Steps for a better self

          Everyday outside the work environment, there are stories documenting the pressure of the ever-faster pace of life that leaves individuals with poor life balance feeling they have little or no time for personal interests, relationships, family, or even health.  In this situation, it is easy to lose sight of what is important and to find it difficult to know which direction to take to make things better.
          Because self confidence and feeling good has a major 'hormonal' element, you can change the way you feel by re-living good times. If you can remember a time you felt really self confident, then excellent - use that! If not, then use a time you felt contented or happy. Taking deliberate control of your thoughts and emotions will have a huge impact on your self confidence and other areas of your life.

            When you feel self-conscious, (you can usually tell because you start to feel anxious), choose something outside of yourself to focus on and study it in detail. For example: examine a door, look at the different textures and shades of color, wonder about who made it and how and so on. The important thing is that you're learning how to keep your attention off yourself.

             Social self confidence can be difficult to find sometimes because it is unclear what you are 'supposed to do'. In this event, concentrate on what your purpose in the situation is. People are often most comfortable with others when working towards a common goal. The common goal of socializing could be making friends, the exchange of mutually beneficial information, expanding your knowledge of different types of people... it could be whatever you want it to be! The key is to have an aim. Challenging your own assumptions about yourself and other people can really help build self confidence.            

Marital Psychology

            It has been suggested that early experiences in families may be related to one’s parenting as an adult. Conceptual models were tested that investigated how personality and marital relationships are linked to parenting within and between generations.

           Relationships are an essential part of our lives, from family and friends to partners and spouses. We have a natural tendency to develop intimate and intense relationships with a few select individuals, which can bring joy and happiness. Difficulties in relationships are one of the most common causes of unhappiness, and often brings people into therapy
            To attain a deep understanding of the relationship between women and men, it seems to us essential that the issue be situated within larger biological issues, namely the comparative characterization of the human animal and the general significances of sex and sociality, in the living world. In all societies, women and men enter into individualized marital alliances, which entail entitlements and obligations recognized and acknowledged by the marrying couple and by others. A central component of marital alliance is that it bestows legitimate sexual access (often, but not always, exclusive). Not coincidentally, marriage is also the relationship within which reproduction is deemed legitimate, normal, or appropriate, and marriage entails the expectation that the couple's reciprocal obligations will extend far beyond conception. In other words, the relationship between marital partners develops, in the event of reproduction, into a relationship of biparental obligations. Moreover, marital alliance is the relationship that determines and/or legitimizes the cross-generational transfer of heritable material and social resources.             

Money and Psychology

            If you observe your relationship to money, you’ll probably find that it reflects your core beliefs. Whether you believe that you’re useless with money, you don’t deserve to have money or that money’s hard to come by - that’s usually what you’ll experience. It’s also linked to your emotions. A fear of failure, or feelings of insecurity, guilt or anxiety often results in our repeating habits and patterns which eventually get in our way – and, unsurprisingly, we often find money slipping through our fingers.We inherit money behaviors and attitudes from our families and other influential people in our lives. According to social learning theory, spending behaviors can be viewed as learned behavior that is passed from generation to generation. Some of these behaviors may be influenced by religious teachings or cultural norms.For people who are overspenders, often, possessions give them identity. Overspending can involve over-use of credit, or the need to spend money to create a mood change.Studies show that most people are much less likely to buy, or less willing to spend as much, when paying with cash as opposed to credit cards.Single, married, separated or divorced whatever your situation, its worthwhile to do some self-searching to understand your attitudes towards money and how they impact your relationships. Money is a far more emotional topic than most people acknowledge. He goes on to say that our state of mind affects the way we earn, spend and invest. Unless we deal with our unconscious attitudes, we will almost certainly sabotage our success.

If psychological factors influence your spending, credit reduction programs are like using perfume to cover body odor: they will treat only the symptoms, not the root cause.   

              Working on the psychological aspects while taking steps to reduce debt will greatly increase your chances of long-term success.                              

Psychology and overweight.

 

Approximately 135 million adults in the United States are overweight. That's 64.5 percent of the population. Of all U.S. adults, 4.7 percent or about 10 million are morbidly obese

Very many people engage in dieting.  Health professionals could be forgiven for assuming that reducing diets are for fat people.  However, this is far from the case. Up to one third of men and women in the western world is said to be overweight.  Yet twice as many believe that they weigh more than they should.  Thinking that one is overweight is more common in normal weight women than in men.  Moreover, not only do these normal weight people believe they weigh too much, many also have lives that are in some way restricted by worry about weight. There is no diet program nor diet pill that will yield permanent weight loss unless you are willing and able to process and resolve the psychological issues that you have concerning your extra pounds.

The popularity of dieting is fuelled by several factors, the first being a national aversion to fatness. This attitude sets in at a very young age.  Schoolchildren in one study showed a stronger aversion to being overweight than to being blind or physically crippled, Even children as young as 8 are restricting their food intake and by age 15 one in three has been on a diet.

Dieting also changes the way we feel about our body. 

The terrible internal conflicts which are the result of food restraint are a source of continual stress.  All dieters score higher than non dieters on measures of emotional agitation and are more likely to show impaired mental performance.

By denying themselves food, dieters also make it much more important.  Dieters are more likely than non dieters to turn to food when they are emotionally anxious or depressed.  This phenomenon is created by dieting itself.

Suicide Facts

Suicide cannot be defined other than the act of taking ones own life. To some, it could be a selfish act, something weak and brash and stupid. To others, it could be the ultimate sacrifice, to take life and death into one’s own hands and decide weather or not they live or die. Untreated mental illness (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and others) is the cause for the vast majority of suicides. Some people are genetically predisposed to depression, and thus they may not appear to be undergoing any negative life experiences, yet still become depressed, and may die by suicide.

                 Women continue to attempt suicide more often, but men tend to complete suicide more often. Many people who complete suicide do not tell any mental-health professional they plan to kill themselves in the months before they do so.

                Suicide prevention measures that are put in place following a psychiatric hospitalization usually involve mental-health professionals trying to implement a comprehensive outpatient treatment plan prior to the individual being discharged. Suicide prevention measures that are put in place following a psychiatric hospitalization usually involve mental-health professionals trying to implement a comprehensive outpatient treatment plan prior to the individual being discharged.

               Over  19,000 young people attempt suicide every year and about 700 of these succeed.Firearms are by far the most common means by which people take their life, accounting for nearly 60% of suicide deaths per year. Older people are more likely to kill themselves using a firearm compared to younger people.

Stress tips

Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress, which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people ill.