Some of the scientific evidence points to how resilience only comes into operation when certain events take place. Some people according to this theory have extra stuff that lets them come back from terrible events. But there are a range of events just short that need us to behave with balance.
Developing the skills of emotional literacy in which we bring our emotions into balance through a simple but challenging process of feeling them and translating them into words so that they can be reflected upon inwardly and outwardly, is what allows us to become emotionally balanced and sober people. People who are able to use their emotions consciously to fuel passion, communication and understanding.
Here is a short video clip on attaining Emotional Sobriety:
There are lots of ways to see resilience - some times it only comes to the surface in situation of terrible outcomes - Black People are, if nothing else - Resilience.
Why resilience? I define myself using a term established by Richard Rorty - “liberal ironist -the name for the “sort of person who faces up to the contingency of his own most central beliefs and desires –someone sufficiently historicist and nominalist to have abandoned the idea those central beliefs and desires refer back to something beyond the reach of time.
So my anthem is resilience - the sustaining of life’s daring. From this date forward I will be contributing more and more material along this theme. If you find any material that you think should be included, send it to oldude59@happinessaddiction.info
Poetry project begins with inquiry into resilience and the human spirit
“There is a small world of people interested in human rights and writing,” says Marjory Wentworth, Poet Laureate of South Carolina.
Wentworth and three other poets from that small world, Carolyn Forche, Taha Muhammed Ali, and Peter Cole, will be here, in our island world, this weekend at the first session of the 2008 Block Island Poetry Workshop, “Poetry, Resilience, and the Human Spirit.”
“They are looking for a way to process their emotions. They are afraid, confused and angry,” Wentworth said. “When people get that sick they have little control. They’re told what to do. “
“It was a great way to process the information,” she explained. “There is a redemptive quality in creating a poem about these things.”
This weekend, Wentworth and Forche will team up to do a workshop together. “We’ll teach reading between the lines. We’ll write poems from newspaper clippings.”
If you like the Office - you’ll love Silkstr. It’s not as much fun as the “red stapler” but nearly. Remember - please contribute to
Slikstr places one more layer on the art-imitating-life scrim by adopting the very “social networking tools” it mocks to better involve viewers in the fun. There’s a blog, a wikidot page with business plan, and page where you can create your own Slikstr video mashups
Slikstr is a mock videoblog of the titular start-up, which aims to be “the world’s first user-created and -controlled company” with content entirely dictate and directed by its customers.
What does Slikstr actually do, you ask? Not much, really. And that’s the joke: Waiting for Godot exasperation set in the quotidian absurdity of the cubicle and boardroom.
The whole thing essentially parodies the myriad of useless interactive websites and jobs that have exponentially multiplied since the boom of Web 2.0 start-ups: the company’s mission is not only completely superfluous, but its employees have also learned to speak in pseudo-professional jargon like “implement social networking tools” and constant reaffirmations that “YOU” the customer, is the creator that prove so necessary to convince themselves that what they’re doing is of importance.
Even though they’re clueless. Slikstr COO Michael Golan puts a smooth-selling, overoptimistic face on the company’s complete lack of actual content (watch him double talk his way through an explanation of his duties); Creative Director of Projects Joel Radcliffe has a nonchalant demeanor (an interview with him on what he does is riddled with “you know”s); Hannah Lindman, Director of Community Management and Support, maintains a bubbly exterior but doesn’t understand what’s going on; CEO Louis Ebbage seems to exist only through his Second Life avatar, and addresses customers with gems such as, “Slikstr is a dream, a dream of what can happen when technology and inspiration combine. Techperation, I call it”; and poor new hire Rob DiMenno is the only one honest enough to admit to being befuddled.
We like to have background noise — whether we’re in the car, at home, or in the office — we have the radio or TV on or the sounds of kids and coworkers keep a constant white noise. How many of us like quiet and solitude? How many like introspection?
More often than not, our outer life is the result of our inner life. Try as we might to hide certain aspects of ourselves, our character and motivations leak out. Do we like what we see? Do others? Here are four tips that will change your inner life and, consequently, impact your outer life:
Allow time to spend time in solitude ands silence.
Surround yourself with good counselors — this includes family, friends, and professionals.
Strive for balance in your personal life, family life, and work life — prioritize your time.
Be accountable to someone(s) — a life examined is a successful life.
