Learned helplessness

Learned helplessness

The American psychologist Martin Seligman’s foundational experiments and theory of learned helplessness began at University of Pennsylvania in 1967, as an extension of his interest in depression.

A person should be able to walk away from an abusive relationship, for example, or voluntarily quit a stressful job.
A psychological condition known as learned helplessness, however, can cause a person to feel completely powerless to change his or her circumstances for the better.
The result of learned helplessness is often severe depression and extremely low self-esteem.

Learned helplessness can be seen as a mechanism some people employ in order to survive difficult or abusive circumstances.
An abused child or spouse may eventually learn to remain passive and compliant at the hands of his or her abuser, since efforts to fight back or escape appear futile.

Learned helplessness results from being trained to be locked into a system. The system may be a family, a community, a culture, a tradition, a profession or an institution.

Initially, a system develops for a specific purpose. But as a system evolves, it increasingly tends to organize around beliefs, perspectives, activities and taboos that serve the continuation of the system. Awareness of the original purpose fades and the system starts to function automatically. It calcifies.

Some experts suggest learned helplessness can be passed on through observation, as in the case of a daughter watching her abused mother passively obey her husband’s commands.
The daughter may begin to associate passivity and low self-esteem with the “normal” demands of married life, leading to a perpetuation of the learned helplessness cycle.

Child abuse by neglect can be a manifestation of learned helplessness: when parents believe they are incapable of stopping an infant’s crying, they may simply give up trying to do anything for the child.

Another example of learned helplessness in social settings involves loneliness and shyness. Those who are extremely shy, passive, anxious and depressed may learn helplessness to offer stable explanations for unpleasant social experiences.

A third example is aging, with the elderly learning to be helpless and concluding that they have no control over losing their friends and family members, losing their jobs and incomes, getting old, weak and so on.

Paulo Coelho

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

The Gandhi Rap - be the change u want to see

Presentation on Gandhi's Life with Gandhi rap sung by MC Yogi

Healing Prayer for the Gulf

Dr. Masaru Emoto is the scientist from Japan who has done vast research about the characteristics of water. Among other things, his research revealed that water physically responds to emotions. Right now many people are understandably angry when they consider the Gulf oil spill. Yet we may be of greater assistance to our planet and its life forms if we sincerely, powerfully and humbly pray the prayer that Dr Emoto has proposed. (The conclusion of the prayer is based on the Hawaiian healing practice called ho'oponopono as taught by Dr. Haleakala Hew Len.)


I send the energy of love and gratitude
to the water and all the living creatures
in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings.

To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish,
plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures . . .

I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.


Alan Cohen
http://www.alancohen.com

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PRILL BEADS? by Angela Treat Lyon

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT PRILL BEADS? by Angela Treat Lyon

I found out about this wonderful way to unpollute my tap water about 10 years ago and have been using it ever since. They come nicely bagged in a small, palm-sized waterproof bag in which you can either leave them or not. They're not really beads, but look like a tiny version of that white gravel people put on their garden paths.

I save about 50 bucks a month because I don't buy bottled water anymore. Here's why: the molecular structure of the beads make water into a more easily assimilatable form, and they also eliminate mold, chlorine and other impurities from water. They are reputed to be so effective that you can pour some of the prill-cleaned water into a polluted lake every day and the lake will clear up. They are also said to kill black mold.

What I like best about them is they make water taste as sweet as the well water I remember drinking when I was a kid.

I have no commercial affiliation with anyone who sells Prill beads, but thought you'd like to know about them and save some dough every month - especially if you're a large family.

Using the beads helps the environment, too - you won't be buying the bottles water anymore, which will cut down on plastic bottles sold and thrown away; plus when water from when you spill into the sink goes down the drain, it helps the sewage system, too. I pour a little into the canal out back of my house a few times a week.

If you get them from Ebay - as little as 8 bucks - there are no instructions, so look below** for how to use them if you get them.

** HOW TO USE PRILL BEADS
When I first got the beads, I had about a dozen liter bottles of bottled water I was going to recycle. So I just used those bottles. Obviously I don't have the same ones from 10 years ago - I replace them when they start to look too-used.

I bought a gallon jug of the cheapest wine I could find just for the glass jug. I don't drink, so I poured it out - sorry wine lovers! I emptied the little bag of beads into the bottom of the jug, and that's where they stay.

You pour tap water over the beads and let it sit 24 hours. Pour out the first batch - it will smell awful. You can use the second batch and from then on.

You pour the water from the jug into the smaller bottles every day, then refill the jug from the tap. Cover it lightly - don't tighten the lid. Blow off the accumulated chlorine gasses at the top of the jug when you open the lid.

The water will be completely safe - the chlorine seeps to the top and has to go somewhere - you just don't want to breathe it!

Wash and refill your waiting liter bottles, store and use, and refill the jug. Easy, saves you big bucks, and helps clean up the world. Very cool.