The Top 5 Inspirational Books Of All Time

Read these true stories and you can’t help but be inspired.  The people and stories in these books are truly amazing and their accomplishments nothing short of extraordinary.

Three Cups Of Tea: Ones Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time.

Greg  Mortenson is a man on a mission to promote peace and education in Pakistan.  His adventures, hardships and friendships while building schools in remote areas are almost unbelievable. He inspired me to believe that when we put our cultural differences aside, we can accomplish anything.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

I loved this book. Every chapter gave me a glimpse into the beauty of running and humans.  I learnt that humans can run further than any animal on the planet.  I learnt that expensive running shoes do more harm than good. I learnt about a super race of human beings living in remote areas of Mexico. I want to run.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story

This book made me want to drastically change my life. We all find ourselves in ruts, each day a repeat of the last. Donald Miller bikes across America, produces a movie about his life, meets a man whose children bring world leaders to their house and he also finds love. In the process he finds out who he really is. A fascinating and heart-warming book.  I laughed, smiled and cried.

The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life

Geashe Michael Roach grows his diamond cutting company into a hundred million dollar a year business.  His teachings are a mixture of the Dalai Lama’s and Stephen Covey’s 7 habits.  This is an uplifting, beautiful and spiritual book that taught me many unforgettable and valuable lessons. Awesome!

The 4-Hour Workweek

Want to live the life of a millionaire and work 4 hours a week? Tim Ferris show you how. He also shows you how to dream big, win world class tango championships and operate your business from anywhere in the world.  I’m ready, are you?

Meditation And Why It Reduces Only Some Stress

The best meditation techniques I’ve learnt about is from Pema Chodron.  Meditation is the foundation to living in the present moment and reducing stress. I’ve written about the meditation technique I use here. I believe it is the simplest and clearest explanation I can give you.

However, it’s all fine and dandy to believe meditation will erase life’s problems and bring you into an enlightened state requiring no further action. Wrong.

Meditation is wonderful to reduce the useless chatter in your life. Meditation trains your mind to come back to the present moment and immerse yourself in the beauty of the world around you. The more you practise meditation the more you get better at reducing anxiety, silly worries and most stress.

The key here though is MOST stress. Meditation will not make you lose weight. Mediation will not get you out of debt. Meditation will not help your dreams come true. What WILL help all these things is to take action. To make a major life change you have to take action. There is no simple way of getting around it.

So here is the deal. Decide right here and now on what aspect of your life you need to take action on. Write out what the problem is and write out the solution. There. Now you have an action plan to change a key aspect of your life. You have made a decision, drawn a line in the sand and chosen to act.

Now you can meditate. Let go of all those silly worries and chatter in your head. You have a plan, you will take action , the rest is of no importance. Learn to be at peace. However, when it comes time to take action, TAKE ACTION! If you don’t, your life will never change. No matter how hard you meditate.

Are you ready to live a life of Zen and make a significant life change?

Attitude, Happiness And The Meaning Of Life.

We create our own reality in our minds.

The thoughts, dreams, aspirations, worries, excuses, justifications and chat in our mind determine our happiness.  We can directly identify with these thoughts and allow them to constantly sweep us away or we can grow from them, take action when required but choose to primarily live in the beauty of the current moment. The key take away here is “take action.” The world is infinite in its possibilities and each challenge requires an action.  Just worrying about something will not change your life. Deciding to take action and then moving back to the present moment with that action will. We are creatures of consciousness.  We can decide how our thoughts and then actions govern us. It is truly an amazing gift.

We get what we concentrate on.

Do you know what circumstances and issues are directing your life?  Are you overweight, lonely, addictive, in debt? Are these the circumstances affecting your current life?  Have you taken any action to address these? Where do you put your energies? Once this is clear, you can then decide where you need to focus your energies.  So stop worrying, put down the remote, clear your mind and decide once and for all what life changes you need to make.  And always live in the current moment. It is the only moment.  It is the moment of raw truth.

Never mind about the meaning of life.  What is the meaning of your life? Once that is clear you are ready to co-create the world with all your other fellow human beings. Just think about it. And then do it.

Top 3 Meditation Techniques

Meditation dates back several hundreds of years. When someone mentions meditation, an image of monks in dark robes sitting for hours in silence may come to mind, but this is not the case.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation can benefit your body, mind, and spirit. Tests and studies that monitor brain waves of people during meditation have shown that you achieve deep relaxation and increased oxygen intake during meditation. It even raises your pain tolerance!

In addition, meditation can lower your blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol. Studies have also shown that when you practice meditation, you may have lower levels of cortisol and free radicals, which reduces stress and slows the aging process.

Meditation Styles, Types, and Methods

There are a number of different ways you can meditate, and meditation is different for each person. Meditation is a truly personal experience. Finding the right type of meditation for you may take a bit of time and practice, but the benefits are certainly worth the effort.

While there are various types, don’t let that overwhelm you. Start with something simple. Dedicate yourself to learning the technique, and see the benefits in your life. If one type of meditation isn’t right for you, try another one.

Three of the most common meditation types are Yoga, Mantra, and Mindfulness Meditation. Although each of these types are unique, there are also similarities.

Yoga Meditation

• Yoga is wildly popular because it relaxes both the body and mind. It’s a form of exercise that incorporates meditation. Meditation is one of the five principles of yoga, with the other four being diet, exercise, relaxation and breathing.
• The goal in yoga meditation is to promote control of both the body and mind.

Mantra Meditation

• Mantras are phrases or words that you repeat. When you think of those monks meditating, you might imagine them saying, “Ommmm.” This is their mantra. Yours can be that simple or more complex. You may use the word “calm“. You can say it out loud or silently while you meditate.
• Sound vibrations from the mantra invoke spiritual forces and strengthen areas of a person’s chakra. (Chakras are focal points for the reception and transmission of energies in the body. Remember when that girl who broke up with you called you back? That was your chakra becoming energized again.)

Mindfulness Meditation

• Buddhists call this type of meditation “insightful or vipassana meditation.” It is insightful because you become acutely aware yet learn to not react to both what is physically around you and inside your mind. You become aware of all these things without any type of judgment. You just let them be.
• You usually start by concentrating on your breathing, and then progress to the thoughts and ideas bouncing around in your mind. Eventually the ideas and thoughts drift by like slow moving clouds and you pay no heed to them. This is the type I use the most. I have now learnt to become calm and non-judgmental at any time in my life. This is closely related to psychological freedom, and this is the freedom to choose our own state of mind.

In order to receive the most benefits from your meditation, you should practice it on a daily basis. The amount of time you spend meditating will be a personal choice. Some people realize benefits in 10 minutes, while it takes others at least 30 minutes.

When learning the basics of the type you’ve chosen, be prepared to spend more time in meditation. It takes time to learn how to clear your mind and become totally relaxed.

If you’re unsure which type of meditation is right for you, seek the guidance of a qualified coach or instructor.

Once you practice meditation, you’ll develop preferences customized for your own mind and body. Find your balance and create your own meditation style if that’s what works best for you.

Once you make the conscious decision to meditate, you’ll find new peace, comfort, and better health in your life as a result. Get started today!

How To Save The World – Part IV

I’m regularly grateful to have experienced being a part of this beautiful blue and white planet which slowly twirls amongst a trillion stars. It is an amazing thought if you really take the time to think about it. Picture one of those photos of our planet taken from space and remember that you are actually walking upon that beautiful orb.

Doesn’t everything else seem trivial compared to that thought? We live our lives with hundreds of useless thoughts cursing through our heads everyday and tend to easily forget how truly amazing life on this planet is. Sometimes our thoughts can turn into conditioning or beliefs that lead us to acts of selflessness, cruelty or even war. By now we are all aware that we are slowly ruining our home – this planet. As an animal we have forgotten how to share this planet with not only ourselves but with all other living creatures.

I have written extensively about awareness, consciousness and living in the moment. I’ve written about meditation, conditioning and beliefs. Many times I’ve thought that people don’t give a shit about using “consciousness” to make this planet a better home. People are more concerned about what celebrity had no underwear, how to lose 20 pounds in a week, how to make a million dollars over night, or are just trying to survive. And yes I’ve been guilty of those thoughts as well.

Fortunately, over the centuries humans have overcome some astonishing challenges. The formation of civilizations, revolutionary and religious wars, plagues, great depressions …the list goes on. But now we are faced with the threat of dwindling resources, constant MacDonald’s commercials, and an ever expanding population.

Is it an iPad that will save the world? Or is it a deeper consciousness? Do we resist buying bottled water (the plastic is made from oil, the transportation of the bottles creates pollution, and they stay in landfills forever if not recycled. Birds ingest floating caps out in sea thinking it’s food and even feed it to their young with both dying a painful slow death).

I am certain that the next big evolution for mankind is consciousness and awareness. We are done with the industrial age and the informational age is only choking us. There is no time like now to think before we buy, feel empathy for all living creatures, rejoice in our planet, reduce our carbon footprint and connect with fellow human beings all around the world (hey, maybe the iPad will help after all).

Over the centuries humans have overcome some astonishing challenges. The fight to save this planet has only just begun. I haven’t placed much hope lately in our governments to make any difference. It’s been only one big slobbering orgy at the mutual feeding troughs of government, corporations and banking for years now. Each and every one of us needs to try to clean this mess up.

I hope it isn’t too late.

Are we living just to survive or are we ready to fight? Are we leaving our children a beautiful planet or an orb dying a slow and agonizing death? Are we living in nature or looking at it through the screen of an iPad?

Consciousness and awareness. The next big evolution

Now You Can Find Peace Of Mind And Meaning

There is my inside me and my outside me. Sometimes they seem to conflict horribly. It’s such a pain. My inside me is striving for a life of meaning and purpose, contentment and existential challenges. My outside me is paying bills, buying a new car and renovating the house. It seems lately that my outside me is controlling my inside me. I’m talking about being on a stress and consumer treadmill.

Sometimes I would love to give this all up and live simply in some country, pondering life, meditating, setting up a small foundation, walking the beach and discovering more wisdom and raison d’être.

What is stopping me? There will be no perfect time. I will just have to walk off the cliff one day and take a leap of faith.

An excellent start would be to start meditating again. Meditating helped me clear my mind, find my breath and increase a wonderful sense of inner peace. I was becoming good at living in the moment and appreciating the little things in life.

It’s a small step that has huge benefits. So the inside me is hopping off the stress and consumer treadmill I’ve found lately.

The other day I went for a mid afternoon stroll with one of the dogs in the small forest nearby. It was absolutely beautiful. The smell of earth and trees assailed my senses and it reminded me of those wonderful carefree summers as a kid. The sunlight splashed against vibrant and luminous green leaves. Small forest creatures darted amongst the plants and trees. I was perfectly in the moment throughout the entire walk. My inside me and outside me were in unspoiled harmony.

It’s too easy to fall out of good habits.

I want more of peace of mind and Mother Nature. Screw the treadmill.

Don’t you?

How An Index Card Can Change Your Life

I’ve carried around a 4 x 2 inch index card with the words “Are you being more loving today”, for a few months. By doing so and looking at it many times during the day, I’m creating a constant awareness of this new habit. Most goals or new habits fail because we start off incredibly enthusiastic at first but then fall back into the safety and security of old habits.

My values of peace, joy and even love are being reinforced by this index card. I’m less judgmental, feel more empathy and smile in public more often. When I am waiting in line I do not curse under my breath or demand my change back from a cashier with an outstretched hand and a frown on my face. I approach with a smile, a joke and open heart, and in turn I usually receive a smile back.

By having the words “Are you being more loving today”, carried in my wallet I am becoming more loving in all aspects of my life. I’m calmer and more peaceful in public, at work and with family. I am becoming more of an extrovert and feeling greater compassion.

This technique of writing down a goal or habit on an index card works for anything. Whether you wish to exercise, make new friends, lose weight, stop smoking or feel more joy. It keeps a strong awareness of what you truly wish to change at all times. If you want to exercise more it isn’t always about going to a fancy gym, it may be taking stairs or riding your bike to pick up a DVD. Reading the card reinforces the habit!

I hope you can use My Life Changes as a way to discover your purpose, values and goals in life. Now pick a goal and keep it on you at all times. Look at it many times daily. After a while it will become a part of you and the card can be tossed away. Get rid of those old habits. I dare you to try it, I’m sure you will be amazed.

Reference: The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die

How My iPhone Makes Me Very Happy

I grew up playing pong as a kid. For those of you have no clue what pong is, it is electronic ping pong. It was two paddles and a ball bouncing off the sides of the screen. It was a life changing event. As the electronic blip of a ball would come close to my paddle, my heart would pound and with a deft flick of my wrist I would send it shooting back toward my opponent. Sometimes I would even scream or curse and my friends would cheer wildly. If I won 5 games in a row they would carry me around the house on their shoulders. Ok, that part is not true. Unfortunately, the real ping pong table grew sad and lonely downstairs. Mom would fold her clothes on it.

That was one of my first introductions into the exciting life changing world of technology. Now I have an iPhone attached to my hip and I can re-enact WWII in its entirety during my lunch hour. I also have a ping pong game on it. It looks exactly like a real ping pong table and paddles (the paddles float eerily in the air). It is creepy. But a fun creepy.

Never mind about games. Let me tell how my iPhone really makes me happy.

I listen to self development Audiobooks every morning during my drive to work. I use an accessory to plug my iPhone into the cassette deck and charge it through my lighter. The sound quality is much better than using one of those FM transmitters. Now I avoid the infuriating babble of morning radio Disc Jockeys and listen to something life changing like Pema Chodron –Don’t Bite The Hook.

Listening to audio books makes commercials on the radio disappear. No more nasty loud mouth commercials trying to convince me to buy lottery tickets, MacDonald’s or Britney Spears tickets.

Listening to a good Audiobook like- The Five Secrets Before You Die makes me calm and peaceful in traffic. When a gargantuan SUV blindly cuts me off I concentrate on the words gently flowing out of my speakers instead of tailgating the SUV across town and punching the driver in the head.

Listening to audio books makes a rainy day sunny. Ok that is complete bullshit but I thought it sounded neat when I wrote it.

There are many great uses for an iPhone but this one is my favourite. It helps me stay calm, learn and begin the day on a positive footing.

How do you love your iPhone?

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How To Be Happy And Create A Lifetime Of Joy With Your Memories

Just came back from Ogunquit, Maine. I love it there. I love the quiet beach, eating fresh seafood, breathing in the crisp ocean air and talking amazing walks. Why though? The reason is that I have such warm memories of this place. And my memories tell me a story even before I walk on the beach. My future and the joy I find are largely due to my anticipation based on my memories.

I saw a whale come out of the water a few days ago and that tied in to my memory of seeing dolphin’s many years ago in Wildwood.

These memories and the anticipation that comes with them will last me a lifetime.

I’ve written about living in the now and experiencing the present moment many times. During these times I feel contentment but not necessarily joy.

Joy I find comes from remembering the incredible beauty in the stories of my life. I may have experienced stunning beauty on multiple cliffs or felt the peace and quiet of a hot summer day. I have heard the sound of waves lapping on a shore in many places. These extraordinary memories never get old.

When I think about any of these memories of my life I am truly happy and even joyful at times.

Forget about buying stuff, go out and create a lifetime of wonderful memories. That is what true joy and happiness is all about.

If you enjoyed this post today, please do me a big favor and use the “Twitter” button down below (click on the + sign) to share it with your Twitter friends and followers (You can also share it on Facebook, Digg, or any of the other sites you see below as well).

Here Is A Quick Way To Let Go of Stress

With today’s technological advances that keep information flying at us and a constant barrage of advertising, it’s no wonder we have total information over load. The much hyped iPad came out this weekend and I wonder how many people truly need one – probably not that many.

We also tend to get easily lost in the details of life, from what clothes to wear, traffic, dealing with dozens of issues at work and what to make for dinner. So what can we do to bring us back down to earth?

Personally, I like the idea that we live on blue planet (or a ball of dirt if you like), twirling around in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trillions of stars. And we get to be a part of that! So look up at the sky once in a while and think about it. It makes everything seem trivial or at least easier to deal with. Does it really matter if that person honked at you, or what type of car you are driving? Not really.

You get to be a part of this amazing experience of, spinning around on a planet in space. Everything else compared to that falls short. I dare you to tell me otherwise. I dare you.

Life can be truly amazing.

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