The Blind Village and the Elephant

by Robert Elias Najemy

Many of you will know this story and of course it is not mine, but it is worth remembering during these days of fear and fanaticism.

"Once there was a village of blind people (that is us). In this village lived a blind king, five blind wise men and the rest of the villagers who also could not see.

"One day an elephant came stumping heavily into the village, and stood in the village square. All the villagers were quite alarmed and anxious to find out what was this thunderous entity which had entered their village. The king ordered the five wise men to investigate the phenomenon and to report their findings.

Each of the five wise men approached the elephant from a different angle. The first came up the elephant's side, and, after feeling it, reported that it was a huge walking, pulsating wall which had come into the village.

The second wise man got hold of one of its legs and said it was not a wall but a walking tree trunk, which had come to visit them.

The third came upon the tail and rejected the first two opinions, announcing that the truth was that it was a snake.

The fourth having grabbed the ear, stated that previous observations were wrong and that the truth was that it was a large walking leaf.

The fifth who happened to catch hold of the trunk claimed that the others were wrong and that the reality was that it was a large moving hose.

The wise men and their respective followers came into intense conflict concerning the reality of what had walked into their village.

The blind village represents the present state of spiritual blindness affecting all of humanity. The five wise men represent the various major religions, who, approaching the unseen God from various angles, have experienced God in different ways. In our blind state, we argue about what the reality of God is, when there is ONLY ONE GOD, which is in reality the essence of all beings and things which exist.

Why then do we need to fight and argue between ourselves? Each religion is a valid path to the same One God. All are correct. All need to be respected. Each individual may choose the religious path which suits him and move efficiently forward, with love for God and all beings in his heart.


Let us not be blind to the truth of God¹s omnipresence even in those who have differing beliefs. Let us open our eyes and see the oneness of all beings.
Be Well

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(Robert Elias Najemy's recently released book "The Psychology of Happiness" (ISBN 0-9710116-0-5) is available at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/holisticharmo-20
and http://www.HolisticHarmony.com/psychofhappiness.html .
His writings can be viewed at http://www.HolisticHarmony.com where you can also download FREE articles and e-books.)
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Self Help Article, Managing Stress From Another World

by Roy Thomsitt


Modern stress is habitual, and is something that the vast majority of Americans and Britons succumb to in their material driven lives. Whether mildly or overwhelmingly, stress will cast its powers across most of us at some stage in our lives, often increasingly as we get sucked into a pattern of working and living that gradually strips us of our individuality.

Stress reduction has therefore become a "necessary" antidote industry. We may console ourselves by saying that our lives are fast paced; that this is what modern living is all about and we must pursue it frenetically; that people in those poor countries which have not adopted the Anglo-American way are just backward and will catch on eventually. But that is not just a consolation; it is both an illusion and a denial, and helps stress reduction in no way at all.

It is an illusion first of all that the average consumer has a fast paced life. A commuter may sit in a train twice a day, to and from their place of work; that train may move at a fast pace, but the commuter does not. They just sit there, their minds going over the same themes as always; last night's tv, tonight's tv, wishing they could have had another hour's sleep or wishing they were already home and tucked up for the night's slumber, or the day's boredom at work behind them or before them. Drowned in tedium and repetition, the vacuum left in their daily lives is gradually filled with stress, as if it had a supporting role in their existence.

A tiring and repetitious daily routine can be a breeding ground for discontent and unhappiness, the real reasons for modern stress. If that routine is full of creativity, and control over one's own actions, then it may not be a source of stress at all, or discontent. If, however, the individual is suppressed, then it can be a very different story. Most people are employees, whose lives are dictated by those above them and with no or little scope to think and do for themselves. They are particularly vulnerable to modern stress.

Caught up in the modern way of life, it is very easy to lose connection with yourself as an individual, for your individuality can be suppressed from all sides. I am sure I am not alone in having experienced that. I had lived the zombie like existence for over 20 years, and despite the fact that I had some very stimulating jobs, I had, almost unknowingly, lost track of life as it should be. Then in 1995, I packed it all in and started my own business, and started the long haul to win back my individuality. But it was 1998 before I started to fully appreciate again what having control over your own life really meant. The 20 plus years were a blur; where had I been all that time? One of the problems with modern stress is that it becomes a focus, along side the focus on purely material things such as the "need" to have a new car, a new house, the best clothes, the best tv and so on. Modern stress is a consumer product in itself, part of the material razzmatazz, that keeps the consumer in his or her place: a consumer, not a doer or a thinker; someone who plays by the rules and spends and borrows and spends and borrows to relieve themselves of the tedium and chase the shadow of achievement. Not real achievement; just its shadow.
That is not to say, though, that there is no relief from stress in the Anglo-American world. Those who are able to escape back to the real world now and again, and who can exercise sufficient self control regularly enough, will find that stress relatively easy to keep under control.

So how do we get to this other world, where we can manage our stress? There are portals all around you. Anything that will take your mind away from the self focus is a portal into this other world. Spending time with your children, and seeing life through their eyes for a while every day; the joy of discovery and play; but not as a drain upon your resources, and not as a part of your tedium. Spending time appreciating the wonders around you, the joys of nature, the little miracles that are within a short distance of where you stand or sit. Spending time travelling, helping others, seeing the true misery of people who are under the real stress caused by extreme poverty and disease, not the packaged consumer stress that we tend to think of.

This "other world" is a world of perspective. It is a world you used to know, but have somehow lost through lack of time. Yet, there was never any lack of time; that was an illusion too. This "other world" is also a world where you make the choices, consciously, not have them dictated to you by employers or weariness. A few simple choices each day can distract you enough to bring some relief to consumer induced stress. Fill the vacuum with your choices, and stress will not find such an easy way in.

About The Author: This stress reduction article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner and part author of http://www.routes-to-self-improvement.com/ManagingStress.htm

To Catch a Thief: 6 Steps to Eliminate Your Time Stealers

by Beverley Hamilton

Step 1 – Know Your Thief

What are things that lead you to say, “I don’t have enough time”? What is it that you are spending your time on that you feel is preventing you from achieving all that you want to achieve in a day or week? Is it email, too many or unproductive meetings, interruptions, work overload or too many priorities?

Create a list - and be honest. When you know specifically, on what and how you are spending your time, you can then decide whether it’s contributing to what you want to achieve or not.

Step 2 – Stakeout and Surveillance

For 3 consecutive working days, analyse how and on what you spend your time. On a sheet of paper or in an excel sheet, write out timings starting from when you start work, say 0830, in 30 minute slots, until the time you finish your day. For example

0830 - 0900

0900 – 0930

etc

1700 – 1730

For each 30 minute slot, write down exactly how you spend that time – no cheating!

After the 3 days, analyse where your time was spent and if there are any patterns.

Step 3 – Identify the Godfathers and Small Timers

What are the top 5 things that you spend time on that you feel is unproductive time? From your list in step 1 and analysis in step 2, rank them with “robs most of my time” at the top to “petty thief” at the bottom.

Step 4 – Pick Them Off 1 by 1

Decide whether you are going to tackle some of the “small timers” or whether you are going to go straight for the eliminating or neutralising the “godfathers”. Are you motivated to change the easy things first and get some quick wins or are you so frustrated by certain things that you must attack those first? Whichever you choose, commit to 1 thing at a time and achieve it.

Step 5 – Keep Up the Pressure

Once you have tackled 1 or 2 time stealers review how and on what you are spending your time again. Have you filled that time with more time stealers or are you now finding that your time is being spent more productively? Consistently reviewing where you are focusing your time will help your awareness and awareness is key in enabling further change.

Step 6 - Install Your Alarm

Prevention is better than cure. You have neutralised your time stealers and you now need to put and “alarm system” in place to make sure that you are not caught out in future.

Plan to review how and on what you spend your time weekly and monthly. Ask friends and colleagues to be your “neighbourhood watch” and tell you when they think you are focusing your time on areas that are unproductive for you or don’t contribute to the achievement of your goals.

Time is a finite resource and how you utilise that resource efficiently and effectively can generate a productive, fruitful and happy life or an unproductive, stressful and frustrating life.

The key to productivity is knowing on what and how you need to be spending your time in order to achieve your goals; whether they are work objectives and performance targets or personal goals to create the right work life balance for you.

© Beverley Hamilton 2005

About the Author

Beverley Hamilton is the author of Take Control of Your Time: 7 Straight Shooter Strategies for Success

She is also MD of One Step Further and is a Business Coach to Independent Business Consultants. To learn more, subscribe to Quickstart, her free weekly newsletter for consultants who want to grow a profitable business consultancy and still have time for a life. Go to Quickstart You’ll also receive a complementary 5 part ecourse Discover The 5 Most Common, Incorrect Assumptions Independent Business Consultants Make

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/