For a comprehensive catalogue of all the ways war can affect vets and their families, see _Back from the Front: Combat Trauma, Love, and the Family_
by Aphrodite Matsakis
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The case for organizations to use peer networks to foster resilience
Exhibit A
From A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard:
"military psychiatry is often done best not by psychiatrists but by doctors, officers, or soldiers who understand the principles of group psychology and use the defenses in culture to help people through traumatic situations."
In other words, the members of a given culture can be the best ones to tap into it to foster resilience, using the values, beliefs, rewards, and reframing concepts that are the norms within it. Culture makes sense of reality, and trauma often ruptures that sense, leaving people feeling exposed in a crisis of meaning. Who better to help repair that rupture than a peer who knows the nature of what has been lost, and perhaps even the way back? Who better to call on the resources that community uses to provide extra support where needed than someone who knows exactly what those resources are?
PEER NETWORKS RULE!
From A War of Nerves: Soldiers and Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century by Ben Shephard:
"military psychiatry is often done best not by psychiatrists but by doctors, officers, or soldiers who understand the principles of group psychology and use the defenses in culture to help people through traumatic situations."
In other words, the members of a given culture can be the best ones to tap into it to foster resilience, using the values, beliefs, rewards, and reframing concepts that are the norms within it. Culture makes sense of reality, and trauma often ruptures that sense, leaving people feeling exposed in a crisis of meaning. Who better to help repair that rupture than a peer who knows the nature of what has been lost, and perhaps even the way back? Who better to call on the resources that community uses to provide extra support where needed than someone who knows exactly what those resources are?
PEER NETWORKS RULE!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Debrief, exit interviews, follow-up and peer support networks for humanitarian staff – making the business case to management
When humanitarian aid workers exit an organization to their next assignment, a little extra and relatively inexpensive attention from the organization can make a big difference. The difference for the departing staff member or consultant can be between a debilitating stress reaction or a smooth transition. The difference for the organization can be between a loyal recruiting pool, and reduced legal risk of liability cases on one hand and a faltering reputation on the other.
Management therefore has a stake in making the time, even in a busy and overstretched resource environment, for conducting psychological debriefs for staff returning from the field, giving exit interviews that glean lessons learned, and following up at six weeks and six months to establish that staff have found adequate resources for coping with any adverse reactions to the stress they experienced in the field.
Another simple and cheap way to provide support to exiting staff is the provision of peer networks in the form of listserves or informal virtual introductions among alumni of the organization. Events, newsletters, and other community maintenance services can supplement to good effect, but the basic facilitation of connection can provide ample opportunity for forming supportive ties with others who can provide empathy, due to their own similar experiences, as well as outlets for sharing ideas, mentoring, and stimulating positive social change.
Social support, as provided by management in the form of exit protocols and by peers through social networking, is important for several reasons. Recent studies show that “traditional social networks play a surprisingly powerful and underrecognized role in influencing how people behave.”1 A World Vision study2 showed that “individual resilience factors only accounted for some 7% of the variance between those who develop stress and trauma reactions and those who do not. … the degree and type of social support an individual is experiencing… accounted for up to 30% variance.”
Sharing these facts may convince, but in order to win real commitment by management for actual implementation, decision-makers will understand the need for providing exit services when they have experienced the bite of a stress reaction for themselves. Field visits, stories, and simulations can be useful in communicating, at a visceral level, the impact of stress in absence of a supportive environment.
1. Social Networks' Sway May Be Underestimated By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer
2. Conference session on Stress and Trauma Effects on National Staff: How Best to Use the Resources (Tuesday, 16th November, 2004; 3.50pm) by Janelle Richards, Human Resources Manager, World Vision, Australia, Janelle.richards@worldvision.com.au, Supplementary analysis was conducted by staff at the Headington Program at Fuller Seminary.
The key findings were:
• The relationship between a manager and their staff is critical for the mental health of all groups whether exposed to trauma or not.
• Those with compromised Social Support are 10 times as likely to be experiencing trauma following an event during service with WV as those with non compromised Social Support.
• Staff exposed to trauma who have compromised social support are 2.6 times as likely to experience moderate to severe anxiety as staff exposed to trauma who have good levels of social support.
• Social support within the organisation is a good a predictor of health with the most potent social support being the team leader.
• There is a threefold higher risk of experiencing anxiety if staff social support is compromised than if it is not.
Management therefore has a stake in making the time, even in a busy and overstretched resource environment, for conducting psychological debriefs for staff returning from the field, giving exit interviews that glean lessons learned, and following up at six weeks and six months to establish that staff have found adequate resources for coping with any adverse reactions to the stress they experienced in the field.
Another simple and cheap way to provide support to exiting staff is the provision of peer networks in the form of listserves or informal virtual introductions among alumni of the organization. Events, newsletters, and other community maintenance services can supplement to good effect, but the basic facilitation of connection can provide ample opportunity for forming supportive ties with others who can provide empathy, due to their own similar experiences, as well as outlets for sharing ideas, mentoring, and stimulating positive social change.
Social support, as provided by management in the form of exit protocols and by peers through social networking, is important for several reasons. Recent studies show that “traditional social networks play a surprisingly powerful and underrecognized role in influencing how people behave.”1 A World Vision study2 showed that “individual resilience factors only accounted for some 7% of the variance between those who develop stress and trauma reactions and those who do not. … the degree and type of social support an individual is experiencing… accounted for up to 30% variance.”
Sharing these facts may convince, but in order to win real commitment by management for actual implementation, decision-makers will understand the need for providing exit services when they have experienced the bite of a stress reaction for themselves. Field visits, stories, and simulations can be useful in communicating, at a visceral level, the impact of stress in absence of a supportive environment.
1. Social Networks' Sway May Be Underestimated By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer
2. Conference session on Stress and Trauma Effects on National Staff: How Best to Use the Resources (Tuesday, 16th November, 2004; 3.50pm) by Janelle Richards, Human Resources Manager, World Vision, Australia, Janelle.richards@worldvision.com.au, Supplementary analysis was conducted by staff at the Headington Program at Fuller Seminary.
The key findings were:
• The relationship between a manager and their staff is critical for the mental health of all groups whether exposed to trauma or not.
• Those with compromised Social Support are 10 times as likely to be experiencing trauma following an event during service with WV as those with non compromised Social Support.
• Staff exposed to trauma who have compromised social support are 2.6 times as likely to experience moderate to severe anxiety as staff exposed to trauma who have good levels of social support.
• Social support within the organisation is a good a predictor of health with the most potent social support being the team leader.
• There is a threefold higher risk of experiencing anxiety if staff social support is compromised than if it is not.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Vicarious resilience
This piece points up the idea that, instead of suffering vicarious trauma, therapists may gain from the resilience of survivors!
The abstract reads:
This study explores the formulation of a new concept: vicarious resilience. It addresses the question of how psychotherapists who work with survivors of political violence or kidnapping are affected by their clients' stories of resilience. It focuses on the psychotherapists' interpretations of their clients' stories, and how they make sense of the impact that these stories have had on their lives. In semistructured interviews, 12 psychotherapists who work with victims of political violence and kidnapping were interviewed about their perceptions of their clients' overcoming of adversity. A phenomenological analysis of the transcripts was used to describe the themes that speak about the effects of witnessing how clients cope constructively with adversity. These themes are discussed to advance the concept of vicarious resilience and how it can contribute to sustaining and empowering trauma therapists.
The abstract reads:
This study explores the formulation of a new concept: vicarious resilience. It addresses the question of how psychotherapists who work with survivors of political violence or kidnapping are affected by their clients' stories of resilience. It focuses on the psychotherapists' interpretations of their clients' stories, and how they make sense of the impact that these stories have had on their lives. In semistructured interviews, 12 psychotherapists who work with victims of political violence and kidnapping were interviewed about their perceptions of their clients' overcoming of adversity. A phenomenological analysis of the transcripts was used to describe the themes that speak about the effects of witnessing how clients cope constructively with adversity. These themes are discussed to advance the concept of vicarious resilience and how it can contribute to sustaining and empowering trauma therapists.
Dance therapy for torture survivors
Amber Gray uses movement therapy to work with survivors of atrocities. Learn more here. Restorative Resources Training and Consulting, LLC, provides individual, family, group and community-based psychotherapy; training and education; consultation related to clinical practice, organizational structure and management; and program development, implementation and evaluation, nationally and internationally, to people and organizations who serve survivors of extreme interpersonal trauma.
Soldiers against war
Military and their families come together and speak out to end violence: Veterans Against the Iraq War, Veterans for Peace, and Iraq Veterans Against the War
help for veterans suffering war stress
The National Veterans Foundation can be reached at 1-888-777-4443 and offers help and advocacy to veterans and their families.
2004 program on supporting humanitarian workers
This summary of a 2004 event is a useful overview of issues involved in providing adequate support to humanitarian aid workers.
http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/cross_cultural_conf_pres_summary.pdf
http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/cross_cultural_conf_pres_summary.pdf
Friday, May 23, 2008
one woman show on haiti (in dc)
If you are passionate about art connected to social
change, Kathleen Gonzales, whose work delves into Haitian
folklore, interviews with Haitians & Haitian-Americans, and also her
own experience growing up in Haiti as she saw violence seize her
country, will be presenting her beautiful and courageous story this coming week -- with 2 pay-what-you-can (free!) sneak preview shows Tuesday & Wednesday.
The Bridge of Bodies
A one-woman show
Written and Performed by Kathleen Gonzales
Directed by Patrick Crowley
May 29th - June 15th
Thursday–Saturday, 8pm, Sundays, 3pm
Pay-What-You-Can Previews Tuesday May 27 & Wednesday May 28
Flashpoint 916 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Tickets: $20, $10 for students with valid student ID.
$10 per person for groups of 8 or more.
For reservations call: 202.315.1340 or email
tickets@bridgeofbodies.com
Marie-Therese immigrated to the United States carrying little
recollection of who she was and why she left. With her silent mother
as the only link to her past, Marie-Therese realizes that she must
return to her native Haiti to understand her true identity. Along her
journey, Marie-Therese encounters walls that eavesdrop on
conversations, strangers who recognize her from long ago and a ritual
cleansing from deep blue pools of water. She meets many characters who
each hold a piece to the puzzle of who she is. Will she be able to fit
the pieces together and remember what happened?
Haitian-born Kathleen Gonzales draws from her own experience and
interviews with Haitians and Haitian-Americans in this intimate
tapestry capturing the sights and sounds of Haiti's troubled past, as
well as the rich cultural landscape of today.
Proceeds from this production will benefit The Eyes of Haiti, a non-
profit organization, teaching peace and sustainability to the youth of
Haiti.
Part of the 2007-2008 Mead Theatre Lab Program at Flashpoint, a
Cultural Development Corporation project. Funded in part bythe D.C.
Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by
National Endowment for the Arts.
The Mead Theatre Lab Program at Flashpoint, a Cultural Development
Corporation project, is made possible by the generous support of the
Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts &
Humanities, the Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, the Aaron & Cecile
Goldman Foundation, the Jovid Foundation, Mary & Daniel Loughran
Foundation, the MARPAT Foundation, Jaylee & the late Gilbert Mead, the
Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Jon and
NoraLee Sedmak and many other sponsors. Hotel Helix is Flashpoint's
2007-2008 Hotel Partner. Barefoot Wine is Flashpoint's 2007-2008 Wine
Partner.
change, Kathleen Gonzales, whose work delves into Haitian
folklore, interviews with Haitians & Haitian-Americans, and also her
own experience growing up in Haiti as she saw violence seize her
country, will be presenting her beautiful and courageous story this coming week -- with 2 pay-what-you-can (free!) sneak preview shows Tuesday & Wednesday.
The Bridge of Bodies
A one-woman show
Written and Performed by Kathleen Gonzales
Directed by Patrick Crowley
May 29th - June 15th
Thursday–Saturday, 8pm, Sundays, 3pm
Pay-What-You-Can Previews Tuesday May 27 & Wednesday May 28
Flashpoint 916 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
Tickets: $20, $10 for students with valid student ID.
$10 per person for groups of 8 or more.
For reservations call: 202.315.1340 or email
tickets@bridgeofbodies.com
Marie-Therese immigrated to the United States carrying little
recollection of who she was and why she left. With her silent mother
as the only link to her past, Marie-Therese realizes that she must
return to her native Haiti to understand her true identity. Along her
journey, Marie-Therese encounters walls that eavesdrop on
conversations, strangers who recognize her from long ago and a ritual
cleansing from deep blue pools of water. She meets many characters who
each hold a piece to the puzzle of who she is. Will she be able to fit
the pieces together and remember what happened?
Haitian-born Kathleen Gonzales draws from her own experience and
interviews with Haitians and Haitian-Americans in this intimate
tapestry capturing the sights and sounds of Haiti's troubled past, as
well as the rich cultural landscape of today.
Proceeds from this production will benefit The Eyes of Haiti, a non-
profit organization, teaching peace and sustainability to the youth of
Haiti.
Part of the 2007-2008 Mead Theatre Lab Program at Flashpoint, a
Cultural Development Corporation project. Funded in part bythe D.C.
Commission on the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in part by
National Endowment for the Arts.
The Mead Theatre Lab Program at Flashpoint, a Cultural Development
Corporation project, is made possible by the generous support of the
Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts &
Humanities, the Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, the Aaron & Cecile
Goldman Foundation, the Jovid Foundation, Mary & Daniel Loughran
Foundation, the MARPAT Foundation, Jaylee & the late Gilbert Mead, the
Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Jon and
NoraLee Sedmak and many other sponsors. Hotel Helix is Flashpoint's
2007-2008 Hotel Partner. Barefoot Wine is Flashpoint's 2007-2008 Wine
Partner.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Invisible Wounds of War
A report released this week by the RAND Corporation, focusing on the rates of PTSD, major depression, and traumatic brain injury in Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans. Researchers also conducted focus groups with military families and spouses about these issues and a model of the economic impact of these conditions.
The authors of the report recommend that effective programs incorporating evidence-based care must be developed to treat veterans experiencing problems such as PTSD and major depression, and suggest that such programs would actually have a negligible or even net positive cost due to their mitigation of the negative economic impact associated with these events.
There is a summary and free download of report results here:
RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research (2008). Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery. Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation.
The authors of the report recommend that effective programs incorporating evidence-based care must be developed to treat veterans experiencing problems such as PTSD and major depression, and suggest that such programs would actually have a negligible or even net positive cost due to their mitigation of the negative economic impact associated with these events.
There is a summary and free download of report results here:
RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research (2008). Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery. Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Tips for donating to cyclone relief
A note from Simon Billenness, co-chair of the board of directors of the U.S. Campaign for Burma: http://uscampaignforburma.org/ follows:
I've been working on this almost full-time since the cyclone struck. It's been a crash course for me in humanitarian relief in Burma. Here is what I've learned.
1. It is best to give donation to small NGOs. The big NGOs (Red Cross, World Vision, etc.) have big publicity machines and are likely not hurting for donations. We should give our "smart money" to the most effective small NGOs who devote their money solely for relief and spend little to no money on fundraising overhead.
2. It is best to give to NGOs who were on the ground prior to the cyclone. They are experienced with Burma, already have a network of Burmese partners, and know how to best bypass the regime's stealing and corruption.
3. Donate to political action as well as relief. The problem is not that there is insufficient aid. Aid is already piling up on the borders. The real problems is that the Burmese military regime is taking control of aid deliveries and diverting it to feed the army. (The regime is scared that their own troops are hungry and have weapons. The generals fear mutinies and even a large-scale insurrection.) The regime is also refusing access to the affected regions by aid workers and journalists. It will take political pressure on the regime to force them to let in the aid. That requires funding the organizations that are organizing the most effective political pressure.
Regarding aid, I do recommend Thirst Aid, which was inside Burma pre-cyclone and has already been delivering water purification tablets. (Thirst Aid is a small NGO run by a couple of experienced Burma aid activists in Oregon and has very little overhead.) www.thirst-aid.org
Foundation for the People of Burma was established by Hal Nathan, a San Francisco money manager and, I believe, Buddhist. This group has worked through monasteries inside Burma for several years. http://www.foundationburma.org/
Avaaz.org has raised a lot of money. Big kudos to them. But Avaaz does not have the contacts inside in Burma so they are distributing their money to the smaller groups that have.
Other organizations that I know and personally vouch for:
Burma Lifeline: http://www.burmalifeline.org/
Burma Border Projects: http://www.burmaborderprojects.org
Disclaimer: I am Co-chair of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
The U.S. Campaign for Burma is raising money that people can earmark for relief. These funds are being passed though 100%. I cannot go into detail about the groups inside Burma to which we are directly sending the money. If the regime learned that we were giving money to those organizations, they would very likely steal the money and put the people in prison.
I would also recommend donations for the political work of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Burma Campaign UK, and Canadian Friends of Burma. These do the most effective work in lobbying the United Nations, U.S. government and Congress as well as the European Union and its member governments.
http://www.uscampaignforburma.org
http://www.cfob.org
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/
I've been working on this almost full-time since the cyclone struck. It's been a crash course for me in humanitarian relief in Burma. Here is what I've learned.
1. It is best to give donation to small NGOs. The big NGOs (Red Cross, World Vision, etc.) have big publicity machines and are likely not hurting for donations. We should give our "smart money" to the most effective small NGOs who devote their money solely for relief and spend little to no money on fundraising overhead.
2. It is best to give to NGOs who were on the ground prior to the cyclone. They are experienced with Burma, already have a network of Burmese partners, and know how to best bypass the regime's stealing and corruption.
3. Donate to political action as well as relief. The problem is not that there is insufficient aid. Aid is already piling up on the borders. The real problems is that the Burmese military regime is taking control of aid deliveries and diverting it to feed the army. (The regime is scared that their own troops are hungry and have weapons. The generals fear mutinies and even a large-scale insurrection.) The regime is also refusing access to the affected regions by aid workers and journalists. It will take political pressure on the regime to force them to let in the aid. That requires funding the organizations that are organizing the most effective political pressure.
Regarding aid, I do recommend Thirst Aid, which was inside Burma pre-cyclone and has already been delivering water purification tablets. (Thirst Aid is a small NGO run by a couple of experienced Burma aid activists in Oregon and has very little overhead.) www.thirst-aid.org
Foundation for the People of Burma was established by Hal Nathan, a San Francisco money manager and, I believe, Buddhist. This group has worked through monasteries inside Burma for several years. http://www.foundationburma.org/
Avaaz.org has raised a lot of money. Big kudos to them. But Avaaz does not have the contacts inside in Burma so they are distributing their money to the smaller groups that have.
Other organizations that I know and personally vouch for:
Burma Lifeline: http://www.burmalifeline.org/
Burma Border Projects: http://www.burmaborderprojects.org
Disclaimer: I am Co-chair of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
The U.S. Campaign for Burma is raising money that people can earmark for relief. These funds are being passed though 100%. I cannot go into detail about the groups inside Burma to which we are directly sending the money. If the regime learned that we were giving money to those organizations, they would very likely steal the money and put the people in prison.
I would also recommend donations for the political work of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Burma Campaign UK, and Canadian Friends of Burma. These do the most effective work in lobbying the United Nations, U.S. government and Congress as well as the European Union and its member governments.
http://www.uscampaignforburma.org
http://www.cfob.org
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Manage your energy, not your time
"The science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done."
The following is an excerpt from an article by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy, featured in the Harvard Business Review, October 2007
Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old partner at Ernst & Young, married with four young children. When we met him a year ago, he was working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually exhausted, and found it difficult to fully engage with his family in the evenings, which left him feeling guilty and dissatisfied. He slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals, instead grabbing a bite to eat on the run or while working at his desk.
Wanner’s experience is not uncommon. Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees. We at the Energy Project have worked with thousands of leaders and managers in the course of doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years. With remarkable consistency, these executives tell us they’re pushing themselves harder than ever to keep up and increasingly feel they are at a breaking point.
The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals—behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.
To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivated—and able—to bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.
The rituals and behaviors Wanner established to better manage his energy transformed his life. He set an earlier bedtime and gave up drinking, which had disrupted his sleep. As a consequence, when he woke up he felt more rested and more motivated to exercise, which he now does almost every morning. In less than two months he lost 15 pounds. After working out he now sits down with his family for breakfast. Wanner still puts in long hours on the job, but he renews himself regularly along the way. He leaves his desk for lunch and usually takes a morning and an afternoon walk outside. When he arrives at home in the evening, he’s more relaxed and better able to connect with his wife and children.
Establishing simple rituals like these can lead to striking results across organizations. At Wachovia Bank, we took a group of employees through a pilot energy management program and then measured their performance against that of a control group. The participants outperformed the controls on a series of financial metrics, such as the value of loans they generated. They also reported substantial improvements in their customer relationships, their engagement with work, and their personal satisfaction.
The following is an excerpt from an article by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy, featured in the Harvard Business Review, October 2007
Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old partner at Ernst & Young, married with four young children. When we met him a year ago, he was working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually exhausted, and found it difficult to fully engage with his family in the evenings, which left him feeling guilty and dissatisfied. He slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals, instead grabbing a bite to eat on the run or while working at his desk.
Wanner’s experience is not uncommon. Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees. We at the Energy Project have worked with thousands of leaders and managers in the course of doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years. With remarkable consistency, these executives tell us they’re pushing themselves harder than ever to keep up and increasingly feel they are at a breaking point.
The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals—behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.
To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivated—and able—to bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.
The rituals and behaviors Wanner established to better manage his energy transformed his life. He set an earlier bedtime and gave up drinking, which had disrupted his sleep. As a consequence, when he woke up he felt more rested and more motivated to exercise, which he now does almost every morning. In less than two months he lost 15 pounds. After working out he now sits down with his family for breakfast. Wanner still puts in long hours on the job, but he renews himself regularly along the way. He leaves his desk for lunch and usually takes a morning and an afternoon walk outside. When he arrives at home in the evening, he’s more relaxed and better able to connect with his wife and children.
Establishing simple rituals like these can lead to striking results across organizations. At Wachovia Bank, we took a group of employees through a pilot energy management program and then measured their performance against that of a control group. The participants outperformed the controls on a series of financial metrics, such as the value of loans they generated. They also reported substantial improvements in their customer relationships, their engagement with work, and their personal satisfaction.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Interview with Sandy Davis: "My daily resilience practices have actually saved my life a bunch of times."
Interview of Sandy Davis by Atieno Fisher on April 21, 2008
Excerpt: I realized that the daily practices I was doing served to generate a vital inner energy that served to amplify and extend my own ability to be resilient. In other words, I discovered the “proactive” side of resilience. I realized that before you can be optimally resilient, you first have to become “zillient.” Then, when adversity or change challenges you, you will be primed to be “re-zillient” or resilient.
Sandy Davis holds a PCC Certificate (Professional Certified Coach) from the International Coach Federation and has been a full-time professional coach for over 12 years. For decades, he has been experimenting with various ways to develop personal resilience. He has self-published two instructional manuals on this subject, the most recent of which is entitled: “Zillience! How to Succeed in Business without Really Frying.”
In April, I had the opportunity to interview Sandy about his work and his thinking on the subject of personal resilience. I was reminded again that the people we often consider extraordinary and elevate as somehow different (more heroic or saintly) than ourselves are actually people just like the rest of us, who make choices that are just as open to each of us. In the transcript of that interview that follows is a description of Sandy's story and how he came to evolve the three resilience-sustaining practices he now teaches others.
AF: How did you become interested in developing personal resilience?
SD: At the age of six, I stumbled on the need to develop my own resilience experientially, long before I knew the word “resilience” existed. After the sudden and unexpected break-up of my parents’ marriage, I found myself in circumstances that I didn't like. The world around me abruptly transformed from being safe and predictable to unknown and unpredictable. Suddenly life became threatening. This was a big shock, one that traumatized me in subtle and lasting ways. It let me to feel a need to constantly be “en garde.”
I remember wanting to find a way to make the uninvited adversities that had befallen us go away. I had an intuition that there had to be some way to offset them, to play through the adversities, and to come out the other side of them. I wanted to be more in control of my situation. But no one offered me any help or instruction in how to do this. Back then, I found myself trapped in my own private existential distress.
AF: What were some of the lessons you learned way back then?
SD: The set-up for one of the first lessons I learned about how to “play through adversity” began a year later, when I was in the second grade. I had been labeled as “musically talented,” and was in my second year of private piano lessons. I had a great aural memory and could play melodies back upon just hearing them once. It was also easy for me to improvise around those melodies. I would happily spend hours “noodling” away on the family piano.
Unfortunately, however, I was dyslexic (which was not yet diagnosable back then). My brain was wired up in such a way that reading music was next to impossible. Written notes made no sense to me whatsoever. So I taught myself to compensate for this inability by taking the fullest possible advantage of my auditory memory. After each lesson, I would ask my mother to sight-read my newly assigned pieces for me. Then I would reconstruct what she had played by ear and commit the piece to memory. That was how I bluffed my way through the first two years of piano lessons.
My relationship with my piano teacher became increasingly adversarial. I though of her as “Mrs. Witch” and to this day remember her only by that made-up name. She was determined to have all her students to play every note exactly as it was written. She had no interest in my playing in the assigned pieces in an “approximate” way, and she was even less interested in my improvising those melodies in order to decorate and “improve” them.
We finally came to blows. At the end of my second year of lessons, Mrs. Witch declared to my mother (in front of me) that I was “unmusical and uneducable.” She told my mother that she would do better to spend her money on giving me riding lessons. A week later, I was sitting on top of a horse. I felt wounded, double-crossed, and betrayed. It was as though I had been summarily thrown out of the promise land. My most favorite pastime had been ripped out from underneath me.
AF: Was that the end of your pursuit of music?
SD: No, eight years later, when I was 15, I finally discovered a way to forever heal that wound. I stumbled into the world of traditional folk music. I discovered the recordings of Pete Seeger, the Weavers, the Kingston Trio, and other folk musicians. Here was a world where songs and tunes were learned primarily by ear and then passed along by ear from musician to musician and from generation to generation. This was my idea of heaven on earth.
I jumped headlong into this vibrant world. I knew this time around that no one would ever be able to take my music away from me again. It was mine now. I have continued to thrive in this world of music ever since. I still play traditional dance tunes every day, and this act of making music still reliably nourishes my spirit.
Perhaps more than anything else, it was this formative learning experience that marked the beginning of my figuring out how to bounce back from adversity. It was my first memorable success in reclaiming what I wanted, what I needed, and what I loved. In the process, I discovered the value of daily practice (in this case, playing my five-string banjo every day) and it led me to a first taste of what a delight it is to master something. It also gave me a very positive new identity fragment: “I’m a musician. I play the banjo.”
Having this new identity gave my self-confidence a huge boost. More importantly, it encouraged me to believe that no matter what the setback, it is possible to find a way through it. After having my favorite pastime painfully stripped away when I was seven, I later found my own way to reclaim it. Because I refused to give it up, the wounded part of me finally started to feel whole again.
AF: Were there other lessons in resilience that date back to when you were young?
SD: Yes, I think the roots of my long-standing interest in resilience go squarely back to my formative years. For example, another lesson in dealing with adversity came about through some physical challenges I faced as an adolescent.
When I was 14, I was stricken with rheumatic fever and ended up with scarred heart valves and a residual heart murmur. I was told back then that I would never be able to exercise vigorously. Through high school and college, I was not allowed to play competitive sports. I missed out on the rewarding experience of becoming an athlete.
When I was 23, I took it upon myself to disobey the long-standing advice of my doctors. I was fed up with being so out of condition that I was unable to walk up four flights of stairs without becoming winded and red in the face. Without anyone’s permission, I went out and bought myself a pair of sneakers and a sweat suit and just started running.
At first, jogging a distance of one mile just about killed me. But I liked the payoff of feeling better about myself after I had worked up a good sweat. So I continued to run. Over three months, I gradually worked my way up to running three miles every other day. At that point, I had developed enough stamina to run up four flights of stairs without becoming winded. That was a thrill. And I was reminded again that practice always pays off.
AF: What did you take from this lesson?
SD: I was so impressed by this demonstration of the power of daily practice that I have never stopped exercising vigorously for at least half an hour ever other day. For the past 40 years, I have continuously run 5K every other day, year ’round, or rowed a distance of 7.5K.
AF: That’s an impressive demonstration of persistence. After all those miles, how are your knees?
SD: Up until a few months ago, there were in fabulous condition. Then, unfortunately, in February of this year, I was in a near-fatal car accident in which my right knee was permanently injured. I suddenly had to stop my long-standing practice of running, and it appears now that I may never be able to run again. My injured right knee can no longer tolerate the “concussions” of the running stride. I am grateful, however, that I can still ride a bicycle and I can still row my racing shell. My new goal is to continue doing one or the other of those two sports every other day for the next thirty-plus years, year ’round, until I am 100 years old.
I remain fully committed to exercising regularly because that’s what has continuously strengthened my heart and, in spite of my shaky start as an invalid, that daily habit has enabled me to run a total distance of well over 24,900 miles (which is the circumference of the earth at the equator).
AF: You mentioned to me earlier that you’ve had some recent setbacks. What are those?
SD: When I was 61, my history with rheumatic fever caught up with me. After 40 years of running, my heart finally needed some assistance. Over a period of several decades, my resting pulse had become progressively lower. It finally got too low and I developed symptoms of heart block. Fortunately, I was alert to my symptoms and, on the day when my heart finally needed help, I was fortunate to have a pacemaker hastily implanted in my chest.
The good news is that the pacemaker was implanted just in time, and it fully corrected the heart block problem. In short order, I was able to resume my routine of exercising vigorously for at least half an hour every other day. The bad news is that at the same time I received my pacemaker, a staph infection was also accidentally implanted in me.
That infection “colonized,” and eight months later, it unexpectedly “came back to life” and all but killed me. As a consequence, I had to spend three weeks in two different hospitals. In addition to treating the systemic staph infection, I had to have having two more pacemaker surgeries, one to “extract” my first pacemaker install a temporary replacement, and then a second surgery to implant a new pacemaker and remove the temporary one.
On top of that, I had to endure six weeks of continuous intravenous infusions of antibiotics. More than anything else, the toxic antibiotics nearly killed me. What saved my life were the daily resilience practices I have been doing faithfully for the past several decades. Even as I was in the hospital, they gave me the stamina I needed to “play through adversity” once again.
AF: I know you speak of “doing your daily resilience practices as though your life depends on them.” It sounds like that has proven to be true for you. Is that so?
SD: Yes. My daily resilience practices have actually saved my life a bunch of times. I think it’s fair to say that without them, I wouldn’t be here today. They have pulled me through emotional adversities (such as depression, personal losses, etc.), medical challenges (such as various sports injuries and occasional illnesses), and my fair share of major life upsets (such as divorce, getting laid off from work, failing in business, etc.).
AF: How was it that you started to incorporate these daily resilience practices into your work with your coaching clients?
SD: Based on how valuable these daily practices have proven to be for myself, about 10 years ago I started experimenting with teaching these practices to my coaching clients. The practices proved to be extremely effective in helping them meet the challenges they were facing. I then set about inventing ways to reach more people. Four years ago, I started piloting several group programs. Today I offer both live workshops, and several ongoing phone-based group programs. All of these programs focus on teaching you how to take on and sustain these simple daily resilience practices. I’ve also authored two instructional manuals on this topic.
AF: You’ve clearly spent a long time putting the pieces of this puzzle together. You started way back when you were a teenager. Take us from back then to the present moment.
SD: As a teenager, my experiments in becoming resilient were somewhat haphazard. Fortunately, a few of them produced great results. Over the past 50 years, I have gone on to consciously experiment with all sorts of daily developmental practices. I have sought out ones that had the promise of helping me reach the long-desired state of being prepared to handle whatever challenges and adversities were bound to be on my path. I have tested many different practices. In almost all cases, I have experimented with a given practice for at least five continuous years or longer.
About eight years ago, I reached a point where it felt like I had finally “cracked the code.” I had been searching for a combination of daily practices that would ensure a consistent high degree of personal resilience. I wanted to discover the best, most effective, most affordable, and minimum set of simple daily practices.
Along the way, I came to understand that “resilience” is fundamentally a reactive phenomenon. Only in the moment of facing adversity, do you actually put forward responses that are what we call “resilient.” The question I asked myself was, “In between those moments of making resilient responses, what’s going on?”
That was when I realized that the daily practices I was doing served to generate a vital inner energy that served to amplify and extend my own ability to be resilient. In other words, I discovered the “proactive” side of resilience. I realized that before you can be optimally resilient, you first have to become “zillient.” Then, when adversity or change challenges you, you will be primed to be “re-zillient” or resilient.
AF: So what are the daily practices that generate this energy you call “zillience?”
SD: What I have discovered works best is a combination of three simple daily practices. All three require you to “come back to your senses.” One is focused on developing your mind. The second focuses on developing your body. And the third focuses on developing your spirit.
All three of these practices are what I call “non-cognitive” practices. They are not about thinking. In fact, they are all designed to help you regularly “get out of your cerebral cortex.” They all involve learning “experientially” rather than “cognitively.”
Here’s the magic combination of daily practices that I have found will reliably amplify and extend your natural resilience:
1. The first is a pure centering practice for the mind. It entails learning to shut down the “CPU” (Central Processing Unit) of the thinking brain and focus momentarily on just being without thinking. One simple way to do this is to focus your attention singularly on your breathing. Doing this for just 15 minutes a day is enough to produce desirable changes (such as lowing the level of the stress hormone, cortisol, in your blood, and strengthening your immune system). By teaching yourself how to let go of your thoughts and be completely present in the moment, you can gain a remarkable degree of control over your inner emotional world. For example, you can learn to quickly let go of negative emotional states and induce positive emotional states at will.
2. The second daily practice entails exercising vigorously for an average of 15 minutes a day or 30 minutes every other day. When you regularly exercise “aerobically,” you not only strengthen your heart as a muscle. You also keep the inner workings of your whole body “toned up.” Indeed, regular exercise turns out to be particularly beneficial for your brain.
Without regular exercise, our bodies slowly start to degenerate. With regular exercise, it’s possible to “hold even” as we age. Indeed, at any given moment, no matter how old we are, we can develop our bodies to be stronger, healthier, and more agile. In some truly remarkable ways, regular exercise can actually reverse the normal aging process.
3. The third daily practice is what I call a daily creative practice. Each of us can benefit hugely from having a restorative developmental activity that we pursue every day in some small but continuous ways. You want to choose a creative activity that falls outside the domain of your work, one that tantalizes you to keep on developing your creative self. You want to choose an activity with which you feel a deep and passionate connection. You want it to be something so dear to you that when you take time to pursue it, you can become completely entranced by it. You want it to have the power to bring you back to center you by pulling you far away from everything else in your life that is stressing you. By having such a practice and by doing it for at least 15 minutes each day, you can greatly refresh your spirit.
AF: How long have you been doing these three daily practices?
SD: I’ve been doing a daily creative practice off an on for almost 50 years. I’ve been exercising vigorously for half an hour every other day for over 40 years. And I’ve been doing a daily centering practice for the past 15 years. For the past six years, I have also kept an accountability log in which I record every day how many minutes I spend doing each of these practices.
Based on these logs, I know that on April 1st of this year, I completed 2,100 consecutive days during which time I did not miss my daily centering practice a single time, and during which time I missed my every-other-day aerobic exercise only on a few instances when I was injured or sick. Over the span of the past 69 consecutive months, I have averaged over an hour a day doing my daily creative practice (which happens still to be playing traditional music).
AF: You speak of doing these daily practices as though your life depends on them. How is that so?
SD: These practices have saved my life multiple times. For example, as I was being wheeled into the operating room to receive my pacemaker (and months later when I had to have it extricated surgically), my centering practice really helped to be able to remain calm and receptive. Furthermore, the only way I could survive the painful staph infection I had was to continuously do my centering practice.
Because my creative thinking was all tuned up when I was admitted to the hospital, I was able to maintain the thought clarity and self-confidence required to catch a number of potentially fatal medical mistakes that were made. I was able to stay tuned into my body and trusted that I knew at least as much, and in some cases more, than my doctors knew. Without this confidence in my own processing capabilities and the resulting courage to speak out, I would be dead today. These are some examples of how these daily practices have saved my life.
AF: How about an example of how these practices have helped others in similar ways?
SD: I have seen these practices help others tremendously. For example, several years ago I coached a President and CEO of a manufacturing company over a period of about 18 months. When I started working with him, his life was pretty messed up both professionally and personally. He was on the cusp of getting fired. He was also overweight, out of shape, and highly distractible. His father had died in his 40’s of a heart attack, and it appeared that my client was on track to follow in his father’s footsteps.
By teaching my client how and why to take on a individualized version of these three daily resilience practices, he moved quickly from a place of feeling beleaguered and stressed out, to a place of leading with a genuine warmth of spirit and a new-found agility. He became visibly much more “zillient.”
Three years later, over the Christmas holidays, I unexpectedly received a card from him in which he wrote longhand: “Sandy, thank you for saving my life.”
AF: How is it that you, yourself, have consistently chosen to respond to adversities with such a positive attitude?
SD: Most of my own learning about resilience stems from my wanting to find effective ways to move away from discomfort. I have always believed that if I could learn to self-regulate my own emotions, my own beliefs, and my own actions, I would be able to create a kind of “personal sovereignty.” I would be able to remain free, no matter what my circumstances. I would be able to stay “at choice.” For my whole life, I have been a student of how to create this kind of personal sovereignty.
What I have discovered is that these simple daily practices have the power to change your destiny. Where you end up in life depends on what you practice. If you choose to practice negative behaviors, you will get better and better at them, until they finally influence your destiny. By the same token, if you practice positive behaviors, ones that benefit your health and well-being, you will also get better and better at them, and they will influence your destiny in positive ways.
What we tend to forget is that either course takes about the same amount of work and commitment. So when there’s no difference in “price,” why not treat yourself to the positive outcomes?
It is not that the positive choices are easy. More often than not, they are hard. But choosing a positive path and taking committed action accordingly is what moves you from surviving to thriving.
For example, in February when I suddenly couldn't run anymore, I was deeply discouraged by my personal loss. At that point, I had a choice. I could sit there and continue to practice feeling sorry for myself. Or I could re-orient my thinking in some positive manner and practice a different choice. I chose this latter course. I decided to view my knee injury not as the end of my running, but as the beginning of my cycling. I went out and bought myself a bicycle and never looked back.
AF: Please say a bit more about how these practices can change your destiny.
SD: Your destiny derives in large part from what you practice every day ––consciously or otherwise. If you are depressed, it is because you have been practicing hanging out in that emotional state. If you keep on practicing being depressed, it is predictable that you will get even better at it. If you decide that you want to stop being depressed, you have to start practicing something else.
A proven medical intervention that works to decrease depression entails increasing your body’s production of serotonin. This can be done via prescriptive medications. In almost all cases, it can be done equally well by exercising regularly. So if you want to break your habit of being depressed, a great place to start is to take on a daily practice of vigorous exercise. What I have found is that when you are physically in motion, it’s impossible to feel stuck. Once you start to exercise regularly and continuously, a predictable result is that you will start to feel “not depressed.”
What’s critical is that you get to a point where you understand you have the option to change your practices in order to create different results. Then all you have to do is take action––repeatedly and continuously. This requires commitment and work. In the long run, nothing else produces sustainable results.
AF: Before we finish, I’d like to ask you what’s going to be next for you? How is your work evolving now?
SD: What’s calling me next is to find ways to teach these practices to seniors in high schools and to incoming college freshmen. I would love to help kids discover the power of these practices sooner than later. If I had known how to systematically put them to work at that age, my life might have tracked quite differently.
Right now I work mostly with adults in their forties and fifties. Before they come to me, they have had to finally conclude on their own that they don’t “know it all,” that what they have been doing isn’t producing the results they want, and that they are ready to make a commitment to changing some behaviors in order to get different results. They need to be willing to do something to “get out of their head,” to come back to their senses, and to explore the power of simple experiential learning.
What excites me now is to reach out to younger individuals. I’m looking forward to figuring out how to connect with them in order to make a positive difference not just for “fully-grown” adults, but also for as many young adults as possible.
AF: I like your observation that we are all free to choose between fragility and resilience by cultivating greatness of spirit bit by bit.Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences, Sandy!
To find out more about Sandy Davis, the services he offers, and the instruction manuals he has published, visit www.homecomingcoaching.com. To order a copy of Sandy’s instruction manual on developing zillience, visit www.zillience.com. To reach Sandy or to subscribe to his free monthly e-newsletter, send an e-mail to sandy@wayofresilience.com. (As a bonus for new subscribers, Sandy will send you a free 22-page introductory excerpt from his instructional manual on developing zillience through simple daily practices.)
Excerpt: I realized that the daily practices I was doing served to generate a vital inner energy that served to amplify and extend my own ability to be resilient. In other words, I discovered the “proactive” side of resilience. I realized that before you can be optimally resilient, you first have to become “zillient.” Then, when adversity or change challenges you, you will be primed to be “re-zillient” or resilient.
Sandy Davis holds a PCC Certificate (Professional Certified Coach) from the International Coach Federation and has been a full-time professional coach for over 12 years. For decades, he has been experimenting with various ways to develop personal resilience. He has self-published two instructional manuals on this subject, the most recent of which is entitled: “Zillience! How to Succeed in Business without Really Frying.”
In April, I had the opportunity to interview Sandy about his work and his thinking on the subject of personal resilience. I was reminded again that the people we often consider extraordinary and elevate as somehow different (more heroic or saintly) than ourselves are actually people just like the rest of us, who make choices that are just as open to each of us. In the transcript of that interview that follows is a description of Sandy's story and how he came to evolve the three resilience-sustaining practices he now teaches others.
AF: How did you become interested in developing personal resilience?
SD: At the age of six, I stumbled on the need to develop my own resilience experientially, long before I knew the word “resilience” existed. After the sudden and unexpected break-up of my parents’ marriage, I found myself in circumstances that I didn't like. The world around me abruptly transformed from being safe and predictable to unknown and unpredictable. Suddenly life became threatening. This was a big shock, one that traumatized me in subtle and lasting ways. It let me to feel a need to constantly be “en garde.”
I remember wanting to find a way to make the uninvited adversities that had befallen us go away. I had an intuition that there had to be some way to offset them, to play through the adversities, and to come out the other side of them. I wanted to be more in control of my situation. But no one offered me any help or instruction in how to do this. Back then, I found myself trapped in my own private existential distress.
AF: What were some of the lessons you learned way back then?
SD: The set-up for one of the first lessons I learned about how to “play through adversity” began a year later, when I was in the second grade. I had been labeled as “musically talented,” and was in my second year of private piano lessons. I had a great aural memory and could play melodies back upon just hearing them once. It was also easy for me to improvise around those melodies. I would happily spend hours “noodling” away on the family piano.
Unfortunately, however, I was dyslexic (which was not yet diagnosable back then). My brain was wired up in such a way that reading music was next to impossible. Written notes made no sense to me whatsoever. So I taught myself to compensate for this inability by taking the fullest possible advantage of my auditory memory. After each lesson, I would ask my mother to sight-read my newly assigned pieces for me. Then I would reconstruct what she had played by ear and commit the piece to memory. That was how I bluffed my way through the first two years of piano lessons.
My relationship with my piano teacher became increasingly adversarial. I though of her as “Mrs. Witch” and to this day remember her only by that made-up name. She was determined to have all her students to play every note exactly as it was written. She had no interest in my playing in the assigned pieces in an “approximate” way, and she was even less interested in my improvising those melodies in order to decorate and “improve” them.
We finally came to blows. At the end of my second year of lessons, Mrs. Witch declared to my mother (in front of me) that I was “unmusical and uneducable.” She told my mother that she would do better to spend her money on giving me riding lessons. A week later, I was sitting on top of a horse. I felt wounded, double-crossed, and betrayed. It was as though I had been summarily thrown out of the promise land. My most favorite pastime had been ripped out from underneath me.
AF: Was that the end of your pursuit of music?
SD: No, eight years later, when I was 15, I finally discovered a way to forever heal that wound. I stumbled into the world of traditional folk music. I discovered the recordings of Pete Seeger, the Weavers, the Kingston Trio, and other folk musicians. Here was a world where songs and tunes were learned primarily by ear and then passed along by ear from musician to musician and from generation to generation. This was my idea of heaven on earth.
I jumped headlong into this vibrant world. I knew this time around that no one would ever be able to take my music away from me again. It was mine now. I have continued to thrive in this world of music ever since. I still play traditional dance tunes every day, and this act of making music still reliably nourishes my spirit.
Perhaps more than anything else, it was this formative learning experience that marked the beginning of my figuring out how to bounce back from adversity. It was my first memorable success in reclaiming what I wanted, what I needed, and what I loved. In the process, I discovered the value of daily practice (in this case, playing my five-string banjo every day) and it led me to a first taste of what a delight it is to master something. It also gave me a very positive new identity fragment: “I’m a musician. I play the banjo.”
Having this new identity gave my self-confidence a huge boost. More importantly, it encouraged me to believe that no matter what the setback, it is possible to find a way through it. After having my favorite pastime painfully stripped away when I was seven, I later found my own way to reclaim it. Because I refused to give it up, the wounded part of me finally started to feel whole again.
AF: Were there other lessons in resilience that date back to when you were young?
SD: Yes, I think the roots of my long-standing interest in resilience go squarely back to my formative years. For example, another lesson in dealing with adversity came about through some physical challenges I faced as an adolescent.
When I was 14, I was stricken with rheumatic fever and ended up with scarred heart valves and a residual heart murmur. I was told back then that I would never be able to exercise vigorously. Through high school and college, I was not allowed to play competitive sports. I missed out on the rewarding experience of becoming an athlete.
When I was 23, I took it upon myself to disobey the long-standing advice of my doctors. I was fed up with being so out of condition that I was unable to walk up four flights of stairs without becoming winded and red in the face. Without anyone’s permission, I went out and bought myself a pair of sneakers and a sweat suit and just started running.
At first, jogging a distance of one mile just about killed me. But I liked the payoff of feeling better about myself after I had worked up a good sweat. So I continued to run. Over three months, I gradually worked my way up to running three miles every other day. At that point, I had developed enough stamina to run up four flights of stairs without becoming winded. That was a thrill. And I was reminded again that practice always pays off.
AF: What did you take from this lesson?
SD: I was so impressed by this demonstration of the power of daily practice that I have never stopped exercising vigorously for at least half an hour ever other day. For the past 40 years, I have continuously run 5K every other day, year ’round, or rowed a distance of 7.5K.
AF: That’s an impressive demonstration of persistence. After all those miles, how are your knees?
SD: Up until a few months ago, there were in fabulous condition. Then, unfortunately, in February of this year, I was in a near-fatal car accident in which my right knee was permanently injured. I suddenly had to stop my long-standing practice of running, and it appears now that I may never be able to run again. My injured right knee can no longer tolerate the “concussions” of the running stride. I am grateful, however, that I can still ride a bicycle and I can still row my racing shell. My new goal is to continue doing one or the other of those two sports every other day for the next thirty-plus years, year ’round, until I am 100 years old.
I remain fully committed to exercising regularly because that’s what has continuously strengthened my heart and, in spite of my shaky start as an invalid, that daily habit has enabled me to run a total distance of well over 24,900 miles (which is the circumference of the earth at the equator).
AF: You mentioned to me earlier that you’ve had some recent setbacks. What are those?
SD: When I was 61, my history with rheumatic fever caught up with me. After 40 years of running, my heart finally needed some assistance. Over a period of several decades, my resting pulse had become progressively lower. It finally got too low and I developed symptoms of heart block. Fortunately, I was alert to my symptoms and, on the day when my heart finally needed help, I was fortunate to have a pacemaker hastily implanted in my chest.
The good news is that the pacemaker was implanted just in time, and it fully corrected the heart block problem. In short order, I was able to resume my routine of exercising vigorously for at least half an hour every other day. The bad news is that at the same time I received my pacemaker, a staph infection was also accidentally implanted in me.
That infection “colonized,” and eight months later, it unexpectedly “came back to life” and all but killed me. As a consequence, I had to spend three weeks in two different hospitals. In addition to treating the systemic staph infection, I had to have having two more pacemaker surgeries, one to “extract” my first pacemaker install a temporary replacement, and then a second surgery to implant a new pacemaker and remove the temporary one.
On top of that, I had to endure six weeks of continuous intravenous infusions of antibiotics. More than anything else, the toxic antibiotics nearly killed me. What saved my life were the daily resilience practices I have been doing faithfully for the past several decades. Even as I was in the hospital, they gave me the stamina I needed to “play through adversity” once again.
AF: I know you speak of “doing your daily resilience practices as though your life depends on them.” It sounds like that has proven to be true for you. Is that so?
SD: Yes. My daily resilience practices have actually saved my life a bunch of times. I think it’s fair to say that without them, I wouldn’t be here today. They have pulled me through emotional adversities (such as depression, personal losses, etc.), medical challenges (such as various sports injuries and occasional illnesses), and my fair share of major life upsets (such as divorce, getting laid off from work, failing in business, etc.).
AF: How was it that you started to incorporate these daily resilience practices into your work with your coaching clients?
SD: Based on how valuable these daily practices have proven to be for myself, about 10 years ago I started experimenting with teaching these practices to my coaching clients. The practices proved to be extremely effective in helping them meet the challenges they were facing. I then set about inventing ways to reach more people. Four years ago, I started piloting several group programs. Today I offer both live workshops, and several ongoing phone-based group programs. All of these programs focus on teaching you how to take on and sustain these simple daily resilience practices. I’ve also authored two instructional manuals on this topic.
AF: You’ve clearly spent a long time putting the pieces of this puzzle together. You started way back when you were a teenager. Take us from back then to the present moment.
SD: As a teenager, my experiments in becoming resilient were somewhat haphazard. Fortunately, a few of them produced great results. Over the past 50 years, I have gone on to consciously experiment with all sorts of daily developmental practices. I have sought out ones that had the promise of helping me reach the long-desired state of being prepared to handle whatever challenges and adversities were bound to be on my path. I have tested many different practices. In almost all cases, I have experimented with a given practice for at least five continuous years or longer.
About eight years ago, I reached a point where it felt like I had finally “cracked the code.” I had been searching for a combination of daily practices that would ensure a consistent high degree of personal resilience. I wanted to discover the best, most effective, most affordable, and minimum set of simple daily practices.
Along the way, I came to understand that “resilience” is fundamentally a reactive phenomenon. Only in the moment of facing adversity, do you actually put forward responses that are what we call “resilient.” The question I asked myself was, “In between those moments of making resilient responses, what’s going on?”
That was when I realized that the daily practices I was doing served to generate a vital inner energy that served to amplify and extend my own ability to be resilient. In other words, I discovered the “proactive” side of resilience. I realized that before you can be optimally resilient, you first have to become “zillient.” Then, when adversity or change challenges you, you will be primed to be “re-zillient” or resilient.
AF: So what are the daily practices that generate this energy you call “zillience?”
SD: What I have discovered works best is a combination of three simple daily practices. All three require you to “come back to your senses.” One is focused on developing your mind. The second focuses on developing your body. And the third focuses on developing your spirit.
All three of these practices are what I call “non-cognitive” practices. They are not about thinking. In fact, they are all designed to help you regularly “get out of your cerebral cortex.” They all involve learning “experientially” rather than “cognitively.”
Here’s the magic combination of daily practices that I have found will reliably amplify and extend your natural resilience:
1. The first is a pure centering practice for the mind. It entails learning to shut down the “CPU” (Central Processing Unit) of the thinking brain and focus momentarily on just being without thinking. One simple way to do this is to focus your attention singularly on your breathing. Doing this for just 15 minutes a day is enough to produce desirable changes (such as lowing the level of the stress hormone, cortisol, in your blood, and strengthening your immune system). By teaching yourself how to let go of your thoughts and be completely present in the moment, you can gain a remarkable degree of control over your inner emotional world. For example, you can learn to quickly let go of negative emotional states and induce positive emotional states at will.
2. The second daily practice entails exercising vigorously for an average of 15 minutes a day or 30 minutes every other day. When you regularly exercise “aerobically,” you not only strengthen your heart as a muscle. You also keep the inner workings of your whole body “toned up.” Indeed, regular exercise turns out to be particularly beneficial for your brain.
Without regular exercise, our bodies slowly start to degenerate. With regular exercise, it’s possible to “hold even” as we age. Indeed, at any given moment, no matter how old we are, we can develop our bodies to be stronger, healthier, and more agile. In some truly remarkable ways, regular exercise can actually reverse the normal aging process.
3. The third daily practice is what I call a daily creative practice. Each of us can benefit hugely from having a restorative developmental activity that we pursue every day in some small but continuous ways. You want to choose a creative activity that falls outside the domain of your work, one that tantalizes you to keep on developing your creative self. You want to choose an activity with which you feel a deep and passionate connection. You want it to be something so dear to you that when you take time to pursue it, you can become completely entranced by it. You want it to have the power to bring you back to center you by pulling you far away from everything else in your life that is stressing you. By having such a practice and by doing it for at least 15 minutes each day, you can greatly refresh your spirit.
AF: How long have you been doing these three daily practices?
SD: I’ve been doing a daily creative practice off an on for almost 50 years. I’ve been exercising vigorously for half an hour every other day for over 40 years. And I’ve been doing a daily centering practice for the past 15 years. For the past six years, I have also kept an accountability log in which I record every day how many minutes I spend doing each of these practices.
Based on these logs, I know that on April 1st of this year, I completed 2,100 consecutive days during which time I did not miss my daily centering practice a single time, and during which time I missed my every-other-day aerobic exercise only on a few instances when I was injured or sick. Over the span of the past 69 consecutive months, I have averaged over an hour a day doing my daily creative practice (which happens still to be playing traditional music).
AF: You speak of doing these daily practices as though your life depends on them. How is that so?
SD: These practices have saved my life multiple times. For example, as I was being wheeled into the operating room to receive my pacemaker (and months later when I had to have it extricated surgically), my centering practice really helped to be able to remain calm and receptive. Furthermore, the only way I could survive the painful staph infection I had was to continuously do my centering practice.
Because my creative thinking was all tuned up when I was admitted to the hospital, I was able to maintain the thought clarity and self-confidence required to catch a number of potentially fatal medical mistakes that were made. I was able to stay tuned into my body and trusted that I knew at least as much, and in some cases more, than my doctors knew. Without this confidence in my own processing capabilities and the resulting courage to speak out, I would be dead today. These are some examples of how these daily practices have saved my life.
AF: How about an example of how these practices have helped others in similar ways?
SD: I have seen these practices help others tremendously. For example, several years ago I coached a President and CEO of a manufacturing company over a period of about 18 months. When I started working with him, his life was pretty messed up both professionally and personally. He was on the cusp of getting fired. He was also overweight, out of shape, and highly distractible. His father had died in his 40’s of a heart attack, and it appeared that my client was on track to follow in his father’s footsteps.
By teaching my client how and why to take on a individualized version of these three daily resilience practices, he moved quickly from a place of feeling beleaguered and stressed out, to a place of leading with a genuine warmth of spirit and a new-found agility. He became visibly much more “zillient.”
Three years later, over the Christmas holidays, I unexpectedly received a card from him in which he wrote longhand: “Sandy, thank you for saving my life.”
AF: How is it that you, yourself, have consistently chosen to respond to adversities with such a positive attitude?
SD: Most of my own learning about resilience stems from my wanting to find effective ways to move away from discomfort. I have always believed that if I could learn to self-regulate my own emotions, my own beliefs, and my own actions, I would be able to create a kind of “personal sovereignty.” I would be able to remain free, no matter what my circumstances. I would be able to stay “at choice.” For my whole life, I have been a student of how to create this kind of personal sovereignty.
What I have discovered is that these simple daily practices have the power to change your destiny. Where you end up in life depends on what you practice. If you choose to practice negative behaviors, you will get better and better at them, until they finally influence your destiny. By the same token, if you practice positive behaviors, ones that benefit your health and well-being, you will also get better and better at them, and they will influence your destiny in positive ways.
What we tend to forget is that either course takes about the same amount of work and commitment. So when there’s no difference in “price,” why not treat yourself to the positive outcomes?
It is not that the positive choices are easy. More often than not, they are hard. But choosing a positive path and taking committed action accordingly is what moves you from surviving to thriving.
For example, in February when I suddenly couldn't run anymore, I was deeply discouraged by my personal loss. At that point, I had a choice. I could sit there and continue to practice feeling sorry for myself. Or I could re-orient my thinking in some positive manner and practice a different choice. I chose this latter course. I decided to view my knee injury not as the end of my running, but as the beginning of my cycling. I went out and bought myself a bicycle and never looked back.
AF: Please say a bit more about how these practices can change your destiny.
SD: Your destiny derives in large part from what you practice every day ––consciously or otherwise. If you are depressed, it is because you have been practicing hanging out in that emotional state. If you keep on practicing being depressed, it is predictable that you will get even better at it. If you decide that you want to stop being depressed, you have to start practicing something else.
A proven medical intervention that works to decrease depression entails increasing your body’s production of serotonin. This can be done via prescriptive medications. In almost all cases, it can be done equally well by exercising regularly. So if you want to break your habit of being depressed, a great place to start is to take on a daily practice of vigorous exercise. What I have found is that when you are physically in motion, it’s impossible to feel stuck. Once you start to exercise regularly and continuously, a predictable result is that you will start to feel “not depressed.”
What’s critical is that you get to a point where you understand you have the option to change your practices in order to create different results. Then all you have to do is take action––repeatedly and continuously. This requires commitment and work. In the long run, nothing else produces sustainable results.
AF: Before we finish, I’d like to ask you what’s going to be next for you? How is your work evolving now?
SD: What’s calling me next is to find ways to teach these practices to seniors in high schools and to incoming college freshmen. I would love to help kids discover the power of these practices sooner than later. If I had known how to systematically put them to work at that age, my life might have tracked quite differently.
Right now I work mostly with adults in their forties and fifties. Before they come to me, they have had to finally conclude on their own that they don’t “know it all,” that what they have been doing isn’t producing the results they want, and that they are ready to make a commitment to changing some behaviors in order to get different results. They need to be willing to do something to “get out of their head,” to come back to their senses, and to explore the power of simple experiential learning.
What excites me now is to reach out to younger individuals. I’m looking forward to figuring out how to connect with them in order to make a positive difference not just for “fully-grown” adults, but also for as many young adults as possible.
AF: I like your observation that we are all free to choose between fragility and resilience by cultivating greatness of spirit bit by bit.Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences, Sandy!
To find out more about Sandy Davis, the services he offers, and the instruction manuals he has published, visit www.homecomingcoaching.com. To order a copy of Sandy’s instruction manual on developing zillience, visit www.zillience.com. To reach Sandy or to subscribe to his free monthly e-newsletter, send an e-mail to sandy@wayofresilience.com. (As a bonus for new subscribers, Sandy will send you a free 22-page introductory excerpt from his instructional manual on developing zillience through simple daily practices.)
Good Practice Notes
The following is a short list of resoruces on good practice in the psychosocial aspects of emergency aid delivery.
Headington Foundation report for InterAction- NGO Staff Wellbeing in the
Darfur Region of Sudan & Eastern Chad (attached)
The aim of this assessment report and recommendations is to provide
information that will strengthen the ability of InterAction members to meet
the psychosocial needs of national and international staff working in Sudan
and Eastern Chad.
Idealist.org/Psychosocial report from the first Helper's Fire conference-
Tending the Helper's Fire: Mitigating Trauma and Stress in International
Staff and Volunteers
http://www.idealist.org/psychosocial/conferences/docs/conferenceReport.pdf
Action Without Borders and The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International
Peace Studies at Notre Dame University organized this innovative conference
on Mitigating Trauma and Stress in International Staff and Volunteers. This
event brought together human resources professionals, researchers, program
directors, and international humanitarian aid staff to examine how
organizations provide psychosocial support to their expatriate and local
staff and volunteers working overseas. The objective of this conference was
to provide a platform where professionals can share information, learn from
expert perspectives, and pool resources for future collaboration.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and
Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (chapter 4.4)
(http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/guidelines_iasc_mental_health_
psychosocial_june_2007.pdf )
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) issues these Guidelines to enable
humanitarian actors to plan, establish and coordinate a set of minimum
multi-sectoral responses to protect and improve people's mental health and
psychosocial well-being in the midst of an emergency. The Guidelines offer
essential advice on how to facilitate an integrated approach to address the
most urgent mental health and psychosocial issues in emergency situations.
The People In Aid Code of Good Practice
(http://www.peopleinaid.org/code/online.aspx) is an internationally
recognized management tool that helps agencies to enhance the quality of
their human resources management. The Code is the result of years of
international collaboration by a wide range of NGOs, international
organizations, public bodies and private sector firms. As a management
framework, it is also an important part of agencies' efforts to improve
standards, accountability and transparency amid the challenges of disaster,
conflict and poverty.
Headington Foundation report for InterAction- NGO Staff Wellbeing in the
Darfur Region of Sudan & Eastern Chad (attached)
The aim of this assessment report and recommendations is to provide
information that will strengthen the ability of InterAction members to meet
the psychosocial needs of national and international staff working in Sudan
and Eastern Chad.
Idealist.org/Psychosocial report from the first Helper's Fire conference-
Tending the Helper's Fire: Mitigating Trauma and Stress in International
Staff and Volunteers
http://www.idealist.org/psychosocial/conferences/docs/conferenceReport.pdf
Action Without Borders and The Joan B. Kroc Institute for International
Peace Studies at Notre Dame University organized this innovative conference
on Mitigating Trauma and Stress in International Staff and Volunteers. This
event brought together human resources professionals, researchers, program
directors, and international humanitarian aid staff to examine how
organizations provide psychosocial support to their expatriate and local
staff and volunteers working overseas. The objective of this conference was
to provide a platform where professionals can share information, learn from
expert perspectives, and pool resources for future collaboration.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and
Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (chapter 4.4)
(http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/guidelines_iasc_mental_health_
psychosocial_june_2007.pdf )
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) issues these Guidelines to enable
humanitarian actors to plan, establish and coordinate a set of minimum
multi-sectoral responses to protect and improve people's mental health and
psychosocial well-being in the midst of an emergency. The Guidelines offer
essential advice on how to facilitate an integrated approach to address the
most urgent mental health and psychosocial issues in emergency situations.
The People In Aid Code of Good Practice
(http://www.peopleinaid.org/code/online.aspx) is an internationally
recognized management tool that helps agencies to enhance the quality of
their human resources management. The Code is the result of years of
international collaboration by a wide range of NGOs, international
organizations, public bodies and private sector firms. As a management
framework, it is also an important part of agencies' efforts to improve
standards, accountability and transparency amid the challenges of disaster,
conflict and poverty.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Crisis in Non-Profit Leadership
The Meyer Foundation supports capable, community-based organizations that foster the well-being of all people in the Washington DC region.
According to Meyer Foundation's national survey of nearly 6,000 next generation leaders. a skilled, committed, and diverse pool of next generation leaders would like to be nonprofit executive directors in the future, However, the survey also finds that there are significant barriers: work-life balance, insufficient life-long earning potential, lack of mentorship...Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Grants available on women's rights
The International Women’s Program is interested in supporting innovative initiatives that link women’s rights strategies with other rights strategies, raising awareness about cases of women’s extreme marginalization. To learn more about the call for proposals click here.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sound as Energy Medicine
Sat, May. 10 - Sound of the Soul
intuitive toning is the art of listening to yourself on a spirit level for soul resonance. Sound has the power to soothe, rile you up, and the power to move you into other dimensions. First class in May 10 @ 11 AM to 12:30 PM at Seekers Church in Takoma Park, Washington- Please pre-register at divinityiseternalonline.com. Donation $7.00
intuitive toning is the art of listening to yourself on a spirit level for soul resonance. Sound has the power to soothe, rile you up, and the power to move you into other dimensions. First class in May 10 @ 11 AM to 12:30 PM at Seekers Church in Takoma Park, Washington- Please pre-register at divinityiseternalonline.com. Donation $7.00
Playback Theater for Change in (west) Philadelphia
Playback for Change presents Peace and Justice: Finding Our Way Together
What's in your heart when you consider peace and justice? What's your vision for what's possible for our city and neighborhoods? What does peace mean to you? How have you been impacted by peace and/or violence? What are the seeds you are sowing?
Improvisational theatre based on personal stories, told by audience members
in the moment...come tell, listen, and watch!!
The Rotunda, 4012 Walnut St in West Philly, 19104
SUNDAY MAY 18, 2008
7 pm
For more information call 215-844-7566 or email sarahhalley@gmail.com
Suggested Cost: $12, $6 seniors & students; no one turned away for lack of
funds
A portion of the money raised from this show will go to support a series of
playback theatre trainings in June 2008 in Serbia and Bosnia.
What's in your heart when you consider peace and justice? What's your vision for what's possible for our city and neighborhoods? What does peace mean to you? How have you been impacted by peace and/or violence? What are the seeds you are sowing?
Improvisational theatre based on personal stories, told by audience members
in the moment...come tell, listen, and watch!!
The Rotunda, 4012 Walnut St in West Philly, 19104
SUNDAY MAY 18, 2008
7 pm
For more information call 215-844-7566 or email sarahhalley@gmail.com
Suggested Cost: $12, $6 seniors & students; no one turned away for lack of
funds
A portion of the money raised from this show will go to support a series of
playback theatre trainings in June 2008 in Serbia and Bosnia.
Pentecost 2008 Training for Change
June 13-15 in DC there will be a gathering of Christian-based antipoverty activists. Read more here.
Monday, May 5, 2008
nonresistance strengthens
Aikido is based on the philosophy of creating harmony by mastering oneself and respecting another's energy. Translated literally, Aikido means "the way [do] of harmony [ai] with the life force [ki]"
Unlike many fighting techniques that focus on defense while disabling the opponent, Aikido focuses on finding unity. The intent of Aikido is not acquiescence, but to establish a relationship of peace in the face of conflict. It requires a keen awareness of oneself and the environment. Rather than assuming a fighting posture and reducing the amount of exposure to the opponent, Aikido teaches us to face the opponent openly.
Standing with confidence, the Aikido master (Sensei) makes eye contact with the opponent, and gets ready to move with the opponents' energy, rather than countering his moves. As the Sensei respects the other person's power, they move together in ways that result in both people facing in the same direction. With each blow, more energy is spent by the attacker than by the Sensei, leaving the Sensei with increased power, and the other person exhausted. Watching the practice of Aikido looks more like a graceful dance than a fight.
This page applies aikido principles to coaching.
Unlike many fighting techniques that focus on defense while disabling the opponent, Aikido focuses on finding unity. The intent of Aikido is not acquiescence, but to establish a relationship of peace in the face of conflict. It requires a keen awareness of oneself and the environment. Rather than assuming a fighting posture and reducing the amount of exposure to the opponent, Aikido teaches us to face the opponent openly.
Standing with confidence, the Aikido master (Sensei) makes eye contact with the opponent, and gets ready to move with the opponents' energy, rather than countering his moves. As the Sensei respects the other person's power, they move together in ways that result in both people facing in the same direction. With each blow, more energy is spent by the attacker than by the Sensei, leaving the Sensei with increased power, and the other person exhausted. Watching the practice of Aikido looks more like a graceful dance than a fight.
This page applies aikido principles to coaching.
illuminating mission of reconciliation
May 9, 10, 11, Swiss lighting artist Gerry Hofstetter brings his artistry to Washington National Cathedral for a spectacular exterior illumination of the south and west sides, in celebration of the Cathedral's centennial. Numerous vivid images will be projected directly on the Cathedral sunset to midnight, illustrating its mission of reconciliation, spotlighting its role as a spiritual beacon for the nation, and proclaiming hope for humankind.
Saturday MAY 10 there will be live music 7-9 so meet on the grounds with a picnic. Crowds will be big so get there early. Check out full details.
Saturday MAY 10 there will be live music 7-9 so meet on the grounds with a picnic. Crowds will be big so get there early. Check out full details.
PTSD and rape as a weapon of war in Congo
Listen online to this radio spot from NPR's Diane Rehm Show, Monday April 28th.
This link refers to a Rand corporation study called "Invisible Wounds," which documents that 20% of Iraq/Afghan vets have PTSD/depression.
There are also other useful links on the page on both topics.
This link refers to a Rand corporation study called "Invisible Wounds," which documents that 20% of Iraq/Afghan vets have PTSD/depression.
There are also other useful links on the page on both topics.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
500,000 children working with armed groups around the world -- detailed report from Psychology Beyond Borders
These children serve in a variety of different capacities: as cooks, as quartermasters, as sexual slaves and as combat troops. Their experiences can result in high exposure to profoundly traumatic events, placing them at extreme risk for the development of serious emotional disorders. Psychosocial services targeting former child soldiers are required to help these children transition from their roles as members of armed forces back into a healthy and stable civilian life.
Brief Summary with link to the 100+ page report
Brief Summary with link to the 100+ page report
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