How to Reduce Depression Rates? Know Some EQ.

How to reduce depression rates in hospitals?

According to an article in softpedia.com:

Norwegian experts argue that training in emotional intelligence could make healthcare personnel more likely to recognize such conditions, and treat them accordingly, PhysOrg reports.

Read the full article HERE.

For training in emotional intelligence, call Susan Dunn, MA, QMHP, at 817-734-1471. Long-distance training, on-site, international, group, individual.

What the Sea Squirt Knows ... and Depression

One of the reasons I want to tell you about this book - SPARK - is because it contains one of our favorite stories ... the story of the sea squirt. I've heard this story in reference to professors who achieve tenure, and also civil servants of the same.

Ratey uses the sea squirt as an example of the relation of exercise to optimal brain functioning and thinking and his premise that only a moving animal needs a brain. The sea squirt, you see, is hatched with a rudimentary spinal cord and 300 brain cells. It has only hours to find a spot of coral on which to put down roots of die. When it does put down roots, it eats its brain. Ergo, only a moving animal needs a brain.

But that's just an intro. The book is full of the correlation between exercise and GOOD THINGS, such as better academic performance, alertness, attention, motivation and good health. Among the areas Ratey claims well-effected by exercise are stress, depression, ADD and aging.

Incidentally Ratey cites depression as the leading cause of disability in the US and it seems to respond particularly well to exercise (v. drugs).

Dr. Ratey, a psychiatrist, claims exercise relieves serious depression better than Prozac, citing the SMILE (Standard Medical Intervention and Long-Term Exercise) study at Duke University which found that both exercisers and Zoloft takers were equally likely to recover from major depression, but that the exercisers were more likely to still not be depressed 2 years later than people on Zoloft or who took Zoloft in addition to exercising.

How much does exercise matter?

Every 50 minutes of exercise per week correlated to a 50% drop in depression levels.

For EQ coaching, email me at sdunn@susandunn.cc . Ask for the retro rates.

From today's mailbag:

"You were a godsend to me when I was so desperate, giving me access to your full EQ program, which was a major contributer to my recovery from depression ... I genuinely benifited from your EQ course, as it helped me to understand fundemental things about how I 'tick' and allowed me to learn to separate my feelings from my responses as a prime example. Chemicals certainly had something to do with the cycle ... but ultimately as you say, EQ development is a lifeskill to get you through all kinds ofcircumstances and I firmly believe having learned so much, that most psychology patients would be better served doing [this]course before ever visiting a shrink, as in many cases their only problem is a low EQ." --Mike Maliepaard

Fight Don't Struggle

This time of year a lot of people have trouble with low energy, sadness and negative things. The reasons are abundant - exhaustion, getting over Christmas (what did and didn't happen), throw in Valentine's Day coming up, bills, taxes, lack of sunlight, SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and a general urge to hibernate...which isn't possible for most of us.

It's a good time to work on your emotions and how you manage them. Remember, it's better to let them flow and accept them. If you bottle them up or stuff them down, you give them more power.

Great time to brush up on your EQ as it's a great learning time. Contact me about EQ 101, my new course. Good for newbies and pros, both. Email me at sdunn@susandunn.cc .


Check out the great sunglasses: http://www.hisunglasses.com/

Dealing with Alcoholism during the Holidays (or any time)

Unfortunately many of us will be dealing with alcoholism during the holidays - with family members and relatives. If it's in your family history, or dealing with it will be part of "the holidays" for you, coaching is available, also the DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE course. (email me for information, sdunn@susandunn.cc)

And here is a very good summary article written by an addictions therapist.

PREDISPOSITION TO ALCOHOLISM: WHAT'S IN YOUR GENES?

Certainly the popular notion that alcoholism may be inherited from our parents has gained momentum in recent times. This is not a new school of thought by any means, but it has gained creditability as a result of detailed investigations that have been carried out in the name of science these past decades.

There is no question that typically a pattern emerges where a tendency to alcoholism and alcohol related problems do affect siblings and generations within a family. By no means does this conclusively indicate that alcoholism or alcohol related problems will plague you because you inherited the gene from a parent.

On the other hand, there are many genetically inherited characteristics that have been proven to impact on the likelihood of an individual becoming a statistic of alcoholism related concerns. It is understood that the predisposition to alcoholism may be contributed by a number of factors including genetic makeup and social or environmental aspects.

As yet, there has not been a breakthrough in the discovery of a particular alcoholic gene but there have been significant findings in the relationship between some inherited genes that are known to be present in a vast number of alcoholics studied. 5-HTT (the serotonin transporter gene), the gene found in depression sufferers is one example of an inherited gene shared by many alcoholics.

The presence of this gene also does not doom a person to depression. Like alcoholism, social and environmental factors are very evident in the reflection of the condition upon an individual.

Another genetically inherited characteristic that has a relationship to alcoholism is a variation in our liver enzymes that controls the rate that our liver processes alcohol. Alcoholism is considered to be a complex disease as is diabetes, meaning that genetic makeup alone does not automatically lead to alcoholism; social environmental influences contribute to the disease's presence.

We typically learn our social skills from within our families from birth. It is here that we learn right from wrong and acceptable social behavior. If a family get together is learned from our childhood conditioning as being an event that alcohol is consumed for the merriment of all this becomes imprinted in our minds as the nature of social interaction. The same principle applies to all other occasions and daily events. Certainly social conditioning is learned from all that we are exposed to, not just our immediate family. I

ndeed, visual repetitive learning is a valuable and effective teaching tool; unfortunately, it is not so selective as to be able to dismiss the negative influence also.

Environmental factors that often reflect a tendency toward alcoholism do not fall squarely in the home of a family. Habitual behavior and life choices remain the responsibility of an individual. If your mother was an alcoholic, and the family drank to excess at home and socially, this does not absolve an individual of responsibility from the choices they make for themselves.

Science has not finished with alcoholism. Certainly medical communities are diligently pressing on with the hope that one day this disease that destroys mankind from the inside out and devastates entire families and the loved ones of sufferers may one day be completely understood. We do know that genetics does contribute some to the condition of alcoholism, and do know that the presence of the disease is generated from complex factors including genetic and social environment, but there is still much to be learned.

In the mean time, we may be grateful that help and support is available when someone is willing to accept it.

If you need help, please seek it.

About the Author (required to print): Pick up your Free 101 page Addiction Recovery Help Guide just for visiting our site. Bill Urell MA.CAAP-II, is an addictions therapist at a leading treatment center, teaching healthy recovery skills. Visit: http://www.AddictionRecoveryBasics.com .

You may also wish to read Susan' s ebook, EQ and Addiction: the 14th Step - http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html .

Email for coaching, sdunn@susandunn.cc . I will be working all holidays, nights and weekends.

Cancer Update and Emotional Intelligence

Cancer Update

Anger kills. Resentment is anger on steroids. Depression is anger "without the enthusiasm." Hostility is never leaving the toxic environment.

When you read this cancer update you will understand that your immune system is your health. 5 minutes of anger suppresses your immune system for up to 8 hours. Does a depressed or hostile person ever leave the angry state? You tell me.

But how do you deal with anger when there's so much out there that can make you angry? Do you really have a choice? Traffic jams, teenagers, irritating cell phones, canceled flights, difficult bosses? There are answers in THE EQ COURSE. You have a choice about your emotional reaction. This interactive Internet course is about the cost of two massages (heavenly while it lasts), two therapy sessions (where you're supposed to talk about the things that have made you angry in the past, like your childhood or failed married, which common sense would tell you brings up more anger), or two tickets to a movie and a fine dinner (which you won't enjoy) -- and THE EQ COURSE is likely to do more good and last a lot longer. Most people call emotional intelligence "the missing piece."

When you read this, you'll also see why I like Arbonne's Get Well Soon Supplement. The name sort of assumes some of things addressed here.

Here is a Cancer Update attributed to various institutions, none of which could be confirmed, but it is not (according to snopes) from Johns Hopkins. Need I say this is not medical advice? Medical advice comes from a licensed physician! See if this resonates for you. Then take action for your wellness.

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body.

These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract, etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size.However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various
kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply. Cancer cells feed on: [negative emotions and...]:

• (a) Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like ExtraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color.Better alternative is Bragg's Aminos or sea salt.b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract.
• (b) Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.
• (c) Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
• (d) A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhancegrowth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
• (e) Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc. - try MyArbonne (Get Well Soon dietary supplement) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Want to learn more about anger and how to manage it? 817-734-1471. Some people call for a read from time. Take THE EQ COURSE. Get Well Soon Dietary Supplement here - and others.

Is Sex a Cure for Depression

Is Sex a Cure for Depression? (sounds like a line, doesn't it)

Sex is a beauty treatment ... Lovemaking can burn up calories ...

Did you get this one in your email?

Dr. Dorree Lynn think there might be something to it. She received it from Radio Talk show host, Jim Bohannon, http://www.jimnotalk.com/.

Assuming there' s a relationship around it, it's emotionally intelligent. Statistics show that married men are the happiest (the single women, then married women, then single men). Isolation (bsence of emotional connection) is harder on our health than smoking, obesity and high blood pressure combined.

"It happens to be as good a medical and psychological prescription as I know," Dr. Lynn says. "It's pretty valid. "

Well here it is!

1. Sex is a beauty treatment. Scientific tests find that when women make love they produce amounts of the hormone estrogen, which makes hair shine and skin smooth.Gentle, relaxed lovemaking reduces your chances of suffering dermatitis, skin rashes and blemishes. The sweat produced cleanses the pores and makes your skin glow.
2. Lovemaking can burn up those calories you piled on during that romantic dinner.
3. Sex is one of the safest sports you can take up. It stretches and tones up just about every muscle in the body. It' s more enjoyable than swimming 20 laps, and you don't need special sneakers!
4. Sex is an instant cure for mild depression. It releases endorphins into the bloodstream, producing a sense of euphoria leaving you with a feeling of well-being.
5. The more sex you have, the more you will be offered. The sexually active body gives off greater quantities of chemicals called pheromones. These subtle sex perfumes drive the opposite sex crazy!
6. Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. IT IS 10 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN VALIUM.
7. Kissing each day will keep the dentist away. Kissing encourages saliva to wash food from the teeth and lowers the level of the acid that causes decay, preventing plaque build-up.

DO YOU KEEP WALKING INTO THE BLADE OF A FAN?
Try the DIFFICULT PEOPLE course. It's on the Internet. It's interactive. It's saving people!! Click HERE to order. Just $29.95, less than a movie and it's effects last a lot longer.

Emotional Intelligence: The Kiss

THE SECRET IS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

It's so easy once you get the secret --- that we are our emotions. And our emotions come from our thoughts. There is no emotion that doesn't have a thought attached to it. Our perceptions of life, our past experiences and emotions attached to them, the neuronal firing patterns we have developed in our brains, and our particular slice of reality.

Healing is about emotions. It's not all "in your head," but it IS all in your brain -- and, thanks to the vagus nerve, which extends from the brain down into the intestines -- in your stomach and intestines. Actually in every cell of your body, according the Candace Pert, Ph.D., who is one of the people largely responsible for the development of Prozac.

But why not learn, with emotional intelligence, to make use of your body/brain's OWN "prozac."

It's easy with emotional intelligence. It's the secret.

The thoughts propel the feelings. That's the secret. This video, actually, contains only words. Watch it and see how you feel, how you WOULD feel if you amped up your emotional INTELLIGENCE:



Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for a free ezine about emotional intelligence.

IN MEMORIAM: Chettie
One of the sweetest spirits who ever graced this earth.
9-15-78 - 4-1-99

BLOW A KISS, CHETTIE

Wired to Connect

WHAT IS BETTER THAN A TRUE FRIEND??
public weblog('jaysen naidoo')

Yes, our brains are wired to connect. Connections, of the good sort, help eliminate or alleviate stress, help us cope better, emotional intelligence is built on a good support system and network, and we are wired to connect with other humans and also mammals. Many people's best buddy is a dog!

Studies show that ISOLATION is harder on our health than smoking, overweight, stress all combined. Think of that!

Emotional intelligence shows you how to work with this natural ability and need to connect with others at a meaningful level. We are our emotions ... if you aren't connecting with others emotionally, you can be alone in a crowd.

Must as I am ambivalent about cell phones, I always think of the connection. The cell phones start ringing at work around 5, and people start to wind down their days, and long for connection with their loved ones. Lovers call each other on the cell all day long, ot txt msg, and it makes them happy.

Stay connected!

Robert Solomon - True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions are Really Telling Us

IN MEMORIAM: ROBERT SOLOMON
Solomon was the author of more than 40 books, a gifted teacher and an expert in existentialism and emotions. He was born in 1942. He was Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Business and Philosophy and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at UT Austin. He had a bachelor's degree in molecular biology and a master's and doctoral degree in philosophy and psychology.
"Six billion people in the world and counting ... nevertheless what you do counts."

Clip of Solomon in the animated film, "Waking Life" talking about existentialism. "Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. But one thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. It's like your life is yours to create..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82EV4KBIsNk



Among Solomon's books: From Rationalism to Existentialism: The Existentialists and Their Nineteenth-Century Backgrounds (1972) arguably the best introductory text on existentialism in English, and The Passions (1976), considered a classic on the emotions.

From an ode to him on the Oxford University press blog. For the full article go HERE.

From the preface to Solomon’s most recent book, True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us:

I have always been fascinated by emotions; watching and dealing with them in other people, coping with and often joy-riding with my own. To be perfectly honest, I've also been terrified of them. As a child, I had a vile (though rarely violent) temper. As a young man, I fell in love often, and hard. As I matured, I learned to actually love, though perhaps more slowly and awkwardly than I would like to admit. And all along, I found myself brooding on, speculating about, luxuriating in, and terrified by my own emotional dispositions, responses, and preferences. I was already (although I did not know it at the time) a philosopher.

When I actually came into philosophy (from biology and medical school, where I had developed an interest in psychoanalysis), I brought with me that very personal fascination with the nature of the emotions ...

What were my emotions, my passions, or-more vaguely-my "feelings"? Did they, as it sometimes seemed, just happen to me-"sweep me away"-or even possess me, "take over my personality"? Or were they, as they also seemed to be, what was most me, most mine, what best (or worst) defined me? Were my emotions good and good for me, or were they bad and bad for me (as my less emotional friends would continually caution me)? What did it mean-that sixties' expression-to be "in touch with one's feelings"? What was it to be an "authentic" person? ...

Over the next thirty years, I explored those questions by way of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and biology... I had long been indignant that emotions were so neglected in philosophy, the self-appointed discipline of "rationality." ...

...Now the philosophy of emotions, and the idea that reason and emotions are in cahoots rather than antagonists, is a major research area in psychology and the fast-advancing neurosciences.

Check out the other clips from "Waking Life: on youtube.com. Interesting.

R.I.P.

Emotional Intelligence - it's not just a buzz word

THIS 'N' THAT

Now you can ask the EQ Coach a Question. Go HERE. Tell your friends.

Coach certification program. Get in now before the rates go up.

Did you know I had a photo shoot over Christmas with First Women magazine? All about health and looking and feeling good. Let me coach you to get there.

Most New Year's resolutions have been broken by the end of January, and that's depressing. Let me show you a better way. Call 817-741-7223, or mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc .

La Scala bumps "Candide" from their schedule. Read more about it on Club Vivo.

DR took the How to Handle Difficult People course and said how nice it was not to get drawn into the same old yada yada at the holiday get-together. Take it NOW while you still remember what it was like. Click HERE.

Have you taken the EQ Map? The best assessment out there. Go Check it out.

What's the most depressing day of the year? January 20th. Are you ready?

Can't figure him out? Will be come back? What do you do next?

We recommend:

• Essential Difference: Truth about Male & Female Brain.
• A reading from Semiramis. She unites couples. mailto:semiramis.appiamo@hotmail.com .
  email reading, $50. Phone reading, $100.
• Relationship coaching. Susan is "How to Attract Your Dream Man" for expert.com.

Americans Should Show More Emotional Intelligence in Iraq?

Is this the clueless listening to the clueless?

"As we Americans plan our strategy for Iraq, let's show more emotional intelligence." This is the subtitle of Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times) article "Cut and Walk" published December 5, 2006. It is available HERE if you are a subscriber, which I am not.

The blogs are hastening to address this comment and article.

On NewsBusters: Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias, Mark Finkelstein says Kristof's column reads like "something that might have been written by warm 'n fuzzy Stuart Smalley, the SNL character Al Franken hilariously immortalized before deciding he had serious things to say. "

I agree with one of the commentators to Finkelstein's blog - I'm not going to pay to read the article, which is pay-per-view. But I want to comment on the comments, in the defense of Emotional Intelligence. It should not in any way be linked to Stuart Smalley. Though it's a common misconception, to segue into that, no matter what Kristof said, is misleading.

It is a common misconception, by those who have not studied the field of Emotional Intelligence that it's about "touchy feely."

What's touchy-feely about a manager losing his temper, slugging an employee and bringing on a lawsuit?

What's Stuart Smalley about a CEO being so depressed about his divorce that he's out drinking all night and carousing, and unable to pay attention to the bottom-line?

Is there something "weak" about a person who is so out of touch with their gut feeling that they continually make precisely the wrong move in every sensitive situation?

Is there something to laugh about when a nuclear engineer whose IQ is 170 is so out-of-touch with the real world, she fails to notice a hiss and change in temperature that would have warned her to get everyone out before the place blew up? (I coached a consultant in the UK who works with people who work in dangerous fields to get them in touch with their EQ - the only thing that can keep them safe. )

And there's nothing group-hug about getting someone under control who can't control the feeling of lust and thereby jeopardizes your corporation with his continual sexual harassment, about which he is "clueless."

Again, I don't know how Kristof applied Emotional Intelligence in re: Iraq, but I don't like to see the field of Emotional Intelligence cast in this sort of disparaging light.

Note that I did not read Kristof's article and so I do not critique it. If you haven't studied Emotional Intelligence, should you be critiqueing it? There's a distinction between criticizing the field of Emotional Intelligence, and criticizing how Kristop uses the term and what he writes in his article.

And knowing that difference if part of what Emotional Intelligence is all about.

Here 's a place where you can read about it: www.susandunn.cc .
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Read my article on BuildYourOwnBusiness - "How Managers Use Emotional Intelligence Like Map Coordinates".

Art used by permission, www.claudiafernety.com .