Anchoring with Music

We are all addicted to music. Find me one person who does not listen to music regularly and I'll find you a Scottish person who doesn't complain about the weather. It might be rap, pop, rock, house (what is that by the way?) or the backing music to a TV advert, but whatever it is we love it and can't get enough of it. It is little wonder, therefore, that music can play with our emotions and moods as much as it does. It's something that has been written about a lot, at least in the places that I look on the internet, but I've decided to blend the idea of emotive music with my (recently waning) interest in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I have mentioned this in the past - have you not been reading!?

(Crime and) Punishment by Video

It's been a while since I last showed my face. When I first started ROATSomething, I said that my posts would be more diverse, both in content and form. Unfortunately my writing appears to have stagnated and all posts come in the written form as well. For today's post I decided to break the mould and go for a video blog with a little bit of humour and a little bit of something that isn't seem deep personal stuff. As the video is more than ten minutes long I'm going to stop typing, but I hope you enjoy what I have to say for myself.

The title to this post now explains itself because I know that must have felt like a bit of a punishment to some - ten minutes is a long time to listen to me. I'll try and be more concise in future. Thanks for watching!

Martin

A View of Myself Through the Looking Glass

"I am what I am, and what I am is what I have made myself". Those profound words were typed out over four years ago by the same fingers that write this post tonight. The phrase made a reappearance in a rather narcissistic (and poorly written) post over on the younger brother of this blog, Ramblings of a Teenager, in 2011. 

The line popped back into my head when I was watching House earlier today, when one of the characters said that 'we are who we are'. I then set out on a mission to find the place that I first wrote those words to find out the context and mindset that they were developed in. Safe to say I was not ready for what I found.

Slipping Back to Normal Again

So it's been over a week since I got back from Salzburg and I'm now at the point where I feel like I was never away. The only obvious thing that reminds me that only a short while ago I was there is that I'm yet to find a safe home for the certificate I received at the end of the summer school so it remains on my desk. Of course there are the many (many, many) photos that I can go and look at any time but otherwise things are back to what I would call 'normal'. However, it is this normality that I resolved to move away from when I got home - and I'm going to try and stick to that resolution.

Why Home Is Not Always Where the Heart Is

We're told that home is where the heart is. I used to think that was completely true as well, not even hesitating for a moment to think that it could be anywhere else. Today I found out that although one's home will always be in one's heart, the converse it not always completely true.

Shared Experiences: Salzburg and Beyond

In my last post I talked about 'shared experiences' but I didn't really get into detail on them. In this short post (which is being written on the train to Munich airport) I want to look at them in a little more detail, sharing what I believe they are and how powerful they can be. 

The End or Just the Beginning?

All good things come to an end. That is a phrase that is brought out as a way of trying to deal with (and explain) the sadness/disappointment that we feel when a good thing actually does come to an end. The thing is that is brought out far too often, to the extent that I'm not sure that a lot of people know what a 'good thing' is anymore. Thankfully I think I found out over the last couple of weeks.

Time to Reflect

Reflection is not easy. Then again, nothing worth doing is ever 'easy' in the strict sense. I then undertake the coming period of reflection with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. This post, which I set in the context of what has been an eye opening experience at a two week summer school in Salzburg, represents what should be the start of a series of posts about some important lessons I've learned this summer.

Re-Learning, Learning

So it's been a while since we were last here together. Asked whether you come here often, you would unfortunately have to answer 'no', holding back the tears all the while as we consider our time apart. Truth is that I've fallen out of love with a lot of things recently due to work and the passing of another year at university - sadly blogging was one of those things. We've been here before though so I'm not going to bore you - any more than I need to anyway. Today's post, which is being written from a rather wet Salzburg, it about learning or, more specifically, re-learning the easily forgotten art of learning.

Suppression vs Reappraisal - Which is the Way Forward?

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have taken up a real interest in psychology related things in the last three or four months. That interest was somewhat stinted by my exams but since they finished I have been able to explore some stuff in more depth. This post represents the beginning of what will hopefully be an interesting 'hobby' over the summer for me that should produce some (hopefully interesting) posts for you to peruse as your pleasure. 

The topic of this post comes from a lecture that I found on the iTunes U service that comes with the iPad. I have found some great content on there and I recommend anyone who has access to it to spend a while looking through the catalogue to see if anything grabs your interest. Since I started looking through the content with this interest in anything related to psychology, you can imagine why series of lectures entitled 'How to Think Like a Psychologist' caught my attention. The only one I've watched so far is by a professor from Stanford University called James Gross who was talking about emotion regulation.