Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The courage to teach and the courage to change
Three members of the emerging Six Billion Paths to Peace Oklahoma attended a presention at OCU by the author of the Courage to Teach. Carmen Clay from Casady School Service-Learning, Rachel Rettinger from the Peace Education Institute, and Patt Webb from the Silence Foundation.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
What is Six Billion Paths to Peace?
Haru, Executive Director of the Shinnyo-En Foundation plenary speech at the 2009 Conference in service and volunteering sponsored by the Foundation in San Francisco. The 2010 conference is in New York this year. http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/
Six Billion Paths to Peace Retreat at Marconi Center, San Francisco, August 13-15: Last year's at: http://www.sef.org/community/annual-retreat/
Dear Oklahoma Six Billion Paths to Peace Team and Friends:
Happy New Year of the Tiger! A member of JASO (Oklahoma Japan America Society) told me that it is the year of the white tiger, which only occurs every 60 years! In this extraordinary year, I wanted to share the pictures "Rice Fields of Japan." It shows how ordinary people become extraordinary when they create together.
I also wanted to share that the Shinnyo-En's San Francisco annual retreat topic is "Six Billion Paths to Peace." The cards have joined us in exploring a retreat of similar topic in Oklahoma. I still want to continue our conversation regarding this possibility for our city, but I wish to communicate to you that I will be applying to attend the retreat when the application becomes available at their website. I hope we could have an Oklahoma group. The highest cost is the transportation to and from San Francisco, as well as the transportation from San Francisco to Marshall, the city where the retreat center-Marconi- is located.
In the past, I went the day before and stayed a day after at a local hotel because my teens wanted to see a little bit of San Francisco. The cost of the retreat last year was $100 per adult and youth, I cannot remember if $30 or $60. The girls took care of their registration. The registration fee covers all retreat expenses, meals, and accomodations at Marconi (Friday afternoon to Sunday noon). Let me know if you are interested in applying.
Please find below a note sent by Abby Nathanson, Shinnyo-En's Program Coordinator regarding the retreat. Happy New Year, may peace come to your hearts and minds throughout the year! Carmen
Dear friends,
We are in the process of planning the Annual Retreat at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, CA. We reserved the Center for August 13th-15th. Before we announce it widely on our website, we’d like to have a sense as to approximately how many of you or your representatives would be interested in coming to this year’s Retreat. As you know, the space is limited at the Center but we are hoping that we could fill it with a lively group of about 70 of returning/regular and new participants! So, we would appreciate it greatly if you could let us know how many of you plan to attend it.
This year, we plan to focus on Six Billion Paths to Peace more intentionally and globally than in years past. We hope to articulate this theme more clearly and feature individual and group endeavors around the world that have embodied Six Billion Paths to Peace uniquely. Other than this large theme as a framework of this year’s Retreat, we haven’t worked out any content or logistical details yet but we hope to maintain some of the formats and climates that have worked well for you in the past. So, please feel free to share with us what particularly worked well for you and why you thought it worked briefly. One or two highlights of your retreat experiences will give us a good starting point to blend the ideas from experienced and new participants!
Thank you again for your help and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Abby Nathanson
Program Coordinator, Shinnyo-en Foundation
201 Mission Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415.777.1977, Fax: 415.777.1987
Email: anathanson@sef.org; Web: http://www.sef.org
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Sunday, February 7, 2010
Positive Psychology: Shawn's Path to Peace
Introducing Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness: Shawn Achor
Tetrais Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QNsxXTuuQ. Contact information: http://www.aspirantworld.com/
Traditional psychology is about how we can move depressed people back up to average; but Achor worries that only reduces the purpose and project to only how we help people become average. If we study positive outliers, we can move up the average to a higher place, and help everyone to become happier. We need to stop focusing on ‘getting rid’ of the bad things and focus on “other side of the curve” towards thriving.
Our brains are not just hard-wired for sympathy, but we are also hard-wired for empathy. Just as we pick up smiles and yawns so quickly, and so powerfully, we also can mirror (in our mirroring nuerons) others’ anxiety, stress, sadness. We need to watch for this in our schools.
90% of our longterm happiness is affected by the lens through which people view the world around them, NOT by the actual realities of that world around them. So no matter how fabulous your external circumstances, 90% of your experience will be subject to how you see and feel those externalities.
Harvard is Achor’s focus: “the more I loved Harvard the better I did there:” we need students and teachers to love being in our schools.
So the project we have is how to help people see the world around them. Achor tells of a study of 1600 students at Harvard.
75% of your job success is predicted not by your intelligence, but by your positivity and performance. “If I know your level of intelligence, I can ONLY tell 25% of the reason you may or may not be a success in life.”
Dopamine, the happiness hormone in our brains, turns on all of our learning zones in our brain. A brain primed to be positive has higher success rates than one primed to be negative or neutral. Hapoiness is a precursor of success, NOT merely the result of it. If we can get teachers and students positive going into learning, we can have higher results.
The Happiness Advantage: better secure jobs, better keeping jobs, better productivity, more resilient, less burnout, less turnover, greater sales.
Another wonderful video about the value of joy in the world
Achor makes the point that when these people, happier, go into their classrooms, they are that much more primed to be successful in their day.
How create this happiness advantage?
Raise optimism and success rates for six months, after 21 days of training. 21 days is enough to create a habit.
3 Gratitudes: 2 minutes a day writing what you are grateful for.
Journaling: Five minutes a day about a positive experience.
Exercise
Meditation
Random Acts of Kindness: praise somebody, five minutes day, in a way different from usual.
What is the mental barrier that gets in the way of doing all the good ideas we have learned?
Achor urges people to retrain your brain, using these five tools, which are available at his site here.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER: MIRROW NEWRONS: SMILE CONTAGIOUS, DOPHAMINE Why important: MIRROW NEWRONS BEING ACTIVATED, our brains are linked to one ANOTHER
WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BUFFER OURSELVES, BUT NOT TO LOOSE THE MIRROW NEWRONS
HOW CAN WE RIPPLE OUT THE POSITIVE CHANGES…for him going to Harvard: FOCUS ON THE PRIVILEDGE, not focus on the NEGATIVITY…NOT AS SMART AS OTHERS….
THE LENSE IN WHICH YOU VIEW what happens IS WHAT DETERMINES HOW HAPPPY YOU ARE
OUR ATTENTION IS MOTIVATED….if OUR BRAINS are FOCUSED ON THE BAD, THAT IS WHAT WE WILL SEE. YOUR SUCCESS IS PREDICTED NOT BY YOUR INTELLIGENCE BUT BY YOUR BEHAVIOR MATTER! POSITIVE FAMILY SUPPORT SYSTEM
EVERYONE EXPERIENCES STRESS, THEY MANAGE IT IN A POSITIVE WAY
Tetrais Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QNsxXTuuQ. Contact information: http://www.aspirantworld.com/
Traditional psychology is about how we can move depressed people back up to average; but Achor worries that only reduces the purpose and project to only how we help people become average. If we study positive outliers, we can move up the average to a higher place, and help everyone to become happier. We need to stop focusing on ‘getting rid’ of the bad things and focus on “other side of the curve” towards thriving.
Our brains are not just hard-wired for sympathy, but we are also hard-wired for empathy. Just as we pick up smiles and yawns so quickly, and so powerfully, we also can mirror (in our mirroring nuerons) others’ anxiety, stress, sadness. We need to watch for this in our schools.
90% of our longterm happiness is affected by the lens through which people view the world around them, NOT by the actual realities of that world around them. So no matter how fabulous your external circumstances, 90% of your experience will be subject to how you see and feel those externalities.
Harvard is Achor’s focus: “the more I loved Harvard the better I did there:” we need students and teachers to love being in our schools.
So the project we have is how to help people see the world around them. Achor tells of a study of 1600 students at Harvard.
75% of your job success is predicted not by your intelligence, but by your positivity and performance. “If I know your level of intelligence, I can ONLY tell 25% of the reason you may or may not be a success in life.”
Dopamine, the happiness hormone in our brains, turns on all of our learning zones in our brain. A brain primed to be positive has higher success rates than one primed to be negative or neutral. Hapoiness is a precursor of success, NOT merely the result of it. If we can get teachers and students positive going into learning, we can have higher results.
The Happiness Advantage: better secure jobs, better keeping jobs, better productivity, more resilient, less burnout, less turnover, greater sales.
Another wonderful video about the value of joy in the world
Achor makes the point that when these people, happier, go into their classrooms, they are that much more primed to be successful in their day.
How create this happiness advantage?
Raise optimism and success rates for six months, after 21 days of training. 21 days is enough to create a habit.
3 Gratitudes: 2 minutes a day writing what you are grateful for.
Journaling: Five minutes a day about a positive experience.
Exercise
Meditation
Random Acts of Kindness: praise somebody, five minutes day, in a way different from usual.
What is the mental barrier that gets in the way of doing all the good ideas we have learned?
Achor urges people to retrain your brain, using these five tools, which are available at his site here.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER: MIRROW NEWRONS: SMILE CONTAGIOUS, DOPHAMINE Why important: MIRROW NEWRONS BEING ACTIVATED, our brains are linked to one ANOTHER
WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BUFFER OURSELVES, BUT NOT TO LOOSE THE MIRROW NEWRONS
HOW CAN WE RIPPLE OUT THE POSITIVE CHANGES…for him going to Harvard: FOCUS ON THE PRIVILEDGE, not focus on the NEGATIVITY…NOT AS SMART AS OTHERS….
THE LENSE IN WHICH YOU VIEW what happens IS WHAT DETERMINES HOW HAPPPY YOU ARE
OUR ATTENTION IS MOTIVATED….if OUR BRAINS are FOCUSED ON THE BAD, THAT IS WHAT WE WILL SEE. YOUR SUCCESS IS PREDICTED NOT BY YOUR INTELLIGENCE BUT BY YOUR BEHAVIOR MATTER! POSITIVE FAMILY SUPPORT SYSTEM
EVERYONE EXPERIENCES STRESS, THEY MANAGE IT IN A POSITIVE WAY
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Opportunities to grow in inner peace and service
1. 2010 Biennial Teacher Conference ISAS: “Teaching Matters” - Biennial Teacher Conference. Thursday through Friday, February 4 and 5, in Dallas at the Westin Park Central. Contact Heather Junker at hjunker@isasw.org or (817) 569-9200 with any additional questions regarding ISAS conferences and workshops.
2. NYLC Conference in San Jose California
3. National Conference on Volunteering and Service in NYC on June 28-30. http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/
4. Shinnyo-En and Youth Serve California retreat: Marconi Center, San Francisco, August 13-14-15. When application process opens, apply inmediately. 65 participants only! First come, first served. http://www.sef.org/community/annual-retreat/
2. NYLC Conference in San Jose California
3. National Conference on Volunteering and Service in NYC on June 28-30. http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/
4. Shinnyo-En and Youth Serve California retreat: Marconi Center, San Francisco, August 13-14-15. When application process opens, apply inmediately. 65 participants only! First come, first served. http://www.sef.org/community/annual-retreat/
Monday, February 1, 2010
Aime's path to peace
My working title on my book is The Golden Rule: Kindness of a Stranger. I do not have a publisher lined up at this time. So any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have about 20 pages so far, but am currently doing the study to gather information for my book. I am attempting to do one nice thing for a stranger every day for 6 months and when I do the kind act I just leave a piece of paper that requests that they email their thoughts about the kind act. I also ask that they pass the piece of paper on to someone else with a kind act. I am hoping to see a surprisingly large response. I have had some responses so far, but I want plenty of data to back up my theory that we do make a difference. ( So any suggestions of kind acts for a stranger would be greatly appreciated too! ) The book is just going to consist of the basics, discussion of the Golden Rule, how to get started, how it really does affect us and our world that we live in etc, and then include my true responses from the different people. I want to be able to document how much of a difference one person can make on an entire world and just by following the Golden Rule. I just want to break the cynic attitudes that so many people are getting about people as it is just getting worse every day.
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation http://www.actsofkindness.org/ and their initiative," Kindness Pass it On."
Random Acts of Kindness Foundation http://www.actsofkindness.org/ and their initiative," Kindness Pass it On."
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