Read comments posted by your classmates on The School of Life Sunday Sermons from this week. Select a new video to watch and provide your reaction as a comment to this blog post.
Tell us why you chose the sermon, what you learned, what, if anything, you heard that you’d consider incorporating into a system of self-care as an idea, a method, a design constraint, etc. Include the video’s title and link.
I ended up starting 4 different videos for this assignment, although I only made it through two entirely.
After reading Craig’s comments, I began by watching “Mark Williams on Mindfulness” (http://www.vimeo.com/24884903). It was an interesting discussion on the topic as well as a few quick meditations. Nonetheless on finishing the video, I did not have a strong enough response to write an entry.
I then began watching “Jane McGonigal on Productivity” (http://www.vimeo.com/16227360) after reading Jamie and Valentina’s comments. McGonigal’s book “Reality is Broken” is sitting on my table, although I have not had a chance to read it. But after five minutes of her presentation, I was ready to move on. She is not a good public speaker.
Next was “Terry Eagleton – On Evil” (http://www.vimeo.com/15157413). I also switched off that after five minutes.
Finally I began “David Eagleman on Being Yourselves” (http://www.vimeo.com/22287909) after reading Frankie’s comments. The presentation was interesting in large part because Eagleman is a neuroscientist. He describes the conscious mind, the “part you consider you” as “just the tip of the iceberg in the brain.” Or, using his other analogy, “in the mansion of the brain, the conscious mind is the broom closet.”
He describes ways that our subconscious knows more than we do. For example, men who were shown two sets of photos. The men did not know that the women were the same in both sets of photos. The only difference was the women’s eyes were dilated in the second set. They consistently ranked the women in the second set of photos as more attractive. He explains that dilated retinas are a sign of sexual readiness. None of the men knew this, but he explains that their subconscious knew and affected their reactions.
He explains there is a constant battle in our heads between our reasonable selves and our passionate selves. A Greek analogy describes life as driving a cart driven by two horses, a reasonable one and a passionate one. The challenge lies in continuing to drive straight forward, keeping the two in balance.
This balance also requires a balance the here & now versus the distant time and place. Entire businesses have been built upon this foundation, knowing that we know don’t have faith in ourselves doing the right thing into the future (be it spending money, losing weight or other such things).
Using another Greek example, he talks about how Odysseus had to tie himself to the mast of his ship to save himself from a future self that would be enchanted by the beautiful singing of the Sirens. He then uses a more modern example of a women who needs motivation to save herself from her future self. In this case, she wants to lose weight. She decides she will give a donation to a group she hates (the KKK) should she not reach her goal.
Ending his presentation, Eaglemen quotes the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne who stated, “there is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.” With this constant battle between the conscious and unconscious self, of reason versus emotion, it is no wonder.
For this week I chose the Sermon of Richard Layard ON HAPPINESS: http://www.vimeo.com/19335075
What should be the goal of our lives? A lot of people, including me, will say, being happy. But what is happiness? What helps to develop this ideal state?
Richard Layard, the author of the book: “Happiness:Lessons from a New Science” and founding member of “Happiness Movement” which aims to promote the increase of happiness and the reduction of misery; help me to understand happiness in a different way. Many people think that their job in life is doing the best for themselves, but there is something more powerful, which is : making other people happy, make us feel happy too.
There are some things to follow that you bring you happiness:
- People feel happy when they are with other people.
- Do physical exercise
- Appreciate the world around you
- Do something new each day
- Thank the people you’re grateful to
- Be positive
In general, most of these things could sound easy and obvious, but when you thing about them, you can bring meaning to your life and other people’s lives.
I think that happiness is a framework in which other systems of self-care can be articulated.
People are concentrated in small issues that doesn’t let them be happy. Happiness is an exercise of everyday. And I’m really interested in research more about happiness in different societies and how is related with the gender, age, city or culture. http://www.actionforhappiness.org
I watched Geoff Dyer’s video “On Punctuality”: http://www.vimeo.com/11651664 It was disappointing. The sermon was not informative but rather scolding. He merely suggests that people who are late are lazy, unproductive and wastes of space. I don’t think is a truthful outlook on people who lack punctuality. I know plenty of punctual people who are lazy and unproductive as unpunctual people. I also question weather productivity is a characteristic of punctuality and intrinsically related?
My main issue with Dyer’s talk is that he offers no suggestion to make our selves more punctual (which what I expected the talk to be about). He describes life as “a sprint.” suggesting we don’t have time to be late by comparing the time we have to a hundred meter sprint. I actually agree with this message; this message, to me, meant to use your time in the best way possible—be efficient. He rants about forgetting passports, showing up late for meetings and how those people are losers. These are all monetary instances and can’t be connected to the bigger picture. His message does not persuade action.
The other issue was that I didn’t find a clear or coherent message on how mobile technology makes us less punctual. If anything I see these devices as making us more in control of our time and punctuality (perhaps making us too connected). The mobile world makes it easier for us to communicate and express our temporal existence. Overall, I think that this sermon about life should give a practical solution to the issue of punctuality. Dyer misses the point that a sermon is supposed to give us tools to cope with an issue. The happiness talk was much better.
Charles Leadbeater on Perspective
http://www.vimeo.com/10751957
I chose this Sunday Sermon because I thought it was interesting that the speaker was an expert on innovation and it made me think about what he could say about the relationship between innovation and perspective. Also, the synopsis promised stories and Paul said this talk floored him, so I was intrigued.
His basic premise is simple – we should shift our perspective on life from focusing on what it means to live a good life while young to focusing on what it means to have a good life at an old age – to the point of imagining what it would mean to die a good death.
He posits that two ingredients of a good life in old age and a good death are participation and relationships. Then he uses the stories about the deaths of his mother and father to illustrate the difference between a good and bad death. His father’s death was bad, but his mother’s death was good because she was able to maintain her relationships and take control to participate in her own death. The details in his stories – like how his father died staring at a stained ceiling in the corner of a hospital – drove the point home.
He mentions that we should create the space to talk about the process of aging and death rather than avoid it. Hospitals and medical services could be redesigned to allow this to happen – focusing on working “with” patients rather than doing things “to” patients. Charles ends by talking about the way he would envision his good death – with him fully participating in relationships with his family.
In terms of what could be applied to designing self-care solutions – a general technique from this talk that may be useful is the simple switching of perspectives – flipping an assumption around to spark new ideas or directions. But specifically, after this talk, I am much more likely to implement the constraints or considerations involving participation and relationships to make sure I am designing for the good death as well as the good life.
From many people’s good reviews from his video lecture, I decide to watch his lecture, “On Pessimism.” Start with announcement that tells us this lecture wouldn’t give you anything after, …, it draws more curiosity how much affected by pessimistic thinkings, and sadness in our life. The life is meaningless. The basic fact of human life. However, here audience with Alain de Botton will put the darkness together on the table and do with wisdom in the beauty of thinking the real life. Sadness from feeling public failure and condemn are forced and remote by society. Feeling fail and depressed is very normal feature of life. Thus, we do not have to give up too quickly and be away from them. People feel somehow injury pity in their life. Sometimes, this feeling is caused by others, or low self-esteem. However, Alain de Botton mentions that human being is small, we are very weak that we should admit, especially in terms of the death, or eternity.
He compares to Stoicism with feeling sadness, exposed to egoism.
“Stoicism’s principle applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; “to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy,” and to accept even slaves as “equals of other men, because all men alike are products of nature.”
He adds to that, feeling anger, envy, because we feel equalities from another. Also, as a human’s generic feature, it is ver natural to feel rages. From the environmental factor, we are forced to have many expectations, which deliver anger, sadness, and depressions, simultaneously, if we don’t achieve. There is a public noms of success and fail.
How to achieve is controlled rationally. we think of the very fundamental human nature stage ; ability of toleration. Additionally, he points that opportunity is for everyone. We should not feel envy towards others.
Envy : sense of opportunity, and feeling equal to somebody : you haven’t but you think you can do what others did. The feeling of envy is related to achievement.
He introduces that two kinds of styles of books that 1. you can do it. VS 2. describing low self esteem. He encourages the later one, tolerance from low self esteem. It is very natural state. But there will be a opportunity to improve yourself better. Unlikely Stoicism’s ancient Rome philosophy, in the modern life, people are suffering from life difficulties, their personal egoisms, or psychological hardness that brought by socio-expectations and measuring by social indication. Not blame to yourself, but think up the social capacities to work for people’s better life. In Greeks philosophy, people’s happiness and fortunes are from God. Even though slaves please their lives.
The speaker implies the Christian life and Buddhist life admit that fear, sadness, depression, anger are just away from yourself that redirect to the good things quickly. However, I think this is not really attainable for me, as a Catholic Christian. Christians confess their feelings of fail, or ravages that continue their life in a peace. At the same time, they admit the life difficulties that motivate their own life to be better. Understand pessimism and allow it to dominate one’s life varies in diverse circumstances. We need to learn or experts for experience for understanding advantages of being pessimism.
We precisely focus on what is important for you, facing all time.
Being against to ruin is that human achievement has a balance that getting out into the nature and history.
Finally, he recommends some remedy : discovering works of arts, musics that is pessimistic. So realize the pessimism is very normal and help to recognize many people are suffering from things we have.
sad song Music: Elton John
sad song //
premeditation. fundamental stage
Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironing out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it’s times like these when we all need to hear the radio
`Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know
Turn them on, turn them on
Turn on those sad songs
When all hope is gone
Why don’t you tune in and turn them on
They reach into your room
Just feel their gentle touch
When all hope is gone
Sad songs say so much///
If someone else is suffering enough to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it’s easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
and it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say
Sad songs, they say so much
He also adds points that :
Sadness improves your sex feel ;; sadness can bring your new date
falling in love is touching other’s sadness
someone’s sadness // want to share sadness within a relationship
advantage of living in your sadness seeing as standing in your self-room, advising us to the real ability of relationship and recovering sufferings.
Alcohol does not do anything, and look inner side yourself, and find a capacity of being pessimistic, comfortably
christian and alcohol, do good too quickly
give up too quickly, religion alike a hypocritical disease,
In a real life, between capacity of suffering and capacity of happiness exists together. tolerating suffering is absolute essential to do more good things.
give up too quickly additive comfortableness and hypocritical crisis
Suffering from sadness is a feature of life. Don’t run away from that quickly and admit the pessimism naturally.
http://www.vimeo.com/10601416
Alain de Botton – On Pessimism from The School of Life on Vimeo.
After reading Paul’s comments from last week, I decided to watch Charles Leadbeater’s “On Perspective.” I was very interested in hearing more about his perspective on incorporating both relationships and participation when designing for life from the end rather than the beginning.
Also, in one of my classes last Spring semester, I worked (in a group) on a project called “MemoLink”, which was the concept for a website (and mobile application) designed primarily for pre and early stage Alzheimer’s patients. The basic idea was to help older people suffering from early stage memory loss better cope with the daily demands of everyday life. Our goal was to enable these people, who were struggling but still very capable, continue living a high-functioning life.
Like Paul and Frankie both discussed in their posts, Leadbeater used the stories of his parents to outline the difference between a good and bad end of life. One of his more poignant points was his description of his mother’s struggle to kiss his father when they were in the hospital. Leadbeater posed the question, “Why is it so difficult to have relationships in hospitals?”
It is because most of our design energies are dedicated towards early stages of life rather than latter ones. As a result, systems dealing with the end are severely lacking. They’re much more focused on results and efficiency rather than participation and quality of experience. Why don’t we focus on designing for the end of life? Well, Leadbeater lays out a number of reasons including it’s difficult, it’s depressing, it’s embarrassing, it’s upsetting, and it’s hard. Maybe we just don’t see the point in doing anything because there’s no hope. He acknowledges there are some good systems and practices in place, including shared living, home-based care, and hospice treatment. However, for the most part, we’ve set the precedent to design “to” and “for” rather than “with.” According to Leadbeater, this has left us with a huge opportunity for improvement, possibly even a revolutionary one, which could effect the way we lead our entire lives.
Overall, the sermon left me with the notion that the end of life can be experienced with dignity and not despair. It is up to us to focus our design resources on this demographic, with the goals of keeping people involved, capable, and independent. We must challenge ourselves to design systems that care, but that don’t marginalize capability. Also, by focusing on these goals, the effects will hopefully make their way down into earlier stages of life. Leadbeater started and ended the sermon highlighting that he left his job to work at home and be close with his family. And he hopes to end his life just the same. He is living proof that a shift in focus on the latter part of life can affect a person’s life as a whole.
Speaking personally, the sermon has encouraged me to revisit the MemoLink project, which was put on hold after receiving some initial lukewarm feedback. I began to question the relevancy of the project and it’s overall potential, but it’s emphasis on maintaining personal relationships and active daily participation make it worth at least another look.