ARCHIVE - Jeremy H.'s blog

ARCHIVE - Forgiveness

Jeremy H. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:43:25 -0800

Forgiveness

I struggled terribly with this exercise. I just couldn’t think of any one person that I would like to “forgive” for what they have done. I can’t stand the fact that we live in a world of victims and that everybody perceives themselves as the victim and never the perpetrator. I’m in no way suggesting that this exercise isn’t useful, but I just didn’t have any obvious person to forgive. In an effort to still use the idea of forgiveness, I altered the activity slightly.

ARCHIVE - Beautiful Day

Jeremy H. — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:21:01 -0800

Beautiful Day

Objectives/Plans…

¨ Sleep in past 8:00am

ARCHIVE - EMP

Jeremy H. — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:27:42 -0800

EMP

The Experience

I really enjoyed our time at the EMP. From start to finish, it was a good day. Although it was only one of many days, it was a day that I made a conscious effort to be positive. And though I consider myself a rather positive person to begin with, I’m sure that it’s that self-deception and misperceived self of mine exaggerating reality yet again. However, on the day of the field trip, I actively tried to make the day as positive and fun as possible.

ARCHIVE - The Resilience Factor

Jeremy H. — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:25:33 -0800

The Resilience Factor

We live in a culture filled with victims. It seems that every time anything unfortunate happens to us, we immediately skew reality and defend our egos with a vengeance. It’s never my fault and everyone else is out to get me. This kind of attitude is constantly in the news, portrayed in movies and television, and acted out in every day life. It’s frustrating on so many levels, but it’s especially frustrating when I read about techniques for increasing resilience and see how well they actually work. The theme of the text seemed to be that if people were more well equip with resilience techniques, the overall happiness and tolerance of people would increase. Why is it then, that this resilience information isn’t more widely available?

ARCHIVE - 3 Blessings

Jeremy H. — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:39:31 -0800

3 Blessings

Not every day of my life is particularly great or packed with wonderful experiences. Some days just call for a stiffer drink than the night before. However, once I took the time to think back on what positive events actually happened throughout the day, it was clear that I had a lot more to be thankful for than I gave credit to. I have an unfortunate habit of letting one day slip into the next and before I know it weeks have passed by. Doing something as simple as “counting blessings” every night was a refreshing reminder of how comfortable my day to day life is. I’m not regularly faced with struggles such as racism, sexism, discrimination or any other kind of intolerances. I don’t live in poverty and hot water is always on tap. If my biggest problem is paying a digital cable bill or having enough money to go snowboarding, I think I’m doing just fine. This exercise reminded me of my circumstances and how they could easily be a lot worse.

ARCHIVE - Gratitude Letter

Jeremy H. — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:10:57 -0800

Gratitude Letter

This was an interesting activity. The more I thought about it, I realized that I’ve never written a letter for someone and then actually read it to them. It felt a little strange writing a letter knowing that I would soon have to read out loud to that person. However, once the “activity” was fully under weigh, the awkwardness wore off.

ARCHIVE - Compton Response

Jeremy H. — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:14:09 -0800

Introduction to Positive Psychology

William Compton

“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?” -Nhat Hanh-

It was a pleasure reading Compton’s Introduction to Positive Psychology. I appreciated having the material broken down into such scientific form. From studies and research to real life application, the findings in his book really shed a new light on my understanding of Positive Psychology.

ARCHIVE - Do Unto Others

Jeremy H. — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:33:59 -0800

Activity #2

Do Unto Others

One thing that I’ve slacked on for the last year is spending time with my parents. I moved out a little over a year ago, and my time spent back at home has been limited. Although my dad understands, my mother has found it a little bit harder to deal with. In an effort to do unto others, I invited my parents over last weekend for some pizza and football. It was nice catching up and having them over to my house. My dad got to eat and watch football (two loves of his life) and my mom got to visit with me and my girlfriend.

ARCHIVE - Elevator Ride

Jeremy H. — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:31:05 -0800

Activity #1

Elevator Ride

Over the past few weeks, I’ve consciously taken measures to lift my mood and also slow down my cognitive process. Often times my life is too busy and overly complicated. These exercises unquestionably helped me relax more and enjoy my life more fully.