READ: Online Bullying
October 31, 2011 by Grace Ste. Croix
Filed under •-Headline, Conscious Parenting, Insights, Leadership, Parenting tips, Reflection
The positive uses of social media technology are vast. People are able to get in touch with old friends, increase and advertise their small businesses and connect with others. Both professionally and personally, social media technology has offered endless outcomes for adults. However, students today are growing up around social media technology. It is not a phenomenon as it is for many adults, but a way of life. Despite age requirements and rules, many children join social media groups to connect with their friends to access information. The once school yard brawl has now taken to the internet, where children and teens do not exchange blows but publically fight with one another over social media technology. Hurtful texts, instant messages and emails have been a problem for so many families. Bullying has taken on its own evolution to the internet; an evolution that parents should be aware of.
At one point in time, a school yard bully would harass children before and after school. The behaviour of the bully is inexcusable and the bullied child would run home, into the safety net of the house. The bullying would cease until the next day. The bullied child had a break. Today, there is no temporary sanctuary. With the connection of text messaging, Facebook, and twitter, teens and children can easily access and alter each other’s information and continue the bullying while the child is at home. Mean texts, photo shopping pictures to put the child in an embarrassing photo, or harassing emails are just some of the ways that bullying is a twenty four hour a day action.
Bullying is instant. Before the internet, gossip took its time to spread around the school. One had a chance to fix the problem or quash the rumors. Now, a simple text to each student spreads rumors instantaneously. Bullied children are depressed, often turning to their parents for help. Parents who grew up in a pre-internet world may not understand that the bullying does not end in the school yard, but is constant and that online attacks are a permanent, searchable fixture. Harsh words and horrible gossip can never be forgotten as it festers on the internet.
The internet and social media technology has produced so many positive results. However, schools should take the time to explain to students the severity of their words. Words, typed or said can be vicious. It is the unfortunate truth that suicide from online bullying is on the rise. If students are aware of the dangers of online bullying and respecting each other’s privacy, perhaps a few lives are saved. It is integral for parents to keep informed about social media technology. By keeping up to speed, parents will have a better understanding what sites their children are joining and how important it is to teach your children to respect each other. They do not have to like each other or agree with each other but respect the fact that information can be distorted and spread to strangers. By educating ourselves, we can help our children to use the internet positively to connect with each other.
WE CAN DO THIS
September 21, 2011 by Ceci
Filed under •-Headline, Insights, Leadership, Reflection, Sustainability, Vision
The current international turmoil is unique to our times. Never before has the world been small enough for nations to be so dependant upon each other that one could sway another, let alone feel the whole global economy threaten to domino.
We can survive disorder if we just stick together. As much as politicians react to the chaos as a blame game, we need to see what is going on and respond with discernment. We have to understand the situation as it is, without the distortion of denial.
The experience of 9/11 proves our durability. New Yorkers are famous for being independent and functioning within their own lives. We’ve heard of some who are proud that they don’t know their neighbors – nor care what happens to them – as long as their routine isn’t disrupted. But, in that moment of terror, they bonded together and worked with those around them, proving that they had a lot of humanity.
That’s a prerequisite: Humanity. What does it mean? That means taking care of life around us, being sure that people have their basic needs met – physically and mentally. It also involves being thoughtful of others’ essentials, and choosing selfless, respectful behavior to assist them as they wish. We need to engage those folks who may not be able to fend for themselves, and who may slip under the radar of our ordinary realm of consideration. It warrants taking notice of people who can’t speak for themselves – children, seniors, etc., and those who just may be accustomed to not calling attention to themselves. They still require contact with others. They may be homeless, or mentally ill, or have a problem we can’t observe. In a crisis, all persons living alone probably need to be with others, even though that may not be their normal pattern of behavior.
Crisis isn’t necessary for change, though change itself often feels like a crisis. This is a decision to renew our lives. If we embrace the participation of those around us in our resolutions along with their ideas, they’ll feel included as well. We’ll look around us for people we respect, who seem to inhabit vital and animated lives. We get some of them together, and we share our inadequacies, our wishes and our hopes. We can laugh, cry, tell jokes and anguish with each other, all of which supports our efforts. Then, with others, we can explore what it means to love actively, for love is an action word. If you’ve ever felt your life was on a treadmill, here’s a way to get off of it.
This is taking care of us, which is also our responsibility. In addition, it gives our lives a foundation from which to build our new caring structure. We simply decide to take the time and energy to employ our thought processes deeply, into what we envision that we want for this planet and ourselves on it. We garner our resources and harness our separate skills to put into play our intentions. It is play. We invite you to join us on a powerful adventure that lightens our hearts and makes life worth living. Together, with laughter and hugs, we can do this.
Everyone is a teacher…
September 21, 2011 by G. Brian Benson
Filed under •-Feature, Insights, Inspired Business, Leadership, Motivation, Personal Growth, Purpose, Reflection
I am a huge advocate of helping people be the best that they can be, and step number one to get them there is to help them find balance in their lives. I feel so strongly about this that my first book was dedicated to showing the reader many different ways to find balance within oneself (Brian’s List – 26 ½ Easy to Use Ideas on How to Live a Fun, Balance, Healthy Life!). And you want to know how and why I ended up writing my first book? Well, the answer lies in a quote that says, “We are here to teach what it is we need to learn ourselves.” In a nutshell, I was going through a period in my life where I was feeling really out of balance and out of center; and I knew that I needed to do something about it.
In early 2008, I was struggling with the decision to leave the family business that I had been a part of for 12 years. Now for those who know me, I am a very driven person and this driven nature has served me well through the years (cross-country bicycling, triathlons, etc.). So, being the driven person that I was, I wanted to figure out why I was feeling out of balance and out of center. I decided I needed to do a couple of things. After some contemplation I realized that I was burned out from my job. I wasn’t fulfilled there, nor was I growing anymore. I knew it was time for a change. And I eventually left that position.
The second thing I did once I realized I was out of balance was to come up with a handful of ideas that I knew would keep me balanced and centered. I put on my self-awareness cap and wrote down five items on a piece of paper. From that day forward every time I began to feel out of balance or out of center, I would refer to my list:
Number #1 Drink enough water daily.
Number #2 Daily exercise.
Number #3 Get enough sleep each night.
Number #4 Spend some time each day alone to reenergize my system.
Number #5 Be creative. For me being creative means writing or playing my guitar.
This helped me out so much that I thought, “Hey, why don’t I expand the list and make it into a book to help others in the same way that I helped myself?” So that’s what I did, and I am so grateful that I moved forward and wrote the book. I learned a lot about myself in the process, met some amazing people during book signings and workshops, the book won a couple of awards (which I am still pinching myself over) and most importantly I know the book has helped others in the same way that I was able to help myself. It has been a grand experience all around. As I worked on and learned how to stay in balance, my path led me to help others do the same.
What is it that you are learning about yourself that you are supposed to teach others?
Importance of Managing Emotions in Difficult Conversations
September 14, 2011 by VividLife Editorial
Filed under •-Headline, Family & Relationships, Health & Well-being, Insights, Inspired Business, Leadership, Personal Growth, Relationships
Conversations about performance or behaviour have many starting points but all have an underlying emotional tone. It’s the reason so many of us avoid these conversations altogether or, when we do face up to them, we handle them badly.
- I’m frustrated: you keep getting this wrong.
- I’m disappointed: you’re capable of so much better.
- I was embarrassed by the way you spoke to me.
Most of us only have two ways of dealing with our emotions. One is to try to control them completely by denying and suppressing them. This can work, sometimes for years, but we are always at risk that one day they will explode and take over. Emotional outbursts seldom help in creating conversations in which real problems can be confronted and solutions negotiated and agreed.
One of the most important aspects of becoming emotionally intelligent is to develop skill and self discipline in managing your emotions and communicating them effectively.
When you shut out emotions completely in your interactions with others, you typically describe a situation or a problem and then either tell the other person how you think it should be resolved, or perhaps ask them what they are going to do about it. These conversations are not very effective because when you don’t clearly say how strongly you feel about something, there is little motivation for the other person to take you seriously or change their behaviour.
When you control your emotions to the point of denying them completely you deprive yourself of a very powerful influencing mechanism. You also make it more likely that you will find yourself in situations in which you are unhappy or uncomfortable; but where you are unable to create any change.
When you don’t communicate about how you feel, clearly and strongly, in circumstances that are unhappy for you, over time your negative emotions build up. Finally, when your tolerance and patience and with them your self control, run out, your pent up feelings of frustration and anger take over and you explode. Feelings are hurt and relationships are damaged, but the problems go unresolved. When you don’t have any effective way of dealing with bad situations you are often left with no choice but to cope as best you can.
Keeping feelings completely out of conversations, or letting them take over in emotional outbursts, is both impractical and ineffective. Learning to expressing how you feel in an emotionally intelligent way reduces your stress and makes it more likely you will find lasting solutions to problems.
Maureen Collins has a B.Sc. degree in Psychology from Edinburgh University and over 25 years of management and consulting experience in the corporate world. She specialises in communication skills in various contexts: leading and managing, teambuilding, handling change, and performance management. Her consulting practice, Straight Talk, trains people in the skills to handle difficult conversations, on difficult topics, with difficult people.
Read more on http://www.straight-talk.co.za
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maureen_C_Collins
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Little Red Wagon
September 9, 2011 by VividLife Editorial
Filed under Leadership, Purpose, Videos, Youth - Personal Growth
In 2004, ten year old Zach Bonner went door to door with his little red wagon to collect water for the victims of Hurricane Charlie. Now, this inspirational 5th grader is dedicated to community service and has raised thousands of dollars to purchase school supplies, food, and support services for homeless children in Florida and Louisiana. He most recently walked 280 miles from Tampa to Tallahassee in order to bring awareness to the 1st ever National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. Watch this inspiring video of Zach’s amazing journey and learn about how you can help!
