Transcendental Meditation :: Blood Pressure Tranquility Papers

About forty years ago, Maharishi Mahesk Yogi pioneered the Transcendental Meditation program. The Transcendental Meditation technique is a natural, unforced practice that reduces stress and increases an individual’s mental and physical potential. TM (Transcendental Meditation) is often experienced for fifteen to twenty minutes twice a day. Typically, one meditates in the morning before eating breakfast; this practice helps the person start his day both alert and energized. The second meditation session occurs in the afternoon before dinner. During this practice, one washes away the stress accumulated over the day, and this session is the basis for a pleasurable evening and a restful night’s sleep (http://www.tm.org/book/chap_1.html). Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation causes the mind and body to enter a unique, insightful state of mind that is both restful and alert. As the body benefits from a deep state of rest, the mind goes into a state of inner tra nquility and awareness. TM advocates claim that Transcendental Meditation is unlike any other forms of mediation or relaxation techniques. The TM program is more effective in reducing apprehension, improving mental health, increasing self-awareness, and reducing the abuse of cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. Unlike hypnosis, Transcendental Meditation is normal and entails no proposals. The technique is simple to learn, is easy to practice, and does not include concentration or contemplation, which other forms of meditation and self- improvement do (http://www.tm.org/book/chap_9.html). â€Å"The result: Do less and accomplish more with greater energy, success, and satisfaction in everything you do† (http://www.tm.org/book/chap_9.html). A qualified teacher of the TM program is said to be the only person capable of teaching Transcendental Meditation. The course consists of seven steps. The first phase consists of an introductory lecture during which the individual is exposed to all of the possible benefits of the TM program. The second step, the preparatory lecture, teaches each person the procedure and the origin of the TM technique. Then, the individual must have an interview with a qualified teacher of the TM program. The fourth step includes personal instruction about how to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique. â€Å"Verification and Validation of Experiences† encompasses the final three phases. In the first of the three, the individual verifies the precision of the program and receives further instruction. Then, the person develops an understanding of the TM technique’s mechanics based on personal experiences.

Psychology & Understanding Human Behavior: the Individual

Psychology & Understanding Human Behavior: The Individual PSYC120-1203B-06 Introduction to Psychology IP5 Psychology & Understanding Human Behavior: The Individual President Barak Obama is who I have chosen to do my research and analysis on for this class as he is one of the most controversial people that I can think of today. With him being the President of the United States he is known all over the world. After being the President for almost four years a lot of what he has done in office has really upset a lot of people by him going against what the Presidents before him had worked so hard to establish.This country was built on Christian principles by our founding fathers and it seems that this country in the last 4 years has strayed very far from where it was and should be. With that being said I chose him because I wanted to delve into his childhood and his upbringing to see what if anything may have caused him to become who is known to be today. Barack Hussein Obama, ll was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the older of two children. Barack is what you would consider bi-racial individual. His father’s name is Barack Obama, Sr. and he is African American. His mother’s name is Ann Dunham and she is from an English ancestry mixed with Scottish, German, Swiss, and Irish cultural backgrounds. His parents met when they were students at the University of Hawaii in 1960 in a Russian class. Barack’s father was a foreign student who was attending the college on a scholarship. His mother was originally from Wichita, Kansas. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor her father, Stanly enlisted in the service, and her mom got a job on the bomber assembly line.When the war ended her parents bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and finally after many moves the family ended up living in Hawaii. His parents got married on February 2, 1961 however they separated when his father went to Harvard University on scholarship and eventually the couple divorced in 1964 (Main article: Early Life and Career of Barack Obama). His mom later remarried an Indonesian man name Lolo Soetoro who was attending college in Hawaii as well. From the age of six until the age of ten Barack lived in a city called Jakarta where his younger sister Maya Soetoro Ng was born.In 1971 after being scared for her son’s life on several occasions and wanting him to get a good education, Ann decided to send her son to Hawaii to stay with his grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour Dunham. He gained a scholarship under his grandparents’ guidance and attended a private preparatory school where he was one of three blacks. He started there in the fifth grade excelling in basketball. It was at that school when he became attentive to racism and what it meant being a black man. However, that did not keep him from graduating with honors in 1979.His mother was there to see his progress until having to leave in 1977 to go back and work in Indon esia as an anthropological field worker. She did however return back to Hawaii in 1994, but in 1995 she passed away from ovarian cancer. He struggled though with the fact of his father being absent from his life who he saw only once after his parents divorced for a short visit. At the age of 22 he learned that his father who had lost his legs in a previous car accident had now lost his life due to a car accident in Nairobi.After finishing high school, Obama took classes at Occidential College in Los Angeles for two years, and then later transferred to Columbia University in New York. Receiving his degree in 1983 from Columbia in political science and working in the business sector for two years, he moved to Chicago. He was involved in the communities, and started working on the South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens Community. He also during this time joined the Trinity United Church of Christ even though he admitted that he wasn’t raised in a religious home.He also visited his relatives in Kenya as well as the graves of his father and paternal grandfather. Obama said that during his visits to these graves, â€Å"I saw that my life in America—the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away. † (2012, Biography. com) Upon his return from Kenya he entered Harvard Law School in 1988. This would be the beginning of a great life for Barack.The very next year, he met Michelle Robinson who was an associate at Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago. She was assigned to be his adviser during a summer internship at the firm, soon after that they began dating. After he completed law school he decided to return back to Chicago where he joined the law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland as civil rights lawyer. He also during this time taught at the University of Chicago Law School, and he also help organize the voter registration drives form Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.On October 3, 1992 he married Michelle and they moved to Kenwood on Chicago’s South Side. In 1998 their first daughter Malia was born followed by another daughter Sasha who was born in 2001. Obama’s work as an advocate is what actually helped him propel his start in politics. He ran for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat and won the election in 1996. During his time there he worked with both Democrats and Republicans in putting together a legislature on ethics, as well as expanding health care services and early childhood education for the poor. He also created the state earned-income tax for poor people.In 2000 he had an unsuccessful run for Democratic seat of the U. S. House of Representatives. Though this failure did not stop him from putting together a campaign committee in 2002 to raise funds for the 2004 U. S Senate race which he won by 70% in November 2004. This was the largest electoral victory in Illinois history and made him only the third African American to be elected to the U. S. Senate since its reconstruction. February 2007 he announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination which put him in competition with Hilary Clinton who was then the Senator for New York.However, on June 3, 2008 he succeeded her and she gave her full support to his campaign. November 4, 2008 he defeated Republican candidate John McCain for the position of the U. S. President. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold this office. The psychological perspective that I chose to discuss about Barack Obama was behavioristic. Reason being is because most people view behavioristic people as being controlled by their environment and think that they are the result of what they have learned from their environment.With that being said, Obama had what some would call a strike against him being that he was multiracial. With his mother being white and his father was being African American he was teased about his race and it was hard for him to fit in at times. Though he was considered a black man, he stayed with his grandparents and mother whom were Caucasian to the eye. Though being teased, he did his research and used it in his advantage. Both parents were smart, so he pretty much inherited their brains. His mother and father attended college, as well as his step-father.Barack excelled in school; he was a teacher, and a leader. Even though his environment was a tough one growing up Obama became a successful man who has accomplished more than most people in his 51 years. The Humanistic Psychology has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the strengths is that it shifts the focus of the behavior to the individual or whole person rather than the unconscious mind, genes and observable behavior etc. It also s atisfied most people’s idea of what being human means because it values personal ideals and self-fulfillment (McLeod, S. A. 2007). Carl Rogers believed that people have one basic motive, and that is the tendency to self-actualization. He believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization that they must be in a state of congruence. In other words he felt that when a person feels that they have become who they want to become and it is congruent with their actual behavior then they have achieved self-actualization (McLeod, S. A. , 2007). Maslow on the other hand felt that most people would never achieve this level which was his 5th level on his hierarchy of needs pyramid.He felt that in order for people to progress from level to level certain things needed to be met. In order to reach that 5th level you would need to fulfill the 1st through the 4th. These levels are the biological and psychological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love need with the 4th level being t he esteem needs (McLeod, S. A. , 2007). This theory’s weakness would be that with the basic concept behind the theory of being free will, it is difficult to both develop a treatment technique and study the effectiveness of this technique.While this theory may work for a simple issue, you wouldn’t use this approach to treat someone for something like schizophrenia. In conclusion what I have learned from psychology is that everyone is unique and we all tend to have our quirks. Will we ever understand everyone completely? Most likely not because being the humans that we are we change constantly. Our environment and the people we associate with play a tremendous part in who we are and in whom we become. Just like in the workplace, people come from all various walks of life working together in a small office like I do may or may not always get along.Can we use psychology to try an understand them? Sure, I believe that is possible, but you can only learn why an individual ac ts the way they do by being able study them from the beginning of their life to now. To be honest I find psychology a little stressful so for me to actually want to pursue it outside of this class and maybe do it at my workplace is kind of out of the question at this present moment. For me I will leave it up to the professionals who have decided that they want to spend their time dissecting people and their strange minds.One thing that psychology has taught me is that never to make a snap judgment on the way someone is behaving because there is always an underlying cause for their behavior. This is one thing that I will do my best not to do anymore at my workplace or life in general. You never know what one has been through or may be going through, so until you have that understanding never make an assumption and categorize them. The following statement, â€Å"you can’t understand others unless you understand yourself† to me does carry a lot of truth.The feedback that I have received from both my peers and my professor in this class has caused me to take a deeper look inside myself as a person. To see what others think of me by what I say or write has definitely been an eye opener. To see myself through another person’s eyes is what all of us should try to do on a daily basis with the people we are surrounded by. I was always told, â€Å"you don’t need to worry about what other people think of you† but sometimes you just can’t help but wonder what goes through someone’s mind when you walk into a room or say something to them.Psychology in itself does allow you to put on different lenses to see things about yourself and others in a different light. It is just like putting on different lenses on camera allows you to adjust how far away or how close you see things, psychology does just the same. One man named Same Gosling states in his article Mixed Signals on psychologytoday. com, â€Å"we think we know ourselves better than others do but yet we are biased when it comes to seeing ourselves in a good light that we become strangers to ourselves. In other words we need to take the time to listen to people when they do give us feedback on ourselves as it will help us in the long run and not just take it as jealous criticism. Honestly, I will never again allow myself to think that someone is criticizing me because they are jealous. Instead I will take what they say and allow myself to re-examine what I have said or done to cause them to think that way about me. We are all human and none of us regardless of what we think are perfect. We make mistakes just like everyone else. We say and do things to cause harm to others just as they do to us.However, if we just take a minute to see our behavior through their eyes then we might can understand ourselves better and in turn understand them as well. There are all kinds of psychology resources that we can utilize to help understand ourselves and the wor ld around us if we will just take the time to search them out. There are numerous self-help books in bookstores today, and there are plenty of resources on the web such as articles, personality tests, and more. We should do all we can to explore these resources to get a better understanding of our world.If you take a look at the world today there are a lot of hurt, angry, and confused people out there who no one seems to notice or care about. We have become a society that is so driven on a me, me, me attitude that the rest of the world seems to have faded away from our view. If we use what psychology has taught us to explore why people are hurt, angry, confused and acting the way they are then we might be able to help them get to the root of their issues and deal with them. Psychology to me is all about getting to the heart of the matter, finding the root cause and dealing with it.I say let’s stop medicating people, or covering things up and pretending it is all okay when it isn’t. Let’s use what psychology has taught us to try to understand people and why they act the way they do. In order to do that though, we have to start with ourselves in this process because how can we effectively help anyone if we can’t even help ourselves? References 1. Edwards, Roberta (2008). Barack Obama: United States President 2. Gosling, Sam (2009). Mixed Signals Retrieved from http://www. psychologytoday. com/articles/200908/mixed-signals 3. McLeod, S. A. (2007).Simple Psychology; Carl Rogers Retrieved from http://www. simplepsychology. org/carl-rogers. html 4. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simple Psychology; Maslow | Hierarchy of Needs Retrieved from http://www. simplepsychology. org/maslow. html 5. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simple Psychology; Humanism Retrieved from http://www. simplepsychology. org/humanistic. html 6. Mendell, David (2002). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-085820-6 7. Obama, Barack. (2012). Biography. co m. Retrieved 10:44, May 23, 20122 from http://biograpgy. com/people/baracl-obama-12782369

The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Analysis

The Wrong American Dream: Struggling to Assimilate in â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven† â€Å"Kill the Indian and save the Man,† sounds more like something out of a dystopian novel than an educational campaign slogan, but in 1887 those were the words chosen by Army Lt. Richard Henry Pratt to garner public support for government’s attempt to forcefully â€Å"Americanize† Native Americans. Native Americans that survived violence were coerced into wearing white man’s clothes, cutting their hair, and not speaking their native languages to â€Å"encourage† them to blend in (Reyhner). Sherman Alexie knows firsthand of the many lingering ramifications that these callous actions of violence and injustice against America’s indigenous peoples†¦show more content†¦This American dream of harmoniously joining the rest of the world appears to be viewed as something out of reach or even illusionary by the Natives in Alexie’s writings. In an earlier story within the same collection of stories in â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven†, a narrator reflects on his white ex-girlfriend as if she had been a mirage, saying, â€Å"She was like a shimmer in the distance. She was so white his reservation eyes suffered† (Alexie 84). The narrator in â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven† chases this American dream by moving to Seattle to live with his girlfriend. The picture painted of this relationship is a turbulent one rife with distrust, insults and fights, though ultimately it appears the pair genuinely care for one another. The narrator’s relationship could be representative of the relationship between the white and Native American communities’ relationship. While there is an underlying desire to reconcile, the Native American feels alienated by a population that doesn’t comprehend their struggles and therefore cannot really understand the reservations and resentments in terms of a relationship. The narrator’s breaking of lamps could symbolize two sides blind to the other’s feelings and backgrounds making reconciliationShow MoreRelatedThe Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Analysis929 Words   |  4 Pagesask? Is it a state of mind? Is it what defines the entire definition of humanity itself? Is it a lie to hide to the bigger truth that we are all being controlled by the Flying Spaghetti Monst er ?,†¦. probably not. In the book â€Å"the Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven† the handling of common emotions is challenging at best. Because it portrays a different aspect of emotions you wouldnt assume were complicated to understand. For instance, you have happiness portrayed in a limelight you wouldntRead MoreThe Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Analysis1087 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"It hurts to lose any of them [to alcoholism] because Indians kind of see ballplayers as saviors† (52). In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven, by Sherman Alexie, alcoholism takes on a salient -- yet disastrous -- role in regards to the success of Native Americans. In the short story â€Å"A Train Is An Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result,† Samuel Builds-the-Fire, the first in his community to successfully leave the reservation and move to a city named Spokane, struggles withRead More Analysis of Sherman Alexies The Lone Ranger a nd Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Smoke Signals582 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Sherman Alexies The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Smoke Signals   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sherman Alexie based on some short stories included in his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, wrote the screenplay for the movie Smoke Signals. Both the movie and the book portray problems that Indians had to deal with, and how they dealt with it. The book is far more complex than the movie, showing a wider variation of characters facing different situations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  InRead MoreThe Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven And Post-Colonialism Analysis1480 Words   |  6 Pagesespecially when it comes to the way that they are treated. They haven’t been treated with respect when it comes to being in the film industry, politics, or even just living life day to day as an average person. Sherman Alexie’s â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven† and â€Å"Postcards to Columbus† have a deeper meaning of the negativity that colonialism has done to the Native American people and how they are perceived in the present day. Sherman Alexie’s â€Å"Postcards to Columbus† portrays an arrayRead MoreAnalysis Of The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven By Sherman Alexie1763 Words   |  8 Pagesstory â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven† tells the story of a Native American living in current day America. It explains the struggles he faces living in a period that his group of people haven’t moved on too. Many Native Americans still live in their reservation and stay separate from the â€Å"real world†. Natives only know their way of life so when they try to change that, they don’t know what to expect. In Sherman Alexie’s short story â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven† the narratorRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherman Alexies Novel The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven2012 Words   |  9 PagesEssay 1 In Sherman Alexie’s novel The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven shows the struggles of daily Native American life, which is shown through the point of view of male character. All though out the book the following three questions appear: ‘What does it mean to live as an Indian in this time? What does it mean to be an Indian man? and What does it mean to live on an Indian reservation?’ Alexie uses literary devices such as point of view, imagery, characterization to make his point thatRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherman Alexie s The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight Heaven 1435 Words   |  6 Pagesthe past. As times change and the days of Indian and cowboy battles are behind us; how is it possible for a warrior to still be relevant in the modern day? Sherman Alexie expresses this idea of a modern-day warrior in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Many times, throughout the book Alexie brings up the idea of warriors and uses their actions to por tray them to seem noble. Multiple characters in the book want to change their current outlook on life and break the mold set forwardRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherman Alexie s Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight Heaven 1598 Words   |  7 Pagesmorality in fiction, historical fiction, or anything related to such topics. Consequently, most books read in popular culture have a lesson; novels are a form of education. An example of this has been shown through Sherman Alexie’s Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. In this novel, he attempts to shed light on the struggles Native American people, specifically on the Spokane Reservation, withstand through multiple stories and perspectives. Some novels, if their perspective of truth has not beenRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherman Alexie s Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight Heaven 1534 Words   |  7 Pagesstory of morality in fiction, historical fiction, or anything related to such topics. However, most books read in popular culture have a les son; novels are a form of education. An example of this can be shown through Sherman Alexie’s Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. In this novel, he attempts to shed light of the struggles Native American people, specifically on the Spokane Reservation, withstand through multiple stories and perspectives. Some novels, if their perspective of truth is not takenRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Sherman Alexie s The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight Heaven 1448 Words   |  6 PagesDisconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,† the author Joseph L. Coulombe, writes about the humor used in Sherman Alexie’s short stories. Coulombe argues that in Sherman Alexie’s stories that humor is essential for character development and the creation of bonds between these characters. He often makes statements discussing how humor allows Alexie’s characters to show strength and connect to their Indian heritage. â€Å"The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, humor allows his