Fishes and Trees: 12 Timely Mindfulness Tips From Albert Einstein (Melanie Harth, Ph.D., LMHC)

Fishes and Trees: 12 Timely Mindfulness Tips From Albert Einstein

Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid. -- Albert Einstein

Billions of fish try to climb trees every day. Just look around the office, or at those poor souls who so valiantly strive their entire lives in going-absolutely-nowhere work mode.

An astonishing 70 percent of the American workforce is disengaged, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Fishes Trying to Climb Trees

Where does mindfulness enter the picture? First, are you listening to yourself about what's going on? Are you telling yourself the truth?

Trying to climb a tree with fins?

Gotta start right where we are. We learn to do that by slowing down, settling into ourselves, beginning to hear what's actually going on in the universe of our little minds and egos.

Then, notice what's actually going on in the world around us. I feel this. I notice that. I like/don't want to do X. I wish X.

12 Tips on Mindfulness From Albert Einstein

1. I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. Use your passionate curiosity! How to begin? Use mindfulness. Settle into yourself, hear those whispered truths.
2. Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. Are you trying to drive and kiss? Trying to work a "job" and hold your dreams 'till some future whenever? Stop that. Start kissing.


3. Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.** Fish who are paying attention, being mindful, know that trying to climb a tree is a waste of a life. Smart fish go for the water, that place from which one happily thrives.


4. The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious -- the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Is there any room in your life for the mysterious? If not... bummer. That's the space wherein fish understand that trying to climb a tree is pretty stupid. Mindful awareness can help you see the mysterious body of water that's right in front of you.


5. Any fool can know. The point is to understand. Any fool fish intellectually knows that climbing a tree just isn't going to happen. But. To understand the ramifications, and make a different choice, well... that's where mindfulness comes in handy.


6. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Cultivating a mindful awareness practice helps us manage those inevitable difficult times. It helps us get in the water rather than trying to climb trees.


7. Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. If all the fish around us are crazily trying to climb, it's more challenging to see with our own eyes that it's a no-win effort. Feeling our way with our hearts is the minority position. (70 percent disengagement in the workforce?) Mindfulness goes a long way toward giving us the courage to do what needs doin'.


8. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. Yes, you'll need to do something different in order to swim in your own little pond (or big fat ocean). What can help you make the necessary changes? That's right... mindfulness.


9. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Mindful awareness helps develop the ability to drop into the gift of your intuitive mind. If more fish cultivated this practice... well, just imagine the results!


10. I believe in intuitions and inspirations...I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am. Most fish aren't stopping long enough to know how they feel about anything. Mindfulness helps us feel into what is true. When we understand that, we can begin making better choices for ourselves and the people we love.


Imagination is the highest form of research. Imagination? Feeling into your heart? Intuition? None of these concepts is high on the list of most organizations. What might be wrong with this picture? Start asking yourself what you need to know. Do it through mindful awareness. Align with Einstein.


The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. How much of you is dying inside while you're madly trying to climb a tree when you really belong in the water? Develop your mindfulness muscle. Start living.

Mindfulness isn't a cure-all for everything on the planet. But it sure does help. With almost everything.

 

It's Alchemical and Experiential

 

There's an alchemical process that takes place when one cultivates a regular practice of paying attention to the reality that lies below the surface of what appears to be normal.

 

It's experiential. Not intellectual. You can't grok it by thinking about it. Until you try it, really give it a go, you're still a fish trying to climb that tree.

 

**We know he meant women, too. Even Einstein made mistakes.

 

For more by Melanie Harth, Ph.D., LMHC, click here.

For more on mindfulness, click here.

The Untouchable Evolutionary Value of Depression (UPDATED)

A fifth group describes the people who are achuta, or untouchable. The primordial being does not claim them. Untouchables are outcasts—people considered too impure, too polluted, to rank as worthy beings. Prejudice defines their lives, particularly in the rural areas, where nearly three-quarters of India's people live. Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. 

A few years ago, my wife brought home a couple of red-eared slider turtles for pets.  They were about the size of a toonie each when we got them.  They would snuggle together, side-by-side or one on top of the other - very cute.

One turtle was a bit of a pig.  It would eat all the food put into the tank, leaving none for its partner who wasn't as quick off the platform when it came to eating time.  It was behaviour that continued over time; the piggy turtle grew bigger than its partner, swam more actively, was generally more mobile.  The second one, however, began to move less and less and very noticeably lagged in terms of growth.

Then, we noticed that the turtles stopped snuggling.

We tried removing turtle #2 and feeding it separately; we tried removing turtle #1 from the tank so that its weaker cousin could get some nourishment.  It got to a point, though, that turtle #2 simply seemed to decide to stop eating, like it was sick, or perhaps resigned to its fate.  At only a few months of age, turtle #2 died.

Thinking that perhaps the turtle had been weak or ill from the get-go, we got a replacement.  At the pet store, all the red-eared sliders in the tank looked so happy, snuggling up to each other; our son picked the one he liked the best. 

For a time, it looked like turtle #1 was happy to have a healthy replacement and snuggling continued.  But so did the eating dominance.  It wasn't very long before the cycle repeated itself; turtle #1, growing big and healthy, ate all the food; turtle #2 became lethargic; the two turtles stopped snuggling.  Eventually, turtle #1 was alone again.  Five years on, the piggy turtle is alive, well and massive - but also alone, the last turtle standing.

Something about this repeated behaviour triggered something in me; a memory or an instinct, I'm not sure, but the concept of animals going off to die alone kept coming back to me.  Eventually, I decided to do some research.

Animals will go off to die alone; dogs do it, cats do it, even ants do it. 

This is where depression comes in.

Here are some recognized symptoms of depression, italics mine:

Talking about killing or harming one’s self Expressing strong feelings of hopelessness or being trapped An unusual preoccupation with death or dying Acting recklessly, as if they have a death wish (e.g. speeding through red lights)

Calling or visiting people to say goodbye Getting affairs in order (giving away prized possessions, tying up loose ends) Saying things like “Everyone would be better off without me” or “I want out” A sudden switch from being extremely depressed to acting calm and happy

Not eating is pretty reckless.  Wanting to remove oneself from the crowd is pretty symptomatic of depression as well.  Could depression in humans be similar to this animal instinct of removing oneself from the crowd for their protection, a genetic predisposition that pushes us to isolate and shut down to preserve the well-being and resource access of our peers?

We do live in a dog-eat-dog world; despite what we tell ourselves, success in many careers or relationships is still largely predicated on "how tough" or "how hungry" you are - a willingness to do whatever it takes to make the sale, soothe the boss, beat the competitor.  If you can't "make the cut" - and many don't - you could find yourself bullied either actively or passively; you might also find yourself suffering from symptoms of depression.  In fact, there's a high correlation between stressful work and depression. 

The rise of precarious employment (contract labour and internships with little pay, no benefits and no stability) has exacerbated the social increase - and social cost - of mental illness in national and global economies, sparking an unheralded business crisis in Canada.  While this concept has been recognized by the key players in one of the most precarious employment structures there is - politics - it has not been internalized.  Parties have no formal exit-strategy for their employees/Members, partially due to the very real concerns of political interference and nepotism.

Of course, politics is a notoriously cut-throat industry, one of those that encourages the "hungry" employee to get ahead and serves to excluded the rest as not man enough for the game.  If you're not tough, the logic seems to go, you're untouchable.  From having lived in that world, I can tell you there are countless walking wounded informing the policy decisions that impact your lives.  On the other hand, it's hard to imagine Stephen Harper's PMO taking occupational mental health that seriously - after all, they practise survival of the fittest social selection every day.

The problem is that with a few exceptions we have decided, as a society, that we want everyone to live healthy, happy, productive lives - hence, medicine, social infrastructure and the like.  Those who in the past would have been deemed untouchable - lepers, suffers of plagues, etc, - can now be treated or at least, cared for. 

That doesn't mean that genetic predispositions developed before the advent of medicine don't still exist; social evolution has a habit of moving faster than genetic evolution does.  Despite the infrastructure we humans have developed, the medicines and prosthetics and accommodation tools for persons with visible and psychological disabilities, we still rely on cognitive hardware not that dissimilar from other animals.

If human depression is the manifestation of a genetic predisposition towards protecting the group and if the people most likely to be in positions of power are those most likely to be the overindulgent turtle, we have a bigger hurdle to leap than we've imagined.

It's good that the federal government has created a National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace; with as ingrained an issue as this one, we're going to need solid leadership that sets the example. 

This isn't an issue employers and employees are going to be able to resolve on their own; it's one we're going to have to face together.

UPDATE DECEMBER 31 2013:    "Typical Liberal; tug at our heart strings, then dig into our wallets.  Sorry, Bob, but taxpayer money doesn't solve every problem.  Besides, depression being such a debilitating disease, shouldn't people have the "right to die."

A hard-working taxpayer suggesting suicidal people should just be left to kill themselves?  Objectivist thinking, of course; individuals are separate, don't impact each other and the only thing that connects us is economic activity.  What if the depressed person is a soldier who has fought to save our country?  Too bad, sucks to be them.  

What if average citizens see stats that more soldiers commit suicide, end up in jail and otherwise have miserable lives than everyone else?  Well, then they shouldn't sign up, should they?  And if they don't, and war comes to our soil, what then?

What if the depressed person is your wife, your son or daughter?  Still think no one else should be involved?  What about you?  What if your boss won't let you take time off to be with your sick relative, and they commit suicide in your absence?  What then?

Every man for himself doesn't work; not unless we are prepared to give up all the things that come with society, like specialized labour, healthcare and quality-of life.  

There's only one path available.

Typical Liberal; tug at our heart strings, then dig into our wallets. Sorry Bob, but taxpayer money doesn’t solve every problem. Besides, depression being such a debilitating disease, shouldn’t people have the “right to die”.
Typical Liberal; tug at our heart strings, then dig into our wallets. Sorry Bob, but taxpayer money doesn’t solve every problem. Besides, depression being such a debilitating disease, shouldn’t people have the “right to die”.

Tackling Depression at Work as a Productivity Strategy (Judy Martin)

We keep talking about it... but words are not deeds.

Tackling Depression at Work as a Productivity Strategy

Depression tops the list of health-related productivity costs in the workplace. That was the finding in a medical study shortly after the economy tanked in the 2008 recession, and it’s no different now.

The annual cost of depression is estimated at $44 billion in lost productivity to American companies according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

 

The accelerated pace of work due to expanding technology can feed stress and anxiety in the workplace, but depression is a different animal. It’s a clinical diagnosis “with specific criteria, which severely impact a person’s ability to function.” It can thwart an employees’ ability to concentrate, be effective and stay healthy enough to hold down a job.

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“Some companies will only tune into the effects of these strains when they experience negative outcomes like losing a customer or losing key talent,” says Clare Miller, Director of the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, a program of the American Psychiatric Foundation.

Companies that measure engagement and morale, Miller says, will be more likely to  identify  this “pain” earlier,  and take steps to intervene. “My sense is that companies are intuitively concerned about this “new normal” and the long-term impact of unsustainable pace.”

 

In a joint project, The Partnership for Workplace Mental Health and Employers Health, an Ohio-based employer coalition, are designing a new workplace human resources toolkit. It will help employees identify warning signs of depression, and help decrease the stigma associated with depression.

When Work Stress Yields Depression It's Unbearable (Judy Martin)

 

 

A friendly looking, tie-wearing, big brown bear greets you from the depths of a scenic forest on the pages of a new on-line portal aimed at raising awareness about depression in the workplace. The front page of RightDirectionforme.com reads:

 

 “When you’re depressed at work, it can feel like you’re lost in the woods alone. But there’s help, and you can find your way out.”

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Depression is a bear of a burden on its own, let alone in the workplace where the stigma attached to it is arguably just as bad as the consequences of remaining silent for the employee and the employer. That’s the message from the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health  (an arm of the American Psychiatric Foundation) which joined with Employers Health launching Right Direction to educate employers and employees about depression, reduce stigma and increase the chances of people asking for help.

 

“In my experience, depression has been on the radar, but not a topic that employers typically have wanted to address head-on,” says Marcas Miles of Employers Health who overseas programs and community outreach for the non-profit coalition of health care providers. He says while employers are aware of the problem, they don’t necessarily have a direction to start the conversation – thus the Right Direction initiative was born.

 

Data suggest a growing need to address depression at work. Mental illness short-term disability claims are growing by 10% annually and mental disorders were at the heart of more than 9% of long-term disability claims in 2012. As I mentioned in a recent Forbes.com post, Tackling Depression at Work as a Productivity Strategy, depression is a leading cause of lost productivity in the United States with an annual cost of $44 billion to employers.

 

Add work stress into the mix and things get even more complicated says Clare Miller, director of the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health. While stress is something that everyone experiences she says, not being able to manage stress in a healthy way is a concern. “Someone with clinical depression may be especially vulnerable to highly stressful situations, especially if their depression is not adequately managed,” says Miller.

 

“There has been a significant rise in disability claims in the last two years, some of them related to psychiatric problems,” says Robert Leahy Ph.D. the director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. “I have seen a dramatic increase in generalized anxiety, marked by excessive worry, focused on the possibility of losing their job.

 

The author of Beat the Blues Before They Beat You: How to Overcome Depression, says added stressors at work might be contributing to depression and worry. “There are increasing demands for productivity to increase profits, while support staff has shrunk,” says Dr Leahy. “Moreover, people often report feeling stuck in a no-win, glass-ceiling job, but they fear being out in the market place in such difficult times. As a result they feel trapped and helpless.”

 

Other work stress culprits include employees feeling that they are suffering with burnout, being treated unfairly or not compensated properly, lack control of outcomes, and feel unappreciated. “Increased complaining may help some think that they are ventilating their entitled opinions, but this may lead to getting fired,” says Dr. Leahy. Thus, keeping their job the prime stressor that can exacerbate underlying depression.

 

The Right Direction website offers a questionnaire to explore whether one is depressed. It’s not just about sadness, hopelessness, irritability, self-criticism and feelings of indifference and withdrawal. Upon perusal, companies will see that when depressed their employees are likely to have difficulty concentrating, might be more forgetful, less productive and less present even when sitting at their desks. They are twice as likely to develop heart disease, and twice as likely to have a stroke.

 

Retaining valued employees, less turnover and a healthier more productive workforce. Perhaps that’s the argument that is best aligned with that bottom-line for the C-suite to identify early recognition of symptoms, have the difficult conversations and tackle depression head on.

 

Is employee depression on the radar of big business? Should it be?

 

Please share your thoughts. Connect with me on Twitter: @JudyMartin8 and please visit me at WorkLifeNation.com where I track work stress management initiatives, workplace well-being trends and write about transforming stress in an “always-on” world.

The PMO's revolving door: Why Harper has a staffing problem (Don Martin)

 

Stephen Harper's government has recognized the impact of occupational mental health on performance, productivity and individual well-being; they even created voluntary standards.

 

Maybe it's time they implement them internally.  Leaders practice what they preach, etc.

 

The PMO's revolving door: Why Harper has a staffing problem

Prime Minister Stephen Harper waves to people after speaking at the opening of the World French Language Forum Monday, July 2, 2012 in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Don Martin, Power Play Host                                      
             

Published Friday, July 19, 2013 1:59PM EDT                                     

The Prime Minister has a staffing problem: Stephen Harper has trouble keeping them.

 

The soundtrack of the PMO is the combination of boxes being packed and the whirling noise of a revolving door as barely-started staff move on, voluntarily or otherwise.

 

The latest to be reassigned from the overheated PMO kitchen is one Chris Woodcock. Never heard of him? Me neither.

 

He was head of issues management which, coupled with communications, represents PMO Control Freak Central.

 

What prompted Woodcock to be barge-poled away from the Prime Minister was allegedly being linked -- directly or indirectly -- to the Mike Duffy affair and the much-maligned senator’s monetary bailout by Harper’s top aide.

 

Thus, to illustrate the busy departure lounge in the PMO, a former issues manager joins a former legal adviser as the two departing PMO staff who knew about a cheque from a former chief of staff to a former Conservative senator to pay off improper housing claims.

This exodus is not just a recent phenomenon.

 

After seven years as Prime Minister, Harper is now on his fourth chief of staff and his sixth (and best) director of communications. (Nobody expects workaholic Andrew MacDougall will set the mouthpiece longevity record by sticking around until the 2015 election.)

 

About the only staffing constant is the long-suffering couple who have toiled as Harper’s grin-and-grip photographers for about ten years. 

 

Partially driving the turnover is the fact Harper’s not exactly an empathetic boss. He works insanely hard and expects the same from everyone inside his organizational chart. Being in the PMO is seen as sufficient compensation for all those long seven-day workweeks tethered to a Blackberry.

 

(The parting gift for a middle manager who couldn’t take the endless overtime and working weekends any longer was to have Harper breeze into her office with official photographer in tow for a pose and a handshake. Total time for the sendoff: one awkward minute).

 

But what’s worse than having little lingering political memory in the PMO is how the ones who last the longest seem to be the paranoid powertrippers who are causing so much trouble.

 

They do silly things like anonymously leak smear material on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and get carried away by advising new ministers to craft enemy lists. They are the Koolaid-drinking true believers who notoriously bully senior political and public servant staff, which has morale sliding throughout government ranks.

 

That’s the real staffing problem confronting Harper. The good ones quit.

 

Those who thrive inside the PMO bunker relish their power and see non-existent enemies lurking behind every grassy knoll on Parliament Hill.

 

Adressing the Presenteeism Issue (Esther Huberman)

Addressing the presenteeism issue

Esther Huberman | October 15, 2012

On any given day, you may look around your office and see that all your employees are at work. But present doesn’t always mean productive. Presenteeism—absenteeism’s lesser known, but still costly, cousin—occurs when employees who are physically present are, due to a physical or emotional issue, distracted to the point of reduced productivity.

 

As employers increase their sensitivity to the issues surrounding mental and physical health in the workplace, they also increase their awareness of presenteeism. “Everyone is aware of situations where employees are at work but are not productive due to emotional or physical distractions,” says Greg Van Slyke, senior director, business development, with Homewood Human Solutions. “They may call these individuals the ‘walking wounded’ or, to use a sports analogy, say they are ‘playing hurt.’”

 

But beyond this simple definition, presenteeism has several nuances. If, once or twice, an individual is distracted at work by a personal matter, that is not presenteeism or, at least, it is notconsistent presenteeism. According to Emmanuelle Gaudette, prevention and health promotion manager with Standard Life, “If the problem that creates the distraction persists and results in chronic stress with unhealthy physical or emotional manifestations (racing heart, headaches, depression), it becomes a health issue that interferes with productivity.” That’s the presenteeism employers should be concerned about.

 

Lost productivity costs

 Increasingly, plan sponsors and their consultants understand that a well-designed wellness campaign should help improve workplace health and employee productivity. And it is generally understood that the more a wellness strategy is ingrained across all levels of an organization—from procedural to social—the more positive its influence on employee health. To measure the impact of such a strategy, plan sponsors typically track criteria such as degrees of absenteeism, increases/decreases in drug claiming for chronic conditions with a lifestyle connection, short- and long-term disability claims and return-to-work successes and failures.

 

But absent from this list, due to its difficulty in quantifying, is measurement of presenteeism. To properly measure, presenteeism requires initial benchmarking followed by a form of intervention to address its causes. A follow-up remeasurement, post-intervention, then quantifies the degree of presenteeism. It sounds straightforward, but it’s not when you consider the depth to which employee actions, reactions, expectations regarding output and individual physical and emotional influences need to be identified and measured—all while using statistical protocols.

 

The labour-intensive components of this activity—and its need for a command of sophisticated measuring and statistical criteria—preclude many from doing so. Nonetheless, many sponsors continue to want, and need, to know what they can anticipate as their return on investment (ROI) before investing time in planning and delivering a possible solution.

 

Numbers game

 Unfortunately, despite the existence of various North American studies on the matter (some dating back to the mid-’70s), quantifying presenteeism in terms that relate to businesses across the board has been difficult because of issues around consistency and integrity of the studies. Fortunately, clarity is on its way in the not-too-distant future. Soon, Canadians will be able to look to a number of Canadian research projects on absenteeism, disability and presenteeism in relation to wellness investment that will provide metrics rooted in scientific, objective and reputable research mechanisms. These projects, currently under way, are the result of a partnership of insurance companies, educational institutions and others with a vested interest in quantifying the human and ROI value of wellness programs.

 

In one such effort, Standard Life has partnered with the University of Montreal in the study called Developing Better Assessment, Interventions and Policies in Occupational Mental Health: A Multi-disciplinary Approach. The objective of this five-year project is to analyze the link between personal and organizational characteristics; namely, to better understand the influence of a company’s management practices on employee mental health. Early results will be released this fall, with the remainder throughout 2013.

 

Standard Life’s objective is to help educate employers to help them visualize the human and financial cost of mental health issues in the workplace. “We want to put numbers around this issue to help our plan sponsors better understand the negative implications (including presenteeism) of having unhealthy or distracted employees—whether or not they are at work—as well as the value of investing in wellness,” says Gaudette.

 

Getting to ROI

 In an effort to generate quality, scientifically sound data on the ROI of wellness, the Sun Life Wellness Institute partnered with the Richard Ivey School of Business for the Return-on-Investment (ROI) Study of Workplace Wellness Programs, intended to increase evidence and insight into Canadian workplace wellness. Phase 1, completed earlier this year, consists of a comprehensive review of all published literature on the issue of workplace wellness programs and their outcomes. Phase 2, under way now, is a two-year field study involving a number of Canadian organizations and examines wellness strategies in relation to ROI.

 

Dr. Michael Rouse, director of the Health Sector MBA with the Ivey School of Business and head of the joint study, recently shared results of the completed Phase 1 with industry members and says the study’s rigorous review of global literature and studies on the ROI of wellness programs “reveal a savings of 1.5 to 1.7 absentee days per employee, per year when a wellness program is in place. This translates into a savings of $251 to $274 per year, per employee.”

 

Bear in mind, the above statistic is only what has been revealed by research literature to date and includes data from outside Canada. Phase 2 of the study is restricted to Canada.

 

The Burnout factor

 Further insight into the effects of presenteeism, its hidden costs and impacts within the workplace can be found in Sun Life’s recently published report The Burnout Factor. The following details from the report highlight the high toll of poor physical and mental health on workers and, by extension, their employers.

1. The group with the highest average “burnout factor” (stresses in emotional, financial, personal, professional and health areas) is that of full-time employees. They received a score of 38, which is high in relation to retired individuals (with a score of 20) and in comparison to all Canadians (with a score of 31).
2. Of the full-time employee group, it is the individuals between the ages of 35 and 44—prime productive working years—who are at a particularly high risk of stress. Their burnout factor score was, on average, 40.4, which is 30% higher than that of the average Canadian.

Why the focus on chronic stress? Because medical research indicates prolonged exposure to stress has strong links to chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, obesity and more. While other research on this matter is taking place in North America, these two studies are uniquely Canadian and, therefore, are expected to be influential in helping Canadian plan sponsors better understand and quantify expectations around investing in wellness.

 

Outside of any research taking place, the reality is that employers will always need to be sensitive to the human and financial costs of presenteeism, absenteeism and disability in the workplace and will always wish to mitigate those costs. If plan sponsors currently believe in the strong correlation between improved ROI and the time, effort and initiative involved in creating and sustaining a proactive organizational culture that is committed to mental and physical health, then following this data will be key to developing wellness programs in the future.

 

Esther Huberman is a communications consultant with Pal Benefits. ehuberman@palbenefits.com

Obama: Trayvon Martin 'could have been me' 35 years ago

 

 

 

 

U.S. President Barack grappled with the Trayvon Martin case in the most personal of terms on Friday, telling Americans that the slain youth “could have been me 35 years ago” and urging them to do some soul searching about their attitudes on race.

 

The nation’s first black president said Americans need to look for ways to move forward after the shooting and trial in Florida. And he said it may be time to take a hard look at “stand your ground” self-defence laws, questioning whether they contribute “to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see.”

 

“Where do we take this?” Obama wondered aloud during an unscheduled appearance in the White House briefing room. “How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction?”

 

                 His appearance marked his first extended comments on the Martin case since neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted last weekend of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in Martin’s death last year. Jurors found that Zimmerman was acting in self-defence when he shot the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

 

Obama said that as people process the verdict, it’s important to put the pained and angry reaction of many African-Americans into context.

 

Protests and demonstrations, he said, are understandable, adding that “some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through — as long as it remains non-violent.”

“It’s important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away,” he said.

 

The president said that distrust shadows African-American men: They sometimes are closely followed when they shop at department stores; they can draw nervous stares on elevators and hear car locks clicking when they walk down the street — experiences that he said he personally felt before becoming a well-known figure.

 

“It’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear,” he said.

 

Obama said black Americans recognize a history of racial disparities in how laws are applied on the death penalty and involving drug cases, but he also said the African-American community was not “naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they’re disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence.”

 

Call for "soul searching"

 

The president said it’s time “for all of us to do some soul searching,” though he said it’s generally not productive when politicians try to orchestrate a national conversation that ends up being stilted and politicized.

 

He added that conversations within families and at churches and workplaces, where people may be more honest, could help people to ask themselves, “Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?”

 

Overall, Obama said, race relations in the United States actually are getting better. Citing his own daughters and their interactions with friends, the president said, “They’re better than we are. They’re better than we were.”

 

“Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race,” he said.

 

The president declined to wade into the detail of legal questions about the Florida case, saying, “Once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.”

 

But he said state and local laws, such as Florida’s “stand your ground” statute, need a close look.

Obama said it would be useful “to examine some state and local laws to see if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of confrontation” that led to Martin’s death. He questioned whether a law that sends the message that someone who is armed “has the right to use those firearms even if there is a way for them to exit from a situation” really promotes peace and security.

 

And he raised the question of whether Martin himself, if he had been armed and of age, “could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk” and shot Zimmerman if he felt threatened when being followed.

 

Obama also said the country needs to look at ways to improve local law enforcement through better training and resources, and needs to look for ways to “bolster and reinforce” African-American boys.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Justice Department has an open investigation into the case. The department is looking into whether Zimmerman violated Martin’s civil rights.