Sunday, January 27, 2008

It's OK philosophy - The Silent Language of Peace

Hi,

I came across a website where website owner, Heather Macauley, giving her CD for free. I really enjoyed the CD and also the "OK philosophy". According to her, when we tell someone not to do, we are indirectly telling them that they are doing wrong. So, they defend their action with all their might. Instead of that, if we tell them, its ok to do that action, however, these are the side affects of the action, it will be much easier for them to choose the action which is better for them. Its really true. Go to her website, http://www.aspaceoflove.com/index.html and click on free downloads. Get the free CD, "The Silent Language of Peace" and listen to it. Learn and grow.

I also had a wonderful one hour session with her. She is all smiles in her talk and lots of information. I really enjoyed the session.

Cheers,

Nagaraj

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Stop Giving Yourself away to Peace thiefs

Hello again.
I have lots of thoughts to share and getting postponed to post them there. Today, I had a wonderful quote from Guy Finley and I shared it with five people already who loved to read the full article from his website. So, here it is (for further reading click on the link):

Stop Giving Yourself Away for Nothing

Real success in this life is not something achieved through winning the good opinion of others about us, but rather is found by freeing ourselves from any concern at all over how others see us. -- Guy Finley

In the full article, he asks us to write answers to following subject: "Known or Possible Suspects Who Are Stealing My Peace." Read the three thieves who are stealing the peace in the full article.

More later

Nagaraj

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Self Improvement Vs. Self-Correction

Namaste!
Lots of thoughts flew by in the last week. However they didn't compel me to update here. Yesterday and today I am mulling over above subject. I never paid attention to second part until I read a chapter from "The Secret of Letting Go" book. All along I was thinking and doing lots of self-improvement. Never thought about self-correction (consciously). Here is the summary of the section (Self-Correction is Self-Elevation) from third chapter (How to Defeat what's defeating you) of the book.

Guy Finley, Author says, "On one hand, each of us profess to be concerned with growing, and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong." This itself takes long time to digest. He also says, "The whole idea of modifying ourselves, of slowly improving through time, is born out of our reluctance to be wrong." According to him, we add different skills to our arsenal based on our choice and what we think will help us to grow. So, this is a process of self-addition though which we acquire new knowledge, skills, behaviors and beliefs.

Author also says, "Denying any problem makes you its guardian and leaves you chained to being wrong." & "Being wrong is not the problem. Defending the life-level that produced the wrongness is where we make the mistake." & "Pride is the middle name of the false self".

Also according to him, we are not tied to our past mistakes unless we decided to tie ourself and that's what the false self wants and tricks us to do. As I told before, he uses wonderful metaphors. Look what he said about false self when it tries to sell the past mistakes with guilt, anxiety and shame, etc. He says, false self continue to sell anchors that look like life vests. :-)

I will close this post with couple of more paragraphs.. According to him, "all personal difficulties are born out of a lack of understanding. By trying to hide the problem from yourself, you shut the window on the possibility of looking into your current life-level, which is the only world where real correction can take place".

Through out the book, he gives lots of powerful lists and questions. Here is 5 out of 10 questions he gave for "Self Wholeness".

1. Instead of always asking yourself why things had to go this way or that way, learn to ask Why is the way I feel always determined by external conditions?

2. Instead of always asking yourself what to do about tomorrow (or the next minute), learn to ask Can there ever be intelligence in anxiety or worry?

3. Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask what inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else act?

4. Instead of always crying out "Why me?" learn to ask Who is this "me" that always feels this way?

5. Instead of always asking yourself how to get others to approve of you, learn to ask What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

It never ends. So, grab the book from Amazon or any other bookstore and read it. Here are the book details.
The Secret of Letting Go by Guy Finley

Have a terrific day.

Nagaraj

Thursday, January 3, 2008

My very first blog

Sai Ram!!!
Today while checking my mails, I got a mail about a blogpage from SV Swamy who wrote number of book reviews and also offered free service to authors and readers. I was surprised and thought of starting my own blog spot to post my thoughts everyday from the books I read.

So, here I am. As of now, I am reading following books (most of the times, I read more than three books at a time, so don't get surprised to see the list).

1. Happiness Now -- Robert Holden
Wonderful book. I read only three chapters and he put so much information there. I love it.

2. Parents Effectiveness Training -- Dr. Thomas Gordon
I am reading this book out of my own interest to develop new tools to interact and understand my daughters. I believe in this quote, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. -- Abraham Maslow", and intend to improve my tools every day. So, this book is adding lots of tools like, who owns the problem, active listening, etc.

3. The Secret of Letting Go -
Guy Finley
Excellent book about false self or ego and how to let go of it. He uses wonderful metaphors to make it so clear to the reader. "The false self is fueled by negative emotional reactions, which, in turn, are maintained by habitual incorrect thinking" -- Guy Finley

4. Sai Sandesh - Sai Gems for Healthy Living by Anil Kumar Kamaraju
Another excellent book and Prof Anil Kumar summarizes lots of different Swamy Discourses into topic specific so that we can get lots of details at one point.

I will add book summaries later in the month. From now on, I will add quotes, stories, etc from these books to my blog so that you can also enjoy them.

More later,

Cheers.