8. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Something to think about…

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4. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Here is a heart-warming piece written by Saskia Davis:

SYMPTOMS OF INNER PEACE

A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment

A loss of interest in judging other people

A loss of interest in judging self

A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others

A loss of interest in conflict

A loss of ability to worry

Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature

Frequent attacks of smiling

An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than to make them happen.

An increased susceptibility to love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it

WARNING: Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many already have been exposed; and it is possible that people, everywhere, could come down with it in epidemic proportions.

This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.

If you have some or all of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of inner peace may be too far advanced to be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk.

Source: http://symptomsofinnerpeace.net/Authors_Website/Wall_Poster.html

Be sure to find your own  inner peace!

Blessings,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

P.S. If you are over 16, be sure to take 25-30 minutes to take the survey at www.wellbeingstudy.com to help us with the first International Wellbeing Study! You might win $100 gift certificate and help humanity at the same time! Please use the code ‘JSWEB’ so I can track respondents. Thank you!

Posted in Gratitude, Awareness, Hope, Mindfulness, Curiosity, Science of love, Positive expectations, Danville CA, Emotion & learning, Altruism, Resiliency, Creativity, Dr. John Schinnerer, Realistic optimism, Forgiveness, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Consciousness, Emotional mind, Happiness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

3. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

3. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

Researchers have devoted decades to understanding what leads some people to be healthier than others. However, most people have only studied disease and disorder and failed to also address strengths and wellbeing. In this study, we want to look at what is going wrong and what is going right in different people from around the world. We want to capture the entire picture of what it means to be healthy and most importantly, track people to understand how they change over time.

This is the first study of its kind to look in depth at people’s wellbeing from around the world. If you choose to participate, you’ll be helping us to answer some of the most tantalising questions that our society faces today!

• To participate, you will need to be 16 years of age or older and fill out this same survey in every third month for a year: Five times in total.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE USE THE CODE ‘JSWEB’ WHEN YOU SIGN UP SO DR. JOHN SCHINNERER CAN TRACK RESPONDENTS.

• The survey takes around 25 to 30 minutes to complete (making your total commitment about 2 hours or so over the year), and is only open to those who commit to undertake all five identical surveys.

• After you have completed the five assessments, you will receive an e-mail summary report of your scores. This report will further explain the questions we asked, provide more detail about the study, and also show you how your answers compare to those of others who answered the survey.

• All survey respondents who complete the five assessments will go into the draw to win one of ten US$100 amazon.com vouchers at the end of the study! There will also be a draw for one US$100 amazon.com voucher at each assessment point. The draws will be made under supervision of a constable from Wellington central police station, New Zealand, and posted on the www.wellbeingstudy.com website.

• All survey respondents will be offered an option to opt-in to one of three different free internet based wellbeing orientated courses after they have completed the first three assessments.

• The study is voluntary, and you are free to withdraw at any stage. The results of this research will be published - but only in a form that ensures you cannot be identified, assuring strict confidentiality (you do not need to provide your name). This study has been approved by the TOPNZ Human Research Ethics Committee, and by hitting the ‘next’ button below, you consent to participate.

This research project is lead by Aaron Jarden, who is a lecturer in psychology and president of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology. For further information, you can contact Aaron or one of the other main researchers:

Aaron Jarden - aaron.jarden@openpolytechnic.ac.nz
Dr. Alexander MacKenzie - alexander.mackenzie@canterbury.ac.nz
Dr. Todd Kashdan - tkashdan@gmu.edu
Associate Professor Paul Jose - paul.jose@vuw.ac.nz
Professor Ormond Simpson – o.p.simpson@open.ac.uk
Dr. Kennedy Mclachlan - kennedy.mclachlan@openpolytechnic.ac.nz
Dr. John Schinnerer - john@guidetoself.com

(Note: These contacts are provided again at the end of the study questions, and also on the wellbeingstudy.com website)

Thank you in advance for your help with this very important research.

Dr. John Schinnerer

John Schinnerer, Ph.D., provides his clients with scientifically supported coaching and organizational consulting to make the most of your individual and corporate potential. A U.C. Berkeley-trained coach with a Ph.D. in psychology, John Schinnerer, has distilled the very best of research-based tools and methods to help clients overcome depression, anxiety, and anger issues and move towards a thriving, meaningful life. He is the award-winning author of ‘Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide to Managing Emotion and Thought.’

Posted in National speakers, Emotion & productivity, International Wellbeing Study, Happiness, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Guide to Self, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

3. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2009) 

High-school put-downs are such a staple of teen culture that many educators don’t take them seriously. However, a University of Illinois study suggests that classroom disruptions and psychologically hostile school environments can contribute to a climate in which good students have difficulty learning and students who are behind have trouble catching up.

“We need to get away from the idea that bullying is always physical. Bullying can also include verbal harassment, which can be just as damaging and detrimental to student learning,” said Christy Lleras, a U of I assistant professor of human and community development.

The study used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study and included 10,060 African American, Latino, and white tenth graders in 659 U.S. high schools. It is one of the first to look at the national incidence of verbal harassment in public and private high schools, she said.

“In looking at whether students felt safe at school, students’ fear for their physical safety was actually pretty low. But 70 percent of the students said they were bothered by disruptions in their classroom, and one in five students said that they were often put down by their peers in school,” she said.

Lleras came to three interesting conclusions as she reviewed the data.

1. One was that smaller, private, and more affluent schools do very little to protect students from verbal abuse.

“I assumed that the sorts of school environments that protect students from physical harm would also protect students from emotional harm, and that was not the case. These ’safe’ schools are not significantly reducing the likelihood that students will experience harassment by their peers,” she said.

2. This was especially true for adolescent boys. The results showed that boys experience verbal harassment from peers more often than girls, particularly if they are in private schools, Lleras said.

3. Lleras also found that African American high-school students who thought of themselves as very good students were more likely to experience verbal put-downs from their peers, but only when they were in high-minority schools.

Why would high-achieving African-American students in high-minority schools face more verbal harassment? Lleras doesn’t believe it can be entirely attributed to the oppositional culture hypothesis—namely, that high-achieving minority students are more likely to be negatively sanctioned by their peers for their efforts than white students.

She speculates that verbal put-downs in these schools may be a coping strategy that students use when they don’t have the skills to do the work and have little hope of acquiring them in their academic environment.

“When high-achieving minority kids are put down by their peers, it can contribute to a climate in which lower-achieving kids fall farther and farther behind and must struggle to catch up. This hostile school climate isn’t a cause of the racial achievement gap–we see evidence of the achievement gap well before middle school–but it contributes to it,” she said.

“Sadly, verbal harassment is just one more thing these students have to deal with, and as long as we accept it because it’s not physical bullying, we’re doing a grave disservice to the kids who need non-disruptive and focused learning environments the most,” she said.

The study was published in the Journal of School Violence.

Posted in Emotional management, Depression, Managing Anxiety, Resiliency, Emotion & learning, Raising optimistic children, Victims of bullying, School age bullies, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Guide to Self, Anxiety, School psychology, Bullies | Print | No Comments »

3. September 2009 by John Schinnerer.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2009) — Folk wisdom usually has it that “seeing is believing,” but new research suggests that “believing is seeing,” too – at least when it comes to perceiving other people’s emotions.

An international team of psychologists from the United States, New Zealand and France has found that the way we initially think about the emotions of others biases our subsequent perception (and memory) of their facial expressions. So once we interpret an ambiguous or neutral look as angry or happy, we later remember and actually see it as such.

The study, published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, ‘addresses the age-old question: ‘Do we see reality as it is, or is what we see influenced by our preconceptions?” said coauthor Piotr Winkielman, professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. ‘Our findings indicate that what we think has a noticeable effect on our perceptions.’

‘We imagine our emotional expressions as unambiguous ways of communicating how we’re feeling,’ said coauthor Jamin Halberstadt, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, ‘but in real social interactions, facial expressions are blends of multiple emotions – they are open to interpretation. This means that two people can have different recollections about the same emotional episode, yet both be correct about what they ’saw.’ So when my wife remembers my smirk as cynicism, she is right: her explanation of the expression at the time biased her perception of it. But it is also true that, had she explained my expression as empathy, I wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch.’

‘It’s a paradox,’ Halberstadt added. ‘The more we seek meaning in other emotions, the less accurate we are in remembering them.’

The researchers point out that implications of the results go beyond everyday interpersonal misunderstandings – especially for those who have persistent or dysfunctional ways of understanding emotions, such as socially anxious or traumatized individuals. For example, the socially anxious have negative interpretations of others’ reactions that may permanently color their perceptions of feelings and intentions, perpetuating their erroneous beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Other applications of the findings include eyewitness memory: A witness to a violent crime, for example, may attribute malice to a perpetrator – an impression which, according to the researchers, will influence memory for the perpetrator’s face and emotional expression.

The researchers showed experimental participants still photographs of faces computer-morphed to express ambiguous emotion and instructed them to think of these faces as either angry or happy. Participants then watched movies of the faces slowly changing expression, from angry to happy, and were asked to find the photograph they had originally seen. People’s initial interpretations influenced their memories: Faces initially interpreted as angry were remembered as expressing more anger than faces initially interpreted as happy.

Even more interesting, the ambiguous faces were also perceived and reacted to differently. By measuring subtle electrical signals coming from the muscles that control facial expressions, the researchers discovered that the participants imitated – on their own faces – the previously interpreted emotion when viewing the ambiguous faces again. In other words, when viewing a facial expression they had once thought about as angry, people expressed more anger themselves than did people viewing the same face if they had initially interpreted it as happy.

Because it is largely automatic, the researchers write, such facial mimicry reflects how the ambiguous face is perceived, revealing that participants were literally seeing different expressions.

‘The novel finding here,’ said Winkielman, of UC San Diego, ‘is that our body is the interface: The place where thoughts and perceptions meet. It supports a growing area of research on ‘embodied cognition’ and ‘embodied emotion.’ Our corporeal self is intimately intertwined with how – and what – we think and feel.’

The full article can be read at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090902161116.htm

Heading further down the rabbit hole,

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self

Positive Psychology Coach

Posted in National speakers, Curiosity, Awareness, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Positive expectations, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Guide to Self, Life coach, Emotional IQ, Staying calm, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »