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The economic crisis is casting a shadow on many lives at the moment. Maybe you too have some fears about the future? Are you worried about your job? Or about having less opportunities?

I’m going to to show you a simple way of optimizing your life. It’s called the SWOT analysis and is usually used for analyzing businesses. However, it’s actually a great tool for getting a grip on one’s life! I found that I could see more opportunities, as well as be alert to possible dangers, after I did a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT matrix is a framework for analyzing your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats you face. This helps you to focus on your strengths, minimize weaknesses, and take advantage of every opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Mary Jaksch

What happens when we die? Does consciousness remain? What is the purpose of life?
New research into near-death experiences leads to some startling conclusions.

“You have got to tell all the old people so that they won’ be afraid to die!” five-year old Chris told his doctor after he had been resuscitated after drowning.

His father lost control of his car he was driving at night and plunged into the freezing waters of a river near Seattle. As they sunk into icy waters, his mother managed to pull his older brother to safety, but it took another fifteen minutes to rescue Chris. When he was brought to shore, his breathing had stopped and there was no heart beat.

Miraculously doctors managed to resuscitate Chris. When he woke up, he told them:

“I went into a huge noodle when I died, well it must have been a tunnel because I don’t think noodles have rainbows in them.”

What Chris experienced was a Near Death Experience, or NDE. This is a pattern of events people can experience when come close to death. These are some of the features: Read the rest of this entry »

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In her open letter to Barak Obama, Alice Walker points out that personal happiness is a primary responsibility for Obama. She says:

A primary responsibility that you do have, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate.

One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

This is a point for us all to remember. It’s very easy to get caught up in the problems and stresses of life and lose sight that it’s only when we have a well-balanced and happy frame of mind that we can effect change. Or this is a selfish point of view?

What do you think?
Is Alice Walker right or not?