Life Management

www.SystemsForChange.org

What to expect…

• Life Management Through Systems• Positive Emotions – Laughter

• Stress– Meditation

• Few Psychological Studies. • Balance

- To Start – Random Inspirational Video

Progress

Resource Management

Weekly ReportLast week was

awesome because…

•I had a good conversation with a dude in peace and conflicts studies•I enjoyed reading “Doors of Perception” •the Politic lectures rock, the proff is super smart which makes her super hot. •I enjoyed going swimming.•I really liked singing with the guitar, all alone, me and my solitude getting to know each other.

Next week is ganna be a blast

cause•I’m going to catch up with my Anthro readings, so I don’t feel like a douche in class. •I’m going to sing and play guitar some more now that I’ve discovered I like doing it so much. •I’m going to swim more, and actually go for a workout for once. •I’m going to be nice to my parents, call them up and let them know how life is going. •I not going to waist time on facebook

My weekly report example

You try now

Weekly System

• Describe what it is for

• Do An example

• Write the Activities important to you

• Show my own weekly system charts.

• Now you try.

Week Of -> Feb 10 Feb 16 Feb 22 Feb 28 Feb

ActivityPlaying Guitar

Spending Time with FamilyTaking a long bubble bath followed by a walk on the beach. Studying for Psych

Times I Overcome the urge to go on Facebook. An act of kindness

Weekly System

Weekly System

• Describe what it is for

• Do An example

• Write the Activities important to you

• Show my own weekly system charts.

• Now you try.

• Why it’s important

• Show my own diary

• Now you try.

Diary / Journal

The Student Calendar

You can use systems to change you character or personality.

The RING!!!

DeindividuationA phenomenon of low self awareness in which people lose their individuality and fail to attend to personal standards

Casino's eliminate mirrorsFor better self control have personal reminding objects around, meditation ring being a good example, statue of Buddha etc

What do I love about my self right now

•I try to be considerate•…•…•…•…

What do I like to see more in my self

•I want to be more patient•…•…•…

Who do I want to be…

Design a system on the spot!!!

Play mental dexterity game

Moving away from productivity to subjective quality of life.

Move chairs now if necessary

The Nun Experiment

In 1930, 180 nuns who were around 22 years old wrote brief autobiographies. Each nun was asked by her Mother Superior to write a short sketch of her life.

Psychologist Deborah D. Danner of the University of Kentucky and her colleagues analyzed the nuns' letters for positive emotional content, then related them to the nuns' survival between the ages of 75 to 95.

Their study revealed that the nuns whose autobiographies contained the most sentences expressing positive emotions lived an average of seven years longer than nuns whose stories contained the fewest.

Further, lifespan increased by 9.5 years for nuns whoseautobiographies contained the most words referring to positive emotions, and by 10.5 years for nuns who used the greatest variety of positive-emotion words.

Positive Emotions and Performance (see Barb Fredrickson’s work)

44 year old medical interns: conditions:

receive a small bag of candy read some inspiring humanistic statements about

medicine do-nothing control group

given hard-to-diagnose case of liver cancer and asked to think aloud

who did best?

Laugh in the Mornings

Belly Laughter

Let’s Try it right now!

(Don’t forget from the belly!)

Cognitive Reframing Challenge appraisals: (Tugade &

Fredrickson, 2004) Group of college students told that they will

give an impromptu speech which will be recorded.

conditions: threat vs. challenge appraisals

Cognitive Reframing

Result? in threat condition: low resilient subjects

experienced fewer positive emotions, and took much longer to return to cardiovascular baseline

in challenge condition: no differences between low & high resilient people!

this is the power of a few seconds’ worth of practicing challenge appraisals

Stress

Worried Sick Video @00:01:56

Worried Sick Video @ 00:13:10

www.Ted.orgHabits of Happiness Video

@15:05

Meditation

Importance of Controlling Attention

Check out the Book:Where Ever You Go, There You Are - Jon

Kabat-Zinn

Let’s try a couple of minutes of relaxation meditation.

Emotions

Reaction vs Response

To be human is to have emotions not to be a slave to your emotions.

The Interplay of Emotion, Cognition, and the Body

Schachter & Singer (1962): adrenaline study

The Interplay of Cognition with the Body

• subjects given adrenaline (or placebo) Adrenaline sweaty palms, increased heart rate, ‘the shakes’

• subjects were told 1) that the drug they took would make them feel aroused, or 2) nothing

• subjects wait with a confederate:• 1) euphoric confederate (e.g., playing with

hula hoop, making paper airplanes....)• 2) insulting confederate (e.g, asked highly

personal questions)

Affect as Information

• E.g., affect-as-information theory (Schwarz & Clore, 1983): people use their current emotional state to make judgements.

• How satisfied are you in life?• Do you like this class?• How good was the dinner tonight?• How nice do you think that complete stranger is?

• How do we make these decisions? Do we weigh all the evidence carefully and try to compute a rational evaluation?

• No! We just say what we feel…..

How convincing is argument X? How much do you believe it?Again, it depends on your current mood. If you are happy, you are more

likely to believe it.

But it’s even more subtle than that. It turns out that just about anything that makes you feel a wee bit of negative emotion, will cause you to rate the argument as less convincing & believable.

e.g., Using difficult to read font.e.g., Utilizing linguistic statements that are unnecessarily verbose or

overly difficult to process and interpret in ways that are consistent with the intentions of the speaker or communicator.

Etc…So, even our ‘rational’ processing of messages is influenced, very subtly,

by our emotional state at the time.

Affect as Information

Self Validation

A lot of the emotional problems seem to stem from a need for validation and a

subsequent fear that they won't be validated. Self Validation bears a strong

influence on Self Confidence.

Want to be relaxed, at peace and happy ,

Learn to love yourself!

Successful, Happy and

Balanced Life

Systems help you get where you want to be … but where is it that

you want to be

Looking at the Whole Picture

Do the Autobiography Exercise

Fill out the feedback form please!

Questions? Comments?

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