This exercise comes from the book Conceptual Blockbusting by James L. Adams and relates to the idea of stereotyping.

Find someone that you do not know very well to help you do this exercise. Taking turns, say a label that describes you (blonde, student, carpenter, mother, chocoholic, married, etc). Avoid small talk and avoid having a conversation about each label. Just state your label and then continue. It will get difficult to come up with labels after the first few, but keep going for at least five minutes.

This exercise will demonstrate how you label yourself. Notice how each label is a stereotype. People stereotype themselves and others all the time. Without being able to qualify your labels with conversation, you are allowing the other person to stereotype you. How did your stereotypes affect your understanding of the other person? For example, if they said that they were a "marathon runner," what preconceived qualities would you instantly place onto them? Recognizing that you are constantly stereotyping things will allow you to look beyond these labels when necessary.

ig-no-ble

adj. :: Of low birth or family; not noble; not illustrious; plebeian; common; humble.

"His childishly rash, uncalled-for, and ignoble departure from Africa, leaving his comrades in distress, is set down to his credit, and again the enemy's fleet twice lets him slip past." --Tolstoy, Leo

As with most skills, practice improves your performance. Unfortunately, simply practicing by memorizing long lists over and over is not going to improve your ability to remember. There is no "mental muscle" that you are making stronger. However, if you practice memorizing using mnemonic techniques such as acronyms or pegwords, you will get better at using these techniques, which will improve your ability to remember.

In other words, you cannot improve your inherent memory ability through practice, but you can improve your skill at certain memory techniques that make learning more efficient.

Tension headaches are the most common type of headaches. They usually appear as a dull throbbing pain that can radiate from the neck, back, eyes or head. The exact cause of tension headaches is still unknown, but a common theory is that it stems from muscle contractions around the head, neck and jaw. The brain may misinterpreted this tension as pain.

The most common cause of this type of muscle tension is stress. Many people respond to stress by clenching their teeth or hunching their shoulders. This tension can quickly spread to other nearby muscle groups and caused referred pain. It is not uncommon for back problems to originate in the jaw! The more muscles that tense up, the more likely it will be for a tension headache to develop.

Tension headaches can be treated with over the counter pain medications as well as relaxation techniques such as massage or meditation. Learning how to relax the muscles in your neck, back and shoulders will help your avoid getting tension headaches. The shoulder stretching exercise is one good way to accomplish this.