Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Indo Pak Chat
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Environmental Psychology
From ScienceLine.
CAN A STROLL IN THE PARK REPLACE THE PSYCHIATRIST'S COUCH?
A New Generation Of Psychologists And Therapists Focus On The Relationship Between Nature And Mental Health
[Image: bobopuffs, Flickr.com.]
By Ferris Jabr Posted August 12, 2010
Standing alone atop a modest mountain in rural Maine, Eric Adams looked out into the darkness all around him. Between the silhouettes of boulders and trees, slivers of yellow light wandered and winked - the eyes of wild animals. Fears began to crowd his mind, but he did not push them away. This was part of his therapy.
To help confront a marriage in crisis, Adams (a pseudonym) sought counseling. But the 34-year-old lawyer from Syracuse, New York, didn't opt for the psychiatrist's couch. Instead, he chose the mountain. Adams turned to an emerging practice called ecotherapy, which applies the principles of ecopsychology - the study of how the natural world influences mental health.
"I don't have an office - all my meetings are outside regardless of the weather," said Dennis Grannis-Phoenix, an ecotherapist in Bangor, Maine who began counseling Adams in 2004. Hiking, camping, kayaking - each therapeutic session centered on an outdoor activity. Grannis-Phoenix asked Adams to climb the mountain alone as an exercise in learning to face his fears and anxieties. Instead of rationalizing his fears, Grannis-Phoenix wanted Adams to embrace them - something both therapist and patient feel is easier to learn in nature than in an office.
"Nature forces you to confront your immediate circumstances," said Adams. "Ecotherapy speaks to you not just through your analytical and verbal capabilities - your body interacts with nature." In a way, Adams said, interacting with nature is a kind of therapy for both body and mind.
He isn't alone in thinking so. In the early 1990s, when historian Theodore Roszak criticized mainstream psychology for failing to consider the relationship between mental health and natural environments, a movement called ecopsychology emerged to address exactly that. Loyal to Roszack at first, the movement developed ideas that budded in the 1960s and framed itself as a critique of Western psychology's focus on the experiment - but things are beginning to change. Some researchers are mounting a new campaign to bring the scientific method to ecopsychology and its applied practice, ecotherapy. These researchers have already founded the field's first peer-reviewed journal, "Ecopsychology", and they are about to publish a book outlining their mission. The book, published by MIT Press, advocates serious study of how green spaces color psychological well-being.
"We are hoping to revitalize the field of ecopsychology," said Jolina Ruckert, a PhD candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Washington and one of the authors of the forthcoming book. "We want to bring in the more rigorous approach of the modern social sciences."
SCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM
In the past few years, some ecopsychologists have made significant strides in adding scientific rigor to their field. What their research suggests so far is that even subtle interactions with nature provide a range of cognitive benefits, including elevated mood, enhanced memory, and decreased stress. Staring out a window at pretty scenery can significantly lower one's heart rate, for example, and some studies even indicate that hospital windows with views of nature can facilitate healing. What's more, nature provides measurably greater benefits than both manmade environments and simulations of nature. Research demonstrates that walking through the city can tax our attention, whereas a park restores our concentration and can even improve our performance on tests of memory.
These findings come from controlled studies that follow the tenets of mainstream psychology. Despite the new enthusiasm for serious empirical work, many researchers in mainstream psychology remain cautious about drawing any conclusions that ecopsychological studies cannot properly support. "My impression as an outsider is that ecopsychology is a promising but preliminary field," said Scott O. Lilienfeld, a psychologist at Emory University. "I wouldn't say it's conclusive, but there are certainly many suggestions that nature may be helpful for short-term mental health. There's no question it can have positive effects on mood. I think claims that nature may be helpful are reasonable, but claims that our technological society or distance from nature are massively detrimental to mental health go beyond the current data."
The fact is that empirical work is a new trend in ecopsychology, which began as a field that wasn't interested in the experiment so much as the experience - an individual's personal experience with a natural environment.
"In the beginning, we didn't need to measure anything," said Lisa Lynch, an ecopsychology pioneer who now coordinates a masters program in the field at Antioch University in Seattle, Washington. The University of Wisconsin, Oberlin College, and Lewis she choreographed a ceremonial dance; she told her stories. But there were no controlled experiments - just experiences and anecdotes.
"My experiences are not empirical science, but for me they are extremely valid," Lynch said. A new generation of ecopsychologists disagrees. Experience, they argue, is not enough.
"Ecopsychology just didn't have the rigor needed to really understand the relationship between the natural world and mental health," said the University of Washington's Ruckert. She belongs to a new generation of ecopsychologists who are trying to establish that rigor by growing a body of empirical work.
PARKS AND RELAXATION
According to Thomas Doherty, a clinical psychologist in Portland, Oregon and the editor of "Ecopsychology", research by these second generation ecopsychologists evidences the measurable benefits of nature for both body and mind. In green spaces, for example, people's heart rates decrease, their muscles relax, and they become calmer. It's the difference you feel when you leave behind a busy city street for a peaceful park.
A recent study by Ruckert's advisor Peter Kahn confirmed these findings. First, Kahn stressed out his participants by giving them a series of math tests. Then he placed some people in front of a window overlooking a grassy lawn with trees, others in front of a large plasma television screen displaying the lawn in real time, and still others in front of a blank wall. As expected, those in front of the window experienced the quickest drop in stress levels, as measured by their decreasing heart rate. Participants also spent far more time looking out the window and at the plasma screen than at the blank wall. But the researchers found an unexpected result.
"Surprisingly, the blank wall and the plasma screen were no different in terms of stress reduction," said Ruckert. Their study indicates that gazing at an authentic natural space reduces stress, whereas a digital replica of nature soothes only as well as a boring blank wall.
Kahn, whose study appeared in the May 2008 issue of the "Journal of Environmental Psychology", isn't sure why the plasma screen failed to relieve stress any better than a blank wall - but he suspects it's because people recognize even a realistic display of nature as a substitute for the real thing.
Emory's Lilienfeld thinks Kahn's study is a good example of how to design empirical ecopsychological studies, but says he won't be convinced until future studies confirm the findings. "There's a lot of interesting and provocative work, but studies need to have proper controls and some of them are starting to, I think," Lilienfeld said. "The plasma screen study is a good example, but it's still only one study. I think it's a good design, but I want to see the results replicated. I want to see there is that isn't just a general effect of relaxation, but really is specific to nature."
FOCUS AMONG THE FLOWERS
In addition to helping us relax, authentic interactions with nature help maintain concentration, according to attention restoration theory. "Our energy to focus gets fatigued," Doherty explained. "Natural spaces restore our ability to pay attention."
In a 2008 study at the University of Michigan, Marc Berman asked some participants to memorize digits and recite them in reverse order. Then he had one group of participants walk through an arboretum, while others traveled crowded city streets. Afterwards, the subjects completed the digit task again. Those who'd strolled through the arboretum performed with higher attention and memory than those who had walked in the city. The arboretum-walkers recited an average of 1.5 digits more on their second test than on their first, compared with an average of 0.5 digits improvement for participants who had been exposed to the urban environment.
"Our study was one of the first to make it into a mainstream psychology journal," said Berman, whose study was published in "Psychological Science". "We had a lot of experimental control." For example, Berman made sure his participants followed consistent paths through the arboretum and streets by monitoring their progress with GPS-enabled wristwatches. And he used standardized surveys to assess people's mood before and after their walks.
"It was one of the first times that we grounded the human relationship with nature in empirical research," said Ruckert of Berman's study. "As ecopsychology increasingly incorporates a more systematic approach, I see it emerging more in the dialogue of mainstream psychology."
Even Lisa Lynch - the ecopsychology pioneer who believes in the experience over the experiment - is excited by her field's new empirical directions. "Sometimes it was a little like Peter Kahn and I were fighting with light sabers," Lynch said. "But I think Kahn and his students are doing some excellent work looking at how can we validate these experiences through science. I think that's an important move for the field.
Ecopsychology had no peer-reviewed journal of its own until April 2009, when Mary Anne Liebert, Inc. published the first issue of "Ecopsychology". Additionally, Ruckert, Peter Kahn and Patricia Habash are the co-editors of an upcoming book with MIT Press entitled" Ecopsychology: Science, Totems and the Technological Species", in which around a dozen psychologists, anthropologists and biologists discuss their work and the importance of applying rigorous scientific methods to ecopsychology.
But some ecopsychologists and ecotherapists aren't so enthusiastic about the new empirical work. "For me the science is not a critical piece," said Dennis Grannis-Phoenix, the Maine ecotherapist who asked Eric Adams to hike a mountain alone at night. "I've seen the changes Eric and my patients go through and they are real."
Adams, on the other hand - who is now divorced, but lives in Bolivia to be near his children - welcomes science. "People who gravitate towards ecopsychology don't tend to have that kind of a background," Adams said. "But it's not like the scientific perspective and the ecotherapeutic perspective are at odds with each other."
For Adams, divorce was the right decision - one he reached through ecotherapy. "Rather than conform to my environment, I learned to change my conditions," Adams said. "Because nature is so much a part of who I am, something about interacting with it helps me to make these big life choices."
Tags: Psychology, therapy, mental health, Nature, Environment, Can a Stroll in the Park Replace the Psychiatrist's Couch?, ScienceLine, Ferris Jabr, ecology of mind, wilderness, sanity, depression, Ecotherapy, Theodore Roszak, Jolina Ruckert
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Where To Pick Up Rich Men In Nyc
WHERE TO PICK UP RICH MEN IN NYC
Dating Advice For Men
There are a lot of other success factors as well. There are techniques on how to speak with the right tonality... how to touch her that allows her to feel comfortable and doesnt turn off any of her weird alert switches... specific NLP triggers that you can use to connect and make sure shes totally in your zone....
Origin: datingforaverageguys.blogspot.com
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Is Hypnosis Infallible
The individual success rate for hypnosis varies with the issue being treated, the skill and training of the hypnotherapist, and the motivation of the client. A common obstacle to success of smokers, for example, is that the smoker is attempting to stop to please someone else. Hypnosis will only work if the client is motivated to be successful for her or himself.
Someone with a habit of disagreeing, and we have all met at least one of them, can present a challenge for the less experienced hypnotherapist. However, there are some simple things that can be done to neutralize the habitual disagreement pattern. One way is to use tag questions like "isn't it?", "doesn't it?" of "haven't you?" The "not" in tag questions allows the person to focus their reflexive disagreement on the negation in the question rather than the statement that proceeds it, doesn't it?
You could, just for fun, sprinkle in a few tag questions in a conversation with someone who seems to be disagreeing with you as a pattern. That is a way just to find out for yourself how well tag questions work, isn't it? No hypnosis is necessary for the experiment.
Origin: pua-celebrities.blogspot.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Free Dating Sites Join Free And Learn How Do They Operate
Free dating sites are quite simply--free. That is, they are free to the end user. The expectation is that in gratitude for using the dating site at no cost to himself or herself, the single person will purchase goods and services from the commercial advertisers that pay for the placement of promotional material on the web site. In practice, this is probably true, since seeing name or a logo several times will make it more readily called into memory when needed for purchasing decisions. In turn, the more people who visit the free site and click on the message from the advertiser, the more likely the advertiser is to renew or increase the advertising message, simply because it's obviously working.
Commercial advertisers
Advertisers like to place their information and products on sites such as free dating sites. These are sites that are visited by many individuals who have an interest in new products and services, and who often have significant disposable income. When singles visit the site and enjoy their experience there, they tend to be more favorably disposed toward the advertisers that present their goods on the web site. As the advertisers see more visitors and more hits on the product, they are willing to increase their advertising budget significantly, which in turn will bring in more visitors to the site.
Profile publicity
There are some people who place their pictures on the free dating sites as a publicity gimmick. They may be hoping for work in the movies, advertising or in modeling and find that the exposure gained on such a site is very valuable in furthering their careers. Because there are safeguards built into the sites so that you only release the personal information that you deem appropriate, using the site to improve your visibility can be a profitable idea.
Informational articles
Free dating sites attract people because of the profiles they find and because of the informational materials that are available on the web site. The articles are sometimes purchased from brokers and sometimes submitted by visitors to the site to attract visitors to other web sites. The free sites are benefited by such articles since they attract more visitors who are in search of information on the various subjects covered in the articles. The subjects can be about dating or about relationships. They can be serious self-help articles or can be humorous comments on the dating scene in general.
Links
The links that can be found on the free dating sites are very helpful both to the free site and to the other web pages that use links in order to bring visitors in from a popular free site. The search engines include popularity of good incoming links as a measurement in page ranking for the web sites containing the links. A higher page rank with the search engines equates to more search engine results hits and higher revenues from the page. Those who make a business of search engine optimization take such positive link results into account when designing new web pages.
Free Dating Sites or Dating Sites is the best possible resource on the internet where you can find information and links to dating websites. They are totally free and you won't need to spend hours hunting for the best site, just use this handy link.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Richard Bandlers Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning
Richard and John worked together for about seven years at the start of Neuro-Linguistic Programming before moving in their individual directions. Richard went onto brand his work as Design Human EngineeringTM and Neuro Hypnotic RepatterningTM (and at one point launching litigation in a failed attempt to register a Trademark for NLP as a whole). John has been very active in continuing to develop NLP, the product of which can be labelled as New Code NLP, working with Judith DeLozier initially and more recently Carmen Bostic St Clair. While New Code NLP and "Richard Bandler NLP" are very different on many levels - and each is in the pursuit of modeling excellence - there can be some striking similarities. For example:
NEURO HYPNOTIC REPATTERNING: In one exercise, you take a situation that isn't working for you. A "problem state" if you will. Then you identify the feeling, noticing how the feelings move and change. After a short break, you then create a more resourceful state - a state of mind that feels better and that you believe helps you perform better. A "resource state". Finally, you take the resourceful state with you while remembering the problem state.
NEW CODE NLP: Take a context that you would like to work on. This context may be problematic or generative - ideally, "have the unconscious mind select this context". Associate and connect with that state, taking an inventory of your sensory experience in that context (eg "What can you see, hear and feel?"). Break your state then create a "content free high performance state" - this is a specific class of states, indicated by resourceful physiology, lack of internal dialog, activation across the brain and body. There are several straightforward methods presented in the New Code to access this state. Finally, you take the "high performance state" into the context, which means that the "unconscious mind selects appropriate resource(s) to bring into that context".
The similarity of these two processes is apparent. However there are some significant differences:
* New Code NLP focuses upon how individuals can expand their choices. Other forms of NLP can tend to focus on how a 'technique' can help 'fix' a client's problem.
* New Code NLP strives for elegance. Rather than having to learn dozens or hundreds of "techniques", New Code NLP focuses upon the most simple format with the absolute minimum number of steps.
* New Code NLP actively engages the unconscious mind. While students of Richard Bandler might have developed finger signals that can be accessed under hypnosis for the use of the practitioner, New Code NLP Practitioners will have a range of ways to access unconscious signals (such as "yes", "no" and "more information") so facilitate clear communication. Engaging the unconscious mind is key to helping people get outcomes that are wise, sustainable and takes into account the consequences.
* New Code NLP emphasizes rigorous thinking, precision, and addressing a situation at the appropriate logical level. Other forms of NLP can fix a 'problem' but then have to fix another 'problem' and another because that 'problem' was actually at a different level.
* New Code NLP emphasizes the importance of NLP Practitioners to continue to engage in modeling. NLP was developed by modeling great performers, and much of NLP today is focused on the resultant techniques.
There are a range of other differences that are readily apparent to me. However, let me encourage you to discover this for yourself.
"(Written 2009, updated 2011.)"
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Learn How To Date Your Partner Again In A Trial Separation
1. When you and your partner go on a date, ensure you both clarify what type of date you both are going on. Picture the disappointment from your partner when she or he expects a charming night when instead you wish to come over to discuss family's finances. Ensure you make it clear to your other half on what the purpose of your date is.
2. Knowing precisely what each other's expectancies when it comes to dating plays a crucial factor in saving your relationship. Choose whether you both plan on dating other people and ensure you guys are honest about it. Imagine further damage to your relationship when your spouse accidentally runs into you and your other date. Not merely will that hurt your spouse, but can in reality end your relationship than and there.
3. When you and your other half are on a date, don't pretend as if you do not have any marriage issues. Make sure as a couple you are very open about the issues in your marriage. Instead of blaming who did what, figure out what failed in your marriage and what you both could have done differently. This is going to help you both as a couple get a better perspective of what went wrong and can help you find techniques to fixing your marriage.
4. Before you and your spouse starts dating, its important that you fellows fix the problem of physical intimacy and the limits. If you really believe that your relationship can't be saved and you feel divorce is imminent, than having sex with your other half will only cause deep and emotional pain. The very last thing you would like to do is to further hurt your partner when you know divorce is unavoidable.
5. The most vital thing when it comes to dating your spouse during a trial separation is that you keep the lines of communication open at all times. Openly expressing your thoughts, feelings and agenda when it comes to dating your other half will help you both get back on track to healing your relationship.
Dating is a way for you and your spouse to reconnect with one another on neutral grounds. Dating will help realign and balance your relationship when done correctly. It's very common for most couples to permit distractions and stress pull your attention from your other half, by dating, you'll refocus on making your relationship a major priority.
If you want to know how fix a broken marriage learn how Marriage Sherpa can save your marriage.
Origin: pickup-and-love.blogspot.com
