Turn Right? Turn Left?
What do you see?
Do you see the girl turning clockwise? or anti clockwise?
Answers:
A) Anti-clockwise.
B) Clockwise.
C) It becomes clockwise from anti clockwise after a while, but mostly anti-clockwise.
D) It becomes anti-clockwise from clockwise after a while, but mostly clockwise.
E) It varies from time to time, sometimes clockwise, sometimes anti-clockwise.
F) I could control it clockwise or anti-clockwise.
What’s your answer?
Explanations:
In fact, every one of us sees things very differently.
For those who see the girl turns in clockwise, they use their right brains more.
For those who see the girl turns in anti-clockwise, they use their left brains more.
For those who see the girls turns in anti-clockwise, but change to clockwise suddenly, their IQs are normally higher than 160 ! (oh?! I am one of those?! Haha!)
It seems that this little test could reveal whether we use our left brains or right brains more frequently. For most people, the left brain controls the languages, logic and mathematics, while the right brain controls the emotions, colours, sounds and abstract images.
The existing education systems all over the world focus on the “left brain” training too heavily and have ignored the “right brain” developments. For the right brain developments, most people believe that come from “talent”. We just seldom notice that it is the education system which has created such results.
Nowadays, more and more studies have drawn and called for our attention to the importance of “right brain” developments. More training in the art appreciation, creative thinking and emotional balance has been used to supplement the traditional language, mathematic and knowledge based education system.
A more balanced thinking approach, resulting in a more balanced society, would be a blessing for us all.
Filed under self improvements, fun, reflections | Comments (41)It’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good you want to be!
Dreams and Success
Do you have dreams?
I think most people have dreams. We dream about our future, our success and our career, and we work towards our dreams to make our dreams come true.
But, do we dream about ourselves?
Dreams about Ourselves
We seldom dream about ourselves.
Even we have some big figures and big names in our minds, like Richard Brandson, Steve Job, Bill Gates, etc., we dream about their success, but seldom dream about their personal qualities.
This is too true that every one of us could dream, but only a few of us could ever try the taste of success. What is the magic behind all the big figures and big names?
When talking about dreams and success, it is always the personal qualities, the characters, the inner strengths, which make the great differences, and eventually bring the success.
So, why don’t we dream about our personal qualities and work towards it? Why don’t we think one step forward? Maybe it’s the trick of our everyday thinking and logic.
For our common logic of thinking, we tend to think and try to figure out who we are, how good or how bad we are, our strengths and weaknesses, etc. But our logic seldom draws us to think “how good we want to be? “.
Of course knowing ourselves better and figuring our strengths and weaknesses are important for our self improvements. It is even more important for us to think and work out “how good we want to be”, which would give us drive for improvements.
We could never be successful if we have never dreamt of our success. We could never be a successful and admirable person if we have never dreamt about ourselves, dreamt about how good we want to be.
Let’s start working on our dreams for ourselves today, let’s start thinking “how good we want to be”. Very soon, I am sure that you would tell the differences.
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Related posts:
- The magic of feeling good
- The like attracks the like
- The Art of Happiness - the very advice from a great thinker
- Parable of Narcissus: the myth of falling in love
- Let go
The Magic of Feeling Good!
I woke up this morning, feeling very refreshed and delighted, and I just wonder what’s the magic of feeling good.
For me, I would admit that I am a bit workaholic type and I like getting my job done well in all aspects. So, accomplishment would be a neccessary element in my list of feeling good items. However, only accomplishment is not enough, there should be other things which are also important for contributing to our “feeling good”.
What would these items be?
To answer the question, I have come up with a “feeling good” list:
- having a good sleep
- doing exercise and taking a hot bath afterwards
- having some quiet moments in the outdoor environment, like beaches and seaside
- going home and staying with my parents peacefully
- chatting with friends and having some chill-out drinks
- sharing dreams and plans with friends
- discussing new projects and ideas with partners
- completing all my tasks in time and in the most pofessional manners
- meeting new people with similar wave lenghts, especially people far away from my own culture
- building up my own brand and reputation
- staying in good mood and keeping my smiles even under tremendous pressure
- being nice to others and being less critical
- ……
Of course the list is in no way exhausive. And every one of us would have different items filed under our feeling good lists. However, there are basic elements which are common for us all, and these basic elements are the magic of feeling good:
- physical wellness
- emotionally balanced and stable
- love and support
- social networking
- feeling of success
- accomplishment
- self esteem
- self actualisation
When we get frustrated in our daily life, it is always useful to refer back to our own “feeling good lists” and try to figure out / identify what we have neglected or overlooked or not satisfied. There is in fact no magic of feeling good, the magic is in fact realisation and action.
Illustration adopted from: esttibalys (the illustration looks like me!)
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Related posts:
- The like attracks the like
- The Art of Happiness - the very advice from a great thinker
- Parable of Narcissus: the myth of falling in love
- Let go
Stumble it!Our Radiant Energy
In this beginning of a week, I would like to read all of us a wisdom card.
Let’s see how our inner consciousness appeals to us.
Sacred Mountain
Within a vast and ancient land filled with myths of the Dreamtime and surrounded by sandy desert exists a glowing monolith of rock known as “Uluru”.
This card relates to strength of character, which is derived from a compassionate and loving heart. In reflects the inner strength and compassion that you radiate out to all those around you.
Like Uluru, your energy is magnetic and magical. You are a mountain of strength and hope to many people. Your love and wisdom are strong, grounded and down to earth.
Because of this, you will find that many people will be drawn to you, seeking your advice.
Yet, know that the real attraction occurs on an energetic level; little needs to be said, for your energy is such that it has a calming effect on all those who are touched by it. Your honesty, courage and inner beauty is an inspiration to many people. You are indeed a sacred mountain - able to weather the changing seasons of life while always remaining true to your inner nature and wisdom.
This wisdom card appeals to us to reveal our “honesty, courage and inner beauty” within ourselves, and with these energies we are able to inspire all people around us.
Acknowledge the radiating property in ourselves and make the good use of it. Channel out our energies of love and courage, and to start a new week with blessing for ourselves and all people around us. We will be able to attract all beautiful things and people towards us.
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Filed under self improvements, wellness, healing, spiritual | Comments (4)The like attracts the like
(”Birthday Greetings to Xonti”,herbert bayer, 1930)
Some days ago, Armand wrote about:
“… I was telling you that the whole universe is made of energy. Everything is energy in different frequencies.
Your thoughts, emotions, feelings all are energies ……
Your thoughts are energies and you are the master of your own thoughts. Some thoughts come as a result of interactions with other energy fields, but it is you who create your thoughts and it is you, who control them.
Now if we take into consideration the fact that like energy attracted like energy, the implications are enormous……”
It has taken me several days to re-think about this concept and logic.
Thanks Armand for your sharing, which helps me to review the basic concept of “new age”, i.e. we select the lessons to be learnt in “this life”, we design the energies we have or we don’t have in this life in order to learn those lessons we selected, we write our own scripts, we even choose our own parents and select our own birth days, etc.
Our lives could be prescribed as the flow of energies. ”Like energies attracks like energies”, ”like thoughts attract like thoughts”, and here forms the basis of “self fulfilling prophecy”.
Don’t under estimate the power of our thoughts. What we think, what we believe, would eventually come true. We think we are poor, we think we are unlucky, we think we are miserable, we eventually should become poor, unlucky and miserable. We think we are not good enough, we are incapable, we are not worthy, then we become so. We think we are not beloved, then we have no love. These negative thoughts would do us no good but to make us negative.
We are our own director, we are our own architecture, we paint our own lives. Take up the responsibilities now and stop blaming like:
- I should certainly be more successful, but it was the overall environment that I cant achieve more.
- The university life wasted all my time, I gained nothing from it.
- I don’t like my work, it’s a waste of my life.
- My life is so poor, everybody I love, they left me.
The actual cause is ourselves. It is us who don’t believe ourselves and don’t work hard for success; it is us who don’t make sense from anything; it is us who drive our beloved ones away.
It is not fate, it is how we think and the thinking comes true. Self fulfilling prophecy, it is what we have to learn and understand. Start thinking positive and believing ourselves today and we would notice for a change in our lives.
Filed under self improvements, Success, spiritual, philosophy, reflections | Comments (14)The Art of Happiness - the very advice from a great thinker
“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is to seek happiness …” - The Art of Happiness, Dalai Lama
Thanks to this contemporary great thinker, the Dalai Lama, who reminds us the aim of our life, is to seek happiness and seek something better in our lives.
We think we all know this simple principle, do we? We are all confident that it is happiness we are pursuing for, right?
…… Are we really so sure? If we are so sure, why we are still miles away from happiness?
Dalai Lama’s happiness is not the simple materialistic pleasure or sensual satisfaction, it refers to the returning to the basic and pure state of our mind without negative thought. It is in this state that we could retrieve our gentleness, feelings of love, kindness, compassion, closeness and affection in our human nature. It is in this happiness state we could help others, grow friendship and share our love.
It is our mind who is always playing the tricks on us, creating negative thoughts, worse scenarios, bad feelings, etc., for ourselves. As a basic setting to fight for survival, our minds always drive us to to something dangerous, some crisis, some unhappy thinking such that we could prepare for the worse. This mind could not be eliminated, but we have to aware of it and understand what tricks it is playing on us. For all the negative thoughts and feelings our mind created for ourselves, 99% of those are unnecessary and damaging to us and all people around us. And it is this state of mind which separates us from happiness.
Dalai Lama, in his book, “the Art of Happiness”, suggests to us that we need to discipline our mind and to train our mind everyday, to bring in more positive thinking. He advises us: “… transforming your mind takes time. There are a lot of negative mental traits, so you need to address and counteract each one of these. It isn’t easy. It requires the repeated application of various techniques and taking the time to familiarise yourself with the practices. It’s a process of learning.”
Maybe I could share with you some of my own tips on how to train our mind towards happiness:
- every morning, reminding ourselves that we would live a better day today, we feel happy and empowered
- reminding ourselves to be appreciative and thankful to all the beautiful things on world and to all the people and artists creating all the beautiful things for us
- reminding ourselves to be kind and gentle, love and compassionate, deep down from our hearts
- reminding ourselves not to say “no” and “I can’t” to challenges, try to say “why not” and “great! let’s do it!“
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Filed under self improvements, spiritual, philosophy, happy | Comments (5)Blogging as Branding
I have been thinking of branding myself for a long time, not until I’ve found out this blogosphere, or what I call “serious blogging”, I do not have a single clue on it.
What is “Personal Branding”?
Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marketed as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters.
The makeup of a personal brand has four main elements: personality, appearance, competencies, and differentiation. An individuals total perceived value takes into account these elements and is considered to be his or her core message or elevator pitch to an audience.
It is common to divide branding into tangible and intangible. Tangible branding involves associating an individual’s name with some specific advantage that they are presumed to offer, while intangible branding involves creating a more general positive feeling about them.” - Wikipedia on Personal Branding
What we talk, how we behave, how we dress, how we interact with our friends and colleagues and customers, etc., all constitute to our branding. We are building up our own brand everyday no matter you are aware of it or not, and no matter you like such activity or not.
Why ”Personal Branding”?
We are not “selling” ourselves, we are not doing any business, why we care about branding? The answer rests with whether you have something in mind you would like to promote? Whether there is something you are good at and you would like to show to the world?
By doing personal branding, we could establish our fame and reputation in the aspects we are good at and for the things we are interested in. With our own brand, we could attract and meet more friends who have similar interests and thoughts as we do and build up our network in a particular aspect. We would be able to expand our opputunities for achievement.
Blogging as Branding
We want to brand ourselves, we know that there are some aspects in us worth presenting to the world, we want to build up our fame and reputations, what are we going to do? Opening a shop and put ourselves inside the show window? Printing ourselves some leaflets and distribute them on the street? Hiring a commercial time on the TV to speak to the audience?
In the past, writing a book and knock on the publishers’ door would be an good idea. But this process requires lots of strength and patience. We could also write some articles and try to submit to the newpapers’ editor. If we are lucky enough, we could meet some editors who like our writing and let us write for the newspaper as freelance writers.
With the growing popularity of blogosphere and that more and more serious and professional bloggers have emerged and there are more and more blog readers, it is now possible for us to brand ourselves, to set up a shop for us, to place ourselves in our own show window, to display and present any articles, thoughts, work of ourselves totally out of no cost (or at the minimum cost of getting a host).
This little on-line shop for ourselves could be reached by all international readers 24 hours throughout the day. We could manage the shop and keep contacts with our readers everywhere everytime whenever we have the internet connections. What can be more easy than setting up a shop of ourselves by creating a blog? What can be more achievable than branding ourselves by becoming a serious blogger?
To brand your thoughts, to brand your characters, to brand your interests, to brand your lifestyle, etc., there is always something good in you that worth branding. Branding ourselvse, by way of blogging, is a way to build up our fame and reputation.
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related post: From Casual to Serious Blogging - what makes the differences and what does it mean?
Filed under self improvements, Success, career, blogging | Comments (7)Parable of Narcissus: the myth of falling in love
You must have heard the parable of Narcissus. He had fallen in love with himself. Looking into a silent pool of water, he fell in love with his own reflection. - “Love, Freedom, Aloness”, Osho
“Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection - not with himself. That is not true self-love. He fell in love with the reflection; the reflection is the other. He had become two, he had become divided. Narcissus was split. He was in a kind of schizophrenia. He had become two - the lover and the loved. He had become his own object of love - and that’s what happens to so many people who think they are in love.” This is how Osho reminds us about what we think we fall in love with somebody.
The Magic of Narcissus
We are all Narcissus, the story is actually an analogy for us all. For our self reflection, it is how we think we are and what we think we want to be. Just like Narcissus, we have the “magic” of spliting ourselves and projecting out our self reflection.
Love of Narcissus
When we fall in love with somebody, just like Narcissus looking at his own image reflected in the water (an analogy of our mind), we project our self reflections to our beloved ones. Narcissus fell in love with his own image, and it is our self reflection that we fall in love with. To love somebody, turns into the fulfilling of the love to ourselves.
We take one step further than Narcissus, we do not only ask our beloved ones to fit in our self reflection, we ask them to become our self reflection in this materialistic world (how romantic this is!). That’s why we have so many expectations on our beloved ones and we experience so many frustrations in love.
Love, in this form, is a kind of “selfish” love, not love for others. Don’t blame our beloved ones for failing our expectations and bringing us the frustrations, it is our selfish love that makes us unsatisfied. The myth of Narcissus, is a reminder for us all.
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Related post: let go
Filed under self improvements, spiritual, love, philosophy | Comments (4)
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