ok to admit

            Why do people have such a hard time admitting they've made a mistake?  We are all humans, we all make mistakes, we regret many of them later.   But, geez, say so.  I won't think less of you, on the contrary.

            I find it especially important in my role as a parent to acknowledge a mistake and apologize for it - yes, to my child.  Otherwise I am modeling behavior I don't want to see perpetuated.   We have this underlying belief that we are perceived as weak when we say "I was wrong,"  "I made a mistake,"  "I'm sorry," or"I wished I'd never done this." I build up a huffing and puffing resistance and fight response to a lame "wasn't me" or "I would never have done this;"  when, on the other hand, someone says right away "oops, so sorry, my mistake," that feeling implodes and my reaction softens immediately.

            How cool would it be if a politician or CEO honestly said "I made the wrong decision at the time, but I understand the issue better now and take full responsibility, and I promise to correct the situation."  Wouldn't you appreciate the humanness in that person?   I guess this behavior all starts with you and me, though.

H2O

             Fresh water will be the next oil in terms of governing our economies of the future.  A few decades ago I thought for sure that we would have run out of oil by now, or almost. And even though we haven't yet, we are in the last throws of the oil age, regardless of desperate fracking efforts and attempts to get to the Alaska oil reserves.  Our energy needs will eventually be met with renewable energies.

            More worrisome than the oil situation is the water situation.  With climate change we are getting too much of it in some areas, to the point of coastal areas and islands becoming submerged and diluvian rain storms, and too little in others.   On the one hand sea levels are rising due to melting glaciers and polar ice caps, while other areas are becoming more prone to temporary droughts, as we have seen in California for the past years, and downright desertification.  In the US our fresh water tables have sunk to half the 1960s levels, due to agricultural and economic activity. 

            Ocean water desalination will become the new  hot ticket in terms of investments and developments. The Middle East is currently leading with over 50% of the world's desalination capacity.   While you won't need to curtail your shower time anywhere soon the price of produce is likely to go up, and the mix of your investment portfolio could change.  Oil is out, water is in.

on losing weight

            Different lifestyles call for different diets.  Let's face it, the majority of us have sedentary jobs.  Most of us don't farm all day long, don't lift heavy equipment all day long, and are not high performance sports people.  Most of the time most of us sit behind the computer much of the day, and sometimes behind the wheel or on public transportation.  Yet, our diet, in general, is still carb heavy. 

            Indeed, you need lots of carbs to sustain you if you have a very physical job - the way our ancestors did when they created the agricultural diet of grains and starches we still hang on to.  But if you sit most of the day you don't need all that bready, noodly, ricy, potatoy type of food (sugar is a whole other bad matter - empty calories and inflammatory) - hence, it's easy to gain weight on this diet.

             Soooooo - if you want to lose weight, and if you don't work in construction or farming, consider cutting out some of those refined carbs and starches and making friends with all those low cal/low carb vegetables such as peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, greens, asparagus, squash, mushrooms, cucumbers, eggplant, and tomatoes (I probably forgot some).  Of course you'll need to make them delicious - I don't care for steamed broccoli one bit!   Spice them up (the Indians have developed delicious spice combinations), combine them, sprinkle parmesan over them, broil them with olive oil until they are a bit toasty burnt on top, add lots of garlic, or butter, or sesame oil, sauce them up, puree them - mmmhhh.

why live deeply

       Living deeply is about creating a meaningful life.  It's about putting the quality back into life by creating win-win scenarios.  This requires a shift in values, away from "profit above all," quantification, and our usual win-lose scenarios, to a value-based culture that is cooperative, sustainable, compassionate, and transparent.  It's about creating a good-for-all, not just a good-for-some, culture.       

      Any reason not to want this?

setting the tone

         In some cultures wedding dates, company incorporation dates, or official opening dates for a commercial endeavor get vetted astrologically to ensure the stars are in good alignment, and the date and time are auspicious and promise a bright future. 

         Regardless of whether you believe in astrology or not, setting the tone for an event or an endeavor, I believe, does make a difference.  Sending out good energy, setting a clear direction in your mind for a new beginnings, or the tone for the New Year, matters because intent sends out forward energy.

         We had a private book launching for my book DEEP LIVING and it was a very spirited event, I would even say auspicious.  It's like when your New Year's Eve party is fabulous and it sets a festive and positive tone for the year.  It's like when you give yourself a birthday bash and celebrate yourself and feel good about feeling good.  It's like when you set the table for a special dinner nicely with effort and the intent to make it special.  Set your mind up for success next time you create an event or start on a new endeavor.

a Ford or a BMW?

            You get the difference between a Ford and a BMW.  The BMW is a better car.  Because all components are made of superior materials, and lengthy thought and testing has gone into the design of the mechanics, it will last long and the driving experience is exceptional.

            When it comes to food we have the same choices, between the Fords and the BMWs of foods so to speak, but.......with food the choices you make matter a whole lot more than which car you drive.  And I am not talking about caviar versus pasta.  I am talking about how a food is grown or made, what goes into it, how natural it is - you get it, its inherent quality.  Food goes inside your body, it literally becomes you.  It gives you the energy to live, promotes building and healing the cells in your body, contributes to a good immune system, feeds the brain so you can "think on your feet," and insures your overall good health.  My mother believes that she would have been taller if she didn't get inferior food during the first six crucial years of her life, the six years of WWII.

            Inferior foods, whether out of a carton and enhanced with chemicals, grown with pesticides, premade and over sugared, fed antibiotics and growth hormones, or kept and slaughtered under horrific conditions, cannot give you BMW quality health.    The consequences can be many fold.  Eating inferior foods can cause you to be more susceptible to illness in general because your body doesn't get adequate nutrition, you may tire more easily, have a troubled digestive tract, duller skin, less zest for life, think more fuzzily, become afflicted by chronic conditions, and even die younger.

            Of all the Western industrialized countries this one spends the least amount of money on food in proportion to average income - for the sake of your health, increase your food budget.   You don't need a BMW to get around, but you need superior food to live a long, healthy, and beautiful life.

good humor

             You probably know that laughing is good for your health and wellbeing.  I love good, gentle humor - especially the kind that is self-deprecating because it's not done at someone else's expense.  Dressing someone down in order to elevate yourself - look at that garish dress, haha - creates a win-lose situation.  When you humor yourself on the other hand - oh, dear, hopefully stepping into that dog pile will bring me a whole bunch of good luck - nobody else gets emotionally hurt because you pointed out the irony in something you yourself did - then everyone can laugh freely and without guilt.  It's a win-win.

            Because I'm a bit serious by nature I have always admired people who can humor themselves, who don't take themselves too seriously.  But as I'm maturing I'm getting a little better at it, more easily in writing, when I have some time to think about what to say, although I will never be a stand-up comic. 

            Self-deprecating humor doesn't offend anyone but the humorist, so it's safe and harmless.  I heard someone say that it only works well if you're confident already.  Then it can be put to good use - as a speaker to loosen up an audience, as a teacher to lighten the classroom atmosphere, as a boss in a meeting.  Self-deprecation makes us human and approachable.  How is your sense of humor?

no waste

         Nature leaves no waste, only people do. Nature's waste is sustainable because its decomposition follows a sustainable cycle in which every part feeds the next step in the cycle endlessly.  Animal waste and dead plant material compost back into the soil, carrion eating birds and little critters take care of animal carcasses, trees absorb the carbon dioxide that animals and humans exhale.  It is only us humans who have devised production processes that transform natural materials into stuff that is either itself not recyclable (think plastics) and creates trash that way, or whose manufacturing produces side effects in the form of waste and pollution (any industrial process).

            Worldwide many towns and cities strive to become zero-waste by 2020.  The goal of zero-waste is to recycle and compost everything so nothing goes into the landfill.  It takes a strong commitment from the city and a persistent education effort to overcome people's initial resistance and learning curve - take a look at this video of a Japanese town that's almost there.  Then take a look at your household trash and recycling logistics.  Can you do better?  You may also want to re-read an older post - trash-free?    Since Nature leaves no waste let's remember that we, actually, are Nature, too.

the glue of relationships

              Profit and trust are difficult to reconcile.  It's easy to lose trust when money enters the picture, especially in the business world.  When profit, our highest cultural value, reigns over trust or compassion or mutual benefit it undermines a relationship.  But trust is the glue of all good relationships.  When we lose trust in someone because they value their company's or their own financial benefit over a cooperative and open relationship we tend to tread backwards, withhold from ourselves, and close up. Business relationships often display a certain level of distrust or cautiousness because a business's ultimate goal by definition revolves around profit.  

            However, once we become aware of the tie-in between money and trust, it's possible to work for the mutual benefit of both parties by consciously working towards a win-win situation, a scenarios that benefits both parties or partners.  Trust is the ultimate glue of any relationship.  Build trust and you create a bond.

so exquisite

             Is there anything more beautiful than these water drops that glitter like Swarovski crystals in the sun?  Nature creates this kind of perfection effortlessly, without trying - naturally.  So different from us, when we try to create beauty.  We have to apply skill and technology.  We need to work at it, spending years of practicing and perfecting a skill, before something becomes naturally beautiful without trying too hard.

            Here - another blog post - on nature's effortless perfection.