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enlightmenthuman potentialhuman creativity

By Dr. Daniele Trevisani (Linkedin Page)– anticipation from the volumes “Human Potential” and “The Soul Box” (Amazon Ebook)

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If you arrive to a point where you are able to define “better” from a really internal viewpoint, from a novel cleaner way of reasoning, and out of forced cultural or external expectations, you will be very close to wisdom.

And if what is “better” for you does not correspond to what the advertising industry is showing, don’t worry. Probably you are on a good path. Express your thoughts freely about what is “better” for you.

Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.

Liu Xiaobo

When you do so, you are on a good path.

If you do not ask yourself what humans can do with their intelligence and technology, and where we should be headed to, that is like using a supercomputer as a typing machine. Is that real Human Potential?

To bring out the truth of the need to stop and pose difficult life-meaning questions to ourselves and our leaders, is like bearing the flag of freedom in a dictatorship in its central plaza.

I feel that with just one life to spend, I do not want to waste it in lies on things like Human Potential. It is not “fast and easy”, it is a life-long path.

If we do not have a clear idea about what Human Potential is, we will never be Educators, and will never achieve any type of Leadership.

To be the CEO or General Director of an Educational Institution does not make anyone an Expert on Human Potential in Education. It’s just a tag, anyone who has this tag should be proud of it but start after “second 1” to search for the truth of what a “Progress” really is.

Progress, also tends to be very “role-specific”, on example the progress in school grades is usually considered separated from progresses achieved in physical activity, sports and fitness. This separation neglects the unity of Human Potential and the interconnections among all of the human spheres of action. When we find in which field we wish to express ourselves.

A student, scientist or manager that practices sport will also be a better “thinker” since he/she will get rid of stress and have more phisical energies in any field, also intellectually.

For the same “law of interconnectedness inner energies” people who do high-intensity phisical sports will benefit from learning mental techniques on control of mind-states, relaxation, meditation, and similar.

We tend to identify ourselves in one of the several roles interpreted in life, as a one-shot imprinting, without considering that any role is a transition, is momentary and will sooner or later vanish. Being a kid vanishes, being a teenager vanishes, being a student vanishes, every job sooner or later vanishes.

We should look at our identity as a continuously evolving co-presence of several roles, unified by a soul that gives us a life purpose, a solid root of which we can be more or less aware.

For this reason the work on Human Potential must include both a work at the very “low level” of the body, a research at the “intermediate level” of skills and abilities, and a work at the very “high level” of values, life-dreams and core beliefs.

The tags Low, middle, and high, do not imply here a judgment, but the position along the continuum from tangible Human Factor issues (e.g., body power) to intangible issues (such as, the strength of personal values).

When an individual – or an entire group of people – increase their energy levels, new challenges become possible, new ways of being do emerge from the darkness and the unknown, and new forms of leadership arise.

Taking full consciousness of our self-potential and fight for reaching it, is a blessed mission, a sacred operation that goes beyond the numeric or professional results that might arrive.

By Dr. Daniele Trevisani (Linkedin Page)– anticipation from the volumes “Human Potential” and “The Soul Box” (Amazon Ebook)

untitled© Anticipation from the book “Human Potential”, by Dr. Daniele Trevisani www.danieletrevisani.com

The human being has its own global energy economy, a set of delicate balances from which he derives the degree of overall “power”, the ability to deal with cases, actions, challenges, problems, small or large, simple or complex, dominating them, or – otherwise – getting crushed.

The alchemy of the entire personal energy is tremendously complex. Even the local districts of the human system have their own local economy.

We examine not only the whole, but also specific parts. The energy economy covers both macro-regions (eg.: physical and mental) up, scale down, to touch very specific micro-economies.

There are local economies in the physical districts, like a shoulder, knee, stomach, and every other organ.

The same is true for the economies related to mental skills, such as concentration, situational awareness, sharp decision making.

The mind has its own global economies which leads it to work for better or worse, as well as economies in specific cognitive areas, eg., creativity in finding solutions decreases when we are overstressed, or under excessive emotional fatigue, while relaxation and mental training increases it.

Each district (both corporeal and cerebral) is also an open system, and is affected by the districts with which it interacts. The complex of individual energies is therefore articulate and it connects to the performance that the person may generate.

Each organ lives of exhaustible resources, has its capacity thresholds, specific levels of resistance to stress and breakage, which can not be ignored. When we ask too much to ourselves we break.

For example, rheumatologists and orthopedic doctors study the concept of “joint protection”, that is, the ” economy of the joint “: how much load it can hold, how much work it can absorbe, what can damage it, what activities can toughen it. But without a holistic approach, a doctor would not care of your joints economy. He would probably give you an anti-inflammatory and throw you out of the office, ignoring your need for stretching, integration, phisical activity, and the economics of your joint.

Each area of the body, such as a knee, has its local economy, and we can study how much a person can run without inflaming it, what are the physical activity that can strengthen it, or rather hurt it, what kind of nutrients are needed to keep the cartilage in good condition, and even the skills needed for lifting a heavy object without damaging it.

Asking people to give performance without studying (1) the state of the energies they have, and, (2) local economies most directly involved in the specific performance, is not our philosophy and not even an attitude of good leadership.

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© Anticipation from the book “Human Potential”, by Dr. Daniele Trevisani www.danieletrevisani.com

Carl Rogers. The 19 propositions. Source Rogers, Carl (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable.

  1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center.
  2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is “reality” for the individual.
  3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
  4. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
  5. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the “I” or the “me”, together with values attached to these concepts.
  6. The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.
  7. The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.
  8. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.
  9. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behavior, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
  10. The values attached to experiences, and the values that are a part of the self-structure, in some instances, are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly.
  11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
  12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.
  13. In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Such behavior may be inconsistent with the structure of the self but in such instances the behavior is not “owned” by the individual.
  14. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
  15. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.
  16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
  17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
  18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
  19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system – based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized – with a continuing organismic valuing process.

Carl Rogers’s view of the Fully Functioning Person

Optimal development, as referred to in proposition 14, results in whate he describes  as the good life, where the organism continually aims to fulfill its full potential. Human Potential Development derives from his basic views. He listed the characteristics of a fully functioning person. Source: Rogers, Carl (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. London: Constable.

  1. A growing openness to experience – they move away from defensiveness and have no need for subception (a perceptual defense that involves unconsciously applying strategies to prevent a troubling stimulus from entering consciousness).
  2. An increasingly existential lifestyle – living each moment fully – not distorting the moment to fit personality or self-concept but allowing personality and self-concept to emanate from the experience. This results in excitement, daring, adaptability, tolerance, spontaneity, and a lack of rigidity and suggests a foundation of trust. “To open one’s spirit to what is going on now, and discover in that present process whatever structure it appears to have” (Rogers 1961)[15]
  3. Increasing organismic trust – they trust their own judgment and their ability to choose behavior that is appropriate for each moment. They do not rely on existing codes and social norms but trust that as they are open to experiences they will be able to trust their own sense of right and wrong.
  4. Freedom of choice – not being shackled by the restrictions that influence an incongruent individual, they are able to make a wider range of choices more fluently. They believe that they play a role in determining their own behavior and so feel responsible for their own behavior.
  5. Creativity – it follows that they will feel more free to be creative. They will also be more creative in the way they adapt to their own circumstances without feeling a need to conform.
  6. Reliability and constructiveness – they can be trusted to act constructively. An individual who is open to all their needs will be able to maintain a balance between them. Even aggressive needs will be matched and balanced by intrinsic goodness in congruent individuals.
  7. A rich full life – he describes the life of the fully functioning individual as rich, full and exciting and suggests that they experience joy and pain, love and heartbreak, fear and courage more intensely. Rogers’ description of the good life:

    This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. (Rogers 1961)[15]

Incongruence” in Carl Rogers perspective

Rogers identified the “real self” as the aspect of one’s being that is founded in the actualizing tendency, follows organismic valuing, needs and receives positive regard and self-regard. It is the “you” that, if all goes well, you will become. On the other hand, to the extent that our society is out of sync with the actualizing tendency, and we are forced to live with conditions of worth that are out of step with organismic valuing, and receive only conditional positive regard and self-regard, we develop instead an “ideal self”. By ideal, Rogers is suggesting something not real, something that is always out of our reach, the standard we cannot meet.

This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the “I am” and the “I should” is called incongruity.

couragecourage

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

Aut vincere aut mori

Either to conquer or to die

Those who engage into Human Potential research are winners from the very start.

They are winner morally. But they have to take into account and incorporate the idea that failure will become a life companion, because the challenges are sometimes so large, huge, enormous… challenges against giants that seem so much bigger than us, and it seems useless to even try.

Well… some battles require us to adopt the Latin motto “Either to conquer or to die”, because there is really no sense in staying in the middle. Not for the battles that really matter.

  • Ridding the world of poverty, hunger and misery?
  • Making of every human being a happy creature?
  • Knowing the nature of man?
  • Understanding how the universe works?

Utopias, some say. Challenges, say others.

There is heroism around. There’s always been. It is found in anyone’s life will refuses make compromises with his/her values.

You find it everywhere. It appears in the eyes of someone who feels the spirit of research, the desire to understand, the desire to challenge ignorance, to change things for the better.

All these battles are worth fighting. If you are ready to lose, you can start. If you are interested in fighting, I’ll give you some good reason to fight. Coaching is about finding tools, training, and weapons, for your fight. We will fight this battle together.

 

“Yes, you’re right,”

Liu Kang said.

“We will all die, but not today, and not in this battle!”[1]

 

Pay attention here. I’m not talking necessarily of physical battles, fights or verbal arguments. There are enemies that deserve the clash but these are nothing compared to the mother of all battles: the battle for knowledge.

Searching a cure for a disease is a battle. Fighting injustice is a battle. The attempt to find clean energy for mankind is a battle. The desire to revolutionize transportation systems worldwide. When we will be able – thanks to “flying cars” or any really innovative transportation system – to live in a place and work in a place 2.000 km far, we will be really free, mankind will understand what freedom really is, it will be possible to revolutionize the concepts of jobs and living. Many call these ideas utopians: I like to call them “drivers”.

A battle is also the freedom to dream and fly with your mind.

Projects are nothing but fantasies put into practice.

We must give everyone the opportunity to study. We must feed people’s thirst for knowledge. An army of researchers with the common goal of exploring the depth of Human Potential is extremely powerful, it is an army that will defeat the darkness. We do not do it just for material satisfaction; we do it because it is right to do it.

 

Ab honesto virum bonum nihil deterret

Nothing deters a good man from the performance of his duties

Personal Energy is the key for many challenges. From daily tasks as growing kids into conscious adults, to the study the most distant phenomena of the universe, or the inner processes of the mind. All of these challenges require strength and energy.

Energy is what you need to be able to dare, to travel with your mind, to go beyond current limitations. To dare is already an act. Without daring, no action that goes beyond the “status quo” (the given condition) is even possible.

 

Audere est facere

To dare is to do.

 

The fight lacks no enemies: physical suffering, pain, hunger, or intellectual misery, wherever it is. The fight against ignorance, the fight against bullying, violence, arrogance, intimidation, mental prisons, regimes and religions of oppression, of mental control over “thinkers” that refuse to give up, refuse to obey to the rule that generates the “Spiral of Silence”, a place where you cannot speak, you cannot dare, you cannot look beyond, you cannot state a different opinion.

Humanity is a sewer but there are also flowers in that sewer and every human being can flourish if nourished phisicall and mentally with good ingredients. This is the view of Human Potential.

Those who say that there is nothing to do for that, have already lost, mentally.

These are all battles. And we are so small against these giants. But we will fight anyway, and we will be more and more. 300 heroes defeated the Persians, and the Spartan Spirit is everywhere. It’s also inside me and you.

 

[1] Dialogue from Mortal Kombat: Existence. Chapter 9. Published: 09-12-06 on website http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3150667/10/Mortal_Kombat_Existence

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

honorvaluesleadership

Honor is too often confounded with something that comes from outside, career, certificates, awards, tangible successes, or an attribute that “significant others” give to you. This is fake.

Fast and easy money, popularity, luxury products, are advertised as honorable instead of being shown for what they are: fog for the soul.

Nothing that comes “fast and easy” will last. No single life has any value if it does not attempt to bring more to humanity than what it received. No great work has ever come from nothing.

Absque sudore et labore nullum opus perfectum est

“Without sweat and toil no work is made perfect”

 

To equal “fame” or “wealth” with real honor is false and fake. This is one of the worst concepts you could assimilate and intoxicate with. And the fastest you get rid of it, the better you will feel and the cleaner your life will become.

Your professional choices will also be deeply affected making your shine like a diamond in the middle of a dense fog where most of the world population lives, including managers.

Sometimes a hard choice leaves you with less material goods but with a higher sense of moral integrity and self-esteem. The alternative would drive you directly in the hospital or obituary. Every time our inner mind knows that some sacred rules have been broken, and we betrayed what we deeply are, we get emotional sickness, physical illness, and decreases of our purest energies.

Every time we do er even try something that honors our soul and our values we nourish our mind, our body, our self-esteem.

Self honor comes step by step, ir requires trials, failures, and attempts. We all should accept living with uncertainty, uncertainty about faith, about the future, about material issues, but be sure that we count on something that will always be with us: our values.

Any enormous field has been built on single seeds.

Parvis imbutus tentabis grandia tutus

“Once you have tried small things, you may attempt great ones safely”

This certainty is a shining diamond in a world where we are forced to live side by side with uncertainty and darkness. This diamond brings us much more energy and life than what it appears initially.

People who did things like stealing money from poorer people, dishonoring their values, and leaving the world in worse conditions, very often do not live enough to spend that money. Cancers are looking for those people as bees look for flowers. And very often, the internal endocrine and immune system of people who internally know to have a dirty soul, freaks out and does the rest, bringing them to die faster.

There is a kind of self-honor, to be reckoned with. Let me explain. It is an honor that lies completely inside you, an honor coming from within and that does not need any external recognition.

The mere fact that you know is enough. You know that you do enlist among those who seek, study, struggle to change the world or to improve themselves, and to help others. This generates Life-sense in itself. It’s important and that’s enough.

And… there’s more good news. Anyone who enlists has already won even before starting, because the simple fact of heading towards the light is winning.

It’s a win against apathy. It’s a win over the death of the soul. A victory against untold darkness that we carry within us starts from making some moral choices and decide to be a part of the light. This means to try to leave the world slightly a better place. If you succeed it’s ok, if not at least you tried.

Universal forces and your soul will be richer and healthier. You will die with honor and without the regret of having wasted your only life.

The struggles of life are much sweeter when we perceive fully our inner diamond made of honor and are filled with its light.

There will be no difficulty that is able to outshine it.

Per angusta ad augusta

“through difficulties to greatness”

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

life pathlife choices

You’ve got to choose… so, on which side do you want to stay?

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

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Living our life proudly and not only in other’s memories

Some humans stubbornly continue to pursue the battle to build something good, commit themselves, and keep themselves busy in trying to improve human condition and overall humanity. Others do not care, others, even worse, destroy. Which category you want to join?

Anyone who enlists in the first category shall enter into an elite, an immortal army to which thousands of unknown people belonged, people who have worked in the dark and in silence for a noble cause, but also persons who have become famous, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and who knows how many others. Whether you are part of known or unknown, of famous or forgotten, your struggle will always have sense.

There is a payoff in choosing to stay among those who try to improve freedom and enhance human potential: to look back afterwards and be satisfied of our very self and what we have tried to achieve.

Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus; hoc est vivere bis vita posse priore frui

The good man extends the period of his life; it is to live twice, to enjoy with satisfaction the retrospect of our past life.

(Martial)

But this payoff is not the reason, it’s not the ultimate goal. The real goal is being proud now of what we are striving for. We do not have to wait until the final day for being proud. We can be proud in any single moment of our life, when we work on the right purposes.

Fama semper vivat

May his/her fame last forever (Ancient Latin motto)

 

But fame after death is not enough. It is what we look for in our daily life that makes it honorable, and if not memorable, who cares. Self-honor is now!

I really think that Leonardo da Vinci does not care, right now, about being famous. He’s dead. But I think he cared to know, while he was alive, he was working on something. Something important. Something that could change the world.

Why should we not try? Why should we castrate our very inner sense of freedom? Why living in misery if we can bring light in our path and try to improve our world? There is no religion that can tell you to suffer for the sake of suffering, or to stay in a cave when you can fly.

And if the battle is hard, do not fear hardness, do not retrieve in the mass if your path is taking your life towards life. Live like a hero in ordinary life.

Luctor et Emergo

I struggle (I fight) and I emerge

(Ancient Latin motto)

Be proud of what you are looking for. Be proud of yourself while you are doing your research. Be proud of be a freedom-searcher and truth seeker.

This is a very good way to honor life during life and not only in other’s memories.

Dum vivimus, vivamus –

While we live, let us live (Epicurean philosophy)

 

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

human potential, freedom, courage, motivationprsonal energy

Searching deeply inside Latin Culture, we see a culture that inspired apparently opposite phenomenon as the pioneering scientific discoveries of Leonardo da Vinci or Galileo, as well as the Gladiators fights for life in the Coliseum and the unmatched fighting abilities of the Roman Army.

Despite the differences, it is easy to find a deeply rooted acceptance of “challenge” as noble goal, the fearless search for the unknown and the impossible, and “training” for improving personal strength, getting ready for life fights.

Per aspera ad astra!

Through difficulties to the stars!

(Latin Motto)

 

This habit that found a high expression in D’Annunzio (Italian Poet and Warrior) and his motto “Memento Audere SemperRemember to Always Dare).

The capacity to fight can bring to the ability to fight in life for your values and requires an alchemical transformation. This is a great opportunity which is denied to many, by “labels” that consider any combat or martial training something “violent”, forgetting that peace requires people of goodwill and mental energies willing to engage to achieve it. Anything can become violent, even playing a guitar, depending on the spirit that is used by the players. We need therefore to focus on the “spirit” and the “emotional side” of the game of life and how a good training can help us in an alchemical transformation.

Mental Coaching can help to explore how to get rid of negative emotions and discover the secrets that a good Mental State combined with Physical State can generate. These inner attitudes can produce higher compassion, relaxation, deep consciousness, removal from unnecessary aggressiveness, and ability to focus in battle and under stress.

You can accept a challenge only if you are mentally prepared for it. Emotional challenges and physical challenges are so great, that either you decide to make your life a constant laboratory of self-improvement, and prepare for it, or you give up. We are not among those who give up.

 

Qui audet adipiscitur

S/he who dares wins

 

In this world we have the opportunity to do a good journey, and leave a positive mark at the end of your trip. And that’s not all. The ancient Latin culture helps us to understand that we can generate our own journey, we are not forced to “absorb” what the destiny or our culture of origin has prepared for us.

But for every stretch of road, you need some form of energy.

So, we need to focus on the mental energy you need to make this journey, examine and find some secrets that lie within the ancient Latin culture, and combine old Latin wisdom with modern science. A great challenge!

Energies are everywhere. How can you let them grow in you? How can you measure it, how to understand at which level you are in a given moment? We must find ancient secrets and merge them with modern science to find and how to prepare for the battles and to regenerate ourselves.

We must find a way to go ahead despite the difficulties, and to exploit the opportunities which sometimes appear in front of us.

It is a battle without limits and without end. The only purpose is to improve oneself and the world.

Working out combining physical and mental training, forces the brain to reconfigure itself[1]. In Martial Arts and Combat Sports, some mental dynamics and emotional dynamics of the combat rituals produce a unique quest of reconfiguration, working on both the intangible self-image and the real body structure.

The creation-removal of synaptic connections is accelerated and directed towards different configurations, a different “archetype” that can go towards the “warrior”, the “magician”, the “alchemist”, and reduce archetypes of victimization and helplessness.

Becoming more powerful, more resistant and resilient is not only a matter of pride, it is a matter of what you can do with the energies you earned on the ring, on a “tatami”, or in the gym, and bring them in the ring of life, on the tatami of a family difficult moment, in a company during a meeting, and also to face the highest challenges of life: growing a family, making new discoveries, try to improve humanity. The more energy you will have, the more you will able to contribute to others, and to fight against your inner daemons.

Working on this endless dream helps us to rediscover the pride and reason to exist. Start working out today on a balance of what you received from the world and what you would like to leave to this world. It will inspire you for the rest of your life.

[1] Foster PP, (2015), Role of physical and mental training in brain network configuration, in: Frontier in Aging Neuroscience. 2015 Jun 23;7:117

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

soul-box-largeby Dr. Daniele Trevisani www.danieletrevisani.com – Senior Trainer, Coach, Human Performance & Human Factor Researcher.

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Available on Amazon dedicate Online site

Personal energy is what moves us, what nourishes us, especially when faced by the highest life challenges. As such, it is not only necessary, it is vital.
Our goal is to reach the height of our best mental energies and have them whenever we need them, and help others in achieving their Full Potential.

And not only. We feel it is compelling to contribute to something really important, something that can improve the world for real, no matter how little we can do in your lifespan. Do you think that the personal level of energies is “given” and cannot be enhanced by a good coaching and training on mind, soul and body in a “holistic” way? Do you think that Human Awareness can or cannot be increased?
If you hear some “inner feelings” that tell you that these questions are important, let’s go ahead.
When we look at the traditional literature on Personal Growth and Human Potential, we mainly find “fast & easy” cures, approaches that promise happiness, success, money, becoming persuasive, admired, anything, in a miraculous way, as something you can “buy”. Believe me, it’s a fake promise.
The truth about any human achievement is based firmly only on inner advancements in awareness and knowledge, in exercise and training.
And not only “usual” training, but also and especially mental training, new approaches, varied approaches, generating unexpected situations, the ability of “dealing with the unexpected”, to produce open minds and people ready to face any type of threat, increase perception, take advantage and sense opportunities when they arise, and even generate positive conditions for them and others.
Only continuous daily work on the self and the body can generate and sustain real and lasting results. And the real result is not what movies, ads and commercial programs tell you. It is something intangible that has to do with becoming a free soul. A free soul knows and distinguishes real results from fake targets, and this is one of our main goals.

Temet nosce! (Variation: Nosce te ipsum!)
Know thyself, or know yourself

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Copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani www.danieletrevisani.com – Extract from the book The Soul Box

 

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

The holistic approach: taking care of human communication, soul and body

The Greek Aristotle was the first real communication scientist, much earlier than the opening of any Department of Communication or Psychology. In his treaty on “Rhetoric” he taught us that a persuasive message must contain:

  • ethos”, strong values, a call for ideals and sense of purpose,
  • logos”, a nice language structure, a nice organization, be well structured, and
  • pathos”, the ability to fire emotions and generate feelings.

aristotle ethos logos pathos

Modern research says he was right. We tend to judge a speech and the speaker against our own values, as Aristotle said, ethos is the effect of feeling in the message the presence of wisdom (phronesis), virtue (arete), and good will (eunoia);

There is now high consensus in the scientific community on the Power of Communication derived by emotions, with many of empirical findings:

“affectively valenced words show an advantage in processing with respect to neutral words, as revealed in word recognition tasks (e.g., lexical decision, Kousta et al., 2009; Kuperman et al., 2014), in naming tasks (Kuperman et al., 2014) or in memory tasks (e.g., Herbert et al., 2008; Talmi, 2013; Ferré et al., 2014), among others”. [1]

What does this all mean? It means that we have to learn the Power of Communication, the ability to motivate, to inspire, to share deep meanings, instead of swimming in a pool of banality and empty gossip.

Many phrases from the ancient world shade light, and we have to look for them where the Greco-Latin Culture left its seeds. But also in several modern thoughts found in the Anglo culture, at least on its best humanistic side, and for sure not in its materialistic side.

The power of some words and mottos is so great that they are still used today after 2000 and more years.

Mens sana in corpore sano

A healthy mind in a healthy body[2]

But there is more. Human Potential expression requires not only a good and healthy communication environment (ecology of communication), but a healthy mindset that keeps a positive psychology inside our soul, and a strong attention to our bodily machine, its nurture, its well-being, obtained via physical exercise, good nutrition, and a clear mind.
All the three aspects are intrinsically correlated.
In this Holistic view, wellness and performance depend on the degree to which we are able to set these conditions, despite what the environment presents us as “given state”.
To go beyond the “given state” and look for our Full Potential enables the expression of incredible performances and contributions to mankind, and this is our sacred mission.
Dr. Daniele Trevisani holistic model mind body relations

A healthy mind in a healthy body is not only an ancient motto.

It is a way of life that is ordinarily unpracticed from ordinary people, and managers in the companies, where the number of hours spent in the office becomes the benchmark, rather than the real intellectual contribution, the quality of your ideas and energies you generate in your working environment. Your real energetic contribution to your company is completely lost, confused with “hours spent inside”.

You even lose the ability to distinguish the people that are around you (coworkers, consultants, trainers, friends) in terms of the real energies the can provide and bring and you start measuring sick parameters, things as age or career level or the car they have or where they live. Well, let me tell, you, Albert Einstein – in this evaluation system – would have never come out of his desk as clerk, since he was not in the academia and was not a well-paid, well dressed manager with a fancy car. But his ideas changed the world.

So, where do you want to be? On the side of the material or on the side of the immaterial world? Or in a good balance between them, and if so, where?

Are you able to spot people with great ideas? How do you measure them?

Latins believed that since we are born we are fully involved in a journey. We run, whether we like it or not. We stop, whether we like or not the stopping areas and landscapes we encounter. And in this world we need to feed our soul and our body with positive energies.

Spa as modern structures where originated by the Romans and made free for all the “citizens” in Rome. A Spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but our culture is so spiritually poor that – despite the Roman habit of having them free and used for meeting, socialization and conversation places – now it has become an elite costly service and not a public service. This is just one of the thousands of “ways of living” that we can and must recuperate.

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

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[1] Pilar Ferré, David Ventura, Montserrat Comesañ, and Isabel Fraga (2015), The role of emotionality in the acquisition of new concrete and abstract words. Frontiers in Psychology, 2015 Jul 2;10(7).

[2] This Latin phrase – as many more that we will not examine – has been adopted widely, showing how deeply Latin Culture pervaded European and US culture. The following list shows some examples:

(list source http://www.thefullwiki.org/Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano) :

  • The phrase was a favorite of American President Harry S. Truman.
  • Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia uses the phrase as its motto.
  • Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia uses the phrase as its motto.
  • S.C. Anderlecht uses the phrase as its motto.
  • Teacher’s College of Columbia University has this phrase engraved on its Horace Mann hall, on 120th street in New York City.
  • Motto of the Turners Organization American Turners and their local organizations like the Los Angeles Turners. The Turners promoted gymnastics and introduced PE to schools in America
  • ASICS, company name derived from the phrase.
  • Carlton Football Club uses the phrase as its motto.
  • Army Physical Training Corps (APTC) uses the phrase as its motto.
  • Asociacion Atletica Argentinos Juniors, uses the phrase as its motto.
  • The Israeli Institute of Technology athletics teams use the phrase as their motto.
  • It is the motto of Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Hospital, Mumbai
  • PERI (Physical Education & Recreation Instructors), which is part of the Canadian Military use this as their motto
  • Widener University and the State University at of New York at Buffalo use the phrase as their motto.
  • The phrase appears in stone on the western facade of the HPER (School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
  • It is the motto of Dhaka Physical Education College in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • It is the motto of Sparta High School in Sparta, New Jersey.
  • It is the motto of Roger Bacon High School, St. Bernard, Ohio
  • John Locke (1632-1704) uses the phrase in his book ‘Some thoughts concerning education’.
  • Is the motto for Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical Culture, Australia.
  • Mens Sana Basket, a prominent Italian basketball club.
  • Motto of Beale Gaelic Football Club from County Kerry.
  • Used in the film Agantuk by Satyajit Ray.
  • Is the motto of Bridgewater Junior Senior High School in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.