"We breathe, we think, we conceive of our lives as narratives."Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
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Better Health and Happiness for Your Baby:
The design of your home has an amazing affect on the health and well being of your baby. If it is in harmony with nature, it will have a positive influence on young children. If not, problems will become apparent in subtle and ways. According to the ...
Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life
A friend once said to me, "There is no meaning in life, except what we create". At the time, I thought she was nuts. Now, I understand. What is the meaning of your life? Some will say that it is to glorify God. Others will say to do good and make a ...
Homemade Facial Mask Recipes
Have you ever calculate how much money you have spent for beauty purpose in a month or a year? $200? $500? or maybe $1000 or more?Maybe it's time for you to stop wasting too much money by trying some cheaper beauty products which also will bring you the ...
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Four Strength-Based Keys to a Rewarding Life
By Dr. Mike Shery
Nurture a Strength-Based Consciousness
Your most valuable
traits are those that predispose you to have a deep
satisfaction with your life, instead of just transitory
pleasure. Chris Peterson, a professor of psychology, devised the
Values in Action (VIA) test to measure one’s five top strengths.
The list comprises 24 attributes that strength-based
psychologists have discovered are valued across cultures.
They have started to analyze the data from 110,000 individual
tests that have been logged online. Their preliminary findings
are fascinating. For example, those that score the highest on life
satisfaction surveys seem to be people whose top five strengths
are: hope, the capacity to love, the ability to be loved,
curiosity and gratitude. The most common strengths among
people seem to be curiosity, love, fairness, open-mindedness
and appreciation of beauty. The smallest amount of test takers
had strengths in the temperance category: self-control, prudence
and modesty. In some surveys, this strengths test has been rated
as very useful and one that seems to stand the test of
time.
Optimism-Saturated Days
To nurture positive feelings about
the present and the
memories of happy times in the past, the
ability to “savor” is
thought to be important. One psychologist,
Dr. Martin Seligman,
“creates” the “perfect day” or “perfect
half-day” for clients by
using their unique talents and
strengths in the scheduling of
enjoyable events. For example, if
your main strengths involve a
love of sports, you might include
watching a game or even
reading a book about a sport or player
that you like. If the
capacity to learn is at the top of your
list, you might register
taking a continuing education class or
a particular workshop
that has garnered your interest.
Bring Gratitude to the Foreground
Pessimists typically don’t perceive
that the glass is
half full, only that it is half empty. This
trait suppresses
positive feelings and predisposes the pessimist
to dwell on
misfortune and to put a negative “spin” on things.
Dr. Seligman emphasizes that gratitude should
be deliberately cultivated, which, studies confirm,
will increase one’s life satisfaction.
To do this, he tells his clients
to write down three good
things that happen each day. For each item, he
directs them to
also note what they did to make them happen. He
says that, over
time, deliberately bringing the positive side of
things from the
background to the foreground makes putting a
positive
“spin” on
everyday incidents almost automatic, making
it harder to discount one’s positive contribution
to them.
This, over time, seems to transform one’s
usual pessimism into optimism and
depression into enthusiasm.
Talk Back to Thoughts that ‘Rain on Your
Parade”
Disputing negative thoughts fights
off feelings of
depression when misfortune strikes. Dr. Seligman
maintains that
many people already have the skills to dispute
coworkers or
family members who may criticize them unfairly and
when negative
thoughts fill their heads, these same people
should view them
the same way; as external, somewhat automatic
critics who always
tell them how wrong they are. This healthy
view demands a clear assertiveness.
He advocates use of the
A-B-C-D-E model which
maintains that (A) you first consider the
adversity you’re
facing and (B) then examine the critical
automatic beliefs that
arise about your situation. For instance,
are these thoughts or
beliefs unreasonably pessimistic or
critical? Then, examine
the toxic consequences of these
thoughts and follow by (D),
disputing them to yourself, just
like you would any person who
was trying to talk you into
feeling bad. Over time, this
process tends to interrupt the
cycle of pessimism and
despondency which afflict many people.
Remember, talk back to these thoughts which are trying
to “sell” you on feeling bad about yourself, just like you’d
talk back
to any person trying to do the same. Your thoughts
“talk” to
you and you must be assertive and “talk back” to
them! This process creates energy (E) that enables
you to take
on the problem and the
negative feelings that follow. Argue a
case against your pessimistic
intruder just like you would do
with any intruder who was trying
to “sell” you on something
destructive.
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____________________________________________
Reprint Instructions
Box: Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long
as you leave all links in place, don’t modify the content and
include the resource box as placed.
__________________________________________
About the Author
Dr. Mike Shery specializes in consulting to long term care facilities
regarding mental health.
His website,
WWW.NursingHomes.MD,provides state-of-the-art
mental health treatment,staffing and career
information to LTC professionals. Get a copy of
the special report, “How
Strength-Embedded Psychotherapy Can
Reduce Resident Agitation,”
by clicking drmike@nursinghomes.md. Put “Special Report” in the subject
field.
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 Disney expands 3D movies with "Beauty", IMAX deal (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
The Walt Disney Co, whose 2005 release "Chicken Little" was its first digital 3D movie, expanded its upcoming movie slate on Wednesday with a 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" and a deal to make 3D films with IMAX Corp.
Beauty Is Truth In Mathematical Intuition: First Empirical Evidence (Science Daily)
First empirical evidence for the use of beauty as truth in mathematical intuition reported. French mathematician Jacques Hadamard wrote in 1954 in his famous book “The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field" that a sense of beauty seems to be almost the only useful “drive” for discovery in mathematics. However, until now evidence has been anecdotal, and the nature of the beauty-truth ...
(AFX UK Focus) 2008-11-20 13:15 UPDATE 1-Sally Beauty quarterly profit misses Wall St view (Interactive Investor)
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Sally Beauty Holdings, which distributes beauty supplies and hair products, posted a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday, as it incurred some higher costs in the quarter. The net profit came to $21.5 million, or 12 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, compared with $16.9 million, or 9 cents a share a year ago. Analysts, on average, ...
"Beast" sure to be a 3-D beauty for Disney in 2010 (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
Belle, the Beast and all the dancing silverware in "Beauty and the Beast" are getting a 3-D makeover.
Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. Reports Solid Results for Fiscal 2008 Fourth Quarter and Full Year (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
DENTON, Texas----Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. today announced solid financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2008. The Company will hold a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. to discuss these results and its business.
Disney's Beauty Getting 3-D Treatment (E! Online)
Sounds like one beaut of a project. The Walt Disney Co. has announced plans to give a 3-D makeover to the 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast, for a 2010...
ExploreLI: Beauty school bargains (Newsday)
Even when the economy's bad and money's tight, we still want to look good. Here are local beauty schools where students provide the style.
Your beauty secrets revealed (Pretoria News)
With so many products to choose from, deciding on what to buy can be overwhelming. The Shape 500+ Best Beauty Buys is a beauty supplement packed with beauty products recommended by its readers available free with the October issue of Shape, on sale now.
The gift of beauty (Rocky Mountain News)
Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, takes place next week, and we're getting a jump on gift ideas with a list of beauty products that are $50 or less.
(AFX UK Focus) 2008-11-19 23:08 Disney expands 3D movies with 'Beauty', IMAX deal (Interactive Investor)
LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co, whose 2005 release "Chicken Little" was its first digital 3D movie, expanded its upcoming movie slate on Wednesday with a 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" and a deal to make 3D films with IMAX Corp. Disney has begun re-rendering in 3D the 1991 Oscar-nominated "Beauty" for a big-screen debut in 2010, bringing Disney's 3D slate for that year ...
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