Simple question: What do you want? I have a five year old niece who could answer it. Today it might be a puppy, tomorrow a pony, but while her answer might change, she definitely would have an answer. Most people feel similar. Thoughts of massive houses, fast cars, exotic vacations and fat wallets come to mind very quickly. But the question I'd like to ask is not just about what you feel like having, it's about what you truly want. Something that you want so much, that you are willing to … [Read more...]

A few weeks back, I wrote a post about my own experience with a video gaming addiction. I received a lot of feedback from people sharing their own stories as well as asking for advice. Since I'm no therapist, I've decided to find some people who are and asked them for their recommendations. One of them, Dr. Brett Merrill, I interviewed a few weeks ago already. This time, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Hilarie Cash, who runs a video game addiction treatment center called reSTART. She agreed … [Read more...]

A few weeks back, I wrote about my own history of playing video games rather excessively. As a result of that article, I got a lot of inquiries from people who asked for help and strategies that go beyond what I described. Questions ranged from how to deal with a child that plays seven to ten hours a day, to a student who considers himself addicted to the same game now for more than ten years. I'm no clinical psychologist. Thus, I set out to find one who 'gets gamers' and would be willing to … [Read more...]

There are days where I can have conversations with a wall. On others, I'd rather not interact with anyone the entire day. On the whole though, I feel I don't need to pretend the washing machine is on fire in order to get out of a conversation. I don't have problems meeting people, going on stage or striking up conversations with strangers. A friend asked me a while ago about how to become more at ease in communicating with people. He wanted to know how to steer a conversation, relay stories … [Read more...]

How did you decide on your last charity donation? Did you treat it like a car purchase, comparing different alternatives? Or did you treat it like a fast food burger, deciding on the spot? I'll let you in on a guilty little secret of mine: I love Burger King. It's not exactly the healthiest choice of food, but they do have vegetarian burgers. Those are not easy to find in Thailand. I pick one up every time I make it to the airport. I'm aware that the nutritional value isn't that great and … [Read more...]