A Psychologist on the Loose
Posts tagged goals
Stress, Togetherness and the “Short Wife, ‘Helpful’ Husband Incident”
Stress, Being a Self, and the “Short Wife and the ‘Helpful’ Husband Incident”
Relationship Addiction and Anxiety
Dateline: Buying a ticket on American Flight 433 DFW to Mexico City. Yes, I know. I received all your admonitions that I shouldn’t go. See below for explanation.
Calming Your Anxiety by Doing Whatever You Have to Do to Calm the Other Person, a Teeny Bit More on fusion.
Understanding and being able to “feel” the emotional processes of the togetherness force and the individuality force–and working toward balance is only likely to be the most important work of your life. When the togetherness force is unquestionably allowed to More >
Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception, and the “Lady Who Loved Freud Incident”
Dateline: Home Office, Austin, Texas. Crazy Dog and Sammy Davis, Jr. in charge.
The young psychology student came to me with a question. “Do you, as an experienced psychologist, think there is any value in reading the works of Sigmund Freud?” I said, I thought so, but I can be entertained reading the back of a juice box, so I wouldn’t take my word as the final say.
She explained her reason for asking. She’d been on a plane to New York reading her first real text on personality development which happened to focus on the theories of Sigmund Freud. The subject matter and More >
Breathe In, Breathe Out, One Foot in Front of the Other
Have you ever wanted to stop time? Know the future? Accomplish a complex goal quickly?
One night a few years ago, I woke up at three a.m., my head whirling with all that I needed to accomplish and all the questions I had about the future. If I could just know NOW what was around the next corner. Then I would know how to invest my time and energy. The not knowing was making me (I was making me) crazy and sleepless.
I went into my home office and slipped a book off the shelf, “The Snow Leopard.” At the moment, I’m in my Dallas International World More >
You Are What You Think? Oh, No! I’m an Eggplant.
If you are what you think…then I am an unemployed wannabe writer with a bleak panhandling career look forward to.
The world you make up in your head, and respond to, is More Real and has more Affect on your life than the factual one. Right?
Following this line of “reasoning,”I’m sad to report that I no longer a writer. No book coming out this summer. No big party. You see, this morning at Jim’s Restaurant (My local international world headquarters) I lost the little case in which I store my flash drives. Yep. All three manuscripts…somewhere out there amongst my friends, the coffee shop people. More >
Do You Have Your Hands on the Steering Wheel of Your Life?
Imagine in your head there is a steering wheel directing your life. Your emotional Guidance System is one pair of hands trying to steer you. That pair of hands is telling you what? “Just get out this anxiety, don’t think of the future costs! Do whatever you have to do to get rid of anxiety now. The other set of hands, your Thinking Guidance System, has wider choices–but who has the strength to listen?
More needs to be said clarifying how the Emotional Guidance System (if this is new, go back a few posts) sneaks aboard, takes charge of our functioning, and More >
Just One Little Spark
We make psychology sound way too hard and try to accomplish too much. At least that’s what I think after all these years in practice. Of course, there’s always the chance I’m just not very good at my profession.
If we could figure out a way to do teach people how to manage this one little change that goes on inside our heads . . . We would accomplish something worthwhile. We can do long division in our head, it makes no sense that this one little thing is so hard without random help from outside ourselves.
. . . It’s a dreary day, it More >
Feelings and A Confession
I’ve been asked to slow down a bit. Thus–on the subject of FEELINGS.
You know, those up and down generators and takers-away of energy—those internal operations that mess us up, slow us down, and waste our lives on a regular basis. Now, I’m not talking about that oozy feeling you get watching a puppy play or the delight at good news. I’m talking about what happens to your energy when your FEELINGS are hurt, muted, when you’re bored, unmotivated, and anxious.
Think of these feelings as nothing but NOISE. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
NOISE. Reactions designed to keep us from getting eaten from tigers. Reactions which have gone More >