Relaxation Visualization

submitted by Embers

Imagine you have a lemon. How yellow is it? How ripe? Are the dimples deep or is it more smooth? Whats the temperature? Has it been in the fridge or has it been on the counter? How round is it, is it more oval? Now imagine cutting into that lemon. What sound does the knife make when it slices through? Can you hear the juice squirt out? Can you see it? Where does it go? Can you feel it? What color is it? Now pick up one half of the sliced lemon and put it to your nose, what does it smell like? Squeeze a little into the palm of your hand and taste the juice...is your mouth watering yet?

Michael Liebowitz
Michael Liebowitz is a prominent researcher on social anxiety.
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Prejudice

By BarbarianV40

October 8, 2007, 08:19 PM

My Therapist recently told me that I am prejudiced against myself. It took me aback initially, it seemed an odd thing for her to say, I had never considered that you could be prejudiced against yourself.

I looked up the definition of Prejudice in the Oxford English dictionary and I quote

"An unreasoning opinion or like or dislike of something"

I considered this for a while and came to a couple of conclusions about prejudice.

Firstly, any prejudice is biased, it IS unreasoning, it ONLY acknowledges information or evidence that supports its case, ignoring or discounting any contradictory or un-supporting evidence. So prejudice is NOT based on a balanced, objective perspective. It's completely ONE sided.

Secondly, prejudices of any kind are huge sweeping generalisations, again with little, if any, supporting evidence, empirical or otherwise. Of course proponents of prejudice will disagree with this I am sure and be able to offer a whole deluge of apparent proof. none of which will actually be able to stand up to the scrutiny of objectivity.

Why? Because prejudice is a type of "all or nothing" thinking, one of the classical cognitive distortions.

At the very best, any opinion can only be partially or somewhat true, it wont apply to all people, in all situations and at all times.

Why?

Because we are all different. No two people are the same, so to assume otherwise is complete folly.

So what does this tell me about me?

When I think I know how people are likely to react to me, I am generalising and jumping to conclusions, mind reading and fortune telling, there is no way I can know.

Equally, when I tell myself I am this or that, it may or may not be true but that isn't the whole of me, there is far more that makes us alive than what we look like, our age, eye colour or nationality. To pass judgement based on only one or two facets of someone or something is ridiculous, as the excellent American comedian Chris Rock once said

"Anyone who makes us their mind before they have ALL the information available is a f*%*ing IDIOT !"

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Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura (born December 4, 1925 in Mundare, Canada) is a psychologist famous for his work on social learning theory and, more recently, social cognitive theory and self efficacy. He is generally acknowledged as America's greatest living psychologist.