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.

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

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. Chosing 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 unconsciouly. 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 CHOICES: 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, CHOICES 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.

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 Quotes for Success, Part 4, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Sometimes we all need a little inspiration when life gets rough. Throughout history, great thinkers have come up with fantastic nuggets of wisdom. The ARISE Get Smart! Series is a virtual Fort Knox of these golden pieces of advice. Enjoy!

ARISE Life Quotes for Success, Part 4

1. “One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” – Elbert Hubbard
2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
3. “Nothing on Earth can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goals; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
4. “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” – Joseph Addison
5. “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

ARISE Life Skills Founder Edmund Benson Celebrates 79th Birthday with an International Gift

ARISE Foundation

824 US Highway 1 Suite #240                                      

North Palm Beach, FL 33408

Phone: (561) 630-2021

Fax: (561) 630-2790

 

 

CONTACT: EDMUND BENSON

Office: (561) 630-2021

Cell: (305) 582-1460

 

                                                               

                                                                               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

 

EDMUND BENSON, CO-FOUNDER OF THE ARISE FOUNDATION, CELEBRATES HIS 79^TH BIRTHDAY BY CONTRIBUTING OVER 100 LIFE MANAGEMENT BOOKS TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

 

North Palm Beach – Edmund Benson, former at-risk kid and founder of the ARISE Foundation, is celebrating his birthday by giving a gift to the international nonprofit community: the creative licenses of all of the 100 ARISE Life Skills Training materials. Benson will allow the materials to be translated into any language except for Spanish, free of charge for use in life skills training programs around the world.

 

If you keep doing what you’ve always done…

You’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

ARISE Foundation Life Skills Training courses are dynamic, interactive, complete lessons that teach vital life skills. Over 1.5 million at-risk people have benefited from our unique curiculums over our 20 year history. Some of the programs we offer:

• How to manage anger & stress at work and in the home
• How to make a choice to let go of anger & stress
• How to avoid gangs, drugs, guns, violence and teen pregnancy
• How to maintain a healthy body
• Environmental Stewardship & Awareness
• AND MUCH MORE!

visit the website for more information: http://www.ariselife-skills.org or visit us on Facebook.