Manipulation

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<i>Fool on me once, shame on you. Fool on me twice, shame on me. </i></div>
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<i>Chinese Proverb</i></div>
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Manipulation is everywhere, in the mass media, the advertisement and relationships. Can you say that you personally have never manipulated, consciously or unconsciously? It is not a secret that people want to manipulate but our discussion set up the question: ‘How many want to be manipulated?’ I browsed the internet in order to find some sociological surveys, but without success. Maybe it is just because people can’t answer truly, they even can’t realize that they are not ready for being free and actually want opposite…</div>
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<p><b style="text-align: justify;">What is manipulation? </b><br />
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We used to think that manipulation has always negative connotation.But it was not so originally. The first two definitions of the Webster dictionary demonstrate it: ‘to treat or operate manually or mechanically esp. with skill’, ‘to manage or use skillfully’.It sounds positive and useful, does not it?How is manipulation treated now? As acting against somebody’s will in order to have some profit. If we summarize, manipulation is neither bad nor good. It is just a tool that can be used for kind or evil purposes. </div>
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<b>How to recognize manipulation?</b> </div>
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Manipulation can take many forms, but 3 basic strategies are threading, flattering and playing on somebody’s weaknesses.One of the ways to recognize that you are manipulated is listening to your feelings and emotions; one of the most common is guilt.To know how to resist manipulation one should know his enemy by sight. So here are some common techniques that you personally probably faced at least once in your life: </div>
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<li>- ‘3 yes’: ask a person 3 simple question for which you are sure he will answer ‘yes’, the 4-th question is the one you want to get yes reply. If a person answer ‘yes’ to all your questions he will easier answer yes to another one.</li>
<li>- unreasonable + reasonable’ we can see on this example:“Would you mind leading the new project? You’ll just have to come in to work two hours early for the next few months.” When your employee shakes his head, just say, “Oh, all right. But would you mind coming in early tomorrow to help me wrap up this report?” He’ll be much more receptive after the first request.</li>
<li>- NLP Mirroring: if you copy gestures, tone of the voice, words the person uses, he will be more sensible to your manipulation. In this way you will create an image that you both are on the same wavelength, have a lot in common so he can trust you.</li>
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<b>Are you an easy target for manipulators?</b><br />
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Check this description. Can you see yourself? </div>
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<li>- You feel useful and loved only when you can take care of the needs of other people. </li>
<li>- You need to have the approval and acceptance of other people. </li>
<li>- You fear expressing negative emotions.</li>
<li>- You are unable to say no. </li>
<li>- You lack a firm sense of your own self (what your values are, who you are, what you stand for, and where you begin and the other person ends.) </li>
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<b>How to defend from manipulation?</b><br />
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Here are some essential tips: Be aware of your emotions, know that you deserve the best, improve your critical thinking, practice saying ‘no’ read between the lines, joke, and trust your intuition. </div>
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<b>If you want to know more, follow the links:</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-steve-jobs-guide-to-manipulating-people-and%20getting-what-you-want-2014-10?op=1" target="_blank">Steve Job’s manipulation techniques</a><br />
<a href="http://psychcentral.com/lib/how-to-spot-manipulation/00020313" target="_blank">How to Spot Manipulation: most common techniques with examples</a><br />
<a href="http://lifeesteem.org/wellness/wellness_manipulation.html" target="_blank">Manipulation in relationship (+ test)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Pick-Up-on-Manipulative-Behavior" target="_blank">How to spot manipulative behavior with examples</a><br />
<a href="http://www.rosinecaplot.com/2009/09/anti-manipulation-mindset/" target="_blank">Manipulation mindset</a><br />
<a href="https://ultraculture.org/blog/2014/01/16/nlp-10-ways-protect-mind-control/" target="_blank">NLP</a><br />
<a href="http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/10-guilt-free-strategies-for-saying-no" target="_blank">How to say ‘No’</a><br />
<a href="http://book-online.com.ua/read.php?book=3852&page=29#s29_n0" target="_blank">С. Кара-Мурза - Манипуляция сознанием</a><br />
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Fool on me once, shame on you. Fool on me twice, shame on me.

Chinese Proverb

Manipulation is everywhere, in the mass media, the advertisement and relationships. Can you say that you personally have never manipulated, consciously or unconsciously? It is not a secret that people want to manipulate but our discussion set up th…

Lie to me

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I have a friend who never lies, he has been my friend for many years that is why I can forgive him many of his truthful comments, but sometimes he is totally unsupportable. Once he managed to make me cry! Ok, I may agree, it was my fault that I asked him questions… Lies are usually seen as something bad, inappropriate, but when I imagine the world without ones, I doubt whether it will be a happy world.
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In the BBC article of a novelist Clare Allan I read this quote, ‘I've always been fascinated by lying. I think it's the fact that when people lie they are free in a way that they're not when they tell "the truth" - whatever that means.’It is a controversial question whether it is freedom where one can do or tell whatever he wants, or prison full of stress, anxiety and cognitive dissonance.<br />
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It is worth to hunt down in question why people tell untruth.Some of them don’t want to hurttheir nearest and dearest; some lie for the good; some protect themselves and avoid conflicts; evoke sympathy; raise self-esteem and seem better than you are; gain benefits (for example, during job interview); havea habitof being deceptive; make their life brighter; it can be a part of their job. These reasons allow to categories lies. According to Dawson, an American speaker, radio host, and author there are: white lies (for example, showing appreciation for an undesirable gift); broken promises (you promise to do something even if you know that you will not be able to keep this promise); fabrication (telling others something you do not know for sure is true); the bold-faced lie (telling something that everyone knows is a lie; parent-children manipulation); exaggeration (mixes truths and untruths to make themselves look impressive); lies of deception (to cheat someone, by creating a false impression); plagiarism (copying someone else’s work and calling it your own); compulsive lying.<br />
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I remember my grandpa. He was a great storyteller! Most of his stories were based on real episodes, anecdotes from his life. But every time he told them, they slightly differed. When somebody tried to find him out in a lie, he replied ‘I never lie. I just decorate a story’, and he did, and it was such a pleasure to listen! After that I realised that lying could be fun, lying could be creativity, lying could be freedom of thinking.
Everybody lies. Still we do not like when somebody does it to us and dream how good it would be to know whether people we are talking to are honest with us. Vanessa Van Edwards, a lead investigator at the Science of People, a human behavior research gives some tips, how to identify a pretender: The main idea is to compare the baseline, what someone does, looks like when is telling the truth and individual hot spots (individual clusters of micro facial expressions, body language and tone voice). Here are some common patterns to add: a person who shades the truthtends to look on the left (*appropriate only for right-handed); there are some difference in the voice, its pace and pitch;they look in the eyes to check your reaction and add many details to sound more convincing.<br />
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I hope these tips will come in handy. Of course it does not mean that you should tell at once ‘aha, I know that you’re lying!’ Maybe if someone does it, it’s not without reason(if this is not a pathological liar).<br />
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If you are not going to stop ‘decorating the reality’, but in contrary,want to improve your ‘lying skills’, check the article ‘How to be an effective liar’ below.<br />
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<b>Here are more resources: </b><br />
<a href="http://lifehacker.com/5674334/how-to-be-an-effective-liar" target="_blank">How to be an effective liar</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/pamela_meyer_how_to_spot_a_liar" target="_blank">TED-talks </a><br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16612884" target="_blank">BBC article‘The good side of lying’</a><br />
<a href="http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2012/04/how-to-tell-when-people-are-lying-to-you-video/" target="_blank">Video of an expert Vanessa Van Edward</a>s<br />
<a href="http://mashable.com/2013/12/20/psychology-of-lying/" target="_blank">Interestingfacts about a lie </a><br />
<a href="http://io9.com/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-lying-1175676651" target="_blank">More facts</a><br />
Movie ‘Liar Liar’ with Jim Carrey<br />
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I have a friend who never lies, he has been my friend for many years that is why I can forgive him many of his truthful comments, but sometimes he is totally unsupportable. Once he managed to make me cry! Ok, I may agree, it was my fault that I asked him questions… Lies are usually seen as something bad, inappropriate, but when I imagine the world without ones, I doubt whether it will be a happy world.

In the BBC…

Intuition or 6th sense

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Albert Einstein claimed that it is <i>‘sacred but forgotten by modern society gift’</i><br />
Steve Jobs belived that it is <i>‘more powerful than intellect’</i><br />
Oprah Winfrey called it <i>‘true wisdom’</i></div>
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6th sense, gut feeling, inner voice, intuition, no matter how you call it, but you probably won’t deny that it works. Can you think of an example from your life? Have you ever relied on intuition during your exams?<br />
When you hired an employee?</div>
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Or guessed the name of a new acquaintance? How many times you have had to make a decision and listened to your subtle inner voice? Some skeptics may say that the manifestation of the 6th sense is nothing but a coincidence. What is it an accident or fate, apsychic ability or inner wisdom we tried to figure out.</div>
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<b>What are scientific approaches?</b></div>
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According to many researchers, intuition is far more material than it seems. A social psychologist David Myers, PhD, explains that the intuitive right brain is almost always “reading” your surroundings,the body can register this information while the conscious mind remains unaware of what is going on. Another theory suggests you can “feel” approaching events specifically because of your dopamine neurons. “The jitters of dopamine help keep track of reality, alerting us to those subtle patterns that we can’t consciously detect,” Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide (Houghton Mifflin, 2009) notes.Scientists have established that most of our brain forms our subconscious brain. While only 1/3 of our brain is actually the conscious brain. The sixth sense is a part of that subconscious mind which in turn is the part of our soul. Philosophers believe that we as souls are a part of the ‘mind of universe’ hold the knowledge of everything(‘collectiveunconscious’ by Carl Jung).Sometimes we get a glimpse of this knowledge when we need it; this is known as the sixth sense. </div>
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<b>How many types of intuition exist?</b> </div>
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Scientists define three types: </div>
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1. Ordinary intuition, the classic gut feeling that we get which makes us feel as if we know the choice to make; </div>
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2. Expert intuition, which is the sort that comes from special training and experience; </div>
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3. Strategic intuition, when we are confronted with a particularly difficult problem that we cannot seem to figure out how to solve. When that happens, sometimes we will take a break and think about something else for a while, and the right answer suddenly will come to us. </div>
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<b>Sometimes we have several vague feelings at once, it can be mixture of supersicions, fairs etc. So how to choose which gut feelings to trust?</b></div>
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<i>“Thereis a range of how people experience intuition”</i> says Judith Orloff, PhD, a Los Angeles–based intuitive psychiatrist and author of Second Sight (Three Rivers Press, 2010) </div>
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<i>“Some people hear an inner voice, other people get a physical sensation, like in the pit of their stomach, some have vivid dreams, and some see visual clues, like symbols. The key is inidentifying how your body gives you its messages.”</i> </div>
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He suggests that it is a matter of <i>“combining the linear mind and intuition”</i> and striking the right balance between gut instinct and rational thinking. </div>
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<b>Here are five gut feelings that Orloff and other experts recommend you pay attention to:</b> </div>
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1. “Something feels wrong in my body.” </div>
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2. “I am in danger.” </div>
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3. “I want to help.” </div>
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4. “I know how to do this.” </div>
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5. “This is it!” </div>
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<b>How to develop your intuition?</b> </div>
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One of the experiments we had last Saturday was ‘feeling’ colours. I watched it when I had practical training with kids in one psychology centre. The task is rather simple, try to guess the colour with closed eyes. I was amazed how easily kids coped with that task. Probably there is no better advice than to just listen and trust your intuition and use any chance to practise. Try guessing games. They are funny and do not demand a lot of time or efforts. For example you can try guessing the name of people you meet, guess the colour of the car that will come around the corner. You can find some more advice if you follow the links below. </div>
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<b>Trust yourself and your intuition won’t let you down. :)</b></div>
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<b>Resources:</b><br />
<a href="http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-gut-instincts-you-shouldnt-ignore.html" target="_blank">How to distinguish intuition from your fairs, stereotypes, superstitions.</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FfypyFsGhk" target="_blank">Video</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/10_things_highly_intuitive_people_do_differently" target="_blank">10 things highly intuitive people do differently </a><br />
<a href="https://faerygodmotherfortunes.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/my-top-ten-exercises-to-flex-your-intuitive-muscles/" target="_blank">Useful tips with explanations how and why they work</a><br />
<a href="http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/intuition-healthcare/can-i-develop-my-intuition" target="_blank">How to develop your intuition</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.psychologies.ru/tests/test/371/" target="_blank">Test</a><br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/_FfypyFsGhk" target="_blank">Learned Intuition: Patrick Schwerdtfeger</a><br />
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Albert Einstein claimed that it is ‘sacred but forgotten by modern society gift’
Steve Jobs belived that it is ‘more powerful than intellect’
Oprah Winfrey called it ‘true wisdom’

6th sense, gut feeling, inner voice, intuition, no matter how you call it, but you probably won’t deny that it works. Can you think of an example from your life? Ha…

Critical Thinking – intellectual independence

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<i>‘Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum.’ </i></div>
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<i>Rene Descartes</i></div>
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<i>‘I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am’</i></div>
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This quote explains what critical thinking is and gives a tool how to be a critical thinker. The answer is <i>‘to doubt’</i>, when you ask questions, analyze the information before except it or not, evaluate current situation and risks, identify and reject false ideas, figure out the solutions to problems on your own. Not to simplify things, not to think only black-and-white but see the variety. Thereby,we awake our mind and don’t let brainwash. It broadens curiosity, widen perspective and knowledge and it does lead to intellectual independence.</div>
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<b>So what is exactly critical thinking?</b></div>
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First of all it should not be confused with being critical to other people. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, engage in reflective and independent thinking. People who think critically are able to understand the logical connections between ideas, identify, construct and evaluate arguments, detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning, solve problems systematically, identify the relevance and importance of ideas, and reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and values. It also can be a key-point to make good decisions.Critical thinking incudes skepticism, that means not a rejection of ideas as some people may think, it refers to doubting, analyzing and suspending of our judgments.</div>
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<b>Does critical thinking possess a thread for positive thinking and creativity?</b></div>
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Creativity forms a part of critical thinking, as an ability to think from another perspective. As for the positive thinking, it helps to balance it and make life brighter and more constructive. The answer as usually lies in the golden middle.</div>
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<b>Why can’t we always think critically?</b></div>
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There could be several reasons for that. One of them is strong emotions (probably there is no man able to think clearly in such situation). Another case connected with positive thinking, whenexcessive optimism stops you from seeing the real situation. But the biggest enemies are arrogance and intolerance, when you can’t understand and except the existence of another point of view.</div>
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<b>How to improve critical thinking?</b></div>
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The most important thing is to make your brain work. Different brain teasers and riddles will help you with it. You can combine pleasant and useful thing doing logic puzzles such as crossword puzzles, Sudoku etc.One thing you can practice any time while watching TV, reading news or talking with someone is open-ended questions (How, Why etc.). Last but not least is reasoning your values: if you have a favourite quote or belief, try to reflect whether it is always right and in which cases it could fail.</div>
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Imagine taking part in the debate and try to support all your statement with logical and convincing arguments.</div>
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<b>For more information, follow the links:</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg" target="_blank">Short Video explaining what critical thinking is</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpPKRFh-yCc" target="_blank">Video about how critical thinking works and how you can use it.</a> </div>
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<a href="http://mcckc.edu/services/criticalthinking/instructorresources/psychologyresources.asp" target="_blank">Exercises for promoting critical thinking</a></div>
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‘Dubito ergo cogito, cogito ergo sum.’

Rene Descartes

‘I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am’

This quote explains what critical thinking is and gives a tool how to be a critical thinker. The answer is ‘to doubt’, when you ask questions, analyze the informati…

Creative Thinking

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Mysterious but so desired creative thinking, which all of you hear it but hardly ever feel inside. It is something that we admire in people who are bright, free and talented…This time we tried to turn this unclear ‘magical ability’ into a real and practical tool that we can use in everyday life; tested our ability with the help of the Gilford’s test.</div>
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We dispelled popular myths about creativity such as ‘not all people are creative’, ‘creative people always have great ideas, ‘creativity is only about art’, ‘creativity depends only on our genes and you can’t influence on itor improve it’. Tried to discover this qualityinside us and experience first-hand some creative techniques. </div>
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One of the most famous and probably the most useful was Disney creative method with 3 rooms, where we were learning not only how to generate ideas, but also how to turn them into reality. Walt Disney, as you know, was very successful at turning fantasies into life and his famous quote ‘If you can dream it, you can do it’ inspired a lot of people.It is quite useful tool, because it induces parallel thinking and helps our ‘dreamer’ do his job without interference of critics and realists with theirdoubts and judgments. It could also be a nice exercise to practice improving creativity from time to time and finding the solutions of some everyday problems.Some more useful advice came up directly during the discussion, such as ‘find what you really want and improve it’, ‘open your inner child anew’ or ‘use your emotions’…<br />
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Creativity and innovation are not things that just happen, unfortunatelyor fortunately. So it is useless just sitting under the apple tree and waiting for the insight. It could happen only after hard work, and requires the right environment and strategy. Some time and effort should be devoted to it and devoted regularly. It could a nice idea to put into your time-table ’15 minutes for creativity exercises’ and train your brain. But if you spend this time it will not be wasted and results you will see very soon.<br />
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<b>Believe in yourself, don’t stop dreaming and show the world your creative ideas!</b></div>
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<b>To help you more with it, here more useful techniques are listed:</b><br />
<a href="http://www.nlpu.com/Articles/article7.htm" target="_blank">R.Dilts, a developer, author, trainer and consultant in NLP</a><br />
<a href="shttp://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques /" target="_blank">Different methods to improve your creativity</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2LdDpx-Tc" target="_blank">Mind-mapping</a> <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KjcQSqSiQI" target="_blank">10 tips to unlock creativity</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEusrD8g-dM" target="_blank">TED-talks </a><br />
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Mysterious but so desired creative thinking, which all of you hear it but hardly ever feel inside. It is something that we admire in people who are bright, free and talented…This time we tried to turn this unclear ‘magical ability’ into a real and practical tool that we can use in everyday life; tested our ability with the help of the Gilford’s test.

Dream interpretation

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All dreams essentially tell us </div>
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 one important thing: <i>“Wake up!”</i> ;)</div>
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<b>How much do you know about dreams?</b></div>
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Those strange, absurd, funny ‘movies’ we watch while we are sleeping. Do they have influence on your life? They bare messages that might be not so easy to interpret, but still it is a good idea to try. Why? It might become a powerful tool for decision making and solving our waking life problems, starting with quite real solutions to the task at work and finishing with prophetic dreams that predict the future. Our unconscious part generously providesall answersunder the cover of metaphors and signs that we have to learn how to interpret.</div>
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Many questions raise such as perception of time in dreamsor why pain is so realin them, why one image,a part of it or even the wholestory is constantly repeated or why onescenariois seen by several people. The answer is in how our brain works and introduced by Carl Jung ‘collective unconscious’.We are what we think. It is philosophical questions that could be useful and interesting for you, my dear reader, to think once in a while.</div>
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<b>What are sources of dreams?</b></div>
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They include everyday life, physical response, archetypes, fears, problems to be solved, creativity and inventions. That is why some of them(for example dreams-reflection of the day's events)are not necessary to interpret while other can be real discovery.</div>
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You might say,‘I don’t have dreams or I don’t remember them’. But the fact is everyone see thembut we not always pay attention to that. Not to forget you can write a dream journal. Keep it next to your bed and write down everything you remember of your fantasies on waking. Make this a daily morning ritual before doing anything else. Write down everything, even if it doesn't make sense. Althoughthey seem out of place may end up being the most valuable insights.</div>
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A psychologist Christine Boyer gives some basic steps to help remember your night stories:</div>
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1. Intention</div>
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2. Preparation (take notes, keep a dream journal)</div>
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3. Appreciation (don’t judge)</div>
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4. Recognition (Play with the image as a metaphor.</div>
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Tell your dream to a friend or a family member who’s trustworthy and who will be respectful. Listen to their comments and insights. Read books about dreams and dreaming. Experiment with some of the ideas they present). 
Have you ever being chased in your dream or have you experienced flying? You are not alone. Some subjectsare common for all people all over the world. These are some common ones and their interpretation:</div>
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1.Being chased. Candice Janco, author of the Bedside Dream Dictionary: 500 Dream Symbols and Their Meanings, describes this dream (the most common) as an indication of a felt threat in your waking life. This threat can take the form of a menacing person or a strong emotion with which you are having difficulty coping. Try to determine who or what is trying to catchyou, where the dream takes place, and what your feelings are during the raceto understand what this dreams means to you. 
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2. Dreams of flying through the air can be both wonderful and freighting at the same time. The important part of it is how you are acting; since this action itself represents your ambitions. Are you failing or trying to fly as high as possible? If you are flying with ease and enjoying the scene and landscape below, then it suggests that you are on top of a situation. Having difficulties staying in flight indicates a lack of power in controlling your own circumstances. If you are feeling fear it might mean you are afraid of challenges and of success.</div>
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 3. Being paralyzed (whether the dream was a nightmare or not) can mean that you have a feeling in your waking life that things are not under your control at all and you really don't know what to do.</div>
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Paralysis can also indicate that you are afraid to do or say something in day to day life. This will usually revolve around something that is important to you rather than something inconsequential. It might be that you have a decision to make and it's a scary one and you don't know what to do for the best. 
You can put your dream dictionary on the shelf.</div>
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Here are the most popular scientific psychological techniques whichwe tried to use during our meeting:</div>
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1)Free Association (Freud) or speaking without thinking</div>
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2) Symbol Amplification (Jung) or finding a range of possible meaning</div>
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3) Group Dream Work (Ullman) or group reflection on one dream</div>
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In this context I can’t help mentioning that there no dream-book, or powerful interpreter that will provide all answers for you, fortunately or unfortunately.</div>
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I would like to finish the article with one more questions: have you ever heard about lucid dreams, when while sleeping we know that we are dreaming and can control ourphantasms? Sounds unreal? Try this technique: during the day, repeatedly ask "Am I dreaming?" and perform some reality checks whenever you remember. With practice, if it happens enough, you will automatically remember it while sleeping and do it there as well.</div>
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If the average night's sleep is eight hours (ie one third of a day), one sleeps for one third of one's life. If you live, say, 75 years, that's 25 years asleep, or 9,125 days.</div>
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<b>Use this time with purpose and sweet dreams! ;)</b></div>
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<b>Resources:</b><br />
Books: S.Freud ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’<br />
C.Jung ‘Man and his symbols’<br />
Movies: ‘Waking life’, ‘Inception’<br />
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<b>Links connected with the topic:</b><br />
<a href="http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/facts-about-dreams.htm" target="_blank">Ten facts about dreaming</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.dreamtree.com/inside/dream-resources/dream-methods-techniques/" target="_blank">Dream methods and techniques</a> <br />
https://psychohawks.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/dreams-freud/<br />
http://www.dreamsleep.net/meanings/<br />
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All dreams essentially tell us

one important thing: “Wake up!” ;)

How much do you know about dreams?

Those strange, absurd, funny ‘movies’ we watch while we are sleeping. Do they have influence on your life? They bare messages that might be not so easy to interpret, but still it is a…

Decision-making

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How do you make decisions: ask all your friends, relatives and neighbours and take a vote shifting responsibility on others, flip a coin, rely on intuition or put it off and hope that it will be solved by itself? Are you always satisfied with results that you get? </div>
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The right decision making usually starts with brainstorming of all possible solutionsand gathering information. Essential point will be setting a time scale (deadline) and deciding who is responsible for the decision. Next step is evaluating the risks involved and consequences, analyzing the pros and cons of each action. </div>
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Here you might need more techniques which you can find in links below. After that you can be ready for actually makingyour decision. </div>
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<b>Why do we sometimes take wrong decisions?</b> </div>
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There are several reasons for that. First of all, it could be simple laziness, when we don’t want to search and analyze the information needed and rely instead on wrong ‘signs’.  Sometimes hesitation can stop us from making any kind of decisions and results in wasted time and regrets. Dependence on partner or society may not let us act independently and makeour own choice. Among other reasons there are absence of plan ‘B’, attachment to the past, isolation (in thinking, communication) and when we have too many unnecessary thoughts that blocked our thinking. </div>
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To take a right decision one should possess good decision making skillssuch as critical thinking, creativity, ability to take risks and responsibility for results of your actionsand don’t be afraid of failures, because as Mark Zuckerbergsaid once, ‘In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.’Some of these skills we discussed and trained during our previous psychology speaking club meetings and some of them will be in store. </div>
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Talking about techniques, we can mention SWOT-analysis that can be useful not only to make business decisions but can also be helpful for personal growth.When we were talking about creativity last meeting we discussed Disney Method that could be implemented in decision-making process as well, especially dealing with difficult choices. Similar, but a bit more expanded method is ‘6 thinking hats’ that helps to think parallel and view the problem from different perspective. </div>
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<b>Details you can find in the video</b><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHl6X740OsU" target="_blank">Here</a><br />
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<b>More useful techniques with their explanations you can find following these links:</b><br />
<a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6162-decision-making.html" target="_blank">Decision-making tools and techniques</a><br />
<a href="http://pivotallabs.com/6-decision-making-techniques-product-managers-know/" target="_blank">More techniques with explanation how and when to use it</a><br />
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<b>Don’t afraid to make decision because you’ll never really loose in this process.</b></div>
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How do you make decisions: ask all your friends, relatives and neighbours and take a vote shifting responsibility on others, flip a coin, rely on intuition or put it off and hope that it will be solved by itself? Are you always satisfied with results that you get?

The right decision making usually starts with brainstorming of all possible solutionsand gathering information. Essential point will be setting a time scale (…