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Curated

Triple Bottom Line Model

Most conscious businesses subscribe to a Triple Bottom Line model of success. They aim to provide positive value in the domains of people, planet, and profit.

Profit

This is what distinguishes the entity as a business from the general social enterprise. The degree of understanding or “consciousness” of any conflict of interest between the profit motive and social goods varies widely from the standard sloganeering capital accumulating firm (“don’t be evil”) to those who seek nothing more than break-even to pay for their operations, are completely employee owned, etc…

People

A conscious business seeks to benefit both the external livelihood as well as the internal lives of its shareholders and employees. Furthermore, the business seeks to benefit all stakeholders including manufacturers, affected communities, and humanity at large. Some trends in conscious business which have arisen out of these efforts include:

  • The forming of wellness affirming workplace cultures
  • Improved employee benefit programs
  • Use of fair trade materials for manufacture or sale
  • Assistance to communities who supply raw materials
  • Assistance to communities who manufacture materials
  • Local community outreach programs

Planet

A conscious business will seek to minimize its impact on the environment, and replenish the environment where it is able. Conscious businesses may choose to benefit the environment in many different ways, some trends include:

  • Robust recycling programs
  • Building “green” or “zero-impact” workplace facilities
  • Using solar or wind energy in the workplace
  • Purchasing materials from organic or sustainable farmers
  • Purchasing renewable and sustainable materials
  • Working with environmentally conscious distributors
  • Urging manufacturers and distributors to adopt better environmental practices
  • Adopting sustainable product packaging

Filed Under: Curated

Satyagraha

The essence of Satyagraha is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the antagonists themselves, as opposed to violent resistance, which is meant to cause harm to the antagonist. A Satyagrahi therefore does not seek to end or destroy the relationship with the antagonist, but instead seeks to transform or “purify” it to a higher level. A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a “silent force” or a “soul force” (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his famous “I Have a Dream” speech). It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a “universal force,” as it essentially “makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe.

M. Ghandi

Filed Under: Curated

What type of learner are you?

What type of learner are you?

Think about yourself and your friends, family members and teachers. Notice the way these people might prefer to learn and communicate.
We all have preferences for how we like information to be presented:

Some like to see what you mean …..
Some like to hear your idea …..
Some like to experience or feel what you are talking about ….
Similarly, we also have preferences for the way we evaluate and analyze information:
Some decide by how things look to them ……
Some decide by how things sound to them ……
Some decide by how things feel to them ……

Your personal learning style is a key to improved performance on the job, in training, and in interpersonal situations. When you’re aware of how you and others perceive and process information, you can make learning and communication easier by working with your own style.

Trainers, teachers and educators are realizing that every person has an optimum way of learning new information. They understand that some students need to be taught in ways that vary from standard teaching methods. If these pupils are taught in the standard way, they are less likely to comprehend what’s being presented. Knowing these different learning styles or preferences has helped teachers everywhere reach all or nearly all of their students simply by presenting information in several different ways.
A person’s learning style is a combination of how they perceive, then organize and process information.
When you’re familiar with your learning style, you can take important steps to help yourself learn faster and more easily. Plus, learning how to decipher the learning styles of others, like your boss, colleagues, teacher, spouse, parents, and children, can help you strengthen your rapport with them.

To decipher the essence of your learning style the first step is to identify your preferred modality – whether you prefer visual, auditory, or kinesthetic modality (V-A-K). As these terms suggest, visual people learn through what they see, auditory learners from what they hear, and kinesthetic learners from movement and touching. Although each of us learns in all three of these modalities to some degree, most people prefer one over the other two.
Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic?

Do you often catch yourself saying things like “That looks right to me,” or “I get the picture”? Or are you more likely to say “That sounds right to me,” or “That rings a bell”? Expressions like these may be clues to your preferred modality.

If you couldn’t see or hear, or if you couldn’t feel texture, shape, temperature, weight, or resistance in the environments, you would literally have no way of learning. Most of us learn in many ways, yet we usually favor one modality over the others. Many people don’t realize they are favoring one way, because nothing external tells them they’re any different from anyone else. Knowing that there are differences goes a long way toward explaining things like why we have problems understanding and communicating with some people and not with others, and why we handle some situations more easily than others.
How do you discover your own preferred modality? One simple way is to listen for clues in your speech, as in the expressions above. Another way is to notice your behavior when you attend a seminar or workshop. Do you seem to get more from reading the handout or from listening to the presenter? Auditory people prefer listening to the material and sometimes get lost if they try to take notes on the subject during the presentation. Visual people prefer to read the handouts and look at the illustrations the presenter puts on the board. They also take excellent notes. Kinesthetic learners do best with “hands on” activities and group interaction.

The following characteristics will help you zero in on your best learning modality.

Visual Preference

are neat and orderly
speak quickly
are good long-range planners and organizers
are observant of environmental detail
are appearance-oriented in both dress and presentation
are good spellers and can actually see the words in their minds
remember what was seen, rather than heard
memorize by visual association
usually are not distracted by noise
have trouble remembering verbal instructions unless they are written down and often ask people to repeat themselves
are strong, fast readers
would rather read than be read to
need an overall view and purpose and are cautious until mentally clear about an issue or project
doodle during phone conversations and staff meetings
forget to relay verbal messages to others
often answer questions with a simple yes or no
would rather do a demonstration than make a speech
like art more than music
often know what to say but can’t think of the right words
sometimes tune out when they mean to pay attention

Auditory Preference

talk to themselves while working
are easily distracted by noise
move their lips and pronounce the words as they read
enjoy reading aloud and listening
can repeat back and mimic tone pitch and timbre
find writing difficult, but are better at telling
speak in rhythmic patterns
are frequently eloquent speakers
like music more than art
learn by listening, and remember what was discussed rather than seen
are talkative, love discussion, and go into lengthy descriptions
have problems with projects that involve visualization, such as cutting pieces that fit together
can spell better out loud than in writing

Kinesthetic Preference

speak slowly
respond to physical rewards
touch people to get their attention
stand close when talking to someone
are physically oriented and move a lot
have early large-muscle development
learn by manipulating and doing
memorize by walking and seeing
use a finger as a pointer when reading
gesture a lot
can’t sit still for long periods of time
can’t remember geography unless they’ve actually been there
use action words
like plot-oriented books – they reflect action with body movement as they read
may have messy handwriting
want to act things out
like involved games

It’s becomes easier to decipher the modalities of other people in your life by noticing what words they use when they are communicating. These words are called predicates, or “process words.” When a situation is perceived in someone’s mind, it’s processed in whatever modality the person prefers; the words and phrases the person uses to describe it reflect that person’s personal modality.
Once you identify a person’s predicates, you can make it a point to match their language when you speak to them. Besides using process words that the person can relate to, you can also match the speed at which they talk. Visual speak quickly, auditories at a medium speed, and kinesthetics more slowly.
Matching your modality to another’s is a great way to create rapport and an atmosphere of understanding.

Filed Under: Business & Life Coaching, Curated, Personal Development Coaching

Words of Great Power

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. Man does not weave this web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle, chief of the Suquamis

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their views, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.  Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”
Tecumseh-Shawnee

“Real Education consists of drawing the best out of yourself.”
Mohatma Mohandas Ghandi

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, while in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Suzuki Roshi

“Keep me from the wisdom that does not weep, and the philosophy that does not laugh, and the pride that does not bow its head before a child.”
Kahlil Gibran

“Nothing happens without personal transformation.”
W.Edward Deming

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it is amazing what they can accomplish.”
Sam Walton

“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
Albert Einstein

“If you want to be a leader, you have to be a real human being. You must recognize the true meaning of life before you can become a great leader. You must understand yourself first.”
Master Nan

“The true nature of anything is the highest it can become.”
Aristotle

“O’ GREAT SPIRIT, help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence.”
Cherokee Prayer

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
John F. Kennedy

“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
Helen Keller

“Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain.”
Frank Lloyd Wright

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.”
Buddha

“Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return.”
Leonardo Da Vinci

“I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.”
Albert Einstein

“And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.”
Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“From the space between compassion and courage emerges freedom.”
Marti Foster

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
Jimi Hendrix

“A clever man commits no minor blunders.”
Goethe

“Never mistake motion for action.”
Ernest Hemingway

“We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.”
Mark Twain

“If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”
Henry Ford

“In becoming a champion, you learn a lot more from your losses than from your wins.”
Chuck McKinley

“Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.”
George Burns

“Turn what has been done into a better path. Think about the impact of your decision on seven generations into the future.”
Wilma Mankiller

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”
Vince Lombardi

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Walt Disney

“Life doesn’t require that we be the best—only that we try our best.”
Jackson Brown Jr.

“Don’t compromise yourself, you’re all you’ve got.”
Janice Joplin

“When you stop comparing what is right here and now with what you wish were, you begin to enjoy what is.”
Cheri Huber

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”
Yogi Berra

“Answers make us wise. Questions make us human.”
Unknown

“The only thing that exists is the present. It has no beginning and no end. The future is… Now!”
Unknown

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”
Herbert Spencer

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.”
Unknown

“Without Vision, the people perish.”
Proverbs 29:18

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is, an idea whose time has come.”
Victor Hugo

“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.”
John D. Rockefeller

“Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, ‘why not?’”
Robert F. Kennedy

“There is not heavier burden than great potential.”
Charlie Brown

“Man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Unknown

“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their mind.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Tell me, I may listen. Teach me, I may remember. Involve me, I will do it.”
Chinese proverb

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
Schuller

“The key to growing up is to have one’s eyes opened without having one’s heart hardened.”
Olivier Guisan

“An angry man opens his mouth and shuts up his eyes.”
Unknown

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Prepare now for death so as to intensify and fulfill your life.”
Stephen Levine

“Letting go of our suffering is the hardest work we will ever do.”
Buddha

“Life is what is happening while you are busy making other plans.”
John Lennon

“A happy life begins with tranquility of mind.”
Cicero

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”
Unknown

“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
T.S. Elliot

Filed Under: Curated, Pathways to Wonder

The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements
by Don Miguel Ruiz

This book speaks to the fact that we make agreements within ourselves about how we will behave. These agreements are sometimes prompted by circumstances and the behaviors or comments of other people in our lives whom we trust to tell the truth.

Ruiz suggests that we make the following agreements with ourselves:

  • Be impeccable with your word.
  • Speak with integrity — Say only what you mean.
  • Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Filed Under: Curated, Transition & Transformation

White Collar Crime Remedy

I have been thinking a lot about the pernicious and insidious effects of white collar crime on so many communities across our country. I started researching Restorative Justice and was thinking about how important it is for us as a nation to demand meaningful judicial reform, judicial reform that holds white collar criminals responsible for making things right for the victims of their fraudulent behaviors. Forget about putting them in prison and using our tax dollars to support them. Put them to work creating jobs for those they have harmed.

Pay to Play. They create jobs, they earn some of their freedom back.

In my research I found a fascinating book on the subject:

 

The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice
Key restorative justice programs have had their roots in religious or spiritual communities. Victim-offender mediation got its North American start thanks to members of the Mennonite community. Circles were adapted from Native American and First Nations practices. Conferencing was derived from the traditions of the Maori people in New Zealand. While these programs have often been “secularized” for use outside those communities, it is useful to reflect on the spiritual roots of restorative justice. That is the subject of a new book, reviewed in this edition.

 

 

 

Edited by Michael L. Hadley
SUNY Series in Religious Studies (Ed. Harold Coward), Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001
Reviewed by Gregory Strong

This book consists of a set of papers examining religious and philosophical foundations for restorative justice. The papers grew out of the “Spiritual Roots” project, an interdisciplinary and international research project to explore multi-faith perspectives on crime and punishment, especially the traditional roots of those perspectives and how those roots relate to key ideas and practices of restorative justice. The perspectives examined come from a number of religious and philosophical traditions: aboriginal religion; Buddhism; Chinese philosophy and religion; Christianity; Hinduism; Islam; Judaism; and Sikhism. The distinctiveness of each tradition is respected, while their fundamental contributions to criminal justice issues are recognized. The collection also contains a substantial introduction by the editor to multi-faith reflection on criminal justice, a paper on philosophical theories of criminal punishment, and an epilogue describing specific instances where restorative practices were employed in aboriginal cases in Canada. Authors include academics and practitioners in the criminal justice sphere. The project and the book constitute a significant contribution to the exploration of religious dimensions in the formation of criminal justice ideas, perspectives, and practices.

Chapter Summaries

Introduction: Multifaith Reflection on Criminal Justice

Restorative Justice and the Philosophical Theories of Criminal Punishment

The Case for Aboriginal Justice and Healing: The Self Perceived through a Broken Mirror

Healing Justice: A Buddhist Perspective

The Spirit and Practice of Restorative Justice in Chinese Culture

Christianity: the Rediscovery of Restorative Justice

Justice in Hinduism

Restorative Justice in Islam: Theory and Practice

Jewish Perspectives on Restorative Justice

Sikhism and Restorative Justice: Theory and Practice

Epilogue: Justice as Hope

Filed Under: Curated

Creating unity and shared responsibility for success

The most powerful tool I’ve seen that offers any promise of change and dealing with questions of fear, trust, and control in business in a healthy constructive way starts with awareness and acceptance that personal and shared responsibility are needed to create a successful enterprise.

When we feel one of our three essential biological needs are threatened — security and survival, power, or affection and esteem — we revert to ineffective and negative patterns of thought and behavior.

Positive change becomes possible by noticing what’s happening inside ourselves and how we are interacting with others. When we start noticing these things, we can begin to express truth. We can then learn to deal directly with how these patterns are affecting our work relationships and performance and learn to modify them.

This is the personal foundation and catalyst for continued growth, high performance and success for an individual, team or an organization.

Filed Under: Curated

Soul Food

The Meaning of Satyagraha

Satyagraha is a term used by the Mahatma Gandhi to describe the kind of activism he undertook. Satya refers to the Truth underlying all of creation, which is inherently peaceful. Satya’s other meaning is “God,” as in Sat-Chit-Ananda. Agraha means “to hold fast.” Satyagraha then means to hold fast to this Truth.” Whereas all creation, from our bodies, to solar systems are born and die, only the underlying Truth behind creation remains ever present, and ever harmonious.

Ahimsa or Non-Violence

The primary principle behind Satyagraha is Ahimsa. Ahimsa means non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. called Satyagraha “soul force.” While non-violence may outwardly appear passive, it is actually a powerful force of rapid and radical change; it is the force of the Truth. Consider what both Gandhi and King were able to do without bloodshed.

Ahimsa: “Let Thy Will Be Done”

Gandhi frequently quoted an Upanishad: “Ahimsa paramo dharma,” which may be translated “non-harming is the highest path.” Ahimsa points to the harmony of the Truth. That harmony is also called love, the primal unity. So, ahimsa paramo dharma can also mean “love in action.”
Gandhi cultivated ahimsa within himself. He received hostility, but refused to be forced to hate the hostile. He entered dangerous situations, but refused to entertain fear. Holding on to Truth, he would not allow conditioned reactions to deter him from his mission to affirm the dignity of a nation.

As Gandhi received hostility, and returned love, he burned hostility out of his own mind, leaving its true nature uncovered by mental defilements such as hatred/violence and greed/desire.

Tapas: Returning Love, for Hostility

The technique that Gandhi used to burn away his own hostility is called Tapas. In Tapas, when you experience a hostile circumstance, you hold fast to the Truth, your own inner nature – and return love and compassion.
Ordinarily, we react to hostility with hostility, with Tapas, you transform the hostility within you into love. As sages throughout the ages have understood, when you cultivate perfect ahimsa within yourself, you will experience it outside of yourself. This idea is represented in the old image of a yogi mediating in the forest, with a tiger, scorpion and cobra lying peacefully beside him.
Even when you experience a thought or feeling that would generate violence/hatred or greed/desire, recognize what it is, and witness it as a tiny energy movement passing through your vast consciousness. It too will dissolve, leaving you in your natural, harmonious state.

Dharma is Harmony

Every individual’s true nature is harmonious. When hostility is burned away, we are able to perceive this nature as Being, Consciousness, and Bliss. In the cultivation of this harmony, we access our own dharmic paths, dissolving the Ego, becoming instruments of our higher nature.

Liberation

The only freedom that we truly possess is the freedom to be harmonious within. No thought or feeling or circumstance can then enslave us and cause us to behave like automatons, with a predictable reaction. It is our choice; will we live as angels, or as like a pack of wild dogs?

The Ego vs. Your True Nature or Soul

There is a simple truth that you can prove to yourself if you choose to commit yourself to quieting your own mind. Thoughts in your mind are generating your Ego – or false sense of selfhood. But there is something else underlying the thoughts, it is the medium in which thoughts arise – and that is your true nature or Soul.

The primary movements of the Ego are fear and desire. The core attributes of the Soul are love and harmony. Gandhi said that he “became zero” then all good things flowed through him. This is a way of saying that he was dissolving his Ego. We too can become zero. In becoming zero, we cease to act as an impediment to the harmony of Truth flowing through us into the world we create.

Action by a Satyagrahi

A circumstance may require action, but that action will be rooted in harmony, and not hostility. The more quiet your own mind, the more likely that inspiration for the perfect action will arise within you. Consider the inspiration Gandhi received in undertaking his march to the sea to collect salt – an action that was both powerful and peaceful.

Add Mantra and Meditation to Tapas

Besides Tapas, Gandhi quieted his mind using Mantra and Meditation. There are a multitude of mantras and many meditation techniques. Choose what resonates for you.

Satyagraha Movement: Conclusion

There are no priests or judges in the practice of Satyagraha. To become a Satyagrahi is a commitment you make to yourself to be perfectly liberated from hostile thoughts, feelings and circumstances.

Every life is a world unto itself. By generating peacefulness and harmony within ourselves, we transform our world. But in a larger sense, we each become a powerful force for harmony, as Gandhi was.
This group is an opportunity to share our experiences with Satyagraha practice, no matter how big or small.

Whatever arises, witness and love.

Filed Under: Curated

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