Life's a Gas

When you're standing in the zero-point position, you're no longer provoking a reaction, and as a result nobody will attack you or react to you. The following exercise is believed to absorb the energy from situations. EXERCISE: ABSORB YOUR ATTACKER'S ENERGY The more energy your counterpart actually wants to put into his `attack,' the more energy flows to you and the more potential you'll have at your disposal! Armed with this knowledge, you may find that during an attack you'd like to be yelled at even louder, confronted, and attacked even more, because the energy is no longer directed against you but simply flows into your system. This feels like a warm wind. Hold your right palm open in front of you and place your left palm on your thigh, as in the illustration. The right palm absorbs energy, while the left palm allows the energy to circulate in your system. But more than that, I was taken with the wonderful oddness of their appearance. They wore blue veils covered in ski hats, worn fleece and down vests over their tunics, and hiking boots poking out underneath their garments. As Filipino women and as nuns dressed like backpackers, they struck me as slightly out of place. But no, they were permanent residents of this Benedictine abbey in the foothills of northern Colorado, and were delighted to be here. We only make about one coffin per month, one said, pulling me out of my trance. We're not IKEA, after all! This joke sent them into a fit of genuine and joyful laughter; We just don't go very fast-- Oh, except that one time we pulled an all-nighter! Which sent them both laughing to the point of tears. Some changes came over the course of time, others directly from the stroke. No one understands how much stroke has affected your life as well as you and your partner.

All marriages take work to stay strong. Communicate effectively. Ease back on taking everything on as your personal responsibility. Give as much responsibility, power, and freedom to your stroke survivor/partner as is safely possible. He or she may surprise you. This will provide you with the opportunity to speak with others who are going through similar circumstances. An evening out with friends or even a weekend away relieves stress enormously. Walk around the block or join a gym or exercise facility. We have all had those moments where we have had to go home to check the gas was not left on, but an obsessive-compulsive can be paralysed by an inability to dispel these thoughts. Some obsessive-compulsives are so worried about germs that they repetitively wash their hands until they bleed. This syndrome responds fantastically to boosting brain serotonin levels with Prozac and other 5-HT drugs. As the painstakingly accurate and fastidiously researched article Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Research states:19 In fact, SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, the class of drugs of which Prozac is a member) deserve far more credit for successfully treating this than their dubious record with `depression' (suicide is more common after SSRIs20). The only problem with Prozac in OCD is that the disease often relapses once Prozac is stopped. I hope by this point the reason for this would be obvious. The disease is not originating in the brain: it is being caused by abnormal serotonin metabolism in the gut! This abnormal serotonin biochemistry causes the brain to malfunction. Prozac works, for sure, but it is a sticking plaster over the true cause - abnormal (spleen) metabolism of serotonin. Scary quiet. When we're agitated and distressed and feel unsafe, it's as if all is well with the world.

We know what to expect. We can handle it. But we can't handle feeling good and peaceful and safe. If we allow ourselves to feel safe, that'll be our undoing. We won't be on guard. We won't be ready for the bad stuff. So we mustn't feel safe--because it's not safe to. She nods slowly, looking intentfully at me, like she's trying to absorb it all and make sure she doesn't miss a single beat of what I'm saying. Don't ever walk away from me. I want the truth. Who are you seeing? Don't touch me. You're way out of control. Madeline screams. Alex illustrates over-the-top distrust of his girlfriend. However, his somewhat paranoid feelings don't rise to the level of psychotic delusions. The difference between a psychotic delusion and Alex's paranoid distrust is that even though Alex jumps to a conclusion with no real evidence, his girlfriend may be cheating on him -- the idea isn't completely unreasonable or unrealistic. Thus, nothing about his jealous thoughts completely departs from reality. The teacher had beautifully decorated the classroom. Two students were assigned to hand out the cards.

As they were delivered, I sat and watched the pile of cards grow on my desk. I felt so proud to be like everyone else, getting lots of cards. When it was all done, the card-giving turned out just as I'd expected. Other than the valentines I sent to myself, there were no other cards. I was thankful I had dreamed up my scheme, because I would have wanted to crawl under a rock and hide rather than sit there with an empty desktop. As everyone opened their cards, I looked around the room and thought how lonely I felt at that moment. The consequences of being different and not fitting in were starting to sink in. The realization was overwhelming. To fight effectively, you need to prepare by tracking the manipulator's attacking behavior, and attach the specific actions, dates, and names of everyone involved. However, confrontation is not necessarily a rude battle. Deliberately state the facts and propose options for going forward. Once the robot knows what you know, they are unlikely to continue to mess with you, especially when you elaborate on the possibility of submitting an appropriate report to your supervisor or HR. When you try to protect yourself, remember that leaders have always used psychology to manipulate their teams. It is a common example, such as providing feedback strategically or subtly convincing tired employees to go home. The difference is that great leaders care about the progress of the team rather than their interests. If you can teach a malicious manipulator on how to reduce self or fear and do it, everyone will win. Manipulating behavior can be mild or severe. The behavior will vary depending on the operator's intentions, how much they care about you, and whether personality disorders such as narcissism behind their behavior. What Solnit documented in her research is that communities don't collapse into violence after events of this nature--as we're often led to believe--but come together into relationship, often with a sense of purpose and resilience. Without romanticizing the impact of natural disasters, which have devastating effects--particularly on oppressed people--Solnit's article reminds us that it is people who help us through arduous experiences.

In a moment when social systems that can keep us apart collapse, we come together in creative, resilient, life-affirming ways that remind each of us of our shared humanity. The point here is that trauma recovery happens in community--whether it is in the aftermath of a natural disaster or a community coming together to build powerful, collective spaces for healing. A considerable body of research tells us that interpersonal relationships are central to our well-being and to lowering the probability of physical illness. Traumatized human beings recover in the context of relationships: with families, with loved ones, AA meetings, veterans' organizations, religious communities, or professional therapists. The role of those relationships is to provide physical and emotional safety, including safety from feeling shamed, admonished, or judged, and to bolster the courage to tolerate, face, and process the reality of what's happened. It's important for trauma-sensitive practitioners to keep the power of community close at hand in our work. As a psychotherapist, I've been conditioned to think of trauma recovery as something that happens behind closed doors, in the presence of a trauma professional. But the integration of trauma also happens in the presence of family and community members who care about our well-being. When you feel warmth, you've received the energy; Buddha is often depicted with this hand position. The right palm faces upward; If you want to use this technique while sitting down, without your `attacker' noticing, turn your right palm upward at the very least - your fingertips should still be pointing forward - or lay your hand open as if you're receiving something in it. Once you engage, you absorb part of the person's energy. THE `TROUBLE' PLAYING FIELD In the lower dimensions of R4 (spacetime, consisting of D1-D4), you're on the `Trouble' playing field. You're in G3 and can be described through length, width, height, time, and so on, and therefore, numerology and astrology also work in these dimensions. But the moment you switch to G4, you lose these limitations. Let's imagine a playing piece on this G3 `playing field. The son called and asked, `Is it dry yet? We are total amateurs, said the other.