The World Health Organization says that your "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (emphasis mine) and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
As a health psychologist, I provide monthly updates of resources for
individuals and families that support well-being.
Cheers, Marilyn Wilts Click on Read More below.
Note: I am not responsible for the content, claims or
representations of the listed sites and post these links for informational
purposes only.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
" All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall
be well."
-- Julian of Norwich, an English mystic, who wrote the first book in the
English language known to have been written by a woman.
How Meditation Works
The following is courtesy of Ken Pope's list. Dr. Pope is a psychologist who
selects articles from journals, newspapers, etc. that be believes are worth
knowing about and posts them on his list. This article, from the November
issue of "Harvard Business Review," describes how meditation works: "To
Improve Your Focus, Notice How You Lose It."
The author is Michael Lipson, who notes that he is “a clinical
psychologist practicing in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and a former
associate clinical professor at Columbia University's medical school. He is
the author of 'Stairway of Surprise: Six Steps to a Creative Life.'"
Here are some excerpts:
[begin excerpts]
We've all been there. You try to focus on a task and soon you're looking out
the window, wondering about dinner, analyzing your golf game, fantasizing
about your lover. How did your mind end up in Cancun, when you were supposed
to be thinking about first-quarter strategy?
The normal act of concentration or attention is a mess, but it's a mess with
a specific structure. To learn to sharpen your focus, you can start by
understanding this "structure of distraction" - how, exactly, your
concentration strays in the first place.
What follows is my reformulation of wisdom that has been around since people
first noticed they have minds -- and simultaneously noticed that the mind
could be distracted from its intentional focus. Most writers, like Plato,
not only complain about distraction, but point implicitly or explicitly to
ways to address its downsides. In the meditative traditions, everyone from
Gautama Buddha to Andy Puddicombe of Headspace has said that the prime way
to deal with dis traction is first to be OK with it, which means noticing
it. You notice the distraction and bring your mind back.
The approach I use summarizes and condenses the wisdom from these disparate
traditions. You begin by simply noticing that there are four phases of
attention and distraction that happen every time you try to focus:
1. First, you choose a focus. It might be anything, from any sphere of life.
At work, it's supposed to be some aspect of work - let's say, whom to
include in an important meeting.
2. Sooner or later your attention wanders. This isn't what you plan to do.
It just happens. (If it were a plan, it would be another focus, not a
wandering.)
3. Sooner or later you wake up to the fact that your mind has wandered. You
notice the distraction. You realize how far you are from the thing you first
wanted to focus on. Again, you can't exactly plan or choose this.
4. Having woken up, you may choose to return to the original theme - like
whom to invite to that meeting. Then again, you may choose to give up and do
something else. It's up to you; it's a choice. If you do return to the
original theme at Step 4, the whole thing tends to begin again. Sooner or
later your mind wanders.
Reviewing these four steps, you'll notice that Steps 1 and 4 are conscious
choices. Steps 2 and 3 are unconscious -- they just happen. The unconscious
force at work in the second step, when your mind "just wanders," seems to be
hostile to the project of focusing; the force operating in the third step,
when you notice your distraction, is not exactly friendly to your focus, but
it is friendly to your freedom. It wakes you up to the fact of having
wandered from your theme, then leaves it up to you to return to that
original focus or not.
Just by noticing these stages over and over as they play out in real time,
you'll find that the pattern changes (emphasis is mine) . At first you may
simply note that these four stages occur. With repeated attention to the
process, you will tend to stay with the original focus longer before
distraction sets in. You will wander less far away from the theme, and for a
shorter length of time, before waking up. And having woken up from a
distraction, you will choose more often to return to the original theme
rather than give up and stretch your legs.
[end excerpts]
The article is online at:
<
http://bit.ly/KenPopeImprovingFocus
>
Meditation Resources in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area
The following is courtesy of Dr. Gina Murrell, Psy.D. psychologist, who
solicited these resources from other members of the Alameda County
Psychological Association and posted them as a resource list for members. I
am posting only those provide by nonprofit organizations.
Spirit Rock Sitting Groups
East Bay Meditation Friday Open Sitting Group
Insight Meditation Community of Berkley
Berkeley Shambhala Center
Berkeley Zen Center
Metta Dharma Foundation
Lifelong Ashby Health Center
at the Ed Roberts Campus (located by Ashby BART) has a Friday AM group
meditation. Free or sliding scale but call to ask.
102 y/o Dancer Sees Herself on Film for the First Time
Alice Barker is an amazing woman and I think this video captures her spirit
then and now.
Here are some excerpts from the Youtube description:
[begin excerpts]
Alice Barker was a chorus line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance of the
the 1930s and 40s. She danced at clubs such as The Apollo, Cotton Club, The
Zanzibar Club, and on Broadway—with legends including Frank Sinatra,
Gene Kelly, and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Although she danced in numerous
movies, commercials and TV shows, she had never seen any of them, and all of
her photographs and memorabilia had been lost over the years .
"We" are friends of Alice who searched for the films and made this video.
I'm David Shuff, a volunteer who visits the home with my therapy dog Katie,
and have known Alice for 8 years. The woman in the video is Gail Campbell, a
recreation therapist (and an amazing one at that!). She never gave up on
finding Alice's films, and uncovered the first piece of the puzzle that lead
to us finding them — which was Alicia Thompson; a historian of black
female performers who had been looking for Alice for years. She told us that
Alice was in films called 'soundies'.
Using that clue I found jazz historian Mark Cantor and he was able to send
us three of Alice's soundies from his collection. Shortly afterwards Alicia
got us a few more films. This video was filmed on cellphones (and almost as
an afterthought!) by my friends Darin Tatum and Tom Hunt. We're so thrilled
that it's brought so much joy to everyone and attention to Alice, who is
loving it!
102 y/o Dancer Sees Herself on Film for the First Time
Here's Alice with Gail and all her cards (so far!) — many still yet to
be read but they're working their way though. And could only fit a small
fraction of the flowers on the table!
http://i.imgur.com/6spkSWk.jpg
[end excerpts]