Experience is not what happens to you

 image by axinia

Quotaion by Aldous Huxley.

Giving and forgiving: one case study

 photo by axinia

Today is the Easter in Russia, and may be that is why I can`t leave the topic of forgiving. One intresting example I just experienced last week: it fits so well the theme and may be will help one or the other to overcome this greatest hurdle of non-forgiving.

Some days ago I was accused of doing something I definitly did not do - at least not on purpose. The thought of someone accusing me of doing something what is against my principles was not a pleasant one. Obviously it was a misunderstanding, and it had to be cleared. The next day I went shopping for a friend`s birthday present and suddenly saw a lovely tie.

The descrete charms of the world bourgeoisie

 photo by axinia

 

In the mouth of Society are diseased teeth, decayed to the bone of the jaws. But society makes no efforts to have them extracted and be rid of the affliction. It contents itself with gold filling. Many are dentists who treat the decayed teeth of Society with glittering gold.

- Khalil Gibran, (1883-1931) Thoughts and Meditations

 

My shopping Saturday

This slide-show is peeping into my personal life and has nothing to do with my spiritual experiences that I usually love to share with my readers.

Being very busy with work and social activities during the week, it is usually only on a Saturday afternoon that my husband and me, we can stroll around the City of Vienna and enjoy shopping, good coffee and the pleasant mood of that beautiful and cosy Austrian capital.

Although this gallery is very personal, I guess most of you  - if not everyone - has some similar experiences with shopping I bet you will smile at the final picture!

(the captions are done with Flickr Toys)

LOVE, axinia

What is really wrong with capitalism? Or Why I believe in communism.

 photo by axinia

 Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism, Corporatism - call it whatever, I personally have a big difficulty with the kind of a system I live in. One of the reasons for that difficulty can be that I spent my childhood and youth in a society that was not driven by money and consumption (at least not to that extend like in the West). It seemed to me that people  - because they were not that stressed to make money and to spend them - lived happier, enjoyed more and appreciated the human values like friendship, family, creativity.

When I came to live in the West 10 years ago I was most of all shocked by the concept of profit, which seemed to be very natural for people here. Profit, copy-right, interest… It took me years to comprehend the ways and methods of this system. And now, while working as a Sales Manager in the Marketing and PR business (!)  - imagine what I think about all that machine. Day by day, the more I can penetrate into the depth of the capitalism, the more I understand that my personal belief lays somewhere else. May be I am a communist?

Are you a B-person?

 photo by axinia

Yes! Yes! Yes! - great news indeed for someone like me: it is scientifically proved that some people need to start working later. Denmark’s B-Society was found in order to advocates the rights of ” B-people” who are sluggish and bed-bound first thing, but whose energy spikes in the evening.

Every individual has their own biological rhythm (known as the “Circadian rhythm”), which means we have our very own sense of time and planning of time. There are lots of different kinds of circadian rhythms. Most people are B-persons,which means that their circadian rhythm has a cycle that runs through 25 hours or more. Science has shown that our biological rhythms through “a day” (i.e. “Nychthemeron” = “a day and a night) are regulated by a so-called “clock gene”.
 
B-persons have a clock gene lasting 25-27 hours, whereas A-persons have one that runs for approximately 23 hours.

Dr Roberto Refinetti,a biopsychologist at the University of South Carolina, is an expert on circadian rhythms. “These rhythms describe anything in the body that shows a daily oscillation,” he says. “Your temperature rises and falls at the same time every day and you probably feel drowsy at around the same time daily. But circadian rhythms also control your blood pressure, glucose levels and much more.”

How to easily remember the names of people

 photo by axinia

Many people claim they can not remember the names of people they meet, it seems to be a common problem.

The books have been written on tips and tricks how to treat that. The most common and quite creative advice is to connect the mane of a person with something special about the person (hairstyle, funny nose, colour, habits, etc.) - which is definitely useful and can be applied successfully when trained.

Now I want to share with you my own way of memorizing the people`s names.

Imagine: you meet a person you find fascinating. You are so impressed by something about the person (looks, manners, intellect, heart, language - whatever). Will not you remember the name of such a special person?

Imagine somebody who might be very helpful to you, somebody who is important for your career, private situation or even life - will you not remember his/her name? Sure, you will!

Trend Blend 2008 and my Top 10 Trends

 

Nowandnext.com and Future Exploration Network have once again collaborated to create a trend map for 2008 and beyond. 

I love the positions like Spirituality, Collectivis, Karma Capitalism  and Search for Meaning on the Society Line (yellow).

The cross stations named are: Digitalisation, Virtuals Worlds, Globalisation, Anxiety and Ageing.

I find really cute the trend of making things: the Internet has allowed people with weird and wonderful interests to find each other. Hence hobbies that everyone thought had died out are now enjoying a renaissance because individuals and small groups all over the world find it easier to find each other.

Or this smart one: Someting for nothing -  One of the emerging business models in the closing half of 2007 was giving stuff away for free in the vague hope that customers could one day be persuaded to part with money to upgrade their experience (or subscription). This has been labeled ‘Freemium’ and is, perhaps, the way that all digital products and services will be ‘sold’ in the future.

And I was very amused about Russian nationalism!

Some other intresting trends: Reality mining, 3-D printers, Virtual protest, Simplicity, Celebrity worship, Networked risk, The attention economy.

My top 10 out of this list are:

I feel like a WordPress warrior!

 photo by axinia

It has been since 1,5 years that I am blogging at WordPress. I have to admit that I never tried any other blogging platform, so my feeling is obviously of a very subjective matter.

My passion about Wordpess has developed with the growth of Wordpres itself and with my ability to use it and to apply this great media to so many things in my life.

So what fascinates me about WordPress that much?

 - great community and it`s support (WordPress News, etc.)

 - absense of adsens!!!!

- easy usage and still sophisticated look

- possibility to use a blog for something very different that typical blogging- like the organisation/coordination of a congress!

Steve Jones comes up with HERO AND ZERO

  photo by Petra Schmidt

A brilliant philosophical comedy (theater play) by my favorite script-writer Steve Jones.

I have to admit that I never really liked theater, or better to say never really understood it. But this case is truly an exception: even knowing that most of my dearest readers will not be able to attend the performance (for it is only in Vienna, 10-26 January), I still can not keep myself from praising it here.

The reason is, HERO AND ZERO covers one of the topics - ego and superego  (conditionings) I really love to blog about. But blogging is not the thing, one has to SEE the play! 

The story goes like this: