Dorothy Rowe was an interesting speaker. A lecturer in psychology and psychotherapist she had some very interesting things to say about depression. For instance, depression is a noun, a thing; but actually depression is not something you have, it's something you do. Depression is a set of behaviour traits.
According to Rowe a contributor to depression is the teachings of the great world religions. They all teach, in their own different ways that good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished by God. This of course is a belief that people have in the teeth of the evidence. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. She explained that Protestants and Catholics do depression differently. I found this fascinating. She didn't elucidate how, i shall have to read her book.
Monday, 29 October 2007
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Last weekend I attended the First European Conference on Happiness and it's Causes. It was very interesting, a series of lectures and discussion panels from psychologists, psychotherapists and so on. These included Richard Layard: 'the happiness tsar', Dorothy Rowe: celebrated psychotherapist and a representative from The New Economic Foundation a left wing think tank who are involved with the Kingdom of Bhutan's project to measure 'gross national happiness'.
A fantastic weekend, stimulating and informative. One thing really struck me: it was a very intense weekend, the speakers and audience alike were passionately compassionate. so much so that it was almost exhausting. The buddhist monks in the saffron robes on the other had carried their world view so very lightly. Whilst being down to earth, charming and also passionate, they lacked the draining intensity of many of the speakers. I considered this an interesting paradox. The delegates desired to be heard; whereas the monks, even though they were the ones who did not need to be told 'what it happiness' they had a clear point of view, had no such need. I found this at odds with a life of rigorous asceticism. There is no reason for this other than my very own prejudice.
www.apexpractice.co.uk
A fantastic weekend, stimulating and informative. One thing really struck me: it was a very intense weekend, the speakers and audience alike were passionately compassionate. so much so that it was almost exhausting. The buddhist monks in the saffron robes on the other had carried their world view so very lightly. Whilst being down to earth, charming and also passionate, they lacked the draining intensity of many of the speakers. I considered this an interesting paradox. The delegates desired to be heard; whereas the monks, even though they were the ones who did not need to be told 'what it happiness' they had a clear point of view, had no such need. I found this at odds with a life of rigorous asceticism. There is no reason for this other than my very own prejudice.
www.apexpractice.co.uk
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
QWERTY
Ever wondered why the QWERTY keyboard is like it is? If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to your computer keyboard, which, instead of having the letters lined up alphabetically, ABCDE they are random, starting with QWERTY. The reason for this is that when typewriters were invented, it quickly became so fast to write, the arms of the typewriters got jammed. The QWERTY arrangement was developed to slow down the typists and prevent this. However, this is no longer necessary as one can type on a computer as fast as is humanly possible and the keys don't jam. We still have the QWERTY because we are used to it. Getting used to a more efficient keyboard isn't worth the effort.
Habits and behavioural quirks are a bit like this. Perhaps during angsty teenage years eating biscuits to distract yourself from the agonies of puberty doesn't do too much harm. After all, you still are forced to do sports at school and a high metabolic rate means that the extra calories are dissipated quickly. But then, you might find that twenty years later, the habit remains but the results of those extra calories are really showing. For these people hypnosis is a great way to rearrange their emotional keyboard into something a little more efficient. Helping people to face, accept and deal with life's daily anxieties rather than distracting themselves with food can be a much healthier way forward.
The biscuit analogy is a very easy one to understand, but everybody carries habits and quirks over from their early years. There are people who fly into a rage when they talk to a sibling, for no reason at all. Possibly sibling rivalry from a very early age makes them react in this way. It is a simple matter under hypnosis to coax people into reacting calmly to hitherto highly charged emotional triggers. Maybe there is no reason to find. There are people who, for instance, are scared of talking to people at a social gathering. They have always been this way; again under hypnosis this can simply be changed.
The QWERTY keyboard is here to stay, we are so used to it now, even though it is deliberately inefficient, it is part of the culture and too entrenched to change. Human habits are a different matter, they are malleable. People grow and change all their lives and hypnotherapy is one of the tools that can make this easy for them.
Habits and behavioural quirks are a bit like this. Perhaps during angsty teenage years eating biscuits to distract yourself from the agonies of puberty doesn't do too much harm. After all, you still are forced to do sports at school and a high metabolic rate means that the extra calories are dissipated quickly. But then, you might find that twenty years later, the habit remains but the results of those extra calories are really showing. For these people hypnosis is a great way to rearrange their emotional keyboard into something a little more efficient. Helping people to face, accept and deal with life's daily anxieties rather than distracting themselves with food can be a much healthier way forward.
The biscuit analogy is a very easy one to understand, but everybody carries habits and quirks over from their early years. There are people who fly into a rage when they talk to a sibling, for no reason at all. Possibly sibling rivalry from a very early age makes them react in this way. It is a simple matter under hypnosis to coax people into reacting calmly to hitherto highly charged emotional triggers. Maybe there is no reason to find. There are people who, for instance, are scared of talking to people at a social gathering. They have always been this way; again under hypnosis this can simply be changed.
The QWERTY keyboard is here to stay, we are so used to it now, even though it is deliberately inefficient, it is part of the culture and too entrenched to change. Human habits are a different matter, they are malleable. People grow and change all their lives and hypnotherapy is one of the tools that can make this easy for them.
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