Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--

When I was 17, something weird happened to me.

I wanted very much to go to West Point after high school, but to compete for the appointment, I knew I'd need a good resume. I was vice-president of the student council, first in my class, an Eagle Scout, and captain of the golf team. But I felt I needed another sport. So I decided to go out for the wrestling team. This would help my application, and it would get me in better physical condition.

The good news is that I loved wrestling, and my body was getting stronger by the week. The bad news, if you want to call it that, was that my team-mate in my weight class was the All-Europe champion. I had to wrestle Skip Ledbetter in practice every day. I knew the only way I'd ever wrestle in a match was if he got injured. So I accepted my role as "practice dummy" for him. My ambition was a pragmatic one: I would learn to wrestle well enough that I could at least survive a practice without being pinned.

That was easier said than done. I had a lot of moves to learn, and my body needed to get a lot stronger.

So I became obsessed with becoming a decent wrestler. In idle moments, I would think about what I learned. In my mind, I would imagine myself performing the correct moves on Skip.

One night I lay in bed thinking about a particular escape move. I imagined Skip on top of me, pushing me into the mat. Then I imagined executing this difficult move perfectly, over and over again. After doing this mental exercise for half an hour, I realized that I felt exhausted. And my bed was completely soaked in sweat. I had to change the sheets!

I remember wondering how such a thing was possible. I wasn't moving my body at all. I was just imagining it. Why would this cause me to sweat?

That wasn't the end of the weirdness, however. The next day in practice, Skip took me down and was trying to work me into a position to pin me. Instinctively, I executed the move perfectly. And I found myself facing Skip, free of his grasp. He laughed and said, "Wow, good move!"

I know now that what I was doing is what is called "mental rehearsal." If you do something repeatedly, the brain adjusts to make this action easier to perform. It secretes chemicals that cause dendrites on the brain cells related to the skill to grow until they connect with each other in a new network. When this growth is complete, the brain has the most efficient possible wiring to enable the skill. The activity seems comfortable and automatic.

What psychologists have discovered is that simply imagining the activity has almost the same effect. The mind doesn't seem to care if you are physically performing the action or simply imagining it. Today, mental rehearsal is a well-established component of athletic training. In tournament play, nearly all professional golfers mentally rehearse the action of the desired swing and the flight of the ball before they actually execute the shot. Tennis players do the same thing.

Question: Can mental rehearsal help you improve a personal strength behavior pattern?

Answer: Absolutely.

I encourage you to try it. But I suggest you follow these guidelines...

1. Make sure that what you're imagining is correct. You don't want to rehearse a flawed technique. So before you begin mental rehearsal, review the best practice model.

2. When you imagine yourself doing something, don't see yourself out there doing it. Instead, imagine what it's like to do it. Experience that feeling.

3. Envision the entire process that leads to the desired result. And after imagining what it's like to complete the entire action and result, imagine how good you feel having done it well.

4. Rehearse the action in your imagination many, many times in sequence. Practice makes perfect, even in your mind.

5. Don't rely completely on mental rehearsal. Most of your practice should be physical. You need real in-the-world practice to give your imagination the correct images. Mental rehearsal can speed the learning process, but it can't take the place of actually doing it.

I know mental rehearsal sounds amazing, but it actually works. There, I've just shared one of the most powerful learning strategies known to trainers. Now you can take advantage of it and share it with your friends.

Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Performance Support Systems, Inc. He is the author of 20/20 Insight Gold, an award-winning, versatile online feedback survey platform, and ProStar, an online learning reinforcement and self-development system. A graduate of West Point, Denny has over 35 years’ experience as a manager and leader. His military assignments focused on training development and personnel management and included service in Vietnam and Germany. He earned his Ph.D. at Duke University and has served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy, the Armed Forces Staff College, the College of William and Mary, and Thomas Nelson Community College. In addition, he was an adjunct lecturer at the Center for Creative Leadership for ten years. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies have benefited from his work in assessment, self-awareness, leadership and team development. He is the author of numerous articles, booklets, and manuals in the areas of cognitive style, leadership, management, training, and creativity.  You'll find him online at www.buildingpersonalstrength.com

Compassion: 3 Steps To Help Change The World

Accountability Means Forgiving Yourself--Dennis E Coates

Awareness: How To Prevent Losing Your Stuff

Sally Kneidel Ph.D.--

Why do girls fear snakes and spiders more?  Is it genetic?

I love snakes. Every time I take a walk around the neighborhood, I stop and examine every squashed snake carcass I see on the road, of which there are many. I lament the loss of every one of them.

My parents, on the other hand, killed every snake they saw when I was a kid, and called all of them "copperheads."  They were protecting us young'uns, or so they thought.  I didn't realize how many people kill all snakes until I spent three years teaching elementary science.  I used to bring a lot of snakes in to show my students. Every single time I did this, a dozen hands would shoot up begging to make a comment.  And almost every single comment was "My daddy killed a snake last week with a shovel" or "My granddaddy chopped a snake in half in the garden."  No one ever said that a snake their family saw was a welcomed or even a tolerated sight. And all of the snakes were allegedly "copperheads." After awhile, I began my snake lessons by banning stories about family members killing snakes; I couldn't take it anymore.  It's a miracle that the U.S. has any remaining snakes at all. 

Why are we so afraid of snakes? As a person partial to snakes, I have little patience with it.Gopher Snake by Alan Kneidel

Are girls genetically primed to fear snakes?

I read recently an intriguing study about fear of snakes, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. That study is the subject of this post.  Researcher David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University looked at differences in the way 11-month-old humans react to pictures of snakes and spiders.  Specifically, he looked at differences between male and female children. His findings surprised me.  

Rakison showed pairs of images to the youngsters in his study.  First he paired either a happy or a fearful cartoon face with a snake, a spider, a flower, or a mushroom.  After that, Rakison timed how long each baby looked at new pairings of images that were different from the original pairings they had viewed. He wanted to see if the new pairings would seem odd to them and would cause them to look longer, out of puzzlement or curiosity.

Here’s what Rakison found:

Apparently the girls more readily associated the snake or spider with a fearful face. When the girls were subsequently shown a happy face with the snake or spider, they looked at it a long time (as if trying to make sense of something surprising).  With the little boys, no pairings of images were more interesting than any others. The boys did not find the snake or spider paired with a happy face surprising or interesting.

Rakison said that this finding (if confirmed by other studies) indicates that human females have evolved an aversion to snakes and spiders. That trait evolved because women in our evolutionary history were in charge of protecting their children from the bites of snakes or spiders.  Another study in Sweden found that snake and spider phobias are four times more common in women than in men.

Black-Tailed Rattlesnake by Alan Kneidel

Not so fast…

So says Vanessa LoBue of the University of Virginia. She disagrees with Rakison's findings. If girls gaze longer at the pairing of a snake with a smiling face, it's because 11-month-old girls are better at recognizing facial expressions than male babies, and therefore understand the pairings better. This understanding would account for their surprise and longer gazes.

LoBue offers evidence from her own studies that 5-year-old girls recognize threatening and nonthreatening expressions faster than boys.  Do 11-month-old girls have that capacity too?  We need to find out!  What do you think?

Maybe women are squeamish because their vulnerability is attractive to men.

I personally don't believe that girls are "primed" genetically to be more fearful of snakes and spiders.  I think it's all cultural. I think little girls learn to act squeamish and fearful from their mothers. I think adult females behave as though they're fearful and vulnerable because that's the ideal sexy female prototype that's been promoted by our Western culture since who knows when. Powerful fearless women are, in general, not sexy. Women are encouraged (often very subtly) to appear weak and afraid like Olive-Oyl, while Popeye eats his spinach and beats the tar out of Brutus.  I agree with LoBue. Rakison's results can be explained by female children's acuity in reading human facial expressions.

I would love to hear reader comments.

Sources:

David Rakison. "Does women's greater fear of snakes and spiders originate in infancy?" Evolution and Human Behavior. Volume 30. November, 2009.

Bruce Bower. "Girls but not boys may be primed for arachnophobia, ophidiophobia: Fear of crawly, slithery things could begin before first birthday."  Science News, September 26, 2009.

Sally Kneidel, PhD, is the author of eleven books on nature, conservation, and science topics. Two books from Fulcrum co-authored by Sally and Sadie Kneidel are Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet (May, 2008) and Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and A Healthy Planet (Nov, 2005). Sally Kneidel can be found online at www.veggierevolution.blogspot.com and at SallyKneidel.com

60 Of 307 Million In U.S. Vaccinated For H1N1--2/3rds Were Kids

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.

Reviewed By Marilyn Dalrymple

I found Animals In Translation fascinating, but it brought many questions to mind and I'm not sure I found the answers. I'm curious about the abilities of someone who was diagnosed as autistic. Was the author, Temple Grandin wrongly diagnosed, or are the abilities of autistic people misunderstood? These are just a couple of the questions this book brought to mind.

As an animal lover, I found this book difficult to read. It brings to the forefront the cruelty of which humans are capable and it bothers me greatly that so many are willing to mistreat our furred, feathered and scaled friends. It troubles me what animals must go through to appease humans for sometimes inessential purposes.

Could Grandin better use her gift of being able to decode animal behavior by championing vegetarianism or to stop animal cruelty in the broad spectrum, or are her talents essential to the better treatment of animals heading for the slaughter house? These are more questions that came to mind as I read this book.

Animals In Translation is worth reading, but can be difficult to read in spots if you are a softy when it comes to animals. Trying to match ethical slaughtering methods with fighting animal cruelty is a hard leap to make, but if animals are to be slaughtered, I guess it is a worthy cause. 

Temple Grandin earned her Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois and went on to become a professor at Colorado State University. She is the author of four previous books, including the national bestseller Thinking in Pictures. Grandin spearheaded reform of the quality of life and humaneness of death for the world’s farm animals.  You'll find the author online at www.templegrandin.com

Animals In Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Scribner/ Feb 2010) By Temple Grandin

U.S.A.: Autism Affects 1 In Every 94 Boys

Book Review: The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.

Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--

The other day I was in my office working on an article when I heard a loud crash from the other side of the house. I bolted out of my office to see what had happened. When I got to the kitchen, I saw a pan lid and some forks on the floor. We have three cats, but none were in sight. No way to know which one was guilty.

After I cleaned up the mess, I wondered how warm it was outside. The outside thermometer said 72 degrees - warmer outside than inside! I went from room to room opening windows, and then returned to my desk.

As I prepared to resume my work, I realized that my reading glasses weren't in their usual place on my desk. I looked all over my office for them, but they weren't there. I hate it when I misplace something!

I retraced my steps to the kitchen, but my glasses weren't there, either. Frustrated, I headed back to my office, and out of the corner of my eye I saw my glasses on the dining room table. I had set them down before running into the kitchen. But I had no memory of doing so.

That's how short-term memory works. Information is held in conscious awareness for six to ten seconds to allow the thinking part of your brain to figure out what it means. This begins the process of integrating the information into long-term memory. The more ways you relate it to what you already know, the easier the memory will be to access. If you don't think about it at all, the information will soon be wiped clean from your consciousness forever and replaced with new input.

It's a good, efficient system. Only the important stuff is stored in memory. Everything else is trashed.

And that's what happened when I set my glasses down. The memory of that act was discarded forever. It's a good thing I didn't run out to the back porch...I'd still be looking for my glasses!

I'm sure similar things have happened to you. Now you know why. The lesson is simple and practical. If you want to remember where you set your billfold, your gloves, your keys, your glasses, whatever...consciously think about what you're doing when you do it. Look at where you put it and think something about it, such as...  

I'm in a hurry and i need to set my glasses down, but where would be a good place? How about right here on the corner of the countertop? I often put things here, so I should remember. I'll leave them close to the edge so I notice them later when I walk by.

So being forgetful doesn't automatically mean you're losing it, even if you're my age. It probably just means that you didn't take the time to pay attention to what you were doing and think about why. You probably didn't give your brain a chance to integrate your experience into long-term memory.

Knowing how your brain works gives you an advantage in life. Another adventure in metacognition!

Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Performance Support Systems, Inc. He is the author of 20/20 Insight Gold, an award-winning, versatile online feedback survey platform, and ProStar, an online learning reinforcement and self-development system. A graduate of West Point, Denny has over 35 years’ experience as a manager and leader. His military assignments focused on training development and personnel management and included service in Vietnam and Germany. He earned his Ph.D. at Duke University and has served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy, the Armed Forces Staff College, the College of William and Mary, and Thomas Nelson Community College. In addition, he was an adjunct lecturer at the Center for Creative Leadership for ten years. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies have benefited from his work in assessment, self-awareness, leadership and team development. He is the author of numerous articles, booklets, and manuals in the areas of cognitive style, leadership, management, training, and creativity.  You'll find him online at www.buildingpersonalstrength.com

Compassion: 3 Steps To Help Change The World

Accountability Means Forgiving Yourself--Dennis E Coates

Reviewed By Dr. Joseph S. Maresca, Ph.D.

This work is a philosopher's dream come true. There are references from Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Plato,  Arthur Schopenhauer and Henry David Thoreau. I think that the contents are a fair recitation of numerous points of view on living life itself. A point of the presentation is to challenge our generation to contemplate why we are here and what will be passed down to future generations.

The question "Why do we exist?" is at the very heart of being.  There are other essential questions; such as, "What lies beyond the edge of our universe?" If God created us, who created G-d ?   These are questions pondered by academicians  in every age and by people from virtually every walk of life.  Benjamin Fein finds comfort in the Divine Creator because there is no other rational answer to our temporal circumstance.

The author is not entirely impressed with book learning and purely academic titles and accomplishments. There is much to be said for things that are self-taught, experienced or passed down through the ages like indigenous wisdom. A classic example of this would be the Paleolithic Diet of  lean meat, raw veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and water. This diet is devoid of modern-day junk food and other substances that harm health and cause endless medical interventions.

In my own experience, a thoroughly educated person should know some of the following:

o more than a single language and some multi-cultural familiarity

o the scientific method of inquiry

o logic , questioning and fallacies

o arithmetic compilation and geometry

o research methodology and some library science

o outdoor living skills

o group and subgroup interaction

o basic nutrition

o conservation of nature

o living the process of  life itself

Much is written about passing down a legacy worthy of examination by future generations. This is an important part of the book which should inspire the readership to think about integrating past experiences with the present and projecting more optimal scenarios for emulation in the future.

Practically speaking, what can we pass down from the past 100 years?  Many positive things can be passed down; such as,

o global culture , language and diversity

o the United Nations Charter

o Disarmament methodologies and approaches

o advanced negotiation methodologies

o the Genome Project

o a history of media

o new elements on the Periodic Table

o clean energy goals and methodologies

o indigenous wisdom

o space mission goals and findings

o preservation of plant and animal species

o spiritual writings and the Dead Sea Scrolls

o artificial intelligence

o the Theory of Everything

o theories of miniaturization, fiber optics, robotics and high technology

o replication of human tissue, organs etc.

o constitutional governance, social justice and representative governmental superstructures

Overall, the acquisition provides fascinating reading. The author challenges us to think about why we are here and what we will do for the remainder of our finite lives.

Charles D. Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and one of America’s strongest advocates for lifelong learning. "Perspective," he states, "is why the final chapters of life are important." He promotes the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take. Hayes’ work has been featured in in several national publications and radio shows. You'll find him online at www.septemberuniversity.org/

September University:  Summoning Passion For an Unfinished Life (Autodidactic Press 2010) by Charles D. Hayes

Joseph S. Maresca Ph.D., CPA, CISA, MBA: His significant writings include over 10 copyrights in the name of the author (Joseph S. Maresca) and a patent in the earthquake sciences. He holds membership in the prestigious Delta Mu Delta National Honor Society and Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society.  In addition, he reviews many books for Basil & Spice. 

Haitian Earthquake 2010: Scientists Theorize Likelihood Of Atlantic Tsunami

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.



Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--

I recently watched the movie, Finding Forrester, starring Sean Connery and Rob Brown. The Connery character is a well-known but reclusive novelist (hints of J. D. Salinger) who reluctantly mentors a young basketball player who has literary talent. At the end, the credits roll to the music of Israel Kamakawio'ole playing a ukulele and singing a medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World." Even though the songs are hopeful, tears came to my eyes.

I was puzzled by my reaction. Why would I have poignant feelings over happy music at the end of a happy movie?

After thinking about it, I knew why.

I first heard "Over the Rainbow" when I was a boy over 50 years ago. My father was in the Army and had just left the family to serve in Korea. I was lying in bed one night when I heard a woman's voice - Judy Garland? - singing the song on television. The hopefulness of the song was mixed with sadness caused by my father's absence and fears about what could happen to him. At that age, a year is a long time. At some level, I recognized that hope might be a feeling you long for when things don't seem so hopeful, and I began to cry quietly to myself. Ever since then, "Over the Rainbow" has seemed like a sad song to me.

Interesting. The linkage between that song and my feelings had been in my brain all those years, persisting to this day. Also, it triggered the reaction even though I wasn't consciously aware of the association.

The brain is what I like to call "the learning instrument." Learning is a survival mechanism. If we didn't learn, each day when we get up in the morning we'd have to figure everything out from scratch all over again. If we had to do that...well, it just wouldn't work. We survive and prevail because we learn. We remember facts, concepts, procedures, skills, habits - and how we feel about things. When something frightens us, if we want to survive, we better remember the association.

The problem is, the human brain doesn't have a delete key. So even if I didn't consciously relate music to my experience, and even if those associations are ancient and strange to me now, they still bubble up in my brain from time to time.  For example, a lot of the rock music of the late 60s and early 70s still has the power to trigger the same feelings I had during that time of war and social unrest - even if they are irrelevant to my life today.

Other music that moves me: Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" (remember the movie, Platoon?), the second movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, and Bedrich Smetana's "Die Moldau." And many more classical pieces. Lots of early rock music. All this stuff calls up old images and memories that stir my feelings.

Music has this power. Music is a language of emotion.

Language is the foundation for logic, the organizing principle of left side of our thinking brain. Music performs a similar function on the right side. Music, along with the other arts, is one of the ways we express emotions. Music never expresses logical significance. It links with other perceptions to express emotional significance.

Cognitive scientists believe that the pace, tone and intensity of a musical composition trigger specific feelings in the brain. Composers understand this. Symphonies, pop tunes, movie themes, and TV ads. If they want you to feel sad, they know how to do it. If they want you to feel joyous, they know which buttons to push. If they want you to feel larky and accepting, they have the tools to do so.

Music is everywhere. People can't get enough of it. They walk around with little wires in their ears so they can listen to music anytime, anywhere. My DirectTV gives me 75 channels of it 24/7.

The magical ability of music to create associations and color our moods operates below the level of conscious awareness as we move through the day. And there's nothing we can do about it.

Except this: we can choose the kind of music we listen to. We can hit the mute button. And these days, oh my brothers and sisters, I'm a lot more selective.

Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Performance Support Systems, Inc. He is the author of 20/20 Insight Gold, an award-winning, versatile online feedback survey platform, and ProStar, an online learning reinforcement and self-development system. A graduate of West Point, Denny has over 35 years’ experience as a manager and leader. His military assignments focused on training development and personnel management and included service in Vietnam and Germany. He earned his Ph.D. at Duke University and has served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy, the Armed Forces Staff College, the College of William and Mary, and Thomas Nelson Community College. In addition, he was an adjunct lecturer at the Center for Creative Leadership for ten years. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies have benefited from his work in assessment, self-awareness, leadership and team development. He is the author of numerous articles, booklets, and manuals in the areas of cognitive style, leadership, management, training, and creativity.  You'll find him online at www.buildingpersonalstrength.com

Compassion: 3 Steps To Help Change The World

Accountability Means Forgiving Yourself--Dennis E Coates

By Loyd Eskildson

The war in Afghanistan is now in its 9th year. The encouraging news is that this year nearly 8.5 million children are attending school there, nearly 40% girls, despite contrary, long-standing traditions, Taliban opposition, and the number of pupils being less than 8,000 in 2000. Author Mortenson's 'literacy insurgency' has founded 131 schools in Afghanistan and another 48 in Pakistan, providing education to nearly 58,000 students without government money. Sometimes that demand was so great that the schools operated with four shifts until capacity increased.
 
Mortenson's extraordinary commitment to bringing education to poor, isolated, mostly Muslim students began in Pakistan when he wandered into the village of Korphe in 1993 after becoming lost descending K-2. While recuperating, he came upon 82 children sitting outside writing their lessons in the dirt, no teacher in sight. Chocho, one of the girls, got him to promise he'd return to build them a school. That he did in 1996, after first collecting donations for the project and building a bridge to transport school materials to the site. That first school was 2,218 square feet, at an altitude of 10,400, and lacked electricity and water. There $20 is enough to educate a first grader for a year, $340 can send a girl to 4 years of high school, and $50,000 can build and outfit an 8-room schoolhouse and staff it for five years.
 
World Bank studies show that added schooling increases later incomes, lowers childbirth death rates, and lowers population growth. Mortenson believes educating girls in impoverished countries is particularly important, citing an African proverb - "If you teach a boy, you educate an individual; but if you teach a girl, you educate a community." Thus, he always insisted that village leaders promise that girls would comprise about half the students. Mortenson also notes that in Muslim societies persons wanting to join in extremism often seek the permission of their mothers first - and educated women generally do not give it.
 
Promises to build a school always took the form of a one-page document, signed by Mortenson and his assistant, as well as village elders. Included were commitments for the village to provide free land and labor, to allow female attendees approximately equal in number to males, and the donation of materials and supervision by Mortenson's 'Central Asia Institute' (CAI).
 
While camped in an area of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, a band of Kyrgyz horsemen came upon Mortenson and his group. (Two of Mortenson's assistants were former Taliban; Mortenson himself spent eight days in Taliban captivity.) Their leader had heard of Mortenson and sent them to ask that a school be built in their Afghanistan village of Bozai Gumbaz near China. Prior commitments and the lack of a visa did not allow this at the time, but Mortenson promised to come when he could. Five years later he met their leader while hiding out from rioters in Afghanistan upset about the alleged desecration of a Koran by American soldiers in Guantanamo. Again, Mortenson repeated his promise, but could not continue at that time either. Five more years finally allowed Mortenson to complete his promise after the leader had died. The four-room school was built in only 19 days by a Chinese company using an earthquake-resistant design (up to 8.2 on the Richter scale) using Chinese and Pakistani laborers at an altitude of 12,480 feet. (Mortenson previously had used only local labor, but 30 years of war created a shortage of local masons in remote Afghanistan.) Supply logistics were particularly challenging in this instance, requiring transportation by yak for the last portion of the journey from China; Soviet cement left over in nearby Tajikistan was also used. 
 
En route to building that final school, Mortenson was delayed by the need for fund-raising in the U.S., devastation caused by the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and hard-to-refuse requests to build schools along his route to Bozai Gumbaz. Relating some of his experiences rebuilding schools in Pakistan after the earthquake, Mortenson also noted that the Taliban were often better at providing aid than foreign NGOs, U.S. aid, and local governments. Unfortunately, that also provided them a recruiting opportunity. He also observed, unfortunately, the Pakistani government rebuilding schools with the same earthquake-demolished designs used previously.
 
Mortenson's CAI is not the only organization building schools in Afghanistan, etc., though he believes his is the only one building in remote areas. The Taliban have burned and damaged many schools, but done only minor damage to one CAI school. Mortenson believes that is due to the commitment and support of the local people.
 
Finally, Mortenson's opinion of the U.S. military has greatly improved - from referring to them as 'laptop warriors' causing more problems than they solved, to having Admiral Mullen helping open one of the CAI's new schools in remote Afghanistan. The Army has already spent $1 billion on 'high-impact' projects, including much more expensive schools than the CAI's - spending over $300,000 for one in Durnama, for example. USAID has constructed or repaired more than 680 schools and printed 60 million textbooks. However, Mortenson still can't resist pointing out that the cost of stationing a single soldier in Afghanistan could pay for 20 schools, along with staffing for the first five years as well.

Bottom Line: Greg Mortenson's story, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Viking Adult/ 2009) is an inspirational read.

Greg Mortenson is the recipient of Pakistan's highest civil award (The Star of Pakistan) for his sixteen years work to promote education and peace. The cofounder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies For Peace, he lives in Montana with his family.  You'll find the author online at www.gregmortenson.com

Loyd Eskildson  is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving.  He's now a reviewer for Basil & Spice.

Asian Students Spend 50% More Time In Class, School Year 1/3 Longer

China Spends $115 Billion On Foreign Acquisitions, $4B In Afghanistan

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.

Review By Alice Berger

The aim of Breema bodywork is to guide us toward a state of balance, using the nine principles of harmony as its foundation.  These nine principles are:  body comfortable, no extra, firmness and gentleness, full participation, mutual support, no judgment, single moment/single activity, no hurry/no pause, and no force.

All of these principles can be explored individually, but if taken as a whole, they integrate seamlessly with each other for a full taste experience.  In the 2-CD set reading of "Breema and the Nine Principles of Harmony" these principles are offered, not in a linear discussion, but rather in a flowing manner as one principle blends into the next.  This presentation immerses the listener in the principles of the Breema philosophy.

The author, Jon Schreiber, assumes the listener's familiarity with the Breema practice as he guides us with this timeless wisdom.  He and his associates' voices are soothing and hypnotic, as they read from the text.  If you're looking to deepen your Breema experience, you can now take this enlightening and insightful book with you to listen anywhere.

The Breema Center Faculty is directed by Jon Schreiber, D.C., who has worked extensively with Breema for over twenty years, the Breema Center is staffed by Certified Breema Instructors with an average of seven years teaching experience.  It is located in Oakland, California.  Find them online at www.breema.com

This product was provided by Breema to the reviewer.

Book Review: The Secret To Life Transformation By Julie Chrystyn

Alice Berger is Author of  Who's Taking A Bath?

Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.

5 stars



Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--

I watched William Shatner interview Rush Limbaugh on his show "Raw Nerve" the other day. Both of them had to deal with addiction in their lives, and as Shatner shared his experience with his wife's alcoholism, he used the term "personal strength."

This surprised me, because I throught it was a relatively new term. I've been researching, thinking and writing in this area for more than 15 years, but I didn't start using that term until a couple years ago. I had been patiently playing around with other terms for years: character, character strength, inner strength, grit, intangibles, heart, personality, and others. The problem is that so many different areas of behavior are involved and all these terms are too limiting and have other connotations.

When I started using the phrase, "personal strength" I thought I had coined a new term. Actually, other people have started using it too, to describe personality, emotional intelligence and other things. Even William Shatner! And so it goes...

What do I mean by personal strength? Well, it's not personality. Personality is a perfectly good term psychologists have been using for almost 100 years to describe cognitive style, general trends of thinking such as introversion and extraversion.

And I certainly don't mean emotional intelligence, a loosy-goosy term that refers to everything that's not logic.

Character strength is close. Very close. I used to use that term a lot. But I find it too limiting. For example, I think Acceptance, Gratitude and Self-Development are personal strengths, and these aren't included in most descriptions of character.

Here's my definition of personal strength:

Which behavior patterns do I include in my concept of personal strength? Many--dozens.

Where do these behavior patterns come from? Can we acquire them as adults? Make them stronger?

To answer these questions would start to fill a book. But I'll begin answering them tomorrow...

Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--

The words responsibility and accountability are often used interchangeably. In fact, they are closely related. When someone assumes responsibility for doing something, we expect that person to hold himself accountable for the consequences of his actions.

But the two concepts are different, and it’s helpful not to get them confused. While responsibility is all about taking action, accountability is about doing the right things with regard to the consequences of the actions taken.

Today I opened a new bottle of mouthwash. Like every consumable product with a cap, it had a seal. If you’re younger than thirty years old, you probably don’t remember a time when products had no seals. The story behind the seals is instructive...

In 1986, someone opened some bottles of Tylenol, laced them with cyanide and replaced them on the store shelf. The same kind of malicious product sabotage had happened a few years before, killing seven people. At the time, the Johnson & Johnson company failed to handle the crisis well, and the resulting scare caused their market value to fall by more than a billion dollars. By 1986, the company learned its lesson well. It immediately ordered a recall of Tylenol from every retail outlet. They announced they were responsible for delivering a safe product and so Tylenol would not be distributed again until they found a way to protect it from this kind of tampering.

As a result, they invented a seal, so that someone would have to break the seal in order to open the container and tamper with its contents. The seals signified positive assurance that the product was safe. The solution was so effective that companies everywhere developed similar seals for their products. Now almost everything is manufactured with a tamper-proof seal.

Johnson & Johnson soon recovered its lost market value and market share, as well as the cost of destroying the product. In fact, they now have the well-earned reputation of being a consumer champion. I hope they continue striving to maintain it.

Actions have consequences.

Even with good intentions, things don’t always go the way you expect. Sometimes you make a mistake, or you fail to do everything you needed to do. While coming up short may be embarrassing, the thing to do is to admit to yourself—and to others—that you were responsible.

And yet, it’s hard to say, “It was my fault.” You may be concerned that if you admit your role, people will think poorly of you. You might have to make amends. The temptation is to let the blame fall somewhere else.

The truth is, people respect someone who stands up and “faces the music.” They believe anyone who does so will probably deal honestly with them and can be trusted. They know people make mistakes, and they don’t expect you to be perfect. Besides, it’s futile to try to sidestep accountability. The truth almost always is discovered.

The question is, will you be seen for your strength or for your weakness? Admitting that you made a mistake and that you’re sincere about avoiding this mistake in the future will help people forgive you, so they can move on, and you can move on. If you can’t do this, people will see you as a person with dubious intentions, who isn’t strong enough to own up to the consequences of your actions. You’ll lose their respect and trust.

Admit your mistakes, and people will admire your strength.

ACTION ASSIGNMENT:

The next time you make a mess of things, whether it’s a great big mess or just a little one, take this approach:

1. Determine who was affected and what harm was done.
2. Admit your role in what happened.
3. Apologize for the consequences.
4. Honestly explain your actions.
5. Tell them what you learned from it.
6. Promise that you won’t do it again.
7. Make restitution, if possible.
8. Be patient with people’s ability to forgive.
9. Work on changing your behavior.
10. Forgive yourself.

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” - Jonathan Swift