Self Help: Mindfulness and Beliefs: Irrationally Yours

Mindfulness and Beliefs: Irrationally Yours

Written by Maya Talisman Frost

I can't help it--I am a confirmed neuroscience geek.

So I was very excited to attend repparttar fifth brain lecture in a series (yes, I bought season tickets!) sponsored by Oregon Health Sciences University. You see, repparttar 128772 guest speaker was Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, repparttar 128773 father of cognitive neuroscience, and his topic was The Ethical Brain--which happens to be repparttar 128774 title of a book he will publish this June.

He has written over 20 books, and in his work as repparttar 128775 director of repparttar 128776 Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, he continues to conduct research on how repparttar 128777 brain enables repparttar 128778 mind.

Dr. Gazzaniga believes there is nothing more fascinating than repparttar 128779 mind, and he is exploring how we develop, hang on to, and change our beliefs. (Do you see why I love him?) Mindfulness allows us to step back and watch our thoughts. By doing so, we can develop a clearer perspective regarding our beliefs and our attachment to them.

In his lecture, Dr. Gazzaniga discussed repparttar 128780 power of repparttar 128781 left brain. Remember, that is repparttar 128782 side that handles logic and language, but repparttar 128783 interesting part is how those two functions work together, continually creating words to justify our behavior.

Left => logic + language => lists

My favorite research illustrating this concept is repparttar 128784 "scar face" experiment, in which a participant is fitted with a fake facial scar. The participant is told that they will be interviewed in order to see how repparttar 128785 visible facial deformity might influence repparttar 128786 way they are treated.

Hurting from the Outside In: The Rise of Self-harming

Written by David Westbrook

Ask any teacher or adolescent counselor what repparttar

most disturbing trend they are seeing in teens today is, and they are likely to tell you it's repparttar 128771

growing number of "cutters". By cutters, they mean people who hurt themselves or "self-injure" a term that is more encompassing of repparttar 128772

many types of behaviors that are actually involved. Whatever repparttar 128773

form of self-injury, cutting, burning, biting or any of many other similar behaviors, teens hurting themselves in an attempt to deal with emotional pain is on repparttar 128774

rise.

Today it is thought that 1% of youth in America are engaging in self-harming behavior. And, while both males and females are self-harming, girls are four times more likely to self-harm than boys. This behavior, which has been around forever, but was noted only rarely in repparttar 128775 past, is running through peer-groups like a infectious disease; striking fear into repparttar 128776 hearts of many parents. Parents often do not know what to make repparttar 128777 behavior in their children

What causes a person to engage in self-harm is as varied as repparttar 128778 number of people hurting themselves. One cutter that may express repparttar 128779 sentiments of many put it this way,” I cannot adequately describe in words my emotional state prior to a cutting. The feelings are overwhelming--usually severe feelings of rejection, self-hatred or anger. Cutting presents a way to make repparttar 128780 pain show (and be felt) on repparttar 128781 *outside* where I can deal with it." Frequently, as this person points out, self-harm is a coping strategy for dealing with emotional pain that has become intolerable.

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