Creativity

Creativity is an act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production of an idea. If you have ideas, but do not act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.

“Creativity" is a process of bringing something new into being... Creativity requires passion and commitment, whole-brain thinking, right-brain imagination, artistry and intuition, plus left-brain logic and planning.

Generative research shows that everyone has creative abilities. The more diversive trainings you have, the greater potential for creative output are. In average adult thinks of 3-6 alternatives for any given situation, child thinks of 60. So, we can assume that all people are creative, however, level of their creativity differs.

Belief that only special, talented people are creative and you have to be born that way – diminishes your confidence in your creative abilities. Mozart, Shakespeare and Picasso were really creative persons, but they had unbelievable talent and hard work till become famous and established persons. Despite the fact, that you are not so gifted like these genius, it does not mean that you are not gifted at all. Maybe you do not have talent at singing or dancing, but you can use your creativity, imagination and thinking in the simplest everyday situation, for ex making a flower or sth else from a sheet of paper.

It is proved by researches that creativity can be improved using various methods and making exercises. For ex: brainstorming, writing down all new ideas, listening to music or exercising your brains talking to clever people.

So, remember - you have to use your creativity in each step of your life!!!

References:

http://www.creativityatwork.com/articlesContent/whatis.htm

http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/creativity_main.html

Sexism

Sexism is commonly considered to be a discrimination and/or a hatred against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all systemic differentiations based on the sex of the individuals.

People usually talk about sexism against woman. Now more often we can hear talking about sexism against man. But what can we say about such unacceptable and sometimes even painful questions related to sexism against intersexes or transsexes?

Sexism against intersexes

Sexism against intersexes has only been recently identified, and the general public remains mostly unaware of it. Historically, most cultures (with few exceptions) hold that males and females are separate and distinct entities with separate gender roles and responsibilities. Infants who are born with ambiguous genitalia are either killed or receive surgical alteration of their genitalia to disambiguate their sex. However, nowadays there are people who express sexual attraction to the same gender.
Despite the fact that all the word try to be tolerant, there are a lot of people who do not tolerate homosexuals. Lesbians or gays are discriminated just because of their sexual orientation which seems abnormal for the majority part of society.
People who declare that they are homosexuals may have problems in finding job, having childs or becoming a victim of violence. These people are discriminating in various situations of the life: family, friends’ sometimes even government.

Sexism against transsexes

Sexism against transexes has been recently identified. Traditionally, transsexes are viewed as having psychological problem of gender identity disorder or more recently viewed as simply being radically homosexsual.
Transsexuality refers to the condition of being self-identified with the opposite sex.
The most typical forms of sexism against transsexuals are how many "women-only" and "men-only" events and organizations have been criticized for rejecting transfemales, and transmales respectively. Transsexed people often are a target of hate crimes as the traditional notion of masculinity and femininity is often perceived to be threatened by those who adopt a different sex later in life.

Finally, even if our society becomes much more tolerant does it mean that these people will not feel invisible sexism or discrimination?

References:
http://www.teenissues.co.uk/FAQAboutSexism.html

Listening to podcasts

First listening was taken from web site: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Nbc5com-BetterHealthPodcast

I have chosen a topic called: “Body image issues” because it sound interesting. Under the topic it was written the main idea of the theme: “Dr. Sandy explores the issue of negative body image and how to combat it“
This topic and main idea viewed as quite actual and important in nowadays society.
Listening started from introduction of the podcast speaker and his guest. It was NBC Better health podcast, speaker Dr. Sandy Goldberg and her guest Marcus Riley. They were discussing about body image issues.

Short Content:

Dr. Sandy Goldberg mentioned that people are very often dissatisfied with their bodies and it does not depend on gender, age or nationality. Now more and more children are overweight and they feel a dissatisfaction about it.
The main problem why children feel bad about their body is that they compare themselves with others, especially shown on TV or published in magazines. They have their own ideal body image and if they do not suit it, they feel dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction of their own body which comes from childhood in adulthood brings such things as:
Dieting
Hating their body
Compulsive eating

How to overcome with a problem of overweight?
DR. Sandy Goldberg quote a book: “Getting in over negative body image” and suggested :
1. Pay attention on your own internal cues, your body.
2. Appreciate your body.
3. Except your body.

Dr. Sandy noticed that now cosmetic surgeries are coming more and more popular, younger and younger people are choosing such a way of changing their body, but Doctor Sandy suggest taking care of ours body by:
Doing exercises
Eating healthy food

The most important thing is to recognize the fact that even if you do not look like your ideal, try to love your body and be the best you can be.

My impressions

This listening took 8.50 min. It was quite easy to listen it because the language was fluent and the speaker was talking normally: not quickly or very slowly. I have not understood some words but clearified them by looking up in the dictionary. However, I could not find out some words meenings because I did not know how to write them. I think, it was not difficult to understand what speakers were talking about, because the theme was not very difficult. I have not noticed any specific native speaker’s accents. Generally I liked this listening.

Second listening was found in web site http://historyonair.com/?p=32 101 episode

It is a history podcast. I have listened about the Byzantine Empire written in John podcaster. The entire story could be listened in desertcastshow.com. In this website it was published much shorter version of this story. I have chosen this topic because I like history very much. I am interested in it, so this topic seemed really attractive.

Short Content:
In this topic were described Byzantine Empire economy, history, culture, prosperity and ruin in a short way.

The Empire is also known as the Eastern Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine I was considered to be the first "Byzantine emperor ". It was he who moved the imperial capital in 330 years from Rome. Byzantine Empire was capital was one of the most important cultural city. The end of this Empire was 1453 years than Turkish conquered Byzantine people.

It was stated that Christian religion developed in this Empire and later Christian church splited in two parts: Eastern and western. Eastern orthodox’s church has been invigorated by successful mission among Russians and Slavs.

This listening was more difficult than previous one. Speaker was talking in normal way, he was not rushing and his speech was fluent, but the entire topic was more difficult. I have not understood some words, but tried to catch up all most important ideas without dictionary. Of course, later some meanings of unknown words were clarified by a help of dictionary.
However, I liked this listening more than the first one, because it was about history and culture

Handwriting

Graphology is the study of a persons character though the medium of handwriting. It is based on general style of writing, the formation of letters, the alignment and space between words and lines. Through this study we can get an idea of person’s character, mentality and attitude towards a particular field of profession and much more.

Graphology is claimed to be useful for everything from understanding health issues, morality and past experience to hidden talents and even mental problems.

There are three main graphology systems:

In holistic graphology persons profile is formed on the basis of form, movement and space.
Integrative analysis is constructed on the basis that specific stroke formations relate to personality traits.
Symbolic analysis is based on the analysis of symbols seen in the handwriting.

People handwriting can give some information about person character. There are claimed that:
If a person is writing in descending lines, he may be caused by depression, pessimism, in ascending lines - optimism.
Small spaces between lines may indicate that a person likes to be around other people. Overlapping lines - suffer from emotional or mental disorder. If letters are connected, individual has logical and systematical thinking, if unconnected he is an egocentric person.

If a person is writing in big letters it is claimed that he is extraverted, in narrow letters introverted.

Graphology can say a lot about person, but the most important thing is to have knowledge how to fit it, because only in a good way used analysis can say true about people.

References:

http://www.businessballs.com/graphologyhandwritinganalysis.htm

http://skepdic.com/graphol.html

http://www.paralumun.com/graphology.htm

Everyone is familiar with stress. We experience it in various forms and degrees every day. In small doses, stress can actually be beneficial to us. It is only when the stress becomes too great, affecting our physical or mental functioning, than it becomes a problem.

Good stress. In small doses stressors can help give us increased energy, even can help us focus on the problem at hand, for example, examination session. However, too much stress is not good for anyone. Feeling a little stress about a test that is coming up, can motivate you to study hard. But stressing out too much over the test can make it hard to concentrate on the material you need to learn.

Bad stress. When we talk about bad stress (Distress) we are talking about something that is directly causing the brain and body to shrink in its working capacity resulting in low - performance level. It is caused than person is feeling anxious, threatened.

There are numerous categories from stressors, among them are:
· Frustrations
· Conflicts
· Pressures

Frustration can be:
a) Environmental For ex, prejudice (racism and sexism)
b) Internal Real personal limitation. For ex, lack of value.

Conflicting situations: Conflicts, fights with peers, families (external). Conflicting situation may occur than one has to make a choice between two or more options (internal)

Pressure: External – studying medicine because parents want it, internal – pushes himself to do well to the exam.

How to manage stress?

1. Feel in control
2. Adopt the right attitude
3. Find something that will unclog your system of unprocessed emotions. For ex, laughter.

The best way to manage stress is to learn deal with your emotions. Sometimes we try to ignore emotions we do not like. For ex, love your friend boyfriend. If you ignore them they will go away. It is not right thinking. You will just after some time feel terrible about yourself.
You have to react and respond your emotions.

Getting in touch with your feelings will help you control your behavioral reactions to your emotions, so that your emotions do not end up controlling you.

References:

http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/emotions/stress.html

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/stress/article_em.htm

Laziness

Laziness is the lack of desire to act or work in general or to do an act or work that is expected from a person. In dictionary laziness is described as aversion or unwillingness to work or even relaxed and easy activity. So, there are two descriptions. One more negative than other.

If we will talk about the laziness like an aversion of work, it may come from the psychological causes: the work can be very unpleasant for us and we try to avoid it. For example, for students it can be unacceptable subject. It is an intellectual laziness: people are lack of energy to think. In my opinion, they do not have willpower to start working or to leave it and start doing something more interesting.

Other type of laziness is emotional laziness. It is than people are an affective lazy. Human do not see a purpose to do something, to achieve or to change something in his life. His emotions are a little bit lower than normal. This type of laziness may verge on apathy – the state of indifference. It can reflect a lack of interest in things one does not consider important. This state may grow to the depression, what is much more difficult state of emotions and needs special attention.

One more type of laziness is physical laziness. It is a lack of energy. Laziness is always associated with procrastination. In this type too. Some people say that it is just a rest, but it is more. Than we take too much rest than we are needed it is already a physical laziness.

One comic has said: “you cannot teach people to be lazy, either they have it or they do not.” So we can say that there is one more type of laziness: pathological laziness. But does it mean that it is inborn? I do not think so. This feature forms our experience and social life, settings and people who surround us.

To sum up, laziness is not an attractive feature so; we have to cope with it: we have to find an interesting activity, change our minds and thinking, communicate with people who can help for us, push us in some new activity or work.

References:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris

http://living.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1825492007

Laughter

Do you smile shyly, laugh silently or loudly? There are a lot of types of people, so there are and lot of types of laughter. However, the most important thing is that laughter makes you and other people feel better, picks up your mood and improve your physical and psychological state. But how can we describe this word-laughter?

Laughter is an expression or appearance of amusement. It is a sound that can be heard. Laughter establishes or restores a positive emotional climate and a sense of connection between two people.

There are a lot of benefits of laughter:

• It reduces pain and allows us to tolerate discomfort
• It reduces blood sugar levels
• It improves your job performance, especially if your work depends on creativity and solving complex problems.
• Now comes hard new evidence that laughter helps your blood vessels function better. In other words, it is good for your heart and brain, two organs that require the steady flow of oxygen carried in the blood.

However, the most important thing for us is what the role of the laughter in psychology is.
For example, therapists have long used laughter to treat patient‘s depression using laughter as a part of therapy. Laughter is good even for people who are not sick. Psychologist Black says strong laughter gives people a mini-workout. When people laugh, their muscles contract, their pulse rates rise and their breathing is faster. Humor therapists suggest adopting an attitude of playfulness. It is a traditional form of American humor--listening to tapes of funny jokes and stories, taking a humor-meditation break during a tense part of the day, and sharing laughter. Other physical and mental exercises to create humor and reduce tension in daily life include making funny facial expressions, looking at funny photos of yourself, and making lists of what makes you especially happy.Some hospitals now have a special rooms, where patients can go to read humorous books and watch funny videos.So, there are a lot ways to pick up your mood.

However, there are and some disadvantages of the laughter. Hobbes argues that "laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves „Laughing can be good for the heart, sometimes it has actually caused a stroke or heart attack. After abdominal surgery, it is also advised for the patient not to laugh, as it could rip the stitches. Pregnant woman should also preferably avoid laughter sessions until some conclusive data regarding the safety is available. Finally, even a normal person experiencing discomfort while laughing, must discontinue immediately and seek expert medical help. People with certain types of brain damage produce abnormal laughter.

Freud had said that we laugh because we have to release "psychic energy". For Aristotle, we jus laugh at inferior or ugly individuals, because we feel a joy at being superior to them.

To sum up, at least laughter is good way to feel better, take a little bit different look to the life. And there are much more advantages, than disadvantages. And we do not have to forget that the more we laugh, the longer we live.