Imagination is Power

"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
-Stephen Covey-

Any frequent "daydreamer" knows that it's not unlikely to sometimes miss entire conversations going on around you due to the mental energy being used inside your own mind to create your artificial environment. It's this ability to shut down entire sensory modalities in order to utilize our brains' ability to create entirely original ideas that sets us apart from other, less-inteligent animals. This ability to create new information using recombined bits of our memories is also known as imagination, and it has led mankind into making some of its greatest achievements. In cognitive psychology, one form of human imagination is the combination of several simple parts into more complex new objects, and it is this kind of imagination that is frequently the origin of scientific innovations. The "recombinations" are also what inspires those "ah-ha" moments in our lives. Yet, beyond the realm of invention, our imagination can also be used as a tool with which we can create new experiences in our lives. This is the kind of imagination that inspires those times when you're sitting in your cubicle around 2 PM while your conscious mind is busy sitting on the beach in the Bahamas.

On a more serious note, though, I want to encourage those who are stuck in a bad situation or who are unhappy in their lives to use their imagination to their advantage. When I was a child, I read books and wrote my own stories about magical worlds and impossible feats of adventure. Now I understand that this was a way for me to explore the world of possibilities and have limitless "playgrounds" while still being physically situated in rural Tennessee. I know It may not seem very useful in the moment, but, as Einstein once said: "Imagination is everything. It's the preview of life's coming attractions." In other words, our imagination is a method by which we can peer into the future and determine the means by which to attain the goals we envision. So let's take an astronaut, for example. This astronaut often imagines himself as being the first human to walk on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. This astronaut is very passionate about reaching Titan so he starts thinking of all of the conceivable ways in which he could get himself there. Eventually he may combine his knowledge of space travel with other, unrelated bits of information in his memory to create a new method of long-distance space travel that no one else would have been able to conceive. If he had not been able to imagine himself reaching that planet then he may not have attempted to find a way to get there. What's more is that none of society would have been able to benefit from the technology that would result. Had he, at any point, told himself that it was impossible for humans to get to Titan then his uncertainty would have prevented the possiblity from becoming the reality it could have once been. So:

The moment that you lose hope in the possibility of the future you imagine for yourself is, ironically, the same moment that it becomes impossible to attain.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you can never lose confidence in the things that you imagine for yourself. Even if the result is, in fact, impossible to achieve. I can guarantee to you that the effect of having hope in itself is worthy of the effort. All I know is that despite the amount of human suffering in the world, there is still a constant forward motion. Things must, by their nature, change and the smartest of us are the ones who know how to direct the motion in their lives. I don't think that people need ultimate control over their lives to be happy, but I do know that hope always gives us strength and I've never seen a situation wherein strength wasn't a powerful ally. So imagine the life you want and don't allow yourself to question the possibility that it can come true. Maybe you will surprise yourself.

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When the Mind Gets Sick...

Would you be surprised to hear that "the leading cause of disability in the US and Canada [is mental illness]" or that 1 in 4 Americans suffer from mental illness each YEAR? Yes,1 IN 4 AMERICANS THIS YEAR . In other words, one person in every average-sized (2 parent/caregiver+2 child) home will suffer from a mental illness this year. Who do you think it will be in your family this year? You? Your child? Your parent? Regardless, it doesn't take much more calculating to understand why ALL OF US will experience a disorder in thought, mood or personality at some point(s) during our lives.

Ok. Ok. OK. Let me back track a bit and explain why I am posting about this topic today. Of the quarter of Americans that suffer from mental illness this year, only half of those will seek therapeutic treatment for it. The recent "discussions" about the state of mental healthcare in this country have been quite heated. I believe that, without a doubt, the greatest delay in progress comes from the stigma of mental illness that permeates our culture. The media and the legal system encourage the implicit association between mental disorders and criminality and we all, to some degree, subconsciously absorb this belief. Hopefully, you understand why this association is dangerous for all of us, but I will assume that you need it explained:

1. When illnesses are stigmatized, people don't seek treatment out of embarrassment and shame.
2. When mental illnesses go untreated, they can escalate into more severe and more enduring conditions that can SOMETIMES pose a threat to the individual or others
3. These rare cases get picked up by the media thus strengthening the stigma and perpetuating the cycle.
4. Eventually, the stability of our public health & safety can become threatened if the availability of mental health treatments diminish. This occurs when therapists, researchers, and doctors choose more profitable fields.

So, how do we stop the process before it gets any worse? Well, we can start with developing an understanding that the family member that sleeps too much, or the boy whose face turns red when someone talks to him, or the woman who is mean to everyone for no reason, or the loud girl in your class, or that socially awkward co-worker may all be suffering from untreated mental illnesses. Does that mean they are crazy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! It means that they have the mind's equivalence of a cold and they need to go to the doctor before it turns into the flu. I'm not ashamed to say that I, too, have suffered from mental illness in my life, but I can personaly attest to the fact that therapy works! Whenever I have a panic attack, I immediately see my therapist to determine the root cause of my anxieties because I understand that my personality type promotes this kind of negative reaction to stress. I, also, used to be a cigarette smoker due to my untreated anxieties, but now that I manage my stress in healthier ways, I have been smoke-free for a year. You'll be surprised with what all will improve in your life when you get your mind straightened out.

Anyway, so what can you do to help? The best thing you can do is to focus on yourself with this one. It never hurts to talk about your life to someone who will listen without judgement or bias even if you don't think you have a disorder at the moment. So go see a licensed therapist or psychiatrist and spread the word that you are tending to your mental health as part of a well-rounded health plan. Join this movement of self-respect and help end a harmful social stigma at the same time!!!

For More Information on Mental Health (source: www.NIMH.NIH.gov):
Educational Resources about Mental Health and Illness
Source of the statistics used in this post

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The Millenials' Challenge

As a member of the Millenial generation, I have an understanding of the fatal flaw that the American culture suffers from. Our elders are from an era of American prosperity when the wealth was abundant and access to successful endeavors were available to anyone willing to work for them. Unfortunately, America is no longer that nation of opportunity. The millenials, myself included, were raised to believe that we could do anything we wanted, but we, instead, are meeting our futures with disappointment.

Just as we are entering into adulthood, the world seems to be closing its doors on us. We are left holding the reigns of our future while the "roadmaps" that once led us to our destinations seem to be leading us even deeper into the world of inopportunity. It seems like some kind of premise for a Greek Tragedy, doesn't it? A hero on a journey of insurmountable odds....So let's stick with that analogy for a moment.

We are now in the depths of the "labyrinth", but this is our time to prove ourselves. It would be easy to convince ourselves that we are deserving of this misfortune and give up, but the point of this challenge is to prove our worth. In the original Greek tragedies, the protagonist would be given a challenge wherein he/she would have to prove his-/herself as being stronger than the gods believed possible from a mere human. In this challenge, the hero had to descend into darkness and, in doing so, become removed from the comforts of the outside world. Starting to understand the analogy?

The point is that we, as a generation, have been charged with the responsibility of repairing the broken pieces of our country, and with reshaping the pieces that don't seem to fit right anymore. If we can lead our country through this catharsis then we will know we have trascended the limitations placed upon our futures. So don't get discouraged by all the closed doors because they are only making us stronger as a generation.

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To make a better world...

Psychology is the study of the human brain, the cognitive processes, and the biological and social factors which influence our behavior. In American culture, the topic is devalued due to reasons in which I will discuss in a future post, but for now, just know that a firm understanding of how people think and interact is a powerful foundation in life whether or not our society is outwardly aware of it. I would even argue that a course in psychology should be included in the required curriculum of high school graduates as it both prepares you for interactions in the business world (for non-collegiate tracks) and provides you with a very applicable knowledge base for social and science majors.

Within the field, psychologists typically choose to specialize in:

• Neuroscience: the cellular, biological and physiological factors influencing behavior
• Social psychology: study of the behavior of individuals in a group and the behavior of the group as a seperate entity
• Cognition: the study of thought processes and the areas of the brain involved in behavior
• Clinical psychology: the therapeutic application of psychology on individuals in ways shown to provide benefit to disorders in thought, development, emotion, and memory

Obviously this list isn't exhaustive, but it gives you a sense of the shear immensity of information that resides within the study of psychology. Understanding even a portion of it would help to benefit society and reduce the errors in behavior that run so rampant in our culture today. Moreover, it would help to reduce the level at which the population is decieved by the media and government bodies that capitalize on psychological manipulation.

In terms of individual benefits, one particlularly useful skill that one often discovers in psychology is the understanding of the self. "Who am I?" is the cliche question asked by all twenty-somethings, and topics such as personality typification help to provide a guide map for the path to self-discovery. For instance, according to the Myers-Briggs Test of Personality, I am an

INTP - "Architect". Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population.

Take Free Jung Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

With this knowledge, one can do a quick google search to see what career choices an INTP would perform best within. Furthermore, it provides the weak and strong points of your personality type so as to better interact with people accordingly. Perhaps its just my personal preference for both abstract and practical ideas, but either way, I believe that psychology is an under-valued subject that would do nothing but strengthen us as a society if more individuals were educated in it. OK, I guess that's enough self-promotion for one day!!

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The Lesson of the Newtown Tragedy

Post-Newtown: Has America finally learned its lesson?

...& was it the right lesson?

Even if you have been living under a rock for the past week, you have probably still heard about the tragic event took place in Newtown, CT last Friday. Even more assuredly, you have witnessed the transformation of even your most politically apathetic friends and family into passionate activists either for or against gun control. Undoubtedly, the recently expired ban on assault weapons needs to be reinstated, but almost all sane American's can agree on that so my question is:

Is there a broader concern in our culture that, as a society, we are neglecting?

Of course there is! When was the last time that our media fixated their cameras on the real cause of our social problems? Their interest in capturing hard-hitting and attention-grabbing headlines has always limited the quality of our information, and the coverage of the Newtown tragedy is no exception. The mention of this issue is included in most reports as a sidebar to the main issue of gun control, but I wholeheartedly disagree. By now, you have hopefully predicted that the issue at which I am hinting is the handling of mental illness in America, and I'm equally hopeful that you are aware that this subject is highly taboo in our culture. But, in essence, mental illness IS our culture. Culture and mental health are so intimately intertwined that one should not appear in textbooks without adequate mentioning of the other. Consider this:

"Cultural and social factors contribute to the causation of mental illness, yet that contribution varies by disorder. Mental illness is considered the product of a complex interaction among biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors. The role of any of these major factors can be stronger or weaker depending on the specific disorder."--http://www.nmha.org

So it isn't a far stretch from this statement to understand how lower-income and social minorities suffer from mental health issues at a higher rate than do the higher-income groups or the social majority. This issue is as much a human rights issue as it is a health one. We have to stop avoiding the issues that make us feel guilty as a society. Let's be honest, we have all overheard the stereotypical behavior of certain homeless people wherein they emphatically declare their opinions about some obscure topic to their hallucinations, and I admit that I, too, have been guilty of laughing at their strange ramblings. Yet, this is the root of our cultural error. We have allowed the capitalist ideals of self-sufficiency and "bootstrap"-style self-improvement to permeate into all aspects of our culture.

We laugh at our fellow man's mental illness as if they have somehow failed at achieving their American dream. But the real irony there is that we never allowed them to have dreams at all. Research has shown that certain genetic attributes are turned on in the presence of extreme environmental stress. You or I could have the same gene in our DNA, lying dormant in anticipation of the event that will activate it. If thats the case the what is the difference between us and the man talking to himself on the street corner? (hint: that's a rhetorical question)..

Now, there are just as many disorders that afflict all socioeconomic groups equally, and these are the disorders that are usually biologically determined at the point of conception. Yet, we are so quick to blame the parents/caregivers for not raising the child "properly." By now, I have made it clear that the source of mental illness is often a topic for which NO ONE has the complete answer given science's current level of understanding. You or I are just as likely as was Nancy Lanza (the mother of the CT shooter) to bear a child that suffers from a disorder like the one Adam Lanza (the CT shooter) suffered from. This is not a question of "who is to blame", this is a question of "what can we do about it now?"

And, yes, we could place the blame on the Lanza family for having guns in their home, but the danger of guns isn't going to go away with a legal prohibition. We can restrict access to assault weapons, but even that has the potential to result in dangerous & unregulated black markets. What we can do is to begin accepting a certain level of responsibility as a society for the Newtown massacre. A few options:

1. Increasing government funding to clinical research of mental illness treatments
2. Pursuing legislation that will require courses be taught on proper mental healthcare in our public schools
3. Decriminalize & distigmatize the label of having a disorder in personality, mood, or thought
4. Requiring that ALL insurance plans include mental health providers in their coverage
5. Starting public awareness campaigns in the media which recommend that everyone begin seeing a therapist twice a year as part of a well-rounded health plan

These are just a few options that could help to fuel positive change in how our country helps the mentally ill. It's the only real way to stop events like the Newtown massacre from happening in an era when guns already permeate the very fabric of our society.

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