Wednesday, July 20, 2011

FEAR Vs LOVE - MOTIVATORS

In this day and age many people are frightened by our irresponsible government or debt or that the Chinese are taking over or a hundred other reasons why people live in fear.  There are two motivators in our lives; one is fear and the other is love. Fear is only a strong motivator as long as whatever we are afraid of is present.  It is like a parent who tries to motivate their children out of threats of spanking or taking things away. When mom or dad aren’t there to threaten or are out of sight the kids then do whatever they want to because the fear factor is gone.  Love on the other hand is the motivation that comes out of a conviction or a belief that something is the right thing to do. This is the primary reason why we at TurningLeaf work on instilling values as a part of the lives of the people we work with.  If you have values and they are intrinsic to your way of life then they are always motivating you to do the right things for the right reasons.  Back to the example of motivating children; each family needs to establish 10 core values for each member of the family (2 to 4 for younger children) and then taking all the core values establish by the family members and condense them into 10 core values as a family. This way all of the family knows and respects the family’s life direction and love becomes the key motivator.

Richard Y Moody, PhD
Clinical Psychologist

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Depression - Getting Out and Staying Out

I’ve been slow to get back to the answer to the last blog. I guess I was depressed or at least putting it off. The topic was depression and how we get depressed. The topic now is about getting out of and staying out of depression. One of the real problems with depression is getting so far down  you can’t see any light to work toward for getting out of the depression. If this is the case and you have thought seriously of committing suicide you will probably need a little outside help in the form of therapy or anti-depressants.  In these cases I recommend anti-depressants for a short period until you can at least see daylight. At this point where you can work up enough energy to get out and start exercising this needs to be your mainstay. Exercise has been shown to be the single best method of reducing and staying out of depression found to date. When I talk of exercise it needs to be on a regular basis (3 to 4 times a week) and you need to get your heart rate up to at least 120 beats per minute and keep it there for 30 minutes. 2nd get out with people you love or at least care about and LAUGH! Do this frequently. And finally learn to respect and appreciate yourself. We are all special with a mired of gifts and talents that most of us overlook and especially when depressed we believe we’re not worth much. This is the lie depression tells us so don’t be fooled by it. You are great….      


Richard Moody, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
TurningLeaf Wellness Center