It is the bias of the culture that Serenity or Stillness is regarded as laziness or to put it the other way "not being in action" is regarded as negative. I personally don't really think so. I treat it as a action and in fact the most powerful one. Because it is only stillness that can conquer the heat! I see a lot of people in my office through the day who are really frazzled, swamped with work, meetings, emails, interruptions or are hassled by phone calls, kids, errands and chores.
PAUSE!!!
Stay still for a minute, close your eyes and breathe and find the stillness within yourself. This stillness spreads to your body and to your mind and it calms you down, centers you, focuses you on what you are doing right now, not on all that you have to do or all that has to happened. Stillness then becomes a transformative action for you. It is a very powerful tool to all the noise that is around you. It is a way to push back hard on all the buzz that is created around you, a way to remind you what is important for the moment.
I also do agree to the fact that it does not come naturally to all people but with practice, one can learn to master the art. Start your day with stillness, it sets the tone for the things to come. Through the day, take breaks of stillness. I have seen many people who have neck problems because of spending hours on the PC set a alarm to remind them of exercise. Along similar lines, set alarm to take stillness breaks. When chaos roars, pause. In the middle of a crisis or a noisy day, stop. Be still. Take a deep breath, and focus on that breath coming in, and going out. Find your inner stillness and then let your next action come from that stillness. Focus on that next action only.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Switch - Nice book on how to bring about "CHANGE"
Change can be a difficult thing. Most people want to change their lives, in some way, but find it difficult to either get started or to sustain the change for very long. What have I learned from my changes? I could write a book on this (and probably will someday), but the essence can be found in the space between the inevitable fact of change, and in the incredible resistance to change inside ourselves and in the people around us. We want to change, and yet we don’t. How do we resolve this tension? It can be incredibly difficult but extremely joyous path. This book highlights on how to make it a joyous path.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Brain Storming Format
From Emergic Blog
Brainstorming is very useful to get a set of opinions on different issues from a diverse group. I have tried out this format for getting ideas to bubble up from individuals and groups:
* Identity 4-5 key questions that needs to be discussed
* Create a questionnaire which is then given to each individual to answer in about 10 minutes
* Split people up into groups of 6-7 people at a roundtable. Depending on the number of people, work out the number of groups that will be there (call it N). Go around the room asking each person to sequentially say 1,2,3…N. Group all the people with the same number together. This is important to mix people up.
* Ask the group to discuss each of the questions based on the individual responses and come up with a common (consensus) answer to each of the questions. This helps draw out the “wisdom of crowds.”
* One person from each group presents to the wider audience.
* Collect both the individual answers and the group answers.
* After this, there can be an open-house (time permitting).
This process helps distill out both individual thinking and the collective view for each of the issues. It also ensures that each person gets an opportunity to talk (at the group-level). A structured discussion is necessary because a free-for-all format can degenerate into chaos very quickly.
Brainstorming is very useful to get a set of opinions on different issues from a diverse group. I have tried out this format for getting ideas to bubble up from individuals and groups:
* Identity 4-5 key questions that needs to be discussed
* Create a questionnaire which is then given to each individual to answer in about 10 minutes
* Split people up into groups of 6-7 people at a roundtable. Depending on the number of people, work out the number of groups that will be there (call it N). Go around the room asking each person to sequentially say 1,2,3…N. Group all the people with the same number together. This is important to mix people up.
* Ask the group to discuss each of the questions based on the individual responses and come up with a common (consensus) answer to each of the questions. This helps draw out the “wisdom of crowds.”
* One person from each group presents to the wider audience.
* Collect both the individual answers and the group answers.
* After this, there can be an open-house (time permitting).
This process helps distill out both individual thinking and the collective view for each of the issues. It also ensures that each person gets an opportunity to talk (at the group-level). A structured discussion is necessary because a free-for-all format can degenerate into chaos very quickly.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Launch of MyToday, India’s #1 SMS SuperStore
Today, we have launched MyToday, our direct-to-consumer store for great SMS content. It is first of its kind where there are almost 200 channels which is way beyond what anyone can offer! Our entire catalog of SMS channels is divided into nine categories for easy browsing, searching and discovery. A wide variety of topics that you could think of subscribing to. In case you do not find topic of your interest, simply write back to us (click on Feedback) and we would get that for you at the earliest. We are proud to say that at launch itself, we are the BIGGEST SMS marketplace!
We start at Rs.5 per month which is simply the unmatched pricing today. No one really offers at that price.
And it does not end at pricing, we offer a huge variety of products from publishers like Knowledge@Wharton, The Economist, MyIris, Rajshri Media, AstroCamp and our very own MyToday. We will be introducing many more more publishers in the coming weeks soon.
To register and get 30 credits FREE(where 1 credit = Re.1), simply sms PAL to 09212 012345
And fill in your life's moments with sms content of your choice. Because it is these moments that define your life!
Enjoy your know-now moments, your fun-filled moments, your learning moments with MYTODAY India #1 SMS SuperStore!
We start at Rs.5 per month which is simply the unmatched pricing today. No one really offers at that price.
And it does not end at pricing, we offer a huge variety of products from publishers like Knowledge@Wharton, The Economist, MyIris, Rajshri Media, AstroCamp and our very own MyToday. We will be introducing many more more publishers in the coming weeks soon.
To register and get 30 credits FREE(where 1 credit = Re.1), simply sms PAL to 09212 012345
And fill in your life's moments with sms content of your choice. Because it is these moments that define your life!
Enjoy your know-now moments, your fun-filled moments, your learning moments with MYTODAY India #1 SMS SuperStore!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Six Thinking Hats
The Six Thinking Hats brainstorming technique developed by Edward de Bono is used by thousands of organizations and millions of people around the world.
Six Thinking Hats is a profound and powerful technique. It is used to look at problems and decisions from different perspectives. The idea is that this forces you to think outside your usual constraints. This technique was introduced by Edward de Bono in his book, Six Thinking Hats, first published by Little, Brown and Company in 1985.
Many people think from an analytical, rational point of view. This is one reason why many such people are very successful. However, these same people on many other issues may neglect to consider their problems from a creative, emotional or intuitive viewpoint. This means that they may underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and not make essential contingency plans. Similarly, there is a tendency for pessimists to be defensive. Emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally. The approach of the “Six Thinking Hats” technique is to allow people to solve problems using all approaches. Decisions and plans then mix ambition, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity
and good contingency planning.
How to Use the Six Thinking Hats
You can use Six Thinking Hats in group meetings or on your own. It makes an excellent approach to developing research proposals. In group meetings, “Six Hats” can block confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. The result is that the energy in these meetings is devoted to moving forward rather than stagnating by a lot of defensive debating. Each “Thinking Hat” represents a different style of thinking that is metaphorically “put on your head” while you think through your issues. Each of the “Six Hats” is explained below:
Blue Hat: The Blue Hat stands for organization and control. The Blue Hat is worn by people chairing meetings and may be shared with others while organizing how the meeting is to be run. de Bono suggests that the Blue Hat be used at the beginning of meetings and at the end of the meetings, sort of like bookends, to help organize the agenda and lay out the discussion plans.
White Hat: The White Hat is the data and information hat. With White Hat thinking, you collect and examine information you have or can get, then look at what you can learn from that information. For example, the number of acres of citrus production is a White Hat topic. Look for gaps in your knowledge or where trends can be revealed, then try to fill them or take account of them. White Hat is where you analyze past trends and extrapolate into the future from available historical data.
Red Hat: Red hat thinking allows you to consider problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. This is where everyone gets to see how other people will react emotionally to the ideas being developed during the session. You do not necessarily have to have logical explanations for your comments under the Red
Hat - just try to get your feelings out. But this is an opportunity to understand the feelings of people about the merits or drawbacks of a project.
Black Hat: Using black hat thinking, you consider the critical aspects of problem solving. Black Hat is an opportunity to examine the issues cautiously and defensively. Try to see why an idea might not work. Black Hat is very important (de Bono says one of the most important) since it highlights potential weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate, alter or prepare contingency plans to counter weaknesses in a plan.
Yellow Hat: The yellow hat is the positive hat. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.
Green Hat: The Green Hat is the creativity hat. Green Hat is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. Some people think of Green Hat as corresponding to traditional brainstorming techniques.
A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals. For example, if you are a grower, try to solve the problem through the eyes of a researcher customer. Researchers can benefit from using “Six Hats” to better understand the issues that growers face going into the future.
Six Thinking Hats is a profound and powerful technique. It is used to look at problems and decisions from different perspectives. The idea is that this forces you to think outside your usual constraints. This technique was introduced by Edward de Bono in his book, Six Thinking Hats, first published by Little, Brown and Company in 1985.
Many people think from an analytical, rational point of view. This is one reason why many such people are very successful. However, these same people on many other issues may neglect to consider their problems from a creative, emotional or intuitive viewpoint. This means that they may underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and not make essential contingency plans. Similarly, there is a tendency for pessimists to be defensive. Emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally. The approach of the “Six Thinking Hats” technique is to allow people to solve problems using all approaches. Decisions and plans then mix ambition, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity
and good contingency planning.
How to Use the Six Thinking Hats
You can use Six Thinking Hats in group meetings or on your own. It makes an excellent approach to developing research proposals. In group meetings, “Six Hats” can block confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. The result is that the energy in these meetings is devoted to moving forward rather than stagnating by a lot of defensive debating. Each “Thinking Hat” represents a different style of thinking that is metaphorically “put on your head” while you think through your issues. Each of the “Six Hats” is explained below:
Blue Hat: The Blue Hat stands for organization and control. The Blue Hat is worn by people chairing meetings and may be shared with others while organizing how the meeting is to be run. de Bono suggests that the Blue Hat be used at the beginning of meetings and at the end of the meetings, sort of like bookends, to help organize the agenda and lay out the discussion plans.
White Hat: The White Hat is the data and information hat. With White Hat thinking, you collect and examine information you have or can get, then look at what you can learn from that information. For example, the number of acres of citrus production is a White Hat topic. Look for gaps in your knowledge or where trends can be revealed, then try to fill them or take account of them. White Hat is where you analyze past trends and extrapolate into the future from available historical data.
Red Hat: Red hat thinking allows you to consider problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. This is where everyone gets to see how other people will react emotionally to the ideas being developed during the session. You do not necessarily have to have logical explanations for your comments under the Red
Hat - just try to get your feelings out. But this is an opportunity to understand the feelings of people about the merits or drawbacks of a project.
Black Hat: Using black hat thinking, you consider the critical aspects of problem solving. Black Hat is an opportunity to examine the issues cautiously and defensively. Try to see why an idea might not work. Black Hat is very important (de Bono says one of the most important) since it highlights potential weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate, alter or prepare contingency plans to counter weaknesses in a plan.
Yellow Hat: The yellow hat is the positive hat. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.
Green Hat: The Green Hat is the creativity hat. Green Hat is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. Some people think of Green Hat as corresponding to traditional brainstorming techniques.
A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals. For example, if you are a grower, try to solve the problem through the eyes of a researcher customer. Researchers can benefit from using “Six Hats” to better understand the issues that growers face going into the future.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Is heart wiser than mind?
A misunderstanding – a misunderstanding between aspects of the One Being we all are. A conflict between light and dark, between yes and no, between good and bad, between truth and lie. This conflict begins "long ago", in the conflict between mind and heart. The mind and heart are such that they can disagree almost to all the things. Their disagreements are not important, except when they take the form of war and conflict, of domination and conquest.
In this context, I always tend to remember one story:
An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
Its a eternal war that goes on between them over who will take control over the other, the war of power, the war of authority! The "WE" in us is a consequence of this war. Every new fight sequence is a mother of a newborn emotion or a feeling or a reaction to some happening. Or body is the "Kurukshetra" for them. Our total existence remains on the fact that the fight goes on in a balanced way forever. The day the war ceases, we are dead. The mind wins over the heart at times when it is a question of rational calculated judgement. Whereas the heart, is a temporal organ(ism) who takes im"pulse"ive decisions and it often criticized the mind for doing that. As against this, the mind is rational and wins over the brain when it comes to deciding what to buy and what not to buy, even if the heart if fighting over its wants and love for some other stuff. Calculated risks and decisions are jobs of brain. But they are not always in good health and are always ridiculed over by the heart as being "acts of cowardliness". These organ(isms) often come together to fight another one, which is most of the times hazardous to all three : The Heart, The Mind and the Body. They fight collectively with "The Despair". Body in itself cannot survive as a barren piece or war land on which no war is being fought. It eventually dies and "The Despair" searches now for another territory. But most of the times, these two make up a good combo and give a good fight to "The Despair" and banish him out of the territory. Done that, they are again back to original foes and keep on fighting. Long live the war between the Heart and the Mind!
In this context, I always tend to remember one story:
An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
Its a eternal war that goes on between them over who will take control over the other, the war of power, the war of authority! The "WE" in us is a consequence of this war. Every new fight sequence is a mother of a newborn emotion or a feeling or a reaction to some happening. Or body is the "Kurukshetra" for them. Our total existence remains on the fact that the fight goes on in a balanced way forever. The day the war ceases, we are dead. The mind wins over the heart at times when it is a question of rational calculated judgement. Whereas the heart, is a temporal organ(ism) who takes im"pulse"ive decisions and it often criticized the mind for doing that. As against this, the mind is rational and wins over the brain when it comes to deciding what to buy and what not to buy, even if the heart if fighting over its wants and love for some other stuff. Calculated risks and decisions are jobs of brain. But they are not always in good health and are always ridiculed over by the heart as being "acts of cowardliness". These organ(isms) often come together to fight another one, which is most of the times hazardous to all three : The Heart, The Mind and the Body. They fight collectively with "The Despair". Body in itself cannot survive as a barren piece or war land on which no war is being fought. It eventually dies and "The Despair" searches now for another territory. But most of the times, these two make up a good combo and give a good fight to "The Despair" and banish him out of the territory. Done that, they are again back to original foes and keep on fighting. Long live the war between the Heart and the Mind!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Happy Father's Day - Papa
Today is known as father's day. This is the day set aside to remind all of us to remember their father in some way :). This is the day to give expression and appreciation, for the love and care we have received and are receiving, from our fathers. Knowing you care little for a lot of sentimental or emotional praise (like all fathers do), I will limit my words of praise by saying I have, in my life time, met and known many fine fathers, and have read about many great men , yet, I can truthfully say I am glad I am your daughter.
You have always been the tough one in the family and I would say a lot more tougher than my uncles as you are the eldest in the family. You practically justify your zodiac sign (LIBRA) where all your decisions and actions are very balanced. You always wanted me to be someone "Big" in life. I am really not sure if I have really achieved that so far but I am surely only kid, lucky enough to have my very own "Big" dad. You've always been my #1 fan, and believed in me even when I was a rebel or not achieving success at anything in particular. It seems that your faith in me has never wavered, which is both a surprise and a blessing. Even though you don't want to admit it, you and I are very similar. It is only now, as an adult, that I can truly acknowledge, verbalize and respect that realization.
I have always been a rebellion through out and in-spite of that you congratulated me on my freedom when I entered college. Not a single exam of mine, you wished me "All the best" but your actions did speak louder than words. When I would be getting my results, mom would be like all happy and excited but you would be just quite. I know that you would be all excited and happy but would not want to express the same!
Then came the day when I got married. Among all three sisters, if someone who was the closest to you was me. We shared many and many good moments together and I could see all fading away the day I got married. I just did not want to leave my home and start a new life. You gave me the strength and courage to go ahead and start a new life.
Dads are very special and I am proud to have you as my father and my inspiration.
Love you!!!
You have always been the tough one in the family and I would say a lot more tougher than my uncles as you are the eldest in the family. You practically justify your zodiac sign (LIBRA) where all your decisions and actions are very balanced. You always wanted me to be someone "Big" in life. I am really not sure if I have really achieved that so far but I am surely only kid, lucky enough to have my very own "Big" dad. You've always been my #1 fan, and believed in me even when I was a rebel or not achieving success at anything in particular. It seems that your faith in me has never wavered, which is both a surprise and a blessing. Even though you don't want to admit it, you and I are very similar. It is only now, as an adult, that I can truly acknowledge, verbalize and respect that realization.
I have always been a rebellion through out and in-spite of that you congratulated me on my freedom when I entered college. Not a single exam of mine, you wished me "All the best" but your actions did speak louder than words. When I would be getting my results, mom would be like all happy and excited but you would be just quite. I know that you would be all excited and happy but would not want to express the same!
Then came the day when I got married. Among all three sisters, if someone who was the closest to you was me. We shared many and many good moments together and I could see all fading away the day I got married. I just did not want to leave my home and start a new life. You gave me the strength and courage to go ahead and start a new life.
Dads are very special and I am proud to have you as my father and my inspiration.
Love you!!!
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