The TED series of lectures and conferences is fascinating. There are some really interesting presentations covering all sorts of topics and subject materials, presented by some very talented people. All the talks I’ve seen have been thought provoking and just visually appealing.
By shifting the plane of focus to something other than the cognitive back and forth we typically see, mindfulness can allow a different way to process information. By exiting this necessarily circular argument, we can start to make progress on dealing with emotion as it is: a natural reaction to events. When we start viewing emotions as natural phenomena and not events that need to be challenged or beaten back, we may finally be able to end the fight against reality in which we have been engaged.
As you might be able to tell, I’m a big fan of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Here he’s talking about his book Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. The video is quite long, so grab a warm cup of tea and enjoy it.
I found this article written about video games and addiction to be quite fascinating. From a therapeutic perspective, I’m not sure there’s much to be gained, but from a purely “understanding the disorder” perspective, I found it to be insightful.
Many children who want to believe their tastes are adult will bravely try coffee, find it to be undeniably awful, but recognise something that could one day, conceivably, be enjoyed. Once our tastes as adults are fully developed, it is easy to forget the effort that went into them. Adult taste can be demanding work – so hard, in fact, that some of us, when we become adults, selectively take up a few childish things, as though in defeated acknowledgment that adult taste, with its many bewilderments, is frequently more trouble than it is worth.
Many parents, I’m sure, wonder about whether playing video games can make kids violent or glorify deviant behavior. This is such a tough question to answer and I don’t believe that there’s any real consensus on the subject. I’ve been gathering a number of articles recently written on both sides of the argument and I hope to writing a more lengthy piece later about it. For now, I think, as with all good parenting, you’ve got to be involved in what your kids are playing. End of story.
The topic of PMR came up today in one of my groups and I encouraged them to do a google search on progressive muscle relaxation. I figured I’d do the same and post my results here.
I found a site at Arizona State University that has audio of someone reading a PMR script. I haven't heard the audio but the transcript looks good. Have a listen.
Dr. B