You know, I sometimes think that all of these different therapies or whatever work because they give people an excuse to get out of the rut they find themselves in.
It's not that I don't believe they can't work but I do think the mind is the most powerful organ in the human body and while I wouldn't want to dismiss some these things as placebos, I do think that sometimes, people just need one thing to kick start them and if there is a sense that it's working, that gives them incentive to change other things that also may not be working.
I think we all fall into patterns and if some of them are unhealthy for us in one way or another, it gets so much harder to overcome the inertia. If a person can find even one thing at first, that gives them pleasure or a sense of well-being, something that they can look forward to or makes them feel like they are accomplishing something, the rest doesn't feel quite so unmanageable.
I've seen the same thing with people who have left jobs they hate or gotten out of or started new relationships. But it could be a new hobby, taking a class in something that has always interested a person or an activity like yoga or exercise. It could be behavioural or psychotherapy or starting to do some volunteer work.
Heck it could even be something as small as drinking more water every day or something harder like quitting smoking. But if a person sees positive results and starts to feel better physically or emotionally, it may not seem so impossible to consider making other more positive life-style changes, again, a little bit at a time.
I think a lot of times, people make the mistake of trying to make a whole bunch of changes at once, but they're just setting themselves up for failure then because that's just hard work and when a person does't see immediate changes after trying so hard, it gets even more discouraging.
Sorry for the pop psychology, and I'm not dismissing various alternative therapies at all. I just suspect that some of them work through the same processes in the brain and a lot of it is about slowly rewiring your brain to get used to different things. Essentially, forming different habits to replace the old, less satisfying ones.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-02-03 03:40 am (UTC)It's not that I don't believe they can't work but I do think the mind is the most powerful organ in the human body and while I wouldn't want to dismiss some these things as placebos, I do think that sometimes, people just need one thing to kick start them and if there is a sense that it's working, that gives them incentive to change other things that also may not be working.
I think we all fall into patterns and if some of them are unhealthy for us in one way or another, it gets so much harder to overcome the inertia. If a person can find even one thing at first, that gives them pleasure or a sense of well-being, something that they can look forward to or makes them feel like they are accomplishing something, the rest doesn't feel quite so unmanageable.
I've seen the same thing with people who have left jobs they hate or gotten out of or started new relationships. But it could be a new hobby, taking a class in something that has always interested a person or an activity like yoga or exercise. It could be behavioural or psychotherapy or starting to do some volunteer work.
Heck it could even be something as small as drinking more water every day or something harder like quitting smoking. But if a person sees positive results and starts to feel better physically or emotionally, it may not seem so impossible to consider making other more positive life-style changes, again, a little bit at a time.
I think a lot of times, people make the mistake of trying to make a whole bunch of changes at once, but they're just setting themselves up for failure then because that's just hard work and when a person does't see immediate changes after trying so hard, it gets even more discouraging.
Sorry for the pop psychology, and I'm not dismissing various alternative therapies at all. I just suspect that some of them work through the same processes in the brain and a lot of it is about slowly rewiring your brain to get used to different things. Essentially, forming different habits to replace the old, less satisfying ones.