This Week on My Internet Radio Show: HAVING DIFFICUTLIES WITH YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS? LEARN A LOVE BASED WAY TO TRANSFORM CHALLENGING PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

My guest this week is Dr. Bryan Post www.PostInstitute.com

Dr. Post is a psychotherapist, lecturer and best-selling author. His focus is working with children with severe behavior challenges.

For the past fifteen years, he has been educating others about the challenges facing adopted and foster children. From this work he has developed a new love-based understanding that can transform the most challenging parent-child relationship that all parents and grandparents need to know.

You’re going to learn about the impact of time-outs, spanking, crying and the surprising impact it can have on your kids. You’re not going to want to miss this one!

Go to http://webtalkradio.net/shows/healthy-alternatives/ to listen or download the program.

Since I do this show weekly, we can inform you of each show with an email reminder.  Just click here to register.

We’re Not The Only Ones With Social Networks -Think Plants

Botanists have tried to figure out why some trees don’t grow well near members of their own species while others do.

It turns out that newly sprouted seeds respond to soil-dwelling microbes near the tree’s roots. These microbes can harm a tree’s seedlings so the seeds need to get away from the mother tree.

This has caused trees to evolve methods of dispersal of their seeds by using fruits that get eaten and seeds that get blown on the wind.

There are also plants that fare better when they are surrounded by their own kind. Sagebrush, for example, sends out airborne chemical cues from its foliage and branches that play a vital role in protecting the plants against insect attack.

One study showed that two genetically identical sagebrush plants grown next to each other were more effective fending off caterpillars and grasshoppers than two unrelated plants.

So…the notion of “friending” started a long time ago.

Paying Attention To Feelings Versus Your Head

The question is: Is it better to pay attention to your reasoning skills or your feelings?  This is an old debate that just got some new insights. A researcher at the University of Toronto had his test subjects interact with an anonymous partner.

The subjects had two options from which to choose – they could treat the other person fairly or lie to them. If they lied, they would gain at the expense of their partners.

Before the subjects decided to be fair or to cheat, they were encouraged either to think rationally about the situation and to ignore their emotions or they were told to make their decision based on their gut feelings. Sixty-nine percent of those who were told to be rational decided to lie to their partners while those only 27% of those who were told to go with their gut feelings lied.

With the economic crisis we’ve all been going through, it seems that using our gut feelings got lost in the ‘rational’ thought of “everyone else is doing it so I should, too.” If I could buy a house by exaggerating my income, I may as well do it. If I knew the homeowner wasn’t qualified, but I could profit by giving him a loan anyway, I may as well do it. If I could bundle these useless securities so that no one would know that they were valueless and sell them, why not.

All of these were ‘rational’ thoughts and they almost created a depression! One person who was using her gut was a woman, Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC. In 2008, she was warning bankers that there was a huge problem with mortgages and that the banks should renegotiate entire categories of loans to avoid massive foreclosures.

So what did these rationally minded bankers do - they ignored her. So…maybe when the alarm bells in your gut go off, you’ll start to give them more credit and pay attention.

(Reported Fast Company July/August 2009)

Facebook-Twitter: Having Meaningful Relationships Has Gotten Harder.

According to research done by Kodak, while it’s easier to say in touch with family and friends using email, texting, and sites like Facebook - the contacts may be less meaningful.

As a matter of fact, Kodak researchers found that 60% of the respondents felt like they have fewer meaningful relationships now.

del.icio.us Tags: dr. jerry teplitz,social relationships,facebook,texting,twitter,meaningful relationships