Mindsight:
A Skill that Can Change Your Brain Mindsight is a learnable skill.

It is the basic skill that underlies what we mean when we speak of having emotional and social intelligence. When we develop the skill of mindsight, we actually change the physical structure of the brain. This revelation is based on one of the most exciting scientific discoveries of the last twenty years. How we focus our attention [intimate relating / interpersonal atunement] shapes the structure of the brain. Neuroscience has also definitively shown that we can grow these new connections throughout our lives, not just in childhood.

What’s Interpersonal Neurobiology?

Interpersonal neurobiology, a term coined by Dr. Siegel in The Developing Mind, 1999, is an interdisciplinary field which seeks to understand the mind and mental health. This field is based on science but is not constrained by science. What this means is that we attempt to construct a picture of the “whole elephant” of human reality. We build on the research of different disciplines to reveal the details of individual components, while also assembling these pieces to create a coherent view of the whole.

The Mindsight Approach Exists Within the Field of Interpersonal Neurobiology

Under the umbrella of interpersonal neurobiology, Dr. Siegel’s mindsight approach applies the emerging principles of interpersonal neurobiology to promote compassion, kindness, resilience, and well-being in our personal lives, our relationships, and our communities.

At the heart of both interpersonal neurobiology and the mindsight approach is the concept of “integration” which entails the linkage of different aspects of a system—whether they exist within a single person or a collection of individuals. Integration is seen as the essential mechanism of health as it promotes a flexible and adaptive way of being that is filled with vitality and creativity.

The ultimate outcome of integration is harmony.

The absence of integration leads to chaos and rigidity—a finding that enables us to re-envision our understanding of mental disorders and how we can work together in the fields of mental health, education, and other disciplines, to create a healthier, more integrated world.

The Mindsight Institute

Through the Mindsight Institute, Dr. Siegel offers a scientifically-based way of understanding human development. The Mindsight Institute serves as the organization from which interpersonal neurobiology first developed and it continues to be a key source for learning in this area. The Mindsight Institute links science, clinical practice, education, the arts, and contemplation, serving as an educational hub from which these various domains of knowing and practice can enrich their individual efforts.

The Importance of Choosing Your Thoughts

While time spent alone can be a very positive opportunity for reflection, personal growth, and creativity, in can also be dangerous if we happen to be negatively turned against ourselves. This is reflected in the difference between introspection and rumination. Introspection is a process of self- reflection, examination, and exploration, all of which are positive and healthy. Rumination, however, involves going over the same things repeatedly, and can lead to a cycle of negative thinking that can hold us back. These two different states of personal solitude can be affected by the state of our mind, and whether we are looking at ourselves fairly as ourselves or through the eyes of a critical inner voice.

3 Deep Breathing Exercises to Reduce Anxiety

Therese J. Borchard writes this article acknowledging the importance of deep breathing in her personal recovery from problems such as anxiety and depression. She writes that shallow breathing contributes to feelings of panic and that she has personally been reduced to breathing out of a paper bag to maintain physical control of her breathing on more than one occasion. Deep breathing is so helpful in times of anxiety and stress because it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which is responsible for our body activity when we are rest. It works opposite of the sympathetic nervous system which controls fight-or-flight responses.

Are You Impatient for Change?

It hard not to understand why someone in our current society might be impatient for change. The world we live in has two recurring messages on this subject. One, that we aren’t good enough. Two, that change is quick and easy. There is medicine that is supposed to fix our physical and mental health problems, products that will make us feel good, books that will give us all the answers, and milestones that will suddenly make life better. The media sells us on the idea of fixing our problems and it is easy to want to believe them because we know that actual change is difficult. Change requires us to take responsibility.

Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy helps you manage your anxiety and depression and realize the personal change that you value!

The Importance of Choosing Your Thoughts

While time spent alone can be a very positive opportunity for reflection, personal growth, and creativity, in can also be dangerous if we happen to be negatively turned against ourselves. This is reflected in the difference between introspection and rumination. Introspection is a process of self- reflection, examination, and exploration, all of which are positive and healthy. Rumination, however, involves going over the same things repeatedly, and can lead to a cycle of negative thinking that can hold us back. These two different states of personal solitude can be affected by the state of our mind, and whether we are looking at ourselves fairly as ourselves or through the eyes of a critical inner voice.

Desperately Seeking Happiness

Happiness is one of the most sought after and yet still elusive aspects of life. Happiness is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that everyone wants, but so few people can confidently claim to have discovered. The field of psychology has produced a science of happiness through a variety of studies that has led to a general definition of happiness as the “ability to sustain an overall sense of well being over time.” This ability generally requires a certain amount of emotional flexibility in the context of the many challenges that a person faces daily and throughout life. Modern Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps you achieve the happiness that you value most! Even one session with the right therapist will help you regain your emotional balance and sustain happiness.

Emotional Appraisal Can Alleviate Anxiety

Emotional Re-Appraisal is one of the most effective methods today in dealing with emotional arousal. The technique involves taking an initial reaction and re-evaluating it. This evaluation or appraisal diffuses the impact of the initial response and alleviates anxious symptoms. Unfortunately neurological mechanisms of performing the appraisal take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which research suggests is impaired in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety issues. The impaired prefrontal cortex makes it more difficult for them to perform an emotional re-appraisal, though studies have not determined if this is a cause or effect of anxiety.

Self-Sabotaging: Why We Get in Our Own Way

This article explores the expression, “You are your own worst enemy.” Many people can relate to this expression, calling to mind personal experiences of procrastination, deliberate poor choices, or other self-destructive decisions that we question later. Psychologist and author Robert Firestone attributes these experiences to self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors perpetrated by something he coined as our “critical inner voice.” The critical inner voice is essentially an anti-self, or a mental part of a person that has turned against itself, formed by internalized criticisms from early life experiences. These criticisms may not even have been directed at the person with the critical inner voice, but perhaps criticisms that parents or caretakers had about themselves.

5 Steps For Relaxing and Deep Meditation

Most people have probably heard about the benefits of meditation. Some people may have even tried it out, but experienced a certain dissatisfaction or sense that the meditation is not as deep or meaningful as advertised. This article provides a few tips to help improve meditation and achieve the gravity and satisfaction people look for. It is best not to eat a heavy meal or drink stimulating drinks like coffee before attempting meditation. It’s also helpful to acknowledge the fact that there will inevitably be noise and distractions. If you’re prepared for the eventuality, they will be less bothersome when they occur and this will help you to ignore them.

Smart Goal Setting

Many people have written about the importance of setting goals in life. Some people may wonder how this applies to them if they don’t have any goals and are more or less content with their lives. It’s true that many people may be in a good place and not want for much more than having enough money for their basic needs and a little extra to spend. The truth is, whether we think we have big goals or none at all, life is still goal oriented. Something as small as going to see a movie or baking a cake are goals and still require a level of effort to accomplish.

5 Things to Do When You Feel Insecure

Most people have experienced moments of intense insecurity. This comes from viewing ourselves from an imaginary outside perspective and judging ourselves according to that view. These unsettling experiences of insecurity are unfortunately a part of life and so our goal to maintain ourselves is not to struggle to conquer the feelings, but learning how to control our reactions to these feelings. One way to do this may be to consider the insecurity as something beautiful. Perhaps look at it as humility, which is considered a great virtue. Another way could be to keep a collection, mental or even physical, of nice things that people have said about you.

Explore Alternatives | Evidence Based Psychotherapy in Seattle

A review of the psychological literature reveals that only a very small percentage of psychotherapy services in the United States are tightly linked to existing scientific knowledge. It is a really quite strange if you think of it. Would anyone want undergo medical surgery that was not based on a current scientific understanding of the body? Ask yourselr: just why should the mind and behavior be any different?

It is clear that this problem has multiple faces. Psychology and psychiatry have historically had a really hard time agreeing on what we even mean by mental disorders. Clearly, there is a proliferation of theories and approaches. Everyone seems to have some strange theoretical axe to grind. Managed care companies have strident practice guidelines; yet, it is infuriating that often such “guidelines” just come down to ways to reduce cost. The American Psychiatric Association has practice guidelines, but medications are so emphasized (no surprise) that as a broad public information service, they are not very useful.

This problem has multiple faces for psychology and psychiatry. Scientists have had a hard time agreeing on what we even mean by mental disorders. There clearly is a proliferation of theories and approaches. Everyone seems to have an axe to grind. Big pharma and managed care companies have practice guidelines but often they just come down to ways to reduce cost. The American Psychiatric Association has practice guidelines, but medications are so emphasized (surprise) that as a broad public information service, they are not very useful.

One certainly might hope that the government could get reasonable scientists together to say what is known. The fact that economic interests sometimes want a particular answer can make that difficult as well. But there are at least two government efforts worth noting in the area of psychotherapy, and fortunately both are exploring acceptance and mindfulness-based alternatives in the area of evidence-based care that give consumers a wider range of choices.

The Problem With Language | Acceptance Commitment Therapy

Not too long ago, perhaps a couple hundred thousand years, an obscure primate species called “human” learned a new trick. We learned to relate events arbitrarily–we learned to have one thing stand for another. We acquired symbolic thought.

We’ve been bossed around ever since…

The comedian Emo Philips has a saying that captures the situation we are in: “I used to think my mind was my most important organ. Then I noticed which organ was telling me that.”

The human mind is arrogant beyond belief. Because our minds can talk about anything, and this organ between our ears thinks it knows everything. Our logical, analytical, predictive, problem-solving mind knows how to live, knows how to love, and knows how to be at peace.

Not.

Language and cognition sit on top of vast amounts of experiential, social, evolutionary, and spiritual knowledge. It claims it all, merely because symbols can refer to such knowledge (to a degree) and guide it (to a degree). It is such a powerful illusion — this thin veneer of symbolic thought claiming unto itself substance and power it simply does not have. Our mind’s claims are the metaphorical equivalent of paint claiming to be the house it covers.

5 Signs that You May Have an Anger Problem

Anger itself is not a bad thing, but the behaviors that can result from being angry can be. It isn’t unheard of for a person to not realize that their anger is a problem, while the people around them are well aware of it. This causes relationship problems, not helped by the fact that the person with the anger problem tends to end up getting what they want. This might work in a restaurant setting, where the anger results in better service and the staff’s opinion is not of particular weight to the person with the anger problem, but in a close relationship this behavior can be particularly damaging.

How Do You Manage Your Time?

Managing time can be hard and it may seem like we manage our time less than our time is managed for us by other people and circumstances that feel out of our control. If time management seems difficult, it may be easier to start with baby steps. Perhaps managing time at work is impossible, that still leaves some free time in which there is more control. Time management involves giving certain tasks priority over other tasks and expending effort on the prioritized tasks. In this way, the opposite of time management would be procrastination, or doing things other than those tasks which should have priority.

Turning Self Doubt Into Confidence

Not many things can halt forward movement in life like self doubt. Self doubt can rob a person of their enthusiasm by summoning fears that can dismiss all work and preparation towards a goal as not good enough to ever realize it. By then halting forward momentum, those fears are realized. In order to keep moving, it is important to be able to turn doubt in confidence. This confidence is not arrogance, but assurance that it is good to try new things and it is okay to make mistakes. Doubt brings the fear of being punished for making a mistake and the idea that to make a mistake means to have failed.

Why Chasing Success and Happiness is Making You Unsuccessful and Miserable

After feeling stuck in where he was in life, Alexander Heyne started his own business and began searching for success. He sacrificed many aspects of his personal life in order to achieve success so that he could later use that monetary success to fund important things in life like bills, a family, and dreams of seeing the world. Time passed and he realized that not only had he not achieved this illusive success, but he was a lot less happy than when he started. The next step was then to go looking for happiness, until he realized that maybe this active search for happiness may be key to the problem.

How to Unhook From the Pain in Life

Sometimes, the painful inner voices that tear us down or distract us from life are almost irresistible. No matter how we try to affirm ourselves, we tend to get hooked on the negativity. To bounce back, we may try to avoid the pain, but the effort magnifies it instead. Psychotherapist, Bobi Emel proposes that it is better to "unhook" from painful thoughts and feelings rather than hide from them. Emel explains that when we notice and accept our thoughts for what they are, instead of judging ourselves for thinking them, we gain some perspective. As a result, we can be less absorbed with wrestling our thoughts and focus outward again.

Mindfulness Meditation Benefits: 20 Reasons Why It’s Good for Your Mental and Physical Health

Mindfulness meditation has been around for thousands of years, but academic research has only recently started to give us a better understanding of why it provides so many benefits. In so many aspects of our lives, from pain and disease management, to sleep, to control of our emotions, and many others, mindfulness mediation improves our lives. Defined as, “the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment,” mindfulness can lower stress and decrease the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. It can help students get better grades and help our troops to perform better and more quickly recover from stress. This article defines and explains many of the benefits associated with mindfulness meditation.

The One Thing You Keep Doing That Will Forever Hold You Back

Barrie Davenport is willing to bet that 80% of what most people did this morning is the same thing they do every morning. She’s willing to bet that most people repeat the same political views, are bothered by the same things, and react to challenges in the same way every single day. Her point is that this consistency holds each one of us back. She claims that this consistency leads to mindless repetition which, in turn, leads to stagnation. The stagnation keeps us tethered down and it is a tether that we attach to ourselves.

10 Things You Think About Too Often

Given the assumption that we all have a constant personal monologue going on in our heads at all times, one that can determine how we feel, behave, and ultimately live our lives, there are certainly things that we think about on a regular basis that could do with being changed. To begin with, we could think less about who everyone wants us to be. It is important we live our life to be true to ourselves and not to the person we think other people want us to be. We could also stand to think less about what we don’t have and devote some of that time to being thankful for what we do have.

How to Overcome Perfectionism

While perfectionism may be a trait that it is easy to admire, particularly in a culture where the media regularly uses technology to erase imperfections from photos and sound, people who are perfectionists know how difficult it can be. Not how difficult it is to be “perfect,” no; they know how difficult it is to have a compulsion to be perfect and to need to achieve perfection or else not be able to do something at all. This article provides a few sayings to take the edge off of a perfectionist compulsion. The first is that perfect is boring. Flawless may describe a good diamond, but very few stories are about a flawless day.

Why Waiting to Change Your Life Can Be Dangerous

This is a cautionary article about becoming too complacent with our lives as we make plans for what we want to do in the future without putting those plans into effect. There are many reasons this tends to happen: fear, embarrassment, self-doubt. But the idea that this article’s writer, as well as many others, unfortunately learned through a sudden accident is that not acting on your plans and hopes for the future is a gamble. It is a gamble that you have the time to not act on these ideas, and that you will always have time to build the life you want with the people you want sometime in the future.

10 Tips for Dealing with Surprises and Unexpected Events

Life is full of surprises and every day we meet a few of them. Generally, the surprises are minor things, but there are occasionally unexpected life-altering events that we have to deal with. Whether the surprises are good or bad, most people are more comfortable living their lives in a routine for the sense of control that it gives them. This can lead to difficulty coping both with good and bad surprises. The first tip for dealing with surprises is just acknowledging the surprises are part of life and are unavoidable. Whether you like them or not, they cannot be stopped.

Why it is Good For You to Feel Negative Emotions

According to Dr. Lisa Firestone, the best thing to do when confronted with strong negative emotions, such as being let down by a friend or partner, or having an argument with a child, is to stay with the pain. We expend more energy trying to avoid pain than we would just facing those feelings. In addition to the real possibility of making ourselves feel worse trying to avoid pain, it also creates a defensive habit that can lead to hurting others unintentionally. Facing emotionally challenging situations also makes us more emotionally adaptive and people who face negative feelings often end up feeling more refreshed the next day.

Losing Hope for Sleep Can Hike Suicide Risk

A new study from Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, the chair of the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, shows that when people lose hope of having a good night’s sleep, their risk of suicide spikes. McCall notes that this study reaffirms what he had previously established, that hopelessness about sleep is separate from other kinds of hopelessness. The new study also links to other studies which indicate that nightmares and insomnia increase suicide risk. The effect is so great that insomnia can apparently double the likelihood of suicide in people already at risk.

Is Your Pride Preventing Your Happiness?

Some people choose to “tough things out” when they’re feeling down, weary, or depressed rather than seek medical attention. While some people may look at this trait as admirable, Dr. Clifford Lazarus sees it simply as unnecessary and prolonged suffering, as well as missed opportunities to feel better sooner and possibly learn something about themselves in the process. It is particularly concerning when people don’t seek help when they are fatigued, down in the dumps, or have trouble moving, sleeping, or finding enjoyment in previously pleasurable activities. It’s worse if there are mood swings or thoughts of death. These symptoms can be caused by metabolic conditions that need treatment.

Coping with Chronic Stress

Experiencing stress is a natural part of the human condition. Stress is something that is programmed into us like an internal alarm to let us know of potentially harmful situations so they can be noted and addressed. Dr. Beth NeSmith calls it the body’s “arousal response to a perceived threat.” The response involves releasing adrenaline and cortisol into the body, the former elevates heart rate and increases blood pressure, while the latter limits bodily functions not necessary to handling the stressful situation, such as digestion and reproductive drive, until the situation is resolved. Stress is not only limited to potentially harmful situations, however.

Massage: One of My Favorite Stress Management Techniques for Good Reason

Elizabeth Scott has always enjoyed getting massages and also enjoys the idea of them being a part of a stress management plan. In her experience, massage has been an excellent short-term stress management tool, but she has since wondered what the actual benefits of massage are compared to other stress managements practices and whether or not a massage carried long-term stress benefits. Research into some studies published in various journals brought good news. One study showed that a massage lowered a subject’s perceived level of stress, which also resulted in lowered heart rate and even lowered blood pressure. Another study showed that a Thai massage can increase heart rate variability, pain threshold, and body flexibility.

Maintenance CBT Reduces Risk of Relapse for Panic and Agoraphobia

Panic and agoraphobia routinely exact a debilitating affect on daily life for those who suffer from them. While there are many treatments available, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to have a marked impact on the prevention of relapse and remediation of symptoms of panic (it is important to note) more so than medication alone. Encouraging is the finding that after the cessation of medication, a well conceived maintenance program informed by CBT therapists has the most successful prevention of relapse. Any gains made during treatment are significantly less likely to be sustained without such a maintenance program. So for all those suffering from panic and anxiety, including CBT in your long-term treatment plan is crucial for your success.

5 Ways to Feel Less Isolated When Facing Change

There are many ways in which people deal with their stress and emotional pain. One response is to keep it to yourself and put on a happy face for those around you. Whether you are trying to bury the pain or just prefer to face the problems on your own, it can put you in an awkward position if you find the feelings of stress and pain lingering and are unable to resolve them. You may suddenly feel isolated, since you find yourself with a problem that you can’t solve and no one around you even knows that you’re struggling. This article provides a few tips on how to deal with this isolation.

Identifying and Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

When a lot of people think about obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) they often think of movie characters, or other people they may have seen, without understanding exactly what the disorder is or how it functions. People afflicted by OCD are receiving faulty messages from their brains. While a regular person receives messages that tell them to lock their car door, for example, a person with OCD receives similar messages that tell them to lock the car several times. Obsessive compulsive disorder can manifest in several ways but the basic idea is that the obsessive actions are caused by anxious thoughts that revolve usually around safety, sanitation, profanity, or violence.

Is Cynicism Ruining Your Life?

Most people have at least one person in their life that can make them cynical. Whoever it is that inspires cynicism in our lives, it is generally someone who routinely disappoints or upsets us in some way. The cynical attitude that develops is part of a defensive mechanism that can be hard to lose once adopted. Unfortunately, a 2009 study of more than 97,000 women showed that cynical women have an increased rate of coronary heart disease, cancer-related deaths, and general mortality, while optimistic women were on the opposite side of the spectrum with decreased levels of death and disease than average.

Achieving Success Requires Patience and Persistence

American journalist Hal Borland once wrote: “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing Grass, I can appreciate persistence.” In order to achieve big goals, people need to display the same patience as a tree. Just as trees take many years to grow into the large, impressive plants that they are, an important goal takes time to accomplish and requires sustained nourishment over that time in the form of studying, self-improvement, and consistent work toward the goal. People also need the persistence of grass, which can break through concrete to live or can grow on rocks. Like grass, a person needs to persist in their goals no matter what obstacles block the path.

Culture Stigmatizing Mental Illness Must Change

After a second student from Northwestern University passed away during the fall semester, one by suicide while studying abroad, professors Christina Traina and Laurie Zoloth have written in about the stigma surrounding mental illness that impedes the prevention of such tragedies. The Centers for Disease Control report that suicide is the third most common cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 and the second most common for people between 25 and 34. Nearly every person who attempts suicide is suffering from an underlying issue such as depression. If the stigma around mental health issues can be raised, action can be taken to address mental illnesses before tragedy strikes.

How to Make Peace with Your Dark Past

Almost everyone has something dark in their past and it is human nature to dwell on that darkness, trying to figure out how we allowed those things to happen. It can become a dark circle of trying to understand what happened and agonizing over the fact that it did. The way to move forward, however, is through acceptance. It is possible for people to accept their dark history and perhaps even become grateful for it, recognizing that while they are not proud of what happened, they could not be the person they are today without it. Once the past is embraced, they can turn their eyes to the present and future.

Nine Secrets of Courage from Extreme Fear

Everyone has to deal with fear, and the way fear is responded to can determine how we live the rest of our life. If we spend all of our time avoiding fear, we probably won’t get any better at handling fear when it is unavoidable. Jeff Wise’s new book explores the neurological underpinning of our fear response to better understand how fear can be mastered. In this article, he shares nine things that he found helps to increase courage. Studies show that physical fitness can curb the effects of fear, as exercise can ease depression. Thus skydivers with a lower body fat percentage take less time to recover from elevated stress levels.



• Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations.
• But in some cases, it becomes excessive and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations.
• This type of steady, all-over anxiety is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
• Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we bristle with anxiety about situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back and avoid the vital life with mindless oblivion.
• When we get clear about the nature of fear, we recognize this as a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it — register this in some way . . . we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate or ominous threats. Yet it is clear that we often fear situations that are far from life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason.
  

Depression Disproportionately Affects Those in Poverty, Report Finds

A new report from Gallup and Healthways shows that people who are poor not only have a greater risk of health problems, but are disproportionately more likely to be diagnosed with depression. Thirty-one percent of people living in poverty report having depression, according to the report, while only 15.8% of people outside of the poverty line report the same. In the report, the researchers mentioned that whether depression led to poverty or poverty led to depression, the fact remains that those in poverty are twice as likely to suffer the condition and it is possible that the condition could impede their escaping poverty.

Bouncing Back: How You Can Help

There are many disasters and tragedies that occur across the world that undoubtedly leave survivors traumatized. The good news is that most of the survivors will rebound fairly quickly from trauma, even when it is severe. In recent years, post-traumatic stress disorder has been given a lot of attention in the media. It is a disorder that can haunt survivors with flashbacks of a traumatizing event and disrupt their sleep and concentration. With the focus on PTSD, however, the resiliency of human nature may be overlooked. Research shows that about 8-20% of people who experience a traumatic event will develop PTSD.

Always Angry?

According to a new survey of two thousand people, British citizens spend an average of three and a half years being angry throughout their lifetime. The time distribution works down to about an hour and nineteen minutes a day of anger and the most common causes of this anger are common frustrations such as bad customer service or poorly automated phone systems. Work, money, and family problems were included in the survey but none of them made even the top ten for sources of anger. Complaining psychology shows that American citizens are similarly affected by minor irritants.

Changing My Mindset Changed My Life

Henri Juntilla learned how to change his entire life by practicing Aikido. Aikido is a Japanese martial art, but the change it brought was a change of self-awareness. Juntilla realized he had a mindset of seeking approval from the instructor without actually enjoying the activity. The change of mindset occurred when Juntilla got tired of seeking permission and approval for his actions and instead took responsibility for them by fully committing, right or wrong. It can be exhausting constantly trying to figure out what someone else wants. Letting go of that effort first helped to improve his martial art and then helped to improve his life.

Depression Therapy :: New Hope for Mental Health

Depression Therapy: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in two Americans will suffer a mental health disorder in their lifetime. In fact, depression, schizophrenia, and addiction are among the World Health Organization’s five most common illnesses in adults between 18 and 44. Many mental illnesses, however, bear social stigmas not shared by physical disorders. For example, depression is not likely to inspire the same sympathy as a heart disease despite the American Heart Association reporting that one in five heart attack patients also suffer from depression. Not only that, but a patient with symptoms of depression who suffers a heart attack is six times more likely to die in the following months. Depression therapy helps save lives!

Want to Find Your Life Passion? Start by Simplifying Your Life

Barrie Davenport is a life passion coach, meaning she partners with people to uncover their life passions. She writes that when a person has a passion in life fueled by vision and purpose, they can wake up every day with the same excitement as a child waking up on their birthday. Part of finding a life passion involves finding a way to live with that passion and make it work practically in a person’s daily life. In order for the passion to fit, space needs to be made in the cluttered schedule in which most adults live.

Why the American Happiness Formula is Making Our Kids Depressed

The American Happiness Formula is a simple equation. Look Good + Perform Well + Get Approval = Happiness. Author Jonathan Hewitt, high school state wrestling champion, former model, and Wall Street intern knew the happiness formula well and followed it for a large portion of his life without ever realizing that ultimate goal of actual happiness. He wasn’t the only one. Studies show that children today are more depressed than children were during either the Great Depression or World War II. Psychology professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego University, has performed research that shows a child’s anxiety level is more greatly affected by the time period they were born in than family environment.

Don’t Take Vacation From Your Good Habits

A lot of people share a similar experience when it comes to developing good habits such as eating healthy and exercising regularly. The scenario involves being careful to maintain a healthy and productive schedule during the week and then to take breaks from the good habits on the weekend. This can develop because we feel that we owe it to ourselves to take a break from our good habits, for doing so well in keeping them throughout the week. Our bad habits become a reward for successfully following the good habits, which then become a chore. This behavior devalues our good habits.

How to Overcome Stress and Anxiety Naturally

Stress and anxiety are acknowledged parts of everyday life for most people due to lifestyle changes and the daily challenges that everyone faces. Excessive stress and anxiety can lead to health issues, however, so there are many medications available to help people manage their stress and anxiety. There are also many natural methods that can be employed to control and relieve the effects of stress and anxiety as well. Meditating, or taking a few minutes to clear your mind and achieve a sense of calm, can help relieve stress. Developing a positive mindset, or changing your perception of a negative situation by developing positive thoughts can also be a useful tool.

Recalculating: You Can Re-Mind Yourself

Laura Berman Fortgang is a bestselling author, speaker, TV personality, corporate spokesperson, and Interfaith minister. She has also struggled with depression for most of her adult life. She writes that most people seem surprised when they learn of her depression, citing how positive and energetic she presents herself. Fortgang writes that depression doesn’t rule her life, though it waits just beneath the surface. Her dynamic with depression over the past twenty years has brought meaning to her life because it has taught her to be conscious of her thoughts and to choose them if she has to. She writes that even if she thinks something, she doesn’t have to believe that thought.

Do You Play the Blame Game in Life?

According to Mike Bundrant, the director of the iNLP Center, the blame game is where a person blames other people and his or her environment for the the things wrong with life. Playing the blame game means being inactive in life and allowing the quality of life to depend on what everyone and everything else does to it. Being inactive means not taking control of life and not taking necessary steps to improve it by coming up with solutions to redress the bad things that happen. Instead of playing the blame game, Bundrant advises that people take charge and take proactive steps toward a better life.

The Inner Voice that Drives Suicide

Dr. Robert Firestone made the link between suicide and a destructive inner voice in 1986 after interviewing a woman who had recently attempted suicide. She described how the voice had goaded and instructed her through the suicide attempt. Since then, the inner voice has been identified in suicide attempts across the world. Robert Firestone and his daughter, Dr. Lisa Firestone, collaborated to create the Firestone Assessment of Self-Destructive Thoughts (FAST) scale to determine self-destructive tendencies in a patient and later the Firestone Assessment of Suicidal Intent (FASI) scale. The FAST scale was used in a 2001 study of both Pakistani and American psychiatric patients and showed a high correlation between self-destructive thoughts and suicide attempts.

All about Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is an illness that occurs in approximately one percent of the population. In America, nearly three million people are diagnosed with it. About one third of those diagnosed will attempt to commit suicide and 10% will kill themselves within twenty years of diagnosis. Very few of them will reveal their intentions to anyone. Schizophrenia causes an impairment in those suffering from it that affects their ability to rationally evaluate their surroundings and interactions, leading to delusions and hallucinations that mirror the distortions in their ability to interpret reality. Their resulting behavior may seem bizarre but is consistent with their abnormal perceptions.

Think Your Way to Happiness

The capacity of human beings for complex and inventive thinking has given us great advantages as a species throughout history, but we may not be prepared for some of the consequences of that complexity and invention, which can lead to depression. Albert Ellis, a rational emotive behavior therapist, thinks the source of much conflict and distress in our lives could be caused by harmful irrational thinking, such as overgeneralization and categorical thinking. The very language we use can contribute to a lack of precision in our thought processes, as in the case of the verb “to be,” which can create a reality distortion of overgeneralization.

Dr. Hart