Monday, February 18, 2008

Learned Helplessness and Self-Esteem

"Living Life on Life's Terms" means that there are certain things concerning life, about which we must adhere. For example, one of the "terms" of life is that we need to breathe air and drink water. One of the other "terms" is that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Nonetheless, we can learn from these experiences. One of the things that we often learn is that we do have choices.

Young circus elephants, for example, have often been trained to keep them from escaping, by tying them to a post, while they are still very young. After countless, fruitless attempts to free themselves, the baby elephants believe that they cannot escape. Eventually, even as strong, adult elephants, they will not attempt to flee. The elephants have leaned to be helpless, despite their new reality.
Not unlike other animals, humans can mistakenly learn to be helpless. Unlike most other animals, however, we have the unique intellectual capacity to understand the nature of our limitations, in order to rise above them.

What we focus upon tends to become our experience. If we believe that we are "bad" and "deserve to be punished," then that becomes our reality. If we understand, however, that we were "victimized," that sometimes bad things do happen to good people, we can learn from our unfortunate experience that we still do have choices, despite our initial feelings of "learned helplessness." We can eventually "accept life on life's terms" that despite what happened, that does not make me who I am. I am a good person who has positive choices and deserves good things. This new, healthier perspective now becomes our reality, as we allow things to happen and to things, consistent with this empowering belief.

Virtual Light and Sound Machine Meditation FREEWARE for Effortless Stress Management

Since 1997, Herbert Benson, of the Harvard Medical School, has reaffirmed that "Sixty to ninety percent of [doctor-patient] visits are prompted by conditions related to stress." Especially in today's world, stress management is truly vital to emotional, relational, and overall physical health. As a psychologist, I understand that most tend to consider meditative exercises as too difficult to learn; and too time consuming to practice.

Although activities like watching television and listening to music can be relaxing, they do not illicit the relaxation response that is most beneficial for managing stress. In order to de-stress, people need to do something that sounds contradictory, namely engage in activity that is not passive. The Surgeon General recommends physical activity for stress management. One can also manage stress by engaging in self-meditations.

De-stressing with...

"Virtual Light & Sound Machine"
Meditation FREEWARE


Even though Light and Sound Machines are effective devices that help to induce healthy meditative states, most also consider them to be too expensive. To sample the positive effects of these devices, "Flasher 1.51" is actually a fully-functional, virtual Light & Sound Machine freeware program, that was created in the early 1990's. It was designed to similarly entrain brainwaves with precisely timed, flickering lights. One can simply choose the settings one wants, sit in front of the computer monitor, and close one's eyes. The software then pulses the monitor so that the flickering is experienced behind one's closed eyelids. It offers a remarkably effective, seemingly effortless feeling of DEEP RELAXATION, within only a few minutes. The effect appears very similar to the experience of using actual Light & Sound Machine goggles.

This meditation enhancer was recently given new life, by an American computer programmer. It now allows the previously out-dated program to function within today's modern Windows environment. I often recommend it to my patients who want to better mange their stress.

Virtual "Light & Sound Machine" Meditation FreewareGet it from CNET Download.com! Installation Instructions

The effectiveness and ease of audio hypnotic programs can even be enhanced with the use the meditation enhancer software technology, described above. For some FREE audio hypnosis downloads and complete information on Light & Sound Machine technology, please feel free to visit my website: www.ThePsychologist.com/