A Shift of Mind

Rethinking the way we live.

by Mel Schwartz, L.C.S.W.

Diagnosis Disorder

"Diagnosis Disorder" reveals an essential error of diagnostic evaluation, which confuses a diagnosis with being an actual thing in and of itself. This article maintains that the startling increase in ADHD diagnoses are due to clinicians' misconceptions and further explains the sociocultural phenomenon of ADHD, reframing our consideration of the challenge along the way. Read More

Making New Year’s Resolutions Succeed

This article looks at why our New Year’s resolutions most often fail and disappoint us. The author, psychotherapist Mel Schwartz, explains what’s required to break through old habits and experience what he calls defining moments - times in which we can transform our lives. Read More

Getting Past the Gridlock

Political gridlock is much decried, yet workable solutions outside of sheer capitulation have not surfaced. In light of the looming “fiscal cliff,” this timely article illuminates the underlying nature of partisanship and proposes methods to break through the gridlock. Read More

The Right to Life: A Specious Argument

The right-to-life argument masks a deeper and more provocative issue: sexism. Upon investigation, the moral protestations around the sanctity of life unravel when we look beyond the fetus and consider how disposable the lives of our children are. Moreover, the degradation of women, veiled by ethical and religious argument, exposes a horrendous sexism perpetrated upon women Read More

Would You Like to Be the Partner I Want You to Be?

Many people struggle with the changes that their partners might ask of them. This article explores the nature of this conflict and what a healthy resolution would look like. It further describes the potential for growth that change may provoke in a relationship. Read More

Violence: an American Archetype

The latest horrific mass murder in Aurora, Colo., reveals a deep dysfunction within American culture: we are wed to an archetype of violence rooted in the individualistic, gunslinger attitude of the Wild West. Our culture has not outgrown this juvenile fixation with guns, and until we expose the underlying addictive pathology, we continue to be subject to its onslaught. Read More

Seeking Authenticity

Authenticity is the foundation for genuine self-esteem and a self-empowered life. It frees us from the shackles of fear and conformity. This article exposes the consequences of not being authentic and highlights the ways to achieve it. Read More

A Radical Reality

The emerging sciences have described a radically new and remarkable picture of reality. This is one in which all parts of the universe interconnect, flowing in wholeness and inseparability. Mel Schwartz illuminates the significant benefits to our lives if we aligned ourselves with this new vista of reality. Read More

Is Our Society Manufacturing Depressed People?

Our society is in the throes of a virtual epidemic of depression. The numbers are quite staggering. More than twenty percent of the American population will experience at least one episode of what we refer to as clinical depression. We need to look deeper into this phenomenon to understand it and overcome it. Read More

I’ll Be Happy When...

What is the source of happiness? We tend to assume that happiness will come from a future event. It typically depends upon something else happening. Read More

When Doing the Best You Can Becomes a Compulsion

It is generally agreed that we should always try to do the best we can. Yet, if we really examine this assumption we find that it may lead to an unhealthy compulsion. When taken to the extreme, the need to be your very best can derail your ability to live a more balanced life. Read More

Communication Is the Heartbeat of Relationship

If communication is the heartbeat of relationship, our relations clearly suffer. This is due to a lack of proper education in the art of communicating. Our self-esteem, relationships and success depend in large part on effective communicating. This article illuminates the challenges and begins to reveal the solutions toward coherent and masterful communication skills. Read More

Turning Crisis into Opportunity

Crises affect all our lives, and little can be done to avoid them. However, when we learn to reframe how we view a crisis, we can often turn it into opportunity. Through a fundamental shift of mind, we can transform crisis into opportunity -- a process very much like alchemy. Read More

Collapsing the Wave: Creating New Realities

We can utilize some of the remarkable discoveries from quantum physics to enable breakthrough changes in our thinking and in our lives. We struggle with change primarily because of how we think and how we believe reality to be operating. This article illuminates a simple yet profound approach for achieving new personal potential. Read More

Stuck in a Groove

This post is the second in a continuing series on the nature of thought. It shares techniques for breaking free from the groove of old thought and introduces the Emergent Thinking® process, which enables us to gain a mastery of our thinking while creating the changes we desire. Read More

Breaking Free from Your Comfort Zone

This blog post suggests that our most influential relationship is with our own thoughts. It furthers this thesis by explaining how old thought gets us stuck in our attempts to change. Disabling habitual thought permits us to embrace our discomfort, enabling us to come out of our comfort zone and empower transformative change. Read More

The Wrong Reasons for Staying Married

The institution of marriage often falls short of its promise. Marriage is designed to be - at least in modern Western times - a structure to foster and secure loving feelings to enhance each other's life. On a practical note, it is also intended as a foundation for family structure and to facilitate and expedite our life experience. Read More

What Do We Mean by Death, and How Does that Impact Our Lives?

Mel answers questions about what death means to us and what implications that may have for how we live our lives. He explores new understandings of consciousness and how that may alter our beliefs about death. Read More

Creating Resilient Relationships

Mel explains why most long-standing relationships tend to falter and become lackluster. In this post he shares the techniques to keep relations resilient, passionate and alive. Read More

What Do We Mean by "Moving On"?

We recently announced a new feature at A Shift of Mind called the Question of the Week. Here is my response to the following question: Read More

What is a Mistake?

My previous post, “The Problem with Perfection,” unraveled some of the mythology and beliefs about notions of perfection that limit and impede many people’s lives. They come from misinformed beliefs that detour, if not ruin lives. The concept of mistakes is the next step in our consideration of a life well lived. Read More

The Problem with Perfection

Perfectionism is often a compensation for emotional and psychological wounds and reveals a self-esteem issue. Additionally, being perfect is unattainable, unachievable and undesirable. Read More

Don't Call Me a Shrink

When people ask me what I do for a living, I typically respond that I practice psychotherapy. I often hear the response, "Oh, so you're a shrink." Notwithstanding that I'm a psychotherapist, and not in fact a psychiatrist, (the more proper match for being a shrink) being called a shrink causes me to pull back and defend myself. I'd rather expand than shrink. Read More

What Is Emergent Thinking?

What I have come to call Emergent Thinking® is a process that began for me nearly eighteen years ago. I had been experiencing very significant life transitions, which were causing me some acute stress. It all began on a beautiful spring day as I ventured out for a bike ride. To my surprise, rather than basking in the warmth of that day, I began to feel quite anxious. Read More

What Informs Your Belief?

While I was in the midst of delivering a somewhat provocative talk on the subject of change, a gentleman in the audience indicated that he had a question. As he began to speak, it was evident from both his tone and his question that he was challenging the material that I was sharing. Simply stated, his core belief was that people don't change, and he suggested that I was being an idealist. Read More

Getting Past the Impasse of Right or Wrong

In the previous post we looked at how dominant the motif of seeking to be right is in our culture. It is one of the most singular influences on our behavior and our relations. Now we'll turn our attention to understanding just how this prevailing compulsion to be correct came into being. Read More

Why Is It So Important to Be Right?

One of the most prevalent - and damaging - themes in our culture is the need to be right. It's one of those essential memes that we take for granted. It is so deeply embedded in our belief system and in our collective psyche that we never even pause to consider it. It would really serve us to inquire why it is so compelling. Read More

The Paradox of Confidence

As with many goals that we struggle to attain, we tend to go after them in a way that blocks our success. Quite often I find that individuals who quest for more self-esteem - more internal security and confidence - actually get in their own way. Typically, they are prone to measuring and judging themselves against others. Read More

The Five Percent Rule

Learning to remain present and not get drawn into the right or wrong argument requires a willful intention to come out of the groove of an old habit. Typically, in a contentious discussion or argument defending oneself is a trigger reaction. We react defensively and then in turn blame or attack. This type of exchange seems mindless and bears little chance of success. Read More

Shared Meaning

We take for granted that our words convey exactly what we intend them to. This is a particularly misinformed assumption. I have observed that upon deeper scrutiny, the words, let alone the concepts, tend not to be received in the way the messenger anticipates. By the time a few sentences have passed, we may have a totally missed communication. Read More

Mel Schwartz, L.C.S.W., is a psychotherapist and marriage counselor who works toward creating resilient relationships and fostering authentic communication. His website is Melschwartz.com.

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About A Shift of Mind

A Shift of Mind offers a provocative reframing of how we look at reality, our lives and our relationships. Its intention is to challenge our beliefs and thinking so that we may overcome many of the struggles that we endure. Steeped in a new way of thinking, this blog addresses many of the common issues in our lives with a very uncommon approach. Mel contends that a shift of mind is the most powerful thing in the universe. A new insight — with a commitment and intention toward change — frees us from the past and writes a new script for our lives.