Homeopathy A&E - hilarious spoof

Must admit I've never heard of them, but this is a funny spoof. Apparently it comes from the fourth episode of a series three of 'That Mitchell and Webb Look.'



For the record, I am for homeopathy, but only as practised by medical doctors in addition to their "standard" practice. In fact, I would only go an "alternative" practitioner if he/she has a completed medical (or similar) background. But that's just cautious and conservative me...

Making things fun can lead to positive behavior changes!

So somebody in Sweden wanted more people to take the regular stairs instead of the escalator next to them. Here's how they did it:

Today I'm Gonna Try and Change the World - Johnny Reid

Wow - a most wonderfully uplifting song by this Scottish born Canadian singer:



Written by Johnny Reid and Brent Maher, available on the "A Place Called Love" CD, released in 2010.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob - a wonderful surprise for unsuspecting shoppers

I must admit here that I absolutely love Christmas and this time of year, and here's one of the reasons why:

Which method or technique is best for personal growth?

I've consciously dedicated the past eight years of my life to personal growth (personal development, spiritual growth, spiritual path -- whatever you want to call it...) and lots of people have been asking me which methods or techniques I have found to be the best. There is no easy answer to this question because everyone has to find what works best for them. (Believe me, there is tremendous value in the active search itself...). So instead, I'd like to highlight two characteristics that I believe such a method or technique should have:

A: it should increase the client's self-knowledge or self-awareness (Socrates: Know thyself...) with information that the client can use to take constructive action to improve whatever it is he/she wants to improve (happiness, health, flexibility...). The reason for this is simple: as soon as I know why something is happening to me, I can do something about it (conversely, I cannot do anything about something I do not know about...).

B: it should strengthen the individual's ability and willingness to make active choices about his/her behavior (one of the main reasons I like holotropic breathwork is because it does exactly this -- if I want to go deeper in the state of altered consciousness, I make the choice to breathe more intensively, and if it's too much for me at the moment, I slow down. Conversely, I am not a big fan of anything like hypnosis or past-lives therapies because they offer no such choice. Another example is the difference between PBSP vs. Family Constellations: PBSP is completely client-driven, whereas family constellations depend a lot on the input of other people that are present)

As I have written before, the best method or technique I found for my personal development is a combination of holotropic breathwork and PBSP (I've written about both of these in previous posts). I also threw in a little Rolfing for the physical body and over the course of about 3-5 years this personal growth cocktail has improved my life immensely. What are or will be the ingredients of your personal growth mix?

The best is yet to come

I definitely count myself among the optimists as far as the future of our planet and of the human race is concerned, so I really enjoyed the article called "The best is yet to come" by Jurriann Kamp, which was recently published in the Intelligent Optimist Newsletter.

Here is the start of the article - if you would like to read more, just click on the article title above...

Humankind continuously exceeds its own expectations when it comes to the development of new technology. However, we are really bad at one thing—predicting that development. And that’s a problem that leads to a lot of unnecessary pessimism. For example, in almost all future scenarios of climate change, clean and renewable energy advances little by little. As a result, the earth keeps getting warmer and warmer. But these kinds of scenarios are always based on known facts. Yet, as history shows, it is the unknown that revolutionizes the world again and again.

Some interesting thoughts about our perception

PERCEPTION


> . . . Something To Think About . . .
> THE SITUATION
> In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.
> About 4 minutes later:
> The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.
> At 6 minutes:
> A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
> At 10 minutes:
> A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.
> At 45 minutes:
> The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

> After 1 hour:
> He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.
> No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.
> This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

> This experiment raised several questions:
> *In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
> *If so, do we stop to appreciate it?
> *Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?
> One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
> If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . .
> How many other things are we missing as we rush through life?
 
 
(if anyone knows who wrote this, please let me know, I'd love to give the credit where the credit is due)