September 11, 2010
10 Grateful Steps to Happiness
Here are Dr Robert Emmons' top 10 tips for actually becoming more grateful, and consequently more happy.
1. Keep a gratitude journal
Sit down, daily, and write about the things for which you are grateful. Start with whatever springs to mind and work from there. Try not to write the same thing every day but explore your gratefulness.
2. Remember the bad
The way things are now may seem better in the light of bad memories. Don't forget the bad things that have happened, the contrast may encourage gratefulness.
3. Ask yourself three questions
Choose someone you know, then first consider what you have received from them, second what you have given to them and thirdly what trouble you have caused them. This may lead to discovering you owe others more than you thought.
4. Pray
Whether you are Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist, a ritualised form of giving thanks may help increase gratitude.
5. Use your senses
80% of people say they are thankful for their health. If so, then get back in touch with the simple human fact of being able to sense what is out there: use your vision, touch, taste and smell to experience the world, and be thankful you can.
6. Use visual reminders
Two big obstacles to being grateful are simply forgetting and failing to be mindful. So leave a note of some kind reminding you to be grateful. It could be a post-it, an object in your home or another person to nudge you occasionally.
7. Swear an oath to be more grateful
Promise on whatever you hold holy that you'll be more grateful. Sounds crazy? There's a study to show it works.
8. Think grateful thoughts
Called 'automatic thoughts' or self-talk in cognitive therapy, these are the habitual things we say to ourselves all day long. What if you said to yourself: "My life is a gift" all day long? Too cheesy? OK, what about: "Every day is a surprise".
9. Acting grateful is being grateful
Say thank you, become more grateful. It's that simple.
10. Be grateful to your enemies?
It'll take a big creative leap to be thankful to the people who you most despise. But big creative leaps are just the kind of things likely to set off a change in yourself. Give it a try.
1. Keep a gratitude journal
Sit down, daily, and write about the things for which you are grateful. Start with whatever springs to mind and work from there. Try not to write the same thing every day but explore your gratefulness.
2. Remember the bad
The way things are now may seem better in the light of bad memories. Don't forget the bad things that have happened, the contrast may encourage gratefulness.
3. Ask yourself three questions
Choose someone you know, then first consider what you have received from them, second what you have given to them and thirdly what trouble you have caused them. This may lead to discovering you owe others more than you thought.
4. Pray
Whether you are Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or atheist, a ritualised form of giving thanks may help increase gratitude.
5. Use your senses
80% of people say they are thankful for their health. If so, then get back in touch with the simple human fact of being able to sense what is out there: use your vision, touch, taste and smell to experience the world, and be thankful you can.
6. Use visual reminders
Two big obstacles to being grateful are simply forgetting and failing to be mindful. So leave a note of some kind reminding you to be grateful. It could be a post-it, an object in your home or another person to nudge you occasionally.
7. Swear an oath to be more grateful
Promise on whatever you hold holy that you'll be more grateful. Sounds crazy? There's a study to show it works.
8. Think grateful thoughts
Called 'automatic thoughts' or self-talk in cognitive therapy, these are the habitual things we say to ourselves all day long. What if you said to yourself: "My life is a gift" all day long? Too cheesy? OK, what about: "Every day is a surprise".
9. Acting grateful is being grateful
Say thank you, become more grateful. It's that simple.
10. Be grateful to your enemies?
It'll take a big creative leap to be thankful to the people who you most despise. But big creative leaps are just the kind of things likely to set off a change in yourself. Give it a try.
Happiness
What is Happiness?
Because happiness is something most of us aim for, how we define it has important implications for how we conduct our lives. To see why, compare these two competing definitions of happiness:
1. Happiness is all about minimising pain and maximising pleasure.
The underlying idea here is that there is a kind of mathematics of happiness. Imagine if on our deathbeds we were able to add up all the moments of pleasure in our lives and then all the moments of pain. The amount by which the pleasures exceeded the pains would tell us how happy we were during our lives.
2. Happiness is satisfaction with life as a whole.
On the surface this looks like the same idea but actually it's completely different. Consider the case of Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist who spent nine years working in Rwanda, digging up the remains of people killed in the 1994 genocide (Bergsma, In press). While this was clearly a gruesome task that would have given most people nightmares, afterwards she explained that the work was meaningful, which made it worthwhile. For Koff, then, happiness was satisfaction that she had done the right thing with her life.
Pleasure and pain
The first definition of happiness is perhaps the one most associated with hedonism, and one that is implicitly accepted by many people. But I think the second definition is much better because it makes room for the idea that we give meaning to the things we do.
Happiness is not just a headlong charge towards whatever makes us feel pleasure, it is about finding satisfaction in ourselves and in what we have done. Even when what we have done has been painful, like Clea Koff's work.
References
Bergsma, A. (In press) The advice of the wise. Introduction to the special issue on advice for a happy life. Journal of Happiness Studies.
Because happiness is something most of us aim for, how we define it has important implications for how we conduct our lives. To see why, compare these two competing definitions of happiness:
1. Happiness is all about minimising pain and maximising pleasure.
The underlying idea here is that there is a kind of mathematics of happiness. Imagine if on our deathbeds we were able to add up all the moments of pleasure in our lives and then all the moments of pain. The amount by which the pleasures exceeded the pains would tell us how happy we were during our lives.
2. Happiness is satisfaction with life as a whole.
On the surface this looks like the same idea but actually it's completely different. Consider the case of Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist who spent nine years working in Rwanda, digging up the remains of people killed in the 1994 genocide (Bergsma, In press). While this was clearly a gruesome task that would have given most people nightmares, afterwards she explained that the work was meaningful, which made it worthwhile. For Koff, then, happiness was satisfaction that she had done the right thing with her life.
Pleasure and pain
The first definition of happiness is perhaps the one most associated with hedonism, and one that is implicitly accepted by many people. But I think the second definition is much better because it makes room for the idea that we give meaning to the things we do.
Happiness is not just a headlong charge towards whatever makes us feel pleasure, it is about finding satisfaction in ourselves and in what we have done. Even when what we have done has been painful, like Clea Koff's work.
References
Bergsma, A. (In press) The advice of the wise. Introduction to the special issue on advice for a happy life. Journal of Happiness Studies.
September 01, 2010
Energy Medicine The Scientific Basis by James L. Oschman
The electric and magnetic fields generated by tissues, organs, and even
pathologies are not only useful for diagnosis, but also are part of the body's mechanism for communicating with itself and its environment. Each heartbeat,
breath, or emotion generates characteristic electromagnetic fields that travel through the living matrix to remote cells and tissues. While every organ and
tissue contributes, the heart produces the strongest electrical and magnetic activity. Even muscle contractions produce magnetic pulses. The system distributes the heart electricity throughout the body, primarily through the circulatory system, which is a good conductor by virtue of its salinity. The electricity-generating mechanisms discussed include piezoelectricity and the streaming potential. These electrical disturbances, and their harmonics, are broadcast throughout the body. However, much of the focus of Energy Medicine is on biomagnetic fields, which (in contrast with bioelectric fields) are not significantly attenuated as they pass through body tissues.
An additional point discussed in depth is the extracellular matrix or connective tissue, in which cells are embedded. Observing that diffusion processes are too
slow to account for the rapid and subtle aspects of life processes, Oschman
refutes the "bag model," in which molecular reactants in the enzymatic pathways
move, meet, and react randomly. Instead, he maintains, the cell is filled with filaments, tubules, fibers, and trabeculae, collectively called the cytoplasmic matrix or cytoskeleton, a network extending even to the genome. Many of the
enzymes once thought to be floating in the "soup" are actually attached to
structures within the cell nucleus. This provides an assembly line arrangement
along which reaction sequences can proceed rapidly. Furthermore, it serves as a piezoelectric solid state communication system, enabling each cell, organ, or
tissue to adjust its activities in relation to what other parts of the body are
doing and thereby coordinating activities such as repair and defense as well as movement of nutrients, hormones, and toxins. The cellular matrix is connected,
across the cell surface, with the extracellular matrix.
Oschman extends his energy concepts to the release of physical and emotional trauma stored in the body. Accumulated trauma impairs the connections through the extracellular matrix. Then the body's defense and repair systems become impaired, and disease can result. The trauma of an event is set in place virtually instantaneously, bypassing one's self-awareness. As a result, certain behaviors can become addictive and repetitive, and one interprets experiences in terms of other experiences early in life. Through brainwaves, the energy regulatory systems continue to scan the section of stored energy, and the conventional Jungian or Freudian therapies do not consistently alter the basic patterns. Building upon the insights of Redpath, Brown, and Freeman, Oschman proposes that the trauma can be released by corrective energy flow, perhaps at the pre-verbal level since the trauma energy signatures lie outside the thought and speech centers of the brain. To this end, Oschman suggests that the traumatic aspects of personality structure are so approachable when the electromagnetic rhythms of the therapist and client are entrained to form a single collectively coherent pulse. He also notes that therapeutic massage does more than increase the circulation in sore muscles. A holographic model of memory is consistent with the "somatic recall" phenomenon, in which application of pressure to a particular area releases a vivid recollection of a traumatic experience.
FOR ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
pathologies are not only useful for diagnosis, but also are part of the body's mechanism for communicating with itself and its environment. Each heartbeat,
breath, or emotion generates characteristic electromagnetic fields that travel through the living matrix to remote cells and tissues. While every organ and
tissue contributes, the heart produces the strongest electrical and magnetic activity. Even muscle contractions produce magnetic pulses. The system distributes the heart electricity throughout the body, primarily through the circulatory system, which is a good conductor by virtue of its salinity. The electricity-generating mechanisms discussed include piezoelectricity and the streaming potential. These electrical disturbances, and their harmonics, are broadcast throughout the body. However, much of the focus of Energy Medicine is on biomagnetic fields, which (in contrast with bioelectric fields) are not significantly attenuated as they pass through body tissues.
An additional point discussed in depth is the extracellular matrix or connective tissue, in which cells are embedded. Observing that diffusion processes are too
slow to account for the rapid and subtle aspects of life processes, Oschman
refutes the "bag model," in which molecular reactants in the enzymatic pathways
move, meet, and react randomly. Instead, he maintains, the cell is filled with filaments, tubules, fibers, and trabeculae, collectively called the cytoplasmic matrix or cytoskeleton, a network extending even to the genome. Many of the
enzymes once thought to be floating in the "soup" are actually attached to
structures within the cell nucleus. This provides an assembly line arrangement
along which reaction sequences can proceed rapidly. Furthermore, it serves as a piezoelectric solid state communication system, enabling each cell, organ, or
tissue to adjust its activities in relation to what other parts of the body are
doing and thereby coordinating activities such as repair and defense as well as movement of nutrients, hormones, and toxins. The cellular matrix is connected,
across the cell surface, with the extracellular matrix.
Oschman extends his energy concepts to the release of physical and emotional trauma stored in the body. Accumulated trauma impairs the connections through the extracellular matrix. Then the body's defense and repair systems become impaired, and disease can result. The trauma of an event is set in place virtually instantaneously, bypassing one's self-awareness. As a result, certain behaviors can become addictive and repetitive, and one interprets experiences in terms of other experiences early in life. Through brainwaves, the energy regulatory systems continue to scan the section of stored energy, and the conventional Jungian or Freudian therapies do not consistently alter the basic patterns. Building upon the insights of Redpath, Brown, and Freeman, Oschman proposes that the trauma can be released by corrective energy flow, perhaps at the pre-verbal level since the trauma energy signatures lie outside the thought and speech centers of the brain. To this end, Oschman suggests that the traumatic aspects of personality structure are so approachable when the electromagnetic rhythms of the therapist and client are entrained to form a single collectively coherent pulse. He also notes that therapeutic massage does more than increase the circulation in sore muscles. A holographic model of memory is consistent with the "somatic recall" phenomenon, in which application of pressure to a particular area releases a vivid recollection of a traumatic experience.
FOR ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis (2) by Weisberg, Mark B.
As in other paradigm-changing scientific fields, mind-body medicine has been attempting to move from magic and intuition to scientific understanding, to
elucidate the mechanisms by which psychophysiologic phenomena manifest.
The work of Dr. Robert Ader (1995), Dr. Candace Pert (1999) and others helped to define the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology. Some of the data from this area of inquiry has helped clinicians and researchers in being able to understand and articulate the neurophysiologic building blocks of mind-body change.
In recent years there has been growing interest in the "magic" of energy phenomena and their impact on illness and healing.
There is a small but growing literature documenting how research in biology, chemistry and physics can be applied to human energetic systems in ways that impact both traditional and complimentary treatment approaches.
Interest in energy has grown in the hypnosis community as well. Recent years have shown increased interest in workshops exploring the integration of hypnosis with EMDR, acupuncture, and other related modalities.
At the 2002 ASCH Annual Conference, Dr. Daniel Brown presented a fascinating synthesis of research findings pertaining to hypnosis and energy medicine.
FOR ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
elucidate the mechanisms by which psychophysiologic phenomena manifest.
The work of Dr. Robert Ader (1995), Dr. Candace Pert (1999) and others helped to define the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology. Some of the data from this area of inquiry has helped clinicians and researchers in being able to understand and articulate the neurophysiologic building blocks of mind-body change.
In recent years there has been growing interest in the "magic" of energy phenomena and their impact on illness and healing.
There is a small but growing literature documenting how research in biology, chemistry and physics can be applied to human energetic systems in ways that impact both traditional and complimentary treatment approaches.
Interest in energy has grown in the hypnosis community as well. Recent years have shown increased interest in workshops exploring the integration of hypnosis with EMDR, acupuncture, and other related modalities.
At the 2002 ASCH Annual Conference, Dr. Daniel Brown presented a fascinating synthesis of research findings pertaining to hypnosis and energy medicine.
FOR ANY FURTHER INFORMATION
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