R.I.P. Polyvagal Theory. What therapist doesn’t love Polyvagal… | by Shin Shin Tang, Ph.D. | Aug, 2021 | Medium What therapist doesn’t love Polyvagal Theory? Since 2009, when neuroscientist Stephen Porges first publicly shared his theory of how trauma affects the nervous system, it has been widely embraced by not only mental health therapists but yoga instructors, meditation teachers, and just about anyone interested in treating trauma. Polyvagal Theory has also been lauded by giants in the field of traumatic stress such as Bessel Van Der Kolk, Pat Ogden, and Peter Levine. What is Polyvagal Theory? Polyvagal Theory centers upon the vagus nerve, which extends from the brain stem to all the internal organs including the heart, lungs, and stomach. According to Porges (1995), the three premises of Polyvagal Theory are (as paraphrased by me for my fellow non-neuroscientists): Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), or changes in heart rate that typically synchronize with breathing, and neurogenic bradycardia, a sudden and extreme drop in heart rate, are mediated by different branches of the vagus nerve.
Hotter, Drier, Hungrier: How Global Warming Punishes the World’s Poorest KAKUMA, Kenya — These barren plains of sand and stone have always known lean times: times when the rivers run dry and the cows wither day by day, until their bones are scattered under the acacia trees. But the lean times have always been followed by normal times, when it rains enough to rebuild herds, repay debts, give milk to the children and eat meat a few times each week. Times are changing, though. Northern Kenya — like its arid neighbors in the Horn of Africa, where Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson paid a visit last week, including a stop in Nairobi — has become measurably drier and hotter, and scientists are finding the fingerprints of global warming.
How to Work with Someone Who Creates Unnecessary Conflict Disagreements on a team aren’t necessarily a bad thing. But you want to watch out for unhealthy conflicts that hijack precious time, trust, and energy. Often this type of animosity develops when there’s a “conflict entrepreneur” on your team — someone... Conflict at work comes in many forms. Good conflict, the kind that is healthy, pushes us to be better as people and communities. Most organizations need more good conflict, not less. What causes high conflict? Think about someone you’ve worked with who sends defensive emails that may include ALL CAPS, copying multiple, uninvolved, often more senior colleagues in the cc line. One obvious response is to distance yourself from the conflict entrepreneurs in your office (or on your Facebook feed). But what if you can’t distance yourself from a conflict entrepreneur? Calling a conflict entrepreneur out is equally unwise. One seasoned manager at a small tech company encountered a conflict entrepreneur for the first time a few years ago.
Photos of Cultural Fashion Clothing Around the World Most global fashions aren’t fads. They arise from centuries of tradition and don’t go out of vogue when the seasons change: the bold beadwork of the Maasai in the Serengeti, the endless folds of a bright blue Tuareg head wrap in the Sahara, a Scottish tartan. Here are some of the world’s most notable fashions and the people who wear them—plus tips on borrowing the styles when you get back home. Beads Maasai The Maasai, a semi-nomadic people who breed predominantly cattle, roam the Serengeti grasslands. Lightweight, vibrant, and distinctive, Maasai beadwork has entranced designers for ages, so much so that in the last decade, the Maasai have trademarked their bead artistry to protect their cultural identity, fighting fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton for appropriating their designs without permission. Before you wear, take note: Color is key. Beads YORUBA Beads NATIVE AMERICANS Head Wraps TUAREG Head Wraps XHOSA Head Wraps NIHANG Plaid SCOTS Scots put plaid on the fashion map. Plaid PUNKS
Il dio degli incroci: nessun luogo è senza genio – A X I S ✵ m u n d i «Il dio dei luoghi è il riconoscimento che attraverso il carattere invisibile del luogo si possa accedere a contenuti più ampi. Che il dio del luogo, cioè, sia in grado di metterci in relazione con un piano più profondo della realtà e della psiche che trascende il singolo sito o individuo». Torniamo a parlare del saggio di Stefano Cascavilla “Il dio degli incroci”, recentemente uscito per Exorma, e già presentato a giugno sul nostro canale YouTube. di Marco MaculottiCopertina: Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, Sacrifice au Dieu Pan, 1811 Qualche settimana fa abbiamo avuto il piacere di avere ospite sul nostro canale YouTube Stefano Cascavilla, autore del saggio recentemente pubblicato da Exorma Editrice Il dio degli incroci: nessun luogo è senza genio. Hermes, Hecate, Giano, Eshu, Legba, i Djinn e il boemo Jan Nepomucky sono solo i primi numi riportati dall’autore. L’anima non è una sostanza semplice e omogenea: essa è un composto e consiste di molti strati. Mi piace: Mi piace Caricamento... Correlati
Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine A patient of mine, a bright and thoughtful young man in his early 20s, came to see me for debilitating anxiety and depression. He had dropped out of college and was living with his parents. He was vaguely contemplating suicide. He was also playing videogames most of every day and late into every night. Twenty years ago the first thing I would have done for a patient like this was prescribe an antidepressant. Over the course of my career as a psychiatrist, I have seen more and more patients who suffer from depression and anxiety, including otherwise healthy young people with loving families, elite education and relative wealth. When we do something we enjoy—like playing videogames, for my patient—the brain releases a little bit of dopamine and we feel good. As soon as dopamine is released, the brain adapts to it by reducing or “downregulating” the number of dopamine receptors that are stimulated.
Lost and Found in Borneo’s Jungle: A Tragic Tale of Two Men in Sarawak One man was a Swiss environmental activist who wore a loincloth and learned to hunt with a blowpipe before mysteriously disappearing in Sarawak. The other was an art dealer from California who swapped surfing for a life of adventure, travelling deep into the jungles of Borneo in search of the fabulous art of the Dayak people. In his new book, The Last Wild Men Of Borneo, author Carl Hoffman brings together the stories of Bruno Manser and Michael Palmieri, two very different, yet similar, men, and their obsession with one of the wildest places on Earth. When National Geographic spoke with Hoffman by phone at his home in Washington, D.C., he explained how Manser became a cult hero in Europe; how Palmieri mapped vast tracts of Borneo by hand; and why palm oil now threatens what remains of the indigenous peoples of Borneo. The two main characters of your book are a Swiss environmentalist, Bruno Manser, and an American art dealer named Michael Palmieri. But he wanted to go further.
The Halo Effect | Hidden Brain Media The transcript below may be for an earlier version of this episode. Our transcripts are provided by various partners and may contain errors or deviate slightly from the audio. From NPR, this is HIDDEN BRAIN. I'm Shankar Vedantam. It's a summer evening in northern Indiana. VEDANTAM: It's 1978. VEDANTAM: A few seconds behind the Pinto on the same road, Roger Duggar (ph) is driving a Chevy van. VEDANTAM: At first, Roger doesn't think the crash is that bad. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: There was a puff of flame about 12 to 18 inches long at the rear of the car. VEDANTAM: Almost immediately, the Pinto explodes into flames. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: He said it was like a large napalm bomb going up. VEDANTAM: The eyewitness gets out of his car with a fire extinguisher and runs over to see if he can help. UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: But he said the temperature and heat was so intense that it was too hot to stay close to the car for very long. We begin in 1970. VEDANTAM: (Laughter). VEDANTAM: Wow.
Chichicastenango Maya Cemetery On the fringes of a densely crowded marketplace in the Guatemalan highlands, a reverent silence looms over the ivory gate of the Cementerio General. Beyond its deceptively sterile exterior, hundreds of vibrant tombstones pepper the hillside. To outsiders, the passionate display of color may seem incongruent with loss of life—but according to indigenous Maya tradition, honoring the dead encourages the living to make peace with the inevitability of death. In the K'iche' town of Chichicastenango, offerings of flowers, incense, candles, and chickens are made at the cemetery year-round. Despite their exuberant exterior, Guatemala’s cemeteries also have a darker side. While Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, it remains infused with Maya ritual. The Popol Vuh—a sacred text that documents the creation of humankind according to Maya cosmovision—was discovered in Chichicastenango in the 18th century and continues to inform the beliefs and practices of the K'iche' people.
La montagna e i suoi simboli La simbologia della Montagna è profondamente radicata in molte tradizioni e riporta sempre ai concetti di stabilità, elevazione, centro. È anche il simbolo dell’intera manifestazione nonché dello spazio propriamente umano. La forma grafica del triangolo iniziatico è pure una rappresentazione simbolica del Monte la cui base coincide con la terra, mondo della manifestazione corporea (bhUR), la cima tocca il Cielo, regno del non-manifesto (svaH) e lo spazio intermedio, l’atmosfera, raccoglie il mondo della manifestazione sottile (bhuvaH). Questa triplice ripartizione, nell’uomo (microcosmo) corrisponde al corpo, anima e spirito, e a livello macrocosmico prende il nome di mahAnga, o regno di tutta la materialità del Cosmo, mahAtma o anima universale e brahAtma o regno dello Spirito Divino. Ordinariamente l’uomo vive ai piedi della Montagna immerso in una realtà densa, frazionata, di dispersione e lontano dalla perfezione. “... lo Stupa al centro dell’Universo, Firmamento di Zambuling”
REPORT | Why We Like Certain Music: The Brain And Musical Preference Most classical music lovers can rattle off at least a few different reasons why they love the genre that spans many centuries of Western music. They might list objective reasons like its musical sophistication as compared with the usual pop radio fare, or the studies that talk about relaxation and/or mental stimulation associated with listening to classical music. They may talk more subjectively about the emotions it evokes. Science, however, tells us that the roots of musical preferences lie much deeper in the very brain itself. “There are a lot of similarities between how we process music and speech, and there are a lot of different opinions about whether we are using the same or different pathways and mechanisms for each.” That processing goes something like this: Soundwaves are filtered by the ear, and processing begins based on the frequency;The cochlea then encodes the pitch;The auditory pathways send the encoded information to the auditory cortex in the brain. Anya Wassenberg
MFON Celebrates the Work of Black Women Photographers During the recent unveiling of the official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, conversations about the intersection of art and race took center stage. Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald became the first African American painters to paint the first African American president and first lady of the United States. “I’m also thinking about all the young people—particularly girls and girls of color—who in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution,” Michelle Obama said at the ceremony. “I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls.” Three decades later, inspired by the work of pioneers like Dr. MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora is providing that platform. We were inspired by the dedicated work of Dr. Do it.
Are They Mad at Me…or Are They Just Blunt? It’s normal for people to have different communication styles, but working with someone who lacks warmth or tends to be blunt can spark feelings of anxiety. Instead of spending time and energy worrying about what a colleague’s abrupt... A colleague recently asked me to contribute to their project, and while I was pleased to get the invitation, the communication felt abrupt and left me with a bad feeling. Their directions were along the lines of, “make sure you do this, this, and this” and “make sure you don’t do this, this, and this.” I felt my anxiety spike. Collaborating with this kind of blunt communicator can cause you to waste time and emotional energy ruminating over whether you’ve done something wrong or worrying that you’re too sensitive. 1. Always keep in mind that you never really know what’s going on behind the scenes when someone comes across as abrupt or demanding. 2. … But briefly consider whether you may have done anything “wrong.” 3. 4. 5.