Optimal Response Initiative (ORI), Civilian Version

ORI is about building a stable foundation upon which one can optimally respond to themselves and others in ordinary and extra-ordinary situations. In order to do so one must establish a framework from which context is considered. Context is key to breaking out of the cycle of knee-jerk reactions surrounded by others doing the same.

How does one do something optimally different? ORI begins with a conversation about the pros and cons of learning ORI Skills. The pros; you are doing this work. The cons; you are doing this work and change, growth and discomfort will join you along your ORI Journey. Also embedded are experiential learning exercises set up for self-reflection and practical application to increase one’s resiliency, the quality of one’s response and ultimately one’s life! Dr. Seymour uses her Continuum Response Line, a visual tool that illustrates the main goal of ORI: to identify where upon the Continuum Response Line one is and in which direction one desires to move. One can move left towards “worst” or right towards “...better BETTER BEST OPTIMAL”. Whether one is at lower case “better” or all caps “BETTER” is not as important as the direction they are moving. Learning ORI skills are much like replacing an on/off light switch (all on/all off; all right/all wrong; all good/all bad) with a dimmer switch. In daily life having a dimmer switch is a valuable tool because one may need to dial their response up or down depending on the context of a situation.

OUR POWER TO CHOOSE OUR RESPONSE In psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir about life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival he writes, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” In order to have the power to choose our response, however, one needs to be well informed about the many components that influence our response. ORI covers them all by combining common sense, insight, and practical tools!