Silvie+Maryl | Upgrading Minds, Transforming Lives » Psychology

Top Five Irrational Thoughts

Maryl Celiz — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:01:30 +0000

If you read our Irrational Self-Talk article, you may have asked yourself: “Do I do that?” Maybe the answer was a straight out, “yes! That’s me!” But maybe you weren’t sure. To help you uncover this bad habit, here are five examples of irrational thoughts that you may or may not have heard before – in your head:

It’s bad, wrong or selfish to think of yourself. Nobody knows your needs or wants better than you – and you’re responsible for fulfilling them. Remember in-flight instructions: put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then on someone else.

My worth as a person depends on how much I achieve and produce. The real value of a human being is on his capacity to experience being fully alive, and feeling everything that it means to be human.

If I don’t please people, they will reject or abandon me. This is the result of low self-esteem. The best way to avoid rejection is by being and showing your true self – people can either take it or leave it – but if you don’t fully show yourself now and slowly do later, you run the risk of people rejecting you in the long run – once you’re already emotionally invested.

Good relationships are based on mutual sacrifice and a focus on giving. This leads you to think that it is better to give than to receive, and moves you to be hesitant in asking for what you want and need – a sure recipe for dissatisfaction, which will lead to frustration, possibly anger, and probably bitterness and withdrawal from your very confused partner.

My past determines my present. This is a very limiting belief that doesn’t allow you to move forward. The truth is, if you choose to, you can change your present at any given moment. You create your future with the choices you make today – and that future will be your present tomorrow.

Source: The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook.

Recycling of Thoughts

Silvie Celiz — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:01:27 +0000

The brain is really the most sophisticated organic machinery ever created. I am personally IN LOVE with neurons, no shame in saying it. In fact, I want to dedicate a very special song to all the neurons out there (especially mine): The Time (Dirty Bit) by The Black Eye Peas…because I have the time of my life in my head, all the time.

The mind is the spark that brings the brain to LIFE. It is the essence of our true selves. Our minds contain two kinds of thoughts: useful thoughts and useless thoughts. Conflict, suffering, and negative emotions come from useless irrational thoughts that begin an internal self dialogue based on our own individual perceptions of life from our personal experiences. The thoughts may not even be close to reality – but there they are, only “living” in our mind. What you need to do is CHILL OUT and deal with reality.

No, you are not going to die if someone leaves you.

Yes, you are more then enough, and special.

No, you do not have to please every single person you know and get their approval.

When we realize that WE have the power to control this inner dialogue, this self talk, which is mostly negative and irrational, we come across the option of CHOOSING to focus on useful thoughts. That’s the wonderful thing about thoughts: You can choose which ones stay and which ones go.

Recycling our thoughts is about identifying useless irrational thoughts, challenging their veracity, and then replacing them with useful rational thoughts that promote stability and empower you to thrive. YES, WE CAN.

We challenge you to monitor your inner dialogue and recycle those useless thoughts until your neurons create physical neuro-nets of positive thoughts based on common sense and truth, and have a fun party in your head…if that makes you feel good – Dirty Bit.

The Moon and Your Emotions

Maryl Celiz — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:01:55 +0000

Among other things, the moon affects the tides and the harvest. It also affects our emotions. Psychologist Carl Jung used to say that, because the moon affects Nature’s cycles like the ebb and flow of the ocean and growing seasons, then it was logical that man, also a part of Nature and with a body composed 70% of water, would also be affected by the phases of this cosmic body. We are, after all, all connected.

Of all the lunar phases, the New Moon and Full Moon are the most talked about. The new moon is said to bring the energy of beginnings. It is felt as a time to start new projects, to set ideas in motion. You may perceive a new moon as an opportunity to start over, and it is usually a great time to do so in any area of your life. Cleansing (your body, your closet, your social environment) is often started successfully during or shortly after a new moon.

While the new moon is mostly an external or outwardly conscious experience, the full moon is more of an internal, deeply emotional one. Full moons, like the one last night, are said to bring to fruition what we planed during a new moon. Interestingly, hospitals know to be ready for more women being rushed to labor during a full moon – a baby being the ultimate creation previously set in motion by the parents. Full moons bring results, closure and insight to situations or projects started during a new moon period, but they are more emotional and internal in nature, with an inside growth or change being the most important component to take into account.

While news and enlightening information may come to you during a full moon period, it is recommended to wait 4-5 days to process the information received and let it unfold before making any decisions based on it.

Scientist challenge: Next time there is a new or full moon, take note of your emotional state and the state of any new or pending personal or business matters. Observe the correlations and see how in tune you are with the cycles of Nature. Then use this information to further your self-understanding and be ready for the next phases of your life.

MReport: In The Journals

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:01:23 +0000

Nutrition: The most widely produced fruit (and we treat it like a veggie), tomatoes have now been found to be good for your vascular system. Research published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research reveals that an extracted compound found in tomatoes has anti-dyslipidemic affects. Dyslipidemia is a condition caused by abnormal amounts of lipids like cholesterol or fat in the blood. Tomato, with already established benefits against prostate cancer and more, was found to enhance fatty acid oxidation, and to regulate liver lipid metabolism.

Psychology: Want a new job this year? Stand up straight. Research published in the January issue of Psychological Science indicates that a person’s posture may be a deciding factor for whether they land a coveted position, even when the person on the other side of the desk is in a more powerful role. The findings show that “posture expansiveness,” or positioning oneself in a way that opens up the body and takes space (standing tall or sitting without hunching the back or constricting the arms, for example,) actually activates a sense of power in the self, producing more powerful behaviors in a person regardless of their actual rank. Open postures also made people more active.

Heart: Spending too much leisure time in front of the TV or computer screen appears to dramatically increase the risk for heart disease. According to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, people who spend more than two hours in front of the screen increased their risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 125%. Exercise might not help either, but reducing the number or recreational time you spend in front of a screen is key.

Health is a Lifestyle

Maryl Celiz — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:12:46 +0000

Change doesn’t happen overnight. For most of us, making a lasting transformation requires many small adjustments (and there’s definitely a learning curve). The same goes for any component of health, including making the transition to a plant-based diet (PBD). We say that health is a lifestyle because a lifestyle means making choices on a daily basis, and it is in each of those choices that you will make your way to a destiny of your creation – a healthy life. Three things are key to your success: information, action, and patience.

Let’s take the transition to a PBD as an example. Maybe you’re pumped ’cause you want to lose weight, feel great, and have more energy. You’re a doer type. So, you take on cooking like it’s going out of style: You get some recipes, an amazing kitchen knife, and go to town on a couple of dishes. The food tastes great, your body responds, and you’re on your way to optimal health.

But then your weight loss reaches a plateau. Or maybe you get obsessed with the one meal you’ve mastered, neglect the nutritional pillar of diversity, and become deficient in a particular mineral or vitamin. Maybe you had a career change, but had learned how to eat for your former, more passive and less stressful work life.

Time for new information.

Embrace the new step in your process. Perfecting your favorite PBD recipe is great, but stay open to learning more recipes depending on what your mind and body need at different times. Your mind, where new information is stored, has to be on board with your body, and since your body will be in constant change, your mind will need new information to keep up. So, even if you’re a doer type, make sure you get your info as well – don’t just know what to eat and how to make it, find out why you’re eating it too. Know that you will need to make adjustments along the way (this is where patience comes in). A lifestyle change is not a single change, it is a chain of reactions. As you detox your body, issues will come up. This is part of the process. It’s like sailing: There will always be wind and current, and it’s up to you to redirect your ship every so often to make sure you’re still on course – to mind, body, spirit, and planet health. Use both information AND action for this, and be patient with your own journey.

MReport: In The Journals

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:03:59 +0000

Exercise: According to a new study, yoga has a greater positive effect on a person’s mood and anxiety level than walking and other forms of exercise. Yoga increases the level of GABA, a chemical in the brain that helps to regulate nerve activity and that is reduced in people with mood and anxiety disorders. The study demonstrates increased GABA levels measured after a session of yoga postures are associated with improved mood and decreased anxiety. The findings establish a new link between yoga, higher levels of GABA in the thalamus, and improvements in mood and anxiety based on psychological assessments. The study was published in the the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

Eco-Health: Highlighting the link between being healthy and being green, a call to action has been issued to health professionals across the world to help tackle the health effects of climate change. Several leading medical journals, including BMJ, the Lancet and the Finnish Medical Journal, have come together to warn that a failure to agree on radical reductions in emissions doesn’t just affect the planet – it also means a global health catastrophe. “The planet is getting hotter, its people are getting fatter, and the use of fossil fuel energy is the cause of both,” write Robin Stott and Ian Roberts of the Climate and Health Council. They say moving to a low carbon economy could be the next public health advance because it will mean less pollution and a need for more physical activity. A low carbon diet (especially eating less meat) and doing more exercise will mean less cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even depression. This would also cut world food prices. “Responding to climate change could be the most important challenge that health professionals face,” affirm Roberts and Stott.

Mind: People spend half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind-wandering makes them unhappy, says a new study. “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” write the study authors, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University. Unlike other animals, humans spend a lot of time thinking about what isn’t going on around them – events that happened in the past and those that may happen in the future or never at all. The study found that how often our minds leave the present and where they go is a better predictor of our happiness than the actual activities in which we are engaged. Many traditions teach that happiness is to be found by being present, and this research suggests that they are right. The study is published in the journal Science.

Are You a Vitamin or an Aspirin Type?

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:01:51 +0000

When it comes to healing, there are generally two types of approaches: Embracing a long-term solution even if it is slow, or doing anything to avoid pain even if the relief is only temporary. The first approach is known as the ‘vitamin’. The second is the ‘aspirin’. While nobody is advocating masochism, and avoiding pain is a natural instinct, I’d like you to consider the cost of adopting the aspirin approach over the vitamin approach with regards to your health.

Off the bat, know that I totally get where you’re coming from. Who wants to be in pain – physical, emotional or otherwise? Nobody. But that’s not the point. The point is that one approach – the vitamin – is what you need: It addresses the CAUSE of the issue, goes to the root of things. And, although it may not be an immediate way to feel better, the fact that it is dealing with what created the uncomfortable situation in the first place means that it will solve your problem.

The other approach, the aspirin, will not solve your problem. It is not designed to. Aspirins – the pharmaceutical kind and the behavioral kind – are designed to address symptoms, the secondary effects, not the cause of a situation. Pain is an effect. It is a signal, one of the ways your body lets you know that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. It is not the thing itself, not what really needs fixing. What you’re doing with the aspirin approach is just this: numbing yourself and avoiding pain. This may make you feel better right away – at least for a bit – and while it’s not what you actually need, it is probably what you think you want. The drawback with this approach is that you still have not addressed the real problem, and to make matters worse, now you can’t even hear its signal.

And the damage doesn’t stop with your health. The aspirin approach is contagious. If you use it with your health, it won’t be long until it extends to other areas of your life, wrecking silent havoc all over the place. In your relationships, it is easier to cheat than to have to change something about yourself or have a tough but necessary conversation with your current partner. In your finances, credit cards facilitate and fulfill instant gratification by not saying “no” to you, and you don’t have to deal with cash that may limit your spending. With work, it’s easier to stay at that dead-end cul de sac job than to go out and seek the career you know you were made for because that may mean a whole bunch of effort and perseverance, some rejection, and a potential income sacrifice (at least initially). And the list goes on.

But where does an aspirin approach take you? Since it never deals with the real causes of imbalance in your physical, professional, financial or romantic life, it perpetuates a problem, probably augments it, and disconnects you from yourself in the process. In other words, an aspirin approach to health and life will take you in the opposite direction of what you truly, deep down, desire: honest-to-God goodness and well-being. Before you know it, you won’t remember who you were in the first place, and you’ll end up in a life you never wanted without knowing how you got there.

Ask yourself which type of person you are, and in what areas of your life you use one or the other approach. Remember, it is never too late to deal with the pain, face the truth, and give your body/mind/spirit exactly what it is calling for: The nourishment – or vitamin – it truly needs.

MReport: In The Journals

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:01:01 +0000

Psychology: Debit or credit? Make it cash, please, if you want to eat healthier. According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, people are more likely to buy unhealthy foods when they pay using credit or debit cards than when they use cash. The study authors say two factors contribute to this effect: First, unhealthy food items tend to elicit impulsive responses; second cash payments are psychologically more painful than card payments, which can curb the impulsive response to buy unhealthy foods. Since people find if more “painful” to pay in cash, they make better (healthier) choices and limit their impulsive (unhealthy) choices. The researchers suggest that there may be a connection between obesity rates and modes of payment: It may not be a coincidence that 34% of US adults are obese and nearly 40% of all purchases are paid with credit/debit cards. Given that so many consumers struggle so much to make healthy choices, understanding that using plastic increases their vice purchases and that using cash helps them think and pick the good stuff may help people improve their buying habits and overall well-being.

Cancer: A University of Illinois study has shown for the first time that sulforaphane, the powerful cancer-fighting agent in broccoli, can be released from its parent compound by bacteria in the lower gut and absorbed into the body. “This discovery raises the possibility that we will be able to enhance the activity of these bacteria in the colon, increasing broccoli’s cancer-preventive power,” said Elizabeth Jeffery, professor of nutrition at the university. “It’s also comforting because many people overcook their broccoli, unwittingly destroying the plant enzyme that gives us sulforaphane. Now we know the microbiota in our digestive tract can salvage some of this important cancer-preventive agent even if that happens,” she said. Although scientists had long theorized that the intestinal microbiota could perform this trick, no one knew it for certain. The study appears in the November issue of the journal Food & Function.

Inflammation: Scientists are reporting evidence that black rice may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma, and other diseases. According to research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, black rice bran – the outer husk of the grain, which is removed during the processing of brown rice to produce white rice – has already been shown to suppress the release of histamine, which causes inflammation, and now it has been found to reduce skin inflammation. The findings suggest that black rice bran has potential value as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic food and possibly also as a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of diseases associated with chronic inflammation.

Dental: Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health found that dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids, known to have anti-inflammatory properties, shows promise for the effective treatment and prevention of periodontitis. A common inflammatory disease in which gum tissue separates from teeth, periodontitis leads to accumulation of bacteria and potential bone and tooth loss. The scientists determined that intake of the omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA is inversely associated with periodontitis in the US population, and that these polyunsaturated fats could potentially be used as dietary therapy to prevent and treat the disease. Sources of polyunsaturated fat include nuts, seeds, fatty fish, algae, flax seed, and leafy greens. The study was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Self-control: The next time you feel your willpower slipping, tighten your muscles. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says firming muscles can help boost self-control. The researchers found that study participants who, when faced with a self-control dilemma such as consuming a healthy but awful-tasting drink or making food choices for lunch, tightened their hand, finger, calf, biceps or any other muscle, demonstrated greater ability to perform the unpleasant task. The study authors found that the muscle tightening only helped when the choice aligned with the participants’ goals (for example, to have a healthier lifestyle.) They also found that the tightening of muscles only helped at the very moment people faced the self-control dilemma: If they did it beforehand, they felt depleted by the time it was time to make the choice. “The mind and the body are so closely tied together, merely clenching muscles can also activate willpower,” said the study authors.

MReport: In The Journals

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:00:18 +0000

Cancer: Findings from a study presented published in the British Journal of Nutrition and Biochemical Pharmacology show that watercress may turn off breast cancer signals. The researchers found that a compound in this vegetable is able to interfere with the function of a protein called Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF), which plays a critical role in cancer development. Professor Graham Packham, lead author of the study, said that while further work needs to be done to determine the direct impact that watercress has on decreasing cancer risk, the research takes an important step towards understanding the potential health benefits of this crop with respect to cancer.

Stress: Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have just shown that external factors can stress our cells through the control of our genes. “We found that stress-activating factors can control our genes by turning on certain genes that were supposed to be silenced,” said Dr. Klaus Hansen, lead author of the study. “It is very important that some genes are on and others are off in order to ensure normal fetal development and correct function of our cells later in life,” he adds. External factors that affect our cells (and therefore our genes) in utero as well as during adulthood include exposure to pollution, tobacco smoke, bacterial toxins and any other extraneous substance that stressed cells have to react to in order to survive and maintain their normal function. The findings are published in the international journal Molecular Cell.

Leadership: It’s about EQ when it comes to the forerunner of the pack, says a new study. The ability to understand emotions is a key ingredient in people who become leaders, according to new research. The study, published in Leadership Quarterly, adds to evidence that emotional intelligence is a separate trait from other leadership qualities such as having cognitive intelligence and being cooperative, open to ideas, and conscientious. “Traditionally we’ve had the assumption that leaders have high IQs, are gregarious individuals, or happen to be dominant personalities,” says researcher Stéphane Coté, “but this shows it’s not just about these traditional factors. It’s also about being able to process other people’s emotions. Anybody who wants to pursue a position of leadership and power can benefit from these abilities.” The study was a collaboration between University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the Catholic University of Portugal, Yale University, and Queen’s University.

Psychology: Talking to yourself might not be a bad thing when it comes to self control, says a new study. According to research published in Acta Psychologica, using your inner voice plays an important role in controlling impulsive behavior. Through a series of tests, the researchers found that people acted more impulsively when they couldn’t use their inner voice or talk themselves through tasks, something we tend do naturally. “Without being able to verbalize messages to themselves, they were not able to exercise the same amount of self control as when they could talk themselves through the process,” said Associate Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht.

Kidney: A healthy diet helps when fighting kidney stones, says a new study. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole grains and low fat dairy products, and low in red and processed meats, effectively lowers blood pressure. Researchers now suggest that a DASH-style diet reduces the risk of developing kidney stones. Study participants who were on the DASH-style diet excreted more urine than individuals who did not follow the diet, despite similar fluid intake. The researchers speculate this was at least partly because of the higher water content in a diet with higher plant-based food content. There was also a higher concentration of citrate, an important inhibitor of calcium stones, in the urine of DASH diet consumers, and the study indicates that there may be other important and perhaps as of yet unidentified kidney stone inhibitors in the foods included. The research appears in the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology.

Lifestyle: Looks like there is strength in numbers when it comes to healthy lifestyle factors too. While it is widely known that adopting habits like exercising regularly and not smoking affect health positively, a new study has now quantified the impact of combining several healthy lifestyle factors as opposed to just doing one healthy thing, with the cumulative effect far surpassing the single changes. The researchers found that a healthy lifestyle pattern that included being normal weight, having low belly fat, participating in regular physical activity, limiting exposure to secondhand smoke, and consuming higher amounts of fruits and vegetables – reduced mortality in Chinese women who were studied over a period of nine years. The findings state that a higher healthy lifestyle score (the more factors, the higher the score), was associated with a 43% lower risk of death from all diseases, especially with relationship to cardiovascular disease and cancer. The good news: Lifestyle factors are things you can control – and modify. The research was published in PLoS Medicine.

MReport: In The Journals

Maryl Celiz — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:00:50 +0000

Weight: Sounds like those muffin tops may make us suffer a lot more than we thought. Scientists are reporting new evidence that the fat tissue in that spare tire and lower belly pooch is far from harmless. According to a study published in the Journal of Proteome Research, belly fat tissue is an active organ that sends chemical signals to other parts of the body, taking part in various functions, which may lead to disease. The scientists report the discovery of 20 new hormones and other substances not previously known to be secreted into the blood by human fat cells. They also identified 80 different proteins produced by the fat cells. While the exact effects of the substances secreted by these fat cells are not yet known, the researchers said these could possibly increase the risk of heart attacks, cancer, and other diseases.

Anti-inflammatory: According to a report in the journal Cell, scientists have nailed how omega-3 fatty acids both shut down inflammation and reverse diabetes. Omega-3s – a substance available in flaxseed, algae, and fish oil, alleviate inflammation by acting on a receptor (GPR120) found in fat tissue and on inflammatory immune cells called macrophages. The scientists noted that omega-3s were the most potent activators of the receptor GPR120 than they’d ever seen, which blocks not one, but all inflammatory pathways. Treatment of insulin resistance, a condition related to inflammation, also showed promise, and omega-3s proved even more effective than a popular insulin-sensitizing drug.

Heart: You hair can say a lot about you – even about your heart health. Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important part in heart attacks. Stressors such as job, marital and financial problems have been linked to the increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease, including heart attack. Now, research published in the journal Stress shows a method to measure cortisol (stress hormone) levels in hair, providing an accurate assessment of stress levels in the months prior to an acute event such as a heart attack. “Intuitively we know stress is not good for you, but it’s not easy to measure,” explained Dr. Gideon Koren, one of the study’s authors. “We know that on average, hair grows one centimeter a month, and so if we take a hair sample six cm long, we can determine stress levels for six months by measuring the cortisol in the hair.” Brilliant.

Nutrition: It isn’t just berries that tout antioxidant benefits. The economic alternatives black rice and black rice bran contain more health-promoting anthocyanin antioxidants than blueberries, but with less sugar and more fiber and vitamin E, says research presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Black rice was called “Forbidden Rice” in ancient China because nobles commandeered every grain for themselves and forbade the common people from eating it. Guess we now know why.

Children: Researchers have found that ‘mindfulness’ – the process of learning to become more aware of our experiences without judging them – increases well-being in adolescent boys. Boys ages 14 and 15 who participated in a study where they were taught mindfulness techniques over a period of four weeks were found to have positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection, as well as to be functioning well. “More and more we are realizing the importance of supporting the overall mental health of children,” says professor Felicia Huppert of the University of Cambridge. “Our study demonstrates that this type of training improves well-being in adolescents and that the more they practice, the greater the benefits.” Adolescents who suffered from higher levels of anxiety were the ones who benefited the most from the training. Also important: Many of the students involved genuinely enjoyed the exercises and said they intended to continue, which is a good sign that children would be receptive to this type of education.

Psychology: If you live in an urban setting, get out of the city as often as you can – for your sanity. The association between psychotic disorders and living in urban areas appears to be a reflection of increased social fragmentation present within cities, says a report in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry. Characteristics of neighborhoods that have been associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis include population and ethnic density, deprivation ad social fragmentation or reduced social capital and cohesion. This goes for kids too: The study authors comment that, “being raised in more urbanized areas was associated with an increased risk of developing any non-affective psychotic disorder.”

Consumer: Reading nutritional labels is a must in the middle of the misleading food marketing environment. A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs suggests that observing guidelines for the information of food labels may lead to weight loss, especially for women entering their middle years. Research found that people who read labels and not exercise show a slightly greater likelihood of weight loss that people who do exercise but don’t pay attention to food labels. The research also found that women between the ages of 37-50 years are more likely to read food labels than men, and are therefore more likely to lose weight.