Archive for the ‘Food for thought’ Category
Stressed? Angry? Try Meditation!
Posted on: October 12, 2019
Photo by Life Of Pix on Pexels.com
One of the solutions towards calm mind and less stressed state of life is meditation. There are many ways to practice meditation and people around the world who practice meditation provide their own ways and means. Almost all forms of meditation need to have two ‘Cs’ for completeness. These two ‘Cs’ include:
- Concentration – focus; and
- Clarity
Some techniques may have one aspect or both, depending upon the objective for which that technique is being used. ‘Mindfulness’ meditations are good examples which consist of both of these Cs i.e. Concentration and clarity.
Andy Pudddicombe, in his book: Headspace guide to meditation and mindfulness claim that ’10 minutes’ can make the difference in ones life and those 10 minutes is the time one use for mindful meditation. This technique can be applied anywhere even when you are at work or travel or else where – all you need is dedicated 10 minutes in which you are not disturbed by outside forces.
The technique which I am sharing here is from the book of Andy Puddicombe, the book recommended by Bill Gates. Technique is called ‘Take 10’ and is being summarized below:
1. Find a place to sit down in a relaxed manner with straight back.
2. Set time for 10 minutes in which no one should disturb you: Idea: Turn off the cell phone!
3. Close your eyes and take five (5) deep gentle breaths: in through the nose and out through the mouth.
4. Focus on the physical sensation of the body – arms and legs
5. Scan down through the body and notice which parts feel comfortable and relaxed, and which parts feel uncomfortable and tense.
6. Notice how you’re feeling—i.e. what sort of mood you’re in right now.
7. Notice where you feel the rising and falling sensation of the breath most strongly.
8. Notice how each breath feels, the rhythm of it—whether it’s long or short, deep or shallow, rough or smooth.
9. Gently count the breaths as you focus on the rising and falling sensation—1 with the rise and 2 with the fall, upward to a count of 10.
10. Repeat this cycle between 5 and 10 times, or for as long as you have time available.
Allow your mind to be as busy or as still as it wants to be for about twenty seconds and then bring the mind back to the sensation of the body. Open your eyes and stand up when you feel ready.
In the book, Andy says: “In the moment you realize that you’ve been distracted, that the mind has wandered off, you’re no longer distracted. So all you need to do is gently bring the attention back to the physical sensation of the breath and continue to count. If you can remember the number you were on then just pick it up from there and, if not, simply start again at 1. There are no prizes for making it to 10 (I’m sorry to say) and so it doesn’t matter whether you start again at 1 or not. In fact, it can be quite funny in how difficult it is to make it to 10 each time, and it’s okay to laugh if you feel like laughing. For some reason meditation can look very serious and it can be tempting to start treating it like “serious work.” But the more you can bring a sense of humor to it, a sense of play, the easier and more enjoyable you’ll find it”.
Are you working very hard? Are you getting struck in what you are doing and you are not able to get what you want?
Take a pause. Think more.
Here is a story which I read in the book: Chicken Soup for the soul and simply loved it.
The contributor to the story, Price Pritchett says that trying harder may not work always. We may need to work totally different at times to achieve greater levels of success. We need to get out of our comfort zones and do something which breaks our old habits and we achieve our results by doing something different, something better. “If you keep on doing same thing again and again, you are doing to get same results, again and again”. Here is the story:
The author is sitting in a quiet room at the Milcroft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto and listenirg to the desperate sounds of a life-or-death struggle going on a few feet away.
There is a small fly burning out the last of its short life. The fly is trying to move out from the glass of the windowpane. Trying harder and harder to cross the window pane. But it is not working. The fly will not survive and will not be able to cross the window pane. The struggle is part of the trap as its leading no where. It is not possible for the fly to break the glass. The fly will give up life to break the glass. It will keep on working hard but nothing will happen. The fly moves out of the room by breaking the window pane.
“Across the room, ten steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so easy”.
Why is the fly not trying the other way: something totally different? Why does fly not choose to move ten seconds and get out of the door? Less efforts, logical move – but different!
“Trying harder isn’t necessarily the solution to achieving more. It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want out of life. Sometimes, in fact, its a big part of the problem”.
Let’s think out of the box
Posted on: November 30, 2011
Everyone has issues, challenges and problems in life. Everyone is trying to face those challenges and find ways to solve problems.
People are playing by the ‘rules’ of the game which are seldom challenged. Here is a short story from the Greek literature which brings a very interesting moral: ‘There is more than one way to solve any problem in life’
Here is the story:
In ancient Greek mythology, Gordius, who was King of a state, gave a challenge to the people.
He declared that whoever could untie the ‘knot’ was destined to become ruler of all Asia.
People came one after the other and tried their level best to open the knot. No one was able to untie or open it fully. Puzzle remained where it was – the knot was still tied.
Then came Alexander the Great. He too tried his hand at the task but like others, he was also unable to get the knot untied. He got impatient.
He tried again and again with both hands to open the knot. However, knot was tied in a manner that he was unable to untie it with his hands. Impatience started growing.
Instead of using hands, he used his sword to cut the knot.
The king saw this and told the audience that his challenge was to untie the knot.
Though Alexander has used unconventional way, he has achieved the results. Alexander was awarded the prize and he became ruler of all Asia.
So, the moral of the story: There are more than one way to look at a problem. Unconventional ways may help at time! We might need to think more, re-frame the problem and think out of the box to find the solution.
Note: The above story is from the book: Tales for Coaching by Margaret Parkin
How can we become a big thinker?
Posted on: July 1, 2011
When success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, pounds or in term of their family background or wealth, people are measured in term of the size of their thinking. The bigger people think and act, more successful will they be.
The question is: How can we think Big?
In this blog post, I will share ideas from David Schwartz book, The Magic of Thinking Big!
A practical exercise
Here is a practical exercise which is used in certain motivational training workshops by David Schwartz which can be used by us too:
1. What are our five chief assets or qualities? We need to list them down.
We can take help of any our our friend or some one who can assess us. Those qualities may include our education or a particular skill or appearance or home life or any other item.
2. We need to write down names of three people who don’t have any of those assets but are still successful in life. (We need to look around and think hard on this but believe me, we will find some people who don’t have the qualities we have but those people are still successful)
David Schwartz says that once we complete the above exercise, we will realize that we outrank many people in life! We have certain qualities and certain assets which are not available with many successful people. If this is the case, we can be successful too.
Big Thinker’s style of talking:
Big thinkers are able to create a positive picture in minds of other people even when there is no good news to tell e.g. Instead of saying: We incurred a big expense, big thinkers say: We made a big investment!
Or, instead of saying that: We are afraid to report that we failed, big thinkers say: We need to make another attempt.
Let’s think of the situation when a person comes to us and say that we face a big problem.
This will create an image of despair and gloom. Instead this can be phrased as: We have a challenge to deal with.
In order to be a ‘big thinker’, we need to create positive mental pictures – all the time!
We need to look at things not as they are in the present but what could those things be in the future.
An architect visualizes a house which is not built yet. An entrepreneur visualizes a successful business when there is no business plan on paper. A painter constructs a master piece in mind first before putting it on paper.
Why can’t we visualize success when it is yet to come?
Let’s try this: Whenever we have an issue or challenge, let’s use the words which create a positive picture and not a negative one.
Your thoughts?
Becoming a better manager is easy and Kenneth Blanchard has told us about doing it in one minute!
One Minute Manager was an international best seller which was translated in over 25 languages.
It is about a person who tried to become the best manager. He met a mentor – a person who was great manager. He told him about the one minute principle. Before we proceed to one minute principle, here are a few ideas from the author:
1. If God wishes us to talk more and listen less, he would have created two tongues and one ear!
2. It is not important what people do in front of you. The important thing is: What people do behind you.
Read more from: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/?p=1076
If ever you feel depressed, dejected, de-motivated and think that there is nothing to be thankful about, here is an article by Helen Keller who was deaf & blind.
In her famous article, “three days to see”, she has brought out a clear message: Be thankful for what you have, particularly the eyesight!
Here is the article: What would you look at if you had just three days of sight?
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight, silence would teach him the joys of sound. Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see.
Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.
How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note?
I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after the winter’s sleep.
Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song. At time my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say for just three days.
First day
On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul,” the eye. I can only “see” through my fingertips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. For instance, can you describe accurately the faces of five different friends?
As an experiment, I have questioned husbands about the colour of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. I should like to see the books which have been read to me, and which have revealed to me the deepest channels of human life. In the afternoon I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature. And I should pray for the glory of a colourful sunset. That night, I should not be able to sleep.
Second day
On my second day, I should like to see the pageant of man’s progress, and I should go to the museums. I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. The evening of my second day I should spend at a theatre or at the movies.
Third day
The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, new revelations of beauty. Today this third day, I shall spend in the workaday world, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. At midnight permanent night would close on me again. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen. I am sure that if you faced the fate of blindness you would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw will become dear to you.
Your eyes will touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at least, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you. I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow.
Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty, which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.
Here is another post on Expressing Gratitude: http://wp.me/pHUHq-4i
Get rid of CIA trap!
Posted on: April 26, 2011
From Qaiser Abbas, Motivational & Inspirational Speaker and the Author of best selling book: Tick Tick Dollar!
No matter which part of the world you live in and what are your views on politics, terrorism, human rights and global warming it is important for you to know what CIA trap is. It is irrelevant what race, religion, and culture you belong to. I don’t want to know your age, education or family. I have no interest in your history, friends, failures, disappointments or setbacks. I don’t even wish to know your goals, dreams and vision for the future.
Whatever future you want to create, please don’t become a victim of CIA if you are really committed to reach your goals. You probably didn’t like the suspense. You want to know why? Why CIA is your biggest dream killer?
What this CIA has to do with your most desired goals, ambitions and future? My answer is …. Everything! CIA can block your vision, damage your present and throw you out of the game. What does this CIA stands for?
C is ‘complacency’
CIA trap starts with ‘complacency’ that entices you to become complacent, comfortable and relax with whatever you have already achieved despite a strong need to move ahead. It convinces you to indulge in an attitude of satisfaction even in the absence of any significant achievement. When complacency sets in, organizations belonging to the elite clubs like fortune 500 companies disappear from the business map.
Complacent teams are bound to embrace embarrassment. Complacent individuals lose their competitiveness and fall behind the success line.
Stop being complacent today. Avoid the temptation of sluggishness, lethargy, idleness and laziness. Take every single day as an opportunity to go beyond where you were yesterday, even a few inches. Don’t accept the smug strategy that allures you to think as self-satisfied, haughty, and arrogant. Complacency will kill you. Allow yourself to experience some ‘creative stress’ on a daily basis.
I is ‘inefficiency’
When trapped by CIA, even the most competent, capable and talented people become inefficient. Once this ‘inefficiency’ cuts into their skins, it gets deeper and deeper. It then starts running in their blood.
Have you ever seen amazingly gifted people ruining their life with disgusting mediocrity? Who has not witnessed some remarkable artists’, musicians, actors, teachers, writers, publishers, politicians and leaders who popped up with a bang and grabbed our full attention? You might also have seen them becoming a victim of ‘complacency’ at a later stage. These ‘once successful’ starts then dwelled to long on less than their very best. Therefore, world ‘labeled’ them as inept, wasteful, clumsy, useless and even hopeless.
You can still get out of CIA trap if you decide to say good bye to inefficiency and replace your feeling of inadequacy with competence, effectiveness, and value.
Failure to do so will throw you in to the third degree of CIA imprisonment.
A is ‘apathy’
Apathy means having a ‘who cares’ attitude!
Apathy is the worst of all human emotions. People with apathetic tendencies begin to behave as indifferent. They show lack of concern toward everything around. Such people devastate organizations by becoming uncommitted towards business goals, unconcerned towards customers; casual towards quality issues, and unworried about their own contribution.
Nothing can kill personal and business relations as quick as apathy. Apathetic individuals, teams, groups, committees, unions, communities, and societies can effortlessly craft dissatisfaction, chaos, confusion and turmoil. Apathy can destroy motivation, drive, and enthusiasm for personal and organizational growth.
In short, keep away from the CIA (complacency, inefficiency and apathy) trap at every cost. You know why? Because once trapped, some people can go beyond and happily choose to become an agent of CIA. They actively engage themselves in dragging people in to complacency, inefficiency and apathy (CIA)
In my decade long interaction with both top leaders and managers around the globe, I have caught many of them secretly working for CIA. A majority of them was completely unaware of this truth.
Are you sure you have protected yourself against the likelihood of becoming a CIA agent? Say no to complacency, inefficiency and apathy (CIA). Replace complacency with some anxiety to surpass performance standard. Substitute inefficiency with effectiveness, efficacy and worth. Trade apathy with care, attention, consideration and awareness.
The day you quit to follow CIA agenda (complacency, inefficiency and apathy) and commit yourself to demonstrate initiative, drive and engagement; you will begin to experience a rewarding change in every result you produce. It’s a personal promise.
Why some people achieve their dreams? Read the POP principle by Qaiser Abbas from: http://wp.me/pHUHq-ga
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If you want to live an exceptional life, listen to Jim Rohn!
Ideas provided by Jim Rohn are not only exceptional but I can surely state that once we decide to apply what he has said, we can live an exceptional life. Test for yourself. In this post, I would like to share seven key ideas from his audio programs. If you want to remain motivated and inspired in day to day life, my recommendation: Jim Rohn’s audio program. Here are the ten ideas. Take time to think on these and share your thoughts:
1. A prayer for every day:
Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems. Wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom.
2. On action:
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what youve always gotten.
3. On success:
Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
4. On making fortune:
Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.
5 – What can we change?
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
6. Foundation of success:
Discipline is the foundation upon which all success is built. Lack of discipline inevitably leads to failure.
7. Become a person who attracts success:
Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.
If you want to read my previous post on Jim Rohn’s, click: http://wp.me/pHUHq-73
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By Motivational and inspiring speaker: Qaiser Abbas – Author of the best selling book: Tick Tick Dollar!
All human beings have aspirations, hopes and dreams to become a breathtaking success. Yet most of us don’t achieve what we desire to. Majority of human beings live a life of mediocrity, way below their level of satisfaction. We often feel unhappy, dissatisfied, unfulfilled and even un-accomplished.
If you want to produce a significant improvement in any area of your life, you got to bring POP Principle in action in your day to day living. The POP Principle guides you to achieve success, prosperity, and a deeper sense of contentment in your life. It can bridge the difference between your aspirations and actions thus creates the life you truly desire and deserve.
What this ‘POP Principle’ is? Simple.
The P in POP Principle stands for ‘ Potential’ Read the rest of this entry »
In search of excellence!
Posted on: April 10, 2011
Why are some companies successful and some companies are not so successful?
One of the most widely held library books in the United States, ‘In search of Excellence’ provides some thoughts to answer this question. This is a research based book. Authors travelled world wide and met hundreds of best business people for this book. Therefore, this book is interesting and practical.
However, before you read the 8 ideas presented in this international best seller, an interesting thing must be noted. In late 1990s, certain companies which were reported in the book as ‘Excellent’ started losing their market share and some of them even disappeared. When some one asked the author why were those companies not excellent, the response was: Excellence is a time bound characteristic. It may or may not happen that a company remains excellent for ever!
So true – Like companies, it can be applied to individuals too.
To remain excellent, there need to be some habit of excellence which should be practiced through out ones life.
Here are the eight characteristics of the highly successful / excellent companies: Read the rest of this entry »
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