Psychology and You - All Comments

re: The Large Hadron Collider

Altair — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:08:35 GMT

I hope they come up with some amazing results because this is a pretty expensive piece of equipment. Wasn't this what everyone was afraid would create a black hole and destroy the universe? I hope the results aren't THAT amazing.

re: Stress second part

mike — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:32:05 GMT

It's amazing how our bodies can adapt to our surroundings. We get used to things after a long enough time of dealing with them. Some things, like stress overloads, just shouldn't be something we get used to. By the time we become dull to it, we're already in pretty bad shape. Some of us probably operate on extreme stress levels but don't even realize it anymore.

I heard about a guy whose pastor told him to just sit still for a minute and just listen to his body. He realized that he had excruciating pain in his back, but he had been running on so much adrenaline and wasn't sitting still long enough to notice. He found out he had a herniated disk in his spine, but his stress and adrenaline levels were so high, he was completely oblivious to it. Sometimes our natural ability to adapt can really be to our detriment. We just have to make sure it doesn't get to that point.

re: STRESS

mike — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:53:22 GMT

It's amazing to me that until the 1930's, the concept of stress wasn't even considered. Today we take great strides to reduce stress, and we seem to be living much longer as a result.

When you think about it, our bodies are designed to kick into overdrive in order to preserve our lives. This overly heightened state of performance is also extremely taxing on us and generally causes us to wear out. I spend most of my high school years living on so much adrenaline I could barely sleep on the rare occasions that I didn't have to run on overdrive just to keep up with school. I burned myself out around my junior year, and my health was extremely bad until I graduated. I have a feeling if I kept it up, I would seriously shorten my life span. Not to mention I was completely miserable because of my constant stress levels. After I graduated college, I had to make a lot of changes in my lifestyle to avoid stressing myself out and burning out again.

re: Cartoons

paulcarson — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:56:00 GMT

We choose to ignore the terrible working conditions domestic workers have to face

re: How to discipline your child

writer lady — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:48:09 GMT

what i am is conflicted and lacking in parental confidence. And besides that, Jack is a bright, loving, creative, funny, articulate, very cute, defiant, willful child. I think he'd be a real challenge for any parent.

re: How to discipline your child

kurt — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:17:31 GMT

I think this would work with a defiant kid. It's really up to you if you are willing to be the adult. It's not easy because kids always test their parents. Remember there are a multitude of psychological problems that come from having a weak parent. I know your not weak, but it's important to remember.

re: How to discipline your child

writer lady — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:45:26 GMT

And what do you recommend for a 6-year-old who, though he is a loving and wonderful child, is also willfully defiant?

re: Yoga and wellbeing

moneycoach — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:36:27 GMT

Blogette, I have a yoga book you can borrow. I also have yoga and tai chi videos if you're interested.

re: Yoga and wellbeing

Blogette — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:58:07 GMT

Is there a book you could recommend for starting yoga?

re: How to be a good therapist

mike — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:00:23 GMT

The therapist holds a very powerful position in the life of their patient. They have to walk the fine line between professional and objective advice and personal relationship each day. Are there any legal or practical measures that regulate how a therapist is to tread this precarious path?

re: Friends and Lovers

Romo — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:32:19 GMT

I like your idea that honest communication is crucial to a long-lasting friendship within dating... Honest communication is probably a good tactic for any kind of social situation. This reminds me of a lady I play Scrabble with, who told me about meeting a nice man at a social gathering... He asked for her phone number because he "enjoyed her company." She took this comment at face value in part because she thought everyone knew she was gay (it turned out he did not know). This led to a good story on her part, but much confusion on his. Eventually they cleared it up and these days they really do enjoy one another-s friendship.

re: Stress sensitization

mike — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:17:30 GMT

I can certainly attest to this. I'm generally pretty stress free myself, but I know a lot of people who start to break down at even the first hint of stress. Our lives are so stressful just from being part of today's society. Often we find ourselves stressing ourselves out in hopes to be more productive, and becoming far less productive in the end due to stress. It's a vicious cycle that engulfs most of our culture in America.

Tips to alleviate stress:

Get enough sleep: This sounds so basic but so few people actually do this and it adds up.

Rest regularly: Aside from sleeping, you need to wind down your mind to let out some of that stress. Sit down and sit still without doing anything for 5 minutes and just clear your mind. It will make so much difference. Often we are so busy we never sit completely still and get stressful things off our minds.

Eat right: Certain kinds of vitamin deficiencies can cause stress and mimic stressful symptoms.

Get some sun: Sunlight is needed by your body to make certain chemicals which make you feel happier. Lack of sunlight can actually cause stress and depression.

Take a day off: We have weekends for a reason. Have fun when you can, and don't think about work or other stresses while doing things you enjoy.

Laugh a lot: Life can be so much fun when you allow it to. Enjoy yourself and make sure to add a little dose of humor in each day. Laughing releases chemicals that combat stress and make you feel generally better. That's one of the reasons I try to include a little spot of humor each day in my blog, Reality Check. Check it out each morning at www.blogiversity.org/.../realitycheck and see if it helps to brighten your day.

re: Nature

Romo — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:27:02 GMT

At the University of Oregon in Eugene researchers asked subjects to view a selection of paintings and rate how pleasing they found each piece. Each piece was analyzed for fractal images by the researchers. Results of the study found that the more closely the ratio of fractals in a painting matched the ratios of fractal patterns occurring in the natural world, the more pleasing viewers ranked it.

A working conclusion is that as humans our minds not only recognize patterns that occur in nature, but also take pleasure in such patterns.

Much of the research in this field was inspired when physicists began working with the fractal images in paintings of abstract painter Jackson Pollack.

I also wrote more about this over at my blog, Five Alive. Click on my name above to take you there, and look for the post called On Nature.