A while back a friend came to the house with an iPhone, and all the contacts and email had been deleted. She was fit to be tied. I tried a quick fix.
I added and removed the nefarious email account in question. I watched as the emotions flashed across her face, as all her contacts, and email reappeared. For a moment I was weightless.
It was not a large effort on my part, but I felt helpful.
There are times when I am able to be helpful and give however I can. I feel like the happiness boost can last for days.
Why does it feel so good to be kind to others?
How does one cultivate the warm kind smiling part of ourselves?
Is it true that gratitude and compassion are actually the ingredients to happiness?
It turns out science has a simple explanation for this, and for many it will seem to simple, and be dismissed.
Watch this 4:00 minute video from Amit Sood M.D. and tell me if you feel inspired like I did.
Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won’t have to hunt for happiness.
William E. Gladstone
Will you make any changes in your life with this knowledge? Tell me in a comment below.
When I adopted a regular meditation and Yoga practice into my life, I noticed subtle changes.
First, by giving myself a few moments to observe my thoughts everyday, I start the day at a calm resting state. If the benefit of a morning practice is to “Be” in a more relaxed state, that alone would be huge.
A second benefit is to quickly return to a relaxed state, by returning the focus to the breath. The ability to rewrite the wiring of the brain is Neuroplasticity at work.
Wouldn’t it be great if science told us this same Utopian story in a persuasive manner?
“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany.
I love when science validates intuition and personal experience. I guess we can enjoy the benefits of our practice and wait for the science to catch up.
Think back to the last time you were in the zone. In the moment, without thoughts. The silent thoughtless state is what the Yogis call Being. The state of Being also emerges when you close your eyes and become aware of your breath. Anyone who chooses to close their eyes and take a few deep breaths becomes aware of a felt sense of Being, but how many actually abide in this state?
Have you ever heard of an open secret?
An open secret is something that is known, but not actualized. Anyone can take advantage of an open secret, but most will not put in the effort.
Will you make use of this open secret?
Are you willing to experiment with a simple meditation practice? If the answer is yes, follow these steps.
1. Set aside 2 minutes to sit in a room alone with your eyes closed.
2. Simply allow everything to be just as it is.
Remember:
You are the observer, not the doer, and you have one objective; just Be.
If you find yourself deep in a thought or feeling, return to allowing everything to be just as it is, not trying to fix or change anything.
Notice how your posture shifts when you dive into a thought and lose yourself.
At any point return to observing your breath.
What emerged when you tried the experiment? Leave a comment below.
Hey guys, whether you want to schedule a Google video chat meeting, or you have been asked to join a Google hangout meeting, this tutorial will help to get you up and running.
System Requirements
Connect with up to 10 people
Each participant needs a computer with a microphone, and Internet connection, a webcam is optional.
Attendees can be added to the hangout (voice only) by dialing a phone number
Ensure you join the hangout from Chrome and not Safari or Windows Explorer
Scheduling a Hangout Video Call Through Google Apps:
1. The host creates an appointment on their Google calendar, and invites attendees by entering their email addresses in the right-hand column that says Add guests.
2. At the start of the meeting, each guest will go to their calendar appointment. Just underneath the Where field is another field called Video call. Next to it is a green video icon and a link that says Join meeting: yourname. Click on that link to launch the Hangout and join the call.
Hangout Video Call Features:
Once you connect, you will see an image of yourself, and an image of the person(s) who are on the video call. If you move your cursor to the left of the screen, a bar with icons should appear:
Chat – click on the blue icon with lines to open a chat field on the right side of your screen. When other participants have their chat screen open at the same time, you can type notes or share links to documents from the chat window.
Screenshare – click on the green icon that looks like a video monitor to share your screen. If you have multiple programs open at the same time, you will be presented with choices for what to share.
You can share your entire desktop (background, menus, all programs) exactly as you see it. If you have multiple programs open, or alert windows that pop up from time to time, this can be distracting.
You can also choose just one file to share. For example, if you have a PowerPoint document open, you can choose to display only that PowerPoint. This is often a cleaner and more professional image.
Audio Video Settings
You can choose where your audio and video sources from two places.
1st within system preferences within the Mac OS
2nd within the audio video settings within Google Hangout Environment. Move your mouse to the top of the hangout screen and the following choices will appear.
To Choose which microphone to use in the hangout, you will see this. I choosing where I want my audio to be routed when speaking on a Google Hangout. Here I would like to set my headphones. If you have a room full of people on the call, you could choose send the audio to airplay. While this is cool, there will be a delay in the audio.
I hope this tutorial gets you started in using Google Hangouts.
If you have any tips or tricks of your own please leave them in a comment below.
