The past week, I watched some Christmas movies (any recommendations? I saw Elf and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and absolutely loved them!) and painted some cards, like the one you see above. Some years, I don't really get into the Christmas spirit. Too much agitation, consumerism, gift buying, stress, horrible traffic and general exhaustion. ...
Daily life, creativity and art
I'm so inspired by this book, lately. I'm re-learning to integrate art in my daily life. This means, reading, looking at art, appreciating the sparks of ideas that sometimes come, and honoring them by turning them into reality. For example, this Dr Seuss quote. Do you know Dr Seuss? He wrote children's books, like The Cat in the ...
Make time for doing nothing
I started to meditate sometime in my teenage years, and always had the feeling that I'm doing something wrong. Since then, I read several books on the subject, did countless guided and non-guided meditations, went to India and meditated with monks and even in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and reached two ...
3 things I want to do this Holiday season
Hello my dears and Happy Holidays! As I write this, my mother is in the kitchen preparing the turkey for the Christmas dinner, there's carols on the radio and around town there are some people carrying bags with supplies to cook later today. It's easy to get stressed or anxious about the Christmas cookies, burning the special ...
Take it easier during the Holiday season. Here’s one simple idea.
In case you feel rushed, stressed, pressed, pulled from side to side...take a deep breath. And keep hope that it will turn out just fine. You know that saying Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, then it's not the end. According to Stephen Covey, one of the main things happier people do is keep ...
How to quiet your brain
Does this look familiar to you? You wake up. You stumble to the batroom, brush your teeth, get dressed, gulp down some coffee, head to work, answer emails, answer phone calls, answer questions, sit down in meetings while thinking about the shopping list for the evening, drive home, clean up, cook, eat, wash, go to bed. ...
The Gratitude List
Dan Pink, in the book "A Whole New Mind", suggests having a "Gratitude List" on your birthday, with x things you are grateful for, if you turn x years old. The principle being that once you grow older, you learn to appreciate the things around you more, and you get more to thank for. I guess ...
The importance of daydreaming
Did you know that children of 10 -12 years old started to suffer from stress? Really now, do you imagine a 10 year old saying that he's got bad time management and he needs to check his agenda before seeing his friends? Unfortunately, that's the truth today. Stress comes (also) from little time with ourselves Young children spend their ...
Slowing Down – How To
This is part 3 of a series of 3 blog posts on how slowing down can actually improve effectiveness and productivity. This focuses on practical aspects. The first one's called "Are you living your life too fast?" and the second is "Benefits of SLOW living". How to slow down? I'm a fairly fast person. Multitasking is my ...
A Manifest on Laziness
How else could I start a Sunday morning, without a coffee, something delicious to eat, and wasting time? Sounds like a paradox, to have a productivity/effectiveness blogger write about how good it feels to waste time. Losing time is an art on the verge of extinction. Remember the best pieces of art, the best novels, the best ...
The century of individualism
You know the world is full of infinite possibilities. Your parents told you "you can be anything you want". Or, if your parents did not tell us so, you quickly found that out from books, magazines or motivational movies. You quickly realized that in order to succeed you have to be unique. You explored how marketing comes up ...
Moving out = stages of change
I am moving to a new apartment. I was congratulated, received many encouragements, good wishes and the like, yet I look around me in horror. I hate moving. The clutter around, the dust, the confusion as you can't find anything anymore. But in the end, moving out is a renewal process. "You have a few days of ...
