Friday Carousel – 11.27.09

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Happy (Day After) Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers and Happy Day to the rest of my readers! I had a positively amazing Thanksgiving with family & friends; I am so grateful. Speaking of gratitude,
I count my blessings every single day when I wake up in the morning & when I go to sleep at night. This practice humbles & strengthens me. I urge you to do the same. We have so much to be thankful for.

…And now on to this week’s Friday Carousel!

    “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”–JFK

  1. How We Can Help Alleviate World Poverty in Three Easy Steps: The lastest post from Zen Habits and a topic near and dear to my heart.

    there are two points to remember when we think about global problems:

    1. Every action counts;
    2. We are not alone.

  2. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television: From Mother Earth News. Television can be a devil. While there is much good to be gained from it, I think that for most people it is a waste, a sucker of energy, life, and happiness. If I had to classify myself, I’d be *pro-books* and *anti-television*.

    3. “We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves.” –William Hazlitt

  3. The Benefits of Pissing People Off: It is no secret that I practice kindness as my religion; but I am also a firm believer that- You can please some of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I really enjoyed this post by Tim Ferriss.

    By facing the fire early and often, we ensure the confidence and breathing room later to do bigger and better things.

  4. From Chelsea Nico.
  5. The Warrior of Light Dances: My latest inspiration from Paulo Coelho’s blog.

    The warrior is careful with people who think they can control the world, determine their own steps, and are certain that they know the right path. They are always so confident in their own capacity of decision that they do not realize the irony with which fate writes everyone’s life.

  6. Live and Let Live: 9 Ways of Letting Go: I absolutely love this post from my friend Jard at Spiritual Zen. Two of my favorite points-

    Be Understanding Rather Than Understood and Stop Being a Victim.

Please share your own links in the comments section. Have a wonderful weekend! Remember to spread love & light wherever you go.

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  • Carousel — 02.19.10

    sunset, lake

    Oh, what a week! I’ve been busy catching up after my recent trip to South Carolina last weekend. (Thanks for all of the positive energy that sent my way—the presentation was a great success.) For the past two days, I’ve spent 14 hours participating in new database training, so that’s been… interesting. On the bright side, I learned a lot and it’s been exciting to see my company transform as we implement this big change.

    I couldn’t be happier that it’s Friday. I have lots of lovely adventures planned with family, friends, & loves this weekend. So let’s get the party kicked off with this week’s Carousel then. Shall we?

    1. self hatred: beneath sugar-coated criticism + self improvement: Danielle lays it all on the line in the post about how we degrade ourselves with little insecurities. The first step to stopping it, is admitting that you do it.

    2. Phoning It In, The hidden power of a gift, and Frightened, clueless or uninformed?: Three excellent posts from Seth Godin. How have I not discovered this brilliant man sooner? A couple of months ago, I won Seth’s book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us in a Twitter contest. I finally made the time to read it this past weekend during my flights to & from South Carolina. OH. MY. GOODNESS. The book was brilliant. Now I am head over heels for Mr. Godin and of course, have since subscribed to his blog.

    I’ll be posting a review of Tribes in the near future.

    3. Nine Things You Can Do Every Day – Even When You Can’t Do Anything Else.

    4. The Only Problem Standing in Our Way: I loved this post by Marc. It teaches us why sometimes the only problems standing in our way are the ones that we create in our heads.

    5. A panorama of tea: At Vagablogging, Colleen Wilde explores the drink of philosophers—tea! Her lovely descriptions of delicious tea across beautiful cultures warmed my heart.

    6. Giving Up TV and 8 Changes I Experienced After Giving Up TV: A few years ago, I moved out of my parents house & out on my own. One of the first decisions I made at that time was to opt out of cable television. There are a lot of things that I dislike about modern television: glamorization of sexism, violence, addiction; in-your-face ridiculous marketing, etc. I find that I am much more productive without the distraction of television—I read, write, create, love, and live more without it.

    In these posts, Steve talks about his initial decision to take a break from TV and his subsequent decision to give it up altogether. I think it is something that we should all consider. Currently, my partner & I have basic cable which is great because I only watch it once in awhile for programs that enrich me (cultural documentaries, environment/wildlife, home &garden, etc). And it’s a good compromise because he can still tune into his favorites, like Family Guy, while I graciously opt out… most of the time.

    7. “The View” of What’s In a Name?: Dr. Oz talks all about names. Why do some names evoke images of strength & beauty? What things should we keep in mind when naming children, or even pets? What does your name say about you? (I now this isn’t exactly self-improvement; but I’ve always been a fan of names. We’ve all got one!)

    8. be inspired: the “special problem” of strong women looking for love: Sarah Wilson writes about dynamics in man/woman relationships and how it is often necessary for men to be the “stronger” ones. I thought it was interesting & it made me ask questions about the dynamics/expectations within my own relationships.

    9. 8 Helpful Ways To Deal With Critical People: Lucky for me this isn’t much of a problem. I genuinely like criticism— be it constructive or even harsh. Criticism serves as a catalyst for me to be better myself or remove unkind people from my life. For me, criticism is a win-win. However, it hasn’t always been this way & there have been instances in my past where I could have used the good advice in this post.

    ———————————————

    That’s it for this week’s round up. Have a great weekend, friends. Remember to spread love & light wherever you go.

    P.S. I am super sore (in a good way) from a fitness class I took at New York Sports Club last night—Will Power and Grace—I highly recommend it if you have an NYSC in your area!

  • Carousel — 03.05.10

    Oh, why hello my gorgeous readers! It is so wonderful to see you here on this beautiful Friday afternoon (or whatever day/time it is where you are). This week came in like a lion and is heading out like a lamb… typical March weather in the North Eastern US. Last week received over three feet of fluffy white stuff (snow!). Currently the temperature is on the rise and it’s beginning to melt. Is this a sign that Spring is on its way? I sure hope so!

    And now on to this week’s charming Carousel. I do hope you enjoy…

    1. Quick easy tips for travel health and Living in the now: Two awesome posts from Vagablogging this week. One contains common sense tips to keep you healthy while on the road and the other talks about the importance of fleeting moments in time. Lovely.

    2. This is So Inappropriate!: “Your choices always carry tremendous weight, even when you feel like you have no choice in the matter. We don’t need enormous reserves of skill or advantage to make big differences to what happens to us — and to the manner in which we ‘happen’ to the world.”

    3. The Sure Fire Way to Sabotage Any Relationship: In this post, Jared explains why trying to “get back to the way things were” is like signing your relationship’s death certificate. Do you agree?

    4. 5 Travel Lessons You Can Use at Home: This post is far & away, one of the best that I’ve read on the topic. Can you take travel lessons and apply them to your life? Can you use these lessons to live the life of your dreams 100% of the time? Yes, you can! This post will tell you how.

    5. Avatar’s Impact: How To Train Like A Na’vi: Have you seen Avatar yet? I saw it once in 2D and then again in 3D—yes, it was that good! I love Amber’s take on the movie in this excellent post. “While the special effects and imagination behind the film are awe inspiring enough, what excited me the most was the vital ecological message that’s reaching millions. The fact that people from around the globe are beginning to see the significance of our connection to all organisms is incredible.” Yes, yes, yes! Exactly. She’s hit the nail on the head.

    6. What Are Values?: Many people pay Tim Brownson good money to help them define values; but in this post, he’ll show you how to do it for free! I absolutely love (& agree with) the way that he introduces the post: “So what I’m really saying is this is some heavy personal development shit that needs your total concentration and commitment if you’re going to get the most out of it. And make no mistake, it’s the single most powerful thing you can do if you genuinely want to understand yourself.”

    7. how to: focus in batches: “Limited resources force you to focus on your creativity.”

    8. Coping with Major Life Changes: Excellent tips to help get you through some of life’s most challenging moments.

    9. The War Over Wolves: One topic that I haven’t written too much about yet is wildlife & environmental conservation. It is one of the things that I am most passionate about. This post from the National Geographic Blog broke my heart a bit. Despite my inclination to preserve as many creatures as humanly possible, there are always two sides to every story. I’ll be making some posts on this topic in the near future.

    10. Olympians’ daily food choices as important as their rigorous training: Want to learn to eat like an Olympian? Is the food that you put in your body really that important? After reading this, I say YES!

    —————————

    That is it for this week’s round up. I loved all of these great posts and I hope that you will, too. Perhaps just the burst of inspiration you were needing to get your weekend off to a great start?

    Have a lovely weekend. Spread love & light!

4 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing Dena.

    I disagree strongly with Tim's post. The goal isn't to piss people off, it's to be beyond what other people will think, say, or do, in reponse to you being you.

    The *really* successful people could care less if they piss people off most of the time. They devote themselves to a purpose.

    Who cares what others think about what you do?

    Reply

  2. I'm loving your Friday Carousels! (And that opening picture is awesome, btw)

    Thanks for showing me some articles that I have missed this week… Those two first points from Leo's post are so moving… 1) Every action counts and 2) We are not alone.
    🙂
    Karen

    Reply

  3. I was at first taken back by Tim's post too (a great provoking headline, no?) but the message he's trying to convey was for us to not fear doing remarkable things.
    Have a great day Dena!

    Reply

  4. @Ryan – I appreciate your feedback. When I read Tim's article, it actually seemed to be mostly in complete agreement with your thoughts. 🙂

    @Karen – I am glad that you liked them. Yes, we can always count on Leo for some inspiration.

    @Ken – Yes, yes! That is exactly the point. I think he was trying to grab attention with that headline but at its core the article was about doing remarklable things.

    Reply

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