admin, Author at Nirvana Diet

Agnes Bruckner to play Anna Nicole Smith: Heroine or Victim?

July 4, 2013 by admin Leave a Comment

Women today suffer from a low self-image and poor self esteem. The reason for this has a lot to do with the messages women receive from media and how women are still portrayed as sex objects.

The key to self esteem is to accept yourself and not try to be someone or something you are not. We need to re-frame what it means to be a goddess.

Anna Agnes Bruckner talked recently about her upcoming role playing Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime Original Movie, “Anna Nicole.” I appreciated the research she did into Anna Nicole’s life which was certainly a rags to riches story, but this one did not have a happy ending.

I guess the question I have is why would a woman like Anna Nicole be considered an icon?

One of the questions Agnes asked herself was “how do you play someone so distinctive, so famous, and as one-of-a-kind as Anna Nicole Smith?”

She claims she had an amazing life. Despite coming from a small town in Texas and never having a good relationship with her mother, having a child and getting married at 18, becoming a stripper… I suppose what was noble is that she seemed to rise above it. But did she really?

Smith dropped out of high school and married Harold Marshal, an oil tycoon who was sixty two years older. I mean give me a break. Her claim to fame was gaining notoriety in Playboy ending up Playmate of the Year in 1993. A year later she appeared on the cover of New York magazine in an issue they did called White Trash Nation.

Apparently it was her goal to be the next Marilyn Monroe and sadly she Smith died on February 8, 2007 in a hotel room in Florida as a result of an overdose of prescription drugs… painkillers I believe.

Well what do you think was she white trash or iconic legend? Both labels miss the point and the question I have is why anyone would want to make a movie about her life? It does not fit the profile of an archetypal story which usually grants the movie success with the audience.

What is an archetypal story you may be wondering? As a screenwriter, story consultant and coach who uses the power of story for self-transformation I can tell you it is timeless… one to which we all universally respond. Here is the formula. First off we as an audience have to like and relate to character so we can experience the character vicariously.

Most importantly, at the end of the movie, the character has to arc or grow. There is usually a lesson learned whereby the character does not always get what they want but perhaps what they need.

Unless you rewrite the life of Anna Nicole Smith, I am not hopeful this will be a successful movie. The more important question we have to ask is why would we think of her as an icon?Anna Nicole Smith was not Venus. The archetype of Venus was powerful and not beholden to any man.

Perhaps this sheds some light on why so many women struggle with their self- image. In my practice, coaching mostly women for over ten years I found they struggle with an unattainable image that is culturally imposed.

We all want to be loved for who we are not what the culture puts out there as a so-called icon and does not fit the bill of heroine. That’s what we need more of today… more stories about women who are real heroines.

What is Depth Psychology?

December 21, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

I like to look at the root meaning or words to understand the true meaning. Lets take psychology which is a combination of psyche and logos. Psyche is more than the conscious mind, it has been defined as soul or spirit. Logos is the word or meaning. Psychology then originally meant the study of the meaning or word or the soul. Depth implies illumination of that which is not visible. You could say the unconscious is not visible but the more it is made conscious, the more we are operating from a place of self-knowledge which I believe is the point of life…to understand and make sense or meaning of our life. It is unfortunate that today psychology is dominated by behavioral stud, pharmacology, canned diagnoses that attempt to medicate symptoms.

While Depth Psychology was rediscovered in the late 1800’s with Eugene Bleuler a Swiss psychiatrist and Freud’s contemporary, it is Freudian psychology that one associates with therapy. Freud had a very narrow model for the understanding of neurosis based on his understanding and relating to the story of the Oedipus myth. His theories touch what is called the personal unconscious. It was posited by Carl Jung who broke off from Freud and theorized the existence of an objective unconscious, sometimes called psyche that is in common to all.

The study of Depth Psychology goes back to the time of the Greeks in particular Heraclitus who wrote in “your bearing is your fate.” Bearing is often translated to mean character. This is the reason I study Depth Psychology because it is empowering, deep and brings the soul back into the meaning. Modern Depth Psychology is not limited to just sentient beings. Psyche is in all living things or sometimes it is better said all living things are in psyche.

Depth Psychology is not reductive but brings together, philosophy, spirituality, science and art.

Whenever I share topics we study with others, I find there is a hunger to know more.

What is your calling?

December 11, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

One of the questions I believe we are all longing to know and understand is what is my calling? Some people misunderstand this to be their vocation or work. I prefer to call it your life work… the work you need to do to evolve as a person.

I found valuable answers to this question by my study of Western astrology. To get insight into one’s calling; you take a look at the placement of what is called the North Node.[1] Opposite to that is the South Node which identifies the life area’s with which you feel most comfortable, the experiences and qualities that come naturally to us, that are over-developed, and that we tend to fall back on.

For balanced self-development, to feel fulfilled and happy we need to focus on and develop aspects of ourselves represented by the North Node. Consciously working on these “life lessons” can bring us to increased happiness and fulfillment. Not moving beyond the qualities of our South Node, especially at the expense of developing our North Node, could be a source of unhappiness.

I was surprised to learn that my North Node is in my fifth house in the sign of Aquarius, The fifth house is the signifcator for children, having fun, pleasure, and, most importantly, creativity through writing. This threw me for a loop, as it was the polar opposite to how I had lived my life.

Yes, I have always liked my share of pleasure and fun, but the pursuit of creativity seemed like something I had left behind years ago and came second to work. In fact the dream of a more creative-based career was snuffed out long ago when I was 18 and told by my practical and truly remarkable mother that I had better like waiting tables if I planned to continue wanting to be an actress. Yes being an actress and reading books were my first love. Although I was an English literature major undergraduate, and have always wanted to write, I felt I had developed a kind of mental block about my capacity to be creative, or to write. This is all changing now.

Accessing this knowledge has helped me to make sense of decisions I made in the past and guide me towards decisions I might make in the future. If you would like to learn about the placement and meaning of your North Node, contact me directly for a life coaching session atto help you shed light on your calling skyler@skylermadison.com.

[1]. All astrology is based on the exact geometry between the placements of the planets, starting at the moment of one’s birth. The nodes are calculated by where the ellipses of the orbits of the Sun and Moon cross one another. In the horoscope, the North and South Nodes are exactly opposite each other.

Awakening creative imagination…the genie within

December 7, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

Unlock the secret to creativity and innovation: a depth perspective leads to new way of seeing

Innovations are not due to luck or chance. It’s about solving a problem using a new or fresh perspective that is insight driven. Creativity is “the ability to imagine what has never existed” or makes new connections between old ideas that have never been put together in that way.

Because we do not understand creativity we associate it with an outside force, higher power coming from outside you…actually it is a higher power but it’s within you.

Once you understand how creativity works you can learn how to make it work for you.

Creativity comes from insight, inspiration. This insight is often instant. Most people are not tuned, not listening or non-believers. It is not just the domain of so called creative types, the brain is wired to be creative you just have to learn how to turn the wires on and cultivate the capacity to make the new associations and connections inherent in creativity happen.

Creativity often is linked with the “dark night of the soul” and the mirrors the character arc in a good story. It begins with a problem something that you want that is being frustrated. The creative journey is like the hero’s journey although it begins with a problem, it can be a trickster of sorts, behind the problem is the answer or solution to the problem.

Before the answer is found one must remain convinced that a solution is there or possible. Most people give up, once the “dark night of the soul” descends. Don’t give up… that’s when you have to stop thinking. Reaching a roadblock is an essential part of the creative process.

When we stop trying to use the conscious mind to solve the problem, have wrestled with the problem and seemingly lost…it’s often only at this point, after we’ve stopped searching for the answer, that the answer arrives. Apparently this thing called creative imagination, the genius or genie within, has a keen sense of irony.

What do you think allows one to go from mental block to breakthrough? It is persistence, not giving up, but giving it up. Ask yourself before you go to sleep to receive an answer to a problem in a dream, day dream, go for a walk, take a shower…it will be there if you don’t give up.

You must have had an experience like this. Share with some examples with me.

On Dreams… why we Dream…and what to you can do with your Dreams.

December 5, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

To this day, it is not completely understood why it is that we dream. There is consensus, however, that without dreams we suffer both physically and psychologically. Many mental illnesses are considered to go along with with sleep irregularities, because poor sleep compromises the dream state. The brain is wired to dream, and the correlation between lack of dreaming, disturbed dreaming, and mental illness is very high. “Insomnia and depression are so strongly linked, some experts believe they are flips sides of the same disorder” (Naiman, 2011, para. 2).

There is also no consensus on what to do with dreams, if are they are to be interpreted, and if so how to go about it. There are many theories, from Freud’s (1914/2010) wish fulfillment of repressed desires, to Jung’s (1974) compensation theory and the notion that dreams are a symbolic portal, to God providing guidance towards individuation (Whitmont & Perera, 1985). There are even theorists, such as Aizenstat (2011), who do not focus on the why, or the meaning of dreams, but feel it is more valuable to engage an imaginative dialogue with “who” is visiting in the dream.

Dreams are images that appear real, and over which one does not have conscious control. “The imagined scene is uncritically accepted and the dreamer mistakes it for a real perception” (Solms, 1999, p. 7). Jung (1974) said: “The dream is a fragment of psychic activity, just conscious enough to be reproducible in the waking state (Jung, 1974, p.68). According to neuroscientists, dreams appear real because they are “a ‘delusional hallucinatory state’ driven by activation of the brain’s basic motivational system . . . stoked by an abundance of the neurotransmitter dopamine” (Marano, 2005, para. 6).

Since dopamine is primarily related to the “behaviours designed to obtain reward” (Dubac, 2002a, para. 3), it is also connected to the libidinal drives that bring pleasure, relieve anxiety, or as Freud (2010) said: wish fulfillment and remains of the day. Neuroscience research seems to be backing up Freud’s theories of wish fulfillment, as supported by the role of dopamine in dreaming.

It is my belief that all the theories on why we dream are partly right. The problems begin when we try to interpret our dreams and decide what to make of them. Since dream interpretation can reveal more about the interpreters and the theories to which they subscribe than the dreamers, it seems that dream interpretation must be done with the dreamer.

So why not keep a dream journal? It has been said if you ask yourself before you go to sleep to remember your dreams, you are more likely to do so. Upon awakening, try not to move, just to focus on what you remember. It gets easier with practice. All you have to do is to write it down.

After that you may be ready for the next step which is to get in dialogue with your dream. Ask the dream what is it you want me to know or understand by having this dream. Write it all down in your dream journal. You will be amazed how helpful it is. Some of the dreams may seem bizarre or weird. That’s okay, just write down what it is, as best you remember.

References:

Aizenstat, S. (2011) Dream tending. New Orleans: LA: Spring.

Dubac, B. (2002b). The brain from top to bottom: Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (A. Daigen, Trans.). Retrieved from http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_p/ i_03_p_que/i_03_p_que.html.

Freud, S. (2010). On dreams (CosimoClassics, Trans.). New York, NY: Cosimo. (Original work published 1914).

Jung, (1974). Dreams (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton. NJ: Princeton University Press.

Marano, H. E. (2005, March 01). Why we dream. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200504/ why-we-dream

Naiman, R. (2011, March 02). Circadian rhythm and blues: The interface of depression with sleep and dreams. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www .psychologytoday.com/blog/mindful-sleep-mindful-dreams/201103/circadian-rhythm-and-blues-the-interface-depression-sleep.

Solms, M. (1999). The interpretation of dreams and the neurosciences. Retrieved from http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/solms4.htm

Whitmont, E. C., & Perera, S. B. (1989). Dreams, a portal to the source. London, UK: Routledge.