Wee!- Translation: Wii!

PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY STEVE LISS

I was going through my blog feeds and stumbled across a very interesting article from a lady that goes by McEwen. She is the mother of two austistic boys, as well as two normal children. Her blog was entitled "Get with the programme mother." It discusses the physical and emotional issues of raising autistic children. In this blog's case, potty training. Her article focues on how as a mother of both normal and autistic children, the emotional factors of understanding her autistic children can be trying. She tries to understand them, and always wonders if they will have the motivation to do certain things. She describes how she translates certain things so wrongly sometimes and it makes her seem like an impatient old bat. Her children both had issues potty training. They would seem like they got far and then would regress. She wants to do everything for them but knows that she mustn't or else it would reverse everything that she has worked for in achieving a new skill.

My cousin is autistic. He is around 7 years old now but I remember it took forever for him to start potty training. When he did start, it took him forever to get it right. My aunt and uncle were patient though, and they did pretty well in raising an austistic kid. Some of the things that McEwen was talking about though, with the mistranslations, I saw with my aunt and uncle. I can only imagine how discouraging it could be for any parent. Just as a bystander with my cousin, I witnessed a lot of the same things.

In the end of the article, McEwen tells how her son started saying " I need Wee!" She eventually got him into the bathroom and he got his trousers off, but then walked into the living room pointing at the t.v. He said again "I need Wee!" Translation: I need Wii... the video game. It is amazing how even autistic children are affected knowlingly by technology.

The Garden of Emotion

Gary van Warmerdam does frequent podcasts as well as blog posting on emotions, self-awareness, and beliefs based on emotional impeccability. Just like most of us, he is a normal person, with normal feelings. I am not certain if he has a Ph D. in any matters involving psychology but, he is a source that has gained variable ranges of knowledge through self awareness. He has gained this knowledge through the help of a mentor.

One of his latest articles I found particularly interesting called Emotional Reactions involved a podcast as well as a blog. The focus of the article was based that any emotion that is derived from a reaction stems another emotion. I believe this to be true. This is actually a very important thing to realize. If you are sewing something and poke your finger you will be upset you poked your finger and maybe distressed because you are in pain. From there, because you are distressed, you may be cranky or short with people and become impatient and so you just continue to build on the negativity. "In this case you will then have an emotion about an emotion." Gary calls this an emotional garden. According to Gary, people want to seed positive emotions and be free from emotional suffering. In his experience, he has found that expecting the positive emotions to become immediately present just tend to lead to more negative emotions such as frustration and anger. By weeding out emotions without being aware of what he calls an "emotional field" that everyone has, you will be subject to a numbness of emotion. I believe this is true and it is interesting to me that a lot of people these days tend to weed out rather than confront their emotions.

My parents are a prime example. They have been divorced for a couple years and one is engaged, the other is remarried. Both of them have no idea how to handle each other emotionally other than by anger. As a result, my dad is content but still in love with my mom. My mom has had trouble emotionally dealing with any other suitor, including her new fiance'. Gary thinks "by becoming aware of this emotional field, you will be able to plant the deep roots that it takes to gain happiness and slowly rid your "self" of emotional distress." I am a firm believer in confronting your emotions. Some personal experiences have led me to use this practice but unlike him, while he uses a mentor, I use myself. I have learned to confront my emotions by myself and it has helped me in a positive way. My life has become more positive because of it. Because I can relate, I found this article to be interesting and I completely agree with Gary.