When you upgrade your brain in any single context, you get a free upgrade in each and every context of your life.
When your brain enables you to feel confident and empowered when interacting with one person, your brain can enable you to feel this way in all contexts. If you can be creative in one area, your brain can be creative in many similar areas. If your brain can concentrate when you read one thing, you can concentrate in other areas as well. If you were able to cope well with a specific difficult person or difficult situation, it means that the inner resources that enabled you to do so are stored in your brain and your brain can access them with other people and situations. When you are able to create or access the states of happiness and joy at will, it means that your brain can do this over and over againBDSing in Ireland (brilliant Ami Horowitz film)
Horowitz goes to stores that boycott Israeli products and gets them to consider buying products from Iran, Sudan and North Korea, all while explicitly saying how his sponsors violate human rights.
Stop everything and watch this now.
RollerScoot is world's first UPRIGHT mobility scooter
An inventor from Devon has created a mobility scooter you can stand on. Called RollerScoot (shown) it has twin Lithium-ion motors, weighs 57lbs (26kg) and has a top speed of 4mph (6km/h).
Read the full story:
29 May 2015
MORNING! What do you want out of life? What is your purpose? What would truly give you satisfaction and happiness?
The renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote in Man's Search for Meaning, "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a 'secondary rationalization' of instinctual drives... A public-opinion poll was conducted a few years ago in France. The results showed that 89 percent of the people polled admitted that man needs 'something' to live for."
According to Western ideology, there is no absolute purpose to life. Good and evil, meaning and meaninglessness, are matters of personal taste. Yet with all the "freedoms" this philosophy embraces, it disposes of the one and only ingredient that gives life profound and lasting satisfaction: a transcendent purpose -- the recognition of a Creator who cares about man's actions. A Creator Who invests him with the ability to make choices that either further God's purpose or undermine it.
As vitally as he needs to breathe, eat and sleep, every human being needs to know that his existence matters. The philosophies of relativism and purposelessness, however, inevitably engender in man gnawing questions about the meaning and purpose of his life. "If nothing really matters, why am I making such an effort to be a good person? Is life just about killing time until death?"
Understandably, this creates a subconscious anxiety which many people dread uncovering. Better to convince oneself that life has no purpose at all, than to confront the tormenting realization that I have lived life in ignorance of that purpose.
Those who do confront the question often embark on a painful, protracted search for meaning. Frequently, they drift through the array of alternatives to Western values, such as Zen, Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation. The greater majority, however, accepts society's insistence that there are no answers, and tries to deaden their pain through various mediums of distraction.
Some lose themselves in the world of entertainment and illusion -- television, movies and video games. Others dedicate mind and soul to "making it" in their careers. Many, in an attempt to relieve their anxiety, adopt the belief that there is no Creator, no responsibility, no accountability and no goals. Without a viable alternative to meaninglessness, these people have no choice but to avoid contemplating life too seriously.
However, despite the best efforts of distraction and rationalization, our souls long for meaning. And until the soul receives the nourishment (read: meaning and purpose) it so vitally needs, man will never find lasting tranquility. On some level (most often subconscious), he will continue to be plagued by disharmony between what he deeply craves and what Western ideology claims life is about.
As Torah observant Jews, our inner longing to lead meaningful, productive lives is nurtured and guided. The goal is to have a close relationship with God and to perfect ourselves to be as God-like as possible. Our tools are the mitzvot, the commandments. The framework for success and meaning is neatly laid out for us in the intricate structure of Torah life. Best of all, we need not struggle to find the goal. We are free from the start to focus our energies and resources on achieving it.
Through the bible, the most mundane and routine activities of life are elevated to a Higher purpose. While we may never accomplish all that we should, a Torah lifestyle removes the specter of meaninglessness that haunts so many lives. The Torah provides an internal stability, gained from the knowledge that life is purposeful and valuable. We are given ongoing opportunities to accomplish things that are meaningful -- and the realization that our choices truly matter. This is tremendously empowering and reassuring.
(from the teachings of Rabbi Noah Weinberg, adapted from The Eye of a Needle by Rabbi Eric Coopersmith)
See Me
What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
Are you thinking when you look at me ...
A crabbit* old woman, not very wise
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice ... "I do wish you'd try".
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.
Who unresisting or not, lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill.
Is that what you're thinking, is that what you see?
Then open your eyes nurse, you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still
As I move at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten with a father and mother
Brothers and sisters who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet
Dreaming that soon a husband she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty ... my heart gives a leap
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
A woman of thirty, my young now grow fast
Bound together with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and gone
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more babies play round my knee
Again we know children, my loved ones and me
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead
I look at the future, I shudder with dread
For my young are all rearing young of their own
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel
'Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart
There is a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years, all too few, all gone too fast
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer ...
SEE ME.
the Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health
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