idealawg

Want to create everyday magic: Use these wands (even if you don't believe in magic)

Although I briefly researched witchcraft when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I still know little about magic. Therefore, leafing through "POP MAGIC!" by Grant Morrison leaves me confused. The reading was recommended to me by a colleague who must have a frame of reference I lack.

Nevertheless, a couple of pages of this odd (in my mind) tract on being a magician caught my eye. I even tried what was suggested. Although I created no magic, the results increased my mindfulness and shifted my perspective in a way that was fun, even delightful! These techniques suggested by Morrison could have been found in some books by meditation or creativity gurus.

Morrison wrote:

As a first exercise in magical consciousness spend five minutes looking at everything around you
as if ALL OF IT was trying to tell you something very important. How did that light bulb come to
be here exactly? Why does the murder victim in the newspaper have the same unusual surname
as your father-in-law? Why did the phone ring, just at that moment and what were you thinking
when it did?

What's that water stain on the wall of the building opposite? How does it make you feel? Five minutes of focus during which everything is significant, everything is luminous and heavy with meaning, like the objects seen in dreams.

And . . .

Deepak Chopra's new book on superheroes: An example of moral relativism?

If I finish The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes: Harnessing Our Power to Change the World, I may add to this post. The book, which I recently checked out from the library, has not drawn me in so far. You? Read it? If so, what did you think?

I just read a review of the book that I found so amusing that I will pass it on to you. From "Every Man and Woman Is a Star: Grant Morrison & Deepak Chopra on Superhero Consciousness" (Tor.com):

...The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroesdisplays a limited understanding of superhero comics at best. That’s not surprising, given that said understanding seems to come largely from Chopra telling his son, Gotham, how he thinks spiritually enlightened beings should behave, and Gotham telling him there’s a character who’s sort of like that. Conseqeuently, he says things like “For every challenge, the superhero’s solution is to go inward,” which makes you wonder what he thinks all the fight scenes are there for.

In Chopra’s formulation, superheroes “have no personal stake in this war [against evil],” and strive “to reach unity consciousness” (roughly equivalent to Buddhist enlightenment) “not intellectually, but experientially.” I’ll tell you: The first two comic book characters who come immediately to mind based on those criteria are Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias from Watchmen— among the best examples of everything that can go wrong pursuing the superheroic dream. That’s also the case with

"Learning Styles: What Difference Do the Differences Make?"-Is there really such a phenomenon as learning styles?

I've long been critical of the hype over learning styles; link to my past posts below. Here's an article by law professor Aida Marie Alaka on the topic, which includes both criticism and a list of benefits of considering styles. Her article is summarized here at the Web site for Institute for Law Teaching and Learning (look for the July, 2011, Article of the Month).

Abstract of Professor Alaka's article:

As the legal academy contemplates education reform, many scholars are looking to education theory and best practices to guide curriculum and course design. This has resulted in the publication of several law journal articles discussing different aspects of learning theory, including learning styles. Broadly speaking, “learning styles” have been defined as “those cognitive, affective, and psychological behaviors that indicate how learners interact with and respond to the learning environment and how they perceive, process, store, and recall what they are attempting to learn.”

Most of law journal articles on learning styles presume the validity of the concept. The concept of learning styles is, and always has been, controversial, however. Many education psychologists and others involved in researching educational theories are highly critical of the notion that students possess fixed learning styles, which teachers must address so that the students can learn. In the last few years, two comprehensive literature reviews have been conducted to assess the theoretical and research bases underlying the spectrum of learning style theories. These two are just the most recent. And yet, many in legal education think of the existence of learning styles as being settled fact. They also think of them rather narrowly – primarily as a question of whether one has a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic style – although many different learning style theories exist.

In “Learning Styles: What Difference do the Differences Make?” I introduce the controversy

Lawyers, looking for a good career assessment? You may want to read this article

When I was still doing career consulting for lawyers, I chose The Highlands Ability Battery (THAB) as my tool of preference to use with clients. I went through the Highlands training and certification process and, over a number of years, used the assessment with many clients. Even though I no longer do this kind of work, I continue to recommend the Battery to others as the best tool around. When you learn your profile, you can make decisions based on your innate aptitudes, a key to job (and life) satisfaction.

Recently Highlands has come out with a version that is tailored to lawyers. You can read more about it here in the Summer edition of their newsletter. The article is titled "The Highlands Ability Battery and the Lawyers' Report." The article is written by Lazar Emanual, one of the owners of the company; both owners are lawyers.

"The mindful lawyer meditation and the practice of law"

Excerpt:

Practitioners are increasingly using meditation to enhance their lives, including their practice of the law. Since it also combats stress and depression, it is worth considering.

Meditation is a practice most often associated with religious or spiritual traditions. Yet over the past 30 years it has moved from its religious context and steadily cemented itself in the secular mainstream.
Meditation is used in the treatment of chronic pain, stress and depression and is an effective counter to negative mind-states and poor impulse control. Beyond its more health-related applications, it has been used for other purposes, including in professional settings, to improve concentration, decision-making skills, empathy, communication, focus and self-confidence.

I first started meditating about the time I began law school as a means of dealing with the various stressors and challenges I was finding at university and in my personal life. I found it greatly assisted me and started practising regularly.

Although I had found meditation independently, in the past decade there has been a movement by the legal profession to embrace it. This has occurred principally in response to the increasingly hostile and antagonistic work environment and the worryingly high rates of substance abuse, mental illness and depression in the legal profession.

In the US in 2002, Harvard University hosted a symposium on the topic. From the debate that this

Wish I had video of a Marshmallow Test for all my friends and colleagues

That wish was expressed by Katie Baker at Grantland as she described her pick for the YouTube Hall of Fame. I agree! Wouldn't it be fun to see everyone you know taking the Marshmallow Test? It might even be telling. Don't know what the Marshmallow Test is? Click here.

Click to watch the YouTube Baker chose. About it she wrote:

Two years ago Jonah Lehrer wrote one of my favorite New Yorker pieces, about a psychological study conducted at Stanford in the '60s that examined children’s' willingness and ability to delay gratification. Overseen by Walter Mischel, the project evolved into a 40-year longitudinal study of its participants and gave rise to some compelling, if controversial, theories of human behavior. More importantly, it yielded a delightful YouTube genre: the Marshmallow Test.

...

I could watch the resulting footage on an endless loop for weeks. I wish I had a video dossier containing a Marshmallow Test for everyone I've ever met. It's a miniparade of the human condition: the children squirm, sniff, strain and sigh, and many can't help but succumb. Each kid is a burgeoning Someone You Know — your stoner uncle, your goody-two-shoes ex-girlfriend, your yo-yo-dieting roommate, your

Work Engagement, Job Satisfaction, and Productivity—They’re a Virtuous Cycle

Press release (Association for Psychological Science):

Engaged workers—those who approach their work with energy, dedication, and focus—are more open to new information, more productive, and more willing to go the extra mile. Moreover, engaged workers take the initiative to change their work environments in order to stay engaged.

What do we know about the inner workings of work engagement, and how can employers enhance it to improve job performance? In a new article to be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science , a journal of the Association for Psychological Science,  Arnold B. Bakker creates a model of work engagement based on the best current research.

Work engagement depends on two kinds of resources, says Bakker, a psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Job resources include social support, feedback, and opportunities for autonomy, variety, and growth. Such resources are good for the worker—they satisfy basic human needs—and good for the workplace, because when job resources are rich, work gets done more quickly and with better results. The process, moreover, is cyclical. Working better is more rewarding for the worker, which in turn increases her engagement and effectiveness.

Interestingly, engagement—and high-quality performance—is greatest when the demands of the

Annual Colorado Statewide ADR Conference set for November 4

The 5th Annual Colorado Statewide ADR Conference will be held November 4, 2011, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel. (Click to read about last year's Conference at which I presented both a keynote and a breakout.) I have no information about it yet, other than date and place.

I will post the link to the brochure when it is available.

From a newsletter he sent today, it appears that Stewart Levine will be giving a keynote at this year's event. I read that his book Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict Into Collaboration was selected as the 2011 Conflict Resolution Month book selection by The Mediation Association of Colorado.

Negotiation advice: Be as BIG and LOUD as possible

On a walk this morning at Bear Creek Lake Park, I saw a sign warning visitors about coyotes. Click to see the sign. Some silly or perverse part of me thought, "Why that's exactly how some lawyers negotiate!"

Here's the warning, modified just a bit to be a page out of the behavior manual of certain lawyers:

Be as BIG and LOUD as possible.
Use arm gestures and a forceful voice to exaggerate your size. 
Throw objects at [opposing counsel].
Remain calm and do not run.

Note: At this post's first link, there are more clips of Bear Creek Lake Park.

 

Not everyone is seeking his or her purpose in life, and that's okay, isn't it?

I am planning to write either a longer post or an article about the miscommunication that can arise between those who view themselves as higher-purpose- or life-meaning-seekers and those who do not. I will post below something I wrote on Facebook and would appreciate your comments and thoughts. This is a topic in which I am very interested, because I think it causes much misunderstanding.

I wrote on Facebook:

Just yesterday I was reminded that not everyone wants to find his or her life purpose or become highly self-actualized. Those who do often hang out with each other and are surprised that others outside their circles don't have the same goals.

Even though I'm not a user of Myers-Briggs, I remember reading this paragraph below many years ago. I think it helps to clarify the above point. Substitute "purpose seeker" or "meaning seeker" for NF, if you want; I do.

"The search for meaning as a necessary pilgrimage for all people is advanced by the NFs in their writings. Very often the other types... are troubled by the thought that they ought to be pursuing these values, even if, somehow, the search for meaning ... does not beckon to them. This reluctance of 88 percent of the world to join the search for self-actualization is a great source of mystification to the NFs."

-- Please Understand Me by Keirsey and Bates