Wanna be a writer?

How to be a prolific writer?

Leo Babauta, shares in Learn from the Greats: 7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers:

Stephen King is most prolific -writing 10 pages a day. Ernest Hemingway competes with 500 words a day.

Hard working writers are Vladimir Nabokov & Philip Roth.

Vladimir Nabokov wrote standing up, and all on index cards (to re-arrange later). Philip Roth works standing up, pacing around as he thinks and writes in an isolated studio.

Hardly working Truman Capote wrote lying down, in bed or on a couch.

James Joyce displays amazing freedom - A friend asked him if he’d had a good day writing. Yes, Joyce replied happily. How much had he written? Three sentences, Joyce told him.

My vote goes to James Joyce, though Truman Capote is close!

What would you vote for?

But, what will you REALLY TEACH & IMPART?

Teach India | News and Features :You must be familiar with the street children who stare at you blankly (mostly, hopelessly, but, a few rare ones, mischievously!) at traffic signals, while you comfortably wait for the light to turn green! There was an interesting Hindi Movie on these 'special' children of our society: Traffic Signal (2007).

Now, you have a chance to contribute - Times of India has launched a social initiative that invites you to take out a few hours from your leisure to teach underprivileged children. Initially, this is only for the metros, but TOI assures us "that once the programme is up and running in the four metros, we will extend it to our other editions as well".

Over sixty NGOs, corporates, schools and social organizations have committed to this cause to target "a population of over 287 million illiterate Indians".

More that 10,00 have joined up - Delhi has shown the largest response, followed Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

So, we have all happily signed-up and WAITING for that CALL from Teach India Cell!

NOW, imagine you are in presence of, say, 20 underprivileged children, and you have started teaching a SUBJECT to them.

BUT, ARE YOU REALLY AWARE OF THEIR WORLD? WHAT ARE THEIR REAL ISSUES? Back home OR back on the streets WHAT ARE THEY UP AGAINST? A hostile world? Scared Parents (or, worse, abusive parents) ? How can they experience freedom from such severe conditioning?

WHAT DO THEY REALLY NEED?

Self Esteem? A glimpse towards a world of exciting possibilities? A concrete evidence that that they can CREATE an enriching life for themselves?

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!

LET US GIVE OUR BEST TO THESE KIDS!
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Anyone interested in participating can visit the Teach India website at www.teach.timesofindia.com. Alternatively you can also fill out the Volunteer Registration form submit it to The Times of India office in your city. To receive the form on email, SMS TEACH to 58888.

Gandhi's 10 Commandments

How big a factor was Gandhi's philosophy in enabling India's freedom? How do you practice your Philosophy? How does your self-expression impact your society and world?

Inspired by Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi's thoughts, Henrik Edberg posted Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World:

1. Change yourself.
2. You are in control.
3. Forgive and let it go.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere. More tips on this at How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips.
5. Take care of this moment. More at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment.
6. Everyone is human.
7. Persist.
8. See the good in people and help them. More at Do You Make These 10 Mistakes in a Conversation?
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.

The last one quotes Gandhi:

”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to
maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false
position.”

The fourth one quotes : “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Hmm..let us get some practice on the above ten points now....

Which ones are you planning to practice?

Freedom From Pain!

In her latest post, Sirensongs shares, "I am having "problems" (mostly health related....horrible migraines and backaches)."

Come to think of it, many of us have been in this place and it is NOT always "easy" to "BE AT EASE" all the time! You have 'internal' dilemmas, relationship conflicts, pressures from 'society', and so on!

So, here is some help. There is an online "The Pain Relief Center", which is not-for-profit and invites everyone to "Use the power of the mind to eliminate pain regardless of the cause, heal the body, and improve your quality of life".

They use an integrated psycho-spiritual-physical approach to help you free yourself from pain.
Apart from other products, they offer free pain lessons. An excerpt from "Using Meditation for Pain Relief / Variations":

• At the first sign of pain, say a migraine attack or back spasm, try to relax and bring yourself back to a meditative state. The more you practice relaxation and meditation training, the easier it is to do this. Pain naturally causes us to fight and struggle, or try to escape. This is itself unpleasant, and it also causes physiological effects that make pain worse, particularly headache and backache. Our fight or flight defensive reaction creates changes in hormones, blood flow, and muscle tension that make headache and backache much worse.
  
• If we can relax and stop struggling, fighting, or trying to escape, we can break this "spiral of agony" and defuse the pain. You must experience for yourself that trying to fight the pain or to escape from it makes the pain worse. You can also experience that the pain changes when you stop fighting or trying to escape.
• One of the best ways to stop fighting or trying to escape is to turn your attention TOWARD the feeling of pain in your body, and to stay with it. This works particularly well with headache, backache, gastrointestinal pain, and other types of pain that are especially made worse by the emotional component.
  
• When you learn to turn your attention toward the pain, to examine the sensation of the pain, and to examine the emotion associated with the sensation, you will experience a most extraordinary thing. The pain will change in quality, move around, or abate entirely. Most people continue the fight -- they never stop struggling with the pain, so they never see what happens when they stop fighting.
• A variation of the above technique is to try to locate the pain precisely, and to determine its size, shape, and quality. For example, when your back hurts, try to describe exactly where the pain is in your back. Imagine a picture of your back and try to localize it exactly on the picture. How spread out is it? What kind of pain is it? Is it burning, crushing, dull, or prickly? Pay attention and make sure you are right, particularly about location and extent. This forces you to bring your awareness to the pain.
  
• A related technique is to use imagery. For example, if you have a headache, you might imagine a window opening in your head and the pain leaving through the window. Or you might imagine cool water flowing over the pain. This also forces you to bring your attention to the pain.
  
• If you do any of these exercises while remaining relaxed it will counteract the emotional component of pain -- the tendency to fight or escape. In many cases the results are dramatic. Some people find they cannot localize the pain at all, because when they pay attention to it, the pain moves away. They find themselves chasing the pain around, and it eventually dissolves.

TRY IT OUT and share your experiences.

Say "YES" to freedom from pain.

Tibet - Global Day of Action, March 31

Avaaz.org - The World in Action

China has got it all, except love and respect. Can it FREE ITSELF from a "negative" past?

Would Chinese President Hu Jintao CHOOSE freedom and peace FOR China?

Members of Avaaz - the organization that has collected more than a million signatures in the last week calling on Hu Jintao for dialogue with the Dalai Lama - will join Tibet organizations around the world in a Global Day of Action for Tibet on March 31st.

Please see here to find an event near you.

Sign the Petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao -it will be delivered Monday, March 31st to Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide:

As citizens around the world, we call on you to show restraint and respect for human rights in your response to the protests in Tibet, and to address the concerns of all Tibetans by opening meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Only dialogue and reform will bring lasting stability. China's brightest future, and its most positive relationship with the world, lies in harmonious development, dialogue and respect.

Celebrating February 11: A Story of Freedom

Around 100 years ago, one of the earliest thoughts on freedom of South Africa came from Gandhi. In the year 1908, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi spoke to a gathering at Johannesburg:

"If we look into the future [of South Africa], is it not a heritage we have to leave to posterity, that all the different races commingle and produce a civilisation that perhaps the world has not yet seen?"

Fast forward to February 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela is freed from prison after 27 years (Watch video). Thousands danced and celebrated on the streets of Cape Town. Addressing 50,000 people assembled outside the balcony of Cape Town's City Hall, he declared:

"Our struggle has reached a decisive moment. Our march to freedom is irreversible."

He was the 466th prisoner at Robben Island in 1964 - he was anointed as prisoner number "46664". After his freedom, he immortalized this number by using this number as an icon for a global HIV AIDS awareness campaign.

In his book, Long Walk to Freedom he said:

I have walked that long road to freedom.
I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way.
But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill,
one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest,
to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me,
to look back on the distance I have come.
But I can rest only for a moment,
for with freedom comes responsibilities,
and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

His ideas on freedom:

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Read this line again - "respect and enhance the freedom of OTHERS"!

Amazing!

Now, how would you define freedom?