5 Quotes About Friendship and Peer Pressure

No man is an island—we are influenced heavily by the people in our lives. True friends, those  that lift us up when life knocks us down, are rare and valuable things. Especially during the turmoil and confusion of adolescence, friends can mean the difference between failure and success. Succumbing to peer pressure and picking the wrong friends can destroy your future. How is someone a friend when they seek to see you fail? Real friends share in your triumphs as if they are their own.

1.   ”The only pressure I’m under is the pressure I’ve put on myself.” —Mark Messier
2. “True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere.”    —proverb
3. “A true friend advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously and continues to be a friend unchangeably.”   —William Penn
4. “Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend but it requires a very fine nature; it requires, in fact, that nature of a true individualist with a friend’s success.”   —Oscar Wilde
5. “I can trust my friends. These people force me to examine, encourage me to grow.”   —Cher

Peer pressure  and harmful friendships are often big factors in someone’s  decision to stay in school or drop out.   For more information on resisting peer pressure and choosing the right friends, check out  So  You’re Thinking of Dropping Out of School, which will soon have a companion volume entitled “So You’re Thinking of Staying  in School,”  a  valuable handbook for how to communicate effectively,  build  healthier, closer  relationships, become a better listener and manage negative emotions. Dropping Out book one gives you the reasons why you should stay in school; book two gives you all the tools you need to follow through and get your diploma.

10 Quotes to Help You Stay Positive, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

1. “I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”
   - Martha Washington
2. “Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.” — Frederick Langbridge
3. “In seeking happiness for others, you find it for yourself.” Anonymous
4. “The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
   -Allan K. Chalmers
5. “In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, But the gratefulness that makes us happy.”
   -Albert Clarke
6.  ”What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, flower or winged air.
   -Thomas Bailey Aldrich
7. “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.” -Frederick Nietzsche
8. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” -Lao-Tzu
9. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” -Oprah Winfrey
10. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

For more inspiration or to schedule a CHOICES: Drop It at the Door training in order to learn how to control your anger, manage stress and stay positive, visit the ARISE website.

10 Enlightening Quotes About Money and the Economy, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Bailouts, foreclosures and job losses, oh my! Each day seems to bring more bad news about the economy. Reading the newspaper or watching the news is enough to make anyone anxious about the future and the state of their finances. As we go through this trying time, remember that the country has been through this before and emerged stronger.  Here are some quotes about money and the economy from some of history’s greatest minds. Read them over, think about them and try to breath. Everything will work itself out. It always does.

1. You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you. – Ruth Smeltzer
2. Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. – Benjamin Franklin
3. So often we rob tomorrow’s memories by today’s economies. – John Mason Brown
4. Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. – Warren Buffett
5. Anyone who thinks there is safety in numbers hasn’t looked at the stock market pages.  – Irene Peter
6. Men make counterfeit money. In many cases, money makes counterfeit men.  – Sydney J. Harris
7. It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours. – Harry Truman
8. We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official; a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges. – Winston Churchill
9. Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy only when others are fearful. – Warren Buffett
10. I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.  – Warren Buffett

Looking for more advice on how to manage your money, manage anger and handle stress? Visit the ARISE website and click on online store.

10 Tips to Help You Sleep, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Stress at work. Your home losing its value. Your 401K dwindling. Trouble paying the bills. Global Warming.  It all adds up to a virtual Pandora’s box of things to think about, worry about and fret over. No wonder so many Americans suffer from insomnia. NPR recently reported that 60 million of us have moderate to severe sleep deprivation.  Millions of people lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling, thinking their agonizing thoughts and wishing they were asleep.

What can you do to help yourself sleep?

Here are 10 tips for a better night’s sleep, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills. Please feel free to comment and add your own tips as well.

1. Skip the caffeine, alcohol and tobacco. A can of soda with dinner may not seem like a big deal, but caffeine can last up to 15 hours in your system. It might not be causing the problem, but it certainly won’t help you if you are already sleepless. Alcohol might make you drowsy at first, but it usually causes a fitfull night of sleep.
2. Try visualization. When you can’t turn your thoughts off, purposely think of something else. Focus on it as hard as you can. My own trick is a white room. When my thoughts are racing and I can’t sleep, I picture an empty white room. When I feel thoughts trying to encroach on my mind, I focus harder on the white room.  Refuse to let your mind wander to anything else but that room.
3. Take a bath. A warm bath before bedtime is a great way to relax body and mind.
4. Pay attention to what you eat for dinner.  Dr. Sears recommends eating foods that are high in carbohydrates and medium to low in protein for dinner if you have trouble sleeping.  Try pasta with parmesan cheese, hummus with whole wheat pita bread or non-spicy chili with beans.  Sesame seeds and turkey are great sleep inducers because of the amount of Tryptophan they contain. Don’t eat a heavy, spicy meal right before bedtime.
5. Invest in a white noise machine. I’ve had the same one for 10 years. I first began using it to drown out my college roommates. Now I use it to mask my husband’s snores and the dog barking next door.  The little lifesaver cost me about $20, but it’s value in helping me get a good night’s sleep is priceless.
6. Establish a bedtime routine. It works for toddlers, so why not the rest of us? Take a hot bath or shower, slip into some comfortable pajamas, drink some herbal tea, go to bed. Repeat.
7. Exercise. Aside from the health benefits, 15 minutes to an hour of physical activity goes a long way to help you sleep. Just be careful not to exercise too close to bedtime. Allow at least an hour for your body to wind down before attempting to go to sleep.
8. Keep a journal by your bedside. If ideas, worries or thoughts are keeping you awake, write them down. Sometimes the simple act of releasing thoughts to paper is cathartic enough to calm your mind enough to let you sleep.
9. If you are lucky enough to have a willing spouse or partner, ask them to give you a massage before bed. Kneading tense muscles in a slow, circular motion is a fantastic way to relax and drift off to sleep. Sometimes you might even fall asleep before your massage is over!
10. If all else fails, see a doctor. No amount of tips, tricks or remedies can replace the oversight of a doctor if insomnia persists.

One more way to curb insomnia is to take a CHOICES: Drop It At The Door workshop.  CHOICES is proven to help reduce stress, diffuse conflict and help you manage anger, especially in the workplace. CHOICES teaches participants that negative energy, stress and anger are all emotions you choose to take part in. By actively choosing to stay calm and release your fears, you steer your life in the direction YOU want it to go. Releasing stress and letting go of anger are important parts of getting a healthy night’s sleep.

It works.

For more information or to schedule a training session, call ARISE Life Skills and Training at  1-888-680-6100 or visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org.  Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook and Myspace.

ARISE Foundation announces the creation of an exciting series of eye-opening motivational posters, each featuring an important lesson for at-risk youth.

In its continuous effort to find fresh, interesting ways to get in under the radar of at-risk and incarcerated youth, ARISE Foundation has created a series of empowering posters that use compelling images and pointed phrases to teach lessons about vital life skills.

Each poster illustrates a fundamental skill or drives home a point in a simple, straightforward manner. Susan and Edmund Benson, the founders of ARISE Foundation, believe that the best way to reach young people is through potent images and easily understood, engaging lessons. The ARISE Motivational posters touch on key issues facing at-risk populations: drug and alcohol abuse, staying in school, domestic violence, self esteem, gang violence, anger management, graffiti and much more. The ARISE posters use original artwork and catchy phrases to get kids and teens thinking.

ARISE motivational posters can be used to inspire group discussions. They are a fantastic tool to engage youth and get them talking about their own experiences and opinions. Each poster is a self-contained life skills lesson. They stand on their own or can be used to enhance the activities in the ARISE Life Skills library. The impact of a gripping image and a powerful phrase cannot be overstated. Each poster has the potential to reach at-risk youth the way nothing else can

To view and purchase posters in a wide variety of sizes, visit the ARISE website. There are even free ARISE motivational posters available for download.

How to Attract Your Soul Mate in 14 Easy Steps, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

The holidays can be a bit lonely without that special someone to share them with. But how do you find the person you were meant to be with? There are millions of people on the planet. How do you zero in on your soul mate?

To find your other half, you need to clear a path between the two of you.  Convince the universe that you have already found him or her, and before you know it, that person will show up in your life.

It’s called the “Law of Attraction.”

Here are 14 steps to attracting your soul mate:

1. Write down exactly what it is you want in a mate…every positive detail. Keep adding to the list as you think of new traits and qualities.
2. Avoid the negatives and focus on the positives. List what you want and don’t define what you don’t want.
3. Look in a mirror and tell yourself that you truly deserve him or her. Genuinely affirm this. Deep down in your subconscious, you must absolutely believe it to receive it.
4. Feel that this person is already a part of your life. He/she is with you at meal time, exercising, shopping. In the shower, affirm it. Driving to work, feel it.
5. Make vacation and party plans. Carry on as if this person was right there beside you. Plan  your next apartment, the kind of car you will drive together. See every detail.

Five More Quotes to Ponder, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training, North Palm Beach, FL

1. “Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.” – C.C. Colton
2. “Even the poorest fighters turn into brave men when they stand side by side.” -Homer
3. “Curiosity is the thirst of the soul.” – Samuel Johnson
4. “Hopes begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work; you don’t give up.” – Anne Lamott
5. “”Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.” – Marianne Williamson

ARISE is a nonprofit foundation that trains those who work with at-risk populations how to impart life skills to the kids and teens under their care. Stress and anger management are two of the important lessons ARISE imparts to the people who need it most: the vital staff of the juvenile justice system. Turning those people who have direct contact with at-risk youth into mentors creates a more supportive and constructive environment, hopefully keeping those kids and teens from becoming another prison statistic.  For more information, please visit the ARISE website.

10 Quotes for success: brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Most of these quotes were borrowed from one of the ARISE books in the GET SMART series. Learn more at http://www.ariselife-skills.org.

1. “I do not wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to work.” -Pearl Buck, American novelist

2. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” -John Lennon

3. “I would rather live one year as a tiger than 10 years as a sheep.” -Madonna

Life Skills Lesson of the Day: 20 Tips for Dealing with Depression

The first and best way to handle depression is to see a doctor. If you feel like you have a serious problem, do not hesitate to contact a mental health professional. Don’t be afraid to seek help.

Here are 20 Tips for Dealing with Depression, brought to you by the ARISE Foundation’s team of Life Skills Training experts:

1. Have a good cry and release the tension buildup.
2. Recognize that stress is a normal part of life. Everyone feels bummed at one time or another.

What is ARISE? 10 Facts about the ARISE Foundation for Life Skills Training & Curricula

Over the last month that I have been writing this blog, our readership has grown each day. I want to extend a personal welcome to each of you and thank you for reading. I plan on continuing to bring you tips, quotes and media releases about what ARISE is up to. I also plan on introducing you to the fantastic curricula ARISE has to offer on our website. If you like what you see here each day, I also invite you to join our group on Facebook and Myspace and follow us on Twitter.

And now, 10 Facts about ARISE Life Skills:

1. ARISE was started in 1986 by a former at-risk kid and high school dropout, Edmund Benson. He and his wife Susan, an experienced teacher with a Masters Degree, started the foundation as a way to reach at-risk youth.
2. ARISE lessons teach everything from hygiene and manners to sexual abuse prevention, interview skills and self esteem. One of the most important life skills we offer is anger management.
3. The newest ARISE program is called CHOICES: Drop It At The Door. CHOICES is an innovative workshop for anyone that wants to learn how to relieve stress and manage anger, stopping the “boomerang” effect of bringing stress from work home with you or taking unhappiness from home with you each day to work, poisoning both environments.
4. ARISE co-founder Edmund Benson will celebrate his 79th birthday on September 14th. Mr. Benson still adheres to his “Two-a-Day” work ethic. He works 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
5. The Benson’s have written over 125 books.
6.  ARISE has certified 5,284 Life Skills Instructors who have gone on to teach almost 5,000,000 hours of ARISE lessons for at-risk youth and teens in the U.S. and abroad.
7. All the ARISE materials are designed for people who have trouble with reading and writing. They are easy to understand, with no large words or run-on sentences.
8. Mr. Benson has a street named after him in Miami: Edmund Benson Boulevard.
9. ARISE offers great material for pre-k, elementary and middle school kids as well as teens and adults. The pre-k books encourage young minds and inspire imagination and creativity, as well as teach basic safety skills. The middle school books help kids resist peer pressure, deal with bullies, avoid drugs and alchohol, build their self esteem and practice sound study skills.
10. ARISE is a NONPROFIT Foundation that relies on public donations to reach at-risk populations. If you would like to donate, please visit the website.

 

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