Best Of - Michael Anthony

Afghanistan – War

May 20, 2011 Michael Anthony

It’s hard to believe, that will all the coverage of The Terminator’s illegitimate child, Katie Couric leaving evening new and Newt Gingrich running for office, that there’s a war going on, but apparently there is. The war in Afghanistan, often known as ‘The Forgotten War,’ has been going on for over a decade and troop morale is reported to be at one of its lowest points. And who could blame them. The troops are overseas fighting, and risking their lives, and the biggest news story is about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his illegitimate child. It’s pathetic!

Here’s a relevant story from Pauline Jelinek of the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — As fighting and casualties in Afghanistan’s war reached an all-time high, U.S. soldiers and Marines there reported plunging morale and the highest rates of mental health problems in five years.

The grim statistics in a new Army report released Thursday dramatize the psychological cost of a military campaign that U.S. commanders and officials say has reversed the momentum of the Taliban insurgency.

Military doctors said the findings from a battlefield survey taken last summer were no surprise given the dramatic increase in combat, which troops reported was at its most intense level since officials began doing mental health analyses in 2003.

“There are few stresses on the human psyche as extreme as the exposure to combat and seeing what war can do,” Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said at a Pentagon news conference.

Some 70 percent to 80 percent of troops surveyed for the report said they had seen a buddy killed, roughly half of soldiers and 56 percent of Marines said they’d killed an enemy fighter, and about two-thirds of troops said that a roadside bomb – the No. 1 weapon of insurgents – had gone off within 55 yards of them.

Most of those statistics were significantly higher than what troops said they experienced in the previous year in Afghanistan as well as during the 2007 surge of extra troops into the Iraq war, the report said.

Some 20 percent of troops said they had suffered a psychological problem such as anxiety, severe stress or depression. Considering the intense levels of combat they are seeing, that number may actually be small, said Col. Paul Bliese, who led the last three survey teams to the battlefield, in 2007, 2009 and 2010.

“We would have expected to see a much larger increase in the mental health symptoms and a much larger decrease in morale … based on these incredibly high rates of exposure” to traumatic combat events, Bliese said. The report’s authors took the statistics as evidence that the force is resilient, a trait the military has been working to develop in troops.

The report is a snapshot of the health of the forces in Afghanistan last year, drawn by a mental health team that polled more than 900 soldiers, 335 Marines and 85 mental health workers on the battlefield in July and August, as troops surged into the country under the Obama administration’s new strategy for fighting the insurgency.

President Barack Obama sent an additional 30,000 troops there last year to build the force to the current 100,000. Commanders and administration officials say the push has weakened the Taliban, and a limited troop withdrawal is planned by this July.

Troops said they were receiving better training in suicide prevention and other coping strategies and that mental health treatment was easier to get at the warfront.

“I do believe we’re making progress,” Schoomaker said.

But a particularly stubborn problem for the Army persisted: About 50 percent of soldiers said they believe getting professional help for their problems would make them appear weak. Defense officials have gone to great lengths over a number of years to encourage troops to get treatment, and Marines made some headway in reducing the perceived stigma, according to the report.

Americans “have not solved this problem in the civilian world,” said Dr. Robert Heinssen, a research director at the National Institute of Mental Health.

The military says it boosted the mental health staff in the Afghanistan to 1 for every 646 soldiers last year, compared with 1 for every 1,123 in 2009.

“War affects everyone … and most are able to deal with their experiences and move on to stable, productive lives,” said Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “Key to coping with those experiences is available care, access to care and knowing that you are not alone.”

Some of the report’s highlights:

_ Only 46.5 percent of soldiers said their morale was medium, high or very high last year, compared with 65.7 percent in 2005. For Marines, it was only 58.6 percent last year compared with 70.4 percent when they were surveyed in 2006 in Iraq. (The report compares numbers of the Marine to their time in Iraq because they were not in Afghanistan in significant numbers before the surge.)

_ Nearly 80 percent of Marines and soldiers said they’d seen a member of their unit killed or wounded, compared with roughly half who said that in the earlier years.

_ Nearly 1 in 5 soldiers and Marines reported psychological problems such as acute stress, depression or anxiety last year, compared with 1 in 10 among soldiers in 2005 and about 1 in 8 among Marines in 2006.

_ The use of drugs for mental health or combat stress was lower among soldiers and Marines than among civilians in the same age group. If you or someone know you is suffering with drug and alcohol abuse, consider a drug rehab program as a treatment option.

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Battlestar Galactica – Can Emotions Die?

May 12, 2011February 24, 2016 Michael Anthony

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m a total Sci Fi nerd. And I’ve been watching that TV show Battlestar Galactica…I won’t get into details about what the show’s about, but I’m on season 3 and the show has got me thinking about emotions.

There’s a certain spectrum of emotions that people feel and some people can and will live their entire lives without feeling certain emotions–and that’s a good thing in most cases, kinda. A white, middle class, christian, protestant, male, etc, will most likely never know the feeling of oppression. An African-American who grew up down south in the 1950’s, someone who’s still alive today, carries with him the memory of those emotions, the memory of what it FEELS like to be oppressed. Like cigarette smoke on a carpet, it will always be there and you can’t wash or beat it out. But here’s my question…

If only certain people feel an emotion, and if a society learns its lesson and never oppresses again, then once those last few oppressed die, does the feeling die with them?

If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

If a feeling exists but no one’s there to feel it, does it still exist?

What does that mean about emotions if they can be killed? And if they can’t? Could there be undiscovered emotions or ones that have become extinct?

I think I can give the best answer by paraphrasing a once great General. “Emotions don’t die, they just fade away into the twilight.’ So I suppose it’s up to use to propagate certain emotions and to force others into the twilight.

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Bright Yellow Sun – Original Poem

April 26, 2011 Michael Anthony

Of my countrymen
I dreamed,
All of us looking
At each other
In different ways
Beneath white clouds,
On a tiny blue planet,
Rotating around
A bright yellow sun.

Me, my fellow Americans
And all creatures:
Laughing, crying,
Hurting? and loving?

We spin
And the rotation
Is felt
From planet to planet
And universe to universe
Nothing can stop our rotation
From being touched
By everything,
And nothing ever will

Michael Anthony is an Iraq War Veteran and is the Author of: Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Destruction, and Dishonor in Iraq.

Related Poems:

American Soldier Poem.

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Veteran Wellness and The War Within – Guest Post – Part 2

April 19, 2011 Michael Anthony

The Veteran Code of Health’s fourth chapter focuses on Nutrition. After subsisting on military rations for any extended period of time, the definition for what qualifies as food could easily get distorted. Yet with the body turning over approximately two billion red blood cells every second, you literally are what you eat. Thus, the following rules should be implemented when determining whether or not it should be on your plate:

–if God didn’t make it, don’t eat it.
–if you cannot pronounce an ingredient in a food, don’t eat it.
–if it hasn’t been on this earth for 5000+ years, don’t eat it.
–if it won’t keep your dog alive, don’t eat it.
–the more ingredients in a food, the worse it is for you.

–the longer the shelf life of a food, the worse it is for you (the exceptions to the rule are raw seeds/nuts and fermented foods like sauerkraut).
–stay away from HYDROGENATED /PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED foods (baked goods are a major culprit).
–stay away from ARTIFICIAL COLORS/SWEETENERS/FLAVORS or PRESERVATIVES (just about anything pre-packaged).

–eat organic/local—it’s better for you and the environment.

–eat a balance of macronutrients (carbohydrate/fat/protein) at every meal/snack.

What we put into our mouths is recognized by the body as either a food or a toxin. Food supports and nourishes the body, allowing a miraculous array of chemical reactions to take place to run our metabolic pathways. Toxins, on the other hand, must be eliminated before they can reach dangerous levels and threaten the very survival of the body.

Of course, it takes nutrition from REAL food to “take out this trash.” When these nutrients are unavailable, as so often happens from eating typical, processed to death non-foods (foods so void of nutrition that they take more from the body than they give), the body cannot get rid of these toxins. Nature has provided us, however, with an ingenious method to store these toxins safely until such factors are present that allow us to eliminate them. It’s called fat. Not just a storage site for excess calories, one of fat’s major roles in the body is to attract toxins and store them away from essential bodily organs.

The average American eats approximately 150lbs of carcinogenic food additives each year. Our nutrition is so poor that we could not hope to assimilate and metabolize all of the C.R.A.P. (Caffeine, Refined sugar/flour, Alcohol, Pasteurized dairy/juice) not to mention pesticides, artificial colors/flavors, and preservatives commonly found in the American diet. The result is weight gain as the body shuttles this barrage of toxins into our fat stores. Additionally, all of these processed non-foods actually rob us of nutrition: to digest this mountain of C.R.A.P., the protein, vitamins, and other essential nutrients our food should have provided are stolen from our tissues. This creates inefficient organs, weaker muscles, and brittle bones and teeth. We’re literally starving to death on full stomachs! Fortunately, books by people like Paul Chek, Loren Cordain, or Michael Pollan are getting into the hands of more people who are becoming increasingly concerned with their internal environment.

The default solution for a faulty diet is typically exercise. But performed incorrectly, it can only magnify the dietary destruction. Thus, the inclusion of Movement as the fifth subject in the Veteran’s Code of Health is incredibly important. After all, exercise is a stress. And if you stress as system which is already under load, you risk breaking that system.

The body is meant to move. Movement helps blood circulation and lymph flow, allowing the body to deliver nutrition and eliminate toxins as well as other byproducts of cellular functioning. But it takes energy to exercise. And if a person is energy deficient secondary to detrimental lifestyle considerations that have kept the SNS in a state of perpetual stimulation, then there is nothing left for that person to give. Working out can literally be the straw which broke the camel’s back. The solution then is not to workout but to work in.

In contrast to working out, when a person is actually taking energy and resources away from the body, working in is any activity which helps increase the vitality of an individual. Examples include tai chi, basic yoga, or even gentle walking. Paul Chek, in his book How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy, lists a number of different movements which he refers to as Zone Exercises. All of them are extremely effective at balancing the autonomic nervous systems (i.e. the SNS and PNS) as they help move chi or “life force” through the body. Whatever the chosen movement, it should finish with the body feeling energized and healthier than before the activity began.

Like working in movements, one of the fundamental qualities of the body is that it is rhythmic, following predictable cycles which have become deeply ingrained in our physiology. One of these cycles is Sleep. And it’s the final concept the veteran, indeed anyone, must understand for true health to be fully realized.

For generations, humans have gotten up with the sun and gone to bed within a few hours of sunset. Our bodies are literally designed to function on, not just a sufficient amount of sleep, but on a specific time for sleep, as well. The release of growth hormone and other anabolic hormones happens predominately between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. while the second half of the sleep cycle is devoted to psychogenic repair between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Staying up until midnight to watch T.V. or work on the computer robs the body of two hours of physical recovery. This error excites the SNS and results in an inability to recover from exercise or the activities of daily living. Aches and pains soon become chronic and the immune system weakens, allowing the body to become susceptible to pathogens from both inside and outside the body. In fact, medical professionals recognize shift work and ignoring our circadian rhythms as second only to smoking in the number and severity of adverse effects on our health. So turn off those lights, shut off the television, get into bed by 10 p.m., and turn those dreams of health into reality.

All six subjects in the Veteran’s Code of Health are the basis on which wellness is built; only with a solid foundation in every one of them can a person build high levels of vitality and peak functioning. While all of us are born with the right to sincerely honor ourselves, veterans have sacrificed so much that giving everything to others is their modus operandi. However, even the ones who put country before anything else should understand a key teaching in quantum physics—we are all connected. Thus, what we do to ourselves, we do to others. For a veteran to faithfully serve; for a veteran to truly protect, he must first begin within. The Veteran’s Code of Health will show him how.

Part One of Article: Click Here

Of course, each of the concepts above has only been briefly introduced. For a more thorough discussion on how you can take responsibility for yourself and be in control of your own health destiny, visit the author’s website at www.triumphtraining.com.

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Veteran Wellness and The War Within – Guest Post – Part 1

April 18, 2011 Michael Anthony

Your tour of duty is over. You march off the airplane after the long trip home, conscious of the different looks your uniform receives. Most are ones of appreciation. Simple nods or even out right thanks given by strangers who try to stand a bit straighter when addressing you. Others are thinly veiled looks of disgust, and you’re not sure if it’s you or your uniform they cannot stand. But at least it’s some sort of acknowledgement—a sign that the past eighteen months were real. The worst are the people who don’t even seem to see you. Rushing past you on errands, they bark orders on cell phones while drinking mocha lattes from Starbucks. Some sit at restaurants gorging themselves in front of the flat screens which hang on the walls. CNN is the station. But the diners only put their forks down when the stats from last night’s game are read by the announcer. And as you take those first steps back into your hometown, the haughty ignorance of your sacrifices makes you hotter than the Iraqi sun.

The war has just begun.

You’ve dedicated your entire life to protecting your country. But now it’s time to protect your self. Remember what the flight attendant said right before you took off—put your mask on first before helping others. You outrank her, perhaps. Yet her command is one which, if ignored, could cost you. Just like it has cost thousands of veterans. From suicide to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the fight continues long after you leave the battlefield. And if you want to come out of this war alive, you better stand at attention. Health is a General who grants no leave.

First in the Veteran Code of Health is Thinking. The average person has 60,000-70,000 thoughts everyday, most of which are negative. For military personnel returning home, it can be even worse. The transition back into normal life is rarely easy. The constant threat of death is now thousands of miles away, but the nervous system is still on high alert. This continuous stimulation of what’s called the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) keeps one in a state of fight or flight and keeps the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) inhibited. The PNS is in charge of repair and digestion. Thus, over- activation of the SNS eventually degrades a person’s physical health. This inability to recover due to simply living too much in the mind is a critical example of how the physical is connected to the mental.

But we are the commanders of these thoughts, all of which have an etiology in either Love or Fear. Fear is nothing but False Evidence Appearing Real, and it can only survive in the future. The past is the home of guilt and regret. Closely related to Fear, these emotions cannot exist in the Now either. Living in the Now makes Fear impotent, leaving only Love to guide our thoughts. Living in the Now also allows us to realize our full potential since it is only at this moment that we can do anything. However, most of us have been indoctrinated into the concepts of linear time such that living in the Now is almost not tangible. Thankfully, authors such as Eckhart Tolle, Paul Brenner, and others have written extensively on how to truly become a Master of the Moment.

Breathing is next in the Veteran Code of Health. The healthy human body can survive weeks without food and days without water, but we can only last a few minutes without oxygen. Intimately connected to thoughts, a person’s respiration rate increases when under stress. Whether it be from a fire fight on the field of battle or an argument in the kitchen with the spouse, stress is stress and will usually cause a person to breathe faster. Thus, one of the ways to unwind the system and decrease levels of stress in the body is to practice control of one’s breathing and to slow respiration down.

To learn this essential skill, a person would lie down on their back with one hand on the chest and one hand on the belly. One then takes a big, diaphramatic breath in through the nose. The hand on the belly should rise for the first two-thirds of the breath while the hand on the chest should only move during the last third of the inhalation. Exhalations can occur through either the mouth or the nose before repeating the process, noting how the body relaxes with each breath.

Proficiency with this technique is vital as the average person breathes 25,900 times a day. And since the body is only designed to breathe through the mouth when under stress, faulty breathing mechanics can literally create negative thought patterns and cause a vicious cycle of stress hormones to circulate throughout the body as the SNS continually runs in the red.

The third concept in the Veteran Code of Health is Hydration. Our bodies are 72% water, and every physiological task the body performs depends on both the quality and quantity available for those processes. Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, states that optimal hydration levels occur when one drinks half of his/her body weight in pounds in ounces of water each day. So 150lb person would need to drink 75oz of water every day. When hydration levels in the body are suboptimal, the SNS goes into action and the body cannot recuperate. As the cellular machinery grinds to a halt, the body turns first to sugar and then to other forms of toxic stimulants in a search for nutrition to run the system. Unfortunately, this approach only magnifies the problem as, like all the body’s biological processes, digestion and detoxification both require adequate amount of water to function properly.

The rule hydrate before you medicate can be applied to any condition the military veteran faces when returning home: lack of water in the bloodstream causes hypertension; constipation is a clear sign the body is working hard to scavenge water from any source to hydrate properly. Even the problems of PTSD are exacerbated by an insufficiency of water as additional stress taxes the system. Yet, these neurological signs which often get misdiagnosed as depression or other “mental illnesses” are often a signal the body is severely dehydrated. The effects are insidious and commonly ignored until they manifest as symptoms for a particular “condition.” But the brain is 85% water. Thus, like a plum slowly turning into a prune, the result of prolonged dehydration on the neurological system can eventually be catastrophic.

Part Two of Article: Click Here.

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Akashic Records – My Reading about Writing

April 14, 2011 Michael Anthony

So…the other day I came across someone who was offering to read my Akashic Record for five bucks. I’ve heard about the Akashic Records from a few of my more mythical friends, and I decided to give it a shot.

The way this works is, a special akashic reader (a psychic) will go into the records (through deep meditation, etc) and then will find an answer to your question.

Question:

“How do I take my writing to the next level?”

Answer:

Thank you for your order and for allowing me a glimpse into your Akashic Records. It is always an honour.

The first thing I see is that you are trying to control the outcome a little. Writing is a little like magic and most great writing comes from channelled words from spirit.

Spirit says when you are doing your best writing you are completely surrendered into the moment and everything seems to write itself. The problem is getting to this zoned in feeling. – True, but that can pretty much be said about anything.

Meditation is your best bet until you find a way to get into the zone without thinking about it.

I’m getting June and spirit is saying that that will be an amazing month for you regarding your writing.

Spirit is also saying that being one with nature is another way to connect to the part of you from spirit that is helping you write.

I’m feeling a guide around you also who has been there starting from last year who is helping you write. You can smell him around you. It smells like an odd after shave from long time ago. Like alcohol but not liquor type alcohol. – I’m not too sure about the alcohol smell; however, there are only two smells that are linked to memories of things/people, and one of those is the smell of an after shave that an old Army buddy used to wear.

It is important to set goals and tell spirit what the plan is so they can help you.

Is it connected to science fiction in any way? I’m feeling that energy around you. – I am writing a science fiction book with a buddy of mine, but that’s in line behind three other books.

Keep a small diary of when you are writing the best. Ie. If you are having an amazing day and went for a walk and got home and felt like writing like crazy or you had an argument with someone and didn’t feel like writing that sort of thing. Find out what makes the words flow.

There is a subliminal mp3 you can buy through realsubliminal and their mp3’s work amazing. There is one for writing.

So in answer to your question from spirit they advise is to “let go” a little and realize that your wisest words will come from that part of you that is in spirit.

Remember you are exactly where you are meant to be and the book has already been written in spirit. It is just as matter of getting the words on paper. – I like the idea that the book is already written, and as a writer I’ve just got to find the right words and put them to paper.

2013 is an amazing writing year for you by the way. – Ya, we’ll see.

Final Thoughts:

For five bucks, it was interesting. Nothing earth shattering, but interesting nonetheless. I did like the idea of keeping a journal of when I have good writing days/times and when I have bad writing/days times. I’ve kept a food journal before that was similar (keeping track of how I felt after eating certain foods) but I never thought of keeping a writing journal of my most and least productive times, so I definitely liked that idea. But in general, it just seemed like a ‘rah’ ‘rah’ pick me up.

Michael Anthony is an Iraq War Veteran and is the Author of: Mass Casualties: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Destruction, and Dishonor in Iraq.

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Leadership Sanity – Guest Post

April 13, 2011 Michael Anthony

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” These challenging words were spoken by Winston Churchill in a BBC radio broadcast on February 9th, 1941. As one of the great leaders of modern western civilization, Churchill reminded us that leadership is comprised of a set of tools. Although the direction a leader will take people today is different than it was during World War II, the principles used to get there remain constant.

I received a brief memo this morning from a listserv I belong to called Emerging Leaders of New York Arts, or ELNYA. A poll went around to successful CEO’s, in the nonprofit sector, asking what leadership guidelines helped maintain their sanity. As a veteran of the Air Force and graduate student in Museum Studies, each item resonated both with what I desire from a leader and my own aspirations to lead a culturally impactful organization. No matter the field, level, or size of your leadership influence, the following tools may help you develop your own leadership abilities.
A Short Menu for Leadership Sanity

1) Share the work of setting direction* -The CEOs said that they
discovered that it was the burden of carrying “direction setting” on their
own shoulders that weighed them down. Regular staff and board “strategic
discussion” helps relieve the pressure.

2) Identify and feed the renegades* – Nonprofit leaders find they need to
support those employees who have a keen sense of the evolving community
needs – those with their ears to the ground. They are supporting those
whose emotional energy is invested in the future and who are willing to
gently let go of the past.

3) Release the notion of “heroic” leadership* – No longer riding in on the
white horse to save the day, successful nonprofit leaders are focusing on
creating collaborative systems and making space for innovation.

4) Nurture employee autonomy- * New ideas and new approaches need to be
“seeded” at all levels. Successful leaders are creating mechanisms to
encourage grassroots experimentation and reward thoughtful ideas and new
approaches to service.

5) Foster increased commitment to organization values* – Our new world
requires us to wrestle with the “discipline versus freedom” model of
supervision. Successful leaders spend more time securing commitment to core
organizational values that are at the heart of the work we do in our
communities and with our clients.

The practice of these tools is meant to merge the latent abilities of a leader with the hard work required for success. Whether it is in the major international conflicts of our day or the daily challenges of our own private worlds, an ability to inspire and lead others towards the common good is the responsibility of every individual.

This is a guest post from Blake Ruehrwein. Blake is a veteran of the United States Air Force with a graduate degree in Museum Studies.

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Landmark Education Forum: A Thorough Review

April 11, 2011February 20, 2016 Michael Anthony

Anyone who’s heard of Landmark Education knows they’re an organization clouded in controversy. There have been rumors of everything from it being the best personal development program ever, to being a cult. I’d read all the reviews of the program and even watched a documentary about the original founder of Landmark (EST) Werner Erhard. After it was all said and done, I was too skeptical about Landmark to do the program…then Time Magazine and BusinessWeek (within a few weeks of one another) had reviews about Landmark and what a great program it was—both articles praised it as a great program for business people. At that point, I decided to give it a go. I figured, best case scenario, I would go to Landmark and it would be the best personal development program ever, worst case scenario, if it was a cult, I could at least infiltrate it and write a good story about what a cult it is.

I was initially planning on doing a different blog post with a review of each day; however, after the program, a thorough review of each day is unwarranted.

Day 1:

First off: I am utterly convinced that anyone who thinks that Landmark Education is a cult, is an idiot; it is a personal development program, and from day one to day three, it’s clear that that’s all it is. It’s just a program to help people deal with their issues.

Day one can be summarized as: What Happened VS Perception: The Stories that we Tell ourselves. (Pictures below).

Certain events happen in a person’s life and they attach a story to these events. The facts of the situation are what happened, and the story about why what happened, happened, is our perception. The main point to note is that perception isn’t fact, its perception.

Example:

You’re on your way to work and your car breaks down. You arrive to work five minutes late and your boss starts yelling at you, “You’re late. You’re always late. You’re a horrible employee.”

This upsets you and you start telling yourself what a jerk you boss is, and you tell yourself that he must hate you.

The story that we tell ourselves is “he’s a jerk,” “he hates me,” but those aren’t facts, they’re perceptions, they’re stories that we tell ourselves. We only say “he’s a jerk,” because he did or said something that made us associate him as a jerk. Is it a fact that he’s a jerk? NO, it’s not a fact. But the story that we tell ourselves is that he’s a jerk and we accept it as a fact. We then go around complain to anyone who will listen and say, “my boss is a jerk.” And of course telling yourself that your boss is a jerk and treating him like he’s one and complain all day and telling yourself all day that he’s a jerk, is going to put you in a pretty crummy mood.

So when something happens, just ask yourself why you’re telling yourself the story that you’re telling yourself—and ask yourself if it’s a fact, or a story.

Day 2:

Day two started off with people talking about the breakthroughs they’d had since day one. (A LOT of people actually had a LOT of breakthroughs in that twenty-four hour period.) The first few hours of day two was a combinations of people talking about their breakthroughs and Landmark pushing its other products.

After Landmark selling its other programs and after the breakthroughs , they started talking about responsibility: Personal Responsibility. Basically it’s the aspect of a person taking responsibility for their lives and what happen in their lives.

Example:

If someone’s an alcoholic, what happens is they’ll often say to themselves, “It’s not my fault. I only drink because my dad drank…or my dad beat me. If he never beat me, I wouldn’t be an alcoholic.”

A lot of people had a lot of problems with day two. They didn’t like the idea of having to stop blaming other people, and start taking responsibility for themselves. No one’s father made they become an alcoholic.

It reminds me of the old story of twin brothers. These twin brothers had a very abuse and alcoholic father. Their dad used to beat them, neglect them, etc. Both of the boys grew up. One of them became a very successful businessman who used his riches to help other people in abusive relationships. The other grew up to become a drug addict and alcoholic. When the first twin (the successful one) was asked what motivated him to work so hard to succeed and then give back to charity, he responded, “Well, growing up with an alcoholic father who beat me, how could I not work hard to leave home and become a success, and then use my money to help others.” When the other brother was interviewed (the drug addict and alcoholic) and was asked why he became a drug addict and alcoholic, he responded, “Well, growing up with an alcoholic father who beat me, how could I not become a drug addict and alcoholic.”

Same situation, different stories they told themselves. One brother used his upbringing to drive him to succeed and the other brother used his upbringing as an excuse to blame his father for all his short coming and problems.

Day 3:

Day three started off with a LOT more selling of other Landmark programs. Day three was also the day that was supposed to bring day one and day two together. After all the promoting of Landmark’s other programs, the beginning of day three was, again, about people talking about the breakthrough’s that they’d had in the past forty-eight hours—there were a lot of breakthrough’s, and a lot of crying.

I can’t go into detail about all the breakthrough that people had (because we all agreed to keep things confidential) but people had breakthrough is every walk of life, from people going through divorces, people who were abused as children, people who lost their job, people who hadn’t spoken to a family member in twenty years. There was a little bit of everything and they all benefited.

Day three was about living a life where we’re aware of the stories that we tell ourselves, and it was about living a life where we all take personal responsibility for our actions and our emotions and feelings. Imagine a world where people didn’t fret about the “stories” that we tell ourselves and instead only dealt with the facts of a situation. Imagine a world where people take personal responsibility for their actions. Day three was all about perpetuating this in our lives.

The Positive: Landmark gave people an opportunity to look at their issues from a different point of view. It gave people an opportunity to see whether the stories that they’re telling themselves are true or are just “stories.” It gave people an opportunity to take responsibility of their lives—for the good stuff, and the bad. A fast majority of the people who went to Landmark seemed to get something out of the training, although some people’s nuggets of gold were substantially larger then other people’s.

The negative: If you have a serious issue in your life that you need to get worked out, Landmark is the company for you. If you’ve got a drinking or drug problem, Landmark is for you. If you have an issue with your mother or father, or a brother or sister, Landmark is for you. If you’re going through a divorce, Landmark is for you. If someone important in your life passed away, Landmark is for you.

If you don’t have any serious issues: Landmark might not be for you, yet. Yeah, you’ll get something from the program, everyone does, but if you don’t have any serious issues or problems, Landmark might not be right for you—at this time in your life—and might come across as a waste of time and money. But if you do have a serious problem, Landmark Education is the place to go and it’ll change your life for the better.

—

For more information on the Landmark Forum, the following book is the best on the market. It details what Landmark forum is, from its founding, to what it’s become. It’s written by Luke Rhinehart, with a forward by Werner Erhard, and an introduction by Joe Vitale (bit redundant with an introduction, and a foreword, but still, it’s an interesting book).

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Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

Going Raw Vegan Update

April 8, 2011 Michael Anthony

At the beginning of March, I was celebrating Spring Break and had decided to become a raw food vegan . Well, it’s thirty days later, and I’ve decided to give up being a raw food vegan, but it was a great worthwhile experience.

Anyone who is a vegan/vegetarian knows that the no-meat lifestyle has its benefits and pitfalls. Raw veganism is no different. There was good and bad.

The Good: For starters, more energy. Waking up with a cup of coffee is nothing compared to waking up with a fresh smoothie.

Typically, for breakfast, I’d have a quick bowl of oatmeal, toast, and a glass of orange juice. But as a raw food vegan, my breakfast consisted of only a smoothie, a plate of celery, and raw peanut-butter.

And I’m not saying that my typical breakfast of oatmeal, toast and orange juice weighed me down, but it’s nothing compared to the kick with my new raw breakfast. I had energy throughout the day and could easily skip lunch if I had to. (I think it was the food that made the difference, though, and not whether or not it was cooked. But, I guess, to test that theory, I should eat my usual cooked peanut-butter instead and see if that makes a difference.)

Also, one of the best things about being a raw vegan was that I saved myself plenty of time by not having to prepare any of my food. Nothing to cook, no oven timers to check, no beeps from the microwave, just wash and eat. This also meant that I had less dishes to wash which also saved me time. (I would estimate that raw food veganism saved me, at least, an hour a day)

The Bad: Well, for starters, I didn’t realize that bread wasn’t considered raw. When I thought about going raw vegan, I just figured that meant that I wouldn’t cook anything up, including vegetables, but halfway through, when my girlfriend saw me eating a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, she reminded me that bread had been cook and thus I wasn’t being a raw food vegan. Damn it!

But besides that, nothing bad really jumps out. The worst thing, and the most obvious, was that the food just doesn’t taste as good. Don’t get me wrong, I love fruits and vegetables, but celery and peanut-butter is nothing compared to a grilled veggie burger and some fried onions, they’re just two different levels. So the food wasn’t bad, but I did miss cooked foods.

I’d recommend it to anyone who’s thinking about giving it a go.

Read Part One Of This Post: Here.

Best Of, Blogishness, Self Improvement / Healthy Living, Self Improvement / Healthy Living

How to Be a Stand up Comedian

April 6, 2011February 19, 2016 Michael Anthony

It starts with an awkward silence. All eyes are glued to you as you walk to the stage; the littlest misstep and you’ll never live it down. The second that your foot hits the stage, you take a deep breath, sweat drips down your brow and your palms freeze. Stepping up the microphone you exhale and tell yourself that you’ve been here before, that you’ve only got five minutes and you can handle it. You look out over the audience; finally its time to ease the tension, theirs and yours.

The most important part of being a stand up comedian is knowing your story: where you’re from, your background, how you were brought up, and what makes you unique. Every detail helps the audience to identify with you and lets them get a better feel for your right to tell certain jokes. To be a comedian you’ve got to know yourself, and you’ve got to then be able to laugh at yourself. As one struggling comedian put it: “You don’t want to hear a rich guy talking about being poor, so why would you listen to a comic say jokes about something he never went through…stick with what you know.”

The first thing after stepping on stage is adjusting the microphone. Is it too tall, too small, do you prefer to hold it in your hand and walk around? I don’t. I stand still and speak. “So…I was in the Army, and I just got back from Iraq a little while ago.” A few people usually applaud. I’ve got their admiration and respect but not their laughter. “And before I go on…I know there’s one question on everyone’s mind…and NO…I did not vote for Scott Brown.” There’s a few laughs in the back of the club, it’s an inside joke and it usually only gets a laugh from the military people, but nothing too serious. That’s ok though, you’re not supposed to start off with your strongest material.

[The comedian format goes like this: Introduction: let them know who you are. Feelers: toss a few jokes out there and get a feel for the audience and what you can get away with. Builders: you begin to really get into your routine, you start with a few low-key jokes that you’ve used before and that you know will work. New Material: if there’s any new jokes you want to try out, you try it out right after or during your builder jokes. Main Material: these are the jokes that you’ve used dozens of times and always get laughs. End: leave them on a high-note, your funniest joke.]

“Everyone thinks that because I’m a vet, that I voted for Scott Brown because he was in the Army National Guard for thirty years…but let me tell you about Scott Brown…” Comedy is like writing, you need to know your audience. Jokes about a senator from Massachusetts aren’t as funny in Rhode Island, as they are in Massachusetts. A good tell for your joke is whether or not you have to explain any part of it to the audience.

“Scott Brown was in the Military for thirty years, during three wars, and a dozen major military operations, and he’s never gotten deployed once. The only time he’s been overseas is when he got sent to Paraguay for two weeks. Yeah, I know some vets that have been to Paraguay for two weeks….it’s called vacation.” There’s the joke build up. Every joke needs a beginning, middle, and end. A joke should start off with a little bit of story, then a small joke, and then BAM the main joke. The audience should never see it coming. It’s the amateurs who go out there and pound out one-liner after one-liner.

“Scott Brown tried to get a Purple Heart for getting sunburn while at the beach in Paraguay. I mean seriously, the only PTSD flashbacks that Scott Brown has is from when he watched the movie Saving Private Ryan in high def.”

The audience is silent. No laughter. Luckily the Army taught me the axiom “Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.” Political jokes and military jokes can either be hit or miss; most people haven’t been in the military and even fewer have actually fought in a war. In this situation, most comics revert back to the universal routine, the routine that fits every audience: relationship humor. Most relationship jokes, no-matter-what, will get laughter. No matter how bad or ridiculous they are, someone in the audience always knows what you’re talking about. And after a stock joke or two about relationships, it’s time to bring out some of the new material and test it out.

“I’ll tell you though, before I went to Iraq I was dating this girl and, like, have any guys here dated a woman with a really strong personality?” A few men raise their hands and then look at their dates and laugh, “my last girl friend had this really strong personality and I loved it, you know, she knew what she wanted and I always knew what I was getting with her. But anyways, we eventually broke up and now I’m dating a new girl, and she doesn’t really have a strong personality…but she makes up for it by having three or four different ones…” Since it’s a new joke, this is where you pause and take note of the audience’s reaction: How long did it take them to laugh after the punch line? How hard did they laugh? Are more men or women laughing?

The MC from the back waves his hand which usually indicates only two minutes left. The problem with a routine is finding the right spot between saying too much and saying too little. You don’t want to go on stage and say ten minutes of relationship jokes, or ten minutes of jokes about politics. You want to change it up and give a variety, but also, you don’t want to be jumping around and saying ten jokes about ten different subjects and have none of them tie together.

“Have you guys ever heard the saying that, ‘if there were a million monkey’s randomly typing on a million different typewriters, that they’d eventually type the completed works of William Shakespeare?’” Pauses are a fine key to comedy. It’s like the silence in-between musical beats, and the punctuation in writing. You need to give the audience a brief moment of reflection before you hit them with the next beat, sentence, or joke. “Well, I had a math teacher tell me this once, and I decided to start an experiment to see if it were really true, that a million monkey’s typing on computers would end up typing Shakespeare…so a few years ago, I start the experiment by inventing blogs…”

Not everything in comedy always works. But it’s like writing. You’ve got to know your audience, you’ve got to know your material, and most importantly, you’ve got to revise, revise, revise, and revise.

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuN9-WRJjJU[/tube]