“ Picture your twenty-first birthday. Did you have a party? If so, do you remember who was there? Now step back: how clear are those memories? Is there a chance that you’re remembering incorrectly? And where have the many details you can no longer recall gone? Are they hidden somewhere in your brain, or are they gone forever ? ” wrote Alison Winter wrote in her book about the fragments of memory. Is everything we hear, see, smell, feel—in short, everything we experience—being recorded and stored somewhere ? Where is this place ? How is it that we remember …
Category: Psychology
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other. – Walter Elliot The Strength of a Dancer Marion Barbeau, the principal dancer at the Paris Opera doesn’t complain. She has a goal and she moves forward. In 2022, the French film Rise (En Corps) starred her story – a dancer’s transformation after a serious injury –which attracted 1.5 million viewers in three months. The public recognized something worthy in the story of this ballerina who injured her ankle and had to interrupt her career, undergo rehabilitation for two years, and regain her momentum, …
Highly sensitive people are featured as physically and emotionally more easily stimulated than others do. Being sensitive has both advantages and disadvantages. Yet, in many cultures possessing this trait is not considered ideal. The sensitive person has probably been told to “get over it” as if it were a defect, to feel self-worth and self-confidence. As an adult, it could have been harder to find the right career and relationships. Psychologist Elaine Aron who coined the term “Highly Sensitive Person” articulates that it is not a trait or a flaw that one would briefly describe as “introversion” or “shyness”. Highly …
Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit. – Beethoven “We surrender to music when we listen to it – we allow ourselves to trust the composer and musician with a part of our hearts and our spirits. We let the music take us somewhere outside ourselves. The power of music is that it can connect us to one another, and to larger truths about what it means to be alive and what it means to be human. That is how we are moved by music, ” writes Daniel J. Levitin in …
By believing oneself to be the master of one’s thoughts, one becomes so. “Before you treat someone, ask if they are willing to give up the things that make them sick,” advised Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BC). Since age-old times, philosophers and medical savants have researched to demystify the creative power of human thought. The maxims “Man is what he thinks” and “I think, therefore I exist” have long been common in universal language. As an ancient sage said : Be careful of your thoughts, for they become your words, words become your actions, your actions become your habits, habits …
“Music gives such pleasure that human nature cannot live without it, ” said Confucius. Music is essential says Victor Hugo because “ it expresses what cannot be put into words and what cannot remain silent.” The acclaimed neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist and musician Daniel Levitin explores the mystery of music and how music affects our brains, thoughts and our spirit. He says : The moods that music creates are part of its mystery. What most of us turn to music for is an emotional experience. Because music has the power to induce a certain emotion that will bring back a certain …
The friendship between Sigmund Freud and Romain Rolland at the turn of the 20th century, and how it sparked the interior voyage and the spiritual realization of Rolland The French Nobel laureate writer Romain Rolland (1866-1944), foresaw the power of Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) analytical assessments at the turn of the century in 1909, long before Europe recognized his seminal work on the human psyche. He regarded Freud as “a fellow pilgrim on this black continent, courageous and genius navigator. ” Intrigued by his work, Rolland visited Freud and his daughter Anna Freud (1895-1982) in their apartment in Vienna in 1924. …
As you go deeper into the heart, the mirror becomes clearer and cleaner. –Rumi Carl Gustave Jung, the renowned psychiatrist and psychanalyst defines the inner dialogue as an essential tool of human beings. Often heard at times of inner conflict, it is the precursor of a decision, and propels the self to discern good from bad. Instantaneously sparking self-reflective activity in the mental-psychic fronts, it tends to generate action. The eminent child psychologist D.W. Winnicott defines it as an essential part of development of the “selfhood”. He says: The conversation takes place in the space between fantasy and reality where one …
“Emotions impact health and behavior, and they should be managed to gain self-mastery.” Avicenna (970-1037), the 11th century medical savant and philosopher foretold the imperative role of emotions on human psyche and behavior in his preeminent book, The Canon of Medicine. Centuries later, James Gross, director of Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory known with his emotion regulation model explains: Emotional regulation refers to the process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express their feelings. Human ability to control and regulate emotions using reason and willpower is a pivotal strength. Not only …
The cure for fear is action. Action requires courage. – Aristotle Winter of 1939. Finland is invaded by the Red Army. The Finns are far inferior in numbers and artillery. But they have “sisu” in greater quantities as the story goes. Using their cross-country skiing skills, they manage to surprise and disperse the Russian troops. The Finns describe “ sisu” as the guts, the courage of the lesser. A mixture of audacity and perseverance which leads to never giving up, even when all seems lost. It is an inner strength that transforms one’s supposed inferiority to advantage by thinking out …
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