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Can Our Dreams Solve Problems While We Sleep?
Remarkable new evidence of the power of 'dream telepathy.' Published on April 15, 2014 by Patrick McNamara, Ph.D. in Dream Catcher It appears possible that people can intentionally dream details about the personal problems of an unknown individual, simply by examining a picture of the target and then “incubating” or planning to dream about that individual’s problems. Distinguished cognitive scientist Carlyle Smith, a very careful and rigorist experimentalist who is a Lifetime Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Trent University in Canada, presented the data in a recent paper (Smith, 2013; "Can healthy, young adults uncover personal details of unknown target individuals in their dreams?"1). Smith was and is a driving force in the revolutionary transformation in our understanding of how sleep can facilitate memory consolidation. The design of his experiments on dream “telepathy” were similarly well designed, and so need to be taken seriously. Experiment 1 was a pilot study focused on the development of experimental materials, procedures and dream coding techniques. I will focus here on experiment 2, in which 66 students were asked to dream about the life problems of a target individual whom none knew. (Neither did Smith himself.) Participants simply viewed the photo and then attempted to dream about the problems of that individual. They were told that the person's problems could be health-related, emotional, financial, or any number of other concerns. (Another 56 students followed the same procedure, but the photo that they examined was of a fictitious face generated by a computer.) Related Links
Smith obtained the photo of the target individual from a friend who verified her actual problem before the experiment began. The individual was a middle-aged woman with multiple problems: She had multiple sclerosis, especially in her hands, requiring frequent medication to reduce the pain. She was also the primary caregiver for her mother, who was in the final stages of lung cancer. She had recently lost her husband to an industrial mishap—he was accidentally crushed by a front-end loader, and in the process, a limb was severed. The woman was also involved in a very serious car accident. To discover whether his subjects could dream about any of this woman’s problems simply by examining a photo of her, Smith coded several types of elements in the dreams of participants both before they attempted to dream about the woman (pre-incubation), and after (post-incubation). The dream categories that were scored included:
Why Did It Work? Were these striking results due to chance—a sort of indiscriminate elevation of all kinds of “problems” in the post-incubation dreams? Probably not. In the control group, there was no such elevation in post-incubation dreams. Nor did unrelated high-profile problems like cancer, heart disease, or mental illness appear in any substantial way in the subjects' dreams. Here's one striking example of a post-incubation dream from a subject in the experimental group: "[W]oman has crippled hands and can’t open the pill bottle. The right arm does not work and there is a lot of pain. Her hands are all crippled and rolled almost into fists.” While these results are indeed striking and intriguing, the crucial comparison is between the frequency of “hits” in subjects' post-incubation dreams and the baseline frequency of the generic versions of these “hits" in dreams? In other words, how often do limbs, car crashes and breathing problems occur in dreams at all? Do these post-incubation “hits” rise above those baseline frequencies? Smith tracked baseline frequencies for these topics in his subject's pre-incubation dreams but still found a significant rise in the proportion of hits in post-incubation dreams. It is reasonable to conclude that Smith has identified something more here than just a statistical artifact. Lets say that some sort of dream telepathy is real—and that dreams are more sensitive signal detection devices than our daytime mental states. What could account for this sensitivity? Smith mentions a few possibilities: He notes that correlated brain signals between two isolated individuals has been documented using functional magnetic imaging. Striking instances of apparent dream telepathy and similar brain activity patterns has been noted between twins in particular. Whatever the mechanism, tests of the reality of dream telepathy should continue apace. Use of huge dream communities, like those at dreamboard.com and dreamscloud.com, http://www.dreamscloud.com/] should be enlisted. If hits continue to rise to above chance levels, as in Smith’s studies, imagine if one had 200,000 dreamers attempting to dream the details of a pictured individual's problems? Thousands to millions of dreamers might be enlisted to dream about possible practical solutions to the target's problems. Then we might then really begin to understand the power of dreams! All rights to Patrick McNamara, Ph.D. in Dream Catcher  The Necessity of the Oasis
Watch the ocean or any body of water for that matter, what do you see? You see an undulating motion, a movement that cycles from up to down, from low to high, this action constantly occurs. All things on the water bob up and down; similarly, in life we move up and down as well, we go up and down with what life gives us or takes away. We as people, associate the notion of up with feeling good, with pleasure, with feeling ecstatic, happy with ourselves and our life. In reality the truth is that life is never a bed of roses, we are guaranteed to experience “the down” many times in our life. The problem is, is that people sometimes choose not to look at the big picture, they fail to see the downs in relation to the ups, it is like looking at a picture but only seeing a small piece of what that picture is. We need to understand that up and down go hand in hand, they are forever intertwined, just as tall and short, night and day, dark and light, we cannot have one without the other. 1 What will you do now?” _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 1. Any plans for when your well runs dry? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. Nice working with you but now it is over, any thoughts?” _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Up and Down of the Ocean:
Watch the ocean or any body of water for that matter, what do you see? You see an undulating motion, a movement that cycles from up to down, from low to high, this action constantly occurs. All things on the water bob up and down; similarly, in life we move up and down as well, we go up and down with what life gives us or takes away. We as people, associate the notion of up with feeling good, with pleasure, with feeling ecstatic, happy with ourselves and our life. In reality the truth is that life is never a bed of roses, we are guaranteed to experience “the down” many times in our life. The problem is, is that people sometimes choose not to look at the big picture, they fail to see the downs in relation to the ups, it is like looking at a picture but only seeing a small piece of what that picture is. We need to understand that up and down go hand in hand, they are forever intertwined, just as tall and short, night and day, dark and light, we cannot have one without the other. 1. How has your life been like an up and down wave? How has it been “up” and how has it been “down?” _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. How are you going to cope with the “down times” in your life? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Think about this, if you did not have any “down” times in your life----how would you know you were experiencing any “up” times?” ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________  Voices tend to communicate with us in some way, whether they are voices we hear or feel it matters not, therefore when we think of an earthquake, we can imagine, if we use some creativity that the earth is telling us that it is still in charge, no matter how savvy we become as a people, it is still our master, and we, its children.
Like earthquakes, our own bodies send us messages, sometimes in the form of anxiety or depression, these messages are good for us, they let us know that something is amiss in our life and that we need to change some factors internal or external about ourselves or our lives. Imagine driving around a town with no signs to guide you to your destination, how would you find your way? These messages provide that direction for our psyche. The problem is that when we receive these “quakes” or messages from our bodies, we tend to want to medicate them or to push them away because they "don't feel right" we want to make them go away, never listening to them and trying to figure out what they are trying to tell us. We need to stay in that “quake” to learn from it, but most of us have lost the power to “stay in that feeling”. 1. What messages has your body and mind been trying to send to you? Why have you ignored them? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. How will you start attending to and learning from these messages? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Imagine for a moment what would happen if you continued to ignore these messages? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Anger of the Volcano
Volcanoes contain destructive power; it is an outpouring of earths “emotional” energy. The earth, like people can only store so much energy, before they “blow”. There is a substance of smoke, ash and lava that pours out after an initial explosion, symbolic of human emotions. Volcanoes have been known to destroy whole cities, such as Pompeii in Italy, laying waste to homes and families, lives that were taken by the power of this destructive force. Just as when “people explode”, when they cannot contain their negative energy anymore, they can be a destructive force as well, damaging family, home and life. People need to not be like Volcanoes, people need to let their ‘emotional energy” out in more appropriate ways, and in smaller amounts, we can’t bottle it up anymore, it does no good. If you explode what might you destroy? 1. How have you “exploded” in the past? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. What did you affect when you exploded with your emotional energy? Family or someone else? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. How will you from this moment on let out your emotions in a more appropriate way?  The Immensity of the Ocean
I once heard that we are like a wave in the ocean, we are this little thing happening in the immensity of the waters of the earth. We are just a part of something bigger, a small function of a larger dynamic. The ocean contains life-giving properties but also can contain a destructive element, such as typhoons, hurricanes and tsunamis. The ocean hides many things below its surface; myriad forms of life perform their daily dance under the glass sheen of the ocean. No matter how turbulent the surface may be in storms and tempests, underneath is usually calm, its hidden nature is that of softness. Gods once resided in the ocean, Poseidon once ruled the ocean, oceans contained the power of these old gods, the waves still crash with that power on the shore, bringing loud sounds and frothy foam, but if we stand and watch they always recede, engaging in this cyclical cycle. 1. You have a both a creative and destructive nature, which one do you employ more often? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. What is your hidden layer when you are mad or angry or upset or depressed or anything else? WHAT IS UNDERNEATH ALL THAT NEGATIVE EMOTION AND BEHAVIOR? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. How do you crash with your own behaviors and emotions? What happens when your emotions recede? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________  “Oh what a tangled web we weave” someone once wrote, they saw webs as perhaps sticky situations of our own making or perhaps a web that was not even our own that we walked into, another persons tangled mess of a situation that we became stuck in for a while.
In the child’s story, Charlotte's Web, a spider, spun a web which had a message embedded into it, implying that within the web we can find not only trouble but also meaning and perhaps even salvation. Through trial and hardships we can find meaning, by being in the web perhaps gives us some meaning in life. The ancient peoples and cultures of the world believed in a web of interconnectedness in the world. That all things regardless of how trivial they might seem are connected, the smallest thing is related to the most magnificent, indeed, in modern times the “World Wide Web” is attempting to connect and unite the world together. Webs, like all concepts and notions have two opposite poles, negative and positive. 1. What kind of webs have you woven in your life? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. When was the last time you felt stuck in a web with no apparent way out? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. On the “interconnectedness” of webs, how are the following elements connected (Lumberjack, sun, water, tree, paper and pen)? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Depth of the Canyon
When we look at a canyon, what do we see? A crack in the earth, a separation of two distinct parts, a deep abyss, all of our descriptions that we use convey a sense of depth and perhaps separation. But what exactly is in those depths. As people, we all have our “canyons” or our “deep chasms”, what do we all keep down in those depths? What pains, sorrows and disappoints lay at the bottom of yours. For as deep as a canyon is and for all the hurt that may lie at the bottom, there is life down there, sometimes, every so often we may have to traverse to the bottom to “deal” with some of our negative experiences and emotions. When we are at the bottom we need to realize that the elements that we throw in there, as negative as they are, are still a part of our life. The negative parts of our life are just as important as the positive aspects of our life, for without the negative we would not be able to distinguish the positive. 1. How deep is your canyon or your abyss? How many fractures do you have? How much “stuff” did you throw in there? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. Why is it easier to hide the negative aspects of life than to face them head on? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. List a few things you need to retrieve from your own abyss? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________  The Roaring of the Rapids
In juxtaposition to our calm pool of water, the rapids portray a strong sense of vigor, an unyielding aspect of nature; the rapids can be very dangerous. They can be dangerous not just for their ferociousness on the surface, but what they can hide underneath their turbulent face. It is safe to assume that if you fell into the rapids you would quickly lose your sense of control and be unable to guide yourself in any particular direction. Their notion implies a sense of power outside of ourselves, something we must not succumb to. The rapids are synonymous with life at its most turbulent of times, everyone can recall some period of their life where they felt out of control, perhaps you felt as though you were just long just along for the ride during your most turbulent time. 1. When was the last time you felt out of control, as though you were “in the rapids” unable to help yourself? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. How much of your life is in your control and how much is not in your control? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. If you think back to that most turbulent time in your life, what or who pulled you out of “your rapids”? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________  The Stillness of a Pond
As you stare out over the pond- the water is as still as a mirror, reflecting back to whatever is on or in your mind, this is the mirror to your soul, to your inner being, the child within, or for some the cowering individual who has succumbed to too much in its life. In Greek mythology, Narcissus feel in love with himself when he looked at his reflection, and he became fixated with himself forever. Water for the ancient Greeks was a most magical place, marked by the habitation of water nymphs, or magical, spiritual beings. Water for many ancient cultures was a sacred substance, however today not many of us take care of our waters. Much of our water is becoming polluted in our current day. Water is—essential to our survival and without it we would not survive. 1. How many times throughout the day does your mind feel like a still, calm pool? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. How can you increase your ability to calm your mind throughout the day? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. What do you see as you gaze into a calm pool of water, who is looking back at you? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________  The Mystery of the Trees
Without the trees we would most likely not be able to survive on the earth, for their waste is our gold, they emit a byproduct known as Oxygen, which is essential for our survival. Even though we know the importance of the trees, we still devastate their numbers across the globe. A tree, interestingly enough, if you turn it upside down and then mentally split it in half, is identical to what our lungs and esophagus look like. Ancient cultures have stated that trees have spirits or a Manitou inside them just as we have a psyche or soul. Trees are also important for the land, they keep the land stable and keep it from eroding away; there is a certain strength and power to be found in trees as well as mystery. What mystery lurks inside the trees is for you to find out. 1. Why don't you make up your own questions? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. Why don't you make up your own questions? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Why don't you make up your own questions? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Sorrow of the Wolf
The image of the wolf howling before the moon, standing on an outcrop of rock conveys in us a sense of loss, or being alone, perpetually looking for something. What is it that the wolf is looking for? Most likely it is looking for its pack or where it belongs. A wolf also conveys a sense of a deep primal urge inside of us; indeed history abounds with the notion of a transmutation of man into werewolf or wolf creature. Is it that man always contains the beast inside of him and must always wage some internal battle against these base primal urges? 1. Have you ever felt alone? What time did you feel most alone in your life? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. How often do you “run with the pack” or spend quality time with your family? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. What is the “animal” part of you, what is the part that is animalistic? How do you act when that change takes place and those negative behaviors show itself to us and those around you? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Gracefulness of Snow
Stepping out from your home on a snowing winter’s day can be magical; the snow falls in varying sized flakes from the sky, floating down to the earth. When it is snowing the noises around you are muffled, you notice it is quieter, the sound waves compete with the snowflakes to reach your ears. Snowflakes are never the same, so they say, no two are identical, this is in fact true, but are they not similar? Snowflakes are much like people, different on the outside, mostly the same on the inside, the same basic make-up exists across all humans, and although we are different are we not also the same. 1. Do you devote part of your life quiet and ease or are you loud and tense? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. How are you the “same” as those around you? How are you different from those around you? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. When you shovel snow are you the type who becomes aggravated or do you relish the opportunity? Remember the average person will only experience snow about 500 times in their short life? ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________  The Buoyancy of an Iceberg
It can weigh many tons, but yet floats and does not sink; an iceberg is a floating chunk of ice meandering around the earth’s oceans. Sailors would desperately set lookouts for icebergs; they deemed them deadly, the Titanic lies at the bottom of the ocean because it must have hit one on its voyage. One element of an iceberg is that it’s broken from a larger piece, it once belonged to something greater, and because of warmer weather patterns it fell from its mother piece and floated away, Millions, perhaps billions of years from now it will rejoin its lost part, somewhere, somehow. An iceberg is also an analogy of our mind, part of the iceberg is above water but as much as 90% is below the water, hidden from view, most our or mind, the unconscious is hidden from us as well, our fears and anxieties get pushed deep under the surface, where we “think” they are safe. 1. Have you ever thought you were going to “fall” and something stopped you from hitting rock bottom? ______________________________________________________ 2. What do you keep below your surface? ______________________________________________________ 3. An Iceberg will not last; it will disappear over time, where does it go? Where will you go when you disappear? Will you return to “something” ______________________________________________________  The Twinkle of the Stars
When we look into the night sky it is not completely black, punctuated here and there are the twinkling of the stars, ironically, the stars in the night sky in all their glory resemble the nature of our mind. Each star could be a neuron, connected, involved in a great complexity that we can only imagine. There is hope in the darkness, we can understand that although the darkness is ever present there is a spark of light that is available to all who want it. At this point in our time we are polluting not just our land and air, but also our night sky, there are too many lights. The sky for most people does not hold the same power it once had, most of it is invisible to us, quickly receding from our minds under the glow of our night city lights. 1. How often do you truly shine as the complete person you know you can be? ______________________________________________________ 2. Have you ever felt surrounded by “darkness” on all sides? ______________________________________________________ 3. All stars fade away, just as all humans will die, how will you live fully until you “fade away? ______________________________________________________  The Nourishment of Rain
The earth needs to drink just as much as you and I, it needs nourishment for growth and for life. When we look at rain we can find it relaxing or we can view it as a nuisance, getting all our clothes wet when we don’t want to be wet. We need to mimic some of its attributes, for it is rain that teaches us to nourish all things in our life. Rain falls from high up in the sky, it is a part of a large process and cycle intended to replenish the dried out earth, sometimes we can have too much rain and areas can become flooded, however the flood always recedes, sometimes leaving the land changed. 1. How do you nourish yourself and the people around you? ______________________________________________________ 2. Have you ever failed to provide for yourself or someone in your life? ______________________________________________________ 3. Have you ever given so much that it had negative consequences? ______________________________________________________  The Fluffiness of a Cloud
They look like wisps of cotton hung high up in the sky, the white color meshing with the blue background; they form and dissipate, appearing to vanish into the blue. Clouds can be some of the most beautiful objects our planet can offer us, and one of the most overlooked. Clouds can forms pictures or ideas, they function as a sort of projective test, when we see clouds we can ourselves and our thoughts in them, we “project” our emotions and ideas onto them. We see animals and objects in those clouds which are pictures for understanding ourselves. Clouds can also bring about change in the form of storms and snow, “the clouds are rolling in” some of them say, we can see the front moving in bringing with it rain or snow, vital rain or snow, the clouds are the seeders of the earth, the watering can for the crust, just as they are seeders, they for us, are messengers into understanding ourselves. 1. When was the last time you spent a few hours trying to distinguish what the clouds are presenting to you, what did you see in them? Is this what you see in yourself? ______________________________________________________ 2. Just as the clouds appear and disappear, so will you appear and disappear in this world, how do you feel about that? ______________________________________________________ 3. If clouds are the water-bearers for the earth, what are you trying to “seed” or “grow “in your present life? _____________________________________________________  The Brightness of the Sun
What is the sun other than a ball of active, synthesizing elements, it is ripe with alchemy, almost a kind of magic that is displayed high in the sky. It is hard to look at the sun without the aid of some kind of filter, it brightness penetrates our eyes, our skin and indeed it is a necessary object for life to continue on Earth. The sun also teaches us about death and life, each night it dies, only hours away until it rises from its death each morning. Does anything really ever die? Or is it a cycle and transformation? Indeed the sun will stop heating the earth but it will not disappear into the void, it will change into another form, itself, but yet different. For centuries, people old and new, worshiped the sun as a life giving force, they were not wrong in their assumption and beliefs, they even attributed gods and goddesses to the sun, even prescribed it a gender in some cultures. The sun is indeed a powerful symbol that we can learn from just by watching, understanding and correlating what we learn about it into our own lives. 1. When you think about yourself, are you the kind of person who emits radiance just as the sun does, or do you carry too many shadows? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. What is your cycle of life? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. Do you nourish those around you just as the sun nourishes the earth? Give an example of how you nourish someone in a good way. ________________________________________________________  The Power of a Tornado
Tornadoes contain extreme power, exhibiting viciousness and natural aggression, they strike out of nowhere, sometimes with no warning whatsoever. They can cause emotional and physical pain, as well as loss. Just as they contain negative notions, a tornado can also be symbolic of renewal, just as any storm destroys the old allowing the new to be built. A tornado touches down from the heavens, releasing raw power onto the earth; the earth embraces the tornado and holds it in its embrace for the length of the storm, there is a connection from the low to the high, from heaven to earth, a connection of strength. 1. Do you become angry with people or circumstances? What is the outcome of your anger? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. You have unlimited power available to you, how are you using that power right now in your life? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. Is there a connection between yourself and the “heavens” or your higher self? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________  The Way of Water
Water, H20, Di-Hydrogen Oxide, the necessary medium for life. Without water we would not be here, water is cleansing, refreshing, it can provide a cooling on a hot day. Water quenches our thirst when we are dehydrated. After our day of hard work there is nothing quite like a shower to clean of the memories of the day. Water is so subtle and can be melded into any shape but yet is strong enough to cut hard rock; there is a lesson of flexibility in meditating on the nature of water, could we be more like water? Water also must keep moving or it becomes stagnant, the constant movement keeps the spirit of water alive, when water becomes stagnant is becomes murky and dark. 1. How do you keep moving in a positive way in your life to avoid becoming stagnant? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. Describe how you will be more flexible in your thoughts, actions and daily living? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. In what areas of your life have you been stagnant and unable to move forward? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________  Outdoor Activities Can Improve Your Mental Health
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 26, 2013 For many, summer vacation is associated with getting out of a rut and enjoying the great American outdoors. New research among veterans now suggests outdoor group recreation can improve the mental health of our soldiers. University of Michigan researchers believe participation in extended outdoor activities improves long-term psychological well-being. Veterans were surveyed before and after a multi-day wilderness recreation experience, which involved camping and hiking in groups of between six and 12 participants. More than half of participants reported that they frequently experienced physical or mental health problems in everyday life. One week after the experience, veterans reported a greater than 10 percent improvement in several measures of psychological well-being, a 9 percent increase in social functioning, and a nearly 8 percent gain in positive life outlook. In some cases, the results persisted over the next month. “The findings suggest that extended group-based nature recreation can have significant positive impacts on veterans struggling with serious health problems,” said Jason Duvall, Ph.D., one of the study’s lead authors. “Although more research is needed and many questions remain, the use of extended group-based outdoor recreation programs to ease veterans’ transition back into civilian life seems to be a promising approach. The Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization, operates the Military Family and Veterans Initiative, which focuses on providing military service members and their families with access to outdoor experiences. For the study, the Sierra Club wanted to know whether these efforts were making a difference in the lives of veterans. While both anecdotal and experimental data suggest exposure to green environments is beneficial, few studies have examined the impacts of these programs on veterans specifically. “The Sierra Club knows anecdotally the mental, emotional and physical benefits that come from spending time in nature, particularly for returning service members for whom the outdoors can be integral to their reintegration,” said Stacy Bare, Sierra Club mission outdoors director. “The results of the University of Michigan’s study reinforce these beliefs and support our efforts to make these types of experiences available to more people.” Comments by veterans supported the survey conclusions. “This trip helped me to reevaluate what’s important in life,” said Tim, a 52-year-old Navy veteran. “It was nice to live a week without being ‘plugged in’ and take in the great outdoors.” “It helped me to remember who I was and enjoy something I haven’t in a long time,” added Dan, a 39-year-old Army veteran. Discovering a natural method to help veterans (and familes) cope with issues is an important objective. In response, a number of outdoor recreation groups developed group-based nature recreation programs targeting veterans. Veterans may identify more strongly with activities outdoors that involve physical challenge, camaraderie and achievement of an objective – experiences that are shared with their military service. As a result, the approach used by these programs may be more appealing than conventional clinical treatments when it comes to dealing with mental health issues. “The excursions are a supportive environment because in many ways, they recreate many positive aspects of the military experience,” Duvall said. “They are outside, in a group, sharing similar mental models and, in a sense, on a mission. In that scenario, the impact of the natural environment might be heightened.” The Sierra Club chose four partner organizations as part of the study group: Higher Ground (Sun Valley, Idaho), Wasatch Adaptive Sports (Snowbird, Utah), Wilderness Inquiry (Minneapolis, Minn.), and Women’s Wilderness Institute (Boulder, Colo.). Combined, the groups offered 12 programs lasting four to seven days. The excursions generally did not include formal, structured psychological counseling or therapy. Instead, the emphasis was on the outdoor programs, from fly-fishing, kayaking and whitewater rafting to backpacking and paddling. The study sample was 98 veterans. They were surveyed one week before, one week after, and about one month after participating. In addition to assessing demographic and background information, the survey itself measured changes in psychological well-being, social functioning, life outlook, and activity engagement over time. Participation in the outdoor activities appears to have extended benefits including a new openness or creativity as veterans were more likely to take part in activities that involved exploration (such as learning new things or testing abilities) and helping others. The changes in well-being were also particularly strong for veterans who had initially reported more severe ongoing health issues, with the magnitude of improvements often 1.5 times that of those with less serious health problems. “Veterans with more serious health problems seemed to benefit most,” Duvall said.  The Beauty of a Flower
A flower can tickle the senses, it can rise above the waste and reach upwards and presents something discerning to the eye. Flowers have been used for millennia and are symbolic in many ways, red roses are given on Valentine’s Day, and flowers preside over funerals and also weddings. As the flower rises in beauty from the earth and opens itself to the sky, how do we do the same? The lotus arises out of the murky depths to show us it true self, the Buddhists praise this flower and say that we too can arise out of the waste and the murk to show our true selves. A flower that is not taken care of by either human hands or nature itself can become brittle and dry and will eventually wither away, a testament to how we must nurture ourselves and provide the needed nutrients to make our life rich and fertile. 1. How will you rise above your current level of understanding in how you live your life? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. How will you show your true self and your own beauty, just like the flower? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. Do you take care of yourself and others? How will you, from this moment, start to take care of yourself better than you ever have? _________________________________________________________  The Strength of a Rock
When we look at a rock, do we see its true nature or can we see past the obvious, to its spirit and learn from what it presents, a rock celebrates strength, standing straight in adversities face. Rocks are old and have been on earth for millions of years, a testament to their strength. Rocks, as strong as they are, do break down over time, showing that even strength must give way to time and nature. Water, over time, shapes and cuts solid rock, even though cut it seems to operate in some parallel with the water allowing it to cut new paths. Wind can form rock, cut rock and shape rock; showing that even though there is strength, there is also a sense of flexibility in even the strongest of substances. 1. As a rock is strong, how would you define your strength? Where does it come from? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. Based on the simple truth that nothing last forever, how are you preparing for the end of your life ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. How will you display your strength from this point on? ________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________  The Openness of a Meadow
A meadow is open, open for all to see, it is not closed, and it lies under the sky, baring itself to the world. All one needs to do too enter the meadow is to simply walk out of the forest, crossing that boundary from dark to light. A meadow represents clarity in your vision to be who you are truly meant to be. There is no camouflage here, just nakedness. There is nowhere to hide; you are visible to everyone who can look in on you. The only way you can hide is to bury yourself underground, and why would you want to do that when the wisdom of the turtle taught you that you have personal armor. 1. Are you an open or closed individual? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. How long have you been wondering around the forest scared to enter into the “meadow” where everyone can see your true self? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. How many times have you tried to bury yourself “underground” to hide in fear or embarrassment? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________  Beneath the liminal boundary it glides through a subterranean other world, below the depths of what is visible. They reside in a world where we don’t belong, where we can only visit for short times. They are sleek, gliding through the dark, like a bullet in the darkness.
They also maximizers, jumping at almost every opportunity when the hook presents itself, sometimes leading to its own demise. They sometimes swim in large schools, large collectives of fish which have a sense of communal behavior. Fish, although they reside in darkness, have an eye that appears to be all-seeing, glancing in wide swaths as it swims along in its short life. 1. As a fish resides in the symbolic depths, what do you keep buried inside your depth that keeps haunting you in your life? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 2. As a fish will continually bite the same hook, do you find yourself grasping for needless and confusing goals in your life? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 3. How will you learn to “glide” in your life as a fish glides through the murky depths? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ |
AuthorCory Ian Shafer Archives
January 2020
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