Dharma Bum

Depp Does Kerouac

I haven't done a poem in a while so here's Johnny Depp reading Kerouac from the wonderful and beautiful United States of Poetry which you can still get and is highly recommended.

"Anger doesn't like to be reminded of fits"

OC Daily Photo

Well I have another blog for you to follow. The always wonderful Suz Broughton from Alive in Wonderland asked me to participate in a new Photo Blog, OC Daily Photo. It'll be your go to site for all the interesting views of Orange County. Check out the other great photographers and be sure to bookmark it.

photo by Suz

New Orleans Here I Come!

Received some really exciting news today. I've been invited to attend the American Family Therapy Academy Conference which will be held in New Orleans this year in late June. The reason this is pretty special is you have to be invited to attend, and the program consists of many of the top professionals working in the field today. Fortunately for me I have a very supportive teacher who is a member, I'm excited beyond belief. I'm sure I'll be battling waves of insecurity being in that crowd, but I wouldn't miss it. I can't wait to sit in presentation after presentation, with the occasional escape to Cafe Du Monde for some real coffee and beignets. Can't wait!

The Language of Autism

I've been churning on this video since we watched it in class last week. I have a good friend with a child that was recently diagnosed with Autism. I know very little about Autism but I think this video went a long way to changing my perspective. Please spend the time to watch all the way through to the explanation. In the video author's words:

The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not.

VIA

A Psych Joke for Monday Morning...

Space

Because I love all things space, I'd thought I'd dazzle you with this photo NASA took of the Atlantis space shuttle flying past the sun from Florida using a telescope with a solar filter. Amazing!

VIA

So I haven't done a video in a while and I'm bored. So tonight you get to go on our regular evening walk.

Walk with Michele from Dharma Bum on Vimeo.

Buddhist/Meditation Link Dump

Want a bigger brain? Meditate

How deep does Zen go? Depends on you and a good teacher say's Mitra Bishop - Sensei (Plus I like how she says a good therapist can help too.)

What do Buddhists believe?

Can't fit spirituality into your busy schedule? Let Lama Surya Das show you how

Need a Dharma Desk? Here's the how to

Are we breeding a bunch of spiritual window shoppers with our western approach to the spiritual quick fix?

The Science of Delayed Gratification

Mind Hacks has a interesting post up about the New Yorker article on the psychology of delayed gratification. From Mind Hacks:

The piece focuses on the work of psychologist Walter Miscible who invented a test for children where they'd be presented with a marshmallow but told they could have two, later on, if they just waited.

It was an early demonstration of the power of temporal discounting - some kids ate the marshmallow, about a third waited and cashed in their patience for bigger rewards - but this wasn't, in itself, particularly earth-shattering news.

What was most surprising was that years later, when Mischel followed up the kids in his experiment, the ones who waited, who could delay their gratification, turned out to be more successful in life - better jobs, better exam results, less drug addiction and so on.

So self control = success. Some day I'll learn to leave the donut alone. New Yorker article can be found here.

Yep..

Fierce

I was the opposite of this kid growing up...

Via

Mothers Day

Hopefully all my Mom Blogging friends had a great Mothers Day. Here's a little factoid I just discovered that really kind of gave a new meaning to what Mothers Day is all about:

Most people associate Mother's Day with flowers and sentimental Mothers Day cards. However, Mothers Day was created as an anti-war protest by women whose sons were killed by their fellow Americans in the Civil War.

More to read here.

The Teacher Will Appear...

VIA

End of Overeating?

Dr. David Kessler who is the former Commissioner of the FDA has a new book out titled The End of Overeating. I've read some good reviews of the book and an interesting interview of Dr. Kessler so I went ahead and purchased the book. It is of my humble opinion that overeating and the resulting obesity crisis kills more people in our country then Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms combined. Sure the death certificate will say something like stroke, heart attack or diabetes but all of these conditions and more can be traced right back to our American diet.

The issue I have with what I have read about the book so far is that it seems Dr. Kessler focuses more on what the food industry is feeding us. Sure proccessed foods are full of fat, sugar and salt but they are just giving us what we want. What he doesn't seem to tackle or what most diet books in your local book store don't tackle is that overeating is just a symptom of a greater emotional/psychological/spiritual problem.

What the world needs is not another diet book that will tell us to eat less and excersise more, but a book that will offer real solutions to why we overeat. But I suppose that would require more than the quick fix we always look for first.

Miracle Cure for Alcoholism?

Via Dr. Rob

CNN.com is reporting new research that shows two medications, naltrexone and topiramate, have a significant impact in the treatment of alcoholism. You can read that article here.

Whenever something positive happens in the mental health world, the critics come out of the woodwork. The sad reality that mental health practitioners aren't all on the same page rears its ugly head as well. When Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy was demonstrated to successfully treat many cases of depression, the Freud fawners called the treatment superficial and "not getting to the root of the problem." When medications eliminated many of the symptoms seen in various forms of Schizophrenia, nay-sayers argued that the condition is a permanent one and therefore the patients couldn't have been schizophrenic in the first place if they weren't psychotic now. And now the Betty Ford Center is saying that these pills are an overly simplified way of treating addiction and probably want no part of the medication regimen. Are they right? Yes and No.

You can read the rest HERE