Authentic and Eudaimonic 8 Acts Of Authenticity "It's the best way to figure out what it feels like to be in someone else's head—and that's what helps us to distinguish our own identity ." — "Meditative absorption creates moments of happiness not contingent on outcomes or external factors or manipulation of the environment . "Authenticity consists in being aware that you have choices and consciously choosing what you do "People often make better decisions when they don't think about them. "Quiet and time for the self are a big plus. "Community is an outlook toward life in which you define yourself in relation to the world around you, rather than only in connection with yourself. "Whether it's taking an art class, playing basketball, running, or just hanging out with friends, doing something you really enjoy allows you to express who you really are "Feelings of inauthenticity are heightened by a lack of a philosophy that allows failure to be part of life. The New, True, Eudaimonic You
This and That...: Top 40 Useful Sites To Learn New Skills The web is a powerful resource that can easily help you learn new skills. You just have to know where to look. Sure, you can use Google, Yahoo, or Bing to search for sites where you can learn new skills , but I figured I’d save you some time. Here are the top 40 sites I have personally used over the last few years when I want to learn something new. Hack a Day - Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks (short tutorials) every day from around the web and one in-depth ‘How-To hack’ guide each week.eHow - eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects.Wired How-To Wiki - Collaborate with Wired editors and help them build their extensive library of projects, hacks, tricks and tips.
Need Some Motivation Right Now? Read This IMMEDIATELY — Think Traffic If you’re in desperate need of some motivation, we’re going to fix that problem, right here, right now. Prepare yourself. WARNING: I’m going to swear and yell a little in this post. Desperate times call for desperate measures. You said you needed motivation. If this isn’t the kind of motivation you need, leave now. Alright. Here goes. Do you want some motherfucking motivation right now? I SAID, do you want some MOTHERFUCKING MOTIVATION RIGHT NOW? Do you want to get some seriously useful shit done today? Do you want to get off your ass and start producing instead of wallowing in despair, depression, self pity, fear, doubt or whatever is holding you back? Are you sick of not getting anything done? Let’s DO THIS. The point of this exercise is to give you motivation to do something right now. Follow the steps below carefully. 1. The world doesn’t care. And if you’re feeling depressed or down, stop feeling sorry for yourself while you’re at it. We all face obstacles. Did you catch that? Period. 2. 3. 4.
Reversing Regrets All of us have regrets at some time. It may be spending too much time in a problematic relationship, buying something you realize is not what you thought it would be, wearing a tie that clashes with your jacket, or eating too much dessert. For me, it was buying Lehman Brothers stock before the company crashed. We all find ourselves at times caught in an endless loop of negative self-recrimination -- "I could have, should have, would have." We would have to be immune to learning from experience to say that we never regret something we have done. How can we move beyond the moment of regret so that we don't get stuck? Is there any advantage to continuing your regret? Keep in mind that good decision making is acknowledging a mistake, learning from it, and making life better in the future. For more by Robert Leahy, Ph.D., click here. For more on mindfulness, click here.
Dont Pay for Technology: 25 Freebies for Students - StumbleUpon Jun 29, 2009 In today's economic climate, paying for technology isn't prudent, and for some students, it isn't even an option. Fortunately, there are plenty of freebies on the web that can help with document creation, research, writing, storage, collaboration, studying and more. Here are 25 free web apps and software programs that may be useful to students. Document Creation Zoho Office - Zoho Office is an amazing suite of web-based productivity and collaboration tools. Research and Writing Schoolr - This meta search engine combines other academic search engines to make research faster and more efficient for students. Online Storage and Collaboration ADrive - Offering more than 50 GB of free storage, ADrive is one of the best places to upload and store files online. Study Help and Web-Based Learning Mindpicnic - Mindpicnic is helping to revolutionize the way students learn by providing free courses and study materials online. Miscellaneous Tech Tools
7 Lessons in Manliness From the Greatest Generation Every generation has its share of men who fully live the art of manliness. But there may never have been a generation when the ratio of honorable men to slackers was higher than the one born between 1914 and 1929. These were the men that grew up during the Great Depression. Tom Brokaw gave them that name, and while it’s a bold claim, I wholly support it. When I was taking a tour of the USS Slater in Albany last summer, Uncle Buzz and I were looking at the tiny, closet-sized kitchen where a couple of men prepared meals for hundreds of sailors as the ship rocked to and fro, and at the giant guns the men used to blast the enemy and knock planes from the sky. In Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, he remembers his mother telling him the story of the day Gordon Larsen came into the post office where she worked. There’s a saying that each generation is most like their grandparent’s. Lesson # 1: Take Personal Responsibility for Your Life Lesson #2: Be Frugal Lesson #3: Be Humble
Seven Weird Habits That Will Change Your Life Some habits will help you live a better life. They’ll help you improve what’s already working or help you fix what’s not working very well. But what about habits that completely change the game entirely? What are the questions that uproot your beliefs, shake them from its roots and move you into a bigger pot? These are seven habits that won’t just improve your game, or help you “level up.” Regularly engage in time travel. These are just a few habits I’ve found that have made a huge difference for me. So now my question for you is this: What habit has made the biggest difference for you? photo courtesy of platinum Share: Get everything you need to finally leave your job for good. The first few weeks of the Job Escape Kit has already produced some outcomes I’d never thought I’d see in my whole career.” ~ Nick Burk
7 Great Web Services to Transfer Large Files There is no blinking the fact that web 2.0 technologies have radically revolutionized the way users interact with internet and if we narrow down our scope to the file sharing area it becomes clear how easier it becomes for anyone to upload and share files with a single click. The thing, however, is that free file sharing is limited to only a few MBs per file which is, most of the times, insufficient especially when we have many files to share with our students and colleagues. Check out : The Easiest and Quickest Way Teachers Share Files for Free Well Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has done some digging and came up with a list of some great web tools where you can upload ,share and transfer large files ( sometimes up to 5 GB ) for free . 1- Transfer Big Files This is a three step process to share your large files : choose your files, add recepients, add message. 2- Fileai.com This is a web service to securely share files that are too big to e-mail for free. 3- File Dropper
10 Ways To Be Happy, On Purpose “He who depends on himself will attain the greatest happiness” ~Chinese Proverb I was at a Women’s Leadership Conference about a year ago and had an “ah-ha moment”. We were all introducing ourselves and asked to share a few things to help with the process. One question left me baffled and ultimately changed my life; “What do you do to make yourself happy?”. At the time I honestly didn’t know. It’s not been an easy road, but it’s been the most fulfilling adventure I’ve ever been on and I feel that I should now share what I’ve learned with others. 1. “Today you are you, that is truer than true. How many times have we heard “no one will love you until you learn to love yourself” or “nobody knows you the way you do”? So get to know the right-now-real you, both the good and the bad, and own it. The good news is that if you don’t like certain aspects of yourself right now, you have it in your control to change that. 2. “Open your eyes and look within. “You have brains in your head. 3. 4. 5. 6.
If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This This morning, like every morning, I sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor, rested my hands on my knees, closed my eyes, and did nothing but breathe for 20 minutes. People say the hardest part about meditating is finding the time to meditate. This makes sense: who these days has time to do nothing? It’s hard to justify. Meditation brings many benefits: It refreshes us, helps us settle into what’s happening now, makes us wiser and gentler, helps us cope in a world that overloads us with information and communication, and more. But if you’re still looking for a business case to justify spending time meditating, try this one: Meditation makes you more productive. How? Research shows that an ability to resist urges will improve your relationships, increase your dependability, and raise your performance. Our ability to resist an impulse determines our success in learning a new behavior or changing an old habit. As it turns out, that’s one of the things meditation teaches us. That’s it.
Men Who Dress Like Men 1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short not to enjoy it. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. (Source: reginabrett.com) 15 Ways to Be Irresistibly Attractive Be true to your values. Be honest. Do your best. Do things that bring you closer to your dreams. Take care of yourself, your family, and your friends. In other words, invest love into your life. Do the right thing. – Never be afraid to do what you know in your heart is right, especially if the well being of another person’s feelings is at stake. Photo by: Lina Hayes Related 18 Ways You’re Making Your Life Harder Than It Has To Be Life is not complex. July 27, 2014 In "Happiness" 15 Ways to Live, and Not Merely Exist As Jack London once said, “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.” March 19, 2012 In "Aspirations" 10 Signs it’s Time to Let Go Holding on is being brave, but letting go and moving on is often what makes us stronger and happier. April 2, 2012
Meditation Produces Opposite Effect of ‘Fight or Flight’ By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 4, 2013 A new study reveals that practitioners of meditation experience changes in gene expression that are the exact opposite of what occurs during the “flight or fight” stress response. Specifically, genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, and telomere maintenance are turned on, while those involved in inflammation are turned off. These effects are more significant and consistent for long-term practitioners. People who practice simple meditation aren’t “just relaxing,” explained the study’s senior author, Dr. It’s been shown that repeating a yoga pose, prayer, or mantra while disregarding other thoughts protects against anxiety and depression as well as physical conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and types of cancer that are exacerbated by stress. All of the subjects’ blood samples revealed changes in gene expression following meditation.
Tips for Breaking Bad Habits and Developing Good Habits Most of life is habitual. You do the same things you did yesterday, the day before and every day for the last month. It’s estimated that out of every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain only consciously processes 40. Habits, good or bad, make you who you are. I’ve been using these techniques for years to re-engineer many aspects of my life. Here are some tips to get you started: One Habit For 30 Days – Steve Pavlina, popularized the 30 Day Trial. Use a Trigger – A trigger is a short ritual you perform before a habit. Replace Lost Needs – If you opened up your computer and started removing hardware, what would happen. One Habit at a Time – A month may seem like a long time to focus on only one change, but I’ve found trying to change more than a few habits at a time to be reckless. Balance Feedback – The difference between long-term change and giving up on day 31 is the balance of feedback. Write it Down – Don’t leave commitments in your brain. Image by acqyr