1.. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair
Dryer At Passing Cars.. See If They Slow Down..
2.. Page Yourself Over The Intercom.. Don't Disguise Your Voice..
3.. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with
that..
4.. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label it "In"..
5.. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks Once Everyone has Gotten Over
Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso..
6.. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write " For Smuggling Diamonds"..
7.. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy"..
8.. Don't use any punctuation..
9.. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk..
10.. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face..
11.. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go"..
12.. Sing Along At The Opera..
13.. Go To A Poetry Recital.. And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme?
14.. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area and Play tropical Sounds All
Day..
15.. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party
Because You're Not In the Mood..
16.. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom..
17.. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"
18.. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run
For Your Lives! They're Loose!"
19.. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have
To Let One Of You Go.."
20.. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity ....
Send This To Someone To Make Them Smile..>It's called................ Therapy
Friday, June 20, 2008
The placebo effect
The following is an excerpt from an article in the Nexus magazine
The Placebo Effect: The Triumph of Mind Over Body By Peter Arguriou
One of the most commonly used terms in medical language is the word placebo. The placebo effect is used as a scale for evaluating the effectiveness of new drugs.
But what exactly is the placebo effect.
The placebo effect has been frequently abused by health professionals to denote and stigmatise a fraud or fallacy. Alternative therapies have often been characterised as merely placebos. But the placebo effect is not a fraudulent, useless or malevolent phenomenon. It occurs independently of the intentions of charlatans or health professionals. It is a spontaneous, authentic and very factual phenomenon that refers to well-observed but uninterpreted and contingent therapies or health improvements that occur in the absence of an active chemical/pharmacological substance.
Make-believe drugs -- drugs that carry no active chemical substances -- often act as the real drugs and provoke therapeutic effects when administered to patients.
In many drug trials, the manufacturers of the drug sadly discover that their product is in no way superior to the effect of a placebo. But that does not mean that a placebo equates to a null response of the human organism.
On the contrary, a placebo denotes non-chemical stimuli that strongly motivate the organism towards a therapeutic course. That is, the placebo effect is dependent not on the drug's effectiveness but solely on therapeutic intention and expectation.
Effects of positive and negative thinkingThe placebo effect has been often misunderstood as a solely psychological and highly subjective phenomenon. The patient, convinced of the therapy's effectiveness, ignores his symptoms or perceives them faintly without any substantial improvement of his health; that is, the patient feels better but is not healthier.
But can the subjective psychological aspect of the placebo effect account for all of its therapeutic properties?
The answer is definite: the placebo effect refers to an alternative curative mechanism that is inherent in the human entity, is motivated by therapeutic intention or belief in the therapeutic potential of a treatment, and implies biochemical responses and reactions to the stimulus of therapeutic intention or belief.
But placebos are not always beneficial: they can also have adverse effects.
In a related experiment, researchers falsely declared to the volunteers that a weak electrical current would pass through their head; although there was no electrical current, 70 per cent of the volunteers (who were medical students) complained of a headache after the experiment.
Positive or negative thinking seems to be a decisive risk factor for every treatment, perhaps even more important than medical intervention.
*****************************************************************************
The above article implies that our brain is a much stronger healer than any medicine.
The other day I saw on TV an advertisment for placebo's. A mother entrepreneur is now selling dummy pills for children as she saw her own children responding to placebos. Instead of overmedicating her children she would give them sweet pills and tell them it was medicine. Every time she saw favorable results. She has her fair share of skeptics, but she is going ahead with her launch.
The proof is in the pudding ......The very fact that placebos are successful even 50% of the time is proof enough that the human mind is all powerful.
The Placebo Effect: The Triumph of Mind Over Body By Peter Arguriou
One of the most commonly used terms in medical language is the word placebo. The placebo effect is used as a scale for evaluating the effectiveness of new drugs.
But what exactly is the placebo effect.
The placebo effect has been frequently abused by health professionals to denote and stigmatise a fraud or fallacy. Alternative therapies have often been characterised as merely placebos. But the placebo effect is not a fraudulent, useless or malevolent phenomenon. It occurs independently of the intentions of charlatans or health professionals. It is a spontaneous, authentic and very factual phenomenon that refers to well-observed but uninterpreted and contingent therapies or health improvements that occur in the absence of an active chemical/pharmacological substance.
Make-believe drugs -- drugs that carry no active chemical substances -- often act as the real drugs and provoke therapeutic effects when administered to patients.
In many drug trials, the manufacturers of the drug sadly discover that their product is in no way superior to the effect of a placebo. But that does not mean that a placebo equates to a null response of the human organism.
On the contrary, a placebo denotes non-chemical stimuli that strongly motivate the organism towards a therapeutic course. That is, the placebo effect is dependent not on the drug's effectiveness but solely on therapeutic intention and expectation.
Effects of positive and negative thinkingThe placebo effect has been often misunderstood as a solely psychological and highly subjective phenomenon. The patient, convinced of the therapy's effectiveness, ignores his symptoms or perceives them faintly without any substantial improvement of his health; that is, the patient feels better but is not healthier.
But can the subjective psychological aspect of the placebo effect account for all of its therapeutic properties?
The answer is definite: the placebo effect refers to an alternative curative mechanism that is inherent in the human entity, is motivated by therapeutic intention or belief in the therapeutic potential of a treatment, and implies biochemical responses and reactions to the stimulus of therapeutic intention or belief.
But placebos are not always beneficial: they can also have adverse effects.
In a related experiment, researchers falsely declared to the volunteers that a weak electrical current would pass through their head; although there was no electrical current, 70 per cent of the volunteers (who were medical students) complained of a headache after the experiment.
Positive or negative thinking seems to be a decisive risk factor for every treatment, perhaps even more important than medical intervention.
*****************************************************************************
The above article implies that our brain is a much stronger healer than any medicine.
The other day I saw on TV an advertisment for placebo's. A mother entrepreneur is now selling dummy pills for children as she saw her own children responding to placebos. Instead of overmedicating her children she would give them sweet pills and tell them it was medicine. Every time she saw favorable results. She has her fair share of skeptics, but she is going ahead with her launch.
The proof is in the pudding ......The very fact that placebos are successful even 50% of the time is proof enough that the human mind is all powerful.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Appreciate!! (sent by a friend)
Appreciate
The aim of life is appreciation;
there is no sense in not appreciating things;
and there is no sense in having more
of them if you have less appreciation of them
Gilbert K Chesterton
Feeling grateful or appreciative of
someone or something in your life
actually attracts more of the things
that you appreciate and value into your life
Northrup Christiane
Appreciate the good things
The sunshine feels so much warmer
after weeks of rainy days
Your loved ones seem so much more
precious whenever they've been away
You truly appreciate and value your
good health after recovering from a
difficult and prolonged illness
You learn new respect for financial discipline
after working your way out of a burdensome debt
It's easy and natural to appreciate the good things
after you've experienced life without them
Yet sadly, that can often be too late
How much better it is to appreciate
the good things you have while you still have them
For then, not only can you appreciate them,
you can put them to positive and productive use
So begin each day by counting your many blessings
Pay particular attention to the ones that are so much
a part of you that you might otherwise take them for granted.
True abundance and gratitude are solidly linked
The more you appreciate the good things,
the more numerous they will be
Ralph Marston
Appreciative words are the most
powerful force for good on earth!
George W Crane
To appreciate heaven well,
it's good for a person to have
some fifteen minutes of hell
Will Carleton
~This posting created with love by~
AlwaysLove4U
The aim of life is appreciation;
there is no sense in not appreciating things;
and there is no sense in having more
of them if you have less appreciation of them
Gilbert K Chesterton
Feeling grateful or appreciative of
someone or something in your life
actually attracts more of the things
that you appreciate and value into your life
Northrup Christiane
Appreciate the good things
The sunshine feels so much warmer
after weeks of rainy days
Your loved ones seem so much more
precious whenever they've been away
You truly appreciate and value your
good health after recovering from a
difficult and prolonged illness
You learn new respect for financial discipline
after working your way out of a burdensome debt
It's easy and natural to appreciate the good things
after you've experienced life without them
Yet sadly, that can often be too late
How much better it is to appreciate
the good things you have while you still have them
For then, not only can you appreciate them,
you can put them to positive and productive use
So begin each day by counting your many blessings
Pay particular attention to the ones that are so much
a part of you that you might otherwise take them for granted.
True abundance and gratitude are solidly linked
The more you appreciate the good things,
the more numerous they will be
Ralph Marston
Appreciative words are the most
powerful force for good on earth!
George W Crane
To appreciate heaven well,
it's good for a person to have
some fifteen minutes of hell
Will Carleton
~This posting created with love by~
AlwaysLove4U
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Epicurean Pleasures
I think I was about 10 years old when I saw the word Epicurean. I had no clue what it meant, but I liked the sound of it. I underlined it and promised myself to refer to the dictionary and find its meaning. As any 10 year old, I forgot to do that as other more pressing things such as playing with friends took precedence.
After about a year I saw the book again and flipping through it, saw my underlined words, and Epicurean leapt right out at me. This time the dictionary was handy. It defined the word, Epicurean as ‘someone fond of luxury and sensuous pleasure, especially that of eating and drinking’. A follower of Epicurus or his philosophy.
Wow, now I really liked the word. I liked the sound of it and I liked the meaning of it. I decided to become an Epicurean. I still had no clue who Epicurus was and what his philosophy was? But I liked the fact that he liked drinking, eating and having fun. This became my mantra. “Eat Drink and be Merry”. Whenever my mother summoned me to do homework, I would say, “Mum don’t you know that the great Greek philosopher Epicurus has found the elixir of happiness to be food, drink and fun”. My argument never did hold ground and I still had to do my homework….
How grateful I am to my mother, that she did not let me indulge in my Epicurean pleasures and forced me to go and do my homework. Had it not been for her, I would not be here sharing my real Epicurean insights with you.
Epicurus (341-270BC) was born to a poor Athenian colonist in Samos; he was neither wealthy nor aristocratic and apparently suffered from ill health for much of his life. He ate and drank sparingly and spent most of his time philosophizing from his hammock. The humble, quite and reticent Epicurus would be distraught at the connotation that his name suggests.
Epicurus was not a man of spiritual beliefs. He led a contemplative life and was extremely rational. He believed in the idea that the soul was itself nothing but the movement of atoms in the material body and some atoms could freely swerve in the void. This theory of his allowed him to maintain the concept of human free will.
The religious leaders of the day did not like the idea of human free will and thought that his philosophy was tainted with atheism and thereby preached hedonism and pleasure. Lack of religiosity and his defiance to gods who he felt were more interested in the pursuit of their own pleasure made his teachings rather contradictory.
According to Epicurus, real happiness lies in the elimination of pain, both mental and physical. Of the two, Epicurus taught that mental pain was worse than physical pain as the severest of physical pains can either be controlled or it results in death. Mental anguish on the other hand, in the form of anxiety and fears, if not checked would result in distraction, depression and other psychological ills.
He never promoted or condoned a promiscuous or a decadent lifestyle, on the contrary he was aware that many of the bodily pleasures brought with them pain or had painful consequences. (Think hang over, broken hearts, upset stomach!!!!)
What really is Epicurus’es Philosophy of Happiness?
As mentioned by Alain-De Botton (a modern day Philosopher), it is friends, freedom and an analyzed life. Although Epicurus did promote the pursuit of pleasure, but pleasure according to him was moderation, introspection and the avoidance of pain.
In his introduction to The Epicurus Reader, D. S. Hutchinson summed up the on-going significance of Epicureanism:
“Epicurus developed a system of philosophy and a way of living that deserve our respect and understanding, perhaps even our allegiance. This way of living claimed many thousands of committed followers, all over the ancient Mediterranean world, in cooperative communities that lasted for hundreds of years. But from the very beginning of his teaching mission, his message was opposed and distorted, first by academic philosophers and political authorities, and later by Christians. Epicureans apparently almost never switched their allegiance to other philosophical systems, whereas other schools regularly lost students to the Epicureans. Why? Perhaps because the Epicureans found that their system made excellent sense. But the explanation offered by Arcesilaus, Epicurus' rival, is typically dismissive: ‘You can turn a man into a eunuch, but you can't turn a eunuch into a man.’ Even in modern times, the critics of Epicureanism continue to misrepresent it as a lazy-minded, shallow, pleasure-loving, immoral, or godless travesty of real philosophy. In our day the word ‘epicureanism’ has come to mean its opposite—a pretentious enthusiasm for rare and expensive food and drink. Please have the courage to ignore two thousand years of negative prejudice, and assess this philosophy on its own considerable merits.”
So if you really want to be happy- go out with some friends, have a simple meal with moderate amounts of wine and discuss the various ways to make this world a better place.
So has my Epicurean dream of self indulgence been shattered?
Not at all! In fact now that I understand the real meaning of being an Epicurean, I am even more proud to be one.
By all means go and pursue pleasure, but before that, at least try and understand what real pleasure is?
Luv/luck/happiness
If you really want to know more about Epicurean Philosophy, please visit www.epicurus.net)
After about a year I saw the book again and flipping through it, saw my underlined words, and Epicurean leapt right out at me. This time the dictionary was handy. It defined the word, Epicurean as ‘someone fond of luxury and sensuous pleasure, especially that of eating and drinking’. A follower of Epicurus or his philosophy.
Wow, now I really liked the word. I liked the sound of it and I liked the meaning of it. I decided to become an Epicurean. I still had no clue who Epicurus was and what his philosophy was? But I liked the fact that he liked drinking, eating and having fun. This became my mantra. “Eat Drink and be Merry”. Whenever my mother summoned me to do homework, I would say, “Mum don’t you know that the great Greek philosopher Epicurus has found the elixir of happiness to be food, drink and fun”. My argument never did hold ground and I still had to do my homework….
How grateful I am to my mother, that she did not let me indulge in my Epicurean pleasures and forced me to go and do my homework. Had it not been for her, I would not be here sharing my real Epicurean insights with you.
Epicurus (341-270BC) was born to a poor Athenian colonist in Samos; he was neither wealthy nor aristocratic and apparently suffered from ill health for much of his life. He ate and drank sparingly and spent most of his time philosophizing from his hammock. The humble, quite and reticent Epicurus would be distraught at the connotation that his name suggests.
Epicurus was not a man of spiritual beliefs. He led a contemplative life and was extremely rational. He believed in the idea that the soul was itself nothing but the movement of atoms in the material body and some atoms could freely swerve in the void. This theory of his allowed him to maintain the concept of human free will.
The religious leaders of the day did not like the idea of human free will and thought that his philosophy was tainted with atheism and thereby preached hedonism and pleasure. Lack of religiosity and his defiance to gods who he felt were more interested in the pursuit of their own pleasure made his teachings rather contradictory.
According to Epicurus, real happiness lies in the elimination of pain, both mental and physical. Of the two, Epicurus taught that mental pain was worse than physical pain as the severest of physical pains can either be controlled or it results in death. Mental anguish on the other hand, in the form of anxiety and fears, if not checked would result in distraction, depression and other psychological ills.
He never promoted or condoned a promiscuous or a decadent lifestyle, on the contrary he was aware that many of the bodily pleasures brought with them pain or had painful consequences. (Think hang over, broken hearts, upset stomach!!!!)
What really is Epicurus’es Philosophy of Happiness?
As mentioned by Alain-De Botton (a modern day Philosopher), it is friends, freedom and an analyzed life. Although Epicurus did promote the pursuit of pleasure, but pleasure according to him was moderation, introspection and the avoidance of pain.
In his introduction to The Epicurus Reader, D. S. Hutchinson summed up the on-going significance of Epicureanism:
“Epicurus developed a system of philosophy and a way of living that deserve our respect and understanding, perhaps even our allegiance. This way of living claimed many thousands of committed followers, all over the ancient Mediterranean world, in cooperative communities that lasted for hundreds of years. But from the very beginning of his teaching mission, his message was opposed and distorted, first by academic philosophers and political authorities, and later by Christians. Epicureans apparently almost never switched their allegiance to other philosophical systems, whereas other schools regularly lost students to the Epicureans. Why? Perhaps because the Epicureans found that their system made excellent sense. But the explanation offered by Arcesilaus, Epicurus' rival, is typically dismissive: ‘You can turn a man into a eunuch, but you can't turn a eunuch into a man.’ Even in modern times, the critics of Epicureanism continue to misrepresent it as a lazy-minded, shallow, pleasure-loving, immoral, or godless travesty of real philosophy. In our day the word ‘epicureanism’ has come to mean its opposite—a pretentious enthusiasm for rare and expensive food and drink. Please have the courage to ignore two thousand years of negative prejudice, and assess this philosophy on its own considerable merits.”
So if you really want to be happy- go out with some friends, have a simple meal with moderate amounts of wine and discuss the various ways to make this world a better place.
So has my Epicurean dream of self indulgence been shattered?
Not at all! In fact now that I understand the real meaning of being an Epicurean, I am even more proud to be one.
By all means go and pursue pleasure, but before that, at least try and understand what real pleasure is?
Luv/luck/happiness
If you really want to know more about Epicurean Philosophy, please visit www.epicurus.net)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Self Deprecation
Why, when someone gives us a compliment do we try to dilute its intensity and beauty by offering a counter statement. We start to justify our good fortune by denying any self effort, even though on the inside we know that it was our hard work and our sheer persistence that brought about the desired result. Why then this unease when we should be proud of our achievements?
I recently met a very attractive and talented Thai lady who works part time at my daughter’s school. Her job is to make sure that no body leaves the school gates or gets hurt during lunch time. It’s not a challenging job, but keeps her busy. We got chatting and I asked her why she did not apply for a better position in the school. She immediately started to run herself down, talking about her poor command of the English language. Her lack of education, her lack of confidence, her lack of self esteem and everything else that she could think of that would disqualify her from getting a better position. Not once did she say anything that was self promoting.
My mother was the same; she would constantly berate herself and even consider herself incapable of learning. She was afraid to try anything new because she was convinced she would fail. In my mother’s case, it was her parents who always told her how incapable she was. She was made to believe that she was good for nothing and anything that she did was not worth kudos. It really was not even my grandparents fault; it was just the way they had been brought up. Open affection and open praise were considered to be a signs of weakness. The prevailing notion of those days was the use of negative reinforcement to achieve desired behavior, so instead of praise one was always belittled and in some perverse and twisted way encouraged to perform better.
This erstwhile way of upbringing seems to have left indelible marks on our psyche. Although today, open praise, affection, self love and appreciation are encouraged, I am amazed to find so many people who constantly run themselves down.
Another friend of mine, who is extremely attractive, but considers herself to be a bit on the plus side, immediately, starts to talk about her weight and how she has put on a few extra pounds. When I met her recently and complimented her on how good she looked, she immediately went into denial by commenting on how fat she had become and how terrible she looked. My compliment was genuine, and her denial at the acceptance of the compliment was equally genuine.
All of us at some time or other have been guilty of self flagellation and self deprecation. A few months ago I too fell into the same trap. I had gained a few pounds and as soon as I would meet someone I had not met for a while, I would immediately comment on my weight gain and start to berate myself for having indulged in my epicurean desires. Before they could have a chance to comment on how I looked, I would go into this mode whereby I would start to make fun of myself and my body.
Why do we constantly berate ourselves? Why do we find it so hard to receive compliments? Why are we so judgmental of ourselves?
I think it’s in self defense, or a sub conscious desire for acceptance in the way that our friends will say that our negative image is just in our heads and that we are not really that fat or ugly or stupid. I’d rather call myself stupid and fat before someone else does!!
Most of us have grown up thinking self deprecation is a healthy way of accepting ourselves and subconsciously it has been drilled in our heads that it is better to be humble than to be arrogant. Humility is a wonderful quality, but humility does not need to translate into self flagellation and self deprecation. Why then this negative self talk and self abuse.
It has now been proven scientifically that we are the product of our most dominant thought. Just as music from the radio is a physical manifestation of an intangible signal, our physical being is the tangible reality of our thoughts. Our thoughts and emotions have a vibratory frequency and that frequency shapes our reality.
Constant self deprecation, whether in jest or in sincerity eventually creates our reality. Our subconscious registers even what our conscious brain rejects or denies, so when we say that we are fat and stupid, in jest and in a way to elicit a positive response from our friends, our subconscious registers that as the truth and makes it our reality.
By no means am I saying that we should walk around claiming how wonderful, beautiful and intelligent we are. Our collective consciousness has been so methodically hypnotized into believing that self deprecation is better than self promotion that when we meet someone who is confident and sure we immediately label them as cocky, arrogant and full of themselves.
The world at large always makes us feel small, so why do we need to make ourselves even smaller. If not in public at least in private make it a habit of praising yourself, your body and your intelligence for having supported you this far.
Yes, humility is a wonderful quality and we should all adhere to it, but humility definitely does not have to regress into self abuse. Being humble means accepting of our limitations, not enhancing or promoting them.
Next time, try and observe how many times you say something negative about yourself? Put away a dollar for every time you say something negative or uncomplimentary about yourself or your situation, I can bet you will have enough money collected for a movie and dinner! Mine was more than enough!!
Science is now able to even prove that our emotions and feelings directly affect the structure of our DNA, so the more negative your self-image and your image of the world, your DNA will configure itself in such a way that it will reinforce that particular self belief.
Ever notice how lucky people always seem to attract good luck and vice versa. A lucky person believes himself or herself to be lucky and thereby attracts even more good luck because of the vibratory frequency that he/she is emanating and on the other hand a person who deems himself/herself to be unlucky vibrates to a lower frequency and attracts similar circumstances.
So starting today; make a promise to yourself that you will rise in love and humility and not stoop in fear and self deprecation.
Luv/luck/happiness
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