Even more tips to fight your Seasonal Affective Disorder



As every year during these weeks search requests for our blog article on the subject Seasonal Affective Disorder are beginning to pile up. No wonder: Summer is clearly a thing of the past, fall and winter with their long, dark nights and unfortunately also frequent bleary days await. The nights are already uncomfortably cool. During these months the inherent light deficiency affects the emotional state of many. Studies show that during fall and winter many people complain about depressions, lack of energy and a ravenous appetite for something sweet. Psychologists describe this seasonal dependent depressive mood as SAD – seasonal affective disorder. As we face the threat of the blahs during the dark-cold season it is now high time to fight them with a few new tips from us!
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Anorexia – when the Soul is starving



Anorexia (Anorexia nervosa) usually begins with the desire to be – or to become slim. Many of those afflicted eventually slide into this disease via a diet. At one point the starvation diet gets out of control and starts to dominate the entire life. The fear for gaining weight increases to the point of creating a strictly controlled food intake – all the way to a complete refusal to eat. The worst part of all is: The afflicted develop a progressively distorted body image and finally see themselves as fat and bloated while in reality by now they are only skin and bones. When during therapy an anorexic person is asked to paint a picture of him/herself, the body silhouette always differs far from reality. Most of them are totally stunned when they lay down on a large sheet of paper and the therapist traces the girth of their body with a pen. They would have never imagined that both are images of the same person.
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Dreams, nightmares and their meaning



Dreams - a subject that my clients often bring up in the course of their therapy hours with me. “I dreamt this or that – what does it mean?” – “I always keep having the same dream, what is it telling me?” Those and others are the questions on this subject. Dreams are by their nature an interesting subject and not just as they relate to psychotherapy. Many people wonder about the meaning of their dreams and many researchers have of course already literally forever dealt with the subject of sleep and dreams.
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Is that truly my dream career?



On iPersonic I have already frequently addressed the subject of how important the right career is for one’s happiness and life satisfaction. And therefore, it is so very important to know oneself and one’s own personality in order to make the correct decisions in this area. (You can take our free career test here!)
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Why women suffer from a distorted self-image



It’s been a while since I wrote the last time about the subject “Blind spot” here on iPersonic. That subject occurred to me yesterday for very personal reasons. As happens occasionally to all of us, yesterday I had obviously gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. With a few things very much on my mind I had not slept all that well. So, while brushing my teeth and already in a mousy mood, I dismayed to be “confronted” by my reflection in the mirror above the sink. Bags under the eyes, clearly lots more wrinkles than yesterday and then that strange new liver spot right next to my nose – could that possibly be the forerunner of senile freckles? And then I made the dumbest strategic mistake any woman can possibly commit in a situation such as this – I stepped on the scale! That pretty much did it for the day. I was tempted to go right back to bed. My already lousy mood hit bottom and established itself there for good.
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The new iPersonic Health Coach eBook



Our new iPersonic HealthCoach eBook is developed with the objective in mind to process general scientific knowledge on the subject of health and happiness for the benefit of individual personality types. Continue reading ...

Career Guidance in a Global World



At iPersonic we believe that career guidance should be made available to everyone. A fulfilling career is the cornerstone of a fulfilled life. Continue reading ...

Understanding Paraverbal Communication



Whenever we think of the key word “communication” the spoken maybe even the written word generally comes to mind. However, between two people this represents only one of three levels composing communication – and by far not the most important! After all, seen from the perspective of its evolutionary history the word does not stand alone – other channels of communication were at least equally important! Maybe you already have had similar experiences that you can express a lot more with a glance or a gesture than with an endless sermon. Or you have listened to someone volubly trying to convince you of something while you were thinking to yourself: “he/she is lying down his/her throat”. In that case you are already aware of the other two channels people use to communicate with each other and which are going to be today’s primary subject. Continue reading ...

The end of your life will reveal whether you knew who you were

The end of your life will reveal whether you knew who you were Continue reading ...

The "Be Spontaneous" Paradox



Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our “the day we first met” anniversary. One would think that those days should be a great occasion for couples to make a nice day of it or at least memorable evening. Unfortunately all too often they fail miserably – for instance when one of the parties involved (usually the male part) either totally forgets the day or at least shows up without the obligatory bouquet of flowers or else forgets the “real” present. Continue reading ...

Can a Trauma be inherited?



An U.S. study of more than 50.000 women has recently brought a strange causality to light. “When a woman was the victim of severe sexual abuse as a child, the danger that she’ll later as a mother will give birth to a child suffering from autism increases by more than 60% (!) when compared to a non-traumatized woman. Our survey suggests that the fallout of childhood abuse resonates across generations,” says scientist Marc Weisskopf in an article published in the german magazine "Der Spiegel". The researchers included an impairment of the immune system and stress resistance of abused women as contributing factors as potential causes for the negative effect on the pregnancy and the embryonic development. Continue reading ...

The Fairy Tale about Spontaneous Sex



A while ago a couple of studies caught my attention. Both were dealing with every-day stress and sexuality in a partnership (and didn’t sound very encouraging): In Great Britain 35% of all working women stated that they were not interested in sex because day-to-day life was absorbing too much energy. After having to deal with their household chores after work they are simply too tired for sexual activities. I tend to believe that these results probably apply to most women on this planet. And I know lots of working mothers who, - particularly during school vacations – after a busy day with their brood on the playground, at the open air pool or similar “relaxing” pastimes would probably also wholeheartedly agree. But then the survey by a woman’s magazine indicates, that German men don’t appear to be a whole lot better off: During the last 30 years, stress and burnout have reduced their libido by more than 50%. For instance, in 1976 18 – 30 year olds still indicated to have had sex 18 – 22 times a month; by 2006 the frequency of their sexual activity was only 4 – 10 times a month. It appears that the daily routine has a similar libido dampening effect on both, men and women. Once one has dealt with everything that needs to be done, one is also done in oneself to the point where one just wants to be left alone and has no interest in sweaty acrobatics between the sheets. Continue reading ...

Will a fling kill your relationship?



As long as there are relationships, there will always be flings, those quickie affairs. Sexual revolution, or not – for instance in surveys 43% of all Germans state that for them a fling is sufficient reason to terminate even a longstanding relationship. And almost two thirds consider it to be the beginning of the end when a partner cheats. The values in other industrial nations are similar. Particularly fascinating considering the fact that since the fifties one figure shows up with stunning regularity (that is to say since Kinsey’s research on this subject): According to studies, at one time or the other, 50% of all long-term relationships are subject to adultery. Men are not always the culprits. They are only the cheaters in 30 – 60% of all cases, while in 20 - 50% the females give in to temptation. The difference is the way in which the situation is being handled: Men enjoy boasting with their adventures while the females keep their mouth shut and indulge in silence. Thus the former are more likely to get caught than the latter.
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Life at a Crossroads



Popular wisdom states: „There are no sign posts on the crossroads of life.“ That often comes to mind when I sit in my practice with people who are facing important decisions in their lives and just don’t know where to go. The same obviously applies when I face the same dilemma, myself. Sooner or later and more or less frequently all of us find ourselves on those life’s crossroads when we have to decide on an alternative and at the same time bid farewell to other opportunities. Changing the job or better not? Continuing a relationship or put an end to it? Emigrate or preferably stay in my native country? Having a child or not? The choice between professional education or an academic career. And . . . and . . . and. Continue reading ...

Start the New Year with a Letter to Yourself



Well, we did it again! New Year’s Eve is behind us and the New Year is upon us – hopefully all went well for you? Most of you probably threw a proper New Years Party - maybe even accompanied by some fireworks. All in all, for most of us the New Year’s celebration is a rather noisy and merry affair fortified by the proper beverages.
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