Of course, there are numerous occasions where one will have to consider carefully how to convey a feeling or some information to one’s partner because one is taking his/her feelings into account. But I’m referring to an actual fear of rejection, criticism or aggressive reaction by one’s partner in response to a statement or action, and where this experience tends to describe the relationship in general. I see this as a disconnected relationship, so here’s a look at some of the reasons why the relationship has reached this point.

Feelings of Low Self-Esteem or Self-Worth
If you don’t feel good about yourself, the odds are that you may be a ‘people-pleaser’ – you will try and meet other people’s (perceived) needs ahead of your own. This behaviour eventually back-fires on you because you’ll realise that despite accommodating other people’s needs they don’t seem to recognise yours. The result is that you feel hurt and unheard by your partner, and since you’re unsure how to constructively articulate your needs, you do so in an angry or resentful way. Your partner is likely to respond in an equally resentful or possibly aggressive way.

Another manifestation of low self-esteem is a belligerent or ‘adversarial’ attitude towards one’s partner. It comes across as if the person is in constant defend/attack mode, behaving as if under constant threat of one’s very survival. Where the ‘people-pleaser’ is a passive reactor, the adversarial person is an active reactor to another’s style of communication. Being in the company of a person who is belligerent reminds one that the free-flow of conversation, the experience of give-and-take, listening and responding to the subject matter is just a dream of an earlier stage of the relationship.

Clearly, the better and more confident one feels about oneself the easier it is to articulate one’s feelings in a constructive way.

Power-Play
When there is a ‘disconnect’ in the relationship, there is polarisation. The art of communicating has effectively dissolved into defending one’s position or attacking the other’s position in the relationship. I see this as a relationship characterised by fear. Certainly, it’s not one characterised by love, openness and safety. So the dynamic being enacted is “I’m sticking to my position, and you can stick to yours. It’s clear that we don’t have a middle ground. The battle lines have been drawn.” It is very difficult to reconnect when there is a power-play because there is so much hurt, and one fears being hurt again.
If there is sufficient love and respect in the relationship, there will be sufficient motivation to find the ‘middle-ground’. This requires courage, the ability to look for compromises, recognising that each person is accountable for the present position and refraining from blaming the other.

Broken Trust
The experience of being betrayed is extremely hurtful. It is likely that everyone has experienced this feeling on some level or another, inside and outside of one’s present relationship. What distinguishes a loving from a fearful relationship is how one recovers from the experience of betrayal. It demands courage and insight as to how the betrayed person may have contributed to the breaking of trust by one’s partner. It also requires the same amount of courage and insight as to why the betrayer has consciously (or unconsciously) hurt one’s partner. A loving relationship will allow both partners to feel vulnerable, yet safe enough to constructively deal with the issue. Both partners could look at the above pointers of low self-esteem and power-play to find some answers.

In ending this blog post:
The points raised illustrate some factors in how a relationship can break down, and why one may feel unsafe in communicating authentically in a relationship. I would love to hear your understanding of this sadly very common experience.
In a future blog, I will have a look at some ways to have a more authentic and loving relationship.

Exercise is recognised as a successful, common way to help treat depression, anxiety and a host of other mental health issues. Moderate exercise for twenty minutes, three times a week is the minimum you should be doing. Aside from the need for physical exercise, your brain needs stimulation. I’d suggest the obvious. Get a hobby.

Therapists shouldn’t use a word like ‘Hobby’.

Terrible word. Hobby. Sounds like whatever it is, it’s probably insignificant to life on earth. But the fact is that a hobby can be a fantastic way for escaping the hum-drum and pressures of everyday life, pressures that can result in depression, anxiety and a number of other mental illnesses. Carpentry to cards, a hobby stimulates the mind and offers the kind of purpose that is so often needed in getting over depression. It’s only a hobby for a lack of a better word. And it’s therapeutic.

Mental Health: Know Yourself and your ‘Triggers’.

The key when trying to pick up a new hobby is understanding what sets you off, i.e. the ‘triggers’ that make you feel depressed or anxious. Once you can identify the sources of your depression, they’re far easier to treat. For instance, if work pressures and deadlines are causing you anxiety, then look for a hobby that has no deadlines, like surfing or carpentry. You can surf until the waves dry up or you’ve had enough. If there aren’t any waves, take a walk on the beach or eat an ice-cream. The point is that you’re in the space that calms you down, away from the pressures that let the demons of your depression and anxiety out into the open. Mental health is about knowing yourself as best you can, so that you can treat yourself the best you can.

Carpentry, you can work on a project until it’s sanded away to a toothpick. Because, if it’s the sanding that chills you out, sand something. Go into restoring furniture. Do something that’s opposite to your stress source and you’ll negate the consequences.

Sometimes it’s the Simple Things that Solve.

The Yo-Yo thing? Just a thought. You can go around the world, walk the dog and rock the baby with two pieces of plastic hanging off a piece of string. Killing two birds with one stone? Try three. Laughs aside, whatever gets your mind off the stressor is the solution.

Exercise is obviously a must. Releasing endorphins the good endorphins of exercise combats the devastating effect that stress can have on the psyche.

By flooding your system with these positive endorphins, it releases stresses built up mentally and physically, and clears your system of toxins. Combined with a well-balanced diet, i.e. adequate fruit and vegetable servings, high in fibre, with a good mix of proteins and carbohydrates to build muscle and fuel your activity, exercise and mental stimulation from a hobby can do a lot for your mental health.

Exercise and a hobby are a great start to handling and treating your own depression and anxiety. Don’t get put off by the word hobby. See it as a little time for yourself.

Mental Health: The First Schools of Thought and the Road to Freud.

When psychology broke away from physiology and philosophy, the debate began over how to describe and study human thought and behaviour. Structuralism and Functionalism were two of the earliest schools of thought, and vied for dominance before being leapfrogged by Psychoanalysis, Behaviourism and Humanism as the preferred perspectives. This is the first step down the road towards developing a timeline of modern psychology and the study of mental health.

The Birth of Structuralism

The idea of Structuralism first emerged via Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of the first psychology lab at the University of Leipzig. It was one of his students, Edward B. Tichener, who went on to name and elaborate on the idea of Structuralism.

Tichener is credited with the advent of Structuralism, which involves breaking down mental processes into their basic components, and uses a method called introspection to identify the basic stages of consciousness. While Wundt was credited with the first psychology lab, it was Tichener who was credited with the idea of Structuralism. However, the concept of structuralism did not last long after Tichener’s death.

Functionalism: Darwin and James react to Structuralism.

Charles Darwin and William James formed their own school of thought, functionalism, in reaction to structuralism, and the schools vied for dominance of the psychological landscape. William James was considered to be the father of American Psychology. His book, The Principles of Psychology, was a classic and proved to be a standard text in psychology. Many of his idea’s later became known as functionalism, which aimed to explain the mental process in a more systematic and accurate manner than structuralism.

Instead of concentrating on elements of the consciousness, functionalists concentrated on the purpose of the consciousness and behaviour, and how it helps people to live and work in certain environments. Functionalists used methods such as direct observation to study human thought. While a structuralist aimed to break down human thought into small pieces, a functionalist saw consciousness as an ever-changing and evolving process. They focused on individual differences, for it’s impossible to classify everyone in the same mould.

The Problems with Structuralism and Functionalism.

Essentially, structuralism and functionalism were not that different, as both dealt were concerned with the conscious self. However, William James said that Structuralism, ‘had plenty of school, but no thought’ whilst Wundt regarded Functionalism as merely ‘literature’.

Whilst Structuralism was one of the first schools of thought in modern psychology, introspection was not scientific enough to produce reliable results. Structuralism was also too concerned with internal processes, which could not be documented or sufficiently measured. It did, however, advance and help the state of experimental psychology and was the first school of thought to emerge.

Functionalism influenced behaviourism and applied psychology, as well as the educational landscape by John Dewey’s sentiments that children should be taught according to their level of development.

Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud came next, for while structuralism and functionalism focused primarily on states of human consciousness, Freud proposed the idea of the unconscious mind and the effect it has on the conscious mind. Psychoanalysis was born, and Freud’s views had a massive influence on the landscape of modern psychology and the study of mental health.

A Brief Overview

It’s essential to understand the origins and basic history of psychology in order to understand the current landscape and the various schools of thought out there.

I thought it may be a good idea to briefly elaborate on the history of how psychology began as a single entity of study, as it is important to understand the beliefs we already have and how they were formed before we advance, and create new beliefs and opinions that break new ground. Many schools of thought dominated at one point in history and have been well-studied and documented. I’ll mention some, but I’d like to cover those separately.

Origins and History

Wilhelm Wundt has been credited with taking psychology solo, starting his own psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig. He began by studying reaction times during the 1800’s and published ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ in 1874. The book examined the connections between the study of human thought and physiology. He is considered to be one of the ‘fathers’ of modern psychology and his fondness for experimental psychology paved the way for ‘Behaviourism’ as a school of thought. But it was the first fully-focused psychology lab that gained him unrivaled credit for laying the foundations for modern psychology.

Wundt was very popular as a lecturer, thousands of students attended his lectures and hundreds studied for degrees in psychology and took residency in his psychology lab. Most of his work examined human thought and studied internal mental processes. His work laid the foundation for further experimentation in his field, and his influence on modern psychology was tremendous.

The Split from Physiology and Philosophy

Since psychology became a separate science, and split from philosophy and physiology, certain schools of thought have dominated the landscape. The difference between philosophy and psychology you ask? Early philosophers used observation and logic as methods, while psychologists use scientific methodologies to draw conclusions about human behavior and thought. Physiology also greatly contributed to the advent of psychology, as further research and examination of the human brain allowed for more insight and knowledge in creating the scientific methodologies used by modern psychologists to study human thought.

One of the earliest schools of thought was Functionalism, initially established by Edward B. Titchener and one of Wundt’s first pupils. Then came Gestalt Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud, Behaviourism andHumanism. I’ll be going into these in a little more depth over the next couple of articles, creating a basic archive and timeline of modern psychology.

Counselling Psychologist, Dr. Lynne Campbell-Gillies, takes a closer look at the term, ‘A Healthy Body makes for a Healthy Mind’, and how various cultures and experts interpret the relationship. This is not an article looking for definitive answers, but rather aims to provide a variety of perspectives on the term and insight on how to achieve balance and positivity in your life.

The History.

“Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”. ‘A sound mind in a sound body’, is a famous Latin quotation first derived from the Satire X, courtesy of the Roman poet Juvenal, and can be interpreted to mean that only a healthy body can sustain and produce a healthy mind, and in a holistic sense refers to attaining a healthy balance in one’s life. The link between mind and body has been examined since the time of the great civilizations. The respective histories of Rome, India, China, Greece and the Middle East present philosophies on the link between mental health and body and how the sum of their parts is greater than their individual values.

What Science Says.

What is the connection between mind and body? Does the body influence the mind or the other way around? It’s fair to say that one does not hold power over the other, but that mentality and physicality work in a complementary fashion, to create general health and well-being. You cannot achieve a healthy mindset without a healthy body. In fact, studies have proven exercise to be one of the best treatments of depression, and a lack of exercise has been associated with mood swings, depression and stress-related diseases.

The reason for this is that exercise releases endorphins into your blood, which influence your mood and are the body’s natural pain-killers. When you exercise, you feel good afterwards because of the healthy dose of endorphins released into your bloodstream. The increased core temperature of the body when doing exercise also assists in releasing muscle tension and the associated stress. Therefore, exercise has been proven to affect and help your mood and mindset because of the physical benefits. Therefore, there must be an intrinsic relationship between mind and body.

What Psychotherapy Says.

A healthy mindset can also have an influence on your physical well-being. A study in the Psychosomatic Journal reveals people who took part in an eight-week meditation course had healthier immune systems than those who didn’t partake. The study measured electrical activity in the front left portion of the brain, because there’s an increase in activity there when anxiety levels are low and positive emotions are high. It’s not fully understood why meditation helped their immune systems. The hypothesis is the deep, rhythmic breathing methods used in meditation stimulates the body’s lymphatic system, getting the lymph fluid going and helping to remove toxins from the body.

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
- Marcus Aurelius

Cultural Perspectives on the link between physical and mental health.

So, mind can influence the health of your body, and the body can influence the well-being of the mind. Let’s take it a step further. Physicians have understood the connection between personality and disease for hundreds of years.

The famous Greek philosopher, Hippocrates, created the four personality types, or temperaments, namely sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic and choleric, and correlated them to disease.

Indian Ayurvedic physicians interpret the concept differently, saying that one’s constitution is made up of a combination of different doshas (bodily elements) consisting of vata(wind), pitta(bile) and kapha(phlegm). The hierarchy of these different doshas in one’s body i.e. the proportions they are split into that makes up your body, is known as your ‘prakruti’. Different prakruti are susceptible to different diseases. The connection between mind and body well-being has been well-documented throughout history and a number of religions, cultures and philosophies from around the world. And the Greek and Ayurvedic interpretations are two of many.

‘Of the earliest scientific studies on the role of personality and disease was that of Dr. Caroline Thomas and psychiatrist Dr. Barbara Betz, who, in 1948, studied a few hundred students at the John Hopkins School of Medicine and classified them as: Alpha: (cautious, steady self-reliant and non-adventurous); Beta: ( spontaneous, clever and flexible) and Gamma: ( brilliant, confused and complicated). Thirty years later, they found that the Gamma had the most medical problems with 77.3 percent having some serious illness as compared to 25 percent of Alpha and Beta. In another sample of 127 medical students, they found 13 deaths among those originally classified as Gamma compared to none in the other groups after 30 years.’

Extract from www.lifepositive.com Holistic Recipes – Healthy Mind, Healthy Body by Dayal Mirchandani, a psychiatrist based in Mumbai.

So, the evidence is categorically in favour of the mind body connection. Mental health has a profound effect on physical health, and physical health is essential to a positive, motivated mindset.

“The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.”
- Chinese proverb

‘A healthy body makes a healthy mind’ is essentially about balance. Balance is a tricky term to define. It means different things to different people. That is the key to understanding the relationship.

Understanding what balance means to you, in your life, is paramount. A healthy body for you may mean a run a week and some squash on Saturdays, and that makes you feel good mentally, confident and content. Others may need an intense regime to feel they’ve done enough. It’s about setting good goals for your self, ambitious without being unrealistic, and not putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. That way, you prevent mental and physical burnout, and stay on top of your own emotions. All of these elements together compromise balance. A healthy body keeps your head clear, fresh and relieves stress and pressure like no other. A healthy mind means less tension, less stress-related physical ailments and a healthier body functioning near its optimum.

There are methodologies and philosophies on the relationship between mind and body that have existed for thousands of years, and have been supported by some of the greatest philosophers ever. They have positive health benefits, promote spiritual stability and understanding and are found throughout history and culture in man’s lifelong attempt to achieve balance and happiness.

“The greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
- Confucius

‘The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah’ examines the roots of modern religions, the ethical values they have in common and the reasons why they are still relevant to modern religion and mental health.

I recently reviewed a video by Robert Wright on Moral Awareness in the Modern Age, and discussed a concept in comparative religious studies known as ‘the Greater Good’. In the book, “The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah”, Karen Armstrong examines ‘the birth of religion’ between the years of 1600BC and 220BC.

About the Author

Karen Armstrong FRSL(Royal Society of Literature) is British and a former Roman Catholic nun. She has produced numerous works on the subject of comparative religion and first rose to prominence with her highly successful ‘A History of God’. Armstrong asserts, “All the great traditions are saying the same thing in much the same way, despite their surface differences.” Her works are highly respected and her charter to identify shared moral priorities across religious boundaries, the Charter for Compassion, included signatories such as The Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Hassan of Jordan.

Karen Armstrong TED profile

Mental Health and Knowledge of Self have always been the focus. The Great Transformation uses its 400 pages to cover almost 1400 years of our history in a bold examination of the connections between a wildly-spread out group of philosophers. Confucius, Ezekiel, the Buddha, Socrates, Jeremiah, the mystics of the Upanishads, Plato and Lao Tzu were all connected by a mutual study, understanding and drive towards compassion for your fellow man, essentially the Golden Rule of, treating others the way you would like to be treated. How could all these philosophers arrive at such similar idea about humanity and be worlds apart?

Karen Armstrong tells four stories concurrently, set in Greece, India, Israel and China, and takes the reader’s through a plethora of political, spiritual, religious, militant and civilian history. She elaborates on the state of society, lifestyles and methodologies of some of the greatest philosophers in history.

The Axial Age

In particular, Armstrong focuses on ‘the Axial Age’ (800BC to 200BC), a period in history when the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah all lived and shaped our religious foundations as we know them. The Indian, Chinese, Jewish and Greek philosophers all shared the same vision of the ‘Greater Good’, i.e. living an ethical life with compassion and openness to change and other perspectives.

If religion plays an intrinsic role in our own moral decisions and perspectives, it’s amazing to find how much common ground there is at the core of it all. The execution of the ideas may be different, but the concept remains the same.

What makes this book special is how Armstrong makes this history profoundly relevant to our current world in the Introduction and Conclusion of her book. Aside from the differences between religions, we need to remember that the roots of modern religion are all based on the ‘Greater Good’, living an ethical lifestyle with compassion, openness to change and other people’s perspectives.

“We must learn to live and behave as though people in countries remote from our own are as important as ourselves”. – Karen Armstrong

Non Zero Sum Dynamics and Robert Wright

Which brings me back to Robert Wright, and his theories on mutual welfare and understanding in society. The idea of ‘Non Zero Sum Dynamics’ and the understanding of mutual welfare in the world forces mankind to a higher moral level, almost a ‘saving’ moral level in which mankind will begin to ignore our differences and focus on our commonalities, as there is more benefit to mutual respect, welfare and understanding to be had than mutual hatred, disrespect and discrimination.

Mental Health is Knowledge of Self

This is a study of how belief and religious perspectives from the world’s most popular modern religions share the same ideologies in history, and why that is so important in the modern age. We need to remind ourselves that we all once stared in the same direction at the same vision, and live by the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you’d like to be treated.

Armstrong also forces us to look at our own religious perspectives and beliefs, and challenges us to move past the shallow boundaries of dogma and religious congregations, and start looking within for our own guidance and commonalities we share with others.

‘This book is an absolute refutation of the current wave of disreputable and intellectually trivial attempts to banish religion from human affairs… [It] deserves nothing but praise.’ – Brian Appleyard, Sunday Times

Read the latest press release about psychealth.net new online presence that includes online counseling.

Find out more on my site.

In this post i’ll be sharing a teleseminar conducted by the team at Living with Tolle.

The discussion centres around the topic of ‘the power of now’ in mental health. A notion coined by Eckart Tolle in his famous book.

The guest on this podcast is Dr. Ray Doktor, who is a counsellor, life-coach and sexologist. With a master’s degree in counselling psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology, he offers some insightful views on how to quieten the noisy inner dialogue that often gets in the way of living a meaningful, productive life and focussing on the present.

Dr. Ray tackles various topics regarding mental health in the podcast.

He mentions the importance of mindfulness as a lifestyle change and how it is characterised by being curious, open, non-judgemental, accepting, aware and loving.

He also includes a helpful discussion on the four stages of healing; recognising the problem, initiating conversation around it, the energetic shift and lastly, a spiritual connection.

In the final third of the conversation a caller raises a question about the use of marijuana as a possible tool for enlightenment that could then allow for greater engagement with the practices mentioned earlier in the teleseminar. The response to the question is very informative and raises some interesting points.

After listening to this discussion you should hopefully leave with some valuable chunks of information that could arm you with alternative tools to traditional therapy, aimed at generating a clearer state of mental health and a renewed focus on what’s important to you in the now.

I’ve been following Tolle’s work for a while and have found that it has given me great insight into my psychologist practice which is located in Kloof, Durban. If you’d like to explore these concepts more. Make an appointment with me or start online counseling.

Eckhart Tolle with the Dalai Lama

Counselling Psychologist takes a look at social systems and the idea of mutual welfare in therapy.

Robert Wright explores the evolution of moral awareness and the role our own history has had in shaping our perceptions of other people. The video is titled, “The evolution of moral obligations and how they fit into modern day lifestyle.” The issues surrounding moral obligations are a source of great frustration for many people, and can leave one with a feeling of discontent and a lack of purpose as a result of their misunderstanding of themselves and the people around them while living in a social system as complex as ours.

Robert Wright and Psychotherapy

Robert Wright makes particular reference to the ‘non-zero-sum dynamic’, a principle of mutual welfare between people, and how realising our unique connections to our fellow man can have a profound effect on our views of the world, our own morality, and ultimately, our happiness. Robert Wright is a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny and the Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life. The Moral Animal was one of the twelve best books of 1994, according to the New York Times Book Review, and has been translated into twelve languages. Nonzero was named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2000 and has been translated into nine languages. www.nonzero.org

Flying Business Class

A striking analogy of the talk involves the process of realising that someone else’s welfare, regardless of race or creed, directly co-relates to your own. When that point is reached, you’re more likely to ‘give them a break’, as there is a direct link between their welfare and your own, and the attitude is more than likely returned in kind. He explains by examining those businessmen that travel and fly Trans-Atlantic Business Class, and the fact that you would struggle to find an essence of bigotry, ethnic or racial discrimination, because those same businessmen are flying around the world to do business with people of a completely different culture and historical viewpoint for the mutual benefit of both parties.

Capitalism expands Moral Awareness

In this sense, capitalism has been a constructive force in expanding people’s moral awareness the world over. The idea of mutual benefits to both sides increases their moral awareness to each respective party, as both have something to gain. Fortunes gained are co-related. History is a net positive in the argument, and there is indeed a moral era to history. Robert Wright uses Greek history as an example. For hundreds of years Greek society operated under an intense military regime, and fellow Greeks were persecuted by the Athenians simply because they lived on the other side of the country, or because they used a slightly different dialect. At a point, this attitude died out, and acceptance for their fellow Greek countryman became the norm, as the Greeks then focused their energies on a new, common enemy, the invading Persians. A common enemy does wonders in destroying ethnic boundaries that once existed, as there is a mutual welfare in different classes and ethnicities joining forces to rid themselves of a common enemy. However, the most striking thing Robert Wright says, in fact his parting shot to his message, is the idea of a greater self-interest and awareness of yourself, as once you begin to know and understand yourself, you’ll have a better understanding of others and your own moral obligations. This concept has been consistent throughout history and some of the greatest minds the world has produced have studied the idea of self-examination and self-interest to great depths and it’s a major constituent of psychotherapy.

“The Greater Good”

Socrates. Confucius. Jeremiah and The Buddha all extensively studied the idea of self-examination, and the fact that instead of looking to the Heavens for guidance on our own existence, man should look inward, as God exists within. The most interesting facet of this is that Socrates, the Buddha, Jeremiah and Confucius are from different corners of the globe and completely different cultures and mindsets, and lived in different centuries, yet all arrived at the same concept of morality. But as the world becomes a more dangerous place, it’s clear, according to Robert Wright, hatred will decrease over time as more people depend on each other and the boundaries mankind has created between cultures and civilisations slowly evaporate out of sheer necessity. The empires of Greece, China, Judea and the Middle East have all believed in the concept of ‘the Greater Good’ in history, but it seems this essence has been lost over time for a number of reasons, namely the evolution of society and man’s inherent greed to succeed independently and hold power. However, Robert Wright examines this ideal in the modern age and leaves you with a lot to think about. It’s an intriguing perspective of self- interest and examination, and how the understanding of one’s self can lead to greater moral awareness and an understanding of how they fit into a modern day lifestyle.

Further Resources:

Bloggingheads.tv: A political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers. From Wikipedia

The Evolution of God: A 2009 book by Robert Wright that explores the history of the concept of God in the three Abrahamic religions through a variety of means, including archeology, history, theology, and evolutionary psychology. The patterns which link Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the ways in which they have changed their concepts over time are explored as one of the central themes.

One of the conclusions of the book that Wright tries to make is a reconciliation between science and religion. The future of the concept of “God” is also prognosticated by Wright, who attempts to do so through a historical lens.

One of the world’s foremost leaders in emotional intelligence gives this riveting talk on the value of compassion. In today’s world compassion and gratitude, the initial good intentions we might have, are often the first to leave when we are under stress.

Hope you enjoy the video. If you have any other questions with regards to mental health and psychology to better manage and enjoy your life, let me know.