Wisdom From Books

Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Older Entries

Stressed? Angry? Try Meditation!

Posted by: on: October 12, 2019

adventure balance balanced balancing

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:

  1. Concentration – focus; and
  2. 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”.

Headspace_guide_meditation

Tags: , , , , , ,

One book which turned Bill Gates from non-believer to a person practicing meditation!

Posted by: on: October 7, 2019

woman wearing grey long sleeved top photography

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

A person who is engaged by Bill Gates to provide personal coaching session to him and his family on mediation – A person who was former Buddhist Monk and now, running his own multi million pound company – Headspace .A person who turned Bill Gates from being a skeptic to a person practicing mediation – Meet Andy Puddicombe – currently the only clinical meditation consultant in the United Kingdom cleared for private practice. Andy got extensive training in meditation for 15 years, all around the world.

He has set up the Headspace organization with one simple aim in mind: to demystify meditation and make it accessible and relevant to as many people as possible.

His book “The headspace guide to meditation and mindfulness” is a treat to read. In very simple manner, he has explained about training one’s mind to be calm and peaceful in different stressful situations. Three areas to train one’s mind include: i) Approaching the subject of meditation ii) Practicing meditation and iii) Integrating meditation to daily life.

While I shall write on the three areas in a separate blog post, ten suggestions from the book on living more mindfully are:

  1. Perspective—choosing how you see your life: “For meditation to be effective it doesn’t really matter how you view your life. But it can be useful to acknowledge the general theme, because that way you can be more alert to the tendency to slip into negative patterns of thought”. Its not what’s happening outside of ourselves that causes us the most difficulty, but rather what’s going on inside our own minds—which, thankfully, is something that can change.
  2. Communication—relating to others: There is no use of taking out own frustrations on others.
  3. Appreciation—smelling the roses: Be grateful and notice small things in life which provide you happiness and be appreciative.
  4. Kindness—toward both yourself and others – When you are kind to others, it will provide you a peaceful feeling; try it and see for yourself.
  5. Compassion—in the shoes of others; Put yourself in shows of others. Thinking from other’s perspective and putting yourself in others’ shoes will help avoid picking up fights with other people.
  6. Balance—Life is like a sea; full of ups and downs. Fluctuations are part of life. Mind’s training through meditation can help develop a balanced approach.
  7. Acceptance—Notice the moments of resistance in a day and start becoming aware of the what cause resistance. Let it go and accept life.
  8. Composure—letting-go of impatience. Meditation is not about getting results. It is about becoming aware.
  9. Dedication—sticking with it; Practice will make things happen.
  10. Presence—living life skillfully; This means have presence of mind and not to say something spontaneously on which you will have to regret later. Have the strength and stability and don’t respond impulsively.

Looking forward on learning more on mediation and how to mediate? Feel free exploring more from https://www.headspace.com/meditation-101/what-is-meditation

Headspace_guide_meditation

Tags: , , , ,

The best rule for success is …..

Posted by: on: October 6, 2019

Many people will tell you may rules for success. So, the first question: ‘Is there any ‘rule’ or are there any ‘rules’ for success’?

Every one interprets the term ‘success’ differently. For many people, success is material wealth. For many people, success is peace of mind.

Whatever perception people have, Brian Tracy, author of the book ‘Eat That Frog‘ suggests a very interesting rule for success. The rule is: Think on paper. Write down your goals. Review them daily and track your progress.

text on shelf

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Eating the frog means identifying your most important task and tackling it with single-minded focus until it is completed. Brian Tracy tells us that only 3% people put their goals on paper….. Surprising, isn’t it? Are we among 3% people or are we part of the 97% ?

Here is food for thought when you plan to move towards success:

i. Decide precisely what you want

ii. Write the goal on paper

iii. Set a deadline to achieve

iv. List what you will need to achieve the goal

v. Turn the list into the plan by putting priority and sequence

vi. Take action immediately – Do anything. ‘Do’

vii. Take some small action towards your goal every day.

Simple – isn’t it?

Practice is the key – Try it!

self motivation

self motivation

Are you trying harder? Take a pause: Try something different

Posted by: on: June 19, 2017

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.

Image result for fly on 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!

Image result for open door

“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”.

 

Tags: , , , ,

The Power of Now!

Posted by: on: July 11, 2011

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

A beggar was sitting on the road side for thirty years. A stranger was passing by. The beggar asked him for some money.

The stranger responded: I have nothing with me. But I notice that you are sitting on a box. What is inside this box?

The beggar responded: I don’t know. There is no use of knowing it either. There is nothing in it.

The stranger said: Open this box and see if there is any thing. When the beggar opened the lid of the box, he found gold in it!

We all have gold inside us, yet, we are not aware about it.

The above is from Eckhart Tolle’s book: The Power of Now!

Those of you who are looking for spiritual enlightenment must go through this small book which was one of the New York best sellers.

Another important point which I found in the book was the strong verdict that a person is himself or herself creator of pain or pleasure. One need to live in present without fear of past or any tension of the future. This is the path to the enlightenment and what do we mean by enlightenment?

Enlightenment has been defined as: The absence of all sufferings!

Are you worried? Do you have many ‘what-if’ thoughts?

Our mind keeps on creating imaginary fear and imaginary future which we never see in our life – Those are just our thoughts!

Another interesting point was to know that we are all ‘waiters’. We are waiting for good times. We are waiting for promotion. We are waiting for success. We are waiting for money and in all this process, we are not living in the present moment. The key to joy is to enjoy the present moment. To realize harmony with the universe.

So, let’s enjoy the present!

Your thoughts?

Tags: , ,

How can we become a big thinker?

Posted by: 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?

Tags: ,

Get rid of CIA trap!

Posted by: 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

Technorati verification code: S49UYVK3F72J

Tags: , , , , ,

Never Give up: 127 hours!

Posted by: on: February 20, 2011

So we think that we have problems and issues? What is life all about? what is really important in our lives?

We may take daily happenings and daily routine things as a matter of life and death.

But what is real death like? Can a person defeat death through sheer consistency and confidence? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , ,

How to achieve our dreams? An inspirational movie: The Opus!

Posted by: on: February 16, 2011

Have you read the Book ‘The Secret’ or have seen the movie: ‘The Secret’? (You may read about the summary of the Secret from: http://wp.me/pHUHq-4q)

‘The Opus’ is the next level of the movie ‘The Secret’.

The movie ‘The Opus’ is one of the inspirational and motivational movies by one of the ‘heroes’ of the Secret: Mr. Joe Vitale. (Read more about The Attractor Factor of Joe Vitale from: http://wp.me/pHUHq-94)

Summary: There is no perfect time – There is no perfect plan; Whatever you want to do, start doing it! 

From vision to plan and from plan to performance – This is what the movie ‘The Opus’ is all about.

The Opus is story of a child who was poor but had a dream, a dream to become a great violinist. Was he able to achieve his dream?

Last six letters of the word ‘Attraction’ are ‘ACTION’. We need to take appropriate action to get results we need. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

2 skills to avoid; 2 skills to learn!

Posted by: on: February 11, 2011

In one of the audio programs, Brain Tracy, author of various international best selling motivational, business & self help books, was deliberating on 2 skills or 2 habits which people tend to learn with the passage of time. (You can read about Brain Tracy’s ideas on setting priorities from: http://wp.me/pHUHq-bv)

Brain Tracy mentioned that people learn two habits or skills which result in non effective performance. Those two habits don’t allow people to move forward and use their full potential in lives. People may or may not realize about those two habits.

These habits are ‘catched’ by people through their own thoughts!

What are those two habits? Those two habits are: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , ,

Older Entries

Welcome to the website – why to visit this website regularly?

Greetings!

This web site comprise of ideas and thoughts from various international management, business, self help best selling books. It is meant for all those who are interested in self-help, self growth and learning. If you are one of those who intend to read good management, business or self help books but have little time, this website is for you.

Also, if you read good books and want to share your thoughts and experiences with others, this web site is for you too......

This website is for every one who intends to learn, grow and contribute!

You can contribute your thoughts and share your ideas by making comments.

This website is updated around twice or thrice a week and hence, you may opt to subscribe when this website is updated. Welcome to the journey of learning!

Technorati verification: S49UYVK3F72J

blogarama.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 365 other subscribers

Visits to Blog since November 16, 2009

  • 580,857 hits

Archive of previous posts

Top Clicks

  • None