Brain Week: How Your Mind Works

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Today’s “Brain Week” feature is from the New York Review of Books. The June 26, 2008 issue featured a review of seven current works on the brain. Click on the link to see the reviews by Israel Rosenfield and Edward Ziff, “How the Mind Works: Revelations.” Here is an excerpt: Continue reading →

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Brain Week: Sleep on it

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Israel Galindo

This is “Brain Week” on the GRACE writes blog. This week we’ll feature items related to the brain, the mind, and learning. Today’s entry features an article by Robert Stickgold and Jeffrey Elenbogen, “Sleep on It: Snoozing Makes Your Smarter” which appeared in Scientific American (August 7, 2008). Here’s an excerpt: Continue reading →

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Posted on August 15, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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Can you stop sabotage?

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Israel Galindo

I received a cryptic e-mail from a friend recently. She’s less than a year into a new church staff position. In her e-mail she asked the question, “Can you stop sabotage?” She didn’t go into details, but obviously, something’s going on (for one thing, it looks like the honeymoon period’s over!). I think it’s just as well that she didn’t get into specifics. Overfocusing on particulars of personalities, culture, and context runs the risk of moving too quickly into “strategy” (or, a my son likes to put it, “strategery”) and overlooking emotional process dynamics. Continue reading →

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Feeling like a skunk lately?

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Israel Galindo

I just learned that my friend Susannah Smith will soon have her website blog up and running. I’m looking forward to her blog. Currently she sends out a monthly reflection via email titled “Inspirited Leadership: A monthly reflection for religious/spiritual leaders.” I find her reflections consistently insightful. Here is her August reflection titled “The Skunk at the Garden Party.” Continue reading →

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Systems Misunderstandings (Part 2)

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Israel Galindo

In yesterday’s blog entry we shared the first three common misundertandings of Bowen Family Systems Theory (BSFST). Here is Part 2 of yesterday’s “Systems Misunderstanding.” Continue reading →

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Systems Misunderstandings (Part 1)

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Few things escape the consequences of their own success. This axiom seems true even of Bowen Family Systems Theory. It seems that systems theory is now the “in” thing—never have there been as many courses offered, or more “experts” expounding on the matter. And a sure sign of its popularity is the rate of books being turned out that claim to have a “systems approach to” something or other. This is, overall, a good thing. The more the theory is propagated, the better, I say. But one consequence of the theory’s lightning fast dissemination is the risk of misunderstandings—like in a global game of that old parlor game, “telegraph.” What goes in one ear at one end may come out as something completely different at the other—the message lost in translation as it is passed from one person to another. Continue reading →

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Posted on August 8, 2008 by Israel Galindo

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A basic BFST reading list

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Every once in a while I get a request for a basic reading list for studying Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST). The good news is that I find I need to update that basic list as more good resources become available. Here is the current book list I pass along to persons who ask for it. Continue reading →

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Purpose-driven or faith-driven?

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Israel Galindo

Full disclosure: I’ve not read Warren’s fabulously successful Purpose Driven Live. There is a copy of it in our home as my wife was required to read it as part of a staff development team-building activity at the church where she works. So, perhaps I’ll get to it at some point. Continue reading →

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