Day 266: How to stick to this New Year’s Resolutions

 

 

It's that time of years again and many are in the tradition to every New Year write down things they would like to change about themselves and many don't manage to actually stick to them. Some would like to kick habits like smoking or biting nails, other might want to quit drinking or simply become a better person, maybe not be so angry or sad or stubborn.

Unfortunately it is not so easy to change oneself. It is very easy to say you are going to do it, but when it comes right to it – more often than not – we fall back into our same old patterns. That is what it actually is – patterns and behaviors that we created over time and seem to be stuck in it.

When changing something like for example biting nails – there is usually a reason why you started biting nails in the first place. You could be an anxious person and whenever the anxiety comes up you bite nails. So it’s important to first find the reason for the anxiety or frustration in order to stop the nail biting. We need to find the source of these habits and patterns we would like to change.

Once the source is found the next step is self –discipline and commitment. This is where most fall, because to stop a habit or pattern is not an easy thing, but if you are committed and have self-discipline to do what you said you will then you will be able to stick to the New Year’s resolutions you created.

Thing that come up while stopping habits is all kind of excuses and justifications – you will subconsciously try every sneaky thing to go back to the habit and not stick to stopping it. A cool way to look at this is when you make the decision to stop a habit – everything that comes up after you made the choice that will make you “fall of the wagon is simply an excuse or a justification. It could be a thought or a feeling and would make so much sense, but all it is is a trap.

To recap as to what you will require to actually sticking to your New year’s resolutions:

1. Make a list and make sure its practical.

2. Make the Decision and stand by it.

3. Find the source of the problem.

4. Don’t give into the thoughts and feelings that will make you go back to the habit.

5. Don’t give into the excuses and justifications.

6. Be self-disciplined and committed.

The best thing to do is not wait for every new year before making changes, but to realize that change can be made in every moment. For more info on changing self go here.

Day 265: MY Own Personal Bubble

 

Can you teach and old dog new tricks? Can someone who is stuck in their ways learn new things or learn how to do old things differently? How many stubborn people are out there who are stuck in a personal bubble and absolutely refuses to accept anything that is outside the bubble?

Sure its fine to stick to what works, but if there is another way that might work better then why not at least give it a go?

A big manifestation of this particular point you usually find in older people, because they have lived long. They say that they have tested whichever way and that their way of doing things is the best method and absolutely refuse to consider the fact that there might be another way that that they have not yet tried.

I am not there yet to that extreme, but I have found that with some things I become really stubborn with the belief that my way is the best way and more often than not I do not consider that I might be mistaken. For example: I am currently doing a specific set of core building exercises to support my back, I have been doing this for a while now and it works. The other day someone suggested I try other exercises and I went into the stubborn character and simply said no. I said that what I am doing now works fine and I do not need to try any other exercises.

When I Look at it now the only reason why I said that was because I did not consider that there might be another method that also works and the only way to find out for sure is by giving it a go. All it requires is letting go of that stubbornness and consider that fact that I do not know everything.

This can apply with allot we face in life. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Just because I know that what I am doing currently works doesn’t mean there is a more effective method. It is dangerous to be stuck in your own stubbornness, because then you will not ever expand yourself and always only know your own personal bubble.

Just because the TV said so Does not mean it is...

 

“”The researchers sat through 40 episodes of the “The Dr. Oz Show”; from those, they identified 479 separate recommendations he or his guests made to his TV audience. After winnowing the selection down to more forceful recommendations, they randomly selected 80 and weighed them against the existing medical literature, evaluating each claim for “consistency and believability.” Only 46 percent of the advice, they found, had evidence supporting it, and just 33 percent of the time were those claims supported by “believable or somewhat believable evidence.” For just more than 1 in 3 recommendations, they weren’t able to find any supporting information at all (despite, they note, “being quite liberal in the type and amount of evidence we required”).

Interestingly, the researchers noted that about 58 to 59 percent of the time, Oz never specified the supposed benefit of what he was recommending — the implication, apparently, being that viewers should do things simply because the TV doctor is telling them to. They observed as well that the show rarely detailed the potential harms and costs of recommendations; thus, they write, “anyone who followed the advice provided would be doing so on the basis of a trust in the host or guest rather than through a balanced explanation of benefits, harms, and costs.”’”

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/19/scientists_prove_that_you_shouldnt_trust_anything_dr_oz_says/

It’s in TV so it must be true. It’s in the Newspapers so it must be true. TV has always been a clever way for companies or people to make money. With shows like DR. OZ and Oprah it is mostly based on trusting the person presenting the stuff and not whether the products being sold actually works.

And as we can see from the article above, most of the things being presented have no real proof if it works or not and the only reason why you would buy it is because the person on the TV said so, It does not have to based on actual facts. With this there are people behind the scenes cashing in on people who trust the TV.

It’s the same with the news – you cannot know how true the story is unless it’s actually about you personally. I have had the experience of a newspaper writing an article about us and the end result turned out to be 100% opposite to the actual facts. Yet, it’s in the paper and people believe it to be true.

The point I’m making here is that you cannot trust anything solely based on “Its TV so it must be true”. The same with newspapers and even the stuff you buy in the stores – just because it’s not the shelves does not mean it’s safe to eat. The only real way of knowing if something is true or not is to go and investigate yourself which is something that is simply not practical for most of us. And this leaves us with a dilemma, because how do you then know if it’s true?

So, next time you see something on TV that tells you to buy this great and amazing thing – first do your research and investigation and do not simply trust what the TV tells you.

Why Christmas is a big “Screw you” to Jesus and Christianity - we Failed Him for 2014 years…

 

Holiday season is not a happy season for me. The roads are clogged with cars making difficult to drive around. Many places close for the holiday making it difficult to acquire thing we need, and the internet is slower due to many more people using it ( South Africa is still very behind when it comes to internet).

The shopping centers like to remind us long before December that Christmas is coming by decorating everything with Christmas decorations. And every year I ask myself just what is this all about really? I was taught as a kid that Christmas is a holiday where Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus and where we express gratefulness and thankfulness to him and all that. And Santa? Just something for the kids on the side to create a bit of fun around it. It’s not that at all.

Christianity is all about being good and doing good – loving your neighbor and live as Jesus would and treat others as Jesus would and if the all Christians did this the world would truly be a better a place, but Christmas time shows the hypocrisy around Christianity.

Those Decorations we see every year, who made them? Over 60% of them are made in sweat shops and those laborers suffered. The food we eat and thank Jesus for – most of that from poor people who also suffer to make a living. Christmas is all about profit now – to buy presents and those presents where made more likely than not by very unfortunate people. And then we thank Jesus for it. It is a slap in His face and what He stood for.

We are now in 2014. Which means that for 2014 years since the Birth of Jesus Humanity has not found a way to live even the basic message of Jesus “ Love Thy Neighbor” . We still have the same things on the earth that existed long ago – war, poverty, famine you name it. Most of humanity are Christians – yet still half the world lives in poverty and struggles every day. Christians have failed Jesus.

How many more years will it take for us to live the basic message of Jesus? It’s time we start taking the words we preach and manifest them into action. We have the power to stop the suffering and end poverty – that will be a start. Implementing  Living Income Guaranteed will do that – give those who do not have and who are unable to get the basic needs to live an income to Live would be an act of loving thy neighbor.

Day 262: Well, we saw that coming - The Extinction of another Species...

 

The rhino, Angalifu, died at 44 of complications linked to his advanced age. The remaining members of her species — another elderly female at the park, two females and a final male living in a Kenya preserve — have failed to successfully reproduce on their own.

“Unfortunately we only had three rhinos here at the park and they were all of an advanced age,” Barbara Durrant, of the San Diego Zoo Institute of Conservation Research, said in a statement of the park’s two decades-long attempt to save the species. “We were not able to get them to breed and we have been sadly watching their species being exterminated in the wild.”

It’s rare that we’re able to count down the remaining days of a species in this way, though extinction itself is an all too common phenomenon — it’s the fate met by 95 percent of species throughout Earth’s 3.5 billion year history. But the northern white rhino, decimated by poaching in Africa and, to a lesser extent, habitat loss, stands as a suitable representative for what experts are calling the Sixth Extinction: a mass die-off of species as both the direct and indirect consequence of human activity.

An analysis published last week in the journal Nature puts that in stark terms: 41 percent of all amphibians, along with 26 percent of mammals and 13 percent of birds, it finds, are now at risk of extinction thanks to us: pollution, overfishing, the introduction of invasive species and the encroachment of agriculture all count among the ways we’re killing them off. If our current rate of loss continues on track, the review found, we face losing 75 percent of Earth’s species within the coming centuries. -

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/15/countdown_to_extinction_there_are_only_5_northern_white_rhinos_left_in_the_world/

So many animals paid the price for the continued human existence and many more will in time to come. Looking at the article above, there are only 5 of these rhino left in the whole world. I read something like this and try to imagine myself in a position of specie extinction. Imagine you were part of a species that was doomed to extinction; only one left knowing when you die all that will remain is a memory – all because of the actions of one race. It is Sad and I feel shame to be human.

It’s done and over and no going back – we have wiped out another animal from existence. And what it took to accomplish something like that? I mean this particular rhino was poached to extinction and the other rhino are soon to follow. It is a fact that more and more Rhinos are being killed every year, its basic math. Despite all the “save the rhino” charities and foundations and all the money being pumped into the booming business – it’s only a matter of time before they all become a simple memory of how great it is to be human.

How do you judge a species? We study animals and based on their general behavior patterns we conclude their particular temperaments and how they are. So let’s look at humans in general and the impact we have on earth and all the shit that we have created. We are sitting with the same shit over and over – always war, famine, poverty, slavery and all those bad things – it’s always here. I’m sorry to say this, but based on the general human behaviors – we are the worst organism to ever live on this planet and the real shame is that humans will be the end of this planet if we continue this complete disregard of life.

Is there a way we can stop this? How do you change human nature? Because that is the big problem – it is in our nature to be destructive. Everything we see on this earth and the outflows of our actions – that is human nature. We change human behavior we change our actions and thus change the world. That starts with you. Change your nature. Change yourself. Change the World.

A Permanent Solution for the Neglected Produce Laborers of Mexico

 

Problem:

A Times reporter and photographer find that thousands of laborers at Mexico's mega-farms endure harsh conditions and exploitation while supplying produce for American consumers.

The Times found:

• Many farm laborers are essentially trapped for months at a time in rat-infested camps, often without beds and sometimes without functioning toilets or a reliable water supply.
• Some camp bosses illegally withhold wages to prevent workers from leaving during peak harvest periods.
• Laborers often go deep in debt paying inflated prices for necessities at company stores. Some are reduced to scavenging for food when their credit is cut off. It's common for laborers to head home penniless at the end of a harvest.
• Those who seek to escape their debts and miserable living conditions have to contend with guards, barbed-wire fences and sometimes threats of violence from camp supervisors.
• Major U.S. companies have done little to enforce social responsibility guidelines that call for basic worker protections such as clean housing and fair pay practices.

http://graphics.latimes.com/product-of-mexico-camps/

Where does our food come from? It is the fruits and veggies of other people’s labor. Farm exports to the U.S. from Mexico have tripled to $7.6 billion in the last decade, enriching agribusinesses, distributors and retailers. As you can see in the article it’s the actual labors that come out last.

The company utilizes advance growing techniques and very carefully employ sanitary measures to make sure their produce is safe and good quality, but at the same time they absolutely neglect the workforce. The produce has a higher value than the actual humans working there. One of these Companies actually recently took out full-page newspaper ads promoting its commitment to social responsibility.

The company these laborers work for use devious ways to keep profits high. It is law to pay workers their wages on a weekly base. To ensure that the people do not leave before their 3 month work contract the company often withholds their wages and only pays them at the end of their contract. In that time the workers get their food from the company store with its inflated prices. They often go deep in debt and at the end of their contract some go home without any money.

The conditions are so bad, yet people still go there to work knowing that they might not make money – some go just to stay fed. They go because they simply have no alternative and that is what the companies are exploiting. Is there any way to stop this Madness? Yes

Solution:

The main reason why people will work for a company like this and live with the miserable living conditions is because they need the money – no matter how little it is. So let’s see how the Living Income Guaranteed will drastically improve the situation:

With the Living Income guaranteed the workforce will no longer be able to be exploited, because that desperation to find a job no matter where it is or how terrible the work conditions are will no longer exist. When the people who cannot find work receive a Living Income they will no longer accept bad working conditions. The company will have to improve the working conditions otherwise they are going to have a hard time hiring the workforce needed to get the job done.

This Involves granting them good quality foods that they are used to eating, to create proper housing with full services for them - water, toilets - and proper working gear. Also what would need to be done is abolish all abuse – this means no threats and not deliberately creating debt for the workforce.  These companies will need to apply and live by their corporate social responsibility measures, currently it’s only a front to make the companies look good.

With the basic Income Double the Living income the laborers will be able to make a guaranteed decent living that will be paid on a weekly basis, no excuses allowed.

A living Income Guaranteed will provide effective and practical solutions to all the current problems these laborers are facing and it is something this world needs – a Solution.

Day 260 - Would you like some Plastic and Plutonium For Dinner? You may already have...

 

 

Researchers working around the world have come up with the most comprehensive estimate to date of the amount of plastic clogging the oceans, and it’s bad, bad news.

The grand total? They tallied 5.25 trillion individual pieces of plastic, weighing a collective 269,000 tons.

The study, which was spearheaded by Marcus Eriksen of the nonprofit 5 Gyres Institute and published in the journal PLoS One, found that most of the pollution consisted of microplastics, those tiny particles that remain when larger pieces of plastic break down — plastic being non-biodegradable, they never disappear completely.

“We saw turtles that ate plastic bags and fish that ingested fishing lines,” Julia Reisser, a researcher based at the University of Western Australia, told the Guardian. And the team identified less visible threats as well — plastic particles, they note, can soak up pollutants, potentially introducing toxic chemicals into the food chain. “Bigger fish eat the little fish and then they end up on our plates,” Reisser explained. “It’s hard to tell how much pollution is being ingested but certainly plastics are providing some of it.” - http://www.salon.com/2014/12/10/over_5_trillion_pieces_of_plastic_are_floating_in_the_worlds_oceans/

We are eating plastic.

Even when I was child I heard the stories of how much we are damaging the oceans with our plastic. Plastic takes many decades to degrade and in that process it turns into micro-plastic particles. These particles get consumed by the fish and various ocean life. We humans then eat the fish.

We are eating more plastic.

The ocean has become humanities favorite dumping area. Its Huge, the ocean takes up most of the earth’s surface area and we humans can’t really do anything with it in term of living space. We need land. So what can we do with all that space? We have detonated a total of 2053 Nuclear bombs in the ocean. Yes – two thousand and fifty three nuclear detonations. Bound to be consequences there. Also we have dumped tons and tons of nuclear waste barrels. Apparently over 100,000 tons worth. Metal tends to rust - these barrels are leaking.

We are eating plutonium.

we need to stop seeing the earth as this huge infinite place where the thing we do have no consequences. Sure we do not see the effects right away or they do not affect us directly, but we are all on this ship called earth. Anything affecting the earth affects us all directly in a way. Our individual actions have consequences and its time we realize this. If we do not change our ways...we cannot live on plastic and plutonium.

Day 259: Its all about Perspective - Plants are alive

 

We tend to find it difficult to put some things in perspective. For example: Just how far is it to the Moon? The distance from the earth to the moon is about 384,400 km. When you look at a number like that its hard to imagine how far that is. Its like traveling around the world 9 times. Or you can look at it like this: You can fit all the planets (including Pluto) between the earth and the moon. Like this:

 

      

                                               Puts things in perspective

 

Now we all the know that plants are living things. They grow and they die, but there is allot more to it. when you walk towards a plant in the grass and it looks like you might step on it, the plant reacts. It knows you might step on it and it really doesn't want that. There has been plenty of research on this point.

A cabbage was hooked up to machines to measure any sort of reactions. They took another cabbage and started cutting it up in pieces, what they found was that the veggie reacted to this event. Even more interesting is that whenever that same person walked into the room - the plant would react. Another study showed that a plant is aware of itself being eaten by a caterpillar for example.

What does this all show us? Firstly that we do not yet know the extent to which plants are aware. When you step on grass it "feels" it. When you cut a tree down or pluck fruit the tree is aware of this. Even the fruit we eat are alive.

We tend to see things based on our perception - meaning we look at plants and trees and cut them down. We do not hear a scream of pain or see any kind of reaction and from that we believe the tree is not actually aware, but the fact is that its aware.  Plants and trees are living things. 

 

Puts things in perspective...

Day 258: Life lessons through Music – Specificity

 

 

Lately I have started practicing piano and currently I am working on a classical song that is very difficult for me. The thing about playing piano or any instrument is that to be good at it you need to be very specific in terms on finger placement, finger speed and velocity. If you are not specific in it you are going to make mistakes and play the music wrong.

What I do is learn the song one section at a time – once I am able to play it without mistakes I move on to the next section. Now, there are many sections in this song and what I found was that as I progressed I tended to rush through the sections. There are a few sections where I always make mistakes at the exact same place every time I play the song through.

This got very frustrating, but I finally realized why. When I first learnt and played those sections and when I first made the mistakes – I did not stop to correct them effectively. I kind of just skipped it because it’s such a small point I rather want to get on with the next section so that I can learn the whole song. Now what has happened is that I formed a habit and that mistake is actually now part of how I play the song. All because I did not stop and correct it the moment I made the mistake – I was not specific enough the first time I played it. Now I have to unlearn the mistake by repeatedly playing it correctly over and over until it sinks in.

And this basically related to life as well. We go through life and we make mistakes along the way. We learn how to deal with events in our lives and how to deal with things. For example as a kid somebody said something nasty to me and I took it personally and became angry – From that moment whenever a similar events plays out I do the exact same thing, because when it first happened I did not stop for a moment to realize that taking things personally is not necessary – I am the one who creates the reaction within me.

There are so many examples of how we all made mistakes in life and never really learned from them, but instead created a habit to repeat those mistakes and that has become part of who we are. And to change that behavior requires us to consistently and repeatedly correct it whenever it comes up. For example with me and taking this personally – whenever I took something personally I to stopped and breathed and let go of the anger and reaction. Eventually over time this behavior faded away – I had to unlearn it.

Sure it would have been easier to stop the behavior as soon as it happened, but we are not taught or shown how to respond practically and effectively to situations in life.

A new Website opened where you can find video recordings all about supporting you in your life’s journey.  The video you’ll find there deal with everyday problems that you may be facing at the moment, that you have experienced in the past or that you may run into in the future. They offer insights based on common sense and solutions that you can apply in your life instantly. go here to find out more: Self and Living