In the USA obesity – body mass index above 30 – is pandemic. My sense is that the “problem” has become societal as well as personal. Morgan Spurlock’s “Supersize Me” illustrated one important fact – fast food can make you fast fat. Our wealthy society has created a situation where most Americans under-exercise and overeat. Further, our lifestyles of cubicles and computers and fast food mean many Americans don’t see the kitchen for weeks on end.

On the psychological side, there is the ever-present push here for you to eat more. Every other TV commercial is about FOOD – the others are about CARS – and ALL use thin, sexy models to sell their wares. Ack!

And that leads me into the “model” thing. Oh, my god! EVERY study I’ve ever seen on “beauty” shows that women (and men, too, to a much lesser degree) get better treatment when they are thinner. If you LOOK sexy, you must BE qualified, good enough, smart enough, honest enough, or whatever enough… – deserving of whatever it is you want. Which accounts for why we are so easily conned – we tend to trust our visual/sexual channel rather than our intellect/logic channel.

On TV, which programs score high and remain popular? The ones with the “babes” of course. And we as a society have this belief that celebrities are automatically role models and authorities – which is why many companies hire them to pitch their wares and so many become politicians. We don’t get it that media celebrities, especially thin, curvaceous female ones, are intended to SELL PRODUCTS – everything from movies to fashion-ware to dish soap. They are not suddenly wiser or better because they become a TV or movie celebrity – they are merely MARKETING OBJECTS. They may have great talent and drive but that is not what got them to celebrity status – MARKETING did. And marketing is BIG BUSINESS.

I see two ends marketing to support the other today – one side markets pleasure – those things that pile on the pounds and hurt our health. The other side markets the CURE for those things. This is what is called a crossfire zone in the military – and in a crossfire zone, everyone DIES. I believe that if you buy into the marketing ploys you see on TV, you will die. The “buy to make yourself feel better” pie is poisoned!

The only reasonable choice I see for overweight women is to learn to genuinely love and appreciate themselves for the valuable people they are – and to GET IT that looking sexy (read “thin and young looking”) does not make you smarter or more enlightened or more qualified (unless you just happen to be a porn star, of course), or more valuable. It might make you more desirable to the opposite sex – maybe – for a while perhaps – which is fine if that is all you want from life – a short period of acceptance for your body alone. But what about engaging and lasting relationships? What about heart connection relationships? What about REAL relationships that nurture the soul through a lifetime – relationships where trust, value, and mutual respect reign… for generations…

I believe that if you want to find and address the real issues behind your overweight condition, watch and listen to your favorite overweight stand-up comedian when they talk about their weight – personally I like Kirstie Alley and Chris Farley (deceased). Their material is funny alright, but it is so TRUE!

Do a process like RET or EFT on EVERYTHING your favorite overweight comedian says – even while you’re laughing about it. Tap or blink on “I’m laughing about this…” Part of your being thinks it’s funny, but a significant part of you does not. Inner conflict gets the cortisol flowing and that packs on pounds. Stop the conflict and a significant element of the overweight issue dissolves away – with the fat it tied up in your body. When ALL of your being can laugh at the jokes, the conflict will be over and the good chemicals will flow naturally and easily.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage. They found that mice given the compound suffered significantly less brain damage after induced stroke – even when given to them hours afterward.

OMG! Is there nothing dark chocolate can’t do?!

It seems the more research is done on the miracle drug, dark chocolate, the more amazing things they find it will do for you.

I’d write more about it now, but I gotta get down to the See’s Candy Store. I gotta replace my emergency supplies. You never know when I might have a stroke and need it! And, of course, it’s only reasonable that I test for quality before I have to use it for real – don’t want the EMTs stuffing BAD chocolate down my throat at the moment I need the good stuff!

Be right back…

And what was that about my weight-loss regime? Hey! You know what they say? A pound of prevention……..

In a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, Spongebob gets up one morning and thinks he’ll create a fantastic dessert for himself. Unfortunately, his choice of ingredients cause him to have horrific halitosis (bad breath). Spongebob proceeds to go outside, where he meets several people, all of whom scream and run away from him as soon as he opens his mouth and says, “Hello.”

His conclusion – “I must be terribly ugly!”

Based on his erroneous conclusion, he weighs all evidence only in light of his conclusion (scotoma) – and discounting evidence to the contrary. Every experience he encounters only tends to strengthen his belief that he is ugly rather than stinky. His scotoma causes him to feel less and less self-confident until he at last introverts and avoids others.

Spongebob’s close friend, Patrick, who as a starfish, has no nose, can’t smell the bad breath and so assumes his friend is correct in his assumption that he is ugly. Together, Spongebob and Patrick attempt to overcome the “ugliness” through a series of humorous, yet reasonable, methods. They try positive affirmations, “I’m ugly and I’m proud!” etc. Again, all their efforts are aimed at correcting what they believe to be the fundamental problem – that Spongebob is ugly.

At long last Patrick tries some of Spongebob’s “dessert” and finds that he, too, has become “ugly.” Everyone runs away from them whenever they open their mouths. When Patrick then speaks to Spongebob and Spongebob gets a whiff of the odorous mouth, he finally gets it that he’s not ugly – his breath stinks – and together Spongebob and Patrick celebrate the fact that “we stink!”

This is a fine example of what happens when we make an erroneous conclusion from the data we observe. Compounding the problem of erroneous conclusions is that we make many of our life-determining decisions based on data we evaluated and made conclusions on when we were VERY YOUNG or in our infancy – a time in our lives when we were physically and psychologically poorly equipped to make such conclusions. Further, we did not have sufficient data to make such life-determining conclusions. And so we find ourselves living our lives based on erroneous conclusions of ambiguous data (life experience) we made long ago – so long ago we don’t recall them – but we are living them out nevertheless.

So, what do we do about it? How do I become aware of that of which I am unaware. I’m even so unaware that I’m unaware that I’m unaware. Egad!

Here’s what I recommend:

Develop a healthy skepticism about your own decisions and decision making processes. Question yourself often, “Am I sure about this?” “Could I be wrong about this/that/them/you/me/us?” etc.

LISTEN to those closest to you. Consider criticism as golden nuggets of awareness about that which you are unaware. Spouses especially are goldmines for such info. Especially if you feel threatened – the surest sign that gold is afoot. Defending yourself against your loved ones shuts the doors and windows of awareness.

LISTEN to your “enemies” – they will tell you what you don’t want to hear. As such, they can be your best friends – at least when it comes to information about you. You don’t have to give in or give up – just pay attention. “Could what they say about me be true – to some extent?”

Speak the words, “Thank you” to those you feel are attacking you. Be genuine – no sarcasm or brushing off. They are doing you a favor – it’s just good manners to show appreciation. Besides, it shifts your thinking mode from emotion to reason – a good thing during communication.

Deal with your emotional triggers. I recommend you get help with them – to avoid missing those that hide from you. Seek out a therapist who works holistically – treating the entire being – someone skilled in rooting out those hidden emotional “secrets” that come forward when triggered.

Eight-year-olds respond better to positive feedback (‘Well done!’) than negative feedback (‘Got it wrong this time’) whereas twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently.

Developmental psychologist Dr Eveline Crone and her colleagues from the Leiden Brain and Cognition Lab discovered this difference using fMRI research. The difference can be observed particularly in the areas of the brain responsible for cognitive control. These areas are located in the cerebral cortex.

In children of eight and nine, these areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and barely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their strategic “control centers” in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback.

Crone explains, “From the literature, it appears that young children respond better to reward than to punishment.” She can also imagine how this comes about: “The information that you have not done something well is more complicated than the information that you have done something well. Learning from mistakes is more complex than carrying on in the same way as before. You have to ask yourself what precisely went wrong and how it was possible.”

So is this the result of a maturing brain or experience. Nobody knows yet. “This kind of brain research has only been possible for the last ten years or so,’ says Crone, ‘and there are a lot more questions which have to be answered. But it is probably a combination of the brain maturing and experience.”

There is also an area of the brain that responds strongly to positive feedback in both children and adults: the basal ganglia, just outside the cerebral cortex. The activity of this area of the brain does not change over time. It remains active in all age groups. So it seems positive feedback may be better than criticism or negative feedback regardless of age.

Evaluating the Negative or Valuing the Positive? Neural Mechanisms Supporting Feedback-Based Learning across Development
Anna C. K. van Duijvenvoorde, Kiki Zanolie, Serge A. R. B. Rombouts, Maartje E. J. Raijmakers, and Eveline A. Crone
The Journal of Neuroscience, 17 September 2008

You’ve probably heard and seen them all – sure-fire ways to manifest what you want. Here’s a rather simple method that takes your ideas out of your head and gives them a head-start (so to speak) by manifesting your goals in writing first. This starting point seems to set them up for manifestation and is a lot of fun to boot.

Some years ago, Ranae Johnson, the originator of Rapid Eye Technology, kept a shoe box in which we placed such papers – like a wish list. I don’t know what happened to the box. I do know what happened to my life – it took off in the directions I wrote about – BIG TIME.

Write out what you want on a piece of paper:

*How much you want.
*When you want it.
*Then elicit your criteria for why it’s important to get all this good stuff.

The next part is essential – sign the piece of paper. You have a contract with yourself now! You’re committed. Now your unconscious and conscious can align and do everything possible to make it happen.

Do this for:

*1-month outcome
*3-month outcome
*6-month outcome

Include these categories:

*Financial (minimum earnings)
*Career (change of position or accomplishments)
*Health (weight, food, exercise, healing)
*Spiritual (growth, wisdom, breakthroughs)
*Social (friends, outings, hobbies, activities)

Now set the paper aside somewhere and forget about it – just go on doing your thing – putting your plans into action. By the way, action is the key. Writing your goals means nothing if you don’t back it up with action.

A few months from now, you’ll find that paper and delight in what has happened.

The key to making it work, however, is urgency – DO IT NOW. Stop reading this article, get a piece of paper and a pen, and do this exercise RIGHT NOW! Don’t wait to do it later when it’s more convenient (because it never will be). Don’t figure that you’ll get around to it (because you never will). This is in your face RIGHT NOW for a reason. RIGHT NOW is the time for you to do this and get the magic started for you – RIGHT NOW!

A leading hospital says up to a third of the children it treats for certain conditions are ill because their parents smoke around them.

Dr Steve Ryan, Medical Director of Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital, says bronchitis, asthma and ear infections could be cut if parents quit smoking.

He said parents often lied about whether they smoke near their children. The British Lung Foundation says 17,000 under-fives are treated every year for exposure to second-hand smoke.

Speaking to BBC Radio Five Live, he said out of the 35,000 children the hospital treats every year, 2,000 are there because they have been exposed to their parents’ smoke.

He said between a quarter and a third of those suffering from certain conditions such as chest infections and asthma were the victims of passive smoking.

High Intensity

Parents often know the health implications of smoking around their children, he added. “People feel guilty,” he told BBC News. “If it was easy, they would give up. Looking after children is good fun but it can be stressful and for some, cigarettes are a way of relieving that stress.”

He does not think legislation is the answer but believes parents should be aware of the various levels of risk.

The top level, he said, was parents smoking in cars, where children were “trapped” and exposed to a “high intensity” of fumes. Mothers smoking is a greater risk than fathers smoking, and smoking in the same room as your child is also high risk, he added. “Having smoke on your clothes is a lower risk,” he said.

“But a good tip for parents is always put on another layer of clothes when smoking outside. Our staff are made to put a coat on when they go out to smoke during their breaks.”

Medical conditions

Amanda Sandford from smoking campaign group Ash said an estimated half of all children are exposed to smoke in the home. “It is clearly a widespread problem and I don’t think people realize that so many children are regularly breathing in smoke,” she said. “About a quarter of adults smoke and there are more among young adults, people between 25-34, the age at which they are more likely to be parents with younger children.” She added that now smoking was banned in enclosed public places, parents should treat their home like the workplace, and smoke outside.

Research published in 2005 suggested children exposed to their parents’ smoking were three times more likely to develop lung cancer later in life. The government’s independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health concluded in 2004 that exposure to second-hand smoke can cause a number of serious medical conditions, including lung cancer, heart disease and childhood respiratory disease.

Banging the Drum

Martin Birchall, an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon and professor at Bristol University, said: “Passive smoking at home, exposing children to smoke they cannot escape from, increases the risk of them getting ear disease, sticky runny noses and sore throats, and further down the track, some of these ENT symptoms can in due course led on to worse diseases such as asthma.”

He added: “We need to keep banging the drum. We need to publicize the fact that every cigarette you smoke is a cigarette that your child is smoking also.” A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Second-hand smoke kills. We must continue to help people understand the dangers of second-hand smoke, especially for the health of their children.”

If you are ready to call it quits on smoking – and want to stop and stay stopped, I recommend that you purchase my book, “You Can Stop Smoking and Stay Stopped Forever” – available at 1derworks.com and Amazon.com.

Adapted from BBC news release

Basically, when you suppress an emotion, you still feel it and your body must account for the increased chemical activity – usually resulting in illness or later increased emotional expression. On the other hand, re-evaluation of the judgment one gives their experience tends to significantly decrease the chemical activity of emotional brain areas – and leads to far less emotional expression later.

I recommend the same for men as well. When you feel angry for whatever reason, if you will take a step back in your mind, disengage with the object of your anger, and reconsider your judgments about it, you may find that you’ll feel better. And even more importantly, you’ll feel better later.

Perhaps the greatest emotion generating judgment we have is the need to be right. The energy we expend on our crusades rivals those of the middle ages – often giving us similar results: less energy overall, impoverished relationships, and overall poorer health. It’s wise and prudent to reconsider your positions in relation to others. It may be okay for more than one person to be right. It may be okay to let someone else have their opinion.

If you find you’re having trouble reconsidering your judgments, you might find value in a therapy like Rapid Eye Technology, EFT, hypnosis, or CBT.

A study by Carolien Martijn and Marlies Vanderlinden from Maastricht University investigated whether body satisfaction can increase when women learn to associate their appearance with social approval. “The positive effect we witnessed for women with a high level of body concern supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval. Simply showing these women photographs of themselves followed by a smiling face – signalling social approval – increased their body satisfaction and self esteem significantly,” Carolien Martijn said.

It occurs to me that the first “society” we face every day is our own – me, myself, and I. When I smile at myself in the mirror, I signal to my body a social approval closer to me than any other society.

Here’s a quick and easy imagery you can do to improve your self-esteem and perhaps your physical health.

You may wish to have someone read the following imagery to you or you may simply read it to your self and imagine someone else was reading it to you. The most important things to do with the imagery are to relax and enjoy it.

Close your eyes and begin to get a sense of yourself as a body. <short pause> Imagine you could step out of your body and float outside your body – like a spirit. Look back at your body and smile – that’s all, just smile.

Now imagine you could shrink down to the size of a tiny speck. Imagine you could float above your body’s head and look down and into the body from the head down. Imagine you could peer into the top of your own head and see your brain – then smile at it – smile at your own brain.

Imagine you could float down into your head – looking left, right, up, down, all around – smile at your brain from within your brain. Smile at all the structures, all the connections, all the fluids, vessels, and electrical conduits. Smile with approval. <pause> Look down your entire spine and smile. <pause>

Look at your own face from within. Smile at your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your cheeks, your chin, and your throat.

Floating down, smile at your esophagus, your larynx, your upper back, your shoulders. Float down each arm and smile at your arms, elbows, wrists, hands, and fingers. Smile your approval at them all. <pause>

Floating back to the top of your chest, smile at your lungs, your heart, all your vital organs in the trunk of your body. Smile at your blood vessels, your fat, your muscles – everything. Smile your approval. <pause>

Floating down further, smile at your sexual organs, your hips, your lower back, your hips. <pause>

Float down each leg – smile at your thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet, and toes. Smile your approval at them all. <pause>

Exiting your toe, imagine floating once again out in front of your own body. See it there relaxed and calm as you smile at it. Imagine and pretend that your body is the little baby it once was when you were very young – after all, the oldest cell in your body is only a few years old. What a beautiful baby! Imagine it so! And smile your approval. You can do it.

Imagine you could take all the sweetest feelings and approval for this young body you see before you and gather them all together into a ball of light. Imagine you could gently roll this ball of light through the air and watch it enter the body through the navel – the belly button. Watch as your entire body shivers with delight as it accepts this gift of approving light.

It’s time for you to regain possession of your body. Allow yourself to accept that your body is now filled with energetic approving light – ready for you to re-enter it with joy and excitement. Let the spiritual essence that is you float into your navel and once again take control of the body. Fill every space within it – and smile your approval to it all once again.

THIS is your society – you and your body. Let the job of approval be an inside job from now on, by touching some place on your body with your finger – make it a place that will help you remember this feeling of approval. Whenever you touch that spot on your body again, it will instantly cause your body and mind to recall this imagery – and fill your body and mind with self-approval.

<pause until the touch has been established>

Now it is time to come fully conscious of your surroundings, fully cognizant of who you are in the present moment. When you “awaken” from this imagery you will feel energized and refreshed, happy to be in your own body in present time. 1-2-3-4-5 <clap of hands> awaken here in the present moment.

Adapted from an imagery by Ranae Johnson.

According to the newest figures from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual study in which tens of thousands of Americans are interviewed about their health- and illness-related experiences, developed by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 38 percent of adults in the United States aged 18 years and over and nearly 12 percent of U.S. children aged 17 years and under use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

That’s a lot of therapy outside the mainstream of “traditional” American medicine. According to the survey, most of the care was for pain. The higher the level of education and socioeconomic level, the more likely the use of CAM. As CAM is rarely covered by US insurance carriers, more wealthy people are more likely to be able to afford such care.

No statistics for effectiveness were released, but it is obvious to me that the sheer numbers speak for themselves. US insurance carriers are missing a huge chunk of the overall patient care picture by not covering CAM. The US is so far behind most other first world countries in the medical care of its citizens it just screams out for reform. Nowhere else in the world are supposedly free people treated so poorly medically as we are in the US, generally speaking.

It comes as no surprise to those who are currently uninsured or under-insured, that fully one in four US citizens have none or inadequate access to medical treatment. Those fortunate enough to have the means to buy insurance, are usually treated to a policy that excludes effective CAM treatments. A few avant gard carriers do include a small number of CAM sessions when ordered by one of their participating physicians. And, although physician referrals restrict access somewhat, it is perhaps the most reasonable way to ensure adequate care.

In the end, however, I’d like to see a universal healthcare package similar to that which the French enjoy – where everyone has access and proven CAM therapies are included in the deal. Unfortunately, greed reigns more than sense in the US when it comes to health care and I doubt I’ll see universal health care in the US in my lifetime.

In a preliminary study, Dr Elaine Kasket from London Metropolitan University carried out detailed interviews with eight US physicians about their experiences of death. Half of those she spoke to wept as they recounted stories of traumatic death they had experienced as physicians, even though some of these events had occurred as much as 30 years ago.

“There is an unwritten rule for doctors that suggests it is not wise or possible for them to feel emotions over a patient’s death because there is always another patient to help,” said Dr Kasket.

“Whilst this detachment might help when presented with a patient with a severe injury, I question how well it serves them in the longer term.

“This emotional detachment is socially ingrained through medical school, and the cultures in both the UK and US medical establishments would see a physician’s emotional response to death as a sign of weakness and even incompetence.

“It feeds into this popular image of the physician as some kind of superhuman ultimate rescuer of human life; unable to do his or her job if they give in to or even acknowledge their emotions.

“The reality is that doctors, and other medical professionals, regularly encounter violent human death, and medical culture does not tend to acknowledge the possibility that they need support to help them deal with any grief and emotional disturbance they may experience.

“There are countless examples of doctors being cold and dispassionate as they tell family members of the death of a loved one, and the physician’s own defensiveness and anxiety could well be part of this communication problem.

“It may be that creating a shell is actually the best way of coping with the trauma of the job, but I’m not convinced of that. It is certainly not the case for psychologists working with cancer patients who feel unable to work well if they do not process their emotions.

“Medical training instills and re-enforces this approach to dealing with death.

“Also there needs to be a sea change in medical culture to make support available, and for it not to be stigmatized, to help them cope with grief, depression, despair or sadness.”

Recently, Dr. Ranae Johnson of the Rapid Eye Institute initiated a new focus on 1st responders and other medical professionals faced with life and death issues every day. She has also created a quick and effective technique for relieving the stress of these issues – either at the time of stress or later in a clinical setting.

Physicians, nurses, EMTs, care givers, and others faced with patient death and attendant emotions can receive help from a practicing Rapid Eye Technician or using self-help techniques. These techniques are simple to learn and perform and provide the physician or other care giver a reliable method for quickly dealing with emotions as they arise. Further, using these techniques can lessen the impact of such emotions in the future.

You may read more about the Immediate Release Technique (IRT) at the Rapid Eye Technology web site, www.rapideyetechnology.com/1stresponders.