Let Go and Forgive, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

A few weeks ago, ARISE founder Edmund Benson came across a fantastic article entitled “How To Let Go and Forgive” by Leo Babauta. The concepts in the article are so crucial to happiness, yet so difficult for most people to grasp. We have all been hurt by someone at some point in our lives. Everyone experiences pain; not everyone deals with it in the same way. Certain people make a conscious CHOICE to let go and forgive. It’s not easy, but the results can be liberating.

In his article, Mr. Babauta explained the following important points about holding onto anger and resentment:

1. You must commit to letting go.  It is a constant, conscious process.
2. Think of the problems that arise from holding pain inside you. Then think of how good it would feel to not have those problems any longer.
3. Realize that you have a CHOICE. No one is forcing you to harbor negative feelings. You can control your actions AND your thoughts. Remember that.
4. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Try to understand and empathize.
5. Try to understand your own responsibility for the situation. Could you have prevented it from happening?
6. Focus on the present. There is an old chinese proverb that says “the past is gone, the future is uncertain…but the present is a gift.” When you start dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, stop yourself and live in the moment. Find the joy in life NOW.
7. Breathe. Think of each breath as a vessel, moving positive energy in and negative energy out.
8. Feel compassion. Realize that by forgiving and moving on, you are allowing yourself happiness. This is not easy, especially when you harbor so much anger towards the person. Take the high road and wish happiness on the other person. Realize that when you hold anger inside, you are only hurting yourself.

ARISE understands the power of forgiveness, positive thought and making a choice to dump negativity. In fact, we created a training workshop called Drop it at the Door just for this purpose.  Drop it at the Door is a two-day workshop with the power to change your entire life. It was designed to help juvenile justice employees and those that work with at-risk and troubled youth, but it can work for anyone. If you find yourself bringing workplace frustration and anger home to your family, or dragging financial or relationship stress to work, CHOICES can help you. Learn how to manage your stress and anger, control your thoughts and make a choice to live a happy, healthy, positive lifestyle.

To learn more about the Drop it at the Door Training, visit the ARISE website.

Smile! The many benefits of a big grin, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”  - Joseph Addison

Has this ever happened to you? You’re having a terrible day. Everything is going wrong. It seems as if the universe has pitted itself against you. You walk into a coffee shop, or your dry cleaners, or a gas station. You go up to the person at the cash register and encounter a dazzling smile.  The smile is so warm, so inviting and so sincere that you can’t help but smile back.  All the negative thoughts that crowded your mind dissolve, even if just for a moment. You smile unconsciously and hold open the door for someone coming in. That person sees your happy grin and is compelled to smile in return. And so, one smile creates a chain of good will.  Just a simple upturn of the lips and crinkle of the eyes—that’s all it takes.

Beyond the good cheer a smile can bring to those around you, a smile has numerous health benefits. Being optimistic can help you live longer! Here are just a few examples:

1. Smiling helps you fight off disease.   “The research is very clear,” says Christopher Peterson, Ph.D, a University of Michigan professor, “There is a link between optimistic attitudes and good health. It has been measured in a variety of ways. Overall, we have found that optimistic people are healthier. Their biological makeup is different. They have a more robust immune system.”
2. Smiling helps you live longer.  According to a study published in the November 2004 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, elderly optimistic people, those who expected good things to happen (rather than bad things), were less likely to die than pessimists. In fact, among the 65- to 85-year-old study participants, those who were most optimistic were 55 percent less likely to die from all causes than the most pessimistic people. What’s more, after researchers adjusted the results for age, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity and other measures of health, the optimists were 71 percent less likely to die than the pessimists.
3. Smiling is better than chocolate.  According to The British Dental Health Foundation, a smile gives the same level of stimulation as eating 2,000 chocolate bars. Eating chocolate is said to give you the same feeling as being in love. So the conclusion could be drawn that smiling gives you the same rush you get from being madly in love. Who wouldn’t want that?*

Having a hard time finding that elusive grin? Try visualizing things that make you happy. Listen to your favorite music.  Take a break and walk barefoot on the beach. Share a hot fudge sundae with a friend. Make a child laugh. Remember that everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. It’s your choice to spend that time in a good mood or wallowing in unhappiness.

SMILE!

The ARISE Choices: Drop It At The Door program is designed specifically to teach participants how to choose their emotions and leave stress and negativity “at the door.” For more information, visit the ARISE website.

*special thanks to sixwise.com for providing info on the research study about smiling.

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 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.

10 Quotes about Choices, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Choice. It defines what it means to be human. Having an unpleasant thought? You can choose to make that thought disappear. In a bad mood? Choose to be happy. Yes, it’s THAT simple. Our choices tip the scales toward misery or bliss. The decisions we make each day either propel us forward or hold us back. Choosing to constantly harbor negativity, cling to a grudge and react with anger prevents you from living a peaceful life and poisons the people around you.  If you knew you had a choice, would you chose to live that way? Probably not. The good news is, you DO have a choice.

To inspire you on your path to making healthier choices, here are 10 quotes about that spectacular human ability:

1. Choices are the hinges of destiny. -Edwin Markham
2. You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice. -Steven D. Woodhull
3. The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn. -David Russell
4. Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change and and every part of your life in an instant. -Anthony Robbins
5. Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of you life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself. – Robert F. Bennett
6. Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions -Author Unknown
7. It’s our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J.K. Rowling
8. When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice. -William James
9. It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. -Roy Disney
10. There are two primary choices in life: to accept as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” -Denis Waitley

Still can’t seem to make the right choices? Our Drop It At The Door Workshop might be just what you need. Originally designed for people who work in the high-stress juvenile justice field, Drop It At The Door can teach anyone how to change their life by changing their choices and abandoning stress, negative emotions and harbored anger.  Sign up for a training using the link above or by calling (888)680-6100.

Five Wise Quotes About Anger, Brought To You By ARISE Life Skills Curricula and Training

• A man is about as big as the things that make him angry -Winston Churchill
• Not the fastest horse can catch a word spoken in anger -Chinese proverb
• Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.  -Lyman Abbott
• Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, and eventually poisonous.  I have no desire to make my own toxins.  -Neil Kinnock
• Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved.  -Marcus Antonius

Anger is a poisonous emotion.  Each moment you are angry, your heart races, your body tenses up, your mind shuts down and your immune system weakens. A life spent in anger and resentment is a life wasted.

It’s not always easy to let go of anger. People often need guidance on how to consciously choose peace over conflict. If you or someone you know needs help controlling your emotions, ARISE can help.  The CHOICES: Drop It At The Door program teaches participants how to shed negative emotions and stop the boomerang effect of stress and anxiety ricocheting between home and work. Stop bringing your troubles at home into the workplace and vice versa. Relax and choose your own thoughts.  It is possible.

For more information on the Drop It at The Door workshop or the ARISE Anger Management books, visit the ARISE Website.

Edmund Benson, co-founder of ARISE, celebrates his 80th birthday by contributing over 100 life management skills curricula to the international nonprofit community.

Edmund Benson, former at-risk kid and founder of ARISE Foundation, is celebrating his 80th birthday by giving a gift to the international nonprofit community: the creative licenses for all of the 100 ARISE life-skills curricula materials. Benson will allow the materials to be translated free of charge into any language (except Spanish, which has been done), for use in life-skills training programs around the world.

Benson and his wife Susan created the nonprofit ARISE Foundation in 1986. The foundation has since trained and certified over five thousand group facilitators who have taught over four million documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons in Florida alone. ARISE programs are also used throughout the US, in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Botswana and Kazakhstan.

ARISE life-skills lessons are designed to engage at-risk populations with interactive, entertaining, easy-to-understand lessons about important topics such as anger management, self-esteem, peer pressure, gang avoidance, drug and alcohol prevention, the power of networking, interviewing and keeping a job, domestic abuse, etiquette and manners, conflict resolution, bullying and violence prevention, health and hygiene, stress management, stranger safety and much more.

ARISE lessons have a memorable impact on troubled youth because, for the most part, they are conducted by ARISE-trained group facilitators who carry out guided group discussions with exciting activities that are easily understood and put into practice. ARISE group facilitators inspire conversation, involvement and interest. The ARISE life-skills lessons are not sequential. Each stands on its own, making them ideal for transient populations. Everyone starts fresh with each new learning experience.

ARISE life-management skills curricula are used in public, alternative and charter schools, juvenile justice facilities, residential treatment centers, faith-based organizations, Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s After School All-Stars program and organizations that educate orphans and other troubled youth around the world. The programs are written for underachieving pre-k, elementary, and middle school children, teens, and young adults with limited reading and writing capabilities. The ARISE life-management skills program succeeds with youth who have behavior issues and special needs. Those non-profit organizations interested in the ARISE free creative licensing program can communicate directly with Edmund Benson by calling 561-630-2021 (overseas); in the US, call (toll-free)888-680-6100 or visit the ARISE website at http://www.ariselife-skills.org to download the creative license kit and get more information. #####

ARISE will present its life-changing training programs at the Florida Dept. of Juvenile Justice headquarters in Tallahassee, FL.

Dozens of representatives from juvenile justice and nonprofit organizations will engage in a presentation outlining the remarkable ARISE Life Skills and CHOICES training programs.

North Palm Beach, FL – ARISE founders Susan and Edmund Benson will captivate an audience of juvenile justice and youth organization employees at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice headquarters in the Alexander building on June 10 at 10 AM.

The Bensons were invited to give a presentation by Greg Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Prevention and Victim Services within DJJ. ARISE programs are currently used in 74 juvenile justice facilities throughout the state of Florida. ARISE has taken a multifaceted approach to improving the lives of incarcerated youth and those that serve them. ARISE trains juvenile justice staff how to conduct interactive group life skills lessons with the youth in their care. The lessons teach juvenile offenders how to manage their anger, handle conflict, build their self esteem, avoid drugs and alcohol, stay out of gangs, find and keep a job and much more. The role of ARISE and the group facilitators is to engage the learners, get them talking and show them that their opinions and feelings matter.

ARISE has not forgotten about the stress and well-being of the staff at each DJJ facility. The CHOICES: Drop it at the Door program is a powerful workshop that provides a solid understanding of how each one of us can make the choice to drop home- and work-related anger, stress and frustration “at the door,” ending the boomerang effect of bringing home the stress from work, or carrying family problems such as financial worries and marital woes into the workplace. Eliminating the harmful transference of tension between the workplace and home is the focus of the CHOICES training.

The purpose of the presentation is to introduce ARISE staff training experiences and curricula to programs unfamiliar with the success of ARISE in Florida, nationally and internationally. ARISE wants to share over two decades of inspiring positive behavioral change in troubled youth and staff. The goal of the presentation is to develop partnerships with those serving vulnerable children and teens, thereby extending the work of ARISE and adding structure to programs and providing professional training to staff that interact with these youth.

 For over 20 years, ARISE has operated as a developer and publisher of Life Management Skills curricula and staff training programs. Designed to reach at-risk, incarcerated youth in detention centers and secure facilities and on probation, ARISE is also utilized as a powerful prevention tool for teenagers and young adults.  ARISE programs consist of interactive group discussions and activities designed to break the ice quickly and grab the attention of even the most turned-off participants. ARISE is particularly appropriate for youth with special requirements such as limited reading and/or writing ability and behavioral problems. 

In its home state of Florida, ARISE were utilized for decades in the Miami-Dade School system. ARISE has forged a strong partnership with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). ARISE programs have been changing the lives of juvenile offenders in the Florida juvenile justice system since 1996. Its dynamic programs are being taught in 74 DJJ facilities across the state as well as the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs and alternative schools.

ARISE has also trained staff in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and over 100 organizations in the District of Columbia, including Washington, D.C. public and charter schools, the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, the Metropolitan Police, the District of Columbia jail and the D.C. Superior Court Probation Department.

 A recent study by Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland showed that the cost of one offender with at least six police contacts from childhood to age 32 is $3,172,998. In other words, rescuing one child from a life of crime saves taxpayers more than $3 million dollars.

 Since ARISE was established over two decades ago, it has trained and certified  5,284 Group Facilitators who have taught over 4,011,242 documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons across the United States. ARISE is also being used in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Kingdom of Bahrain. ARISE curricula are presently being translated into Kazakh, Russian. Requests for translations have also come in from as far away as Pakistan and South Africa.

For more information, or to schedule a training, please call Yasmin Isaacs at ARISE toll free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit ariselife-skills.org.