Raw Data Saver

Public liability insurance is necessary as all companies are at threat to some extent. Even if nothing severe has yet gone on with your corporations office block that is no assurance that it will not sometime in the not too distant future. If someone is harmed or their property stolen, it is your obligation to suitably refund them. This expense can easily be dreadfully large, depending on the particular type of case.

Nevertheless, you do have a chance to shield yourself for this possibility. Getting public liability cover permits you to breathe moderately easier. If a specific claim is costly, the insurance business will be around to offer a protection net. It is their legal requirement to keep you secure from any claims & legal fees brought against you. This leaves you free to concentrate on actually doing business, instead of worrying about what could well happen. Following are good examples of times when public liability indemnity could come in useful.

Proprietors of plumbing firms as a rule get the job done fast & easy. Nevertheless, every now and then something may possibly go unbearably wrong. For example, if you inadvertently smash up a customer’s water pipes while on the job, affecting possessions for instance PCs and flooring, public liability cover will be there to pay the bill.

Another illustration is that of a marketing organisation. If a client were to break an ankle in your workplace, even if it is not your fault, you would be held answerable. However, with public liability indemnity you wouldn’t have to resolve the claim whatsoever.

In a comparable instance, injury caused to a spectator by an employee on a construction site is the legal responsibility of the business owner. This type of claim can quickly get exceptionally costly in fact, unless you procure the appropriate protection. Help protect your firm with Insured Risks Professional Indemnity Insurance.

I heard a shotgun blast. I must have been hit because I was down and felt it in my stomach. I was lying on the ground of a parking lot in the dark scared, hurt and alone, not knowing if I would live or die. It seemed so real, even though it was a dream.

This dream, after my father died, helped me understand the shock and physical hurt I was going through. I had never experienced the loss of someone I loved and it hit me in the gut. It was as if a part of me had died. And it had. Especially the part of me who reserved things like “dying” for other families, not mine.

I was alone in the uncharted territory of grief. I wasn’t interested in watching television or reading a novel.

Interestingly, I enjoyed playing the piano, as unpracticed as I was. Usually I’d be too busy to sit down and play; but now time didn’t seem to matter. I remember calling a friend whose husband said she was kayaking and would be spending the night camping on an island. I wondered if I would ever get out there again, back into the world. It was as if I was suspended in an altered state of being.

I couldn’t write about my father’s death for a long time. To write about something gives me distance; it keeps me in my head. As long as I didn’t write about my father dying, there was no distance. It was still happening in me. Like in my dream, I needed to stay in my body; to feel the loss in my flesh and blood - my bones.

I soon began to receive and experience the incredible healing power of love. It came mysteriously; it was an honest outpouring from the people who surrounded me, wrote letters and called. One expression of sympathy I will always remember came from my friend Diana who lost her mother to breast cancer when she was a teenager. Soon after we returned home from Dad’s funeral there was a knock at the door. There, Diana stood holding the most beautiful bouquet of flowers: delphiniums, sunflowers and zinnias. She put her hand over her heart and said two words, “My mother.” We didn’t need to talk. I knew she was telling me about the love that lives on.

Another friend called.

Ann said “I want to take you to lunch. I will never forget when my father died.”

It didn’t matter that Ann was in her 80’s or that she had lost two husbands after long 30-year marriages. It didn’t matter how many years had passed since her dad had died. She knew how I was feeling and wanted to share this time with me.

During this time, my tears would come as easily as the memories of Dad. I believe tears are like holy water. They flow from the well of our hearts, where we hold our feelings. I stayed with my sadness. I shared it with others and received great comfort because they too have had sadness.

My mother said she gardened with her grief. Her yard was never more beautiful than the year my father died. This time of grieving, as it gradually left my body, gave me a new way of living; it became my traveling companion as I lived more compassionately. I learned that our sadness ennobles us as humans. It means we have loved deeply. It is this love that will never die. I wrote about this in a poem the summer after my Dad died.

MY FATHER

I think I am letting him go.
It is not that my love is diminished
or that I miss him less.

It is only that the sun is up
and there is no milk
in the refrigerator
and the bunny got out
of the cage
and is eating my red geraniums.

I think I am letting him go.
But sometimes at night
before I go to sleep
I feel the tears
fill up my eyes
and run down my cheeks.

I do not think I will ever
let him go.
But he is gone.

When You Lose Someone You Love: A Personal Journey Through The Heart of Grief © 2005 Susan Florence.

Susan Florence is author and illustrator of The Journeys Series, a collection of giftbooks to help us find meaning along the journey of our lives. Two titles, When You Lose Someone You Love and Your Journey will inspire and touch the heart of those who are grieving. Visit http://www.SusanFlorence.com to order books and view her art.

With the end of the Cold War, the threat of a world nuclear war has diminished considerably. It may be hard to imagine that in the end, comedians may be exploiting the humor in the fact that it wasn’t nuclear warheads, but “French fries” that annihilated the human race, when considering that food addictions and their related diseases now afflict more people globally than malnutrition. The behavioral addiction disorders (e.g., food addictions, pathological gambling, and other obsessively-compulsive behavioral-patterns to religion, and/ or sex / pornography, etc.) are just as damaging, psychologically and socially as alcohol and drug abuse.

On a more serious note, lifestyle diseases and addictions are the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality taking more than one million (1,000,000) U.S. lives a year, yet brief preventive behavioral assessments and counseling interventions are under-utilized in health care settings (Whitlock, 2002). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that effective behavioral counseling interventions that address personal health practices hold greater promise for improving overall health than many secondary preventive measures, such as routine screening for early disease (USPSTF, 1996). Common health-promoting behaviors include healthy diet, regular physical exercise, smoking cessation, appropriate alcohol/ medication use, and responsible sexual practices to include use of condoms and contraceptives.

Multiple Addictions and Poor Prognosis

Since it is impossible to expect treatment for one addiction to be beneficial when other addictions co-exist, the initial therapeutic intervention for any addiction needs to include an assessment for other addictions. National surveys revealed that a very high correlation exists between substance abuse and behavioral addictions. Repeated failures abound with all of the addictions, even with utilizing the most effective treatment strategies. But why do 47% of patients treated in private addiction treatment programs (for example) relapse within the first year following treatment (Gorski, T., 2001)? Have addiction specialists become conditioned to accept failure as the norm? There are many reasons for this poor prognosis.

Some would proclaim that addictions are psychosomatically- induced and maintained in a semi-balanced force field of driving and restraining multidimensional forces. Others would say that failures are due simply to a lack of self-motivation or will power. Most would agree that lifestyle behavioral addictions are serious health risks that deserve our attention, but could it possibly be that patients with multiple addictions are being under diagnosed (with a single dependence) simply due to a lack of diagnostic tools and resources that are incapable of resolving the complexity of assessing and treating a patient with multiple addictions?

The Addictions Recovery Measurement System (ARMS), along with 350 national organizations and 250 State public health, mental health, substance abuse, and environmental agencies support the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Healthy People 2010″ program. This national initiative recommends that primary care clinicians utilize clinical preventive assessments and brief behavioral counseling for early detection, prevention, and treatment of lifestyle disease and addiction indicators for all patients’ upon every healthcare visit. The ARMS theory proposes a new diagnosis. Poly-behavioral addiction is the synergistically integrated chronic dependence on multiple physiologically addictive substances and behaviors (e.g., using/ abusing substances - nicotine, alcohol, & drugs, and/or acting impulsively or obsessively compulsive in regards to gambling, food binging, sex, and/ or religion, etc.) simultaneously (Slobodzien, J., 2005).

The ARMS prognostication system supports the Five A’s construct (a model adapted from tobacco cessation interventions) as a brief screening behavioral counseling system. This guideline (Morgan and Fox, 2000) provides different brief interventions for treating patients based on their lifestyle disease indicators and addictive behavior status. Health care providers should:

Ask patients about disease/ addiction health indicators (e.g. if they use tobacco, alcohol, drugs, exercise, diet, gamble, practice risky sexual behaviors, etc.). An office wide system can be implemented to ensure that all patients are queried regarding risky behaviors.
Advise patients to quit–advice should be clear, strong, and personalized.
Assess willingness to make a quit attempt in the next 30 days. Provide a motivational intervention for those unwilling to quit at this time.
Assist patients in their efforts to quit: (1) Patients should set a quit date and remove addictive products (triggers) from their environment. (2) Provide practical counseling. Total abstinence is the key objective. Patients should limit alcohol use and anticipate and plan for challenges and triggers. (3) Offer support and suggest that patients seek support from their friends and family. (4) Recommend appropriate first- or second-line pharmacotherapies.
Arrange follow-up within the first week after the quit date to prevent relapse.

Accurate diagnosis is dependent on a thorough multidimensional assessment process along with the possible help of a multidisciplinary treatment team approach. Behavioral Medicine practitioners have come to realize that although a disorder may be primarily physical or primarily psychological in nature, it is always a disorder of the whole person - not just of the body or the mind. The ARMS approach examines the broad bio-psychosocial context of the individual (e.g., biomedical, behavioral, interpersonal, social, cultural, spiritual, and self-regulative factors, etc.), when assessing an individual to determine the presence of a lifestyle addiction. It is concerned with the health choices individuals make as well as modifying and altering unhealthy lifestyles to directly reduce illness and illness behavior that predisposes them to other physical illnesses.

The ARMS battery of dimensional assessment and screening instruments focus on the multidimensional aspects of diagnosis, but continue to promote the standard screening instruments for specific substance abuse addictions (e.g., CAGE, MAST, AUDIT, SASSI, etc.). The ARMS battery can also assist with developing the other four DSM axes of a clinical diagnosis. The Multidimensional Psychosocial Stressors Inventory (MPSI) is utilized to narrow down a list of axis one diagnoses and axis four stressors. The Personality Feature Checklist (PFC) can assist with identifying an individual’s personality traits on axis two that may be contributing to his addictive life-style.

The General Health Risk Assessment (GHRA) can assist with identifying physical symptoms and other addictive behaviors to consider alternative axis three diagnoses. The Religious Attitudes Inventory (RAI) can assist with assessing a patient’s spiritual/ religious life-functioning dimension. The Prognostic Assessment Gauge (PAG) cumulative score can objectively reveal a prognostic level of functioning for axis five. This thorough assessment approach attempts to leave no stone unturned. The following brief screening tool is just one of twelve screening instruments proposed in the Addictions Recovery Measurement System to assist providers with the poly-behavioral addiction assessment process:

Behavior Risk Assessment Screen (BRAS) Fact Sheet

The Behavior Risk Assessment (BRA) is an efficient and effective screening tool used for early detection of unhealthy life-style practices before they manifest themselves as major health problems. It is comprised of the following six screening tools: 1) Substance Intake Screen: (Nicotine, Alcohol, Illegal Drugs), 2) Eating Attitude Screen, 3) Exercise Pattern Screen, 4) Sleep Pattern Screen, 5) Sexual Practice Screen, 6) Gambling Practice Screen, and the 7) Risky Behavior Screen.

Target Population: Adults - diagnosed with Alcohol/ Substance Abuse or Dependence Disorders and/ or other behavioral addictions, (e.g., gambling, eating, sex, religious addictions, etc.). For adults in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Administrative Issues: The BRA has 21 items that an individual can answer within minutes. It is easily scored, and the results can be quickly integrated into the Prognostic Assessment Gauge for a cumulative prognosis score.

Scoring:
Time required: 10 minutes

Scored by Clinician

See scoring guide

Clinical Utility:
In addition to the BRA’s effectiveness in initially detecting an individual’s risk for potential health, and/ or other addictive problems, it can also be used as an awareness education tool for the prevention of behavioral health problems.

Research Applicability:
The BRA’s brevity, ease of administration and scoring, and availability of computer format for data storage and analysis make it highly useful for research applications. Based on independent interviews by a mental health professional, the BRA administered by primary care practitioners’ demonstrated good accuracy (sensitivity and specificity) for collecting significant clinical history data in a timely manner for prognostic decision-making. Treatment outcome studies are presently in process. Copyright, and Source © March 2004 by James Slobodzien, Psy. D. ——————————————————– Behavior Risk Assessment Screen (BRAS)

Name: _______________________________ Date: _________________
Signature: ___________________________ SSN: _________________

The Behavior Risk Assessment Screen is comprised of the following seven screening scales:
A. Substance Intake Screen
B. Eating Attitude Screen
C. Exercise Pattern Screen
D. Sleep Pattern Screen
E. Sexual Practice Screen
F. Gambling Practice Screen
G. Risky Behavior Screen

Instructions:
Following are groups of statements that are numbered and weighted - 10, 20, or 30. Please read each group of statements carefully. Then pick out the one statement in each group that is most true for you, and circle the number beside the statement that you pick. NOTE: Be sure to read all the statements in each group, and circle just one number beside the statements that you pick.

A. Substance Intake Screen: Score = ___
(Total - Nicotine, Alcohol, Illicit drugs & Caffeine Scores and divide
by 4= ___ (Total Score)
Nicotine Use Score = ___
1. I do not smoke cigarettes, cigars, or pipes or use smokeless
“chewing” tobacco, and I am not exposed to tobacco smoke regularly.
Yes (30 points)
2. I typically smoke a pack or more daily, and/ or chew more than a
can of tobacco per day.
Yes (10 points)
Alcohol Use: Score = ___
1. (Male) I do not drink alcoholic beverages, or if I drink, I do not
consume more than 2-standard alcoholic drinks per occasion, or more
than 14-drinks per week.

(Female) I do not drink alcohol, or if I drink, I do not consume more than 1-standard alcoholic drink per occasion, or more than 7-drinks per week. (Male & Female) I never drink while having medical problems (e.g., female- pregnancy, etc.) or while operating machinery. Yes (30 points)

2. I drink, but I do not consume more than 3 (female) or 4 (male) standard alcoholic drinks per occasion on any one day of the week. Yes (20 points)

3. I typically consume 4 or more standard alcoholic drinks per occasion, and typically consume more than 14-standard drinks per week. Yes (10 points)

Illicit Drug Use: (e.g., All street drugs: marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine (ICE), ecstasy, LSD, Heroin, including un-prescribed medications, inhalants, and/ or unauthorized supplements - “Ephedra”, or excessively used “over-the-counter medications”, etc.). Score = ___
1. I have not ever used illicit “street drugs” and/ or taken addictive prescription medications for long periods in the past, and I do not presently use illicit drugs or take addictive prescription medications. Yes (30 points)
2. I have used illicit “street drugs” and/ or have taken addictive prescription medications for long periods in the past. Yes (20 points)
3. I use illicit “street drugs” and/ or take addictive medications frequently or whenever I get the opportunity. Yes (10 points) Caffeine Intoxication: (e.g., coffee, soda, tea, & other caffeine products, etc.)
Score = ___
1. My use of caffeine products has not caused distress or impairment in my social, occupational, or other important areas of my life. Yes (30 points)
2. My use of caffeine products has caused physical symptoms (e.g., restlessness, nervousness, excitement, and/ or insomnia, etc.), that have resulted in impairment in my social, occupational, or other important areas of my life.

Yes (10 points)
B. Eating Attitude Screen: Score = ___
1. Issues concerning my weight and/ or eating habits have not caused me to feel shame, guilt, embarrassment, and/ or low self-esteem, as my relationship with food has never been one of the problem areas in my life. Yes (30 points)
2. Issues concerning my weight and/ or eating habits have been a focus of my life, causing me to sometimes feel shame, guilt, embarrassment, and/ or low self-esteem, as I tend to overeat, under eat, binge, purge, and/ or obsess over diets and calories
Yes (10 points)
C. Exercise Pattern Screen: Score = ___

1. On average, I exercise five times or more per week for 30 minutes or more each time and/or have vigorous activity three times or more per week for 20 minutes or more each time. = 30 points
2. On average, I exercise once or twice a week for 30 minutes or more each time. = 20 points
3. I don’t exercise and/ or don’t have a regular exercise program that I follow.

= 10 points

D. Sleep Pattern Screen: Score = ___

1. On average, I typically get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep daily.

= 30 points 2. On average, I typically get less than 4 hours of sleep daily or more than 11 hours of sleep daily.

= 10 points

E. Sexual Practice Screen: Score = ___

1. I have always abstained from sexual relationships or I have always practiced safe sex (e.g., used condoms/ contraceptives appropriately, etc.) and have no prior history of STD’s, multiple sex partners, or of sharing needles with anyone.

Yes (30 points) 2. I have not always practiced safe sex and/ or have had multiple sex partners.

Yes (20 points) 3. I have not always practiced safe sex, and/ or - I presently have multiple sexual partners and/ or have a prior history of STD’s and/ or a history of sharing needles with others.

Yes (10 points)

F. Gambling Practice Screen: Score = ___

1. I have never gambled, or I have never gambled with more than $100.00 on any one- day, and it was purely for social entertainment. My gambling has never resulted in adverse consequences to others or myself.

Yes (30 points)
2. Gambling is sometimes a part of my recreational activities, but I have never gambled with more than $1000.00 on any one-day. Periodically I have suffered from some negative consequences, but I have never lost control over this behavior. Yes (20 points)
3. I have gambled with more than $1000.00 on any one-day and/ or I have a continuous or periodic loss of control over gambling behaviors; and/ or a preoccupation with gambling and obtaining money for gambling; and/ or a pattern of continuing to gamble in spite of adverse consequences. Yes (10 points)

G. Risky Behavior Screen: Score = ___

1. I do not have a pattern of practicing the following risky behaviors:

a. Drinking alcohol and/ or using mind altering drugs and driving a motor vehicle, or riding with someone that does;
b. Drinking alcohol and/ or using mind altering drugs and operating machinery, and/ or using a firearm, explosive devices, and/ or exposing myself to medicines, chemicals, and/ or poisons;
c. Drinking alcohol and/ or using mind altering drugs and bicycling, swimming, diving, boating, or performing other potentially hazardous recreational activities;
d. Driving/ riding a motor vehicle and not using seatbelts or a helmet;
e. I do not have a history of having obsessive thoughts and/ or impulsive behaviors that have resulted in negative consequences (e.g., alcohol/ substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, speeding/ reckless driving, and/ or other aggressive impulses, resulting in motor vehicle crashes, falls, fires, near drowning, near suffocation, poisoning - incidents, assault, self-harm, damage or loss to personal or other’s property, or other dangerous behaviors, etc.). Yes (30 points)

2. I have a history (more than one incident) of the above risky behaviors, and/ or of having obsessive thoughts and impulsive behaviors that have resulted in some negative consequences, (e.g., alcohol/ substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, speeding/ reckless driving, other aggressive impulses, resulting in motor vehicle crashes, falls, fires, near drowning, near suffocation, poisoning - incidents, assault, self-harm, damage or loss to personal or other’s property, or other dangerous behaviors, etc.).
Specify behavior(s): _________________________
Yes (10 points)

Scoring: The Addictions Recovery Measurement System utilizes an arbitrary, but standardized “weighted” classification process to assign different intensity levels of prognostic factors relative to each individual’s test scores (e.g., Clinical Evaluation Guide: 10 points = High Risk with chronic & severe symptoms; 20 points = Moderate Risk with acute & moderate symptoms; and 30 points = Low Risk with no present acute symptoms, etc.). This method is used in an attempt to objectively measure, integrate, and systematize the collection, tabulation, interpretation, and graphical display of the ARMS screening instrument test results.

Behavior Risk Assessment (BRA) Tabulation Guide: (Example) 1. Substance Intake Screen: Nicotine Score = 30

Alcohol Score = 10

Illegal Drugs Score = 20

Caffeine Score = 10
(Divide by 4) 70 = 17.5
Score = 17.5 2. Eating Attitude Screen Score = 30 3. Exercise Pattern Screen Score = 30 4. Sleep Pattern Screen Score = 30 5. Sexual Practice Screen Score = 20 6. Pathological Gambling Screen Score = 20 7. Risky Behavior Screen Score = 10 (Score) divided by 7 multiplied by 3.33 Total Score =157.5 157.5 divided by 7 = 22.5 x 3.33 = 74.9

Cumulative PAG Score = 74.9

Prognostic Assessment Gauge (PAG) - Interpretive Guide:

___ Excellent = 80 to 100(e.g., optimal level of functioning, etc.)

75_ Good = 60 to 80(e.g., above satisfactory level of functioning w/ Mild symptoms)

___ Fair= 40 to 60(e.g., satisfactory level of functioning w/ Moderate symptoms, etc.)

___ Poor= 20 to 40(e.g., unsatisfactory level of functioning w/ Severe symptoms, etc.)

___ Guarded= 0 to 20(e.g., eminent danger to self or others, etc.)

The Prognostic Assessment Gauge (PAG) Score can be used to score just one or all twelve - ARMS - screening instruments. It is utilized as an indication of how well an individual is coping at the present time. It summarizes an individual’s overall psychological, social, and occupational functionability and may similarly represent an objective DSM-IV, Axis V - Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) score.

NOTE: Each individual item in the (10) high-risk category should be screened for further assessment.

Conclusion

Since successful treatment outcomes are dependent on thorough assessments, accurate diagnoses, and comprehensive individualized treatment planning, it is no wonder that repeated rehabilitation failures and low success rates are the norm instead of the exception in the addictions field, when the latest DSM-IV-TR does not even include a diagnosis for multiple addictive behavioral disorders. Treatment clinics need to have a treatment planning system and referral network that is equipped to thoroughly assess multiple addictive and mental health disorders and related treatment needs and comprehensively provide education/ awareness, prevention strategy groups, and/ or specific addictions treatment services for individuals diagnosed with multiple addictions. Written treatment goals and objectives should be specified for each separate addiction and dimension of an individuals’ life, and the desired performance outcome or completion criteria should be specifically stated, behaviorally based (a visible activity), and measurable.

For more info see: Poly-Behavioral Addiction and the Addictions Recovery Measurement System (ARMS) at: http://www.geocities.com/drslbdzn/Behavioral_Addictions.html

References

American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 787 & p. 731. American Society of Addiction Medicine’s (2003), “Patient Placement Criteria for the Treatment of Substance-Related Disorders, 3rd Edition, Retrieved, June 18, 2005, from:

http://www.asam.org/ Arthur Aron, Ph.D., professor, psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook; Helen Fisher, research professor, department of anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.; Paul Sanberg, Ph.D.,professor, neuroscience, and director, Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair,University of South Florida College of Medicine, Tampa; June 2005, the Journal of Neurophysiology Gorski, T. (2001), Relapse Prevention In The Managed Care Environment. GORSKI-CENAPS Web Publications. Retrieved June 20, 2005, from: www.tgorski.com Lienard, J. & Vamecq, J. (2004), Presse Med, Oct 23;33(18 Suppl):33-40. Morgan, G.D.; and Fox, B.J. Promoting Cessation of Tobacco Use. The Physician and Sports medicine. Vol 28- No. 12, December 2000. Slobodzien, J. (2005). Poly-behavioral Addiction and the Addictions Recovery Measurement System (ARMS), Booklocker.com, Inc., p. 5. Whitlock, E.P. Evaluating Primary Care Behavioral Counseling Interventions: An Evidence-based Approach. Am J Prev Med 2002;22(4): 267-84. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010 (Conference Edition). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office; 2000.

James Slobodzien, Psy.D. CSAC, is a Hawaii licensed psychologist and certified substance abuse counselor who earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology. The National Registry of Health Service Providers in Psychology credentials Dr. Slobodzien. He has over 20-years of mental health experience primarily working in the fields of alcohol/ substance abuse and behavioral addictions in medical, correctional, and judicial settings. He is an adjunct professor of Psychology and also maintains a private practice as a mental health consultant.

For more info see:

www.booklocker.com/books/1966.html

www.geocities.com/drslbdzn/Behavioral_Addictions.html

If all the data received by our senses were stored in our memory, we would soon be overwhelmed. The subconscious sorts through the input and retains only a fraction for permanent memory storage. Every second, the eyes absorb ten million bits of information, the skin takes in one million bits, and the ears receive one-hundred thousand bits. Of these millions of bits processed, only about forty bits reach the conscious mind. Data that are not deleted are sorted and filtered by the subconscious, then consigned to long-term memory.

The active brain can remember things that actually did not happen or that are not correct. The mind makes assumptions to link events. People remember words that are implicit or not stated, with the same probability as explicit words. Studies with fMRI have demonstrated that the same brain areas are activated during questions and answers about both true and false events. This may explain why false memories can seem so compelling to the individual reporting the events.

Types of Memory

Remembering - storing memories in a memory bank, and recalling them - is a biological process which involves dedicated brain structures as memory banks variously specialized for different types or categories of memory function. Knowing that memories are formed in different categories, and that they move between categories, can help in developing strategies for improving memory and learning.

There are two broad categories of memory: non-conscious, and conscious. The latter includes short-term, and long-term memory.

• Non-conscious memory, takes two forms. One of these, implicit memory, automatically stores experience and concepts and plays a role unconsciously in affecting perception. The other form, muscle memory, plays a role in the mechanical execution of a series of motions, as in riding a bike or playing a musical instrument, learned through repetition over time.
• Short-term memory, is the working memory. It’s a place for stuff that you need to hang on to for only a short time. Maintaining information for only a few seconds, it enables you to remember a current thought, and so, for instance, take part in a conversation, keep a lecture in context as it progresses, or maintain the thread of a story or movie.
• Long-term or permanent memory: The memory of the events and facts that we can consciously recall and verbally describe. It includes that of words, symbols, and general knowledge about our perception of the workings of the world. Information of a personal nature, things witnessed or experienced, is better remembered when associated with emotion.

The brain links information on an unconscious level. You can consciously help to maximize this effect. As you perceive new input, match it as best possible to material already in your memory, by using images, sounds, key words, and concept maps. A vital ingredient for memory is reviewing, and it is effective only when done at specific times after absorbing the information. For instance after one hour, one day, one week, and six months.

The Emotional and Thinking Brains

This is a good juncture to explain the difference between different types of stress. Unhealthy stress is either too low or too high. Healthy stress is often just called a challenge. Frequently, the distinction is conditional on how much control we perceive that we have over the stressor. In challenging situations, the body releases chemicals such as adrenaline and norepinephrine. These enhance learning by increasing motivation, sharpening our perceptions, and even strengthening our body. On the other hand, unhealthy stress raises alarms all over the body by releasing cortisol, the survival hormone. In this book, I use the word stress to refer to unhealthy stress.

Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux discovered a particular relationship and interaction between the emotional and thinking brains, and identified the neural pathways that carry information from the senses to the brain. Information entering through the eyes or ears goes first to the thalamus, which acts as a sorting area to assign different information to different parts of the brain. It compares new data with existing information and decides whether to compress, absorb, or ignore the new input. If the incoming information is emotional, the thalamus sends out two signals. With survival a priority concern, the first signal goes to the emotional brain (limbic system, specifically, the amygdala), and the second to the thinking brain (neocortex). This means that the emotional brain has the information first and, in the event of an emergency, can react before the thinking brain has even received the information and had an opportunity to consider options.

In such a case, the amygdala sends instructions to the lower reptilian brain to flood the body with stress hormones. There are more neural connections going from the limbic emotional center to the neocortex than vice versa. With continued arousal of the amygdala, it is difficult to break out of the resulting fight or flight cycle. So reason does not rule, and we are left hanging in the middle of a crisis.

The hippocampus helps create long-term memory by assigning data to different parts of the brain. For example, the names of natural things such as vegetation and wildlife are stored in one part of the brain, while man-made items such as cars and furniture are retained elsewhere. Likewise, the event, or what happened, and its meaning are laid down in separate parts of the brain.

Emotion drives attention which, in turn, drives memory. James McGaugh, PhD, of the University of California at Irvine, said, “We believe that the brain takes advantage of the chemicals released during stress and powerful emotions to regulate the strength of storage of the memory.” Journalist Jill Neimark said, “A memory associated with emotionally charged information gets seared into the brain.”

It is the management of emotions that gives learners greater command over their learning.

Although the brain thrives on challenge and complexity, its primary drive is survival. It needs to survive socially, economically, emotionally, and physically. The brain is pre-wired to learn and, if optimum conditions are not present, employees may learn to fear change in the workplace, and students may learn to fear subjects like math. Overwhelming stress has a detrimental effect. Researchers have evidence that high stress experienced by a pregnant woman can distress the fetus, resulting in learning difficulties for the child later in life. Among infants and toddlers, high and chronic levels of stress can make learning more difficult, perhaps even shrinking the part of the brain associated with memory.

Tips to Remembering

Imagine that I recite a list to you of thirty items. I then ask you to write them down after I finish. You would remember things that are:

• at the beginning of the list
• UnUsUaL
• repeated, repeated
• at the end of the list

The first and last items are known as primacy and recency. Every study session has them. If you study for one hour, then take a break, you get one of each. If you study for twenty-five minutes, take a short break, then study another twenty-five minutes. You get double the primacy and recency events. How great is that?

Memory is not stored in a single location in the brain. It is deconstructed and distributed all over the cortex. The emotional content is stored in the amygdala, visual images in the occipital lobes, memory of the source in the frontal lobes, and venue is stored in the parietal lobes. Remembering is actually an act of reconstruction.

Memory Decay, or loss of remembered events, is a natural phenomenon as new experiences displace existing memories. You can easily counteract this loss of learned material through periodic review. Review can facilitate the preservation of at least 80 percent of your learned material. Without a systematic review process, the material evaporates to a 20 percent retention level.

A greater variety of input streams from eyes, ears, tactile, and emotion allow for more pathways to exist for dynamic reconstruction, thus creating richer memory. Multi-modal instruction makes a lot of sense. Accelerated Learning addresses the need.

To get a handle on just how unlimited our ability to learn is, multiply the number of neurons (10 billion) by the number of branch spines (10 million) by the number of dendrite spiny protuberances possible on each spine (100 million). The result indicates how many new connections are possible when learning. Using this size font, the answer is a 1 followed by zeros that extend for some 6.2 million miles!

The capacity of our memory is virtually unlimited.

International speaker, Dr. Brian E. Walsh, is the bestselling author of Unleashing Your Brilliance. For much of his 30-year corporate career he was involved in human resources, specifically training.

While living in the arctic, Brian studied anthropology and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), which prepared him for working with other cultures. He was then transferred to China where he served as his company’s GM.

After his return to Canada, he elected early retirement to further his earlier interest in NLP and hypnotherapy. He returned to formal study, and within four years had achieved his Ph.D. His dissertation, which focused on accelerated learning techniques, inspired his passion and his book, “Unleashing Your Brilliance”. Information is available at http://www.UnleashingBook.com

Dr. Walsh regularly conducts workshops on accelerated learning. He is a master practitioner of NLP, an acupuncture detoxification specialist, an EFT practitioner, and a clinical hypnotherapist.

Subscribe to his monthly eZine, “Enriched Learning” at http://www.UnleashingBook.com

Much has been written regarding dreams and their meanings or purpose. Mankind has been fascinated with our dreams since the first dreamer awoke and wondered about what their visions meant. Since ancient times we have looked to our dreams to find signs of what our future holds. The first written dreams we know of were in 4000 BC. The earliest writings we have on dreams are primarily texts on their religious and spiritual significance.

Most people will spend about one third of their lives asleep. Our dreams are a real part of us but too often they are disregarded. Dreams can give us insight and understanding of our personal lives. They will help us to understand our past, present, and sometimes our future. All we need to do is to pay attention to our dreams and get to know them.

Dreams can hold a message for the future.

We have different types of dreams. Often our dreams consist of imagery from our most pressing thoughts and/or personal experiences. Sometimes, however, our dreams can be special. Our dreams can communicate with us if we allow them too. All we need to is listen.

I believe that there are two main types of prophetic dreams.

Those that come to us from our “deeper” self, who is much more aware of certain things than we are on a conscious level, and those who may potentially have come from an “outside” source.

Here is an example from my own dream experiences:

I dreamed of death. All I could remember from the dream was seeing a hand laying in gravels. The most noticeable thing was the ring on the hand. It was my ring. I recognized it without any doubt. Even though this was the only image I could recall from the nightmare I knew that the dream was about a death. I could feel it strongly when I woke up. I had all but forgotten the events of the dream but the emotions were still vivid.

The ring was an Army Boot Camp ring made very similar to a class ring. After I had the dream I never wore it again. Eventually I sold it to a friend of mine who had attended the same boot camp. A few years later I received a call. My friend had been murdered. He was found laying in rocks and dirt with that ring on his hand.

Did my dream forewarn me of this event? I think it is a possibility. What was the dream trying to communicate to me? I had assumed that the dream was about my death. I had also assumed that the ring was somehow a participant in my death. I stopped wearing the ring as though that would prevent the warned death. Perhaps the dream was simply telling me that my friend would die with that ring on his hand.

Whenever we have a dream that we consider to be prophetic or to have a “meaning” we are faced with the difficult task of interpreting just what the dream means. Dream Symbols most often have very definite meanings but these meanings can vary widely from one person to the next. That is why we cannot rely too much on definitions given in Dream Symbol Dictionaries.

In order to understand the meaning of the symbols within our own dreams we must come to a better and deeper understanding of ourselves. We have to learn what these symbols mean to us because that is how our dreaming mind sees them.

Anything within your dream can be a symbol. An example of a symbol in a dream is a snake. A snake can have many different meanings to different people. As with all other dream symbols they can also have a different meaning for the same person at different times in their life. You also have to look at the symbol in the context that it appeared. What other symbols were present in the dream?

The best way to gain a better understanding of what your dream symbols mean to you is to develop your own dream symbol dictionary. Keep as detailed of a dream journal as you can. Don’t just write down a narrative of what occurred but record your feelings and emotions too. As you continue to write in your journal and re-read your previous entries you will begin to see parallels with your dreams and your life. Gradually you will be able to recognize what the symbols in your dreams are really saying to you.

About The Author:
Copyright 2006 David Slone. Visit Why Do We Dream for information on dreams such as nightmares, sleepwalking, lucid dreaming and more. Free content articles you can use on your website, ezine or newsletter. You may republish this article on your website provided author information and active link(s) are left intact.

There has been much study on Telepathy in the animal kingdom. Many have experienced telepathy from human to human. Some have experienced telepathy from pets, both sending and even on rare occasion receiving. There are so many studies that show it is not coincidence or explainable by probability. In fact the statistics are so strong that after reading only a few studies and pitting that against your own observations in your ego-centric life experience that any normal human would have to agree.

Now then let me tell you of a theory of mine. It relates to the ability to send and receive thought or signals from one animal to another and perhaps to other species. In my theory I believe that the brain, which is working at a higher level or frequency is able to send better and than the brain working at a lower level. In lower levels it is better to receive thought. In other words the easiest time to receive is when one is a sleep. Now then lets us take both the paranormal theories of the collective consciousness and the current studies being done at MIT, Stanford and other places with telepathy. It appears when joining into the collective consciousness it is best to be a low theta state of mind.

Many would disagree with the theories of sending at higher rates of cognition in the beta or hyper beta realm, yet it appears that you can send information when you mind is running at higher RPMs. Yet there appears to be much advantage at the higher frequency level, in retrieving information stored in the faithful servant side of the brain when at higher Beta Frequencies. If one is drinking caffeine it is often interesting to watch them recall facts very quickly in observing conversations almost to the point of being on a game show. If you watch two people talk both drinking coffee you will see a much faster, detailed type conversation under rapid fire of neurons.

The reason I believe that a brain going at faster Beta waves can send information better has to do with my experience racing motorcycles and in riding on the street. At times I was able to send a thought such as; “look here” or “don’t pull out of that driveway” and instantly the driver would stop and look. I got so good at it that I could tell it was me doing it. Even when the wind was blowing the other way and the driver had the air-conditioning and radio on, they did not hear me. This even occurred at times when I was going very fast, but coasting out of gear. Now then other experiences I have had, have been when out running or jogging, when the heart rate was high, not from adrenaline of the motorcycle or the rush of oxygen in combination in the body; but rather from high cardiovascular exercise rates where I could signal to local wildlife on a trail, do not worry, I am just going to run by. Small Squirrels, rabbits or even watchdogs would just watch and stand there as I went by. I could also signal guard dogs to not bark, but they would come running up to the fence to watch me job by. Other times I would send out threatening thoughts to the animals and they would go berserk and try to get over the fence to attack me.

It appears that when you are in hyper beta frequency ranges you can command events to occur or even people to call you that you know. You can send out thoughts to animals or people and even invade the collective with thoughts you wish to get out, information. If you have ever been at a large concert is seems the music is playing into the collective and the excitement seems to allow those on stage to collect the energy and stay in hyper beta, maybe even more so if they are on drugs, thus the send of information thru music is so powerful as they generally are also sending out emotion, which everyone who is there, is freely open to collect.

It also appears to be able to send out information to the collective if you are in hyper-beta while most others are in low or extremely low frequency states of sleep, this too has been my observation. If a dog, cat or parrot, which have all been documented to pick up thoughts from their owners sometimes hundreds of miles a way and they are running on lower frequencies than humans, then this theory makes sense. There are hundreds of thousands of cases of telepathy being picked up by animals from humans and only a few rare cases of humans picking up telepathy signals from animals. Generally these rare cases are from distressed animals at a time when their systems, bodies and mind are in hyper status for them. Animals with bigger ranges in their brain waves seems to have the greater number of cases from animal to human. I will also recommend this book to you:

“The Sense of Being Stared At and other aspects of the extended mind” By Rupert Shelrake.

So, then after studying this and pitting it against your own observations you might come to my conclusion that hyper Beta helps in sending telepathy to others. For receiving it appears to be best for unification of the collective of minds to be at very low frequencies. However two people of similar frequencies in close proximity seem to be able to communicate with a minimal amount of difficulty fairly easily with practice. Anyway think on all this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

It’s hard to find a song that isn’t about ‘the war of the brains’. Because we have three brains that are often in conflict with one another (reptilian, limbic and neocortex), we suffer conflict, guilt and shame.

And because our brains are the way they are, we are the way we are, — we endure love, grief, excitement, inconvenient passions, attempts at rational control, impotent anger and the need to push to the head of the line. And we do dumb things like fool around with Jose’s faithless girl. (Don’t go there!)

EQ is about experiencing and managing those emotions — yours and theirs — and it’s in all our songs.

It used to be the Western tradition to have a poet laureate - starting in England in the 1600s, appointed for poetic excellence and being a salaried member of the royal household with no official duties, they spoke the feelings for the people. (Poets laureate of England included Jonson, Dryden, Wordsworth and Tennyson, among others.)

Though states in the US continue to appoint poets laureate, poetry is no longer “popular” (as in ‘enjoyed by many people’) and their original function is now filled by our popular music.

EQ is about experiencing and managing those emotions — yours and theirs — and it’s in all our songs.

1. Kodachrome (Paul Simon) / EQ can matter more than IQ, especially when it means being able to “read the writing on the wall”

When I think back on all the k*** I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all, and my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none, I can read the writing on the wall.

2. Heaven’s Just a Sin Away (The Kendalls) / Primitive (Reptilian) Brain’s winning out over limbic and neocortex

Heaven’s just a sin away, just a sin away, can’t wait another day, I think I’m giving in. How I’d love to hold you tight, be with you tonight, that still won’t make it right, ’cause I belong to him. Way down deep inside, I know that it’s all wrong, your eyes keep tempting me, and I never was that strong. The devil’s got me now, gone and got me now, I can’t fight him any how, I think he’s gonna win … Heaven help me when I say, I think I’m giving in.

3. The Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time (Mickey Gilley) / Reality check, chemical , low impulse control and intentionality, low EQ

Ain’t it funny, ain’t it strange, how a man’s opinion changes when he starts to face that lonely night… The girls all get prettier at closing time, they all begin to look like movie stars. If I could rate ‘em on a scale from 1-10, I’m looking for a 9, but 8 could work right in. A few more drinks, and I might slip to 5 or even 4, and when tomorrow morning comes and I wake up with a number 1, I swear I’ll never do it any more.

4. Count on Me (The Statler Brothers) / Empathy, communication, interpersonal skills, intuition, high EQ, what a couple

I can tell by looking, you’ve got feelings in your heart you’re hoping no one else can see. But you can’t hide feelings from someone who cares. Open up and let it out, and count on me. Count on me (for doing my share), Count on me (you know that I care), Count on me (I’ll always be there), Count on me. Count on me (when others won’t hear), Count on me (when there’s no one else near), Count on me (I’ll be right here), Count on me. I hear the sounds you’re saying, but the words don’t ring true, there’s something here that didn’t used to be. If there’s something deep inside you, tell me now what you need, and together we can heal it, count on me.

5. The Baptism of Jesse Taylor (The Oak Ridge Boys) / Social Responsibility, Self-Management, Authenticity

>From now on Nancy Taylor can proudly speak to neighbors and tell them how much Jesse took up with little Jim. Now Jimmy’s got a Daddy, and Jesse’s got a family, and Franklin County’s got a lot more man.

6. Rhythm Guitar (The Oak Ridge Boys) / Interpersonal Skills, Teamwork

He’s written a song about what’s gone wrong, and I’m singin’ it to you now. Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus, Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band. It’s hard to get a bead on what’s divine, when everybody’s pushin’ for the head of the line.

7. He’s Gonna Smile on Me (The Oak Ridge Boys) / Resilience, bouncing back and retaining hope and trust through adversity

I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Often there were times when I had to go without. I’ve been called a fool, and used just like a tool, but I still believe in the Golden Rule. And right now I’m so happy as I can be.

8. Tell Him (The Exciters) / Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal

Take his hand in yours and tell him that you’re never gonna leave him. Tell him, tell him, tell him, tell him right now.

9. Rose-Colored Glasses (Jon Conlee) / Learned Optimism, which is not always reality-based

These rose-colored glasses that I’m lookin’ through, show only the beauty, ’cause they hide all the truth, and they let me hold on to the good times, the good lines, the ones I used to hear when I held you. And they keep me from feelin’ so cheated, defeated, when reflections in your eyes show me a fool … these rose-colored glasses …I’ll just keep on hopin’, believin’ that maybe by counting the many times I’ve tried, you’ll believe me when I say I love you, and I’ll lay these rose-colored glasses aside.

10. Come a Little Bit Closer (Jay and the Americans) / the three Fs - fight, flight or, canoodle ? (from the reptilian brain comes those powerful ones — territorial defense, aggression, violence, lust and fear)

She was sitting there giving me looks that made my mouth water, so I started walking her way. She belonged to that man Jose, and I knew, yes I knew, I should leave, but then I heard her say, “Come a little bit closer, you’re my kinda man, so big and so strong, come a little bit closer, I’m all alone and the night is so long.” We started to dance, in my arms she looked so inviting, and I just couldn’t resist just one little kiss so exciting. Then I heard the guitar player say “Vamoos, Jose’’s on his way,” and I knew, yes I knew I should run, but then I heard her say …

Life Coaching is a therapy that has become very familiar over the last 5 years. The term performance coaching first became accepted in the USA where, together with Neuro Linguistic Programming, it became part of an improved marvellous wave of hugely proactive therapy techniques.

In many ways both Success Coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming are a reaction against certain factors of the Humanistic therapy movement, in particular Humanistic and Person Centred Counselling. A problem of the human-centred approach is that it is exceedingly reactive and not truly proactive. Although all this works wonderful with some customers, with others long periods of impasse or low return for time and effort occur. Success coaching and NLP are both humanistic in stance, spending time on improving a person?s smiles rather than delving into the minefields of childhood, as in traditional psychoanalysis. Success coachings emphasis is, however, deliberately proactive and resolve issues. Change your attitude with Life Coaching in London from Easily Achieve.

Performance coaching is not about preaching to the client what to do. This is a common misconception. Some coaches are somewhat successful in their business careers and then make the change to coaching, thinking that they will at most be required to share their pearls of outstanding business wisdom with the client. This is more like mentoring a person in a specific environment. Coaching is instead about life as a collective.

That’s the reason why now you really need to suss out and interpret if you can have a money loan at a right percent rate of interest.

Translated in Dutch it means: Woon je in Alphen-Chaam of Heeze-Leende en heb je BKR. Lenen met zonder BKR is nergens zo eenvoudig. Verwen jezelf met een nieuwe caravan met lenen van geld zonder bkr, 393291 euro is geen obstakel om te financieren. Van Sint-Oedenrode tot Ferwerderadiel, financieren met een BKR notering is hier geen enkel probleem.

5.8 percent rate may seem so acceptable but will it stay unalterable after you’re going to riposte your deferred payment. Now you can suss out interest rates quickly at websites and find out if there are other possible traps you should be aware of. A lot of the moneylenders wil show you a loan rate that looks reasonable but feels severely or so after a period of time. It makes no difference if you live in Euclid Ohio or in Meridian Mississippi a fine online inspection will alleviate you often lots of discommode. Check up to see if the bank who wants to give you a credit loan is just. You should be impertinent today to check out if you have a bargain or if you don’t with the merchant bank that offers you a loan. A moneylender in Chesterfield Missouri or so may have a total totally different actual interest rate for a 20000 dollar credit loan then a moneylender in Norfolk Virginia and that makes a immense clear gap in your weekly pay offs.

About 21 million people suffer from depression. Depression affects the way one feels about themselves. It involves the body, mood and thoughts. If a person is depressed it can affect the way they sleep and eat. Having depression is not the same as feeling blue temporarily. Despite of what some people think it is not a sign of weakness either. If a person with depression doesn’t get any treatment then it can last for weeks, months or even years. Treatment can help most people overcome depression.

There are different types of depression. The three most common types are major depression, dysthymia and bipolar disorder. Major depression is a combination of symptoms. Having major depression will affect your everyday life such as working, sleeping and eating. Dysthymia is a less severe form of depression. It involve long-term chromic symptoms, however they are not disabling like major depression. It will keep them from feeling good. People with dysthymia can suffer from an episode of major depression.

Bipolar disorder is sometimes called manic-depressive disorder. Bipolar is characterized by cycling mood changes. Severe highs are called mania or manic. And lows are depression. Sometimes the cycle changes are dramatic and rapid. Most of the time the cycle is gradual. When in the depression cycle, a person can get most symptoms of major depression. When they cycle to mania, they will often have lots of energy, be very talkative and overactive. Mania can affect judgment and social behavior. This may cause serious problems and lead to embarrassment. If the mania is untreated it can worsen to a psychotic state.

Depression can be inherited. It often runs in families. The question is, is it inherited genetically or learned behavior. Depression can occur in somebody who has no family. Bipolar studies have shown that families, whose members of each generation develop bipolar, that those with illness have a different genetic makeup than those who do not become ill with the disorder. Whether the depression disorder is inherited or not, depression is associated with the changes in the brain structure and or brain function.

Women have been known to experience depression more often that men. For women many hormonal factors contribute to the higher rate of depression. Especially during menstrual cycle changes, pregnancy, post partum and menopause. Also environmental stress factors such as single parenthood, caring for children and aging parents.

Men are less likely to develop depression, however men are more likely to deny that they are depressed and unfortunately doctors are less likely to suspect it. The rate of suicide is higher in men, but more women attempt suicide. The rate of suicide increases in men around the age of 70 and peaks after the age of 85. Depression in men may often be masked by the use of alcohol or drugs. They may work extremely long hours. If a man realizes he is in depression he is more unlikely to seek help for treatment.

Some symptoms of depression are sad, anxious, feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, pessimism, loss of interest in pleasurable hobbies, fatigue, hard time concentrating, insomnia or oversleeping, weight gain or loss, thoughts of suicide and persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, like headaches, chronic pain, and digestive disorders.

Here are some examples of mania; excessive happiness, unusual irritability, lack of need for sleep, increased talking, racing thoughts, increased sexual desire, a big increase in energy, poor judgment and inappropriate behavior.