Umi Devi

Showing posts with label art of living. Show all posts

Aug 22, 2011

The gift of rest

For thousands of years we've had the tradition of resting on the seventh day. One person who still actually does that is Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

Lieberman looks forward to Fridays, when he can get home, switch his BlackBerry off and just be Joe - Hadassah Lieberman's husband, father of four, grandfather of 11. Turn off the BlackBerry? Yikes!Lieberman is an observant Jew who has long

Aug 12, 2011

Bored? Good.

"Boredom acts as an early warning that certain situations may be dangerous to human well-being. It’s not unlike disgust, another emotion that helps humans prosper. Just as disgust stops you from eating what is noxious, so boredom, in social settings, alerts you to situations that can do no psychological good. Boredom, interpreted properly, might act as an alarm. It urges you to step back.

"So

Aug 10, 2011

Feeling stressed out?

There's plenty of stress to go around several times these days. The doctors at Harvard Medical School survey the damage and make some suggestions:

A growing body of evidence suggests that psychological factors are — literally — heartfelt, and can contribute to cardiac risk.

Stress from challenging situations and events plays a significant role in cardiovascular symptoms and outcome,

Aug 5, 2011

Want a better idea of how you're doing?

Ask other people three simple questions.
What should I stop doing?
What should I keep doing?
What should I start doing?
Thomas J. DeLong, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, learned this from a psychology professor in college.He called it the SKS form. It was simply a process whereby we would ask others what we should stop (S),keep (K), and start (S) doing, given a

Jul 30, 2011

Stay focused on the important things

Peter Bregman, an adviser to CEOs, managed to lose weight by doing two things.

One, he threw out all the ice cream, candy, cookies, and cake in his kitchen, and restocked with healthier alternatives.

Two, he signed up for a service that delivered carefully portioned meals and snacks each day.

"In both situations," he writes, "I reduced my need for discipline. I changed the environment around

Jul 29, 2011

Give a little, get a lot

Will get a promotion.
The support we get from friends and families has a direct bearing on our well-being, Shawn Achor writes.
Studies even show that high levels of social support is as predictive of longevity as regular exercise, while low social support is as damaging as high blood pressure. That's amazing.This also applies at work. In his research at Harvard, he learned:
The greatest metric

Jul 19, 2011

Let's tune up your personal brand

"This changes everything."
The idea that "you are the brand" isn't new. As more of us find ourselves out in the wilderness on our own, it does matter. The idea: how are you perceived by others? Particularly, others with money to give you if they perceive you just right.

Ira Kalb is president of Kalb & Associates, an international consulting and training firm, and professor of marketing at the

Jul 15, 2011

Some enduring rules of the road

What enduring principles can you rely on to make choices that reflect openness, integrity and authenticity?
Tony Schwartz, a consultant to individuals and companies, offers these.
1. Always challenge certainty, especially your own. When you think you're undeniably right, ask yourself "What might I be missing here?" If we could truly figure it all out, what else would there be left to do?

2.

Jul 13, 2011

Only after a break can you have a breakthrough

Just do it.
Whitney Johnson, founding partner of an investment firm, is obviously busy. She's experimented with leaving her cell phone behind when on a family outing. And she's tried not answer email in the middle of the night!

Here are her thoughts on the busy-ness of our lives.
According to current neuroscience research, after focusing intently on a project or problem, the brain needs to

Jul 12, 2011

Killing ourselves softly

Does this sound familiar?
What toll does it take, over time, if you get too little sleep; skip breakfast or settle for something unhealthy; struggle with a relentlessly challenging commute; attend meeting after meeting with no breaks in between; pump yourself up through the day with multiple cups of coffee or sugary snacks; deal with hundreds of emails that accumulate in your inbox; remain at

Jul 7, 2011

How to manage stress

"We live in a world of ongoing worry, change, and uncertainty. You have to get used to it," says Justin Menkes, an expert in the field of corporate talent evaluation.
"Stress is an inevitable part of work and life, but the effect of stress upon us is far from inevitable," says Shawn Achor, an expert in positive psychology.
Both Achor and Menkes agree that altering your approach to stress can

Jun 30, 2011

How to take a walk

I take a lot of walks, Venkatesh Rao writes.In my 13 years of taking walks in the United States, I could remember only ever seeing one native-born American taking a walk. All other examples I could remember were clearly immigrants. Middle-aged eastern European matrons strolling. Old Chinese men walking slowly with their hands behind their backs. Even elderly Americans don’t seem to take walks

Jun 26, 2011

Be your own therapist

Positive psychology involves more than just thinking happy thoughts. Positive psychology focuses on the strengths and virtues that help people thrive, such as courage, gratitude, compassion, resilience and creativity. While most therapists attempt to "fix what's wrong," positive psychologists also want to "build what's strong."

Therapists who practice positive psychology help individuals see

What to invest in now

You've lost your job, or your pay isn't keeping up with inflation, or the value of your house has plummeted, or you're realizing you'll never retire. What should you do?

"Here's a tiny suggestion, writes Umair Haque, a consultant and author. "The "best" investment you can make isn't gold. It's the people you love, the dreams you have, and living a life that matters."
If we all invest in gold,

Jun 24, 2011

What we can learn from Jim

Jim
Peter Bregman, a strategic advisor to CEOs, tells a story about his friend Jim:
Jim Wolfensohn was a second-year student at the University of Sydney when a friend of his and the captain of the fencing team, Rupert Bligh, asked if he wanted to go to Melbourne the next day to fence in the national university championships. "You've got to be mad," Jim said. "I've never fenced in my life."

Why some people get things done

Will never reach a goal.
And others don't.

University of Chicago psychologists Minjung Koo and Ayelet Fishbach examined how people pursuing goals were affected by focusing on either how far they had already come (to-date thinking) or what was left to be accomplished (to-go thinking).
People routinely use both kinds of thinking to motivate themselves. A marathon runner may choose to think about

Jun 21, 2011

How to make better decisions

We've actually got two people living inside us -- the Want Guy and the Should Guy. Jeremy Dean, a researcher in psychology at University College London, working towards a PhD, uses research to help us keep the two straight when making decisions.

1. Make the choice in advance. One of the best ways to fox the Want guy is to make the decision in advance. When we make decisions in advance it's

Jun 20, 2011

How to detect a liar

When evaluating a potential liar, consider these three behavioral signals — that is, both what they say and how they say it:

Discomfort
Does the person seem uncomfortable about what she is saying? The visible anxiety may be caused by guilt or fear of getting caught, which leads liars to hurry to end the discussion and even look relieved when it's over. Their feet might be pointing in the

Jun 16, 2011

How to remember names

Some familiar ideas worth remembering:

Commit to listening and remembering. Most of us are lousy listeners. In social situations, we fall prey to conversational narcissism and are always waiting for a moment we can jump in and add our two cents. If you’re concentrating on what you’re about to say when someone introduces themselves, their name will go in one ear and out the other just like that.

Jun 11, 2011

Stop comparing yourself to others

It's a trap, a game you can't win, writes Thomas DeLong, a professor of management at The Harvard Business School.

Right, professor. Look how you've done.

In fact, when he joined Harvard his office was next to a guy who had written 12 books and was an internationally known scholar. If that wasn't enough, on the other side of DeLong's office was a guy who had one the Nobel prize in economics.