Convincing Ourselves

I recently came across the idea of Energizing Meditation (EM) in the "National Council for hypnotherapy Journal SUMMER EDITION". The protocol has been proposed by Howard Baron, a retired management consultant, whom I believe still dabbles in workshops and corporate training. While traditional meditation is about staying mindful and relaxing, Energizing Meditation (EM) aims to converse and boost one's energy. Basically, you are to feel 'energized' after an EM session. Howard has an interest in managing oneself under highly stressful situations, and I can see how he came up with the protocol in order to ensure managers and leadership can function in the best manner when confronted with difficulty (we are talking oil spills and disasters here!). Given Howard's background is in management consultancy, I feel Energizing Meditation (EM) is worth looking into. The protocol has been deliberately keeping very open and flexible because he rightfully believes...

Below is an abstract of the paper I wrote for " Telling the story of business: story-driven research in entrepreneurship, business, and marketing",  held at the University of South Wales in January 2020.  ================================================================= A Narrative Inquiry into the role of psychological factors in helping a Pakistani Family Business owner-manager, navigate turbulent market conditions   By Umair Usman, Usman Carpet House, Lahore, Pakistan Abstract This is an ethnographic narrative inquiry to identify the psychological factors that helped my father, a Pakistan family business owner-manager, through the great recession of 2006/2007. The study is retrospective in nature where I discuss my time, as a part of the family business during this period we experienced. I recall what I observed, and experienced, were psychological and mental factors that were inherent in my father and supported him through this...

It seems that popular topics find their way into academic circles more often these days. I came across a great example of Harvard Business Review by Reiken et al called “ How Mindfulness Can Help Engineers Solve Problems”. The article has been re-posted several times across a variety of academic sites and it is surely worth a review. To begin with, mindfulness is essentially about living in the moment and paying attention to simply what is. The authors compare linear, or convergent thinking with divergent thinking, where several options are explored on top of the starting point, to generate a number of ideas and hence favours creativity and innovation. The article makes the claim that most engineers are trained to be liner, convergent thinkers and even though it's important, for the best solutions one requires both convergent and divergent thinking. The authors performed two studies to look at the impact of mindfulness meditation, which is an exercise known to...

Business travel brings with it many instances where one has to be out of their comfort zone. Being away from home, one is at the mercy of their surroundings, which at times can be very limiting. As someone who takes a lot of care in eating right and eating well, it often becomes difficult for me to find a balanced meal. This is an issue not only while in the plane or in an airport or train station, but also during business meetings and dinners. Unlike at home, or in one's daily routine, there is little control over the situation. During my previous trip I Took inspiration from Self Hypnosis and related CBT techniques to self regulate what I eat and how much I eat, while keeping my energy levels relatively high. This included several sessions of self hypnosis before I left for the trip which seemingly had little result. However, one on the trip, some positive statements stuck with me in my mind which kept me in check. The results were actually very good. Much better ...

There still exists a lot of trauma and stigma surrounding mental health, especially in developing countries. People are not only unaware of what mental health is, once they are, but they also shy away from going to a professional with the belief that they themselves or their loved ones might think that they are 'handicapped' or 'not normal'. However, it is important to recognize that ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. Mental Health issues take a toll on families, organizations and society at large. It is important to realize that mental health issues are common and prevalent. They come in all shapes and sizes and lay on a continuum from something as small as anxiety to something as deadly as anorexia. Ignoring mental health issues can have devastating effects. One example of how mental disorders can impact physical health is anorexia and bulimia, deemed one of the most deadly psychological disorders out there. Having an anorexic child often leaves...

Psychology, in general, is based on the same paradigm as medicine in general. The patient develops a problem, you diagnose it and help the patient heal. A new paradigm emerged a few decades back which is about prevention, where an attempt is made to catch a disease early on or prevent it from ever happening. Both these paradigms were well adapted to psychology in general and organizational psychology in particular. Not only were mental health professionals helping employees deal with stress and anxiety, but they were making sure the workplace is vibrant and healthy enough to help avoid depression and ensure as many needs of the employees are met as possible. The new paradigm A third paradigm has now developed in psychology about 2 decades ago, called 'Positive Psychology'. While traditional psychology is mostly concerned with mental illness, positive psychology is concerned with building on an individual's strengths and helping them lead meaningful lives. In o...

Stress and Anxiety can put us in the extreme state of ‘fight or flight’ which prepares our body for short bursts of high intensity. However, the body undergoes considerable stress and therefore requires a counter state to balance and heal the body and the mind.   According to the book ‘Relaxation Response’ by the Harvard physician Herbert Benson, we can help our body relax and take it into a ‘rest and digest’ state. This helps the body and the mind manage stress. This essentially is the principal of most forms of meditation as well as prayer. One of the simplest ways to initiate a ‘Relaxation Response’ is simply to focus on one's breath for a prolonged period of time. As the mind wanders, one brings it back. For me, I can categorically feel when my body’s relaxation response is triggered. Regularly triggering a relaxation response can help overcome most of the scars caused by day to day stress and therefore help us become happier and more productive. Umair Usman ...

Everyone talks to themselves. Some do it loudly, others do it in the mind. Some consciously and some unconsciously. What we tell ourselves shapes our whole life. Nothing is more important than making sure we tell ourselves the right thing. This is an important aspect of performance psychology as well. When a student is studying for an exam, they might tell themselves that their struggle makes them a loser.  An Athlete may be going through a bad patch. and tell themselves they don't have it anymore. A person sitting bored in an office may mistake his boredom as anxiety as there is nothing to do.  So what to do?  When we are not taking action, we are telling ourselves something wrong. Adjusting our self-talk, therefore, helps us not only feel better but take actual action. The student can look at their struggle as a normal aspect of preparation, the athlete can tell themselves that success is right around the corner, while the office worker may build a...

Anxiety is everywhere and for some people all the time. We get anxious if we have to talk in a social setting, anxious for assignments, anxious sometimes for no reason at all. However, there is a way to use anxiety for our advantage. A wonderful 2014 research study by Alison Wood Brooks from the Harvard Business School revealed something very interesting. Alison asked participants to either say and feel, ‘I am anxious', ‘I am excited’ and nothing at all, before a task. The results were shocking. Those that were asked to say and believe that they are excited we're able to perform better on various tasks, from singing to a math problem. According to Alison, it is easier to go from one arousal state (anxiety) to another (excited) rather than cooling down and therefore this helps individuals perform better. Now this research can be critiqued for many reasons, however, the implications can be impressive. When feeling anxious, all we need to do is to say out loud, and b...

Failure is inevitable. I have seen many wonderful and talented people be surprised by failure. No matter how good of a student you are, or how good of a sportsperson you are, you will face failure. You will have a bad day. That is the nature of life. Those who do not accept it, are ignoring reality. This can have a disastrous effect on people’s stress levels as well as self-worth. High performing individuals equate their self-worth, their purpose, from doing well. The day they fail, and sometimes they go through a prolonged period of failure, they lose self-esteem, confidence and sometimes even the will to continue. But when we realize that failure is as much a part of life as a success, we can carry on working towards our goals. It is easy to see that even the highest performing athletes, businesspeople, etc have gone through failure. It is they who everyone remembers. In any scenario, we can only control our actions, not the outcome. Therefore we can only try our best...

We are continuously bombarded by images of perfect people all around us. The perfect Supermodel ,Gigi Hadid, who never seems to get fat no matter what she eats. The perfect business person, Jeff Bezos, who seems to be able to grow his net worth almost effortlessly. Then there are the social media personalities. Influencers who give the apparence of recording their everyday lives, yet they seem to be always travelling, always eating great food and always looking great. At at the same time, our brains seem to focus on ‘perfection’. We have a friend who seems to never study but always get the best marks in school. We all have a friend who enjoys to eat but always remains skinny. We all have a couple of friend who’s life seems perfect. Yet the reality is that perfection simply doesnt exist. There is no one who has the perfect life. There is no one who has not been through depression, axniety, or even failure of some sort. This is something we know intutively, yet chose to...

The aim of my blog is to be able to give tools and ideas from psychology that anyone can incorporate in their daily lives to make them better. Knowing the tools is not enough and it is important that you are able to use what you learn here. Luckily, there is nothing as easy to understand and easy to apply, as the power of relationships. We all know that good old friends and loving families make us feel good and keep us grounded. What is even more interesting is how this reality of us being 'social beings' is also a strong point in therapeutic settings. Not only is the idea of having relationships intuitively sound, it is also scientifically sound and clinically important. Therapists know it: All therapists know the importance of relationships. It is commonly understood that a huge part of therapy and their positive effects come through the relationships themselves. The very fact that one is able to talk to a person, or group, openly, without being judged, is a very ...

After Happiness, there is Sadness Life is not always a party. It rains, clouds over over the sky and from time to time storms come and pass by. No one is immune from the rhythm of life and it is not something anyone can escape. No matter where you live, how much money you have or what you have become, problems will come and go. After happiness, comes sadness and that is how life is and the one who denies it, is the one who is unhappy. The problem It is imperative that we convince ourselves about this reality. Once we are convinced that this is how normal life flows, we can be prepared with tools, techniques and resources in order to cope with and deal with any problem or challenge life throws at us. We can have a close friend to fall back on after a bad day, or have savings in the bank for a rainy day or perhaps learn to let it go when we have a confrontation with someone.  Whatever the case only if we convince ourselves that life will keep throwing problems at...

The Scam: Ah, law of attraction and other similar self help scams. So common now on the internet and the self help section of any book store. They have tonnes of money by playing on people's emotions. Tell people its easy and they will buy it! This is the same trick used by fitness product promoters and TV commercials and it has worked well for decades. As soon as you find out that this is not the 'answer to everything', you start seeking the next 'quick or easy fix''. Its a dirty trick and plays on our search for easy answers, the magic pills, and the easy answers. They say losing weight is as easy as a few minutes on this machine, or getting rich is as easy as visualizing, and before you know it, you have giving out your cash and realized soon enough that this is not the answer you were looking for. So what gives? is this all fake? is law of attraction or the self help motivational books nothing but a waster of time? Yes and No: There is a lot o...