Postcards from the Funny Farm

I find that young people in their teens and 20’s have a distaste for meditation in all its forms. This is very unfortunate since meditation can save people from debilitating stress and diseases. Meditation is about focusing, centering, breathing, and controlling ones own thoughts. I think many people see it as something “weak” people do.

If you can’t “snap out of it” with regards to stress or anxiety, then you aren’t worth spit. This could not be further from the truth. Those who take the time to stop in theor hectic day and meditate are better equipped to be the movers and shakers of the world.

I first started looking at meditation for relaxation back in 1996. I read Herbert Benson’s “Relaxation Response.” It is about learned responses to events that cause anxiety. In the book and study, it is phenomenal how many people lowered their blood pressure through practicing this response technique.

In my teens and twenties, it would have done me good to get advice about meditation.  This would have been helpful to me if for nothing else then getting through the flu or a hangover. I had a few of those in my 20’s. If you eschew meditation, you really are missing out. Start exploring meditation and see how much you health and mental health improves.

I just posted my 13th review on Blogcritics this week and it’s on a movie I have strong opinions about: Where the Wild Things Are.

If you have a moment, please go over to the review, read it, and post a comment. I’m looking forward to your comments on this psychological oddity of a movie. You’ll read more of my opinions on it over there.

Please retweet the text below if you use Twitter:

Get your comment in @blogcritics Movie Review: Where The Wild Things Are – or Aren’t http://bit.ly/3XRouj

Thank you very much!

I had a friend in high school who had noticeable trouble with acne. He would go to the dermatalogist and I heard about all the stuff they did in his visits. They did something akin to sandblasting which sounded terrible. They also prescribed him pills and lotions meant to ameliorate the condition. I hate to sound negative but it’s hard to believe in natural acne treatment. Sometimes a person needs heavy duty grade drugs and procedures. All the ads I see about it, while interesting, are probably not the best way to go. That’s the way it seems to me anyway. Do you have a testimony you can share?

Here’s the deal with me and Facebook. If I use it as social media and whittle down my friends to people I know, it’s frankly boring and no one really cares to read my online work like Twitter and blogging. So … is that really social media marketing? Most people on my Facebook don’t even know what that term is. When I am pitching a post or trying to market an ebook, they see it as a friendly email addressed directly to them. It makes for a lot of confusing status comments. I think I will delete all personal info and open up my Facebook for anyone to add me as a friend. In that case, as long as I watch carefully what I post, it actually may increase my traffic and behave truly as a social media marketing tool.

What do you make of home alarm systems? As for me, I feel they are way too expensive and cumbersome in my house. We have protection installed in our home and it has proven itself effective in guarding our home. The systems guy that came around last week quoted us an astronomically high amount and it got me thinking about how the fear of intruders sometimes enables the alarm companies to charge more. I just don’t get it. If it were half the cost it might make sense. What do you think about home alarm systems?

Getting all out tasks done can be overwhelming. For example, right now on my “Remember the Milk” list, I have 14 items in progress. So much needs to be done all the time and we forget to do some of it while the rest we don’t do out of fatigue. I have found weekly routines to be quite helpful in this regard. I declare a day to do certain things. Monthly routines are awesome as well. I find that as I get older, the end of a month seems to come quicker and quicker. That’s where the patience comes in.

Setting a weekly routine is tough because most people, like me, want to get everything done immediately. The trouble is, if we try to do it all at once, the quality suffers and we get burned out. It takes discipline to stretch out our tasks through the week and let inspiration come when it will.

When I was a kid, 17 to be exact, I worked at a grocery store called Alpha Beta. Along with that job came my first health care plan. I don’t remember the plan carrier but I recall my boss told me if I got a girl pregnant, the delivery would be free. Crass I know. It was one of those “boss to employee” conversation kind of like how a mentor speaks to a mentee. At any rate, since then there have been times when I haven’t been covered which I understand most the country is not currently. That’s a scary place for them as well as for our country. Obama has been talking about a national plan but last I heard that was falling through. You can go out and get Kaiser or Blue Advantage or Cobra but let’s face it, health care is really expensive for an individual. Thankfully I have it through my employer but last I heard, they were talking about charging us more out of every paycheck to buy it. I always figured in my college years that a teaching position would always afford me a health care plan. The way things are going, I’m not so sure anymore.

Have you noticed they are redoing a series of “V” from the 80’s? They’ve already done Knight Rider and The Bionic Woman and a silo of old series in a modern way. Do you ever wonder “why redo them?” I am watching the old “V” series on the scifi channel and it rocks. I enjoyed Land of the Lost when it reran much more than the big screen version. Kind of makes ya why they don’t try new ideas. Don’t ya think?

When you or a loved ones falls into drugs, everything falls apart. We’ve seen it time and time again with our beloved movie and music stars. Some are in and out of drug rehab every month. There should be something more effective I think. If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we make a place where people really can get better and off drugs.

I think psychotherapy is often under-utlilized. To attain lasting sobriety, a person needs the body healed as well as the cognitive structures of the mind. Remember that if you fall into a drug problem or if a loved one does. Psychotherapy is far more useful in dealing with addiction than most people give it credit for.

The photographer has a lot of history to read about this Asylum on Flickr. Check it out. Imagine being in one of these barbaric places. The poor “unwell” of that day.