Mastering Your Own Mind

This article is about how people use meditation to get their minds back on tract and how it helps their moods out too.

It said we can choose to modulate our moods, regulate our emotions and increase cognitive capacity- that we can all become high-performance users of our own brains.

It talked about how different meditations will help someone improve their minds. Meditation alters what we tend to think of as stable mental traits- anxiety or anger.

Do you think meditation will help someone rehabilitate someone's mind?

Your Driving Me Crazy!

Summary: This article was about the little problems in relationships that eventually buildup, which may result to a couple’s downfall. Even though couples may face big problems such as infidelity, abuse, and addiction, it is said that the smaller problems (such as the little annoying habits your partner has) are the things that really make you tick, and can hurt your relationship the most.

Do you think relationships fail due to one big problem, or smaller problems that build up over time until they’ve reached their breaking point, causing a reaction? If you were in such a position, what would you do to fix your relationship?

Travel to Create Yourself

Many people travel to far away places on vacation to get away from everything, and focus on themselves and relaxing. But other people travel to learn about the world, and to understand customs of the world. It is important to travel because when you travel you immerse yourself in other cultures, instead of just staying home, and not learning anything new.

Do you think that people travel to get away from everything? Or do you think people travel to get a better understanding of the world, and to create themselves as a wiser person who understands other cultures and customs? And Why?

Do You Dare To Be Bad?

Imagine an entire day without consequences for any of your actions

You will wake up tomorrow and everything will have gone back to normal without anyone else remember or having the slightest clue what you did. 

There are no punishments for your words or actions and nobody will hold a grudge against anything you did. Would you still be able to do terrible things such as commit murder?

Do you believe that punishments and consequences are the only things that hold people back from any wrong doings or do you believe your conscience has more to do with it than people think?

Wholesome Guide to Misbehaving

People think that misbehaving is bad but is it really? Some experts believe that misbehaving can actually be good for you because it is a way to help you get a sense of liberation, it will boost your mood and you will create great memories.

There is a healthy approach to miss behaving and a bad way. The healthy way to misbehave is breaking the rules in a way that won’t cause any serious damage towards something or someone. The bad way to misbehaving is by doing it every day or by causing harm to someone. By misbehaving every once in a while from the “daily boring routine” you will start to live a more successful and happy life.

We don’t usually misbehave because of the way we were raised and how society treats misbehaving. Our parents, teacher, coaches help us to not misbehave because they are setting perspectives on what is the "right" way to act.

My question is do you think that misbehaving can be good for you?

How Do Serial Killers Work?

How Do Serial Killers Work? is an article about how people become serial killers such as Ted Bundy, BTK, & John Wayne Gasey. It is explored that serial killers can be identified based on classification, behavior, motives, and sanity. 

Many killers start getting into killing at a young age due to abuse or child neglectment, but there are also many that believe that killing was their calling. But many researchers have claimed that they could have APD (Anitsocial Personality Disorder) or have resulted from brain injuries from childhood/birth.

So my question is, "Do you think that people are born serial killers or raised to be?"

Is Jury Selection Art or Science?

"Is Jury Selection Art or Science" by Matthew Hutson addresses whether or not jury selection is actually psychology or just a scam.  The supposedly "scientific" jury selection uses demographics, statistics, and social psychology to narrow down potential jurors and engineer the perfect set of jurors. 

Jury consultants run the jury selection and use psychology to catagorize each juror.  They often have to rely on their instincts and their ability to evaluate how people respond to certain situations and watch for nonverbal signals that include frowning, nodding, and movement. Consultans also have to consider how jurors will behave in a room with others as people often repond to peer pressure.  

Overall, it is hard to determine if jury selection is a science as real-world success rates are impossible to measure.  There is also the unknown factor of human predictability.

My question for the bloggers: 
Do you think that jury selection is a legitimate science and occupation or just a scam run by consultants?

Suburban Warrior Syndrome

Video games, movies, and books all help us get away from reality for the time we are glued to their attention. Psychologyist Steven Jay Lynn says "Day dreams and fantasy play a vital role in everyday life, they inspire us," and later says how they take up about half of our day too. 

These fantasies help people dream about how they wish their life was or even inspires them to try and live life as their fantasy character. 

So my question is, Do you think daydreaming is a big part of your life, if so what do u like to daydream about and how does it help your life?

Marked for Mayhem

Have you ever wondered about what criteria criminals use to pick their next target? After many studies done by criminologists and victimologists they learned that rapists, robbers, and murderers look for certain characteristics in people that sets them aside from others. 

Brad Morrison, convicted for raping 75 women in 11 states claims that if he saw construction boots outside of a house or a person wearing them he would skip right over them but a person listening on an iPod he would take into consideration. This is because the iPod acts as a big distraction whereas the boots make him worry that he won't be able to overpower them.  

Do you agree that race, gender, size, and age don't matter but posture, walking speed, style, facial expressions, and awareness to surrounding does when it comes to picking their targets?

Teen Angst Turns Deadly

Girls today going through middle school and high school are going through a tough time with being themselves, and not accepting what was given to them at birth. 

“The suicide rate for girls’ ages 10-14 increased a whopping 76 percent in 2004 ... for those between 15 and 18, the rate went up more than 30 percent,” says Ms. Zimmer. 

Every girl has the same dream of having that perfect body, a brilliant mind, and keeping up a good reputation. Also with parents pressuring their kids about who they think they should be. With all this stress upon their shoulders it seems the only solution is suicide. 

In your opinion, do you think suicide comes from a failure to be the "perfect girl"?

Playing God: Who should make end-of-life decisions?

When a critically ill patient is admitted into a hospital there are some circumstances where the patient is just to ill to continue on living as they are.

They are on what’s called life support, a device that keeps the patient on life sustaining medication or oxygen in order to keep them alive.

Without this the person would die of their disease or natural cause.The question is whose decision is it to permit weather or not that person lives; is it the doctor or the family?

Who gets the say on pulling the plug or letting that person survive? Also is it moral to pull the plug or can it be considered murder?

Wholesome Guide to Misbehaving

According to the article the “Wholesome Guide to Misbehaving” when people puts limitations on their lives and behaviors they are limiting their full potential.

Yet when people test or step outside their set boundaries they not only get a taste of another lifestyle but they find that this lifestyle of misbehaving isn’t meant for the long term. Even though misbehaving gives a boost of mood, creativity and stress relief, it is usually the downfalls of misbehaving that makes people more often then not choose alternatives to a less limited, mishbehaved lifestyle.

Do you think it is better for a person to live by boundaries or live free of boundaries?

Diagnosis: Bipolarity's Hidden Hazards

According to the article "Diagnosis: Bipolarity's Hidden Hazards" recent tests have been conducted by researchers which show that individuals afflicted with bipolar disorder have double the risk to develop medical conditions.  One key factor to developing this risk it stress which is something every individual has in their lives.

If you recently discovered you had bipolar disorder what changes would you make to your everyday life to alleviate stress and why?

Human Nature: Politically Incorrect?

According to the article, "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature", men prefer women with blonde hair because they are unconsiously attempting to be with a younger woman. If a man fell in love with a blonde woman, and she dyed her hair black, do you think he would have that same love for her? Why or why not?

The Art of Now: Six Steps To Living In The Moment

According to this article, becoming mindful allows you to completely live in the moment. Mindfulness is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. You become an observer of your thoughts at every moment without judging them.

By being mindful you dont stress about the future or focus on regrets you may have in the past, you simply awaken to the experiences in the now. In return you will have reduced stress, boost your immune system, reduce chronic pain, lower blood pressure, and much more. You will also be happier, more exuberant, and more secure.

There are six steps to becoming mindful:

1. become unselfconscious
2. savor the moment, don't worry about the future
3. breathe, inhabit the present
4. make the most of your time by losing track of it (enjoy what you do and absorb yourself in it)
5. acceptance (if something is bothering you, dont ignore it but face it head on)
6. engagement (don't take things for granted)

Do you agree with these 6 steps? If you could change 1 or more of them, what would it be and why?

Headcase: Livestrong and Prosper

This article focuses on the thought that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. The example used is of Lance Armstrong, who after being diagnosed with cancer fought through it, becoming a stronger individual, and even went on to win the upcoming Tour de France. Due to his positive outlook towards the struggle, he became a better person and a harder worker than ever before.

The article also explains that sometimes challenges do not always cause this improvement. two-thirds of people in a study become more distressed after given a challenge, while the other third flourished and became harder workers, maintaining positive attitudes.

Do you believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or is there a point where an adversity may do more harm than good?

Adolescence and the Loss of Childhood

This article focuses on when a children becomes a teen they seem to lose their childhood that they once had. Such as caring less about what they loved to do as a child, and also caring less about their parents and what actually pleases their parents. 

Also a teen will most likely start blaming parents, and even starting conflict that they would have never done as a child. This loss of childhood doesn’t hurt the adolescence but it does really hurt the parents. Parents of a child will miss how their teen once behaved before they reached their adolescence stage of life. Also parents will mostly likely turn their pain they have towards anger.

Do you think that teens seem to lose their childhood that they once love? Is it because of children reaching the adolescence stage of life?

You're Driving Me Crazy

The article I read was called "You're Driving Me Crazy" it talks about how small irritants become big issues, and how to solve them.

Small things like leaving your socks on the floor or even leaving the toliet seat up can turn into an argument that could end badly. The thing that some people don't understand about realtionships is that the actions them or their spouse does isnt necessarily a feeling towards them, but just an action their parents did that just got imbedded in their mind. For example, in the atricle it states that the girls father was the kind of person that just dropped everything and left the room if he felt hurt or upset, never the one to raise his vocie. But on the other hand the boys parents were the kind of people that said stay and work it out and would raise their voice to get their point across. So when the couple would get in an argument, the boy would raise his voice and the girl would leave the room. And that turned into a bigger problem.

But a yell is just a call for help, just like saying 'I have no way to meet my needs, I'm freaked out, I'm out of control.' so getting into a warm, loving state no matter how crazy the other person is can solve your problems way  faster then fighting. So to sum it all up, if you're in a relationship and you tend to get in arguments, just sit down and talk it out, understand where the other person is coming from, dont let thems ay 'you're driving me crazy!"

Do you notice that the way you handle problems is simlar to how your parents handle their problems?

Go Ahead, Say You're Sorry

By apologizing, you take the shame of your offense and redirect yourself. You admit to hurting someone or diminishing someone and in effect, say that you are the one who is disminished. "Im the one who was wrong, mistaken, insesitive or stupid. In acknowledging your shame you give the offended the power to forgive.

Some people apologize to feel better because they feel bad of what they did. Sometimes they just apologize to feel better. A good apology also has to make you suffer, you have to express genuine, soul searching regret for your apology to be taken as sincere.

Do you think an apoligy could change the relationship between two people?