Quality of Life for One, for All

     We're slowly but surely realizing that personal multidimensional wellness - physical, mental, emotional etc - is a basic requirement - NOT LUXURY - for success for our solo profession, our family, our company, our city, our nation, our species, our global village. The flight safety instructions to put oxygen masks on ourselves first, and then on our children, makes perfect sense.

     "Though organizational development is a huge and profitable business, studies show that more than 70% of organizational change efforts fall short of their intended goals. Why?
     Because most change efforts fail to take an 'integral approach' to the complex whole system change. 
     In order to develop agile, resilient, thriving organizations, we need to continually monitor and manage across both the inner and outer dimensions of our work, while investing attention to optimizing the personal, 'me,' and collective, 'we' dimensions that are critical to our well-being and success in every moment and interaction."

     Joel & Michelle Levey www.wisdomatwork.com

Philip Lanoue   www.dpreview.com

Awakening Harmony & Wholeness

     “... to the spirit of harmony and wholeness awakening within us all.

      As our world becomes ever more complex and stressful, developing our capacity for dynamic balance in our lives, work, and relationships becomes ever more vital to understand and embody in our own lives and to model for others whose lives we influence.”

        Joel Levey, Michelle Levey. “Living in Balance: A Mindful Guide for Thriving in a Complex World.” Divine Arts, Revised & Expanded edition, 2014.

What is the Quality of Our Converations?

     How much thought & care do we put into the quality of what we're about to say? Yet the quality of our conversations reflects the overall quality of our lives - at work, at play, as well as at home.
     This is from Mongolia, roughly 50 years ago.

     “We were all gathered around the oil lamp, and the conversation was quiet, harmonious, unhurried. We took turns speaking. Mother and Father usually reported what had happened during the day. Grandma added explanations and time and again developed them into stories. Nobody interrupted her, nobody interrupted anybody, everybody got rid of what was on his or her mind. And nobody interrupted what they were busy doing, either.
     Everybody listened to the conversation, including the children, who were (playing) … and they loved it. It felt so good to play. Yet the children never lost track of the conversation even though they would not butt in unless they were asked a question. Everybody took part in everything. Sometimes there was a longer pause, but nobody ever rushed to break in. Rather, we would let it last and muse upon it. This way everybody seemed to be getting prepared for the night’s rest.”

       Galsan Tschinag “The Blue Sky.” Milkweed Editions, 2006. 

Wholeness in Health Care - or - Science Only

     Some academics still firmly believe in the biomedical model. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/search?q=biopsychosocial Though arguments to preserve it were lost decades ago, the ultra-conservative agenda continues to surface as "practical" roadblocks to curriculum reform.


     "Ultra-conservatives" UCs feel that safe-guarding their profession entails teaching dental & medical students only the sciences required to practice their respective professions. "Soft subjects" must be excluded, because they're: irrelevant, and/or common sense, and/or private, personal matters eg ethics, medical humanities, behavioral sciences, spirituality, etc. and "there's not enough time" in the curriculum.
     Proponents of the biopsychosocial model BPSs feel that sciences need to be balanced with a broad worldview that acknowledges the importance of clinicians (and their future patients) being helped to mature as human beings, along whatever specific direction each chooses. BPSs understand the critical importance of promoting & optimizing students' (and thus, future patients') mental, emotional, spiritual and social, as well as biological, health.

     See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/11/values-purpose-meaning-quality-of-life.html

Mindfulness-Based Wellness - Continuing Education - Saturday, March 7, 2015

Mindfulness-Based Wellness in Dentistry : 

Creating an Optimal Healing Environment

Dalhousie University, Faculty of Dentistry

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Saturday, March 7, 2015

 
David A. Lovas MD, FRCP(C)

and 

John Lovas DDS, MSc, FRCD(C)

Course Outline
          Dentistry, dental hygiene and life in general can be stressful. To best serve our patients, coworkers, families and society, we ourselves need to embody health. Good self-care is both desirable and a professional obligation. Mindfulness is more than an evidence-based self-care technique, it is an evolved way of being in the world. Mindfulness training helps us live more authentically – expressing our core values in appropriate caring behaviour.

          Mindfulness was first popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD at UMass Medical School 35 years ago. Mindfulness is scientifically-proven, effective and widely used around the world for health care and self-care. Our Faculty of Dentistry and School of Dental Hygiene pioneered the integration of Mindfulness training into dental and dental hygiene curricula. Now you too can benefit from learning this exciting holistic approach to wellness for yourself and your patients.
          “Mindfulness is for all those who would chart a course toward greater sanity and wisdom in their lives.” Jon Kabat-Zinn
          “An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.’’ William James

Course Objectives 
Upon successful completion of this program, participants will be able to:
          • Review how stress in dentistry can affect you
          • Review basic stress-management strategies
          • Understand what mindfulness is, and its pivotal role in stress management
          • Experience effective mindfulness training methods
          • Explore strategies for using mindfulness in your office starting Monday

About the Presenters

Dr. David A. Lovas BSc, MD, FRCP(C) obtained science and medical degrees from Dalhousie University, and psychiatric training from Harvard Medical School. He is an assistant professor in the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, with cross-appointment in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, and works as a child & adolescent psychiatrist and the physician co-leader of the Emergency Mental Health & Addictions Services (EMHAS) of the IWK Health Center. Dr. Lovas has trained extensively in mindfulness-based clinical interventions and has been awarded Harvard fellowships for his research in this area. His current research and academic interests continue to include mindfulness-based interventions, neurobiology, as well as the role of mindfulness in health-professional development and wellness.

Dr. John G. Lovas BSc, DDS, MSc, FRCD(C) obtained science and dental degrees from the University of Toronto, and oral pathology training at the University of Western Ontario. He’s served as chief examiner in oral pathology for the Royal College of Dentists of Canada and as president of the Canadian Academy of Oral Pathology. Dr. Lovas retired from the Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University in July 2014 after teaching oral pathology and oral medicine for 31 years and serving as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs for 5 years. He obtained teacher-training in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at UMass Medical Center, the Omega Institute in New York, and the Rochester Medical School. For over ten years Dr. Lovas has been teaching aspects of Mindfulness to dental, dental hygiene, medical and other clinicians, faculty, students and staff.

Fees: https://registration.dentistry.dal.ca/CourseDetail.php?id=2172

Registration:
Phone: (902) 494-1674 or
Email: dentcde@dal.ca

www.dal.ca/about-dal/dal-at-a-glance.html

Aversion, Readiness, and Reason

     Regardless of how reasonable a path may be, even if we intellectually want to take it, we simply may not be emotionally ready to do so. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/10/take-it-to-limit.html

     We are far less reasonable, and far more emotional than we we tend to assume. This is much easier to see in others than in ourselves. A good example is the emotionally-charged negative reaction medical (and dental) students have against "having to learn" various subjects, about which they know little, and more importantly, cannot possibly know how these relate to becoming a competent physician (or dentist). See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/02/control-and-liminality.html While Shapiro's paper deals with medical humanities, I've seen similar emotional calls from first year dental students to drop histology from the curriculum, because - in their opinion - it had 'nothing to do with dentistry!' As a student, my personal least favorite course in dental school was anatomy, but unlike today, in those days I didn't demand that it be dropped. I'd like to think that I was able to differentiate my emotional dislike of the subject from the subject's entirely reasonable place in the curriculum.

     An early optional course in any professional curriculum to seriously consider is one in which students learn to get in touch with their emotions so that they don't conflate them with reason. Mindfulness (MBSR) courses accomplish this, and more, very nicely. The resultant emotional clarity & maturation should pave the way for a much healthier education and career.

 

What & How?

     "The starting point on the path is asking ourselves what we really want out of life, and then, whatever that response is, doing it full-heartedly. Even if our answer is a worldly pursuit, full-heartedness will show us its value and limitation. After repeatedly seeing the limitation of our wanting, our energy begins to consolidate around a deeper objective and yearning. Once that deeper objective is set in motion, the next question that arises is: 'What is going on in me right now?' From that question, everything unfolds."

       Rodney Smith interview: http://blog.shambhala.com/2014/03/12/rodney-smith/

Hall's Harbour, Nova Scotia

Take It to the Limit

     I have often wondered how my life would have evolved had I had a life-long, serious practice of a discipline such as karate, tai chi, portrait painting, or classical piano. We know that these practices can have a major impact on serious practitioners. But what are the limits of such practices?
     After reading about, and being fascinated by Zen, Taoism and other Eastern wisdom traditions, I finally started meditating about 16 years ago. This practice, under the guidance of experienced meditation teachers, can be seen as a "meta-practice," since it provides a well-established roadmap for human maturation. The improvements in quality of life this practice enables are profound. Yet, like myself from age 18-48, not everyone is ready to practice meditation.
     An increasing proportion of the globe's population is rapidly gaining easier access to material possessions. Many of us are aggressively exploring how far materialism can take us. How happy can we become IF we - eat, not eat, drink, take prescription drugs, take illegal substances, own homes, take 'trips of a lifetime', hoard stuff, have sex, and even work - as much, as many, as often, as huge, as quickly etc as we possibly can? And the results of this research? Obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, substance abuse, workaholism, prescription psychotropic drug use, mental illness are rampant. IMHO, this looks like human devolution.
     While materialism and cynicism are currently mainstream, there are excellent, well-established, tried-and-tested roadmaps for human evolution. When one has taken various paths - including cynicism - to their limit, and found them wanting, a more intelligent, evolved alternative may merit serious investigation.

First Commandment of Adult Education

     "nobody can stand truth if it is told to him. Truth can be tolerated only if you discover it yourself because then, the pride of discovery makes the truth palatable."                     Fritz Perls 

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Necessary Ingredients for Knowledge & Innovation

     "According to two Japanese researchers, Ikujiro Nonaka and Toshihiro Nishiguchi, organizations must have what they call “ba” present in the organizational space for knowledge creation to occur. Ba, loosely defined, is an energy by which knowledge and innovation are created.
     In order for ba to exist, the organizational culture must have love, care, trust, and compassion. These four elements are absolutely necessary for knowledge creation. Yes… love, care, trust, and compassion are necessary fundamentals in an innovative organizational culture.
     If we are not innovating and moving forward, then we are moving backwards. Static and neutral are misperceptions in the marketplace. If your organization is not innovating, then it is dying a slow death.
     Do the values of love, care, trust, and compassion exist in your organization? If not, why not? What can you do to shift the energy? What can you do to invite ba in? Remember, as Gandhi stated, 'We must be the change we wish to see.' Let’s bring love, care, trust, and compassion back into our work, and back into our lives and let the creativity flow."

       by: Maria Church PhD http://drmariachurch.com/drmariatv/
       Published in: Sierra Vista Herald  http://www.svherald.com/content/community/2014/09/01/388632

Sierra Vista Herald.

Sierra Vista Herald.

According to two Japanese researchers, Ikujiro Nonaka and Toshihiro Nishiguchi, organizations must have what they call “ba” present in the organizational space for knowledge creation to occur. Ba, loosely defined, is an energy by which knowledge and innovation are created.
In order for ba to exist, the organizational culture must have love, care, trust, and compassion. These four elements are absolutely necessary for knowledge creation. Yes… love, care, trust, and compassion are necessary fundamentals in an innovative organizational culture.
If we are not innovating and moving forward, then we are moving backwards. Static and neutral are misperceptions in the marketplace. If your organization is not innovating, then it is dying a slow death.
Do the values of love, care, trust, and compassion exist in your organization? If not, why not? What can you do to shift the energy? What can you do to invite ba in? Remember, as Gandhi stated, “We must be the change we wish to see.” Let’s bring love, care, trust, and compassion back into our work, and back into our lives and let the creativity flow.
- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/blogs/news/archive/2014/10/02/do-you-have-ba.aspx#sthash.rl6Y3ViI.dpuf

According to two Japanese researchers, Ikujiro Nonaka and Toshihiro Nishiguchi, organizations must have what they call “ba” present in the organizational space for knowledge creation to occur. Ba, loosely defined, is an energy by which knowledge and innovation are created.
In order for ba to exist, the organizational culture must have love, care, trust, and compassion. These four elements are absolutely necessary for knowledge creation. Yes… love, care, trust, and compassion are necessary fundamentals in an innovative organizational culture.
If we are not innovating and moving forward, then we are moving backwards. Static and neutral are misperceptions in the marketplace. If your organization is not innovating, then it is dying a slow death.
Do the values of love, care, trust, and compassion exist in your organization? If not, why not? What can you do to shift the energy? What can you do to invite ba in? Remember, as Gandhi stated, “We must be the change we wish to see.” Let’s bring love, care, trust, and compassion back into our work, and back into our lives and let the creativity flow.
- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/blogs/news/archive/2014/10/02/do-you-have-ba.aspx#sthash.rl6Y3ViI.dpuf

Living Fresh - Each Day, Each Moment!

Do not say, "It is morning," and dismiss
it with a name of yesterday. See it
for the first time as a new-born
child that has no name.
                                                                                            Rabindranath Tagore

       Streep P ed. Spiritual Illuminations. Meditations for Inner Growth. Viking Studio Books, NY, 1992.