Who am I? and what's this all about?

Those are great questions!

My name's Emil Barna and I'm by no means the authority of all things related to mind and matter (we'll get to what that means in the context of this blog). I do however have a vested interest in the human mind (given a BA in psychology - with philosophy another area of interest within my degree - and a current undertaking of my final year in a Graduate Diploma in Counselling!) and matter (be it our biological makeup, or the matters that we surround ourselves with day by day) and believe I can add to the conversation by sharing many insights that I have, as well as putting forth interesting articles that could be of use in your everyday life.

I'm super interested in psychotherapy and how you and I can benefit in finding counsel in somebody else - be it a qualified therapist, or just somebody we can confide in. So in saying that, I aim to make this a practical blog where we can learn how apply psychological principles to everyday life in order to live the heck out of it!

On the other hand, I do have a keen interest in helpful (and sometimes technical) articles that can be discussed in a clinical sense. So that means that I shall also include articles that I've written up that could indeed be more clinically-oriented, or aimed at a more psychologically literate audience. That doesn't mean these articles are dull (quite the opposite actually!), but that some might suit certain audiences more than others.

Finally, I am pretty meticulous about referencing. When I refer to various areas of study I do tend to cite others that I have used to supplement my writing. Why? Because, as we all know, where an authority can be used to put forward a certain point it makes sense to use one more versed than you would be. It also helps the reader go back and check the reference rather than taking at face value what I've written (don't do that by the way! I want you to be critical thinkers and believe whole heartedly that you'll get the most out of life when you are in fact a reasonable sceptic).

So, that being said, this blog will attempt to cover numerous aspects about our behaviour, events of interest that I can lend a psychological bent to, "mindful" ideas and insights, emotions, why we do what we do, and all things in between! (well maybe not ALL things, but you get the picture)

So I hope you guys enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed putting this together!

By the way, this is me... laughing =)

Peace and love!

March 2014