June 2011
2 posts
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Jerry Brito: Top ten myths about introverts →
jerrybrito:
Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk. This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy. Shyness has nothing to…
May 2011
1 post
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February 2011
1 post
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January 2011
3 posts
2 tags
The Neuroscience of Music (Frontal Cortex) →
psychotherapy:
Why does music make us feel? On the one hand, music is a purely abstract art form, devoid of language or explicit ideas. The stories it tells are all subtlety and subtext. And yet, even though music says little, it still manages to touch us deep, to tickle some universal nerves. When listening to our favorite songs, our body betrays all the symptoms of emotional arousal. The...
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New study shows humans are on auto pilot nearly... →
December 2010
10 posts
Merry Christmas!
Music Fires Up Emotions in the Brain (Psych... →
psychotherapy:
In a new study using brain imaging, researchers have identified how key aspects of musical performance cause emotion-related brain activity.
Edward Large, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator, and Heather Chapin, Ph.D., the lead author, believe that their study pinpoints how musical performances charge up the brain’s emotional centers, and said that their technique will lead...
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Let It Fall...1st draft chorus
thatmark:
Download now or watch on posterous IMG_0880.MOV (2398 KB)
3 tags
peace.
2:20 AM. I should long be asleep. The world outside my window is dark and quiet, save for the wind gusting and the sound of today’s fallen snow whipping around the street. The sounds of “Peace”, by Paul Kelly fill my ears through my headphones…a lovely, soothing instrumental guitar song.
My mind is not very at peace at the moment. It is filled with some worries, some...
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Christmas with the Cranky
Let me say I’m not really a Grinchy kind of person. I like to think I’m pretty patient and can tolerate a lot. But this time of year brings out the crazies everywhere you go and a few things just make me want to go into hiding from November until after New Year.
For one, you cannot drive fast enough for anyone, ever. This applies year round but is especially true at holiday time....
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“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see...”
– Don Delillo
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November 2010
4 posts
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assurance, empathy
“You aren’t alone.”
“I understand.”
I don’t think there are words much more comforting to hear. To know that someone else has been where you are, to know that they really do understand, and to know that they made it.
I just want to make it, too. And maybe, to be able to someday assure someone that yeah, I’ve been there. I truly empathize with you. And...
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miss you.
I miss you, with your never-ending smiles, a spirit of nothing but pure uninhibited joy.
You, who would laugh out loud with no reserves when something delighted or amused you, and unabashedly cry when hurt or felt sorrow.
You, who had no understanding of time except right in the moment and only knowing “soon” meant not right that moment, but just a short time before some promised...
“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have...”
– Roger Ebert (via psychotherapy)
October 2010
14 posts
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It's the simple things...
Good conversation with interesting topics and lots of laughter
Freshly brewed coffee
Sitting outside, the sun on my face, taking time to simply appreciate nature around me
An email from a friend - or even better, a snail mail letter from a friend
A compliment from a stranger, especially on a particularly down day
Dark chocolate
A marathon of a favorite TV show
Joyful barking and kisses from...
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reading and writing and...that's what's important...
This evening I was in my basement digging around for something or other, and I came across a box containing my old books from childhood. Flipping through, I saw so many old familiar favorites and was brought back to my memories of sharing reading time with my mother. She instilled a love for reading in me as long ago as I can remember, and it has been an integral part of me ever since.
I have...
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High Self-Perception, Low Brain Activity →
psychotherapy:
Researchers have discovered the less you use your brain’s frontal lobes, the more you see yourself through rose-colored glasses.
“In healthy people, the more you activate a portion of your frontal lobes, the more accurate your view of yourself is,” says Jennifer Beer, a University of Texas assistant professor of psychology.
“And the more you view yourself as desirable or better...
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rain
Nature’s alarm clock woke me up this morning with the sounds of a noisy autumn thunderstorm.
I like a sunny day as much as the next person, but I also love the rain. There is some kind of coziness about a gloomy, cloudy day.
Balance is good for us. Without the rainy days we can’t appreciate the beautiful sunny ones, too.
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Wheezy Waiter →
Wheeeeezy Waiiiterrr
Funny YouTube vlogger. Go, watch, laugh!
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sometimes real life is a living nightmare
Picking up the telephone and hearing the words “Your mom has been rushed to the hospital”.
Hours in the Emergency Room, waiting for an explanation for why Mom is having difficulty breathing and is in agonizing pain.
The answer finally found, and a whirlwind of nurses and a surgeon coming in, “We have to operate immediately.”
Nine days of daily hospital visits as she began to recover, seeing her...
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“Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the...”
– William Bridges
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“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to...”
– Neil Armstrong
Go. Do.
If not now, then when?