Power of Affirmations

I was reading this book "The Success Principles" by the best selling author Jack Canfield and the chapter of positive affirmations did relate to me in a way and thought I would write a quick blog on that. The Chapter was all about how you create an affirmation, visualize and achieve your goals.

How many of us can claim that we can think flawlessly? Have we ever wondered why we do certain things and did we take time to examine the root cause for it or what initiated the action? It is cognition or the thought process which is performing its job. Most of us are unaware of this important process which is happening within us day in and day out. When we do realize this and bring it to our consciousness we can achieve the way our life will be or adapt ourselves to accept the way things are. It is when you retaliate with reality do you face difficulties in facing the reality.

Law of attraction states that you get what you want. Atleast this is true in my life, things did not happen just like that. I took an inventory of my thoughts and the position where I am now and it did really make a lot of sense in both positive as well as negative perspective. If we just take time out and think why are you in whatever position you are, somewhere within you long time back you had this feeling of becoming what you are now.

So it is all about attitude and practicing and preaching what we want. It will just not happen immediately and the reason is our subconscious mind is trained in a way for a long period and to break this barrier, it requires time and with persistence, we can difinitely do it.

Relationship - Why is it So Hard???

I have been observing these couple who live diagonally opposite to my apartment in the basement. When I said couple they were really old hitting their late sixties. Whenever I come over to my balcony I can catch a glimpse of them either lying down on the grass tanning themselves or just taking out trash. To my surprise both were somewhat handicapped due to the age factor. The old man had a right leg wrapped with some bandage and can use only wheel chair. The old lady will be limping around and pushing the wheel chair of her better half... Did I say better half, hmm may be better end!!!

On occasions I have seen the old lady gliding the wheel chair of her husband to Giant which is 3/4 of a mile and again carrying back groceries and guiding the wheel chair of her husband. I have never seen anybody visiting them nor these couple going anywhere.(Nature of American Compassion). My imagination started flashing out, that their whole world was revolving around that apartment and between them. Do you think they care about the recession or for a matter of fact the hooliganism in Iran or the mysterious death of Michael Jackson? I don't think so and occasionally whenever I brush past them, I tend to observe their face and it is neither sad nor happy. There is some kind of harmony on those faces with a calm and peaceful posture.

Reiterating the above scenario, I was just wondering if they would argue or pick up a fight for petty things. I was even picturing a young couple alongside those old couple as to how each couple would react to a given circumstance. Obviously, the younger couple would be driven by their ego, feelings and emotions to judge the situation. On the other hand I am sure that the older couple will handle these situations in a more immaculate way.

Very few have understood the repercussion's of marriage. Suddenly it dawned on me that marriage is not to have sex, get kids, dine out, shopping or travel but just to have a partner with whom you would love to grow old and in the process enjoy the outcomes that our daily lives deliver to us. This made me to think what happens when we get married or enter into a relationship.

Two persons with different nature and priorities get together to make a successful life. Rather than saying two persons a better term for this would be two personalities with different traits get together. If both personalities are well balanced there should be a smooth sailing. Both people bring different dreams into the relationship and there prevails a bit of an anxiety. It is like taking a new job trying to understand the environment and getting accustomed to that environment. By nature humans tend to resist change and persons with a strong ego have difficulty to make this paradigm shift.

If the relationship is considered on a long term basis the core value of it changes. The little things we do on a daily basis really matter on building a strong trust based relationship. A part of every human yearns for a bit of appreciation for whatever they do. The most important thing is to allow the other person to be who they are in your presence. This gives them the cozy feeling of independence and not being criticized for who they are not. It is more feasible to change ourselves which we have control or influence over with rather than trying to change the other person. "You are not in a right or wrong relationship. Your partner is the mirror of who you are inside"- Deepak Chopra.

Lets hope everyone ends up with a harmonious relationship like the old couple who live in their own world.

Mid Life Crisis

Recently I was watching this movie called Groomsmen, this blog has nothing to do with the movie but a dialogue from the movie provoked me to write this blog. The dialogue is "You hit 35 and you think you got your head straight but your body starts giving away". I was chewing on this dialogue for quite sometime and then it really made sense to me.

We grow up in this world trying to achieve something of our own strengths. In the process, you build self esteem, confidence, make money, build relationships on and on. In this building and growing we come across numerous obstacles which we deal with whatever knowledge we have about the obstacle, learn from it and store it as an experience in our memory. Ok, now you are reaching 35 what happens to all the expereince and knowledge you have gained in the past years; we think we are ok now to deal with this world with more mature mind backed up by our experience.

Now you start heading into the world with a difference perspective but there comes another great obstacle the wear and tear of your body. We don't feel the energy we had earlier to enjoy the new dimension of our thoughts. Things that could raise our adrenaline is no more interesting because our experience jumps in to say "I know that it is nothing". At some point you really ask these questions "What have I achieved in this world? Is this what I wanted? Am I happy with the current situation?" There may be an yes, but I am sure there are so many of us that if we had a second chance to go back and do somethings differently we would defintely want to do that. Unfortunately life or time cannot be rewinded like a movie you rent from Block Buster or On Demand.

So to keep flowing with the tide we try to entangle ourselves with activities which keeps us busy and start new dreams of building the next generation obviously our kids.

Addiction - Why is it so?

What is addiction of any kind? I am not going to define it or try to explain it but just some facts collected based on my experience and readings. There is something called as ego within us who plays a major role in any kind of action we prefer to undertake. Psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck, David D Burns and Nathaniel among the few have given indepth overiew on this aspect. From my perspective ego is our constructor as well as destructor. Ego creates our attachment, feelings and emotions which may be positive or negative. Positive is always associated with joy, happiness etc., whereas negative brings sadness, hopelessness and grief.

Some people who are gifted with a healthy ego deal with these negative emotions in a healthy way. The issue is with people who try to escape these feelings and are drawn toward temporary pleasure giving aspects like alcohol, drugs, etc. They are relieved for the moment where the feelings or emotions are suppressed and they do pop up when we become conscious about our feelings again. This deviation from the real feelings is our ego's self fulfulling prophecies as claimed by Nathaniel. Burns says that these are positive distortions since they really give a pleasure for the moment which is positive but they really do not cure the underlying suppressed feelings.

This is a viscious cycle which goes on and on unless a person really takes some courage to deal with it and release those negative feelings and emotions. Deepak Chopra another spiritual author says that this planet is covered with cosmic energy which we need to engulf within to create more energy in our body. When the flow of energy is obstructed with these negative energy we obstruct the path of natural energy to flow within us. Hence the outcome is numerous people suffering with stress, anxiety and depression.

It is a universal truth that thought creates feelings followed by actions. In spirutualism this is called as the delusion of mind or maya. Nothing is real and it is just a projection of our mind to claim it as real. I remember a south indian tamil poet named Kannadasan quoting "What you think, you become that." This thought process is guided by our ego with likes and dislikes and if this inner child is parented in a proper way life would be healthy for everafter...

Serenity prayer from AA

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.

Organic Products - Choice of Healthy Living

Consumers are very smart and they do a great deal of research before going in for any consumer products. Organic foods and catering services are becoming more popular and people are drawn toward these services. Consumers are now more health and nutrient cautious.

Sales of organic produce have risen to a record $2.8 billion per year. And according to the Organic Market Overview Report, organic sales have increased by more than 20 % per year for six years in a row. (O’Neil, 1996)¹. This finding makes it very clear that organic products are gaining power in the market.

At the moment most organic items are too highly priced to be affordable to most people. Furthermore, many argue that there is not enough evidence that supports the benefits of eating organic food to warrant the additional cost. (Greeno, 2006)². More people are moving towards buying organic foods for the benefits of healthy and nutrient ingredients.

The real challenge now lies in improving the business processes, inventory, forecasting and quality on keeping focus on organic products.

¹ O’Neil, 1996
²Greeno, Davinos. (2006).

My Best Vacation - Grand Canyon Trip

It was Memorial day week end May 25th, 2009 and I was sitting at my home wondering what I should do memorable during this week end. Initially I had planned to visit Lake George, NY and cancelled at the last moment. I plan things well ahead, but an example as to how things could turn out to your favor with the right attitude follows below.

Pondering on the websites for good vacation spots, suddenly this thought popped up in my head, why not Grand Canyon. I had done a whole lot of research long before that day. A quick search on expedia gave me a good deal to Las Vegas, NV for May 23rd evening flight. Started packing and off I went to Las Vegas, rented a car and stayed in a hotel outside the Las Vegas Strip. May 24th, spent the whole day visiting casinos and strolling on Las Vegas Blvd strip.

May 25th, travelled to Grand Canyon on road and I would recommend people going to Grand Canyon to travel by road since it was an amazing experience through out the journey which was around 5 hours. It was a peaceful drive with most of the part surrounded by mountains with no vegetation which was a great surprise and interesting. Reached Grand Canyon around 2 pm and took the ride to the South Rim. WOW!!! that was the word I uttered when I first got a glimse of the canyon. It was a breath taking experience I can never forget, those memories are so fresh and it did something within me. There are a couple of spots where you stop and take a glimse on the overlooking canyon. No words to express the feelings, just awesome!!!

It was evening 6 pm and I was tired like hell and my body was not cooperating. The lodges in Grand Canyon park were expensive so had booked a lodge in Grand Canyon Lodge in Williams which was 1 hour drive from the park. When I reached the hotel it was an inn maintained by a couple with the rooms decorated with different styles like asian bunk, world war II room, etc. I got some quick snaps of each room. Statyed there and visited the GC park again the next day and took the helicopter ride over the canyon and that was my first helicopter ride. Again no words to express that feeling simply scintillating.

Retured to Las Vegas and stayed in the strip, visited a couple of casinos and the next day May 27th visited Madame Tusads and the mall and was too tired to visit any other places. So off I went to the airport and boarded my flight and reached my home May 28th around 1 pm.

This was a cool trip which had no prior planning but everything was decided and planned on the go....

The memorial day weekend trip became a memorable trip indeed.

Growth of Technology.

The day to day innovations of changing and growing technologies really amaze me. I remember my childhood days when there was no cellphone, TV or internet. Where are we today? Looking back down the years these innovations have created milestones, leaving alone the space technology growth.

Here today I am writing a blog for which I use a computer and internet. On the optimistic front I am very much fantasized in keeping up with this technology growth. I can foresee the future generation to be addicted to these consumer based products. Of course there are pros and cons, but still it has become a necessity of today's world.

Changing iphone slider text.

I have been reading a lot of stuff on the web on how to customize your iphone slider text. Here is a simple method which I found.

Requirements.

Jailbroken iPhone.

You would need a iphone file reader like Diskaid, WinScp. I used Diskaid.

An XML editor (I used Liquid Studio which is free. Also, it can be edited using a text editor like notepad or MS Word.

I will give instructions using diskaid.

Open diskaid on your PC.(Diskaid should be installed in your PC)

Go to the following directory from the root

System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.lproj

Copy the SpringBoard.strings to your PC. This is a binary file and needs to be converted into an xml file.

Use the following URL to convert the file into an xml. http://iappcat.com/plist/bin2xml

Once converted, open the file and search for slide to unlock. It should be something like this

slide to unlock

Replace the slide to unlock to whatever you want. For example My Iphone. The characters should be equal to whatever is already there or less.

Now save this file and re-submit it to the URL mentioned above. Once the file is converted save it to your PC and rename it to SpringBoard.strings. Copy this file back to your iphone directory System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.lproj using diskaid or whatever tool you use.

Restart your iphone and there you go....You should see the change.