Archives

March 2013

Dali’s Time

From the category Concepts In Motion

Mick Jagger sang “Time is on my side,” but it didn’t keep him from getting old.  The paradox of time is that if we take our eye off it, it flies, yet if we stare at it too long, it crawls.  Sometimes we think we have plenty of time, and at other times we wonder where it all went.  The paradoxical nature of time is represented by the great Spanish Surrealist, Salvador Dali, in his painting, The Persistence of Memory.  Continue Reading

1 comment

Can You Be Too Attached To Your Child?

From the category Two Minute Articles for Parents

My sister had a favorite blanket that she carried around with her until she was eleven years old.  It was her “shmata,” a Yiddish word meaning “worn out security blanket.”  She didn’t actually carry it around, but she was always aware of its location, and at night she slept with it on her bed.  One day my parents hid it from her and made her think that they had finally disposed of it.  My sister was inconsolable at the news that her blanket was gone.  She was so inconsolable, in fact, that my parents miraculously “recovered” it for her.  Continue Reading

2 comments

Self-reflection

From the category Concepts In Motion

A defining differentiation between us and all other living things on this planet is our extraordinary ability for self-reflection. This  trait allows us to look at ourselves and evaluate our emotional, physical, and metaphysical states. In its less obvious form, self-reflection strengthens our conscience by helping us identify and enforce our own moral awareness. In its more obvious form, it strengthens our ego by helping us define who we are and what we desire. Self-reflection, however, is not infallible. In his drawing, Hand With Reflecting Sphere, M.C. Escher,  Continue Reading

0 comments

Stress Linked to Aging Chromosomes

From the category Fast Facts

New research shows that the length of the protective end buffers of our chromosomes (like the plastic tips on shoelaces), called telomeres, are linked to chronic stress and depression.  A study in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry (2012) concluded that subjects who reported chronic stress in their lives had significantly shorter telomeres than those who reported normal stress.  Continue Reading

0 comments

We Are Not Our Labels

From the category Concepts In Motion

Labels are useful in the mental health field but we often blur the line between a label and a “condition”. When the lines get blurred we become identified by our label. For some the label is ADHD, for others it’s bi-polar disorder and for the majority of people who experience normal bouts of sadness and pessimism it’s depression. Rene Magritte, the French painter, illustrates the struggle between meaning and language in his painting “This Is Not A Pipe.” Continue Reading

2 comments

Our Elusive Memory

From the category Fast Facts

Greg Markus, from the University of Michigan, conducted a ten year study by asking close to 900 parents and their children their points of view on issues like gender equality, marijuana legislation and civil rights. A decade later he asked them the same questions again. Unanimously, they wrote down that their current beliefs were consistent with what they believed ten years prior, even when they weren’t. In other words, the subjects rewrote their history using the brush of their present-day beliefs to paint over any previous contradictions. Continue Reading

0 comments

How to Identify and Deal with Bullies at School

From the category Two Minute Articles for Parents

The idea of childhood bullying has gone mostly unnoticed until the current events at Columbine and Santana High School brought this childhood dynamic to the forefront.  It is now receiving widespread attention and is recognized as a serious problem throughout elementary, middle and high school.  Some reports state that at least two thirds of all shootings involve kids who say they were bullied in school.  The following is a good definition of bullying: A negative situation that occurs regularly and repeatedly perpetrated by an aggressive student who is trying to control a weaker or more vulnerable one.  The act of bullying involves an implied threat of physical harm and also some form of intimidation.  To deal with bullying requires parents to both recognize when their child is being bullied, and when their child is being a bully. Continue Reading

0 comments

Teaching Your Children Well

From the category Two Minute Articles for Parents

Parenting is not an easy job, but we take it on with a commitment and passion that is unrivaled.  We bring our children into the world with all of our heart and soul.  We embrace them, love them, shelter them, and snuggle them so they will feel safe and secure as they begin their journey in the world.  As our children get older much of our time is spent making sure they are provided for.  We shop, cook, clean, work, and save for their future.  We put boundaries around them so they begin to understand right from wrong, good from bad, and get them ready to move toward whatever their destiny demands of them.  In all of the demands child-rearing places on parents one thing that often gets overlooked is teaching them how to make the world around them a better place.  Continue Reading

0 comments

The Not So Terrible Two’s

From the category Two Minute Articles for Parents

Parents have historically been forewarned about the “terrible two’s,” that stage of life when their child turns from a sweet little toddler into a monster.  What they have not been told, unfortunately, is that it is one of the most important developmental stages they will ever witness.  During the second year of life children begin to differentiate from their parents.  As they explore the world on their own you can see them hastily returning to the safety of their parent’s arms when they become frightened.  It is also a time when they develop more independent cognitive skills.  In order to define themselves as separate from their parents they often become disagreeable.  To establish their own sense of self they begin to use the word “no” very effectively, and repetitively.  With the proper attitude, however, it can really be quite a wonderful time for parents as they watch their children develop a better sense of themselves.  Regrettably, parents often view their child’s natural progression into a freethinking individual as defiance that is taken all too personally.   Continue Reading

0 comments

The Silent Stressors of Parenthood in the First Year

From the category Two Minute Articles for Parents

Silent Stressor #1

To some degree, all new parents suffer from stress.  In an uneventful pregnancy, the first stress generally occurs at the boundary between the end of the pregnancy and the birth of the child.  It’s hard to imagine that not being pregnant is stressful, but it is.  When you consider that a normal pregnancy is a time of great anticipation that brings the spouses together in preparation, it’s logical to assume that there would be some feelings about the pregnancy coming to an end.  It’s during pregnancy, after all, when you make the announcement, choose a name for your child, buy furniture, fix up the baby’s room, experience the innate sensation of nesting, and carry around within you the seeds of the next generation.  Continue Reading

0 comments