Law of Attraction. How the Brain Works. Habitual Thinking. Change.
The recently released, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza does a nice job of combining the Law of Attraction with research about the brain. The book is relatively easy to read and immediately practical. It describes why, despite our best intentions, we stay stuck in self-defeating ways of thinking and behaving. It describes how we identify our “self” from a neurological point of view. It then describes how we can create a new “self.”
I am a great fan of Joe Dispenza. He was one of my favorite people in What the Bleep. I loved Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind even though at times I felt overwhelmed by the amount of detail. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself has just the right amount of science for me. Right from the very beginning, the way the book is written caused me to start contemplating the ideas, even when I was engaged in my daily activities. Although Dispenza never directly refers to Eastern Philosophy, many of the ideas in the book echo Tai Chi and Zen mindfulness principles. This book makes sense to me. It is a wonderful book for people who feel stuck in their lives and want to change.
Showing posts with label Emotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emotions. Show all posts
Friday, June 22, 2012
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Books as Lifeline (Thoughts)
Years ago, after perhaps the most tragic event of my life, I found a job in a bookstore. I knew almost no one in the city in which I was living. I was emotionally numb, confused, sad, and angry with a God I wasn’t even sure existed. But I had my books, which I could buy at discount no less. The days that I either opened or closed the store and was by myself, I would down from the office perch and feel all the authors and all the stories. It was magical and nurturing. The books helped me survive.
Recently I have begun to seriously clean out my childhood home, which I also shared with my mother the last few years of her life. I never realized I could feel so emotionally raw and vulnerable. I found medical bills from my father, who died of cancer when I was a child. I found a letter my uncle wrote when my cousin was first institutionalized. I am revisiting tragedies, celebrations, parts of my life and my parents’ lives now ended. My neighbor, trying to be helpful, told me just to keep a box of Kleenex beside me and keep on throwing things out. But I couldn’t cry. Instead I got stupid, overwhelmed, and plain physically ill. Then, I went to the library and took out Jasper Fforde’s The Well of Lost Plots and laughed so hard that I felt like a relatively whole person again. (My comments will come later on in the week when I finish the book. I am savoring every last belly laugh.)
During these past few weeks I have felt as though books have once again thrown me a lifeline. One night when I had incapacitating insomnia, I imagined what it would be like to have someone make me a nice cup of red bush tea, like the characters in Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Not only was I comforted by my memories from reading the books, but I was also comforted by the fact that I live in a world where thousand and thousands of people want to read about such gentleness and caring. Images from Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and Blackout/All Clear, Jo Walton’s Among Others, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Sharon Shinn Troubled Waters and Clifford D. Simak’s Way Station have also brought me tremendous peace in the past few weeks.
While I love a great adventure and a cleaver plot, relish a book where I learn something new, appreciate an innovative setting or a fresh way of conveying a story, I sometimes need books that can sustain me through difficult times. Novels can have the power to heal or to keep someone afloat until help arrives. Sometimes I wish there were rating scales for that: May Help Feel Better about the Human Race, Makes English Majors Laugh So Hard that They Forget Their World Is Falling Apart, Contains Beautiful Scenes that Can Be Replayed in Head When Surrounded by Something Really Unpleasant, Helps Feel Courageous and Able to Take on Any Foe.
Recently I have begun to seriously clean out my childhood home, which I also shared with my mother the last few years of her life. I never realized I could feel so emotionally raw and vulnerable. I found medical bills from my father, who died of cancer when I was a child. I found a letter my uncle wrote when my cousin was first institutionalized. I am revisiting tragedies, celebrations, parts of my life and my parents’ lives now ended. My neighbor, trying to be helpful, told me just to keep a box of Kleenex beside me and keep on throwing things out. But I couldn’t cry. Instead I got stupid, overwhelmed, and plain physically ill. Then, I went to the library and took out Jasper Fforde’s The Well of Lost Plots and laughed so hard that I felt like a relatively whole person again. (My comments will come later on in the week when I finish the book. I am savoring every last belly laugh.)
During these past few weeks I have felt as though books have once again thrown me a lifeline. One night when I had incapacitating insomnia, I imagined what it would be like to have someone make me a nice cup of red bush tea, like the characters in Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Not only was I comforted by my memories from reading the books, but I was also comforted by the fact that I live in a world where thousand and thousands of people want to read about such gentleness and caring. Images from Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and Blackout/All Clear, Jo Walton’s Among Others, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, Sharon Shinn Troubled Waters and Clifford D. Simak’s Way Station have also brought me tremendous peace in the past few weeks.
While I love a great adventure and a cleaver plot, relish a book where I learn something new, appreciate an innovative setting or a fresh way of conveying a story, I sometimes need books that can sustain me through difficult times. Novels can have the power to heal or to keep someone afloat until help arrives. Sometimes I wish there were rating scales for that: May Help Feel Better about the Human Race, Makes English Majors Laugh So Hard that They Forget Their World Is Falling Apart, Contains Beautiful Scenes that Can Be Replayed in Head When Surrounded by Something Really Unpleasant, Helps Feel Courageous and Able to Take on Any Foe.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion (Self-help Book)
Being compassionate means that we recognize when someone is in pain, we abandon our fear of or resistance to it, and a natural feeling of love and kindness flows toward the suffering individual.
We start [being self-compassionate] by befriending who we are today, no matter how fumbling, incomplete, or clueless we are. Full acceptance of ourselves, moment to moment, makes it easier to adapt and change in the direction we’d like to go.
Compassion and self-compassion are topics that have gained popularity in recent years. In a society where depression and anxiety have become almost epidemic, self-compassion is a much needed skill. The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion by Christopher K. Germer is a helpful, well-written, and very user friendly book. It contains principles that the reader can immediately begin to put into practice, yet it so full of good content that many readers will want to come back to it again and again.
The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion discusses three major tools: acceptance, mindfulness, and Metta. Acceptance involves befriending ourselves in the moment. Mindfulness involves being fully present in the moment. Metta is a type of prayer/meditation that invokes loving-kindness.
The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion contains good activities and plenty of examples. It also includes information — nicely set off from the main text—about research in the area of self-compassion. What I especially like about the book is that it recognizes that we are not all the same. Germer includes suggestions for different personalities. He also offers alternatives for different activities. For example, many meditation instructions use the breath as a way to anchor a person’s awareness. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work for me; I sometimes begin to hyperventilate. Germer includes additional anchors the user can try.
I have read The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion once, but feel that I have only scratched the surface on the information. What I found interesting is that I began to feel more compassionate toward other people after finishing the book. The skills involved in self-compassion also affect how we interact with the world.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Cyteen (Book)
Psychogenesis. Sociogenesis. Nature vs. Nurture. A little girl growing up too fast. Post traumatic stress disorder.
The 1989 Hugo Award winning novel, Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh is a well written science fiction novel that has left me deep in thought. While many science fiction novels explore physics or alien biology, Cyteen explores psychology—particularly educational psychology—and sociology. Interlaced with all the science is intrigue, politics, and some very touching moments. Cherryh does a good job of creating emotion in her reader.
Briefly, after the death of Ari, a very powerful woman, the company she headed, Reseune, not only creates a genetic clone, but also attempts to make a replicate that is psychologically and intellectually almost identical. Using detailed records, the replicate is raised in a way that parallels the original, including losing her mother at the same age. Another major character in the story is a young man, Justin, who was abused by the original Ari and now is dealing with the young replicate as she grows up. He has a lifelong companion/adopted brother, Grant, who is an azi.
Also an intricate part of the storyline is Reseune, a scientific company that is involved in such activities as creating azi, clones of humans and animals, and tapes. Azi are humans whose genes have been manipulated. In addition the azi are given tapes— sophisticated learning programs that utilize neurochemistry—beginning a few hours after birth. Most often azi are created to fulfill a particular purpose in society, such as military. The azi are not considered to be full adults, except in a few instances of old azi. Reseune also creates replicates for people who want a clone of themselves or a child they have lost. Although these children undergo many of the same processes as the azi—including gestation in womb tanks, they are not given tapes until they are preschool age, like most children. The azi tend to be very stable thinkers. The non-azi tend to be flux thinkers.
The psychology and sociology in the book were fascinating to me. Cherryh shows how both the tapes and life events affect the characters, particularly original and replicate Ari, Justin and Grant. Cherryh discusses and illustrates how the hormone-flux system affects learning and personality. She also illustrates how tapes and real life events affect large populations and subsequent generations. Heavy stuff at times!
I thoroughly enjoyed Cyteen. Of all the Hugo winners I have read so far, it has given me the most to think about. On the down side, it is long, almost 700 pages, which could have easily been over 1,000 if the book had been typeset differently. I also feel like I need to give a warning. I found some of the content disturbing though necessary for the plot. In some people who have been psychologically or sexually abused, I would be concerned that some of the scenes could trigger some psychological issues. I am sure there are plenty of other books that carry the same concern, but I rarely encounter this in the types of books that I usually read.
The 1989 Hugo Award winning novel, Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh is a well written science fiction novel that has left me deep in thought. While many science fiction novels explore physics or alien biology, Cyteen explores psychology—particularly educational psychology—and sociology. Interlaced with all the science is intrigue, politics, and some very touching moments. Cherryh does a good job of creating emotion in her reader.
Briefly, after the death of Ari, a very powerful woman, the company she headed, Reseune, not only creates a genetic clone, but also attempts to make a replicate that is psychologically and intellectually almost identical. Using detailed records, the replicate is raised in a way that parallels the original, including losing her mother at the same age. Another major character in the story is a young man, Justin, who was abused by the original Ari and now is dealing with the young replicate as she grows up. He has a lifelong companion/adopted brother, Grant, who is an azi.
Also an intricate part of the storyline is Reseune, a scientific company that is involved in such activities as creating azi, clones of humans and animals, and tapes. Azi are humans whose genes have been manipulated. In addition the azi are given tapes— sophisticated learning programs that utilize neurochemistry—beginning a few hours after birth. Most often azi are created to fulfill a particular purpose in society, such as military. The azi are not considered to be full adults, except in a few instances of old azi. Reseune also creates replicates for people who want a clone of themselves or a child they have lost. Although these children undergo many of the same processes as the azi—including gestation in womb tanks, they are not given tapes until they are preschool age, like most children. The azi tend to be very stable thinkers. The non-azi tend to be flux thinkers.
The psychology and sociology in the book were fascinating to me. Cherryh shows how both the tapes and life events affect the characters, particularly original and replicate Ari, Justin and Grant. Cherryh discusses and illustrates how the hormone-flux system affects learning and personality. She also illustrates how tapes and real life events affect large populations and subsequent generations. Heavy stuff at times!
I thoroughly enjoyed Cyteen. Of all the Hugo winners I have read so far, it has given me the most to think about. On the down side, it is long, almost 700 pages, which could have easily been over 1,000 if the book had been typeset differently. I also feel like I need to give a warning. I found some of the content disturbing though necessary for the plot. In some people who have been psychologically or sexually abused, I would be concerned that some of the scenes could trigger some psychological issues. I am sure there are plenty of other books that carry the same concern, but I rarely encounter this in the types of books that I usually read.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Multiple Intelligences and SYTYCD
So You Think You Can Dance helps make me a smarter person. It gives me a vocabulary for movement and emotions. Don’t get me wrong, I love the dancing. But what enthralls me is watching the judges.
After bumbling through assorted internal martial arts classes, I feel nourished by the discussions on different way to move a wrist or a knee, where the center of gravity is in a dancer’s body, the openness of a shoulder. I unconsciously find myself experimenting with a tiny movement as I listen. Sometimes when I practice Tai Chi later in the week, I hear a SYTYCD judge’s critic in my head, and I explore how to bring those ideas to my form.
So You Think You Can Dance teaches me about emotion. Coming from a strict German American family, emotion was discouraged. At best it was a sign of being undisciplined. At worse, it was considered blatantly bad. Watching the display and discussion of emotion is like a woman who has deprived herself of dessert for months finally having a slim slice of cheesecake. In two different seasons, Adam Shankman has asked dancers what they were feeling. And paused, creating a beautiful space. The dancer opened his/her heart. I was in tears. I could feel the currents through the miles or over the Television waves. There have been times when all three judges have broken down in tears when a performance has moved them. I begin to understand what it is like to feel art, with its beauty, joy, pain.
Fred Rogers would be so proud. “Today boys and girls we are going to learn about two motions. The first motion is the movement we do with our bodies. The second motion –emotion—we do with our hearts.” I am so going to miss the show when it ends next week.
After bumbling through assorted internal martial arts classes, I feel nourished by the discussions on different way to move a wrist or a knee, where the center of gravity is in a dancer’s body, the openness of a shoulder. I unconsciously find myself experimenting with a tiny movement as I listen. Sometimes when I practice Tai Chi later in the week, I hear a SYTYCD judge’s critic in my head, and I explore how to bring those ideas to my form.
So You Think You Can Dance teaches me about emotion. Coming from a strict German American family, emotion was discouraged. At best it was a sign of being undisciplined. At worse, it was considered blatantly bad. Watching the display and discussion of emotion is like a woman who has deprived herself of dessert for months finally having a slim slice of cheesecake. In two different seasons, Adam Shankman has asked dancers what they were feeling. And paused, creating a beautiful space. The dancer opened his/her heart. I was in tears. I could feel the currents through the miles or over the Television waves. There have been times when all three judges have broken down in tears when a performance has moved them. I begin to understand what it is like to feel art, with its beauty, joy, pain.
Fred Rogers would be so proud. “Today boys and girls we are going to learn about two motions. The first motion is the movement we do with our bodies. The second motion –emotion—we do with our hearts.” I am so going to miss the show when it ends next week.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Mood Enhancers
Many, many years ago I went out on a first date with a man who worked in the same mall that I did. Soon after we sat down to dinner, I found out that not only did he take a plethora of recreational drugs; he was in fact a drug dealer. At that time I was a tad on the conservative side in that area and was a bit freaked out. I have since moved to many tads conservative in that area. He was a sweet, sweet man, but I still remember him pouring out assorted pills in his hand. He had a drug to create whatever mood he wanted for the moment.
Fast forwarding to this week, I offered to bring over the first books in The First Ladies’ Detective Series by Alexander McCall Smith to a friend who is recovering from surgery. She answered with a quick “no thanks.” Nothing much happens in the books. Who cares, I thought; I like how I feel when I read Smith’s books. I feel connected with the world. I want to hug strangers and tousle the hair of small children. Lately I have been reading the Big Mike Series by Garrison Allen. What a balm for the dark funk I have been in. The characters are so wonderfully lightly bawdy. How can you not smile! Going to a library for me is like my date pouring out the pills in his hand. What kind of mood do I want to me in?
I tend to like to think that my mood enhancers are kinder and gentler. They don’t involve potential damage to major organs—other than my back when I tote too many home—and no innocent people are hurt. Well, maybe a few library patrons have had to jump out of my way when I have stalked a bit too enthusiastically towards the shelves.
Fast forwarding to this week, I offered to bring over the first books in The First Ladies’ Detective Series by Alexander McCall Smith to a friend who is recovering from surgery. She answered with a quick “no thanks.” Nothing much happens in the books. Who cares, I thought; I like how I feel when I read Smith’s books. I feel connected with the world. I want to hug strangers and tousle the hair of small children. Lately I have been reading the Big Mike Series by Garrison Allen. What a balm for the dark funk I have been in. The characters are so wonderfully lightly bawdy. How can you not smile! Going to a library for me is like my date pouring out the pills in his hand. What kind of mood do I want to me in?
I tend to like to think that my mood enhancers are kinder and gentler. They don’t involve potential damage to major organs—other than my back when I tote too many home—and no innocent people are hurt. Well, maybe a few library patrons have had to jump out of my way when I have stalked a bit too enthusiastically towards the shelves.
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