Working4Me

Cuba Teaches Medical Hypnosis to Panamanians

By way of the International Herald Tribune, the government media agency AIN reports that 80 Panamanians have completed training in medical hypnosis, offered by the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences in Cuba.

Due to a shortage of conventional medicine in Cuba, attention has turned toward various alternative therapies. While I personally would not recommend replacing conventional medicines with hypnosis, they appear to be using it to treat various ailments like bronchial asthma, stress, sexual dysfunction and "some types of skin diseases", all of which might actually be aggravated by stress which could be helped by hypnotherapy.

A very short news item, light on details, but it's interesting to see hypnosis being taught across international borders like this.

Lent : Religious or Not, It Pays to Check In Every Now and Then

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent for many Christian churches. Traditionally this is a time leading up to Easter in which the observer will take special effort towards self-examination, in particular by "giving something up for Lent".  Growing up in a tradition that did not practice Lent, I did not understand why anybody had to give anything up. It just didn't make sense - giving something up doesn't make you an intrinsically better person, so why bother?

But upon closer examination, Lent is not some kind of magical practice that makes better people, or makes people worthy of heaven, or whatever. It's a 40-day period of focus on our lives placed in wider, cosmic context. And whether you're religious or not, a 40-day period of intense reflection, seeing what you can do without (use it as a time to defeat bad habits, excesses, or even addictions) will probably yield great benefits.

Aggressive Optimism maintains that peak performance comes when you frame your day-to-day life in a wider context, a greater meaning. Human life has a cyclic nature: night and day, rest and activity, accumulation and release - and one way to embrace these principles of context and cycle is to follow a religious calendar. I'm not sure what John Grinder would say about this case specifically, but Turtles All the Way Down talks about coherent culture and my thinking springs from that concept. Lent provides a yearly cycle whereby those who observe the Christian holidays can re-center their lives and let go of anything accumulated that they don't need.

To adopt a 40-day discipline of some sort can help clear your mind... perhaps you'll make a 40-day commitment to meditate every day, or to pray more deeply, or to clean out your diet.  Non-Christians need not call it "Lent", and they can undertake it any time of year they choose, but I would resist the temptation to round the number of days, as that can lead to boxing it off as "that thing I did that one month". Make it an odd number so it gets loose from the regular calendar and you can avoid compartmentalizing it too much.

Another temptation is to extend your practice all year long, which depending on the practice might be a great thing, but good dividends come from the yearly checking-in itself so no matter what you keep for year-long routine, be sure to always check back on a regular basis.

To those who wish to join in Lent this year, it's never too late and there are so many resources online with suggestions for a practice that I'll refrain from making any suggestions. Google and Yahoo are your friends.

Mid-day Nap May Be Heart-Healthy

According to a report making the rounds this week, researchers believe that working Greeks (who also probably have more mediterranean-diet elements working in their favor) who take a mid-day nap have a lower incidence of heart disease.

It's known that many of us have that natural circadian rhythm that leads us to feel drowsy before  bedtime and shortly after lunch time. In the United States, napping is not part of the working culture and I myself do not take full naps but will frequently enter into a light trance, meditate, or even pray just when that drowsiness hits.

The researchers say that this is just a preliminary finding and that the world should not go ahead and adopt daily naps just yet, so take this news with as much salt as you feel necessary.