Alan Watts Don't Force Anything Who is Alan Watts? A prolific author and speaker, Alan Watts was one of the first to interpret Eastern wisdom for a Western audience. Don't Force Anything - Born outside London in 1915, he discovered the nearby Buddhist Lodge at a young age. After moving to the United States in 1938, Alan became an Episcopal priest for a time, and then relocated to Millbrook, New York, where he wrote his pivotal book The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety. In 1951 he moved to San Francisco where he began teaching Buddhist studies, and in 1956 began his popular radio show, “Way Beyond the West.” By the early sixties, Alan’s radio talks aired nationally and the counterculture movement adopted him as a spiritual spokesperson. He wrote and traveled regularly until his passing in 1973. “Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Alan Watts had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the un-writable’. Watts begins with scholarship and intellect and proceeds with art and eloquence to the frontiers of the spirit. A fascinating entry into the deepest ways of knowing.” — LA Times The Early Years (1915-1938) Alan Wilson Watts was born on January 6, 1915 in the countryside near London, England. From a young age Alan was fascinated by Asian art, literature, and philosophy (his mother’s students were children of missionaries to Asia). His parents recognized his bright and inquiring nature, and encouraged Alan to write. His father, a businessman, would bring Alan to the Buddhist Lodge in London, where as a teenager, Alan became editor for the Lodge’s journal, The Middle Way. In 1932, he produced his first booklet, An Outline of Zen Buddhism, a summary based on the Zen writings of D. T. Suzuki. In 1938, Alan moved to the United States to study Zen in New York, where he soon began lecturing in bookstores and cafes. The Middle Years (1939-1959) In 1940, Alan published The Meaning of Happiness, a book based on his talks. Ironically, the book was issued on the eve of the second World War. After a brief time in New York, Alan moved to Chicago and enrolled at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, deepening his interest in mystical theology. Alan was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1944, but by the spring of 1950, Alan’s time as a priest had run its course, and he left the Church and Chicago for upstate New York. There he settled into a small farmhouse outside Millbrook and began writing The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety. In early 1951 Alan relocated to San Francisco, where, at Dr. Frederic Spiegelberg’s invitation, he began teaching Buddhism at the American Academy of Asian Studies (which later became the California Institute of Integral Studies). Drawing quite a crowd, his classes at the Academy soon blossomed into evening lectures open to the public and spilled over to local coffee houses frequented by Beat poets and writers. Alan’s career took to the airwaves in 1953, when he accepted a Saturday evening slot on Berkeley’s KPFA radio station. That year he began a broadcast series titled “The Great Books of Asia” followed in 1956 by “Way Beyond the West” — which proved to be quite popular with Bay Area audiences. Re-broadcast on Sunday mornings, the show later aired on KPFK in Los Angeles as well, beginning the longest-running public radio series — nearly 60 years at this writing. The Later Years (1960 to 1973) By the mid-fifties a “Zen Boom” was underway as Beat intellectuals in San Francisco and New York began celebrating and assimilating the esoteric qualities of Eastern religion into an emerging worldview that was later dubbed “the counterculture” of the 1960’s. Following the 1966 publication of The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, which sold very well, requests for appearances poured in. Alan lectured at colleges throughout the U.S. and conducted seminars at fledging “growth centers” across the country, such as the world-renowned Esalen Institute of Big Sur, California. Broadcasts of his talks continued at KPFA and KPFK, and spread east to WBAI in New York and WBUR in Boston. The weekly shows attracted a wide audience and Alan became an important figure in the counterculture movement. As the movement gathered steam, the San Francisco Bay Area became a hotbed for radical politics, and a focal point of interest in Far Eastern ideas of enlightenment and liberation. The growing movement united civil rights activists, antiwar protesters, and members of the Free Speech movement, drawing thousands of young people to the Bay Area in 1967. After his stirring performance at a “Zenefit” for the San Francisco Zen Center, and a celebrated article on “Changes” in the Oracle alternative newspaper, Alan soon became recognized as a spiritual figurehead of the revolutionary movement. (Recorded at the Avalon Ballroom on April 6, 1967, Alan’s Zenefit lecture is titled Zen Bones.) By the late-sixties Alan was living on a ferryboat in Sausalito in a waterfront community of bohemians, artists, and other cultural renegades. Alan’s ferryboat soon became such a popular destination that to maintain his focus on writing, he moved into a cabin on the nearby slopes of Mount Tamalpais. There he became part of the Druid Heights artist community in the late sixties. Continuing to travel on lecture tours into the early seventies, Alan was increasingly drawn to life on the mountain, where he wrote his mountain journals (later published as Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown), penned his monograph The Art of Contemplation, worked on his autobiography In My Own Way, and wrote his final book, Tao: The Watercourse Way. However, soon after returning from a whirlwind lecture tour that took him through the U.S., Canada, and European, Alan passed away in his sleep on November 16, 1973, on the mountain he loved. Of life on the mountain, he wrote: “I was filled with that odd sensation the Japanese call yugen: watching wild geese fly and being hidden in the clouds; watching a ship vanish behind the distant island. I feel in some sense that I have lived on this mountain, that the experiences, the meetings, the goodbyes, the smell of food wafting through the trees, encountering wandering mystics on the many wiggly paths to the summit are all a fundamental and basic part of my makeup, which, in a certain sense of the word ‘me,’ they are. When I close my eyes I see faint images of light through the leaves, of cabins and their interiors full of Aztec hangings, singing bowls, prayer rattles, Eastern art, dresses and instruments and strange furnishings. There are some places that seem to, through a collective upsurging in creative joy, find their way to a spot outside of time and from there send waves rippling up against the shores of our own slices of the here and now.” – Alan Watts

Addiction: a disease involving continued use of a substance despite serious substance-related problems, such as loss of control over use, health problems, or negative social consequences.

our mind has three states: The reasonable mind, the emotional mind, and the wise mind. Everyone possesses each of these states, but most people gravitate toward a specific one most of the time. Wise mind is the point of overlap between emotion and reasonable mind , like on the Venn diagram. Wise mind is part reason and part emotion and what makes you know you're in this mind is often a sense of intuition. It can sometimes be described as that 'aha' moment. ​The emotional mind is used when feelings control a person’s thoughts and behavior. They might act impulsively with little regard for consequences. ​The wise mind refers to a balance between the reasonable and emotional halves. They are able to recognize and respect their feelings, while responding to them in a rational manner. ​A person uses their reasonable mind when they approach a situation intellectually. They plan and make decisions based on fact. Describe an experience you’ve had with each of the three states of mind. ​Reasonable ​ ​Emotional ​ ​Wise ​

Resilience “When you fall off a horse, get back on.” “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” These quotes sound nice, but might leave you wondering: How? How do I get back on the horse, make lemonade, or try again? The answer lies in resilience. Resilience means using inner strength to work through and grow from challenges and crises. This is what allows a person to “bounce back” after anything from a minor rejection to a major life setback. No one is born resilient—it's a learned skill. With practice, anyone can become resilient. More than anything, resilience comes from mindset. By controlling how you think about a situation, you can control how you respond to it. Read on to learn four mindset-oriented strategies for building resilience. Focus on What You Can Control During times of crisis, it’s common to feel overwhelmed and powerless. It may feel like everything is out of control, and there’s nothing you can do. For this reason, it’s beneficial to recognize that there are things within your control. Resilience comes from managing the things within your control while accepting the things you cannot control. Acceptance won’t necessarily come easily, but you can work toward it. For example, practicing mindfulness can help you accept things as they are, without trying to change them or push them away. Focusing on what you can control is a skill, and the more you practice, the better you will get. Adopt a Growth Mindset There are countless ways to view the events in your life. Depending on the perspective you take, the same situation might carry completely different meanings. Resilience comes from viewing hardships as opportunities for growth. This mindset is developed by looking for the upside of difficult situations—even when that is hard to do. This doesn’t mean you see the situation as entirely positive (or even mostly positive). Instead, you recognize there are at least some positive things you can take from the situation. Face Your Fears When facing a crisis, it’s natural to want to avoid the uncomfortable feelings that come with it. For example, after losing a job, it might feel bad to reflect on your mistakes, or to share the bad news with loved ones. Skipping these steps means not having to face discomfort... for now. In the long run, avoidance leaves the root problems unresolved, allowing them to grow or recur. Confronting difficult experiences is key to developing resilience. Being present to your difficult experience—rather than pushing it away—gives you the chance to work through problems. The more you practice confronting challenges, the more confidence you gain in facing similar challenges in the future. Discover Your Values Think of the most meaningful moments in your life. ... Think of the moments you felt the least satisfied. ... Pay attention to what stories inspire you. ... Figure out what makes you angry. ... Imagine your ideal environment. ... Review the accomplishments you're most proud of. Values are the things that are most important to you in life. Understanding your values can help build resilience. When you’re just going through the motions and doing things without passion, it’s easy to throw in the towel as soon as things get difficult. In contrast, when you know what you’re fighting for, you’re better equipped to push through even the most challenging situations. To discover your values, consider times you felt happy, focused, or energized. What did these situations have in common? What values does this reveal? Use your values to motivate you through future challenges. Summary Resilience is about working through challenges and coming out even stronger. You can develop resilience by focusing on what you can control, adopting a growth mindset, facing your fears, and defining your values.

Getting Started with Mindfulness Mindfulness Meditation Jon Kabat-Zinn--a leader in the field of mindfulness and health--has defined mindfulness as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally." This means consciously paying attention to our senses, and to our feelings, without further judgment. For example, mindfulness could be practiced by focusing on the sensation of water rushing over your hands as it falls from a faucet, or by feeling and accepting sadness without trying to push it away or to evaluate it. Research has linked mindfulness meditation with reduced anxiety, more positive emotions, and, with enough practice, permanent structural changes in the brain that sustain these benefits. Before beginning, know that meditation is a skill that requires practice. In the beginning it might seem as if unwanted thoughts constantly intrude your mind and the serenity associated with meditation might be brief. With time your ability to meditate, and to control your focus, will improve. Listed below are instructions to help you begin mindfulness meditation. Planning For the best results meditation should be a daily exercise. Meditating for 30 minutes a day might be a great goal, but it might not be realistic for your life. If 30 minutes doesn't seem doable, try to start with 10 to 15 minutes a day. Create a schedule that you can stick to, rather than one that you will give up on in a week. Posture How you sit isn't too important--just make sure you are comfortable, but not so relaxed that you will doze off. It will be OK to sit on the floor, in a chair, and with your legs either crossed or straight. Keep your spine upright and find a pose that you can maintain without too much discomfort. Thoughts Allow your thoughts to come and go. The more you try to control them, the more invasive they will become. Like our senses, thoughts are a normal part of our existence. Acknowledge your thoughts and let them pass naturally. Breathing Focus on your breathing. Take full but gentle breaths through your nose and notice the rising and the falling of your belly. Notice how your body changes as air enters and then leaves your lungs. This is the key to mindfulness meditation. Focusing on the sensation of your breathing will quickly bring you into the present and connect your mind with your body. Summary Plan to devote 10 to 15 minutes to meditation each day, and more if you think you can. Find a relaxing posture and begin to focus on your breathing. Pay attention to each breath and the sensations in your body. Allow thoughts to enter your mind and then fade away without judgment or resistance. After they have passed return your focus to breathing. Continue this process for the duration of meditation.

Who is the Real You?? This is an amazing video about how to find the underlying real you. Most often many live their life with a lack of awareness. Our priorities are all mixed up. Our wants are our needs and our needs are our wants. What imprint do you want to live in this world when we return to the ground? Who are you? Why do you exist? What is the point of your breath and life? How do you affect other people lives? One of the most inspiring people that I have gained the most awareness is Alan Watts, who an amazing English philosopher who pretty much knows most religions of the world. He can literally quote from each religious textbook. One of the fundamental principles is be God's plan through your action not because of fear of God. The truth of God is there that exist without one belief in him/her and there those are devout followers. Where does freedom of choice come from? Can we stop feeling hungry? We is a devout Buddhist after learning about all different types of religious which is a why of life or perspective on life, trying to reach enlightenment. Source: Alan Watts

Before being used for treatment, medicines undergo years of testing. In the United States, the Food and Drug administration requires several levels of research that investigate the effectiveness and the potential harm of a new drug. Traditionally, therapy has not been held to these same standards. While tests of psychotherapy efficacy are common, studies of the dangers are rare. Despite the recent push for empirically supported therapies, clinicians still have the ability to apply treatments with little or no scientific basis. Research of psychotherapy rarely examines what doesn't work, and more importantly, what might hurt. In a 2007 paper, Scott O. Lilienfeld tackled this problem by asking the question: "What psychological treatments cause harm?" Below are some of his findings. Outcome studies of psychotherapy indicate that 3 to 10% of clients actually fare worse after treatment. In substance abuse treatment, these numbers are as high as 10 to 15%. These harmful effects include the worsening of symptoms, dependency on the therapist, the development of new symptoms, and a reluctance to seek future treatment. Crisis Counseling (Sometimes) How Crisis Counselors Help People Coping With Trauma Interventions immediately following a traumatic event frequently do the exact opposite of what is intended–they increase the likelihood of a client developing symptoms of PTSD. During crisis counseling clients are often asked to "process" their emotions, which may result in over-focusing on the negative and dramaticizing the events. Even when clients report that the intervention has been helpful, objective measures indicate a worsening of symptoms. Recovered Memory Techniques Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques (such as psychoanalysis, hypnosis, journaling, past life regression, guided imagery, and the use of sodium amytal interviews) Science-Backed Memory Tips and Recall Techniques Hypnosis, guided imagery, and the repeated questioning of memories may result in the development of false memories. In several high-profile cases clients have unintentionally created false memories of traumatic sexual abuse and even alien abductions. Other consequences of these treatments have included significant increases in suicidal ideation and psychiatric hospitalizations. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)-Oriented Psychotherapy Treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) often follows a practice-based psychodynamic psychotherapy approach that is conducted in three phases: symptom stabilization, trauma processing, and identity integration and rehabilitation. What Is Dissociative Identity Disorder: Signs and Causes In DID-oriented therapy clients are asked to bring forward their many different personalities. Hypnosis and other techniques are sometimes used to allow each personality to meet, and clients are encouraged to leave messages to be shared between personalities. Unfortunately, research indicates that these techniques may result in the development of additional new personalities. Additionally, some clients experience symptoms such as suicidal ideation and self-harm only when they have taken on alternative personalities. Grief Counseling for Normal Bereavement What Is Grief Counseling? Techniques and How It Helps Studies indicate that therapy for grief should be reserved for cases of long lasting grief and grief triggered by sudden or unexpected deaths. In cases of regular grief, therapy has been found to result in negative outcomes for about half of all participants. Expressive-Experiential Therapies Experiential therapy Experiential therapy is a category of therapeutic techniques in which expressive tools and activities—such as role-playing or acting, props, arts and crafts, music, animal care, guided imagery, or various forms of recreation—are used to allow clients to re-enact and re-experience emotional situations from their past or their relationships. Treatments that focus on experiencing or releasing powerful emotions can be helpful for some, but harmful for others. This form of emotional catharsis has been found to result in an increase of negative emotion rather than a reduction. These findings are similar to those indicating that catharsis for anger, such as punching a pillow, results in even more anger. Other Harmful Treatments Can psychological treatments be harmful?

Have you ever watched a movie that really made you feel something? Maybe you’ve felt fear while the camera creeps down a dark hallway, anger when the villain gets his way, or joy when everything turns out okay. It seems obvious that movies can make us feel... but why? We aren’t creeping down a dark hallway, and the victory at the end isn’t our own. The answer is actually very simple. Being in a dark hallway does not cause fear. It’s what you think about being in a dark hallway that causes fear. In short: Your thoughts have the power to control your emotions. This is where cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) comes in. During CBT, you will learn to identify thinking patterns in your everyday life that are causing painful emotions or other problems. Then, by developing new thoughts, you will learn to change how you feel. In this article, we'll dive deeper into thoughts, and the role they play in controlling emotions. Introduction to Thoughts It seems intuitive that how you feel is a result of the situations you face. If something “good” happens, you feel happy, excited, or proud. If something “bad” happens, you feel angry, sad, or worried. For example, imagine you are driving on the highway, and another vehicle cuts you off. As a result, you feel angry. It seems to make sense that you are angry because you were cut off. However, if situations truly caused emotions, every person would react to the same situation in the same way. Of course, this is not the case. Some people become angry after being cut off in traffic, while others brush it off. Why is it that two people in the same situation have different emotions? The answer is that situations do not actually cause emotions. There’s a step in between that often goes unnoticed. It’s how you interpret or think about a situation that determines how you feel. Imagine two different people are cut off by hurried drivers, but they both have different thoughts about the situation: As shown in the example, different thoughts lead to different emotions. So, how does all of this happen without you even noticing it? The answer is something called automatic thoughts. Automatic Thoughts Much of the time, thoughts are overlooked because they happen outside of your awareness. When you have the same thoughts over and over, your brain begins to tune them out. These are called automatic thoughts. Automatic thoughts are like a sound you can hear, but don’t usually notice, such as the hum of a refrigerator. To see automatic thoughts in action, think of something you do so frequently that it feels like second nature. For example, when you commute to work or school for the first time, you might need directions. But before long, it will seem as if you are travelling on autopilot. You don’t look up directions or think about each turn—you just do it. The brain’s ability to run on “autopilot” is important, because it frees up resources for other tasks. But there’s a downside, too. When thoughts happen automatically, outside of your awareness, they aren’t assessed for accuracy. Thoughts with inadequate evidence may be accepted as fact. Irrational Thoughts Another trick the brain uses to make sense of the world is guessing. Imagine you text a friend, and they don’t answer for several hours. You don’t know why they haven’t responded, but your brain will probably try to guess. Your brain could guess something mundane, like: “They must be busy at work.” Or it might guess something more extreme, like: “They must be angry at me.” Sometimes these guesses are accurate, but not always. When guesses lack evidence, they are called irrational thoughts. Over time, even irrational thoughts can become automatic. This means thoughts and beliefs that are not true can shape how you feel, and how you behave, without you knowing. Imagine a person who develops the automatic thought: “People do not like me.” This belief begins to color every situation. When a friend doesn’t return a text message, it feels hurtful. When a stranger scowls at them in the grocery store, it feels personal. Even when they receive a compliment, it feels phony or insincere. Of course, these interpretations of each situation aren’t accurate. They’re shaped by irrational thoughts that are happening automatically, outside of awareness. One goal of CBT is to identify and challenge irrational thoughts. After challenging an irrational thought, you will learn to replace it with a new, rational thought. Doing this will improve how you feel and how you act. By replacing irrational thoughts with rational alternatives, your feelings will better match the situation. Generally, this leads to healthier behaviors that result in better outcomes during everyday situations. The importance of thoughts, and how they interact with feelings, is at the foundation of CBT. Going forward, you will learn to notice your thoughts as they’re happening, evaluate them, and change thoughts that are irrational. To learn more about CBT, check out our video:

Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined. If, as the American sociologist Philip Rieff once contended, “psychological man” replaced such earlier notions as political, religious, or economic man as the 20th century’s dominant self-image, it is in no small measure due to the power of Freud’s vision and the seeming inexhaustibly of the intellectual legacy he left behind. Here are shocking facts about Sigmund! Here is facts about the "father of psychoanalysis" that will confuse. Cocaine addiction?? Top 10 Insane Facts About Sigmund Freud Who is Dr. Sigmund Freud? Sigmund Freud, (born May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Příbor, Czech Republic]—died September 23, 1939, London, England), Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined. If, as the American sociologist Philip Rieff once contended, “psychological man” replaced such earlier notions as political, religious, or economic man as the 20th century’s dominant self-image, it is in no small measure due to the power of Freud’s vision and the seeming inexhaustibility of the intellectual legacy he left behind. Early life and training Freud’s father, Jakob, was a Jewish wool merchant who had been married once before he wed the boy’s mother, Amalie Nathansohn. The father, 40 years old at Freud’s birth, seems to have been a relatively remote and authoritarian figure, while his mother appears to have been more nurturant and emotionally available. Although Freud had two older half-brothers, his strongest if also most ambivalent attachment seems to have been to a nephew, John, one year his senior, who provided the model of intimate friend and hated rival that Freud reproduced often at later stages of his life. n 1859 the Freud family was compelled for economic reasons to move to Leipzig and then a year after to Vienna, where Freud remained until the Nazi annexation of Austria 78 years later. Despite Freud’s dislike of the imperial city, in part because of its citizens’ frequent anti-Semitism, psychoanalysis reflected in significant ways the cultural and political context out of which it emerged. For example, Freud’s sensitivity to the vulnerability of paternal authority within the psyche may well have been stimulated by the decline in power suffered by his father’s generation, often liberal rationalists, in the Habsburg empire. So too his interest in the theme of the seduction of daughters was rooted in complicated ways in the context of Viennese attitudes toward female sexuality. In 1873 Freud was graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium and, apparently inspired by a public reading of an essay by Goethe on nature, turned to medicine as a career. At the University of Vienna he worked with one of the leading physiologists of his day, Ernst von Brücke, an exp onent of the materialist, antivitalist science of Hermann von Helmholtz. In 1882 he entered the General Hospital in Vienna as a clinical assistant to train with the psychiatrist Theodor Meynert and the professor of internal medicine Hermann Nothnagel. In 1885 Freud was appointed lecturer in neuropathology, having concluded important research on the brain’s medulla. At this time he also developed an interest in the pharmaceutical benefits of cocaine, which he pursued for several years. Although some beneficial results were found in eye surgery, which have been credited to Freud’s friend Carl Koller, the general outcome was disastrous. Not only did Freud’s advocacy lead to a mortal addiction in another close friend, Ernst Fleischl von Marxow, but it also tarnished his medical reputation for a time. Whether or not one interprets this episode in terms that call into question Freud’s prudence as a scientist, it was of a piece with his lifelong willingness to attempt bold solutions to relieve human suffering. Freud’s scientific training remained of cardinal importance in his work, or at least in his own conception of it. In such writings as his “Entwurf einer Psychologie” (written 1895, published 1950; “Project for a Scientific Psychology”) he affirmed his intention to find a physiological and materialist basis for his theories of the psyche. Here a mechanistic neurophysiological model vied with a more organismic, phylogenetic one in ways that demonstrate Freud’s complicated debt to the science of his day. In late 1885 Freud left Vienna to continue his studies of neuropathology at the Salpêtrière clinic in Paris, where he worked under the guidance of Jean-Martin Charcot. His 19 weeks in the French capital proved a turning point in his career, for Charcot’s work with patients classified as “hysterics” introduced Freud to the possibility that psychological disorders might have their source in the mind rather than the brain. Charcot’s demonstration of a link between hysterical symptoms, such as paralysis of a limb, and hypnotic suggestion implied the power of mental states rather than nerves in the etiology of disease. Although Freud was soon to abandon his faith in hypnosis, he returned to Vienna in February 1886 with the seed of his revolutionary psychological method implanted. Psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Freud, still beholden to Charcot’s hypnotic method, did not grasp the full implications of Breuer’s experience until a decade later, when he developed the technique of free association. In part an extrapolation of the automatic writing promoted by the German Jewish writer Ludwig Börne a century before, in part a result of his own clinical experience with other hysterics, this revolutionary method was announced in the work Freud published jointly with Breuer in 1895, Studien über Hysterie (Studies in Hysteria). By encouraging the patient to express any random thoughts that came associatively to mind, the technique aimed at uncovering hitherto unarticulated material from the realm of the psyche that Freud, following a long tradition, called the unconscious. Because of its incompatibility with conscious thoughts or conflicts with other unconscious ones, this material was normally hidden, forgotten, or unavailable to conscious reflection. Top 10 Insane Facts About Sigmund Freud Difficulty in freely associating—sudden silences, stuttering, or the like—suggested to Freud the importance of the material struggling to be expressed, as well as the power of what he called the patient’s defenses against that expression. Such blockages Freud dubbed resistance, which had to be broken down in order to reveal hidden conflicts. Unlike Charcot and Breuer, Freud came to the conclusion, based on his clinical experience with female hysterics, that the most insistent source of resisted material was sexual in nature. And even more momentously, he linked the etiology of neurotic symptoms to the same struggle between a sexual feeling or urge and the psychic defenses against it. Being able to bring that conflict to consciousness through free association and then probing its implications was thus a crucial step, he reasoned, on the road to relieving the symptom, which was best understood as an unwitting compromise formation between the wish and the defense. Source: Britannica (2023)

Burnout Prevention and Treatment If constant stress has you feeling helpless, disillusioned, and completely exhausted, you may be on the road to bumout. Learn what you can do to regain your balance and feel positive and hopeful again. Stress VS Burnout What is burnout? Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. Burnout reduces productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give. The negative effects of burnout spill over into every area of life -including your home, work, and social life. Burnout can also cause long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds and flu. Because of its many consequences, it's important to deal with burnout right away. Are you on the road to burnout? You may be on the road to burnout if: Every day a is a bad day. Caring about your work or home life seems like a total waste of energy. You're exhausted all the time. The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or overwhelming. You feel like nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated. Signs and symptoms of burnout Most of us have days when we feel helpless, overloaded, or unappreciated-when dragging ourselves out of bed requires the determination of Hercules. If you feel like this most of the time, however, you may be burned out. Stress vs Burnout Burnout is a gradual process. It doesn't happen ovenight, but it can creep up on you. The signs and symptoms are subtle at first, but become worse as time goes on. Think of the early symptoms as red flags that is something is wrong that needs to be addressed. If you pay attention and actively reduce your stress, you can prevent a major breakdown. If you ignore them, you'll eventually bum out. Physical signs and symptoms of burnout Feeling tired and drained most of the time. Lowered immunity, frequent illnesses. Frequent headaches or muscle pain. Change in appetite or sleep habits. Emotional signs and symptoms of burnout Sense of failure and self-doubt. Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated. Detachment, feeling alone in the world. Loss of motivation. Increasingly cynical and negative outlook. Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Behavioral signs and symptoms of burnout Withdrawing from responsibilities. Isolating yourself from others. Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done. Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope. Taking out your frustrations on others. Skipping work or coming in late and leaving early. The difference between stress and burnout Burnout may be of the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn't the same as too much stress. Stress, by and large, involves too much: too many pressures that demand too much of you physically and mentally. However, stressed people can still imagine that if they can just get everything under control, they'll feel better. Burnout, on the other hand, is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don't see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress feels like you're drowning in responsibilities, burnout is a sense of being all dried up. And while you're usually aware a of being under a lot of stress, you don't always notice burnout when it happens. Causes of burnout Burnout often stems from your job. But anyone who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk for burnout, from the hardworking office worker who hasn't had a vacation in years, to the frazzled stay -at-home mom tending to kids, housework, and an aging parent. But burnout is not caused solely by stressful work or too many responsibilities. Other factors contribute to burnout, including your lifestyle and personality traits. In fact, what you do in your downtime and how you look at the world can play just as big of a role in causing overwhelming stress as work or home demands. Work-related causes of burnout Feeling like you have little or no control over your work. Lack of recognition or reward for good work. Unclear or overly demanding job expectations. Doing work that's monotonous or un-challenging. Working in a chaotic or high-pressure environment. Lifestyle causes of burnout Working too much, without enough time for socializing or relaxing. Lack of close, supportive relationships. Taking on too many responsibilities, without enough help from others. Not getting enough sleep. Personality traits can contribute to burnout Perfectionist tendencies; nothing is ever good enough. Pessimistic view of yourself and the world. The need to be in control; reluctance to delegate to others. • High-achieving, Type A personality. Dealing with burnout Whether you recognize the warning signs of impending burnout or you're already past the breaking point, trying to push through the exhaustion and continuing as you have been will only cause further emotional and physical damage. Now is the time to pause and change direction by learning how you can help yourself overcome bumout and feel healthy and positive again. Dealing with burnout requires the "Three R" approach: Recognize. Watch for the warning signs of burnout. Reverse. Undo the damage by seeking support and managing stress. Resilience. Build your resilience to stress by taking care of your physical and emotional health. The following tips for preventing or dealing with bumout can help you cope with symptoms and regain your energy, focus, and sense of well-being. Dealing with burnout tip 1: Turn to other people When you're burned out, problems seem insurmountable, everything looks bleak, and it's difficult to muster up the energy to care, let alone take action to help yourself. But you have a lot more control over stress than you may think. There are positive steps you can take to deal with overwhelming stress and get your life back into balance. One of the most effective is to reach out to others. Social contact is nature's antidote to stress and talking face to face with a good listener is one of the fastest ways to calm your nervous system and relieve stress. The person you talk to doesn't have to be able to fix" your stressors; they just have to be good listener, someone who'll listen attentively without becoming distracted or expressing judgment. Reach out to those closest to you, such as your partner, family, and friends. Opening up won't make you a burden to others. In fact, most friends and loved ones will be flattered that you trust them enough to confide in them, and it will only strengthen your friendship. Try not to think about what's burning you out and make the time you spend with loved ones positive and enjoyable. Be more sociable with your coworkers. Developing friendships with people you work with can help buffer you from job burnout. When you take a break, for example, instead of directing your attention to your smartphone, try engaging your colleagues. Or schedule social events together after work. Limit your contact with negative people. Hanging out with negative-minded people who do nothing but complain will only drag down your mood and outlook. If you have to work with a negative person, try to limit the amount of time you spend together. Connect with a cause or a community group that is personally meaningful to you. Joining a religious, social, or support group can give you a place to talk to like-minded people about how to deal with daily stress--and to make new friends. If your line of work has a professional association, you can attend meetings and interact with others coping with the same workplace demands. Find new friends. If you don't feel that you have anyone to turn to, it's never too late to build new friendships and expand your social network. The power of giving Being helpful to others delivers immense pleasure and can help to significantly reduce stress as well as broaden your social circle. While it's important not to take on too much when you're facing overwhelming stress, helping others doesn't have to involve a lot oftime or effort. Even small things like a kind word or friendly smile can make you feel better and help lower stress both for you and the other person. Tip 2: Reframe the way you look at work Whether you have job that leaves you rushed off your feet or one that is monotonous and unfulfilling, the most effective way to combat job burnout is to quit and find a job you love instead. Of course, for many of us changing job or career is far from being a practical solution, we're grateful just to have work that pays the bills. Whatever your situation, though, there are still steps you can take to improve your state of mind. Try to find some value in your work. Even in some mundane jobs, you can often focus on how your role helps others, for example, or provides a much-needed product or service. Focus on aspects of the job that you do enjoy, even if it's just chatting with your coworkers at lunch. Changing your attitude towards your job can a help you regain a sense of purpose and control. Find balance in your life. If you hate your job, look for meaning and satisfaction elsewhere in your life: in your family, friends, hobbies, or voluntary work. Focus on the parts of your life that bring you joy. Make friends at work. Having strong ties in the workplace can help reduce monotony and counter the effects of burnout. Having friends to chat and joke with during the day can help relieve stress from an unfulfilling or demanding job, improve your job performance, or simply get you through a rough day. Take time off. If burnout seems inevitable, try to take a complete break from work. Go on vacation, use up your sick days, ask for a temporary leave-of-absence, anything to remove yourself from the situation. Use the time away to recharge your batteries and pursue other methods of recovery. Tip 3: Reevaluate your priorities Burnout is an undeniable sign that something important in your life is not working. Take time to think about your hopes, goals, and dreams. Are you neglecting something that is truly important to you? This can be an opportunity to rediscover what really makes you happy and to slow down and give yourself time to rest, reflect, and heal. Set boundaries. Don't overextend yourself. Learn how to say "no" to requests on your time. If you find this difficult, remind yourself that saying "no" allows you to say "yes" to the commitments you want to make. Take a daily break from technology. Set a time each day when you completely disconnect. Put away your laptop, turn off your phone, and stop checking email or social media. Nourish your creative side. Creativity is powerful antidote to burnout. Try something new, start a fun project, or resume a favorite hobby. Choose activities that have nothing to do with breathing work or whatever is causing your stress. Set aside relaxation time. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep activate the body's relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Get plenty of sleep. Feeling tired can exacerbate burnout by causing you to think irrationally. Keep your cool in stressful situations by getting a good night's sleep. Boost your ability to stay on task If you're having trouble following through with these self-help tips to prevent or overcome burnout, Rediscover joy and meaning that make work and life worthwhile. Increase your overall health and happiness. Tip 4: Make exercise a priority Even though it may be the last thing you feel like doing when you're burned out, exercise is a powerful antidote to stress and burnout. It's also something you can do right now to boost your mood. Aim to exercise for 30 minutes or more per day or break that up into short, 10-minute bursts of activity. A 10-minute walk can improve your mood for two hours. Rhythmic exercise, where you move both your arms and legs, is a hugely effective way to lift your mood, increase energy, sharpen focus, and relax both the mind and body. Try walking, running, weight training, swimming, martial arts, or even dancing. To maximize stress relief, instead of continuing to focus on your thoughts, focus on your body and how it feels as you move: the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, for example, or the wind on your skin. Tip 5: Support your mood and energy levels with a healthy diet What you put in your body can have huge impact on yourmood and energy levels throughout the day. Minimize sugar and refined carbs. You may crave sugary snacks or comfort foods such as pasta or French fries, but these high -carbohydrate foodsquickly lead to a crash in mood and energy. Reduce your high intake of foods that can adversely affect your mood, such as caffeine, unhealthy fats, and foods with chemical preservatives or hormones. Eat more Omega-3 fatty acids to give your mood a boost. The best sources are fatty fish (salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines), seaweed, flaxseed, and walnuts. Avoid nicotine. Smoking when you're feeling stressed may seem calming, but nicotine is a powerful stimulant, leading to higher, not lower, levels of anxiety. Drink alcohol in moderation. Alcohol temporarily reduces worry, but too much can cause anxiety as it wears off. Authors: Melinda Smith, M.A., Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., and Lawrence Robinson

Anna Freud | Child Psychoanalysis | Defense Mechanisms What is a defense mechanism? It is how we deal with emotions, feelings, which is broken down into immature defense mechanism and mature defense mechanism. Here is the complete list. The complete list was developed by Sigmund Freud, Dr. Anna Freud who helped revolution of the field of psychoanalysis which was created by psychiatrists. Later splitting into the field of psychology. A common misperception is that psychiatrists are pill push driven by the pharmaceutical industry. Some of the best therapists are psychiatrists. Who is Dr. Anna Freud? Anna Freud | Child Psychoanalysis | Defense Mechanisms Anna Freud, (born Dec. 3, 1895, Vienna—died Oct. 9, 1982, London), Austrian-born British founder of child psychoanalysis and one of its foremost practitioners. She also made fundamental contributions to understanding how the ego, or consciousness, functions in averting painful ideas, impulses, and feelings. The youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna was devoted to her father and enjoyed an intimate association with developing psychoanalytic theory and practice. As a young woman she taught elementary school, and her daily observation of children drew her to child psychology. While serving as chairman of the Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society (1925–28), she published a paper (1927) outlining her approach to child psychoanalysis. Publication of Anna Freud’s Das Ich und die Abwehrmechanismen (1936; The Ego and Mechanisms of Defense, 1937) gave a strong, new impetus to ego psychology. The principal human defense mechanism, she indicated, is repression, an unconscious process that develops as the young child learns that some impulses, if acted upon, could prove dangerous to himself. Other mechanisms she described include the projection of one’s own feeling into another; directing aggressive impulses against the self (suicide being the extreme example); identification with an overpowering aggressor; and the divorce of ideas from feelings. The work also was a pioneer effort in the development of adolescent psychology. In 1938 Anna Freud and her father, whom she had cared for during a number of years of his terminal illness, escaped from Nazi-dominated Austria and settled in London, where she worked at a Hampstead nursery until 1945. During World War II she and a U.S. associate, Dorothy Burlingham, recounted their work in Young Children in Wartime (1942), Infants Without Families (1943), and War and Children (1943). Anna Freud founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic, London, in 1947 and served as its director from 1952 to 1982. She viewed play as the child’s adaptation to reality but not necessarily as a revelation of unconscious conflicts. She worked closely with parents and believed that analysis should have an educational influence on the child. A summation of her thought is to be found in her Normality and Pathology in Childhood (1968). Source: Brittanica (2023)

Self acceptance is defined as "an individual's acceptance of all of his/her attributes, positive self- or negative.' It includes body acceptance, protection from negative criticism, and believing in one's capacities. Many people have low self-acceptance. There can be many reasons for this, but one widely accepted theory is that because we develop our self-esteem, in part, from others appreciating us, people with low self-acceptance may have had parents who lacked empathy during their childhood. Consequently, in their adult lives, they may need much stronger affirmation from others than most people do. In other words, ordinary levels of approval do not "move the needle" on their self-esteem. Some people with low self -acceptance try to bolster it by accomplishing great things. But this only helps your self-esteem for a while. That's because achievement is a poor substitute for intimacy. In addition, these people are often under the impression that "taking it" when suffering is the main reflection of their value. It's hard for them to believe in genuine caring, and when it does come their way, they are suspicious of it. Of course, self-acceptance (or lack thereof) does not exist in a vacuum it actually has profound effects on your physical and psychological health. For that reason, it is worth understanding what these effects are, and what you can do about it. The emotional and physical consequences of low self-acceptance. Without self-acceptance, your psychological well-being can suffer, and often, beneficial interventions are less helpful for you than for others with higher self-acceptance. For example, practicing mindfulness can help many people reduce the impact of stress. But when you cannot accept yourself, it becomes less effective. Also, if you have a physical illness such as rheumatoid arthritis, not accepting yourself can make you more anxious about your body. In this context, your automatic negative thoughts increase. In addition, if you feel negatively about yourself, the brain regions that help you control emotions and stress have less gray matter than someone with a greater degree of self-acceptance - that is, these regions actually have less tissue to "work with." This lack of gray matter may also appear in regions of the brainstem that process stress and anxiety. Stress signals from these latter regions, in turn, disrupt the emotional control regions. So, poor self-acceptance may disrupt emotional control in two ways: directly, by disrupting the brain regions that control it, and also indirectly, by increasing stress signals in your brain that subsequently disrupt these regions. How to bolster your self-acceptance There are three ways to increase self-acceptance: 1. self-regulation 2 self-awareness 3 self-transcendence. Self-regulation involves suppressing negative emotions such as self-hatred, refocusing on the positive aspects of yourself, and re-framing negative situations so that you see the opportunities in them. For example, looking for ways in which negative criticism can help you grow constitutes re-framing. However, self-control may be less powerful than we think. The lack of self-acceptance can be deeply unconscious that is, it can exist at a level beyond our conscious control. Also, when you do not accept or forgive yourself, 'you" are still split from "yourself" you do not feel "together." Both of these parts - the one that needs to forgive, and the one that needs to be forgiven are at odds with each other. In this situation, self-transcendence can be helpful. When you are "self-transcendent," you rely less on things outside of yourself to define you. Instead, you turn to an unforced sense of connectedness with the world. You can achieve this by contributing to work, family, or the community at large. The goal is to seek unity with some system in a way that is heartfelt and authentic. Any of the methods I've described in this post may also contribute to self-transcendence. Fortunately, just like self-acceptance, self-transcendence also engenders physical changes in the brain. It has been associated with increased serotonin transporter availability in the brainstem. As mentioned earlier, this same region impacts self-acceptance. Transcendental meditation is another potential tool to consider for self -transcendence. It decreases cortisol and reduces your stress response. Meditation as a path to self-acceptance Self-acceptance can also be achieved by two other kinds of meditation: mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation. Mindful attention to emotions involves not "judging," but observing, your emotions when they arise. This can lower your brain's emotional. A response to anxiety and distress. It effectively "calms down" your amygdala. Having more compassion toward yourself appears to be helpful in increasing self-acceptance. Loving-kindness meditation can help you achieve this state by changing the activity in regions of the brain that perceive and process emotions. For example, people previously numb to praise may be able to become more accepting of it. It is also associated with greater connectivity within the brain. This makes sense, as lack of self-acceptance has been associated with excessive right-hemisphere activity in the brain. Loving-kindness meditation provides a potential way to correct this.