Since all four personality types are different, one is forced to deal with each of them in a different manner. By not catering to any one of them, and by not playing them against each otherand especially by not being one of them yourself, you can avoid entering into office politics, which encourages hypocrisy, secrecy, deal making, rumors, power brokers, self-interests, image-building, self-promotion, and cliques. In order to avoid doing this, you have to understand and learn to interact with each personality type individually.

Insecure people most always have self-esteem problems. They often have bad tempers and make reproachful comments to others around them. In general, this is merely an attempt for them to feel better about themselves and their position in life). There may be individuals of this nature who work with you, and you have learned to deal with them by maintaining your own enthusiasm and by refusing to take their comments personally. Whenever someone is being overly insecure or taking their insecurities out on others, try to focus your attention elsewhere.

Negative individuals are characterized by a demanding and aggressive demeanor. They generally try to have things their way all of the time. Such individuals can make the workplace environment extremely uncomfortable for their co-workers. You may also have these kinds of colleagues. Whenever you interact with them, try to simply ignore their negativity and avoid making any comments that may provoke them to be confrontational. It is better to take the steam out of problem situations by just giving the negative person some space and allowing them to calm down on their own. That being said, do not allow negative people to just walk all over you. Maintain your assertiveness, but also try to envision a bubble of positive energy that surrounds you and is impenetrable by them.

Selfish people are so obsessed with their own interests and desires that their behavior becomes detrimental to those around them. In any company, you will surely be confronted with these types from time to time, and must deal with them by remaining assertive and confident and not allowing them to inadvertently affect you.

Unreliable or incompetent individuals add immeasurable stress to those around them. In fact, dealing with these types of individuals may be one of the most stressful things working professionals have to encounter. Whether it’s an incompetent boss who tries to undermine you to avoid exposing his own inadequacies, or an unreliable co-worker that you always have to pick up the slack for, dealing with these types can be one of the most difficult tasks there is. Sometimes unreliable individuals have a tendency to want to please others to the point that it interferes with their ability to complete their own obligations. Whenever you interact with this type of co-worker, try to emphasize the importance of doing one thing at a time and finishing what you start.

These four personality-types tend to be prevalent in any professional environment. It is best to deal with each individual and situation directly and honestly and not try to undermine or accommodate for any personality that presents a problem to your own efficiency. Assertiveness seems to be the key, as is remaining aware of which type of individual it is that you are dealing with.

Justin Elza is the owner of J. Allan Writing and Design Studios, a full-service creative firm that helps clients save time and money while developing consistency in all their written, visual, and web-based marketing communications. From business cards to billboards, memos to manuscripts, J. Allan Studios is your creative, professional partner!

“Psychological Manipulation and Society
Cultic Studies Journal
Psychological Manipulation and Society
Vol. 11, No. 2, 1994
Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits
Who Brought Spiritualism to America
Peter Washington. Schocken Books, New York, NY, 1995, 470 pages.
Reviewer: Joseph P. Szimhart

Theosophy as discussed in Peter Washington’s highly informative and entertaining survey has less to do with any sophisticated notion of “divine wisdom” than it has with a host of preposterous pretenders who successfully attracted thousands of seekers devoted to experiencing and unveiling hidden truths. In short, the Theosophists attempted to make occultism respectable in an age of scientism. According to Washington, these neo-occultists and their progeny have essentially failed, as the jacket liner notes tell us, in a ‘curious comedy of passion, power and gullibility.’

Heading the list is Madame Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), whose colorful character ranged from the ribald to the sublime. HPB, as she has been known to the Theosophists, cofounded the Theosophical Society (TS) with Colonel Henry S. Olcott and a few others who were interested in spirit contact and psychic phenomena in New York in 1875. In today’s New Age jargon, HPB became the main “channeler” for TS. Within a few decades TS stimulated an ever-splintering amalgam of groups and cults, the more important of which Washington portrays with solid reporting from an impressive array of source material and his personal research. In each case a charismatic “guru” has either received “ancient wisdom” from some mysterious sect, self-proclaimed enlightenment, or metaphysical source, while also assuming an exalted position as guru, messenger, teacher, master, or adept in the eyes of the disciples and students.

Following HPB and Olcott (aka Jack and Maloney), Washington tackles the lives and influences of the second generation of Theosophists, including the politically motivated Annie Besant, channeler Charles W. Leadbeater, Katherine Tingley, Rudolf Steiner (who broke from TS and founded Anthroposophy and the Waldorf schools), G.I. Gurdjieff, and many of their significant followers. Jiddu Krishnamurti, who became famous for abdicating his title of “the world teacher” or Theosophical messiah in 1929, a role imposed on him at age 13 by Leadbeater, is given a thorough treatment by Washington. In contrast, he only briefly describes and sometimes only mentions more recent splinter groups and leaders from the TS amalgam, like Elizabeth Prophet and her Church Universal and Triumphant, George King and the Aetherius Church, Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov and the Universal White Brotherhood, Lloyd Meeker and the Emissaries of Divine Light, Idries Shah and the Society for Understanding Fundamental Ideas, and the Ralian Movement. Washington also covers the history of the esoteric School of Economic Science founded by Leon MacLaren and his connection with Transcendental Meditation’s Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He concludes his text with a solid, dispassionate look at J.G. Bennett’s life as it was influenced by Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, Shah, the Subud cult, and finally Catholicism.

Some important TS offshoots are missing in Washington’s survey, such as the Agni Yoga Society founded by Nicolas and Helena Roerich in the early 1920s, the Arcane School founded also in the 1920s by Alice A. Bailey, and the I AM Activity founded by Guy and Edna Ballard in the mid-1930s. To those who have studied the history of Theosophy as it has influenced these and other groups not mentioned by Washington, these may appear as glaring omissions. But the pervasiveness of Theosophy’s influence, especially with the thousands of New Age movement teachers and sects throughout the world, would take volumes to merely summarize. Washington nevertheless accomplishes his mission to give us a clear taste of the Western guru tradition, its roots, and its effects on certain disciples.

The book’s title is derived from a stuffed baboon that stood prominently among Blavatsky’s exotic paraphernalia in her flat in New York. The baboon was dressed complete with spectacles holding a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species, mocking that controversial scientist. Blavatsky saw herself as Ancient Wisdom’s counterpoint to that “strutting gamecock” of science, whom she often railed against in her two fantastic, notoriously plagiarized tomes, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. HPB more than anyone has influenced the Western occult tradition with the notion of spiritual evolution as it allegedly occurs through rounds of “root races” reincarnating. Some of her racist notions later crept into Nazi philosophy, even though Hitler disavowed the Theosophical Societies.

A most revealing passage from Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon describes P.D. Ouspensky, a Fourth Way or Gurdjieff School leader, who near the end of his life in 1947 was very depressed (confusion and depression have been common ailments of lifelong disciples of the Western guru tradition). He took to escaping from students in his car with his cats. Ouspensky would park his car at some destination, sit in the back seat staring out of a window while cuddling his pets. “Returning home from one journey, he spent the rest of the night in the car while a female pupil stood over him at the window, her arm raised as if in benediction. A cat would never be so stupid” (p. 337). This passage not only reveals the depths of delusion both guru and follower might reach, but it also reveals Washington’s insensitivity to the perhaps deluded but nevertheless struggling, dedicated victims of such gurus.

Washington’s sources are many and significant. Three noteworthy ones are Ancient Wisdom Revived by Bruce F. Campbell, Blavatsky by Marian Meade, and The Harmonious Circle by James Webb, the latter being a complete history of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and their followers. A biography of Blavatsky was also written by Theosophist Sylvia Cranston, who clumsily tries to portray HPB as a maligned saint of the New Age. Meade’s biography is far superior and accomplishes even more than Washington’s or Campbell’s books in presenting Blavatsky’s complex persona to us. Another valuable resource on HPB and the Western guru type not mentioned by Washington was written in 1948 by E.M. ButlerThe Myth of the Magus (Cambridge Canto edition, 1993). In any case, if you wish to read an updated, critical look at Blavatsky and her influence, pick up Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon.

Joseph P. Szimhart
Cult Information Specialist/Exit Counselor
Pottstown, Pennsylvania Copyright ©1997-99 AFF, Inc.” (1)

The so-called Western guru tradition they refer to is just a superficial label. I could demonstrate how Unitarianism and Christian Science are similarly polysolipsist or panentheist in effect. Emerson, Whitehead and even Teilhard de Chardin are all part of the same line of thought as are old line Gnostic or Arian Christians and even many more mystical sects of Catholicism or Christianity including Carmelites, Quakers, Sandemanians and others. You must ask yourself if their purpose is really about stopping cultish or sheepish behavior. Is there an agenda? Why do we pay people to deprogram New Age philosophy-inspired people and allow so much Fundamentalist programming including even overlooking outright proselytizing in public schools and from the mouths of Presidents?
Their references to Krishnamurti having Messiahhood thrust upon him at age thirteen is contrary to my understanding of what Krishnamurti wrote under the name of Alcyon and how he operated all his life. He also continued to work with people inside Theosophy despite rejecting the mantle of Messiah which they do get correct. In fact if they had any desire to be fair they would point out Krishnamurti was against having others tell you how to find your true and faithful calling. Here are some words by fair biographers on this great man that illustrate his aversion to dogma or any form of cult.

“Education had always been one of Krishnamurti’s chief concerns. If a young person could learn to see his conditioning of race, nationality, religion, dogma, tradition, opinion etc., which inevitably leads to conflict, then he might become a fully intelligent human being for whom right action would follow. A prejudiced or dogmatic mind can never be free.” (2)

Annie Besant adopted Krishnamurti and was a great social activist as well as one of the few female Masons. Why don’t they mention that? She founded a College in India and was a vital part of getting India its independence. Her work in women’s rights in England preceded Margaret Sanger in the fight to educate people about what causes children despite the social taboos against education. It is sad to see this travesty is allowed to go under the heading of cult de-programming. Yes, Blavatsky was a promoter and plagiarist - so are most pulpit-pounders. In fact you can learn by reading her books and researching what she says. This is what the reviewer should have pointed out rather than saying some of these people suffer depression. They go so far as to say “confusion and depression have been common ailments of lifelong disciples of the Western guru tradition”. Sure they put it in brackets as if it was a side thought - it is the main purpose of this outright spin or lie. Yogananda was a far better psychologist than this guy could ever hope to be. I am reminded of how Erickson was a guru of psychology until he saw the truth in the Eastern thought and science of soul. Then he was mercilessly abandoned. I was expecting to read Krishnamurti committed suicide at the age of ninety, after that nonsense. These people allow a far greater insight to the soul and our connectiveness than most psychiatrists and other programmers passing themselves off as healers will ever do.

Please read the passage carefully and note all the pejorative words and ways they demean without fair reportage. Do some research and study hard or you will continue to be made more of a sheep for the paradigm. Ask yourself what role the Masons had in all of this on both sides of the issue including the Mormons, Hitler and other real mind control cults like Scientology.

Author of Diverse Druids
World-Mysteries.com guest ‘expert’
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine

Do you believe you have no control over your life? Are you who you are today, by choice or by fate? Will a change in your actions create a change in your life? Many people have given up on their dreams… they say, “Dreaming is only for the rich. When you have money, you can dream. When you have no money, don’t dream.”

That’s true… not everyone is lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon. If you are lacking in funds, it’s going to be difficult to start living life the way you want to. Money buys you freedom to follow your passions. But you don’t have to give up on your dreams, just because you lack money. Depending on where you are brought up, you will face limitations depending on your family finance, culture, and environment. Some of us are born to have easy lives, while some are born to take a more challenging path. Perhaps the limitations and obstacles you face today are part of your journey — you must overcome them to grow stronger on the path to achieving your goals.

When we are young, we all seem to have clear idea of what we want to be when we grow up. But somewhere along the way, these dreams get buried under the reality of daily living. The focus shifts from ‘living the dream’ to just ‘finding a good job with a stable income’. “Survival first”, as they call it. The sad part is that many people spend much of their lives doing what they don’t like, so they can finally earn enough to start doing what they do like. I say, that’s a great way to bury your happiness and turn into an economic slave. Doing what you dislike, day after day, will numb the sense of joy within you. Soon you will feel that your life has no greater purpose, and there is nothing to look forward to but work, work, work…. You will have forgotten how much fun it is to spend your time doing the things you like to do.

*~The Secret to Living Your Dreams~*

It’s painful if you don’t make enough money to live comfortably. But what’s more painful is if the work you do has no meaning to you. Everyday you can drag yourself to work, perform meaningless actions, and then drag yourself back home. Apart from sleeping, work takes up the majority of our time. So if you’re not enjoying your work, you’re not enjoying your life. And life is so short, isn’t it? We probably have less than a hundred years to make our mark in this world. And you never know… you fail to look while crossing the road and BOOM! You could be gone tomorrow. So why spend your life doing something you don’t like to do? We don’t slog three-quarters of our lives just so we can enjoy one-quarter… we might not live that long. Realize that the essence of your life is happening right now — you are walking a path; making your journey through life. And if the work you do, is not designed to help you fulfill your higher purpose in life, then perhaps you are walking in the wrong direction. No point taking this path… change direction.

For your dream to stay alive, you have to act on it. It’s like a fire that grows brighter and stronger if you fan its flames and keep adding wood. If you leave the fire alone, never doing anything to keep it alive, it will burn itself out. When you fail to act on your dreams, they die.

A little girl called Leanne wants to be a ballerina. But her family is poor and unable to afford the fees of the fine arts dance school. Her father tells her not to dream because dreaming is only for the rich. But her mother says, “Lea, you can be whatever you want to be. As long as you put your heart into it, and never give up. Always hold on to your dreams because when there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Leanne remembered her mother’s words. She paid her way through a college degree in the fine arts, using money she earned from working full-time. She was talent scouted by the Royal Dance and Music Theatre of England, where she began her illustrious career as a ballerina. Earning in British pounds, she made more than enough to support her family and give them a comfortable lifestyle.

Leanne had a choice… to fervently believe in her dreams, and do whatever it takes to achieve it, or believe the World’s Greatest Lie… that at some point in her life, she lost control, and fate took over. She had to have the courage to step up to her dreams, and not give up just because she lacked money. If she listened to her father and put her love aside because dreaming was only for the rich, then she wouldn’t have lived to experience her passion. She would pass on from this world, with the music still left within her… buried under some obscure belief that she could never make money doing what she loved to do.

There is music within you, and you only need to coax it out. The daily grind forces us to forget what we love to do. Imagine you’re retired… You have enough money to live comfortably, but not to splurge. How would you spend your time? What activities would you find purpose in? What would you do to amuse yourself? If you have an idea of what you would love to do but are not doing, then schedule some time everyday to do it. Making time for what you love is just like fanning the flames of your passion — the fire can only grow stronger. It’s what will bring a sense of purpose and meaning into your life; that spark of joy and wonder.

The happiest people are those who enjoy their work. They’ve managed to make money doing what they love to do, just like Leanne. And this can happen for you… if you are willing to reject the World’s Greatest Lie. Realize that you always have control over your actions, and therefore your results. The only time your start to fail in life, is when you stop believing in your ability to make a difference. You don’t need a silver spoon; you don’t need to be a genius. What you need is a sincere belief in yourself and willingness to take action towards your dreams. Believe me, you have what it takes. Just follow what British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill said in World War II: “…never give up, never give up.” And you’ll win the war.

Lance Ong is a Certified Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Master Practitioner of Hypnotherapy and Timeline Therapy. He does life coaching to help clients gain clarity of purpose, while removing mental blocks to success. Learn Lance’s philosophy for better living at his Internet Blog Site - Wisdom to Create a Beautiful World - www.Lancism.com.

When you are angry, adrenaline floods your body, thus stressing all your bodily functions to the maximum. Biologically, this is an emergency situation. It may have saved your ancestors by impelling them to use a club to ward off a charging saber-tooth tiger. And in a war-zone, it might be useful, too. But, as an aspect of daily life, it is a sure way to ruin the smooth functioning of your metabolism.

When you further consider how your blood pressure rises as well, you are talking coronary heart-failure as well.

Anger is deadly. And when it is expressed towards others, can quickly escalate into homicide. In fact, most cases of murder are due to an uncontrollable resentment toward someone else.

Even unexpressed anger has lethal side effects. It can escalate into all sorts of worse mental aberrations and unpleasant life experiences.

Anger, expressed or unexpressed, can ruin your life. It can kill you or someone else. It is not something that you should mistake for a mere character flaw.

Even at lower levels of hostility, anger can cause major upsets. It can ruin your mental and physical health over time, and it definitely ruins all your relationships. Eventually, it can even hurt you financially, create substance abuse, or involve you in a deadly accident.

Anger is nothing short of a brief insanity. After your rage has passed, you are looking at some form of devastation. During your episode of anger, you literally lost your mind–your bodily sensations completely overwhelmed any sense of intelligence.

We laugh when we watch movies like “Anger Management.” Yet the final joke may be on us if we permit anger to control us. Unless we take care of our anger it is going to ruin our lives.

Anger, like suicidal depression, is a mental illness. It is a brief loss of reason, an overwhelming desire to strike out and hurt someone, a manic lust for revenge at any cost. Like any mental illness, it needs immediate attention.

If one is subjected to uncontrollable bursts of rage, then this needs professional intervention. A professional healer will help you identify and remove the traumatic conditions that have upset you. Some of them may be so deep-rooted that you are even unconscious about them.

If anger is merely due to high-levels of stress, anxiety, and frustration, then a course of stress-relief is necessary. There are many books on how to reduce your stress through such simple measures as taking walks, having hot baths, getting a massage, doing deep breathing, visualization, exercising, listening to soothing music, or taking on some form of spiritual practice.

It takes a great deal of effort to build anything–a business, a relationship, or a life–but it takes a few outbursts of anger to have everything collapse into ruin. Can you really afford to take for granted an emotion that can result in either utter failure or death?

Saleem Rana is a psychotherapist in Denver, Colorado. You can learn more ways on how to improve your life at http://theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html. You will receive many valuable gifts when you sign up.

We get angry when we are stopped doing something. Or when we don’t get our way. We get angry when our desires are not fulfilled, or when people don’t agree to our viewpoint. Many times we get angry when we find our views at great variance with others and are not able to understand the other viewpoint and disagree with that.

List your friends. Think about a situation and imagine the reactions. For example, let us say that the situation is this - your friend is sitting in a restaurant and someone spills something hot on his/her hands unintentionally. Now imagine the reactions from your list. You will write reactions that will vary greatly. You will imagine a friend of yours laughing it off and another friend calling the manager and making a big scene. The reactions are different because they are controlling their anger differently. How?

Some of us never take things very seriously. So they don’t get angry over small things at all. That is the nature of these people. Can we use any techniques to control anger? Let us examine. Do you react immediately, or think about what went wrong before reacting? Those of us who react spontaneously, get angry fast. Those who think about it before reacting are able to understand and control their emotions better. Why not count up to ten before reacting?

Understanding others viewpoint helps in many situations. As we have our viewpoint, so do others. Why try to enforce our thoughts on them? Why not at least try and understand what they think and why? If your boss is angry with you, you need not react immediately. Give some time and think about all the possible reasons and you may find the answer to his anger. If at the end you realize that his/her anger was totally unjustified, you chose to forgive and not react angrily.

Emotions such as anger can be controlled. It needs reflection. It needs practice to exercise restraint. By winning over your anger you will become a better person. Make your anger your slave and not get enslaved by it.

CDMohatta writes inspirational content for ecard, screensaver and wallpaper sites. You can download some wallpapers at- Motivational wallpapers. To view the ecards browse Good day ecards and Love greetings.

You’ve just filled out an order form and the guy who is waiting for someone from the warehouse to get back to him impatiently taps his pencil on the side of the desk. Was there a musical accompaniment? There didn’t have to be, he was tapping the minutes away.

You’re at work and the woman in the cubicle across from you draws tiny swirls and symbols on a piece of paper when her phone call gets placed on hold. If all her spiraling lines could eventually be connected they’d probably stretch the distance of the Great Wall of China.

What do these people have in common? Habits. They each do something automatically to help pass the time away when they have to wait for something.

Common to Us All

Not all habits, however, are nervous ones that have been designated to fill a void in time. Some are instant actions based on ongoing assumptions. For instance, ever since I switched the locations of a floor lamp and a recliner, my husband and I have been walking toward the lamp to sit and toward the chair to switch on the light. Then, later, when I replaced a wall clock with a framed painting, for days we were looking over at the painting to see what time it was. Naturally, we knew better afterward. But for a split-second interval, our thinking had taken a hike and habit had taken over (a trained response to an asumption that things were as they had been before).

All habits though, are not based on impatient time-filling or based on things you’ve done before and memorized to do again. Some have a complicated addictive quality to them (over-indulgence in eating, drinking, gambling, etc.). These are habits gone awry because other psychological/physical things are involved.

Of course, we’re all aware of some of the more socially-irritating habits, such as interrupting someone when they’re talking, laughing at inappropriate times, digging ear wax out of your ear and then not knowing what to do with it, and other kinds of “nails on the chalkboard” things that people around you might do. I’m sure you can vividly recall a number of other irritations as well.

Thinking Takes a Hike

During the act of a habit, our mind is not fully engaged and, since most of us usually follow the path of least resistance, it’s quite easy to relinquish our thinking powers over to routines and habits. Habits are not to be confused for reflexes and instincts however, although reflexes and instincts certainly play a part in developing some (and possibly most) habits.

But we’re creatures of habit. From the way we put our clothes away (or don’t put them away), to the manner in which we speak, habits sneak in and set up shop. An ever-increasing one is the appearance of 4-letter words that has taken over the English language. Language as we have known it gets taken in another direction when those “word gems” become the bulk of the sentence structure. Cussing is no different than any other form of expressing feelings in order to communicate them to others. But when that expression becomes a habit and that habit increases…well, thank goodness for the few verbs and adjectives that actually do make it into the conversation or there would be no conversation at all.

Habits heed no boundaries and play no games. They can plant themselves, take root and dare you to get rid of them. If you’ve ever tired to break one, it quickly becomes apparent to you just how strongly they can take hold. Technically, all regular routines are habits, since after awhile, all routines by their very nature become habitual. You go to bed at eleven, get up at six and go off to work at seven-thirty so often that you don’t even think about it anymore…you just do it. It’s that repeating and not having to think about it that qualifies routines as habits.

They Have Dual Personalities

Obviously, some habits are good and some are not so good. Saying “thank you” is a good one to develop. Chewing our fingernails down to the flesh might be one to avoid. Any habit that helps us to be better human beings are habits to embrace. Any that would drive those around us up the wall might be some to reconsider. And any that would be grounds for divorce would definitely be ones to avoid altogether.

Highly Effective

The fact that habits can be good things is evidenced in the popularity of list-writings based on Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” Do a search online and you’ll find everything from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” to “The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Brand Champions.” So, it’s obvious that habits can be a good thing. Let them work for you. Make them work for you! Harness the bad ones and let the good ones help you. Who knows what you can accomplish with the right habits assisting and strengthening you. Who knows!

But these two conditions are very different!

And when you label a condition incorrectly it can cause no end of problems when trying to diagnose and treat it. So it’s extremely important to make the distinction between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and depression - because they are completely different illnesses.

For one, depression can be a symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but there are many Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers out there who do not suffer from depression at all.

Second, research has shown that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers have an abnormality in their ‘deep sleep’ brainwave patterns. In contrast, depression sufferers do not have this abnormality.

In addition, depression sufferers tend to feel tired all the time, whereas Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers’ exhaustion increases notably after mental or physical exertion.

There are also symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that are not shared by depression sufferers. Nasty flu-like symptoms, headaches, reversal of sleeping patterns, painful muscles and joints, Restless Legs Syndrome, and an increase in colds and viruses all are just a few symptoms that can play a part in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

These are just a few of the differences between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and depression!

Another myth about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is that all Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers need to do is to ‘pull themselves together’ - and they’d be cured…

… if only it were that simple!

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is actually a bio-physical condition and was (finally) accepted as such by the UK government in 2001. But no cure has yet been found.

Unfortunately there are still many people out there (including some medical professionals) who still think that the condition is ‘all in the sufferer’s head’.

It is because of this misunderstanding that the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome community has fought so hard against Chronic Fatigue Syndrome being wrongly labelled as a mental illness. And it is perhaps because of this battle that depression amongst Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers has often sadly been overlooked…

Yet for many, depression can be a very real symptom of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. If you suffer from depression as a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferer, then it’s vital that you take it very seriously and that you try to address it as soon as possible.

If you don’t deal with your depression, you are unlikely to be able to recover from any chronic illness…

…and recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is no exception.

For more about the difference between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and depression visit:

http://www.sleepydust.net/CHRONIC-FATIGUE-SYNDROME-AND-DEPRESSION.html

It is possible to recover from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. So if you do experience depression as a symptom of your Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, make it a priority to deal with it. Only that way can you get yourself on the road to recovery.

Copyright, Claire Williams, 2004-2005. All Rights Reserved.

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Claire Williams is editor of sleepydust.net, a web site that helps ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia sufferers deal with their condition - from handling their money worries, to recovering from their illness.

For more information on depression, visit:

http://www.sleepydust.net/DEPRESSION-SYMPTOM-homepage.html

And for more about why Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is different to Depression visit:

http://www.sleepydust.net/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-is-different-to-depression.html

Jesus didn’t–and doesn’t–go by our theory of survival of the fittest. He takes our bruised reed that twists in the storm and strengthens and straightens it enough so that it makes music for Him and others; He takes our dimly burning wick and tends it until it can give light for others groping in their dark night of the soul. We can take glorious comfort in this thought.

There’s a German legend that tells of a baron who built his castle on the Rhine. One too-quiet and lonely day he hung wires from crag to crag and turret to turret, hoping that the winds, as they blew upon this great Aeolian harp, might make sweet music and lessen his loneliness. The baron waited patiently every day for his beautiful music. Every day the winds blew from the four corners of heaven, but no music came. Then one night a hurricane charged in, tossing the Rhine into a fury. The lightening pierced the black night and the thunder shook the land with its uproar. The winds seemed to go mad. The baron rushed to the great castle door to view the terrifying scene and suddenly he heard the sound of what seemed angels’ music. As he listened with awe, he realized that his harp had come to life at last. The terrifying tempest had given it new and sacred life.

Dear grieving friend, our precious Savior has allowed a sweeping hurricane to carry off what is so dear to us! We feel our treasure being ripped from the core of our existence and, when we reach into our heart to find something to assuage the terrifying hopelessness, all we find is a hole so large we could sink in it. What is so stirring about this particular verse is God’s promise that He will never allow life’s lightening bolts to devastate us completely.

This verse helped me mightily in the severe times after our son’s death. It was enormously comforting to visualize this weak little reed being lifted and held ever so gently by a Man who understood every pang of grief I was feeling. I envisioned strength and courage returning as I felt Jesus lift this terribly-broken reed and whisper to me, “Dear child, don’t you know that I take broken reeds and make some of them pens to write of My love, using My own sacred blood for ink? Some of these broken reeds I take and make instruments of lovely music of praise. Handel was one of those drooping reeds when I gave him inspiration and strength to write Messiah. Yet other broken reeds I make so strong that they become pillars whereon others may rest.”

O friend, let Jesus take us and make of us what He will, for it is the broken reeds and smoking wicks that He loves so much!

Who amongst us does not entertain the thought now and again? During particularly stressful periods of my life, I’ve encountered the urge, while crossing a bridge, to jerk the steering wheel hard right and the car over the guardrail into a 200 foot drop to the riverbed below.

Within the last year, I read a news article that stated the incidence of successful attempted suicides by people in Japan is statistically much higher then here, in the U.S. The article stated specifically that the most prevalent means of attempted suicide here is overdosing on Valium, our most abundant mood-altering drug.

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself, remembering the slews of young people who I picked up that, sure they’d never wake up again, found themselves alive with the increased misery of a whopping hangover for the next few days after getting their stomachs pumped. But this was a reflection of my own unwillingness to look deeper.

Most of the attempted overdoses that I attended were done publicly in some way, with an element of certainty that someone would know or find out within a few hours. To be honest, unless I found around three empty bottles of the stuff right next to the unconscious person, I didn’t worry much.

I’ve picked up many who lay in their beds, unconscious and snoring for three days after having ingested handfuls of the stuff. Care was really simple; open an intravenous line, protect the airway, and boogie to the hospital. To me, teenaged suicide was largely a call for help based on a current, perceived threat of some sort. In the US, the hope is that these calls for help will be answered.

But in Japan, where pharmaceuticals are not so readily available, the substance of choice is one or another form of poison or pesticide, which are by no means as forgiving as Valium. That’s where the statistics tell a story: Where the numbers separate is that in Japan, attempted suicides are much more likely to be successful. U.S. rate of successful suicide is about 11 per 100,000 in population (average - all ages and sexes), whereas in Japan, it’s about 25 per 100,000.

That proportion sent a chill down my spine. In America, lots of kids for example, who are grappling with questions of life and death can come to a temporary, albeit, morbid conclusion, take action on it, and then get a second chance. This is not as likely over there.

That’s quite sad, but I suspect that the high proportion is also a by-product of the Japanese cultural imperative to not speak of such things. I also suspect that if the kids really knew and believed that what they were doing was highly likely to do them in, they wouldn’t. Here, almost every teen knows someone who has gone the Valium route and failed.

My approach, as a counselor, (which, admittedly, is a hell of a lot more compassionate than when I was a medic and a direct result of having to deal with it time and again, under all sorts of circumstances — a humbling experience to say the least!) is to first and foremost accept that the person threatening suicide is serious. No matter what I think, their lives have come to circumstances that tell them it’s a viable option. I honor it as such.

Most people mobilize everything at their disposal to stop, deny, sidestep or avoid the patterns or actions that might promote the thought of suicide. When I start with something like, “Yeah, that is an option”, those with less conviction will sometimes stop in their tracks, all by themselves, and begin exploring other options.

People so often discount words implying the thought of suicide (”Oh, that’s ridiculous, you have a wonderful life!”) that even the suicidal don’t really get that it’s about really ending their lives. Many of them just want to end the apparent pain of the moment. Placing death clearly into the picture, and working with it as a valid possibility means it becomes real and something that can be actually worked with in most situations.

A consistent underlying theme of potential suicides is they feel like they cannot have an effect on their worlds. Many can’t, but that boils down to not being able to have the effect that they want to have. The opening I seek is to explore effects that they can have in the now that will be enough to get them through to tomorrow.

Sometimes, the person will place a roadblock in front of every path out that I offer. In that case, I ask, “Okay, were I to support you in your committing suicide, what would that look like?” I open the door to discussion completely. More often than not, this approach provides a bit of leverage to work with because you’re meeting, not resisting.

But at all times, the most effective approach is to do what it takes to ground the person in the immediate experience of now. If the person manages to make it to you, their current reality is that they are with someone who cares enough to value them and work with them as a respected and honored human being, going through the same process of life we all face.

By placing the person’s attention fully on the moment that is, rather than on agonizing over what was or what they fear will be, you can help them get to the next moment. Ultimately, that’s the goal: to work with the person so that they have enough experiences in the supported now to make a decision for life. Enough of these moments strung together provide a Path to the future that includes hope. Often, that’s enough.

Sometimes it’s not enough, but only because free-will trumps all. And that’s okay, too!

Russ Reina shares over 35 years of experience in the healing arts through his web site http://mauihealingartist.com. It is a potent resource for those wishing to deepen their abilities in connection and develop their powers as healers. For a powerful free tool to explore your inner world, please check out his adjunct site http://thestoryofthis.net (Permission is granted to reprint this article, unedited, provided proper attribution is made and the signature line — the above resource paragraph — is kept intact)

Any observation that requires objective proof falls under the objective category. Ex: the observations of scientific laws. Majority of the scientific observations such as the “Brownian Motion” etc. are Objective in nature. But it is very much possible for the observer to incorporate his expectations and desires unconsciously. Given the nature of human being, it will be unfair to blame those observers. In the field of science, Objective observations are very much dominant. There is nothing called subjective observations, it is actually baseless to be purely subjective.

A medley of subjectivity over objectivity is the norm of the world. This is something that happens in our day to day life. Most part of our day we observe and make choices. Our observations differ with someone elses. Why? It is because ‘People see the world with their beliefs and values’, each ones perception of the world differs, adding subjectivity to the observation. Let us see an anecdote to emphasize that subjectivity prevails.

Two marketing guys from two different shoe sales company were asked to visit a under developed country. To study the market scenario and plan whether it makes sense for the company to open a branch there. The two guys visited the country and came back with their findings. The first guy said ‘These people do not even wear slippers, there is no market here. It is not advisable to branch out here’. The second guy was with full vigor his report stated ‘These people do not wear slippers, there is a huge market’.

This explains the power of Subjectivity.

The worldly trend is to be objective but unconsciously we tend to be subjective, it is high time we recognize that!

-Ramesh-