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22 March 2014

A Change is Gonna Come

Dear Senserely Yours,
I just watched the movie “Dead Poets Society” and I realized that I need to carpe dieam! I need to seize the day and make the most out of my life, especially since I’m a graduating senior from high school. I realized that life is short and we need to do what we can while we still have the time here on Earth. But I don’t know how to do that. My grades aren’t that good. I don’t feel confident about myself. I have no idea what I will do for college, if I made the right decision in my course. I always think that I’m not good enough. I haven’t been spending as much time with my friends as I would want to. And my weight has been increasing greatly recently because I haven’t been exercising recently. How will I seize the day if I feel so bad about myself? L

Senserely yours,
Mr. Useless

Dear Mr. Useless,
If you’re feeling that down and low, then this song may cheer you up and dare you to move :>




I think we’ve all come to that point in our lives when we felt like we weren’t worth a lot, like we were useless and worthless. And it’s amazing that you have found the strength within yourself to make that change. But like with most of the things in our lives, to change something that complex within yourself wouldn’t mean that you just have to improve on the way you think, the way you act, but your whole self. You would have to work on your own BASIC ID, or your behaviors or actions, affect or emotions, sensations, imagery or ideas, cognition or thoughts, your interpersonal relationships or how you deal with others, and the physical aspects of your life, which would include drugs, health and biology. We all have complex personalities, and we should improve on each of these facets to truly make change within ourselves.

It’s just like with tasting food. To truly experience flavour, you not only need your tongue, but your nose and your breathing as well. This is a way of perceiving which in Psychology, we have called multimodal perception.

And following that principle, Professor Arnold A. Lazarus proposed a kind of therapy that would address all of these facets of our personality. He dubbed it Multimodal Therapy (MMT). Following the principle of multimodal perception, he believes that working on all aspects of the self will truly bring the change that we need for ourselves. Change will only come if we are able to improve on not just one, but all the different aspects of ourselves and our personality. To be able to apply these principles on your own life, you can simply ask these questions to yourself:

Behavior:  What specific action do you want to do more of or less of?
Affect:  What emotion would you like to increase or decrease?
Sensation:  What sensation would you like to have more often or experience less frequently?
Imagery:  What mental picture would you like “see” more often or less often in your “mind’s eye.”?
Cognition:  What specific thought would you like to increase or decrease; start or stop?
Interpersonal relationships:  What specific social change would you like to make?
Drugs/Health/ Biology:  What specific change in a health habit or physical issue would you like to make?
(taken from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-well/201402/seven-ways-become-better-you)

Change isn’t easy, but it may be what we need for us to become the person that we want to be. You can ask for help from professionals, or even from your friends and family, to be able to make the change for yourself. So what are you waiting for? Your change is about to come to your life. Carpe diem!

Senserely yours,

I Say Hontiveros


Source : Lazarus, C.N. (2014). Seven ways to become a better you. Psychology Today. Retrieved from : http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-well/201402/seven-ways-become-better-you

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