Obviously because they would not want to harm their lungs with the deadly pollutants. Strangely, we often do the equivalent and far worse to ourselves.

We pollute our minds. We feed our mind on thoughts which are harmful, and continually ‘smoke’ ideas that do our lives no good whatsoever. What kinds of thoughts?

Negative ones.

We may smoke “can’t do”, instead of drinking “how can I do?” water, or draw on a pipe of “it’s no use” instead of downing a refreshing glass of  ”I’ll find a way”.

The neighbour of Negativity is one to move far away from. Replacing the negative inputs with positive ones, and ‘smoking’ these positive ideas many times daily will burn in a long lasting beneficial effect on the mind.

(* ‘smoking’ positive thoughts is good for your mental health)

What have you eaten today?

What do you plan to eat tomorrow?

Whatever you eat will become you. As for the physical, so for the mental. Whatever your mind eats will become your beliefs, and ultimately your destiny.

So Ill change the question around:

“What are you reading?”

“What have you read today?”

“What do you plan to feed your mind tomorrow?”

The thoughts you plant in your mind will grow into the fruits of your life. What tree are you growing?

Relax.
How?Goals. Set them.

Having an end objective ensures you are able to enjoy the Now in a much more relaxed manner, and not be feeling stressed out in apprehension of the next crisis to react to. Goals also mean you are the instigator of change in your life thus are expecting change when it occurs. This also induces a more relaxed state.

Often our tensed state is not a result of lots of things happening in our lives, but the result of a lack of a definite plan of action to orchestrate the events in an organized manner.

Numerous studies over the years have shown that those with a prayerful, meditative mindset have healed faster than those without – all other things being equal.

Prayer needs the fuel of Belief to function, but that is probably the topic of another article…

There is such a solution, and it comes in the form of a whiteboard. I’ve found it useful for gestating thoughts and incubating them till they take on a more definite structure. An “ideas greenhouse”, if you will. I have my “brainboard” or “ideas-house” standing in front of me at my desk so it is easily editable as and when needed.

Each time you have a thought you may think in images, or ‘speak’ to yourself in words. If these thoughts are not enhancing your life you can change them for something that does.
A useful device for bringing about such change is an iPod. My preference is for the nano version as it is small yet powerful.
This small device can talk to your subconcious repeatedly through affirmations, or carefully chosen music.

After listening repeatedly to positive audio you will hear it even when you are not listening to it from time to time.

Like the slow drip of water cutting through rock, so will be the effect of listening. The effect of listening the first time may be unnoticeable, but the cumulative effect over time will be powerful enough to change ingrained habits.

Stuff. That’s what clutters up or lives for the most part.

We tend to think that having more items to fulfill functions within our lives will enhance our lives, whilst forgetting that for each item a place must be found for it to live, and to be useful we must spend time/energy in caring for it. Each item is a pet, each is an animal, and we are spending time in caring for our time zoo.

To lower the number of occupants in your zoo, consider integrating devices. Often there may be a small amount of compromise, that would not be the case when using specialized devices.

Even so, keeping only one horse to ride instead of keeping a donkey, ass, camel, and elephant as well (in the off chance you might ride one of them) would save more in feeding and upkeep over any riding efficiencies of the specialized animals. Plus, if you really have to negotiate that desert you could hire a camel when you need it.
Setting some animals free from your Time Zoo also sets you free in equal measure. Less time spent tidying up those things that clutter up life.
So the next time you’re about to purchase that ‘must have’ item, think about how much time it ‘must have’ from you when it occupies your Time Zoo.

Apparently this hypothetical question is about showing what is important to you. It was posed to me a number of years ago, but with a change of situation over the years my answer has remained constant. In fact, I don’t see my answer ever changing from what instantly popped into my mind at the time.

What would you take with you?

I’ve heard a number of answers, ranging from the obvious; “the family”, “the pet”, through the material; “passport”, “files”, “jewellery”, “phone”, to the eclectic such as “Love”. No, I don’t understand that last answer either, but the question is a personal one and as such it has no right or wrong answer.

From the answer I gave to the question I’ve discovered that what is important to me is a fresh approach to problem solving. In fact the answer partly influenced the creation of thoughtlateral.com.

What was my answer? “The fire itself”.

If we could take a mental snapshot of humanity, a photo of our minds’ thoughts we’d see what is yet to unfold. For the thoughts of our mind now will become actions of the future.

For the thoughts of our mind now will become actions of the future.

Wide angle lens anyone? Just don’t think about cheese when the ‘photo’ is taken!

We love Pixies!

On an obscure night in 2008 whilst creating a design using pixel buttons (which also go by the names of pixel badges, and antipixel, etc)  I thought “Wouldn’t it be a great idea if no pixels were used? Instead the button (or badge) is composed entirely by Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) code!”

Yeah, fantastic! My web fortune is upon me and I can retire in the lap of luxury!

In the sober light of day however, I find the idea is sooo fantastic it had been thought of  years ago (going back as far as 2002 I discovered). So I kept the day job.

Even so,  I’ve not yet come across CSS badges (pixeless buttons) that mimic the style of their pixel counterparts. This may be because no one has tried it, or more likely because my browser doesn’t  get about much. So I set about constructing a demo of a CSS badge (pixeless pixel button) that would look like a pixel button.

The CSS has ‘scope for refinement’ – which is a kinder way of saying it was a quick kludge.

/*CSS code */
table.badge {
border-style:solid;
border-width: 1px;
border-color: #666;
font-size: 8px;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #fff;
line-height: 6px;
background-color: #fff;
}
table.badge tr {
background-color: #888;
text-align: center;
text-transform:uppercase;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}
table.badge td.main {
background-color:#f60;
}

<!– html code –>
<table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=0 class=”badge” width=”88px” height=”15px”">
<tr><td class=”main”>px</td><td>free</td></tr>
</table>

Some examples I made earlier can be found here.

I refer to these pixeless pixel buttons as “Pixies” because it sounds cute, and is less likely to leave your tongue in a knot when saying it.

Other related sites:

www.pixelbutton.com – the pixel button website where you can create pixel graphics.

ZwahlenDesign, “Web Badges / Buttons” – the site containing CSS web buttons

http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2002/10/22/steal_these_buttons.html – the original antipixel blog post