Introducing Karen Salmansohn, Teleology, Aristotle, BDNF and a 30-Day Plan to Change Your Love Life
by Stephen Kastner on 14/09/09 at 12:21 pm
Karen Salmansohn
Karen Salmansohn is a best-selling author with over 1 million books sold. Her goal: wake up sleepy minds, hearts and spirits… spread positive propaganda throughout the land. She’s known for presenting dynamic keynote seminars (Motorola, Unilever, Soho House, etc…) and is a recognized expert on happiness (in career, love and life) on The Today Show, The View, CNN, CNBC, WB, ABC – pick a set of letters! Plus she’s been in The NY Times, Business Week, Chicago Tribune, Self, Cosmo, In-Style, US, People, Fast Company, LA Times, Phila. Inquirer, etc…
Today Karen is launching a 30-day blog post campaign at her NotSalmon.com – Self Help for People Who Wouldn’t be Caught Dead Reading Self Help.
“Right now I will take up Aristotle’s advice… ” says Karen. “To begin with your final purpose in mind, or what Aristotle calls your ‘teleology’ and clearly state my teleology for these next 30 days on this blog. I want to give you techniques to break bad relationship patterns for good so you can snag a happily ever after love future.”
Her first article in the 30-day series, posted today covers a lot of ground, but in it she manages to link brain change, exercise, meditation, Kaizen visualization and positive affirmation with the likes of Woody Allen and a plan to send e-mail to yourself.
Karen explains, “Brain science says it takes 30 days to change a habit – and change neural pathways! When you change your daily thinking to support love/joy, your negative neural pathways shrink and positive neural pathways widen.”
Her first thought exercise will only take a total of 15 minutes out of your day, but that small investment could change your entire life… and it gets even better when you combine it with physical exercise.
“I’ve found that when I merge this ‘thought exercise’ with ‘physical’ exercise I get even more positive results, even more quickly,” says Salmansohn. “I got this technique from Tony Robbins — and I gotta say, I’ve personally found that exercising while I’m thinking positive thoughts has truly helped me in speeding up getting what I want!”
Current brain theory confirms the fact that your brain is continually evolving and that cardio-vascular exercise greatly facilitates the formation of BDNF. In Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
The link between body, mind and spirit is fundamental to Karen’s entire premise. She introduces the concept of linking thought to action with a brief discussion of the Japanese practice of Kaizen, “…celebrat(ing) the joy of doing small tasks that, over time add up to the joy of experiencing large life changes.”
Toyota manufacturing co-opted the principle of Kaizen (Japanese for improvement) applying the concept to its assembly line workers who were empowered to stop the production line and consult with a supervisor if they saw a way to improve the flow of productivity. Doing the same repetitive physical motion all day could actually become enlightening rather than mind-numbing.
I like the Chinese interpretation of gai-shan (from Wikipedia below) even better.
- 改 (”gǎi”) means “change” or “the action to correct”.
- 善 (”shàn”) means “good” or “benefit”. “Benefit” is more related to the Taoist or Buddhist philosophy, which gives the definition as the action that ‘benefits’ the society but not one particular individual (i.e., multilateral improvement). In other words, one cannot benefit at another’s expense. The quality of benefit that is involved here should be sustained forever, in other words the “shan” is an act that truly benefits others.
The Chinese form of intentional thought exercise… (and my very first Web video, shot on location in Dali, Yunnan, China, 2007)
Check out Karen Salmansohn’s latest book: Prince Harming Syndrome: Break Bad Relationship Patterns for Good—5 Essentials for Finding True Love (and they’re not what you think)
