About Me

Friday, March 31, 2006

Entertaining and educational

I was at the Congregational Home in Brookfield on March 13th and this women's group was particularly memorable. There were about 40 attendees and when I was done presenting there was a definite strong feeling of pleasantness and connectedness with almost everyone in the group.

One of the younger women in the group, Jean H (and I do remember her last name), came up to me after the presentation and asked for my tel no. because she would like to invite me to another group. She used the title phrase to describe my presentation. Thank you Jean H for telling me that my presentation is "entertaining and educational" This is the highest praise that anyone can give me.

Thank you for reading this blog

When I was at WPSC on March 15th, John told me that he and Jodi have read a few of my entries. If you two are reading, thank you for letting me know. It is nice to share my thoughts and feelings with known readers.

I enjoy visiting WPSC to do my Brain Jogging sessions. This time, I recognized Pat from the previous session because she had told me the Oprah Winfrey show method to make 20 seconds tangible. She had heard, on that show, that if you sing Happy Birthday twice it is about 20 seconds.

Anyway, I did not recognize her immediately after I met her this time. She told me that she had attended last time. This was my trigger/cue to remember. As soon as she said that she attended last time, I remembered exactly where she had sat down in the room and what she had shared with the class.

By the way, I have received corroboration for this 20 second reference from an attendee in a different group.

Anyway, I was thrilled that Pat had invited her sister Diane to attend this time. Thank you for attending and thank you for reading this blog!

And yes, Ann, it was nice to meet you again as always. I appreciate how you call me "Dr.V"!

Laziness - Inertia

Why can't I be prompt about my blogs? I get lazy, Newton's first law...inertia....every body remains at rest unless it is acted upon by a force....I have to get the wording that we learned in Physics in high school.

What's the force that is making me write now? What can I do to generate this force on a regular basis?

Sunday, March 12, 2006

It's about feelings

Sometimes, you meet someone only peripherally. You hear them speak only a few sentences and you observe them in a meeting and at the end of the short interaction you feel a genuine connection with them. We don't feel confident enough to convey that connection.

Last week, I met Vanda from Latvia - a country that I had to look up on the map. She was part of delegation from Europe. At the end of the meeting, I gave her tight hug and told her that I would never forget her. She said that she too would never forget me. We acknowledged genuine good feelings between us.

Good feelings, altruism, and a sense of connectedness with the world! God bless my friend - whom I probably will never meet again!

Friday, March 03, 2006

UW-Parkside "Mind Aerobics"

Pleasantly so, the class at UWP is a go. It is a two week version of my "Mind Aerobics" class.

We met on Tuesday Feb. 28th from 6:45 to 9:15pm, let me try to name everyone in the class.

Judy, Julie, Jenny, Janice, Jan, Jasca, Joanne, Felicia (Jenny's close friend - attended each others weddings), Kathy, Gloria, Mark, Eva, and Lori. And that's everyone. God Bless them all! I wouldn't have so much fun in these classes if it was not for the interest and attendance of all of these wonderful people!

I always amazes me to see a room full of people are willing to spend a precious part of their life to listen to the information that I present in the classes. I got extremely tired this time but it was worth it! At the end of the class Gloria told me that she really enjoyed the class and wanted me to know it because she cannot attend next week. That was so nice of her to let me know.

Compassionate Meditation

In April 2005, I had referenced a blog on the topic of compassionate meditation. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by the principal researcher of that topic.

Dr. Richard Davidson, a psychology professor at UW-Madison,, presented "Be Happy Like a Monk" at the Milwaukee Public Library. The presentation was very well attended, the group had to be moved into the main auditorium. I estimate that about 200 people attended it.

I am trying to come up with a review of the details of the presentation. Unfortunately I did not take notes. Unlike Holly, who sat next to me, who as it turned out had seen the description of my "Mind Aerobics" class at UW-Parkside. This was a nice aha for both of us.

Anyway, about fifteen years ago, Dr. Davidson was asked by the Dalai Lama to study the meditation brain waves of monks. The overall emphasis being to discover if meditation can help us learn to be more happy. It turns out that monks can sustain gamma wave activity in their meditative state for much longer times that the typical adult. This is due to the years of practice that they have invested in meditation - that is the premise. My understanding is sketchy.