Gaia Community: WH's Blog

Do You Trust Your Intuition?

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:36:55 -0000

Intuition Is More Than Just A Hunch, According To Leeds Research
Most of us experience 'gut feelings' we can't explain, such as instantly loving - or hating - a new property when we're househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings - or intuitions - are real and we should take our hunches seriously.

According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.

There are many recorded incidences where intuition prevented catastrophes and cases of remarkable recoveries when doctors followed their gut feelings. Yet science has historically ridiculed the concept of intuition, putting it in the same box as parapsychology, phrenology and other 'pseudoscientific' practices.

Through analysis of a wide range of research papers examining the phenomenon, the researchers conclude that intuition is the brain drawing on past experiences and external cues to make a decision - but one that happens so fast the reaction is at a non-conscious level. All we're aware of is a general feeling that something is right or wrong.

"People usually experience true intuition when they are under severe time pressure or in a situation of information overload or acute danger, where conscious analysis of the situation may be difficult or impossible," says Prof Hodgkinson.

He cites the recorded case of a Formula One driver who braked sharply when nearing a hairpin bend without knowing why - and as a result avoided hitting a pile-up of cars on the track ahead, undoubtedly saving his life.

"The driver couldn't explain why he felt he should stop, but the urge was much stronger than his desire to win the race," explains Professor Hodgkinson. "The driver underwent forensic analysis by psychologists afterwards, where he was shown a video to mentally relive the event. In hindsight he realised that the crowd, which would have normally been cheering him on, wasn't looking at him coming up to the bend but was looking the other way in a static, frozen way. That was the cue. He didn't consciously process this, but he knew something was wrong and stopped in time."

Prof Hodgkinson believes that all intuitive experiences are based on the instantaneous evaluation of such internal and external cues - but does not speculate on whether intuitive decisions are necessarily the right ones.

"Humans clearly need both conscious and non-conscious thought processes, but it's likely that neither is intrinsically 'better' than the other," he says.

As a Chartered occupational psychologist, Prof Hodgkinson is particularly interested in the impact of intuition within business, where many executives and managers claim to use intuition over deliberate analysis when a swift decision is required. "We'd like to identify when business people choose to switch from one mode to the other and why - and also analyse when their decision is the correct one. By understanding this phenomenon, we could then help organisations to harness and hone intuitive skills in their executives and managers."

Buddhists Meet Mind Scientists in Conference on Meditation and D

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:33:02 -0000

This conference happened in October of last year (2007), but Psychiatric Times is just getting around to reporting on it. Still, it's a good article. Psychology, more than any other field, is beginning to get that Buddhism offers valuable tools and understanding about how the mind works, and how to re-balance a mind that is damaged by life experience or chemical imbalances. Mindfulness and meditation aren't the only answers, but they are increasingly becoming central parts of many therapy programs -- even cognitive-behavioral therapists have added a mindfulness component (MBCT).

Buddhists Meet Mind Scientists in Conference on Meditation and Depression
Charles L. Raison, MD
On October 20, 2007, leading researchers in the fields of mood disorders and meditation discussed the promise—and limitations—of meditation for the prevention and treatment of major depression. Participating in a day-long symposium titled "Mindfulness, Compassion, and the Treatment of Depression" was His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The event, which drew an audience of more than 3000, was cosponsored by Emory University in Atlanta and the Mind & Life Institute and was the 15th time that the Dalai Lama has met with Western scientists under the aegis of the Mind & Life Institute to engage in dialogue about points of intersection and divergence between Buddhist and scientific worldviews.

The conference focused on the role that meditation might play in promoting cognitive, emotional, and physiological states that are protective against depression. This issue was examined within the broader context of whether developing mindfulness and greater compassion through meditation training in adulthood might help individuals compensate for the depressogenic effects of adversity, trauma, and lack of nurturance early in life, all of which are primary environmental contributors to major depression.

During the conference, researchers presented data that suggested that mindfulness practices may help prevent the recurrence of major depression and that meditation practices specifically designed to promote compassionate cognitions and emotions toward others may have effects on the brain and body that are directly relevant to depression.

The Dalai Lama opened the conference by acknowledging the unique relationship that exists between Emory University and several leading institutions of higher education within the Tibetan exile community, a relationship that has culminated in the Dalai Lama joining the Emory faculty as a Distinguished Presidential Professor. He expressed his conviction that Western physical sciences and Buddhist traditions of studying the mind have much to offer each other in better understanding mind-body interactions relevant to health.

To set the stage for a discussion of the therapeutic potential of meditation, Charles B. Nemeroff, MD, PhD, Reunette W. Harris Professor and chairman of the Emory department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Helen S. Mayberg, MD, professor of psychiatry at Emory, provided the Dalai Lama with an overview of current scientific understandings of the risk factors for, and neurobiology of, major depression.

Dr Nemeroff recounted the tremendous cost in human suffering inflicted by depression and noted that people with major depression are more than twice as likely to die, not just of suicide, but of medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease. He reviewed data that showed that most of the risk for depression comes from environmental factors and highlighted the importance of a history of trauma, adversity, and/or lack of parental nurturance early in life, especially in individuals with vulnerability genes for depression. He showed evidence that individuals who were exposed to early adversity have lifelong biological changes relevant to depression, including hyperactivity of stress-response pathways and reductions in CNS oxytocin, a hormone known to contribute to social bonding.

Dr Mayberg reviewed recent findings regarding the neurobiology of depression, focusing on her team's work with deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the white matter surrounding the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex as a treatment for severe, treatment-resistant major depression.¹ In addition to showing remarkable video footage of rapid and sustained mood improvements brought on by DBS, Dr Mayberg made the stronger point—with which the Dalai Lama very much agreed—that when depression reaches a certain degree of severity it may require biological interventions to normalize the brain to a degree sufficient to engage in behavioral strategies such as meditation.

Read the rest.

Fry & Laurie - Psychiatrists

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:30:14 -0000

A classic skit from Fry & Laurie. (There are some other skits embedded in this video as well, for those who enjoy British humor.)

Daily Om: Finding Peace Within

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:26:58 -0000

[image source]

Today's Daily Om:

A Full Embrace Excluding Nothing
Finding Peace Within

Most people agree that a more peaceful world would be an ideal situation for all living creatures. However, we often seem stumped as to how to bring this ideal situation into being. If we are to have true peace in this world, each one of us must find it in ourselves first. If we don’t like ourselves, for example, we probably won’t like those around us. If we are in a constant state of inner conflict, then we will probably manifest conflict in the world. If we have fighting within our families, there can be no peace in the world. We must shine the light of inquiry on our internal struggles, because this is the only place we can really create change.

When we initiate the process of looking inside ourselves for the meaning of peace, we will begin to understand why it has always been so difficult to come by. This in itself will enable us to be compassionate toward the many people in the world who find themselves caught up in conflicts both personal and universal. We may have an experience of peace that we can call up in ourselves to remind us of what we want to create, but if we are human we will also feel the pull in the opposite direction—the desire to defend ourselves, to keep what we feel belongs to us, to protect our loved ones and our cherished ideals, and the anger we feel when threatened. This awareness is important because we cannot truly know peace until we understand the many tendencies and passions that threaten our ability to find it. Peace necessarily includes, even as it transcends, all of our primal energy, much of which has been expressed in ways that contradict peace.

Being at peace with ourselves is not about denying or rejecting any part of ourselves. On the contrary, in order to be at peace we must be willing and able to hold ourselves, in all our complexity, in a full embrace that excludes nothing. This is perhaps the most difficult part for many of us, because we want so much to disown the negative aspects of our humanity. Ironically, though, true peace begins with a willingness to take responsibility for our humanity so that we might ultimately transform it in the light of our love.

Mind Matters: Emodied Cognition

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:25:31 -0000

A cool article from the Scientific American Mind Matters blog.

About 15 years ago, I began to suspect that the body is the unconscious mind. At the time, there was very little scientific evidence, but a lot of experiential proof. Now the science is catching up with that body workers and mystics have known for centuries.

Really, from a developmental perspective, it makes sense. We live in our bodies and know the world with our bodies long before we become rational beings. That knowing doesn't stop, it just gets buried beneath rational thought. All the while, our bodies sense the world around us, store emotions and memories, and we seldom pay attention to what the body can teach us.

Emodied Cognition
Art Glenberg, Arizona State University

It has become commonplace in neuroscience - and even in everyday conversation - to compare human cognition to that of computers. We know that computers work by using rules to manipulate symbols composed of zeros and ones. According to this metaphor, people also use rules to manipulate abstract and arbitrary symbols. The brain, in other words, was a computer that processed data largely independently of the body. A newer theory that is gaining ground among neuroscientists, embodied cognition, departs from the "computer-as-mind" metaphor. Instead, the body is seen as playing an important role in cognitive processes. Cognition evolved to guide real bodies in the real world, argue the researchers in favor of this idea. Our thoughts are constrained and influenced by the details of our flesh. How you move your arm or leg actually shapes the way you perceive, think and remember.

The latest research in embodied cognition demonstrates just how entangled the body and brain are. Holt and Beilock's research plays the embodiment card in two ways. First, they show that when trying to understand written language, people invoke perceptual and action experiences. The words we use when reading (and perhaps also when listening) point to particular shared bodily experiences, and these experiences, in turn, are used by the reader to understand sentences. In the second important advance, Holt and Beilock also show that when people have had different personal experiences they will understand the same sentences differently.

A Picture vs. A Thousand Words
How did they show this? Holt and Beilock had people read sentences (for instance, "The child saw the balloon in the air") and then determine whether a picture that they were shown depicted an object named in the sentence. Sometimes the picture depicted an object as it would look in the context described by the sentence (an inflated balloon), and sometimes the picture depicted the object differently (a deflated balloon). The scientists demonstrated that people had a faster response time when the picture corresponded to real world scenarios, as in the first sentence. (Deflated balloons don't float.) This suggests that, when trying to comprehend the sentence, people were invoking their actual experiences with real balloons.

Holt and Beilock then looked at more specialized domains of body knowledge. They demonstrated that athletes bring to bear their sport-specific knowledge when comprehending written sentences about that sport. In other words, hockey players rely on their bodily experiences playing hockey when reading about hockey.

Body English
At first glance, this might not sound very surprising. But the implications of embodied cognition extend far beyond balloons and hockey plays. Consider what happens to your thought process when you wiggle your hand. Most of us learned to count using our fingers. It turns out that we rely on these early bodily experiences when we make rudimentary mathematical judgments, such as whether a number is even or odd. Or consider the act of smiling. If we are smiling, it is actually easier for us to understand sentences that describe pleasant events. We have even been able to demonstrate that fatiguing a particular action system (for example, the system that controls the arm when it moves in a "giving" motion) changes the way we understand language about giving and receiving both concrete objects (say, a pencil) and abstractions (such as responsibilities). Apparently, the same neural systems used in guiding action are also used in comprehending language about these actions. This research has numerous applications.

Look, for instance, at the field of education. If thinking requires bodily experiences and bodily action, it might be possible to take advantage of embodied cognition in order to facilitate the learning process.

Read the rest.

Daniel Goleman @ Sharp Brains

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:22:40 -0000

Daniel Goleman is the man most people associate with emotional intelligence. He's a highly sought-after author and speaker, so it is quite impressive that Sharp Brains got him to do a guest post.

Here is the beginning of his article, called The Power of Mindsight:

How can we free ourselves from prisons of the past?
-- By Daniel Goleman

When you were young, which of these did you feel more often?

a) No matter what I do, my parents love me;

b) I can’t seem to please my parents, no matter what I do;

c) My parents don’t really notice me.

The answers to such questions don’t just reveal truths about our childhood. They also tend to predict how we act in our closest relationships as adults.

Our childhood shapes our brain in many ways—and so it determines our most basic ways of reacting to others, for better and for worse. When parents consistently practice empathy toward a child—that is, they tune in to the way that child views and feels about her world—they help instill in that child a sense of security and an ability to empathize with others later in life. But when parents act dismissively toward a child, they can make it harder for that child to be in touch with her emotions and connect with other people.

Daniel Siegel has done years of research to support these conclusions. Siegel, a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles, founded the field of “interpersonal neurobiology,” which explains the brain basis for our habits of bonding with others. His research shows how we can overcome emotional disadvantages that might have arisen from difficult childhoods.

Read the rest.

Daily Dharma: Our unsubdued mind

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:20:57 -0000

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle:

Our unsubdued mind

If we let a wild elephant loose in a populated area it will cause massive destruction, but the uncontrolled wild mind can cause much more harm than such a crazed beast. If the deluded, wild elephant of our mind is not subdued, it will create much suffering for us in this life and will cause us to experience the sufferings of the deepest hell in the future. In fact, if we investigate we can see that the creator of all the sufferings of this and future lives is nothing but our unsubdued mind. To subdue this wild beast is much more important than bringing a jungle elephant under our control.

Many benefits follow from taming our mind. If we take the rope of mindfulness and tie our elephant mind securely to the post of virtue, all of our fears will swiftly come to an end…

If we do not develop mindfulness, our meditations will be hollow and empty. There will be nothing to keep our wild elephant mind from running back and forth in its customary, uncontrolled manner between objects of attachment, anger, jealousy and so forth.

- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Meaningful to Behold; from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

Chad Waterbury - 5 Ways to Boost Testosterone

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:18:07 -0000

OK, this one is for the guys out there (and some of the women). But if you are woman with a man who works out, pass this along -- you'll love the difference a little attention to testosterone can make in his physique.

Chad Waterbury is the man -- I've been using his training programs for years now with great success. None of the points he makes here are new to me, but he provides a good overall approach, and throws in a program for training at the end.

Testosterone is the father of all muscle-building hormones, because it promotes protein synthesis. Whether you're training to get bigger, faster, leaner, or stronger, Testosterone is the steroid hormone that can make a world of difference. Too little of it and you'll get nowhere, too much of it (synthetically) and you'll end up with some nasty side effects.
The human body doesn't like supra-physiological levels of anything, much less Testosterone. But if you maximize it naturally you'll see newfound strength, size and leanness faster than ever.

Testosterone makes you bigger, leaner, stronger, smarter, more energetic, and better in the sack.

The role of Testosterone goes far beyond big biceps and a monstrous deadlift. When it's high you'll boost libido, have more energy, and protect yourself against osteoporosis. The brain loves Testosterone, too. When you have high physiological levels of T it boosts cognitive functions such as memory and attentiveness.

Of course, that means when T levels are low you're heading down a cognitive slope. Slide down far enough and you might be susceptible to all kinds of nasty neurological disorders.

So it probably doesn't warrant any real arm-twisting to convince you that you need to maximize Testosterone to reap all of the health, athletic, and aesthetic benefits you surely desire.

Here are the five steps you should follow.

Go read the whole article.

Daily Om: Connect with the present

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:01:54 -0000

[image source]

This is today's Daily Om from Tricycle, a reminder that being present is the primary goal of daily practice.

Connect with the present

It is often the case that whatever we are doing, be it sitting, walking, standing, or lying, the mind is frequently disengaged from the immediate reality and is instead absorbed in compulsive conceptualization about the future or past. While we are walking, we think about arriving, and when we arrive, we think about leaving. When we are eating, we think about the dishes, and as we do the dishes, we think about watching television.

This is a weird way to run a mind. We are not connected with the present situation, but we are always thinking about something else. Too often we are consumed with anxiety and cravings, regrets about the past and anticipation for the future, completely missing the crisp simplicity of the moment.

- B. Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up; from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

This is a great point that Wallace makes, as usual.

One way that I practice this in my daily life is when I am working out with weights. There are few other times in my life when being fully in the present moment is so crucial. A failure to do so can get me hurt very badly.

While focusing the mind with 365 lbs on my back is pretty easy, comparatively speaking, it can be harder to do so when I am with my clients. Still, this is another opportunity for me to practice being present. My clients can tell if I am not present -- and they are paying me to be fully there with them.

Generally, I am counting reps, checking their form, or changing weights. But more than anything else, I am listening ... being present to their stories about their lives. I ask questions, share my own experience when appropriate, but mostly I simply listen with as much presence as possible.

This, it seems to me, is the key to therapy. My best therapists listened well and asked good questions. Sometimes, they offered suggestions or insights, but as often as not, the insights came from me simply through thinking out loud with a good listener.

How much better might our relationships be if we simply applied this skill there? Skillful listening and being fully present are two of the most important things we can do with our partners. We all want to know that we are heard and understood, and that when we are with the one person who means most to us in the world, that person is fully with us, not creating a grocery list or planning tomorrow's wardrobe.

Finally, in the realm of relationships, how great would your sex life be if you were fully present for every moment of that shared experience? No thinking about what to do next, no focus on climaxing, no worries about technique or performance -- just full presence in each breath, each kiss, each touch of skin on skin.

No matter what we are doing, connecting with the present is as good as it gets.
.

Daily Dharma: A conversation between Buddha and a philosopher

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:00:26 -0000

[image source]

Today's Daily Dharma from Tricycle is an old parable retold by Thich Nhat Hanh.

A conversation between the Buddha and a philosopher

I remember a short conversation between the Buddha and a philosopher of his time.

“I have heard that Buddhism is a doctrine of enlightenment. What is your method? What do you practice every day?”

“We walk, we eat, we wash ourselves, we sit down.”

“What is so special about that? Everyone walks, eats, washes, sits down…”

“Sir, when we walk, we are aware that we are walking; when we eat, we are aware that we are eating…. When others walk, eat, wash, or sit down, they are generally not aware of what they are doing.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Keys; from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book.

Death Cab For Cutie - Soul Meets Body

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:58:02 -0000

This may be my new favorite love song.

IOC News

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:52:15 -0000

I'm making some changes at the Cafe because, well, it turns out that there is life outside of blogging. I know, I know, who woulda thunk it?

My work life is busier than it has ever been - I actually have a waiting list for new clients. Plus, I am still getting writing work. And then there is actually having a personal life, something I haven't had much of lately.

The biggest change will be the demise of the daily speedlinks. That is by far the most time-consuming thing I have been doing here. Hopefully, that will free some time to actually do more writing. I'd like to post a legitimate "article" at least a couple of times a week, rather than the current couple of times a month.

Other than that, the total volume of posts will drop, but hopefully the quality will increase some.

My apologies to all those who loved the speedlinks -- I did, too, but I just don't have the time to do that much reading anymore.

Daily Om: Healing What Hurts

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:50:20 -0000

[image source]

This was yesterday's Daily Om, a reminder that while all of us have unresolved pain living within us, we are not that pain. If we can process it and heal it, we get closer to freeing ourselves from the suffering that limits our sense of who we are.

Freeing Up Energy
Healing What Hurts

Many of us go through our lives being aware of a well of pain that has been under our daily awareness for so long we aren’t even sure where it comes from. It almost seems as if it’s part of who we are, or the way we see the world, but it’s important to realize that this pain is something that needs to be acknowledged and processed. The longer we sit on it, the harder it is to work through, and the more likely it is that we will be forced to acknowledge it as it makes itself known to us in ways we can’t predict. Rather than waiting for this to happen, we can empower ourselves by identifying the pain and resolving to take action toward healing it.

The very thought of this brings up feelings of resistance in most of us, especially if, on the surface, our lives seem to be in order. It’s difficult to dig up the past and go into it unless we are being seriously inconvenienced by the hurt. The thing is, when we are carrying the burden of our unprocessed pain, sooner or later it will inconvenience us. If we can be brave and proactive, we can save ourselves a lot of future suffering and free up the energy that is tied up in keeping the pain down.

There are many ways to do this, but the first step is to recognize the pain and honor it by moving our awareness into it. In this process, even if it’s just five minutes during meditation, we will begin to have a sense of what the pain is made of. It might be fear of abandonment, childhood abuse, anger at being mistreated, or some other long held wound. As we sit with the pain, we will also have a sense of whether we can deal with it by ourselves or not. It may be time to work with a counselor or form a healing circle with close friends. Whatever path you choose, resolve to go deep into the pain so that you can release it fully, and set yourself free. Remember, it is never too late in life to heal what hurts, and there is never a better time than now.

John Shelby Spong on God

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:47:23 -0000

The post by John Shelby Spong ran in the On Faith section of the Washington Post a few days ago. This is by far the most cogent defense of God as a concept and experience that I have heard from a member of the mainstream clergy.

Please note that I am not a Christian (although I was raised Catholic), so the Biblical account of God has little to do with my experience. But no matter one's faith, I am always happy to see the experience of God separated from the concepts we use (which are necessarily limited) to define or talk about God.

John Shelby Spong

Former Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark

"“On Faith”" panelist John Shelby Spong served as Bishop of the
Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2000.
His books, seeking to make contemporary theology accessible to lay
readers, have sold over a million copies. His latest book, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Discover the God of Love
(2005), examines the holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition. A
committed Christian who has spent a lifetime studying the Bible and
whose life has been deeply shaped by it, Spong has been a visiting
lecturer at universities, Including Harvard, and churches worldwide,
delivering more than 200 public lectures each year to standing-room
only crowds. His best-selling books include Rescuing the Bible
from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World, Why
Christianity Must Change or Die, and Here I Stand.

And here is the bit of wisdom he had to share:

Question Faith? Fear Not

There
is a vast difference between the experience of God and the explanation
of that experience. God cannot be captured in human words, but human
concepts of God can be.

Those concepts are, however, always
time warped and time bound as all things are when reduced to words. If
one does not question, doubt and challenge his or her own faith
assertions and creedal affirmations, then one becomes an idolater. God
becomes little more than our own creation.

The Bible is a human
explanation of the God experience, first of the Jews, then of the
Christians. The Bible is, therefore, not the “Word of God” in any
literal sense. It is a human creation. So are the creeds, doctrines,
dogmas and traditions of the Christian Church. The idea that anyone
would suggest that it is inappropriate to question these human concepts
lies somewhere between the ridiculous and the absurd.

Only people and institutions fearful of the adequacy of their version of truth would suggest otherwise.

The comments are not as lame as one might expect, either.

Speedlinking 2/25/08

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:54:24 -0000

Quote of the day:

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it."
~ Jane Wagner

Image of the day (Darien Chin):

BODY
~ Advice From the World’s Healthiest Men -- "Want to lead an emotionally and physically healthier lifestyle? MSNBC published a worldwide survey of over 20,000 men in various countries on topics such as fitness, work, vacations, diet, sex lives, and health. Using surveys and statistics from sources such as the World Health Organization, the best and the worst countries in each category were ranked."
~ (Video) Why Soy is Not a Health Food -- "In this video, Dr. Mercola talks about how nonfermented soy is not a health food, and should be avoided because it has been genetically modified. This is a topic that can be of debate to vegetarians, because many of us depend upon soy to get our protein needs met."
~ Monster Whey Protein Shake Recipe! -- "One great thing about low-carb eating is that it is very satiating i.e. you feel satisfied sooner than when on a low-fat diet. This is good for cutting fat but could work against you if it causes you to under-eat." This is good for skinny younger guys, but us older guys would want to cut the cream.
~ 5 Ways to Avoid Lower Back Pain from Deadlifts -- "The prime movers during Deadlifts are your quadriceps, hamstrings & glutes. Your lower back, upper-back, traps & forearms perform isometric contractions: they stay contracted during the whole lift. That’s how Deadlifts strengthen your lower back: you must keep your back rigid against a load. Unfortunately many don’t strengthen but hurt their back doing Deadlifts. Here are 5 ways to avoid lower back pain from Deadlifts."
~ T-Nation Strength and Size Roundtable, Part 1 -- "A cadre of coaches discuss various bodybuilding and powerlifting topics, including the wisdom of trying to build size and strength at the same time, and the relative benefits of isolation movements vs. compound movements."
~ Study Suggests Antibiotics Are Overused -- "A woman dying of Alzheimer's has a fever. Should she be given antibiotics? Many people would say yes. But a provocative new study suggests that antibiotics are overused in people dying of dementia diseases and should be considered more carefully because of the growing problem of drug-resistant superbugs...."
~ Flu may be peaking, but can be avoided -- "In parts of the United States, influenza is peaking, and while this year's vaccine isn't as effective as usual, the flu's misery can be avoided, an expert says."

PSYCHE/SELF
~ Blood test could reveal bipolar disorder - "A blood test could be used to diagnose and assess the severity of certain mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, according to a new study. But some experts think this raises ethical concerns."
~ Psychosis and the coming glutamate revolution -- "Dopamine has been the big player in understanding schizophrenia since antipsychotic drugs were discovered. All current antipsychotics have their main effect by blocking dopamine function in the mesolimbic pathway and there's now significant evidence that this is the location of one of the major dysfunctions."
~ How to Build Your Self-Esteem -- "Learn how to build confidence and increase your self-image. Vanquish your fears and overcome insecurity with these simple steps."
~ Clinical MDMA Brief (25 Feb 2008) [DrugMonkey] -- "As a brief update on my posts on the clinical use of MDMA (Part 1, Part 2) I'll note that the MAPS folks are trumpeting the initiation of yet another clinical trial with extra oomph because it is at dear auld Haavahd."
~ Coping with Existential Depression - "People and professionals often divide up depression into different types, such as “clinical” depression versus “non-clinical” depression, “biological” depression versus “situational” depression. The diagnostic manual professionals refer to, however, doesn’t make any distinctions about theorizing where or how your depression is caused, and neither does most research in this area. And yet, I believe such distinctions may serve a purpose if they help guide a person’s treatment choices."
~ 10 Ways We Hurt Our Romantic Relationships -- "It’s not easy to have a great relationship with your boy/girlfriend, partner, or spouse. But it’s not impossible, either — it takes some work, of course, but it’s good work, work that’s a joy when everything comes together."
~ Researchers Identify New Receptor Complex In Brain -- "Mount Sinai researchers have identified a new receptor complex in the brain that responds to several types of antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia and also reacts to hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD."
~ Anticipation Fires the Imagination -- "How horrifying might it be to lose a limb? How exhilarating might it be to find true love? When these things actually happen, reality rarely matches our predictions. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (ScienceNOW's publisher) today, psychologist Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University presented new experimental results that may explain why."

CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Hillary Steps Up Attacks on Obama as Judgment Day Approaches -- "Clinton's campaign has increased its attacks on Obama before Ohio and Texas, but is it to blame for circulating a picture of him in Kenyan garb?"
~ Two Views on Nader’s Candidacy -- "Ralph Nader has announced that he will run for the presidency for a third time. In the past months on Truthdig, the case has been made both for and against such a campaign. Here Chris Hedges says why he should run, while Robert Scheer tells Nader himself it would be better if he didn’t."
~ Architecture’s Battle of the Modernisms -- "Modernist architecture almost from the start had two chief strains. The one that produced Manhattan’s greatest icons, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, as well as Rockefeller Center, flows from Paris: from the classical massing, symmetry, and proportion that Gotham architects learned at the École des Beaux-Arts, and from the astonishing vocabulary of ornament that they learned from the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs that gave us the art deco style. The other current, the International Style, flowing from the Bauhaus art and design school founded in Germany in 1919, gave the world the glass and steel box, which arrived in New York at the start of the 1950s in the relatively refined forms of the UN Secretariat and Lever House on Park Avenue."
~ Judy Blume's lessons in love -- "Her explicit novels about the rites of adolescence are loved by teenage girls the world over - and loathed by America's religious right. As she approaches her 70th birthday, Judy Blume talks to Melissa Whitworth about sex, censorship and the trials of being fairy godmother to a generation of women."
~ Is a Liberal Renaissance in the Making? -- " This election should bring some optimism after years of right-wing dominance."
~ The Movement And The Maverick -- "An Obama-McCain race would probably accelerate the process of scrambling the parties' historic class alignment."
~ Take a Stand Against Torture (It’s a Moral Issue) -- "The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is an interfaith effort “committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” Its motto: ‘Torture is a moral issue.’"
~ America's Unfaithful Faithful -- "Americans are a religious people, but they switch religious groups with surprising frequency, a major new survey finds."

HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ South Africa OKs Killing of Elephants -- "South Africa announced Monday that it was reversing a 1995 ban on killing elephants to help control their booming population, drawing instant outrage from animal-rights activists." It's things like this that make me misanthropic on occasion.
~ Low-Level Carbon Monoxide Dangers -- "You might be suffering the toxic effects without even knowing it."
~ SCUBA-2 Camera Will Explore Earliest Phases Of Galaxy Formation -- "A giant camera known as SCUBA-2 is being transported to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Rather than detecting visible light, SCUBA-2 will detect submillimeter radiation, which is sensitive to the heat emitted by extremely cold dust in the Universe. This material is associated with the mysterious earliest phases of the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, until now largely undetectable. Typically the dust is at temperatures of about -200 Celsius and so detecting its extremely weak emissions presents a huge technological challenge."
~ Masters Of Disguise: Secrets Of Nature's 'Great Pretenders' Revealed -- "A gene which helps a harmless African butterfly ward off predators by giving it wing patterns like those of toxic species, has been identified. The mocker swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus, is unusual because it emerges from its chrysalis with one of a large number of different possible wing patterns and colors. This is different from most butterfly species which are identified by a common wing pattern and colour. Furthermore, some of the different patterns that the mocker swallowtail exhibits mimic those of poisonous species, which affords this harmless insect a valuable disguise which scares off predators."
~ Dust In West Up 500 Percent In Past Two Centuries -- "The West has become 500 percent dustier in the past two centuries due to westward US expansion and accompanying human activity beginning in the 1800s, according to a new study."
~ Honey bee invaders exploit the genetic resources of their predecessors -- "Like any species that aspires to rule the world, the honey bee, Apis mellifera, invades new territories in repeated assaults. A new study demonstrates that when these honey bees arrive in a place that has already been invaded, the newcomers benefit from the genetic endowment of their predecessors."
~ That's Folding! Cube's Urban Street Concept Bike -- "We love folding bikes. Because they remove one of the arguments about taking up cycling; “I don’t have any room for a bicycle.” Here is a folding bike concept to would give short shrift to that excuse, were it ever to transition into a real world commercial product. Gregor Dauth, a student at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany has worked with Cube bikes to develop his Urban Street Concept Bike." Beautiful bike!

INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ Gray Hairs & the Dhamma -- "Reflecting on the aging process over a period of time helps one to accept the fact that one isn’t getting any younger. It’s a natural aspect of life that all phenomena deteriorate with time: even million year old wine won’t be a vintage! And it’s not just living beings that wither with time: looking at the ruins of Angkor Wat, the Coliseum, or the Sphinx, it can be seen how they all are subject to the same forces that whiten our hair over the years. Everything is impermanent (anicca)."
~ Change is certain (replay) -- "Change of URL! I'm about to start a new blog at hokai.info/ws/ where I will post my own articles from time to time. (Therefore, hokai.wordpress.com will only be used privately. Sorry for the confusion.) This place has been renamed to h~log and will feature recommendations, references, or short comments on entertaining, educating, and enlightening material found elsewhere in text or video." Make note of this in your readers.
~ Jonah Goldberg's Narcissistic Take on Global Warming -- "So I was surfing the conservative side of the Web when I encountered Jonah Goldberg's article on National Review Online, Global Cooling Costs Too Much. I would've let his article pass but even to a Climate Change moderate like me Goldberg's closing statement was just too ludicrous not to rip apart."
~ 2008 Blogisattva Award Winners Announced -- "Today's the day that the world has been waiting for, when the winners are announced -- for the Blogisattva Awards! [drumroll, please] "And the winners are ... why, Buddhism blog readers, worldwide."
~ It is so, it is so -- "Much of the life of Shinran, founder of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, is detailed in the letters his wife, Eshinni, and his daughter Kakushinni exchanged. In the final years of Shinran’s life, both he and Kakushinni moved to Kyoto (now that Shinran was pardoned), and so both mother and daughter exchanged letters."
~ The Merits of Melancholia -- "English professor Eric G. Wilson argues that the American pursuit of happiness, fueled by Prozac and "positive psychology," has robbed many lives of the "fertility of pain" or "melancholia" that propelled Keats, Handel, Georgia O'Keefe, and countless others to their greatest works. Joni Mitchell calls her bouts with melancholia the "sand that makes the pearl," and Professor Wilson says...."
~ Become an Integral Peacemaker -- "Watch Fleet Maull on Integral Peacemaker Training."

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B. Alan Wallace - Toward the First Revolution in Mind Sciences

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:53:07 -0000

An excellent Google Tech-Talk featuring B. Alan Wallace.

Physicist, monk, psychologist, and neuroscientist B. Alan Wallace explains why the first real revolution in the mind sciences hasn't occurred yet.

B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D. has been a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970. He is currently seeking ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices and Western science to advance the study of the mind. He is the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies ( http://sbinstitute.com ).

Daily Om: Feeling Stuck

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:51:08 -0000

[image source]

This was Friday's Daily Om, which I never got around to posting. But this is a good one -- a reminder that we are always exactly where we need to be on our path, even when we are feeling stuck.

Part Of The Process
Feeling Stuck

When we feel stuck in our lives it’s important to take stock of what is going on and find out if there is something we are doing or not doing that is keeping us stuck. Sometimes the situation is out of our control, and we need to look within to find the patience required to wait with equanimity until things move forward again. Many times, though, we can find the source of our stagnation in our own hearts and minds.

Sometimes we are clinging to old ideas about reality and we need to make adjustments that will bring us back in tune with life, so we can flow again. Sometimes we find that fear of change is what’s keeping us stuck, and we can resolve to find ways of facing that fear.

If introspection does not provide the answers we need, it can sometimes be helpful to ask those around you if they notice anything obvious that you might not be able to see. Remember to ask someone whom you can trust to be kind and sensitive as well as honest. Try to let go of your resistance because whenever there is something we can’t see ourselves, it’s because we don’t want to see it. Try to listen with an open mind, and remember that you are always the final judge of what you need. Anything offered to us from an outside source will need to be processed within before its wisdom can take hold.

In all this, be kind to yourself and remember that we all get stuck sometimes. Think of it as a part of your process, a necessary step on your journey, rather than as a problem that shouldn’t be happening. This can help to keep your frustration at bay and give you the space you need to take a deep breath and really figure out what’s going on.

Speedlinking 2/20/08

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:50:52 -0000

[NOTE: After a week away, Speedlinking is back. However, as I am incredibly busy of late, the daily links might not be so daily. I'll do what I can to keep up.]

Quote of the day:

"Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?"
~ Philip G. Hamerton

Image of the day (Alessandro Zocchi):

BODY
~ Training to Hit a Homer -- "In all the years I played baseball, I never hit a ball over the fence. When I started playing slow pitch softball, I figured it was only a matter of time. The fields were smaller, the ball was slower, and I was much stronger then I ever was as a kid. Boy was I wrong."
~ 5 Things You Need to Know About Every Exercise -- "You may know the name of a particular exercise, but do you know what the agonists in the movement are? How about the synergists? Hrrummpph! And you call yourself a weightlifter!"
~ 30 New Ways to Build the Body You Want -- "We traveled the nation to find America's Best Gyms. Then we asked their experts for advice to help you build your best body, whether you train at an upscale health center or at home."
~ Shredded in 6 Days -- "Ever wonder how competitive bodybuilders get extra shredded for a show or photo shoot? Well, here's the complete how-to guide to becoming extra shredded. Get the camera ready, because it's only temporary." This is good -- too many people think the Men's Health cover models always look like that -- they don't.
~ Common Exercise Misconceptions Part 2 -- "Finally, some ammo to use against those putzes who insist on benching with their feet in the air. Craig also makes the case that chin-ups are a better lat exercise than pull-ups. Let the arguments begin!"
~ Top 10 Reasons You’re Not Building Any Muscle -- "Check the following 10 factors against your current lifestyle to ensure you’re not making some fundamental errors."
~ Whole grains help deflate belly rolls -- "Cutting calories helps people lose weight, but doing so by filling up on whole grains may be particularly heart-healthy, new research suggests."
~ Hypoglycemia Alert Dogs Offer Assistance To People With Diabetes -- "Glucose monitors, test strips, and lancets: people with diabetes are all too familiar with the equipment used to test their blood glucose (sugar) levels. Now some people are adding a different kind of aid to their diabetes management regimen." Beats getting stuck with a needle.
~ 13 Scientifically Proven Health Benefits Of Exercise -- "Nowadays you can't check out at the grocery store or do much of anything without being reminded that us mortal humans need to exercise. Still, we persist, procrastinate and eventually complain that we're overweight, sick, dying, etc."

PSYCHE/SELF
~ Fascinating split brain behavioral experiments -- "To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. This is an extraordinary insight into the machinary of the mind. Here’s what happens as a result...."
~ Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy -- "Both cognitive-behavioral^1-3 and pharmacological treatments for panic disorder have been found to be effective over the short term. Not all patients, however, can tolerate or fully respond to these approaches, and the effectiveness of these interventions over the long term remains unclear."
~ This Wednesday: Six questions to help you stay serene -- "Every Wednesday is Tip Day. This Wednesday: Six questions to help you stay serene. Or, at the very least, to keep from losing your temper in an angry fit."
~ Has Idealism Been Refuted? -- "So, I have been having a very nice and informative discussion with Brandon about Berkeley’s so-called “Master Argument” which got me to thinking. Has immaterialism been refuted? It seems to me not. Here is a brief, and no doubt sketchy, survey of some of the better known ‘refutations’."
~ Serotonin, Violence and Prozac -- "A lot has been written in the past week guessing as to whether Prozac, a commonly-prescribed 20-year-old antidepressant, had any connection to the violence that Steven Kazmierczak (the NIU murderer) perpetrated. Kazmierczak was reportedly previously taking Prozac (usually prescribed for depression), but had stopped taking it 3 weeks prior to the murders."
~ How the Consistency Bias Warps Our Personal and Political Memories -- "What were your political views a decade ago? How good was your relationship last year? Studies show we often assume things haven't changed, when in fact they have."
~ 10 Steps to Handle Relationship Conflicts -- "Every relationship experiences some conflict. Some experience more than others, some are playful, and some are hateful. Then there are those that are never ending patterns of conflict that seem impossible to break."
~ Technology Exployed By Neuroscientists To Trace Source Of Emotions In Brain -- "First came direct marketing, then focus groups. Now, advertisers, with the help of neuroscientists, are closing in on the holy grail: mind reading. At least, that's what is suggested in a paper published in the journal Human Brain Mapping authored by a group of professors in advertising and communication and neuroscience at the University of Florida."

CULTURE/POLITICS
~ The Principle of Complementarity in Bohr's Quantum Mechanics and Vico's Historicism -- "Vico was acutely aware that to treat real concrete moments of Man’s history as mere moments of something higher is not to take them very seriously. Indeed, this was Hegel flaw: by absorbing the concrete historical situation into a higher theoretical scheme he in effect distorted the reality of their contingency."
~ In Intervals: Robert Pinsky and Tom Sleigh in Conversation -- "Tom Sleigh conducted the following interview with United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky on October 1, 1997, in West Newton, Massachusetts."
~ Covering Reality with Gold Leaf -- "IT’S THIS RECOGNITION of complexity and uncertainty that has been the key to the success of the West. An inductive, pragmatic mindset underpinned the economic expansion that led the West out of the long stagnation of the Middle Ages. It underpinned the development of science and technology (after a millennium where technology had essentially stagnated at Roman levels)."
~ Nietzsche’s Deeper Truth -- "At the outset of On the Genealogy of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche reports that his polemical book of pseudo-history, pseudo-anthropology, and pseudo-psychology is an exercise in knowing ourselves. We cannot simply investigate morality and Christianity, as if these were topics we could entertain with dispassionate detachment as we do biological specimens or mathematical equations. No, according to Nietzsche, our commitment to a moral frame of reference penetrates to the depths of our soul."
~ Barack’s Rock -- "She's the one who keeps him real, the one who makes sure running for leader of the free world doesn't go to his head. Michelle's story." Good timing, considering the non-story about her remarks everyone is fixated on.
~ Interview: Alain Robbe-Grillet -- "Alain Robbe-Grillet occupies that paradoxical position not uncommon to avant–garde writers: He is both famous and obscure; his ideas are well known but his work much less so. Nevertheless, he remains a major figure in the landscape of postwar French letters and film."
~ Can we teach people to be happy? -- "Anthony Seldon and Frank Furedi set out their arguments before the first of a series of live public debates on educational issues."
~ Human culture subject to natural selection, Stanford study shows - "Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the human genome."
~ MIT: No easy answers in evolution of human language -- "The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at MIT."
~ Evolution Wins as Creationists Inadvertently Switch Sides in Florida -- "A decision by the Florida Board of Education to approve a curriculum referring to "the scientific theory of evolution" has an unintended side effect: It embeds evolution in the curriculum for the first time. It also will require teaching kids what a "scientific theory" is."

HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Study shows where new diseases may arise (AP) -- "New infectious diseases have been appearing more often, says a study that suggests "hot spots" where the next new germs are most likely to appear."
~ America Has Too Many Stores -- "In January, Liz Claiborne said it would shutter 54 Sigrid Olsen stores by mid-2008. Ann Taylor announced that 117 of its 921 stores would be closed over the next three years, and Talbots axed the Talbots Mens and Talbots Kids concepts and 22 Talbots stores. (Those muffled screams you hear are Connecticut preppies trying to suppress their rage.) Even Starbucks has scaled back its yearslong saturation-bombing campaign."
~ Ecotopias Aren't Just for Hippies Anymore — and They're Sprouting Up Worldwide -- "In the 1970s, environmental idealists had a vision of Ecotopia: Everyone recycled, there was no pollution, and we all worshipped trees and co-ops. Today's eco-communities are less crunchy and a lot more high tech. In addition to using renewable energy sources, these projects aim to limit their impact on surrounding ecosystems by building with green materials, promoting earth-friendly transportation, and recycling water and waste."
~ Tonight's Lunar Eclipse: Last Chance Until 2010 -- "There will be a full lunar eclipse tonight, starting at 8:43 pm Eastern time, with the moon totally obscured between 10:01 pm and 10:51 pm."
~ Managing Uncertainty Important In Ecological Balance -- "The balance of nature looms prominently in the public mind these days. Climate change, genetically modified plants and animals, and globally declining fish stocks are but a few of the issues that remind us that ours is a fragile world. Or is it? It depends on whom you ask one professor specializing in biology and society."
~ African Dust Storms May Cool Atlantic, Lessen Hurricanes -- "Every year, storms over West Africa disturb millions of tons of dust and strong winds carry those particles into the skies over the Atlantic. According to atmospheric scientists, this dust from Africa directly affects ocean temperature, a key ingredient in Atlantic hurricane development."
~ Antarctic Life Hung By A Thread During Ice Ages -- "The extreme cold and environmental conditions of past Ice Ages have been even more severe than seen today and changed life at the Antarctic, forcing the migration of many animals such as penguins, whales and seals, researchers argue. Understanding the changes of the past may help scientists to determine how the anticipated temperature increases of the future will work to further transform this continent."
~ Microsoft Opens Game Development -- "Microsoft Corp. says it will make Xbox 360 video games developed by players available for download through the console's online service."

INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST BLOGS
~ 2008 Blogisattva Awards Nominees Announced -- "The Blogisattva Organization is pleased to announce the nominees for the 2008 Blogisattva Awards honoring English-language Buddhism blogging during calendar year 2007. This is the third annual iteration of the awards which are given wholly for merit, and not as a measure of blogs’ popularity."
~ Lucy -- "It’s good, at least once in our lives, to call our parents by their names, not mom and dad but Janice and Steven or whatever their names happen to be. It’s not absolutely necessary to do this in their presence; some of us were brought up on customs that would make it easier to cut out our tongues than to address our parents by their legal names."
~ Not Spiritual -- "An interview with Ethan Nichtern, Founder and Director of the Interdependence Project (The ID Project) in New York City and author of the new book "One City: A Declaration of Interdependence". Good stuff!"
~ Would You Have Sex With Someone You Can Reboot? - "Apparently, a few decades from now, David Levy thinks that people would welcome the idea of having sex with robots. Check out this Q&A interview with David Levy, author of Love and Sex with Robots, in Scientific American. Here are some key quotes."
~ Integral Education Seminar 2008 -- "Next Step Integral has announced its 2008 Integral Education seminar called “From Cradle to Kosmos”, taking place August 1–6, 2008, at the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. Integral education is an emerging field, propelled by people who seek to push the envelope of what education can be."
~ Deepak Chopra Comes to Beliefnet -- "To kick off the spiritual teacher's new blog with his son and daughter, watch this exclusive video clip in which he explains how to tell if you're "plugged into" Spirit--or not."
~ Kosmos Magazine Up and Running -- "Last week was our university's club week. Good news for anyone following the development of Fordham's first integral magazine: 30 signups in one day! We were a little weak with the table design, but the Alex Grey paintings seemed to really draw in the crowd."
~ The Joys of Devotional Buddhism -- "Westerners, having come from a Judao-Christian-Islamic background, sometimes like to frown upon devotional Buddhism and hold up meditation as the end-all-be-all of Buddhism. I have had to explain myself a number of times to non-Pure Land Buddhists, and it can be frustrating. The last straw for me occurred this evening when I found this quotation on a Tricycle Blog article (the author is quoting someone from a Buddhist forum, these are not the author’s words)...."
~ Emergence in Palestine and the Arab World -- "At the outset of the February 2, 2008 Nation Building Conference in Bethlehem, Palestine, Elza Maalouf spoke to the nearly 700 Palestinian community leaders from all over the West Bank addressing societal emergence in Palestine and the Arab world."
~ Back from hiatus -- "As my handful of regular readers know by now, I’ve been on hiatus (except for the occasional post on presidential politics) for the past few months. I have been taking some personal time as well as focusing on my screenplay project. While I still have other pressing projects on my plate, I’m going to be returning to posting at Until on a regular basis."

Daily Om: Outside The Comfort Zone

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:47:41 -0000

Here is today's Daily Om, which is a message I can use since I tend to often live too much within my comfort zone (although, I'd have to say that has changed quite a bit in the last week or two).

Outside The Comfort Zone
Things We Don’t Want To Do

Most of us have had the experience of tackling some dreaded task only to come out the other side feeling invigorated, filled with a new sense of confidence and strength. The funny thing is, most of the time when we do them, we come out on the other side changed and often wondering what we were so worried about or why it took us so long. We may even begin to look for other tasks we’ve been avoiding so that we can feel that same heady mix of excitement and completion.

Whether we avoid something because it scares us or bores us, or because we think it will force a change we’re not ready for, putting it off only creates obstacles for us. On the other hand, facing the task at hand, no matter how onerous, creates flow in our lives and allows us to grow. The relief is palpable when we stand on the other side knowing that we did something even though it was hard or we didn't want to do it. On the other hand, when we cling to our comfort zone, never addressing the things we don’t want to face, we cut ourselves off from flow and growth.

We all have at least one thing in our life that never seems to get done. Bringing that task to the top of the list and promising ourselves that we will do it as soon as possible is an act that could liberate a tremendous amount of energy in our lives. Whatever it is, we can allow ourselves to be fueled by the promise of the feelings of exhilaration and confidence that will be the natural result of doing it.

This post mostly deals with tasks and things we avoid doing, but many of us live within our comfort zones -- to the neglect of our souls -- in many other ways as well.

We may not look for a new job out of fear of change; we may not leave a bad relationship because we are comfortably numb; we may not move to a new city because we are afraid we may not meet new friends.

But all change, especially change that challenges our comfort zone, is an opportunity for growth. Being stuck in our comfort zone is a good way to stagnate and wither away. It's never easy, but if we can open to it, we seldom regret the learning and growth that can come from trying new things.
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Joss Stone - Son of a Preacher Man (Live)

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:47:01 -0000