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 22 Dec 2008 @ 05:55, by koravya. Education
We got a tight little group in our Tuesday night Comp One. There’s no place to hide.
We got eighteen seats for sixteen writers and one referee. I am enforcing the rules of good English usage and expression. I am also urging them to be creative. More >
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 22 Nov 2008 @ 23:39, by Unknown. Education
Get rid of the Federal Department of Education!
Aren't your children and their future worth the effort?
The onion couldn’t make up stuff like this, if it tried to.
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 28 Aug 2008 @ 05:12, by koravya. Education
August 27, 2008
Looking through the window into nothing but the absolute nighttime darkness. More >
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 22 Aug 2008 @ 05:21, by koravya. Education
Final exams week at the Ecole Technique.
These are the last two weeks of the summer quarter at school. The finals have to be given, so emotions are running high all over the school, as students are finalizing their knowledge into a coherent statement. I read composition essays. I read peoples’ stories. They talk about what they believe in, and what they think about what is right and what is wrong about a lot of things. More >
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4 Apr 2008 @ 13:12, by erlefrayne. Education
As articulated in earlier articles by me, institutions torment the ‘free spirits’ or souls with ‘individuated minds’. Institutions were designed for the ‘mass mind’ people, for the harbingers of the ‘folkspirit’ or folkgeist. I’d say from my own experience that current education is inadequate for the former, for gifted children and most especially for ‘star seed’ children.
As a young man of Age 22, Erle Frayne Argonza can be described as possessing a ‘conqueror’s psyche’. Barely starting in his work as a community development assistant, he was already very bullish in meteorically rising to top leadership and executive roles. At that age, he envisioned his entry to the presidential palace as an executive in the future, 25 years hence (at age 46 he did become a bureau director in the presidential palace).
Compare that young adult Erle to the boy Erle of preschool and school days. It was a stark contrast, to be sure. This tot was shy, melancholic, and was deeply communicating with his own inner self or detached from the crowd. He went through a traumatic childhood, and he with the ‘gifted mind’ and ‘star seed’ went through a process that, to his surprise, was undergone too by other ‘star seeds’. More >
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3 Apr 2008 @ 20:25, by democritus. Education
I'm 17 now, just about to take my A-levels. I do well, I get into the university I want, get a degree, get a job. Welcome to the rest of my life.
I was at a party recently. Kids with dyed hair and catchy tshirt slogans. What are they going to be doing in 10 years? Most of them, I think, will be sat at a desk, thinking back to those good times, wondering where everything changed. And you say 'Well they have the choice to do something different.' More >
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 13 Feb 2008 @ 08:36, by koravya. Education
Has it been nice to live with a cozy little live fireplace through a winter! Getting on to mid-February now, and at this latitude and elevation in a river valley flowing through a desert, there’s still some cold nights ahead, but fewer than are behind us. Midwinter is gone. More >
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 9 Jan 2008 @ 08:33, by koravya. Education
About the Day.
The first day back to school, after two weeks away. More >
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 30 Nov 2007 @ 19:54, by jerryvest. Education
Nicotene Addiction - Let's Prevent it!!!
All we need to bring to meditation is ourselves, for our bodies and minds are the foundations of meditation. Breath, which is like a coordinator of body and mind, is the essence of being that integrates them. (Openness Mind, Tarthang Tulku)
If you don't get cancer from smoking, you may acquire chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that affects you in a serious way. As most of us know, when we don't breathe well, we don't relate effectively. Our breath is an integral part of our "Relations Instinct"(Ichazo) and answers the instinctual questions: "Who am I with? Am I safe and secure with who I am with, inside and out? These questions will not be successfully answered when we acquire cardiovascular diseases--most related to smoking cigarettes.
Obvious to many of us, when we can't relate, life feels like it is not worth living. We get depressed and develop feelings of isolation and loneliness. If you doubt that this happens to persons with respiratory illnesses, visit any of your local nursing homes. You will see our elders hooked up to oxygen tanks and most confined to wheel chairs. These residents are unable to express themselves and interact fully with family, friends and others with these attachments, so they can be very uncomfortable and miserable as they live out their lives.
Our health teams introduce our 15-Minute StressOut Program, a nourishing touch partner experience, with the residents and this offers some relief and comfort. We know that physical interaction or touch is not commonly offered in these settings; however, it is a fact of life--humans need to touch and to be touched to meet their basic human need requirements. The consequences for the absence of touch are well documented in the literature. Visit the Touch Research Institute for further evidence of the power of touch.
The Touch Research Institute is dedicated to studying the effects of touch therapy. The TRIs have researched the effects of massage therapy at all stages of ...
[link]
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Visit the "Six Killers Article" that introduces Ms. Rommes experiences and of others suffering from this devastating disease: [link]
Ms. Rommes has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., a progressive illness that permanently damages the lungs and is usually caused by smoking. Once thought of as an old man’s disease, this disorder has become a major killer in women as well, the consequence of a smoking boom in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The death rate in women nearly tripled from 1980 to 2000, and since 2000, more women than men have died or been hospitalized every year because of the disease.
Smoking is a real killer and my wife and I have personal experiences about the danger of smoking. Even when you quit, cancer lesions may appear years later, so just don't start. Give your kids much love, affection, nourishing touch, and appreciation for not smoking. Give them a $1,000.00 if that will prevent them from starting. Let them take an Oath and make a commitment stating that they will never endanger their life by smoking a drug that is harder to withdraw from than Heroin.
Please pass this article on to your friends and colleagues. Believe me, if you or your loved one has to have their lung removed, have brain surgery, Gamma Knife treatment, and go through all of the cancer treatments known by medicine, you won't ever pick up a cigarette and inhale.
The picture that I am sharing with you is of our young family before we knew the real dangers of smoking. If my partner had not asked that a brain scan be given to her, following lung surgery, by her oncologist, this cancer would likely have moved deeper into her brain and I would no longer have my wife, best friend, mother of our two children, grandmother, and love of my life with me today. We are very fortunate and don't want others to have to go through such a devastating and life threatening experience related to smoking. Just don't start!!!
Six Killers: Lung Disease: From Smoking Boom, a Major Killer of Women [link]
Nicotine and what it does to our Body-Mind-Spirit
I hope that this article and your comments and experiences that you share will serve to help prevent our next generations from using tobacco. Often, teenagers and college students think that they are very cool by smoking and will often emulate their heroes, parents, friends and others who they admire. Young people also may smoke to challenge adults and to break from authority figures, especially their parents. However, the chemicals, especially Nicotine that is included in tobacco are a 3rd. Degree Drug and is as extremely addictive as heroin and cocaine,
The Following article describes the scientific evidence related to this drug:
Nicotine Addiction
What causes nicotine addiction?,/b>
Nicotine is an addictive drug. It causes changes in the brain that make people want to use it more and more. In addition, addictive drugs cause unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. The good feelings that result when an addictive drug is present — and the bad feelings when it's absent — make breaking any addiction very difficult. Nicotine addiction has historically been one of the hardest addictions to break.
The 1988 Surgeon General's Report, "Nicotine Addiction," concluded that Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addicting.
Nicotine is the drug that causes addiction.
Pharmacologic and behavioral characteristics that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
What else does nicotine do to the body?
When a person smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes a short-term increase in blood pressure, heart rate and the flow of blood from the heart. It also causes the arteries to narrow. The smoke includes carbon monoxide, which reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. This, combined with the nicotine effects, creates an imbalance between the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood can supply.
How does nicotine in cigarettes increase the risk of heart attack?
Cigarette smoking may increase the risk of developing hardening of the arteries and heart attacks in several ways. First, carbon monoxide may damage the inner walls of the arteries, encouraging fatty buildups in them. Over time, this causes the vessels to narrow and harden. Nicotine may also contribute to this process. Smoking also causes several changes in the blood that make clots — and heart attack — more likely.
What are the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal?
irritability
impatience
hostility
anxiety
depressed mood
difficulty concentrating
restlessness
decreased heart rate
increased appetite or weight gain
How long does nicotine stay in the body?
From 85–90 percent of nicotine in the blood is metabolized by the liver and excreted from the kidney rapidly. The estimated half-life for nicotine in the blood is two hours. However, smoking represents a multiple dosing situation with considerable accumulation during smoking. Therefore, it can be expected that blood nicotine would persist at significant levels for six to eight hours after smoking stopped.
Related AHA publications:
The Effects of Smoking brochure (also in Spanish)
For Your Children: Our guide to help you safeguard your children from heart disease and stroke brochure (also in Spanish)
Quit Smoking for Good brochure
Smoking and Your Risk of Stroke brochure
"How To Avoid Weight Gain When Quitting Smoking", "How Can I Handle the Stress of Not Smoking?" and "How Can I Quit Smoking?" printable sheets from Answers By Heart kit.
Note: Please share your personal experiences with the dangers of smoking to help others from repeating these dangerous addictions to these drugs. And, if this does not deter others from smoking, take them with you for a visit to your local nursing home and do introduce our nourishing touch program.
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 31 Aug 2007 @ 14:56, by jerryvest. Education
"Surrendering to the teaching is the giving up of self-images, fears, thoughts and desires into the hands of deeper self-knowledge." (Tarthang Tulku, Hidden Mind of Freedom)
We can transform our image egos -
As I look back on my personal and professional development as an adult human being, I can see that my image of myself was the culprit that made life, health and relationships unfulfilling. It appears to me that we develop these images to identify, protect and secure the fixed ideas we create about ourselves. Perhaps this is why we are so fragile, insecure and reactive. We are so fearful about losing, shattering or changing this image that our true sense of being becomes fearful, embarrassed, insecure, indignant, protective and isolated; we are often feeling left alone in the world like a pearl in an oyster.
As a social worker by profession, I learned early on that our most effective approach and method for engaging others is to be present, in the moment, with complete openness, respect and acceptance. Knowing that everyone has an image ego that is delicate and protective is even more reason for us to learn to be non-judgmental and tolerant, allowing us to discover and experience these images for ourselves. Oscar Ichazo, one of my teachers, would describe this experience as making an arc of love with another—or being the equal.
However, because these self-images are so fixed, fearful, rigid and controlling, they don’t usually change without some skillful interventions, personal practice and genuine commitment to change. Alternative and integrative health practices have helped me and many of my students transform this image and become whole, with attributes of compassion, innocence and love that we remember as children. I often think: ‘Oh to be a child again!’ Subsequently, my grandchildren arrive in my landscape to help me relax, enjoy and refresh my essential being so that I can play and enjoy life to its fullest. I appreciate what Dr. Ashley Montagu describes in Growing Young and what it can mean to “grow up” as a child and into the skin of an adult:
To grow young means to grow in our youthful traits, not to grow out of or to abandon them.
Success for the child becomes emulation of his elders. The rare individuals who somehow manage to avoid falling into this trap and retain their childlike qualities are considered either eccentric, odd, nonconformist, or otherwise otiose (futile). We do not appreciate non-conformists in America. Our colleges and universities, not to mention our schools, avoid or reject them.(p. 198)
I have attempted to describe my journey of transformation while introducing various methods that I have employed to free this image ego and return to my true youthful nature. While writing this log, I recall many of the questions that we, my friends and colleagues, raised in our group work and/or challenged our egos with such questions during our process of change and regeneration. See for example: “Being an Effective Professional.”
Integrative Health Practices -
While learning and participating in Gestalt Therapy groups during the early 1970’s, I learned early on that behind every question is the answer. How else would we know if it is true or false? I had the good fortune to participate in some fascinating groups with four of our country’s greatest group workers—Oscar Ichazo, Joseph (Jack) Downing, Tarthang Tulku and Claudio Naranjo. Through these experiences, it became evident to me that our confusion, doubts and fears manifested in our image ego can be transformed into clarity, awareness and confidence.
How do Questions help us?
What is there to know? What would you like to know? For example, in therapy it is important for us to raise questions about ourselves? Who are you? How are you? Where are you? Why are you here? What do you want to do with your life? What makes you happy? What are your plans, goals or aspirations? How do you relate with others? What do you enjoy about your life? How do you feel about your partner, family, friends and colleagues? In other words, how meaningful is your life, health and relationships?
We might also inquire: when was the last time you did a self-assessment? Have you examined your self and your relationships with all that is-physically/sexually, mentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually? How can you improve the quality of your work, your life, your health and your relationships?
Other great questions that I recall we were asked to respond to during group sessions:
1. What is there to fear?
2. What stops or prevents you from being your best possible human being?
3. What are your patterns of conditioning that prevent you from fulfilling your whole being?
4. Do you want to change? Are you fully committed to change? What is there to change?
5. Can others count on you? Are you honest and trustworthy?
6. How do you relate or interact with others?
7. Are you mindful? Do you listen to yourself? Do you hear your voice? How you respond or react? Do you say what you mean? Are you conscious of your internal and external breath?
8. Are you curious, interested and enthusiastic?
9. How do you express your joy?
10.Do you have an open and flexible mind?
11.Are you kind, sensitive and compassionate?
12.Do you sincerely care about others and your natural and social environments?
13.How do you get along with others?
14.How do you compensate or adapt when your instincts and image ego is out of balance and you are stressed, anxious and depressed?
15.How do you act or behave when you don’t get “your way?” "My way or the highway!"
Social Work Practice courses can introduce these questions by organizing experiential work groups in the classroom to help our developing professionals learn to be skillful, aware and effective therapists. I suggest that you introduce a new question each session and encourage the students to share a personal experience related to it. This exercise may assist them in developing an open mind.
There are many ideas about our egos. This is a very good overview that may be helpful to understand how our ego develops and becomes ill-- From Beyond the Frontier of the Mind by Osho . I also have worked for the past 30+ years with the Arica Programs to assist me in this transformation process. Perhaps the best resources that I have found during my search for meaning, purpose and truth are part of Tarthang Tulku's collection.
Do visit my other articles in my log that include various approaches, techniques and methods to advance our professional knowledge, skills and values.
Note: Picture is of my mom when she was a little person. In those days the "playpen" was very popular. However, not much room for play! My grandfather, Bapa, took the picture. More >
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