Sometimes we come to rely on actions and words to make our life what we want it to be. Then we get frustrated because sometimes we speak words and take actions that are contrary to the vibration we are offering.
In other words, when you say that you really hope something turns out well when you really do not expect it to, your words of hope sound optimistic, but they do not bring you the results you seek. When you want something that you sincerely doubt, it cannot manifest as long as that doubt is prevalent within you.
Most of your beliefs came through your life experiences. Your beliefs are the result of the things you witnessed in life that made you believe they are true. So when you saw something happening that you did not want to happen, as you observed it, you came to the conclusion that this is "factual", that this is "evidence", this is "truth", and this is "real". You have also been conditioned to believe that you must focus on things that are real.
But the truth is, whatever you are focusing on is training you into a habit of thought. That's all a belief is - a habitual thought pattern. So when you train yourself into a habit of thought that does not match anything you want, you have set up a cross current in your vibrational frequency. In other words, you WANT it this way, but you also EXPECT it this way.
The problem is you got most of your expectations by listening and watching TV, from family, friends, news media, etc. You have come to this vibrational habit of thought over a long period of time.
Whether you like it or not, in most cases those thoughts are more dominant within you than the vibration of your desire. What is happening is that there are all kinds of things that you want, but you are sending out a different or opposite vibration than those things that you want.
You have to find a way to shift your beliefs before your life can change. If you do not have what you want, I can guarantee you have a contradictory energy or belief system going on within you. Take the time to discover what it is and then use that awareness to change it. Awareness is always the first step to making any change.
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
A regular update by professional 'Happiness Coach' Stephen Surridge about all things connected to happiness. Visit www.mrhappiness2000.com
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Dr Robert Anthony: The Flipswitch!
There's a powerful tool that I'd like to share with you called the 'Flipswitch'...
Let me explain how it works -
We already agree that it is better to feel good than bad...
But the challenge is when we are feeling badly, how do we change our negative vibration?
That's where the power of the flipswitch comes in.
Any negative vibration brings you more of the same -- on the other hand, anything that makes you feel even a little bit better will cancel out that negative frequency.
Whenever you find yourself feeling bad, ask yourself, "Is feeling bad going to make the situation any better?"
By asking that you become conscious and once you are conscious you have the power to flipswitch to something else that will make you feel better in that moment.
In that moment -- find something -- anything -- that makes you feel good. Remember, reach for the thought that feels best.
Flipswitching from Negative Vibrations to Positive Vibrations will become easier the more you do this.
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Let me explain how it works -
We already agree that it is better to feel good than bad...
But the challenge is when we are feeling badly, how do we change our negative vibration?
That's where the power of the flipswitch comes in.
Any negative vibration brings you more of the same -- on the other hand, anything that makes you feel even a little bit better will cancel out that negative frequency.
Whenever you find yourself feeling bad, ask yourself, "Is feeling bad going to make the situation any better?"
By asking that you become conscious and once you are conscious you have the power to flipswitch to something else that will make you feel better in that moment.
In that moment -- find something -- anything -- that makes you feel good. Remember, reach for the thought that feels best.
Flipswitching from Negative Vibrations to Positive Vibrations will become easier the more you do this.
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Friday, 27 May 2011
BBC WEBSITE: On Happiness
I just found this clip and article on the BBC website.
Happiness by James Tighe
What is happiness?
Governments are trying to measure happiness and one psychologist has proposed (tongue-in-cheek) that happiness be classified as a mental illness because it isn’t the norm and has distinct ‘symptoms’. We value happiness and everyone has their take on what causes it. In fact, mental health professionals have spent so long looking at mental illness they are the latecomers to the field.
We can go to great lengths to find happiness and take ourselves up many blind alleys in the process by doing something we think is pleasurable but fleeting. In the highly commercial western world, retailers realise the impact of these intense feelings and how they can be linked to products to boost sales. Otherwise mundane objects are made pleasurable by attaching a meaning to them.
For example, shoes that looked ridiculous five years ago, and will look ridiculous again in five years, are must-have because celebrities wear them. By wearing the shoes, we identify ourselves with the positive messages that have been generated about that celebrity and feel happy for a while. The fleeting nature of this feeling works to the retailers’ advantage - although the shoes don’t need replacing, they will sell you a new pair a year later as the fashion has changed.
Celebrity and possessions are especially equated with happiness. But we have known for years that once the hype passes they don’t bring happiness. A study as long ago as 1978 in the Journal of Personal Social Psychology found that major lottery winners were no happier than anyone else eventually. After the excitement of the win, everyday life can seem mundane and novel experiences stop being novel if they happen every day.
Positive psychology
Despite being latecomers to the subject of happiness, psychologists have come up with insights that can lead to practical actions you can take to make yourself happier. These are collected in a field called positive psychology. Unsurprisingly, much of the research findings are mirrored in findings into the treatment of depression.
In cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, a major part of the approach is to find even small activities that can provide people with both a sense of enjoyment and achievement. These aren’t transitory pleasures that leave a sense of anticlimax and lead to a search for the next thing, but simple things that bring small pleasures, or activities that require some real mental and physical engagement and leave behind a sense of satisfaction.
To be able to identify activities that will help to develop these feelings you need to be able to identify two things:
•Your core values
•Your main strengths
These may have been covered up in the avalanche of social expectations that come directly from the media or indirectly through peers and family (whether intentional or unintentional).
Finding out what your core values and main strengths are is a journey in itself, but starting it can lead to a quick increase in your happiness. This is because you’re already engaging in activities that come from your internal motivation, not from some external source that leads to action in line with someone else’s values. You are engaging in ‘authentic action’ that is true to yourself.
As part of the journey, it can be worth trying out some ‘behavioural experiments’. If you have always equated money with happiness, what happens when you spend a day helping someone else? By improving the quality of someone else’s life, people can be amazed by the impact that an unselfish act can have on them. You have helped make both the person and yourself happier.
Alternatively, you may be driven by the belief that you must constantly help others. But what would happen if you took a day for yourself? Taking time away from helping others and looking after yourself can give bring a sense of happiness that might come as a surprise.
Finding your main strengths has been made easier by researchers in positive psychology, who have identified 24 human strengths that fall into six main categories:
•Wisdom and knowledge
•Courage
•Humanity and love
•Justice
•Temperance
•Transcendence
I have to say I find this view of happiness outdated and inaccurate considering the Abraham-Hicks techniques we teach and the recent findings of positive psychology.
Happiness is within us all if we continuously look for good feeling thoughts. We are not slaves to the external world, we can activate continual feelings of happiness using our mind.
Never underestimate the importance of happiness to the quality of your life.
From www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/happiness.shtml
Happiness by James Tighe
What is happiness?
Governments are trying to measure happiness and one psychologist has proposed (tongue-in-cheek) that happiness be classified as a mental illness because it isn’t the norm and has distinct ‘symptoms’. We value happiness and everyone has their take on what causes it. In fact, mental health professionals have spent so long looking at mental illness they are the latecomers to the field.
We can go to great lengths to find happiness and take ourselves up many blind alleys in the process by doing something we think is pleasurable but fleeting. In the highly commercial western world, retailers realise the impact of these intense feelings and how they can be linked to products to boost sales. Otherwise mundane objects are made pleasurable by attaching a meaning to them.
For example, shoes that looked ridiculous five years ago, and will look ridiculous again in five years, are must-have because celebrities wear them. By wearing the shoes, we identify ourselves with the positive messages that have been generated about that celebrity and feel happy for a while. The fleeting nature of this feeling works to the retailers’ advantage - although the shoes don’t need replacing, they will sell you a new pair a year later as the fashion has changed.
Celebrity and possessions are especially equated with happiness. But we have known for years that once the hype passes they don’t bring happiness. A study as long ago as 1978 in the Journal of Personal Social Psychology found that major lottery winners were no happier than anyone else eventually. After the excitement of the win, everyday life can seem mundane and novel experiences stop being novel if they happen every day.
Positive psychology
Despite being latecomers to the subject of happiness, psychologists have come up with insights that can lead to practical actions you can take to make yourself happier. These are collected in a field called positive psychology. Unsurprisingly, much of the research findings are mirrored in findings into the treatment of depression.
In cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, a major part of the approach is to find even small activities that can provide people with both a sense of enjoyment and achievement. These aren’t transitory pleasures that leave a sense of anticlimax and lead to a search for the next thing, but simple things that bring small pleasures, or activities that require some real mental and physical engagement and leave behind a sense of satisfaction.
To be able to identify activities that will help to develop these feelings you need to be able to identify two things:
•Your core values
•Your main strengths
These may have been covered up in the avalanche of social expectations that come directly from the media or indirectly through peers and family (whether intentional or unintentional).
Finding out what your core values and main strengths are is a journey in itself, but starting it can lead to a quick increase in your happiness. This is because you’re already engaging in activities that come from your internal motivation, not from some external source that leads to action in line with someone else’s values. You are engaging in ‘authentic action’ that is true to yourself.
As part of the journey, it can be worth trying out some ‘behavioural experiments’. If you have always equated money with happiness, what happens when you spend a day helping someone else? By improving the quality of someone else’s life, people can be amazed by the impact that an unselfish act can have on them. You have helped make both the person and yourself happier.
Alternatively, you may be driven by the belief that you must constantly help others. But what would happen if you took a day for yourself? Taking time away from helping others and looking after yourself can give bring a sense of happiness that might come as a surprise.
Finding your main strengths has been made easier by researchers in positive psychology, who have identified 24 human strengths that fall into six main categories:
•Wisdom and knowledge
•Courage
•Humanity and love
•Justice
•Temperance
•Transcendence
I have to say I find this view of happiness outdated and inaccurate considering the Abraham-Hicks techniques we teach and the recent findings of positive psychology.
Happiness is within us all if we continuously look for good feeling thoughts. We are not slaves to the external world, we can activate continual feelings of happiness using our mind.
Never underestimate the importance of happiness to the quality of your life.
From www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/happiness.shtml
Thursday, 26 May 2011
FGUK: How To Be Happy Workshops Running In June 2011
Are you happy? And are you achieving the success you truly desire in your life?
Everybody wants to be happy.
Everybody knows they should be happy.
And the benefits are happiness have dramatically been revealed to us through recent scientific studies by researchers at Harvard University. Working with some of the worlds leading businesses - Fortune 500 companies such as Adobe and Johnson & Johnson - their findings have concluded that:
· Happiness improves productivity by 30%
· That if you are happier before you do a task, you increase your chances of success and speed by up to 50%
· Optimistic sales workers outsell their negative colleagues by 56%
· Happy employees demonstrate 3x’s greater creativity in their work
· Happier GP’s diagnose more accurately and intelligently 19% faster than those in a neutral state
· Children primed to be positive problem-solve faster
With the new world of positive psychology focussing on what works in our lives rather than what doesn’t work, scientists are waking up to a paradigm shift realising that the previous formula for success is flawed. Happiness is the precursor to success, not the result of it.
For happier people are:
· Better at securing jobs
· Better at keeping their jobs
· More resilient to change and life challenges
· Experience less burnout and sickness
· Are more attractive and trustworthy
· Can live up to 20 years longer than unhappy people
But for many the pressures of modern life have clouded the attainment of happiness, with many people diverted away from the path of finding true, authentic, inner happiness by perceived relationship, financial and society problems. And this being ‘off the path’ manifests as many of today’s prevalent negative mental health conditions, such as depression, negativity and anxiety.
Feel Good UK aims to reintroduce you to the concept of true authentic happiness, and will help you return to that long sought after and lost path. For happiness can only be truly obtained when one makes a conscious choice to live it, adopting a particular mindset.
The path to true happiness is made easy through our fun practical training workshops. Our drug-free techniques will teach you powerful mind and emotional management techniques, empowering you to focus your mind to activate positive emotion within yourself. You will learn to retrain your brain to thinking positive when much of the world has unconsciously trained you to think negative.
For true happiness is a joyous feeling state, not an intellectual concept or word. You know you are happy because your all consuming emotional state is one of joy and contentment. To the very core of your being you feel good. And we can help you get there.
"In good times, happiness is a luxury. But in times of pain and suffering, of recession and depression, happiness is a necessity.” Shawn Achor – Harvard Happiness Researcher
Workshop topics include: the importance of our thoughts and feelings; mental focus; negative emotion and how to manage it; the importance of activating positive emotion using our thoughts; and other powerful mind and emotional management techniques.
The benefits of our techniques over time include: significantly reduced sickness levels; the virtual elimination of negative emotion from your life; increased motivation and energy levels; and a renewed zest for life.
Date: Saturday 18th June 2011 @ FGUK Head Office, Portsmouth, UK
From 9.30am to 2pm (10am start)
Limited to 20 places
Cost per person = £25.00
To book vist http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1488154109
Testimonials about the impact of our work include:
"Feel Good UK really makes you take responsibility for your emotions and thoughts and shows you that you can be happy despite your circumstances."
"This workshop has exceeded my expectations, allowing a deeper insight into how to manage positive thinking, allowing positive emotion."
"An excellent, concise look at positive thinking – no jargon, backed with real evidence and made fun."
Visit www.feelgoodukonline.com to read further testimonials.
A full no quibbles money-back guarantee applies to this product. If - after applying the exercises offered in this workshop over a 6 month period - you experience no improvement in your mental or emotional life we will give you your money back. Simply send us a copy of your purchase receipt to claim your refund with an explanation of why the techniques have not worked for you.
Feel Good UK is a registered UK Charity no. 1135710
Everybody wants to be happy.
Everybody knows they should be happy.
And the benefits are happiness have dramatically been revealed to us through recent scientific studies by researchers at Harvard University. Working with some of the worlds leading businesses - Fortune 500 companies such as Adobe and Johnson & Johnson - their findings have concluded that:
· Happiness improves productivity by 30%
· That if you are happier before you do a task, you increase your chances of success and speed by up to 50%
· Optimistic sales workers outsell their negative colleagues by 56%
· Happy employees demonstrate 3x’s greater creativity in their work
· Happier GP’s diagnose more accurately and intelligently 19% faster than those in a neutral state
· Children primed to be positive problem-solve faster
With the new world of positive psychology focussing on what works in our lives rather than what doesn’t work, scientists are waking up to a paradigm shift realising that the previous formula for success is flawed. Happiness is the precursor to success, not the result of it.
For happier people are:
· Better at securing jobs
· Better at keeping their jobs
· More resilient to change and life challenges
· Experience less burnout and sickness
· Are more attractive and trustworthy
· Can live up to 20 years longer than unhappy people
But for many the pressures of modern life have clouded the attainment of happiness, with many people diverted away from the path of finding true, authentic, inner happiness by perceived relationship, financial and society problems. And this being ‘off the path’ manifests as many of today’s prevalent negative mental health conditions, such as depression, negativity and anxiety.
Feel Good UK aims to reintroduce you to the concept of true authentic happiness, and will help you return to that long sought after and lost path. For happiness can only be truly obtained when one makes a conscious choice to live it, adopting a particular mindset.
The path to true happiness is made easy through our fun practical training workshops. Our drug-free techniques will teach you powerful mind and emotional management techniques, empowering you to focus your mind to activate positive emotion within yourself. You will learn to retrain your brain to thinking positive when much of the world has unconsciously trained you to think negative.
For true happiness is a joyous feeling state, not an intellectual concept or word. You know you are happy because your all consuming emotional state is one of joy and contentment. To the very core of your being you feel good. And we can help you get there.
"In good times, happiness is a luxury. But in times of pain and suffering, of recession and depression, happiness is a necessity.” Shawn Achor – Harvard Happiness Researcher
Workshop topics include: the importance of our thoughts and feelings; mental focus; negative emotion and how to manage it; the importance of activating positive emotion using our thoughts; and other powerful mind and emotional management techniques.
The benefits of our techniques over time include: significantly reduced sickness levels; the virtual elimination of negative emotion from your life; increased motivation and energy levels; and a renewed zest for life.
Date: Saturday 18th June 2011 @ FGUK Head Office, Portsmouth, UK
From 9.30am to 2pm (10am start)
Limited to 20 places
Cost per person = £25.00
To book vist http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1488154109
Testimonials about the impact of our work include:
"Feel Good UK really makes you take responsibility for your emotions and thoughts and shows you that you can be happy despite your circumstances."
"This workshop has exceeded my expectations, allowing a deeper insight into how to manage positive thinking, allowing positive emotion."
"An excellent, concise look at positive thinking – no jargon, backed with real evidence and made fun."
Visit www.feelgoodukonline.com to read further testimonials.
A full no quibbles money-back guarantee applies to this product. If - after applying the exercises offered in this workshop over a 6 month period - you experience no improvement in your mental or emotional life we will give you your money back. Simply send us a copy of your purchase receipt to claim your refund with an explanation of why the techniques have not worked for you.
Feel Good UK is a registered UK Charity no. 1135710
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
What If You Needed MORE Water?
Water is essential to human survival. According to the medical community, the human body is made of more than 70 percent water and can only survive three days without consuming any water.
As the most ingested substance worldwide, water is also a common source of both acute and chronic illness. Long-term exposure to chemical contaminants can have serious and deadly effects.
According to the Water Quality and Health Council, "drinking water systems continue to face challenges in assuring that customers receive microbiologically safe water".
Most Americans depend on their local water utility to provide a safe water supply, testing and monitoring is not as routine as most people think.
Is bottled Water the answer?
"Roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water." Earth Policy Institute
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. (It takes up to 1000 years for a plastic water bottle to biodegrade.)
Making bottles to meet the U.S. demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
~Earth Policy Institute
Most people don't think they need to worry about dehydration. To them, dehydration is something that happens to travelers in the desert when they run out of water. But there is a chronic form of dehydration that does not have the sudden and intense nature of the acute form. Chronic dehydration is widespread in the present day and affects everyone who is not drinking enough liquid.
This list of 13 symptoms of dehydration should inspire you to go get a glass of water, and then another, and another...
1. Fatigue, Energy Loss: Dehydration of the tissues causes enzymatic activity to slow down.
2. Constipation: When chewed food enters the colon, it contains too much liquid to allow stools to form properly, and the wall of the colon reduces it. In chronic dehydration, the colon takes too much water to give to other parts of the body.
3. Digestive Disorders: In chronic dehydration, the secretion of digestive juices are less.
4. High and Low Blood Pressure: The body’s blood volume is not enough to completely fill the entire set of arteries, veins, and capillaries.
5. Gastritis, Stomach Ulcers: To protect its mucous membranes from being destroyed by the acidic digestive fluid it produces, the stomach secretes a layer of mucus.
6. Respiratory Troubles: The mucous membranes of the respiratory region are slightly moist to protect the respiratory tract from substances that might be present in inhaled air.
7. Acid-Alkaline Imbalance: Dehydration activates an enzymatic slowdown producing acidification.
8. Excess Weight and Obesity: We may overeat because we crave foods rich in water. Thirst is often confused with hunger.
9. Eczema: Your body needs enough moisture to sweat 20 to 24 ounces of water, the amount necessary to dilute toxins so they do not irritate the skin.
10. Cholesterol: When dehydration causes too much liquid to be removed from inside the cells, the body tries to stop this loss by producing more cholesterol.
11. Cystitis, Urinary Infections: If toxins contained in urine are insufficiently diluted, they attack the urinary mucous membranes.
12. Rheumatism: Dehydration abnormally increases the concentration of toxins in the blood and cellular fluids, and the pains increase in proportion to the concentration of the toxins.
13. Premature Aging: The body of a newborn child is composed of 80 percent liquid, but this percentage declines to no more than 70 percent in an adult and continues to decline with age.
To your health!
Martin Pytela
Life Enthusiast Co-op
http://www.life-enthusiast.com
Hear below the 3 things Abraham-Hicks says we should do to improve our bodily health.
As the most ingested substance worldwide, water is also a common source of both acute and chronic illness. Long-term exposure to chemical contaminants can have serious and deadly effects.
According to the Water Quality and Health Council, "drinking water systems continue to face challenges in assuring that customers receive microbiologically safe water".
Most Americans depend on their local water utility to provide a safe water supply, testing and monitoring is not as routine as most people think.
Is bottled Water the answer?
"Roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water." Earth Policy Institute
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. (It takes up to 1000 years for a plastic water bottle to biodegrade.)
Making bottles to meet the U.S. demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
~Earth Policy Institute
Most people don't think they need to worry about dehydration. To them, dehydration is something that happens to travelers in the desert when they run out of water. But there is a chronic form of dehydration that does not have the sudden and intense nature of the acute form. Chronic dehydration is widespread in the present day and affects everyone who is not drinking enough liquid.
This list of 13 symptoms of dehydration should inspire you to go get a glass of water, and then another, and another...
1. Fatigue, Energy Loss: Dehydration of the tissues causes enzymatic activity to slow down.
2. Constipation: When chewed food enters the colon, it contains too much liquid to allow stools to form properly, and the wall of the colon reduces it. In chronic dehydration, the colon takes too much water to give to other parts of the body.
3. Digestive Disorders: In chronic dehydration, the secretion of digestive juices are less.
4. High and Low Blood Pressure: The body’s blood volume is not enough to completely fill the entire set of arteries, veins, and capillaries.
5. Gastritis, Stomach Ulcers: To protect its mucous membranes from being destroyed by the acidic digestive fluid it produces, the stomach secretes a layer of mucus.
6. Respiratory Troubles: The mucous membranes of the respiratory region are slightly moist to protect the respiratory tract from substances that might be present in inhaled air.
7. Acid-Alkaline Imbalance: Dehydration activates an enzymatic slowdown producing acidification.
8. Excess Weight and Obesity: We may overeat because we crave foods rich in water. Thirst is often confused with hunger.
9. Eczema: Your body needs enough moisture to sweat 20 to 24 ounces of water, the amount necessary to dilute toxins so they do not irritate the skin.
10. Cholesterol: When dehydration causes too much liquid to be removed from inside the cells, the body tries to stop this loss by producing more cholesterol.
11. Cystitis, Urinary Infections: If toxins contained in urine are insufficiently diluted, they attack the urinary mucous membranes.
12. Rheumatism: Dehydration abnormally increases the concentration of toxins in the blood and cellular fluids, and the pains increase in proportion to the concentration of the toxins.
13. Premature Aging: The body of a newborn child is composed of 80 percent liquid, but this percentage declines to no more than 70 percent in an adult and continues to decline with age.
To your health!
Martin Pytela
Life Enthusiast Co-op
http://www.life-enthusiast.com
Hear below the 3 things Abraham-Hicks says we should do to improve our bodily health.
BBC NEWS: Plan To Measure Happiness 'Not Woolly' - Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted his £2m plan to measure the nation's happiness is not "woolly".
He said economic growth remained the most "urgent priority" but he wanted a better measure of how the country was doing than GDP.
From April, the Office for National Statistics will ask people to rate their own well-being with the first official happiness index due in 2012.
But before that it wants the public to give their views in a consultation.
Labour also attempted to measure quality of life when it was in power but then prime minister Tony Blair abandoned the idea, after it proved too difficult to pin down.
But Mr Cameron, who first floated the idea of a "happiness index" in 2005, when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, argues that gross domestic product (GDP) - the standard measure of economic activity used around the world - is no longer up to the job.
'Distraction'
Launching the consultation on Thursday, he said: "We'll continue to measure GDP as we've always done, but it is high time we admitted that, taken on its own, GDP is an incomplete way of measuring a country's progress."
Quoting former US senator Robert Kennedy, who said GDP measured everything "except that which makes life worthwhile", he said the information gathered would help Britain re-evaluate its priorities in life.
He also hit back at claims that he should be focusing solely on economic growth as the country tries to emerge from recession.
He said the government's "most urgent priority is to get the economy moving, to create jobs, to spread opportunity for everyone".
"Without a job that pays a decent wage it is hard for people to look after their families in the way that they want, whether that's taking the children on holiday or making your home a more comfortable place.
"Without money in your pocket it is difficult to do so many of the things that we enjoy."
But he said the government also had to focus on the long-term and he said "the country would be better off if we thought about well-being as well as economic growth".
GDP was too "crude" a measure of progress as it failed to take into account wider social factors - he cited the example of "irresponsible" marketing to children, an immigration "free for all" and a "cheap booze free for all", which had all boosted economic growth at the expense of social problems.
'Bottom line'
He admitted measuring happiness could be seen as "woolly" and "impractical".
"You cannot capture happiness on a spreadsheet any more than you can bottle it - and if anyone was trying to reduce the whole spectrum of human happiness into one snapshot statistic I would be the first to roll my eyes."
But he said a new measure of national well-being "could give us a general picture of whether life is improving" and eventually "lead to government policy that is more focused not just on the bottom line, but on all those things that make life worthwhile".
He said he wanted Britain to be "in the vanguard" of efforts around the world to change the accepted measures of national progress "rather than following meekly behind".
The Office for National Statistics will lead a debate called the National Wellbeing Project which will seek to establish the key areas that matter most to people's wellbeing.
Potential indicators include how people view their own health, levels of education, inequalities in income and the environment.
National Statistician Jill Matheson said: "There is no shortage of numbers that could be used to construct measures of well-being, but they will only be successful if they are widely accepted and understood.
"We want to develop measures based on what people tell us matters most."
She said questions would be added to the ONS household survey from next April - but she wanted the public to help come up with sort of questions that should be asked.
The first official measure of the nation's well-being would be published in summer 2012, she added.
The UK government is not the first to seek better measures of progress than GDP - the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have all made the same commitment.
Trade union Unite attacked the plan as "another attempt by the coalition to pull the wool over peoples' eyes".
General Secretary elect Len McCluskey said: "No doubt Cameron will use the index to claim that despite rising unemployment, home repossessions, longer NHS waiting lists and unaffordable education, the people of this country are happier under Tory rule. The reality is a gathering gloom."
Analysis by Norman Smith Norman Smith Chief political correspondent, BBC Radio 4
Politicians have long been tempted by the idea of a "happiness index".
Tony Blair commissioned various studies and "life satisfaction" seminars but in the end those involved say he found the idea just too flaky.
And if someone so attuned to the sensitivities of the electorate thought the idea more trouble than it was worth, then perhaps Mr Cameron should take note.
For the danger is a happiness index becomes a misery monitor. An excuse for people to whinge about how unfair life is to them.
Secondly, the risk is it is seen as a woolly-headed distraction. A self indulgent fad at a time of spending cuts, job losses and benefit changes.
So while Mr Cameron may be keen on the idea I suspect many of the more hard headed individuals around him are a good deal less happy.
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11833241
Abraham-Hicks on how to be happy.
He said economic growth remained the most "urgent priority" but he wanted a better measure of how the country was doing than GDP.
From April, the Office for National Statistics will ask people to rate their own well-being with the first official happiness index due in 2012.
But before that it wants the public to give their views in a consultation.
Labour also attempted to measure quality of life when it was in power but then prime minister Tony Blair abandoned the idea, after it proved too difficult to pin down.
But Mr Cameron, who first floated the idea of a "happiness index" in 2005, when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, argues that gross domestic product (GDP) - the standard measure of economic activity used around the world - is no longer up to the job.
'Distraction'
Launching the consultation on Thursday, he said: "We'll continue to measure GDP as we've always done, but it is high time we admitted that, taken on its own, GDP is an incomplete way of measuring a country's progress."
Quoting former US senator Robert Kennedy, who said GDP measured everything "except that which makes life worthwhile", he said the information gathered would help Britain re-evaluate its priorities in life.
He also hit back at claims that he should be focusing solely on economic growth as the country tries to emerge from recession.
He said the government's "most urgent priority is to get the economy moving, to create jobs, to spread opportunity for everyone".
"Without a job that pays a decent wage it is hard for people to look after their families in the way that they want, whether that's taking the children on holiday or making your home a more comfortable place.
"Without money in your pocket it is difficult to do so many of the things that we enjoy."
But he said the government also had to focus on the long-term and he said "the country would be better off if we thought about well-being as well as economic growth".
GDP was too "crude" a measure of progress as it failed to take into account wider social factors - he cited the example of "irresponsible" marketing to children, an immigration "free for all" and a "cheap booze free for all", which had all boosted economic growth at the expense of social problems.
'Bottom line'
He admitted measuring happiness could be seen as "woolly" and "impractical".
"You cannot capture happiness on a spreadsheet any more than you can bottle it - and if anyone was trying to reduce the whole spectrum of human happiness into one snapshot statistic I would be the first to roll my eyes."
But he said a new measure of national well-being "could give us a general picture of whether life is improving" and eventually "lead to government policy that is more focused not just on the bottom line, but on all those things that make life worthwhile".
He said he wanted Britain to be "in the vanguard" of efforts around the world to change the accepted measures of national progress "rather than following meekly behind".
The Office for National Statistics will lead a debate called the National Wellbeing Project which will seek to establish the key areas that matter most to people's wellbeing.
Potential indicators include how people view their own health, levels of education, inequalities in income and the environment.
National Statistician Jill Matheson said: "There is no shortage of numbers that could be used to construct measures of well-being, but they will only be successful if they are widely accepted and understood.
"We want to develop measures based on what people tell us matters most."
She said questions would be added to the ONS household survey from next April - but she wanted the public to help come up with sort of questions that should be asked.
The first official measure of the nation's well-being would be published in summer 2012, she added.
The UK government is not the first to seek better measures of progress than GDP - the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have all made the same commitment.
Trade union Unite attacked the plan as "another attempt by the coalition to pull the wool over peoples' eyes".
General Secretary elect Len McCluskey said: "No doubt Cameron will use the index to claim that despite rising unemployment, home repossessions, longer NHS waiting lists and unaffordable education, the people of this country are happier under Tory rule. The reality is a gathering gloom."
Analysis by Norman Smith Norman Smith Chief political correspondent, BBC Radio 4
Politicians have long been tempted by the idea of a "happiness index".
Tony Blair commissioned various studies and "life satisfaction" seminars but in the end those involved say he found the idea just too flaky.
And if someone so attuned to the sensitivities of the electorate thought the idea more trouble than it was worth, then perhaps Mr Cameron should take note.
For the danger is a happiness index becomes a misery monitor. An excuse for people to whinge about how unfair life is to them.
Secondly, the risk is it is seen as a woolly-headed distraction. A self indulgent fad at a time of spending cuts, job losses and benefit changes.
So while Mr Cameron may be keen on the idea I suspect many of the more hard headed individuals around him are a good deal less happy.
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11833241
Abraham-Hicks on how to be happy.
BBC NEWS: Culture Linked To Improved Health
Trips to the theatre, concerts, art galleries and museums have been linked to better health and wellbeing, according to researchers in Norway.
A report, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, showed the more often people engaged in cultural activities the greater their health benefits.
The authors suggest culture could be used to promote good health.
The study interviewed 50,797 adults from Nord-Trøndelag County in Norway.
They were asked about their health, and satisfaction with life, as well as levels of anxiety and depression.
They were also questioned about their involvement in two cultural fields: "creative culture" when the person does something such as play an instrument, paint or sing, and "receptive culture" including going to galleries and concerts.
Both types of cultural activity were linked with good health, wellbeing, low stress and low depression even when other factors, such as social background and wealth, were taken into account.
In men the effect was most pronounced in those who preferred to get their dose of culture as an observer rather than doing something more hands on.
The authors said: "The results indicate that the use of cultural activities in health promotion and healthcare may be justified."
The study, however, cannot say that culture improves health. It could be the case that healthier people are more likely to take part in cultural activities.
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, spokesperson for the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "It's interesting research, probably working through the release of hormones, like endorphins, increasing the feeling of wellbeing and reducing anxiety and depression."
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13501294
A report, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, showed the more often people engaged in cultural activities the greater their health benefits.
The authors suggest culture could be used to promote good health.
The study interviewed 50,797 adults from Nord-Trøndelag County in Norway.
They were asked about their health, and satisfaction with life, as well as levels of anxiety and depression.
They were also questioned about their involvement in two cultural fields: "creative culture" when the person does something such as play an instrument, paint or sing, and "receptive culture" including going to galleries and concerts.
Both types of cultural activity were linked with good health, wellbeing, low stress and low depression even when other factors, such as social background and wealth, were taken into account.
In men the effect was most pronounced in those who preferred to get their dose of culture as an observer rather than doing something more hands on.
The authors said: "The results indicate that the use of cultural activities in health promotion and healthcare may be justified."
The study, however, cannot say that culture improves health. It could be the case that healthier people are more likely to take part in cultural activities.
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, spokesperson for the UK Faculty of Public Health, said: "It's interesting research, probably working through the release of hormones, like endorphins, increasing the feeling of wellbeing and reducing anxiety and depression."
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13501294
BBC NEWS: Brisk Walks Fight Prostate Cancer
By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News
Men who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer can help keep their disease at bay by taking brisk walks, claim researchers.
Based on their observations, men who power walk for at least three hours a week can halve how much their cancer will grow and spread over the next couple of years.
Strolling does not have the same effect, Cancer Research journal warns.
Experts say it shows that keeping active can improve health.
But they say the findings should be interpreted with caution because the men who did more walking also tended to be younger, leaner, and non-smokers, which could also explain some of the differences seen.
Leg Work
The University of California San Francisco study looked at the outcomes of 1,455 men, mostly in their 60s, who were diagnosed with "localised" prostate cancer, meaning it had not yet started to spread.
The men were asked to say how much exercise and of what type they took in the average week.
During the 31 months of follow up, the US researchers recorded 117 events, including disease recurrence, bone tumours and deaths specifically caused by prostate cancer.
And they found that men who walked briskly for at least three hours a week were far less likely to have one of these events.
The brisk walkers had a 57% rate of progression of disease than men who walked at an easy pace for less than three hours a week.
Lead researcher Erin Richman said: "It appears that men who walk briskly after their diagnosis may delay or even prevent progression of their disease.
"The benefit from walking truly depended on how quickly you walked. Walking at an easy pace did not seem to have any benefit.
"Walking is something everyone can and should do to improve their health."
The scientists believe power walking might affect prostate cancer progression by changing blood levels of certain proteins that have been shown in the lab to encourage cancer growth.
Dr Helen Rippon, head of research management at The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Although this research will need to be repeated to make sure the results can be applied to all men with prostate cancer, we would certainly advise men diagnosed with prostate cancer to ensure that their lifestyle includes a good amount of physical activity - and walking is often the easiest way of achieving this."
Liz Woolf of Cancer Research UK said: "We know there are many benefits to exercise and that it can help people to recover more quickly after cancer treatment but it's difficult to set specific levels of exercise as everyone's needs and abilities are different.
"Just to be safe, it is important that people with cancer check with their doctor before taking up any new form of exercise."
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13518537
Do you kind of get the feeling the world actually knows nothing about health and illness. The fact this is posted online as a BBC News story is absurd.
Hear what Abraham-Hicks says is the true cure to all illness.
Men who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer can help keep their disease at bay by taking brisk walks, claim researchers.
Based on their observations, men who power walk for at least three hours a week can halve how much their cancer will grow and spread over the next couple of years.
Strolling does not have the same effect, Cancer Research journal warns.
Experts say it shows that keeping active can improve health.
But they say the findings should be interpreted with caution because the men who did more walking also tended to be younger, leaner, and non-smokers, which could also explain some of the differences seen.
Leg Work
The University of California San Francisco study looked at the outcomes of 1,455 men, mostly in their 60s, who were diagnosed with "localised" prostate cancer, meaning it had not yet started to spread.
The men were asked to say how much exercise and of what type they took in the average week.
During the 31 months of follow up, the US researchers recorded 117 events, including disease recurrence, bone tumours and deaths specifically caused by prostate cancer.
And they found that men who walked briskly for at least three hours a week were far less likely to have one of these events.
The brisk walkers had a 57% rate of progression of disease than men who walked at an easy pace for less than three hours a week.
Lead researcher Erin Richman said: "It appears that men who walk briskly after their diagnosis may delay or even prevent progression of their disease.
"The benefit from walking truly depended on how quickly you walked. Walking at an easy pace did not seem to have any benefit.
"Walking is something everyone can and should do to improve their health."
The scientists believe power walking might affect prostate cancer progression by changing blood levels of certain proteins that have been shown in the lab to encourage cancer growth.
Dr Helen Rippon, head of research management at The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "Although this research will need to be repeated to make sure the results can be applied to all men with prostate cancer, we would certainly advise men diagnosed with prostate cancer to ensure that their lifestyle includes a good amount of physical activity - and walking is often the easiest way of achieving this."
Liz Woolf of Cancer Research UK said: "We know there are many benefits to exercise and that it can help people to recover more quickly after cancer treatment but it's difficult to set specific levels of exercise as everyone's needs and abilities are different.
"Just to be safe, it is important that people with cancer check with their doctor before taking up any new form of exercise."
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13518537
Do you kind of get the feeling the world actually knows nothing about health and illness. The fact this is posted online as a BBC News story is absurd.
Hear what Abraham-Hicks says is the true cure to all illness.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Abraham-Hicks: Moving From Powerlessness to Anger...
Where are you on life's Emotional Scale?
1. Joy/Knowledge/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation
2. Passion
3. Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
4. Positive Expectation/Belief
5. Optimism
6. Hopefulness
7. Contentment
8. Boredom
9. Pessimism
10. Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
11. Overwhelment
12. Disappointment
13. Doubt
14. Worry
15. Blame
16. Discouragement
17. Anger
18. Revenge
19. Hatred/Rage
20. Jealously
21. Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
22. Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness
© Abraham-Hicks
Depending on your choice of thoughts, you are somewhere on this scale. The way to move up this scale is to continuously think better feeling thoughts.
Your journey of improvement through life is a mental and emotional journey, the physical action journey following your improved state of feeling.
"If it feels good, it is better for you than if it feels bad." Abraham-Hicks
Hear how important your feelings are to telling you where in relation you currently are to your true power. And what can happen if you ignore them!
1. Joy/Knowledge/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation
2. Passion
3. Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
4. Positive Expectation/Belief
5. Optimism
6. Hopefulness
7. Contentment
8. Boredom
9. Pessimism
10. Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
11. Overwhelment
12. Disappointment
13. Doubt
14. Worry
15. Blame
16. Discouragement
17. Anger
18. Revenge
19. Hatred/Rage
20. Jealously
21. Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
22. Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness
© Abraham-Hicks
Depending on your choice of thoughts, you are somewhere on this scale. The way to move up this scale is to continuously think better feeling thoughts.
Your journey of improvement through life is a mental and emotional journey, the physical action journey following your improved state of feeling.
"If it feels good, it is better for you than if it feels bad." Abraham-Hicks
Hear how important your feelings are to telling you where in relation you currently are to your true power. And what can happen if you ignore them!
The Essence of The Abraham-Hicks Teachings In Their Own Words
Listen to these powerful audio clips by Abraham-Hicks for a greater understanding of their work and message.
Viewer comment on these videos:
Unite with the positive! Only have positive thoughts! See the positive potential in absolutely everything.
There are still survivors from the prison camps in WW2 under Hitler!! They had a hard time but they wouldn't have made it through the horrible mess without being able to "envision the positive outcome" in their imaginations! The POWER of that positive thought.
We can retrain ourselves to think posiitive...but first we have to turn off 90% of the TV...negative conditioning!
Viewer comment on these videos:
Unite with the positive! Only have positive thoughts! See the positive potential in absolutely everything.
There are still survivors from the prison camps in WW2 under Hitler!! They had a hard time but they wouldn't have made it through the horrible mess without being able to "envision the positive outcome" in their imaginations! The POWER of that positive thought.
We can retrain ourselves to think posiitive...but first we have to turn off 90% of the TV...negative conditioning!
Dr Robert Anthony: Control -vs- Surrender...
When someone mentions the word "Surrender", what does that mean to you? We commonly mistake surrender for giving up. Unfortunately there is a fine line between obsessive control and determination or between surrendering and giving up.
Imagine hanging onto a small branch on the side of a cliff. You would hold on as tightly as possible to keep from falling to the ground wouldn't you? You would grit your teeth with a dogged determination vowing not to give up until help arrives. The last thing you want to do is surrender to the inevitable fate of falling.
Now, what if I told you the danger is not real and that you are actually only two feet from the ground? Would you loosen your grip on the branch? Of course you would! This is Surrender. It is the ability to relax one's grip on life in the place of the ILLUSION of danger.
Yes. It is possible your business might fail. Your wife or husband may divorce you. Your whole city could be wiped out by a natural disaster or terrorist attack. This doesn't mean you don't do what you can to be prepared. But you are defeating yourself when you try to control things outside of your direct influence. So Surrender is demonstrated by the willingness to let go of the need to control things OUTSIDE of your direct influence.
Surrender happens when you do what you can do in the moment, and let go of the things that are outside of your control.
Here is a way to experience Control versus Surrender. Clench your fist. Make your hand so tight that nothing can slip through into your palm. What would you do if I wanted to put $1,000 into the palm of your hand right now? Would you keep your fist clenched or would you surrender your clenched hand to accept what I am offering? Life works the same way. When your mind is clenched, you cannot open yourself to the riches you deserve. Here is a quote from Lao Tzu - "He who grasps loses." Remember it!
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Imagine hanging onto a small branch on the side of a cliff. You would hold on as tightly as possible to keep from falling to the ground wouldn't you? You would grit your teeth with a dogged determination vowing not to give up until help arrives. The last thing you want to do is surrender to the inevitable fate of falling.
Now, what if I told you the danger is not real and that you are actually only two feet from the ground? Would you loosen your grip on the branch? Of course you would! This is Surrender. It is the ability to relax one's grip on life in the place of the ILLUSION of danger.
Yes. It is possible your business might fail. Your wife or husband may divorce you. Your whole city could be wiped out by a natural disaster or terrorist attack. This doesn't mean you don't do what you can to be prepared. But you are defeating yourself when you try to control things outside of your direct influence. So Surrender is demonstrated by the willingness to let go of the need to control things OUTSIDE of your direct influence.
Surrender happens when you do what you can do in the moment, and let go of the things that are outside of your control.
Here is a way to experience Control versus Surrender. Clench your fist. Make your hand so tight that nothing can slip through into your palm. What would you do if I wanted to put $1,000 into the palm of your hand right now? Would you keep your fist clenched or would you surrender your clenched hand to accept what I am offering? Life works the same way. When your mind is clenched, you cannot open yourself to the riches you deserve. Here is a quote from Lao Tzu - "He who grasps loses." Remember it!
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
BBC TV : Is Religion In The UK On The Way Out?
Sunday's 'The Big Question' on BBC 1 attempted to discuss whether religion was unattractive to young people living in the UK today.
You can view the show on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b011kkng/
One interesting comment that the show did throw up was that you don't need a building to be spiritual, and that religion and spirituality are two completely different practices.
Tell us what you think.
Are You All Over The Place?
I know what it’s like…
You have a whole bunch of things that you are interested in –
There are a ton of possibilities for your own business –
You don’t want to miss anything or leave anything behind –
So, you are ALL OVER THE PLACE!
Ring a bell?
I know it does for me…
For years I was so scared of choosing to focus in one direction for fear that I would have to put everything else aside forever…
Well, I have a secret for you…
I was wrong — I mean W R O N G!
I was so busy trying to do everything at the same exact time, that I was getting nowhere fast!
I realized that I could have everything I wanted if I would just set up my time in chunks of focus — but the key to my success with this is that when I would block off time to focus on something, that was the ONLY thing I would focus on during that time…
No emails
No phone calls
No distractions
Then, I would shift to the next chunk of time that was dedicated to something else and ONLY focus on that…
And what happened?
My life changed –
My WHOLE life changed…
I had more money coming in than I ever had before
I was able to say ‘Yes’ to more opportunities
My relationships thrived
My health/body/fitness went from being that last thing I took time for to a consistent focus
My sense of peace increased significantly
And more and more and more…
So, what’s my point?
I’ll tell you –
You CAN be, do and have everything you desire when you schedule the time to focus on each thing — one thing at a time!
Try it — for one week — you’ll be amazed!
Leave me a comment and let me know what you are going to do to take action on this — today!
Go Big!
Kristen - www.lawofattractionkey.com/600/all-over-the-place/
You have a whole bunch of things that you are interested in –
There are a ton of possibilities for your own business –
You don’t want to miss anything or leave anything behind –
So, you are ALL OVER THE PLACE!
Ring a bell?
I know it does for me…
For years I was so scared of choosing to focus in one direction for fear that I would have to put everything else aside forever…
Well, I have a secret for you…
I was wrong — I mean W R O N G!
I was so busy trying to do everything at the same exact time, that I was getting nowhere fast!
I realized that I could have everything I wanted if I would just set up my time in chunks of focus — but the key to my success with this is that when I would block off time to focus on something, that was the ONLY thing I would focus on during that time…
No emails
No phone calls
No distractions
Then, I would shift to the next chunk of time that was dedicated to something else and ONLY focus on that…
And what happened?
My life changed –
My WHOLE life changed…
I had more money coming in than I ever had before
I was able to say ‘Yes’ to more opportunities
My relationships thrived
My health/body/fitness went from being that last thing I took time for to a consistent focus
My sense of peace increased significantly
And more and more and more…
So, what’s my point?
I’ll tell you –
You CAN be, do and have everything you desire when you schedule the time to focus on each thing — one thing at a time!
Try it — for one week — you’ll be amazed!
Leave me a comment and let me know what you are going to do to take action on this — today!
Go Big!
Kristen - www.lawofattractionkey.com/600/all-over-the-place/
Friday, 20 May 2011
The Importance Of Positive Self Talk
Did You Watch American Idol Last Night?
Do you watch American Idol?
Whether you do or you don't I'm going to share with you a very interesting success secret that was shared on the show last night.
I'm not sure if you were listening, really listening, though one of the most successful singers of the last 20 years gave you a glimpse into her success mindset.
First.
What's one of the biggest differences between successful people and unsuccessful people?
Answer: SELF TALK
How we talk to ourselves, what we say to ourselves makes a huge difference in what we achieve. (agree?)
So last night, Beyonce Knowles was a guest mentor on American Idol and here's what happened.
She was helping one of the contestants who was nervous.
Beyonce says, "I'm nervous all the time. I'm even shy in real life." (me paraphrasing)
Follow this here.
She says right before I go onstage I tell myself, "I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Again.
"I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Then she appears before 15,000 screaming fans at a concert and gives them a performance they all rave about.
What SELF talk that is!
What are you saying to yourself right before important moments in your life or business?
What is one sentence that YOU can say to yourself that would put you in the right frame of mine as well?
Beyonce's is, "I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Your self talk makes all the difference. Take advantage of it amigo.
Mike Litman
Connect to Success | 37 Club Drive Suite 107 | Jericho, NY 11753
Do you watch American Idol?
Whether you do or you don't I'm going to share with you a very interesting success secret that was shared on the show last night.
I'm not sure if you were listening, really listening, though one of the most successful singers of the last 20 years gave you a glimpse into her success mindset.
First.
What's one of the biggest differences between successful people and unsuccessful people?
Answer: SELF TALK
How we talk to ourselves, what we say to ourselves makes a huge difference in what we achieve. (agree?)
So last night, Beyonce Knowles was a guest mentor on American Idol and here's what happened.
She was helping one of the contestants who was nervous.
Beyonce says, "I'm nervous all the time. I'm even shy in real life." (me paraphrasing)
Follow this here.
She says right before I go onstage I tell myself, "I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Again.
"I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Then she appears before 15,000 screaming fans at a concert and gives them a performance they all rave about.
What SELF talk that is!
What are you saying to yourself right before important moments in your life or business?
What is one sentence that YOU can say to yourself that would put you in the right frame of mine as well?
Beyonce's is, "I deserve it. I'm strong. I'm fearless. I'm a diva."
Your self talk makes all the difference. Take advantage of it amigo.
Mike Litman
Connect to Success | 37 Club Drive Suite 107 | Jericho, NY 11753
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Do You Remember When...
Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid?
When you believed that you could be anything you wanted when you grew up?
When you believed you could do anything.
The possibilities were endless.
You could be a policeman or woman. Or a Doctor. Or an astronaut.
You believed that anything was possible.
And it was.
You didn't have any doubts. You didn't have any judgments. You didn't see all the reasons "why not," you just saw the "What if."
Do you still believe that you can be anything you want and have everything you day dream about?
Why not?
What happened?
Why don't we still believe money grows on trees?
Why don't we still believe that we can have it all?
Why don't we still believe that we are worthy enough?
Why do we see all the reasons why it won't work, or why we can't do it, or why it's not possible?
It's not your fault that you believe this way.
Because as we went through life, our beliefs changed.
Other people told us that XYZ isn't possible.
They told that money doesn't grow on trees.
That you have to work hard.
That life is a struggle.
That you aren't good enough, or smart enough, or attractive enough.
At first, we didn't believe them.
Right.
We were still "kids at heart." We thought that we could have it all.
But then we tried and failed.
And the more we tried (or saw others try) and fail, we started adopting those beliefs as "truths" or "facts."
Through the years, they became our beliefs.
We started saying and believing:
Money doesn't grow on trees.
I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
Nothing ever works out for me.
Other people are just lucky.
Life is hard.
The list goes on.
Well, I'm here to tell you Steven,
"That's Not The Truth."
That's not who you are.
That's not what life is about.
Those are other people's old, worn out, self-sabotaging beliefs.
And if you don't change those beliefs...
Life will continue to be hard.
You will continue to experience life exactly like it is now.
You will continue to struggle.
You will continue to fight.
You will continue to "want more" and not get it.
Your beliefs literally control your life. They control you.
Every action you take and decision you make are a result of your beliefs.
And if you don't have the right beliefs in place, you will never take the actions and make the decisions that will allow you to live a life of freedom and joy.
A lot of people have been where you are and it doesn't have to be that way.
I struggled for years. And I finally broke free when I changed my beliefs.
It took a good friend of mine years and years to learn that it was her beliefs that kept her where she was.
And then it took her several more years of experimenting with ways to change her beliefs.
Lucky for you, it doesn't have to take years.
It doesn't even have to take months.
You can start changing your beliefs today.
And I promise you...
Your life will begin to change immediately.
Go Big Coach
Rubbertree Inc., 935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
When you believed that you could be anything you wanted when you grew up?
When you believed you could do anything.
The possibilities were endless.
You could be a policeman or woman. Or a Doctor. Or an astronaut.
You believed that anything was possible.
And it was.
You didn't have any doubts. You didn't have any judgments. You didn't see all the reasons "why not," you just saw the "What if."
Do you still believe that you can be anything you want and have everything you day dream about?
Why not?
What happened?
Why don't we still believe money grows on trees?
Why don't we still believe that we can have it all?
Why don't we still believe that we are worthy enough?
Why do we see all the reasons why it won't work, or why we can't do it, or why it's not possible?
It's not your fault that you believe this way.
Because as we went through life, our beliefs changed.
Other people told us that XYZ isn't possible.
They told that money doesn't grow on trees.
That you have to work hard.
That life is a struggle.
That you aren't good enough, or smart enough, or attractive enough.
At first, we didn't believe them.
Right.
We were still "kids at heart." We thought that we could have it all.
But then we tried and failed.
And the more we tried (or saw others try) and fail, we started adopting those beliefs as "truths" or "facts."
Through the years, they became our beliefs.
We started saying and believing:
Money doesn't grow on trees.
I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
Nothing ever works out for me.
Other people are just lucky.
Life is hard.
The list goes on.
Well, I'm here to tell you Steven,
"That's Not The Truth."
That's not who you are.
That's not what life is about.
Those are other people's old, worn out, self-sabotaging beliefs.
And if you don't change those beliefs...
Life will continue to be hard.
You will continue to experience life exactly like it is now.
You will continue to struggle.
You will continue to fight.
You will continue to "want more" and not get it.
Your beliefs literally control your life. They control you.
Every action you take and decision you make are a result of your beliefs.
And if you don't have the right beliefs in place, you will never take the actions and make the decisions that will allow you to live a life of freedom and joy.
A lot of people have been where you are and it doesn't have to be that way.
I struggled for years. And I finally broke free when I changed my beliefs.
It took a good friend of mine years and years to learn that it was her beliefs that kept her where she was.
And then it took her several more years of experimenting with ways to change her beliefs.
Lucky for you, it doesn't have to take years.
It doesn't even have to take months.
You can start changing your beliefs today.
And I promise you...
Your life will begin to change immediately.
Go Big Coach
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Wednesday, 18 May 2011
BBC NEWS: Glasgow University Researchers 'Decode' Brainwaves
Scientists believe they are a step closer to being able to read people's minds after decoding human brainwaves.
Glasgow University researchers asked volunteers to identify different emotions on images of human faces.
They then measured the volunteers' resulting brainwaves using a technique called electroencephalography (EEG).
Once researchers compared the answers to the brainwaves recorded, they were able to decode the type of information the brainwaves held relating to vision.
The research was carried out by the university's institute of neuroscience and psychology.
Six volunteers were presented with images of people's faces, displaying different emotions such as happiness, fear and surprise.
Facial information
On different experimental trials, parts of the images were randomly covered so that, for example, only the eyes or mouth were visible. The volunteers were then asked to identify the emotion being displayed.
The participants' brainwaves were measured using EEG which allowed the researchers to identify which parts of the brain were active when looking at different parts of the face.
Brainwaves vary widely in frequency, amplitude and phase.
In this study, the researchers found that 'beta' waves which have a cycle of 12 Hertz (Hz) carried information about the eyes, while 'theta' waves at 4Hz encoded information about the mouth.
The researchers also found information could be encoded depending on the phase - or timing of the brainwave - and less so by its amplitude - or strength.
Institute director, Professor Philippe Schyns, who led the study, said: "It's a bit like unlocking a scrambled television channel. Before, we could detect the signal but couldn't watch the content - now we can.
"While we are able to detect EEG activity in certain areas of the brain when particular tasks are performed, we've not known what information is being carried in those brainwaves.
Brain code
"What we have done is to find a way of decoding brainwaves to identify the messages within."
Prof Schyns said the research could give rise to other developments.
"By using multiple frequencies to encode two different parts of the face - a process called multiplexing - the brain can code more signals at the same time," he said.
"It is a bit like radiowaves coding different radio stations at different frequency bands. Likewise, the brain tunes in different waves to code different visual features.
"This work has huge potential in the development of brain-computer interfaces."
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13428627
Glasgow University researchers asked volunteers to identify different emotions on images of human faces.
They then measured the volunteers' resulting brainwaves using a technique called electroencephalography (EEG).
Once researchers compared the answers to the brainwaves recorded, they were able to decode the type of information the brainwaves held relating to vision.
The research was carried out by the university's institute of neuroscience and psychology.
Six volunteers were presented with images of people's faces, displaying different emotions such as happiness, fear and surprise.
Facial information
On different experimental trials, parts of the images were randomly covered so that, for example, only the eyes or mouth were visible. The volunteers were then asked to identify the emotion being displayed.
The participants' brainwaves were measured using EEG which allowed the researchers to identify which parts of the brain were active when looking at different parts of the face.
Brainwaves vary widely in frequency, amplitude and phase.
In this study, the researchers found that 'beta' waves which have a cycle of 12 Hertz (Hz) carried information about the eyes, while 'theta' waves at 4Hz encoded information about the mouth.
The researchers also found information could be encoded depending on the phase - or timing of the brainwave - and less so by its amplitude - or strength.
Institute director, Professor Philippe Schyns, who led the study, said: "It's a bit like unlocking a scrambled television channel. Before, we could detect the signal but couldn't watch the content - now we can.
"While we are able to detect EEG activity in certain areas of the brain when particular tasks are performed, we've not known what information is being carried in those brainwaves.
Brain code
"What we have done is to find a way of decoding brainwaves to identify the messages within."
Prof Schyns said the research could give rise to other developments.
"By using multiple frequencies to encode two different parts of the face - a process called multiplexing - the brain can code more signals at the same time," he said.
"It is a bit like radiowaves coding different radio stations at different frequency bands. Likewise, the brain tunes in different waves to code different visual features.
"This work has huge potential in the development of brain-computer interfaces."
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-13428627
The Rosenhan Experiment
The Rosenhan experiment was a famous experiment into the validity of psychiatric diagnosis conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan in 1973. It was published in the journal Science under the title "On being sane in insane places." The study is considered an important and influential criticism of psychiatric diagnosis.
Rosenhan's study was done in two parts. The first part involved the use of healthy associates or "pseudopatients" who briefly simulated auditory hallucinations in an attempt to gain admission to 12 different psychiatric hospitals in five different states in various locations in the United States. All were admitted and diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. After admission, the pseudopatients acted normally and told staff that they felt fine and had not experienced any more hallucinations. Hospital staff failed to detect a single pseudopatient, and instead believed that all of the pseudopatients exhibited symptoms of ongoing mental illness. Several were confined for months. All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs as a condition of their release.
The second part involved asking staff at a psychiatric hospital to detect non-existent "fake" patients. No fake patients were sent, yet the staff falsely identified large numbers of ordinary patients as impostors.
The study concluded, "It is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals" and also illustrated the dangers of dehumanization and labeling in psychiatric institutions. It suggested that the use of community mental health facilities which concentrated on specific problems and behaviors rather than psychiatric labels might be a solution and recommended education to make psychiatric workers more aware of the social psychology of their facilities.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment
Rosenhan's study was done in two parts. The first part involved the use of healthy associates or "pseudopatients" who briefly simulated auditory hallucinations in an attempt to gain admission to 12 different psychiatric hospitals in five different states in various locations in the United States. All were admitted and diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. After admission, the pseudopatients acted normally and told staff that they felt fine and had not experienced any more hallucinations. Hospital staff failed to detect a single pseudopatient, and instead believed that all of the pseudopatients exhibited symptoms of ongoing mental illness. Several were confined for months. All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs as a condition of their release.
The second part involved asking staff at a psychiatric hospital to detect non-existent "fake" patients. No fake patients were sent, yet the staff falsely identified large numbers of ordinary patients as impostors.
The study concluded, "It is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals" and also illustrated the dangers of dehumanization and labeling in psychiatric institutions. It suggested that the use of community mental health facilities which concentrated on specific problems and behaviors rather than psychiatric labels might be a solution and recommended education to make psychiatric workers more aware of the social psychology of their facilities.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment
BBC NEWS: When Taking Pills Can Be Better Than Talking
Talking therapies are often cited as the best way of helping people with mental health problems.
But Richard Gray, a professor of nursing research, says sometimes pills are the answer.
Sitting in a village hall with 50 other people listening to a Powerpoint presentation about coping with stress is probably not what you have in mind when you think about receiving a talking treatment.
But this is the reality for many patients on the NHS's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme.
Depression and anxiety may affect up to one in four of us at some point in our lives and is a major reason why people are on long term sick leave or are unemployed.
Psychological treatments (such as CBT - cognitive behavioural therapy) and antidepressant medication are very effective in treating these illnesses.
But when given a choice most choose a talking therapy over medication.
Why people prefer psychological treatments is unclear but might be because of the negative media stories and stigma associated with taking pills for a mental illness.
'Voting with their feet'
Accessing talking treatments has, for many years, been restricted by the very limited number of qualified therapists that can provide the therapy.
The IAPT programme, launched in 2007, sought to address this; making talking treatments available to the many, not just the few.
The investment of £170m to make talking treatments widely available was aimed at enabling large numbers of economically inactive patients get back to work.
But the end of first year, evaluation suggests that patients on IAPT received, on average, just three sessions of treatment; well below the 16-20 sessions recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to be effective against depression and anxiety.
Large numbers of patients are seemingly voting with their feet and walking away early. Does this reflect the quality of therapy or the way it is being offered (back to our of 50 patients in the village hall)?
Improving access to talking treatments is a major campaigning issue for major mental health charities.
And it was striking that the majority of the media coverage surrounding the launch of the recent government mental health strategy also seemed to focus on the single issues of improving access to psychological treatments.
Is it time to question our seeming obsession with talking treatments?
'Troubling and dangerous'
Although it feels like heresy to suggest this I want to stand up for the very important role medication can play in the treatment of mental illness.
Antidepressants are very effective in treating moderate to severe depression, quickly alleviating distressing and disabling symptoms in about seven out of 10 patients.
Yes, pills can have side effects but so does CBT.
There are many patients that I have worked with who feel passionately that antidepressants have literally saved their lives.
Unlike talking treatments, prescribing a medication guarantees patients will get the full "dose" of treatment.
When it comes to severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder I think it is even more important to stand up for medication which, I believe, should be viewed as the foundation for effective treatment.
I have been quite taken aback recently to hear a number of experienced psychiatric colleagues promoting psychological therapies as the preferred treatment choice for patients with these illnesses.
This is a troubling and dangerous consequence of our talking treatment obsession.
CBT can be helpful against schizophrenia and bipolar depression (but not mania), but requires patients to be taking medication first.
Both psychological therapies and medication have a role to play in helping people move on with their lives and recover from mental illness.
There are, I think, real challenges facing those implementing IAPT in guaranteeing that patients get the quality of talking treatments they require; surely not mass CBT in the village hall.
Taking medication means that patients get a treatment that has been shown to be effective in treating their symptoms.
Is it time to think about Improving Access to Pharmacological Therapies?
Professor Gray has written a book on treating psychosis with CBT, and has given lectures on behalf of a number of pharmaceutical companies.
By Professor Richard Gray University of East Anglia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12716742
But Richard Gray, a professor of nursing research, says sometimes pills are the answer.
Sitting in a village hall with 50 other people listening to a Powerpoint presentation about coping with stress is probably not what you have in mind when you think about receiving a talking treatment.
But this is the reality for many patients on the NHS's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme.
Depression and anxiety may affect up to one in four of us at some point in our lives and is a major reason why people are on long term sick leave or are unemployed.
Psychological treatments (such as CBT - cognitive behavioural therapy) and antidepressant medication are very effective in treating these illnesses.
But when given a choice most choose a talking therapy over medication.
Why people prefer psychological treatments is unclear but might be because of the negative media stories and stigma associated with taking pills for a mental illness.
'Voting with their feet'
Accessing talking treatments has, for many years, been restricted by the very limited number of qualified therapists that can provide the therapy.
The IAPT programme, launched in 2007, sought to address this; making talking treatments available to the many, not just the few.
The investment of £170m to make talking treatments widely available was aimed at enabling large numbers of economically inactive patients get back to work.
But the end of first year, evaluation suggests that patients on IAPT received, on average, just three sessions of treatment; well below the 16-20 sessions recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to be effective against depression and anxiety.
Large numbers of patients are seemingly voting with their feet and walking away early. Does this reflect the quality of therapy or the way it is being offered (back to our of 50 patients in the village hall)?
Improving access to talking treatments is a major campaigning issue for major mental health charities.
And it was striking that the majority of the media coverage surrounding the launch of the recent government mental health strategy also seemed to focus on the single issues of improving access to psychological treatments.
Is it time to question our seeming obsession with talking treatments?
'Troubling and dangerous'
Although it feels like heresy to suggest this I want to stand up for the very important role medication can play in the treatment of mental illness.
Antidepressants are very effective in treating moderate to severe depression, quickly alleviating distressing and disabling symptoms in about seven out of 10 patients.
Yes, pills can have side effects but so does CBT.
There are many patients that I have worked with who feel passionately that antidepressants have literally saved their lives.
Unlike talking treatments, prescribing a medication guarantees patients will get the full "dose" of treatment.
When it comes to severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder I think it is even more important to stand up for medication which, I believe, should be viewed as the foundation for effective treatment.
I have been quite taken aback recently to hear a number of experienced psychiatric colleagues promoting psychological therapies as the preferred treatment choice for patients with these illnesses.
This is a troubling and dangerous consequence of our talking treatment obsession.
CBT can be helpful against schizophrenia and bipolar depression (but not mania), but requires patients to be taking medication first.
Both psychological therapies and medication have a role to play in helping people move on with their lives and recover from mental illness.
There are, I think, real challenges facing those implementing IAPT in guaranteeing that patients get the quality of talking treatments they require; surely not mass CBT in the village hall.
Taking medication means that patients get a treatment that has been shown to be effective in treating their symptoms.
Is it time to think about Improving Access to Pharmacological Therapies?
Professor Gray has written a book on treating psychosis with CBT, and has given lectures on behalf of a number of pharmaceutical companies.
By Professor Richard Gray University of East Anglia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12716742
BBC NEWS: Mentally ill Have Reduced Life Expectancy, Study Finds
People suffering from serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder can have a life expectancy 10 to 15 years lower than the UK average.
Researchers tracked the lives of more than 30,000 patients through the use of electronic medical records.
They found that many were dying early from heart attack, stroke and cancer rather than suicide or violence.
Mental health groups say vulnerable people need to be offered better care to prevent premature deaths.
The research was carried out at the Biomedical Research Centre for mental health at the Maudsley Hospital in London and published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
The study examined life expectancy for people suffering from specific mental illnesses like schizophrenia, serious depression and bipolar disorder, or those being treated for substance misuse.
Life expectancy across all the illnesses studied was well below the UK average of 77.4 years for men and 81.6 years for women.
Those most affected were women with schizoaffective disorder - problems with mood or sometimes abnormal thoughts - whose average life expectancy was reduced by 17.5 years, and men with schizophrenia whose lives were shortened by about 14.6 years.
The researchers believe a combination of factors - higher-risk lifestyles, long-term anti-psychotic drug use and social disadvantage - could be to blame.
'Grim Statistics'
Dr Rob Stewart, of the Biomedical Research Centre, said people with serious mental health conditions tended not to look after themselves as well.
"These results show the enormous impact mental health conditions can have on general health and survival," he said.
"The effects we see here are stronger than well-known risk factors like smoking, obesity or diabetes.
"We need to improve the general health of people suffering from mental disorders by making sure they have access to healthcare of the same standard, quality and range as other people, and by developing effective screening programmes."
Jane Harris, from the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said the physical health needs of people with mental illness had been ignored.
"These grim statistics tell a depressingly familiar story. It is completely unacceptable that people with a mental illness are effectively living in the 1930s in terms of life expectancy.
"Action must be taken; we cannot carry on tolerating the fact that people are dying from preventable illnesses, due to a health system which treats mental health patients as second class citizens."
'Symptoms Overlooked'
The joint chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, Professor Bob Grove, said urgent action was needed to implement the government's mental health strategy objective of improving the physical health of all people with mental health problems, and to address "the stark inequality in health as part of the NHS reform process".
Sophie Corlett, of the mental health charity Mind, said: "Doctors need to be more proactive in helping patients make informed choices about long-term medications that can sometimes have negative side effects for their physical health.
"There is also a danger that preventable illnesses can be missed by doctors who sometimes overlook physical health complaints and focus their attention on the mental health problem.
"It's vital that people with mental health problems have access to routine physical health checks and that they are helped to make healthy lifestyle choices. We cannot allow this inequality to continue."
Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: "Our strategy, 'No health without mental health', aims to improve the physical health of people with mental health problems, reduce premature deaths, and ensure evidence-based mental health therapies are available for all who need them."
By Dominic Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13414965
Hear below what Abraham-Hicks says about positive mental health and healthy life standards.
Researchers tracked the lives of more than 30,000 patients through the use of electronic medical records.
They found that many were dying early from heart attack, stroke and cancer rather than suicide or violence.
Mental health groups say vulnerable people need to be offered better care to prevent premature deaths.
The research was carried out at the Biomedical Research Centre for mental health at the Maudsley Hospital in London and published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
The study examined life expectancy for people suffering from specific mental illnesses like schizophrenia, serious depression and bipolar disorder, or those being treated for substance misuse.
Life expectancy across all the illnesses studied was well below the UK average of 77.4 years for men and 81.6 years for women.
Those most affected were women with schizoaffective disorder - problems with mood or sometimes abnormal thoughts - whose average life expectancy was reduced by 17.5 years, and men with schizophrenia whose lives were shortened by about 14.6 years.
The researchers believe a combination of factors - higher-risk lifestyles, long-term anti-psychotic drug use and social disadvantage - could be to blame.
'Grim Statistics'
Dr Rob Stewart, of the Biomedical Research Centre, said people with serious mental health conditions tended not to look after themselves as well.
"These results show the enormous impact mental health conditions can have on general health and survival," he said.
"The effects we see here are stronger than well-known risk factors like smoking, obesity or diabetes.
"We need to improve the general health of people suffering from mental disorders by making sure they have access to healthcare of the same standard, quality and range as other people, and by developing effective screening programmes."
Jane Harris, from the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said the physical health needs of people with mental illness had been ignored.
"These grim statistics tell a depressingly familiar story. It is completely unacceptable that people with a mental illness are effectively living in the 1930s in terms of life expectancy.
"Action must be taken; we cannot carry on tolerating the fact that people are dying from preventable illnesses, due to a health system which treats mental health patients as second class citizens."
'Symptoms Overlooked'
The joint chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, Professor Bob Grove, said urgent action was needed to implement the government's mental health strategy objective of improving the physical health of all people with mental health problems, and to address "the stark inequality in health as part of the NHS reform process".
Sophie Corlett, of the mental health charity Mind, said: "Doctors need to be more proactive in helping patients make informed choices about long-term medications that can sometimes have negative side effects for their physical health.
"There is also a danger that preventable illnesses can be missed by doctors who sometimes overlook physical health complaints and focus their attention on the mental health problem.
"It's vital that people with mental health problems have access to routine physical health checks and that they are helped to make healthy lifestyle choices. We cannot allow this inequality to continue."
Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: "Our strategy, 'No health without mental health', aims to improve the physical health of people with mental health problems, reduce premature deaths, and ensure evidence-based mental health therapies are available for all who need them."
By Dominic Hughes Health correspondent, BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13414965
Hear below what Abraham-Hicks says about positive mental health and healthy life standards.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
BBC Radio Four: All In The Mind
The power of placebo.
Placebos have been shown to have a huge effect on people's symptoms in a vast range of illnesses and even change the body's physiology. And their use is widespread. In recent surveys of German and American doctors half said they at some point, prescribed their patients placebos - pills with no active ingredient.
But any doctor who wants to exploit their power has to take the ethically dubious step of deceiving their patients - to lie to make them think they're getting a real drug. And undermining the relationship of trust, key to success of healing and medicine. Or do they?
In this week's All in the Mind Claudia Hammond talks to Ted Kaptchuk, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University, who in the first experiment of its kind, has shown that even in sceptical patients who know they are getting a sugar pill, the effect of the tablets on their IBS symptoms was huge. Twice as much as those who'd had no treatment at all.
How does it work and why? Is it that the medical ritual of pill taking, even in the face of accurate information about the lack of any active drug has a powerful therapeutic effect all on its own?
Ted Kaptchuk suggests this effect isn't that patients are thinking themselves better but the ritual of taking pills twice a day somehow encapsulates and unleashes the power of their initial consultation with a compassionate physician. As he says "under the white coat and despite all the hi-tech tools at modern medicines disposal, we doctors still have the feathers of the shaman".
While he says this is just proof of principle, in theory it could pave the way for drugs with powerful effects on symptoms but with no side effects.
Hear the show here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0112g4r/All_in_the_Mind_17_05_2011/
Placebos have been shown to have a huge effect on people's symptoms in a vast range of illnesses and even change the body's physiology. And their use is widespread. In recent surveys of German and American doctors half said they at some point, prescribed their patients placebos - pills with no active ingredient.
But any doctor who wants to exploit their power has to take the ethically dubious step of deceiving their patients - to lie to make them think they're getting a real drug. And undermining the relationship of trust, key to success of healing and medicine. Or do they?
In this week's All in the Mind Claudia Hammond talks to Ted Kaptchuk, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University, who in the first experiment of its kind, has shown that even in sceptical patients who know they are getting a sugar pill, the effect of the tablets on their IBS symptoms was huge. Twice as much as those who'd had no treatment at all.
How does it work and why? Is it that the medical ritual of pill taking, even in the face of accurate information about the lack of any active drug has a powerful therapeutic effect all on its own?
Ted Kaptchuk suggests this effect isn't that patients are thinking themselves better but the ritual of taking pills twice a day somehow encapsulates and unleashes the power of their initial consultation with a compassionate physician. As he says "under the white coat and despite all the hi-tech tools at modern medicines disposal, we doctors still have the feathers of the shaman".
While he says this is just proof of principle, in theory it could pave the way for drugs with powerful effects on symptoms but with no side effects.
Hear the show here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0112g4r/All_in_the_Mind_17_05_2011/
Monday, 16 May 2011
BBC NEWS: Little Sympathy For Mental ill-Health In The Workplace
Ruby Wax talks about her own mental ill health and the ways she has found to rehabilitate herself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13412165
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8389030.stm
People fear opening up about their mental health pressures, at a time when the recession is making more and more people struggle with stress and depression.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13412165
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8389030.stm
People fear opening up about their mental health pressures, at a time when the recession is making more and more people struggle with stress and depression.
EFT: Tapping For Abundance
Have you got money worries? Then pay attention to how you feel about the subject of money.
Is your stomach immediately filled with anxiety or do you feel calm and excited on the subject of money?
Abraham-Hicks says are emotions are indicators of how near or far we are to bringing abundance into our lives. And EFT can be a great way of releasing the resistent or negative emotion you have around the subject of money.
View the video below to see how you can change your 'financial energy', to bring more money into your life.
Is your stomach immediately filled with anxiety or do you feel calm and excited on the subject of money?
Abraham-Hicks says are emotions are indicators of how near or far we are to bringing abundance into our lives. And EFT can be a great way of releasing the resistent or negative emotion you have around the subject of money.
View the video below to see how you can change your 'financial energy', to bring more money into your life.
Dr Robert Anthony: Is Your Life A Struggle?
We are conditioned to believe that life is supposed to be hard.
And that Struggle means you are courageous and strong.
Struggle is like taking a cross country trip in your car with the emergency brake on. You may get there, but you are burned out at the end, and you missed most of the fun sights on the way.
As it turns out, struggle is highly overrated.
We hear inspirational stories about people who have "struggled against all odds" to become successful. How often do we hear positive things about the people who are successful because they DO NOT struggle?
Struggle is life's treadmill.
The need to struggle and effort to get what we want is an illusion, and like all other illusions (or assumptions) by their very nature they keep us from seeing the truth that's right before us.
Struggle is trying to rearrange the world so that it aligns with the way you think it should be. It is the greatest source of unhappiness in our world today. It happens when you focus on what you perceive you don't have, instead of embracing what you do have.
We live in a time of striking contrasts. There is tremendous prosperity for some and outrageous poverty for others. We have so much available to us, yet we continue to strive for more and more.
So what's going on? We must change our paradigm and see abundance as a mind set. Abundance is waking up to the reality that you are already the person you yearn to become and that you already have everything you need in this moment.
The denial or more accurately the resistance to who you really are is what keeps you struggling. Abundance is about falling in love with WHOM and WHERE you are. It is focusing on all that you have and not losing yourself in all that you don't have. In the end it is this thought that allows you to create anything you desire.
Truly Caring for Your Success!
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
And that Struggle means you are courageous and strong.
Struggle is like taking a cross country trip in your car with the emergency brake on. You may get there, but you are burned out at the end, and you missed most of the fun sights on the way.
As it turns out, struggle is highly overrated.
We hear inspirational stories about people who have "struggled against all odds" to become successful. How often do we hear positive things about the people who are successful because they DO NOT struggle?
Struggle is life's treadmill.
The need to struggle and effort to get what we want is an illusion, and like all other illusions (or assumptions) by their very nature they keep us from seeing the truth that's right before us.
Struggle is trying to rearrange the world so that it aligns with the way you think it should be. It is the greatest source of unhappiness in our world today. It happens when you focus on what you perceive you don't have, instead of embracing what you do have.
We live in a time of striking contrasts. There is tremendous prosperity for some and outrageous poverty for others. We have so much available to us, yet we continue to strive for more and more.
So what's going on? We must change our paradigm and see abundance as a mind set. Abundance is waking up to the reality that you are already the person you yearn to become and that you already have everything you need in this moment.
The denial or more accurately the resistance to who you really are is what keeps you struggling. Abundance is about falling in love with WHOM and WHERE you are. It is focusing on all that you have and not losing yourself in all that you don't have. In the end it is this thought that allows you to create anything you desire.
Truly Caring for Your Success!
Dr. Robert Anthony
935 Westbourne Dr., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Dr Robert Anthony: Breakthroughs To Success!
Breakthroughs do not happen when we are stressed. They happen when we finally let go and stop struggling. Resisting is at the heart of struggle. Although what we are resisting feels like it is "out there" the resistance is really inside of us. That is, if you are resisting anything you are really resisting yourself.
When we resist something we increase the amount of struggle in our lives and this in turn increases how much scarcity we experience.
When we resist, we make things harder than they have to be. By making things difficult we create struggle and prolong getting where we want to be.
We make things complicated because we are afraid to decide. It is partly our fear of the unknown - what will happen if - and partly our fear of making a mistake. The excuse I hear most from my clients is that are afraid they may make the "wrong" decision.
There is the fear that somehow they will permanently be locked into the consequences of their choices.
But consider this for a moment. What if there are no "wrong"
choices, only choices. Even if we don't make the best choice, we will be guided to what we need to learn.
All great athletes understand this concept. They know they can only anticipate so much, but have to make constant instantaneous decisions IN THE MOMENT as each new situation arises.
So who wouldn't want to stop struggling? More people than you can imagine. I struggled for most of my life with the illusion of struggle. The power of any illusion is its ability to keep us thinking the illusion is real.
When you give up struggle it involves letting go of both the past and the future to activate what is needed right now.
It is not your hard work that creates the results, but your ability to give up struggling and forcing things to happen.
Flow happens when we accept and embrace "WHAT IS". Flow happens when we release our death grip on resistance and insistence and instead step back and take more conscious actions.
Flow is the lack of resistance. It is effortless. The magic in life is believing in possibilities and the getting out of your own way.
When we resist something we increase the amount of struggle in our lives and this in turn increases how much scarcity we experience.
When we resist, we make things harder than they have to be. By making things difficult we create struggle and prolong getting where we want to be.
We make things complicated because we are afraid to decide. It is partly our fear of the unknown - what will happen if - and partly our fear of making a mistake. The excuse I hear most from my clients is that are afraid they may make the "wrong" decision.
There is the fear that somehow they will permanently be locked into the consequences of their choices.
But consider this for a moment. What if there are no "wrong"
choices, only choices. Even if we don't make the best choice, we will be guided to what we need to learn.
All great athletes understand this concept. They know they can only anticipate so much, but have to make constant instantaneous decisions IN THE MOMENT as each new situation arises.
So who wouldn't want to stop struggling? More people than you can imagine. I struggled for most of my life with the illusion of struggle. The power of any illusion is its ability to keep us thinking the illusion is real.
When you give up struggle it involves letting go of both the past and the future to activate what is needed right now.
It is not your hard work that creates the results, but your ability to give up struggling and forcing things to happen.
Flow happens when we accept and embrace "WHAT IS". Flow happens when we release our death grip on resistance and insistence and instead step back and take more conscious actions.
Flow is the lack of resistance. It is effortless. The magic in life is believing in possibilities and the getting out of your own way.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
BBC NEWS: Less Educated 'Will Age Faster'
People with fewer qualifications are prone to age more quickly, a study which looked at 400 men and women says.
DNA evidence suggests cellular ageing is more advanced in adults with no qualifications compared with those who have a university degree.
Experts think education might help people lead more healthy lives.
The British Heart Foundation said the London-based study, in journal Brain, Behaviour and Immunity, reinforced the need to tackle social inequalities.
The connection between health and socioeconomic status is well established.
Those from poor backgrounds are more likely to smoke more, take less exercise and have less access to good quality healthcare, compared with more wealthy people.
But the new study suggests that education might be a more precise determinant of a person's long term health rather than their current income and social status.
The researchers suggest that education may enable people to make better decisions that affect their long term health.
They also speculate that well qualified people might be under less long-term stress, or be better able to deal with stress.
Professor Andrew Steptoe, from University College London, who led the study, said: "Education is a marker of social class that people acquire early in life, and our research suggests that it is long-term exposure to the conditions of lower status that promotes accelerated cellular ageing."
Professor Steptoe's team took blood from more than 400 men and women aged between 53 and 75.
They then measured the length of sections of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes.
These sections - called "telomeres" - cap chromosomes, protecting them from damage. Shorter telomeres are thought to be an indicator of faster ageing.
The results showed that people with lower educational attainment had shorter telomeres, indicating that they may age faster.
They also indicated that telomere length was not affected by a person's social and economic status later in life, as was previously thought.
Social factors
Professor Stephen Holgate, chairman of the Medical Research Council's Population and Systems Medicine Board, said the key implication of the study backs up the main message from long-term studies funded by the Medical Research Council for over half a century.
"Your experiences early in life can have important influences on your health," he explained.
"Whilst - as with all observational research - it is difficult to establish the root causes of the findings, this study does provide evidence that being educated to a higher level can benefit you more than in the job market alone."
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the research reinforces the need to tackle social inequalities to combat ill-health.
He said: "It's not acceptable that where you live or how much you earn - or lesser academic attainment - should put you at greater risk of ill health."
The researchers were based primarily at University College London, but also collaborated with experts at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and the University of California, San Francisco.
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13345620
DNA evidence suggests cellular ageing is more advanced in adults with no qualifications compared with those who have a university degree.
Experts think education might help people lead more healthy lives.
The British Heart Foundation said the London-based study, in journal Brain, Behaviour and Immunity, reinforced the need to tackle social inequalities.
The connection between health and socioeconomic status is well established.
Those from poor backgrounds are more likely to smoke more, take less exercise and have less access to good quality healthcare, compared with more wealthy people.
But the new study suggests that education might be a more precise determinant of a person's long term health rather than their current income and social status.
The researchers suggest that education may enable people to make better decisions that affect their long term health.
They also speculate that well qualified people might be under less long-term stress, or be better able to deal with stress.
Professor Andrew Steptoe, from University College London, who led the study, said: "Education is a marker of social class that people acquire early in life, and our research suggests that it is long-term exposure to the conditions of lower status that promotes accelerated cellular ageing."
Professor Steptoe's team took blood from more than 400 men and women aged between 53 and 75.
They then measured the length of sections of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes.
These sections - called "telomeres" - cap chromosomes, protecting them from damage. Shorter telomeres are thought to be an indicator of faster ageing.
The results showed that people with lower educational attainment had shorter telomeres, indicating that they may age faster.
They also indicated that telomere length was not affected by a person's social and economic status later in life, as was previously thought.
Social factors
Professor Stephen Holgate, chairman of the Medical Research Council's Population and Systems Medicine Board, said the key implication of the study backs up the main message from long-term studies funded by the Medical Research Council for over half a century.
"Your experiences early in life can have important influences on your health," he explained.
"Whilst - as with all observational research - it is difficult to establish the root causes of the findings, this study does provide evidence that being educated to a higher level can benefit you more than in the job market alone."
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said the research reinforces the need to tackle social inequalities to combat ill-health.
He said: "It's not acceptable that where you live or how much you earn - or lesser academic attainment - should put you at greater risk of ill health."
The researchers were based primarily at University College London, but also collaborated with experts at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and the University of California, San Francisco.
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13345620
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Shawn Achor On The Happiness Advantage
View these powerful videos about the power and impact of happiness and positive psychology on our lives.
Has The Royal Wedding Made The Nation Happier?
The nation has been fixated with the royal wedding because it gave them something to feel happy about. Now that most of the hype is over, most people’s happiness levels will quickly return to normal.
The Happines Habits Experiment, carried out by wellbeing expert, Lucy McCarraher, and social psychologist, Annabel Shaw – authors of The Real Secret programme and self help book – shows there is a better way to raise individual and national happiness levels.
Politicians might hope that big events will distract the nation from its problems for longer. Research shows the kind of economic instability we are currently experiencing has a bad effect on the happiness of society as whole. Unemployment can cause the same level of unhappiness in individuals (worse in men) as a major bereavement.
So if we’re not feeling good, why is there so much talk about measuring wellbeing these days? The answer’s simple: happiness matters - not just to our individual lives, but to society as whole. Happier workers are more productive and salespeople are more successful. Relationships last longer, parents ‘parent’ better and children learn more. Even doctors diagnose better when they are happier.
GPs say that more people are coming to them with depression and anxiety about money worries. Anti-depressant prescriptions rose to an incredible 23 million last year – partly because some are staying on this medication for much longer. Psychotropic drugs, potentially addictive, seem an inappropriate way of helping people suffering from ‘life’, rather than a serious mental illness.
In their ‘Happiness Habits Experiment’ Lucy and Annabel asked people to undertake between one and six simple activities daily for three weeks. The results show that daily repetition of exercises – like smiling, being kind to others and repeating positive affirmations – really did raise happiness levels. And better still, some of these activities can become habits in as little as three weeks. When Happiness
Habits, like any other habits, become embedded, people no longer have to even think about them, they just become second nature and the underlying structure of a happier life.
If many of us have the power to raise our own happiness levels by something as simple as Happiness Habits, why are we not all doing it? Partly because, even when we know it works, it’s hard to remember and stay motivated to put the work in.
Mainly because there’s no national programme to get school children into Happiness Habits, or that GPs offer to help people to help themselves.
Only 15% of GPs say they can usually get the standard psychological therapy recommended (by N.I.C.E.) for their patients who need it. The NHS’s ‘Improved
Access to Psychological Therapies’ initiative is training up more therapists and offering online courses in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), but for many there is still a stigma to “mental health”, even without the word “problem”.
An evidence-based Happiness Habits programme of self help, with support from a trained non specialist or online, could reach the parts of society that no other current intervention is reaching.
Of the six Happiness Habits that were part of the Experiment, the most effective were “Spreading Happiness”, “Simply Smile”, “Fun To-Do Lists” and “Three Good Things”. “And Breathe...” was helpful for relieving stress. No men chose to repeat positive affirmations (“Yes I Can!”).
Respondents to the final survey agreed that working on three Happiness Habits at a time was the best number for raising happiness levels.
Now, Lucy and Annabel are calling for a Happiness Habits programme to become part of school standards and lessons. They suggest that the NHS provide a nationally available, low level self help intervention based on Happiness Habits to support people suffering from ‘life’ (including those currently too embarrassed to ask for help) as well as those with low level anxiety and/or depression.
This kind of self help programme could substantially reduce anti-depressant prescriptions, pressure on GPs and therapists and prevent people awaiting psychological treatments from getting worse.
Given that one of the obstacles is being able to remember to carry out Happiness Habits, using new technology such as web- and phone-based apps could help engage young people and embed habits.
See the Executive Summary and download the full Report of the Happiness Habits Experiment here: http://www.therealsecret.net/The-Report.html
Contact Lucy McCarraher
lucy@lucymccarraher.com
07867 781691
Contact Annabel Shaw
annabelshaw@gmail.com
07531 839830
The Happines Habits Experiment, carried out by wellbeing expert, Lucy McCarraher, and social psychologist, Annabel Shaw – authors of The Real Secret programme and self help book – shows there is a better way to raise individual and national happiness levels.
Politicians might hope that big events will distract the nation from its problems for longer. Research shows the kind of economic instability we are currently experiencing has a bad effect on the happiness of society as whole. Unemployment can cause the same level of unhappiness in individuals (worse in men) as a major bereavement.
So if we’re not feeling good, why is there so much talk about measuring wellbeing these days? The answer’s simple: happiness matters - not just to our individual lives, but to society as whole. Happier workers are more productive and salespeople are more successful. Relationships last longer, parents ‘parent’ better and children learn more. Even doctors diagnose better when they are happier.
GPs say that more people are coming to them with depression and anxiety about money worries. Anti-depressant prescriptions rose to an incredible 23 million last year – partly because some are staying on this medication for much longer. Psychotropic drugs, potentially addictive, seem an inappropriate way of helping people suffering from ‘life’, rather than a serious mental illness.
In their ‘Happiness Habits Experiment’ Lucy and Annabel asked people to undertake between one and six simple activities daily for three weeks. The results show that daily repetition of exercises – like smiling, being kind to others and repeating positive affirmations – really did raise happiness levels. And better still, some of these activities can become habits in as little as three weeks. When Happiness
Habits, like any other habits, become embedded, people no longer have to even think about them, they just become second nature and the underlying structure of a happier life.
If many of us have the power to raise our own happiness levels by something as simple as Happiness Habits, why are we not all doing it? Partly because, even when we know it works, it’s hard to remember and stay motivated to put the work in.
Mainly because there’s no national programme to get school children into Happiness Habits, or that GPs offer to help people to help themselves.
Only 15% of GPs say they can usually get the standard psychological therapy recommended (by N.I.C.E.) for their patients who need it. The NHS’s ‘Improved
Access to Psychological Therapies’ initiative is training up more therapists and offering online courses in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), but for many there is still a stigma to “mental health”, even without the word “problem”.
An evidence-based Happiness Habits programme of self help, with support from a trained non specialist or online, could reach the parts of society that no other current intervention is reaching.
Of the six Happiness Habits that were part of the Experiment, the most effective were “Spreading Happiness”, “Simply Smile”, “Fun To-Do Lists” and “Three Good Things”. “And Breathe...” was helpful for relieving stress. No men chose to repeat positive affirmations (“Yes I Can!”).
Respondents to the final survey agreed that working on three Happiness Habits at a time was the best number for raising happiness levels.
Now, Lucy and Annabel are calling for a Happiness Habits programme to become part of school standards and lessons. They suggest that the NHS provide a nationally available, low level self help intervention based on Happiness Habits to support people suffering from ‘life’ (including those currently too embarrassed to ask for help) as well as those with low level anxiety and/or depression.
This kind of self help programme could substantially reduce anti-depressant prescriptions, pressure on GPs and therapists and prevent people awaiting psychological treatments from getting worse.
Given that one of the obstacles is being able to remember to carry out Happiness Habits, using new technology such as web- and phone-based apps could help engage young people and embed habits.
See the Executive Summary and download the full Report of the Happiness Habits Experiment here: http://www.therealsecret.net/The-Report.html
Contact Lucy McCarraher
lucy@lucymccarraher.com
07867 781691
Contact Annabel Shaw
annabelshaw@gmail.com
07531 839830
Monday, 9 May 2011
BBC NEWS: Gay Men 'Report Higher Cancer Rate Than Straight Men'
Homosexual men are more likely to have had cancer than heterosexual men, a US study has suggested.
The study of more than 120,000 people in California has led to calls for more specialist support.
Lesbians and bisexual women also had poorer health after cancer than heterosexuals, according to research published in the journal Cancer.
Cancer Research UK said more research was needed as the reasons for any difference were unclear.
In the 2001, 2003 and 2005 California Health Interview surveys, a total of 3,690 men and 7,252 women said they had been diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.
Out of the 122,345 people interviewed, 1,493 men and 918 women described themselves as gay, while 1,116 women said they were bisexual.
Gay men were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with cancer as straight men and, on average, it happened a decade earlier. There was no such link in women.
Survival or risk?
The survey interviews "survivors" so is not a true representation of the number of cancer cases.
Some patients will have died before the survey and others would have been too ill to take part.
Dr Ulrike Boehmer, from the Boston University School of Public Health, said it was not possible to conclude "gay men have a higher risk of cancer" because the underlying reasons for the higher incidence could be more complicated.
Further research would be needed to determine if homosexual men were actually getting more tumours or had greater survival rates, she said.
The authors speculate that the difference in the numbers of cancer survivors could be down to the higher rate of anal cancer in homosexual men or HIV infection, which has been linked to cancer.
Jason Warriner, clinical director for HIV and sexual health at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "We know that HIV can cause certain types of cancer, and that gay men are at a greater risk of HIV than straight men.
"Another factor potentially having an impact is Human Papilloma Virus, which can lead to anal cancer in gay men.
"The government currently runs a national vaccination programme for young girls, but we think recent figures on oral and anal cancers justify taking another look at whether the programme should be extended to include boys."
Jessica Harris, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "There is already evidence of some health inequalities as a result of sexuality, for example, smoking rates are higher in homosexual men and women than in heterosexual people.
"In this Californian survey, gay men were more likely than straight men to say they had been diagnosed with cancer, but it's not clear from this study why this might be.
"It could be down to better survival or higher rates of cancer among gay men and we'd need larger studies that take both of these factors into account to find out."
Psychological health
Looking at the health of patients who survived cancer also showed differences based on sexual orientation.
Lesbian and bisexual women were more than twice as likely as heterosexual women to say they were in "fair or poor health".
This effect did not appear in men.
Dr Boehmer said: "One common explanation for why lesbian and bisexual women report worse health compared to heterosexual women is minority stress [which] suggests lesbian and bisexual women have worse health, including psychological health due to their experiences of discrimination, prejudice, and violence."
She called for more services to "improve the well-being of lesbian and bisexual cancer survivors" and for programs which "focus on primary cancer prevention and early cancer detection" in homosexual men.
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13295300
The study of more than 120,000 people in California has led to calls for more specialist support.
Lesbians and bisexual women also had poorer health after cancer than heterosexuals, according to research published in the journal Cancer.
Cancer Research UK said more research was needed as the reasons for any difference were unclear.
In the 2001, 2003 and 2005 California Health Interview surveys, a total of 3,690 men and 7,252 women said they had been diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.
Out of the 122,345 people interviewed, 1,493 men and 918 women described themselves as gay, while 1,116 women said they were bisexual.
Gay men were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with cancer as straight men and, on average, it happened a decade earlier. There was no such link in women.
Survival or risk?
The survey interviews "survivors" so is not a true representation of the number of cancer cases.
Some patients will have died before the survey and others would have been too ill to take part.
Dr Ulrike Boehmer, from the Boston University School of Public Health, said it was not possible to conclude "gay men have a higher risk of cancer" because the underlying reasons for the higher incidence could be more complicated.
Further research would be needed to determine if homosexual men were actually getting more tumours or had greater survival rates, she said.
The authors speculate that the difference in the numbers of cancer survivors could be down to the higher rate of anal cancer in homosexual men or HIV infection, which has been linked to cancer.
Jason Warriner, clinical director for HIV and sexual health at the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "We know that HIV can cause certain types of cancer, and that gay men are at a greater risk of HIV than straight men.
"Another factor potentially having an impact is Human Papilloma Virus, which can lead to anal cancer in gay men.
"The government currently runs a national vaccination programme for young girls, but we think recent figures on oral and anal cancers justify taking another look at whether the programme should be extended to include boys."
Jessica Harris, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "There is already evidence of some health inequalities as a result of sexuality, for example, smoking rates are higher in homosexual men and women than in heterosexual people.
"In this Californian survey, gay men were more likely than straight men to say they had been diagnosed with cancer, but it's not clear from this study why this might be.
"It could be down to better survival or higher rates of cancer among gay men and we'd need larger studies that take both of these factors into account to find out."
Psychological health
Looking at the health of patients who survived cancer also showed differences based on sexual orientation.
Lesbian and bisexual women were more than twice as likely as heterosexual women to say they were in "fair or poor health".
This effect did not appear in men.
Dr Boehmer said: "One common explanation for why lesbian and bisexual women report worse health compared to heterosexual women is minority stress [which] suggests lesbian and bisexual women have worse health, including psychological health due to their experiences of discrimination, prejudice, and violence."
She called for more services to "improve the well-being of lesbian and bisexual cancer survivors" and for programs which "focus on primary cancer prevention and early cancer detection" in homosexual men.
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13295300
BBC NEWS: Mental Illness 'Top Reason To Claim Incapacity Benefit'
Mental health problems have overtaken musculoskeletal disorders such as back pain as the main reason for incapacity benefit claims, researchers have said.
Experts, writing in Occupational Medicine, looked at new benefit awards for both kinds of conditions in Britain from 1997 to 2007.
Claims for musculoskeletal disorders fell by 50% over the 11-year study, while mental health claims were steady.
Social views of illness might explain the change, the team said.
There are 2.6m people of working age in the UK currently claiming incapacity benefit.
The ratio of new claims for mental illness to those for musculoskeletal disorders more than doubled between 1997 and 2007, Department for Work and Pensions data showed.
Mental illness claims remained at around a quarter of a million while musculoskeletal disorders fell from 181,820 in 1997 to 84,420 in 2007.
The change occurred across the country, but the difference was more significant in north-east England and Scotland than in the South East.
People's beliefs
The researchers say such large changes cannot be explained by changes in working practices linked to musculoskeletal problems, and that there were no changes in the criteria used to assess claims.
Instead, David Coggon, Medical Research Council professor of occupational medicine at Southampton General Hospital who led the study, suggested it may be to do with people's beliefs and expectations.
The pattern seen during the period of the study runs contrary to that seen between 1950 and 1990, when the number of IB claims for back pain increased eightfold.
However, during that time there was a widespread belief that back pain could be long-term and could seriously incapacitate people.
Now, people are aware that if they strain a muscle they can be better in a few weeks, Professor Coggon said.
He added: "In a particular country, or in a particular occupational group, at a particular time, there will be certain illnesses that everyone knows you can get.
"I'm not saying people aren't ill or disabled. But there are complex causes."
Professor Coggon suggested one way to tackle the level of mental health claims would be to change the approach to stress in the workplace.
"If you say you're trying to tackle hazards linked to workplace stress, it sends a message that people are exposed to 'bad things' and that affects reactions."
He said it was better to stress positive approaches, such as the introduction of good management and not overloading people with work.
Dr Olivia Carlton, president of the Society of Occupational Medicine, said: "A life on incapacity benefit means that many people lose their sense of self worth, identity and esteem and also places a huge financial burden on the country."
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13309755
Experts, writing in Occupational Medicine, looked at new benefit awards for both kinds of conditions in Britain from 1997 to 2007.
Claims for musculoskeletal disorders fell by 50% over the 11-year study, while mental health claims were steady.
Social views of illness might explain the change, the team said.
There are 2.6m people of working age in the UK currently claiming incapacity benefit.
The ratio of new claims for mental illness to those for musculoskeletal disorders more than doubled between 1997 and 2007, Department for Work and Pensions data showed.
Mental illness claims remained at around a quarter of a million while musculoskeletal disorders fell from 181,820 in 1997 to 84,420 in 2007.
The change occurred across the country, but the difference was more significant in north-east England and Scotland than in the South East.
People's beliefs
The researchers say such large changes cannot be explained by changes in working practices linked to musculoskeletal problems, and that there were no changes in the criteria used to assess claims.
Instead, David Coggon, Medical Research Council professor of occupational medicine at Southampton General Hospital who led the study, suggested it may be to do with people's beliefs and expectations.
The pattern seen during the period of the study runs contrary to that seen between 1950 and 1990, when the number of IB claims for back pain increased eightfold.
However, during that time there was a widespread belief that back pain could be long-term and could seriously incapacitate people.
Now, people are aware that if they strain a muscle they can be better in a few weeks, Professor Coggon said.
He added: "In a particular country, or in a particular occupational group, at a particular time, there will be certain illnesses that everyone knows you can get.
"I'm not saying people aren't ill or disabled. But there are complex causes."
Professor Coggon suggested one way to tackle the level of mental health claims would be to change the approach to stress in the workplace.
"If you say you're trying to tackle hazards linked to workplace stress, it sends a message that people are exposed to 'bad things' and that affects reactions."
He said it was better to stress positive approaches, such as the introduction of good management and not overloading people with work.
Dr Olivia Carlton, president of the Society of Occupational Medicine, said: "A life on incapacity benefit means that many people lose their sense of self worth, identity and esteem and also places a huge financial burden on the country."
From: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13309755
Saturday, 7 May 2011
New Quotes From Abraham-Hicks
"Those that are succeeding and are thrilled and joyful in the unfolding will often tell you, "I've dreamed this since I was little. I imagined it, I pretended it, I used to practice with the hairbrush pretending it was a microphone." Purity is the alignment of energy. Doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about anything. It only matters what you think about it."
Excerpted from the workshop in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday, July 18th, 2000
"Being in love is so good for you. Often when people are newly in love, things that have been bothering them for a long time get better. Something wonderful is calling the majority of their attention, so they're holding themselves in a better vibrational place, so the stuff they've been wanting all along can now zoom in."
Excerpted from the workshop in Portland, OR on Sunday, July 11th, 1999
Excerpted from the workshop in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday, July 18th, 2000
"Being in love is so good for you. Often when people are newly in love, things that have been bothering them for a long time get better. Something wonderful is calling the majority of their attention, so they're holding themselves in a better vibrational place, so the stuff they've been wanting all along can now zoom in."
Excerpted from the workshop in Portland, OR on Sunday, July 11th, 1999
Thursday, 5 May 2011
NEW DAILY QUOTES FROM 'ABRAHAM HICKS'
"We practice the Art of Allowing. Which means reaching for the thought that feels best, not the thought that is the real thought, not the thought that is telling it like it is. Telling it like it is only holds you where it is: "Damn it, I'm going to tell it like it is. I'm going to tell it like it is, because everybody wants me to tell it like it is."
Tell it like it is if you like it like it is. But if you don't like it like it is, then don't tell it like it is - tell it like you want it to be. If you tell it like you want it to be long enough, you will begin to feel it like you want it to be. And when you feel it like you want it to be, it be's like you want it to be."
--- Abraham
Tell it like it is if you like it like it is. But if you don't like it like it is, then don't tell it like it is - tell it like you want it to be. If you tell it like you want it to be long enough, you will begin to feel it like you want it to be. And when you feel it like you want it to be, it be's like you want it to be."
--- Abraham
BBC NEWS: Self Harm Rise Among Young In Wales 'Alarming'
A mental health charity says a rise in hospital admissions for young people in Wales who self-harm is alarming.
Paula Lavis of YoungMinds said the true scale of self-harming could be far greater.
The figures were revealed in a study monitoring young people's wellbeing, which also showed smoking and drinking among teenagers is declining steadily.
The assembly government said the research will inform future policy.
The wide-ranging 2011 Children and Young People's Wellbeing Monitor for Wales is an attempt to pull together information on all aspects of children's lives.
Examining existing data on issues such as education, health and tackling poverty, and conducting surveys, it covers the lives of Welsh children from birth until the age of 25.
'Tip of the iceberg'
Hospital admissions for self-harm in Wales have increased, particularly among 15-17-year-old girls, from approximately 650 incidents per 100,000 people in 2003-2005 to about 900 per 100,000 in 2006-2008.
Paula Lavis said: "These figures highlight how big an issue self-harming is among some young people.
"This may only be the tip of the iceberg as they only cover hospital admissions, so do not include the many young people who do not come to the attention of services."
The assembly government published its action plan to reduce suicide and self-harm in 2008 and Ms Lavis called for current data to show it is working.
Between 1995 and 2008, the number of reported cases of chlamydia among 15 to 24-year-olds in Wales also increased from 192 to 758 per 100,000 population.
Dr Jim Richardson, a former children's nurse with a background in adolescent sexual health research, said this was down to increased awareness.
The University of Glamorgan academic said: "The ways of protecting yourself are more varied and in general people are more knowledgeable about the side and after-effects.
"All the other indicators of sexual health are following positive trends and reflect the hard work which has gone on but more definitely needs to be done."
The study also found the number of babies born with foetal alcohol syndrome in Wales rose by 10% in 2009 - causing concern among experts, despite the numbers involved being small.
Between 2006 and 2009 the number of babies with the syndrome had been falling steadily.
Helen Rogers, head of the Royal College of Midwives in Wales, said more must be done to communicate the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
She said: "This is very worrying and we are always concerned pregnant women who drink aren't taking this as seriously as they should and the real number is under-reported.
"It appears we are not doing enough to communicate the risks - I think this is a symptom of a much wider issue about our attitudes towards alcohol."
Wales already has the highest rates of women who drink and smoke before and during pregnancy in the UK.
But the proportion of 15-year-olds drinking weekly has fallen in recent years, so that in 2009/10 36% of boys and 30% of girls reported drinking this often.
This compares with 58% of boys and 54% of girls in 2001/02.
Smoking among 15-year-olds remains more prevalent among girls but has continued to decline since its peak in the late 1990s among both sexes.
This trend can be seen across the UK and is the same for 13-year-olds.
Children's Commissioner for Wales Keith Towler welcomed the monitor as a "useful benchmark" and applauded the inclusion of surveys with children.
He said: "Local authorities and the new Welsh government post-election must show they have listened, taken their views seriously and use this data to develop and review services that will have positive, lasting impact on children and young people's lives."
Nearly one in three (32%) of children in Wales now live in poverty according to figures which measure relative income after housing costs.
Children living in poverty are those living in households with below 60% of the median income for households of that type.
A consultation on maternity services in Wales ended in April but should see healthy lifestyle options promoted by all health professionals caring for expectant mothers.
In November the assembly government launched a five year plan to reduce teenage pregnancies and STIs.
It also set up a new Integrated Family Support Service to provide specialist support and health advice to families with complex needs, including drug and alcohol abuse.
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13268255
Paula Lavis of YoungMinds said the true scale of self-harming could be far greater.
The figures were revealed in a study monitoring young people's wellbeing, which also showed smoking and drinking among teenagers is declining steadily.
The assembly government said the research will inform future policy.
The wide-ranging 2011 Children and Young People's Wellbeing Monitor for Wales is an attempt to pull together information on all aspects of children's lives.
Examining existing data on issues such as education, health and tackling poverty, and conducting surveys, it covers the lives of Welsh children from birth until the age of 25.
'Tip of the iceberg'
Hospital admissions for self-harm in Wales have increased, particularly among 15-17-year-old girls, from approximately 650 incidents per 100,000 people in 2003-2005 to about 900 per 100,000 in 2006-2008.
Paula Lavis said: "These figures highlight how big an issue self-harming is among some young people.
"This may only be the tip of the iceberg as they only cover hospital admissions, so do not include the many young people who do not come to the attention of services."
The assembly government published its action plan to reduce suicide and self-harm in 2008 and Ms Lavis called for current data to show it is working.
Between 1995 and 2008, the number of reported cases of chlamydia among 15 to 24-year-olds in Wales also increased from 192 to 758 per 100,000 population.
Dr Jim Richardson, a former children's nurse with a background in adolescent sexual health research, said this was down to increased awareness.
The University of Glamorgan academic said: "The ways of protecting yourself are more varied and in general people are more knowledgeable about the side and after-effects.
"All the other indicators of sexual health are following positive trends and reflect the hard work which has gone on but more definitely needs to be done."
The study also found the number of babies born with foetal alcohol syndrome in Wales rose by 10% in 2009 - causing concern among experts, despite the numbers involved being small.
Between 2006 and 2009 the number of babies with the syndrome had been falling steadily.
Helen Rogers, head of the Royal College of Midwives in Wales, said more must be done to communicate the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
She said: "This is very worrying and we are always concerned pregnant women who drink aren't taking this as seriously as they should and the real number is under-reported.
"It appears we are not doing enough to communicate the risks - I think this is a symptom of a much wider issue about our attitudes towards alcohol."
Wales already has the highest rates of women who drink and smoke before and during pregnancy in the UK.
But the proportion of 15-year-olds drinking weekly has fallen in recent years, so that in 2009/10 36% of boys and 30% of girls reported drinking this often.
This compares with 58% of boys and 54% of girls in 2001/02.
Smoking among 15-year-olds remains more prevalent among girls but has continued to decline since its peak in the late 1990s among both sexes.
This trend can be seen across the UK and is the same for 13-year-olds.
Children's Commissioner for Wales Keith Towler welcomed the monitor as a "useful benchmark" and applauded the inclusion of surveys with children.
He said: "Local authorities and the new Welsh government post-election must show they have listened, taken their views seriously and use this data to develop and review services that will have positive, lasting impact on children and young people's lives."
Nearly one in three (32%) of children in Wales now live in poverty according to figures which measure relative income after housing costs.
Children living in poverty are those living in households with below 60% of the median income for households of that type.
A consultation on maternity services in Wales ended in April but should see healthy lifestyle options promoted by all health professionals caring for expectant mothers.
In November the assembly government launched a five year plan to reduce teenage pregnancies and STIs.
It also set up a new Integrated Family Support Service to provide specialist support and health advice to families with complex needs, including drug and alcohol abuse.
From www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13268255
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Abraham Hicks: Deliberate Creation Is All About How You Feel
Hear below this powerful audio from Abraham-Hicks which describes in detail how to create a better life for yourself by deliberately choosing a consistent positive emotional state regardless of the physical reality you are living.
"Creation is about what could be, not what is."
"Creation is about emotion."
"It is a gradual, incremental journey, holding to it consistently."
Just keep feeling good, feeling good, feeling good, regardless of what is happening to you!
It will take time, but it will be worth it.
"Creation is about what could be, not what is."
"Creation is about emotion."
"It is a gradual, incremental journey, holding to it consistently."
Just keep feeling good, feeling good, feeling good, regardless of what is happening to you!
It will take time, but it will be worth it.
Abraham Hicks: Stop Giving A *!@* What Other People Think
True self esteem means you stopping giving a damn what other people think.
You have your own life you are creating, and the only way you can stay feeling good is by staying on track to what you want from life.
Other people's opinions - be they teachers, parents, partners, peers, everyone else on the planet - pale into insignificance in comparison to the positive emotion you feel when you focus on and pursue what you have decided you want in life.
If you ignore how you feel to make others happy, you are off track to living the joyful life you desire for yourself.
You have your own life you are creating, and the only way you can stay feeling good is by staying on track to what you want from life.
Other people's opinions - be they teachers, parents, partners, peers, everyone else on the planet - pale into insignificance in comparison to the positive emotion you feel when you focus on and pursue what you have decided you want in life.
If you ignore how you feel to make others happy, you are off track to living the joyful life you desire for yourself.
Abraham Hicks: On Global Warming
Hear below these empowering audios on the subject of global warming by Abraham-Hicks.
Dr Robert Anthony: Your Universal Mirror...
Your current level of results is nothing more than a residual outcome of your past thoughts, feelings and actions. This has nothing to do with what you are capable of becoming or who you are capable of becoming unless you continue to make the same choices.
I can spend fifteen minutes with you and tell you what you've been up to for the last five years - what you have been thinking, feeling and acting upon. I can look at your bank account, your business, your body, your relationships, your joy or lack of joy and see where you have been focusing your attention because your results are nothing more than a feedback mechanism.
Think about your results as a mirror. A mirror doesn't judge, it doesn't say something is good or bad, right or wrong. It doesn't edit or delete - a mirror just reflects back whatever is in front of it.
Your universal mirror is very helpful because when you get to see that, if you have been getting what you desire, you know you're on your game. When you have less than pleasing results, that is just the universe reflecting back to you where you need to adjust your thoughts, feelings and point of focus. In short, it lets you know you are out of the flow in those particular areas.
There is no judgment involved. It is just the universe saying "Hello!" "This is your tenth marriage, are you going to wake up?"
"Hello!" "You're broke again, are you ready to find a better way to stay in the flow and the stream of abundance?"
Never be discouraged about your less than pleasing results. Use them as a wake-up call that you are out of alignment and then use what you are learning to put yourself back into the flow and back into alignment. At that point things MUST turn around for you.
Dr Robert Anthony
I can spend fifteen minutes with you and tell you what you've been up to for the last five years - what you have been thinking, feeling and acting upon. I can look at your bank account, your business, your body, your relationships, your joy or lack of joy and see where you have been focusing your attention because your results are nothing more than a feedback mechanism.
Think about your results as a mirror. A mirror doesn't judge, it doesn't say something is good or bad, right or wrong. It doesn't edit or delete - a mirror just reflects back whatever is in front of it.
Your universal mirror is very helpful because when you get to see that, if you have been getting what you desire, you know you're on your game. When you have less than pleasing results, that is just the universe reflecting back to you where you need to adjust your thoughts, feelings and point of focus. In short, it lets you know you are out of the flow in those particular areas.
There is no judgment involved. It is just the universe saying "Hello!" "This is your tenth marriage, are you going to wake up?"
"Hello!" "You're broke again, are you ready to find a better way to stay in the flow and the stream of abundance?"
Never be discouraged about your less than pleasing results. Use them as a wake-up call that you are out of alignment and then use what you are learning to put yourself back into the flow and back into alignment. At that point things MUST turn around for you.
Dr Robert Anthony
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