Wishes for 2013

 

In the Lisbon Clinic we prize well-being and mental health. What's mental health?, you may ask.

Being mentally healthy doesn't mean never to be sad or even depressed. Or angry, or very upset. It means to acept your own emotions and deal with them without harming yourself (and preferably anyone else).

Freud used to say that it meant to be able to love and work. Being able to enjoy small pleasures in life and of course big ones. And deal with what comes in a minimally traumatic way. Being able to learn through life.

Another thinker, Hannah Arendt, wrote once: "This is the precept by which I have lived: Prepare for the worst; expect the best; and take what comes".

In a time of recession and rising economic difficulties, we're again put to the test. It takes flexibility, creativity and resilience to be able to go on fighting for quality of life. We have to count on our inner strenghts to cope with these hard times. We must teach our children how important emotional skills - not only academic - are for their future.

Have a better year.

 

PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE

Some people pay a greater attention to the past, others live looking at the future. "Presentists", however, seem to be stuck in the present.
Have a look at the interesting article Jeffrey Israel wrote for BigThink:

http://bigthink.com/ideas/are-you-a-paster-presentist-or-futurian?page=1

2045, THE YEAR COMPUTERS BECOME MORE INTELLIGENT THEN MEN

Read in TIME magazine:

Raymond Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away.

For more daring and challenging details, link to

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html