Connecting higher

[Catch22]

This is a gist I have gathered, [a quick look up from wiki] ,John Milton was a blind poet .As a follow up to Paradise lost he wrote, Paradise Regained,
He was against -state-dominated church ,denouncing corrupt practices in church governance . As the Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers and the people.
scholar John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published Paradise Lost in 1667 ,Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic."

As the subject centered around Adam and eve ,The critical interpretation have been various .
And the sentence may have had to do with the portrayal of these two characters [to my mind that is ]

Religion and church played a big role those days in Milton's times .
But for today ,it can only mean that essentially everything has to do with one's own mind .
Would be very interesting to know of what you may have to say though.

 

[Catch22]

3 Sources of Happiness That Aren’t Tied to People or Stuff Source - Internet.

It’s incredibly important to find sources of happiness in your life that aren’t tied to people or stuff.

Because you can’t always depend on “people” or “stuff” to be there for you all of the time. So if your happiness is only tied to them, it’s going to be much easier to lose that happiness when they are gone.

People come and go. You probably don’t hang out with the same people you did 10 years ago, and you probably won’t hang out with the same people 10 years into the future either. Relationships change: people move, people change jobs, people die, or people just lose touch over time.

Stuff comes and goes. Your new car eventually breaks down. Your new phone eventually becomes outdated. Your new computer eventually stops working. You lose things. You forget things. You get a short high when you first buy something, and then it quickly fades away.

When your happiness is only tied to things that are always changing, you’re going to get easily caught up in the “highs” and “lows.” In certain times, it’s necessary to have sources of happiness that aren’t tied to anyone but yourself.

Here are 3 sources of happiness that aren’t tied to people or stuff.


1. Learning new things

One of my main sources of happiness is learning new things.

There is always more to learn and explore in this world. There are many days I’ve gotten pleasantly lost searching for knowledge about all sorts of topics and subjects: psychology, music, economics, politics, history, and philosophy.

Just learning for the sake of learning is something that can be very fulfilling. Even learning about something that has nothing to do with your life personally can be a great way to enter a new world and expand yourself as a human being.

It feels good to better understand the world and how it works. There is a great joy and satisfaction in just learning something new each day – about anything, but especially things that you have a strong interest in.

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated either.

Just learning a new recipe, or learning a new dance, or learning a new magic trick can lead you to feel a little more accomplished and happier. It’s good for your self-esteem and it’s good for your brain.

You may have graduated school, but your mind often craves to continue learning more and absorbing more.


2. Pursuing meaningful goals[/COLOR]

Another huge source of happiness for me is pursuing meaningful goals.

These include goals outside of work and home life, which could mean anything from writing a book, to creating a song, to starting a blog, to taking up photography.

It’s healthy to have a goal that you’re pursuing just for yourself and your own joy and satisfaction.

For example, whenever I’m feeling really down and beaten by life, I’m always motivated to work on my music. It seems to be a type of “backbone” for me when life starts to get chaotic and out-of-control.

We all need that backbone in life – a meaningful pursuit that we can go to even when we have nothing else going well for us.

Do you know what that backbone is for you? That hobby that is always there for you when you’re feeling horrible? It’s important to have one if you don’t already.

3. Stopping to reflect and appreciate

If you can’t just stop, reflect, and appreciate life every now and then, it’s going to be difficult to find any amount of happiness.

Sometimes you have to learn how to just sit and appreciate things exactly as they are, without always wanting to change them.

There is nothing to me like just sitting in the sun in the afternoon or staring at the stars at night – and being completely happy with the present moment.

If you can’t find contentment in those common everyday experiences in life, then you probably won’t be able to find much contentment with the rest of life either.


Conclusion

Of course, these aren’t the only sources of happiness. But it helps to have multiple sources of happiness, especially ones that aren’t always tied to people or stuff.

These are sources of happiness that only require you, and that’s what can make them such a powerful reservoir to draw from when you need that extra boost in your mental health and well-being.

Source - internet

 

[DSM]

 

[DSM]

Being Happy - Matthew Manning

1. Stop comparing yourself to other people. I work in psychiatry and can tell you first-hand that so many seemingly happy and successful people are burning themselves alive on the fire of their inner turmoil. Focus on you.

2. Socialize. Even if you are an introvert, force yourself into social scenarios that give you the opportunity to meet people and form connections. These connections will put you back in touch with your humanity.

3. Make healthy decisions. It is amazing how much exercise and good diet can change your outlook on the world around you. The negative thoughts in your head that seem so very real and pressing will melt away.

4. Do something different. Stop wasting your time trying to find the "perfect hobby." Pick anything - whether it's fiber art or coffee tasting. Find something that you can put effort into, build competence, and see results.

5. Get in touch with your anchors. We tend to lose these anchors as we get older. Try to better position yourself within any communities you once found a home in, whether that's your family, your neighborhood, your culture, or your religion.

6. Look less ahead. Look less behind. Try to refocus yourself to the current moment more often. Start building memories instead of living in them. Start creating your future instead of just hoping for a better one. If you don't do this, your life will become a fog that can stretch across your entire time on earth.

7. Create. Write in a journal. Paint something. Make up a song even if you will never perform it. Start to fashion the relics that you will leave behind when you are gone.

8. Let go. Forgive those who hurt you. I'm sorry you were hurt. But if you do not leave that hurt in the past, it will follow you like a wolf - forever casting a dangerous shadow over everything you do.

9. Worry more about the others. Many times it is our own narcissism that destroys us. It seems counter-intuitive, but take some time each day to think about the needs of the other people in your life. Helping them meet those needs will make you happier in a way that you might not understand right now.

10. Stop running. There is no such place as "away." Travel as far as you want, but you will still find yourself waiting for you when you get there. Pull out your sword. It's time to turn around and fight the dragons inside you.

 

[Catch22]

http://training.tonyrobbins.com/the-6-human-needs-why-we-do-what-we-do/



The 6 Human Needs: Why We Do What We Do

Why do human beings do the things they do? How is it that one person will sacrifice his own life for another, while another will murder a stranger for sheer pleasure? What creates a Charles Manson or a Nelson Mandela? What is the force that drives and shapes all of our emotions, actions, qualities of life, and ultimately, our destinies?

While each human being is unique, we also share nervous systems that function in the same way. There are also six fundamental needs that everyone has in common, and all behavior is simply an attempt to meet those six needs.

This drive is encoded in our nervous system.
The means by which people meet these six human needs are unlimited. For example, one of the six human needs is the desire for certainty that we can avoid pain and gain pleasure (i.e. comfort). Some people pursue this need by striving to control all aspects of their lives, while others obtain certainty by giving up control and adopting a philosophy of faith. Variety makes us feel alive and engaged. Then there’s the desire for significance—a belief that one’s life has meaning and importance. Some individuals will pursue this need by competing with others, or by destroying and tearing down those around them. Others may strive to fulfill this need through connection with other human beings.
The force of life is the drive for fulfillment; we all have a need to experience a life of meaning. Fulfillment can only be achieved through a pattern of living in which we focus on two spiritual needs: 1) the need to continuously grow; and 2) the need to contribute beyond ourselves in a meaningful way. All dysfunctional behaviors arise from the inability to consistently meet these needs. When our attempts to reach fulfillment fail, we will settle for comfort—or for meeting our needs on a small scale. Look to replace any dis-empowering ways of meeting your needs with things that empower and support you and others.

Understanding these needs, and which ones you are trying to meet in any given moment, can help you create new patterns that lead to lasting fulfillment.

Peak Performance Action Plan:
1. Which of these six needs do you tend to focus on or value the most?
2. What are the ways (good and bad) you meet these needs? For example, in your relationships, work, eating, exercise, etc.?
3. How can you increase your focus on growth and contribution? What are some things you can do, or new experiences you can participate in? Use the Hour of Power to maximize your planning in this area.

The Six Human Needs
1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure

2. Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli

3. Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed

4. Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something

5. Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding

6. Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting other

 

[Catch22]

http://www.ted.com/talks/ze_frank_are_you_human
Have you ever wondered: Am I a human being?

Ze Frank suggests a series of simple questions that will determine this. Please relax and follow the prompts. Let's begin …

This is the human test, a test to see if you are a human. Please raise your hand if something applies to you. Are we agreed? Yes? Then let's begin.

Have you ever made a small, weird sound when you remembered something embarrassing?

Have you ever purposely lowercased the first letter of a text in order to come across as sad or disappointed? Okay.

Have you ever ended a text with a period as a sign of aggression? Okay. Period.

Have you ever laughed or smiled when someone said something shitty to you and then spent the rest of the day wondering why you reacted that way? Yes.

Have you ever seemed to lose your airplane ticket a thousand times as you walked from the check-in to the gate? Yes.

Have you ever put on a pair of pants and then much later realized that there was a loose sock smushed up against your thigh? Good.

Have you ever tried to guess someone else's password so many times that it locked their account? Mmm.

Have you ever hoped that there was some ability you hadn't discovered yet that you were just naturally great at? Mmm.

Have you ever broken something in real life, and then found yourself looking for an "undo" button in real life?

Have you ever misplaced your TED badge and then immediately started imagining what a three-day Vancouver vacation might look like?

Have you ever marveled at how someone you thought was so ordinary could suddenly become so beautiful?

Have you ever stared at your phone smiling like an idiot while texting with someone? Have you ever subsequently texted that person the phrase "I'm staring at the phone smiling like an idiot"?

Have you ever been tempted to, and then gave in to the temptation, of looking through someone else's phone?

Have you ever had a conversation with yourself and then suddenly realized you'r a real 'dumbo' to yourself?

Has your phone ever run out of battery in the middle of an argument, and it sort of felt like the phone was breaking up with both of you?

Have you ever thought that working on an issue between you was futile because it should just be easier than this, or this is supposed to happen just naturally? Have you ever realized that very little, in the long run, just happens naturally?

Have you ever woken up blissfully and suddenly been flooded by the awful remembrance that someone had left you?

Have you ever lost the ability to imagine a future without a person that no longer was in your life? Have you ever looked back on that event with the sad smile of autumn and the realization that futures will happen regardless?

Congratulations. You have now completed the test. You are all human.

 

[Catch22]

 

[Catch22]

It’s a common saying that elephants never forget. But the more we learn about elephants, the more it appears that their impressive memory is only one aspect of an incredible intelligence that makes them some of the most social, creative, and benevolent creatures on Earth. Alex Gendler takes us into the incredible, unforgettable mind of an elephant.

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-elephants-never-forget-alex-gendler

 

[Catch22]

Mobile apps taming India's chaotic auto-rickshaws

source- http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29840206


There's a thin line between driving dexterity and recklessness.

Take a white-knuckle auto-rickshaw ride through Delhi's chaotic streets and that line, along with everything else, becomes very blurred indeed.

But at least you have found a ride and are going somewhere - catching an auto-rickshaw can often be a pain for Indian commuters.

If you can't find one where these three-wheeled taxis are swarming, you are forced to wait in monsoon rains or summer heat trusting your luck to a chance encounter. Not the best start to the day.

Now, in several cities across India, hailing an "auto", as they are known locally, is as simple as reaching for your phone.

Auto in your pocket

In Delhi, Pooch-O is an app developed by the city's transport department to smooth commuters' way to work, and help rickshaw drivers earn more.

It pinpoints nearby rickshaws, which are detected through vehicle-installed GPS, and displays them for you on Google Maps.

You click on the icon to call a free driver. If your Hindi is as hopeless as mine you can make yourself understood by text. The auto usually arrives within the next few minutes.

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"We don't have to look for our passengers," says auto-driver Rajesh Sheena. "Wherever we are, they contact us or call us on the phone."

Before you set off, Pooch-O also helps with the awkward issue of price.

Whereas drivers in Mumbai are pretty good at agreeing to use the meter, Delhi drivers are not. The app includes a fare calculator, so meter on or meter off, you know roughly what you should be paying, making testy exchanges less likely.

"The public gets onto the scooter comfortably," says driver Ram Naran, "and they do not haggle when giving the money. There is no tension."

Pooch-O has experienced some problems, however, that its designers say they are ironing out.

Users have complained they have been put through to the wrong number, and driver Bashir Hussein grumbles "nobody has ever called me. It is of no benefit to me."

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Pick and choose

Further south in Bangalore, a private initiative called mGaadi is attracting drivers tired of driving around wasting fuel looking for customers.

Profit margins are so tight here that most drivers are lucky to take home between 700 to 800 rupees - that's about £7.50 ($12) for a long day's work.

"Working from the morning, five o'clock until eight o'clock at night - it is a huge amount of time," says auto-driver Christie Thompson, "Fourteen hours a day, a man cannot sit in an auto. It is completely hot and even he is completely frustrated also."

Drivers can picky about their passengers - the battle to make a living means they have become particular about the jobs they take on.

If they don't think they will find another job at the end of a journey, they might insist on a fixed off-meter fare or simply refuse to take a client. The business imperative is simple: if they don't do this, they make a loss.

The company says its app keeps everyone happy. For a flat charge of five rupees (5p) per ride, it feeds drivers a stream of customers. The only condition is that drivers use their meters.

Kiran Raj, an app developer at mGaadi, says: "We end up giving continuous trips to drivers, so drivers will not spend time wasting gas, so they will not ask for extra money from customers."

The mGaadi app differs from the Delhi app in that drivers here do not need to have expensive GPS installed on their rickshaws, nor do they need a pricey smartphone.

Drivers with cheaper so-called feature phones call a pre-arranged mGaadi number, and hang up after two rings. The logged call is analysed, and the driver's position established by triangulating the phone mast positions recorded in the call's metadata.

Safety first

Considerable thought has also gone into the psychology of the relationships the app is forging.

Like Uber, mGaadi encourages app users to rate their journeys and drivers. These performance rankings help elevate the status of a driver from faceless operative to respected professional.

The app also allows users to track journeys by receiving text updates, enabling concerned parents, say, to monitor the progress of their children as they come home from school.

Vishy Kuruganti, mGaadi's co-founder, says: "Just the fact that someone is taking an mGaadi trip where the driver's name, identification, other details like phone number, vehicle and all that, is known, that itself adds to a lot of comfortable feeling.

"And then on top of that you add other things that will come on, such as tracking the location constantly, then it will give a whole lot of comfort to the commuter as well as the commuter's family."

India may be a country obsessed by smartphones and technology, but it is also a place where systems often often fray at the edges.

At least apps like Pooch-O in Delhi and mGaadi in Bangalore are trying to bring more order to a sometimes chaotic transport system.

In doing so they are raising the status and incomes of drivers and helping passengers to find transport, making it cheaper and safer for them as well

 

[Somatung]

@Catch 22

Nice article in the above post. :thumb: