Previously, I shared information about intuition. Here, I detail methods to fine-tune, brighten and deepen your intuition. A very quick method, that is in intuition and beyond by Sharon A. Klingler, is to think of a question and have an internal image of traffic lights and seeing whether you get red for stop, green for go for it or yellow for wait. You may, however, need to just ask yourself what colour is the light if you are not very visual and you may find it easier to just note how you feel – some of us get gut feelings more than anything else. Sharon clarifies:
“Questions Not To Ask
1. When starting to work with your intuition, don’t ask ambiguous questions that can be answered in conflicting ways (especially ‘either/or’ inquiries.)
2. Try not to ask any ‘shoulds’. The question, ‘Should I move?’ could be influenced by financial restraints or any number of obligations. If you are seeking to remove the ‘shoulds’ from your vocabulary, don’t use them when you’re speaking with your intuition!
3. Don’t restrict yourself to asking merely about the choices you are already considering. There are always more options, and your spirit is capable of knowing a great deal more than you might think [….] After you have asked about each of your known options individually, ask your intuition to show you any choices you may have not yet considered.
4. Stay away from any questions with broad-brush outcomes. For instance, ‘Will I be rich?’ is entirely dependent upon what that state of being means to you at any given time.
5. Don’t focus only on the material outcomes. Your spirit wants to take you to the highest experiences of your truth, but it can’t take you there if you’re only looking for the closest parking space and best retirement package. Ask your intuition, ‘What can I learn from this situation’? or ‘How can I make my world better today?’ These types of questions will truly make your life richer by helping you discover your power, your purpose and the action you need to take to realise both.
Now That You’ve Got The Questions, How Do You Get The Answers?
Answers and messages from your inner guidance can appear in many various ways:
1. Sudden, spontaneous knowing or gut feelings can grab you right out of the blue.
2. Singularly focused, often nagging thoughts that may stick around for hours, days or even weeks – until you start listening to them!
3. Physical sensations can include hairs standing up on the back of your neck, goose bumps, nervousness, butterflies or tightness in the stomach, and dry mouth.
4. Subtle, undefined feelings of anticipation
5. Symbols that appear in dreams, meditations and visualisations that come of their own accord, or symbols you choose consciously as focusing tools.
6. Symbols and objects that you notice around you in the environment which act as figurative or literal signs, especially when they are repetitive or seem to have a pattern. When my husband was young, he went through a period of several weeks seeing boats all around him. He then decided to build his first boat. After that, the only boat he seemed to notice was the one he was building in his garage! Noticing what’s around you and paying attention to what distracts you are important components in experiencing your intuition
7. Synchronicity in meetings, observations, actions and events is a sign that there is no such thing as coincidence!
Tips For Asking and Answering
1. Release doubt. Always trust everything you get, and always trust the way that you get it.
2. GO DEEP!
3. Embrace your intuitive experience even if you don’t comprehend it
4. You can get the answers without knowing the answers!
5. Get to know your own style of seeing inside.
6. Keep practising
7. Diversify your practice.
8. Wake up to the details
9. Notice what is calling your attention inside and out.
10. Live in a state of curiosity!
11. Ask and Answer
12. Be willing to release your agenda and go where it may be difficult to go.
Always Seek Knowing!”
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Day 77: Spiritism Explained
Spiritualist Philosophy
The Spirits’ Book
Containing
The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine
on
The immortality of the soul: the nature of spirits
and their relations with men; the moral law:
the present life, the future life, and
the destiny of the human race
according to the teachings of spirits of high degree,
transmitted through various mediums,
collected and set in order
by
Allan Kardec
Translated from the Hundred and Twentieth Thousand
by
Anna Blackwell
Extract from Translator’s Preface:
“When, about 1850, the phenomenon of “table turning” was exciting the attention of Europe and ushering in the other phenomena since known as “spiritist”, Allan Kardec [born in Lyons, France, in 1804, and then living in Paris] quickly divined the real nature of those phenomena, as evidence of the existence of an order of relationships hitherto suspected rather than known – viz., those which unite the visible and invisible worlds. Foreseeing the vast importance, to science and to religion, of such an extension of the field of human observation, he entered at once upon a careful investigation of the new phenomena. A friend of his had two daughters who had become what are now called “mediums”. They were gay [happy], lively, amiable girls, fond of society, dancing, and amusement, and habitually received, when “sitting” by themselves or with their young companions, “communications” in harmony with their worldly and somewhat frivolous disposition. But, to the surprise of all concerned, it was found that, whenever he was present, the messages transmitted through these young ladies were of a very grave and serious character; and on his enquiring of the invisible intelligences as to the cause of this change, he was told that “spirits of a much higher order than those who habitually communicated through the two young mediums came expressly for him, and would continue to do so, in order to enable him to fulfil an important religious mission.”
Much astonished at so unlooked-for an announcement, he at once proceeded to test its truthfulness by drawing up a series of progressive questions in relation to the various problems of human life and the universe in which we find ourselves, and submitted them to his unseen interlocutors, receiving their answers to the same through the instrumentality of the two young mediums, who willingly consented to devote a couple of evenings every week to this purpose, and who thus obtained, through table-rapping and planchette-writing, the replies which have become the basis of the spiritist theory, and which they were as little capable of appreciating as of inventing.
When these conversations had been going on for nearly two years, he one day remarked to his wife, in reference to the unfolding of these views, which she had followed with intelligent sympathy: “It is a most curious thing! My conversations with the invisible intelligences have completely revolutionised my ideas and convictions. The instructions thus transmitted constitute an entirely new theory of human life, duty, and destiny, that appears to me to be perfectly rational and coherent, admirably lucid and consoling, and intensely interesting. I have a great mind to publish these conversations in a book; for it seems to me that what interests me so deeply might very likely prove interesting to others.” His wife warmly approving the idea, he next submitted it to his unseen interlocutors, who replied, in the usual way, that it was they who had suggested it to his mind, that their communications had been made to him, not for himself alone, but for the express purpose of being given to the world as he proposed to do, and that the time had now come for putting his plan into execution. “To the book in which you will embody our instructions,” continued the communicating intelligences, “you will give, as being our work rather than yours, the title of Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirit’s Book); and you will publish it, not under your own name, but under the pseudonym of ALLAN KARDEC (translator’s note: an old Breton name in his mother’s family). Keep your own name of Rivail for your own books already published; but take and keep the name we have now given you for the book you are about to publish by our order, and, in general, for all the work that you will have to do in the fulfilment of the mission which, as we have already told you, has been confided to you by Providence, and which will gradually open before you as you proceed in it under our guidance.”
The book thus produced and published sold with great rapidity, making converts not in France only, but all over the Continent, and rendering the name ALLAN KARDEC “a household word” […] “
From Page 132:
Physical and Moral Likeness
207. Parents often transmit physical resemblance to their children; do they also transmit to them moral resemblance?
“No; because they have different souls or spirits. The body proceeds from the body, but the spirit does not proceed from any other spirit. Between the descendants of the same race there is no other relationship than that of consanguinity.”
- What is the cause of the moral resemblance, that sometimes exists between parents and children?
“The attractive influence of moral sympathy, which brings together spirits who are animated by similar sentiments and tendencies.”
208. Are the spirits of the parents without influence upon the spirit of their child after its birth?
“They exercise, on the contrary, a very great influence upon it. As we have already told you, spirits are made to conduce to one another’s progress. To the spirits of the parents is confided the mission of developing those of their children by the training they give to them; it is a task which is appointed to them, and which they cannot without guilt fail to fulfil.”
209. How is it that good and virtuous parents often give birth to children of perverse and evil nature? In other words, how is it that the good qualities of the parents do not always attract to them, through sympathy, a good spirit to animate their child?
“A wicked spirit may ask to be allowed to have virtuous parents, in the hope that their counsels may help him to amend his ways; and God often confides such a one to the care of virtuous persons, in order that he may be benefited by their affection and care.”
210. Can parents, by their intentions and their prayers, attract a good spirit into the body of their child, instead of an inferior spirit?
“No; but they can improve the spirit of the child whom they have brought into the world, and is confided to them for that purpose. It is their duty to do this; but bad children are often sent as a trial for the improvement of the parents also.”
211. What is the cause of the similarity of character so often existing among brothers, especially between twins?
“The sympathy of two spirits who are attracted by the similarity of their sentiments, and who are happy to be together.”
212. In children whose bodies are joined together, and who have some of their organs in common, are there two spirits, - that is to say, two souls?
“Yes; but their resemblance to one another often makes them seem to you as though there were but one.”
213. Since spirits incarnate themselves in twins from sympathy, whence comes the aversion that is sometimes felt by twins for one another?
“It is not a rule that only sympathetic spirits are incarnated as twins. Bad spirits may have been brought into this relation by their desire to struggle against each other on the stage of corporeal life.”
214. In what way should we interpret the stories of children fighting in their mother’s womb?
“As a figurative representation of their hatred for one another, which, to indicate its inveteracy, is made to date from before their birth. You rarely make sufficient allowance for the figurative and poetic element in certain statements.” “
Later in the book, questions are posed against those who doubt reincarnation:
1. Why do souls manifest so great a diversity of aptitudes independently of the ideas acquired by education?
2. Whence comes the extra-normal aptitude for certain arts and sciences displayed by many children wile still very young, although others remain in a state of inferiority, or of mediocrity, all their life?
3. Whence do some individuals derive the innate or intuitive ideas that are lacking in others?
4. Whence do some children derive the precocious instincts of vice or virtue, the innate sentiments of dignity or of baseness, which often contrast so strikingly with the situation into which they are born?
5. Why is it that some men, independently of education, are more advanced than others?
6. Why is it that among the races which people the globe some are savage and others civilised?
Religious people who reject reincarnation can read:
“[…](T)he principle of reincarnation is implied in many passages of Holy Writ, and is explicitly formulated in the Gospels:-
“When they came down from the mountain (after the transfiguration), Jesus gave this commandment, and said to them – ‘Speak to no one of what you have just seen, until the Son of Man shall have been resuscitated from among the dead.’ His disciples thereupon began to question Him, and inquired, ‘Why, then, do the Scribes say that Elias must first come?’ But Jesus replied to them, ‘It is true that Elias must come, and that he will re-establish all things. But I declare to you that Elias has already come, and they did not know him, but have made him suffer as they listed. It is thus that they will put to death the Son of Man.’ Then His disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” (St Matthew, chap. xvii.)
Since John the Baptist is declared by Christ to have been Elias, it follows that the spirit or soul of Elias must have been reincarnated in the body of John the Baptist.”
…
“To sum up:- We assert the doctrine of the plurality of existences is the only one which explains what, without this doctrine, is inexplicable; that it is at once eminently consolatory and strictly conformable with the most rigorous justice; and that it is the anchor of safety which God in His mercy has provided for mankind.
The words of Jesus Himself are explicit as to the truth of this last assertion; for we read in the 3d chapter of the Gospel according to St John that Jesus, replying to Nicodemus, thus expressed Himself:-
“Verily, verily, I tell thee that, if a man be not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And when Nicodemus inquires, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter again into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Jesus replies, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Be not amazed at what I have told thee; you must be born again.”
Resurrection of the Body.
1010 . Is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body an implication of that of reincarnation, as now taught by spirits?
“How could it be otherwise? It is with regard to that expression as to so many others, that only appear unreasonable because they are taken literally, and are thus placed beyond the pale of credibility; let them only be rationally explained, and those whom you call free-thinkers will admit them without difficulty, precisely because they are accustomed to reflect. Free-thinkers, like the rest of the world, perhaps even more than others, thirst for a future; they ask nothing better than to believe, but they cannot admit what is disproved by science. The doctrine of the plurality of existences is conformable with the justice of God; it alone can explain what, without it is inexplicable; how can you doubt, then, that its principle is to be found in all religions?”
1011. The Church, then, in the dogma of the resurrection of the body, really teaches the doctrine of reincarnation?
“That is evident; but it will soon be seen that reincarnation is implied in every part of Holy Writ. Spirits, therefore, do not come to overthrow religion, as is sometimes asserted; they come, on the contrary, to confirm and sanction it by irrefragable proofs. But, as the time has arrived to renounce the use of figurative language, they speak without allegories, and give to every statement a clear and precise meaning that obviates all danger of false interpretation. For this reason there will be, ere long, a greater number of persons sincerely religious and really believing than are to be found at the present day.”
Proofs of the Existence of God
4. What proof have we of the existence of God?
“The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, “There is no effect without a cause.’ Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question.”
9. What proof have we that the first cause of all things is a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelligences?
“You have a proverb which says, ‘The workman is known by his work.’ Look around you, and, from the quality of the work, infer that of the workman.”
The Spirits’ Book
Containing
The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine
on
The immortality of the soul: the nature of spirits
and their relations with men; the moral law:
the present life, the future life, and
the destiny of the human race
according to the teachings of spirits of high degree,
transmitted through various mediums,
collected and set in order
by
Allan Kardec
Translated from the Hundred and Twentieth Thousand
by
Anna Blackwell
Extract from Translator’s Preface:
“When, about 1850, the phenomenon of “table turning” was exciting the attention of Europe and ushering in the other phenomena since known as “spiritist”, Allan Kardec [born in Lyons, France, in 1804, and then living in Paris] quickly divined the real nature of those phenomena, as evidence of the existence of an order of relationships hitherto suspected rather than known – viz., those which unite the visible and invisible worlds. Foreseeing the vast importance, to science and to religion, of such an extension of the field of human observation, he entered at once upon a careful investigation of the new phenomena. A friend of his had two daughters who had become what are now called “mediums”. They were gay [happy], lively, amiable girls, fond of society, dancing, and amusement, and habitually received, when “sitting” by themselves or with their young companions, “communications” in harmony with their worldly and somewhat frivolous disposition. But, to the surprise of all concerned, it was found that, whenever he was present, the messages transmitted through these young ladies were of a very grave and serious character; and on his enquiring of the invisible intelligences as to the cause of this change, he was told that “spirits of a much higher order than those who habitually communicated through the two young mediums came expressly for him, and would continue to do so, in order to enable him to fulfil an important religious mission.”
Much astonished at so unlooked-for an announcement, he at once proceeded to test its truthfulness by drawing up a series of progressive questions in relation to the various problems of human life and the universe in which we find ourselves, and submitted them to his unseen interlocutors, receiving their answers to the same through the instrumentality of the two young mediums, who willingly consented to devote a couple of evenings every week to this purpose, and who thus obtained, through table-rapping and planchette-writing, the replies which have become the basis of the spiritist theory, and which they were as little capable of appreciating as of inventing.
When these conversations had been going on for nearly two years, he one day remarked to his wife, in reference to the unfolding of these views, which she had followed with intelligent sympathy: “It is a most curious thing! My conversations with the invisible intelligences have completely revolutionised my ideas and convictions. The instructions thus transmitted constitute an entirely new theory of human life, duty, and destiny, that appears to me to be perfectly rational and coherent, admirably lucid and consoling, and intensely interesting. I have a great mind to publish these conversations in a book; for it seems to me that what interests me so deeply might very likely prove interesting to others.” His wife warmly approving the idea, he next submitted it to his unseen interlocutors, who replied, in the usual way, that it was they who had suggested it to his mind, that their communications had been made to him, not for himself alone, but for the express purpose of being given to the world as he proposed to do, and that the time had now come for putting his plan into execution. “To the book in which you will embody our instructions,” continued the communicating intelligences, “you will give, as being our work rather than yours, the title of Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirit’s Book); and you will publish it, not under your own name, but under the pseudonym of ALLAN KARDEC (translator’s note: an old Breton name in his mother’s family). Keep your own name of Rivail for your own books already published; but take and keep the name we have now given you for the book you are about to publish by our order, and, in general, for all the work that you will have to do in the fulfilment of the mission which, as we have already told you, has been confided to you by Providence, and which will gradually open before you as you proceed in it under our guidance.”
The book thus produced and published sold with great rapidity, making converts not in France only, but all over the Continent, and rendering the name ALLAN KARDEC “a household word” […] “
From Page 132:
Physical and Moral Likeness
207. Parents often transmit physical resemblance to their children; do they also transmit to them moral resemblance?
“No; because they have different souls or spirits. The body proceeds from the body, but the spirit does not proceed from any other spirit. Between the descendants of the same race there is no other relationship than that of consanguinity.”
- What is the cause of the moral resemblance, that sometimes exists between parents and children?
“The attractive influence of moral sympathy, which brings together spirits who are animated by similar sentiments and tendencies.”
208. Are the spirits of the parents without influence upon the spirit of their child after its birth?
“They exercise, on the contrary, a very great influence upon it. As we have already told you, spirits are made to conduce to one another’s progress. To the spirits of the parents is confided the mission of developing those of their children by the training they give to them; it is a task which is appointed to them, and which they cannot without guilt fail to fulfil.”
209. How is it that good and virtuous parents often give birth to children of perverse and evil nature? In other words, how is it that the good qualities of the parents do not always attract to them, through sympathy, a good spirit to animate their child?
“A wicked spirit may ask to be allowed to have virtuous parents, in the hope that their counsels may help him to amend his ways; and God often confides such a one to the care of virtuous persons, in order that he may be benefited by their affection and care.”
210. Can parents, by their intentions and their prayers, attract a good spirit into the body of their child, instead of an inferior spirit?
“No; but they can improve the spirit of the child whom they have brought into the world, and is confided to them for that purpose. It is their duty to do this; but bad children are often sent as a trial for the improvement of the parents also.”
211. What is the cause of the similarity of character so often existing among brothers, especially between twins?
“The sympathy of two spirits who are attracted by the similarity of their sentiments, and who are happy to be together.”
212. In children whose bodies are joined together, and who have some of their organs in common, are there two spirits, - that is to say, two souls?
“Yes; but their resemblance to one another often makes them seem to you as though there were but one.”
213. Since spirits incarnate themselves in twins from sympathy, whence comes the aversion that is sometimes felt by twins for one another?
“It is not a rule that only sympathetic spirits are incarnated as twins. Bad spirits may have been brought into this relation by their desire to struggle against each other on the stage of corporeal life.”
214. In what way should we interpret the stories of children fighting in their mother’s womb?
“As a figurative representation of their hatred for one another, which, to indicate its inveteracy, is made to date from before their birth. You rarely make sufficient allowance for the figurative and poetic element in certain statements.” “
Later in the book, questions are posed against those who doubt reincarnation:
1. Why do souls manifest so great a diversity of aptitudes independently of the ideas acquired by education?
2. Whence comes the extra-normal aptitude for certain arts and sciences displayed by many children wile still very young, although others remain in a state of inferiority, or of mediocrity, all their life?
3. Whence do some individuals derive the innate or intuitive ideas that are lacking in others?
4. Whence do some children derive the precocious instincts of vice or virtue, the innate sentiments of dignity or of baseness, which often contrast so strikingly with the situation into which they are born?
5. Why is it that some men, independently of education, are more advanced than others?
6. Why is it that among the races which people the globe some are savage and others civilised?
Religious people who reject reincarnation can read:
“[…](T)he principle of reincarnation is implied in many passages of Holy Writ, and is explicitly formulated in the Gospels:-
“When they came down from the mountain (after the transfiguration), Jesus gave this commandment, and said to them – ‘Speak to no one of what you have just seen, until the Son of Man shall have been resuscitated from among the dead.’ His disciples thereupon began to question Him, and inquired, ‘Why, then, do the Scribes say that Elias must first come?’ But Jesus replied to them, ‘It is true that Elias must come, and that he will re-establish all things. But I declare to you that Elias has already come, and they did not know him, but have made him suffer as they listed. It is thus that they will put to death the Son of Man.’ Then His disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” (St Matthew, chap. xvii.)
Since John the Baptist is declared by Christ to have been Elias, it follows that the spirit or soul of Elias must have been reincarnated in the body of John the Baptist.”
…
“To sum up:- We assert the doctrine of the plurality of existences is the only one which explains what, without this doctrine, is inexplicable; that it is at once eminently consolatory and strictly conformable with the most rigorous justice; and that it is the anchor of safety which God in His mercy has provided for mankind.
The words of Jesus Himself are explicit as to the truth of this last assertion; for we read in the 3d chapter of the Gospel according to St John that Jesus, replying to Nicodemus, thus expressed Himself:-
“Verily, verily, I tell thee that, if a man be not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And when Nicodemus inquires, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter again into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Jesus replies, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Be not amazed at what I have told thee; you must be born again.”
Resurrection of the Body.
1010 . Is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body an implication of that of reincarnation, as now taught by spirits?
“How could it be otherwise? It is with regard to that expression as to so many others, that only appear unreasonable because they are taken literally, and are thus placed beyond the pale of credibility; let them only be rationally explained, and those whom you call free-thinkers will admit them without difficulty, precisely because they are accustomed to reflect. Free-thinkers, like the rest of the world, perhaps even more than others, thirst for a future; they ask nothing better than to believe, but they cannot admit what is disproved by science. The doctrine of the plurality of existences is conformable with the justice of God; it alone can explain what, without it is inexplicable; how can you doubt, then, that its principle is to be found in all religions?”
1011. The Church, then, in the dogma of the resurrection of the body, really teaches the doctrine of reincarnation?
“That is evident; but it will soon be seen that reincarnation is implied in every part of Holy Writ. Spirits, therefore, do not come to overthrow religion, as is sometimes asserted; they come, on the contrary, to confirm and sanction it by irrefragable proofs. But, as the time has arrived to renounce the use of figurative language, they speak without allegories, and give to every statement a clear and precise meaning that obviates all danger of false interpretation. For this reason there will be, ere long, a greater number of persons sincerely religious and really believing than are to be found at the present day.”
Proofs of the Existence of God
4. What proof have we of the existence of God?
“The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, “There is no effect without a cause.’ Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question.”
9. What proof have we that the first cause of all things is a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelligences?
“You have a proverb which says, ‘The workman is known by his work.’ Look around you, and, from the quality of the work, infer that of the workman.”
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Day 76: SANE
Today, I want to share the effect an article had on me when I read it in last Sunday’s The Sunday Times (UK). It was an article about mental illness and the setting up of a charity called SANE to deal with what is apparently a chronic shortage of adequate care facilities for those who are in acute need of treatment.
In a civilized and prosperous country it is nothing short of a scandal that provision for those with serious mental health problems is poor, and according to the founder of SANE, leads directly to 100 suicides a year. So moved was I by the article, that I will investigate setting up a fund from the proceeds of my book to go to this or a similar charity. All too often, around the world, those who suffer from mental health problems are seen less as sufferers and more as causing their own illnesses and there is little sympathy, understanding or support as well as similar disarray in terms of funding and organisation of the services that are meant to care for them.
I need to research more about SANE, but certainly we can all do something to help by being aware that those with mental health problems are often the most reviled and ignored yet frequently simply because the causes of their illnesses are not known. Many have been sexually abused or been made homeless or have suffered other severe threats to anyone’s sanity, so we would do well to not see free will as being involved – often those who attempt suicide are doing so out of abject despair not any kind of true freedom. I hope that a recent reform coming through parliament will help but it is the public in all countries who can help the most by not giving way to prejudice or fear.
It is common to see people visiting inmates in prisons, but what schemes are there for people to support those suffering from debilitating depression, isolated in decaying psychiatric establishments? I think a sea change is necessary in how we treat the most vulnerable in society and needed now. For without charity, where are we as a nation or indeed as a world?
To learn more about SANE see http://www.sane.org.uk/
In a civilized and prosperous country it is nothing short of a scandal that provision for those with serious mental health problems is poor, and according to the founder of SANE, leads directly to 100 suicides a year. So moved was I by the article, that I will investigate setting up a fund from the proceeds of my book to go to this or a similar charity. All too often, around the world, those who suffer from mental health problems are seen less as sufferers and more as causing their own illnesses and there is little sympathy, understanding or support as well as similar disarray in terms of funding and organisation of the services that are meant to care for them.
I need to research more about SANE, but certainly we can all do something to help by being aware that those with mental health problems are often the most reviled and ignored yet frequently simply because the causes of their illnesses are not known. Many have been sexually abused or been made homeless or have suffered other severe threats to anyone’s sanity, so we would do well to not see free will as being involved – often those who attempt suicide are doing so out of abject despair not any kind of true freedom. I hope that a recent reform coming through parliament will help but it is the public in all countries who can help the most by not giving way to prejudice or fear.
It is common to see people visiting inmates in prisons, but what schemes are there for people to support those suffering from debilitating depression, isolated in decaying psychiatric establishments? I think a sea change is necessary in how we treat the most vulnerable in society and needed now. For without charity, where are we as a nation or indeed as a world?
To learn more about SANE see http://www.sane.org.uk/
Monday, 9 July 2007
Day 74 & 75: The London Literary Festival & An Article on Mindmapping
Saturday was the day of my choir’s rehearsal and concert, which went well. Some of us went for a drink afterwards and it was enjoyable. Yesterday, I didn’t blog because I went to the London Literary Festival, in fact to a talk by children’s laureate Jacqueline Wilson. Why did I go to see her, you might ask? Simply, because she has five books in my reading list (The Big Read: The Top 100 Favourite Books of All Time as polled by the BBC several years ago.)
I have yet to read any of her books, but she is next on my list - as children obviously voted alongside adults, there are many children’s books in the Top 100; children’s books, however, can teach a writer plenty and – as J.K. Rowling has amply demonstrated, often cross over to have mainstream appeal.
In person, Jacqueline Wilson was endearing, amusing and clearly dedicated to literature. I arrived 5 minutes late and was not allowed in for a further fifteen minutes, along with several other parents and there children, because of needing applause first. Finally, we were ushered in and I sat near the front and listened to the author: a smallish woman with short white/grey hair and five or six huge rings on nearly all her fingers; some big gems.
She talked of how her publishers (Random House) put on a driver and a silver Mercedes for her and of how her driver even helped her out with some antiseptic cream when she was bitten by a ferret once. She read an extract from a volume of autobiography from when she was a little girl and met a famous author. He proceeded to drape her in a snake he had, asking her if she was scared (she was petrified!) yet she said no; her mother telling her she didn’t know why she didn’t object instead of standing there so gormless. She tells her mum she didn’t like the snake; that it felt awful.
Then the young Jacqueline met a very famous female writer whom she admired and who was just sitting on her own, waiting for someone to approach her. Jacqueline’s mother pushes her forward, saying ‘Go on, say something: you like her!’ ‘I know!’ she whispers.
‘But I couldn’t,’ Jacqueline tells us. Then her mother brings her closer and the young girl says meekly to the glamorous successful author, ‘I like your books.’
‘Thank you,’ the author says sweetly, and smiles at young Jacqueline before young Jacqueline turns away ‘and we both breathed a sigh of relief’
She talked about having stayed in the same old modest house for a long time with her thousands of books, and how once she overheard one boy saying to another, ‘That’s the house where Jacqueline Wilson lives.’ The other one replied. ‘No it’s not. That house is a dump.’ Eventually, she moved, but says that although she wants to buy a little dog, because she is away so much she will wait until her books stop selling, and stay at home with it and read all her books then.
She spoke of meeting the Queen and how she sat behind her and Prince Phillip in a Royal Box when she was made the Children’s Laureate, and how she leaned forward to listen as to whether they were gossiping, but says they weren’t and were in fact very professional.
She also talked about her passion to help people read out loud and the importance of reading out loud to children until they slouch off in a surly manner as a teenager. She even said that she will support schools and organisations that take that initiative as it is one close to her heart. She jets all around the world on promotional tours and has written 90 books so far. Her most important piece of advice to all the would-be authors in the audience was, ‘Read, and keep reading. No one who has been published as an author has ever got there without reading a lot.’
There were thousands of children who put there hand up, wanting to ask a question afterwards, and one twenty-year old woman from Hungary thanked the author as she said the books had helped her learn English and fit in in this country. She also talked about her mum telling her ‘No more autobiography’ as a mention of her mum’s ex-partner had mortified her when her friends poked fun at her over it. Also, she says her best old childhood friend might be upset if she wrote in detail. Maybe one day, though, she appends.
I opted out of the mass exodus to have a book signed but was deeply grateful for having met her. Later, I sat in a Latin American restaurant outside the Royal Festival Hall and had a meal. I saw Jacqueline walk past and imagined her perhaps getting into her chauffeur-driven Mercedes and being whisked back to her home.
The following is an article about mindmapping; something I mentioned previously. This article is targeted for writers but mindmapping can be used by anyone and is a great way to organise ideas. The source of the article appears in full below.
“Mindmapping is better than linear outlining because authors can use flexible thinking and relativity in writing their book. One can add and subtract a thought or phrase from a mindmap easily. Mindmapping is an excellent way to start, organize, and finish your book.
What is Mindmapping?
Mindmapping is a color-coded outline of main ideas, sub topics and details, printed on different colored branches connected to the center. In the center in a circle, you will list your main idea, such as your book or chapter title.
For "The One-Minute Sales Person", Spencer's mindmap would have had seven different colored vertical branches coming from that center, so details
can be put on connected horizontal branches--much easier to read.
What are the advantages of Mindmapping?
First, a mindmap is open-ended and open-minded. No more squeezing new
"ahas" or ideas into the strict, tight form of the linear outline. You can make mistakes in your mindmaps. Imperfection leads to creativity. When you get an idea for chapter one, you can just add another branch off the main one. Mindmapping expands flexible thinking, making for better writing.
Second, mindmaps use only three to five concrete or color words on a branch. These key words help jog our memory. Under Chapter One "Attracting Passion," I added several horizontal lines that represented the format that follows. One line had "opening quote," the next one "introduction," the next one "Jerry's Story," the next "Food for Thought and Action," the next, "Passion Hot Line," the last line, "practice."
Third, mindmaps speed up your writing because you only write key phrases.
When you sit down at the computer, from your color-coded map, the answers
will flow naturally. If you need to fatten up your chapter, just go to your chapter file folders where you keep your research.
Fourth, in mindmaps you see the whole related to the parts. Your thesis, chapter titles, and chapter contents all flow because you answered each
question your readers had. This fast-forward technique allows me to write at least two or three books each year, and makes each book more organized,
more focused and clear, easier to read, and finally brings more sales because people can understand the information quickly and easily.
How Do I Create My Mindmap?
Use a large sheet of paper, at least 8 ½ by 11 inches, but I recommend a large square of butcher paper or poster board, so you can spread out and enjoy the process! Have at least six or seven colored felt-tip pens in primary and bright colors ready.
In the center, encircle your title. Arrange your chapter headings, each on
a different colored vertical branch, around the center in any order (you can number them later). If you can't think of a title, put a few key words. Use only one color per branch. Off each main branch, put five or so other horizontal branches of particular chapter parts.
Even though you later change your mind about the contents, this initial mindmap gives you the overall picture of what your book is and what it will share with its readers. I made several mindmaps of my Passion book before I settled on the best information to include.
For the colored mindmapping example, go to
http://www.bookcoaching.com/graphics/MINDMAP.JPG.
Practice: Create your book's mindmap on a separate piece of paper
Practice: Create one chapter's mindmap on a separate piece of paper now.
Wow! You are up to speed. You have your thesis--what challenge your book
will solve, your chapter working titles, your rough draft evolving with a Table of Contents, and you have questions to answer in each chapter.
Mindmapping is an excellent way to start, organize, and finish your book.”
Judy Cullins ©2004 All Rights Reserved.
Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," and "How to Market your Business on the Internet," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says...and Business Tip of the Month
at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free
articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins
You may Freely publish any of my articles as long as you include the signature box below.
Book and Internet Marketing Coach, Judy Cullins, can
help you build credibility and clients, sell a lot of
books, and make maximum profits. Author of 11 books
including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast
and The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Targeted Web
Traffic" Get her free eBook"20 High Octane Book
Writing and Marketing Tips" and two free monthly
ezines at http://www.bookcoaching.com
I have yet to read any of her books, but she is next on my list - as children obviously voted alongside adults, there are many children’s books in the Top 100; children’s books, however, can teach a writer plenty and – as J.K. Rowling has amply demonstrated, often cross over to have mainstream appeal.
In person, Jacqueline Wilson was endearing, amusing and clearly dedicated to literature. I arrived 5 minutes late and was not allowed in for a further fifteen minutes, along with several other parents and there children, because of needing applause first. Finally, we were ushered in and I sat near the front and listened to the author: a smallish woman with short white/grey hair and five or six huge rings on nearly all her fingers; some big gems.
She talked of how her publishers (Random House) put on a driver and a silver Mercedes for her and of how her driver even helped her out with some antiseptic cream when she was bitten by a ferret once. She read an extract from a volume of autobiography from when she was a little girl and met a famous author. He proceeded to drape her in a snake he had, asking her if she was scared (she was petrified!) yet she said no; her mother telling her she didn’t know why she didn’t object instead of standing there so gormless. She tells her mum she didn’t like the snake; that it felt awful.
Then the young Jacqueline met a very famous female writer whom she admired and who was just sitting on her own, waiting for someone to approach her. Jacqueline’s mother pushes her forward, saying ‘Go on, say something: you like her!’ ‘I know!’ she whispers.
‘But I couldn’t,’ Jacqueline tells us. Then her mother brings her closer and the young girl says meekly to the glamorous successful author, ‘I like your books.’
‘Thank you,’ the author says sweetly, and smiles at young Jacqueline before young Jacqueline turns away ‘and we both breathed a sigh of relief’
She talked about having stayed in the same old modest house for a long time with her thousands of books, and how once she overheard one boy saying to another, ‘That’s the house where Jacqueline Wilson lives.’ The other one replied. ‘No it’s not. That house is a dump.’ Eventually, she moved, but says that although she wants to buy a little dog, because she is away so much she will wait until her books stop selling, and stay at home with it and read all her books then.
She spoke of meeting the Queen and how she sat behind her and Prince Phillip in a Royal Box when she was made the Children’s Laureate, and how she leaned forward to listen as to whether they were gossiping, but says they weren’t and were in fact very professional.
She also talked about her passion to help people read out loud and the importance of reading out loud to children until they slouch off in a surly manner as a teenager. She even said that she will support schools and organisations that take that initiative as it is one close to her heart. She jets all around the world on promotional tours and has written 90 books so far. Her most important piece of advice to all the would-be authors in the audience was, ‘Read, and keep reading. No one who has been published as an author has ever got there without reading a lot.’
There were thousands of children who put there hand up, wanting to ask a question afterwards, and one twenty-year old woman from Hungary thanked the author as she said the books had helped her learn English and fit in in this country. She also talked about her mum telling her ‘No more autobiography’ as a mention of her mum’s ex-partner had mortified her when her friends poked fun at her over it. Also, she says her best old childhood friend might be upset if she wrote in detail. Maybe one day, though, she appends.
I opted out of the mass exodus to have a book signed but was deeply grateful for having met her. Later, I sat in a Latin American restaurant outside the Royal Festival Hall and had a meal. I saw Jacqueline walk past and imagined her perhaps getting into her chauffeur-driven Mercedes and being whisked back to her home.
The following is an article about mindmapping; something I mentioned previously. This article is targeted for writers but mindmapping can be used by anyone and is a great way to organise ideas. The source of the article appears in full below.
“Mindmapping is better than linear outlining because authors can use flexible thinking and relativity in writing their book. One can add and subtract a thought or phrase from a mindmap easily. Mindmapping is an excellent way to start, organize, and finish your book.
What is Mindmapping?
Mindmapping is a color-coded outline of main ideas, sub topics and details, printed on different colored branches connected to the center. In the center in a circle, you will list your main idea, such as your book or chapter title.
For "The One-Minute Sales Person", Spencer's mindmap would have had seven different colored vertical branches coming from that center, so details
can be put on connected horizontal branches--much easier to read.
What are the advantages of Mindmapping?
First, a mindmap is open-ended and open-minded. No more squeezing new
"ahas" or ideas into the strict, tight form of the linear outline. You can make mistakes in your mindmaps. Imperfection leads to creativity. When you get an idea for chapter one, you can just add another branch off the main one. Mindmapping expands flexible thinking, making for better writing.
Second, mindmaps use only three to five concrete or color words on a branch. These key words help jog our memory. Under Chapter One "Attracting Passion," I added several horizontal lines that represented the format that follows. One line had "opening quote," the next one "introduction," the next one "Jerry's Story," the next "Food for Thought and Action," the next, "Passion Hot Line," the last line, "practice."
Third, mindmaps speed up your writing because you only write key phrases.
When you sit down at the computer, from your color-coded map, the answers
will flow naturally. If you need to fatten up your chapter, just go to your chapter file folders where you keep your research.
Fourth, in mindmaps you see the whole related to the parts. Your thesis, chapter titles, and chapter contents all flow because you answered each
question your readers had. This fast-forward technique allows me to write at least two or three books each year, and makes each book more organized,
more focused and clear, easier to read, and finally brings more sales because people can understand the information quickly and easily.
How Do I Create My Mindmap?
Use a large sheet of paper, at least 8 ½ by 11 inches, but I recommend a large square of butcher paper or poster board, so you can spread out and enjoy the process! Have at least six or seven colored felt-tip pens in primary and bright colors ready.
In the center, encircle your title. Arrange your chapter headings, each on
a different colored vertical branch, around the center in any order (you can number them later). If you can't think of a title, put a few key words. Use only one color per branch. Off each main branch, put five or so other horizontal branches of particular chapter parts.
Even though you later change your mind about the contents, this initial mindmap gives you the overall picture of what your book is and what it will share with its readers. I made several mindmaps of my Passion book before I settled on the best information to include.
For the colored mindmapping example, go to
http://www.bookcoaching.com/graphics/MINDMAP.JPG.
Practice: Create your book's mindmap on a separate piece of paper
Practice: Create one chapter's mindmap on a separate piece of paper now.
Wow! You are up to speed. You have your thesis--what challenge your book
will solve, your chapter working titles, your rough draft evolving with a Table of Contents, and you have questions to answer in each chapter.
Mindmapping is an excellent way to start, organize, and finish your book.”
Judy Cullins ©2004 All Rights Reserved.
Judy Cullins, 20-year book and Internet Marketing Coach, Author of 10 eBooks including "Write your eBook Fast," and "How to Market your Business on the Internet," she offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, The Book Coach Says...and Business Tip of the Month
at http://www.bookcoaching.com/opt-in.shtml and over 140 free
articles. Email her at mailto:Judy@bookcoaching.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Cullins
You may Freely publish any of my articles as long as you include the signature box below.
Book and Internet Marketing Coach, Judy Cullins, can
help you build credibility and clients, sell a lot of
books, and make maximum profits. Author of 11 books
including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast
and The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Targeted Web
Traffic" Get her free eBook"20 High Octane Book
Writing and Marketing Tips" and two free monthly
ezines at http://www.bookcoaching.com
Friday, 6 July 2007
Day 73: An Update
I am rehearsing and performing with my choir ( http://www.hcschoir.com ) all tomorrow so I will blog ahead of time and let you know how things are progressing. There was an error in the photo from my photo shoot (for those with a long memory!) so I will ask for that to be rectified; meanwhile, I am being held up as I cannot send off to magazines etc without a professional photo. Ho hum. Still, there is always a lot to be done and researching the market - TV, radio, newspapers and magazines - takes some time, too.
I finished David Copperfield by Charles Dickens recently and have begun 100 Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have been submitting articles to various websites, too, and researching local media outlets - all this a part of raising my profile. I will try to attend The London Literary Festival that finishes next Thursday, also. See http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/
I finished David Copperfield by Charles Dickens recently and have begun 100 Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I have been submitting articles to various websites, too, and researching local media outlets - all this a part of raising my profile. I will try to attend The London Literary Festival that finishes next Thursday, also. See http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/
Day 72: Look after the Golden Goose!
Today, I share more about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.
I mentioned the time management theories and the four quadrants in an earlier post, but will today further clarify what is so important about knowing the difference between production and production capability. Also, I will share what each of the 7 Habits actually are.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand…Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw
“Habits 1,2 & 3 deal with self-mastery. They move a person from dependence to interdependence. They are the “Private Victories,” the essence of character growth. Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process anymore than you can harvest a crop before you plant it. It’s inside-out.
As you become truly independent, you have the foundation for effective interdependence. You have the character base from which you can effectively work on the more personality-oriented “Public Victories” of teamwork, cooperation, and communication in Habits 4, 5 & 6.
That does not mean you have to be perfect in Habits 1, 2 & 3 before working on Habits 4, 5 & 6. Understanding the sequence will help you manage your growth more effectively, but I’m not suggesting that you put yourself in isolation for several years until you fully develop Habits 1, 2 & 3.
As part of an interdependent world, you have to relate to that world every day. But the acute problems of that world can easily obscure the chronic character causes. Understanding how what you are impacts every interdependent interaction will help you to focus your efforts sequentially, in harmony with the natural laws of growth.
Habit 7 is the habit of renewal – a regular, balanced renewal of the four basic dimensions of life. It circles and embodies all the other habits. It is the habit of continuous improvement […]
They are also habits of effectiveness because they are based on a paradigm of effectiveness that is in harmony with a natural law, a principle I call the “P/PC Balance,” which many people break themselves against. This principle can be easily understood by remembering Aesop’s fable of the goose and the golden egg.
This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can’t believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the nest and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs – and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
I suggest that within this fable is a natural law, a principle – the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story shows, true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won’t have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose.
Effectiveness lies in the balance – what I call the P/PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs.”
I mentioned the time management theories and the four quadrants in an earlier post, but will today further clarify what is so important about knowing the difference between production and production capability. Also, I will share what each of the 7 Habits actually are.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand…Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw
“Habits 1,2 & 3 deal with self-mastery. They move a person from dependence to interdependence. They are the “Private Victories,” the essence of character growth. Private victories precede public victories. You can’t invert that process anymore than you can harvest a crop before you plant it. It’s inside-out.
As you become truly independent, you have the foundation for effective interdependence. You have the character base from which you can effectively work on the more personality-oriented “Public Victories” of teamwork, cooperation, and communication in Habits 4, 5 & 6.
That does not mean you have to be perfect in Habits 1, 2 & 3 before working on Habits 4, 5 & 6. Understanding the sequence will help you manage your growth more effectively, but I’m not suggesting that you put yourself in isolation for several years until you fully develop Habits 1, 2 & 3.
As part of an interdependent world, you have to relate to that world every day. But the acute problems of that world can easily obscure the chronic character causes. Understanding how what you are impacts every interdependent interaction will help you to focus your efforts sequentially, in harmony with the natural laws of growth.
Habit 7 is the habit of renewal – a regular, balanced renewal of the four basic dimensions of life. It circles and embodies all the other habits. It is the habit of continuous improvement […]
They are also habits of effectiveness because they are based on a paradigm of effectiveness that is in harmony with a natural law, a principle I call the “P/PC Balance,” which many people break themselves against. This principle can be easily understood by remembering Aesop’s fable of the goose and the golden egg.
This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the nest of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can’t believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the nest and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs – and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
I suggest that within this fable is a natural law, a principle – the basic definition of effectiveness. Most people see effectiveness from the golden egg paradigm: the more you produce, the more you do, the more effective you are.
But as the story shows, true effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset or capacity to produce (the goose).
If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won’t have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose.
Effectiveness lies in the balance – what I call the P/PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs.”
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Day 71: How To Be A Billionaire
In How To Be A Billionaire – Proven Strategies from the Titans of Wealth, Martin S. Fridson tells us more about Warren Buffett:
“[He] has used many of the same tools as other self-made billionaires, but he enjoys a special advantage. It is summed up […] “Warren Buffett is smarter than the average bear.”[…] Buffett is renowned for his ability to retain massive amounts of financial data and calculate securities values in his head. His bridge game is close to international standard. When a reporter remarked [in 1990!] that his office contained no computers, Buffett replied, “I am a computer.”
The nine fundamental strategies that self-made billionaires pursued:
· Take Monumental Risks
· Do Business in a New Way
· Dominate Your Market
· Consolidate an Industry
· Buy Low
· Thrive on Deals
· Outmanage the Competition
· Invest in Political Influence
· Resist the Unions
Key principles include:
· Pursue the Money in Ideas
· Rules are Breakable
· Copying Pays Better Than Innovating
· Keep on Growing
· Hold on to Your Equity
· Hard Work is Essential
· Use Financial Leverage
· Keep the Back Door Open
· Make Mistakes, Then Learn From Them
· Frugality Pays
· Enjoy the Pursuit
· Develop a Thick Skin
Self-made billionaires, in short, approach every activity with fervor. While some are remarkably frugal, considering their means, none leads a cramped, miserly existence. Their friends speak of their incredible energy and zest for life. If these phrases do not already describe you, then you should immediately begin developing the habit of welcoming each day as an exciting new adventure. Tenacity is another trait invariably ascribed to the great fortune builders […] More than loving money, the self-made billionaires loved the pursuit of money. To follow in their footsteps, you must adopt their mindset, as well as their strategies, tactics, and principles.
[…]”Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt”
“[He] has used many of the same tools as other self-made billionaires, but he enjoys a special advantage. It is summed up […] “Warren Buffett is smarter than the average bear.”[…] Buffett is renowned for his ability to retain massive amounts of financial data and calculate securities values in his head. His bridge game is close to international standard. When a reporter remarked [in 1990!] that his office contained no computers, Buffett replied, “I am a computer.”
The nine fundamental strategies that self-made billionaires pursued:
· Take Monumental Risks
· Do Business in a New Way
· Dominate Your Market
· Consolidate an Industry
· Buy Low
· Thrive on Deals
· Outmanage the Competition
· Invest in Political Influence
· Resist the Unions
Key principles include:
· Pursue the Money in Ideas
· Rules are Breakable
· Copying Pays Better Than Innovating
· Keep on Growing
· Hold on to Your Equity
· Hard Work is Essential
· Use Financial Leverage
· Keep the Back Door Open
· Make Mistakes, Then Learn From Them
· Frugality Pays
· Enjoy the Pursuit
· Develop a Thick Skin
Self-made billionaires, in short, approach every activity with fervor. While some are remarkably frugal, considering their means, none leads a cramped, miserly existence. Their friends speak of their incredible energy and zest for life. If these phrases do not already describe you, then you should immediately begin developing the habit of welcoming each day as an exciting new adventure. Tenacity is another trait invariably ascribed to the great fortune builders […] More than loving money, the self-made billionaires loved the pursuit of money. To follow in their footsteps, you must adopt their mindset, as well as their strategies, tactics, and principles.
[…]”Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt”
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Day 70: Of Permanent Value: Warren Buffett
Today, I want to share with you some of the secrets that have made Warren Buffett one of the richest men in the world. My background is in NLP and that was started by the practice of modelling – that is, finding out how someone very talented does something and then replicating their behaviour. What is it that makes a genius, for example? If it can be done, anyone can do it, so long as we follow their internal and external behaviour.
Although some of you may not want to become multi-billionaires, I think it is interesting how Buffett - ‘history’s greatest investor’ - achieved his phenomenal success. These extracts are from Of Permanent Value - The Story of Warren Buffett by Andrew Kilpatrick.
“Buffett lives in a “blighted” area
It’s hard to believe, but he lives in a “blighted” area of Omaha. That is because a 35,822-acre area of east Omaha was declared blighted in an effort to win tax incentives for the Aksarben (Nebraska spelled backwards) property development nearby. The area includes wealthy as well as deteriorating sections.
In the early days, he sometimes kept track of intricate financial matters literally on the backs of envelopes. His was a “one-room” operation.
Buffett always has lived beneath his means.
He insists on rock-bottom operating costs, plenty of cash on hand and “little or no debt.”
For example, it was not until he was in his late 20s and well on his way to being a millionaire that he splurged on a $295 IBM typewriter for the partnership.
“He was always saying he didn’t need it,” recalls William O’Connor, a vice president of Mutual of Omaha who had been an IBM Salesman for 30 years. In his early days, O’Connor made the strenuous sale to Buffett. “It was an IBM Standard Model electric typewriter. He bought the standard model rather than the more costly executive model.”
Always tight-fisted, Buffett occasionally has dipped into his fortune for such endeavours as adding rooms to his house, including a handball court.
…
Buffett is a beacon of simplicity and sanity – and probably a genius. Rationality and common sense, actually uncommon sense, are his guiding lights. For example, there are many reasons he bought Coca-Cola stock, but a main one is that human beings, worldwide, get thirsty, and history shows that once exposed to Coke, people continue to drink it.
His three-word job description: “I allocate capital.” His verbose explanation: “My job is to figure out which businesses to invest in, with whom, and at what price.”
Operating from his spartan office, Buffett is the nerve center – along with business partner Charles Munger, who operates from Los Angeles – of a financial empire whose reach and influence sprawl all across the land and beyond.
Usually Buffett invests when there is some temporary stigma or fear or misunderstanding surrounding a superb business. Such was the case when GEICO, the auto insurance firm, came dangerously near bankruptcy in the mid-1970s. He bought big, made about 40 times on his money and now owns all of GEICO.
…
A key tenet at Berkshire [his company] is to bet big and seldom.
…
The secret to making money, in his view, is not to take risks, but to avoid risks.
Beyond his wealth, Buffett is the most influential investment mind and voice in the land.
He has two concrete rules for all who seek riches:
Rule No. 1. Never lose money.
Rule No. 2. Never forget Rule No. 1.
He lives an extraordinarily independent, stirringly original life. More than 99% of the monetary proceeds and 100% of the human proceeds of his life are to be “returned to society”.
…
When Buffett, the avatar of modern investing, wings off to money heaven, he has promised to keep in touch with us. He once told author Adam Smith, “I see myself running Berkshire as long as I live and working on séances afterward.”
For all his splendid long record […] Buffett serves as the business muse of the world."
Although some of you may not want to become multi-billionaires, I think it is interesting how Buffett - ‘history’s greatest investor’ - achieved his phenomenal success. These extracts are from Of Permanent Value - The Story of Warren Buffett by Andrew Kilpatrick.
“Buffett lives in a “blighted” area
It’s hard to believe, but he lives in a “blighted” area of Omaha. That is because a 35,822-acre area of east Omaha was declared blighted in an effort to win tax incentives for the Aksarben (Nebraska spelled backwards) property development nearby. The area includes wealthy as well as deteriorating sections.
In the early days, he sometimes kept track of intricate financial matters literally on the backs of envelopes. His was a “one-room” operation.
Buffett always has lived beneath his means.
He insists on rock-bottom operating costs, plenty of cash on hand and “little or no debt.”
For example, it was not until he was in his late 20s and well on his way to being a millionaire that he splurged on a $295 IBM typewriter for the partnership.
“He was always saying he didn’t need it,” recalls William O’Connor, a vice president of Mutual of Omaha who had been an IBM Salesman for 30 years. In his early days, O’Connor made the strenuous sale to Buffett. “It was an IBM Standard Model electric typewriter. He bought the standard model rather than the more costly executive model.”
Always tight-fisted, Buffett occasionally has dipped into his fortune for such endeavours as adding rooms to his house, including a handball court.
…
Buffett is a beacon of simplicity and sanity – and probably a genius. Rationality and common sense, actually uncommon sense, are his guiding lights. For example, there are many reasons he bought Coca-Cola stock, but a main one is that human beings, worldwide, get thirsty, and history shows that once exposed to Coke, people continue to drink it.
His three-word job description: “I allocate capital.” His verbose explanation: “My job is to figure out which businesses to invest in, with whom, and at what price.”
Operating from his spartan office, Buffett is the nerve center – along with business partner Charles Munger, who operates from Los Angeles – of a financial empire whose reach and influence sprawl all across the land and beyond.
Usually Buffett invests when there is some temporary stigma or fear or misunderstanding surrounding a superb business. Such was the case when GEICO, the auto insurance firm, came dangerously near bankruptcy in the mid-1970s. He bought big, made about 40 times on his money and now owns all of GEICO.
…
A key tenet at Berkshire [his company] is to bet big and seldom.
…
The secret to making money, in his view, is not to take risks, but to avoid risks.
Beyond his wealth, Buffett is the most influential investment mind and voice in the land.
He has two concrete rules for all who seek riches:
Rule No. 1. Never lose money.
Rule No. 2. Never forget Rule No. 1.
He lives an extraordinarily independent, stirringly original life. More than 99% of the monetary proceeds and 100% of the human proceeds of his life are to be “returned to society”.
…
When Buffett, the avatar of modern investing, wings off to money heaven, he has promised to keep in touch with us. He once told author Adam Smith, “I see myself running Berkshire as long as I live and working on séances afterward.”
For all his splendid long record […] Buffett serves as the business muse of the world."
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Day 69: Paulo Coelho
This is an extract especially for anyone struggling at the moment (I closed my eyes and opened a page in the book while thinking of you) as well as for all my Brazilian friends. It is another quote from The Manual of the Warrior of Light:
'The spiritual energy of the Path uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.'
The Breviary of Medieval Knights says:
'The spiritual energy of the Path uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.
This is the Path of the Knight: a path that is at once easy and difficult, because it forces one to set aside trivial things and chance friendships. That is why, at first, many hesitate to follow it.
This is the first teaching of the Knghts: you will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this you will write the word courage. By beginning the journey with that word and continuing with faith in God, you will arrive wherever you need to arrive.'
'The spiritual energy of the Path uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.'
The Breviary of Medieval Knights says:
'The spiritual energy of the Path uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.
This is the Path of the Knight: a path that is at once easy and difficult, because it forces one to set aside trivial things and chance friendships. That is why, at first, many hesitate to follow it.
This is the first teaching of the Knghts: you will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this you will write the word courage. By beginning the journey with that word and continuing with faith in God, you will arrive wherever you need to arrive.'
Monday, 2 July 2007
Day 68: Using Your Brain FOR A CHANGE
This excerpt from the book Using Your Brain FOR A CHANGE is from one of the creators of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Richard Bandler.
"Running Your Own Brain
I'd like you to try some very simple experiments, to teach you a little bit about how you can learn to run your own brain. You will need this experience to understand the rest of this book, so I recommend that you actually do the following brief experiments.
Think of a past experience that was very pleasant - perhaps one that you haven't thought about in a long time. Pause for a moment to go back to that memory, and be sure that you see what you saw at the time that pleasant memory happened. You can close your eyes if that makes it easier to do....
As you look at that pleasant memory, I want you to change the brightness of the image, and notice how your feelings change in response. First make it brighter and brighter....Now make it dimmer and dimmer, until you can barely see it....Now make it brighter again.
How does that change the way you feel? There are always exceptions, but for most of you, when you make the picture brighter, your feelings will become stronger. Increasing brightness usually increases the intensity of feelings, and decreasing brightness usually decreases the intensity of feelings.
How many of you ever thought about the possibility of intentionally varying the brightness of an internal image in order to feel different? Most of you just let your brain randomly show you any picture it wants, and you feel good or bad in response.
Now think of an unpleasant memory, something you think about that makes you feel bad. Now make the picture dimmer and dimmer....If you turn the brightness down far enough, it won't bother you any more. You can save yourself thousands of dollars in psychotherapy bills.
I learned these things from people who did them already. One woman told me that she was happy all the time; she didn't let things get to her. I asked her how she did it, and she said "Well, those unpleasant thoughts come into my mind, but I just turn the brightness down."
Brightness is one of the "submodalities" of the visual modality. Submodalities are universal elements that can be used to change any visual image, no matter what the content is. The auditory and kinesthetic modalities also have submodalities.
Brightness is one of the many things you can vary...[though there are] exceptions to the impact brightness usually has. If you make a picture so bright that it washes out the details and becomes almost white [etc]
"Running Your Own Brain
I'd like you to try some very simple experiments, to teach you a little bit about how you can learn to run your own brain. You will need this experience to understand the rest of this book, so I recommend that you actually do the following brief experiments.
Think of a past experience that was very pleasant - perhaps one that you haven't thought about in a long time. Pause for a moment to go back to that memory, and be sure that you see what you saw at the time that pleasant memory happened. You can close your eyes if that makes it easier to do....
As you look at that pleasant memory, I want you to change the brightness of the image, and notice how your feelings change in response. First make it brighter and brighter....Now make it dimmer and dimmer, until you can barely see it....Now make it brighter again.
How does that change the way you feel? There are always exceptions, but for most of you, when you make the picture brighter, your feelings will become stronger. Increasing brightness usually increases the intensity of feelings, and decreasing brightness usually decreases the intensity of feelings.
How many of you ever thought about the possibility of intentionally varying the brightness of an internal image in order to feel different? Most of you just let your brain randomly show you any picture it wants, and you feel good or bad in response.
Now think of an unpleasant memory, something you think about that makes you feel bad. Now make the picture dimmer and dimmer....If you turn the brightness down far enough, it won't bother you any more. You can save yourself thousands of dollars in psychotherapy bills.
I learned these things from people who did them already. One woman told me that she was happy all the time; she didn't let things get to her. I asked her how she did it, and she said "Well, those unpleasant thoughts come into my mind, but I just turn the brightness down."
Brightness is one of the "submodalities" of the visual modality. Submodalities are universal elements that can be used to change any visual image, no matter what the content is. The auditory and kinesthetic modalities also have submodalities.
Brightness is one of the many things you can vary...[though there are] exceptions to the impact brightness usually has. If you make a picture so bright that it washes out the details and becomes almost white [etc]
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Day 67: How Intuition Can Work in Your Life
This is from intuition and beyond by Sharon A. Klingler:
How Intuition Can Work in Your Life
1. It helps you to recognise the best opportunities available to you and supports you in taking the action to embrace those opportunities, regardless of what your other sources of information and opinion say.
When Oprah Winfrey first had the opportunity to move to Chicago, she says that she did so not because her common sense or her friends told her she should, but because her intuition directed her to go, in spite of the greater risk involved in moving away from her established career and into an untested market. 'When you have finished growing in one place or time, you know. Your soul tells you when it's time to move on.' The rest, of course, is history - still in the making!
2. It helps you make the best choices about relationships and about your actions within those relationships. (I have a client in New York City who was very hesitant to marry because of trust issues about sharing financial responsibility. But her inner voice wouldn't let her remain in fear. It led her to a happy marriage and an opportunity to work through her fears about security.)
3. It helps you make the right choices in financial matters (as in the case of Conrad Hilton, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and many others.)
4. It helps you tap into a greater experience of your creativity. (In a poll of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, the majority said they believed intuition had been an important factor in their discoveries.)
5. It creates a better understanding of your sense of purpose and how you can bring that purpose to bear in your life.
6. It will give you insight into the most beneficial changes you can make and the options that lie before you.
7. It could even save your life. (Countless individuals claim to have been saved by their intuition. Winston Churchill, for instance, said that listening to his intuition had kept him alive on a number of occasions, from his days in Africa through to the Second World War. In one of these instances, while visiting an anti-aircraft battery during a bombing raid, he sat in the staff car on the opposite side from where he would usually sit. During that drive, a bomb exploded so near the car that it was actually lifted into the air, but Churchill was saved. When his relieved wife asked him later that day why he had made that choice, he told her, 'Something said "Stop!" before I reached the car door held open for me. It then appeared to me that I was told I was meant to open the door on the other side and get in there - and that's what I did!)
Besides creating clarity out of confusion and being able to make the best choices, there are even greater results to developing a conscious rapport with your intuitive mind. Looking inward for answers instead of outside yourself will always bring a greater discovery of your strength, confidence and freedom in life.
The more you listen to your intuition, the easier all of your decision-making becomes - building trust in yourself and in your own ideas. And this growing trust will allow you to become more self-reliant and confident in your truth. Ultimately, the answer to 'Why use intuition?' is the same as the answer to 'What is intuition?' And that answer is:
Your intuition is your truth;
it is the voice of your spirit
If you listen to the voice of your truth, you will start to be more true to yourself, no matter what obstacles lie before you. And the more you live your truth, the more you will feel the freedom to follow your dreams!
How Intuition Can Work in Your Life
1. It helps you to recognise the best opportunities available to you and supports you in taking the action to embrace those opportunities, regardless of what your other sources of information and opinion say.
When Oprah Winfrey first had the opportunity to move to Chicago, she says that she did so not because her common sense or her friends told her she should, but because her intuition directed her to go, in spite of the greater risk involved in moving away from her established career and into an untested market. 'When you have finished growing in one place or time, you know. Your soul tells you when it's time to move on.' The rest, of course, is history - still in the making!
2. It helps you make the best choices about relationships and about your actions within those relationships. (I have a client in New York City who was very hesitant to marry because of trust issues about sharing financial responsibility. But her inner voice wouldn't let her remain in fear. It led her to a happy marriage and an opportunity to work through her fears about security.)
3. It helps you make the right choices in financial matters (as in the case of Conrad Hilton, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and many others.)
4. It helps you tap into a greater experience of your creativity. (In a poll of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, the majority said they believed intuition had been an important factor in their discoveries.)
5. It creates a better understanding of your sense of purpose and how you can bring that purpose to bear in your life.
6. It will give you insight into the most beneficial changes you can make and the options that lie before you.
7. It could even save your life. (Countless individuals claim to have been saved by their intuition. Winston Churchill, for instance, said that listening to his intuition had kept him alive on a number of occasions, from his days in Africa through to the Second World War. In one of these instances, while visiting an anti-aircraft battery during a bombing raid, he sat in the staff car on the opposite side from where he would usually sit. During that drive, a bomb exploded so near the car that it was actually lifted into the air, but Churchill was saved. When his relieved wife asked him later that day why he had made that choice, he told her, 'Something said "Stop!" before I reached the car door held open for me. It then appeared to me that I was told I was meant to open the door on the other side and get in there - and that's what I did!)
Besides creating clarity out of confusion and being able to make the best choices, there are even greater results to developing a conscious rapport with your intuitive mind. Looking inward for answers instead of outside yourself will always bring a greater discovery of your strength, confidence and freedom in life.
The more you listen to your intuition, the easier all of your decision-making becomes - building trust in yourself and in your own ideas. And this growing trust will allow you to become more self-reliant and confident in your truth. Ultimately, the answer to 'Why use intuition?' is the same as the answer to 'What is intuition?' And that answer is:
Your intuition is your truth;
it is the voice of your spirit
If you listen to the voice of your truth, you will start to be more true to yourself, no matter what obstacles lie before you. And the more you live your truth, the more you will feel the freedom to follow your dreams!
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Day 66: More tricks to get a First Class Memory
THE NUMBER-RHYME SYSTEM
It is important, when forming the images, to have a very clear mental picture in front of your inner eye. To achieve this it is often best to close your eyes and to project the image on to the inside of your eyelid, or on to a screen inside your head, and to hear, feel, smell or experience it in the way that works best for you. (For example, think of what you ate for lunch yesterday: how does your brain recreate it for you? Use the same medium.)
To make all this clearer, let us try the ten items given.
1 bun table
Imagine a giant bun on top of a fragile table which is in the process of crumbling from the weight. Smell the fresh cooked aroma, taste your favourite bun.
2 Shoe feather
Imagine your favourite shoe with an enormous feather growing out of the inside, preventing you from putting your shoe on, tickling and tickling your feet.
3 tree cat
Imagine a large tree with either your own cat or a cat you know stuck in the very top branches frantically scrambling about and mewing loudly.
4 door leaf
Imagine your bedroom door as one giant leaf, crunching and rustling as you open it.
5 hive student
Imagine a student at his desk, dressed in black and yellow stripes, buzzing busily, or with honey dripping on his pages.
6 sticks orange
Imagine large sticks puncturing the juicy surface of an orange that is as big as a beach ball. Feel and smell the juice of the orange squirting out.
7 heaven car
Imagine all the angels sitting on cars rather than clouds; experience yourself driving the car you consider heavenly.
8 skate pencil
Imagine yourself skating over the pavement, hearing the sound of the wheels on the ground, as you see the multi-coloured pencils attached to your skates creating fantastic art wherever you go.
9 vine shirt
Imagine a vine as large as Jack and the Bean Stalk's bean stalk, and instead of leaves on the vine, hang it all over with brightly coloured shirts blowing in the wind.
10 hen poker
Have fun!
It is important, when forming the images, to have a very clear mental picture in front of your inner eye. To achieve this it is often best to close your eyes and to project the image on to the inside of your eyelid, or on to a screen inside your head, and to hear, feel, smell or experience it in the way that works best for you. (For example, think of what you ate for lunch yesterday: how does your brain recreate it for you? Use the same medium.)
To make all this clearer, let us try the ten items given.
1 bun table
Imagine a giant bun on top of a fragile table which is in the process of crumbling from the weight. Smell the fresh cooked aroma, taste your favourite bun.
2 Shoe feather
Imagine your favourite shoe with an enormous feather growing out of the inside, preventing you from putting your shoe on, tickling and tickling your feet.
3 tree cat
Imagine a large tree with either your own cat or a cat you know stuck in the very top branches frantically scrambling about and mewing loudly.
4 door leaf
Imagine your bedroom door as one giant leaf, crunching and rustling as you open it.
5 hive student
Imagine a student at his desk, dressed in black and yellow stripes, buzzing busily, or with honey dripping on his pages.
6 sticks orange
Imagine large sticks puncturing the juicy surface of an orange that is as big as a beach ball. Feel and smell the juice of the orange squirting out.
7 heaven car
Imagine all the angels sitting on cars rather than clouds; experience yourself driving the car you consider heavenly.
8 skate pencil
Imagine yourself skating over the pavement, hearing the sound of the wheels on the ground, as you see the multi-coloured pencils attached to your skates creating fantastic art wherever you go.
9 vine shirt
Imagine a vine as large as Jack and the Bean Stalk's bean stalk, and instead of leaves on the vine, hang it all over with brightly coloured shirts blowing in the wind.
10 hen poker
Have fun!
Friday, 29 June 2007
Day 65: Tricks for a Brilliant Memory
Mindmapping is a fantastic aid to studying and Use Your Head by Tony Buzan is a great introduction to the field. It also covers memory systems. Here is an extract from the book:
Assuming that the items to be remembered are:
1 table
2 feather
3 cat
4 leaf
5 student
6 orange
7 car
8 pencil
9 shirt
10 poker
In order to remember these it is necessary to have some system which enables us to use the associative and linking power of memory to connect them with their proper number.
The best system for this is the Number-Rhyme System, in which each number has a rhyming word connected to it.
The rhyming key words are:
1 bun
2 shoe
3 tree
4 door
5 hive
6 sticks
7 heaven
8 skate
9 vine
10 hen
In order to remember the first list of arbitrary words it is necessary to link them in some strong manner with the rhyming words connected to the numbers. If this is done successfully, the answer to a question such as 'what word was connected to number 3'? will be easy. The rhyming word for 5, 'hive', will be recalled automatically and with it will come the connected image of the word that has to be remembered.
SMASHIN' SCOPE OF MEMORY
The important thing in this and all other memory systems is to make sure that the rhyming word and the word to be remembered are totally and securely linked together. In order to do this, the connecting images must be one or many of the following:
1 Synaesthesia/sensuality
Synaesthesia refers to the blending of the senses. The great 'natural' memorisers, and the great mnemonists, developed exceptional sensitivity in each of their senses, and then blended these senses to produce enhanced recall. In developing the memory it has been found to be essential to sensitise increasingly and train regularly your:
a) vision
b) hearing
c) sense of smell
d) taste
e) touch
f) kinaesthesia - your awareness of bodily position and movement in space.
2 Movement
In any mnemonic image, movement adds another giant range of possibilities for your brain to 'link in' and thus remember. As your images move, make them three-dimensional.
3 Association
Whatever you wish to memorise, make sure you associate or link it to something stable in your mental environment, i.e. Peg system: one = bun.
4 Sexuality
We all have a virtually perfect memory in this area. Use it.
5 Humour
Have fun with your memory. The more funny, ridiculous, absurd and surreal you make your images, the more outstandingly memorable they will be. Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, said that, 'My paintings are photographs painted by hand of the irrational made concrete' and that in many instances they are the paintings of the perfectly held memories of his day and night dreams.
6 Imagination
Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.' The more you apply your imagination to memory, the better your memory will be.
7 Number
Numbering adds specificity and efficiency to the principle of order and sequence
8 Symbolism
Substituting a more meaningful image for a more normal or boring image increases the probability of recall. You may also use traditional symbols, e.g. stop sign or light bulb.
9 Colour
Where appropriate, and whenever possible, use the full range of the rainbow, to make your ideas more 'colourful' and therefore more memorable.
10 Order and/or sequence
In combination with the other principles, order and/or sequence allows for much more immediate reference, and increases the brain's possibilities for 'random access'. Expanded use of order and sequence allows you to develop Memory Matrices, such as the Self-Enhancing Memory Matrix, enabling you to memorise as many as 10,000 items of information and more (see Master Your Memory).
11 Positivity
In most instances positive and pleasant images are better for memory purposes, because they make the brain want to return to the images. Certain negative images, even though applying all the principles above, and though in and of themselves 'memorable', could be blocked by the brain because it finds the prospect of returning to such images unpleasant.
12 Exaggeration
In all your images, exaggerate size, shape, and sound.
These can easily be remembered by the mnemonic anagram smashin' scope.
Assuming that the items to be remembered are:
1 table
2 feather
3 cat
4 leaf
5 student
6 orange
7 car
8 pencil
9 shirt
10 poker
In order to remember these it is necessary to have some system which enables us to use the associative and linking power of memory to connect them with their proper number.
The best system for this is the Number-Rhyme System, in which each number has a rhyming word connected to it.
The rhyming key words are:
1 bun
2 shoe
3 tree
4 door
5 hive
6 sticks
7 heaven
8 skate
9 vine
10 hen
In order to remember the first list of arbitrary words it is necessary to link them in some strong manner with the rhyming words connected to the numbers. If this is done successfully, the answer to a question such as 'what word was connected to number 3'? will be easy. The rhyming word for 5, 'hive', will be recalled automatically and with it will come the connected image of the word that has to be remembered.
SMASHIN' SCOPE OF MEMORY
The important thing in this and all other memory systems is to make sure that the rhyming word and the word to be remembered are totally and securely linked together. In order to do this, the connecting images must be one or many of the following:
1 Synaesthesia/sensuality
Synaesthesia refers to the blending of the senses. The great 'natural' memorisers, and the great mnemonists, developed exceptional sensitivity in each of their senses, and then blended these senses to produce enhanced recall. In developing the memory it has been found to be essential to sensitise increasingly and train regularly your:
a) vision
b) hearing
c) sense of smell
d) taste
e) touch
f) kinaesthesia - your awareness of bodily position and movement in space.
2 Movement
In any mnemonic image, movement adds another giant range of possibilities for your brain to 'link in' and thus remember. As your images move, make them three-dimensional.
3 Association
Whatever you wish to memorise, make sure you associate or link it to something stable in your mental environment, i.e. Peg system: one = bun.
4 Sexuality
We all have a virtually perfect memory in this area. Use it.
5 Humour
Have fun with your memory. The more funny, ridiculous, absurd and surreal you make your images, the more outstandingly memorable they will be. Salvador Dali, the surrealist painter, said that, 'My paintings are photographs painted by hand of the irrational made concrete' and that in many instances they are the paintings of the perfectly held memories of his day and night dreams.
6 Imagination
Einstein said, 'Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.' The more you apply your imagination to memory, the better your memory will be.
7 Number
Numbering adds specificity and efficiency to the principle of order and sequence
8 Symbolism
Substituting a more meaningful image for a more normal or boring image increases the probability of recall. You may also use traditional symbols, e.g. stop sign or light bulb.
9 Colour
Where appropriate, and whenever possible, use the full range of the rainbow, to make your ideas more 'colourful' and therefore more memorable.
10 Order and/or sequence
In combination with the other principles, order and/or sequence allows for much more immediate reference, and increases the brain's possibilities for 'random access'. Expanded use of order and sequence allows you to develop Memory Matrices, such as the Self-Enhancing Memory Matrix, enabling you to memorise as many as 10,000 items of information and more (see Master Your Memory).
11 Positivity
In most instances positive and pleasant images are better for memory purposes, because they make the brain want to return to the images. Certain negative images, even though applying all the principles above, and though in and of themselves 'memorable', could be blocked by the brain because it finds the prospect of returning to such images unpleasant.
12 Exaggeration
In all your images, exaggerate size, shape, and sound.
These can easily be remembered by the mnemonic anagram smashin' scope.
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Day 64: Restoring Peaceful Sleep & Relieving Pain
This is from Crystals and Crystal Healing by Simon Lilly:
Restoring Peaceful Sleep
Sleepless nights can be caused by a variety of situations. They can often be overcome by simple strategies - but when you are half-asleep and exhausted, motivation is a difficult thing to summon up. This is when the right sort of crystals can be very useful. Different types of sleeplessness will need different gemstones to ease them, and you will need to experiment - a stone that works for one person may keep someone else awake.
* Chrysoprase, an apple green variety of chalcedony quartz, has been found in most cases to encourage peaceful sleep. A tumbled stone can be put under your pillow, or a larger piece placed on a bedside table
* Just hold the appropriate stones or have them nearby. They will help to quieten you so that you can relax and fall asleep.
* If tension and worry is the cause of restlessness try amethyst, rose quartz or citrine.
* If your sleep pattern is disturbed by something you have eaten, a digestive calmer like ametrine, moonstone or iron pyrites may help.
* Where there is fear, particularly related to bad dreams or nightmares, use a grounding and protecting stone such as tourmaline, staurolite, smoky quartz or tourmaline quartz and place it at the foot of your bed. Labrodorite will also help to chase away any unwelcome thoughts and feelings.
Relieving Pain
Pain is the body's way of letting you know that something is wrong and needs attention. Very often pain is caused by an excess of energy of some sort. Using crystals can help reduce pain to manageable levels by releasing blocks within the subtle bodies and stimulating the body's own healing mechanisms. In general, all cool-coloured stones - blue, indigo and violet - will help to calm painful areas and restore the natural flow of energy in a damaged area.
* Copper is well-known for its ability to reduce inflammation and swellings of all sorts, and some of the most useful gemstones for controlling pain have high concentrations of copper. Copper itself can be worn as a bracelet or carried in its rough, natural, nugget form to help all energy flow in the body and reduce inflammation.
* Malachite is a soft mineral of copper that forms in concentric bands of light and dark green. It is good at calming painful areas and drawing out imbalances. It is a good absorber of negativity and needs regular cleansing to maintain its effectiveness.
* Turquoise can be used whenever there is a need for calm healing energy. The colour of the stone stimulates the body's immune system and it has a beneficial effect on many areas.
* Carnelian, although it is a warm colour, is a useful stone as it is a powerful healer of the etheric body and encourages healing.
* Pink stones, such as rose quartz, calm aggravated areas and also reduce the fears that often accompany injury and pain. Placing pink stones at the solar plexus and sacral chakras [situated below the naval] will calm the mind and relax the body.
Restoring Peaceful Sleep
Sleepless nights can be caused by a variety of situations. They can often be overcome by simple strategies - but when you are half-asleep and exhausted, motivation is a difficult thing to summon up. This is when the right sort of crystals can be very useful. Different types of sleeplessness will need different gemstones to ease them, and you will need to experiment - a stone that works for one person may keep someone else awake.
* Chrysoprase, an apple green variety of chalcedony quartz, has been found in most cases to encourage peaceful sleep. A tumbled stone can be put under your pillow, or a larger piece placed on a bedside table
* Just hold the appropriate stones or have them nearby. They will help to quieten you so that you can relax and fall asleep.
* If tension and worry is the cause of restlessness try amethyst, rose quartz or citrine.
* If your sleep pattern is disturbed by something you have eaten, a digestive calmer like ametrine, moonstone or iron pyrites may help.
* Where there is fear, particularly related to bad dreams or nightmares, use a grounding and protecting stone such as tourmaline, staurolite, smoky quartz or tourmaline quartz and place it at the foot of your bed. Labrodorite will also help to chase away any unwelcome thoughts and feelings.
Relieving Pain
Pain is the body's way of letting you know that something is wrong and needs attention. Very often pain is caused by an excess of energy of some sort. Using crystals can help reduce pain to manageable levels by releasing blocks within the subtle bodies and stimulating the body's own healing mechanisms. In general, all cool-coloured stones - blue, indigo and violet - will help to calm painful areas and restore the natural flow of energy in a damaged area.
* Copper is well-known for its ability to reduce inflammation and swellings of all sorts, and some of the most useful gemstones for controlling pain have high concentrations of copper. Copper itself can be worn as a bracelet or carried in its rough, natural, nugget form to help all energy flow in the body and reduce inflammation.
* Malachite is a soft mineral of copper that forms in concentric bands of light and dark green. It is good at calming painful areas and drawing out imbalances. It is a good absorber of negativity and needs regular cleansing to maintain its effectiveness.
* Turquoise can be used whenever there is a need for calm healing energy. The colour of the stone stimulates the body's immune system and it has a beneficial effect on many areas.
* Carnelian, although it is a warm colour, is a useful stone as it is a powerful healer of the etheric body and encourages healing.
* Pink stones, such as rose quartz, calm aggravated areas and also reduce the fears that often accompany injury and pain. Placing pink stones at the solar plexus and sacral chakras [situated below the naval] will calm the mind and relax the body.
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Day 63: Fascinating Insights into How We Think
Today’s extract comes from Words That Change Minds – Mastering the Language of Influence by Shelle Rose Charvet.
Creating Our Model of The World
Every person has a certain number of filters by which they let in certain parts of the real world. In Noam Chomsky’s 1957 Ph.D. thesis, Transformational Grammar, he said there are three processes by which people create the filters of their individual Model of the World.
Deletion
The first process is called deletion. We delete lots of information from the environment around us and internally. In his 1956 paper entitled Seven Plus or Minus Two, George Miller, an American psychologist, said that our conscious minds can only handle seven plus-or-minus two bits of information at any one time, and that we delete the rest. That means on a good day we can deal with nine bits and on a bad day, maybe only five.
This explains why most telephone numbers are a maximum of seven digits. However, while I was living in Paris in the 1980s, they changed the phone numbers to eight digits. Everyone then had to decide whether to remember phone numbers by groups of two, or four, or to simply add the new Paris code, 4, onto the front of their old number. No one had an easy way of keeping eight digits in their head at once. Each person had to find their own way to break it down. People would give out their new phone numbers in their own peculiar manner. It created a great deal of confusion.
So seven plus or minus two bits of information is what we can be comfortably aware of at one time. Using the process of deletion, we filter out lots of things without being aware of it or consciously choosing to do so.
Distortion
The second process is called distortion. We distort things. Have you ever moved to a new place and gone into the living room before you moved your things in and pictured what it was going to look like furnished? Well, you were hallucinating. Your furniture was not actually in the room, was it? So you were distorting Reality.
Two examples of distortion are hallucination and creativity. They are both similar in that the external information is changed to something else. That is what the process of distortion is all about.
Generalization
Chomsky’s third mental filtering process is called generalization. It is the opposite of Cartesian Logic (where you can go from a general rule to specific examples but not the other way around). Generalization is where you take a few examples and then create a general principle. This is how learning occurs. A small child learns to open one or two, or possibly three, doors and then she knows how to open all doors. The child develops a Generalization about how to open doors. That is, until she has to enter a high-tech company and realizes that, to open the door, there is a magnetic card that has to be slid down a slot in a certain way. She has to relearn how to open doors to deal with those exceptions.
Generalization is about how we unconsciously generate rules, beliefs, and principles about what is true, untrue, possible, and impossible. Some women, for example, may have had several bad experiences with men and then come to the conclusion that men (i.e. all men) cannot be trusted. They develop the rule: Never trust a man. People have a certain number of experiences of a similar type and then make a rule or develop a belief.
With the three filters, Deletion, Distortion and Generalization, we each create our own model of the world.
Creating Our Model of The World
Every person has a certain number of filters by which they let in certain parts of the real world. In Noam Chomsky’s 1957 Ph.D. thesis, Transformational Grammar, he said there are three processes by which people create the filters of their individual Model of the World.
Deletion
The first process is called deletion. We delete lots of information from the environment around us and internally. In his 1956 paper entitled Seven Plus or Minus Two, George Miller, an American psychologist, said that our conscious minds can only handle seven plus-or-minus two bits of information at any one time, and that we delete the rest. That means on a good day we can deal with nine bits and on a bad day, maybe only five.
This explains why most telephone numbers are a maximum of seven digits. However, while I was living in Paris in the 1980s, they changed the phone numbers to eight digits. Everyone then had to decide whether to remember phone numbers by groups of two, or four, or to simply add the new Paris code, 4, onto the front of their old number. No one had an easy way of keeping eight digits in their head at once. Each person had to find their own way to break it down. People would give out their new phone numbers in their own peculiar manner. It created a great deal of confusion.
So seven plus or minus two bits of information is what we can be comfortably aware of at one time. Using the process of deletion, we filter out lots of things without being aware of it or consciously choosing to do so.
Distortion
The second process is called distortion. We distort things. Have you ever moved to a new place and gone into the living room before you moved your things in and pictured what it was going to look like furnished? Well, you were hallucinating. Your furniture was not actually in the room, was it? So you were distorting Reality.
Two examples of distortion are hallucination and creativity. They are both similar in that the external information is changed to something else. That is what the process of distortion is all about.
Generalization
Chomsky’s third mental filtering process is called generalization. It is the opposite of Cartesian Logic (where you can go from a general rule to specific examples but not the other way around). Generalization is where you take a few examples and then create a general principle. This is how learning occurs. A small child learns to open one or two, or possibly three, doors and then she knows how to open all doors. The child develops a Generalization about how to open doors. That is, until she has to enter a high-tech company and realizes that, to open the door, there is a magnetic card that has to be slid down a slot in a certain way. She has to relearn how to open doors to deal with those exceptions.
Generalization is about how we unconsciously generate rules, beliefs, and principles about what is true, untrue, possible, and impossible. Some women, for example, may have had several bad experiences with men and then come to the conclusion that men (i.e. all men) cannot be trusted. They develop the rule: Never trust a man. People have a certain number of experiences of a similar type and then make a rule or develop a belief.
With the three filters, Deletion, Distortion and Generalization, we each create our own model of the world.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Monday, 25 June 2007
Day 61: Natural Ways to Combat Depression
from The Naturopathy Workbook by Stephen Langley:
DEPRESSION:
DEFINITION
Mental depression is an affected disorder characterised by altered mood. There is loss of interest in all usually pleasurable outlets such as food, sex, work, friends, hobbies or entertainment. May be bipolar (mood and elation are alternately present), endogenous (without apparent cause) or situational or exogenous (usually self-limiting from disappointment, illness or loss of job or loved one).
SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
Diagnostic criteria include presence of at least four of the following every day for at least two weeks:
• Poor appetite or significant weight loss, or increased weight gain
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping for long lengths of time)
• Psychomotor agitation or retardation
• Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, loss of libido
• Loss of energy or fatigue
• Feelings of worthlessness, self- reproach, or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate.
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
ORTHODOX TREATMENT
Orthodox treatments of depression suppress the symptoms and don't treat the cause. All orthodox treatments have tremendous and often irreversible side effects.
POSSIBLE FACTORS
• Exhaustion-mental or physical
• Hypothyroidism
• Alcohol abuse
• Recreational drug abuse
• Loss of loved one
• Sunlight deprivation
• Poor nutrient status-vitamins B3, B6, lecithin
• Blood sugar imbalances (Hypoglycaemia)
• Hormonal fluctuations (oestrogen/ progesterone)
• Postnatal
• Food allergies
• Deficiency of amino acids - tryptophan and phenylalanine
• Medication, drugs, the Pill
• Dehydration
• Dysbiosis - candida overgrowth
NATUROPATHIC TREATMENT & MANAGEMENT
• Remove stimulants - caffeine, alcohol, smoking
• Increase Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) e.g. Udo's oil
• Increase tryptophan foods (precursor to serotonin) - chicken, fish, turkey, beans,
avocados, cottage cheese, wheat germ, bananas.
• Emotional healing - counselling (e.g. repressed anger)
• Exercise, yoga, Qi gong
• Eliminate refined carbohydrates and sugar
• Vitamin C (500mg BD with food)
• Vitamin B complex plus extra folic acid (400mcg daily)
• Walnut tea (serotonin) - steep a broken half of a walnut in boiling water, drink several over the day.
• Porridge (oats) for nervous system restoration
• Aromatherapy - clary sage, lavender, rose, jasmine
• Bach Flowers - mustard, sweet chestnut, star of Bethlehem
• Bowel detox - probiotics
• Eliminate food intolerances or allergies e.g. wheat
HERBS
St John's Wort Hypericum perforatum (sedative) 2-4g by infusion TDS (N.B. DO NOT TAKE THIS IF YOU ARE BLOOD TYPE O OR DO NOT KNOW YOUR BLOOD TYPE. IT HAS DANGEROUS SIDE EFFECTS FOR TYPE O. - by Editor (SBW).
HOMOEOPATHY
Refer to Homoeopathic practitioner
DEPRESSION:
DEFINITION
Mental depression is an affected disorder characterised by altered mood. There is loss of interest in all usually pleasurable outlets such as food, sex, work, friends, hobbies or entertainment. May be bipolar (mood and elation are alternately present), endogenous (without apparent cause) or situational or exogenous (usually self-limiting from disappointment, illness or loss of job or loved one).
SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
Diagnostic criteria include presence of at least four of the following every day for at least two weeks:
• Poor appetite or significant weight loss, or increased weight gain
• Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping for long lengths of time)
• Psychomotor agitation or retardation
• Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, loss of libido
• Loss of energy or fatigue
• Feelings of worthlessness, self- reproach, or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate.
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
ORTHODOX TREATMENT
Orthodox treatments of depression suppress the symptoms and don't treat the cause. All orthodox treatments have tremendous and often irreversible side effects.
POSSIBLE FACTORS
• Exhaustion-mental or physical
• Hypothyroidism
• Alcohol abuse
• Recreational drug abuse
• Loss of loved one
• Sunlight deprivation
• Poor nutrient status-vitamins B3, B6, lecithin
• Blood sugar imbalances (Hypoglycaemia)
• Hormonal fluctuations (oestrogen/ progesterone)
• Postnatal
• Food allergies
• Deficiency of amino acids - tryptophan and phenylalanine
• Medication, drugs, the Pill
• Dehydration
• Dysbiosis - candida overgrowth
NATUROPATHIC TREATMENT & MANAGEMENT
• Remove stimulants - caffeine, alcohol, smoking
• Increase Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) e.g. Udo's oil
• Increase tryptophan foods (precursor to serotonin) - chicken, fish, turkey, beans,
avocados, cottage cheese, wheat germ, bananas.
• Emotional healing - counselling (e.g. repressed anger)
• Exercise, yoga, Qi gong
• Eliminate refined carbohydrates and sugar
• Vitamin C (500mg BD with food)
• Vitamin B complex plus extra folic acid (400mcg daily)
• Walnut tea (serotonin) - steep a broken half of a walnut in boiling water, drink several over the day.
• Porridge (oats) for nervous system restoration
• Aromatherapy - clary sage, lavender, rose, jasmine
• Bach Flowers - mustard, sweet chestnut, star of Bethlehem
• Bowel detox - probiotics
• Eliminate food intolerances or allergies e.g. wheat
HERBS
St John's Wort Hypericum perforatum (sedative) 2-4g by infusion TDS (N.B. DO NOT TAKE THIS IF YOU ARE BLOOD TYPE O OR DO NOT KNOW YOUR BLOOD TYPE. IT HAS DANGEROUS SIDE EFFECTS FOR TYPE O. - by Editor (SBW).
HOMOEOPATHY
Refer to Homoeopathic practitioner
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Day 60: The Frog Prince
Today, another poem, especially for us single people! My brother and his wife have their work cut out for them - she gets precious little sleep and my brother is not allowed to stay overnight, so she has to deal with them alone until he comes in the morning. The twins are of course adorable and my brother has already changed two nappies and is a dab hand at swaddling them and quieting their crying. I held one of them and she looked at me with her blue eyes (all new-born Caucasian European babies have blue eyes, apparently) for several minutes. They are surprisingly unscrunchy, as often premature babies are still wrinkly when taken out before the full nine months.
The Frog Prince
I am a frog
I live under a spell
I live at the bottom
Of a green well
And here I must wait
Until a maiden places me
On her royal pillow
And kisses me
In her father’s palace.
The story is familiar
Everybody knows it well
But do other enchanted people feel as nervous
As I do? The stories do not tell,
Ask if they will be happier
When the changes come
As already they are fairly happy
In a frog’s doom?
I have been a frog now
For a hundred years
And in all this time
I have not shed many tears,
I am happy, I like the life,
Can swim for many a mile
(When I have hopped to the river)
And am for ever agile.
And the quietness,
Yes, I like to be quiet
I am habituated
To a quiet life,
But always when I think these thoughts
As I sit in my well
Another thought comes to me and says:
It is part of the spell
To be happy
To work up contentment
To make much of being a frog
To fear disenchantment
Says, It will be heavenly
To be set free,
Cries, Heavenly the girl who disenchants
And the royal times, heavenly,
And I think it will be.
Come then, royal girl and royal times,
Come quickly,
I can be happy until you come
But I cannot be heavenly,
Only disenchanted people
Can be heavenly.
by Stevie Smith
The Frog Prince
I am a frog
I live under a spell
I live at the bottom
Of a green well
And here I must wait
Until a maiden places me
On her royal pillow
And kisses me
In her father’s palace.
The story is familiar
Everybody knows it well
But do other enchanted people feel as nervous
As I do? The stories do not tell,
Ask if they will be happier
When the changes come
As already they are fairly happy
In a frog’s doom?
I have been a frog now
For a hundred years
And in all this time
I have not shed many tears,
I am happy, I like the life,
Can swim for many a mile
(When I have hopped to the river)
And am for ever agile.
And the quietness,
Yes, I like to be quiet
I am habituated
To a quiet life,
But always when I think these thoughts
As I sit in my well
Another thought comes to me and says:
It is part of the spell
To be happy
To work up contentment
To make much of being a frog
To fear disenchantment
Says, It will be heavenly
To be set free,
Cries, Heavenly the girl who disenchants
And the royal times, heavenly,
And I think it will be.
Come then, royal girl and royal times,
Come quickly,
I can be happy until you come
But I cannot be heavenly,
Only disenchanted people
Can be heavenly.
by Stevie Smith
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Day 59: The Twins (again)
I am off to see the one day old twins soon with my mum. First, another poem. It is either this one or yesterday's that is the twins' mum's favourite poem of mine. I include this alongside the other because I need to get used to giving two presents every time I see them - and probably slightly different presents, as each twin, of course, wants to be unique.
Grimblegromp
He grimaces like a Grombit
when he tries to gremb a smile
and his teeth crockle and brockle
like shinebows on the Nile.
As he tockles throfting brickles
which twackle underfoot
the wimbling Wonchglocks
glatter 'bout a gless-plit brook.
Swanterin swontily
he bruzzes srommy shinshom
brenning brop brish-brosh,
brish-brosh in the crawm.
Grimblegromp
He grimaces like a Grombit
when he tries to gremb a smile
and his teeth crockle and brockle
like shinebows on the Nile.
As he tockles throfting brickles
which twackle underfoot
the wimbling Wonchglocks
glatter 'bout a gless-plit brook.
Swanterin swontily
he bruzzes srommy shinshom
brenning brop brish-brosh,
brish-brosh in the crawm.
Friday, 22 June 2007
Day 58: The Twins
Today, my younger brother's wife gave birth to twin girls. Thankfully, the whole family are okay and all is well. I plan to visit them with my mum tomorrow - we are both excited. My mother always wanted a girl after having three boys and now, as a grandmother, she has two! To celebrate, I am reproducing another poem from my book as I think it is my brother's wife's favourite poem of mine and one that I made up for her.
Nonsense
I made this oop fer you’s,
‘cos I know you’s like me nonsense stews
an’ the clock was a-slowin’
while the wind-blown door was slammin’
an I’m sure I heard a howl like a Wholin.
No one believes in Wholins but me,
but no one stays up all night lissenin’ like me,
an I swear I heard a Wholin
howlin’ out your name
saying “Nonsense!”
Nonsense
I made this oop fer you’s,
‘cos I know you’s like me nonsense stews
an’ the clock was a-slowin’
while the wind-blown door was slammin’
an I’m sure I heard a howl like a Wholin.
No one believes in Wholins but me,
but no one stays up all night lissenin’ like me,
an I swear I heard a Wholin
howlin’ out your name
saying “Nonsense!”
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