Andrew Zolli is curator and executive director of PopTech. He's the co-author of Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back (2012). Here is a brief description of the book (the basis for his appearance here on On Being) from the publisher:

IN THIS TIME OF TURBULENCE, scientists, economists, social innovators, corporate and civic leaders, and citizens alike are asking the same basic questions: What causes one system to break down and another to rebound? Are we merely subject to the whim of forces beyond our control? Or, in the face of constant disruption, can we build better shock absorbers—for ourselves, our communities, our economies, and for the planet as a whole?

The answers to these vital questions are shaping a new field of inquiry, and a new agenda, focused on resilience: the ability of people, communities, and systems to maintain their core purpose and integrity amid unforeseen shocks and surprises. By encouraging adaptation, agility, and cooperation, this new approach can not only help us weather disruptions, but also bring us to a different way of being in and engaging with the world.

Reporting firsthand from the coral reefs of Palau to the back streets of Palestine, Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy relate breakthrough scientific discoveries, pioneering social and ecological innovations, and important new approaches to constructing a more resilient world. Along the way, they share insights to bolster our own psychological resilience, foster greater stability within our communities, and establish leadership imperatives for more resilient organizations. Zolli and Healy show how this new concept of resilience is a powerful lens through which we can assess major issues afresh: from business planning to social development, from urban planning to national energy security—circumstances that affect us all.

Provocative, optimistic, and eye-opening, Resilience sheds light on why some systems, people, and communities fall apart in the face of disruption and, ultimately, how they can learn to bounce back.

Enjoy the show.

A SHIFT TO HUMILITY: ANDREW ZOLLI ON RESILIENCE AND EXPANDING THE EDGE OF CHANGE

May 15, 2013

Disruption is around every corner by way of globally connected economies, inevitable superstorms, and technology’s endless reinvention. But most of us were born into a culture which aspired to solve all problems. How do we support people and create systems that know how to recover, persist, and even thrive in the face of change? Andrew Zolli introduces "resilience thinking," a new generation’s wisdom for a world of constant change.

Listen

• Radio Show/Podcast (mp3, 51:07)
• Unedited Interview Andrew Zolli (mp3, 109:41)

Voices on the Radio

Follow Andrew Zolli on Twitter at @AndrewZolli.

Learn

Books + Music

Pertinent Posts from the On Being Blog

Andrew Zolli on Resilience and Jesuit Jedi Knights: A Twitterscript
Catch highlights of Krista's interview with Andrew Zolli about taking on society’s toughest problems and making ourselves more resilient. Also read his take on where you can find God.



Between Order and Mystery
Our Sound-Seen slideshow of James Prosek's paintings of birds and fish, coupled with his words about the myth of order.

"How Not to Help the Poor"
When do charity and aid help, and when are they counterproductive? A video from one group's perspective.

Six Americas
A Yale study identified "six Americas" when it comes to climate change. Where are you on the spectrum?

Is “Sustainability” Sustainable?
Krista reflects on the listener response and skepticism following the 2008 rebroadcast of the Barbara Kingsolver interview.

Beyond Rio and Halki: Climate Change May Rest in Engaging Hearts and Organizing Hands
The lessons from the Green Patriarch's environmental summit in Turkey may not rest in facts and data, but in our religious traditions' knowledge that inspiring people to do what's best for the good of the whole.

The Echoing Silence of Your Mind
Just a lovely pairing of poetic prose + lyrical photos to ease into the day. Take a few minutes for yourself and reflect with this contemplative piece.

Very cool - it's nice to hear Dr. Scaer after reading his books - The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and Disease and The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency - both of which should essential reading for any therapist who works with trauma. I didn't realize he also has a third book now out - Eight Keys to Brain/Body Balance.

Enjoy.

Shrink Rap Radio #321 –The Brain in Trauma and PTSD with Robert Scaer MD

Robert Scaer, M.D. received his B.A. in Psychology, and his M.D. degree at the University of Rochester. He is Board Certified in Neurology, and has been in practice for 36 years, twenty of those as Medical Director of Rehabilitation Services at the Mapleton Center in Boulder, CO. His primary areas of interest and expertise have been in the fields of traumatic brain injury and chronic pain, and more recently in the study of traumatic stress and its role in physical and emotional symptoms, and in diseases.

He has lectured extensively on these topics, and has published several articles on posttraumatic stress disorder, dissociation, the whiplash syndrome and other somatic syndromes of traumatic stress. He has published three books, the first The Body Bears the Burden: Trauma, Dissociation and Disease, presenting a new theory of dissociation and its role in many diseases. A second edition of this book was released in October, 2007. A second book, The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency, addresses the broad and relatively unappreciated spectrum of cultural and societal trauma that shapes every aspect of our lives. A third book, Eight Keys to Brain/Body Balance, released in October, 2012, is geared to a lay audience, providing a practical understanding of the physiology of the brain/body interface and its role in healing stress and trauma. He is currently retired from clinical medical practice, and continues to pursue a career in writing and lecturing in the field of traumatology.

Check out the following Psychology CE Courses based on listening to Shrink Rap Radio interviews:

• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 1 (6 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 2 (7 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 3 (7 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Part 4 (6 CEUs)
• Jungian Psychotherapy Package of the Four Above (26 CEUs)
• Wisdom of The Dream (4 CEUs)
• Positive Psychology (6 CEUs)
• Pros and Cons of Positive Psychology (5 CEUs)
• CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (32 CEUs)
• Body-Mind: Goodbye to Dualism (6 CEUs)
• Meditation & Psychotherapy (8 CEUs)

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A psychology podcast by David Van Nuys, Ph.D.
copyright 2012: David Van Nuys, Ph.D.

 

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Posted on September 25, 2012

In this TEDx Talk from Grand Rapids, Joan Borseynko (Harvard trained medical scientist, psychologist, and director of a spiritual mentor training program and expert in mind/body science, positive psychology, and spiritual exploration) speaks about the importance of resilience training for children and adults.

TEDxGrandRapids - Joan Borseynko - Resilience Now

How do we train kids and adults to face challenge with calm, creativity, kindness, and effectiveness? From the new brain science to enduring values of faith and friendship, there is an inspiring roadmap for approaching our future best self forward.

Upaya Dharma Podcasts - Elaine Miller-Karas: 8-24-11: Coming to Our Senses: Connecting to the Body/Connecting to the World

Good stuff - I so wish I could attend the training. This is the work I do, or what to do. And I would so much love to learn it well. I think Jami wants to do it, too, so maybe we will bite the bullet and drop the dollars to do one of these learning retreats.

Elaine Miller-Karas: 8-24-11: Coming to Our Senses: Connecting to the Body/Connecting to the World

Speaker: Elaine Miller-Karas
Recorded: Wednesday Aug 24, 2011

How can we come to our senses after enduring life changing events? In this talk, Elaine MIller-Karas, co-creator of the Trauma Resiliency Model, shares her experience in treating the victims of disasters around the world.

Elaine Miller-Karas has 25 years of experience in health education, teaching, and clinical consultation. She is the Director of Training and Education for the Trauma Resource Institute (TRI), a non-profit center for trauma. She is on the faculty at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center’s Family Residency Program and has a private psychotherapy practice. She lectures nationally and internationally on innovative approaches to healing traumatic stress as well as the bio-psychosocial responses to chronic illness. She has been on disaster response teams in Thailand (post-tsunami) and Louisiana (post-hurricane). Most recently she presented a workshop on Trauma First Aide in Nairobi, Africa at the Conference on Female Genital Mutilation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

 The Trauma Resiliency Model is promoted and taught by the Trauma Resource Institute, a non-profit organization. Here is their mission statement:

TRI Mission Statement

OUR VISION To restore resiliency after trauma by expanding bottom-up capacity OUR MISSION To take people from despair to hope through simple skills-based interventions based on cutting edge research about the brain.  To expand access to treatment by training the frontline service providers and responders who do the hardest work with the least resources. To build local capacity in diverse communities nationally and internationally so each may develop trauma resolution strategies that respond to their unique cultural needs OUR VALUES  As a trauma educational organization we are committed to the following values: Every individual, child and adult, has a natural-born resiliency When a traumatic event has resulted in symptoms, individuals are entitled to treatment that is gentle, effective and culturally-sensitive. High quality trauma education and intervention must be available to diverse populations and cultures. Treatment of individuals suffering from traumatic stress reactions must be accessible and affordable to all members of society. Enhancing the capacity of communities to provide for their own members rather than relying on outside "experts" creates resiliency-informed communities.

RSA - Martin Seligman: Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

Martin Seligman, one of the architects of the positive psychology movement, speaks at the RSA on his new book, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being.

Flourish

6th Jul 2011

Listen to audio - Please right-click link and choose "Save Link As..." to download audio file onto your computer.

RSA Keynote

Martin Seligman, one of the world’s foremost academic psychologists – and founder of the Positive Psychology movement – visits the RSA to offer a new theory of wellbeing, and to call for a reinvention of governance, a rethinking of education and a revolution in our personal lives.

Presenting evidence-based scientific research that shows us how to thrive, flourish and be happy, Seligman explores a number of practical examples of the power of Positive Psychology in action – such as forward-thinking schools that add resilience training to their curricula and public policy that is informed not by growth of GDP, but by the well-being of its citizens.

Speaker: Martin Seligman PhD, professor of psychology, University of Pennsylvania and director, Positive Psychology Network; author of Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being.

Chair: Geoff Mulgan, chief executive officer, NESTA

Tags: RSA, Martin Seligman, Flourish, Happiness, Well-being, psychology, positive psychology, resiliency, research, how to thrive

Heath@Google Series: When Stress Becomes Stressed Out - 5 Ways to Outsmart the Invisible Killer

This is an immensely important topic - with stress being blamed for 95% of all illness now, we need to take better care of our health around stress, including building our resilience.

When Stress Becomes Stressed Out - 5 Ways to Outsmart the Invisible Killer

Presented by Dr. Neha Sangwan.

ABSTRACT

You love your job. You also feel stressed by the constant pressure to perform. Sometimes short-term stress is helpful. It can motivate you to meet a deadline or even prompt a rapid response that can save your life. However, 95% of all illness is caused or worsened by ongoing stress. When you're stressed-out, your body releases a powerful set of hormones that raise your blood pressure, hinder your critical thinking and keep you up at night. And the more you're exposed to stress, the greater your capacity to numb out your body's warning signals that you're headed for disaster. So the question is; When you think you're being productive, how do you know if you're actually on the slippery slope to burnout? In this experiential talk, learn to outsmart the invisible killer by discovering 5 ways you can respond to internal and external stress.

Tags: Heath@Google, Series, When Stress Becomes Stressed Out, 5 Ways to Outsmart the Invisible Killer, Health, stress, mind, body, resiliency, mental health, cortisol, internal stress, external stress, burnout

Is depression actually good for you?

Around four years ago, or so, I posted an article in which the author argued that depression may be an evolutionary adaptation to create support for the individual experiencing the depression - a way of eliciting support from family and friends.

Now a new article suggests that depression can make us stronger, provided it doesn't kill us first. According to the article, a Dutch study seemed to show that people cope better with life challenges after experiencing depression, with "improved averaged ratings of vitality, psychological health, social and leisure activities, occupational performance and general health." Another study showed that women who survived depression lived longer.

Is depression actually good for you?

Experts now believe that mild to moderate depression may be good for us – and even help us live longer. Rebecca Hardy explains how to reap the benefits.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Low point: fighting depression can leave us with a more positive outlook

We constantly hear how depression is blighting our lives, but some experts have an interesting, if controversial, theory: depression can be "good for us", or at least a force for good in our lives.

To anyone in the grip of depression, which can vary from mild to severe, this may sound absurd – offensive even. Clinical depression – a very different animal to "unhappiness" or "feeling low" – is a disabling, frightening illness that can ruin people's lives and shake them to their core, but experts say that, for some people at least, there can be benefits.

"If you have depression, which, by definition, is a paralysis of motivation, it will be hard to see any positive outcome," says Marjorie Wallace, founder and chief executive of SANE, who had depression herself. "But I believe that people who go through it come out stronger. It can act as a catalyst to survival because you have looked over the precipice and seen the abyss."

This may sound like wishful thinking, but the argument has been aired before: two years ago Professor Jerome Wakefield from New York University caused a stir when he argued in his book The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Illness that if we embrace depression it can motivate us to change our lives for the better, helping us to learn from our mistakes and appreciate what we want. There is also research: one Dutch study suggested that people seemed to cope better with life's trials after depression, with improved averaged ratings of vitality, psychological health, social and leisure activities, occupational performance and general health. Meanwhile, a 2002 study from Duke University found that women who had had depression were more likely to live longer, fuelling speculation that the mildly depressed might learn to cope better and avoid harmful situations.

Other experts cautiously agree: "Depression can end in suicide, so it is not to be taken lightly," says Bridget O'Connell from Mind, "but many people say it helps them evaluate what is important. There is often a sense of 'I know I can survive', which gives self-belief and resilience." This can act as a wake-up call, encouraging people to change stressful patterns or situations. "They may find a job with shorter hours, or they may move in or out of cities."

According to Dr Paul Keedwell, a pyschiatrist and expert in mood disorders at Cardiff University, depression can do this by "taking off the optimistic sheen". In his book How Sadness Survived he argues that this has an evolutionary basis, as depression can benefit us by "putting the brakes on" and removing us from situations that cause chronic stress. "Though depression is horrible and no one would choose to go through it, it can help us be more realistic. And because it's so painful, we dig deeper and find out how not to go through it again." Antidepressants can help, adds Keedwell, "but if you carry on doing the same thing you did to get depressed, these antidepressants aren't going to work."

Tamra Mercieca, a performance coach and author of The Upside of Down, is one person who, after having suffered with depression all her life, which led to repeat suicide attempts, decided to make big life changes. These included stopping working shift work ("one of the major causes of depression"), seeing a life coach (to work through the negative thinking) and daily exercise (to boost endorphins). She also had weekly acupuncture and laughter clinics and made sure she was eating healthily and doing what she loved (in her case, writing and drumming).

She now says she feels thankful for her depression. "In overcoming the illness, I gained skills that have helped for other obstacles. I had negative beliefs I needed to work through: I was a perfectionist and nothing I did was good enough, but now I have a very positive relationship with myself. Depression has helped me to help others. Seeing how effective neuro linguistic programming, time-line therapy and therapeutic hypnosis were in my recovery, I am now a performance coach, helping people overcome depression."

According to Wallace, many people who have experienced depression go on to be more empathetic. "It can also make them more aware of other dimensions to their lives which are not so reliant on everyday measures of failure and success."

Others, however, feel there are dangers in presenting depression in this way. Journalist Linda Jones, who regularly blogs on mental health (in Breaking the Silence), and has experienced depression herself ("a debilitating agony"), thinks that people may think it applies to everyone with depression "and that people with depression need to be more resilient, which plays into a stereotype that to suffer from depression you may be weak in the first place. I'm not and nor are millions of others, we have just been ill. Depression hasn't made my life better, it has made it worse. I am resilient, hardworking and focused anyway. When someone tells me this makes my life better, I question if they understand the depths I have fallen to."

Says Wallace: "Not everyone can feel any benefit from depression. It can depend on the length and severity, or some people may not respond to treatment. But there are others for whom it has been a turning point."

O'Connell agrees that we need to be careful in interpreting the research. "Some people self-report that they feel better after depression, but after a bad episode they are bound to say that in comparison to how low they felt during the illness." There is also the recurrence rate, which can be as high as 75 per cent for people who have had severe depression in the psychiatric service, but in general is much lower than that. "People may feel better for a while and then have another bout."

What all experts agree on is that getting good support is crucial to recovery: "The most important thing for recovery and future resilience is the support of family and friends," says O'Connell. And for anyone struggling with a loved one who is depressed? "Keep the communication open so they feel they can talk, but try to get support yourself as it is distressing watching someone you love struggle. There is a positive side, however. Most people do recover, most don't have recurrent episodes, and, anecdotally, many people say they emerge more resilient and able to take control of their lives."

Tags: Psychology, depression, adversity, resiliency, Is depression actually good for you?, mild to moderate depression, good for us, live longer, Rebecca Hardy, benefits, Clinical depression, unhappiness, feeling low, disabling, frightening, illness, mental illness, mental health, paralysis of motivation, Marjorie Wallace, Jerome Wakefield

Upaya Dharma Podcasts - Real Happiness Series: All 8 Parts

Cool - great resource from the kind folks at Upaya Zen Center - this series features Roshi Joan Halifax and Sharon Salzberg. I've included the first two so that you can get a taste of the teachings - or just do as I do, subscribe in i-Tunes.

Real Happiness Series - All 8 Parts

Real Happiness explores dimensions of real happiness through the skills of meditation. This kind of happiness is the inner abundance that enables us to be generous in a world that might not proffer thanks, supports us to serve in a world where we might not see the end of the suffering we seek to eliminate. It is the source of resilience, balance, and boundless compassion.

* * * * *

4-8: Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzberg: Real Happiness (Part 1 of a series)

Recorded: Friday Apr 8, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

* * * * * *

4-9: Joan Halifax: Real Happiness (Part 2 of a series)

Recorded: Saturday Apr 9, 2011

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

To access the entire series, please click on the link below:

Real Happiness Series: All 8 Parts

Tags: Upaya Zen Center, Dharma, Podcasts, Real Happiness, Series, All 8 Parts, Roshi Joan Halifax, Sharon Salzberg, resilience, balance, boundless compassion, Buddhism, happiness, meditation, resiliency, compassion

Maureen Metcalf & Belinda Gore - Resilience Through The Integral Lens – A Case Study

I'm way behind on this, but there are some excellent articles in the current issue of The Integral Leadership Review. Resilience is one of the hot topics in psychology research - in this article Maureen Metcalf & Belinda Gore use a case study to look at resilience through an integral perspective.

Resilience Through The Integral Lens – A Case Study

Maureen Metcalf and Belinda Gore

Belinda Gore

Maureen Metcalf

This article takes a look at resilience through an integral lens. We will explore how we define it, how we applied it to a client project, our findings, and our analysis.

Our objective in writing this article is to contribute to the literature of applied integral theory about leadership development through sharing our learnings. These theories, and our application of them, are a work in process. We (Maureen Metcalf and Belinda Gore) have been teaching resilience using an evolving approach for several years. The initial work was developed and delivered by Belinda and used at MeadWestvaco, a global packaging company, which was moving the operations of a plant from Ohio to Mexico. We have continually refined the initial materials and they have become an important building block for our resilience training and coaching, as well as an important part of how we talk about leadership and the skills we help our leadership clients develop. We hope that others can learn from our experience as we continue to gain knowledge ourselves through this process.

Resilience Overview

As leaders we must remain flexible in the face of change and the unknown. In the process we evolve to better fit our shifting economic and technological environment while maintaining our focus on vision and long term goals. We believe healthy leadership development means that leaders, in the midst of continual change, actually change themselves as well as their organizations.

Several studies, including a book written by Daniel Todd Gilbert entitled Stumbling on Happiness, support the idea that, after a period of adjustment, we return to our prior level of happiness no matter what happens to us. In order for this to happen, it is helpful to take a broad perspective and remember that what we are going through is part of larger cycles, and that whatever we are feeling (good or bad) will pass.

In engineering terms, resilience is measured as how much disturbance a system can absorb before it breaks down. In leadership terms, we define it as the ability to adapt in the face of multiple changes while continuing to persevere toward strategic goals. In our very dynamic work environments we, as leaders, must build resilience in ourselves as well as in our employees.

Leader resilience focuses on the leader as a person. It is a subtle distinction, but the underlying thought is this: as a leader, I need to be personally healthy and strong to do a good job in my leadership role. If I am unhealthy as a person, I am unable to lead effectively.

Case Study Company Profile

MeadWestvaco, a global packaging company operating in 30 countries, is known for its brands in healthcare, personal and beauty care, food, beverage, media and entertainment, and home and garden industries. The company employs 22,000 people worldwide and serves customers in 100 nations. In 2009, an effort to strategically reduce costs and overhead included plans to close its MWV Calmar facility, a pump and dispensing manufacturing and distribution operation located in Washington Court House, Ohio.

The company consolidated production and equipment with San Luis Potosi and moved from Washington Court House to Monterey, Mexico. As an outside contractor Potosi offered more seamless scalability and featured more advanced production equipment and processes.

Go read the whole article.

Tags: Maureen Metcalf, Belinda Gore, Resilience Through The Integral Lens, Case Study, MeadWestvaco, Daniel Todd Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, Integral leadership Review, applied integral theory, leadership development, Integral, leadership, coaching, resiliency

Authors@Google: Parag Khanna

Parag Khanna spoke to the Google staff in Mountain View, California on January 20, 2011 about his latest book, How to Run The World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance. I wonder about his optimism. I would like to believe that if the kinds of people he wants to gather together would work in the best interests of societies, and not of themselves, but I am skeptical. On the other hand, governments aren't going to do it, so if we are going to change things, there needs to be a cooperation between the wealthy elite and the average person.

About the book:

"Adventurer-scholar Parag Khanna's How to Run the World (Random House) is a bold account of our current global chaos and a road-map for creating a truly resilient and stable world. Khanna's new book describes how we have entered a new Middle Ages, with Asian empires, Western militaries, Middle Eastern sheikhdoms, magnetic city-states, wealthy multinational corporations, elite clans, religious zealots, tribal hordes, and potent media seething in an ever more unpredictable and dangerous storm. But just as that initial "dark age" gave way to the Renaissance, Khanna believes that our time can become a great and enlightened age as well.

Khanna reveals how a new "mega-diplomacy" consisting of coalitions among motivated technocrats, influential executives, super-philanthropists, cause-mopolitan activists, and everyday churchgoers can assemble the talent, pool the money, and deploy the resources to make the global economy fairer, rebuild failed states, combat terrorism, promote good governance, deliver the basics of food, water, healthcare and education to those in need, and prevent environmental collapse. Super-philanthropists like Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and George Soros, celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie, companies from Royal Dutch Shell to Western Union, and NGOs like Oxfam and Avaaz are all leading practitioners of mega-diplomacy."

Tags: Authors@Google, Parag Khanna, How to Run The World, Charting a Course, Next Renaissance, global chaos, road-map, creating resilience, stable world, mega-diplomacy, motivated technocrats, influential executives, super-philanthropists, cause-mopolitan activists, everyday churchgoers, change, resiliency, globalization, cooperation, society

Introducing a New Jounral - International Journal of Wellbeing

This looks like a move in the right direction - I would assume this is an extension of the positive psychology movement (Martin Seligman is co-author of an article in this inaugural edition). The International Journal of Wellbeing debuted last month I believe, and it seems to be an open access publication.

Here are some selections from their "About the Journal" page:

The International Journal of Wellbeing welcomes timely original high-quality scholarly articles of appropriate length on the topic of wellbeing, broadly construed. Although focused on original ideas, the International Journal of Wellbeing also publishes competent and timely review articles and critical notices. Book reviews are at the request of the editors only.We encourage submissions that are genuinely interdisciplinary (i.e. that draw on research from more than one discipline and will be of value to wellbeing researchers from more than one discipline), but we will also consider wellbeing research that is uni-disciplinary if it is of exceptional quality. Uni-disciplinary submissions should be from within the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, or economics.
___

Some submissions will be immediately rejected by the editors. Submissions that are sent for review are subject to a rigorous blind review process. At least two experts will review the submission. Everyone involved in the review process will hold all information contained in the paper as confidential until publication. Peer reviewers are usually asked to submit their review within four weeks.

The International Journal of Wellbeing provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Please note that the authors retain the copyright to their work and that the International Journal of Wellbeing has the right of first publication of the work.

All content of the International Journal of Wellbeing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. This license allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The license also prevents others from using the work for profit without the express consent of the author(s). The license also prevents the creation of derivative works without the express consent of the author(s). Note that derivative works are very similar in nature to the original. Merely quoting (and appropriately referencing) a passage of a work is not making a derivative of it.
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The decision to close the hyphenated gap between ‘well’ and ‘being’ is intentionally forward looking. We know that in some disciplines (e.g. philosophy) wellbeing is still hyphenated. A cursory glance over journals from other disciplines demonstrates that many of them are already making the transition to dropping the hyphen. We expect that the hyphen will eventually disappear from all disciplines because of how the term is usually used. Both ‘well-being’ and ‘wellbeing’ most often refer to the general subject or topic of what makes a life go well for someone; they both tend to include consideration of things that makes peoples’ lives go better and worse. To avoid confusion about when ‘well-being’ means the opposite of ill-being and when it means the topic of what makes a life go well for someone, we propose the following. ‘Wellbeing’ should to refer to the topic of what makes a life go well for someone and ‘well-being’ should refer to the more specific concept – the opposite of ill-being.

The table of contents for this first issue looks good. Their editorial and advisory board is impressive - a lot of well-known names:

Editors

Dan Weijers, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Aaron Jarden, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, New Zealand
Nattavudh Powdthavee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Advisory Board

Roger Crisp, St Anne's College Oxford University, United Kingdom
Paul Dolan, London School of Economics, United Kingdom
Bruno S. Frey, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University, United States
Irwin Goldstein, Davidson College, United States
Carol Graham, The Brookings Institution, United States
Dan Haybron, Saint Louis University, United States
John Helliwell, University of British Columbia, Canada
Todd Kashdan, George Mason University, United States
Simon Keller, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Simon Kemp, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Richard Kraut, North Western University, United States
Stephen Palmer, City University London, United Kingdom
Richard D. Parry, Anges Scott College, United States
Mozaffar Qizilbash, University of York, United Kingdom
Toni Ronnow Rasmussen, Lund Universitet, Sweden
Ken Sheldon, University of Missouri, United States
David Sobel, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States
Michael Steger, Colorado State University, United States
Torbjörn Tännsjö, Stockholm University, Sweden
Dianne Vella-Brodrick, Monash University, Australia

Section Editors

Nicholas Agar, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Erik Angner, University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States
Lisa Bortolotti, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Christopher J. Boyce, Paris School of Economics, France
Ben Bradley, Syracuse University, United States
George Burns, Edith Cowan University, Australia
Ramon Das, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Dale Dorsey, University of Kansas, United States
Michalis Drouvelis, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Elizabeth Dunn, University of British Columbia, Canada
Owen Flanagan, Duke University, United States
Suzy Green, Sydney University, Australia
Chris Heathwood, University of Colorado, United States
Paul E. Jose, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Georgios Kavetsos, City University, United Kingdom
Simon Luechinger, University of Luzern, Switzerland
Michael McBride, University of California, Irvine, United States
Lindsay G. Oades, University of Wollongong, Australia
Evgeny Osin, State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Acacia C. Parks, Reed College, United States
Richard D. Parry, Anges Scott College, United States
William Ransome, Griffith University & Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Daniel Russel, Wichita State University, United States
Claudia Senik, Paris School of Economics, France
Tim Sharp, University of Technology Sydney & RMIT University, Australia
Angus Skinner, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Alena Slezackova, Masaryk University & the Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Margarita Tarragona, Iberoamericana University, Mexico
Neil Thin, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Stephen Wu, Hamilton College, United States
Jingping Xu, University of Texas, United States

Tags: International Journal of Wellbeing, Psychology, emotions, resiliency, well-being, interdisciplinary, mental health

Elissa Epel - The New Science of Stress and Stress Resilience

Learn how to build mental and physical resilience when managing the stress of everyday life. Series: "UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public" [1/2011] - Elissa Epel, PhD., UCSF Department of Psychiatry.

Tags: Elissa Epel, New Science of Stress, Stress Resilience, mental resilience, physical resilience, managing stress, resiliency, Psychology, stress, Health

ZOOM’D Leadership - Marilyn Hamilton and Integral City

If you have not checked out Marilyn Hamilton's Integral City website and blog, or her book, also called Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, you're missing one of the important thinkers in the integral community.

Here she is interviewed by John D. Schmidt for ZOOM'D Leadership, a podcast on the VoiceAmerica business channel. It's nice to see her message getting out to a wider base.

ZOOM’D Leadership w/ host(s) John D. Schmidt

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Now Playing: Integral City

Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, founder of Integral City and TDG Global Learning Connections, and author of Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, joins ZOOM’D to explore how our cities can best be viewed and developed as “whole living systems.” Just as a beehive is for honey bees, the Integral City serves as the collective habitat for human beings, with qualities that create optimal conditions for innovation and resilience. Marilyn introduces the twelve evolutionary intelligences for leaders in the human hive and shows how these intelligences manifest in the three frames presented in her book: the Map, the Mesh, and the Human Hive. Overall, Marilyn addresses three core questions: “What is a healthy city?”, “What is the city of the future?” and “What is eco-resilience?” Join Marilyn and ZOOM’D host John Schmidt as they continue to explore the era of extraordinary change—and the role of the Integral City as part of it all.

Tags: ZOOM’D Leadership, Marilyn Hamilton, Integral City, John D. Schmidt, evolutionary intelligences, human hive, map, mesh, innovation, resilience, Integral, cities, society, community, Psychology, resiliency

Greater Good - Does Happiness Make Us Selfish?

Interesting summaries of three new research articles from the Greater Good blog (UC Berkeley). In a new study, happy people are more selfish than sad people - which seems opposite of what one might guess.

Two other studies look at the important of resilience and the benefits of emotional regulation in compassion and gratitude.

Does Happiness Make Us Selfish?

By Neha John-Henderson, Bernie Wong | November 12, 2010

Summaries of new research on happiness and fairness, how to recover from being wronged, and why you should see yourself as resilient.

* This new Greater Good section, Research Digests, offers short summaries of recent studies on happiness, empathy, compassion, and more. Quick to read, easy to digest—we review the research so you don’t have to! Subscribe to the Research Digests RSS feed to receive future digests.

When Happiness Makes Us Selfish, But Sadness Makes Us Fair: Affective Influences on Interpersonal Strategies in the Dictator Game.

Tan, H.B, Forgas, J. P. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 46 (3), May 2010, 571-576.

What makes a person more likely to share with others? In this study, researchers gave participants 10 raffle tickets and asked them to decide how many tickets to keep for themselves and how many to give to someone else. The more tickets they kept for themselves, the more likely they were to win a $20 prize. A series of three experiments consistently showed that being in a happy mood increased selfishness and that sad participants were more fair in their distribution of resources. In addition, if participants were told about prior participants who’d distributing their tickets in an unfair manner, their mood was more likely to influence their behavior—they were less influenced by the social norm of fairness, the researchers conclude. These results contradict the conventional wisdom that positive emotions lead to positive social outcomes. —Neha John-Henderson

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Resilience as the Ability to Bounce Back From Stress: A Neglected Personal Resource?

Smitha, B. W.; Tooleya, E. M.; Christophera, P. J.; Kay, V.S. The Journal of Positive Psychology, Vol. 5 (3), May 2010, 166 - 176.

Psychologists define “resilience” as the ability to bounce back from stress, protecting us from its negative health effects. The results of this study suggest that the mere belief that one is resilient leads to less negative emotion and more positive emotion, less physical symptoms of illness, and less perceived stress. This was true regardless of how optimistic participants were or how much they felt they had a purpose in life. This research may reflect an important phenomenon: that the beliefs a person has about his or her ability to be resilient may be as related to health outcomes as whether the person actually does bounce back when they find themselves in a stressful situation. —Neha John-Henderson

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Compassion-focused Reappraisal, Benefit-focused Reappraisal, and Rumination After an Interpersonal Offense: Emotion-regulation Implications for Subjective Emotion, Linguistic Responses, and Physiology.

Witvliet, C. ,et al. The Journal of Positive Psychology, Vol. 5 (3), May 2010, 226-242.

After someone hurts or offends us, research shows, how we think about that event can make things worse: Persistent negative thinking, known as rumination, can increase negative emotions, raise blood pressure, and worsen depression. But this study offers more positive alternatives. Researchers had participants ruminate about an incident in which another person had hurt or offended them, focusing on how it had adversely affected their life. Then, half the participants were told to try more compassionate thinking, directing positive feelings and kindness towards the offender; the other half were told to focus on benefits that came from the offense, such as how they may have grown stronger as a result of it. Researchers found that those who thought compassionately felt greater empathy and forgiveness toward the offender, while those who focused on benefits felt more gratitude. Both groups felt happier overall, and both groups showed physical signs of positive emotion such as more smiling, slowed heartbeats, and reduced tension beneath the eyes and in the brow. —Bernie Wong

Tags: Greater Good, Neha John-Henderson, Bernie Wong, Does Happiness Make Us Selfish?, health, negative emotions, optimism, positive emotions, positive psychology, resilience, stress, health, optimism, compassion, resiliency, positivity, depression, emotions, empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, rumination

Alexandra Carmichael - The Evolutionary Psychology of Happiness

Nice post from Alexandra Carmichael at The Future Now blog from the Institute for the Future. Carmichael looks at one of the newer mindfulness-based versions of CBT, Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT), a therapeutic approach that is growing in popularity.

The Evolutionary Psychology of Happiness

In contrast to the popular lore about achieving happiness by changing your thoughts, there's a new theory in town.

Steven Hayes, Russ Harris, and others are popularizing a new kind of therapy called Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT). It has roots in both evolutionary psychology and mindfulness.

The evolutionary psychology piece comes in when you start to realize that humans evolved to: first, not get killed, and second, worry about rejection by the tribe, danger in unfamiliar territory, and accumulating as much of value as possible.

Although we don't live in our ancestral habitats any more, the evolutionary wiring remains, so we fear rejection, get anxious in new situations, and are never satisfied, no matter how much stuff we have. Happiness is just not a normal state for humans, or arguably any life form for that matter.

The mindfulness piece of ACT helps you to recognize and accept the protective negative bias of your brain, to let the thoughts be there and give them space, but not to necessarily listen to them or do anything about them. Notice the thoughts and then let them pass, with great compassion and gentleness for yourself.

Here's an excerpt from Russ Harris' website and book The Happiness Trap, the clearest guide to ACT I've read:

"There are six core processes in ACT:

1. Connection means being in the present moment: connecting fully with whatever is happening right here, right now.
2. Defusion means learning to step back or detach from unhelpful thoughts and worries and memories: instead of getting caught up in your thoughts, or pushed around by them, or struggling to get rid of them, you learn how to let them come and go – as if they were just cars driving past outside your house. You learn how to step back and watch your thinking, so you can respond effectively - instead of getting tangled up or lost inside your thinking.
3. Expansion means opening up and making room for painful feelings and sensations. You learn how to drop the struggle with them, give them some breathing space, and let them be there without getting all caught up in them, or overwhelmed by them; the more you can open up, and give them room to move, the easier it is for your feelings to come and go without draining you or holding you back.
4. The Observing Self is the part of you that is responsible for awareness and attention. We don’t have a word for it in common everyday language – we normally just talk about the ‘mind’. But there are two parts to the mind: the thinking self – i.e. the part that is always thinking; the part that is responsible for all your thoughts, beliefs, memories, judgments, fantasies etc. And then there’s the observing self – the part of your mind that is able to be aware of whatever you are thinking or feeling or doing at any moment. Without it, you couldn’t develop those mindfulness skills. And the more you practice those mindfulness skills, the more you’ll become aware of this part of your mind, and able to access it when you need it.
5. Values are what you want your life to be about, deep in your heart. What you want to stand for. What you want to do with your time on this planet. What ultimately matters to you in the big picture. What you would like to be remembered for by the people you love.
6. Committed action means taking action guided by your values – doing what matters – even if it’s difficult or uncomfortable

When you put all these things together, you develop something called psychological flexibility. This is the ability to be in the present moment, with awareness and openness, and take action, guided by your values. In other words, it’s the ability to be present, open up, and do what matters. The greater your ability to do that, the greater your quality of life – the greater your sense of vitality, wellbeing and fulfillment."

This "psychological flexibility" sounds like an important step in building resilience, which we talk about often in the Health Horizons Program at IFTF. ACT offers a new look at happiness that includes negative emotions instead of suppressing them, an approach that I find refreshing and also very helpful in my own quest for happiness.

Tags: Psychology, happiness, evolution, resiliency, Alexandra Carmichael, The Evolutionary Psychology of Happiness, The Future Now, Institute for the Future, Acceptance and Commitment therapy, ACT, mindfulness, CBT, psychological flexibility