The holistic approach: taking care of human communication, soul and body

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

The Greek Aristotle was the first real communication scientist, much earlier than the opening of any Department of Communication or Psychology. In his treaty on “Rhetoric” he taught us that a persuasive message must contain:

• “ethos”, strong values, a call for ideals and sense of purpose,
• “logos”, a nice language structure, a nice organization, be well structured, and
• “pathos”, the ability to fire emotions and generate feelings.

Modern research says he was right. We tend to judge a speech and the speaker against our own values, as Aristotle said, ethos is the effect of feeling in the message the presence of wisdom (phronesis), virtue (arete), and good will (eunoia);

There is now high consensus in the scientific community on the Power of Communication derived by emotions, with many of empirical findings:

“affectively valenced words show an advantage in processing with respect to neutral words, as revealed in word recognition tasks (e.g., lexical decision, Kousta et al., 2009; Kuperman et al., 2014), in naming tasks (Kuperman et al., 2014) or in memory tasks (e.g., Herbert et al., 2008; Talmi, 2013; Ferré et al., 2014), among others”. [1]

What does this all mean? It means that we have to learn the Power of Communication, the ability to motivate, to inspire, to share deep meanings, instead of swimming in a pool of banality and empty gossip.

Many phrases from the ancient world shade light, and we have to look for them where the Greco-Latin Culture left its seeds. But also in several modern thoughts found in the Anglo culture, at least on its best humanistic side, and for sure not in its materialistic side.

The power of some words and mottos is so great that they are still used today after 2000 and more years.

Mens sana in corpore sano

A healthy mind in a healthy body[2]

But there is more. Human Potential expression requires not only a good and healthy communication environment (ecology of communication), but a healthy mindset that keeps a positive psychology inside our soul, and a strong attention to our bodily machine, its nurture, its well-being, obtained via physical exercise, good nutrition, and a clear mind.
All the three aspects are intrinsically correlated.
In this Holistic view, wellness and performance depend on the degree to which we are able to set these conditions, despite what the environment presents us as “given state”.
To go beyond the “given state” and look for our Full Potential enables the expression of incredible performances and contributions to mankind, and this is our sacred mission.

A healthy mind in a healthy body is not only an ancient motto.

It is a way of life that is ordinarily unpracticed from ordinary people, and managers in the companies, where the number of hours spent in the office becomes the benchmark, rather than the real intellectual contribution, the quality of your ideas and energies you generate in your working environment. Your real energetic contribution to your company is completely lost, confused with “hours spent inside”.

You even lose the ability to distinguish the people that are around you (coworkers, consultants, trainers, friends) in terms of the real energies the can provide and bring and you start measuring sick parameters, things as age or career level or the car they have or where they live. Well, let me tell, you, Albert Einstein – in this evaluation system – would have never come out of his desk as clerk, since he was not in the academia and was not a well-paid, well dressed manager with a fancy car. But his ideas changed the world.

So, where do you want to be? On the side of the material or on the side of the immaterial world? Or in a good balance between them, and if so, where?

Are you able to spot people with great ideas? How do you measure them?

Latins believed that since we are born we are fully involved in a journey. We run, whether we like it or not. We stop, whether we like or not the stopping areas and landscapes we encounter. And in this world we need to feed our soul and our body with positive energies.

Spa as modern structures where originated by the Romans and made free for all the “citizens” in Rome. A Spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but our culture is so spiritually poor that – despite the Roman habit of having them free and used for meeting, socialization and conversation places – now it has become an elite costly service and not a public service. This is just one of the thousands of “ways of living” that we can and must recuperate.

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

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[1] Pilar Ferré, David Ventura, Montserrat Comesañ, and Isabel Fraga (2015), The role of emotionality in the acquisition of new concrete and abstract words. Frontiers in Psychology, 2015 Jul 2;10(7).

[2] This Latin phrase – as many more that we will not examine – has been adopted widely, showing how deeply Latin Culture pervaded European and US culture. The following list shows some examples:

(list source http://www.thefullwiki.org/Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano) :

• The phrase was a favorite of American President Harry S. Truman.
• Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia uses the phrase as its motto.
• Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia uses the phrase as its motto.
• S.C. Anderlecht uses the phrase as its motto.
• Teacher’s College of Columbia University has this phrase engraved on its Horace Mann hall, on 120th street in New York City.
• Motto of the Turners Organization American Turners and their local organizations like the Los Angeles Turners. The Turners promoted gymnastics and introduced PE to schools in America
• ASICS, company name derived from the phrase.
• Carlton Football Club uses the phrase as its motto.
• Army Physical Training Corps (APTC) uses the phrase as its motto.
• Asociacion Atletica Argentinos Juniors, uses the phrase as its motto.
• The Israeli Institute of Technology athletics teams use the phrase as their motto.
• It is the motto of Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Hospital, Mumbai
• PERI (Physical Education & Recreation Instructors), which is part of the Canadian Military use this as their motto
• Widener University and the State University at of New York at Buffalo use the phrase as their motto.
• The phrase appears in stone on the western facade of the HPER (School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
• It is the motto of Dhaka Physical Education College in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• It is the motto of Sparta High School in Sparta, New Jersey.
• It is the motto of Roger Bacon High School, St. Bernard, Ohio
• John Locke (1632-1704) uses the phrase in his book ‘Some thoughts concerning education’.
• Is the motto for Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical Culture, Australia.
• Mens Sana Basket, a prominent Italian basketball club.
• Motto of Beale Gaelic Football Club from County Kerry.
• Used in the film Agantuk by Satyajit Ray.
• Is the motto of Bridgewater Junior Senior High School in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

 

 

Train the mind as a muscle, and tune up your left prefrontal cortex

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

Neuroscience research tells us that our brain is like a muscle. The parts that are more often used do enlarge, get fitter, and become more agile and fast. The parts that are underused become smaller, slower, as if they were mummified.

The stimuli that change our brain can be those that come from any day, any hour of the day, any moment in life. Scientific studies that show how plastic the brain is, responding quickly and changing its structure in response to both real-life stimuli and artificial stimuli (magnetic stimulation)[1].

So what should we do? Human brain has a Left Prefrontal Cortex that has the ability to perceive positive things in our world and in what surrounds us (positive perception) and a Right Prefrontal Cortex that is very good at detecting what is wrong, negative, and the ability of feeling pessimistic emotions. The continuous flow of anxiogenic news, movies, messages, the continuous subliminal message to “become rich and famous or you are a loser” are lies that pump your right cortex and kill you. We must stay away from these messages, as if they were toxic, radioactive, and poisonous.

Even talking about negative topics and bad news during a dinner can pump your “negative” side of the brain while a dinner or eating should be a pleasure and a restful pause.

But besides specific moments, your whole life is constellated by messages, ads, movies, and people that are lying to you.

The very fact of telling you that money and status will decide whether you made it or not, is a lie that trains your right prefrontal cortex every minute of every day. You become extremely good at feeling what you have not yet done.

You start to believe that people that are on tv or became famous or very rich “have made it” without realizing that their inner experience of life can be miserable, most of them are severely depressed and unhappy people.

We could make a huge list of rich and famous people (artists, movie stars, entrepreneurs) who killed themselves or died from self-intoxication from drugs and alcohol, at the peak of their career and money possession.

Michael Jackson in music, Marilyn Monroe among actresses, the cyclist champion Marco Pantani, the member of the richest Italian family Edoardo Agnelli (Fiat) who, despite the richness and enormity of opportunities, suffered from depression and jumped from a highway. Should we judge these unlucky people “arrived”? “Arrived” where? Who has the arrogance decide for you and to tell you what makes you “arrived”?

The more you think about bad news and consider the wrong part of existence, the more you train to suffer.

You also become insensitive towards the little good things that you did or happened in your day, even the most subtle positive things. You need more and more results to feel happy, more and more money to feel rich, and at the end you always you feel that “something is still missing to be really happy”

This system can make you anxious and feel always inadequate, always out-of-place in your world, always poor. A system designed to make you feel a loser is sick, is a lie.

If you look at the lives of the richest people in terms of money, so many of them are so depressed and so many of them do suicide and are into drugs, that you should wonder if they really “made it”. Made it to get insane and unhealthy and miserable? Yes, they made it. But when it is the turn to see if they made it in being good people, good fathers or mothers, people with a sense of love for life, a strong spiritual life, an inner and self-sustaining force inside, they “didn’t make it” at all. They are miserable inside.

When you lose sight of the miracles that life provides to a living soul, even the mere fact of being able to “think” should surprise you, and make us incredibly happy. The very fact of waking up, being alive, breathe once again, is a miracle.

Don’t spit on miracles. Live them.

[1] Zhang ZC1, Luan F2, Xie CY3, Geng DD1, Wang YY4, Ma J5. Low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation is beneficial for enhancing synaptic plasticity in the aging brain. Neural Regen Res. 2015 Jun;10(6):916-24.

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

 

Return to sensing, instinct, and intuition

© by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com. From the forthcoming book “The Soul Box”

Intuition and instinct are a part of our ancient brain skills. Sensing is something that culture tries to hide and wipe out from people, and repressive society hopes you lose quickly, to reduce your power, to let you forget your “animal past” that recognizes threats immediately, to force you to look at tv instead that living as an “animal present”. Your instinct skills, your sensing, are the most powerful human factor resource you really have.

And you don’t need any certificate to get them. They were there with your DNA, they are probably just covered with cultural dust. A dust that a warrior learns to recognize, a dust that a free soul learns to remove.

We wish to explore what science brings us to open the dam of this river, but also to dig inside the secrets of the Sensing Skills and Positive Thinking that pervaded ancient wisdom, a wisdom that has no written code but must be uncovered from proverbs, mottos, rather than in easy to find official literature.

You don’t need to “analyze” an incredible amount of statistical data to understand if you like someone. You just “sense it”. You don’t need to use complex questionnaires to measure the climate and communication quality in a group. Just look at their faces and the way they walk and you will have a very good “sensing” of what is going on.

Many modern companies use “psychological assessment” to evaluate psychological fitness and readiness by means of questionnaires, instead of shadowing them while they are in real working conditions. Sensing, as a skill, is lost. We must recuperate it.

A real holistic approach needs to merge modern scientific findings with ancient Greco-Latin thoughts, Modern “Positive Psychology” findings often point to the same “stars and gods” the Greco-Romans looked at.

Lots of modern researchers look for new ways of self-expression, often forgetting that some golden rules have already been set.

So let’s start with one of the first pearls of wisdom.

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

I’ll either find a way or make one

The phrase has been ascribed to the Carthaginian General Hannibal; in 218 B.C. When his generals told him it was impossible to cross the Alps by elephant, to fight the Roman Army, this was his response.

This motto seems to anticipate of 2000 years the modern approach to Positive Psychology and many fields such as NLP (a pseudo-science) and several other approaches that sell “magic” and tell you they have invented the wheel. The balance of scientific evidence reveals NLP to be a largely discredited pseudoscience. Scientific reviews show it contains numerous factual errors[1], and fails to produce the results asserted by proponents[2].

If we really want to make achievements in personal development, we should stay away from sects and look in a holistic manner to seeds that the ancients wisdom left, together with modern results of communication science and neuroscience.

[1] von Bergen, C. W.; Gary, Barlow Soper; Rosenthal, T.; Wilkinson, Lamar V. (1997). “Selected alternative training techniques in HRD”. Human Resource Development Quarterly 8 (4): 281–294.

Druckman, Daniel (1 November 2004). “Be All That You Can Be: Enhancing Human Performance”. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34 (11): 2234–2260.

[2] Witkowski, Tomasz (1 January 2010). “Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?”. Polish Psychological Bulletin 41 (2).

Sharpley, Christopher F. (1 January 1987). “Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory?”. Journal of Counseling Psychology 34 (1): 103–107

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© by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com. From the forthcoming book “The Soul Box”

Leadership in the Roman Empire vs. modern Toxic Corporate Leadership

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box (available on Amazon)

The fight for Human Potential is a hard one. One must remain faithful to Human Potential Research, no matter how hard it is.

In arduis fidelis

Faithful in adversity

This value has intangible enemies. One of the most powerful enemies of Human Potential is the psychological climate, and leaders are the main responsible of this climate.

Toxic leadership as a concept is making its way especially in the literature on Army Leadership. A toxic leader is a person who has responsibility over a group of people or an organization; he/she abuses the leader–follower relationship by leaving the group-members or organization in a worse-off condition than when s/he first found them.

It is already clear that a Toxic Leader brings his people to mentally starve, to die and suffer either physically or for stress.

It is the same type of leadership based on lies and superficiality, a “great packaging and empty values” style. This style brought to corporate disasters such as Enron, and it is present in any world failure. This problem is everywhere. It is so widespread that US Army revised its leadership bible, Army Doctrine Publication 6-22, to detail what toxic leadership means for the first time.

Top commanders in the U.S. Army have announced publicly that they have a problem: They have too many “toxic leaders” — the kind of bosses who make their employees miserable. Many corporations share a similar problem, but in the Army’s case, destructive leadership can potentially have life or death consequences.[1]

The manual defines Toxic Leadership clearly and states its dangers:

   “Toxic leadership is a combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that have adverse effects on subordinates, the organization, and mission performance. This leader lacks concern for others and the climate of the organization, which leads to short- and long-term negative effects. The toxic leader operates with an inflated sense of self-worth and from acute self-interest. Toxic leaders consistently use dysfunctional behaviors to deceive, intimidate, coerce, or unfairly punish others to get what they want for themselves. The negative leader completes short-term requirements by operating at the bottom of the continuum of commitment, where followers respond to the positional power of their leader to fulfill requests. This may achieve results in the short term, but ignores the other leader competency categories of leads and develops. Prolonged use of negative leadership to influence followers undermines the followers’ will, initiative, and potential and destroys unit morale.”

Let’s look at leadership and leadership styles in Companies. Today’s leaders are unreachable, perimetrated by filtering yes-man, they don’t know anything of what happens in the real life of workers and normal people, they float on an ocean of which they ignore the depth, they do not know the fishes that are swimming underneath, and they feel them as distant as another galaxy. They live in the top floors of prestigious buildings and don’t even know how the day of an employee is, and the real problems of the clients.

The world as an interconnected entity is a “freak” concept to them and what happens in other countries is not of interest unless it touches their personal profit. They are faithful only to themselves and their personal interest.

This is quite the contrary of what we would expect, right? We need to be loyal and responsible not only to ourselves, but to mankind advancements.

Loyalty and dependability are not an option. They are a must.

Semper fidelis

Always faithful

Let’s see the distance from the model of the Toxic Leader and the model that emerges from the words of a great Roman Leader, Emperor Maurizio, General of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th Century:

The lifestyle of a General must be linear and simple as that of his soldiers; he must show a paternal affection towards them, he must give orders calmly and always try to give suggestions and discuss important topics with them face to face. His concern should be their safety, their nutrition and the regular payment of the salary…[1]

Strategikon. By Emperor Mauritius Tiberius (581-602 AD.)

How many companies lost this face-to-face contact with their people and clients? But let’s not think that Emperor Maurizio was only a good and wise “father” of his troops. In his treaty on Strategy, he also affirms that a good General, at the first emerging signal of lack of discipline must act to solve it immediately, without postponing it up to the point of letting it grow bigger.

Every time you see a corporate disaster (airplane crashes, ships, nuclear disasters as Three Miles Islands, Fukushima, Chernobyl, chemical, pollution, the Columbia Shuttle disaster, Lufthansa-Germanwings air crash, etc) we see that those companies wrote “Safety First” on every page of their internal manuals and external ads, and had never practiced for real.

The top management of almost any company treats corporate values of social responsibility as mere propaganda, assigned to PR companies and campaigns, but has an enormous internal deficiency of real values.

The ability to communicate well and lead well is not just a gift from nature but is something that can be learned, achieved, produced by exercise, by coaching and feedback, and mostly, the will to improve.

You almost never hear a top manager or CEO to give any real advice and coaching to leaders and manager on the fact that safety depends on a positive lifestyle, a clear mind able to perceive situational awareness, and Mental Training. Simply following procedures is never enough.

Procedures applied in conditions of mental chaos, are completely useless, all the disasters that happened where in companies and organizations whose “procedures” where so many that it was needed a “procedure” even to use common sense.

Getting back to a healthy communication style and generating healthy relationships is a must for every leader and every team-player that refuses to live in a box or in a psychologically filthy environment.

[1] Maurice’s Strategikon. Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, Translated from Greek by George T. Dennis, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1984.

Strategikon. Manuale di arte militare dell’Impero Romano d’Oriente, a cura di G. Cascarino, Editore Il Cerchio, p. 92

[1] http://www.npr.org/2014/01/06/259422776/army-takes-on-its-own-toxic-leaders

US Army Ambushed By Toxic Leaders

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

Leadership Theory and Leadership Reality: A”Positive Egregore” alternative approach

© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

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The reality between what you see inside companies is very different from what has been tought to you. Nice ties and dirty mindis, expensive clothes dressing miserable souls, are the average truth you find inside most leaders in most organizations.

We too often seen companies leaded by arrogant people, without values, without ideals, idiots who would sell their mother just to get ahead in the hierarchy, to escalate the pyramid of the company or society. Put in front of them a choice between a mildly lower compensation, and a compensation increase of 20% in the next term, requiring a solution that will endanger people of a remote country, or within their country, the second generation after them, and you will see. Sometimes they even do things that might endanger their first generation’s future in 20 years, even their sons, but they do not care.

The 7 Generations principle seems not to apply to them. The “Great Law” of the Iroquois states that it is appropriate to think seven generations ahead (about 140 years into the future) and decide whether the decisions we make today would benefit our children seven generations into the future.

Ancient wisdom seems lost in face of a trimester data, a quarterly revenue, or a dental care insurance, or the possibility of having a larger pool in the penthouse.

These are not our reference points. Really, they are not. They are not “a career”, but an illness.

Isn’t there anything else or different? Well. There is!

A very ancient world, a world that seems lost, holds this secret. The Greek-Latin World is a “time window” in mankind history, a space that gave birth to places like the Library of Alexandria, where the best thinkers met and lived their life as a community of enlightened individuals,

Their passion: to shared ideas and advanced knowledge both in science and self-consciousness.

The flow of personal energy and human research is a way of life and not something you can “buy and get done” in a weekend. The search of soul and advancement, the “sacred fire” of human research, are still breathing. All we need to do is to take the spirit of Alexandria, Athens, Sparta, and Rome, and bring it alive, breathe with it and feed our souls in our very own lives.

A spirit that brought to mankind concepts of freedom. A spirit that had the noble purpose of having people to join and share, rather than only fight and battle against each other.

Communitate valemus

(Latin for “Together we are Strong”)

What could the human race achieve if it embraced the motto “Together we are Strong”?

The search for the soul and the best of human energies has no place and no time. There is not a fixed place in history or in a single geographical point. This spirit is an entity, an “Egregore”, a positive Egregore, an energetic entity of human power. It appears and disappears from time to time as a precious flower. It is a flower that we want to let grow in our inner garden, now, and forever. A leader is one who seeks constantly to implant “positive egregores” within his/her group or community.

Let this way of being be a part of our lives.

Egregore[1] (also egregor) is an occult concept representing a “collective state of mind” or “collective consciousness”, an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, thoughts of a group of people. In this perspective, I think it applies perfectly to the concept of “Group Thinking”, “Group Atmospherics”, “Group Moods”, “Group Feelings” that are the Center of Gravity of any Group Performance.

Positive Egregore do exist (e.g. the search for Human Potential) and we must feed them against negative Egregore (e.g. cultural arrogance, religious movements that oppress free thinking, “memes” that propagate wrong “missions” and sick communication styles in organizations).

A real leader is one who is able to bring “positive egregores” inside his team, passion, real values, real help, real sense of mission, real closeness, and eats the same shit that the others eat or the same cakes the others eat, feeling that he/she is not above the group but in the group. But these leaders are by far less numerous than those who bring inside their team thinking styles pervaded by “burocracy for burocracy”, closure to different experiences, narrow-mindedness, lack of time-perspective, and wrap up all this with a packaging made of “distance” and fake superiority.

Positive search is a way of thinking and being. The same way of being that gave birth to concepts as “Democracy” in Greece, the creativity of Leonardo da Vinci in Italy, the Genius of Archimedes in Sicily, and tangible buildings that are still unmatched as the Pyramids in Egypt.

What enabled this level of human advancement? And how far could we go if we could reach again that level of sensibility, both as a species, but also and especially in our very own personal lives? We can start here, now, and let this river flow forever in our lives.

[1] The first author to adapt “Egregore” in a modern language seems to be the French poet Victor Hugo, in La Légende des Siècles (“The Legend of the Ages”), First Series, 1859. The word is the normal form that the Greek word ἑγρήγορος (Watcher) would take in French. This was the term used in the Book of Enoch for great angel-like spirits. Source: Wikipedia online

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© Article by Dr. Daniele Trevisani – http://www.danieletrevisani.com – Copyright. Adapted from the book The Soul Box. Ancient Wisdom meets Human Potential Research. Thoughts for Self-Expression, Inner Energy and Life

Il Counselor Legale, una nuova professione che unisce competenze legali a competenze psicologiche e umanistiche

Sempre più in questa società litigiosa e irritabile le persone devono ricorrere ad un legale, il contenzioso tra aziende e aziende, o tra aziende e Stato, tra persone e persone, cresce. Purtroppo molto spesso ci si rivolge ad un avvocato quando è troppo tardi e i danni principali sono già accaduti.

Si agisce quindi poi per “riparare”, e a volte è tardi. Oppure si viene ascoltati non quanto “persone” ma in quanto e unicamente possibile “cliente” e non viene prestata attenzione agli aspetti emotivi, relazionali, empatici che invece caratterizzano il vissuto che permea una persona che si rivolge ad un legale. Ma esiste una alternativa.

La professione del Legal Counselor sviluppata da Studio Trevisani e Associati richiede la compresenza di competenze di natura legale, di tipo civile, penale, commerciale, a seconda del settore di intervento, unite a doti di empatia e competenze in area psicologica.

Questo permette di “stare vicino” alle dinamiche del cliente e prevenire il 90% delle criticità che possono avvenire.

In sintesi, il Legal Counselor è una nuova professione che associa le competenze di un avvocato (competenze legali) a quelle di un coach e counselor (competenze psicologiche e umanistiche).

Due diverse tipologie:

• Coach Legale d’Impresa
• Counselor legale personale

Ciascuna di queste tipologie svolge la funzione di “Angelo Custode” del proprio cliente, non solo in “tempi di guerra” ma anche e soprattutto nella preparazione di azioni. Ad esempio, è molto meglio avere qualcuno che ti dia suggerimenti su come impostare una startup non solo dal punto di vista di un commercialista ma anche da quello di un legale, piuttosto che dovervi ricorrere dopo. Sul lavoro, è molto meglio affrontare una questione con un suggerimento legale quando la questione è ancora affrontabile, piuttosto che arrivare in tribunale.

Il Legal Coach e Legal Counselor devono e possono arrivare a seguire e difendere il proprio cliente anche in Tribunale, se necessario, con i requisiti di legge che questo prevede.

• La persona o il team (Counseling Team) ha competenze per dare suggerimenti sia in campo legale che psicologico e relazionale, e soprattutto ti sta vicina nel momento del bisogno, sia nelle urgenze, nelle situazioni gravi e critiche di valenza penale o semplicemente di vita,  e soprattutto ancora prima che la situazioni possano degenerare.
• Ha forti componenti e capacità di valutazione del quadro psicologico e di relazione e si avvale di specialisti in psicologia, fattore umano, scienze umane, diritto civile, commerciale, tributario, sino al diritto penale.

Consulenza legale per le aziende

• Analisi preventiva dei fattori di rischio legale
• Rischi legati alla sicurezza, analisi del rispetto delle normative sulla sicurezza
• Cause e investigazioni per licenziamenti per giusta causa
• Assunzioni. Analisi preventiva della condizione giuridica personale e investigazioni sulla realtà delle informazioni fornite.
• Consulenza tributaria: supporto preventivo all’azione tributaria, un aiuto per identificare la condizione reale, realizzare le mosse giuste ed evitare passi sbagliati quando sottoposti ad accertamenti, visite ispettive, richieste di informazioni
• Consulenza tributaria preventiva: valutazione con supporto di commercialisti di fiducia, rispetto allo stato della condizione economica, legale e finanziaria, affinchè possano essere intraprese le azioni correttive necessarie
• Verifica della legalità del comportamento dei dipendenti
• Verifica della legalità dei comportamenti di leader, dirigenti, superiori
• Verifica della applicabilità di specifiche leggi a situazioni lavorative (es, mobbing, stalking)
• Consulenza legale per il passaggio generazionale

Startup

• Analisi delle modalità migliori dal punto di vista legale per le startup

Consulenza per il lavoro

• Leadership e Ruoli. Sviluppo di Job Profiles aventi valore legale
• Verifica legale della connessione tra quote fisse e variabili legate ai risultati
• Controperizie e perizie di parte
• Gestione del contenzioso con datori di lavoro o tra datore di lavoro e collaboratore

Assessment psicologico, test psicologici a valore legale, verifica legale di test picologici, verifica della congruità per il ruolo

• Assessment psicologico. Sviluppo di profili psicologici, test psicologici e valutazioni psicologiche aventi valore legale
• Test scientifici e legali di verifica della idoneità a ricoprire specifici ruoli, con attestato legale
• Verifica di validità e affidabilità di metodologie utilizzate per fare valutazioni psicologiche con valore legale
• Verifica della idoneità psicologica e attitudinale a ricoprire un ruolo

Intelligence e Business Intelligence Industriale

• Analisi Humint – Human Intelligence, raccolta di dati da fonte umana
• Analisi OSINT – Open Source Intelligence. Analisi di dati da fonti aperte
• Analisi SIGINT. Signal intelligence. Connessione con apparati elettronici
• Controspionaggio industriale
• Analisi di persone e ambienti con rilevatore professionale di microspie e microcamere occultate

Servizi per la Selezione e per Società di recruiting

• Analisi di validità e autenticità delle informazioni fornite dai candidati nella short-list e di persone di alto profilo che si intendono assumere, CEO, CFO, CIO, manager, amministratore delegato, vicepresidenti, direttori
• Verifiche sui C-Level  – Chief e VP(comportamenti)
• Networking Professionale. Verifica delle reti di relazioni dei candidati per posizioni di alto profilo
• Investigazioni sui candidati di alto profilo

Consulenza alle persone

• Accompagnamento in situazioni difficili
• Soprusi psicologici e mobbing
• Violenze fisiche e psicologiche
• Investigazione legale e pre-legale
• Verifica delle identità reali delle persone con cui si è in contatto nei social-network
• Network analysis: verifica delle reti di relazioni interpersonali (chi conosce chi, chi è in contatto con chi)

Street Angels e Life Angels

• Accompagnamento fisico da parte di un legale o persona designata durante incontri con persone o in luoghi pubblici
• Accompagnamento con esperti in Sicurezza in viaggi e movimenti personali o lavorativi, personali, di familiari, di minori
• Pick & Deliver. Accompagnamento door to door (es, discoteca, amici) con sorveglianza, protezione personale, possibilità di affiancamento di un team di sicurezza, e “consegna a casa” del soggetto
• Accompagnamento della persona da parte di un Team di Sicurezza
• Search & Rescue: ricerca di persone con dispositivi elettronici

Sicurezza Minori e Sicurezza Famigliari

• Personal Tracking: sapere dove esattamente si trova una persona, un’auto, un oggetto, tramite dispositivi elettronici
• Safe Zone: identificazione di un perimetro di prossimità e allarme sul cellulare quando questo recinto viene superato (es, se il minore esce da un determinato territorio geografico=
• GeoFencing: sviluppo di “reti invisibili” passate le quali (in ingresso o in uscita) scattano allarmi sul cellulare personale o su pc o viene registrato un log email

Whitelisting e Blacklisting

• Whitelisting (inclusione di persone di reputazione e fiducia verificate) nella propria rete di relazioni, nella lista di riceventi email, rubriche e altri sedi di relazione
• Blacklisting (esclusione, allontanamento, rimozione) di persone dalla propria vita professionale, dai propri contatti, dai propri pc e cellulari, e dalla propria vita in generale

Turismo, Ricettività, Hotel, Strutture Turistiche

• Consulenza legale per le strutture turistiche
• Consulenza legale in caso di infortunio in località turistiche
• Consuenza legale in caso di furti, smarrimenti, atti vandalico
• Verifiche aventi valore legale per la sicurezza turistica e dei clienti
• Visite ed escursioni, dove andare e dove non andare, verifica legale legata a rischi da escursioni
• Grado di rischio in specifiche località e zone
• Dichiarazioni e liberatorie da parte dei turisti ed escursionisti

Supporti elettronici e investigazione

• Videosoerveglianza legale
• Audiosorveglianza
• Computer surveillance
• Phone Surveillance
• Email surveillance

Copyright Dr. Daniele Trevisani http://www.danieletrevisani.com

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A thought as Fulbrighter on our possible mission and contribution to Humanity

Being a Fulbrighter means more than being a gifted researcher. It means to look for ways to improve Humanity, Learning, Development, and Human Potential in Science, in Sports, in Arts, in any field of Human Expression.

Author of the article: Dr. Daniele Trevisani, Fulbright Scholar http://www.danieletrevisani.com

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From lost ancient wisdom to a new wave of human energies

You live of your energies. Without mental energies, you are dead

in your body. A free soul, instead, can shine immortal.

Daniele Trevisani

 Personal energy is what moves us, what nourishes us, especially when faced by the highest life challenges. As such, it is not only necessary, it is vital.

Are you sure of having your best mental energies at your complete disposal, whenever you want? Are you sure that you are contributing to something really important, something that can improve the world for real, no matter how little you can do in your lifespan? Do you think that this level of energies and awareness can or cannot be increased?

If these questions are not easy to answer, if you hear some “inner feelings” that tell you that these questions are important, let’s go ahead.

When we look at the traditional literature on Personal Growth and Human Potential, we mainly find “fast & easy” cures, approaches that promise happiness, success, money, becoming persuasive, admired, anything, in a miraculous way, as something you can “buy”. Believe me, it’s a fake promise.

The truth about any human achievement is based firmly only on inner advancements in awareness and knowledge, in exercise and training.

And not only “usual” training, but also and especially mental training, new approaches, varied approaches, generating unexpected situations, the ability of “dealing with the unexpected”, to produce open minds and people ready to face any type of threat, increase perception, take advantage and sense opportunities when they arise, and even generate positive conditions for them and others.

Only continuous daily work on the self and the body can generate and sustain real and lasting results. And the real result is not what movies, ads and commercial programs tell you. It is something intangible that has to do with becoming a free soul. A free soul knows and distinguishes real results from fake targets, and this is one of our main goals.

 Temet nosce! (Variation: Nosce te ipsum!)

Know thyself, or know yourself

 This phrase is visible above the Oracle’s doorway in The Matrix movie.

Its origins go way back to Greek and ancient culture. The Ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” was inscribed in the entrance of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

This phrase means something deeper than knowing obvious things as our name, or residence, or weigh and height, it means to understand how we make our judgments, how we reason, how we choose, how we decide what is to achieve and what is not worth our energies.

It means the ability to look inside our mind and decide how to clean the mess and refresh it with new fresh air, liberating our soul.

1.1. What is a “result” for you?

The very concept of “results” needs to be redefined. If you live in a society that tells you that you are a loser if you are not a superman, remember that this sick and ill message is wrong. Ancient wisdom knew it.

Impossibilium nulla obligatio est

There is no obligation to do the impossible

You should try to achieve your goals, for sure, but what if those goals are fake goals that someone did put in front of you to let you lose focus?

The first thing you have to do is to throw away most of what has been presented to you as a “result” from your surrounding society, and substitute it with something that is more pure, more genuine.

Which are the parameters you use to evaluate what is a real result and distinguish it from a fake result?

Among what you conceive as “results”, are you sure that everything in your mind is really yours? And what if we could find beliefs that you were forced to incorporate when you had not enough mental counter power to analyze what you were mentally fed with?

So, how does it feel whenever you are able to detect and eradicate a fake concept from your mental state? Better. Lighter. More “radicated” and stronger, a process that in Bioenergetic Analysis is called “grounding”.

The ability of “focusing” is a really new tool to achieve, as much and as fast as possible. Focusing, also with some help from an illuminated guide (coach, counselor, mentor, trainer), can drive you to perceive better and distinguish fake results from real results, fake targets from real targets.

• Is it a result to work more and more hours a day?
• Is it a result to stay in line for transportation or sit in a car for hours?
• Is it a result to have no energies left for taking care of your body?
• Is it a result to forget about the real needs of your soul?
• Is it a result to have less and less time for your loved ones?
• Is it a result to be caged within a mental agenda that is conceived to set you in strict boundaries, concepts that are rarely deeper than the wish to buy the newest phone?

Aren’t you sick of feeling fooled by a system that is meant for you to be a part of the produce-consume-die cycle? A system that measures what car or house you have instead of looking at the depth of your thoughts and feelings?

Why are people who work so unhappy on Monday morning when going to work? Why are idiots, hypocrites, cowards or arrogant, in top-paid management positions, and why do you seek for their approval? How did you come to the point of considering them “arrived”? Arrived where?

A company should and must be a place where people with some common values meet to achieve something great and useful for humanity. A group of people united in a purpose, in a vision, in a value.

Unanimi cum ratione

United in Purpose“[1]

I personally think that a Fulbrighter should look for other Fulbrighters in order to share a holistic view and perspective on which contributions are most needed now in the world. And than, look for way to share views, and contribute, not only within our narrowest research fields, but with a unified view of what is most needed to improve our World and Humanity.

Is there any other way to give honour to the talent and the effort that brought us to become Fulbrighters?

_____

[1] This motto is adopted widely, both in organizations and social groups. See on example the Canadian Joint Operations Command, http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/ol-lo/vol-tom-4/449-mts-eng.asp, and the online community of Star Trek gamers http://www.starfleettaskforce1.com/

____

Author of the article: Dr. Daniele Trevisani, Fulbright Scholar http://www.danieletrevisani.com

Anteprima scaricabile in pdf dal libro “Il Coraggio delle Emozioni”

Ecco l’anteprima in pdf scaricabile, libro già ordinabile e disponibile a giorni in libreria

Daniele Trevisani il Coraggio delle Emozioni – 1796.302 inizio del libro Daniele Trevisani il Coraggio delle Emozioni – anteprima del libro

Sul Metodo HPM per lo sviluppo del Potenziale Umano, Crescita Personale e Organizzativa

I fondamenti del Metodo

1. Una persona senza corpo non può fare niente. Ma anche senza motivazione, non potrà fare niente.
2. Se anche hai un corpo che funziona perfettamente e la voglia di fare cose incredibili, devi avere un “saper fare”. In caso contrario, i tuoi sogni rimarranno sempre nel cassetto.
3. E se non hai sogni, ideali, volontà di lasciare un contributo al mondo, nemmeno la tua vita ha alcun valore.
4. Tutte le tue energie sono collegate tra di loro.
5. La tua capacità di arrivare al tuo pieno potenziale, dipende da come riesci a capire la connessione tra tutti questi strati del tuo essere e come funzionano in te, come creatura specifica che ha dinamiche uniche, irripetibili, diversa dalle altre nel come attiva la connessione tra queste celle di energia interna.

Le nostre energie umane sono in realtà racchiuse “Celle Energetiche”
Sono strati e sistemi enormemente diversi. Iniziano dal corpo fisico, dalle energie di ogni singola cellula, e arrivano agli ideali astratti e più elevati.
Tutta questa complessità è un dono immenso se lo saprai cogliere, ti serve solo di voler veramente lavorare su te stesso, sulle tue capacità.

• L’efficienza non è un concetto astratto. Si tratta di pura energia in azione. Si tratta di pura focalizzazione del pensiero sulle priorità.
• Ma efficienza e performance, senza benessere, non valgono a nulla.

A cosa serve vincere una gara per morire appena tagliato il traguardo. A cosa serve per una azienda essere “profitabile”, generare profitti, se semina dolore? A cosa serve una grande carriera se i tuoi rapporti umani sono inesistenti o miserabili? A cosa serve un bel corpo in una mente stupida o priva di valori? A cosa serve avere grandissimi ideali e valori se poi non sappiamo trasformarne almeno una piccola, piccola parte, in qualcosa di concreto che lasci un segno nel mondo?

____

• dal volume Self Power, di Daniele Trevisani (Copyright)

Lo schema a sei celle del metodo HPM espone un possibile schema di riferimento. Il lavoro sulle sei variabili primarie permette di amplificare il potenziale personale, conseguire performance, ricercare un funzionamento ottimale (Optimal Functioning), stimolare un ricentraggio delle proprie attività, degli stili di vita e di relazione, dello stile di pensiero e di azione.

Ciascuno di questi macrouniversi contiene intere costellazioni, sistemi e mondi da esplorare.

Trovando i giusti livelli di attenzione, sapendo dove è possibile intervenire, lo sviluppo personale diventa un fatto perseguibile, non più solo un sogno o un desiderio.

Si è trattato e ancora si tratta di un “viaggio” di scoperta ed analisi, in un campo di studi sterminato.

Trattando un tema di frontiera, ampio, multidisciplinare, le fonti devono necessariamente essere altrettanto variegate. Ogni singola esperienza, di ogni uomo, è fonte di conoscenza.

Ogni pensatore del passato o del presente può darci un contributo. Ogni singola anima può contenere spirito vitale, e portare contributi.

 

Sei miliardi di persone al mondo, 6 miliardi di anime, ma a volte ne basta 1 sola.

Dal film: “One tree hill”

 

Un viaggio che riguarda anche te

Man mano che gli studi aumentano e l’analisi di casi concreti sul tema delle performance avanza, si fa più forte l’evidenza che il “viaggio” nella psicologia delle performance non riguarda solo le élite, i campioni, le aziende leader, i manager di alto livello, ma ha implicazioni in ogni processo di crescita della persona, in ogni attività umana. La performance comprende una sfida piccola o grande, sia sportiva che manageriale, o di vita, e in ogni forma di scoperta o avventura umana. Per cui, che tu sia un campione o ti stia addentrando in un nuovo ramo della vita, ti riguarda.

I suggerimenti degli esperti e dei praticanti, in ogni campo, se osservati bene e ripresi nella vita quotidiana, possono insegnare molto anche fuori dalle competizioni. Ci insegnano un approccio che va ben fuori dalle gare o degli impegni massimali e tocca la vita stessa.

È utile saper “estrarre” le conoscenze, farne un distillato, ed utilizzare queste pozioni alchemiche ovunque siano utili e produttive. Le indicazioni che arrivano da una certa disciplina possono andare ben oltre la fonte originaria, e dobbiamo chiederci come renderle utili e produttive anche in altri campi.

Ad esempio, se prendiamo lo sport della corsa di resistenza, e riusciamo a chiarirne alcune dinamiche psicologiche, possiamo applicarne il distillato anche ad altre aree che richiedono resistenza, come il lavoro manageriale, o l’essere genitori.

In campo atletico, Massini, ad esempio, osserva come nella preparazione dei corridori esista un training psicologico, un allenamento che aiuti a saper perseverare, tenere il ritmo e non mollare durante la propria preparazione[1]. La dottrina militare, similmente parla del Battle Rythm come una cadenza di attività indispensabili per tenere sotto pressione il nemico.

In sostanza, saper gestire una fase di stress anziché venirne schiacciati.

Per l’atleta vengono predisposte fasi di allenamento che cercano di far crescere le persone su questo piano.

Se prendiamo altre discipline, come le arti marziali, possiamo ricavarne molto: la sacralità di un allenamento al di la del fattore fisico, il bisogno di condurre uno stile di vita coerente con i propri obiettivi, la necessità di avere test di realtà (combattimenti realistici), sapere affrontare la propria preparazione con un lavoro variegato, variarne le modalità e le intensità, ma soprattutto trovare una soddisfazione intrinseca in ogni allenamento.

Viene da chiedersi quanta utilità potrebbe esserci nell’applicare queste ed altre tecniche di coaching anche nelle aziende. E non solo, quanto sia veramente indispensabile allenare e coltivare le capacità di apprendere, in ogni persona, anche e soprattutto fuori dallo sport, dalla tenera età in avanti.

Tra le diverse discipline che si occupano di crescita e sviluppo, le contaminazioni possibili sono molte, e non vanno solo dallo sport verso le imprese, ma possono anche compiere il viaggio inverso. Ad esempio, le tecniche proposte dalla formazione di tipo esperienziale (Experiential Learning) offrono eccezionali strumenti per rendere un allenamento sportivo più coinvolgente e produttivo, e per creare atleti e praticanti più consapevoli e motivati.

Una delle tecniche di base dell’Experiential Learning aziendale (la formazione aziendale di tipo attivo ed esperienziale) è data dal ciclo briefing-attività-debriefing, il che significa:

Spiego cosa andremo a fare e perché, su quali aree di capacità andremo a lavorare oggi.

Lavoriamo e ci alleniamo.

Dopo aver lavorato, riflettiamo sull’esperienza appena svolta, sulle difficoltà incontrate, sugli insegnamenti che ho tratto oggi, su quello che non è andato bene, su cosa invece ha funzionato ed è stato utile.

Si tratta di un ciclo basilare in tre fasi, che potrebbe essere utilizzato in numerosissime attività sportive, soprattutto nei settori giovanili, con un enorme beneficio. Purtroppo, questo succede molto raramente.

I diversi mondi delle performance – sport, management, scuola/università, forze di sicurezza, ricerca – raramente dialogano tra loro e si scambiano esperienze di successo.

Quando il dialogo si interrompe, quando si crea stasi, vi sono solo due possibilità: una positiva, la meditazione o riflessione positiva, ed una negativa, la depressione. In questo senso dobbiamo ricordare che il semplice fatto di essere impegnati in un percorso di miglioramento è di valore in quanto azione positiva.

 

L’uomo è nato per l’azione,

come il fuoco tende verso l’alto e la pietra verso il basso.

Non essere occupato e non esistere è per l’uomo la stessa cosa.

Voltaire

 

La forza della preparazione

Mick, in campo aziendale, osserva il bisogno di coltivare maggiormente le doti di saggezza manageriale, anziché riempire i manager di skills e concetti che poi verrebbero applicati male o senza coscienza[2]. Anche questo contributo va ben oltre l’azienda e si estende alla vita di ogni organizzazione o team.

La cultura in se non serve a niente se non viene messa al servizio di qualcosa di importante.

Come si osserva in questo dialogo di Thomas Henry Huxley, siamo sempre al servizio di qualcosa, per cui è bene decidere cosa merita e cosa no:

 

– Vescovo anglicano di Oxford: Ma è da parte di padre o di madre che voi discendete dalla scimmia?

– Huxley: Preferisco discendere da una scimmia che da un uomo di cultura che ha prostituito il sapere al servizio del pregiudizio e della falsità.

[1] Massini, Fulvio (2008). Hard Run. I suggerimenti del coach per atleti d’alto livello. In: Runner’s World, gennaio 2008, p. 32.

[2] Mick, David & Thomas Bateman (2006), The Ultimate Virtue. Article Proposal for the Harvard Business Review, Version: 15 February 2006. McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia.

Per chi vuole approfondire, la bibiliografia fondamentale è la seguente:

Daniele Trevisani’s Books

	Corporate, Personal and Organizational Competitiveness  Tools for the Development and Creation of Value Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2000.		Psychology of Marketing & Communication Buyer’s Impulses, Persuasion Tools, New Strategies for Communication and Management Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2002.
	Buying Behavior & Strategic Communication From the Analysis of Consumer Behavior to Communication Management   Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2003.		Intercultural Negotiation: Communication beyond cultural barriers.  From internal relations to international negotiations Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan. 2005.
	The Change Director Integrated approaches to human resources, personal and organizational development, and coaching Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2007. (240 pages.)		Human Potential  Methods and techniques for human performance coaching and training Franco Angeli Publisher, Milan, 2009. (240 pages).
	Strategic Selling Psychology and Communication for Consultative Selling and Complex Negotiations Franco Angeli Publisher, Milano, 2011. (280 pages)		Personal Energy A map for the Empowerment of Mental Energies Franco Angeli Publisher, Milano, 2013. (100 pages)
	Self-Power Psychologies of motivation and performance Franco Angeli Publisher, Milano, 2014. (176 pages)		The Courage of Emotions Energies for Life, Communication and Personal Growth Franco Angeli Publisher, Milano, 2015. (135 pages)

Astronaut Luca Parmitano about Fear and other Demons (with video of his near death accident in Extra-Vehiculal Space Walk)

Fear and other demons

Source: From ESA, with annotations and videos from youtube

(Interview to Luca Parmitano). One of the questions I am often asked is: “Are you astronauts ever afraid?” It is a question that always surprises me and I find it difficult to answer the question in just a few words.

The temptation to answer simply “no” is great, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief and go on knowing that there are out of the ordinary men and women in the world who work without fear: astronauts. But super humans do not exist – and it is better this way.

My humble opinion is that only fools say they are never afraid – and they are lying when they say it. Fear is a series of sensations, a primordial mechanism that has developed over millennia of evolution to preserve our lives. It would be a waste not to use such a tool. But like any tool, it can be used well or badly: a scalpel, in the expert hands of a surgeon, can save a life while the same scalpel can be lethal when used without skill and knowledge.

Similarly, fear has a physiological effect that can be used to respond better in critical situations. Our heart rate increases, bringing more blood flow to the muscles, making them ready to react. The adrenaline released makes us stronger and less sensitive to pain and fatigue. Fear is a form of stress that can be channelled to bring our performance to its peak, a form of positive stress called ‘eustress’. The important thing is not to enter distress or panic, which immobilizes people and makes us unable to respond in critical situations.

The best way to learn how to manage fear is preparation, training and study. In the end, it is what we do not know that scares us. On an orbital or suborbital flight the best way to eliminate fear is to know your aircraft and procedures the best you can. Gaining experience is the indispensable and irreplaceable way to handle situations for which we are not trained. It is impossible, and not always useful, to anticipate all scenarios.

A military or civilian pilot knows that flying is risky. The probability of something serious happening is very low, but the consequences can be disastrous. The pilots’ task and the teams working behind them is to minimize this risk. The same applies to any other working environment, including in aerospace. If I think back to some of the riskiest moments in my life, I realise that fear is a feeling that lies quietly without disturbing me: during my launch, my concentration was focused on the procedures and tools. During my spacewalks, my attention was absorbed by the experience itself. In both cases everything was enhanced by the trust I have in science and the engineers that build the machines we use and the teams of men and women who, from afar, support us to form a formidable ‘tetragon team’.

Other questions I am asked that require complex answers concern my family. More importantly to being an astronaut and an officer in the air force, I am a son, a husband and a father. Somewhere on Earth flowing below us at 28 000km/h, there is a mother whose heart throbbed with each take-off and landing and a father with stoic strength whose smile hides his concern. My wife did not choose my job but deals with the daily issues of life and always appears with a serene face with two girls who still cannot understand why their daddy does not come home every night like their friends’ dads. I am aware of that. Thinking of my fellow pilots in the air force, everyday heroes running missions all over the world, puts myself in perspective and I realise how privileged I am. Compared to their sacrifice, my efforts are insignificant but necessary. It is my tribute to those pilots, working away from home and family, carry out their duty, in foreign countries under many horrors and other demons, without asking for anything in return, not even gratitude from their country.

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Note of the blogger. Very few people know that the Astronaut Luca Parmitano faced death during a Space-Walk (Extra vehicular activity) in which water filled his helmet at the point of not being able to breathe anymore. He nearly drowned in space!

Her are some videos that show what happened