Happy New Year

     May I abandon every variety of time wasting, and open-heartedly ride the razor's edge of now.

Thriving at the Growing Edge

     "It is so easy to banish areas of pain from the warmth and love of my heart. Aversion to discomfort is a rejection of the pain. It also marginalizes a central part of the truth of what is happening. Opening to pain is a persistent practice, and at this edge I learn much. 
     I have found that it is vital to touch discomfort with an awareness that is forgiving, accepting, and loving.”

       Harrison G. “In the lap of the Buddha.” Shambhala, Boston, 1994.

emilyaharrington, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Self-respect

     "I used to think that people who regarded everyone benignly were a mite simple or oblivious or just plain lax — until I tried it myself. Then I realized that they made it only look easy. Even the Berditchever Rebbe, revered as a man who could strike a rock and bring forth a stream, was continually honing his intentions. 'Until I remove the thread of hatred from my heart,' he said of his daily meditations, 'I am, in my own eyes, as if I did not exist.' "

       Marc Barasch "The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness"

denjw   www.dpreview.com

What is a University's Mandate?

     “The thing being made in a university is humanity…. [W]hat universities … are mandated to make or to help to make is human beings in the fullest sense of those words – not just trained workers or knowledgeable citizens but responsible heirs and members of human culture…. Underlying the idea of a university – the bringing together, the combining into one, of all the disciplines – is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by-products of the making of good – that is, fully developed – human beings.”                     Wendell Berry

        Palmer PJ, Zajonc A. “The heart of higher education: A call to renewal. Transforming the academy through collegial conversation.” Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2010. 


     Teaching Wisdom: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/teaching-for-wisdom-urgently-needed-now.html
     Distraction OR Wisdom?: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/allergy-allert-penicillin-peanuts-wisdom.html

 

Self-awareness, Introspection, Meditation, Mindfulness ...

     "we all have to look with awareness and compassion at our own inner suffering and violence. ... this is the only way to set ourselves free from the automatic behaviors that so often govern our lives."                                                 Roberto Mander, Shambhala Sun, September 1999

Bess

Emotionally Intelligent Healthcare Professionals?

• Self-awareness and self-management skills. Identifying and self-regulating emotions, managing stress, and evaluating how emotions and behaviors may affect others; assessing personal strengths and limitations; seeking help and making effective use of external resources to achieve personal and academic goals.
• Social-awareness and interpersonal skills. Recognizing feelings and perspectives of others, including those from different cultures and backgrounds; effectively communicating and resolving interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
• Responsible decision-making skills. Making ethical decisions; evaluating the consequences of choices, and how virtue (e.g. honesty, justice, compassion, courage) enables us to recognize the needs of others when making decisions; recognizing how individual students can contribute to the well-being of the school and broader community.
- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1486.aspx#sthash.NmQwByzS.dpuf

• Self-awareness and self-management skills. Identifying and self-regulating emotions, managing stress, and evaluating how emotions and behaviors may affect others; assessing personal strengths and limitations; seeking help and making effective use of external resources to achieve personal and academic goals.
• Social-awareness and interpersonal skills. Recognizing feelings and perspectives of others, including those from different cultures and backgrounds; effectively communicating and resolving interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
• Responsible decision-making skills. Making ethical decisions; evaluating the consequences of choices, and how virtue (e.g. honesty, justice, compassion, courage) enables us to recognize the needs of others when making decisions; recognizing how individual students can contribute to the well-being of the school and broader community.
- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1486.aspx#sthash.NmQwByzS.dpuf

• Self-awareness and self-management skills. Identifying and self-regulating emotions, managing stress, and evaluating how emotions and behaviors may affect others; assessing personal strengths and limitations; seeking help and making effective use of external resources to achieve personal and academic goals.
• Social-awareness and interpersonal skills. Recognizing feelings and perspectives of others, including those from different cultures and backgrounds; effectively communicating and resolving interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
• Responsible decision-making skills. Making ethical decisions; evaluating the consequences of choices, and how virtue (e.g. honesty, justice, compassion, courage) enables us to recognize the needs of others when making decisions; recognizing how individual students can contribute to the well-being of the school and broader community.
- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1486.aspx#sthash.NmQwByzS.dpuf

Self-awareness and self-management skills. Identifying and self-regulating emotions, managing stress, and evaluating how emotions and behaviors may affect others; assessing personal strengths and limitations; seeking help and making effective use of external resources to achieve personal and academic goals. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1486.aspx#sthash.NmQwByzS.dpuf

     Documents listing minimal competencies for graduating healthcare professionals are peppered with references to emotional intelligence (EI). Yet students and faculty alike continue to strongly resist attempts to include EI-related subjects in the healthcare curriculum. Their reasons typically include: 
          • no room in an already packed curriculum; 
          • it's already covered (presumably by parents, places of worship, & earlier education); 
          • not directly applicable to the "science" we teach;
          • outcomes from teaching such "soft subjects" can't be measured; 
          • "we're not training them to be social workers".

     Students continue to gain admission to coveted spots in health-care professional education almost entirely by obtaining high marks on multiple-choice tests (MCTs). Even in science-related subjects, MCTs poorly assess depth of knowledge. How much do we know of these students' self-knowledge, character, psychosocialspiritual maturity? Embarrassed avoidance *** is how admissions & curriculum committees "deal" with these critically important characteristics. Then why are we repeatedly surprised when a proportion of these students "handle their stress" in outrageously dysfunctional ways?
    
      "Ignoring the shadow side of our personalities can only lead to what Freud once called 'the return of the repressed'.”                    Mark Epstein MD

     Comprehensive, integrated Behavioural Sciences curricula could provide students in health-care professions with explicit guidance & practice to intelligently deal with their own & others' emotions - a MUST in order to minimize the frequency & gravity of grossly unprofessional behaviour, not to mention a host of mental health issues, burnout, and suicide. 

     Professionalism includes being explicitly aware of & embodying the highest level of EI and practicing appropriate self-care. Unfortunately, students only take these matters as seriously as their educators.

     *** more on avoidance: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/11/avoidance-is-easier-than-wisdom-hows.html
          fearing introspection: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2014/12/608-fearing-shallows.html
          ethical infants: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/09/do-we-need-more-nuclear-giants-who-are.html

koasiausad.blogspot.com

Intelligently Savoring, Kindly Engaging Life

     "Well, I don’t know many people who still believe in art for art’s sake. You know, we have flowers for that. Most people that I know who are artists really are dedicated to trying to change people and to change minds and hearts. A lot of it has to do with just survival, that we, as a species, can survive and thrive. And so, people are putting their hearts into their work in a way that I think they haven’t done in a very long time."

     "It is the worst of times. It is the best of times. Try as I might I cannot find a more appropriate opening to this volume: it helps tremendously that these words have been spoken before and, thanks to Charles Dickens, written at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities. Perhaps they have been spoken, written, thought, an endless number of times throughout human history. It is the worst of times because it feels as though the very earth is being stolen from us, by us; the land and air poisoned, the water polluted, the animals disappeared, humans degraded and misguided. War is everywhere. It is the best of times because we have entered a period, if we can bring ourselves to pay attention, of great clarity as to cause and effect. A blessing when we consider how much suffering human beings have endured, in previous millennia, without a clue to its cause. ... We have only to open our eyes, and awaken to our predicament. We see that we are, alas, a huge part of our problem. However: We live in a time of global enlightenment. This alone should make us shout for joy."           Alice Walker, from her book "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For"
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/11/17/inner_light_in_a_time_of

The Choice to Open to Reality

     “By adulthood, we have developed sophisticated psychological strategies and patterns to deal with the uncertainties and unpredictability of life. These strategies shape the person we become and, unfortunately, can do so in increasingly limiting and rigid ways. 
     As our personality and ego-identity become stronger, they can also become less flexible, so that our capacity for adaptation and change also slows and freezes. What were once natural mechanisms for adaptation, growth and survival can begin to be limitations that actually accentuate our suffering. Life then presents us with a further challenge. Are we ready and willing to wake up, to let go and open to our intrinsically fleeting, illusory nature and allow ourselves to change? If we do not do so willingly, then it is inevitable that life circumstances will eventually demand that we face ourselves and shed the skin of our limiting self-conceptions to discover our true nature. Some may take up this challenge, this call, while others choose to do otherwise.”

       Preece R. "The Wisdom of Imperfection. The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life." Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY, 2006. 

"The Hydrostone" district of Halifax, Nova Scotia