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You're reading 3 Ways You Can Use Meditation to Relieve Stress, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.” ― Śāntideva
If there is one thing that held me back for the better part of my life, then it was stress and fear of rejection. I spent my adolescent years, growing up in an environment that took drinking alcohol and consuming drugs for granted, and the idea of healthy living was never on the table.
We all go through some learning lessons in this life, some take longer than others to understand, but ultimately the goal of life is to find happiness within, but when overwhelming stress and fears of rejection are standing in your way -- making those first steps can become quite the challenging experience.
I know this feeling by heart, because when the time came to make serious adjustments in my life and leave the old behind, I was left with a turmoil of emotions and big questions as to what my life had become after having had a run of being an addict for more than 5 years.
Little by little I began to pull myself back together. The scars of old friends and lost memories were still there, but having set myself on the path of meditation quickly showed me that there are alternatives in life, such as healthier choices, meaningful relationships, and stress-free living.
My biggest fear, as mentioned, was fear of rejection. I know now that part of the reason was because of lack of self-acceptance that I had for myself. Drugs was a convenient solution to forget about my problems, and instead of dealing with obstacles in my way, I would mindlessly spend my resources for temporary boosts of happiness.
Meditation has taught me that happiness resides within, and that it is an accessible emotion available to anyone, all it takes is a little bit of patience and determination to look within as to what are the things standing in the way of your own true happiness.
That is why I want to show you today, how meditation can help you relieve your own stress, and how it can help you to understand yourself better as a conscious human being -- someone who is part of something much bigger than just problems alone.
Self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. I recall the amount of emotional turmoil I had to go through in order to break through some of my densest layers of fears, but it also taught me this:
We humans are like a library, before we acknowledge our own self-awareness the library is a complete mess, nothing makes sense. Yet when we tune-in within our inner-library, we understand that with a little bit of organization we can rearrange this library to have everything sit exactly where it needs to sit; just like books do in a real library.
When you become self-aware of your own body and mind, you gain an invaluable tool for organizing your life in a way that resonates deeply with your own heart, and there’s really no better medicine for the soul that being in alignment with the desires of the heart.
For me, this desire ended up being the need to help others understand themselves better, and how they can too, reach a higher understanding of themselves, and the planet that we all share.
You may go through a range of meditation techniques before you find the right one for you, but ultimately they all come back to a single factor -- meditation is about observing your breath.
When you are relaxed, your breath gently flows in and out of your nose. Being deliberate (conscious) with your breathing patterns will automatically calm your nervous system and promote a sense of well-being.
Stress, fears and anxiety promote adrenal breathing which causes you to think that taking big and deep breaths fast is going to reduce your uncomfortable feelings, yet the effect is the exact opposite as you continue to fuel your adrenal response.
Meditation has taught me that breathing should come naturally, it’s a natural function of the human body, and rather than having to force the breaths in and out, we can choose to become mindfully aware of our breathing patterns and how they impact our levels of stress and anxiety.
I can’t even begin to fathom as to how many times I have experienced what’s commonly known as existential crisis since having been on this spiritual journey. I think many of us arrive at this point in life after having gone through some challenging hardships.
Drugs left behind a big stain of dirt on my whole being, and eventually it started taking a toll on me. I kept running into questions like “Who am I?”, “What is the purpose of life?” and so forth. Hindsight I learned that these questions helped me to better shape myself as a person, someone who understands the challenges of needing to change, and has allowed me to connect deeper with the alignment of my own life.
I attribute this phenomena to the natural evolution of consciousness as you’re beginning to unravel any layers of security through your meditation practice. The beauty of meditation is that it naturally presents us with that which is holding us back, and with time we learn a way to let go of that heavy baggage that no longer serves a purpose.
Then, things like synchronicity start to become a daily occurrence. You’re suddenly running into situations and people that continue to propel you further on your journey of self-discovery.
You have surely heard of the saying “Being in the right place, at the right time.” -- and this is so true for those who remain persistent with meditation, things just start to shift by themselves, and things that used to stress you out in the past are starting to fade in the myst of what was left behind.
Wanting to have a guru in your life to guide you doesn’t always have to be about an ego, as a matter of fact -- it’s a beautiful thing to ask for help on this journey we’re all on. When you ask for help, you’re acknowledging a part of you that needs healing, and you’re only looking for ways to resolve issues that you feel is time to let go of.
Alex Hope is a mindfulness teacher with expertise in healing emotional wounds. Over the years of dealing with emotional trauma, he was inspired to start his own wellness project SkillCode -- a community of seekers who are dedicated to unraveling their true Self through the practice of cultivating self-awareness.
You've read 3 Ways You Can Use Meditation to Relieve Stress, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
 WGN-TV |
Is a hypnosis app for you?
WGN-TV Bella Lledos has been a hypnosis client for the past five months. She drifts away from the real world and calms herself under the voice of certified hypnotist Toni Macri-Reine at No Stage Show where an audience watches a person get hypnotized before ... |
 Valley Advocate |
Beyond the Flu Shot
Valley Advocate One form of alternative medicine available in the Pioneer Valley is hypnotherapy. Jean Conway, 17-year National Guild of Hypnotists-certified hypnotherapist with a full-time practice in Greenfield, explains hypnotherapy has both emotional and visual ... |
NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 194
Learn how to stimulate desired changes in behaviour and encourage mental and physical well-being.
Call our office (US 1-888-440-4823 / AU 1-800-133-433) TODAY to learn the latest hypnosis techniques.
Did you know that you access trance daily – driving, watching television or staring out of the window? The first article, How To Do Hypnosis Like a World Class Hypnotist, by Dr. Adriana James, describes why People use Hypnosis to bypass the critical, conscious mind and how trance can be accessed purposefully to assist in stress reduction, self healing and inner change. Adriana outlines how, by entering this peculiar state of mind, we can access resources unavailable in our day-to-day working state. Learn the empowering technique of Hypnosis to work with your unconscious mind and develop distinctive abilities that allow you to make changes in your thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
The second article, Overcoming Low Self Esteem from the NLP Coaching Perspective Part 5, by Dr. Adriana James, is the final part of the series we are publishing to demonstrate the importance of overcoming low self esteem and HOW to change your self belief, outlined in an additional interview with Drs Adriana and Tad James. The problem of low self esteem is not a problem of your Conscious Mind only, and this is why you cannot solve only with your Conscious Mind’s understanding. The problem is with how the Unconscious Mind has stored our unconscious beliefs about ourselves. At our NLP Coaching trainings, programs and seminars we work with the Unconscious Mind to assist you to let go of what’s lurking beneath the level of consciousness. If you decide to take an NLP Coaching training or a seminar with us, you will learn how to do this easily and then you will be in control of your own thoughts. We give you the HOW to change the beliefs you have now which are disempowering into beliefs which are empowering for you. You deserve to live life as you want!
Introduction written by Danielle Power @ Sydney Office.
Your New Articles, Hints & Tips
How To Do Hypnosis Like a World Class Hypnotist?
by Dr. Adriana James
Oooohh! Hypnosis!!
That strange and mysterious word…some fear, some love, some are indifferent to and some ridicule! There are those who raise lots of questions about hypnosis, not the least of which is, why would anyone use some technique to bypass the critical, conscious mind? I admit, I have met a few people who are still scratching their heads about this one…(Read More)
Overcoming Low Self Esteem from the NLP Coaching Perspective Part 5
by Dr. Adriana James
Overcoming Low Self Esteem Part 02 Interview
Good self-esteem is important because it helps you to hold your head high and feel proud of yourself and what you can do. It gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It lets you respect yourself, even when you make mistakes. And when you respect yourself, adults and other kids usually respect you, too…(Read More)
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Schedule of Training 2016 (USA & Australia)
USA (Las Vegas)
FasTrak™ NLP Practitioner Training
SEPTEMBER 24 – 30 | DECEMBER 1 – 7
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NOVEMBER 22 – 28 (Melbourne)
*Please contact us for 2017 trainings’ schedule.
Kocher to offer hypnosis classes
Fremont Tribune Discounts are available for those who convince another person to sign up. To reserve a slot, ask for discounts or more information, call Kocher at 402-317-2809. Kocher is a certified hypnotherapist and member of the International Board of Hypnotherapy. |
 Huffington Post |
How One Little Mindset Tweak Transformed My Life & Business
Huffington Post For many years, I thought of myself as someone who is NOT a public speaker. Sitting at the introvert end of the scale, I often found myself quaking in my boots at the thought of merely introducing myself in a work meeting, let alone standing up in ... and more » |
Here I am, sat in my office and still feeling a tad bleary eyed and tired following the UK Hypnosis Convention. I travelled up to London from Bournemouth early afternoon on Friday with my friend and colleague Lindsay Shepherd. After a taxi ride with our banners and suitcases, we met with a fabulous group of […]
The post The 2016 UK Hypnosis Convention – My Report appeared first on Adam Eason.
Do you struggle with willpower during the Halloween candy dash? Can't keep your hands out of your kids' trick-or-treat candy? Here's a few tips to help you avoid the candy stress!
The post How to Handle Halloween Candy in the House appeared first on A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss.
Kocher to offer hypnosis classes
Fremont Tribune Jeanne Kocher, hypnotist practitioner, will teach self-hypnosis for stress management on Tuesday evenings, starting Nov. 8. Classes will be held at Blue Yoga Studios, 529 N. Main St., in Fremont. The cost is $200 for four class sessions. Discounts are ... |
Dads get the “baby blues” too.
People might not realize this, but, after the birth of a child, both women and men can encounter symptoms of postpartum depression. I’m speaking from experience here.
After the birth of my daughter, which endures as one of the happiest moments of my life, I found myself struggling with unexpected waves of anxiety, fear, and depression.
It was horrible, and what made it worse, was that I was very uncomfortable talking about it.
8 Heartbreaking Secrets ALL Men Keep From The Women They Love
Here’s why — don’t you hate it when a couple says “we’re pregnant”?
I do. Because the dude isn’t pregnant. He’s not going to have to squeeze a bowling ball out of his downstairs business, so, c’mon, give credit where credit is due — SHE is pregnant and the guy is along for the ride.
I’ve never liked it when a man tried to make the pregnancy about him. He plays a part, sure, but, I was always of the opinion that, as a guy, there is NO way that I can ever comprehend the physical and emotional toll of pregnancy, so my role was to sit back, be supportive, and shut up.
And, for the most part, I think that strategy works.
However, I wasn’t prepared for how “shutting up” would negatively impact me AFTER my wife gave birth.
Because becoming a parent stirs up deep, powerful emotions. And, while many of those feelings are overwhelmingly sunny and positive, they can, sometimes, cast a shadow. Those epic highs lend themselves to equally epic lows and, suddenly, you find yourself crying and you don’t know why.
Once we brought my daughter home, I found myself confronted with those overpowering moments of terror and panic and I didn’t say anything about them.
Why? Because my wife had just gone through a freakin’ c-section. She’d spent almost a year getting sick every day, while a living creature grew in her belly, and then doctors had to cut her open to pull the creature out. They then sewed her up, handed her the creature, and expected that she’d know how to feed and care for it.
That’s a lot of shit to put on a person. No question — my wife had it WORSE than I did. There’s no comparison.
However, just because things were harder for my wife doesn’t mean that they weren’t also hard for me. She might win the miserable contest, hands down, but I was still in a really bad place. And I was too embarrassed to let my support network know that I needed them.
The more I’ve talked to new fathers, the more common I realize this experience is.
We’ve all just watched our partners go through one of the most intense physical experiences in the world, so we just feel ashamed to admit that we’re hurting a little too. It feels like our struggles are frivolous in comparison, but the fact is they’re very, very real and painful. Postpartum depression can be painfully real for men too, even if it’s embarrassing.
It all came to a head for me the first evening I spent alone with my daughter.
I’d encouraged my wife to go out with some friends — she’d only consented to leave for a few hours — and told her I’d be fine. Our baby was so good and happy. A little alone time was going to be good for us.
So she left. And my daughter started crying. She rarely cried.
And she cried, as if she’d been set on fire, for three hours non-stop.
I was beside myself. She never did this and, no matter what I tried, I could not get her to stop.
It shredded me, but I knew I couldn’t call my wife. I wanted her to have a fun first night out. I didn’t want her to worry. I was supposed to able to handle this.
My wife called me when she was leaving to come home, and I guess she heard the panic in my voice. She asked if I was OK. My voice cracked and I said, “Just please get here soon.”
She raced home and, the SECOND she stepped into our apartment, my daughter stopped crying. The baby smiled. The baby laughed. The baby goddamn cooed.
I handed her to my confused wife without a word, went into our bedroom, locked the door, laid down on the bed, and cried for thirty minutes.
Once I opened the door again, my wife and I had our first conversation about my postpartum depression.
I will say, my depression was extremely manageable in comparison to some stories I’ve heard. It came in waves that seemed to grow smaller and smaller as I became more comfortable as a father. So I was lucky.
Lucky it wasn’t more severe and lucky that my partner was so supportive (even though, again, she had it SO much worse than I did).
My Kids Like Their Dad More Than They Like Me
But, more than anything, it really opened my eyes about the importance of men needing to talk about postpartum depression.
It doesn’t just happen to women. It is important. And it is valid and OK acknowledge that you’re not feeling right, even when you know your partner is feeling worse.
Men — don’t be afraid to speak up about your anxiety and emotions following the birth of a child.
The healthiest thing you can do, for everyone, is get your feelings out into the open and let your support network do their job, even if they’re breastfeeding and changing diapers while they do it.
This guest article originally appeared on YourTango.com: Yes, Men Suffer From Postpartum Depression Too (Trust Me, I Know).
 The Campus Current |
Cards Against Hypnosis leaving students in awe
The Campus Current Hypnotist and Magician David Hall performed his famous Cards Against Hypnosis skit in the Student Union dining hall Monday afternoon, leaving the audience awed and laughing. David Hall became interested in hypnosis and magic in 1998, and performs ... |
Both parents affect your personality, but rejection by one parent could be more critical for long-term development.
Being rejected by your father can do greater, long-lasting emotional damage than being rejected by your mother, research finds.
While rejection by either parent is tramatising for children, fathers often have higher prestige and/or power.
Therefore, children can take their father’s rejection harder.
Professor Ronald Rohner, co-author of the study, said:
“In our half-century of international research, we’ve not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood.
Children and adults everywhere — regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender — tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures.”
Rejection by either parent, or both, has a huge effect on children’s personality.
They tend to become more anxious and insecure.
They may also become more hostile and aggressive towards others.
The pain of rejection often lingers into adulthood, preventing people making strong, trusting relationships with other adults.
The emotional pain can be considerable.
The same parts of the brain are activated for emotional pain as for physical pain, other research has found.
Professor Rohner said:
“Unlike physical pain, however, people can psychologically re-live the emotional pain of rejection over and over for years.”
The results come from a review of over 500 studies.
The studies help to emphasise how inaccurate it is to simply ‘blame the mother’ for children’s behaviour problems.
Professor Rohner said:
“The great emphasis on mothers and mothering in America has led to an inappropriate tendency to blame mothers for children’s behavior problems and maladjustment when, in fact, fathers are often more implicated than mothers in the development of problems such as these.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review (Khaleque & Rohner, 2012).
Bill Cortright is an extremely successful entrepreneur who is not only gifted with amazing intelligence and business wisdom, but also with a powerful ability to communicate with others. Bill was one of the guest speakers I brought in for my ReStory YOU workshop in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on October 28-29, 2016. His presentation, “Jailbreak Your Life,” was so powerful, I had to share it with you!
Listen on iTunes or Listen to/download this episode here:
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The post LIAM 288 – Jailbreak Your Life with Bill Cortright appeared first on Life Is A Marathon : Life Coaching | Self-Esteem | Personal Development | Personal Branding | Positive Thinking | Community.
By Kathryn Doyle
(Reuters Health) - Children and teens with access to tablets and smartphones at night don't get enough sleep and are sleepier during the day, whether or not they use the devices, according to a new review.
The review of 20 previous studies found kids using portable media devices around bedtime were more than twice as likely as kids who didn't use them to have short sleep times, but so were kids who had access to such devices at night but didn't use them.
"A lot of people argue that it's the device light emission that leads to sleep outcomes, but even if you're not using it, even having the presence of the device near you affects sleep," said lead author Ben Carter of King's College London.
"My personal view is it's due to continuous stimulation from things like social media engagement," and that there may be a similar relationship with adults, Carter told Reuters Health.
"Your social group is active and you can be thinking about it," he said. "If I text a loved one an hour before bed then I'm hoping I might get a reply."
The reviewers included studies of children aged 6 to 19 years that measured exposures to portable media like tablets and smartphones, but excluded studies that looked at television, personal computers or sources of electromagnetic radiation. In total, the included studies covered more than 125,000 children.
Bedtime media device use was consistently linked to difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep and poor daytime function due to sleepiness. Bedtime device use was also tied to insufficient sleep times of less than 10 hours per night for children and less than nine hours for teens.
Kids with bedtime access to these devices at least three times a week around bedtime, or with a device in the sleep environment, also had poorer measures of sleep quality and quantity than kids with less or no access, according to the results in JAMA Pediatrics, October 31st.
"It's normal to wake up during the night but when the phone is there, many people instead of just turning over will tap on the phone ostensibly to check the time, will see 15 text messages from their buddy or whatever, then 2 hours later they're going back to bed," said Dr. Charles Czeisler, director of the Sleep Health Institute and chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"It's very engaging technology and when it's present in the bedroom it reduces sleep duration," said Czeisler, who coauthored an editorial alongside the review.
Two-thirds of teens leave a device on while sleeping in bed at night, and turning the device off or moving it to another room can make a big difference, he told Reuters Health.
"Device use is ubiquitous and they are hugely beneficial in some cases," Carter said. "However we need to recognize that there are negative consequences of some device use."
Some devices can be programmed to switch off at a certain hour, which Carter would strongly encourage, he said.
Poor sleep has been tied to many health outcomes, among them dementia, Carter noted. "Sleep is an exposure that we take for granted, is free and we don't take enough notice of it."
Did you ever give any thought to how exams were distributed and collected? Or any other aspects of preparation for a task?
I’ve long been haunted by this line: “Be sure to read all instructions carefully; turn over your test papers and begin.” In fact, in my college application essay, that was the final line.
In writing Better Than Before, I spent a lot of time thinking about how beginnings and endings can influence our ability to shape our habits — the Strategy of the Clean Slate, the Strategy of First Steps, and the Strategy of Reward are two strategies where they show up.
Beginnings and endings matter a lot. I pay much more attention to them than I used to do.
Check out Yogi Tea. When it comes to enjoying life, little moments — like drinking a delicious cup of tea — can make a big difference.
The post A Little Happier: Preparation Is a Key Aspect of Performance. appeared first on Gretchen Rubin.
Seven steps to a more meaningful life includes meditation, movement and maximisation.
Top of the list for living a meaningful daily life is being more mindful, according to occupational therapist Dr. Melanie Austin-McCain.
She says:
“Be present, smile, humble yourself, and acknowledge others.
With mindfulness, you’re really in the present and focusing on your senses and your experiences — what you are feeling, thinking, and doing.”
Healthy daily routines and long-term goals are so important for a meaningful life, Dr McCain says:
“Evidence shows that having a purpose in life is helpful in promoting health and preventing chronic disease.
It’s about finding out about who you are, the things you like do and that are meaningful for you and setting goals that align with those things.”
Here are the six other steps that Dr McCain recommends:
It’s not productive to set daily goals for meditation, according to Dr McCain.
Instead, it is better to set aside some time to simply sit quietly and review your goals for the day and think about your intentions.
• Read more about the benefits of meditation, including a quick-start guide on how to meditate.
Keep the mind and body active every day, says Dr McCain.
The benefits of exercise are well known, of course, but the mind needs stretching in just the same way.
Try new things from time-to-time and use new strategies to approach old problems.
Everyone should occasionally take a little time to take a broader view of their own life.
These sorts of ‘management’ sessions could include thinking about diet, exercise, relationships or anything else that is important to you.
Use a “future is mine” mindset, says Dr McCain.
Remind yourself of your own potential and that of others.
Try to find the happiness and joy in the things you do.
Part of this is acknowledging those who provide you support, Dr McCain says:
“Meaningfulness is more like gratitude — awareness and appreciation of the things around you.”
It is beneficial to take on a mentor in different areas of life, as well as being a mentor for others, says Dr McCain.
In these final days before the 2016 election keep an eye on Maryland, New Hampshire and Missouri, where contested seats may have ramifications for science in the U.S.
This video was reproduced with permission and was first published on October 29, 2016. It is a Nature Video production.
This post is sponsored by DeLallo. There is never a time of day when pizza doesn’t sound good. Breakfast? Sure! ...
Flash forward five years. One day, I noticed a strange, bright red splotch on my breast, the breast where the cancer had been. The doctor did a biopsy of it, and the results came back malignant. It was an angiosarcoma, and the suspected cause was the radiation treatment I’d had five years before. This was a very rare form of cancer that, again, results sometimes from the radiation itself. That which was meant to heal me, made me ill.
On June 10, 2016, I had surgery to remove the cancer.
Fine and dandy. They got clean margins. Then, something awful happened. I was told that I had to have a CT scan to see if the cancer had spread throughout my body. (Nobody told me this beforehand.)
Enter fear, despair and disappointment. Enter the possibility of cancer and, therefore, the possibility of early death.
How am I dealing with this looming cloud of grief that is hanging over my head?
Below are some of my most useful techniques.
Ignore
I know it’s there, but I push the fear out of my mind. This is kind of like swatting away a nasty fly. You wave your hand, and the pesky insect disappears for a second. Repeat the process ad infinitum.
Wallow
Cry, cry, cry, worry, worry, worry. You cry until you have bruises under your eyes. The worry makes you physically sick.
Tranquilize
Lorazepam and chocolate ice cream. When you can deal with the threat no longer, you pop an Ativan. To your surprise, eating chocolate ice cream with real chocolate pieces does the same thing as the pill does.
Laugh
My cousin, Mary, volunteers at a hospice. She tells me that she makes ice cream sundaes for the patients every Saturday night. You say you might be in that hospice soon. She tells you she will make you an ice cream sundae every Saturday. You both laugh. Chuckling helps, but also gives you a strange, eerie feeling.
Forget
Get so busy that you forget. The house needs cleaned. The laundry needs done. The dinner needs cooked. By engaging in the day-to-day necessities, you somehow fail to remember your situation.
Shop
Retail therapy helps everything. You go to JC Penney in search of brown, V-neck, short-sleeved tee shirts. You’ve previously been to every store in a ten-mile radius and haven’t been able to locate them. You find the shirts! Your great retail success wipes out all bad thoughts. Sometimes shopping can cure anything.
Pray
Ask God for help. This is my most used technique in dealing with my fear of cancer. Jesus saves. He created the universe. He can save me from metastasis.
Talk
Enlist the voices of friends. Dissecting all the ins and outs of the issue with my best buddies is hugely relieving.
Commiserate
Diane, my close friend, also has cancer. Talking to her, who is fighting the same battle I am, is an exquisite balm for the pain I’m feeling. She tells you that she feels that her ship is sinking. I say mine is, too. Sharing this little cliché is like taking Taxol or B17 (depending on your point of view.)
Hope
I hang onto any shred of positivity I can find. I found the cancer early on. I had it cut out in its early stages. The cancer was very small and only on the surface of the skin.
Mother
I tell myself, “If I have cancer, everything will be OK.” Sometimes, we have to be our own Mom. Coo “Everything will be fine.”
Deal
Face reality. Sing “Stop Your Sobbing.” Chrissie Hynde to the rescue.
Write
Writing is my true salvation. Analysis and evaluation, with a bit of humor thrown in, are keys. Hence this little blog post.
In a few days, I’ll know whether I have more cancer in my body or if I’m cancer-free. I’ll discover the answer to the current huge question of my life.
Until then, I’ll continue to use these little strategies to get through the day.
It could be worse. I could be drowning my sorrows in food or alcohol or illicit drugs. But over the years, I’ve developed self-control with what I put into my body.
Ironically, exercise is not on this list. And we all know exercise is an excellent stress killer.
In truth, I’m too weak from the surgery to exercise.
It’s as simple as this: I will keep calm, and employ the techniques above.
What else is a body to do?
“Could you repeat that?” The reason you may have to say something twice when talking to older family members at Thanksgiving dinner may not be because of their hearing. Researchers at the University of Maryland have determined that something is going on in the brains of typical older adults that causes them to struggle to follow speech amidst background noise, even when their hearing would be considered normal on a clinical assessment.
In an interdisciplinary study published by the Journal of Neurophysiology, researchers Samira Anderson, Jonathan Z. Simon, and Alessandro Presacco found that adults aged 61–73 with normal hearing scored significantly worse on speech understanding in noisy environments than adults aged 18–30 with normal hearing.”
Study: Evidence of degraded representation of speech in noise, in the aging midbrain and cortex (Journal of Neurophysiology)
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Here I am, sat in my office and still feeling a tad bleary eyed and tired following the UK Hypnosis Convention. I travelled up to London from Bournemouth early afternoon on Friday with my friend and colleague Lindsay Shepherd. After a taxi ride with our banners and suitcases, we met with a fabulous group of […]
The post The 2016 UK Hypnosis Convention – My Report appeared first on Adam Eason.
Sleep difficulties are common — 30 percent to 50 percent of adults report having trouble sleeping.
For older adults, insomnia can often be chronic and is linked to other serious health conditions. Elders who have difficulty sleeping are also at higher risk for depression, falls, stroke and trouble with memory and thinking. They also may experience a poorer quality of life.
For these individuals, sedatives or hypnotic-type sleeping pills are a common choice as a sleep aid, however, the medications bring a risk of falls, fractures and even death.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a type of talk therapy that is considered highly effective for treating older adults with insomnia. During CBT-I sessions, therapists work with patients to help them change their thinking, behavior, and emotional responses related to sleep issues, which can improve their insomnia.
Although treatment guidelines recommend CBT-I as a primary therapy for older adults with insomnia, many people do not receive it because only a limited number of therapists have CBT-I training. Primary care providers also may believe that it is challenging to motivate older adults to see a therapist for insomnia.
To address these problems, a team of researchers developed a new CBT-I treatment program. The program uses trained “sleep coaches” who are not therapists. They learn how to give CBT-I using a manual and have weekly, supervised telephone calls with a CBT-I psychologist.
The program requires brief training for the sleep coaches, who are social workers or other health educators.
In their study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the researchers assigned 159 people to one of three treatment groups. The participants were mostly white male veterans who ranged in age from 60- to 90-years-old.
The first two groups of people received CBT-I from sleep coaches (who had a master’s degree in social work, public health, or communications) who had attended the special CBT-I training. One group of people received one-on-one CBT-I sessions with the sleep coach.
The second group also received CBT-I , but in a group format. People in the third group (the control group) received a general sleep education program, which also consisted of five one-hour sessions over six weeks. These people did not receive CBT-I from sleep coaches.
During the five one-hour sessions over a six-week period, in both the one-on-one and group sessions, the coaches counseled participants about improving sleep habits and how to avoid practices that can make it harder to sleep well.
Participants were taught techniques to enhance good sleeping. Recommendations such as using the bed only for sleeping, not for watching TV or reading, limiting the amount of time in bed so sleep becomes more consolidated, and other techniques were provided.
In both groups, the sleep coaches also had one weekly telephone call with a CBTI-trained psychologist to review how the participants were doing with the program.
Researchers collected information about the participants’ sleep habits at the beginning of the study and one week after treatments ended. They also followed up with participants six months and one year later.
Following their treatment, people with insomnia who received CBT-I from a sleep coach (either one-on-one or in a group) had lessened their sleep problems significantly, compared to people in the control group.
Improvements included:
• Participants took about 23 minutes less to fall asleep;
• Participants’ awake time was about 18 minutes less once they fell asleep;
• Participants’ total awake time was about 68 minutes less throughout the night;
• Participants also reported that the quality of their sleep had improved.
Six and 12 months after treatment, the participants in both CBT-I treatment groups maintained most of their sleep improvements.
The researchers said that improvements in sleep were about the same whether people worked with the sleep coach in one-on-one or group sessions.
The primary limitations of the research accompany study composition as investigators report the study was mostly limited to male veterans. As such, the results might not be the same for women or for non-veterans.
Overall, the researchers concluded that this CBT-I treatment program, delivered by sleep coaches, improved sleep quality for older adults.
Source: American Geriatrics Society
New sociological research attributes the commonality of unwed celebrity childbirths as helping to change social norms that frowned upon unmarried partners having children.
Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, a University at Buffalo sociologist, explains that over the past four decades celebrity news has contributed to the changing makeup of the traditional American family.
“Celebrities typically did not apologize for getting pregnant outside of marriage,” says Grol-Prokopczyk. “But the family model also changed over time. The early model dictated that you should marry by the time the baby is born. By the mid-2000s that had changed, and it became widely acceptable in the celebrity world to have a child without marrying first.”
With People magazine as her proxy for popular culture news coverage, Grol-Prokopczyk analyzed nearly 400 cover stories dating from People’s 1974 premier issue to the present to learn when the interest in celebrity pregnancies started and how the magazine’s presentation of family norms changed over time.
She presented her findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. A more detailed study, including calculations of celebrity non-marital birth rates, is currently under peer-review.
“I used People magazine because it’s reputable in the sense that it doesn’t publish fictional stories; it has been in continuous circulation for over 40 years; and it remains one of the most widely circulating magazines in the country,” says Grol-Prokopczyk.
“It also has a strong online presence, with as many as 72 million unique views in a given month.”
Grol-Prokopczyk’s curiosity about the media’s fascination with celebrity baby news began when she was pregnant with her first child. She signed up for news alerts, expecting to get medical and nutrition stories relevant to expectant mothers, but instead received mostly news reports about celebrity pregnancies.
“Academics often scoff at celebrity news, but in fact there’s evidence that celebrity culture is enormously influential in changing norms and has a very wide reach,” she says.
“For example, after Angelina Jolie wrote an op-ed after having her preventative mastectomy, a survey conducted weeks later found that 74 percent of Americans knew about her surgery and the decision.”
This became known as the Angelina Effect, and research on its impact was published in the journal Genetics in Medicine. “That attests to the fact that decisions celebrities make reach us and affect our thinking,” says Grol-Prokopczyk.
Researchers discovered the first People magazine cover that showed a celebrity pregnancy was in May 1976. Goldie Hawn was pictured and the text makes it clear that she’s pregnant and unmarried, but the caption reads, “She’s laughing with a baby and a new hubby on the way.”
“There aren’t many non-marital fertility stories in the 1970s, but when they do appear there’s almost always a promise that the parent will marry by the time the baby is born,” says Grol-Prokopczyk.
“It’s like saying, ‘Don’t worry, readers. They’ll be married by the time the baby arrives.'”
The model was still the same when People magazine announced Melanie Griffith’s pregnancy in 1989, with a caption that said she and Don Johnson were “thinking about an April wedding.”
Beginning in the 1990s, the normative model began to change, and by the mid-2000s, People magazine regularly showed celebrity couples who didn’t marry by the time the baby was born, according to Grol-Prokopczyk. These non-marital births were almost without exception presented as happy, morally unproblematic events.
“This includes women who were partnered but didn’t plan to marry the partner, but it also includes so-called ‘single mothers’ who we now know were in committed same-sex relationships, in particular Jodie Foster and Rosie O’Donnell,” she says.
Seven covers about Foster and O’Donnell appeared between 1996 and 2002. None of them acknowledge that the women were in same-sex relationships, and two of them directly referred to the women as “single mothers.”
“Based on biographies of them now, we know they were in long-term, committed relationships at the time,” says Grol-Prokopczyk.
“People magazine was slow to show acceptance of same-sex parents, preferring to present them as single parents. This example shows that while celebrity media coverage can serve as an agent for social change — by de-stigmatizing non-marital childbearing or transgenderism, for instance — it does not always do so,” she says.
Source: University of Buffalo
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We’ve all had the experience of trying to make a tricky decision through the fog of fatigue, but there’s surprisingly little objective evidence about how time of day affects the way we decide. Perhaps late-day tiredness makes us more rash, as we lack the energy to be considered. Alternatively, maybe it’s our mid-morning zest that could lead us to be impetuous. Of course, our own chronotype is also likely come into play – perhaps morning people – “larks” – make better decisions in the morning, whereas evening people – “owls” – make better decisions in the evening.
One place to look for answers is in the data trails left by our online behavior. For a new paper in Cognition, a team led by María Leone has analysed the moves made by dozens of internet “fast chess” players, some of whom have played tens of thousands of two or three-minute games, consisting of an even greater number of moves. The results suggest that regardless of chronotype, we’re inclined to make progressively faster, less accurate decisions as the day wears on, with the effect plateauing in mid-afternoon.
The researchers asked the participating players – all of whom have playing data recorded on the Free Internet Chess Server – to complete a measure of their chronotype. Thirty-three per cent were owls, 9 per cent were larks and the remainder somewhere in between. As expected, the records showed the players had tended to play more games at their preferred times of day.
Ignoring early-game moves which are often based on rote-learned strategies, or moves made when game time was almost up, the analysis showed that player moves tended to be of a more conservative style in the morning, meaning the moves were judged as more optimal, but they were also made more slowly – the researchers call this a “prevention” focus, in the sense of preventing an error (past research has shown that this is the style people typically adopt when playing a superior opponent). By contrast, afternoon and night moves were more “promotion” focused, in that they were made more quickly, but less optimally. Although this pattern was found across all chronotypes, the trend for morning moves to be slower than afternoon and evening moves was more striking for larks.
It’s worth noting that Leone and her colleagues do not interpret this as evidence that decision making simply deteriorates through the day. In fast chess, you lose if you run out of playing time, so there are clear advantages to deciding quickly. Consistent with this interpretation, there was no evidence that players’ overall performance (as revealed by post-match changes to their online skill rating) varied with time of day.
This study provides a great example of how researchers are increasingly exploiting “big” online data to explore psychological effects in real-life settings. It’s not clear how far we can extrapolate from these results to decision making in other contexts, but certainly the implication is that we’re likely to be more cautious and considered in the morning, and more quick and bold in the afternoon or evening – perhaps worth noting when it comes to scheduling a business negotiation or even the time of day to do your grocery shopping.
—Time to decide: Diurnal variations on the speed and quality of human decisions
Image via Rom/Flickr
Christian Jarrett (@Psych_Writer) is Editor of BPS Research Digest
Innovative new research discovers a novel reward of having the opportunity to interact with therapy dogs, can improve behavior among children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
ASD may result in deficits in social communication and interaction, repetitive or restricted behavior, sensory issues and cognitive delays, say researchers. These traits prevent children on the spectrum from performing or completing tasks in the same timeliness or fashion as other children.
Often, in order to get children with ASD to complete tasks, a reward-based system is implemented, where the child is given a toy or some other form of reward. But the offer of a reward doesn’t always guarantee completion of the task.
In a new study, Texas Tech University researchers investigate if providing access to therapy dogs as the reward — allowing students who complete certain academic tasks to spend time with the pooch – will help motivate them to complete those tasks.
“It is a reward-based program,” said Alexandra Protopopova, a behavioral analyst and assistant professor in companion animal science in the Department of Animal & Food Sciences.
“There is a second component to it, however, in that dogs, just by being dogs, may alleviate stress. Potentially, the dogs create a more pleasant environment and offer emotional support during academic sessions.”
Investigators believe the dogs create a more pleasant environment and offer emotional support during academic sessions.
“So, by mediating that stress level, the dogs may improve learning and potentially improve other outcomes as well as being a reward for the child ruing work.”
Protopopova is an expert in behavior issues with dogs across a wide array of subjects, from interaction with children with ASD to analyzing what behaviors are more attractive for potential adopters and ways to bring those behaviors out to improve adoption rates.
But she said the methods and philosophies of how behavior works in animals is, at the core, the same as it is in children, and it is that connection that made this current research both attractive and interesting.
“With an iPad or toy as a reward, a child might become bored over time,” Protopopova said. “With a dog you might see the exact opposite situation over time where the child grows attached to the dog and the quality of the reward grows as well.”
The innovative approach was spurned by Protopopova and a colleague in the College of Education, Professor Jeanne Donaldson, who wanted to connect the college and the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research with the Department of Animal & Food Sciences.
The most natural way to make that connection, she said was to incorporate therapy dogs with the research being done involving applied behavior analysis in children with disabilities.
“Social behavior and social interaction has been an often neglected component of these kinds of programs,” Protopopova said, “and that is something researchers have attempted to improve, that social behavior and communication.
There is some evidence that dogs or animals in general occasionally could bring out that social connection. That part of the research is definitely attractive to us.”
Measuring the effectiveness of using therapy dogs as a reward for academic performance in children with ASD was performed in two areas.
The first was done biologically; stress responses were detected through the collection of saliva. Breanna Harris, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, used salivary cortisol, a stress hormone, to determine a student’s stress level in regard to anticipating interaction with the dog.
The second aspect of measuring effectiveness was done by observing the rate of work in the children and how motivated the children were to engage in academic tasks. Each child was given an individual task based on his or her education level, so those tasks involved the same things they were learning in school at the time or what parents had indicated the child needed extra help with.
A control condition was created where there were not rewards and children received praise only for engaging in academic tasks. A second control group saw children work toward receiving inanimate leisure items such as iPads or toys, which Protopopova said have been proven through prior research to be effective motivational tactics.
Two other control conditions involved the therapy dogs. One condition involved the dogs being used as a reward for work performed and would be present only after that work was completed. The second condition was what Protopopova termed more of the typical animal assisted intervention where the dog was continuously present in the room.
Notably, the conditions where there was no reward at all and where the dog was constantly around proved to be the most ineffective methods of motivation, researchers found.
The two conditions where there were rewards provided upon completion of the work were the most effective; being rewarded with spending time with the therapy dog proved the most effective for some children.
“In fact, for most of the children, this was very useful as a reward because the dog motivated them quite a bit to do the work,” Protopopova said. “We did find, surprisingly to me, that one participant did in fact work where we hypothesized he wouldn’t during a session where the dog was present but not as a reward.”
In many cases, time and experience made a difference.
For example, single-use incidences of using the therapy dog show one thing, but the researchers wanted to determine whether prolonged exposure to the availability of a therapy dog as a reward for performing work continues those results.
For that reason, in this first study, children stayed in the program for anywhere from four to nine months to see if using the same dog repeatedly fosters the child’s attachment to the dog.
Prior to the child beginning the program, he or she is given a behavioral preference assessment where the child is asked to choose his or her favorite thing in the room, whether it’s a toy, an electronic device, a dog, etc.
They also were given the choice of performing the academic test instead. At the end of the program, the child is tested again with the same assessment to see if their preferences had changed.
“We wanted to see how all these preferences for inanimate objects or activities changed,” Protopopova said. “Right now we are still collecting the final pieces of data because we’re still finishing up with a couple of participants. We don’t yet have the clear answers there, but it’s not as straightforward as we imagined, either. For some of the children, we did not see the attachment we hypothesized, or at least any evidence of it in our data so far. But it’s too early to tell.”
Protopopova said one of the advantages of this study is its single-subject design where each child’s program or sessions are designed specifically for that child’s needs. That will allow, if the program is used outside of an educational setting, for other children to enter the program with a focus on their unique behaviors and what is best to encourage them to learn difficult academic or self-care tasks in a non-stressful learning environment.
She said one family in the original group took the data gathered about their child and obtained a dog and will train it as a service dog because of the benefits the data showed for their child.
“This is definitely a strength,” Protopopova said. “Instead of a group design and us concluding that the average child would benefit from some procedure, which is not really that meaningful to individual families, we can give each family specific answers whether their child would or would not benefit from a dog.”
One major question to come out of the preliminary research, she said, is whether using a shelter dog to encourage behavior can be used to determine the severity of the disability. Does it work on children who are higher- or lower-functioning?
Protopopova and other researchers are beginning another one to answer new questions that rose from the original, smaller study.
The larger study will involve at least 30 children, and they are actively recruiting children to enter the study. Those children must be between the ages of 2 and 14 with autism spectrum disorder and/or other developmental disabilities.
The hope is the larger study will allow the research to be used in schools and centers on a regular basis.
“There we can answer more generalized questions,” Protopopova said. “How useful is this and who is it most useful for? Can we tell which children are going to benefit and which ones will not? So when we get those answers we are going to be a bit closer to really giving that program out to schools to say, ‘we have strong evidence that it will be useful for this person or not for this person.”
Source: Texas Tech University
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