Emotions Come From Thoughts » Self-Discovery

Self-Discovery Points to Ponder

newyou — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:48:00 +0000

“If the world stands bewildered and confused in the face of its trouble, it is partly because we Westerners have made a God of activity; we have yet learn how to be, as we have already learnt how to do.” Paul Brunton

“This, I believe, is the great truth: that each of us is a completely unique creature and that, if we are ever to give any gift to the world, it will come out of our experience and fulfillment of our own potentialities, not someone else’s.” Joseph Campbell

“Our society considers hard work, intense recreation, vigorous exercise, rushing through the day, excessive eating, frquent anger, occasional deep depression, and sex without love as “normal”, and we have become addicted to the brain chemicals that accompany these so-called normal behaviors.”
Paul Pearson

“I am convinced that knowledge and action are frequently synonymous, identical in the Socratic fashion. Where we know fully and completely, suitable action follows automatically and reflexively. Choices are made without conflict.”
Abrahan Maslow

Self-Discovery Model

newyou — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:24:00 +0000

“In our lives we are faced with a set of core issues that resurface again and again in different settings, with different people, at different times. These issues involve our relationship with the world, with ourselves, with our Higher Power. These are our life lessons.” Stephanie Covington and Liana Beckett

In the self-discovery model of group healing, everyone in the group is a student. The sharing of power in relationships defines the health of the relationship. No hierarchy is needed when people enter groups to help each other. The leadership of the group can be shared by all on a rotation basis.

The group members in the self-discovery group must agree to follow guidelines that the group chooses. The main goal of the group should be short-term with the idea of splitting up to form new groups. Some people may choose to recycle–repeat the same group–before branching out to their own group. After 2-3 times recycling, the other group members may help with the formation of new group to a group member who needs more support.

Secrets to Happiness

admin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:43:34 +0000

Dr. Steven Reiss survived a liver transplant before he decided to look at what gave him happiness. Although happiness is often based on pain or pleasure, he found after a survey of 6,000 people that the main basis of happiness is more based on 16 keys to happiness. The survey was conducted by him and his graduate students.

The main difference the survey revealed is that pleasure-based happiness is very short-lived. Instead he determined that long-lasting happiness is based on what gives our lives meaning and helps our lives have a greater meaning.

He created 16 basic desires that he called “value-based” give us happiness. He also realized that the more value-based desire that we satisfy, the more value-based happiness we experience. The fulfilling of these desires is what gives our lives direction and purpose.

Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs proposed in 1943 that as we progressively satisfy our basic needs, we will progress to “higher” needs. Wikipedia lists Maslow’s needs as deficiency needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, and status (esteem) and being needs (self-actualization and self-transcendence).

When I started my main blog, kathyberman.com, I felt driven to write 10-12 hours a day for most of time. I clearly recognized that I was satisfying the need I had to share all I had learned in this 30-year spiritual journey called recovery. The good feelings I get from the writing are a byproduct of my releasing all I know so that I can acquire new knowledge.

The 16 keys to happiness in Dr. Reiss’s book, Who Am I: The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Happiness and Define Our Personalities are: curiosity, acceptance, order, physical activity, honor, power, independence, social contact, family, status, idealism, vengeance, romance, eating, saving, tranquility, and illustrations.

The book is for sale here or ISBN number is 0-425-18340-8.