Family: The Foundation of Self Esteem

Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.
-- Virginia Satir:
image credit: jjpgmag.com

Have fun - just go for it!

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.
Bob Basso

Feed your Brain Well

 
 This is a really wonderful comprehensive article by Emily Deans, explaining why our brains need to be fuelled by Omega-3 fats, not the highly processed trans fats or saturated fats and Omega-6 fats that we tend to consume way too many of.  So what has this got to do with Positive Psychology?  Plenty!  We're learning more and more everyday about the positive benefits of Omega-3's on improving focus, concentration and memory, decreasing anxiety and mitigating depressive symptoms.  So, go get yourself some wild salmon fillets for dinner tonight.  Serve your salad with an olive oil based dressing.  Make it a habit to feed your brain well and you'll be rewarded with a happier brain!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/your-brain-omega-3

Just Breathe..... to Reduce Stress

  Thank you to my friend, Marcia Katz (http://www.holistic-counseling-services.com for sharing this link:http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131734718/just-breathe-body-has-a-built-in-stress-reliever

Just Breathe: Body Has A Built-In Stress Reliever

by Gretchen Cuda

There are plenty of ways to relieve stress — exercise, a long soak in a hot bath, or even a massage. But believe it or not, something you're doing right now, probably without even thinking about it, is a proven stress reliever: breathing.
As it turns out, deep breathing is not only relaxing, it's been scientifically proven to affect the heart, the brain, digestion, the immune system — and maybe even the expression of genes.
Mladen Golubic, a physician in the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Integrative Medicine, says that breathing can have a profound impact on our physiology and our health.
"You can influence asthma; you can influence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; you can influence heart failure," Golubic says. "There are studies that show that people who practice breathing exercises and have those conditions — they benefit."
He's talking about modern science, but these techniques are not new. In India, breath work called pranayama is a regular part of yoga practice. Yoga practitioners have used pranayama, which literally means control of the life force, as a tool for affecting both the mind and body for thousands of years.
Take A Breath
Judi Bar teaches yoga to patients with chronic diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. Bar uses yoga and modifications of traditional yoga breathing exercises as a way to help them manage their pain and disease.

What Happens In The Body When We're Stressed?

The physiological stress response is actually designed to be an asset. It speeds the heart rate and diverts blood away from the gut and to the muscles so we can run away. It constricts the pupils of our eyes so we can focus on our attacker. It dilates the bronchi of the lungs to increase blood oxygenation, and converts energy stored in the liver into fuel for strength and stamina. In short, it keeps us safe, says Esther Sternberg, physician and author of several books on stress and healing.
It's in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, which makes a hormone called CRH, or corticotropin-releasing hormone. Sternberg says that when you are stressed, you are bathing yourself in a whole soup of other nerve chemicals and hormones. But if they hang around too long, those same nerve chemicals and hormones can impair the immune system.
Eventually, stress hormones make the adrenal glands release another hormone called cortisol. Cortisone, which is the drug form of the hormone cortisol, is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory drugs available.
"What's happening when you're stressed is that your own body is giving itself multiple shots of that anti-inflammatory hormone, and so that tunes down your immune system's ability to do its job to fight infection," Sternberg says.
— Gretchen Cuda

"Our breaths will either wake us up or energize us. It will relax us, or it will just balance us," Bar says.
She demonstrates a "firebreath."
"So, at first we pant like a little doggy, and then we close our mouth, and then the nostril breath starts right after that. OK, here we go," she says.
Bar then begins to pant, first with an open mouth and then through the nose. It almost makes you feel lightheaded just watching. Afterward, she says she feels a little dizzy but energized enough to run around the block a couple of times.
Putting On The Brake
Research has shown that breathing exercises like these can have immediate effects by altering the pH of the blood, or changing blood pressure.
But more importantly, they can be used as a method to train the body's reaction to stressful situations and dampen the production of harmful stress hormones. Esther Sternberg is a physician, author of several books on stress and healing, and researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health. She says rapid breathing is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. It's part of the "fight or flight" response — the part activated by stress.
In contrast, slow, deep breathing actually stimulates the opposing parasympathetic reaction — the one that calms us down
"The relaxation response is controlled by another set of nerves — the main nerve being the Vagus nerve. Think of a car throttling down the highway at 120 miles an hour. That's the stress response, and the Vagus nerve is the brake," says Sternberg. "When you are stressed, you have your foot on the gas, pedal to the floor. When you take slow, deep breaths, that is what is engaging the brake."
Changing Gene Expression
Harvard researcher Herbert Benson coined the term "The Relaxation Response" in 1975 with a book of the same name. In it, Benson used scientific research to show that short periods of meditation, using breathing as a focus, could alter the body's stress response.

More From NPR

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In his new book, Relaxation Revolution, Benson claims his research shows that breathing can even change the expression of genes. He says that by using your breath, you can alter the basic activity of your cells with your mind.
"It does away with the whole mind-body separation," Benson says. "Here you can use the mind to change the body, and the genes we're changing were the very genes acting in an opposite fashion when people are under stress."
Of course, breathing is not the answer to every medical problem. But Benson and others agree: The breath isn't something Western medicine should blow off. It's a powerful tool for influencing individual health and well-being. And the best part is all the ingredients are free and literally right under your nose.
image credit:  http://evancleveland.blogspot.com

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"LUCK OF THE IRISH" - Kind of a funny phrase isn't it?  Have the Irish really been on the receiving end of Good Luck?  Their history may say otherwise.....  Maybe this phrase is more about an ability to really land solidly back on one's feet after experiencing a bunch of Bad luck?  Does green beer help with that kind of positive psychology?

Tears can lead the way to Happiness

Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in awhile, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.

Alex Tan

Yes, tears are a part of striving for happiness.  When we feel sadness, tears are a real expression of our feelings.  When we experience grief ourselves, or even the connected feeling of universal grief when others around the world are hurt, it's important to feel what we feel.  Feelings are never wrong, and even the most uncomfortable or distressing feelings are a normal and healthy part of our psychology.  Experiencing and expressing our pain also allows us to create more room for pleasure and the full experience of joy. 

Overcoming the pain of an Earthquake

As we watch the images of destruction in Japan, we can feel for the many people who are suffering and will continue to suffer losses and devastation at the hand of Mother Nature at her worst.  While we continue to go on with our daily lives, there will unfortunately be more and more "aftershocks" for our Japanese friends.  For many, these effects will last longer than it takes to rebuild and move on in their physical lives.   The psychological repercussions of trauma are well documented, and common after natural disasters.  Untreated, these can endure as debilitating mental illness symptoms far into the future. Fortunately, there have been many advances in our ability to successfully treat the negative mental health effects of trauma.  Most important is to provide support, an outlet for expression, and strategies to deal with anxiety.  An old Japanese saying is "Put a lid on anything smelly" and has been a good description of that country's approach to dealing with psychological problems.  I hope that this time they'll do things differently.  Here's more....

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/overcoming-pain/201103/the-chronic-pain-earthquakes

The Chronic Pain of Earthquakes

When aftershocks of an earthquake are not just aftershocks of an earthquake.

Published on March 12, 2011

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan reminds one of the chronic pain that will invariably be suffered by the survivors long after the rebuilding of residences and infrastructure will have been completed. Survivors are at high risk for behavioral and emotional pathology. Psychiatrists report high rates of "nervous reactions" and "reactive depression" as common afflictions in the aftermath of major disasters. Post traumatic stress disorder has been estimated to occur in 32% to 60% of adult survivors and 26% to 95% of the children of survivors who have been evaluated after earthquakes.
It would thus appear that the aftershocks of an earthquake are not just the aftershocks of an earthquake.

Persistent or recurring disruptions from an earthquake contribute to the continued mental health woes of survivors. While the general psychological stress after an earthquake may stabilize after 12 months, the post traumatic stress reaction may not stabilize until 18 months after the temblor.
And there is a high probability significant numbers of survivors will suffer some form of permanent psychological symptoms, most likely proportional to the degree of personal loss suffered.
It will be interesting to see whether this latest earthquake in Asia will produce the same post-disaster psychopathology documented following other Asian earthquakes:
A study following the Yunnan, China earthquake of 1988 found that in the most severely affected regions, the psychiatric morbidity rates doubled. More telling was the fact that those rates were documented 6 months after the disaster, indicating that the researchers were capturing more chronic psychiatric morbidity, and not simply the acute distress one would expect to encounter following a major disaster. Much of this morbidity expressed itself as somatic symptoms, such as muscular tension, fatigue, sleep disturbance, bodily aches and pains, to name but a few.
Most of the victims of the quake in Kobe, Japan of 15 years ago experienced emotional numbness. During the first week after the disaster there existed the expected fear and anxiety vis-à-vis possible aftershocks and grief for the loss of loved ones. Years later, many victims reported continued chronic pain and depressive symptoms.
It is generally considered that Japan treats mental illness with the attitude found in the old Japanese adage, "Put a lid on anything smelly", thereby ignoring the psychological suffering, and avoiding the treatment of this suffering for fear of bringing shame to the family.
As we meditate upon the current suffering in Japan, let us also be hopeful that the tsunami that resulted from that huge earthquake will bring a sea change in the deployment of mental health care to the victims. The psychological analyses that will surely follow will tell us whether that change has occurred.