Running an Errand

I took a slow, deep breath with the intention of enjoying the process of breathing. For the next fifteen minutes I was fixated to a point on an aerial root about a foot above the ground. I focussed on my breathing, maintaining the intent. The aesthetic qualities of the aerial root came alive and engrossed my consciousness. There was no sense of `I'. All that was left was love. I do not have the potential, the talent or the time to describe even in a million words the sense of joy that I experienced then. What the Mughal emperor Jehangir said as he set his eyes on the Valley of Kashmir describes an infinitesimal fraction of the vast love that I felt. I went to our dormitory near Blavatsky Lodge. What Is Resilience and Where Does It Come From? Simply stated, resilience is the potential to rebound from stress and feelings of fear, helplessness, and being overwhelmed. The analogy sometimes given for resilience is that of a metal spring, such as a Slinky. If you pull it apart, the coil naturally rebounds to its original size and shape. Of course, if you stretch this spring too many times (or exert too much force), it will eventually lose its elasticity. And if the metal wasn't tempered properly in the formative stage, it more likely will be weak and break easily. Humans, however, need not lose their resilience through stressful wear and tear. Unlike a metal spring, we have the innate capacity to increase our resilience when encountering the inevitable stresses and strains of life. In fact, there is some truth to the old adage, What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Research now shows that overprotected privileged children can grow into teenagers unprepared for the stresses of adolescence, making them susceptible to a great variety of distractions and addictions in an attempt to cope. Speak On It

Let it be known how you feel. It is ok to say it loud and clear, especially if you have not been the type of person to speak your mind. This is a great way to start expressing your feelings! When you actually speak something out loud, not only does it put that out into the universe, it allows you to release all of that aggression that comes with not speaking your mind. You do not have to be rude, disrespectful, cocky, but let it out and it will only do you good in the long run, so let it out. When we learn to be mindful of negative emotions, control our reactions and responses, it helps us to become more resilient. We are not necessarily born with the natural ability to sift through our emotions, but we are taught how to ignore and hide them from caretakers and our parents. Speaking on your emotions will help to release and free you from feeling as if you are a prisoner to your own past, and allow you to live for the future. Denial Is Not Healthy When you first begin a tutorial, it is probably not going to look much like the example. The first attempt rarely goes well, so do not get discouraged or feel like you are not cut out for painting. Remember that the first painting of a famous artist was not the one they are the most renowned for. It took them years of practice to get to that place. Keep a sense of humor about this. Laugh about your mistakes, and don't take this stage of your work too seriously. The next time you try, there are still some mistakes but you notice some improvement- there were fewer times where your brush strokes fell out of line and your coloring was more effectively done. As you practice more, you will get the hang of it more. If you keep going, you will get to the point where you have created a coherent picture. Let's say you figure out you like to paint flowers. Watch how anxiety sparks

Anxiety sparks when a perspective we value bumps into another perspective that challenges it in some way. If we find this new perspective to be unacceptable, that's when our Someone is wrong on the internet; I must correct them! When anxiety sparks--poof! It's the first sign of a disagreement potentially on its way. What else can we notice about this automatic emotional spike? What sparks big anxieties and what sparks little ones? As we saw in the old-water conversation, the same information (a three-day-old glass of water) can spark a wide variety of anxieties in different people. You can imagine how an early experience like accidentally drinking moldy water, or repeated instances of associating water with poisoning, could magnify the automatic response you'd have the next time, and the next time. A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in It. - Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club Like some of you, I was raised in a traditional blue-collar household. I was fortunate enough to have two working parents who I always thought were happily married. I have one brother that I begged for but secretly wished that the baby delivery people would come back and get. He just took too long to get there (read: we are six years a part), and I had already gotten used to being the only child. Our backyard and bedrooms were big enough that we were never forced to communicate and be real siblings who liked each other. That was my family. I knew that my family was falling apart. Our public lives promoted normalcy with a universal code language of, We're all doing just fine. It will be a long journey to change, but I'm up to it.

I forgive you. Your dad won't change, probably, and your upbringing won't be erased, but now you'll be able to move on and truly change. Now you'll know that you're not a crazy person. Every system error has a bottleneck--economic, political, and/or social issues. There is one problem which, if treated, can make it easier for the system to change and improve. It is not a guarantee that anything will change in the end. But it is a guarantee that as long as the bottleneck issue is not addressed, nothing will change. Leverage influences a system to return the maximum effect per a unit of effort. Today, our attention is scattered and our time and energy is limited compared to how many options we have. To illustrate this belief, I will use an example from the life of Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now and many other extraordinary articles. As many of you might already know, he was a professor at Cambridge University. At the age of twenty-nine, Tolle was able to renounce fear, quit his job and continue to live in the park with no regular income for the next couple of years. What courage! Again please do not misunderstand me. I love and respect all major religions (most probably I would also respect the so called minorones, but my knowledge of them is scant). I know and feel sure that their essence is the same. However, some of the methods they use to keep followers are not acceptable. And here it is - the use of fear again! It is the sub-conscious fear of most clerics - fear of losing safety, fear of losing the income that feeds them. Ankush Mehta, the friend who was responsible for this break-a-tion (break from life), was lying on a mattress on the floor.

He looked at me oddly and said, `The Theosophical Society (T. You look blown, man. If my mom finds out, I'm screwed. Then I told him, tripping over my words in excitement, of my encounter with the lady and the aerial root. He chuckled disbelievingly, still thinking that I was `tripping'. He was right. I was `tripping'. This was a beautiful experience but the answer to my question still evaded me: `What is the meaning of life? The answer came at night. And for our least protected students, the ability to successfully adapt in the face of stress and adversity is also not easily developed. Although adaptability is partially due to genetics, temperament, and parenting styles, the science of epigenetics (how genes get expressed) has shown that the nurturing quality of the attachment period between newborn and mother plays a crucial role. Evidence is mounting that developmental and psychosocial factors, and a very early history of adverse traumatic events, play the most influential roles in the grander scheme underlying the essential building blocks supporting or diminishing a child's resilience. The good news is that resilience can (and should) be learned and used daily in the classroom. Developing and enhancing resilience to stress and trauma are of great relevance to coping, as well as mitigating psychiatric problems such as depression and PTS. Teaching students resilience can create a climate of health and safety. And the resilience activities in this article that rebuild trust and retune the nervous system after stress are good for teachers, too! The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research highlights the importance of acquiring and strengthening the capacity for resilience: When you have resilience, you harness inner strength that helps you rebound from a setback or challenge, rather than dwelling on problems, feeling victimized and turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse. Resilient kids are mentally healthy. When they are met with challenges, they are open and in touch with their feelings, expressing, and communicating them in age-appropriate ways. Being mindful, open, honest, and willing to look at and accept whatever your reality is and be ok with it.