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 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 Quotes About Attitude, Brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

The world we live in is never black and white. The universe is colored by the way you look at it—attitude determines whether you see just the black cloud, or its silver lining. Attitude isn’t determined by how much money you make, how you were raised, where you live or the people around you. What makes a positive attitude so powerful is its ability to exist independently, and sometimes in spite of, the world around you.

Here are 10 quotes about attitude.

1. “The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.” —Carlos Castaneda
2. “The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” —Frank Lloyd Wright
3. “Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.” —Henry David Thoreau
4. “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” —Marcus Aurelius
5. “The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.”      —Martha Washington
6. “Everything can be taken from man but the last of human freedoms—the ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” —Victor Frankl
7. “The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” —William James
8. “An optimist is the human personification of Spring.” —Susan J. Bissonette
9. “Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” —Richard Bach
10. “To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Changing your attitude can be difficult. If you need a little help, try taking an ARISE CHOICES: Drop it at the Door workshop. The CHOICES training teaches you how to let go of anger, resentment and stress, especially in the workplace. The goal of the CHOICES training is to stop the “boomerang” effect of taking work-related stress home, and carrying worry about home issues to work. CHOICES participants learn how to drop stress, anger and negativity “at the door,” improving both their work and home lives.

To sign up for the DIATD training or find out more information about ARISE Foundation’s other programs, visit the ARISE website or call TOLL FREE:  1 (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.

10 Valuable ARISE Posts You Might Have Missed.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the ARISE blog, we thought it was time to refresh our readers’ memories on some of our most popular posts. The most visited entries are the ones featuring quotes. Here are our top 10 blogs featuring wonderful, inspiring quotations. Enjoy!

1. 10 Quotes About Choices
2. 10 Quotes to Help You Stay Positive
3. Five Wise Quotes About Anger
4. 10 Enlightening Quotes about Money and the Economy
5. Five Quotes to Ponder
6. 10 Quotes for Success
7. 10 More Quotes for Success
8. 10 Quotes for Success, Part III
9. 10 Quotes for Success, Part IV
10. 10 Thoughtful Quotes About Worry, Stress and Anxiety

We love quotes because they make us think. We feature quotes prominently in our Life Skills material. For more information on the ARISE curricula, visit the ARISE website.

ARISE Honors Barack Obama, The First African American President Elect

The ARISE Foundation offers a warm congratulations to President Elect Obama. To commemorate this historic moment, we offer five quotations from prominent African Americans. For more life skills lessons, famous quotes and information, please visit the ARISE Life Skills website.

“The orators and statesmen of our own land, whether they belong to the past, or to the present age, will live and shine in the annals of history, in proportion as they have dedicated their genius and talents to the defence of justice and man’s God-given rights.” -Henry Highland Garnet (first African American clergyman to deliver a sermon in congress.)

“Don’t doubt me, because that’s when I get stronger. I like to see the smiles on people’s faces when I show them I can do the impossible.” – Marvin Hagler (boxing champion)

“Wealth isn’t what a man has, but what he is.” -Charles Johnson (college professor)

“If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” -Micheal Jordan

“My experience is that there is something in human nature which always makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what colour of skin merit is found.” -Booker T. Washington

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

10 more quotes for success brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Greetings! People seem to really be enjoying these quotes so much, taken directly from the ARISE GET SMART! series, that we have decided to continue the trend. If you like what you see, visit the ARISE Life Skills website. ARISE designs training curicula and programs that help juvenile justice officers, teachers, social workers, parents and anyone else interested in at-risk youth learn how to teach life skills to the kids, teens and adults under their care. The programs are easy, entertaining and interactive.  Some of the subjcets covered are: drug prevention, anger management, stress management, stranger safety, internet safety, domestic abuse, teen pregnancy prevention, and more. Best of all: no boredom=no acting out.

As promised, 10 more quotes for success. Enjoy: