Take Your Time To Think

Similarly, a well-developed physical brain won't reach its capacities without good software in place (an integrated, cohesive self). For such software not only brings out the brain's fullest potentials but actually adds to those potentials by increasing resilience. The best brain needs the best software to bring out what it can do. And the best software (self) needs the best hardware (brain) to show what it's capable of. The possibilities for radiant health that emerge from the latest research reveal an extraordinary picture: A brain and self that are joyously alive, vitally engaged, and excited to greet each new day's challenges, lovingly connected to others in personal life and work, confident, positive, able to handle adversity and to bounce back from setbacks. Feeling really good springs naturally from simply being alive. This intrinsic vitality is a call to actively engage the world, to unfold our latent inner possibilities. It's helpful to stay calm enough to use positive communication, to validate her feelings while you preserve consistent expectations for her behavior: I understand you miss using. It sounds hard. Do you want to talk about it? It's not so helpful to escalate into anxiety, which implies that you don't believe she can handle it, or to fight with it, since trying to talk her out of her feelings sets her up to defend them. Nor should you try to make the ambivalence go away by removing whatever feels difficult about change. If she's upset by feedback she got from her therapy group members, for example, it doesn't follow that you should side with her desire to drop out of the group. It's important to distinguish between an expression of ambivalence and a plan of action. Hearing I hated group today, you might understandably leap to fears that she will abandon treatment altogether, and return to a life of drug use. In her mind, she could be contemplating quitting therapy, or she might just feel angry and need to vent. If you remain calm, validate her feelings, and inquire supportively, you will more likely learn what's really going on. Pluto in the sign before or after your Sun sign torments. This is the one area of life you can't make peace with. Pluto in the sign two signs before or after your Sun plays for keeps.

This Pluto means serious business. Pluto in the sign three signs before or after your Sun sign is a power struggle. These are the battles you fight as if your life depended on it. Pluto in the sign four signs before or after your Sun sign regenerates. You keep coming back no matter how many times you're cut down. Pluto in the sign five signs before or after your Sun sign is anyone's guess. It's hard to tell if that thing you're fixated on is worth the trouble or will wind up costing everything you hold dear. Such a person is drawn to discover what's possible, to learn about other people, to appreciate the beauty that nature reveals and the intimate connections life offers. This brain and self have an emotional stability that allows painful, negative feelings to be felt, their meaning processed and moved through rather than avoided. When the brain is continually attacked, when the brain's integrity is constantly being eroded, and when this happens in such small amounts that no one source is noticed, the world does indeed seem like a scary place. When leaky gut and leaky brain let in toxins that need to be continuously beaten back, the brain and self naturally feel under threat. And when the threat is unknown, the world appears to be very dangerous. Fear can then attach itself to anything. When the brain and self are radiantly healthy, the world appears quite different. The joy of being alive vastly outweighs life's challenges. Dangers still exist but can be dealt with without thinking the sky is falling. What this means, however, is the brain's and self's capacities are engaged on every level: body, heart, mind, spirit. Not only is ambivalence normal; If your loved one's ambivalence is hard for you to hear, consider the alternative; Ambivalence, when it is allowed out in the open, makes times of vulnerability more accessible to help.

If she says she feels worse rather than better without using substances, that's an opportunity to problem-solve how she could improve her mood. When you identify a target (her low mood), you can work on it. If it stays hidden, she might return to use later because it was not addressed. Allowing for ambivalence will help you handle the next topic: her goals for treatment. Defining Substance Goals Beyond particular treatment goals--total abstinence or moderation; You may have strong feelings about his goals, and the treatment program most likely has a position on them too. Pluto in the sign six signs away from your Sun sign is a total disconnect. You don't identify with this Pluto in any way, so that what happens is it gets projected onto others--particularly in relationships or with close business associates. You may feel like it's the other person who's too obsessive, intense, or self-destructive. What if you have Pluto retrograde? Pluto retrogrades are known for long gestation periods. They're so long that you can go years--even decades! It's both exciting and unsettling because you're filled with this urge to make up for lost time. And you will. But the thing about Pluto retrogrades is that once spent, this wild part of you goes back to sleep again--leaving you wondering why you did the things you did and if it will ever come back again. Meanwhile the landscape of your life has been irrevocably altered. In simpler times, when the world was less developed, all food was organic, there were hardly any neurotoxins in the environment, and the brain wasn't under siege like it is now. Dangers were easier to see. Nowadays, however, it a toxic jungle out there.

Traveling without a map is hazardous to your health. Just as a map was needed in times past to get through a jungle full of unexplored dangers, so modern life requires a whole other kind of map to avoid the predators and dangers in a techno-toxic environment. The map that's needed now is a multi-dimensional map, for the hazards are not just physical but emotional, mental, and spiritual. Such a map needs to show not only what's dangerous and to be avoided or minimized, but also where to find succor and nourishment. Such a multi-dimensional map will point out the minefield that is daily life and show the way to safety, health, love, and peace. This article lays out a map for brain health. It shows how neurotoxins abound, even in what should be the safest of places (who knew that handling receipts or cotton balls could expose you to endocrine-disrupting chemicals that could alter your brain chemistry? There is a common (and common-sense) equating of treatment with abstinence. It rings true because usually by the time someone shows up for treatment, or by the time you are motivated to pick up this article, the problem is serious. What we are addressing here, however, is your role in helping your loved one own his goals, whatever they are. And here, we make two important distinctions: First, what is the most sensible goal? Second, what does he want to do? These don't always converge, and that's where you can help. Many people come to treatment believing that they need to achieve abstinence from all substances. This is by far the most prevalent goal, and it is certainly the goal that has been researched the most as an outcome measure for treatment effectiveness studies. The problem, as we discussed in the previous section, is ambivalence. One of the few studies to look directly at nonabstinence goals addressed it beautifully. Although Pluto is considered the co-ruler of Scorpio, the traditional rules of domicile, detriment, exaltation, and fall do not apply to Pluto and the other two modern planets: Uranus and Neptune. PLUTO IN LEO (1937/39-1956/58) You never grow old.

Your skin may wrinkle and your hair may turn gray, but you'll always approach life like a child--full of wonder with a carefree heart and a love of play. You have made yourself practically immune to the forces of cynicism and disillusionment. It's because you refuse to buy into a negative worldview that says you are anything less than. You will always be fabulous, special, and gifted for as long as you live. It's why you shut out haters, beat back critics, and take sideswipes at punks who call you boomer. You were born young at heart and nobody's going to take that away from you. But being an eternal child isn't all it's cracked up to be. Further, a multi-dimensional map is important not only to avoid neurotoxic influences but to nourish your brain and self. After healing comes maintenance. Brain health is a way of life, not just a temporary fix. Live as if the brain and psyche matter. Nourish your body, brain, and self. As the reader knows well by now, this means to actively engage your full consciousness. Yes, eat well and intelligently, exercise and rest your body, but nourish your self and spirit as well. Life is so much more than what's on the news or your screen. To enter into the deeper realms of living requires a brain and self that aren't in continual disintegration. It requires physical and psycho-spiritual practices that begin with your inherent aspiration for a greater, fuller life. In the early 1970s, psychologists Mark and Linda Sobell published the results of a study on a treatment for alcohol abusers in which a key difference in the two treatment approaches was the goal of treatment. Patients were evaluated as potentially eligible for a moderation goal, and then randomly assigned to either an abstinence goal with treatment as usual (for example, group therapy or AA meetings), or a moderation goal and cognitive-behavioral procedures. The outcome?