Monday, May 19, 2008

Yes, I'm still alive

Hello Friends - I would like to confirm that I am still among the living, despite the lack of blogging evidence to support such a notion.

In the interim, I have started a new class - General Psychology - with an awesome teacher, Marty. He's kind of a hippie, but not the 'patchouli - shower-free - free love & tie dye' kind...

Marty's got pseudo-dreds and several cool tattoos, and he's super spiritual but not overly religious, which can be rare here in "Mormon HQ." Basically, he is just really relaxed, and very into Eastern philosophies, which makes class time very interesting and stimulates some fun discussions. And, since a lot of the material is review for a majority of the class, he gives us options on what we want to write about. So, I can either turn in a recycled paper from a previous class if it fits, or I can research and write a paper about one of the alternate topics:

Spirituality and Mental Health
The Healing Power of Spirituality
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
How Altruism Boosts Health
The Psychology of Love
The Health Effects of Anger and Hostility
Worry, Anxiety, Fear, and Health
The Impact of Stress on Health
The Mind-Body Connection
The Importance of Good Friends
The Importance of Pets
The Healing Power of Optimism
Explanatory Style and Health
Self-Efficacy-Believing in Yourself
The Impact of Humor on health
Methods of Eliciting the Relaxation Response
Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart
Overcoming Ego
Are Mind and Brain Identical?
Who Has mystical Experiences and What Triggers Them?
Do Religious, Spiritual, or Mystical Experiences Change Lives?
Did God Create the Brain or Does the Brain Create God?
Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy
Mind as Healer Mind as Slayer
The Psychology of Shamanism
The Buddhist Path of Healing
Yoga Psychology
The Shadow-Jungian Psychology
The Nature of Consciousness
Christ Consciousness
Intuition, Inspiration, and Illumination
Mystical Art of Breathing
Mystical Sounds and Healing
Reincarnation and Karma
Good and Evil and Free Will
Mental and Sensory Illusions
Psychology of Mysticism
Cosmic Purpose of Life
Death and Dying
Impermanence
Nature and Symbolism of Dreams
Mystical Power of Mantras
Meditation

I picked the Impact of Humor on Health for week 2, and Methods of Eliciting the Relaxation Response for week 3. Since week 2 is officially tomorrow night, I probably should get started on that paper. And since I work full time, I really have just tonight to do it... Oh well, I'm sure it will turn out fine. I've always been good at pulling out a paper at the last minute - much to Mom's chagrin!

Good day, Dear Ones. Blessings!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes you can get a paper done that garners an "A"! After you take enough of these classes with lots of writing, there starts to be a pattern to follow. Once you have the knack it becomes easy to write a quality paper in short order. This is information I got from Brett. He had one due the other night and because of school open house and room set-up etc., he was late getting at it. He wrote an essay in 45 minutes and got an "A". The class is all about diversity needs in the school system. (Yawn)

Nancy said...

I think you'll do just fine in the class. He sounds like a good teacher. Thanks for all your help tonight! Love ya!

Ellie said...

I guess we have to wait for you to procrastinate another paper to get more blogging from you. How you did well!

Ellie said...

I mean "hope you did well." Good thing I'm not writing the paper.