Why Manage Anxiety and Stress When You Can End It…Here’s How!
March 3, 2011
We all know what stress and anxiety is and how it feels when the “chatter” in our head tells us that we’re going to get “hurt” by an event that has not happened.
In order to fix a car, cure a disease or eliminate stress and aniety, we need to know how it works. If could dissect our our inner world we would notice that our psyche, like a computer, has an operating system. A belief based operating system that communicates to us through the “chatter” in our head. Understanding how our chatter works is key to eliminating stress and anxiety. Here’s an overview.
The primary purpose of the chatter in our head is to protect our beliefs. When our beliefs are violated (not in sync with reality) our chatter will sound the alarm. For example, let’s say we believe our job is secure and that security is important to us; when out-of-the-blue we get slammed with a layoff notice. The chatter in our head goes ballistic and demands to know, “What we are you going to do about it?” And if that is not enough, our chatter will turn up the stress and anxiety by reminding us that we’re on the financial edge and how we hate looking for a new job, especially in today’s economy.
There is also another reason why we’re anxious and stressed that is rarely, if ever talk about, our ability to project into the future and past. Our chatter high-jacks this talent, turns it into a weapon by asking “what if” questions we can’t answer. “What if you can’t pay your bills, what if you can’t find another job, what it, what if, what if.”
No one plans to be a victim, and yet we lay the ground work for this eventuality when we allow our outer world to dictate our inner state.
To learn more, check-out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29SSuVwc78M.
Is The Problem – Bored of Education?
March 3, 2011
There is a reason why such a staggering number, about one third, of this nation’s high school students, drop out of school every year. Our inability to educate our youth is more than an “education problem,” it’s undermining the very fabric of our country. For example, those who are poorly educated and lack the necessary skills are more likely to live in poverty, receive government assistance and become involved with crime, which raises a question we have yet to address.
Why are we having so much trouble educating our children? I believe the answer is revealed in the on-line report, “The Silent Epidemic,” which was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The reasons most offered by those who failed to graduate were boredom, lack of motivation and not being academically challenged.
From the drop outs that were interviewed:
- 88 percent had passing grades, with 62 percent having “C’s and above
- 66 percent would have worked harder if expectations were higher
- 70 percent were confident they could have graduated from high school
- 81 percent recognized that graduating from high school was vital to their success
- 74 percent would have stayed in school if they had to do it over again
- 51 percent accepted personal responsibility for not graduating and an additional 26 percent shared the responsibility between them and their school, leaving very few who blamed the school. Nearly all of the students that participated in this survey had thoughtful ideas about what their school could have done to keep them from dropping out. They went on to say that, “They would encourage others who are contemplating dropping out of school, not to do so.”
It’s not just students who are bored, uninspired and dropping out. Approximately one third of new teachers quit the profession during their first three years and almost half leave during the first five years.
Napoleon, the famous French general said; “The greatest attribute of a soldier is endurance.” I believe the greatest attribute of an educator, is their willingness to lift and move the human spirit forward. Learning, discovering, being curious; inspired us to step out of the cave and eventually land on the moon. Our future depends upon the continuation of this legacy. We protect what we value and unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that our society truly values education. Other primates don’t have problems educating their young, why do we? Could there be a link between our intelligence and our inability to create that mindset that enables teachers and students to do their best work?
If we could dissect our inner world we would notice that our psyche, like a computer, has an operating system. A belief based operating system that creates mental pictures and communicates to us through the chatter in our head. Students, for example, have a belief, a mental picture of what education could or should be, and when this belief fails to materialize, their chatter may judge the situation and re-direct their attention to a different subject; such as, “What am I going to do after school today?” Teaching students how to correctly interpret and respond to their inner dialogue is critical to their future.
The Class Compass, which was developed by CoachMeRich.com, is an introspective tool that enables teachers and students to identify the mental qualities that will either move them forward or hold them back. The four (mental) qualities that move the educational process forward are: 1) awareness, living in the 2) present moment, 3) making conscious choices and 4) connecting to thoughts that are designed to move the educational process forward.
Imagine students being exposed to a strategy that enables them to be aware of the relationship between “their attention being in the room and the present moment.” Being present is the forerunner to making conscious choices. A conscious choice is more than a thoughtful decision; it’s a process whereby students think through and project as to what they may create if they stay connected to their current thinking.
Now let’s examine the mental factors that stop the educational process from moving forward and they are: 1) judgment, the 2) chatter in our head, which has the 3) evidence (the reasons) as to why a student should 4) react, not participate, which prevents the educational process from moving forward. Judgment occurs when the chatter in our head takes our ability to reason, which moves us forward, and uses it in a negative manner to prove that reality, the evidence, is out of sync with what we believe should be happening, which invites a reaction. For example, students that have a poor self-image and feel powerless are being judged by their chatter that they are “less than.” A student may attempt to compensate for this ill gotten perception with behaviors, such as bullying. Bullying is rapidly growing and is coveted by those who believe, “pushing others around” proves you have power. Could there be a link between childhood bullying and adult harassment?
Looking back, I can see how I was in lockstep with my chatter that often told me, “It is more important to be noticed in class, than to pay attention and learn.” Acting-up served me, because it created the attention I never received at home. But here’s the real problem, negative behaviors morph into patterns that are often difficult to correct down the road. Doing well in college was complicated for me, because I had poor study habits and had not learned how to “use” my brain. The fact that I barely graduated high school bears this out.
The Class Compass also enables students to reap the benefits of the 80/20 rule, which states that “80 percent of our results come from 20 percent of our effort.” The Class Compass takes advantage of this rule by showing students how to leverage their results by doing a few simple things, such as being aware, living in the moment, making conscious choices and knowing how to connect to those thoughts that will move them forward.
The road to higher education runs through our minds. Our job as educators is to ensure this path evolves into a super highway that inspires and develops character; otherwise teachers and students may find themselves stuck in the mental traffic of malaise, living out the words of the late Norman Mailer, an American novelist, journalist and film director, who said; “There is that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must change or else pay more for staying the same.”
