This is a great blog post from Rhonda Hess about how to sustain confidence. I especially like it because it criticizes "The Secret," a movie I found facile, dishonest and frankly creepy in that it dispensed so completely with altruism. (Of course we all love it when someone dislikes the same things we dislike, right? I had the good fortune to see that movie with some close friends who all had the same reaction.)
Rhonda breaks it down here- how the universe does provide, but, as the saying goes, "helps those who help themselves!"
Happy reading!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Looking for a way to make the world better?
I met this guy Don, and I think he is doing really solid work, mostly
financed out of his own money. If you are looking for a worthy
Christmas donation spot - I recommend this.
You can contact Karen at karen@karenschachtermsw.com
The note from Karen:
A number of you have expressed a wish to donate, or to know more about
Village Empowerment, so I wanted to follow up and invite all of you to
check out his website, www.VillageEmpowerment.com
. If you’d like to know more
about what he’s doing, be sure to sign up for his newsletter list and
you’ll get occasional updates. (They are sure to inspireJ)
Don’s work has been very meaningful to
me, primarily because I have seen, first-hand, his passion, his
commitment and his contribution.
I feel pulled to do more and to help him toward his goal of supporting the 200 villages throughout Africa
who are requesting his help to become self-sustaining.
Our family also plans to take a trip to Malawi later this year, if possible, to
see Don, and his work, in action, and to participate ourselves in the
change he is creating.
If you would like to contribute to Village Empowerment, and
specifically to our family’s goal of raising enough money to help
create self-sufficiency in a village ($10,000), please contact me.
I would like to send the gift to Don by the end of next week if possible. I am very grateful for your
generous support.
Any amount helps – Noah donated $38 of his
allowance, which is enough to feed a family of 4 for a month! Hannah
donated $10 which will buy clothes for 2 children!
So if you can give $10 or $20 or whatever your budget allows, that can do a world of
good in these communities!
financed out of his own money. If you are looking for a worthy
Christmas donation spot - I recommend this.
You can contact Karen at karen@karenschachtermsw.com
The note from Karen:
A number of you have expressed a wish to donate, or to know more about
Village Empowerment, so I wanted to follow up and invite all of you to
check out his website, www.VillageEmpowerment.com
about what he’s doing, be sure to sign up for his newsletter list and
you’ll get occasional updates. (They are sure to inspireJ)
Don’s work has been very meaningful to
me, primarily because I have seen, first-hand, his passion, his
commitment and his contribution.
I feel pulled to do more and to help him toward his goal of supporting the 200 villages throughout Africa
who are requesting his help to become self-sustaining.
Our family also plans to take a trip to Malawi later this year, if possible, to
see Don, and his work, in action, and to participate ourselves in the
change he is creating.
If you would like to contribute to Village Empowerment, and
specifically to our family’s goal of raising enough money to help
create self-sufficiency in a village ($10,000), please contact me.
I would like to send the gift to Don by the end of next week if possible. I am very grateful for your
generous support.
Any amount helps – Noah donated $38 of his
allowance, which is enough to feed a family of 4 for a month! Hannah
donated $10 which will buy clothes for 2 children!
So if you can give $10 or $20 or whatever your budget allows, that can do a world of
good in these communities!
Friday, November 20, 2009
theater methodologies for helping traumatized youth
I found this paper on the use of drama techniques for helping young people affected by trauma and violence.
There has been some discussion in the interim about how to use these methods safely, with professionals like Van der Kolk feeling they may re-expose and re-trigger if not done properly.
There has been some discussion in the interim about how to use these methods safely, with professionals like Van der Kolk feeling they may re-expose and re-trigger if not done properly.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Keeping it Simple
Top Ten from Sandy Davis
Here are 10 tips that will help you keep your self-care activities simple and effective:
(1) Because you cannot give what you do not have, make it a daily habit to pay yourself first. Once you’ve done so, you’ll be able to pay others generously, compassionately, and continuously.
(2) To ensure that you pay yourself first, you may need to invert your priorities. As much as possible, make your daily self-care your first priority, and then schedule everything else in your day around that sacrosanct priority.
(3) As much as possible, turn your ongoing self-care activities into consistent daily routines. Make them unfailing habits.
(4) Make sure you set up self-care structures for yourself that are ecological and that work well for you. If you find a particular structure to be causing you more stress than it is relieving, redesign that structure.
(5) Chunk down your daily practices until they are manageable ongoing commitments—and then do them without fail. It’s better to aim just high enough to hit the target right in the center, than to aim way too high and miss the target completely.
(6) Remember to embrace your failures with honesty and humility. If something is broken, fix it.
(7) Remember also to joyfully celebrate all your successes—big, small, and even miniscule. Small successes beget big ones.
(8) Keep your sense of humor about you. A little bit of laughter goes a long way.
(9) Dare to imagine outrageously wonderful adventures and successes, and then pursue them with abiding courage, patience, and faith.
(10) Practice, practice, and practice some more.
Sandy Davis | (207) 563-7263
Sandy@ResilienceWorks.com | http://www.ResilienceCircle.com
Here are 10 tips that will help you keep your self-care activities simple and effective:
(1) Because you cannot give what you do not have, make it a daily habit to pay yourself first. Once you’ve done so, you’ll be able to pay others generously, compassionately, and continuously.
(2) To ensure that you pay yourself first, you may need to invert your priorities. As much as possible, make your daily self-care your first priority, and then schedule everything else in your day around that sacrosanct priority.
(3) As much as possible, turn your ongoing self-care activities into consistent daily routines. Make them unfailing habits.
(4) Make sure you set up self-care structures for yourself that are ecological and that work well for you. If you find a particular structure to be causing you more stress than it is relieving, redesign that structure.
(5) Chunk down your daily practices until they are manageable ongoing commitments—and then do them without fail. It’s better to aim just high enough to hit the target right in the center, than to aim way too high and miss the target completely.
(6) Remember to embrace your failures with honesty and humility. If something is broken, fix it.
(7) Remember also to joyfully celebrate all your successes—big, small, and even miniscule. Small successes beget big ones.
(8) Keep your sense of humor about you. A little bit of laughter goes a long way.
(9) Dare to imagine outrageously wonderful adventures and successes, and then pursue them with abiding courage, patience, and faith.
(10) Practice, practice, and practice some more.
Sandy Davis | (207) 563-7263
Sandy@ResilienceWorks.com | http://www.ResilienceCircle.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wrongly Pathologizing Populations
Vanessa Pupavac's article "Pathologizing Populations and Colonizing Minds: International Psychosocial Programs in Kosovo" appeared in Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol. 27, 2002.
It is worth a read: http://tr.im/BXxh
Pupavac correctly cautions against superimposing Western notions of how whole populations (e.g. refugees) get traumatized because it interferes with self-government potential (among other things).
It is worth a read: http://tr.im/BXxh
Pupavac correctly cautions against superimposing Western notions of how whole populations (e.g. refugees) get traumatized because it interferes with self-government potential (among other things).
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Better Health Care Depends on a Stronger Democracy
A Statement from Everyday Democracy, AmericaSpeaks, Demos, and Professor Archon
Fung of Harvard’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation
August 13, 2009
excerpts:
A key founding principle of our democracy is that the voice of the people should have an influence on public policy, at elections and in between them.
Beyond simply having a voice, people should have a chance to be informed, to hear each other, to work through tough decisions with each other and their elected officials, and to use democratic processes to figure out how to solve the problems that face us.
At a bare minimum, efforts to spread misinformation and to insult people who have different views and concerns harm our social fabric and weaken our democracy. We must find ways to move beyond stereotyping and preconceived notions of what “the others” believe and care about.
As critical as this is, we need to go further than encouraging more civil behavior. What we urgently need is a vibrant, inclusive democracy where people from different views and backgrounds can routinely meet, hear each other out in productive ways, and find ways to move forward.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
22 ways to de-stress
Although it is annoying to have to click anew for each one, a very fragmenting reading experience, these 22 tips are great!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Developing resilience intentionally
(The following is Copyright © 2009 Alexander M. (Sandy) Davis. To find out more about Sandy Davis and the resilience-related manuals, programs, services, and newsletter he offers, visit http://www.resilienceworks.com.)
Developing Resilience-Readiness via Ongoing “Micro-Preparation”
The process of continually meeting small daily challenges that you intentionally set for yourself [i.e., handling well-chosen micro-disruptions] amounts to “micro-preparation.” It is akin to lifting weights.
If you want to strengthen your muscles, all you need to do is to start working with weights in such a way as to stress your muscles repeatedly, in small daily ways. At first, you won’t see much change. But as you methodically develop an ability to lift heavier weights and increase your repetitions, you can both strengthen your muscles and increase your overall physical power. The results of stressing your muscles in this slow, steady, and deliberate manner are predictable, and, indeed, they are all but inexorable.
In a similar way, you can strengthen your figurative resilience-readiness “muscles.” Instead of lifting physical weights that stress your body’s actual muscles, you can use intentional micro-disruptions to gently stress your whole self in whatever worthy ways you choose.
Once you make the process of enhancing your resilience-readiness through micro-preparation a longstanding daily habit, when “the big one” (i.e., a full-scale catastrophe) finally comes along, you will find yourself to be well-practiced and fully prepared to handle just about any disruption with surprising ease. Your resilience-readiness “muscles” will be strong.
Why Choose Self-Care Challenges?
If you decide you would like to use this process of micro-preparation to strengthen your resilience-readiness, the most effective and rewarding small challenges to practice on are those that pertain directly to your own daily self-care.
When it comes to taking good care of ourselves, most of us tend to cut corners. Because we tend to assume that we are virtually invulnerable, we imagine we can afford to neglect the very things that are most central to leading a long, healthy, and fulfilling life. We are prone to overlook the importance of making ongoing investments in our health, our well-being, and our natural creativity. This oversight can land us in big trouble.
When you fail to take good care of your own “power plant,” you can expect to live a life in which you will likely face major setbacks such as significant health challenges, a chronic lack of energy and stamina, a discouraging lack of engagement with your work, debilitating boredom, depression, and/or a near-total lack of personal fulfillment. In other words, you will most likely be neither healthy nor happy.
The good news is that all of the above personal setbacks are largely avoidable. By making small daily investments in your own self-care, you can safeguard yourself from being set back by these and other personal misfortunes. Moreover, you can do so relatively quickly, painlessly, and in a manner that is easy to sustain. (If you are already experiencing any of the above misfortunes, sustained improvements in your self-care can greatly accelerate your recuperation.)
The bad news (or at least it may appear to you at first to be bad news) is that you first have to choose worthwhile self-care “practice” challenges, and then you have to actually do the work required to meet those micro-challenges successfully. When you do, how you experience your own life will start to shift in positive ways—more often than not both quickly and dramatically. And you will be pleased.
"Disruptions are inherently stressful. They seed change.
Intentional disruptions seed intentional change."
– Sandy Davis
Developing Resilience-Readiness via Ongoing “Micro-Preparation”
The process of continually meeting small daily challenges that you intentionally set for yourself [i.e., handling well-chosen micro-disruptions] amounts to “micro-preparation.” It is akin to lifting weights.
If you want to strengthen your muscles, all you need to do is to start working with weights in such a way as to stress your muscles repeatedly, in small daily ways. At first, you won’t see much change. But as you methodically develop an ability to lift heavier weights and increase your repetitions, you can both strengthen your muscles and increase your overall physical power. The results of stressing your muscles in this slow, steady, and deliberate manner are predictable, and, indeed, they are all but inexorable.
In a similar way, you can strengthen your figurative resilience-readiness “muscles.” Instead of lifting physical weights that stress your body’s actual muscles, you can use intentional micro-disruptions to gently stress your whole self in whatever worthy ways you choose.
Once you make the process of enhancing your resilience-readiness through micro-preparation a longstanding daily habit, when “the big one” (i.e., a full-scale catastrophe) finally comes along, you will find yourself to be well-practiced and fully prepared to handle just about any disruption with surprising ease. Your resilience-readiness “muscles” will be strong.
Why Choose Self-Care Challenges?
If you decide you would like to use this process of micro-preparation to strengthen your resilience-readiness, the most effective and rewarding small challenges to practice on are those that pertain directly to your own daily self-care.
When it comes to taking good care of ourselves, most of us tend to cut corners. Because we tend to assume that we are virtually invulnerable, we imagine we can afford to neglect the very things that are most central to leading a long, healthy, and fulfilling life. We are prone to overlook the importance of making ongoing investments in our health, our well-being, and our natural creativity. This oversight can land us in big trouble.
When you fail to take good care of your own “power plant,” you can expect to live a life in which you will likely face major setbacks such as significant health challenges, a chronic lack of energy and stamina, a discouraging lack of engagement with your work, debilitating boredom, depression, and/or a near-total lack of personal fulfillment. In other words, you will most likely be neither healthy nor happy.
The good news is that all of the above personal setbacks are largely avoidable. By making small daily investments in your own self-care, you can safeguard yourself from being set back by these and other personal misfortunes. Moreover, you can do so relatively quickly, painlessly, and in a manner that is easy to sustain. (If you are already experiencing any of the above misfortunes, sustained improvements in your self-care can greatly accelerate your recuperation.)
The bad news (or at least it may appear to you at first to be bad news) is that you first have to choose worthwhile self-care “practice” challenges, and then you have to actually do the work required to meet those micro-challenges successfully. When you do, how you experience your own life will start to shift in positive ways—more often than not both quickly and dramatically. And you will be pleased.
"Disruptions are inherently stressful. They seed change.
Intentional disruptions seed intentional change."
– Sandy Davis
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Vicarious Trauma -- Video Explanation
Dear viewers,
Do let me know if this video's language and flow work for you. Also, let me know what else you would like to know in future videos.
Monday, June 8, 2009
...circumstances don't determine happiness...
From a piece called The Joy of Less by Pico Iyer
“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later. Towards the end of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen,” though by then he had already lost his father when he was 7, his first wife when she was 20 and his first son, aged 5. In Japan, the late 18th-century poet Issa is celebrated for his delighted, almost child-like celebrations of the natural world. Issa saw four children die in infancy, his wife die in childbirth, and his own body partially paralyzed.
“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later. Towards the end of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen,” though by then he had already lost his father when he was 7, his first wife when she was 20 and his first son, aged 5. In Japan, the late 18th-century poet Issa is celebrated for his delighted, almost child-like celebrations of the natural world. Issa saw four children die in infancy, his wife die in childbirth, and his own body partially paralyzed.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Finding Stillness
A voice coach on Robert Frost's poem re being in the woods:
http://www.judyringer.com/media/StoppingByWoods.mp3 *
*Copyright © 2009 by Judy Ringer
From: Sandy Davis | Sandy@ResilienceWorks.com | 207-563-7263
Author | Speaker | Authority on Zillience/Resilience | Resilience Trainer
ResilienceWorks LLC | P.O. Box 1011, Damariscotta, ME 04543-1011
http://www.ResilienceWorks.com | http://www.ResilienceCircle.com
http://www.judyringer.com/media/StoppingByWoods.mp3 *
*Copyright © 2009 by Judy Ringer
From: Sandy Davis | Sandy@ResilienceWorks.com | 207-563-7263
Author | Speaker | Authority on Zillience/Resilience | Resilience Trainer
ResilienceWorks LLC | P.O. Box 1011, Damariscotta, ME 04543-1011
http://www.ResilienceWorks.com | http://www.ResilienceCircle.com
Friday, May 8, 2009
Surrender
Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere.
Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within.
Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the Universe.
Surrendering to emptiness, I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me,
and becomes itself transformed into its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so; who has crafted this Master Game.
To play it is pure delight.
To honor its form, true devotion.
Jennifer Wellwood
Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within.
Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the Universe.
Surrendering to emptiness, I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me.
Each condition I welcome transforms me,
and becomes itself transformed into its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so; who has crafted this Master Game.
To play it is pure delight.
To honor its form, true devotion.
Jennifer Wellwood
only the real can free you
Yoga means that now there is no hope, now there is no future, now there are no desires. One is not interested in what can be, what should be, what ought to be. One is not interested! One is only interested in that which is, because only the real can free you, only the reality can become liberation.
Bhagwan S. Rajneesh Yoga: The science of the soul (Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, 1976), pp. 6-7.
Bhagwan S. Rajneesh Yoga: The science of the soul (Rajneeshpuram, OR: Rajneesh Foundation International, 1976), pp. 6-7.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
On the Use of Torture
April 23, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor for the New York Times
My Tortured Decision
By ALI SOUFAN
FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified. But the release last week of four Justice Department memos on interrogations allows me to shed light on the story, and on some of the lessons to be learned.
One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.
It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several C.I.A. officers present, I questioned him from March to June 2002, before the harsh techniques were introduced later in August. Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence.
We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber. This experience fit what I had found throughout my counterterrorism career: traditional interrogation techniques are successful in identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives.
There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions — all of which are still classified. The short sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.
Defenders of these techniques have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mr. Padilla. This is false. The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods. As for Mr. Padilla, the dates just don’t add up: the harsh techniques were approved in the memo of August 2002, Mr. Padilla had been arrested that May.
One of the worst consequences of the use of these harsh techniques was that it reintroduced the so-called Chinese wall between the C.I.A. and F.B.I., similar to the communications obstacles that prevented us from working together to stop the 9/11 attacks. Because the bureau would not employ these problematic techniques, our agents who knew the most about the terrorists could have no part in the investigation. An F.B.I. colleague of mine who knew more about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed than anyone in the government was not allowed to speak to him.
It was the right decision to release these memos, as we need the truth to come out. This should not be a partisan matter, because it is in our national security interest to regain our position as the world’s foremost defenders of human rights. Just as important, releasing these memos enables us to begin the tricky process of finally bringing these terrorists to justice.
The debate after the release of these memos has centered on whether C.I.A. officials should be prosecuted for their role in harsh interrogation techniques. That would be a mistake. Almost all the agency officials I worked with on these issues were good people who felt as I did about the use of enhanced techniques: it is un-American, ineffective and harmful to our national security.
Fortunately for me, after I objected to the enhanced techniques, the message came through from Pat D’Amuro, an F.B.I. assistant director, that “we don’t do that,” and I was pulled out of the interrogations by the F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller (this was documented in the report released last year by the Justice Department’s inspector general).
My C.I.A. colleagues who balked at the techniques, on the other hand, were instructed to continue. (It’s worth noting that when reading between the lines of the newly released memos, it seems clear that it was contractors, not C.I.A. officers, who requested the use of these techniques.)
As we move forward, it’s important to not allow the torture issue to harm the reputation, and thus the effectiveness, of the C.I.A. The agency is essential to our national security. We must ensure that the mistakes behind the use of these techniques are never repeated. We’re making a good start: President Obama has limited interrogation techniques to the guidelines set in the Army Field Manual, and Leon Panetta, the C.I.A. director, says he has banned the use of contractors and secret overseas prisons for terrorism suspects (the so-called black sites). Just as important, we need to ensure that no new mistakes are made in the process of moving forward — a real danger right now.
Ali Soufan was an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005.
Op-Ed Contributor for the New York Times
My Tortured Decision
By ALI SOUFAN
FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified. But the release last week of four Justice Department memos on interrogations allows me to shed light on the story, and on some of the lessons to be learned.
One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.
It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several C.I.A. officers present, I questioned him from March to June 2002, before the harsh techniques were introduced later in August. Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence.
We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber. This experience fit what I had found throughout my counterterrorism career: traditional interrogation techniques are successful in identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives.
There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions — all of which are still classified. The short sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.
Defenders of these techniques have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mr. Padilla. This is false. The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods. As for Mr. Padilla, the dates just don’t add up: the harsh techniques were approved in the memo of August 2002, Mr. Padilla had been arrested that May.
One of the worst consequences of the use of these harsh techniques was that it reintroduced the so-called Chinese wall between the C.I.A. and F.B.I., similar to the communications obstacles that prevented us from working together to stop the 9/11 attacks. Because the bureau would not employ these problematic techniques, our agents who knew the most about the terrorists could have no part in the investigation. An F.B.I. colleague of mine who knew more about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed than anyone in the government was not allowed to speak to him.
It was the right decision to release these memos, as we need the truth to come out. This should not be a partisan matter, because it is in our national security interest to regain our position as the world’s foremost defenders of human rights. Just as important, releasing these memos enables us to begin the tricky process of finally bringing these terrorists to justice.
The debate after the release of these memos has centered on whether C.I.A. officials should be prosecuted for their role in harsh interrogation techniques. That would be a mistake. Almost all the agency officials I worked with on these issues were good people who felt as I did about the use of enhanced techniques: it is un-American, ineffective and harmful to our national security.
Fortunately for me, after I objected to the enhanced techniques, the message came through from Pat D’Amuro, an F.B.I. assistant director, that “we don’t do that,” and I was pulled out of the interrogations by the F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller (this was documented in the report released last year by the Justice Department’s inspector general).
My C.I.A. colleagues who balked at the techniques, on the other hand, were instructed to continue. (It’s worth noting that when reading between the lines of the newly released memos, it seems clear that it was contractors, not C.I.A. officers, who requested the use of these techniques.)
As we move forward, it’s important to not allow the torture issue to harm the reputation, and thus the effectiveness, of the C.I.A. The agency is essential to our national security. We must ensure that the mistakes behind the use of these techniques are never repeated. We’re making a good start: President Obama has limited interrogation techniques to the guidelines set in the Army Field Manual, and Leon Panetta, the C.I.A. director, says he has banned the use of contractors and secret overseas prisons for terrorism suspects (the so-called black sites). Just as important, we need to ensure that no new mistakes are made in the process of moving forward — a real danger right now.
Ali Soufan was an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Seven Simple Self-Care Structures from Sandy Davis
About Simple Self-Care Structures
If you want to increase your resilience-readiness, the best thing you can do is to take great care of your mind, your body, and your spirit. Below are seven proven structures you can use to tune up your own self-care. Each is readily accessible, affordable, portable, and highly effective. All you have to do to take on one or more them, and then hold yourself accountable to abide by your chosen structures every single day. They work. You just have to execute them with commitment and unrelenting consistency.
Three Foundational Daily Self-Care Habits
1. Make it a habit to Keep All Your Agreements. Don’t make any agreements you don’t fully intend to keep, and keep the ones you do make. If you break an agreement, clean up the mess you have created quickly and completely. Point of Accountability: Track whether you are keeping your agreements to do your chosen daily self-care practices in an accountability log.
2. Make it a habit to Eat Well. Choose nutritious foods. Avoid junk food. Discipline yourself to maintain sensible control over the size of your portions. Eat what you like, and enjoy what you eat—but in modest quantities. Point of Accountability: Weigh yourself every day and log your weight. Whether you eat poorly or wisely, your average body weight will reflect your eating habits.
3. Make it a habit to Sleep Well. Make sure that you regularly get the measure of sound sleep you need to in order to sustain your energy and go full speed ahead all day long. Point of Accountability: Log how much sleep you get each night.
Plus Three Daily Self-Care Practices
4. Daily Centering Practice: Every day, spend at least 15 minutes doing a centering practice that enables you to come back to your senses, to slow down, and to attain a point of physical, mental, and emotional stillness. Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your mind. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you spend doing your daily centering practice, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
5. Regular Aerobic Exercise: Spend at least 15 minutes every day (or 30 minutes every other day) doing vigorous aerobic exercise. (Exercise becomes aerobic when you first exert yourself hard enough and long enough to get your heart beating up in your “aerobic zone,” and then sustain that level of effort for as long as you wish.) Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your body. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you exercise aerobically, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
6. Daily Creative Practice: Spend at least 15 minutes every day (or 30 minutes every other day) doing a creative practice. That’s an activity that normally falls outside the realm of your work, and that connects you in some enjoyable way to your deepest passions. It reliably tantalizes you to create something new for yourself. Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your spirit. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you spend doing your daily creative practice, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
And One Daily Meta-Structure
7. A meta-structure is one that sits “above” your other structures and serves to pull them all together. The meta-structure that holds all of the above habits and daily practices together is Keeping a Daily Accountability Log. When you do this faithfully and honestly, you will have nowhere to hide. You will be in a position to bear witness to the unvarnished results you are creating for yourself. Consequently, you will be able to make insightful course corrections. When you sustain all of the above self-care activities AND log them every day, you will open a door to personal transformation that most individuals never find, much less walk through. That is where the real fun begins. Point of Accountability: Be sure to make all the daily entries in your log that you committed to making.
Pulling the Seven Self-Care Structures All Together
When you start to take your own self-care seriously and start to methodically pay yourself first, you can start to increase your resilience-readiness both quickly and sustainably. You can begin to develop a deep-seated confidence that you will have whatever you need in order to successfully meet whatever challenges come your way, whether they be small or big. This makes life ever so much more enjoyable and peaceful.
The rest is up to you. Self-care is, by definition, a gift that only you can give to yourself. Optimal self-care does require you to continuously invest a relatively small amount of your time, attention, and energy in your own well-being. Over time, the payoff on this small daily investment can be spectacular. It’s one of those gifts that keeps on giving.
So when you’re ready, go for it. Just remember: One simple change in your daily self-care practices has the power to change everything—even your destiny. On the other hand, without deliberate, ongoing practice, nothing changes. You get to choose.
______________________________________________________
Copyright © 2009 Alexander M. (Sandy) Davis. To find out more about Sandy Davis and the resilience-related products and services he offers, visit http://www.ResilienceWorks.com. To subscribe to his free monthly e-newsletter, send an e-mail to Subscribe@ResilienceWorks.com. To reach Sandy directly, send an e-mail to Sandy@ResilenceWorks.com. FYI, he’s “The Resilience Guy.”
If you want to increase your resilience-readiness, the best thing you can do is to take great care of your mind, your body, and your spirit. Below are seven proven structures you can use to tune up your own self-care. Each is readily accessible, affordable, portable, and highly effective. All you have to do to take on one or more them, and then hold yourself accountable to abide by your chosen structures every single day. They work. You just have to execute them with commitment and unrelenting consistency.
Three Foundational Daily Self-Care Habits
1. Make it a habit to Keep All Your Agreements. Don’t make any agreements you don’t fully intend to keep, and keep the ones you do make. If you break an agreement, clean up the mess you have created quickly and completely. Point of Accountability: Track whether you are keeping your agreements to do your chosen daily self-care practices in an accountability log.
2. Make it a habit to Eat Well. Choose nutritious foods. Avoid junk food. Discipline yourself to maintain sensible control over the size of your portions. Eat what you like, and enjoy what you eat—but in modest quantities. Point of Accountability: Weigh yourself every day and log your weight. Whether you eat poorly or wisely, your average body weight will reflect your eating habits.
3. Make it a habit to Sleep Well. Make sure that you regularly get the measure of sound sleep you need to in order to sustain your energy and go full speed ahead all day long. Point of Accountability: Log how much sleep you get each night.
Plus Three Daily Self-Care Practices
4. Daily Centering Practice: Every day, spend at least 15 minutes doing a centering practice that enables you to come back to your senses, to slow down, and to attain a point of physical, mental, and emotional stillness. Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your mind. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you spend doing your daily centering practice, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
5. Regular Aerobic Exercise: Spend at least 15 minutes every day (or 30 minutes every other day) doing vigorous aerobic exercise. (Exercise becomes aerobic when you first exert yourself hard enough and long enough to get your heart beating up in your “aerobic zone,” and then sustain that level of effort for as long as you wish.) Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your body. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you exercise aerobically, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
6. Daily Creative Practice: Spend at least 15 minutes every day (or 30 minutes every other day) doing a creative practice. That’s an activity that normally falls outside the realm of your work, and that connects you in some enjoyable way to your deepest passions. It reliably tantalizes you to create something new for yourself. Think of this practice as nourishment primarily for your spirit. Point of Accountability: Keep track of how many minutes you spend doing your daily creative practice, and log those minutes in your daily accountability log.
And One Daily Meta-Structure
7. A meta-structure is one that sits “above” your other structures and serves to pull them all together. The meta-structure that holds all of the above habits and daily practices together is Keeping a Daily Accountability Log. When you do this faithfully and honestly, you will have nowhere to hide. You will be in a position to bear witness to the unvarnished results you are creating for yourself. Consequently, you will be able to make insightful course corrections. When you sustain all of the above self-care activities AND log them every day, you will open a door to personal transformation that most individuals never find, much less walk through. That is where the real fun begins. Point of Accountability: Be sure to make all the daily entries in your log that you committed to making.
Pulling the Seven Self-Care Structures All Together
When you start to take your own self-care seriously and start to methodically pay yourself first, you can start to increase your resilience-readiness both quickly and sustainably. You can begin to develop a deep-seated confidence that you will have whatever you need in order to successfully meet whatever challenges come your way, whether they be small or big. This makes life ever so much more enjoyable and peaceful.
The rest is up to you. Self-care is, by definition, a gift that only you can give to yourself. Optimal self-care does require you to continuously invest a relatively small amount of your time, attention, and energy in your own well-being. Over time, the payoff on this small daily investment can be spectacular. It’s one of those gifts that keeps on giving.
So when you’re ready, go for it. Just remember: One simple change in your daily self-care practices has the power to change everything—even your destiny. On the other hand, without deliberate, ongoing practice, nothing changes. You get to choose.
______________________________________________________
Copyright © 2009 Alexander M. (Sandy) Davis. To find out more about Sandy Davis and the resilience-related products and services he offers, visit http://www.ResilienceWorks.com. To subscribe to his free monthly e-newsletter, send an e-mail to Subscribe@ResilienceWorks.com. To reach Sandy directly, send an e-mail to Sandy@ResilenceWorks.com. FYI, he’s “The Resilience Guy.”
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Nine ways to get happy in the next thirty minutes
Check out the following article at "Shine" on Yahoo.
Nine ways to get happy in the next thirty minutes
In the next half hour, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you've achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.
1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you're on the phone, stand up and pace. Walk to a coworker's office instead of sending an e-mail. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better...
2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning. Find the best walking workout for your exercise style.
3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven't seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you'll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.
4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.
5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do. In that time, take a quick look around the house and see how to get organized using everyday items.
6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also...
7. Save someone's life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good―it really works!
8. Act happy. Fake it 'til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you're smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable. There's no need to walk around in a constant state of worry. After all, what's the worst that can happen if you bounce a check or leave wet clothes in the dryer?
9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you "should" or "need to" learn about.
Nine ways to get happy in the next thirty minutes
In the next half hour, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you've achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.
1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you're on the phone, stand up and pace. Walk to a coworker's office instead of sending an e-mail. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better...
2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning. Find the best walking workout for your exercise style.
3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven't seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you'll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.
4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.
5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do. In that time, take a quick look around the house and see how to get organized using everyday items.
6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also...
7. Save someone's life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good―it really works!
8. Act happy. Fake it 'til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you're smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable. There's no need to walk around in a constant state of worry. After all, what's the worst that can happen if you bounce a check or leave wet clothes in the dryer?
9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you "should" or "need to" learn about.
Friday, March 13, 2009
HANDBOOK 2009
[source unknown]
Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008...
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or worry about things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons y ou learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy
39. Don’t block your own blessings…don’t get in your way!
Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008...
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or worry about things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons y ou learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy
39. Don’t block your own blessings…don’t get in your way!
"the lost generation"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
Perspective is everything. This video shows the same words, seen from two angles...
Perspective is everything. This video shows the same words, seen from two angles...
Monday, March 2, 2009
stress management group forming in DC area
To join an action methods group on stress management, contact Marsha at marshastein2003@verizon.net
Monday, February 9, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
A poem written for these times by Alice Walker
The World Has Changed
A poem written for these times by Alice Walker
The World Has Changed:
Wake up & smell
The possibility.
The world
Has changed:
It did not
Change
Without
Your prayers
Without
Your faith
Without
Your determination
To
Believe
In liberation
&
Kindness;
Without
Your
Dancing
Through the years
That
Had
No
Beat.
The world has changed:
It did not
Change
Without
Your
Numbers
Your
Fierce
Love
Of self
&
Cosmos
It did not
Change
Without
Your
Strength.
The world has
Changed:
Wake up!
Give yourself
The gift
Of a new
Day.
The world has changed:
This does not mean
You were never
Hurt.
The world
Has changed:
Rise!
Yes
&
Shine!
Resist the siren
Call
Of
Disbelief.
The world has changed:
Don't let
Yourself
Remain
Asleep
To
It.
--By Alice Walker for the Inauguration
A poem written for these times by Alice Walker
The World Has Changed:
Wake up & smell
The possibility.
The world
Has changed:
It did not
Change
Without
Your prayers
Without
Your faith
Without
Your determination
To
Believe
In liberation
&
Kindness;
Without
Your
Dancing
Through the years
That
Had
No
Beat.
The world has changed:
It did not
Change
Without
Your
Numbers
Your
Fierce
Love
Of self
&
Cosmos
It did not
Change
Without
Your
Strength.
The world has
Changed:
Wake up!
Give yourself
The gift
Of a new
Day.
The world has changed:
This does not mean
You were never
Hurt.
The world
Has changed:
Rise!
Yes
&
Shine!
Resist the siren
Call
Of
Disbelief.
The world has changed:
Don't let
Yourself
Remain
Asleep
To
It.
--By Alice Walker for the Inauguration
Thursday, January 15, 2009
poem on how to be
Having Confessed
by Patrick Kavanagh
Having confessed he feels
That he should go down on his knees and pray
For forgiveness for his pride, for having
Dared to view his soul from the outside.
Lie at the heart of the emotion, time
Has its own work to do. We must not anticipate
Or awaken for a moment. God cannot catch us
Unless we stay in the unconscious room
Of our hearts. We must be nothing,
Nothing that God may make us something.
We must not touch the immortal material
We must not daydream to-morrow's judgment—
God must be allowed to surprise us.
We have sinned, sinned like Lucifer
By this anticipation. Let us lie down again
Deep in anonymous humility and God
May find us worthy material for His hand.
"Having Confessed" by Patrick Kavanagh, from Collected Poems.
by Patrick Kavanagh
Having confessed he feels
That he should go down on his knees and pray
For forgiveness for his pride, for having
Dared to view his soul from the outside.
Lie at the heart of the emotion, time
Has its own work to do. We must not anticipate
Or awaken for a moment. God cannot catch us
Unless we stay in the unconscious room
Of our hearts. We must be nothing,
Nothing that God may make us something.
We must not touch the immortal material
We must not daydream to-morrow's judgment—
God must be allowed to surprise us.
We have sinned, sinned like Lucifer
By this anticipation. Let us lie down again
Deep in anonymous humility and God
May find us worthy material for His hand.
"Having Confessed" by Patrick Kavanagh, from Collected Poems.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Quote relevant to today's news
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."
George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
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