Does a stressful lifestyle lead to mindless behavior and strip away your ability to lead and achieve goals? Here are some conclusions from a study of rats (h/t Appel) subjected to constant stress:

On the one hand, regions of the brain associated with executive decision-making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled, while, conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed.

In other words, the rodents were now cognitively predisposed to keep doing the same things over and over, to run laps in the same dead-ended rat race rather than seek a pipeline to greener sewers. “Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach,” Dr. Sousa said. “I call this a vicious circle.”

Chilling. I wonder how many people here in Japan fit this description, and I wonder about myself. How do you get out of a stress rut and recover the ability to focus and decide?

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“Leading is inspiring people to participate with you.”

I wrote this in my notes last month while listening to Sherwood Lingenfelter, Professor of Anthropology and Provost of Fuller Seminary.

I’ve heard and seen many models and definitions of leadership: top down, bottom up, leading from in front (horizontal). I almost skipped this one, but the word “participate” grabbed me. I realized this is what I do, or hope to do, when I bring Japanese to Cambodia.

For those of you who don’t know the background of this post, here’s a quick summary of what we do. I have been taking groups of people from Japan to Cambodia for the past one and a half years. The primary purpose has been to develop the Japanese participants. They go to Cambodia where they share their lives and serve in simple ways. In the process, they have life changing lessons. Currently we’re in our infancy. Our long term purpose is to have a learning/serving community in Japan with some common experiences and values. We hope they will work together with us to support effective Cambodian leaders helping people lift themselves out of extreme poverty and move forward under their own power in the face of great challenges (such as living with HIV).  As I said, we’re still in our infancy, but you can see our current activities at www.globaladventure.jp (in English).

We’ll be starting a non-profit in the USA soon, mainly to help people give money to be used effectively in Cambodia. Let me know if you’d like to participate in that.

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