We’ve been hearing so much about “Swine Flu” — is this a medical issue or an emotional one?

Was talking to a doctor friend today who mentioned how much press we’re giving Swine Flu when “regular” influenza is so much more destructive every single year.  I was totally surprised, assuming that all this media coverage must signify a serious threat. So I looked that up — turns out that about 200,000 people are hospitalized every year in the US per year for influenza — less than .1% of that number have been diagnosed with Swine Flu in the US (see this story on WebMD: Putting Swine Flu in Perspective).

So what’s the fear?  Is it the uncertainty of a new type of influenza? (Apparently there are new influenza strains every year).  Is it just media hype?   Is it a “lighting rod” of a tangible threat that’s just happening to surface while millions of people are seeing their quality of life eroding in the face of global recession?

This week I am fortunate to be in California with 6 Seconds. Friday and Saturday was the Choose to Change conference in San Jose which saw emotional intelligence practitioners gather to share their work, experiences and research. I am a huge fan of technology, but nothing can ever replace the sense of connection when we are sharing the same physical space. The highlight for me of those two days was this sense of support and shared purpose. I found all the talks terribly interesting but listening to Anabel Jensen speak was a real pleasure that will inspire me for a long time to come…..

There is currently a Master Class taking place in Monterey Bay. About twenty 6 Seconds professionals are spending five days learning and teaching around improving our own work and skills, sharing good practice and discussing ways to inject energy and knowhow into the global network of emotional intelligence enthusiasts.

Our collective understanding of human functioning continues to grow and our expertise at transformative teaching with it. One of our challenges is finding ways to make some of the invisible processes and personal changes more visible. This needs to happen to encourage organisations and schools to commit the necessary time, patience and funds into using emotional intelligence to help them develop the types communities, both local and global, that we know we all want, but recognise we can only create collectively. Many discussions this week with 6 Seconds members have been looking really intelligently and imaginatively at the issues around the need for visualisation of our work.

           One of the most difficult things these days is to establish some truths about the state of the world. What really is happening? I read so many research papers, books and news stories simply in an effort to keep up and try to get a proper, realistic view…. an in-depth, informed perspective.Research is so complex, but it can lead to simple and powerful insights. This morning I was really thrilled to read a new research paper on happiness and wellbeing. The World Values Survey is publishing the results of a longitudinal research analysis in Perspectives on Psychological Science (July, 2008) Development, Freedom, and Happiness: A Global PerspectiveData from representative national surveys carried out from 1981 to 2007 show that happiness rose in 45 of the 52 countries. The country rankings showed that USA was 16, Britain was 21, Zimbabwe 97.Democratization and rising social tolerance contributed even more than economic development to a growing sense of free choice, and thus to rising levels of happiness. 

“The strong version of the hedonic treadmill model was supported by three arguments: (a) individuals have a long-term happiness set point to which they readapt, despite changing circumstances; (b) this set-point is largely genetically determined; (c) societies’ happiness levels remain fixed over time. Recent research argues that the first two points should be re-interpreted as strong tendencies and not iron laws. The findings presented here support this reassessment, and demonstrate that the third point also needs to be modified: the happiness levels of nations can and do change.” “Taken together, these findings suggest that the hedonic treadmill model should be revised but not abandoned. The twin studies provide convincing evidence that genetic factors have an important impact on subjective well-being. And there is abundant and equally convincing evidence that people adapt to Development, Freedom, Happiness changes, so that subjective well-being levels tend to fluctuate around stable set-points. But these factors are not as dominant as earlier interpretations suggested. The hedonic treadmill model is a tendency that prevails only when other factors are constant.”  

This paper questions some of the methods of previous happiness measurement data, but also within their conclusions they write: 

“We would not expect subjective well-being to continue rising forever. Even apart from ceiling effects, recent years have seen a conjunction of favorable factors. Many low-income and middle-income countries experienced exceptionally high rates of economic growth, in the range of 4 to 11 percent annually. Rich countries had relatively little economic growth (in the range of 1 to 3%), but they experienced remarkable rates of social liberation, with hard-core opposition to gender equality and homosexuality falling by roughly half since 1981(Inglehart and Welzel, 2005).”  

“These findings suggest that subjective well-being has important social consequences: Falling levels of subjective well-being were a leading indicator of the collapse of former communist systems. These findings also have important implications for social scientists and policymakers, for they imply that human happiness is not fixed, but can be influenced by belief systems and social policies.”

It feels like summertime here – glorious, peaceful, and relaxed. The scent of jasmine is pouring in through my office windows along with the gently cooling evening air.

Yesterday I was talking with a client/friend about where he needs to put energy in his business. Hands down: “relationships.” Reaching out and connecting, mostly externally and also internally. He admitted he wasn’t doing it the way he wanted, and part of me wanted to say, “but that’s so easy!”

Then I realized that his reason for not doing this is much the same as my reason for not exercising (something he’s great at, by the way): In two completely different challenges, we each feel inadequate – incompetent – and without real hope that our efforts will work.

And we each find it incredibly difficult to persevere… and all too easy to slide that task to the bottom of the pile. I am sure there is value and insight in this feeling, some clarity to be found, but even in this quite jasmine gentleness of evening, the wisdom is beyond me.

This awareness campaign for the International Red Cross won bronze at the ACT competition last year. The idea behind the artwork is that everybody have the right to be treated as a normal human being. A healthy life is very important, compassion and tolerance is part of it.

“Every conflict around the globe, whether it’s between countries or cousins, begins when people disregard this (compassion) basic human emotion. Compassion helps us find common ground and overlook our differences by discovering that we all have the same colour blood in our hearts.”

Direct from very hard hitting osocio

Intriguing study – more evidence that being smart with feelings is key to success in life. In this case – recovery from illness.

Those with low anger control produced higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which was in turn, associated with delayed healing.

Source: BBC NEWS | Health | Anger control key to recovery

While I’m not crazy about the phrase “anger control” (because “control” is the most superficial form of self-management – kind of like someone saying you should “control your wife”), the concept makes so much sense. Feelings tied to danger (ie, stress response) focus our body on short-term problems (fight the lion).

Likely one reason feelings like hope, courage, and compassion speed healing is that they reverse stress.

Is it emotionally intelligent to fight? New study from University of Michigan divides 192 couples 3 groups based on “unfair attacks”:

1. both partners communicate their anger;
2. one spouse expresses while the other suppresses;
3. both suppress their anger and brood.

Preliminary finding after 17 years is that group 3 is at risk. Ernest Harburg, professor emeritus with the U-M School of Public Health and the Psychology Department, and lead author:

“When both spouses suppress their anger at the other when unfairly attacked, earlier death was twice as likely than in all other types.” Source: Physorg

Sometimes people think emotional intelligence is the same as “being nice.” Based on this data, though, the intelligent use of emotion is to fight! Or maybe to fight nicely.

1.1 billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day (World Bank). Using this measure, global poverty is decreasing; as of 2004 “only” about 1 in 5 people world-wide lived in poverty (but almost half of the world’s population lives below $2 per day). 850 million people, right now, are going hungry.

Unfortunately, the world just can’t afford to feed these people. After all, it would cost over $24 billion per year for 10 years to end hunger (Food and Agriculture, UN, World Food Summit: five years later, in June 2002).

Oh – but wait – let’s put that $24b in perspective.

Worldwide, there are over 15 billion cigarettes sold – about $2.25b – per DAY. Plus, smoking adds huge costs to healthcare ($76b per year in the US), drops productivity, and increases waste (World Health Tobacco Atlas)

In 2002, the US spent $22b on potato chips and salty snacks (World Watch Magazine, March/April 2005).

And the “first world” throws out far more than $25b/year. For example, the UK alone uses 8,000 tons of wrapping paper each Christmas (Guardian).

So if you’re keen to make a New Year’s resolution – consider this: While 1.1 billion live on $1/day, many of us spend over $100/day. If all of us in this category were to put just 5¢ per day into a fund, hunger could end in under 10 years.

It’s not a financial problem – it’s problem of will. Again – emotional intelligence needed here!! Maybe it’s time for us to be hungry for change.

So I’m sitting here feeling kind of grouchy – 3 weeks after emergency knee surgery, a bit painful, not able to move much, feeling sorry for myself… and slogging through email.  Cheryl Bakke Martin, one of the EQ coaches in the network, sent me a video which suprised me.

As I watched this video, first I was resisting.  "It’s so slow."  "Come on already, it’s just a day…"  But then as I listened and enjoyed the images, I started looking around.  Today It’s rainy and I was grumpy about that too — but watching the video I started seeing that differently…

I began to wonder about the gift of this day, and my responsibility in receiving this gift.  We all have choices, sometimes easy, sometimes hard – and our choices matter.  So I decided to share this with gratitude and consider the possibility that it is truly a wonderful gift to be here, now, going through this complex experience of healing and learning.

If you watch the video, please comment below about your experience!

Warmly,

- Josh

The last two days I’ve been going nonstop. Yesterday I had a call scheduled every hour. AHHHH. There’s some good research about “stress and recovery” — ie, when we stretch, we need time to bounce back. But overscheduled, the last two days have had not enough recovery. I’ve noticed at the end of the days I’m totally, completely wiped. No more room at the inn. It’s been even more clear b/c I’m not fully recovered from my cold, so my reserve-energy-tanks are not as full.

An important reminder for me is that if I go “full out” during part of the day, I end up getting less done in the full day. Life is a marathon, not a sprint.