Trail Mix
Quick Energy for Your Journey Through Life
The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard
There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.
Howard Thurman
This quote strikes at the very heart of many relationship issues I run across in my practice where couples are trying to figure out why they chose who they chose and what to do now.
…
Why Psychologists “Ignore the Evidence”
Note: This is a response to an article called, “Ignoring the Evidence: Why Do Psychologists Reject Science?” by Sharon Begley in Newsweek on October 12, 2009. Click here to go to this article.
Psychologists reject science because it’s too primitive to be useful! The human brain and mind are far too complex for the current state of psychological science to be truly useful in the treatment of many or most real-life psychological issues.
…
This is Your Brain on Therapy, Part Deux
Note: If you have not read Part One, please do so before embarking on this article. Thanks!
In Part One, we looked at how therapy can change our brains regarding relationships. Now, let’s look at how therapy can change our brain in another way.
Let’s imagine our brain is a large (very large) collection of roads, ranging from dirt roads to superhighways (or freeways, depending on where you’re from). These roads get …
This is Your Brain on Therapy, Part One
What really happens to your brain when you go to a therapist? Hey, be kind!
Let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start). In the beginning, our brains have a lot of “hardware,” estimated at one hundred billion brain cells, but they have very little “software.” We only have “programs” that let us do things like cry, sleep, poop, suck, poop again (and did I mention poop? Oh, and cry too).
As we grow up, our brains act like little organic computers that program themselves by creating or undoing connections between brain cells, estimated at about 10,000 connections per cell, or about one quadrillion (that’s a one with 15 zeroes after it) possible connections in all. That’s a lot!
…
In Praise of Slowness
No, I’m not writing a send-up of the Slow Movement or the book that exemplifies the movement’s principles, although what I’m writing about fits that movement well.
I am inviting you, dear reader, to slow down your self-improvement efforts so you can catch up with them and let them integrate within you. I am inviting you to accept how …
Book Review: How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It.
Authors: Patricia Love and Steven Stosny
I have a lot of books on relationships, marriage, and other related topics (“Hi, my name is Dan and I’m a bookaholic”). This one I recommend above all others.
The title got me hooked and the content kept me reading. I’ve worked with many couples where the husband and the wife look at talking about their relationship from vastly different perspectives. The wife believes that talking about the relationship is essential to its health. The husband would prefer to do anything but. In this book, we find out why and what to do about it.
…
Book Review: How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It.Read More »