http://optimismisaskill.com Building World Peace Through Personal Growth. Hosted by Jim McLelland Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:33:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This is the final part of a three-part series on communication, the focus of which is using effective communication skills to reduce the stress in our lives. Previously I described the communication model, and how it’s a wonder we communicate at all. I detailed a communication process that I refer ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/06/26/how-to-have-difficult-conversations/ As a method of reducing stress, with a larger goal of liberating ourselves from the either/or stressed based scarcity model of the universe, last month we began a series of podcasts dedicated to building healthier relationships through effective communication skills. If you have ever been in an unhealthy relationship (and quite ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/05/28/the-platinum-rule/ Lauryn Hill, on her 1998 CD The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, sang that "miscommunication leads to complications". Relating to personal and world Peace, truer words were never spoken, sung or rapped. There’s a process that verbal communication goes through, and when you consider what happens in that process, it’s a ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/04/23/miscommunication-leads-to-complications/ Since August of 2007, we have produced nine pod casts. The unifying theme in these pod casts is that world peace can become a reality when enough people find peace within their own heart. To that end, these pod casts have addressed subjects as raising our low self esteem, adopting ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/03/24/when-your-feet-hurt-everything-hurts/ In this podcast, I would like to share with you the most enlightening and liberating thing that I have learned in my 20 year journey of self-discovery. It’s a meditation technique called Dialog with Feelings. If you are already enjoying the benefits of a meditation practice, then I beg your ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/02/23/dialogue-wiht-feelings/ For 7 ½ years I taught drug- and behaviorally-addicted parolees in California life skills. It was a 120-hour course that consisted of four components: one was the disease concept of addiction; there was recovery, or behavior modification; there was building healthy relationships with healthy people; and stress and anger management. ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2008/01/29/a-recipe-for-personal-peace/ In an earlier pod cast entitled “Low Self-Esteem is the Root of All Evil” I suggested that for thousands of years the self-confidence of the people has been systematically undermined by the various governments, churches, corporations and power brokers of their time. The simple logic behind this observation is that ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2007/12/26/putting-a-man-on-the-moon/ A good friend of mine once told me that nothing is entirely good or bad. I think that’s what the little dots in the yin and the yang symbol represent – that everything has the potential for its opposite within it. The Buddhists have a saying, “When you find a ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2007/11/27/jewels-in-the-rubbish/ Hi, I’m Jim. I’m Dave. Jim: We are the co-producers of the podcasts here at OptimismIsASkill.com. We’re having a really good time doing this, and we’re hoping that you find the information enlightening and enjoyable. For the past four podcasts, you’ve been hearing my voice exclusively, and I thought it would be ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2007/10/31/you-can-change-without-growing-but-pt-2/ Have you ever had the experience of seeing something that you when you saw it you immediately recognized it as profound, but you didn’t quite get it? It happens to me a lot. Several years ago I was sitting in traffic, stopped at a red light, and the car in front ... http://optimismisaskill.com/2007/10/06/you-can-change-without-growing-but/