Category: Self Help

Change Your Thoughts

Can change in Thoughts Brings a change in Attitude?

Is Cognitive restructuring here as a miracle or it is a myth? Let us find what it is and get the solution.

Every thought we have brings a simultaneous neuro-chemical change in the brain out of which few are temporary while some are long lasting. When some people show or express gratitude, they experience an increase of neurotransmitters like dopamine which are often associated with Rewards or being rewarded.

Any thought or information which flows through the brain changes or sculpts the brain in permanent ways. The pattern in the brain is changed by the flowing thoughts across the brain structure and the change in neural activity actually changes your neural structure.

How Negativity in Thoughts Effects Brain functioning?

Negativity flows in the brain in the same fashion and it causes the brain cells to be hit by peptides from negative thoughts. These peptides will then dominate you thought process as well whenever there is any kind of though, whether positive or negative. It further reduces the positive peptides in the cell, inclining you more towards negativity.

There is though good news for all of us that the cells in the brain are replaces every 2 months and they can be reprogrammed to work with good positive cells rather than the same negative thoughts. You need to be more optimistic and start taking positive thinking practices for example – mindfulness and gratitude.

The Ten Commandments for Effective Personal Development

Here are the top picks of the Principles for effective Personal Development. Do not read them in order and follow them from top to bottom with same preference.

  1. You should be loving toward everyone you meet.
  2. Remember, you become what you think and believe. So think positive and be positive.
  3. Express gratitude by looking and doing ways which can strengthen those who have less than you have.
  4. You should always seek knowledge and truth.
  5. Remember honesty is the best policy for your brain training for being positive.
  6. Forgive all.
  7. Do not waste anything whatever you have whether time, money, energy, etc.
  8. Always to thankful to God for all that you have.
  9. Be optimistic.
  10. Believe and have faith in something which is greater than you.

Top 10 tips to Destress

The Best in Class tips to Cut Down Stress

It’s not stress that kills you it is our reaction to it which makes it so worse.

  1. Identify Your Stress Triggers

The very basic step as with other diseases in the case of stress is to recognize its presence. You have to find the triggers to your stressful reactions and that acts as the first step towards finding ways to recover. You cannot remove your stress since it is inseparable part of life, but you can still find ways to solve the underlying problems.

  1. Meditation and yoga

Meditation can be stated as the best tools which can help you counter stress. It works by releasing the stress right from its origin. Meditation can help you fight the Flight or Fight phenomenon and hence the stress generated due to this. The stress which is created while the Flight or Fight response is generated can be harmful; hence meditation can be really helpful.

  1. Sleep to Combat Stress

Restful sleep for enough hours is very important for keeping and staying healthy. If you are well slept during nights, you would be better equipped to handle any kind of work and hence stress. You need to check the quality and quantity of sleep you are getting every night. It has to be just right and the stress will become light.

  1. Imbibe Gratitude as a Practice

Gratitude is a powerful tool. If you consciously focus on gratitude, you will be experiencing greater emotional wellbeing and physical health. This can create wonders to improve your health and help cope with stress.

  1. Breathe Deeply

Make it a habit to take 5 mins break to perform the breathing exercise. It involves focusing on your breathing and hearing it in both inhale and exhale stages. Deep breathing also counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowers blood pressure.

  1. Decompress using Hot bag and relax

Place a warm heat pad around your neck and shoulders for minutes and close your eyes. This will relax your face, neck, upper chest, and back muscles. After removing the warm pad, use a roller to massage away tensions.

  1. Laugh Out Loud

Laughing from the belly also known as belly laugh can lighten the mood mentally, since while laughing, there are many brain chemicals like endorphins which are increased, cortisol is lowered along with stress hormones.

  1. Relaxation to the core

Simply make yourself comfortable whether you are at your desk or any other place. Just think of any peaceful scene, vacation, beach or anything and visualize yourself achieving your future goal. Just think of what makes you happy, whether being stuck up in a elevator with a hot sexy model, or hitting a jackpot.

  1. Eat A Snack (Carefully)

Eating is not always bad for mind and health. In reality, the gut and the brain have a strong connection which is known as ‘gut-brain axis’. There are many research conducted showing the impact of gut and body’s stress response.

  1. Buy Yourself A Plant

In house plants not only cleanses the air within your home, but they can also help you calm down. There is a relaxation response which is released in the presence of a plant around us. So take the help of these green wonders to reduce stress and calm down.

Infertility treatments ‘not linked’ to developmental delays

A new study says that “There is no heightened danger of developmental delays … in children conceived through IVF or other infertility treatments. The study included more than 5,000 mothers, around 1,500 of which had received some form of infertility treatment, and assessed their child’s development at three years of age. They looked at whether there was a dissimilar effect, depending on whether it was a single or twin birth, and the type of infertility treatment given – either assisted reproductive techniques such as IVF, infertility drugs or artificial insemination.

The researchers examined the link between child development and infertility treatment, separately looking at the effect of single or twin birth, and the type of infertility treatment given. They adjusted their analyses for various confounding factors that could influence results, such as parental age, ethnicity and education, mother’s body mass index (BMI), baby’s weight and gestational age at birth.

What were the basic results?

The researchers included 1,422 mothers (of 1,830 children) exposed to infertility treatment, and a comparison group of 3,402 mothers (of 4,011 children) who hadn’t received treatment.

The vast majority of mothers (97%) completed one or more developmental screening instruments. There were some differences between parents who had received the different types of infertility technique – for example, those who had ART were older, had higher educational attainment and lower BMI than those who had just received infertility drugs.

Between 6 and 10% of children failed at least one of the ASQ developmental domains at each screen. Infertility treatment was not associated with risk of a child’s failure confidence interval.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The research panel concluded that: “After considering [singletons and twins], children’s development through age three years was similar irrespective of infertility treatment or specific type. To our knowledge, these findings are among the first to focus on non-ART treatments in the United States.”

Conclusion

The study found no convincing evidence that infertility treatment had any impact on a child’s development, which will come as a relief to parents who have undertaken treatment. However, while this type of observational study is good for looking at links between an exposure and an outcome over a period of time, it is not able to prove direct cause and effect and say for certain whether there is any link between two factors.

The study has many strengths, including that it used a well-validated tool to assess child development and included a large sample size that should be representative of all births in the target region. Though, only a population from one US state was used, so these findings may not be applicable elsewhere, particularly as the frequency of use and type of infertility treatments given may vary geographically.

Improve your attitude

How to bring improvement in your Attitude? – Make it more Positive

Do you have a desire to say no to your boss and act on your own at your workplace? No, right, or Yes? Well anyway, you would be tagged for your attitude and behavior – whether as one having pathetic attitude or by one with the right attitude.

If you are the former one, it is a good time to start thinking on changing the perception and improve your attitude – not only towards workplace atmosphere, but also at home or as a matter of fact, everywhere.

  1. Admit to yourself if you are not happy in your life. At least do not lie to yourself and then crib all the time. You should be aware that you need to change something to bring the change and this is the first step towards this. Take control of your thoughts and reactions to events and people.
  2. Optimism is a choice not a born habit. No one is born with a positive or negative attitude. You take one path over the course of your life and it depends on your perspective in life. Just try this simple tip – take a pen in a difficult situation and write 4-5 good things about this difficult situation at hand.
  3. Select positive words while thinking or speaking – Use sentences starting with “I am hopeful,” or, “We will resolve it”. You can change your emotional outlook by this simple change in your handling situations.
  4. Fix up a good daily positive quote for yourself and keep yourself reminding about the same. Say it loudly every morning. For Example – “Something great is going to happen today,” which will rocket you up in the positive direction rather than negative one.
  5. Check on what exactly you would like to change – understand what you wish to change. Setting up of crisp and clear goals gives you success and takes you farther. No one knows you better than yourself. So take charge of your life and you will start seeing changes.
  6. It is an old saying that you become what you keeping your company as. So choose the right company for making yourself change the negative outlook to positive outlook. Consider making friend with new people, especially the ones who are optimistic.

At the end, it cannot be denied that a positive attitude is important, it is equally important to strive for positive attitude always. You can do it too like me!

Walking is the New Found Therapy

Walking can be your natural medicine for happiness as it helps release happy hormone called endorphin.

Walking not only helps you burn calories but is also considered the most effective anti-depressant. Almost 97 percent walkers revealed that it helped them improve their mental health and emotional well-being. The survey also revealed that walking helps control stress among people across age groups. While 42% of the elderly feel that walking helps beat stress, 50% of the millennials experience reduction of stress and hypertension, post walking, it added.

This is the highest for millennials. Interestingly, over 40% of the respondents are motivated to walk because of interesting walking apps and gadgets that help them track their health.

Usage of gadgets is more prominent among millennials. The Survey further said those who don’t walk regularly are more prone to depression nearly 15% of non-walkers admitted to be suffering from depression and high stress levels.

According to the survey, walking gives millennials time for self-introspection, while it gives 21% elderly the feeling of self-reliance. But there is a flip side as well. About 43% are unable to walk as long daily commute leaves them with no time for walking, 29% get bored while walking and believe that walking will not have a positive impact on their personality, 21% lack company to walk, and 21% are unaware of the benefits of walking on their mental health.

Signs of Emotional Abuse

Spotting the Signs of Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is all about gaining control over the other person. In this situation, a person exerts control over the life of another person. It can come in many shapes and forms and can range from very subtle version like damaging words uttered from one spouse to another to something as harsh as intimidating shouts paired with physical abuse.

According to Dr. Donnerfeld, psychologist from New York City, in the context of a relationship, the emotionally abusive person makes verbal attacks to one’s character and person. Communications in the case of emotional abusive relationships are often insulting, threatening, mocking, controlling and critical. The abuser also limits ones access to outside help such as friends, relatives, etc.

Classes of Emotional Abuse

According to the experts, there are below mentioned classes of emotional abuse:

–             humiliating or criticizing the person

–             disciplining a person with degrading punishments

–             not recognising a person’s own individuality and limitations

–             exposing a person to distressing events or interactions

–             never expressing positive feelings towards a the  person

–             never showing any emotions in interactions with the person

Emotional Abuse in Children

Small babies and pre-school children being emotionally abused can show the following symptoms:

  1. They become overly affectionate towards strangers
  2. They tend to show lack in confidence or become highly anxious
  3. Do not display close relationship with their parent
  4. They are aggressive or nasty with animals or other children

Older children Signs and Symptoms for Abuse

  1. They tend to use language that you wouldn’t expect them to know at their age
  2. They struggle to control strong emotions
  3. Often they seem isolated from their parents and friends
  4. They display lack of social skills

Watch Out for These Signs

The signs of emotional abuse can be very difficult to spot and determine.  If you see or hear one person in a relationship being openly verbally abusive to the other one, it is one of the classic emotional abuse examples. You need to look for the more subtle signs, too.

Looking on the bright side

Looking on the bright side across adulthood

Eye tracking reveals changes in emotion regulation with age. We’ve all heard the advice to “look on the bright side” when we are feeling down – but is it good advice?

  1. Age Differences in Looking Patterns to Emotional Information

We next considered possible age differences in the tendency to look on the bright side of emotional stimuli.

  1. Linking Looking to Feeling

We have tried to test whether older adults’ tendency to look on the bright side is actually related to emotion regulation and effective outcomes. We have assessed mood using a potentiometer slider continuously at the same time as participants are having their eyes tracked: participants indicate their current mood by moving the slider.

  1. From Feeling to Doing

Older adults’ looking on the bright side may help them to regulate their emotional state, but what happens when the negative information they are looking less at in order to feel good is important and/or health-relevant. Older adults generally looked less at the negative emotional content and showed a faster emotion regulation response compared to their younger counterparts.

Learn about looking on the bright side

Whereas younger individuals may actually benefit – at least in terms of their moods – from looking more at the darker side of things, literally looking on the bright side of emotional stimuli seems to be a key tool for older adults to regulate their emotions, and it may not be associated with behavioral deficits. Put another way, older adults – at least in our investigations so far – do not seem to need to choose between mood and health: they are able to interact with the world in a way that helps them to regulate their mood while also engaging in positive health behavior.
Older adults may even use committing to engage in health behavior as a regulatory strategy itself, leading them to feel good and do good things as well. It may be that it is younger adults who must choose between regulating their emotions and engaging in health behaviors, as they did not regulate their moods as well and in some cases engaged in fewer health behaviors than did older adults; however, we have not yet tested whether younger adults could do better in different circumstances.

These patterns may have implications for the design of health messages. Younger adults may benefit from seeing “just the facts” so their emotion regulation attempts do not interfere with their ability to learn health information. Perhaps looking on the bright side can be harnessed to improve older adults’ health behavior; at the very least, older adults’ feeling good and behaving in health-promoting ways may not be mutually exclusive.

Affirm Your Worth With Affirmations

How important it is to be self aware to make progress in your life? How important it is to know how much respect you give to yourself to start with? People, and I am saying almost 99% people across the world look at others to validate themselves in many aspects making them loose their own power and control.

Does Positive Affirmations have any Role

Affirmations are the act or an instance of affirming; the assertion that something exists or is true, a statement or proposition that is declared to be true. Using affirmation to raise the self worth has been considered as a topic of controversy among professionals. Some believe that they work and are recommended in treatment highly. While lot others pass them off and say they have no use. In the opinion of depression guide, the theraptists should at least tell the idea to clients.

What is an affirmation?

Professionals who recommend and use affirmations are using it to enhance the purpose of changing the way people think. Most of the people across the world are programmed with negative thinking – like “I can’t do ____, I am no good, I am not good looking, I’m not smart?”. The idea of an affirmation is to change the way we think over a period of time. Remember that it took however many years to leran this affirmations.
It is going to take substantial time to reprogram your mind to think positive things about yourself and then believe them.
The important thing is to find out what you think negative about yourself and then rewrite it so it is in the for of a positive statement instead of a negative one.

How to Fail with Grace and maintain Affirmation?

Failure is a part of life—at work, at school, and even in our relationships. In short, we screw up all the time. Fortunately, new research shows how we can learn from our mistakes. As it happens, preserving our self-worth helps our brains make sense of our blunders so we can do better the next time around. Affirming your values also helps your brain attune to the errors of your ways so you can learn from your mistakes.

Self Esteem Affirmations

  1. I love and accept myself unconditionally.
  2. I approve of myself and feel great about myself.
  3. I radiate love and respect and in return I get love and respect.
  4. I am a well loved and well respected person.
  5. I am a cultured and wise and yet, a humble person.

The Best and the Beauty of Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a combination of different methods of natural healing that are extremely wide-ranging, and a practitioner may become a specialist in one particular area. Although naturopathy can be used to treat the symptoms of an illness it is, fundamentally, a way of life and a means of disease prevention. The management of stress and anxiety is a particular area that is addressed by naturopathy and adopting a healthy, naturopathic lifestyle benefits everybody and can be helpful to those suffering from phobias.

Naturopathy’s principle therapeutic elements

The examination of nutrition and diet including the use of vitamin and mineral supplements. Detoxification – the use of short periods of fasting or controlled diets and supplements to aid the natural processes by which the body rids itself of toxic substances.

Ways and means to control and reduce stress and anxiety including recognising and eliminating the cause whenever possible, relaxation techniques, modification of diet and the use of supplements, particularly to support the adrenal gland.

  1. Hydrotherapy – the use of water to promote healing.
  2. Herbal medicine Homeopathy
  3. Physical therapies such as massage, chiropractic and osteopathy

Counseling and lifestyle modification, which can be of particular value in relieving psychological, behavioral and emotional problems as well as physical ailments. Treatment may include hypnotherapy, relaxation ,techniques, visualization (image) therapy, color, music or dance therapy in addition to other naturopathic methods.

The use of acupuncture and Oriental therapies such as shiatsu, yoga and T’ai Chi Ch’uan

Exercise – the importance of exercise in the promotion of good health, including psychological and emotional wellbeing, and in the treatment of ailments is recognized by naturopaths and forms a part of most therapeutic programs.

A naturopath is interested in the person as a whole and not just in a particular condition or set of symptoms that may be troubling the patient. Hence consulting a naturopath gives a person the chance to discuss every aspect of life with someone who is concerned to offer help.

Specific Developmental expressive Language Disorder

Specific Developmental expressive Language Disorder

In this disorder, the ability to use expressive spoken language is markedly below the level appropriate for the child’s mental age. Language comprehension is within normal limits but there may be abnormalities in articulation. Language development varies considerably among normal children, but the absence of single words by 2 years of age, and of two-word phrases by 3 years of age signifies abnormality. Signs at later ages include restricted vocabulary, difficulties in selecting appropriate words, and immature grammatical usage. Nonverbal communication, if impaired, is not affected as severely as spoken language, and the child makes efforts to communicate. Disorders of behavior are often present.

Cluttering – some children speak rapidly and with an erratic rhythm such that the grouping of words does not reflect the grammatical structure of their speech. This abnormality, which is known as cluttering, is classified as an associated feature of expressive language disorder in DSM-IV but in ICD-I0 it is classified (with stammering) among other behavioral disorders of childhood.

Prevalence of expressive language disorder depends on the method of assessment; a rate of 3-5% of children has been proposed (American Psychiatric Association 1994a).

Prognosis of the disorder

It is reported that about half of the children meeting DSM-IV criteria develop normal speech by adult life, while the rest have long lasting difficulties (American Psychiatric Association

1994a). Prognosis is worse when the language disorder is severe, or there is a co-morbid condition, such as conduct disorder.

Treatment of Expressive Language Disorder

Treatment is mainly through special education.  Psychiatrists are likely to be involved when there is a co-morbid disorder, and may need to advise the parents about the child’s rights for special education.