#634 Personal Quality of Life - Professionalism - Citizenship

     We can all agree that every one of us is very interested & highly motivated to have & enjoy maximal personal health & quality of life. What constitutes professional behavior & good citizenship, and how best to promote these is more controversial & challenging.
     Yet I've come to understand that an individual's attention to self-care & wellness, their professionalism, good citizenship overlap greatly. From the other direction, I suggest that it's not possible (except perhaps for sociopaths) to enjoy optimal health while behaving unethically. If someone commits a horrific crime, chances are s/he will be found criminally insane (innocent by virtue of insanity). But I suggest that anything short of consistent prosocial, civilized, allocentric / ecocentric behavior is unhealthy - creates needless additional suffering - for the individual "actor" and society. Individuals (except sociopaths) are an integral part of society and nature - whatever benefits or harms one, has the identical effect on the other.
     So progressive maximal personal evolution of consciousness, fully integrated into one’s life, is the path to maximal health & well-being for oneself (wellness), one's profession (professionalism) and society at large (good citizenship).
     Teaching self-care - at the deepest level eg via mindfulness (MBSR) - is I suggest, a highly effective way of teaching professionalism and good citizenship in our multicultural, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society. Our world is literally dying for these qualities.

#618 Education Without Wisdom is Hollow, Irrelevant

     Quietly, diligently, skillfully working over a lifetime, for the love of one's profession, craft or trade and the overall benefit of humanity, without interest in glory, riches or other material payoff, is prosocial, civilized, and a sign of wisdom. It nurtures a life of deep meaning and value - it is how one cultivates one's own character, as a sculptor creates a sculpture. Such a refined quality of life could, and should be accessible to all human beings.
     However, too often, too many of us are in such a frenzied, egocentric hurry to achieve goals, that we fail to consider the actual value of the goals, or the consequences. Quick results are hyped in our shallow, materialist culture as sexy, and are richly rewarded with cash and glory. Far too many of us live naively spellbound by "lifestyles of the rich & famous". Shortcuts trample other people and the environment, and sooner than later, even the "perps" suffer. We ignorantly keep adding to humanity's heavy burden of needless suffering.

                Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
                Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 
                The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
                The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
                The best lack all conviction, while the worst
                Are full of passionate intensity.
                                                                                                                   William Butler Yeats

     All intelligent, decent human beings are surely fed up with the escalating global deluge of uncivilized, antisocial, foolish, unwise behavior. 
     Human foolishness is literally tearing our world apart. Philosophers and psychologists have long advocated the urgent necessity of teaching wisdom (not only knowledge) in our universities: 
               http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/teaching-for-wisdom-urgently-needed-now.html
and 
               http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/16142/#sthash.hYxQPbDk.dpuf

     Why is wisdom completely absent from our educational system when humanity so desperately needs it? Progressive, relevant universities will surely offer not just courses, but undergraduate and graduate degrees in wisdom studies.  

     Universities, what are you waiting for?

#328 Enhancing Quality of Care, Quality of Caring & Resilience - Workshops for Clinicians & Educators

Mindful Practice: Enhancing Quality of Care, Quality of Caring & Resilience

Two separate 4-day workshops designed to improve the quality of care that clinicians provide while improving their own resilience and well-being. These retreat-like workshops offer an experiential learning environment, with a focus on developing the capacity for mindful practice – attentiveness, situational awareness, self-awareness, teamwork and self-monitoring in stressful and demanding situations. Session themes include communication with patients/families, difficult decisions, errors, professionalism, medical education, self-care and burnout.

Designed for medical practitioners (physicians, NPs, PAs) and others involved in medical practice and education.

Session I is designed for those who have not previously attended a mindful practice workshop.
Session II will offer advanced mindful communication skills, hands-on experience in facilitation, and attention to promoting mindful practice activities at participants’ home institutions.

Course directors: Ronald Epstein MD and Mick Krasner MD

Location/Accommodations: Chapin Mill Retreat Center, Batavia, NY

Information & Registration: Please call 585-275-4392 or visit the session sites below:
Session 1: October 9-12, 2013 - http://www.cvent.com/d/1cqbt1
Session 2: May 7-10, 2014 - http://www.cvent.com/d/tcqbgb

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/