Category

Human Factor

Category

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.

International Space Station - section, modeldr. Daniele Trevisani at ESA Astronauts Training Center

La mia curiosità per le possibilità umane e il Potenziale Umano ha trovato forse la sua sfida più alta, progettare metodi sperimentali e innovativi per la Formazione degli Astronauti, con implicazioni per lo sviluppo di nuove possibilità per chi opera in ambienti estremi e sfidanti, per poi testarli.

Dopo avere studiato e applicato modelli di Formazione Olistica per Forze Speciali, per Campioni Mondiali di Sport di Combattimento, Comandandi di Navi, team sportivi, atleti, leader e  manager che dirigono operazioni difficili in tempi difficili, abbiamo il know how per farlo.

Ora questa è la nuova sfida, progettuale ancora prima che materiale. Praticare un coaching olistico eppure concreto, con metodi oltre l’ordinario.

Sono stato accompagnato dentro al modulo simulatore, il modulo reale della Stazione Spaziale Internazionale, quello che si vede qui fotografato è solo un modello. Posso garantire che il modulo reale è veramente piccolissimo, e che le doti per passarvi anche solo alcune ore devono essere enormi, con formazione speciale sia fisica che mentale.

Essere accompagnato in via eccezionale in una zona riservatissima, dallo Head of Astronauts Training dell’ESA dentro a questo modulo (e garantisco che è veramente un modulo più piccolo di quanto sembra) poi vedere le piscine profonde dove si allenano gli astronauti, è stata un’emozione fortissima.

Ma non mi ha sovrastato. Perchè sapere di avere le conoscenze sulla Comunicazione Interculturale, la Comunicazione Olistica, le Human Performance, il Crisis Thinking, la Psicologia della Leadership per Forze Speciali, e altre che permettono di dare un contributo, e trovarne la conferma, è stata un’emozione ancora più forte.

Sapere di avere dei colleghi come quelli che formano il team della Scuola di Coaching STEP è tra l’altro un grande punto di forza perchè non parliamo più delle conoscenze di un singolo ma di una “Intelligenza Collettiva” che sta emergendo dal continuo scambio di conoscenze ed esperienze tra di noi. Stiamo facendo, nella Scuola di Coaching STEP, e con i nostri migliori partecipanti, una evoluzione costante.

Forse dovremmo chiamarla “Scuola del Nord-Est” (per la sede fisica che usiamo) – un gruppo di persone, qualcosa dove sta nascendo un approccio che va oltre ogni singola edizione e ci sta portando a toccare i limiti estremi delle possibilità umane.

Ci impegneremo al massimo per dare il nostro contributo, con la massima serietà come sempre, e guardando oltre l’esistente come sempre, questo è garantito.

dott. Daniele Trevisani www.danieletrevisani.com

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

Non esiste una sola forma di intelligenza    

miniatura-copertina-Self-PowerCopyright articolo estratto dal volume Self – power. Psicologia della motivazione e della performance, di Daniele Trevisani. Franco Angeli editore, Milano.

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L’intelligenza emotiva ci parla della capacità di “sentire” le emozioni altrui.

Non è da tutti avvicinarci emotivamente agli altri, e nemmeno capire i propri stati emotivi, nonostante ci vivano dentro.

È curioso come tutti chiedano agli altri di “capirli” mentre tutti si sforzano di rimanere chiusi nel proprio mondo e non farvi entrare nessuno.

 

Tutti vorrebbero un amico, ma nessuno prova ad esserlo.

Jim Morrison

 

Le emozioni sono da tempo al centro delle performance personali, manageriali e sportive.

Gli studi di Le Doux[1] evidenziano che gli stimoli esterni attivano le emozioni attraverso vari canali, ma soprattutto che le emozioni trovano vie per esprimersi anche se non vogliamo, al di la della nostra parte razionale.

Esistono scorciatoie primordiali attraverso cui gli stimoli bypassano la neocorteccia (la parte più culturale del cervello) e arrivano direttamente al “cervello rettile” e alla zona limbica, la parte del cervello più antica.

Cosa significa questo? Che gli stimoli legati allo svolgere performance possono avere valutazioni duplici e arrecare dissonanza.

Ad esempio possono essere valutati positivamente a livello razionale, intellettuale, analitico, ma trasmettere inconsapevolmente paura e produrre ansia attivando la parte più remota e antica del cervello.

Il volo d’aereo è un esempio di stimolo a duplice valenza: le statistiche dicono che è il mezzo di trasporto più sicuro, la ragione vorrebbe credere che sia così, ma la nostra parte animale ha paura di cadere.

Altre situazioni simili sono legate alle performance manageriali.

Parlare in pubblico o esporre un progetto davanti ad una vasta platea, razionalmente, non dovrebbe porre ansia, ma attiva in realtà gli stessi meccanismi di chi vedeva davanti a sé nell’antichità un’orda di nemici o predatori pronti a sbranarci: in questi casi si mettono in moto i meccanismi di attacco-fuga, il cuore sale nei battiti, la digestione si ferma, il corpo si fa pronto per combattere. Possono insorgere attacchi di panico che bloccano completamente, o stati di ansia che danneggiano la performance.

Sul fronte positivo, invece, attiviamo emozioni positive spesso verso mète o attività di cui non capiamo bene il senso, e tuttavia queste ci provocano piacere, un piacere non razionale e soprattutto viscerale. Luoghi amati, persone, paesaggi, stimoli, i quali ci “accendono” senza che capiamo bene perché.

Una buona performance richiede quindi nuove abilità psicologiche nel riconoscere le dinamiche emotive, attivarle, e gestirle, anche e soprattutto nei leader che devono ottenere e sviluppare risultati attraverso le persone.

Alcuni motivi per farlo sono collegati al concetto di intelligenze multiple (Gardner). Un progetto di active training attiva le intelligenze multiple.

Nel 1983, Howard Gardner in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences inserisce in letteratura il concetto delle intelligenze plurime o multiple, che includono – tra le altre – questioni fondamentali, come l’intelligenza interpersonale (capacità di relazionarsi, capire gli altri), e l’intelligenza intrapersonale (capacità di capire se stessi, entrare in contatto con i propri desideri, sentimenti, paure, stati d’animo).

Le intelligenze attivabili in ciascuno di noi secondo Gardner sono:

 

  • intelligenza logico-matematica: capacità di astrazione, pensiero logico, ragionamento, uso dei numeri, pensiero critico;
  • intelligenza linguistica: capacità nell’uso della parola e del linguaggio, leggere, scrivere, raccontare;
  • intelligenza visivospaziale: capacità di valutazione degli spazi e visualizzazione mentale;
  • intelligenza musicale e armonica: sensibilità per il suono, ritmo, toni e musica, per gli equilibri e le armonie;
  • intelligenza corporea-cinestesica: capacità di controllo del movimento, del corpo, della gestione di oggetti, dell’azione fisica;
  • intelligenza inter-personale: sensibilità agli stati d’animo, alle relazioni, alle interazioni umane:
  • intelligenza intra-personale: introspezione e auto-riflessione; comprensione dei propri punti di forza, debolezza, unicità, le proprie emozioni e sensazioni;
  • intelligenza naturalistica: interazione con l’ambiente, classificazione di oggetti e cose, ricettività ecologica;
  • intelligenza esistenziale: dimensione religiosa, spirituale, capacità di inserire se stessi e gli eventi in una cornice filosofica[2].

 

Arriviamo poi al concetto delle Intelligenze Fluide. La Fluid Intelligence[3] comprende il ragionare e risolvere nuovi problemi indipendentemente dalla conoscenza prima acquisita. I ricercatori studiano come i circuiti neurali si abituino – ma solo con allenamento e stimoli giusti – ad affrontare problemi nuovi, in una vita che cambia costantemente e sempre più in fretta.

La capacità di adottare una filosofia di vita migliore richiede il saper abbracciare non solo una dimensione, ma quante più possibile.

Un progetto di active learning consente di “chiamare all’opera” tutte le intelligenze di cui siamo dotati, mentre si apprende una specifica materia.

Attiva inoltre l’intelligenza emotiva, mentre l’apprendimento passivo la soffoca.

L’intelligenza emotiva è un concetto che entra con sempre maggior forza nella didattica. Sviluppato dagli studi di Leuner (1966), Greenspan (1989), Salovey e Mayer (1990), e popolarizzato da Goleman (1995), che sinceramente ne ha tratto tutti i benefici senza averne tutti i meriti.

Durante un progetto di apprendimento lo studente può sperimentare invidia, rivalità, gelosia, stress, tristezza, timidezza, ma anche gioia, apertura, responsabilità, piacere di un risultato, senso di appartenenza, motivazione.

Se riusciamo ad avvicinare lentamente lo studente allo sfondo emotivo positivo, e spostarlo dal fronte negativo dello stress e repulsione verso il sistema scolastico e lo studio, avremo compiuto un’operazione straordinaria.

Se non ci riusciamo, stiamo dando un contributo all’Alexitimia (Alessitimia, o Alexithymia) termine coniato da Peter Sifneos nel 1973 per descrivere lo stato di incapacità nel (1) comprendere, (2) elaborare e (3) descrivere, i propri stati emotivi.

Ogni tipo di performance ha componenti emotive e va analizzata caso per caso. Ad esempio – nel del parlare in pubblico – occorre apprendere a ricordare e segnalare alla parte antica del cervello che non siamo di fronte a nemici con la clava, e che dobbiamo riuscire ad attivare una “relazione d’aiuto” verso l’audience, attivare emozioni positive in questo tipo di attività. Dobbiamo saper attivare il piacere di condividere, di far capire alla platea un messaggio, trasmettere o donare quello che riteniamo utile e importante.

Un leader deve saper attivare le emozioni ancestrali collegate al lottare per o al lottare contro, sia essa una causa nobile, o invece un’ingiustizia.

Questi meccanismi, nonostante la maggiore conoscenza dei funzionamenti sottostanti, non sono per nulla facili e richiedono un allenamento specifico.

Molti blocchi inerenti le performance sono soprattutto blocchi psicologici.

Nuove competenze di “intelligenza emotiva” e “intelligenze fluide”, riguardano quindi la gestione delle emozioni che accompagnano, precedono e seguono le performance, per saper modificare i nostri meccanismi emotivi abituali, dominandoli e facendoli nostri alleati.

Queste abilità devono essere apprese per confrontarsi con i tratti della nostra psicologia individuale che possono bloccarci, l’ansia insita nella propria personalità (definita “ansia di tratto”), l’ansia situazionale generata da un evento specifico (“ansia di stato”), così come l’imparare ad assaporare pienamente le emozioni positive che una performance può offrire.

[1] LeDoux, J. (2003), Il cervello emotivo (alle origini delle emozioni), Baldini & Castoldi, Milano.

[2] Gardner, Howard (1983), Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, ISBN 0133306143

[3] Susanne M. Jaeggi, Martin Buschkuehl, John Jonides, and Walter J. Perrig (2008), Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory, Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of the USA, vol. 105 no. 19

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miniatura-copertina-Self-PowerCopyright articolo estratto dal volume Self – power. Psicologia della motivazione e della performance, di Daniele Trevisani. Franco Angeli editore, Milano.

© 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

1329060886_samuraitraining_2554088586

Neuroscience research tells us that our brain is like a muscle. The parts that are more often used do enlarge, get fitter, and become more agile and fast. The parts that are underused become smaller, slower, as if they were mummified.

The stimuli that change our brain can be those that come from any day, any hour of the day, any moment in life. Scientific studies that show how plastic the brain is, responding quickly and changing its structure in response to both real-life stimuli and artificial stimuli (magnetic stimulation)[1].

So what should we do? Human brain has a Left Prefrontal Cortex that has the ability to perceive positive things in our world and in what surrounds us (positive perception) and a Right Prefrontal Cortex that is very good at detecting what is wrong, negative, and the ability of feeling pessimistic emotions. The continuous flow of anxiogenic news, movies, messages, the continuous subliminal message to “become rich and famous or you are a loser” are lies that pump your right cortex and kill you. We must stay away from these messages, as if they were toxic, radioactive, and poisonous.

Even talking about negative topics and bad news during a dinner can pump your “negative” side of the brain while a dinner or eating should be a pleasure and a restful pause.

But besides specific moments, your whole life is constellated by messages, ads, movies, and people that are lying to you.

The very fact of telling you that money and status will decide whether you made it or not, is a lie that trains your right prefrontal cortex every minute of every day. You become extremely good at feeling what you have not yet done.

You start to believe that people that are on tv or became famous or very rich “have made it” without realizing that their inner experience of life can be miserable, most of them are severely depressed and unhappy people.

We could make a huge list of rich and famous people (artists, movie stars, entrepreneurs) who killed themselves or died from self-intoxication from drugs and alcohol, at the peak of their career and money possession.

Michael Jackson in music, Marilyn Monroe among actresses, the cyclist champion Marco Pantani, the member of the richest Italian family Edoardo Agnelli (Fiat) who, despite the richness and enormity of opportunities, suffered from depression and jumped from a highway. Should we judge these unlucky people “arrived”? “Arrived” where? Who has the arrogance decide for you and to tell you what makes you “arrived”?

The more you think about bad news and consider the wrong part of existence, the more you train to suffer.

You also become insensitive towards the little good things that you did or happened in your day, even the most subtle positive things. You need more and more results to feel happy, more and more money to feel rich, and at the end you always you feel that “something is still missing to be really happy”

This system can make you anxious and feel always inadequate, always out-of-place in your world, always poor. A system designed to make you feel a loser is sick, is a lie.

If you look at the lives of the richest people in terms of money, so many of them are so depressed and so many of them do suicide and are into drugs, that you should wonder if they really “made it”. Made it to get insane and unhealthy and miserable? Yes, they made it. But when it is the turn to see if they made it in being good people, good fathers or mothers, people with a sense of love for life, a strong spiritual life, an inner and self-sustaining force inside, they “didn’t make it” at all. They are miserable inside.

When you lose sight of the miracles that life provides to a living soul, even the mere fact of being able to “think” should surprise you, and make us incredibly happy. The very fact of waking up, being alive, breathe once again, is a miracle.

Don’t spit on miracles. Live them.

[1] Zhang ZC1, Luan F2, Xie CY3, Geng DD1, Wang YY4, Ma J5. Low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation is beneficial for enhancing synaptic plasticity in the aging brain. Neural Regen Res. 2015 Jun;10(6):916-24.

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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

 

© by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com. From the book “The Soul Box

intuition, sensing, common senseanalysis skillshuman sensing

Intuition and instinct are a part of our ancient brain skills. Sensing is something that culture tries to hide and wipe out from people, and repressive society hopes you lose quickly, to reduce your power, to let you forget your “animal past” that recognizes threats immediately, to force you to look at tv instead that living as an “animal present”. Your instinct skills, your sensing, are the most powerful human factor resource you really have.

And you don’t need any certificate to get them. They were there with your DNA, they are probably just covered with cultural dust. A dust that a warrior learns to recognize, a dust that a free soul learns to remove.

We wish to explore what science brings us to open the dam of this river, but also to dig inside the secrets of the Sensing Skills and Positive Thinking that pervaded ancient wisdom, a wisdom that has no written code but must be uncovered from proverbs, mottos, rather than in easy to find official literature.

You don’t need to “analyze” an incredible amount of statistical data to understand if you like someone. You just “sense it”. You don’t need to use complex questionnaires to measure the climate and communication quality in a group. Just look at their faces and the way they walk and you will have a very good “sensing” of what is going on.

Many modern companies use “psychological assessment” to evaluate psychological fitness and readiness by means of questionnaires, instead of shadowing them while they are in real working conditions. Sensing, as a skill, is lost. We must recuperate it.

A real holistic approach needs to merge modern scientific findings with ancient Greco-Latin thoughts, Modern “Positive Psychology” findings often point to the same “stars and gods” the Greco-Romans looked at.

Lots of modern researchers look for new ways of self-expression, often forgetting that some golden rules have already been set.

So let’s start with one of the first pearls of wisdom.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

I’ll either find a way or make one

The phrase has been ascribed to the Carthaginian General Hannibal; in 218 B.C. When his generals told him it was impossible to cross the Alps by elephant, to fight the Roman Army, this was his response.

This motto seems to anticipate of 2000 years the modern approach to Positive Psychology and many fields such as NLP (a pseudo-science) and several other approaches that sell “magic” and tell you they have invented the wheel. The balance of scientific evidence reveals NLP to be a largely discredited pseudoscience. Scientific reviews show it contains numerous factual errors[1], and fails to produce the results asserted by proponents[2].

If we really want to make achievements in personal development, we should stay away from sects and look in a holistic manner to seeds that the ancients wisdom left, together with modern results of communication science and neuroscience.

[1] von Bergen, C. W.; Gary, Barlow Soper; Rosenthal, T.; Wilkinson, Lamar V. (1997). “Selected alternative training techniques in HRD”. Human Resource Development Quarterly 8 (4): 281–294.

Druckman, Daniel (1 November 2004). “Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance”. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34 (11): 2234–2260.

[2] Witkowski, Tomasz (1 January 2010). “Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?”. Polish Psychological Bulletin 41 (2).

Sharpley, Christopher F. (1 January 1987). “Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory?”. Journal of Counseling Psychology 34 (1): 103–107

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© by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com. From the forthcoming book “The Soul Box

Leadership in practice71

© 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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The reality between what you see inside companies is very different from what has been tought to you. Nice ties and dirty mindis, expensive clothes dressing miserable souls, are the average truth you find inside most leaders in most organizations.

We too often seen companies leaded by arrogant people, without values, without ideals, idiots who would sell their mother just to get ahead in the hierarchy, to escalate the pyramid of the company or society. Put in front of them a choice between a mildly lower compensation, and a compensation increase of 20% in the next term, requiring a solution that will endanger people of a remote country, or within their country, the second generation after them, and you will see. Sometimes they even do things that might endanger their first generation’s future in 20 years, even their sons, but they do not care.

The 7 Generations principle seems not to apply to them. The “Great Law” of the Iroquois states that it is appropriate to think seven generations ahead (about 140 years into the future) and decide whether the decisions we make today would benefit our children seven generations into the future.

Ancient wisdom seems lost in face of a trimester data, a quarterly revenue, or a dental care insurance, or the possibility of having a larger pool in the penthouse.

These are not our reference points. Really, they are not. They are not “a career”, but an illness.

Isn’t there anything else or different? Well. There is!

A very ancient world, a world that seems lost, holds this secret. The Greek-Latin World is a “time window” in mankind history, a space that gave birth to places like the Library of Alexandria, where the best thinkers met and lived their life as a community of enlightened individuals,

Their passion: to shared ideas and advanced knowledge both in science and self-consciousness.

The flow of personal energy and human research is a way of life and not something you can “buy and get done” in a weekend. The search of soul and advancement, the “sacred fire” of human research, are still breathing. All we need to do is to take the spirit of Alexandria, Athens, Sparta, and Rome, and bring it alive, breathe with it and feed our souls in our very own lives.

A spirit that brought to mankind concepts of freedom. A spirit that had the noble purpose of having people to join and share, rather than only fight and battle against each other.

Communitate valemus

(Latin for “Together we are Strong”)

What could the human race achieve if it embraced the motto “Together we are Strong”?

The search for the soul and the best of human energies has no place and no time. There is not a fixed place in history or in a single geographical point. This spirit is an entity, an “Egregore”, a positive Egregore, an energetic entity of human power. It appears and disappears from time to time as a precious flower. It is a flower that we want to let grow in our inner garden, now, and forever. A leader is one who seeks constantly to implant “positive egregores” within his/her group or community.

Let this way of being be a part of our lives.

Egregore[1] (also egregor) is an occult concept representing a “collective state of mind” or “collective consciousness”, an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, thoughts of a group of people. In this perspective, I think it applies perfectly to the concept of “Group Thinking”, “Group Atmospherics”, “Group Moods”, “Group Feelings” that are the Center of Gravity of any Group Performance.

Positive Egregore do exist (e.g. the search for Human Potential) and we must feed them against negative Egregore (e.g. cultural arrogance, religious movements that oppress free thinking, “memes” that propagate wrong “missions” and sick communication styles in organizations).

A real leader is one who is able to bring “positive egregores” inside his team, passion, real values, real help, real sense of mission, real closeness, and eats the same shit that the others eat or the same cakes the others eat, feeling that he/she is not above the group but in the group. But these leaders are by far less numerous than those who bring inside their team thinking styles pervaded by “burocracy for burocracy”, closure to different experiences, narrow-mindedness, lack of time-perspective, and wrap up all this with a packaging made of “distance” and fake superiority.

Positive search is a way of thinking and being. The same way of being that gave birth to concepts as “Democracy” in Greece, the creativity of Leonardo da Vinci in Italy, the Genius of Archimedes in Sicily, and tangible buildings that are still unmatched as the Pyramids in Egypt.

What enabled this level of human advancement? And how far could we go if we could reach again that level of sensibility, both as a species, but also and especially in our very own personal lives? We can start here, now, and let this river flow forever in our lives.

[1] The first author to adapt “Egregore” in a modern language seems to be the French poet Victor Hugo, in La Légende des Siècles (“The Legend of the Ages”), First Series, 1859. The word is the normal form that the Greek word ἑγρήγορος (Watcher) would take in French. This was the term used in the Book of Enoch for great angel-like spirits. Source: Wikipedia online

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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

Fear and other demons

Credit NASA

(Interview to Luca Parmitano). One of the questions I am often asked is: “Are you astronauts ever afraid?” It is a question that always surprises me and I find it difficult to answer the question in just a few words.

The temptation to answer simply “no” is great, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief and go on knowing that there are out of the ordinary men and women in the world who work without fear: astronauts. But super humans do not exist – and it is better this way.

My humble opinion is that only fools say they are never afraid – and they are lying when they say it. Fear is a series of sensations, a primordial mechanism that has developed over millennia of evolution to preserve our lives. It would be a waste not to use such a tool. But like any tool, it can be used well or badly: a scalpel, in the expert hands of a surgeon, can save a life while the same scalpel can be lethal when used without skill and knowledge.

Similarly, fear has a physiological effect that can be used to respond better in critical situations. Our heart rate increases, bringing more blood flow to the muscles, making them ready to react. The adrenaline released makes us stronger and less sensitive to pain and fatigue. Fear is a form of stress that can be channelled to bring our performance to its peak, a form of positive stress called ‘eustress’. The important thing is not to enter distress or panic, which immobilizes people and makes us unable to respond in critical situations.

Credit Aeronautica Militare

The best way to learn how to manage fear is preparation, training and study. In the end, it is what we do not know that scares us. On an orbital or suborbital flight the best way to eliminate fear is to know your aircraft and procedures the best you can. Gaining experience is the indispensable and irreplaceable way to handle situations for which we are not trained. It is impossible, and not always useful, to anticipate all scenarios.

A military or civilian pilot knows that flying is risky. The probability of something serious happening is very low, but the consequences can be disastrous. The pilots’ task and the teams working behind them is to minimize this risk. The same applies to any other working environment, including in aerospace. If I think back to some of the riskiest moments in my life, I realise that fear is a feeling that lies quietly without disturbing me: during my launch, my concentration was focused on the procedures and tools. During my spacewalks, my attention was absorbed by the experience itself. In both cases everything was enhanced by the trust I have in science and the engineers that build the machines we use and the teams of men and women who, from afar, support us to form a formidable ‘tetragon team’.

Luca familyOther questions I am asked that require complex answers concern my family. More importantly to being an astronaut and an officer in the air force, I am a son, a husband and a father. Somewhere on Earth flowing below us at 28 000km/h, there is a mother whose heart throbbed with each take-off and landing and a father with stoic strength whose smile hides his concern. My wife did not choose my job but deals with the daily issues of life and always appears with a serene face with two girls who still cannot understand why their daddy does not come home every night like their friends’ dads. I am aware of that. Thinking of my fellow pilots in the air force, everyday heroes running missions all over the world, puts myself in perspective and I realise how privileged I am. Compared to their sacrifice, my efforts are insignificant but necessary. It is my tribute to those pilots, working away from home and family, carry out their duty, in foreign countries under many horrors and other demons, without asking for anything in return, not even gratitude from their country.

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Note of the blogger. Very few people know that the Astronaut Luca Parmitano faced death during a Space-Walk (Extra vehicular activity) in which water filled his helmet at the point of not being able to breathe anymore. He nearly drowned in space!

Her are some videos that show what happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXunHkZHu1o&feature=youtu.be

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – 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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It’s better to light a lamp, than to curse the darkness .
Lao Tzu

Every day you get up. And every day you fight a battle.

Sometimes you even realize that you’re fighting, sometimes you are anesthetized and do not feel it, but the fight continues, always. Deep forces face each other within us. In the depths of our hearts, two entities, two dragons, forces or titans … no matter how you want to call, are struggling for the victory. They are the Energies and the Fears.

  • The first warrior is our Personal Energy, physical and mental, our determination, ability, enthusiasm, physical power and mental toughness. This side of life also comprises good, generative, positive thoughts and ideas. It is the metaphor of the Light, the Good, and Life.
  • The other side is the land of Fears, darkness, pain, anxiety, oppressive ideologies, and the formidable challenges that life poses us. This side comprises difficulties, negative ideas, wrong beliefs that try to grab you and push you down, or make you turn back, and slow our attempt to advance. As illusory or real these forces might be, they erode our instinct towards self-expression in life and inhibit our hunger for freedom.

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In fairy tales and myths, this struggle is represented as the metaphor of the Hero’s Journey, where life becomes a series of tests that the Hero must take to assert himself in the world.

And we, tiny creatures among millions of stars in the universe, immersed in this fight, what can we do? Well, let me say: a lot! We could first install a mental radar that goes in search of the negative ideas that circulate in our minds. Negative beliefs, once exposed, identified become enemies. And you can finally fight.

Intelligence is useful for survival if we can extinguish a bad idea before the bad idea extinguishes us

Karl Popper

Another fundamental operation is to open our minds towards the entrance of good, positive ideas, new visions, new learning, and let in fresh water from a thousand brooks. It can be a journey, a book, an enlightened person to listen. Any source of learning moves our energy-balance towards the side of light and weakens the darkness.

The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to the previous dimension.

Albert Einstein

Each person accepts or not the challenges that life poses, based on the “internal state” the he/she is living, the state of physical and mental power and energy, and this is related to how our “inner balance”, works, and the accuracy of our mental radar.

Our mind weighs perceived energies and perceived fears, then decides.

Who is able to do mental cleansing and re-charge his/her energy, becomes powerful beyond measure, up to the point of actively seeking challenging projects. An energetic person will seek challenges in which to apply the energies that feels, the resources that he/she possesses.

This applies to athletes, martial artists, fighters in life, even to a couple who decides to give birth to children in this rotten world, knowing that eventually the light will prevail or at least that this possibility exists.

The challenges always teach.

Those that we accept but also those who do not accept.

Fears are growing in us. Some are motivated and useful to save our lives. Driving without paying attention to the road needs to become something that we fear, and it must be something that generates awareness of the danger. This is not a pathological fear, but fear to drive – the pure fear of driving, is a debilitating fear, something to get rid of.

 

When you are ready to die you will be ready to live.

Sitting Bull (1831 – 1890), tribal chief of the Hunkpapa Sioux (Lakota).

Those who live within completely unmotivated fears, carry exhausting rocks in their backpack. Misconceptions, wrong fears, become unnecessary weight to be disposed of as soon as possible. The fear to try a different career, fear of failure in a project, the fear of public speaking, fear of trying new roads.

As in a fairy tale, epic confrontation between these two forces never ends, within us and outside us.

We must look for some positive challenges. It becomes a positive challenge to remove the suffering to every child on the planet.

It becomes a challenge to remove from ourselves the fears of which we can do without, and learn to live fully.

Living fully means to decide what deserves to be a part of our lives and what does not. Do not let it decide to the mass, to others, to a TV program, or ignorance.

It is necessary to do this cleaning every day. It ‘a daily exercise of mental autonomy, freedom at the liquid state. A fighter does not remain standing waiting to be struck without reacting, he/she will use every technique, every energy, every tactic, to win the match. This is also true in life.

So we will fight every day this struggle for freedom.

And we are proud of this.

 

Destiny is not written, it is what we create.

(John Connor) from the movie Terminator Salvation

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – 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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