Al Cannistraro: March 2005

The Observer | Comment | Actually, I think I'll coach myself

The Observer | Comment | Actually, I think I'll coach myself

. . . In anticipation of the backlash, I have adopted a strategy. I will live in the moment, doing things patiently, generously, mindfully, without haste and in a stress-free environment. I am appointing myself my very own Slow Coach. You heard it here first.

WIL WHEATON DOT NET

WIL WHEATON DOT NET

This is an innovative, multi-layered blog by a celebrity who is totally unknown to me.

From a Salon.com article about celebrity blogs:
. . . and, most fascinating -- and most readable -- of all, a blog from an actor whom few of us have thought much about in recent years but who has become a kind of touchstone for many people in the readersphere who are simply attempting to do what they want to do with their lives and finding it more difficult than they ever imagined (Wil Wheaton, who appeared in "Stand by Me" as a child actor and in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as a teenager, and then seemingly dropped off the Earth's surface).

Very Cool Lady Blogger Lip-Sticking

Lip-Sticking

Yvonne DiVitta is a very cool lady with a very cool blog, Lig-Sticking (linked to above).

She also has a very cool book title: Dickless Marketing.

The genesis of the title is explained here: http://windsormedia.blogs.com/aha/

The full title of her book is Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online. The "Official Dickless" website is here: http://www.marketingtowomenonline.com/index.htm

My thanks to And Wibbels, of Easy Bake Weblogs, for connecting me with Yvette by sending me a link to his recent interview of Yvette.

Andy is beginning to remind me of Thomas Leonard.

mfinley's Xanga Site - 3/12/2005 7:32:58 AM

mfinley's Xanga Site - 3/12/2005 7:32:58 AM

John I'm Dancing

I spent last night doing modern dance. Honest.

I got a mailing a month ago from the Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater Company. They do an annual conference called WASH ("Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing"). They gather together a number of caregivers (people who take care of people who are sick or disabled or dying) with artists. I was on the artist mailing list this time around, so I thought, why the hell now, and signed up.

This was unusual for me. First, I have never been known to move. My dance routine should fit on a barstool because that is my mental locus of movement. Contained. Whimsical. Dignified.

But I went. I figured, I took care of my mom the last year of her life, and I have two kids that sometimes require a lot of caregiving.

So we got together, and as a way to let down our guard with one another, we did some floor time, walking, bobbing, sweeping, touching. I was proud of myself , cuz I was out there making a jackass out of myself (this is my honest inner assessment) just like the rest.

Afterwards, of course, you feel freer, unembarrassed, and closer to the others. I suppose it's like karaoke -- public humiliation that is also a kind of yoga. the Stockholm Syndrome probably plays a role in it too.

What can I provide this group? I was thinking of group-writing some kind of caregiver's prayer, or a mantra to get people through difficult days. We'll see.

mfinley's Xanga Site - 3/12/2005 7:46:43 AM

mfinley's Xanga Site - 3/12/2005 7:46:43 AM

Some folks asked how they can get to know more about my friend's program to help people boost their emotional state. Remember my post on The Happiness Gym?

His name is Al Cannistraro. He's a former government employee who discovered Martin Seligman's "positive psychology" movement, and promptly enlisted. And now he coaches individuals online, in person, and by phone, on what they can do to be happier in life.

"Be happier." Not go around grinning like an ape, but feel better about oneself and one's prospects. Pay more attention to the good things of life, and feel grateful for them. Be more involved, seek out and enjoy better relationships. Squeeze more juice out of every day's orange. Or tomato. Or prune or whatever fruit gives you pleasure.

Al is currently offering a free mini-course, to get better acquainted with the topic. I am taking it, and it is great. It teaches you a lot about your own feelings and why you feel the way you do. And it points out some wonderful and easy instructions for how to do better and feel better every day.

If you want to try the free mini-course, do this. (Or do this. Do not do this, as his headline suggests -- cuz the dang link don't work.)

Hey, look at me -- a month after doing this, I'm doing modern freaken dance.

Negativity drains work-force productivity, economy, scientist says

Negativity drains work-force productivity, economy, scientist says

It didn't take a scientist to figure out that grumpy people make others feel lousy and feeling lousy makes them less productive at work.

But, in fact, researchers have quantified the effect of chronic negativity. And you'd never have guessed how expensive those scowls can be.

Negativity costs the U.S. economy $300 billion a year — and researchers consider that a conservative estimate.

Unfortunately, smiles and sunny outlooks can't be mandated in the company manual.

But managers can neutralize and even reverse damaging negativity through the measured use of employee recognition and praise.

And there's a scientific formula for that, too, said Tom Rath, global practice leader for strengths-based development for the Gallup Organization and co-author of "How Full is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life." Rath wrote the book with his grandfather, Donald O. Clifton.

Clifton died in 2003 and never saw the book published. He was a psychologist who pioneered the study of positive psychology and developed the dipper-and-bucket analogy that gives the book its title.

The metaphor goes like this: Everyone has an invisible bucket that is either filled or