Linda Stone » Uncategorized

Playing Video Games When the Power is Out

Linda Stone — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:27:00 +0000

I haven’t always been a fan of video games. I’m a fan of getting outside, enjoying fresh air, exploring tide pools, walking on a trail or in the park. I love cooking, baking and crafting. It just never occurred to me that adding more hours in front of a screen could be a path to joy.

Over the years, in over the shoulder mode, I’ve loved watching friends of all ages engage — with a full on passion and joy, and my latest HuffPo post describes one such moment.

TEDxMidwest

Linda Stone — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:18:46 +0000

These last few months, I’ve linked up with two great friends, Mike Hettwer and Brad Keywell, to create TEDxMidwest. On a flight to Chicago now and super excited about the terrific speakers and great friends who plan to join us in the inaugural year of this event.

Special thanks to Chris Anderson, TED Conferences, for his vision and for offering a program for local TEDx events. Special thanks to the TEDx team for their support, with a special shout out to Lara Stein and Ronda Carnegie.

How Did You Play?

Linda Stone — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:28:45 +0000

This past weekend, at SciFoo 2010, during one of Nat Torkington’s Lightning Rounds, I had a chance to talk about childhood play patterns of scientists, of all of us, and about the benefits of self-directed play. Here’s an earlier blog post on the topic.

Please join the discussion in the Talk To Me section of this blog, and share how you played as a child. Alone? Social? Both? Were you a builder and a maker? Did you create your own experiments? Did you have favorite objects? Do tell!

http://lindastone.net/talk-to-me/

Intentions & Goals

Linda Stone — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:41:27 +0000

How does an intention form and gather energy? Is a goal an intention without the passion? Is a goal from the mind only and an intention from our entire being?

For you, talk to me about intentions — what they are, how they form and gather energy…

Thank you.

Kids, Video Games, Posture & Breathing

Linda Stone — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 06:16:53 +0000

One of my favorite 8 year olds can’t get enough of his Wii. I enjoy this child and hung out with him recently while he played his favorite video game. He was hunched over on the sofa and I promise you, his breathing was undetectable. With some coaxing, he moved to a wooden chair. For the first 3 minutes, he sat up straight, then he smiled at me, said, “I like to slouch,” and continued his game slouched in the wooden chair.

Did I mention that this is how he spent his Saturday morning just before going to an appointment with the doctor helping him with his ADHD issues?

Shallow breathing and temporary breath holding up regulates the sympathetic or fight or flight nervous system response. I call this email apnea. If your child has ADHD or impulse control issues and also hunches in front of a computer or video game or in front of the television, it might be time to consider an intervention that involves teaching a breathing technique that up regulates the parasympathetic or rest and digest response.

I recently spent some time playing with the HeartMath emWave Desktop software. With short games, a player manages his/her breathing pattern as part of game play.

At TEDMED 2009, Dr. Daniel Siegel mentioned research he’d conducted using breath training to manage ADHD.

Sometimes pharmaceuticals are the most effective option for treating a condition. In many cases, for conditions involving impulse control, regulation of emotions, ADHD and other attention issues, it may be worth looking into options that help”re-set” the autonomic nervous system: various breathing techniques, Buteyko, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, cranial-sacral, and certain forms of acupuncture.

Performance, particularly dance and music, often involve training in breathing techniques. The same is true for certain sports.

The way we breathe is central in regulation of attention and emotion, cognition and memory, and social and emotional intelligence.

The Sunset of the PC?

Linda Stone — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:38:09 +0000

Today, I don’t own an iPad. Last week, I had no intention of buying one anytime soon. The Wall Street Journal, All Things Digital, D8 Conference, has seriously cracked my resolve.

Lisa Gold, showed me her iPad a few weeks ago, and talked about her experience with the iPad:

“When I use it, I don’t have email apnea because I sit or recline comfortably, I’m relaxed, and I breathe. When I’m sitting at my desk, in a chair, staring at my computer screen and clutching my mouse, I’m physically uncomfortable and I often find myself holding my breath and feeling slightly anxious. Instead of forcing my body to adapt to the demands of the computer, iPad adapts to me and the different ways I want to use it. My iPad can’t completely replace my computer, but I find myself using iPad more and the computer less. And it has made me much more aware of how using a computer affects my body.”

Parenting and Managing; Evolving Practices

Linda Stone — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:14:58 +0000

I was surprised when a couple of Highly Regarded Silicon Valley folks, canceled a leadership themed dinner due to lack of interest.

Is this an interesting topic to the current generation of CEO’s and senior executives — especially those under 40? I asked a serial entrepreneur, CEO friend of mine: “Not so much,” was his reply.

Reflecting on why this might be the case, I started to think about parenting, and how very different Dr. Spock’s parenting advice fifty years ago, is from one of today’s parenting gurus, Alyson Shafer, in Honey, I Wrecked the Kids: When Yelling, Screaming, Threats, Bribes, Time-Outs, Sticker Charts, and Removing Privileges All Don’t Work.

I’m still working through my thoughts on this. However, I’m coming to believe that by looking at how parenting practices have changed over time, we can learn a lot about how management practices have and might continue to evolve.

For those familiar with today’s parenting guidance, and working in the business world — do you have insights and stories to share?

What is Dying to be Born?

Linda Stone — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:15:44 +0000

A few weeks ago, when I checked my inbox, there was an email from Lianne Raymond. Her request:

I am asking you, as one of the women I look to for thought leadership, to contribute your idea of “what is dying to be born” in the world right now- maybe it is already in the process of happening and you will shine the light on it – it doesn’t matter: whatever way you want to interpret that phrase is welcomed and encouraged, as part of the beauty of the end product will be our multi-faceted ways of viewing the world, with each view reflecting the others.

You are on this list because somewhere along the way you made a difference in my life through your words. So thank you so much for being a part of my life and growth, whether or not you become a part of this.

With much love,

Lianne Raymond

Click on the link below, for Linda’s page, to read my piece on Presence in What is Dying to Be Born?

linda’s page

The link, What is Dying to be Born, will take you to the entire book:

What is Dying to be Born?

Mind & Body, War & Peace

Linda Stone — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:14:52 +0000

I’ll be writing a series of posts on something that is troubling me — our personal and collective dialog about health. We seem to be using the language of war, and our greatest opportunity is to seek peace. We speak passionately about what we don’t want, and the joy is in the aspiration, the dreams of what we want, both for ourselves and as a larger community.

I come to this from a very personal place, as well as from a place of believing, that for all of us, nothing could matter more.

Shifting our language can shift us toward more powerful and positive possibilities. I welcome your comments and stories here and on the Huffington Post.

Excerpt from the first post in the series:

I have grown weary of this American dialog, a dialog of mind at war with body. Mind always right, of course. Mind, the dictator. Mind, the jailer. Body, the servant. Body, the victim, of mind, the bully.

Read the rest of the post by clicking here…

FIRST + Dean Kamen = Inspiration

Linda Stone — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:24:18 +0000

FIRST stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology. By 1992, Dean Kamen was becoming increasingly concerned about our ability to effectively compete in business given our declining ability to educate students in science and technology. Kamen and his friend, Dr. Woodie Flowers, had a wild idea: create a competition–now a “coopertition”–where teams of high school students, working closely with mentors, design and build a robot, in a six week period, then compete both regionally and nationally.