Cynthia Stennis brings her unique experiences as a Three Principles facilitator to Charlotte project

“What I try to empower in other people is that we have to trust what we have inside…. And we tell stories. People learn from stories. We all do.”

-          Cynthia Stennis

Article by Maureen Latta

Photography by A.M. Stewart

Cynthia Stennis has a knack for setting people at ease in any setting. During her four-day visit to Center for Sustainable Change’s (CSC) Charlotte project sites, she engaged all ages from pre-schoolers to adults in lively discussions about the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought.

Parents, teachers and students who have been introduced to the Three Principles by CSC Charlotte Program Director A.M. Stewart and other staff and volunteers had the opportunity to engage with Stennis’s own unique approach. Stennis, who flew in from Florida for the event, says, “What’s so unique about the Three Principles is that you can explain it the way you understand it, and then when another person comes they can give another point of view of how to understand the Principles. So there is not one set way to learn about the Principles.”

Stewart says Stennis really affected the community during her visit. “She instantly receives smiles and laughs from her just being herself. That instantly opens people up to relaxing and being comfortable with sharing. Cynthia radiates such incredible love, and I could tell each person she met was touched by her.”

Stennis has been part of the CSC legacy since shortly after she met Dr. Roger C. Mills in 1989. At that time, Stennis was the director of a YWCA daycare located at the Modello public housing community in Dade County, Florida, where Dr. Mills was running a Three Principles-based community project. She attended some meetings of Modello parents who had been exposed to the Three Principles and was amazed at the feeling of the group and at Dr. Mills’s approach. “It wasn’t like someone trying to tell them what to think or what they needed to do. These were parents who had the understanding that they already had insights and common sense all the time.”

The Modello parents talked about their lives in such a way that Stennis started looking differently at her own life and the way she was using Thought. “I was thinking, these were the parents who were the so-called ‘low lifes’ and didn’t know any better, and they had more insights than I had! It really, really changed the way I was thinking about myself and my kids, and I wanted some of that.”

The late Dr. Roger C. Mills

A year into the Modello project, Dr. Mills asked Stennis to join the project as a social worker aide. She resigned her position at the daycare and followed Dr. Mills’s instruction, which was to “build rapport” with the residents. “That was the easiest thing I ever heard in my life,” Stennis laughs. She got to know the families, along with their needs and goals.

When Dr. Mills wanted to take on another housing development, she pointed him to nearby Homestead Gardens, where she lived. It didn’t take long to build rapport with the residents. Stennis knocked on doors, visited with the families, and asked them about their needs and goals. “When I asked them these questions, it was like a wall came down.” They weren’t accustomed to being asked what they wanted.

Surprisingly, they didn’t cite the community’s serious drug problem as their number one issue. They certainly wanted to get drugs out of their community, but even more they wanted HUD maintenance and administration to care more about their needs and to work with them to improve the community. They also wanted to either go back to school or get jobs.

Change happened quickly at Homestead Gardens. A key reason for that, says Stennis, is that Modello parents were brought in to talk to Homestead Gardens parents. If a parent had a particular issue, such as domestic violence, she would come and talk to a parent at Homestead Gardens who had the same issue.

Five Modello mothers took the lead at Homestead Gardens. “You’d think you’d need half the community to change, but Roger always instilled in us that if it’s only one or two, once they see a change they’ll tell another person,” Stennis says. “So if it’s two, there’ll be four, and if it’s four, there’ll be eight. So we really didn’t worry about numbers. We just worked with the ones that really wanted to change their lives.”

The Modello/Homestead Gardens project yielded remarkable results, including 50 percent improvements in employment levels, school attendance, parent/school involvement, and decreased criminal activity and school disciplinary actions. The project was documented in the book, Modello: A Story of Hope for the Inner Cityand Beyond, by Jack Pransky

Cynthia Stennis teaches the Three Principles to a group of
preschoolers at Lakewood Cooperative Preschool

After nearly three years of working in these two communities, Cynthia went on to travel with Dr. Mills to deliver workshops throughout Florida and eventually all over the United States. Dr. Mills and his daughter Ami Chen Mills-Naim founded the Center for Sustainable Change in 2004. Over the past five years Stennis has participated in the Center’s W.K. Kellogg Foundation-funded National Community Resiliency Project in Iowa, Mississippi and North Carolina.

During last month’s visit to Charlotte, Stennis taught the Three Principles in classrooms at Lakewood Preschool Cooperative and at Thomasboro Academy. Stennis also worked with participants in Stewart’s parent workshops. “The people are so beautiful,” Stennis says. “They are doing such a great job there. It was a pleasure working with them.”

A.M. Stewart, Charlotte Program Director

Stewart says she learned a thing or two from watching Stennis teach: “One is to remember to point people back to their own wisdom,” says Stewart. “It's tempting sometimes to want to answer everyone's personal questions. But it's not my answers they need necessarily. Cynthia turned it around time and time again to the parents and community – encouraging them to trust and look within to access their own wisdom. Cynthia also showed me the ease and comfort with which she truly lives 'in the flow.'  That was inspiring and uplifting to see.”

Thomasboro Academy PTA president Natasha Sistrunk describes Stennis as “awesome.” Sistrunk has been in regular attendance at the Three Principles parent meetings since the fall of 2012 and says she has learned a lot about how we view life through our thoughts. Stennis spoke from her own personal experience, Sistrunk says, and “she dealt with us where we were. I like the way she told us, you have to truly be an advocate for your children.”

Stennis feels the Thomasboro community is heading in the right direction. She noticed that the Three Principles understanding is spreading from one person to another. People are much more open to listening when they hear another parent talk about how much better her relationship with her kids is since coming to Three Principles workshops. Stennis says, “When they hear that their lives can be easier than what they’re thinking, their confidence is better.”

Every audience is different. “If I stick to an agenda I’ll never be able to accommodate whatever they’re looking for. So I just try to keep it open and listen for the important facts of what others want. Then you’ll be able to engage, and your inner wisdom will let you know what to say or what to do,” says Stennis.

“What I try to empower in other people is that we have to trust what we have inside…. And we tell stories. People learn from stories. We all do.” 

A refresher in the Three Principles at a moment of crisis

By Tasha Griffin, Delta Citizens Alliance Operations Manager

Tasha Griffin serves as Project Coordinator for the Delta Citizens Alliance’s National Community Resiliency Project (NCRP) activities in the Mississippi delta region. The NCRP is a project of the Center for Sustainable Change in collaboration with local partner organizations and funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

On Friday, March 23, 2013, while attending a meeting in another town, I became the victim of an auto burglary. After discovering that my vehicle had been broken into and that various business and personal items were missing, I became very upset, almost to the point of being hysterical.  

 My thoughts were all over the place. Why did this happen to me? What do I need to do now? What did I do to deserve this? How do I explain to my boss that expensive work equipment has been stolen? I should have taken the bag into the meeting. Do I file a claim on my personal or on my job insurance? What kind of attitude is my husband going to have? Why are all these people looking at me so weirdly? Why aren’t the police checking for fingerprints? My thoughts were really making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

Tasha Griffin (left) and LaTonya Lott

Several meeting attendees tried to help me calm down. I really appreciate all of their concern about my state of mind at the time. One person in particular was able to help me find clarity and to realize that my thoughts were causing me to react with so much emotion. Ms. LaTonya Lott helped me during this traumatic episode much more than she realizes.

LaTonya had participated in a Three Principles Psychology workshop sponsored by Delta Citizens Alliance and taught by me in Greenville, Mississippi, more than a year ago. She told me that because of the workshop she had completely turned her life around by realizing that your thoughts create your reality. LaTonya reminded me to “try and tap into your inner wisdom and strength to find clarity. This situation is beyond your control. You are the victim, not the perpetrator.” 

After all the excitement and commotion regarding the break-in was over, I headed back towards Greenville. It was during this time that I had the opportunity to calm down even further to the point where I could reflect upon LaTonya’s words of wisdom. I also realized the true irony in the fact that I had just received a refresher course in the Three Principles from one of my former workshop participants! It also dawned on me that our work to introduce the Three Principles Psychology here in the delta region of Mississippi was really making progress. I felt a sense of accomplishment. My work with the Principles had gone a complete cycle and had actually come back to me in a moment when my own mental well-being was at a low point. Wow! What an inspiration for the work that I do. As my Momma would say, “You got a dose of your own medicine.”  Now I understand even more that our National Community Resiliency Project (NCRP) is a very powerful change mechanism. I’m resolved now, more than ever, that our work of sharing the Three Principles is having a significant impact on the lives of our workshop attendees – so much so that they in turn are going out into the world with the Three Principles of their own accord. I feel empowered. To know that what I’m doing is really making a difference here in the delta is truly an awesome feeling. I can’t wait until our next Three Principles workshop!       

Report from CSC Executive Director Dave Nichols

CSC Board of Directors and staff at the March 17th Board Retreat in Palo Alto. From left: CSC Executive Director Dave Nichols, Clytee Lally Mills, Andrea Rothenberg, Executive Assistant and Bookkeeper Chini Nichols, Chief Financial Officer Oscar Wolters-Duran, Board Chair Locke McCorkle, Secretary Jim Barry, Raul Rojas, Elese Coit, and Resource Consultant Joseph Kilpatrick.

March proved to be a busy travel month as Chini and I flew to California for a full-day Board of Directors retreat in Palo Alto. The energy was high as all Board members and staff gathered together – in person at Board Chair Locke McCorkle’s house and online via video conferencing – to renew relationships, meet new Board members, and discuss future directions for CSC. Every Board member – including one physically on Maui and one physically in Charlotte, NC – was present at the meeting for the whole day. We heard from staff members as far away as British Columbia on the west coast and Florida on the east coast.

While we were traveling, we made many side trips to connect with long term partners of the Center and potential new partners. We were pleased and often moved to tears as we heard everyone’s deep commitment to spreading the Principles and to supporting the Center’s work. Our discussions uncovered significant opportunities for our organization, including:

• Initiating a program in Marin County to train interns for Community Institute of Psychotherapy
• Sharing our Three Principles paradigm with educational professionals engaged nationally in education reform
• Engaging with agricultural communities in Sonoma County and other communities in the East Bay Area and Los Angeles 
• Exploring new possibilities in Santa Clara where the County’s 3 Principles Services Division has experienced program cuts

We also had the pleasure of meeting with Jerry Williams in Tracy, CA. Jerry is the police officer who worked with Dr. Roger Mills at the Oakland Housing Project in the mid-Nineties and who was awarded the California Peace Prize. See “Formula for Change: Hope Officer Helps Turn Around Housing Project.” I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Mary Martin, who was not only instrumental in bringing the Principles to Des Moines, Iowa, but also was a key figure in my own introduction to the Principles.

by Dave Nichols

Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Change

Psychologist and spiritual seeker stops seeking & re-invents his psychology practice

By Maureen Latta

“When I stop trying to do anything to fix or change myself, I have everything I need to change.”

-          -- Dicken Bettinger, Ed.D.

Psychologist/Educator Dicken Bettinger feels very fortunate to be able to look out his window over Skagit Bay and the stunning Olympic Mountains from his home on Fidalgo Island off the Washington coast. He feels even more fortunate to have met Sydney Banks, the man Bettinger considered his spiritual teacher from the mid-1980s until Banks’s death in 2009. Banks’s home was not far up the coast on Salt Spring Island, Canada, where Banks taught, wrote books, and influenced many mental health practitioners with his simple teachings known today as the Three Principles.

Dicken Bettinger, Ed.D.

Banks’s spiritual teachings about the principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought inspired Bettinger to throw out much of his vast collection of the world’s spiritual texts and to completely revolutionize his psychological practice. What is apparent from reading Banks’s books is the way that Bettinger and other psychologists like him in turn inspired Banks. Banks’s 2001 book, The Enlightened Gardener, is a fictionalized portrayal of Banks himself – depicted as a simple gardener – and a small group of professionals working in the mental health field who begin to experience radical improvements with clients after absorbing the gardener’s teachings.

Like the characters in Banks’s book, Bettinger started seeing significant improvements in the mental wellbeing of his clients after only a few sessions using his new approach, rather than after years of psychological therapy. Bettinger stopped counselling his clients to look at the causes of their suffering in the specific, often-painful circumstances of their pasts. Instead, he started teaching them about what Thought is. The referrals flowed in.

“I’d say, Here’s how it seems to work for everybody. Consider this: We are always thinking,” Bettinger says.

Today, Bettinger describes Banks as “simultaneously the most ordinary man I’d met and somebody who had the deepest spiritual understanding of anyone I’d met.”

Before meeting Banks, Bettinger’s own spiritual journey took him through 20 years of meditation practice and in-depth study of various religions and mystical traditions. “It reached a point where I could walk into a bookstore and every book on religion I had either read or looked at.” At the same time, Bettinger felt an uncomfortable gap between his spiritual learning and his psychological training. The emphasis in meditation is letting go of thought. The emphasis in therapy is examining the contents of thinking. “I couldn’t reconcile these in my mind. They were going in opposite directions,” Bettinger says. “I was looking for a synthesis.”

Then, in the summer of 1986, he picked up a book called Sanity, Insanity and Common Sense: The Groundbreaking New Approach to Happiness, by Roger C. Mills, Rick Suarez and Darlene Stewart.

“When I read Sanity, Insanity and Common Sense, I realized it’s impossible to truly synthesize them and it was psychology that was going in the wrong direction.”

The insight was huge. At the same time Bettinger felt relief. The authors were presenting a whole new paradigm that was consistent with his spiritual understandings and applicable to a fundamentally different approach to psychological practice.

Bettinger immediately telephoned the authors. They had just held a training for mental health professionals in Florida and sent him audio tapes. “I listened and I got more intrigued,” Bettinger recalls. He then went down for a five-day training later that month, asked a lot of questions, and had several crucial insights into his own psychological functioning.

Bettinger realized, “When I stop trying to do anything to fix or change myself, I have everything I need to change.”

Sydney Banks

He then went to California to hear Banks talk at the University of California at Berkeley Faculty Club. What struck Bettinger as unique about Banks’s teaching was his emphasis on the primacy of Thought as the only source of experience. Banks himself neither studied religion nor practiced any spiritual technique prior to his spontaneous awakening in the 1970s and was adamant that the most direct way to Truth was insight and realization. (Read this interview with Banks in which he describes his realization: “Sydney Banks wrote more books than he read,” by Douglas Todd, The Vancouver Sun. 20 January 2007.)

Bettinger realized that the several hours per day of spiritual practice he had been doing for years was not necessary. “I was relieved of the sense of having to do something and began to see the difference between coming to understand something and having to do something in order to develop qualities in myself.”

The simplicity and efficiency of the Three Principles approach changed his whole orientation toward spirituality. “I relaxed my search and began to see the nature of true Self and Being.” He experienced benefits within his own life as relationships with his two children and his spouse improved.

These insights led to a commitment to change his psychological practice. He no longer wanted to work with clients in the way he had been trained. The emphasis in therapy on the content of thoughts and digging through clients’ distressing personal histories he now saw as “innocently telling them to create more painful realities.” Since Dicken now sees his work with people as an educational process rather than a therapeutic one, he can work as effectively with business clients as with individuals and couples.

Now Bettinger teaches them, “Here’s how it works. Here’s how Thought is creating the variations of experience, moment to moment.” One small but telling difference: He no longer has to keep a big box of tissues next to his clients. Less tears, more successes. 

Simple Principles for Spiritual Living … in Ordinary, Everyday Life

co-facilitated by Dicken Bettinger and Ami Chen Mills-Naim 

Muir Beach, California

April 26-28, 2013.

Click here for Information and to Register

Dicken Bettinger, Ed.D., has been a psychologist for 36 years. He worked for 16 years with the Three Principles-based Pransky and Associates and one year ago launched Three Principles Mentoring. Freed up to develop his own projects and collaborations, Bettinger became interested in teaching with Ami Chen Mills-Naim – a long-time friend and co-founder with Roger C. Mills of the Center for Sustainable Change. Bettinger says, after listening to her radio show, On the Front Porch with Ami Chen: Spiritual Dialogues for the Twenty-first Century, “I really liked the way she was pointing towards the spiritual nature of the Principles and the depth of the Principles.” The collaborative result is the 2013 Center for Sustainable Change retreat: Simple Principles for Spiritual Living … in Ordinary, Everyday Life, co-facilitated by Bettinger and Ami Chen in Muir Beach, California, April 26-28.

NCRP Report from Charlotte: Educating People’s Hearts

“Allowing the free flow of conversation as we are learning together is vital to our success.”

- A.M. Stewart, Charlotte Program Director

Over the past year, the Thomasboro Academy Community Resiliency Collaborative (TACRC) has completed nine workshops for parents, community members and children with topics including “Peaceful Parenting” and “A New Way to See Everything.”

TACRC workshops have provided a safe place for community members in west Charlotte, North Carolina, to gather and share openly about parenting, stress, work and relationships. In this relaxed, comfortable setting participants begin to realize a deeper understanding of their psychological functioning and natural well-being.

“The response to the workshops was positive and opened honest dialogue with participants seeking insight into the nature of how all humans operate,” says A.M. Stewart, Charlotte Program Director at Center for Sustainable Change. “During our sessions the room is filled with laughter, opening up to the understanding of the Three Principles.”

Data from 121 completed surveys spanning nine Parent Resiliency Workshops show positive feedback:

• 93 percent of respondents said they felt this training would be helpful in work or school life.
• 88 percent of respondents said they felt this training would help them access their own wisdom and creativity.

One parent said, “A highlight for me was when the parents were given the opportunity to share how they really felt and what they wanted from the school.” Another parent said she had learned how “to relate better and more easily to my child’s behavior and way of thinking.”

TACRC also provided 10 workshop sessions for Thomasboro Academy teachers as well as numerous one-on-one trainings, with the purpose of deepening educators’ understanding of state-of-mind and its impact on relationships, communication and collaboration. 

Data showed positive feedback from 144 total surveys spanning 10 Teacher Resiliency Workshops engaging pre-K through 8^th grade teachers:

• 81 percent felt the training will help in work or school life.

One teacher said she learned, “It [wisdom] doesn't cost anything. It’s already a natural part of who we are. We just have to know how to access it.”

Another teacher learned that by understanding the relationship of her own state of mind as it applies to learning, she can transform the feeling and effectiveness of her classroom. This teacher said her focus is now on remaining calm when dealing with her students, even when they are acting out.  As a result, her students are more productive, her classroom is calm, and she doesn't have any behavioral issues with her students!  Previously, this teacher had experienced children in the classroom with many behavioral issues.

 

At the Center for Sustainable Change, we teach a Principles-based psychological paradigm founded on the understanding that all people have innate mental health and that wisdom is accessible to everyone. Once wisdom is realized, people find their own solutions for their lives. We do this in order to alleviate human suffering and contribute to a more harmonious global community.

Thomasboro Academy Community Resiliency Collaborative is supported by Center for Sustainable Change, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Thomasboro Academy, City of Charlotte Neighborhood and Business Services, Thomasboro Neighborhood Association, and Lakewood Community Development Corporation.

A.M. Stewart is Charlotte Program Director at the Center for Sustainable Change. She coordinates resiliency programming at Thomasboro Academy and at Lakewood Preschool Cooperative. A.M. served for two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in the Thomasboro community. At that time, she began working with the Center as a volunteer. Her warmth and enthusiasm quickly earned her the respect of community residents. A.M. brings her understanding of human resiliency to her role as workshop facilitator and one-on-one coach, helping people of all ages to access their innate wisdom. A.M. also contributes her talents in story-telling, photography and videography toward documenting the Center’s work.

We rely on numerous volunteers who help to organize and support our projects. A special thank you goes to our Thomasboro Academy and community volunteers!

For more information about the Thomasboro Academy Community Resiliency Collaborative, contact A.M. Stewart at am@centerforsustainablechange.org. You can learn more about the Center for Sustainable Change by visiting our website: www.centerforsustainablechange.org

2012 Retreat: Blowing Rock Memories -- Photography by A.M. Stewart & Video by Nate Moore

Janelle Dunlap from Charlotte, North Carolina, shares 
her wisdom with Ami and the group.

"Under the watchful gaze of old Grandfather Mountain we gathered. All experiencing various phases of the human condition, and yet, recognizing one another as aspects of ourselves through our stories, through our insights and through our invulnerable vulnerability." - Ami Chen Mills-Naim

Robert Vaessen of Charlotte laughs with Ami during a break 
between sessions. 

"We awaken together, recognizing the true nature of Mind, Consciousness and Thought ... that which we always are, shining forth from behind clouds, behind leaves and branches and the dusky petals of autumn hydrangeas ... illuminating it all."

Twenty eight people gathered at the Blowing Rock Conference Center near the charming town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, on September 28th to 30th, for the annual CSC Three Principles Retreat. The theme was "The Place I Belong: Return to the Self." Old friends and new ones, former students of CSC founder Dr. Roger C. Mills, and folks from community-based agencies -- a wide range of ages and experiences -- gathered from far and wide: Mississippi, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and California.

Everyone is a teacher of the Principles. Peter Buck from Webster, 
North Carolina, engages in lively dialogue with Ami.

A contingent of community agency folks from Greenville, Mississippi
attended the retreat, including Delta Citizens Alliance Executive
Director Larry Williams.

David Liberman of Sylva, North Carolina, enjoys some conversation with Brigette 
Rasberry of Raleigh, North Carolina. David was one of CSC co-founder 
Dr. Roger C. Mills's earliest students.

(From left) AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer Jasmine Pollard 
and NCRP Program Coordinator (Delta Citizens Alliance) Tasha Griffin 
arrive from Greenville, Mississippi.

CSC Executive Director Dave Nichols dialogues with Ami between sessions.

CSC volunteer videographer Nate Moore from Charlotte 
with Faith Escudero, an educator from Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Tony Wilson, of Des Moines, Iowa, helps clarify the role 
of Mind, Consciousness and Thought in human experience.

Barbara (Faye) Sanford of Atlanta, Georgia, was one of Ami's earliest
teachers and the first director of the Three Principles Services Division
in Santa Clara County, California.

This was our first Three Principles retreat to provide optional yoga sessions to participants to help keep everyone limber and relaxed. Thanks to yoga instructor Kristy Price from Charlotte for leading us through the asanas (poses).

View entire photo album here.

Key Factor in Workplace Performance: State of Mind

By Maureen Latta

A research team at Warwick Business School in the UK has found that subjective feelings of happiness have measurable effects on how hard and well people work. The Warwick team states, “If happiness in the workplace brings increased returns to productivity, then human resource departments, business managers and the architects of promotion policies will want to consider the implications.” (See Warwick article.)

The Center for Employment Training in San Jose, CA, has taken such research to heart by providing “State of Mind Leadership Training” to 50 managers and employees, using a Three Principles-based educational approach to increase understanding about the significance of states of mind and how each person creates his or her moment-to-moment experience.

“If the tone of an organization is healthy, there is a direct correlation with performance,” says Center for Sustainable Change Trainer Gabriela Maldonado-Montano, who headed the State of Mind Leadership Training project. "I help leaders to understand that the greatest factor in workplace performance is state of mind. A healthy tone inspires employees to go above and beyond. It changes the game."

The leadership training project took place between April and September 2011 and consisted of three parts: pre-training intake; 2.5-day retreat at Asilomar Conference Grounds on the Monterey Peninsula; and five subsequent “brown bag lunch” sessions at the workplace (26 hours total). Quantitative data was derived using the Friedman Well-Being Scale (FWBS), and qualitative results were obtained through analysis of staff journals and through focus groups.

According to A Summary Report on the Evaluation of State of Mind Leadership Training, the improvement in subjective well-being was statistically significant and was sustained up to four months after the training.

• 84% indicated that the training had a positive impact on their world view 
• 80% reported positive change in how they are doing things at home and work
• 50% responded that they felt better physically after the training 
• 90% responded “yes” when asked if the training had improved communications and had a positive impact with others including family members and co-workers 

Thinking outside the human resource development box, Center for Employment Training executives decided to focus on staff well-being rather than organizational functioning per se. “The capacity of an organization's leadership to bring out the best in an employee depends on the mental state of both,” the report states. “Their ability to handle change as well as the everyday crisis is dependent on their mental states.... In general people with high levels of well-being are more in harmony with themselves and others, engage in more positive, optimistic, hopeful thoughts and attitudes. Therefore, one of the most fundamental issues determining the organization's operation is the state of mind of its employees.”

Comments from staff, in their journals and in focus groups, point to a link between higher levels of well-being and work performance. According to one employee, “I notice that I pay more attention to detail with less mistakes.”

Another said, “I'm more aware of how I'm feeling at work and how my co-workers are feeling.”

“You have control over what is happening on the inside and that [awareness] makes a difference in how you take care of business,” said another.

One individual commented that staff members are accustomed to seeing value only in action-oriented training with a specific outcome. “How do we use this?” is the typical reaction to new training. This participant commented after the Alisomar retreat: “What struck me was that this was not a tool, but was introduced as transformative knowledge. And the more we reflected or were thoughtful or just let it sink in, then it would be transformative. So I think the three days were very rich.”

A few participants noted dramatic personal changes. One quit smoking right after the retreat and commented, “I thought I would struggle, but using my awareness of my own thoughts made it a lot easier.” She also noted that her relationship with her spouse improved “drastically.”

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that workplace wellness programs are of benefit to business by reducing absence due to illness, reducing staff turnover, increasing employee satisfaction, and boosting company profile and productivity. While the Center for Employment Training's evaluation did not include specific workplace metrics, such as productivity and teamwork, the report states, “Based on other research, we are only showing by inference that productivity metrics should improve.”

Center for Employment Training plans to do follow-up evaluations to determine the success of the training over a longer period of time, with a final report expected later in 2012. The report was prepared by Linda Ramus, Director of 3 Principles Services Division, Department of Alcohol and Drug Services in San Jose, in collaboration with Gabriela Maldonado-Montano. Trainers and evaluators included Betty Nelson of Santa Clara County Department of Alcohol and Drug Services, Christine Baucus of Transformation Research and Consulting, Liz Alameda of Connecting Principles and Elese Coit of the Center for Sustainable Change.

Gabriela Maldonado-Montano

For information about corporate training in the Three Principles, contact Gabriela Maldonado-Montano, gabriela@sustainchangeconsulting.com. A Summary Report on the Evaluation of State of Mind Leadership Training, by the Center for Employment Training, is available upon request. Email info@principlespsychology.org.

The Three Principles approach teaches that when people develop an understanding of the principles of mind, consciousness and thought within themselves, they enjoy greater freedom from their own personal thought systems and gain clarity, peace of mind, wisdom and creativity. 

For more information, visit www.centerforsustainablechange.org.
Free audio and video material is online at www.cscmediacenter.org.