Dear HLife: What is your perspective on emotional healing techniques like EFT?
Dear HLifer,
Emotional healing begins with research and analysis. Without those two, there is no healing. Emotional techniques like EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) do work, but they do so more like an aspirin. They may give you temporary relief but do not solve the problem (heal). A holistic approach is about delving deep into all of the aspects of the self to arrive at and understand the root of the problem, and then truly begin to heal. Otherwise we are just numbing the pain. Read More…
As women get older, we go through major changes, like menopause. We are all aware of the physical alterations our moms go through with age, but today we want to generate awareness about something deeper that is also taking place and is not discussed as much: the emotional implications of aging.
It’s a very difficult thing to look in the mirror one day and see a face that you don’t recognize. Crow’s feet, wrinkles around the mouth, spots, gray hair – all of these physical modifications replace previously flawless skin, bright eyes and lusciously thick hair. At the same time, you feel limited, because your mind remains intact (if you’re healthy) or even improves with age as you accumulate more knowledge and self-understanding, yet your body deteriorates as matter must. Even if you are aware of this happening, it is still a frustrating thing to go through. Read More…
Mind: A new study sheds light on the role that dreams play in the important process of learning. The new findings suggest that dreams may be the sleeping brain’s way of telling us that it is hard at work on the process of memory consolidation, integrating our recent experiences to help us with performance-related tasks in the short run and, in the long run, translating this material into information that will have widespread application to our lives. “What’s got us really excited is that after nearly 100 years of debate about the function of dreams, this study tells us that dreams are the brain’s way of processing, integrating and really understanding new information,” explained Robert Stickgold, PhD, senior author of the study and Director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The study is reported in the online issue of the journal Current Biology. Read More…
When we saw Professor Thomas J. Scheff teaching about emotions on UCTV, we knew we had to talk to him. A prolific author whose books include Microsociology, Emotions and Violence, Bloody Revenge, Emotions and the Social Bond, and Easy Rider, among others, Scheff is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an expert on emotions and social psychology. He is also a wonderful human being whose sense of humor permeates his teachings and resonates throughout this interview, where we discuss love, anger, and what he considers the master emotion: shame. Read More…
Dear HLife: What are the Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet?
Dear HLifer,
This is a question that many have asked. Although we have written about parts of this in different articles/posts, here’s a brief list to address that all in one, for you to keep or share with those who ask you about why you have chosen to eat a plant-based diet. Read More…
Cancer: The plant kingdom heroes continue to surface. According to research done in St. Louis University, the extract from bitter melon – a vegetable commonly used in Indian and Chinese cuisine and medicine – attacks breast cancer cells. The study, published in the March 1 edition of the journal Cancer Research, found that bitter melon extract significantly induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread in vitro by triggering a chain of events that kills the cells and prevents them from multiplying. Bitter melon (shown above) is also often used in India and China as medicine for diabetics due to its ability to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Read More…
Dear HLife: If all illnesses start in the mind, what does a fibroid mean?
Dear HLifer:
You’re on the right track asking this question, because the minute something happens to your body, you need to focus on one thing: What is my body trying to tell me?
The physical body is a map to the mental “body”. Your physical body has many jobs and one of them is telling you exactly what is going on in your mind, which is something that you may not be able to see. The point of connection between the mind and the body are the emotions. There are healers who say that all problems are emotional, and that’s not untrue. A holistic approach to health looks at all bodies – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – to get a whole picture of what is causing the imbalance. Read More…
The latest from the journals when it comes to men and women, in honor of Valentine’s Week.
Communication: There is power in the word “we”. A new study from UC Berkley suggests that spouses who use “we-ness” language are better able to resolve conflicts than those who don’t. The researchers analyzed conversations between 154 couples and found that those who used pronouns such as “we”, “our”, and “us”, behaved more positively toward one another and showed less physiological stress. In contrast, couples who emphasized their separateness by using pronouns such as “I”, “me”, and “you” were found to be less satisfied in their marriages. Read More…
“Laughing Zebra” by August Jennewein
Emotions: Laughter is a universal language, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions like fear, anger, sadness and amusement are shared by all human beings. Conventional wisdom dictates that, while we all communicate, people from different cultures may not understand the same words, phrases or body language. In spite of this, the researchers discovered that emotions like laughter and anger are easily recognizable despite cultural differences, suggesting that these emotions and their vocalizations are similar across all cultures. Laughter was probably the best recognized among the positive emotions, which should not come as a surprise, as researchers have seen this with other primates such as chimpanzees, and other mammals, too. While previous studies have indicated that smiling is also universal, laughter is special because it symbolizes playfulness, probably one of the first steps in communication between children and their mothers. Read More…
