Archive for Communication
Now Smile
Posted by: | CommentsRemember Mona Lisa? What was she thinking about?
There is more to a smile than what we usually think. Research has shown that smiling & laughing can reduce stress, improve the immune system, and even could help with recovering from certain diseases. The most famous case is Norman Cousins’ recovery from (what is now thought to be) reactive arthritis which he claims in his book “Anatomy of an Illness” he cured with mega-doses of Vitamin C and heavy doses of daily laughter. He mentions : “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep,” he reported. “When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”
Many Eastern traditions have also incorporated laughter as part of a daily set of practices such as Laughing Yoga and Laughing Qi Gong. The power of the Taoist ‘Inner Smile’ meditations has been well documented (we teach some of those practices during our Beat Stress, Pill Free half day workshop. Check date for the next one on the schedule of all courses webpage)
Watch the Ted video below where Ron Gutman reviews a number of studies about smiling, and reveals some unexpected results.
Where There Is Strength There is Weakness
Posted by: | CommentsBaGuaZhang andTaiJiQuan master, Guo Sifu, explains and demonstrates some key fighting concepts of the Chinese Martial Arts. I use this as a metaphor to explain what powerful communicators do, so this video is valuable even (especially?) for those who are NOT into martial arts. Powerful communicators are trained in those techniques. although not physically.
Just hear sifu Guo’s words (or if you don’t speak Mandarin, read them) while holding in your mind a picture of the flow of communication instead of physical sparring. Read More→
Nicholas Christakis on Social Networks — Transcript
Posted by: | CommentsTHis is the transcript of Nicholas Christakis’ Ted Talks video on how social networks shape our lives.
You can see the interactive transcript on the Ted webpage.
For me, this story begins about 15 years ago, when I was a hospice doctor at the University of Chicago. And I was taking care of people who were dying, and their families, in the South Side of Chicago. And I was observing what happened to people and their families over the course of their terminal illness. And in my lab, I was studying the widower effect, which is a very old idea in the social sciences, going back 150 years, known as “dying of a broken heart.” So, when I die, my wife’s risk of death can double, for instance, in the first year. And I had gone to take care of one particular patient, a woman who was dying of dementia. And, in this case, unlike this couple, she was being cared for by her daughter. And the daughter was exhausted from caring for her mother. And the daughter’s husband, he also was sick from his wife’s exhaustion. And I was driving home one day, and I get a phone call from the husband’s friend, calling me because he was depressed about what was happening to his friend. So here I get this call from this random guy that’s having an experience that’s being influenced by people at some social distance.
Changing Education Paradigm by Ken Robinson
Posted by: | CommentsThe animated video below was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert on changing the education paradigm. This is particularly interesting for us because what Sir Robinson really looks at is how we create our vision of the world we live in.
‘How do we educate our children to take their place in the economy of the 21st century, given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week?’ he asks.
Our current standards of education were designed and conceived and structured for a different age, driven by the economic imperatives of the industrial revolution and dominated by a certain model of the mind and the enlightenment view of intelligence, i.e a deductive ability coupled with the knowledge of the classics, i.e. what we call academic ability. We are judged against this view of the mind, and many brilliant people thin they are not. Most people have not benefited from this.
The Power of Vulnerability
Posted by: | CommentsBrene Brown studies human connection — our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.
