The Friday Dose #8 – Expanding Understanding

We’ll start this week’s Dose off with a look at teens. They can sure frustrate and perplex their parents but we must keep in mind the context they are in. They are at a phase of life where they are subtracting their parents choices as they experiment with their own. Most often, most will adopt choices very similar to their parents—eventually, after some bad experiences picking the opposite. But they’ll also find their own ways too. It’s just important to keep in mind the social environment they’re in. They’re trying to look impressive, so for them to exaggerate or over-dramatize life is in keeping with the phase they’re in. This where they will build much of their identity and they need room to experiment with what it will include. This interview is certainly an excellent peak into their psychology on line. I highly recommend it—and her book—for all tween and teen parents:

Understanding the Social Lives of Networked Teens

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And from the same program, here’s a guy who might initially appear to be a geeky, socially inept nerd, but in fact he’s simply being uncharacteristically honest about how the human mind actually works. If you’re the type of person who gets locked into your work and you’re self-aware enough about that to know you need a way to remind yourself to demonstratively love your spouse, then creating a mechanism to remind you of something true isn’t unromantic at all. In fact it’s actually quite romantic. The person that creates that tool doesn’t have to just remember to call, they have to actually work to build something to make sure that happens. That’s a nice way to think of someone else. It’s worth a listen:

Tools for Love

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And we’ll finish with some meditation. Often times people find meditation difficult because they find it challenging to quiet their own personal thinking. Artistry can often achieve this state of mind by fulling investing the viewer in the experience. Here’s something that has nothing in it for you personally. There’s no gain or loss for you other than the experience itself. It is simply a reality on which your mind can rest. I hope you find it as rewarding and soul-enhancing as I did:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUZh_Cbw6Q]

 

Have yourself a wonderful weekend because you chose to make it that way.

peace. s