Grateful for the Guidelines

Grateful for the Guidelines

Originally uploaded by dflora_pix

Happy Thanksgiving (USA)! But for anyone a good day to practice our Gratitude, that guideline scientifically proven to elevate our happiness level.

The 16 Guidelines have been an important influence in my life. They have helped me take off my mask and be more genuine. They have helped me to grow every day, and to communicate with my family about the ideas that are most important to me. And, they have helped me to keep the most important things in mind during this short, precious life.

Here is a tribute, a Guidelines tree, now planted and growing all over the world. May many benefit!

See more at florasabi.org and 16guidelines.org

16 Guidelines 2011 Calendar: Questions for a Meaningful Life

A new tool to familiarize ourselves with the ideas and vocabulary of the 16 Guidelines is now available: the 16 Guidelines for Life photo calendar called Questions for a Meaningful Life – 2011.

Each week there is a question to ponder. For instance, for contentment, “Do I exaggerate the positive qualities of things I want?”

You can preview and order the calendar from Lulu.com. Plus, if you order before November 15, you can type in EARLYBIRD as a coupon code to get a 30% discount on the calendar.

inspiration

Just home from three inspiring days at Mind & Life XX Conference in Zurich. What I really liked and what I took home from the meeting:

- each of the 16 guidelines were talked of and some were described as eminent qualities of leadership
- economics is about human behaviour
- since 2009 sustainable companies get cheaper money on the capital market
- the new luxury goods are: clean environment, friendship, happiness
- altruism is imprinted in the human brain and makes people happier
- envy is the main obstacle to happiness
- new secular ethics are needed for all the inhabitants of our planet
- education is the key factor to promote secular ethics

If you want to know more about it:

www.mindandlife.org/blog”>

more happiness

Happiness is quite a trendy word. It’s beautiful as a cloud and when you try to catch it… nothing…

To think about the causes of happiness is a good way to start the day.

What makes me happy today?

snow falling
the kids are healthy
time for yoga asanas
no longing or wishes

What makes you happy today?

parenting support

My wildest years were not the ones I lived as a free-lance artist in Europe or a climber on the road in California, but as a mother. Luckily my life experience helped me a lot in this task. And I’m very thankful to my partner for standing by my side. Through joy, pain, boredom and dispute. And we can still look each other in the eyes and laugh.

But if I had found this checklist of general parenting guidelines a little earlier, it would have helped me very much. This is the first point:

*Set a good example for your children. Children often learn how to act by observing how their parents act. For example, if parents handle frustrations well, their children will probably learn to handle their own frustrations well. If parents swear and become upset when things don’t go well, their children may learn to act the same way. Parents should avoid resorting to the old saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”

These guidelines are part of a parents’ program by The Center for Effective Parenting, the Arkansas State Parent Information & Resource Center.
See their homepage for more information: www.parenting-ed.org

Humility and Delight…ingredients for a Great Holiday!

Humility and Delight…

Originally uploaded by dflora_pix

May you each experience these attitudes around you and the benefits yourself of embodying these qualities this year:

Humility, Patience, Contentment, Delight, Kindness, Honesty, Generosity, Thoughtful Speech, Respect, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Loyalty/Responsibility, Aspiration, Principles, Service, Courage.

Mindful of the Meaningful

Published! — a 16 month calendar with verse

Originally uploaded by dflora_pix

How can we keep the Guidelines in mind? How about a 16G calendar you look at every day? Here is a 16 month photo calendar with a new four line verse for each guideline. Verses short enough to remember and use throughout the day.

Preview the pages by clicking ‘preview’ below the cover at the link.

Ready Set Happy … around the world

Ready Set Happy … around the world

Originally uploaded by dflora_pix

Well, our Ready Set Happy (RSH) community is growing. English, Spanish, and some Portuguese, French, Italian, German, …five continents using fun, skill-building activities for children. Thought you might like to see the current map of people trained (yellow), test-site applications (blue), trial sites (green), and other implementations (red) that people have told us about so far.

Just now wrapping up trials in 13 places including homes, homeschools, pre-schools, Montessori schools, public schools, spiritual centers, and even an exercize class. The teachers are finding benefits for their students and themselves. The parents love that their children are thinking, not just memorizing, and the children are singing, asking questions, and don’t want to miss their class.

The point is peace. Peace in the world, and peace within ourselves. The approach is to develop the innate compassion and wisdom within each individual. This is Essential Education (EE). So here are a few more details about the method, the latest RSH resources, and where to find them:

The method is
universal — all ages, cultures, faiths or no faith,
practical — immediately applicable to daily life,
appreciative — celebrating unique potential of each,
non-dogmatic — encouraging personal reflection,
integrated — bringing together head and heart, and multidisiplinary.

The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom (FDCW) delivers EE including initiatives such as the 16 Guidelines for Life. The children’s resource for the Guidelines is called Ready Set Happy (RSH).

RSH, a collection of games, songs, stories, visualizations and other activities involving language, science, math, art, and more is written for a range of learning styles. It follows the 16 Guidelines structure of the four themes: How we Think, How we Act, How we Relate to Others and How we Find Meaning in Life.

These activities let participants experience and realize the benefit to themselves of the 16 attitudes such as Patience, Kindness, Gratitude, and Courage. The themes give context for exploring how we ….feel inside, impact others, connect to community, and find meaning in a changing world. The aim is to empower each of us to develop our skill at being happy.

RSH is available in English and Spanish online for full access from everywhere. Embedded links extend the activities, and coordinating resources can be printed — photo posters, postable Highlights pages, sharing size postcards, etc

To see the entire book in English or Spanish (and a new bit in Portuguese, thanks, Cintia) go to: www.16Guidelines.org under Publications, Ready Set Happy. For other Essential Education resources, check this out : www.essential-education.org

For more information, you can write me at denise@essential-education.org
May this be of benefit!

Denise Flora

smile

I just found an awesome page, where smiling is promoted as an educational tool. Is this a joke, I asked myself?

Meike and Andreas write about themselves:

“That’s how we found out – among other things – that life would be much nicer for all of us if people would have fewer problems – with themselves, with other people and with troubles caused from other people.

And – it’s almost too simple – that most of those problems could easily be solved if people would be friendly to each other. Care about each other, listen to each other, and communicate in an intelligent way.“

So be ready for January 25th, 2010: World’s Greatest Smile – Start with a smile -Day!

names and their meaning

Since I grew up between two cultures, names always had a special meaning for me. A name connects you to a language and culture, the name defines how you are perceived by others. That’s one of the reasons, why I always wanted to find out the meaning of names, especially when I feel close to people.

We Westerners mostly keep our names – that we got from our parents – for our entire life. Exceptions are made for actors, musicians and spiritual people, or when women get married. The first time, I chose a new name by myself, was when I had to find a Mandarin name for a visa application. An experienced traveller warmly recommended me to pick a name of my own choice, so I could select the best pictogram combination and not leave the decision to an unispired immigration officer, who would simply look for pronunciation and not for meaning. I became a new person with this name, with an existence that reaches out to East Asia. And I still like my Chinese name a lot, because it has a mulberry tree in it.

And then you have the avatars of the digital jungle. It’s like creating an alter ego for a science fiction project. Even if you keep your birth name, you’re becoming kind of a virtual being. The other problem is, that if someone has already picked the same name, you will have to add a number or something else to it. After eight invalid entries you get bored. And pick the next best book title from a review. Bamboo. Already taken. Then: greenbambu. Accepted – bingo! Welcome to the binary jungle of the world wide web! This name will stick to you for a while and develop a life of its own!