Tag Archives: happiness

Unwinding- the Zen moments

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Taking time out and unwinding are important elements of living a resilient life.

I sat and watched the sunset in this photo develop. From bright searing sunshine, through the ” blue hour ” that photographers love all the way to the cool pitch black of the night.

The bonus was that I got to share this time with my daughters and caught some fish as well. I’ve written before about the lessons contained in taking the kids fishing.

How many times have you glanced at a sunset like this one and then immediately dismissed it and moved on because you were too busy?

You need to remember that taking time to stop, pay attention and notice the beauty of these “zen” moments is a vital part of living a resilient life.

What zen moments do you appreciate in life?

dance of social convention

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Start the dance music….

Hi how are you?…. asked the person at the checkout, asked the person at the next store, and the one after that.

It’s the same question that you and I get asked countless times every day….

Will you take the lead?

How do you reply?

Today …. I felt like replying….. “Don’t beeeep ask, you are NOT really interested, and if I told you I feel like beeeeep and feel like I want to go on a rampage, you’d recoil at a million mile an hour and be calling for security and the police”….. but what did I say ” Good thanks, you?”

This dance of social convention goes on, day in day out……

Who really wants to dance anyway?

The truth is very few people really mean it when they ask, and very few people stop to think about what might REALLY be happening for the person who they asked.

Did they stop to consider:

They have a child in serious condition in hospital,

they have just come from treatment for a serious illness,

their partner has left them,

they have just come from the funeral of their best friend…… or a myriad of other possible scenarios.

Stop the music….

Let’s do something different…. let’s change the tune.

Let’s try a new question like…..

Now you can take the lead

A question like……… that’s your choice, but if you are going to do a social dance how about you choose

a) a question about which you would really be interested

b) a question that doesn’t make the other person feel compelled to give a glib answer

 

 

 

 

 

Whack! Did that make you think?

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Whack….

Sometimes something or someone comes along that just whacks you in the head and makes you think differently……

People who whack you in the head..

I’m lucky to have a connection to a guy by the name of Sean D’Souza who himself has that knack, but he also has the knack of finding and pointing to material and/or other people who do the same (there’s an example coming up below)

Things to be whacked in the head about…

You have probably seen a whole lot of things that tell you that the richest x% of people control y% of this or that.

The mere fact that you are reading this post on your computer of your smart phone says something about where your position in that equation, it also says something about where you sit in the energy consumption equation of the human population. All that energy consumption has to have consequences somewhere, and therefore you would have to have been living in a cave if you had missed the ongoing discussion about global warming and if, like me, you are an Australian then you certainly could not have missed the debate about a carbon tax/emissions trading scheme.

Most of the debate has either been around dry academic arguments about the validity of the science of global warming and the need to reduce carbon pollution, or about pure politics associated with selling us the concept or scaring the hell out of us about the economic implications of attempting to do so, but NOBODY in Australian politics or media has cut through and delivered a lesson like a man (who is neither Australian, a politician or journalist) by the name of Hans Rosling.

Prepare to be whacked


 

Nick, Nack, you’ve been Paddy Whacked…

Hans Rosling and his magic washing machine have taken some pretty hefty concepts, whacked us in the head with  a story that is easy to grasp and challenges us to think differently about our energy use, the implications of economic growth and power consumption and by association presented a challenge to think about changing to greener sustainable energy…. WOW all of that in 9 minutes and 16 seconds (including TED’s intro!)

The ability to distill and deliver a message like that is amazing….

If you need someone to help whack you in the head regularly and help you work on getting your messages as good as the one delivered by Hans Rosling you could do a lot worse that connecting up with Sean D’Souza! Sean is a man who works hard helping other people think about presentation skills, marketing, customer focus etc etc and you can find him and his various programs at   psychotactics or keynotenut (please note these are NOT affiliate links but if you connect up with Sean give him a gentle nudge that it was me that sent you his way ;-} )

Because you are worth it…..I dare you!

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I recently wrote about How to sit with sadness, the good news is that the strategy that I shared in that post …. applies to almost every emotion or set of circumstances you find yourself in, and BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTH IT here are the simple instructions……..

because you are worth it

The instruction manual for sitting with.......

 

I DARE YOU!

BECAUSE YOU ARE WORTH IT, I dare you to pick an emotion, pick a set of circumstances you are confronting…. follow the instructions……JUST PAY ATTENTION… don’t argue with yourself or justify your thoughts just pay attention to them and see how the emotion or your understanding of the circumstances change, …..and then …..

Tell others about your experience sitting with….. in the comments below!

Life’s ONLY rule

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You have to care - it's the only rule in life!

The way I see it life has only one rule……and that is you have to CARE!

How do you express it?

It doesn’t matter how you express it, whether you call it giving a shit, whether you call it stepping up to the plate, rising to the challenge, giving a toss… however you put it there is only one rule that underpins every other rule in life…that is to CARE!

Why caring matters

All the good things in life only happen because somebody cares. (and conversely a lot of bad stuff happens when people don’t care!……remember the quote by Edmund Burke….”all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) do nothing”  and how many times in history this fact quote has proven correct )

The good things happen because someone cares enough about whatever specific thing it is to do whatever it takes to make something happen. Whether it’s the next big leap in astrophysics… or whether it is picking up the phone and calling to see if you are ok, or leaving a message of support for you on facebook they only happen because someone CARES…..

What about you?

What do you care about and why…… and how do you show it…. share it with everyone in the comments!

image credit: Aunt Owwee @flickr