Friday, August 8, 2014

Thought processes and wellness



As a man, or woman, 'thinkest' so they will be is a fact of life and something that most people know about. Today we are going to delve into the topic with a bit more depth.
Many thanks to the popular mind authors of the past, including but not limited to; James Allen, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Maxwell Maltz, Ron Hubbard,  and many others whose ideas have been expressed many times in many ways by many authors - regardless of if these older authors were ever mentioned or not or how these folks are perceived personally.

The important contributions of modern psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive experts, are best understood when considered to be part of a synergistic, integrated whole - where ideas are considered from many places regardless of perceived status or scientific prestige.

Where do thought come from:
Regardless of whether thoughts are created within or outside of the brain - hmmm - they are there to help humans avoid danger and pursue survival. Anyone who has ingested a large amount of liquid before taking a trip, or hasn't eaten beforehand, would easily see where this is going - and how unconscious drives may readily become tangible thoughts very rapidly.
I once had a grad school professor who was intrigued with the complexity of why humans don't generally use fire hydrants like dogs when they have too !  Has to do with survival in a different way.
Of course, thoughts are also inspired by:
·         Those we live with or near
·         Co workers and those whom we work for
·         Movies, TV, Newspapers, Magazines and other media

Gut feelings versus thoughts:
Very few people can control their thoughts and the benefit of doing so may at most be limited. A common theme in the field of positive thinking is to pay attention to emotions and gut feelings. Easier said than done. This art of emotional awareness can help us to use the vast resources of the unconscious mind to help us pay attention to different things in our inner and/or outer worlds.
Mindfulness has its limits:
Being mindful of our breathing, or even walking patterns, may be very helpful to help us to switch gears to parasympathetic, or relaxation part of our autonomic nervous system.
However, those of your who have tried high diving, gymnastics, or even handstands, will note that the best strategy may be is to 'just do it' without over thinking or paying attention. The confidence built by acting this way will often change thoughts of fear  to those of success.

Accentuate the positive:
By building on successes, including successfully taking action as well as successful relaxation, like will often attract more of itself. By paying attention to the gut feeling associated with these positive experiences, we can help change thoughts into more positive directions, more positive actions and therefore more positive circumstances.

Balancing the brain and nervous system:
The phrase 'as below so above' aptly describes to the relationship between the brain and mind. When the brain and nervous system are well nourished, well rested, and programmed for success the mind will follow suit and vice versa. Healthy thoughts are connected to healthy brains.
Balance is key and subtle biochemical and physiological relationships are important to the success of the brain. For example, while it is well known that Iodine is necessary for thyroid health, very few people know that zinc is also a key ingredient for that very special gland - which is super important for brain health as well.
Magnesium has often been called the 'nutrient which can change one's life' , including providing relaxation and peace for an overstress nervous system. Some of you also know that magnesium  works along with Vitamins C and B6 - and that all of the B complex vitamins must remain in balance or the nervous system will not be!

Most important, as summer vacations are in full swing: please keep your brain and nervous system healthy on the road. Get plenty of rest and eat properly before driving, keep a safe distance between other cars, pass properly, and use your brain to pay attention while on the road!

Think and grow well!

Note: This is a reprint of my material

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Creating National wellness strategically is better than Obamacare


Please take careful look at this attached article regarding the introduction to a proposed National Preventive Wellness Program and pass it along to those with the power to make it happen. Suggested groups include, but are not limited to, Senators, Congress, Governors, Mayors, Industry leaders, Educators and many others.

http://michaelrbasso.hubpages.com/hub/A-National-Preventive-Wellness-Program-Introduction

A United States preventive wellness program, with a strategic focus upon creating it from a bio.psycho.social perspective, is more important to American well being than any after the fact based programs. If implemented correctly by competent leaders it will save all of us Billions and Billions of dollars while facilitating many other benefits - wellbeing, tolerance, confidence, productivity, violence prevention and more.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Can marijuana cause vomiting, accidents and tiredness?

A balanced understanding of the psychological, physiological & social ramifications of marijuana use is in order. With the power of mass marketing efforts, comes the responsibility of understanding the potential stresses associated with marijuana - including gastrointestinal issues, slow reaction times, sluggishness and more.

Legislators, parents, educators, and producers might benefit from this brief article I wrote on the subject - and by related searches. A balanced review will include the cons and the pros about marijuana legalization, production, distribution, product labeling and use.

http://voices.yahoo.com/marijuana-sick-tired-12514438.html

Some anecdotal comments made by college students may be surprising.

Many important questions are in need of responsible answers:

Has the marijuana of today been designed to be much stronger than that of yesteryear?

What are the broader ramifications regarding of marijuana use while driving on slick roads, already filled with callers and texters ?

How about those who think that marijuana is a choice substance for drug treatment programs - including narcotic rehab programs and others?

What do you think ?

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The evolution of fight or flight emotions


Spiritual and religious groups often speculate upon where fear, hate, anger...and a host of so called "negative thoughts and emotions" come from. They are in reality related to ancient programs built into human nervous systems to help people to survive - albeit antiquated and even dangerous within the modern context!
To set the stage for today's brief feature, let us start with a short exercise, which you may participate in if you choose to. It is also OK to skip this exercise if you want to.

Common themes in different situations:
What do you feel when you briefly think of any of these commonly publicized scenes or scenarios?
·         Home foreclosures
·         Fatal car accidents
·         Shark attacks; including within the popular movie, Jaws
·         Knife attacks; including within the movie, Psycho
·         Homeless people starving and /or freezing in cold weather
·         911
·         The day president Kennedy was assassinated
Back to the present!
While each of these highly popular themes within the media are very different in action and context, there is a common denominator which connects them all. Regardless of if someone may feel fear, anger, hate of any other common emotion, they are all related to survival! At some level of the nervous system, very different fears, such as being eaten by a Great White and the fear of running out of food, money or toilet paper are related!

Ancient parts of the survival system:
At very primitive levels, deep within the human nervous system, there are mechanisms which help us to pay attention, confront the situation at hand or run away. The sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system was designed in part for just this purpose.
A related part of the glandular, or endocrine system, called the HPA axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) is part of the survival based design.

Newer revisions to the design:
In the highly evolved (well kind of) human species, the "survival design" has some newer hardware and software in the form of a cerebral cortex. This part of the brain helps humans to categorize, compute in the form of thinking,  make decisions and start to take actions.
This part of the survival system will find the common ground between very different situations, has routines which connect what happened in the past with present day possibilities, and will switch the older parts of the brain into action as needed. It is so smart that it can imagine possible scenarios based upon situations which we were not directly involved in or which were based upon the imagination of others.

Reprogramming the survival system:

Fortunately, natures designers are so smart that humans are thinking of new ways to become  better fit within the context of modern life. 

Note: reprint of my material

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Laughter and Healing

Laughter and Healing        reprinted
By Dr. Michael Basso
When I was in high school, a friend, also named Mike, and I, decided to skip school and hang out with another friend who had moved to another town and also decided to play hooky. Unfortunately, we were in a car accident with his mom’s car that day. Mike was hurt seriously with broken ribs, internal bleeding and a broken nose.
At one point, he was by himself in the ER, yet was laughing uncontrollably. We at first though that he was laughing at our fear of telling our parents what had happened, but that was not the case.
Laughter can serve a variety of adaptive psychological functions. These functions include, but are not limited to, stress relief, panic abatement, and distraction.
The results of these psychological functions are not only adaptive from a psychological perspective; enhanced immunity, mitigation of severe pain reactions and many positive physical results can occur.
In one case, a famous editor, Norman Cousins, claims that he cured himself of a very painful and often lethal connective tissue disease, ankylosing spondylitis, primarily by a strategic use of laughter. ( He did some important nutritional things as well)
Cousins would watch amusing videos every day while in the hospital. He concluded that even ten minutes of intense laughter would allow him to sleep peacefully for several hours afterwards.
Of course, it is extremely important that the patient:
1)      Is OK with this type of therapy
2)      Is not offended by either the type and / or timing of the laughter intervention
3)      Is not in a severe crisis state when the intervention is happening
When a person has suffered a severe trauma, it is reasonable to conclude that they might not resonate with jokes, funny videos or even want to converse in any way. So, it my not be appropriate to commence laughter therapy until the patient is: somewhat stable, they have been assured that someone close to them is alive and safe, and that they have an inkling where they are and what has happened to them.
Some believe that the laughter sometimes heard coming from someone who has just come out of anesthesia is also a stress coping mechanism.
It is extremely important that the patient not assume that they are being laughed at and the jokes are done at the right time. The person who has just been electrocuted or has suffered a serious heart attack may also want assurance that laughter therapy is not the only therapy that they may expect.
Of course, inappropriate humor, including off color jokes, insulting, slanderous or racially oriented humor may resonate with negative emotions.
Some researchers believe that laughter can be a gateway to the positive emotions – including joy, hope, love, purpose and confidence.
Next time we are going to talk about fun.
For the fun of it, I published a few books over the last year that some of you might find of interest. The titles are: Holistic Tips for Everyday Living a guide for Being on Planet Earth; The Human Side of Quality and the TAO the Greening of Leadership; and High Steel and Great Whites a Mystical Adventure Novel. Hope you like them!
Dr. Basso has a Ph.D. in Professional Psychology and Biomedical Systems and an MBA in executive leadership. Michael is president of the CT Holistic Health Association, is an adjunct faculty member at UCONN and is a research affiliate at the Yale School of Medicine.

Money as a survival tool Dealing with Financial Trauma Part II


By Dr. Michael Basso       reprinted
Money is a symbol for survival at many levels and how when it becomes scarce, people tend to loose their sense of control. When we loose our sense of control over stressful situations for extended periods, our stress can turn to depression. In today’s feature, we are going to briefly discuss some additional ways of dealing with financial trauma. To better understand financial trauma, it is important to first look at the situation from a broader viewpoint.
Paraphrasing Lincoln, the present is based upon the past and the future is based upon the present. This most powerful idea is reflected in human thought both consciously and unconsciously. We also tend to react to situations based upon our current level of distress.
So, if our stocks plummet right after we receive our “no thanks” letters from potential employers, it can be pretty stressful. And remember, financial losses can be linked to other losses we have experienced in the past, financial and otherwise. To make matters worse, the financial crisis is blasted all over the media 24 / 7! What are we to do! LOTS - if you want to reframe a nasty situation into a series of unique opportunities.  And how you look at matters makes all the difference in the world.
There are many who believe that moods and emotions, like physical pain, are there to help us survive. For example, there are researchers that even believe that some aspects of depression are actually ways our brains make us rest to conserve resources – a carryover from the animal kingdom.
Taking a few days to rest and rejuvenate after a series of financial losses is sometimes a good way to start. And remember that former boss who laid you off and how angry you were at them. They’re probably working gobs of overtime to make up for the job you lost! Still as angry ? This is real cool if the rest is paid by our former employers! After the rest period, then what!
You can fight the flow of circumstances and say “poor me ….”, and even let anxiety get the best of you. OR, you can use your new found time to start that new career you’ve been wanting to make happen. You might also now be able to resume schooling and take all kinds of opportunities to learn, learn and then learn more. You can leverage that new found energy to be creative, have fun and dream as big as you want. Of course, some will call you a dreamer, or that your ideas are grand… BUT, remember, this is YOUR life, you have been giving lots of NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
All of civilization is based upon dreams and dreams give us HOPE, so you can create a new destiny that YOU are in control of! Even if your big dreams don’t turn out as big as you want, you probably are having lots of FUN anyway, regardless of what others say! You can even learn from criticism!
Given the circumstances, you may even be a bit edgy and oversensitive to criticism, BUT, remember criticism can spawn new and betters ways to improve old ways of doing things and even create new and better ways altogether.
More to follow!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Writing can be a powerful learning too example re released

High Steel and Great Whites: A Mystical 

Adventure Novel is a novel learning tool

High Steel and Great Whites; A Mystical Adventure Novel, by Michael R Basso, brings to light many useful psychological and spiritual concepts in ways that are fun and easy to understand. Can also be read just for the fun of it.


- ISBN 978-1448693795

Many useful  psychological and spiritual concepts are integrated into this fun filled  adventure story from an East/ West Perspective, as Dell learns to master life on Earth.

Dell may also be viewed as a super hero of the highest order - just for the fun of it !

Dell was a college senior, ready to enter medical school at Harvard; or so he thought. Little did he know that the ‘Masters of the Great Silence’ had other plans for him which would make a modern medical education like child’s play for him. Through a series of seeming coincidences and disconnected events, he would eventually learn of the mystical initiations that he endured over many lifetimes (regardless if you believe that they are biological memories, spiritual ones, or just made up to help resolve deep seated issues) and their significance as part of a greater whole. He would learn of his own inner trappings as well as those of the dark force and the demonic hierarchy.

It was now time for the higher initiations. He would be one with the great white shark, regardless of how many times he would have to die trying. Only then would he be able to graduate to the higher planes of Gods many mansions and still maintain mastership over physical existence.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter   1    :   Introduction

Chapter   2    :   The Tightrope Walker in Spain

Chapter   3    :   The Swordsman in France

Chapter   4    :   WWII, The Civil War, and  the Distant Past

Chapter   5    :   The German Monk in the Middle Ages

Chapter   6    :   The Scottish Highlands and the little People

Chapter   7    :   Africa, Incas, Indians, and Trolls

Chapter   8    :    Power and Its’ Abuse

Chapter   9    :    Lady Magdalene

Chapter   10  :   Tibet Long Ago

Chapter   11  :   The Quality of Life

Chapter   12  :    Strange Coincidences

Chapter   13  :    No Way

Chapter   14  :    Meeting the Shark and the First Attempt

Chapter   15  :    Trapped by the Dark Force

Chapter   16  :    The Exorcism

Chapter   17  :    Dell Saves the Lives of Reena and Jared

Chapter   18   :   Learning to be a Co creator like the Divas

Chapter   19   :   Beautiful Designs

Chapter   20   :   The Initiation

Epilogue

Hope you enjoy this book !