"Always have an attitude of gratitude "- Sterling K. Brown.

 

And on that note, I take this opportunity firstly to thank AUGP for facilitating the BSc in Cosmetology.

Since I had a passion for Ayurveda, I initially joined AUGP to study for the Diploma in Ayurveda Beauticulture Treatments and Beauty Care and the Diploma in Holistic Therapy.

Having enjoyed both courses of study I decided to begin the BSc in Cosmetology as well.

In 2020, as a result of the vast academic knowledge I received through these comprehensive courses, I birthed my own Cosmetic Brand ENDORSED by Nature’s Grace Ceylon.

This gave me my first Award in the Cosmetic field when I received a special award, ' As an Upcoming Cosmetic Brand Manufacturer' by the Academy of Global Peace (AUGP) for my significant contribution as a student of Cosmetology.

This brought me into the limelight of greater feats and left an indelible mark and

ignited me to reach greater heights in the field, amidst some of the most challenging periods in the history of the nation of Sri Lanka.

The BSc in Cosmetology actually brought me to the cutting-edge of a lucrative business as an entrepreneur who worked tirelessly nurturing and reviving the other arm of an almost dying field of science: Ayurvedic Natural Herbal Cosmetology, a field that was once unique to Sri Lanka and close to my heart.

I am thrilled with all my achievements in such a short span.

So all honour and heartfelt gratitude to (AUGP) for all the academic input I received and for the knowledge imparted to me at (AUGP).

This course of study I must acknowledge also gave me a platform to receive the  National Award for 2021 as the Best Performer in Ayruvedic, Natural, Herbal Beauty Product Manufacturing and Ayruvedic Procedures, Therapies, and Wellness.              

In 2022, I was further blessed with 05 Asian Awards : Asia’s Outstanding Ayruvedic Product, Asia’s Excellency Award for Skin Care, Asia’s Excellent Achiever Award, Asia’s Natural Brand Award and Asia’s Premium Product Award.

So once again I take great pleasure in saluting (AUGP) for facilitating these great opportunities to receive all these accolades.

A big Thank you to Prof. Lakshman Madurasinghe and the Board of Directors of AUGP

 

ROSANNE ANDERSON

Reflections with The Professor- Habits

 

Habits are the small decisions you make and actions you perform every day. According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day.

Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits. How in shape or out of shape you are? A result of your habits. How happy or unhappy you are? A result of your habits. How successful or unsuccessful you are? A result of your habits.

What you repeatedly do (i.e. what you spend time thinking about and doing each day) ultimately forms the person you are, the things you believe, and the personality that you portray

Every habit you have — good or bad — follows the same 3–step pattern: Reminder (the trigger that initiates the behavior), Routine (the behavior itself; the action you take), and Reward (the benefit you gain from doing the behavior).

If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

From a psychology standpoint "habit is defined as  a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience." Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habits are sometimes compulsory. A daily experience study by habit researcher Wendy Wood and her colleagues found that approximately 43% of daily behaviors are performed out of habit. New behaviours can become automatic through the process of habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns which humans repeat become imprinted in neural pathways, but it is possible to form new habits through repetition.

When behaviors are repeated in a consistent context, there is an incremental increase in the link between the context and the action. This increases the automaticity of the behavior in that context. Features of an automatic behavior are all or some of: efficiency; lack of awareness; unintentionality; and uncontrollability.

 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Stephen R. Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, continues to be a bestseller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology and focuses on timeless principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.

 One of the most compelling books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has empowered and inspired readers for over 25 years. It’s also played a part in the transformation of millions of lives across all age groups and professions.

 Together let's imprint new habits in lives...

 Habit 1: Be Proactive

Focus and act on what you can control and influence instead of what you can’t.

 Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind

Define clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them.

 Habit 3: Put First Things First

Prioritize and achieve your most important goals instead of constantly reacting to urgencies.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Collaborate more effectively by building high-trust relationships.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Influence others by developing a deep understanding of their needs and perspectives.

 Habit 6: Synergize

Develop innovative solutions that leverage differences and satisfy all key stakeholders

 Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Reflections with The Professor- Addictions

 

WHAT ARE ADDICTIONS?

As regards addictions, it is a chronic brain condition influenced by genes and the environment that is characterized by substance use or compulsive actions that continue despite harmful consequences

1) Transforming your life by fighting poor habits / terrible addictions is not about willpower. Will power is fleeting and short-lived. Not sustainable. To truly quit any and all addictions - you need to understand the mechanism of addiction and have systems to fight it.

2) All addictions are a game of pleasure and pain in the brain. You are an addict because your dopamine levels are above or below the baseline (normal levels). When above, brain tries to reduce it. Leads to depression. When below you feel craving and want more of the pleasure. 

3) You get into addictions from a desire to escape pain, not from a desire to seek pleasure. Once you find out a substance can reduce pain, you often return for more. Don't fall for this illusion. It does not relieve pain, it numbs you to it. Replaces it with craving.

4) You have baseline dopamine levels. It is necessary for reward and pleasure mechanisms. When you indulge in alcohol, porn, nicotine etc,  it gives out lot of dopamine. the brain tries to correct it by reducing natural dopamine level thereby bringing you to a state of pain ( cravings ).

5) Modern society is dull beyond belief. All of our needs are met within the confines of our homes. Comfort is everywhere. This makes us weak, susceptible to fall into temptation. You will pursue anything that makes you feel some excitement, some pleasure or arousal. Resist this

6) Addiction can happen to any of us. You can be addicted to anything. Substances, behaviour and even people. Anything that keeps you in a heightened state of pleasure by bathing your brain with dopamine will lead you into the pleasure-pain loop and cause addiction

7) To quit any addiction, you need 3 things - a) Get your dopamine levels to baseline b) Replace your sources of dopamine to stable healthy natural sources that can be controlled c) Hypervigilance, constantly being aware of your behavior at all times. This is 90% of the battle

8) You need 30 days to get your dopamine levels to baseline. 60 days if you are an extreme case. This is how long you need to stay away from the substance or habit. Also avoid other big hits from other activities to avoid relapse. (Happens due to neural pathway activation)

09) If it is a drug, when you stop using your drug for the first 2 weeks, you will feel like shit. This is because the brain is now in a deficit of dopamine and is in a pain state of low baseline dopamine. You will feel depressed, irritable and anxious. You have to ride it out. It only gets better

10) Focus on doing today right, then focus on doing it again. Over and over. Don't plan out 30,90 days it doesn't work like that. Do one day right. Then use the momentum to move forward every day. This will keep you consistent and positive. This is your road to recovery

WHAT IS DOPAMINE?

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in the brain. Basically, it acts as a chemical messenger between neurons.

Dopamine is released when your brain is expecting a reward.

When you come to associate a certain activity with pleasure, mere anticipation may be enough to raise dopamine levels. It could be a certain food, sex, shopping, or just about anything else that you enjoy.

For example, suppose your “go-to” comfort food is homemade double chocolate chip cookies. Your brain may increase dopamine when you smell them baking or see them come out of the oven. When you eat them, the flood of dopamine acts to reinforce this craving and focus on satisfying it in the future.

https://www.healthline.com/health/dopamine-effect

Learn to be with nature, reflect, enjoy BEING than BECOMING

Take a few minutes to discuss what is the difference between us and flowers..........what competition has done to humans.......why were we so stressed and tensed........flowers bloom and many humans doom...why?............can we be like flowers? How should we be mindful, relaxed and bloom in the coming days.

Learn from the Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Some reflections by Manisha

Blooming is not a choice for flowers but for humans it's a choice to bloom or doom,

For flowers there is no second-guessing… only the relentless twisting, doubling, splitting, growth towards its destiny.

A flower doesn’t worry about the dark possibilities, the what if’s, such as…

being planted in the wrong place…

Am I going to block someone’s view?

attracting insects that may not be a perfect match for that spot?

Am I going to annoy someone?

not being the right color, shape or size…

What if no one notices me? What if no one wants me?

As humans we can take the following into account from flowers.

Resiliency is blooming wherever you are planted.

Courage is reaching for the warmth and nourishment of the sun and growing into the unknown.

Faith is dropping seeds, wherever, for the next season’s crop.

Curiosity is the small tendril that reaches out to connect in the most delightful, unexpected ways to build roots and vines on an adventure towards the sun.

Hope is the smile on the face of a pansy or the 5-foot tall stalk waving at you from beneath a magnificent sunflower

Like flowers, we should learn to bloom and not to doom. If it is a choice we should make our choice wisely to bloom and not to doom

Intuitive anger in the context of crime and punishment

 

The central hypothesis in this study by Carolyn Côté-Lussie and David is that individuals will experience greater intuitive angry responses when making punitive decisions for purported‘ stereotypical criminals’ as opposed to ‘a typical criminals’. This hypothesis is tested using crossed multilevel multiple linear regression models adjusting for within-participant and within-picture clustering of data.

Intuiting may be a complex set of interrelated cognitive, affective, and somatic processes, during which there’s no apparent intrusion of deliberate, rational thought. Our own research in our AUGP TJC neuroscience centre confirms the construct of intuition has emerged as a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry that has important ramifications for education, personal, medical, and organizational decision-making, personnel selection and assessment, team dynamics, training, and organizational development. We have also conducted P300 research which we call event-related potential (ERP) component elicited in the process of decision making. It is considered to be an endogenous potential, as its occurrence links not to the physical attributes of a stimulus, but to a person’s reaction to it. More specifically, the P300 is thought to reflect processes involved in stimulus evaluation or categorization.

Intuition literature defined intuition as “affectively-charged judgments that arise through rapid, non-conscious, and holistic associations.” Outcomes of intuition are often experienced as a holistic “hunch” or “gut feel,” a way of calling or overpowering certainty, and an awareness of knowledge that’s on the edge of conscious perception.

The results of this study suggest that pictures of ‘stereotypical criminals’ engendered a statistically significant increased intuitive angry response (occurring between 500 and 1000 ms) compared to that for ‘atypical criminals’.

These results, therefore, support the hypothesis that individuals experience greater intuitive anger in response to ‘stereotypical criminals’.

This is an area that will provide all of us in TJ community with much material for further research. We are happy to arrange such studies using some of the sensitive technology we have at our neuroscience centre connected with AUGP Therapeutic Jurisprudence Centre.

Article may be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357894208_Intuitive_anger_in_the_context_of_crime_and_punishment

Prof.Lakshman Madurasinghe

Optimizing the Infinite Mind- Prof.Erantha De Mel

 

Prof. Erantha De Mel in his latest book “Optimizing the Infinite Mind” offers a cogent expose of the human mind processes. It explains how to reprogram the thought patterns and thinking styles to obtain the desired results in life; and also it offers a technology for creating change. The book explains very lucidly how patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behavior are created and how we develop habits and mental programs over a period of time. Habits are not formed overnight. When we do the same thing over and over again – over a period of time, we form a habit. Our thoughts are also habits. All of us have the capacity to consider ways to re-program our minds and create new neurological pathways to achieve success.

Prof. Erantha De Mel is the founder of the Neural Optimization Technique. He is an internationally acclaimed Cognitive Neuroscientist and was the recipient of the Cambridge Blue Book Man of the Year award 2005 for his contribution to the field of Neuroscience and Cybernetics. As a practicing psychologist and researcher, in both psychology and parapsychology; he is engaged in extensive research in both fields and is a scholar with original research into Altered States of Consciousness and Psycho-Cybernetics. The Neural Optimization Technique (NeuralOpTech) provides multiple applications for business modeling, counseling, psychology, management development, sports performance, and many more. This technique also provides a way out of old habits, fears, limiting beliefs, and gives a structure for new and empowering ways of being in the world. Some people simply breathe the air; others savor the fragrance and tang in each and every breath they take. Some people look out at a landscape and see cliffs, valleys, fields and streams; others see minute details of life, climate, and splendor. “There are no facts in life. We have only perceptions” – Prof. De Mel says in his book. What we perceive is a fact for us.

Very effectively he addresses issues such as self-sabotage (sabotaging one’s own success), refining self-perception (what you believe about yourself), and receiving what you expect from your life (manifestation of intent). The techniques described in this book help one to disentangle and re-define life-situations; and to clarify feelings and thoughts to his or her own advantage. It provides new resources to move forward proactively and positively. He shows how to practice positive emotional states on a daily basis, and how to manifest one’s expectations in life. “If one practices feeling ‘happy’ everyday in his life, it is easier to feel happy” he says; because that person is practicing it, affirming it, and creating it. That’s why it is so important to choose happiness as the predominant state of mind. On the contrary, if one is feeling depressed and low, and if that person keeps practicing going back to that depression – invariably, it will create depression in him.

The book describes how to examine the validity of your thought processes that is important in altering your thoughts. “In finding the validity of your thoughts, you need to defend and produce evidence that the bases for your thoughts are true. If you are unable to meet this challenge, the faulty nature of your thoughts is exposed. Your thoughts are also habits. When you think in the same way over-and-over again – over a period of time, such thought processes become habits. In other words, they become “automatic” thought processes. When engaged in irrational thinking, instead of reacting to the reality of a situation, an individual tends to react to his or her own distorted viewpoint of the situation. For instance, a person may conclude that he is “worthless” simply because he failed an exam or a job interview. It is important to identify such distorted thinking patterns, or cognitive distortions, and change or restructure them in a realistic manner.”

This book is written with minimum technical terminology, having the average reader in mind. The information that is provided is excellent and invaluable in personality development and attitudinal change. It is a “must read” book!

https://press-news.org/33257-gold-award-for-prof-erantha-de-mel.html

e- Consciousness Paradigms of Change

E-Consciousness- Paradigms of Change
Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) with its focus on creating an inclusive, participatory and respectful legal environment, can transform courtrooms. Its emphasis on the individual and how legal rules and procedures may affect respondents' well-being is tailormade for countering group stereotypes.  
One such therapeutic intervention I propose is e-Consciousness based method of inner development to help maximize true potential….
David Wexler, one of the forefathers of therapeutic jurisprudence, first began writing about Therapeutic Justice in He later termed it, with his article, Therapeutic Justice and later termed the phrase therapeutic jurisprudence In 1987, in a paper delivered to the National Institute of Mental Health. Glenn Took Therapeutic Drug Courts in Practice Therapeutic Jurisprudence concentrates on the law's impact on emotional life and psychological well-being. It is a perspective that regards the law (rules of law, legal procedures, and roles of legal actors) itself as a social force that often produces therapeutic or anti-therapeutic consequences. It does not suggest that therapeutic concerns are more important than other consequences or factors, but it does suggest that the  law's role as a potential therapeutic agent should be recognized and systematically studied. Wexler.
My research has pointed in a direction that without a radical transformation of the inner core which needs definite access to inner self, no lasting result would be achieved by simply carrying on mechanical movements plus void ego trips to a domain of nothingness.
Therefore, even though we possess all good spiritual teachings and meditations  of thousands of years in antiquity the head knowledge or the cognitive preoccupation alone has not made any radical alteration of the real person. This is well evidenced by the decline in moral values and the increase in drug addiction, crime, immorality  and suicide worldwide.
Click to read and download      
Prof.Lakshman Madurasinghe