Imagination, flexibility, innovation… individual attributes that are highly valued in organizations and communities. Indeed, some say the survival of each depends on them, but are they an inherent gift or a meaningful skill that can be developed? Using “arts & crafts” materials, games and yes, even toys help individuals tap into a place many have left behind in childhood. Remember childhood? When NOTHING seemed impossible, you could build a rocket ship out of cardboard boxes and laugh effortlessly when it fell apart? How many times did you invent a never-before dreamed of competition with whoever showed up at the playground? How might this kind of “playfulness” enhance your work?

Sometimes it becomes very clear that the answers to our deepest challenges lie within us. Wading through the noise of modern treatments for perennial ailments is often a despairingly lonely misadventure.

This book confirmed our belief in the efficacy of ancient knowledge; that which we intuitively know to be healing and sustainable practices of wellness. From the most corrosive and damaging trauma to the daily indignity of being in a caustic world, the reality is together we are stronger. This book offers some on ramps for living in community via mutually supported individual wellness.

Unless we met via our work in the EOL/SIP landscape this resource may seem a bit beyond the common topic. Until you realize and account for the reality between 60-70 million individuals are nearing the (actuarial estimated) end of life. These arising impacts of these losses will ripple across everything.

Have common language and understandings to begin our conversations always help difficult;t conversations. These books were required recommendations when I first began volunteering at the local hospice organization. They have served us well and the understandings acquired inform our approach to the ethical imperative of effective communication.

This resource has been part of my core constellation of tools since its launch in the Winter of 2008. Published quarterly - it presents perspectives over time on a particular topic.

I always have one cracked and enjoy an essay or two anytime the opportunity present itself. They have an active website and whenever I've reached out for sample copies or support for our Pro Bono Publico work they have obliged any simple request for materials.

If we could only have one word to express our appreciation, amazement and consternation with all things; it would have to be, gratitude.

Our learning arrives no other way.

Much Light into 2020 and beyond...BJ/FC

He we are. Almost complete. 11 new ways updated with confirmation by science of what our gut knew all along. Ancient knowledge. Know you know. Enjoy these last three and we'll wrap it up for 2019 on the 15th!

Move closer to work -We tend to try to compensate for this by having a bigger house or a better job, but these compensations just don't work:"Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery created by a long commute."

Gratitude - In an experiment where participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice:

"The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the three studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits."
The Journal of Happiness Studies published a study that used letters of gratitude to test how being grateful can affect our levels of happiness:

"Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a three-week period. Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants' happiness and life satisfaction while decreasing depressive symptoms."

Grow old - As we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to naturally grow happier. There's still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have a few ideas:

"Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less."
Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out situations that will lift their moods--for instance, pruning social circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and disappointment over unachieved goals, and focus their goals on greater well-being.
So if you thought getting old will make you miserable, it's likely you'll develop a more positive outlook than you probably have now.
How cool is that?
                                                                              From "Want to be Happier?...", Jeff Haden 6/16/16

We are hoping you are happier! Sleeping more, exercising, smiling with friends and family. If not, try the following:

Go Outside -A U.K. study from the University of Sussex also found that being outdoors made people happier:
"Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban environments."

Help - A study of volunteering in Germany explored how volunteers were affected when their opportunities to help others were taken away:"Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before the German reunion, the first wave of data of the GSOEP was collected in East Germany. Volunteering was still widespread. Due to the shock of the reunion, a large portion of the infrastructure of volunteering (e.g., sports clubs associated with firms) collapsed and people randomly lost their opportunities for volunteering. Based on a comparison of the change in subjective well-being of these people and of people from the control group who had no change in their volunteer status, the hypothesis is supported that volunteering is rewarding in terms of higher life satisfaction."

Plan a trip - "One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent."

If you can't take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar--even if it's a month or a year down the road.

Then, whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.

Meditate - "In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants' brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank."

                                                                                From "Want to be Happier?...", Jeff Haden 6/16/16

The work Meaningful Trainings does is outside the world of "evidence based", "clinical" or "credentialed". We are firmly in the realm of ancient knowledge. We noticed that all road come from somewhere and that somewhere was before any of the social constructs we now consider eternal.

Life seems to seeks balance. Cultures have various names and descriptions for this sought after state but most often I hear happy as the preferred emotional destination. So we had to chuckle when I found this article buried deep in my browser bookmarks. Ancient knowledge through a modern lens.

Our Holiday gift to our partners is a timely reminder of what we know and often overlook. An ode to the basics with a citation. I've included the author at the end of each post. (Funny story - as I followed links within the original article, I found previous articles with, slightly variant lists . This is the last and has eleven suggestions. Who can argue with more suggestions on how to be happy?

This series will carry us to the end of 2019. Enjoy and, as always, we wish you,  Much Light

Smile - According to PsyBlog, smiling can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks:"Smiling makes us feel good, which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees."
A smile is also a good way to reduce some of the pain we feel in troubling circumstances:
"Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don't feel like it is enough to lift our mood slightly (this is one example of embodied cognition)."

Exercise - A study in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies even when they saw no physical changes:
"Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16 males and 18 females before and after both 6 x 40 minutes exercising and 6 x 40 minutes reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise compared to before."

Sleep - In NutureShock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects positivity:
"Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories get processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.
"In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81 percent of the words with a negative connotation, like cancer. But they could remember only 31 percent of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like sunshine or basket."

Family & Friends - I love the way Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert explains it:

"We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends."
George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men.
"In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, 'What have you learned from the Grant Study men?' Vaillant's response: 'That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.'"

                                                                         From "Want to be Happier?...", Jeff Haden 6/16/16

Anyone familiar with our wellness paradigm will have known what's next. Observation.

The power harnessed by being aware of your consciousness. Sounding either New Age or of ancient knowledge depending on your perspective, this is a powerful tool at your disposal.

Accessing is the key. Engaging is the swing of the door. Enter a your world and notice you noticing. Journal. Sculpt. Paint. Cook. Run. Walk. Read. Count clouds. Follow birds. See leaves.

Anything.

And I cannot tell you how. People who say they can are wildly optimistic in their ability to know you. Meaningful Trainings believes presumption is a slippery slope.

So - if the power we describe has peaked or prompted a curiosity, have at it. We are huge proponents of intrinsic motivation acted upon!

We look forward to hearing your stories of observation, playing, creating and the practice within each of the tales you weave!

"Huh? Create what?"

This is the reaction we hear. Often. As though your super powers were a mystery!

"Anything" we reply.

And we know the font of motivation has been tapped when we hear...silence. You can almost feel the wheels crank up and begin to spin. The vault unlocks, opens and darkness pours out. Then the adventure begins.

Orientation. Imagination. Possibility. Inventory. Plan. Re-plan. Delay. Then the doing.

Ahhh, the doing. Actual "creating"....hmmm....let's go slow. How about a book? A starting point to gird the loins for an adventure? We'll offer a title that was provided us: How to Fly a Horse by Kevin Ashton. A wonderful book that reinforces the discipline required to create. What you create is your choice. Also how you create, why you create and when you create, all your choice.

Feel the stirring of possibility? That's the ever so slight string waiting to be pulled. Go ahead...tug....

When was the last time you played a game?

if your answer was within the last seven days, close the post. If your answer was MORE than seven days ago I'll begin with a question; why so long? And while you consider your answer (most likely stitched together from a multitude of possibilities...;-) let me fill the space with a few benefits of playing;

• Makes time flow like water
• Pokes, prods and prompts emotional engagement
• Catalyzes connections, insights and problem solving
• Sharpens communication skills
• Enthuses possibility
• Demands present moment engagement

Which of the above are not attractive? One or two of six? Three?

While you consider the cost/benefits of play ("Where's my phone?", "I'm too busy.", "What's on TV?") I'm going to go play, it's been a few days!

Virtually each inquiry we receive proceeds the same way:

1. Introductions
2. You describe the goal
3. We confirm understanding or clarify
4. You ask about costs
5. We tell you
6. You ask about effectiveness (ROI)

Once you ask that question, then the work begins. Even if you never hire us to work with your team, you will have been afforded the keys to the kingdom by virtue of our answer: practice.

Yup. It's that simple. Practice.

So we'll give everyone a freebie practice prompt: write a letter to a friend, family member or yourself. Then read it and consider what you wrote. Note all your considerations. Consider those considerations.

Then mail it. Yup - write on paper with a pen/pencil, re-read what you wrote then fold into an envelope, add a stamp, find a mailbox and insert.

It's all about the practice. Practice, practice, practice.

Culture is a challenge to teach. Unless you begin with the child and offer daily lessons support the learning objectives.

The above scenario works for the inter-generational transfer of the granular components of a shared culture: rituals, celebrations, problem-solving, explanatory frameworks and the countless multitudes of instruction sets critical for survival. No wonder organizations place a high priority on cultural competency. It's a valuable tool.

Yet - for all its inherent value, culture is still a mystery. Organizations tend to begin at a place that wants to make everyone "play nice in the sandbox", "unite for a common mission" or some such unrealistic goal, yet "checks the box".

The real challenge begins when we explore our natural inclination to segregate and differentiate. How can an organizational perspective reduce our natural tendencies? Our answer begins with a question: How does cotton become such different cloth around the world? Unique to the culture - same raw material?

Answer that question and we begin to understand how our perspectives can be applied in other scenarios for continued, unending learning. And that seems to be a wonderful reason to wake-up each day. That and sharing our lessons just like we share a meal - or better yet, while we share a meal!

We are asked often, "Who needs a coach?", "Why?" and "It's expensive." usually in that order. If you aren't convinced, we are not going to tip the balance.

But we can offer a quick video of someone who might....enjoy!

Meaningful Trainings works in the space reserved for connection & communication.

It's lonely out here.

We are big on action. More limited on assignment: you should do what you are motivated to do. But every good rule deserves to be stretched. In the name of growth, of course!

So we are providing and example of how we completed the MT Summertime Assignment - Create Community Connection! Now is the time and we look forward to hearing/seeing how you invigorate connection within your local locale!

The picture is the top of our flyer. You can download the whole flyer via this link:

The above definition describes the most sought after item at ATD this year...and every year, in my humble opinion. That is an understanding of and ability to articulate shared, common experiences. The goal is future success.

To understand you and you to understand me. What more could we ask for?

So it was re-affirming to see the never ending demand for what Meaningful Trainings provides: communications skills development. However you slice it - ILT, F2F facilitated collaboration, coaching development, digital self-paced or old school analogue (creative writing anyone?) - the skills we bring determine the outcome.

How can we improve your outcomes today?

Meaningful Trainings set out on an investigative sojourn in May. One of the stops was Washington D.C. where we caught up with professional cohorts, shared meals & conversations (special shout-out to Sage Media!) while getting a refreshed perspective of the talent development world.

Any trade show floor seems to offer a magical diversion. What's new? What's exciting? Where are my established knowns and my unknown unknowns? Truly a box of chocolates. Blair & I thus began an archeological adventure. An exploration of enterprises and enticements. So what did we find? What are the words and phrases that dominated the banners and thinking amidst the gathering of professionals dedicated to human talent development? Our June posts for the 1st (&) 15th will offer our view from the "dirt", in keeping with the archeology metaphor. So...what did we find?

Recurring Words/Concepts

Like the picture at the top of the post, much of what we discovered was old. For us it confirms that which makes Meaningful Trainings meaningful is ancient. Ancient knowledge passed from one generation to another. Sometimes things get lost and forgotten. Through either happenstance or need we find them again.

The story (first word/concept) we found over and over again was about an elephant. No matter the product, service or area of expertise we found the same dynamic and a perplexity that confused even the most seasoned talent developer. What could possibly capture the ire or imagination of everyone? Digital distraction versus analogue engagement.

Let's pause for a moment. When was the last time virtually everyone you meet has the same opinion about anything? I'll include the weather in that just to make it interesting. For me, this was the first time - ever. Digital distraction versus analogue engagement. Who knew this would be the basis for universal agreement. Move over Love.

Which leads us to a question: How many minutes a day do you engage with a digital device vs. an analogue device. For this exercise consider another human an analogue interaction. From there, take a few minutes to consider and write out your reactions. While you do that, I'll finish mine and begin on a few comments of the the above words/concepts we culled from our 2019 ATD Expedition for the 15th post. Enjoy!

Suggestions often begin with a few anecdotes. They often tie to the trellis of directives people try to plant in your garden when asked for perspective.

Perspective not suggestion. I share my experience (perspective) or I tell you what I would do in your situation (suggestion). The difference? Intention. What do I hope for when I share with you? What are my intentions for our interaction? Do I want to convince you? Do I want to give you a lesson or share with you a piece of the puzzle I found along the way? Maybe it fits in your puzzle...or not. Either or or is up to you not me.

Clear, effective communication allows all parties to orient themselves within the exchange. Thus my responsibility is to know what my intention is prior to offering either my perspective or suggestion for your situation. Being clear as to my intended outcome prior to giving input to someone allows me to understand my boundaries (what I am willing to do not do) while offering appropriate support and resources to any person as they work to complete their puzzle.

Once I'm clear about my intentions for your situation I'm often freed to be a resource (perspective) for your journey as opposed to one more thinly-veiled directive (suggestion).

This is my suggestion, what's your perspective?

There are many things we do and ways of doing them. Many, many methods.

What we have found beyond the ways we do things is the universal foundation which all of them rest; community. However you define or participate when you find a solid one, add to it. Our experience has been it will respond with energy and enthusiasm endearingly.

Hard to find much that is universal within a universe! Thanks to the recovery>wellness community of West Virginia to provide an example. Represented by the local knowledge of its artisans and craftspeople via Holl's Chocolates, J. Q. Dickinson's Salt and ever-ready & hearty Fiesta Ware. All connected by individuals. The true heartbeat of any community.

What's the heartbeat of your community?

My god mother-in-law use to whisper to my wife, "I feel 17 inside..." as she was continually struck by her physical reality: eighty years old. I clearly understand where she was coming from!

As we were planning our return trip home from a site about 6 hours away from home I could feel my youthful energy pine for a chance to drive home that night. The other side weighed in, "Stop early. Get a good night's rest." Youthful enthusiasm. Propellant forward. Walls or open space be damned!

How to balance competing perspectives that both make (a little) sense? How to set a boundary? I made a non-refundable room reservation two hours away, en-route home.

Of course I wanted to continue when I arrived. I was mildly perturbed with myself. For about an ten minutes. Then I slowly began to relax, smile and than k my better instincts for setting a parameter. Establishing a boundary. Finding balance.

To boot - the ride home the next day was an enjoyable drive as opposed to a midnight slog. I avoided what I hoped to and created a situation I long for...balanced and peaceful.

For more check out our MTFoundations of Wellness.

The image above is a favorite. Concise. Clear. Colorful. Representative of the components that combine to create a timepiece. A framework for engineering resulting in something useful to the individual using it.

Today Meaningful Trainings publishes our latest white paper, Caregiver Wellness: An Ethical Imperative. A Practical Approach. This overview offers a new perspective on the importance of caregiver (or employee) wellness and an innovative response.

Applicable to any organization and all individuals our framework approaches a perennial challenge with innovative thinking that is our hallmark. We look forward to your thoughts and queries.

This post will reveal no new information, if you know Blair & Fell. None.

Actually, if you know Blair & Fell, you could most likely write this post. It's about our One Act play, WHEE...!#$%*@?-Ride Of A Lifetime. It explores companionship, generational transfer of knowledge, culture, death. You know, the usual topics that make for easy conversations at the holiday gathering...in a way that will make you smile, wonder, laugh & (if you're prone to tear duct leakage) prompt moist eyes.

We invite any inquiry to host our community conversation starter, WHEE...!#$%*@?-Ride Of A Lifetime! Click >>> Contact Page and reach out. We'd be happy to describe the details and explore possible scenarios to your community presentation & conversation of this MTProject.

Check out the description (here) and we look forward to your contact.

Much Light
B & F