Sprezzatura - sprezzatura

A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy--using meditation—provides equivalent protection against depressive relapse as traditional antidepressant medication.

Provided by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (news : web)

Mind Fitness Training Institue (MFTI) is participating in a large-scale resilience research study underway with the Army’s 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.  The STRONG (Schofield Barracks Training and Research On Neurobehavioral Growth) study is sponsored by the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program.  It includes 240 soldiers divided into six groups:  Four groups will receive variations of MMFT, one will receive another resilience training based on the tenets of positive psychology (designed and delivered by Dr. Sara Algoe), and one group will serve as a no training control.  The study will be looking at the effects of the training as indexed by cognitive tasks, self-report measures, and brain wave and peripheral physiology measures.  The principal investigator is Dr. Amishi Jha from the University of Pennsylvania.  Initial data gathering began in mid-April and groups are starting to receive training now.  Soldiers will be tested before and after they receive training and also at testing points in the future to monitor enduring effects.  The study is being funded by the U.S. Army’s Medical Research and Material Command.

 

We are grateful to the 25th Infantry Division for their gracious hosting of this study.

http://www.mind-fitness-training.org/news.html

The physiological theory that underpins all endurance training and coaching for the last 100 years has just been disproved.  

As recently as 2008, scientific research papers were citing the theory that endurance performance i limited by the capacity of the skeletal muscles, heart and lungs and that exhaustion occurs when the active muscles are unable to produce the force or power required by prolonged exercise.

Dr Sam Marcora, an exercise physiologist at Bangor University, has now disproved this for the first time and proposed an alternative - that it is your perception of effort that limits your endurance performance, not the actual capability of your muscles. He showed that the muscles were still able to achieve the power output required by endurance exercise even when the point of perceived exhaustion had been reached.

This will inevitably lead to new training and coaching techniques, based on this new understanding of the role of perceived effort in endurance performance.

What Marcora has found is that athletes give up endurance exercise, feeling that they are exhausted, before reaching their absolute physiological limit. In fact, immediately after exhaustion, the leg muscles are capable of producing three times the power output required by high-intensity cycling exercise.

Like other bodily sensations, perception of effort is a powerful feeling that is there for a reason. The perception that we have reached exhaustion prevents us from injuring ourselves by exercising too much. Marcora uses the analogy of pain- if you twist your ankle you might still be able to undertake the mechanics of walking, but the pain prevents you- and so prevents you from causing further injury- so it is with perceived exhaustion, he argues.

The question for sports scientists, coaches and athletes has to be how far can athletes go beyond that perceived exhaustion to improve performance still further?

"We are already developing and testing new training techniques based on the neurobiology of perceived effort that will help endurance athletes improve their performance," says Marcora.

The original theory led to the development of countless training developments, such as heart rate monitors, eating carbohydrates to replenish glycogen in the tired muscles and even blood doping, so that the haemoglobin carries more oxygen to the active muscles.

"These techniques have been proved to be effective- and are still effective," says Sam Marcora, "but we now have a new theoretical model of endurance performance and this in turn will lead to further techniques and coaching strategies to help endurance athletes to improve their performance."

More information: The limit to exercise tolerance in humans: mind over muscle? Samuele Maria Marcora, Walter Staiano, European Journal of Applied Physiology, DOI:10.1007/s00421-010-1418-6 published online March 11 2010.

In Ireland last week, in front of hundreds of students at University College Dublin, I participated in a debate on whether pornography is destructive or harmless. Numerous speakers on the pro-pornography side argued that pornography was a central part of women´s liberation, a point which met with thunderous cheers from the women in the audience. When it was my turn to speak, I asked the young women present to raise their hands if they needed a man. Not one hand went up. I then told them that commensurate with the degree to which men are becoming immature, porn-obsessed schoolboys, women are giving up on the hope of ever finding a noble, well-mannered gentleman. As women confront the vulgar reality of how men treat them, they discover that becoming masturbatory material to men was not particularly liberating.

This despair of Dublin´s women was mirrored the next evening in a conversation with a twenty-nine year old woman who told me that she had given up on finding a good man seeing as the men in Dublin were conditioned to treat women as orifices. A huge number of women play along, she told me, by coming out on Friday and Saturday nights in their skimpy mini-skirts in the freezing cold, getting completely drunk and doing anything the guys want in the mistaken belief that somehow this will bring them love. After a few years they give up on men and become like me.

Nowhere in the Western world are we raising a generation of men who pride themselves on their restraint and respect toward women. We are likewise failing to cultivate women who refuse to be complicit in their own degradation and who insist that their sexuality be shared with a man only in the context of a serious and tangible romantic commitment. It’s a man ´s world. Women just live in it.

This is even true in marriage as more and more relationship experts blame a cheating husband on his wife. If a man is unfaithful, they argue, it is often due to the fact that he feels lonely and unappreciated by his wife. By recognizing that their husbands have emotional and sexual needs which wives may be ignoring, a wife can win her husband back and ensure that he does not stray.

A few months ago I mentioned that this was the position taken by Dr. Laura Schlesinger after the Elliot Spitzer affair and it has since been echoed by other relationship writers.

But this attempt to blame the victim ignores the fact that the principle reason men womanize is to shore up their broken egos. There are so many damaged husbands who think that a nurturing stranger who both desires him and wishes to be an ear to his pain will be a salve to his painfully low self-esteem. In many cases, these are husbands who have wives who could not be more devoted, who give them sex whenever they want, who pine for them to come home at night, all to no avail. No matter how much she huffs and puffs, she cannot inflate his perforated ego.

Would we really suggest that, as Elizabeth Edwards ran around the country with incurable cancer catering to her husband´s yearning to be president, that her husband John cheated on her because she wasn´t caring enough?

After Silla Ward Spitzer garnered national ridicule by quite literally standing by her husband in his greatest moment of shame, would we inflict the final insult on her by telling her that her husband hung out with hookers because of her neglect?

In this age of husbands who are sports and TV addicts, I dare say that there are probably more wives who are ignored by their husbands than the reverse. But women seem much more capable of controlling themselves and deciding that a husband´s neglect is no excuse to corrupt one´s character and become immoral. Indeed, the only way to truly affair-proof one´s marriage is to decide that the pleasure of righteous action and moral heroism by far outstrips anything that can be experienced in illicit sex. This is something magical in a man´s ability to turn down an opportunity to stray and walk away from the encounter a devoted husband and moral giant. One of the prime reasons we all suffer from low self-esteem these days is that we are not the people we want to be. Becoming a liar and a cheat is probably not, in the long run, going to make us feel a whole lot better about ourselves. But deciding to behave righteously even when we are in pain will.

To be sure, wives should of course work to reach their husband´s buried emotions. Contrary to what many women believe, men are intimacy seekers. In these challenging financial times, wives should ask their husbands not, “How did your day go?,” but, “How do you feel about all the convulsions in your company?” They should nurture their men´s hearts and do their best to address their pain. But in the final analysis, if a husband cheats, it´s his fault. Period. He has his own selfishness and ingratitude to blame.

As I survey the current cultural landscape I often wonder, where have all the gentlemen gone? Our movies are filled with male bathroom humor. Our sporting heroes like Alex Rodriquez can´t seem to respect their commitments. Our college campuses are filled with frat boy party animals for whom womanizing is an integral part of “higher”education. Do men today only aspire to an internet startup but not to refined character? Do they yearn for the Forbes Four Hundred list but not to set an example for their own sons of how a great man honors his wife and prioritizes his family?

There was a likeable young man I met in Dublin who was very smart but also very cynical. As I spoke with him he shared with me his desire to be recognized as a great director. He also said, matter-of-factly, that when he meets a woman he is unapologetic about trying to have sex with her. When I asked him if he wanted children, he said, “I love my future children enough not to have them. I would inevitably mess them up.”Of course, by the same logic he might as well never try and make a movie. But then, great directors get Academy Awards while gentleman receive no public accolades other than the knowledge that they alone among men tamed and harnessed the beast within.

http://www.shmuley.com/articles/details/092408_where_have_all_the_gentleman_gone/

Physical space acts like a sponge, absorbing the radiant of all who pass through it. And, more likely than not, the spaces we move through each day have seen many people come and go. We have no way of knowing whether the energy footprints left behind by those who preceded us will invigorate us or drain us. Yet we can control the energy footprint we leave behind for others. In blessing each space we enter, we orchestrate a subtle energy shift that affects not only our own experiences in that space but also the experiences of the individuals who will enter the space after us. While we may never see the effects our blessing has had, we can take comfort in the fact that we have provided grace for those that follow after us.

When you bless a room or an entire building, you leave a powerful message of love and light for all those who will come after you. Your blessings thus have myriad effects on the environments through which you pass. Old, stagnant energy is cleared, creating a vacuum into which fresh and invigorating energy can freely flow. The space is thus rendered harmonious and nourishing, and it becomes a hub from which positive feelings are transmitted. Intent is the key component of the blessings you leave in your physical wake. If your intent involves using your own consciousness as a tool for selflessly spreading grace, your blessings will never go awry. Whether you feel more comfortable performing a solo blessing or prefer to call upon your spirit guides for assistance, visualize each space you enter becoming free of toxins, chaos, and negativity as you speak your blessing. Then imagine the resultant emptiness being replaced by pure, healing white light and loving energy. Even a quick mindful thought of love can bless a space.

This type of blessing is cumulative and will grow each time you bestow it. Try blessing every home, business, and office you visit for an entire week and observing the effects of your goodwill. Your affirmative energy footprint will help brighten your day as you contemplate your blessing’s future impact on your siblings in humanity and your environment.

Sending Love Ahead to Your Day

Upon waking, many people consider the coming day with trepidation. Because of the natural human tendency to focus on what we fear or dislike, it is easy to unwittingly send a message of unease into the future that negatively impacts the quality of your day. However, while our lives are busy and frequently replete with challenges, they are also rich with joy and experiences worth savoring. We can attract this natural bliss into our lives by starting each day with a message of love. When you send love ahead to your day, that love will manifest itself in your interpersonal interactions, your professional endeavors, and your domestic duties. Tasks and circumstances once made trying by your own anxiety are transformed by your love, and you will find yourself approaching life’s subtle nuances with great affection.

Each morning, when you have cast off the fog of sleep, take several deep, grounding breaths and reaffirm the love you have for yourself. Speaking a loving, self-directed blessing aloud enables you to access and awaken the reservoir of tenderness in your soul. Before you leave the comfortable warmth of your bed, be sure to tell the universe that you are eager and ready to receive the blessings it has set aside for you. Then as you prepare to meet the day, visualize yourself first saturated by and then surrounded with a warm and soft loving light. Gradually widen the circle of this light until you are able to send it ahead into your future. If you are commuting to work, send love to the roads upon which you will drive, your fellow commuters, and your parking space. If you have colleagues who arrive at your workplace before you, send them love. Likewise, a day spent being a parent or addressing household chores can benefit from the sentiment that precedes you. Sending love ahead to everyone you will meet and everything you will do can ensure that your day is suffused with grace.

If you have difficulty sending love to those situations and individuals you deem particularly frustrating, consider that the warmth and tenderness you project can change your life for the better. Each morning, in sending this love, you will exercise your power to control the ambiance of your existence and to color your day with positivity.

How can our educational system evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century? How will we educate people to be compassionate, competent, ethical, and engaged citizens in an increasingly complex and interconnected world?

The urgent challenges of a globalized and interdependent world demand a new vision of world citizenship that is not confined to national boundaries, but encompasses moral and ethical responsibilities to all humanity.

We are happy to invite you to join the Dalai Lama and world renowned educators, scientists and contemplatives for an incredible two day dialogue: Mind and Life XIX: Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century.   Registrations are now open.  Please visit www.EducatingWorldCitizens.org for full program details and to register for this important dialogue.

We hope you will be able to join us in Washington, DC this October to explore the potential for contemplative practice in educating tomorrow's world citizens.

http://www.educatingworldcitizens.org/

Working Through Transitions

 

The elation we feel when we have learned an important lesson, achieved a goal, or had a big breakthrough can sometimes be met with a period of downtime afterward. During this period of transition, we may feel unsure and not know where to turn next. Many people, during the pause between achievements, begin to wonder what their life is about. These feelings are common and strike everyone from time to time. Human beings are active creatures—we feel best when we are working on a project or vigorously pursuing a goal. But there is nothing inherently wrong with spending a day, a week, or even a month simply existing and not having a plan. Just be. It won’t be long before you embark upon your next voyage of growth and discovery.

The quiet lull into we which we fall between ideas, projects, and goals can make life seem empty. After accomplishing one objective, you may want to move immediately on to the next. However, when your next step is unclear, you may feel frustrated, disconnected, or even a mild depression. You may even perceive your lack of forward momentum as an indicator of imminent stagnation. To calm these distressing thoughts, try to accept that if your intent is personal growth, you will continue to grow as an individual whether striving for a specific objective or not. Spending time immersed in life’s rigors and pleasures can be a cathartic experience that gives you the time you need to think about what you have recently gone through and leisurely contemplate what you wish to do next. You may also find that in simply being and going through the motions of everyday life, you reconnect with your priorities in a very organic, unforced way.

The mindful transitional pause can take many forms. For some, it can be a period of reflection that helps them understand how their life has unfolded. For others, it can be a period of adjustment, where new values based on recent changes are integrated into daily life. Just because you’re not headed swiftly to a final destination doesn’t mean you should assume that you have lost your drive. The stage between journeys can become a wonderful period of relaxation that prepares you for the path that will soon be revealed to you.

Raise Your Vibration

Everything in the universe is made of energy. What differentiates one form of energy from another is the speed at which it vibrates. For example, light vibrates at a very high frequency, and something like a rock vibrates at a lower frequency but a frequency nonetheless. Human beings also vibrate at different frequencies. Our thoughts and feelings can determine the frequency at which we vibrate, and our vibration goes out into the world and attracts to us energy moving at a similar frequency. This is one of the ways that we create our own reality, which is why we can cause a positive shift in our lives by raising our vibration.

We all know someone we think of as vibrant. Vibrant literally means “vibrating very rapidly.” The people who strike us as vibrant are vibrating at a high frequency, and they can inspire us as we work to raise our vibration. On the other hand, we all know people that are very negative or cynical. These people are vibrating at a lower frequency. They can also be an inspiration because they can show us where we don’t want to be vibrating and why. To discover where you are in terms of vibrancy, consider where you fall on a scale between the most pessimistic person you know and the most vibrant. This is not in order to pass judgment, but rather it is important to know where you are as you begin working to raise your frequency so that you can notice and appreciate your progress.

There are many ways to raise your vibration, from working with affirmations to visualizing enlightened entities during meditation. One of the most practical ways to raise your vibration is to consciously choose where you focus your attention. To understand how powerful this is, take five minutes to describe something you love unreservedly—a person, a movie, an experience. When your five minutes are up, you will noticeably feel more positive and even lighter. If you want to keep raising your vibration, you might want to commit to spending five minutes every day focusing on the good in your life. As you do this, you will train yourself to be more awake and alive. Over time, you will experience a permanent shift in your vibrancy.

THE CODE: For the Modern Day Chivalrious Individual

 

TRUTH: To speak the truth, to seek the truth in every situation
before making judgments, to value the truth over personal agendas
or the immediate benefits which falsehoods may offer.


HONOR: To keep your word, to know yourself, to uphold your beliefs,
to act with keen moral judgment, to maintain high standards of conduct.


JUSTICE: To defend the helpless, to challenge evil whereever you
encounter it, and to come to the aid of those who are so doing.


VALOR: To have not the lack of fear but the ability to set aside
self-interest when faced with evil, to be willing to fight
for what is right, regardless of what other
people may say or do to you.


PROWESS: To have the discipline to train body, mind and spirit
for the work of a knight and to aschew the self-destructive behaviors
which tear down physical and spiritual health.


LOYALTY: To choose for yourself the Worthy One or Ones,
whether they be your God, your loved ones, your country, your leader
or your cause and to dedicate yourself to the protection and fulfilment of those Ones.


LARGESSE: To give freely of what you have without
impoverishing yourself, to show generosity to friend and stranger alike,
to be merciful and fair in all your dealings.


COURTESY: To be polite and mannerly in dress, speech and carriage,
to treat all people as equals, to be kind to animals, and in war
or competition to follow the rules, lose with grace
and win with humbleness.


NOBLESSE: To be diligent in study, enhance your
knowledge of the world, practice your skills, use
your natural gifts to generate goodness, thereby enriching your life
and the lives of those around you.


HUMILITY: To have all the above qualities without ever proclaiming
them, to bear the heavy burden of Chivalry without so
much as a breath of exertion, to be a silent strength
which supports and sustains us all.

Humility is the most difficult principle to master.

Only the very best knights do.

Comparing Yourself To Others

You are unique. There is no one else like you in the entire universe. In honor of your unique self, it is good to acknowledge and embrace the special qualities that make you the person that you are. One way to do this is to not compare yourself with other people.

It is human nature to want to see how we measure up in comparison to others – especially if we think that they are better than us or have more of something that we want. Yet the truth is that it is not a good use of time to compare ourselves with others because there is no one like us and this makes us incomparable. It is sometimes almost easier to look outside of ourselves and feel like we are deficient in comparison to other people rather than taking responsibility for our own progress in relation to the fulfillment of our life purpose. It actually takes more courage to be self-referential and look at ourselves to see whether we are measuring up to our standards or meeting our full potential. Each of us has very special gifts, and we are here for very specific reasons. We each have a life purpose to fulfill and with this come the lessons that we must learn and the circumstances that we must go through in order to evolve as spiritual beings. To compare our lives to other people’s lives when we have no idea of what they are here to learn or fulfill doesn’t benefit anyone – especially you.

Instead, if we can accept ourselves, appreciate the special talents and qualities that we alone possess, and realize that each of us is going through certain kinds of experiences for a reason, we are less likely focus so much on what other people have or are doing. Realizing and valuing our uniqueness enables us to bring out the best in ourselves so we can get on with living rather than preoccupying ourselves with meaningless comparisons. Try to not compare yourself to others, and you will see how much you have and how special you are.

http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2009/17495.html

Purpose

Most living things belong to a particular soul group and are born knowing their purpose in life. An animal will spend its day foraging for food, taking care of itself and its young, and creating a home. No one tells an animal to do this, yet it instinctively knows how. Humans, for the most part, are not born consciously knowing what their purpose is.

Purpose gives our life meaning. When you discover your purpose, you can live your life with intention and make choices that serve your objective for why you are here on the planet. Finding your purpose is not always easy. You must embrace life wholeheartedly, explore many different pathways, and allow yourself to grow.

Your purpose is as unique as you are and will evolve as you move through life. You don’t need anyone’s permission to fulfill your purpose, and no one can tell you what that purpose is. Finding and fulfilling your purpose can be a lifelong endeavor. To figure out what your purpose is, ask yourself what drives you – not what forces you out of bed in the morning, but what makes you glad to be alive. Make a list of activities that you wish you were involved in or think about a career path that you would love to embark upon. These are the endeavors that can help you fulfill your purpose and bring you the most satisfaction.

Picture yourself working on projects that don’t interest you or fulfill your purpose, yet they help satisfy your basic survival needs. Imagine how living this way each day would make you feel. Next, picture yourself devoting your time to projects that spark your imagination, inspire, excite, and satisfy you. More often than not, these activities are some of the ways that you can fulfill your life purpose. Time spent on these endeavors will never feel like a waste. Live your life with purpose, and you will feel significant and capable because every action you take and each choice you make will have meaning to it.

http://www.dailyom.com/

The Mind & Life Institute

An introduction to the Mind & Life Institute, describing its founding and mission of building a scientific understanding of how to cultivate a mind of compassion and wisdom. Speakers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Adam Engle, Richard J. Davison, and Helen J. Neville. Narrated by Richard Gere.

What is mindfulness?

This simply produced 3 minute video from Mindfulnet.org briefly describes what mindfulness is, and how it can be used. Interest in mindfulness has been growing steadily in recent years. Mindfulness is now being used in Boardrooms, Schools, Prisons, Court rooms and hospitals across the world. Mindfulnet.org was set up to provide users with an easy to use website that provides everything you need to know about mindfulness in one place. To find out more, visit www.mindfulnet.org

Mindfulness Stress Reduction And Healing

Google Tech Talks March 8, 2007 ABSTRACT Jon will describe the revolution in medicine that has occurred over the past 30 years that has integrated the mind back into the body and developed a remarkable range of practices for integrating one's experience, reducing stress, healing the body, coping more effectively with emotions such as anxiety, anger, and depression, and cultivating greater well-being and happiness. His work has been instrumental in bringing Buddhist meditative practices, as he likes to say, "without the Buddhism" to full acceptance within the mainstream of medicine, psychology, and health care, and has shown them to be effective in people suffering from a wide range of medical...

Mind and Life Institute Overview

This video is an introduction and overview of the Mind and Life Institute. Find out more about the institute's work here: www.mindandlife.org

Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha -- on the Web

www.ted.com In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward Buddha nature.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for ...

Interview with Ed Parker and Jeff Speakman

An interview with Senior Grand Master Ed Parker and Jeff Speakman about the Kenpo movie 'The Perfect Weapon'. Subtitles are in Dutch and yes, it says 'kempo' instead of 'kenpo'.

Jeff Speakman Kata

Jeff Speakman performs an Ed Parker Kenpo Karate Kata during the opening credits of The Perfect Weapon.

KENPO 5.O DEMO REEL

AWESOME fight sequences, starring Jeff Speakman and Trevor Sherman, featuring the new KENPO 5.0 Series

Paul Mills American Kenpo Energy Video Clip

Paul Mills, president and founder of the American Kenpo Karate Internati...

JKD Tommy Carruthers 4m

JKD Tommy Carruthers 4m