From Group to Team
A group transforms into a team from the inside out. The common goal There is no group or team without a common goal, even if it’s only the goal of being a group. Naturally, a group exists to heighten the fitness of an organism. This may be the group itself or its members, or both. Read the full article…
How to Give Attention to Your Pain
Crucial in this is not the attention by itself, but its many characteristics. The primary emotion behind pain is frequently the perception of some threat to which the pain mobilizes a reaction. In acute pain, the reaction involves paying attention to the pain while pulling away from the threat. In chronic pain, the threat is Read the full article…
Studies Show: Placebo as Effective as Treatment
The conclusion of a meta-study by Howick et al.: “Placebos and treatments often have similar effect sizes. Placebos with comparably powerful effects can benefit patients either alone or as part of a therapeutic regimen” [1] The differences In this meta-analysis involving 12.576 subjects, differences were measured between placebo (versus no-treatment) and active treatment (versus placebo) Read the full article…
Opening the Doors of Placebo
They are already open. Placebo works. Of course, not the pill or the potion, but the person who takes it. The placebo engenders the expectation/belief/hope that ‘it works.’ However, these are not open doors but rather keyholes through which long needles can be pushed that provoke some change inside. This change is pretty one-sided, even Read the full article…
How to Change an Opinion
Including yours. It’s not as easy as just putting facts together. Opinions are recalcitrant, and rightly so. Here are some insights to make it more ethical and doable. Phenomenal importance People cooperate with each other – in the immediate environment and worldwide – from a state of having congruent basic opinions. For instance, the opinion Read the full article…
Superficial Symbolism
There’s a lot of superficial symbolism around, especially in alternative medicines and New-Age spirituality, but also in old traditions such as freemasonry. Is ‘superficial symbolism’ possible? Not literally since symbolism itself is about depth. [see: “Symbolism: How-To”] But one can feign depth, or one can think to reach it by just putting stuff together that Read the full article…
Power of Ruthlessness
One should not underestimate this power. It is real and present. To negate or neglect it is not Compassionate. Neither is to just whine about it. Ruthlessness asks for profound answers. Etymology ‘Ruth’ comes from ‘reuthe,’ meaning ‘compassion.’ Ruthless = without pity or compassion. In AURELIS-talk, one can say it denotes a lack of Compassion. Read the full article…
Eigenangst
This is the fear of the own deeper layers of mental processing. It’s a powerful direct driver of many negative happenings at the macro and micro scales in the world. ‘Eigenangst’ is a German neologism (by me). I encounter its meaning in the indefinite sound of it. Without conscious awareness One is not consciously aware Read the full article…
When Little Makes Much in Psycho-Somatics
When looking at the psyche as ‘just that,’ it may be hard to acknowledge that it can substantially impact bodily matters in health and sickness. The psyche may seem somatically insignificant because it is invisible also at the deeper meaning level. Scientifically, we are already a pretty long way beyond the ‘mind=body’ breakthrough, even – Read the full article…
Who We Deeply Are and Why it’s Crucial to Know
I don’t want to be a scaremonger. But I’m scared, and I intend to monger until the direction is of utmost clarity. From Afghanistan to the world Yesterday I saw Mahbouba Seraj talking on a program about the situation in Afghanistan. She’s a famous women’s rights activist, and she was talking about this. But I Read the full article…
Autosuggestion: So Little, So Much?
In a culture bent on crudely decisive action, subtle autosuggestion is frequently disregarded. Yet, in the end, it may be more effective than anything else, in positive and negative ways. Subtle dance Did you ever look at a couple dancing the tango while asking yourself how they can make such complex movements together? There is Read the full article…
Tackling Illusions
Homo sapiens as a species has been prone to cognitive illusions from the start. There may have been an evolutionary advantage to this. However, nowadays, it brings a lot of trouble. Several kinds It may be difficult for many who are suffering from one illusion to be compared with other people who suffer from another Read the full article…
Facts, Facts, Facts in Medicine
Although we forever live in an age of uncertainty, facts are, of course, super important. We need to avoid errors and, above all, bias. Bias doesn’t lead to one error, but a range of them. Most of all, we need to be on the lookout for a fundamental bias. In medicine, there is a fundamental Read the full article…
43. A Pillow Full of Sleep, a Head that Roams the Late-Night Corridors
A good night’s sleep requires respect for nature within you. One cannot simply fall asleep based on a mere act of will, such as by snapping your fingers or closing your eyes. That would be easy, of course. But it’s not. One can take care of the surroundings, though, lay down, eyes closed. Ultimately sleep Read the full article…
Healing Yourself is Healing the Planet
There seems to be no other way to ‘heal the planet,’ so we better take this seriously. As a mindset Many bits make a big? Or, each person wants to be the chosen one who saves the planet? I intend with the title a mindset, a conviction, a promise ― frustrationless desire as a regular Read the full article…
40. The Tough Concept of ‘Acceptance’
‘Acceptance’ has two different meanings. One leads to helplessness. The other leads to self-sufficiency. Once it was commonplace: People had to learn to accept chronic pain (and suffering in general) by the will of God, willingly or unwillingly. People had to ‘learn to live with it.’ In an era where there were no painkillers, people Read the full article…
Strong Love
To be loving, but not in a weak way. Not Mr. Nice Guy. To love without pampering too much. To be there and to dare. To ask for sure and to be able to give a lot. No comfortable numbness unless on Sunday ― sometimes. To influence, to create remembrance. To be a stronghold for Read the full article…