Let Go and Forgive, Brought To You by ARISE Life Skills and 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 CHOICES: Drop it at the Door just for this purpose.  CHOICES 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 CHOICES: Drop it at the Door Training, visit the ARISE website.

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.

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 CHOICES workshop or the ARISE Anger Management books, visit the ARISE Website.

Dealing with Stress and Anxiety at Work, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

43 percent of U.S. adults suffer adverse health effects from stress, according to an American Psychological Association (APA) study.

Stress and anxiety are not just in your mind. They weaken your immune system, making you vulnerable to illnesses and putting you at an increased risk of allergies, autoimmune diseases and heart disease, according to the APA. Stress can trigger or worsen diabetes. Your body releases stress hormones that automatically release extra sugar into your bloodstream.

Stress can also accelerate aging. According to a 2006 studyof the APA, people with chronic stress are more likely to suffer from age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, major depression, mental decline, osteoporosis and metabolic syndrome.

Stress can even impact your weight. According to the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, the greater the stress in a woman’s life, the greater her weight.

The #1 Cause of Stress

According to The American Institute of Stress (AIS), “Job stress is far and away the major source of stress for American adults … and it has escalated progressively over the past few decades.”

Consider the following statistics from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:

• 40% of workers say their job is very or extremely stressful
• 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives
• 75% of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago
• 29% of workers say they feel “quite a bit or extremely stressed at work”

Problems at work are more strongly associated with health problems than any other life stressor, including financial or family problems

Job stress can result from any number of things, but often it has to do with fears of getting laid off, unrealistic expectations, an emotionally hazardous work environment or a physically hazardous one.

Stress in the workplace is clearly becoming a public health issue. Following are even more startling findings from a 2000 Integra Survey:

• 65% of workers said that workplace stress had caused them difficulties (and 10% said the difficulties had major effects).
• 62% routinely had work-related neck pain at the end of the day.
• 44% reported stressed-out eyes.
• 38% had pain in their hands.
• 34% reported difficulty sleeping because of work-related stress.
• Nearly one in four workers has cried over workplace stress, and 19% have quit a job because of it.
• Over half of workers say the frequently skip lunch because of job demands.
• 29% have yelled at co-workers because of job stress
• 42% say that yelling and verbal abuse are common
• 2% have actually struck someone at work.

The flailing economy and its sky-high unemployment and job-loss statistics have only put more pressure on the American work force. The fear of job loss through lay-offs, outsourcing or company closures is a very real and very stressful reality.

If you are one of the millions of people feeling anxiety, stress and pressure, what can you do? First off, make sure you are getting enough sleep, exercising, talking about things with a trusted friend and eating right. Once you are living a healthier life, the next step is to take control of your emotions. ARISE has the perfect workshop to help you do just that.

ARISE has a fantastic program called CHOICES: Drop It At The Door, which 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.

It works.

For more information or to schedule a training session, call ARISE at 1-888-680-6100 or visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org. 

* special thanks to sixwise.com for the statistics about stress.

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 thirft no priveleges. – 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.

ARISE Life Skills Training: What exactly does that mean?

Since 1986 ARISE Foundation has provided evidence based life skills training opportunities to organizations working with at-risk populations. Over the years, ARISE has been proven to make fundamental changes in the lives of troubled youth by increasing peacemaking skills such as conflict resolution, problem solving and self control. 

Here is a breakdown of the kinds of training oppotunities that ARISE offers:

ARISE 2-Day Life Skills Instructor Training (READ MORE)

–The 2-day life skills training course certifies participants on how to be ARISE Life Skills Instructors. This workshop is perfect for those with little to no teaching experience. ARISE Life Skills lessons are easy to understand, fun to teach and amazingly empowering for all involved. All ARISE lessons work for those with learning disabilities. The ARISE curricula adds structure to any program. It is non-sequential, meaning an instructor can open up a book and start anywhere. The lessons do not build upon each other, freeing the instructor to use whatever lessons they wish, whenever they wish.

The 5-Day Master Train The Trainer Course (READ MORE)

–This intensive 5-day workshop allows an individual to take the ARISE curricula and teach others at their organization how to effectively teach ARISE life skills to the youth in their care. The 5-day Train the Trainer course certifies participants as ARISE Life Skills Instructors, even if they have no formal teaching experience. Over the five days, attendees will learn how to comfortably conduct positive, interactive and engaging life skills workshops with the staff of their organization.

CHOICES: Drop It At The Door, 2-Day Training (READ MORE)

–The cornerstone of the ARISE Foundation’s Life Skills curricula is dealing with anger management. ARISE has many curricula for people on dealing with anger and conflict. ARISE developed the CHOICES: Drop It At The Door workshop for staff working with difficult  populations. CHOICES training relieves stress and conflict in the workplace and reduces staff turnover. The focus is on interpersonal communication techniques, designed to effectively defuse conflicts before they become violent.Stress management and positivity makes this program vital for anyone who works in a stressful environment.

–CHOICES helps people deal with the economic nightmare we are all experiencing: budgets being squeezed, sky-high weekly grocery bills, gas costs, credit card debt, foreclosures and unemployment.  The training solves the boomerang effect caused by stress and anger carried back and forth from work to home and vice versa. CHOICES is perfect for people who work in high-stress occupations like police, corrections and probation officers.

To sign up for a training course, browse the hundreds of books in the ARISE Curricula or learn more about ARISE, visit the ARISE website or call Toll free 1 (888) 680-6100

ARISE Foundation Reaches Milestone in their Mission to Help At-Risk Youth By Surpassing Four Million Hours of Life Skills Training.

North Palm Beach, FL – ARISE Foundation announced today that it has surpassed four million hours of ARISE life skills training around the country. ARISE provides evidence based curricula and staff training to organizations working with at risk youth.

The ARISE Life Management Skills Training prepares staff, working with at-risk youth, by teaching them the tools and knowledge needed to conduct effective and interactive like skills lessons to the youth in their care. The goal of the ARISE Program is to provide at-risk youth who receive their program with the tools they need to survive, succeed and become productive members of society.

Youth who go through the ARISE program have shown improvement in their overall behavior and decision-making skills. A five year evaluation from the University of Miami’s Department of Sociology concluded that there was significant improvement in student knowledge of issues included in the ARISE Life-Skills Program, such as anger management and violence reduction. The evaluation data also indicated that test scores improved significantly among learners of all ethnic groups (for the complete report visit www.ariselife-skills.org).

 

“When youth first arrive at our facility, they feel they have no alternative but to commit criminal or violent acts during certain situations. Our job is to make them see that crime and violence is not the answer,” explains Calvetti Pate, Assistant Facility Administrator, Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Correctional Center. “The ARISE program helps them learn other alternatives to violence, and ultimately helps them make better choices. I know they will be more successful when they get out because of what they learned in the ARISE Life-Management Skills program.”

 

For over 20 years, ARISE has operated as a developer and publisher of Life Management Skills curricula and staff training programs. Designed originally to reach at-risk, incarcerated youth in detention centers and secure facilities, ARISE is also utilized as a powerful prevention tool for teenagers and young adults. ARISE is particularly appropriate for youth with special requirements, limited reading and/or writing ability. It has been successfully used for over 20 years in the Miami-Dade Florida School System, and in over 100 Washington DC schools, organizations and secure facilities.

 

Since ARISE was established over two decades ago, they have trained and certified over 5,000 instructors who have taught over 4,000,000 documented hours of ARISE life skills lessons. ARISE is also being used in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, The Kingdom of Bahrain, and Central Asia. The ARISE curricula is presently being translated into Kazakh and Russian for use with orphans.

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25 Tips for controlling stress, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

It’s a stressful world out there. Work, family relationships, traffic, economic worries, environmental concerns… it all adds up to life in a pressure cooker. What can you do when your heart is racing and you feel close to losing control?

Relax. ARISE to the rescue! Here are 25 helpful tips to bring a little peace to your life and help you handle the strains of everyday life.

If you like what you see, please visit the online store at http://www.ariselife-skills.org for more of our fantastic life skills materials.

25 TIPS TO CONTROL STRESS:

1. Confront problems, don’t ignore them.
2. Don’t be stressed when others tease or criticize you; they may just be envious of you.
3. Identify stressful situations in advance and keep a positive outlook.
4. Reach out to a new person in the neighborhood. Be aware of his feelings and invite him to join in the activities.
5. Ask others for support and guidance when faced with stressful situations.
6. Choose your own behavior. You CAN make a difference.
7. “There are thousands of causes for stress. One antidote to stress is self expression. That’s what happens to me every day. My thoughts get off my chest, down my sleeves and onto my pad.” – Elia Kazan
8. Don’t get stressed out over things that are out of your control. Life is too short to worry about things you can’t change.
9. Take deep breaths.
10. Work to eliminate the problems that you CAN change.

10 Things to Remember about Conflict Resolution, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills Training & Curricula

Anger management and conflict resolution are a big part of the innovative WORK IN PROGRESS  series.  This series, like all the ARISE lessons, are interactive, dynamic and anything but boring! Work in Progress also features lessons on: drug prevention, peer pressure, alcohol abuse, gun safety, violence and domestic abuse and sexual abuse

Without further ado: 10 Things to Remember About Conflict Resolution.

Advice from Mom: 10 Pearls of Wisdom Brought to You by ARISE Life Skills

Being a mother is hard work. You dispense hard-learned advice just to have it ignored most of the time. Only once your children have grown, made their own mistakes and had their own triumphs, do they realize exactly how valuable your advice was.

These are 10 “pearls of wisdom” collected by the ARISE Foundation over their 20 years of life skills training. The contributors are of all different ages, races and socioeconomic levels. Everyone has one thing in common: they all learned something from their mothers. For more, please visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org