Lives In Progress

Social-emotional events have a direct impact on our ability to receive, store and use new information. "Event memories are tied to specific emotionally or physically charged events (strong sensory input) because of the emotional intensity of the events to which they are linked," explains  neurologist Judy Willis  in  Research-Based Strategies To Ignite Student Learning.  "Because the 'dramatic event' powers its way through the neural pathways of the emotionally preactivated limbic system into memory storage, the associated hitch-hiking academic information gets pulled along with it. Recollection of the academic material occurs when the emotionally significant event comes to mind, unconsciously or consciously. To remember the lesson, students can cue up the dramatic event to which it is linked."  Matthew Lieberman, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA whose book  Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect , argu

"The secret is just to say 'Yes!' and jump off from here. Then there is no problem. It means to be yourself in the present moment, always yourself, without sticking to an old self. You forget all about yourself and are refreshed. You are a new self, and before that self becomes an old self, you say 'Yes! and you walk to the kitchen for breakfast. So the point of each moment is to forget the point and extend your practice."    Shunryu Suzuki,  Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind     GAMES NAME YES...AND GAME Objectives: Learn group members' names; Learn something about each group member's interests; Practice a basic "yes" exercise which is the cornerstone of improvisation; Participants stand in a circle. The leader begins by saying his/her name along with an activity he/she likes to and an action that goes with that activity: "Piano-playing Jude" while playing an imaginary keyboard. The group repeats the name and the acti