As a Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern one of the things I do is to use talk therapies to help people dealing with emotional and mental problems such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, substance abuse problems, etc. Mental Health Counselors treat these problems with many therapies that involve changes in thinking and behavior that can not necessarily be 'seen'. What is fascinating in regards to this book is that Dr. Amen, a clinical neuroscientist and psychiatrist, gives an explanation of these problems as 'brain disorders' that can actually be scientifically detected with imaging tools. His work gives a window into the metaphysical reality that is the age old mind-brain problem philosophers and scientists have wondered over for centuries. Dr. Amen writes, "I always believed there was a strong connection between spiritual health and mental health (Amen, 4)."
Go through your closets and discard clothing you have not worn in the past year - it might not even fit you now. Consider how many shoes a person really needs. Most people do not really need more than three or four pairs of shoes. Discard that which you do not need and make room for something else - you'll feel better if you do.Similarly, go through your refrigerator. When's the last time you cleaned that out? Do you really need to keep that near empty bottle of Soy sauce considering you haven't eaten Chinese food in more than a year? Toss it out! Make room in your refrigerator; make room in your life. You will feel better afterwards.
Long before we could detect the smallest particles of matter in the atom the Greek philosopher Leucippus hypothesized of its existence around 450 B.C. Not long after, his follower, Democritus coined the term 'atom' from the Greek ἄτομος (atomos, "indivisible") from (a-, "not") and τέμνω (temnō, "I cut"), which means uncuttable, or indivisible, something that cannot be divided further. Some of the greatest discoveries have originated from the intuitions of man's heart, only later to be empirically 'detected' and rationally understood (if not perfectly), if not seen and touched. Mental health has been a soft science with classified categories of clusters of symptoms in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders yet without necessarily an empirical way to detect and diagnose. Many of the symptoms described in diagnoses are based on behavior and reports.
What happens when you stand in the queue waiting to be served? What happens when you're waiting for a bus? Well, for most of us, we get bored or frustrated and our mind goes for a walk. We start daydreaming, planning or worrying. We're distracted. The thing is, what's going on in our minds has an impact on our moods and then our mood effects our thinking. We create patterns of mood and habits of thinking which feed on each other. So often this causes us completely unnecessary stress.
What the information in this book adds to my practice is a holistic perspective that includes making referrals and recommending information on medication, nutrition, exercise, social interactions, behavior changes, along with the talk therapies and other treatments I offer as a mental health counselor. Dr. Amen states he is one of very few psychiatrists that offer these types of brain scans and consultation on mental health problems. They are also rather expensive. He states the purpose of the book is not for everyone to go out and get their brains scanned but to explain a wide variety of human behaviors in terms of the images that SPECT provides and show they can be treated on a medical model as well as the traditional psychological and social models (Amen, 15).
This can have a profound effect on all kinds of different areas of our life because so many of our problems result from the way we get trapped in patterns of thinking and behavior. Developing a regular practice of mindfulness exercises helps us to see the patterns that drive us more clearly and enables us to pay more attention to what is actually going on for us. This makes changing things much easier. We're not using our will power to change the way we behave; with mindfulness we can discover what it is we really want to do and do it naturally. Mindfulness exercises help us to really get to know ourselves better, as if we were an old friend and that makes it much easier to do what's in our own best interests without being self critical.Most people nowadays are always in a depressed state of mind due to the pressures of life. Doctors and counselors constantly advise you to think positively in order to set back depression. However, it is tougher to do than to say.Studies show that people who accept defeat sportingly are the happier type of people and they have an optimistic attitude towards life.
It often may happen that you get worried out of minor issues arising in your daily life.On the other hand, do you get frustrated when things go haphazard? Do you think that you are not happy as much as others are? Do you get angry at the slightest mistake? If these entire attitudes have covered your life, then learn some positive thinking strategies to make life easier and happier.Only an optimistic person can lead a happy and peaceful life.Now you may ask what exactly the meaning of positive thinking is and how important it is. The answer to this is positive thinking is a process of thinking everything in life or surroundings from a positive or brighter side even if it reflects a negative tone.
Understanding there may be a physical problem with the brain is therapeutic and can help us to find more ways to improve our mental health. This book is a great read and a good reference for any specific illness or mental health problem. I also would highly recommend This is Your Brain on Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin with a forward by Dr. Amen. As well as good information and explanation of the parts of the brain (he uses a cartoon) and how they are related to different patterns of thought and behavior, there are a lot of good tips for helping with specific problems including many different treatments, what foods to eat, vitamins, aromatherapy, and cinematherapy.
Go through your closets and discard clothing you have not worn in the past year - it might not even fit you now. Consider how many shoes a person really needs. Most people do not really need more than three or four pairs of shoes. Discard that which you do not need and make room for something else - you'll feel better if you do.Similarly, go through your refrigerator. When's the last time you cleaned that out? Do you really need to keep that near empty bottle of Soy sauce considering you haven't eaten Chinese food in more than a year? Toss it out! Make room in your refrigerator; make room in your life. You will feel better afterwards.
Long before we could detect the smallest particles of matter in the atom the Greek philosopher Leucippus hypothesized of its existence around 450 B.C. Not long after, his follower, Democritus coined the term 'atom' from the Greek ἄτομος (atomos, "indivisible") from (a-, "not") and τέμνω (temnō, "I cut"), which means uncuttable, or indivisible, something that cannot be divided further. Some of the greatest discoveries have originated from the intuitions of man's heart, only later to be empirically 'detected' and rationally understood (if not perfectly), if not seen and touched. Mental health has been a soft science with classified categories of clusters of symptoms in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders yet without necessarily an empirical way to detect and diagnose. Many of the symptoms described in diagnoses are based on behavior and reports.
What happens when you stand in the queue waiting to be served? What happens when you're waiting for a bus? Well, for most of us, we get bored or frustrated and our mind goes for a walk. We start daydreaming, planning or worrying. We're distracted. The thing is, what's going on in our minds has an impact on our moods and then our mood effects our thinking. We create patterns of mood and habits of thinking which feed on each other. So often this causes us completely unnecessary stress.
What the information in this book adds to my practice is a holistic perspective that includes making referrals and recommending information on medication, nutrition, exercise, social interactions, behavior changes, along with the talk therapies and other treatments I offer as a mental health counselor. Dr. Amen states he is one of very few psychiatrists that offer these types of brain scans and consultation on mental health problems. They are also rather expensive. He states the purpose of the book is not for everyone to go out and get their brains scanned but to explain a wide variety of human behaviors in terms of the images that SPECT provides and show they can be treated on a medical model as well as the traditional psychological and social models (Amen, 15).
This can have a profound effect on all kinds of different areas of our life because so many of our problems result from the way we get trapped in patterns of thinking and behavior. Developing a regular practice of mindfulness exercises helps us to see the patterns that drive us more clearly and enables us to pay more attention to what is actually going on for us. This makes changing things much easier. We're not using our will power to change the way we behave; with mindfulness we can discover what it is we really want to do and do it naturally. Mindfulness exercises help us to really get to know ourselves better, as if we were an old friend and that makes it much easier to do what's in our own best interests without being self critical.Most people nowadays are always in a depressed state of mind due to the pressures of life. Doctors and counselors constantly advise you to think positively in order to set back depression. However, it is tougher to do than to say.Studies show that people who accept defeat sportingly are the happier type of people and they have an optimistic attitude towards life.
It often may happen that you get worried out of minor issues arising in your daily life.On the other hand, do you get frustrated when things go haphazard? Do you think that you are not happy as much as others are? Do you get angry at the slightest mistake? If these entire attitudes have covered your life, then learn some positive thinking strategies to make life easier and happier.Only an optimistic person can lead a happy and peaceful life.Now you may ask what exactly the meaning of positive thinking is and how important it is. The answer to this is positive thinking is a process of thinking everything in life or surroundings from a positive or brighter side even if it reflects a negative tone.
Understanding there may be a physical problem with the brain is therapeutic and can help us to find more ways to improve our mental health. This book is a great read and a good reference for any specific illness or mental health problem. I also would highly recommend This is Your Brain on Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin with a forward by Dr. Amen. As well as good information and explanation of the parts of the brain (he uses a cartoon) and how they are related to different patterns of thought and behavior, there are a lot of good tips for helping with specific problems including many different treatments, what foods to eat, vitamins, aromatherapy, and cinematherapy.
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