• 80s Synthesizer Bombs

    Get your space suit out and descent to your underground rocket base. This is the fuel that people used to fly on in the 80s!

    Download (mp3 / 59mb / 1:04 hours)
  • Rare Oldschool cHip cHop

    Hip hop was part of me growing up and I do like a few of the older rap tracks. This is a selection of some more underground and rare oldschool hip hop tracks. I do not like current rap music and I basically do not listen to it anymore.

    Download (mp3 / 103mb / 1:30 hours)
  • DNB Fitness

    It’s Drum ‘n’ Bass! So do not listen to this with your tiny laptop speakers. We need subwoofers for this one or mighty fine headphones! I listen to this while running, it might make you want to run faster than you can but yeah.

    Download (mp3 / 70mb / 1:15 hours)

  • Street

    Going out on safari. Capturing single moments in time. A look, a feeling, a moment. At the end of the day it is moments that are all we have.

    Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings. Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society.

    Wikipedia

    BROWSE THE COMPLETE GALLERY

    Read more…

  • 80s Synthesizer Bombs

    Get your space suit out and descent to your underground rocket base. This is the fuel that people used to fly on in the 80s!

    Download (mp3 / 59mb / 1:04 hours)
  • Rare Oldschool cHip cHop

    Hip hop was part of me growing up and I do like a few of the older rap tracks. This is a selection of some more underground and rare oldschool hip hop tracks. I do not like current rap music and I basically do not listen to it anymore.

    Download (mp3 / 103mb / 1:30 hours)
  • DNB Fitness

    It’s Drum ‘n’ Bass! So do not listen to this with your tiny laptop speakers. We need subwoofers for this one or mighty fine headphones! I listen to this while running, it might make you want to run faster than you can but yeah.

    Download (mp3 / 70mb / 1:15 hours)

  • Street

    Going out on safari. Capturing single moments in time. A look, a feeling, a moment. At the end of the day it is moments that are all we have.

    Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings. Street photography uses the techniques of straight photography in that it shows a pure vision of something, like holding up a mirror to society.

    Wikipedia

    BROWSE THE COMPLETE GALLERY

    Read more…

  • Urban

    Cities, cityscapes and urban decay. All civilization and industrial related photos go in here. The photos in this section should show how far humans have gone and what kind of living environment they have created.

    Urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. It may feature deindustrialization, depopulation or changing population, economic restructuring, abandoned buildings, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape.

    Wikipedia

    BROWSE THE COMPLETE GALLERY

    Read more…

  • Landscape

    The beauty of our surroundings. Light, shapes and atmospheres. Some of the places I was fortunate to see.

    Landscape photography is a genre intended to show different spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. This popular style of photography is practiced by professionals and amateurs alike. Photographs typically capture the presence of nature and are often free of man-made obstructions. Landscape photographers usually attempt not only to convey the documentary aspect, but also an appreciation of the scenery that is being photographed.

    Wikipedia

    BROWSE THE COMPLETE GALLERY

    Read more…

  • Chapter 4: Do good, be happy

    How can I do good and feel more happy?

    Learn how being nice and doing good things can raise your own happiness. Kindness and gratitude are two very beneficial character traits that can be trained like everything else and by being kind and grateful you create win – win situations.

    You make people around you more happy while increasing your own happiness.

    Essential Knowledge in this Lesson:

    An easy way to be more happy is to make others happy and appreciate what you have.

    Maybe you remember how it made you feel when you helped that old woman with her heavy luggage or when you offered your seat in the subway to someone who seemed to need it more than you. Being kind is treating others with compassion and trying to understand their situations. By learning to be more kind with others you also learn to be more kind with yourself. Being grateful is simply appreciating what you have, how life is. It helps you to be more in the moment and step out some of the mental constructs that are obsessed with what could be or what could have been. It helps you to get a reality check and center yourself more in the present moment.

    Sources:

    Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389

    Seligman, Martin E. P.; Steen, Tracy A.; Park, Nansook; Peterson, Christopher (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, Vol 60(5), Jul-Aug 2005, 410-421.

    LYUBOMIRSKY Sonja (1) ; SHELDON Kennon M. (2) ; SCHKADE David  (2005) Pursuing happiness : The architecture of sustainable change. Review of general psychology, 2005, vol. 9, no 2 (95 p.)

    Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855

    Watkins, Philip C.; Woodward, Kathrane; Stone, Tamara; Kolts, Russell L. (2003). GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS: DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE OF GRATITUDE, AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, Volume 31, Number 5, 2003 , pp. 431-451(21)

    Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). The how of happiness. New York: The Penguin Press.

    Optimism is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress. Segerstrom, Suzanne C.; Taylor, Shelley E.; Kemeny, Margaret E.; Fahey, John L., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 74(6), Jun 1998, 1646-1655.

    Stephen G. Post , 2005, Altruism, happiness, and health: it’s good to be good, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 12, Number 2, 66-77, DOI: 10.1207/s15327558ijbm1202_4


  • Chapter 3 Practice: 11 Steps to Stop Ruminating

    How can I stop ruminating / thinking in a loop?

    Learn how you can let go of negative thoughts and move on with life without getting caught up ruminating. Rumination is a negative downward spiral way of thinking and while it seems to make sense to think things through over and over again to find THE solution, there are problems that you simply can not solve on the same level.

    Being able to accept this and finding ways to break the loop of thinking is essential to live a more relaxed and stress free life and find the objective distance to come up with a real solution. You think about the problem one more time and get started with your plan to solve it.

    Download the PDF with all 11 steps to stop ruminating.

    Essential Knowledge in this Lesson:

    Acceptance is the key to start finding solutions and breaking the loop.

    The first step is to realize and understand that rumination isn’t helpful. Comparing your current state to your desired state will also simply make you feel worse, as well as going through all “if… then” scenarios you can imagine. Accepting the situation, being in the present moment and allowing negative thoughts to fade away while working on an action plan what you can do is the key to overcome rumination. You can let go of the pressure that you have put on yourself after thinking about the problem one more time and coming up with a plan how to solve it (or simply accept it and be with it).

    Sources:


    The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol 109(3), Aug 2000, 504-511.

    Effects of self-focused rumination on negative thinking and interpersonal problem solving. Lyubomirsky, Sonja; Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 69(1), Jul 1995, 176-190.

    Wendy Treynor, Richard Gonzalez and Susan Nolen-Hoeksema (2008). Rumination Reconsidered: A Psychometric Analysis. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH Volume 27, Number 3, 247-259, DOI: 10.1023/A:1023910315561

  • Chapter 3 Extended: Faulty Thinking – What Is It And How To Get Over It?

    In the Psychological Essentials Course you learn how to observe your thoughts, which gives you the ability to spot faulty thinking. Faulty thinking involves errors that are sometimes hard to spot because we get used to think in a certain way. In Chapter 3 you became acquainted with two very common ways of faulty thinking, “Catastrophizing” and “All or Nothing Thinking.”

    Here are 10 more ways of faulty thinking, along with examples to make it easier for you to spot them:

    1. Overgeneralization:

    Overgeneralization is when you try to categorize every single event as part of a never-ending process. For instance, when you fail to pass a job interview you say, ‘I always fail to impress.’ Similarly, when you fail to win in chess you say, ‘I can never win in chess.’ Words like ‘never’ and ‘always’ are part of the overgeneralization process. Every time you categorize a person, event or thing with a neve- ending pattern, it becomes a part of the overgeneralization process. If you think your friend is ‘always’ mean with you it is overgeneralization.

    2. Overlooking the Positive:

    It is very common for people to overlook positive experiences in favor negative ones. Some people think their positive experiences don’t count, while others don’t even realize their positivity. For instance, if you are able to work 8 hours in a day and your friend works for 9 hours, you will always look at that one hour that your friend works and you don’t. Another good example is that when a currency trader wins $1000 in a day but loses $200, he is depressed about the loss but not happy about the winnings.

    3. Definite Statements:

    Definite statements are also known as ‘should statements.’ These are statements that raise great expectations. For instance, you believe your friend ‘should’ bring you ice cream tonight because you have told him to do so. If he doesn’t, this thinking will lead to anger, frustration and depression.

    4. Blaming Other Factors:

    Very often you will find yourself or others blaming ‘the other factors’ in their lives for their problems. For instance, if your friend didn’t succeed in a job interview he might say ‘I would have passed it if my parents had wished me luck.’ Such statements and thinking are part of the personalization or blaming process. Why blame others for what you couldn’t achieve?

    5. Categorization or Labeling:

    This is an extreme way of black-and-white thinking. Here, the person tends to categorize people under either the good label or the bad label. If your friend didn’t give you his car for a day you would think he is not a good friend instead of realizing that he must be busy or something.

    6. Emotional Reasoning:

    Emotional reasoning is taking feelings as facts and basing your decisions and actions upon them. For example, you feel guilty about having spent so much money on some sports equipment for yourself and then you criticize your partner for having spent a bit more money on some new clothes. Another example would be putting off something important just because you don’t “feel” like it.

    7. Exaggeration:

    Exaggeration is, for example, when you exaggerate the good qualities of a person to such an extent that you overlook their negative points. If your friend helps you out financially you might consider him as a person you can trust even though you have never tried him out.

    8. Predicting the Future:

    In this case, you predict the negativity of a situation or a person without even experiencing it. For instance, you assume that the job interview you are going for will not work out well, and you bring that mindset to the interview.

    9. Mind Reading:

    You might think you know another person so well that you can predict his reaction or attitude towards a certain issue. For instance, if your friend is annoying you, you think it is because he never liked you. You then continue to react with the same mindset instead of understanding why he is actually doing so.

    10. Mentally Filtering Occasions:

    If you are mentally filtering you focus, for example, on a negative detail of an event or person and overlook anything positive that may be there. For instance, your neighbor is actually a good person with just one bad habit: he plays loud music which disturbs you. Instead of talking it out with him, you think it’s of no use because he’s simply evil, even though he might not be aware that the music is too loud.

    Tips to Overcome Such Thinking…

    It’s absolutely normal for us humans to run into some of these ways of faulty thinking while observing our thoughts.

    Here are some tips how to overcome such thinking:

    Believe in the Evidence:

    Instead of reacting to what you believe or think is right about a person or a situation, believe instead in the actual evidence. Examine how others are behaving to such situations or people and why. What are they doing to counter this? Maybe what you assume is not correct. Even if it is right, you don’t have to believe in it until you prove its validity.

    Avoid Double Standards:

    You can put someone down in a harsh way just because you never liked him. He did something you didn’t like and now you are harsh and mean towards him. But if the same attributes were shown by someone you loved, you would shrug it off as not a big deal. Try to avoid such double standards.

    Avoid Black and White…Go for Gray!

    Nothing is ever either completely perfect or imperfect. Instead of categorizing things as ‘perfect’ or ‘imperfect,’ try rating them on a scale from 1-10. Even if you didn’t pass the job interview, you still were shortlisted, weren’t you? This means that your resume or your qualifications were good enough to catch their attention. Therefore, this situation should be rated as an 8-point situation instead of a failure.

    Don’t Use Words that Don’t Mean Anything…

    People often use vague and imprecise words to describe their feelings. For instance, if your partner lied to you, don’t just be ‘angry’ and say to yourself that you are angry. Be more specific and choose the words that best describe your current feelings. Maybe you are disappointed and feel let down and are also angry with yourself for trusting him and now feel as if you were stupid to do so? Try using specific terms to understand your thoughts and feelings. This will teach you to analyze things as they are instead of broadening them.

    The Semantic Approach:

    The semantic approach is all about using terms that are not so emotionally loaded. For instance, use flexible words like ‘rarely’ instead of inflexible ones like ‘never.’ Other examples include:

    Replace… with…
    Should Like or Want
    Should not Do not Like or Want
    Have to Would Like
    Must Wish
    Must not Wish would not
    Deserve Desire
    Always Usually/Frequently
    Forever Until/Unless
    Never Rarely
    Awful Disagreeable
    Horrible Unfortunate
    Terrible Unfavorable
    Perfect Successful

    The Practice of Reattribution:

    Instead of blaming another person entirely for something that has happened, think about the circumstances that may have contributed to the outcome. If a friend has betrayed you, instead of simply saying he’s a jerk and that’s why he did it, consider why he did what he did and believe in the evidence. Maybe he didn’t like the way you behaved with him? Maybe he didn’t know that you would consider it a betrayal? There could be a plethora of reasons that you have overlooked.

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