Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has long avoided comparisons between his current team and the Chicago Bulls squads that dominated the 1990s.

With a three-peat in their sights, Kerr insists that Golden State isnt necessarily motivated by history.

Unlike the 1997-98 Bulls, the Dubs arent looking at this season as a last dance.

Per ESPN:

Last dance? Kerr said with a smile after his teams first practice Tuesday. I hope not. I hope we keep dancing.

I think the difference is with Phil [Jackson] in 98 we all were free agents and we all knew we were all going to be gone, including Phil, Kerr said. But were not in that same position. We do have plenty of free agents, but were not looking at this as the final dance. Like I said, we want to have some fun and enjoy what we have this year and move on from there.

Kerr has repeatedly stated over the last year that his team should not be compared to the Michael Jordan-led Bulls dynasty of the 1990s that won six NBA championships. But those comparisons are inevitable given the recent success the Warriors have attained and the fact that they are attempting to go to the NBA Finals for the fifth consecutive season something not even Jordans Bulls accomplished.

I dont think our motivation is history, Kerr said. We know how special it would be historically if we did it. Only a handful of teams have ever done it, but thats not our focus. Our focus is to really enjoy it while it lasts. And nothing lasts forever, so we know that. We want to go out this year and enjoy every step of the way.

RelatedSteve Kerr: Were Not Going to Change Our Style of Play

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Steve Kerr: 'I Don't Think Our Motivation is History'

Think back to when you first found out you were pregnant.

How excited were you?

How amazing did you feel?

Its a pretty powerful feeling, right?

Then think back to when you gave birth and brought home your little bundle of joy.

How scared were you?

Did you feel surrounded with help or alone?

Becoming a mother is an amazing and wonderful gift.

Its full of new and fun adventures.

You know the kind of adventures Im talking about, like trying to make it out of the grocery store alive.

Its full of things youve never ventured into before.

Diaper changes in record time and waking up in the middle of the night.

Its also equally overwhelming and sometimes frustrating.

It can be even more so when you feel you are doing it completely alone.

Some women have help, but a lot of women are doing this mothering thing alone.

It can be lonely and scary to do completely alone.

This week in my postfor Mom Motivation Mondays at The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide I talk about my experience of mothering with and without a mom tribe. Read this excerpt from my post here and then head over to The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guideto read the rest of the post here.

Becoming a mom is such an amazing feeling.

The excitement you feel when you find out youre pregnant to the first ultrasound when you get to hear the heartbeat.

The sense of wonder as you marvel at your newborn baby cradled in your arms.

The feeling of tremendous responsibility as you fit your little one into the car seat for the first time.

Both of my daughters births are etched forever in my memory. Its as if they happened yesterday.

Something else thats forever etched in my memory is how completely alone I felt after my first versus how supported I felt after my second due largely to my mom tribe.

Find out what a mom tribe is in this post. Find outhow I found my mom tribe, and how it made all the difference in how I felt not only about mothering, but about myself as a mother.

It changed the way I mothered and changed who I am as a woman today.

Read the rest of my post here.

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Why I Need My Mom Tribe - Just Becoming Me

There are no epic battles or heroic deaths in Talya Lavies debut directorial film, Zero Motivation, which follows a unit of young Israeli women serving out their mandatory two-year Army service. Stuck on a remote base in the southern Israeli desert, the soldiers of Lavies film are selfish, horny and useless, traits used to darkly comic effect for this apolitical war movie. Lavie wisely knows that, regardless of Army experience, weve all been there. Everyone's been stuck in a job they hate, bored as hell.

Its not that the film isnt violentthere is a grisly suicide, an attempted rape, and no shortage of revenge plots. But for these clerks and secretaries, war is a faraway, almost abstract concept. Theyve undergone basic training but spend their working hours squabbling, breaking Minesweeper records, or figuring out how to weasel away to Tel Aviv. This is not lost on their commander, Rama (Shani Klein), an aspiring military careerist who looks down on frivolity in wartime.

Thats very much the Israeli experience, Lavie, 35, says of Ramas attitude toward non-combatants. We live in a war zone all the time and there are always more important things going onLike, I [could be] upset because someone broke my heart, but other people are dying in the fields.

War films have long been a mainstay in Israeli cinema; as Lavie points out, the rules and obstacles of obligatory military service provide great dramatic ground for screenwriters. Of course, the output of this cinematic tradition has been mostly male-dominated. Zero Motivation, with its compassionate portrait of majorly flawed, non-combat soldiers (who all happen to be women) is the first of its kind. After its premiere at this years Tribeca Film Festival, the film won the festivals top prize, Best Narrative Feature, and nabbed Lavie the second-ever Nora Ephron Award to boot.

In her unique and ambitious first feature, this filmmaker deftly handed such difficult themes as the military, sexism, love, ambition, and friendship, the jury noted. This filmmaker also pulled off the awesome feat of managing multiple characters and storylines. In what was definitely the most hilarious film we saw at the festivalthe winning film is a fresh, original, and heartfelt comedy about life behind the scenes in the Israeli army.

(We were half-drunk when they announced the second award, Lavies lead actress, Dana Ivgy, laughs.)

The filmwhich also won a slew of Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Ivgywas inspired by Lavies own time serving in the military in the early 2000s, though shes careful to note that it is not autobiographical. She spent weeks talking to young women currently serving in non-combat jobs to absorb stories, details, and slang to write into the screenplay, which got Lavie into the Sundance Institutes Screenwriters Lab. The lab opened the door to a patchwork of grants from around the world which allowed Lavie to begin auditioning actresses. Except for the lead role: Ivgy was always going to be Zohar, the worlds most unpleasant mail secretary.

Zohar, the heart of Zero Motivation, is cold, exasperatingly petty, and a smart-ass, though she obviously loves her best friend Daffi (Nelly Tagar) and is desperate to keep her from transferring to another base. (Daffis only ambition is to move to Tel Aviv, where she imagines herself power-walking across boulevards in an IDF uniform and heels.) Zohar acts tough but is teased for being a virgin; shes hapless around boys, but clumsily asks one out anyway while pointing a loaded rifle at him (following protocol for suspected intruders, naturally). By the time she wages a vicious, all-out office supply war with Daffiit involves staple guns and perfectly executed physical comedyZohar has actually become endearing.

When you read the script, you say, Oh shes a terrible person, Lavie says of Zohar. But when Dana plays her, she gives her so much pain and humanity. Thats why so many people relate to her.

Ivgy herself formed a special attachment to Zohar and says she had a really hard time once shooting wrapped. Its so nice, doing all those things you would never do and saying everything you think, just like that. Its like therapy, she says. I tried to force Talya to add scenes, make a series out of it so I could do it forever.

Letting go of Zohars devastating Minesweeper addiction was more than Ivgy expected, too. It took me like three months after the film was over, Ivgy says. [Whatever] spare time I had, I was like, Its part of my job, I have to play this! Then hours go by and your brain wipes out and you close your eyes at night and see numbers. Her eyes widen. Theres no way to stop playing.

Ivgyan accomplished actress at 32 and the daughter of Moshe Ivgy, a veteran of Israeli cinemahad previously worked with Lavie on another film, a short called The Substitute, while the two were still in school. (That film grew into Zero Motivation seven years later.) Not that Ivgy and Lavie went to the same schoolor even knew each other back then.

I stalked her, Lavie says matter-of-factly when asked how she and Ivgy first met. She recounts sending Ivgy a script, then tracking the actress down at school. Ivgy was at a theater at the time, but Lavie went to see her anyway and waited out the performance in the lobby until Ivgy came downstairs. The two ended up back at Ivgys apartment, where she agreed to shoot the film guerilla-style on a real army base on weekends.

Ivgywho says she remembers none of thisnever served with the Army, but says drawing inspiration for Zohars impish, prickly character wasnt hard. I have a lot of memories as a teenager that helped, she smiles.

Lavie nods. One needs not have served with the IDF to know true boredom, after all. Boredom is something that a person can experience anywhere, she says. Its your choice.

Continued here:
Zero Motivation: the Funny Side of the IDF

A letter from Cynthia Bourgeault, January 3, 2015

Dear Wisdom Friends,

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Renowned scientist, theologian, writer, mystic. 1881-1955

Heres an unusual New Years resolution! Id like to propose that all of us in the Wisdom network declare 2015 The Year Of Teilhard de Chardin and take on the collective task of getting to know his work better.

Theres no specific milestone to celebrate here. This year will mark the 60th anniversary of his death, but thats probably looking in the wrong direction. The important thing is that Teilhards star is now rising powerfully on the horizon, heralding the dawn of an entirely new kind of Christian theology. Misunderstood in his own times, silenced and exiled by his Jesuit superiors, he is finally coming into his own as the most extraordinary mystical genius of our century and the linchpin connecting scientific cosmology and Christian mystical experience on a dynamic new evolutionary ground.

Teilhard is not easy, but there are very good guides out there who will ease the entry shock. My recommendation is that you begin with Ursula Kings Spirit of Fire: The Life and Vision of Teilhard de Chardin. King is probably the foremost Teilhard scholar of our times, and her very well-written biography gives a good overview of Teilhards developing vision and a useful way of keeping track of the chronology of his works. Kathleen Duffys Teilhards Mysticism is also an insightful introductory guide, introducing the major phases and themes of Teilhards work in five expanding circles. And of course, for a succinct and clear overview, you can hardly do better than Ilia Delios chapter on Teilhard in her Christ in Evolution.

From there, Id dive directly into Teilhard by way of Ursula Kings stellar anthology, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (in the Modern Spiritual Masters series, Orbis Books, 1999). Kings well-chosen selections and helpful introductory commentary will help get you up to speed as painlessly as possible. From there, go to The Heart of Matter, Teilhards magnificent spiritual autobiography, written near the end of his life, which offers a moving recapitulation of his lifelong themes as well as a reflection on his earlier work.

From there, wander as you will. Those of more devotional temperament will find his The Divine Milieu, Hymn of the Universe, and The Mass on the World moving and accessible. Those of more scientific temperament may gravitate toward Christianity and Evolution and The Future of Man. His magnum opus, The Phenomenon of Man, is notoriously challenging, but if youve worked your way up to it gradually, youll be more able to take it in stride.

Most of these volumes are easily available at Amazon.com and other internet websites, and Hymn of the Universe, officially out of print, is available for download.

During my upcoming Wisdom Schools this year, I will be intending to ease in some Teilhard where appropriate: particularly in our Glastonbury Ascensiontide retreat and our Advanced Wisdom School in North Carolina this Aprilso if youre signed up for either of those schools, be sure to get an early jump of the reading trajectory Ive just laid out. Ill also be introducing these materials in the some of the Communities of Practice sessions in New England later this year, and probably in an official Teilhard Wisdom School in 2016. So be sure to stay tuned.

Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Im a relative newcomer to Teilhard myself, still working my way through this remarkable corpus like a neophyte spelunker in a vast crystal cave. Not surprisingly, its the kids in the Wisdom NetworkMatthew Wright, Brie Stoner, and Josh Tysingerwho seem to have the best handle on the material and are already grasping its implications for the future (their future!) and unlocking its potential in sermon, song, and drama. I mention this simply to encourage you not to be intimidated by the material, or the apparent lack of an authority figure to interpret it for you. Form a reading group, use your well-patterned lectio divina method to break open a short section of text, and dive in with your energy, your insights, and your questions. How you get there is where youll arrive.

Okay, who wants to take me up on this New Years Challenge?

Love and blessing,

Cynthia

Read more here:
Launching The Year Of Teilhard by Cynthia Bourgeault The ...

Exploring Online Education:

Online education is often preferred by professionals, parents, and students who need a flexible school schedule. This article will help you understand the basics of online education, recognize its benefits and drawbacks, and choose an online education program that fits your needs.

What is Online Education?:

Online education is any type of learning that occurs through the internet. Online education is often called:

Is Online Education Right for You?:

Online education isnt for everyone. People who are most successful with online education tend to be self-motivated, skilled with scheduling their time, and capable of meeting deadlines. Advanced reading and writing skills are often required to excel in text-heavy online education courses. See: Is Online Learning Right for You?

Online education offers flexibility for people who have work or family responsibilities outside of school. Often, students enrolled in online education programs are able to work at their own pace, accelerating their studies if desired. Online education programs may also charge less than traditional programs.

Students involved in online education often complain that they miss the direct, face-to-face interaction found on traditional campuses. Since coursework is generally self-directed, it is difficult for some online education students to stay engaged and complete their assignments on time.

Types of Online Education Programs:

When choosing an online education program, youll need to decide between synchronous courses and asynchronous courses. Students taking online education courses synchronously are required to log on to their courses at the same time as their professors and peers. Students taking online education courses asynchronously may log on to the course website whenever they choose and do not have to participate in discussions or lectures at the same time as their peers.

Choosing an Online Education Program:

After surveying your online education options, choose a school that fits your personal goals and learning style. The About.com list of Online Education Program Profiles can help you make the right decision.

Continued here:
What You Need to Know About Online Education

Fort Valley State University Online Learning provides the online information, tools, and support you need to become a virtual member of the FVSU family and stay connected as you enroll in courses and complete degrees online.

New features and resources at a glance:

State AuthorizationIf you are physically located in a state other than Georgia, please contact us to ensure that FVSU is authorized to offer distance education in your state.

Logging InIf you have been admitted and have paid your fees, you may enter into your online courses on the first day of class. Here is how to log in:

The D2L username is the same as your FVSU email ID before the @ sign. For example, jsmith1@wildcat.fvsu.edu would be jsmith1 for the D2L username.

If you do not have your FVSU Student Email account, you can retrieve it from Banner Web under the Personal Information Link.Once you have retrieved your user ID please click the Forgot Password Link and you will receive a password reset link to your student email.

If you forget your password, select the Forgot password link on the Brightspace by D2L page and then check their wildcat email for the password reset link.

Student tutorials for Brightspace by D2L

Fully online courses are charged at a rate of $189.00 per credit hour for undergraduate students and $219 per credit hour for graduate students. Courses that are offered through Georgia ONmyLINE (http://www.georgiaonmyline.org) are charged at a rate of $189.00 per credit hour. Students enrolled in all online courses are required to pay the Student Center/Multi-Use Fee and the Institutional Fee.

ContactLaQuata Sumter, Director of OnlineLearningOffice: (478) 827-3857E-mail: sumterl@fvsu.edu

Amanda D. Glover, Distance Learning Technical SupportOffice: (478) 825-6228E-mail: glovera@fvsu.edu

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Online Education - Fort Valley State University

8 Benefits of Learning Online

1. Save Time

Scheduling and implementing online learning is much less time-consuming than planning and running inservice days and staff meetings.

2. Save Money

Eliminate travel expenses, registration costs, consultant fees, and other expenses associated with seminars and on-site meetings. And online learning can save school districts the expense of hiring substitute teachers.

3. Get CEU and College Credit

Online learning opportunities offer a way to earn professional development clock hours, which can be applied toward CEU or college credit.

4. Add Flexibility

You can access online learning opportunities anytime, any place you have access to the Internet, from the comfort of your own home and even during summer and holiday breaks.

5. Increase Accountability

Online learning can be even more accountable than traditional professional development because assignments, assessment scores, activities, course completions, and participant progress can be monitored online.

6. Bring Education Theory to Life

When online learning experiences take full advantage of the interactivity and multimedia power of the Internet, they can engage you with videotaped classroom scenes, interviews, and online demonstrations of concepts. This wide variety of activity and question formats offers a more valuable learning experience than a typical workshop or textbook-based courses.

7. Promote Transference of Learning to the Workplace

Instead of one-shot workshops, you can use the flexibility and lower costs of online learning to follow-up on learning activities with support that leads to implementation of new practices.

8. Create Excitement About Learning

The interactivity and multimedia delivery of online professional development makes learning more engaging and fun!

Why Choose ASCD for Online Learning?

As a membership organization of, by, and for educators, ASCD listens to educators around the world. We find out what's working in schools and classrooms, then we create powerful professional resources that help implement those ideasin a single classroom or systemwide.

That's what makes us the leading source of professional development in K12 education. A national survey from an independent research firm found that more educators name ASCD as the "industry leader" in providing programs and services for K12 professional development compared to any other organization.

Our approach to online learning divides the professional development experience into four levels of learner needs:

This differentiated approach to professional development is much more apt to ensure your online learning experience is a successwhether your goal is self-help or systemic improvement.

More here:
Online Learning Benefits - ASCD

Accreditation

American University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and authorized to offer online learning in most states. For further information, please consult thecurrent list of states in which American University is authorized to offer online learning.

Current AU students can select from over 100 online classes offered during the Fall, Spring and Summer sessions. AU undergraduate and graduate students can find many options to fulfill curriculum requirements, to explore special topics, or to work toward degree completion while studying or researching aboard. Online summer classes offer a great way to earn AU credits, even while you cannot be on campus!

Visiting Non-Degree (Non-AU) Students seeking to supplement the courses offered by their home institutions or to earn credits during the summer sessions may enroll in AU's online classes. Always consult with your academic advisor at your home institution to ensure that classes taken at American University will be accepted for credit, since the transfer of course and degree credits are determined by the receiving institution.

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Online Learning | American University, Washington, DC

Yoga, (Sanskrit: Yoking or Union) one of the six systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy. Its influence has been widespread among many other schools of Indian thought. Its basic text is the Yoga-sutras by Patanjali (c. 2nd century bce or 5th century ce).

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Hinduism: Yoga

The initiate guided by a guru may practice Yoga (a methodic exertion of body and mind) in order to attain, through mortification, concentration, and meditation, a higher state of consciousness and thereby find supreme knowledge, achieve spiritual autonomy, and realize oneness with the Highest

The practical aspects of Yoga play a more important part than does its intellectual content, which is largely based on the philosophy of Samkhya, with the exception that Yoga assumes the existence of God, who is the model for the aspirant who seeks spiritual release. Yoga holds with Samkhya that the achievement of spiritual liberation (moksha) occurs when the spirit (purusha) is freed from the bondage of matter (prakriti) that has resulted from ignorance and illusion. The Samkhya view of the evolution of the world through identifiable stages leads Yoga to attempt to reverse this order, as it were, so that a person can increasingly dephenomenalize the self until it reenters its original state of purity and consciousness. An aspirant who has learned to control and suppress the obscuring activities of the mind and has succeeded in ending attachment to material objects will be able to enter samadhii.e., a state of deep concentration that results in a blissful ecstatic union with the ultimate reality.

Generally, the Yoga process is described in eight stages (ashtanga-yoga, eight-membered Yoga). The first two stages are ethical preparations. They are yama (restraint), which denotes abstinence from injury (see ahimsa), falsehood, stealing, lust, and avarice; and niyama (discipline), which denotes cleanliness of body, contentment, austerity, study, and devotion to God.

The next two stages are physical preparations. Asana (seat), a series of exercises in physical posture, is intended to condition the aspirants body and make it supple, flexible, and healthy. Mastery of the asanas is reckoned by ones ability to hold one of the prescribed postures for an extended period of time without involuntary movement or physical distractions. Pranayama (breath control) is a series of exercises intended to stabilize the rhythm of breathing in order to encourage complete respiratory relaxation.

The fifth stage, pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), involves control of the senses, or the ability to withdraw the attention of the senses from outward objects.

Whereas the first five stages are external aids to Yoga, the remaining three are purely mental or internal aids. Dharana (holding on) is the ability to hold and confine awareness of externals to one object for a long period of time (a common exercise is fixing the mind on an object of meditation, such as the tip of the nose or an image of the deity). Dhyana (concentrated meditation) is the uninterrupted contemplation of the object of meditation, beyond any memory of ego. Samadhi (total self-collectedness) is the final stage and is a precondition of attaining release from samsara, or the cycle of rebirth. In this stage the meditator perceives or experiences the object of his meditation and himself as one.

The prehistory of Yoga is not clear. The early Vedic texts speak of ecstatics, who may well have been predecessors of the later yogis (followers of Yoga). Although Yoga has been made into a separate school, its influence and many of its practices have been felt in other schools.

In the course of time, certain stages of Yoga became ends in themselvesnotably, the breathing exercises and sitting postures, as in the Yoga school of Hatha Yoga. Patanjalis Yoga is sometimes known as Raja (Royal) Yoga, to distinguish it from the other schools.

Yoga, in a less technical sense of achieving union with God, is also used, as in the Bhagavadgita, to distinguish the alternate paths (margas) to such a union.

Beginning in the early 20th century, the philosophy and practice of Yoga became increasingly popular in the West. The first important organization for practitioners in the United States was the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920. Within 50 years, instruction emphasizing both the physical and spiritual benefits of Yogic techniques was available through a wide variety of sectarian Yoga organizations, nonsectarian classes, and television programs in the United States and Europe.

Excerpt from:
Yoga | philosophy | Britannica.com

For the family of spiritual practices that originated in India, see Hatha yoga and Asana.

Yoga as exercise is a modern exercise practice influenced by hatha yoga. It involves holding stretches as a kind of low-impact physical exercise, and is often used for therapeutic purposes.[1] Yoga in this sense often occurs in a class and may involve meditation, imagery, breath work and music.[2][3]

Yoga has roots in India. The foundational text for yoga is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga came to the attention of the western public in the mid 19th century along with other topics of Hindu philosophy. The first Hindu teacher to actively advocate and disseminate aspects of yoga to a western audience was Swami Vivekananda, who toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s.[4][5]

Nearly all types of hatha yoga practices include asana, pranayama and savasana.[6] The physical asanas of hatha yoga have a tradition that goes back to at least the 15th century, but they were not widely practiced in India prior to the early 20th century.

A hatha "yoga boom" occurred in the 1980s, as unconnected to a religious denomination.[4] Since then, hatha yoga has been used as a supplementary exercise practice.[7]

The more classical approaches of hatha yoga, such as iyengar yoga, move at a more deliberate pace, emphasize proper alignment and execution and hold asanas for a longer time. They aim to gradually improve flexibility, balance, and strength. Other approaches, such as Ashtanga or power yoga, shift between asanas quickly and energetically. Contemporary approaches to yoga invite students to become their own authority in yoga practice by offering principle-based approaches to yoga that can be applied to any form.

Much of the research on hatha yoga has been in the form of preliminary studies or clinical trials of low methodological quality, including small sample sizes, inadequate blinding, lack of randomization, and high risk of bias.[8][9] Hatha yoga does not have specific standardization of its practice.

A 2010 literature review stated, "although the results from these trials are encouraging, they should be viewed as very preliminary because the trials, as a group, suffered from substantial methodological limitations."[10] A 2015 systematic review on the effect of yoga on mood and the brain concluded that "yoga is associated with better regulation of the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system, as well as a decrease in depressive and anxious symptoms in a range of populations."[11] The same review recommended more methodological rigor be applied to future clinical trials.

One review found little evidence that yoga helps people with dementia perform their daily activities,[12] while another showed there were no effects on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.[8] There was weak evidence supporting yoga as an alternative treatment for insomnia, with no evidence that yoga was better than general relaxation.[13]

Only weak evidence was found to support the use of hatha yoga as a complementary therapy for rheumatic diseases, with no evidence of its safety.[14] Although one study found a small effect of yoga to lower high blood pressure, overall this evidence was too weak for any recommendation to be made, and provided no information about safety.[15] There was no evidence of benefit in treatment of epilepsy or menopause-related symptoms.[16][17] Practice of yoga had no effect on the underlying mechanisms of cancer.[18]

Although relatively safe, yoga is not risk free. Sensible precautions can usefully be taken for example beginners should avoid advanced moves, yoga should not be combined with psychoactive drug use, and competitive yoga should be avoided.[19]

A small percentage of yoga practitioners each year suffer physical injuries analogous to sports injuries.[20] The practice of yoga has been cited as a cause of hyperextension or rotation of the neck, which may be a precipitating factor in cervical artery dissection.[21]

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Yoga as exercise - Wikipedia