Archive for September, 2009

A Leopard Changed Its Spots

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Have you heard the saying, “A Leopard Can’t Change Its Spots”?
What if I told you they were wrong? What if I told you that you can change and that your history is not the main factor in what you want to do, or become even at a biological level.

Advancements in biology and in how we think and function are catching up with people like Napoleon Hill or Maxwell Maltz of whom, told us that the way we think and feel, and that which we focus on will shape our world and the outcome of our lives. We literately become what we focus on most.

Scientists who are studying Stem Cell research challenged the notion that once a cell is programmed to become a particular thing, whether that is an arm, liver or heart, that it will always be that and will not and cannot change. It is in line with what we have been told about the leopard and our own nature and reaction to life.
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Axes of Personality Disorders

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Personality disorders are like tips of icebergs. They rest on a foundation of causes and effects, interactions and events, emotions and cognitions, functions and dysfunctions that together form the patient and make him or her what s/he is.
The DSM uses five axes to analyze, classify, and describe these data. The patient (or subject) presents himself to a mental health diagnostician, is evaluated, tests are administered, questionnaires fulfilled, and a diagnosis rendered. The diagnostician uses the DSM’s five axes to “make sense” and meaningfully organize of the information he had gathered in this process.

Axis I demands that he specify all the patient’s clinical mental health problems that are not personality disorders or mental retardation. Thus, Axis I includes issues first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence; cognitive problems (e.g., delirium, dementia, amnesia); mental disorders due to a medical condition (for instance, dysfunctions caused by brain injury or metabolic diseases); substance-related disorders; schizophrenia and psychosis; mood disorders; anxiety and panic; somatoform disorders; factitious disorders; dissociative disorders; sexual paraphilias; eating disorders; impulse control problems and adjustment issues.
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Enlightenment is not just one state

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Many people has the notion that enlightenment is one state. Many also believe that when it is attained, a person is forever in that state.

The following is not a definitive article on this subject. It is just an expression of my own thoughts.

My opinion is that enlightenment is not just one state but is a progressive and gradual establishing of states of consciousness.

I, myself have not reach the end of the road. But from years on a spiritual quest, I can safely say that enlightenment happens in a series or stages of self-realisations and self-discoveries.

Usually there is a difference between an initial awakening and a later stabilisation of that stage that happens through practice or experiences. The initial awakenings are new discoveries about the dynamics of consciousness, while the stabilisation is the assimilation of what is being discovered into one’s life experience. Sometimes, a new discovery can completely over-rule or modify upon an older one.

Almost all stages of enlightenment can be said to be associated with Presence. However, the enlightening Presence comes in various degrees of intensity and clarity. The degree of intensity is directly dependent on the level and depth of one’s clarity as well as one’s realisations/discoveries.
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A Guide to Alcohol and Drugs Influence at Workplace

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

In recent years, there are increasing numbers of people who turn up work under the influence of alcohol and drugs. According to a survey conducted by the Health and Safety Executive in 1994, 90% of personnel directors from top UK organisations stated that alcohol consumption was a problem for their organisation. 18% of large company directors reported illegal drug use by their employees in 2004, a survey through the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and the Reward Group 2004.

The impact of an employee under the influence of alcohol or drugs in the work place could be:
? Poor discipline and violent behaviour
? Safety endangered for everyone at the workplace
? Effect on employee relations and team morale
? Poor performance and loss of efficiency
? Lateness and absenteeism
? Unpleasant effects on company image and customer relations.

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, it’s the responsibilty of company directors to take into account, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of its employees. A director could be prosecuted if he deliberately allowed an employee under the influence of drugs and/or excessive alcohol to continue working whilst placing the employee or others at risk. Likewise, employees are also responsible to take sensible care of themselves and others who could be affected by what they perform. Eg: If you’re working in a transport industry, The Transport and Works Act 1992 makes it a criminal offence for certain employees to be unfit through drink and/or drugs while working on railways, buses, tramways and other guided transport systems. The operators of the transport system would also be guilty of an offence unless they had shown all due diligence in trying to prevent such an offence being committed.
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