Resilience

New Thinking Needed:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-resilience/201008/psychologically-unhealthy-work-management-human-rights-violation

... a survey of 8000 workers across all age groups and occupations by Concours Group found that the most productive, energized workers gravitate towards companies that provide opportunities for ongoing learning, growth and creative challenge. They want their work to have a positive impact on something more meaningful than just the narrower rewards of money, position, or power. They also want the service or product they work on to have a positive impact on people's lives.

Help Is Out There

You Are Not Alone:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-trice-therapy-0830-20100830,0,2854732.column

He said no one should feel ashamed about needing help or a support system.

"In these times, especially, people are feeling so overburdened," he said. "It's important for them to know they have a place to go and some of us have been there."

For more information, contact Metropolitan Family Services at 773-371-2900.

Wheels Inside Wheels

Everything had changed suddenly - the tone, the moral climate; you didn't know what to think, whom to listen to. As if all your life you had been led by the hand like a small child and suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself. There was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgement you respected. At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute - life or truth or beauty - of being ruled by it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than you had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good.

Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

Fat, as in, Phat

I pledge allegiance to all beef patties of the United States of America,

and to the special sauce for which it stands, one lettuce, under cheese,

indivisible, with pickles, and justice on a sesame seed bun, for all.

-Morgan Spurlock, Don't Eat This Book - Fast Food and the Supersizing of America 2005

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Umm, Humm Aunt Bee...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7959380/Burger-King-introduces-the-2500-Pizza-Burger.html

Burger King, the fast food chain, is to introduce the 'Pizza Burger’, a 2,520-calorie covered in mozzarella, pepperoni and pesto and marinara sauce.

Microcosm of Life

De-humanization Work Has Its Costs:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9222046

Records obtained by The Associated Press show that at least 15 agents have taken their own lives since February 2008 — the largest spike in suicides the agency has seen in at least 20 years.

..."It's a microcosm of life," said Christine Gaugler, head of human resources for Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol. "There's no uptick. It has nothing to do with our hiring. We are just responding to the suicides that have occurred."

Blog Over... Done

Honestly, Is This A Good Thing?:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20012469-10391704.html

Dr Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscience professor at Stanford, says after 30 years of studying stress, his team might be on the verge of a novel cure.

"To be honest, I'm still amazed that it works," Sapolsky told Wired in an August profile.

Sapolsky has long theorized that, unlike some animals, humans are unable to turn off stress chemicals used for the fight-or-flight mechanism. A class of hormone called glucocorticoids are one of the chief offenders, according to Sapolsky.

So his team has pioneered a way to bootstrap a "herpes virus to carry engineered 'neuroprotective' genes deep into the brain to neutralize the rogue hormones before they can cause damage," according to the Daily Mail.

Sounds properly science fiction, but will it work?

So far, rat studies have gone well, according to the British paper. Human trials are still years away.

Until then, don't give up your yoga mat.

Here's Looking At You, kid

Mirror To Self:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism

Hotchkiss identified what she called the seven deadly sins of narcissism:[16]

Shamelessness - Shame is the feeling that lurks beneath all unhealthy narcissism, and the inability to process shame in healthy ways.

Magical thinking - Narcissists see themselves as perfect using distortion and illusion known as magical thinking. They also use projection to dump shame onto others.

Arrogance - A narcissist who is feeling deflated may re-inflate by diminishing, debasing, or degrading somebody else.

Envy - A narcissist may secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person's ability by using contempt to minimize the other person.

Entitlement - Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves special. Any failure to comply will be considered an attack on their superiority and the perpetrator is considered to be an "awkward" or "difficult" person. Defiance of their will is a narcissistic injury that can trigger narcissistic rage.

Exploitation - can take many forms but always involves the exploitation of others without regard for their feelings or interests. Often the other is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible. Sometimes the subservience is not so much real as assumed.

Bad Boundaries - narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist will be treated as if they are part of the narcissist and be expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist, there is no boundary between self and other.

Here They Come

Future Is Now:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-heb-college-20100812,0,436641.story

The number of college students who are afflicted with a serious mental illness is rising, according to data presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn. in San Diego

Another EWS Recruit

*The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. We will not solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. More than anything else, this new century demands new thinking: We must change our materially based analyses of the world around us to include broader, more multidimensional perspectives."

~Albert Einstein*

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Fuck Off Airlines:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/09/2010-08-09_talk_about_turbulance_jetblue_flight_attendant_drops_intercom_fbomb_bolts_down_e.html

After he was bonked in the head by a bag, Steven Slater stunned passengers by spewing profanity and ranting about quitting as the flight from Pittsburgh pulled up to the gate about noon.

"To the f-----g a--hole who told me to f--k off, it's been a good 28 years," Slater, 38, purred, cops said. "I've had it. That's it," he added, a passenger said.

The mad-as-hell steward grabbed a couple of brewskis and popped one open before activating the emergency exit, witnesses told airport employees.

After tossing his two carry-on bags on the slide, he followed them to the tarmac.