Birdwatching Makes Meditation Easy
As I sit in the home office of my personal development home business, I have a magnificent view of a pair of sun birds which are nesting on a rope on our veranda here in Cairns. This pair of sun birds have previously nested in this location and raised several families before their nest fell one night just before Christmas. What a calamity that was! We were having a little pre-Christmas celebration when all of a sudden the mother bird began to fly into the ceiling and was in great distress. It took us a while to realise that something had happened to our birds and we then found that their nest had come away at the top and was hanging upside down.
By a miracle, the baby sun birds had not fallen out so we tied the nest back into place and the next morning found the parents furiously feeding their young and in no time they were fledged and away. With some sadness, we removed their old nest and put in place a good strong piece of twine, hoping that they would return and nest again. The parent birds stayed in our garden and we lived in hope.
Now they have their new nest, on their own special piece of twine and I am able to watch them as I work.
Great meditation – You bet!! Meditation can be done anywhere that you can lose yourself and open your mind and I sure am enjoying this particular meditation. I have no doubt that my home business in personal development will benefit as well as well as my mind and health. And having these little sun birds in our garden and around our home just brings me a whole lot of joy and happiness.
Sunday Morning Special
Sunday morning is a special time for me – I read the Sunday Mail. This is made more special to me because I do not read, listen to or watch the news because I simply refuse to load up my life with the negativity that is the news. Instead I research things that I am interested in, read books that cause me to question, enjoy time with my family and the gorgeous Miss Elly (our dog) and watch the occasional TV eg Random Acts of Kindness. So Sunday is a day that I celebrate with a paper and what do I read? body+soul, Escape and the cartoons. The cartoons of course give me a laugh, body+soul offers good websites to increase my interest in new and exciting things and I can feed my dreams to travel.
This Sunday morning, body+soul had a great article to makeover your health. And I especially liked point number one “Are you having a good laugh?” Apparently a really good laugh relieves stress and relaxes your muscles. There you go, I knew that Sunday morning was special. That is when I get my laughter fix from the crazy cartoons. The article says that even anticipating a laugh can boost feel good hormones – so basically the whole week is good for me while I anticipate my Sunday morning fest. Recommended action; go to a comedy club, rent a funny movie or get together with friends who make you laugh.
Incidentally point four is to socialise more, so socialising with funny people has you two steps on your way to a big impact on your health. So from now on I might have to declare Sunday morning as sacred, for laughter only. Happiness and pleasure is everything in life.
Do a Great Thing for Abused Children
The Abused Child Trust now known as ACT for Kids works to give all Aussie kids the safe and happy childhood that they deserve. You can help them out in all sorts of ways and here is one that will take you only a little time. All that is needed is your vote.
Vote for ACT for Kids in the Cannon Creative for a Cause photographic competition!
Please visit and vote for the photograph to help ACT for Kids win $60,000.00: http://www1.canon.com.au/creativeforacause/Photo/Gallery.aspx?photo=0FD51B53BB8897AA And then send this information to all of your contacts so that they can do something great for an abused kid.
UNESCO Peace Week
Peace Week, commemorating the United Nations International Decade for the Culture of Peace, is being celebrated in Cairns from 23 to 31 July. Peace Week is intended to build compassion and understanding in the community with a theme for this 9th Annual event being “Peace Starts with Self”. There are a number of events on catering for all tastes and for further information on the list of events go to the Cairns Events Calender.
Additionally, I cordially invite you to the following event:-
International EXPO Monday 27th July, 2009. 12:30 – 6:30 for Book Creators Expo and Peace Week Launch. Public welcome.
EVENT LOCATION – Mercure Cairns Harbourside, Blue Mango Terrace entrance Esplanade – Cairns. All welcome to celebrate “The Message” of peace with guest speakers, Sydney writer James Knight and local Innisfail writer Jacque Duffy, and the writers and local businesses on Book Creators Circle. Come spend a relaxing afternoon networking and celebrating. Please pass on to your contacts and feel very welcome to join in the launch of Peace Week, to support our international writers and businesses or to drop in after work.
Emotional Freedom for Success
The Sunday Mail today carries an interesting article about Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and the application of this to overcome food cravings, depression, anxiety and emotional issues as well as to achieve career success. This technique was developed by Gary Craig and pioneered in Australia by Dr Peta Stapleton, senior lecturer at Griffith University in Queensland. Dr Stapleton used the techniques to treat people with bulimia and anxiety. Her recent research shows that after use of the technique all people in the trial reported that their food cravings disappeared. Very powerful. This modality is based upon the meridians of acupuncture and uses a tapping technique while thinking and speaking of the negative emotion that one wishes to clear.
Anyone working on self development will know that managing emotions is one of the most important and sometimes most difficult actions to master. Staying in a state of happiness and holding a positive attitude is always a challenge, particularly for those who may work in a highly negative environment or have a life history of being pessimistic. EFT is one possible solution.
Not only is this technique available widely from a number of qualified practitioners, but it can also be learned from the manual available from Gary Craig’s website. I am sure that the generosity in making this information available in such a way will return tenfold to Gary Craig. Once learned, the technique can be used at any time, anywhere and it is entirely possible to hold yourself in any emotion that you choose. What a bonus!
From the perspective of success, I use the technique to assist in embedding my positive affirmations. First I can clear any emotional blockages and then establish the affirmation. Now there is a very powerful tool for personal development.
