MAY 2012

Editor's Blog...
Are You A Control Freak?

To finish a project, I need to learn the story of a book titled, A Razor’s Edge, but I don't have time to read the book. I learn that there are two movies made of the book: a 1946 version with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and a 1984 version with Bill Murray and Theresa Russell. I decide to watch the newer version. Newer is better, right?

So Melissa calls all the video stores in our area, which means she makes two phone calls since we live in Maine. Neither store has it. So we drive all the way to Border’s Books & Music in Portland (a 40-minute drive) absolutely sure that they’ll have it. They don’t. They usually do, but not on this day.

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Let Me Disappoint You
by Cheryl Richardson

I hate being disappointed. There's nothing worse than getting your hopes up only to have them squelched when something doesn't turn out the way you plan. And that's precisely why I hate to disappoint others. Over the years I've watched myself go on autopilot when someone asks for a favor, saying "yes" when I know in my gut that I'd rather not do it. Or I've suffered, spending too much time trying to come up with a graceful way to let someone down so they wouldn't feel hurt or angry at my "no."

At our core, most of us hate to hurt or disappoint people. As a matter of fact, many avoid it like the plague. Here are a few reasons why: 

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Identifying True Hunger Vs False Hunger 
by Dr. Stephanie Coate

Have you ever actually asked yourself, “Am I really hungry?” before you ate something? Many people are not aware of whether they are eating because they are hungry or because they are responding to some other physical or environmental cue. Some may not even remember how it feels to be truly hungry. We are all born with the innate ability to know when we are hungry. As babies, we naturally got fussy or cried in response to sensations of hunger. We learned to use words as toddlers to ask for food when we needed it. As we grew and became able to obtain food on our own, however, many of us began to eat for reasons other than pure hunger. The more we ate when we were not hungry, the more our natural hunger signals became distorted and difficult to recognize. As a result, false hunger signals emerged and became interpreted as the real thing. The simplest way to learn to distinguish true hunger from false hunger is to begin paying attention to the body’s hunger cues again.

When the body is truly hungry it sends signals to the brain, which then creates specific physical sensations that are interpreted as a need for food. We each feel these physical sensations somewhat differently. Because they can vary from person to person, it is important to learn how your own hunger begins and progresses over time. 

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Rethinking Synchronicity: You Have the Amazing Ability to Create Coincidence 
by Dr. Kirby Surprise

Synchronistic events (SE) are those uncanny coincidences in which the environment seems to be speaking directly to us through events. In my work as a psychologist, I have clients who report radio and television broadcasts, random events of all sorts, and comment on what they are thinking as if something was reading their minds. Psychologists call this experience “Thought of Reference.” Events seem to reference the thoughts of the client. Many clients with psychotic disorders experience thoughts of reference. But what if they were not reporting a symptom of mental illness, but an experience everyone has in some form? What if televisions really do seem to comment on what we are thinking?

There is a measure of self-awareness called “The Mirror Test” developed by biopsychologist Gordon Gallup. Animals are shown their own reflection in a mirror. If they recognize the reflection in the glass as their own, it is taken as an indication it is a self-aware being. Humans, some great apes, elephants, and dolphins generally recognize their own reflections; a few birds do as well. Interestingly, some birds and dogs that can’t initially recognize their own reflections can be trained to do so. Synchronicity is a form of mirror test. People see in the mirror of events around them the image of their own inner life. They see what they think, feel and believe. They even see their fantasies about what causes these reflections. For some clients who report thoughts of reference, it is the stories they tell themselves about the causes of the SE, not the SE themselves, that label 2 them as symptomatic. 

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MARCH 2012

Editor's Blog...
The Luck Of The “I Wish”  
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