Use Mind Over Matter To Change Your Life
A lot of people have a hard time believing that they can change their circumstances. If you are like most people, you believe that what you have is what you are stuck with. Understanding the concept of mind over matter will change all that.
The truth is everything you have and all the things you would rather have are all mind over matter. Everyone on the planet has the capacity to master the principle of mind over matter, but you need to understand how to use your mind power to do it.
One of the ways you can develop using mind over matter is to practice turning all of your negative thoughts and beliefs into something positive. Take time to sit and think about what it means to control your life with your mind. Consider how everything in your life appears when you are happy. Think about a very content and peaceful time in your life. The bad things in life don’t seem as bad when a person is satisfied with the way things are going.
Now think about your current situation. How many times a day do you worry about not having enough money? Do you constantly put yourself down about not being able to lose weight? Are you in a job you hate? Every time your mind tells yourself these negative things, you’re telling your sub-conscious that you want it to focus on these things.
If you could master the mind over matter powers that could bring you more of the good things and less of the negative things, would you be interested?
Now imagine what power you could have by changing your own thought processes and beliefs. Imagine saying to yourself regularly ‘I deserve a better job with much more money’. Say this to yourself firmly every time you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts. Your sub-conscious is listening and you will begin to reprogram it to accept these positive thoughts.
When your sub-conscious is aware of the positive reality you want, your choices will be influenced by more positive actions, which lead naturally to more positive outcomes.
Affirmations are an excellent way to begin the re-programming process. Take a moment to think about your current situation. What thought processes led you to make the choices you did? Did you accidentally sign the papers for so much debt? Did you get into your relationship by accident? Did you accept your current job by accident? Each of these choices was a result of your mind being programmed to believe that was what you needed at that time in your life.
You will begin to see that everything in your life is mind over matter once you take a step back and think about your previous choices and decisions. Take for example a person who has been through a violent or abusive relationship. If those people have been told repeatedly they are fat or stupid or useless, eventually they’ll believe it. Their self-esteem will come crashing down.
If you want a more successful job then spend time to repeat affirmations to yourself daily. Tell yourself you deserve a higher paying, happier job. If you want a happier relationship, tell yourself often that you deserve a happier relationship. No matter what you want your life to look like, you can change the outcomes by programming your sub-conscious mind to look for the results you want.
The mind can do amazing things. You have most likely heard in various places that humans only use ten percent of their brain power – and guess what? That is a documented fact! Here we are with the remaining 90%, just allowing it to go to waste as time passes us by, when we could all be using it to empower our lives and ourselves!
You’ll be living a life full of abundance and joy once you’ve learned to master mind over matter techniques.
The author Jackie Traveller writes for the http://www.mindpower-info.com website. Discover the amazing experience of using mind power for yourself and get 29 Free mind over matter Binaural and hypnosis mp3 Audios And Videos when you visit here.
Latex Gloves Demonstrate Basic Health Principle
Mathios begins to tell the tale of a family of five children living in a typical nearby village, a place where citizens use the streets and alleys as their toilets. As his story unfolds, water begins to spring from leaks in the doll’s latex glove tummy. The doll starts to shrink as the villagers are told that several of the story’s children have contracted life threatening diarrhea as a result of feces contaminating their water and their food. The doll suddenly goes completely limp in Mathios’ hands, fluid depleted and all life gone, as he tells his audience that two of the family’s children have died of severe dehydration.
This is a credible story for Mathios’ audience. They have witnessed it in real life too many times. Their village, like the one in the story, has streets contaminated with human waste. For some in this room today, the moral is evident and something they may be able to act upon. Educating people about public sanitation can lead to a marked drop in child mortality rates and a community’s overall prosperity. So how does a program like Mathios’ make inroads and measure its success?
To show visitors how the “latrine message” is getting across to his audience, Mathios takes us across town for a tour. “We have a model latrine here that is made from locally available resources. Using that, we teach them,” he tells us. A very tiny tukul a round Ethiopian hut), stands to the side of the village’s central shop which sells staples such as flour and sugar. This little tukul is a “working model” latrine that shows people how one is meant to be constructed and used.
“Everybody comes here. And when they come, we teach,” says Mathios. Guards, hired by the NGO that sponsors Mathios’ program, are responsible for the latrine’s maintenance while health animators teach people how to build simple ones for their own home areas. The home latrine is no more than an appropriately located hole in the ground with a stone to cover it.
As our walking tour continues, Mathios points up to a nearby hill. What we see is a witness to this man’s teaching success: Barely more than a toddler, a little child is determinedly dragging a thin flat stone back over the opening of a latrine his mother has dug for the family. Step by step, family by family, the life-saving message gets across.
With decades in the glove industry, Ms. Long now directs an online education library for a large web retailer selling Latex Gloves and Related Supplies, informing disposable gloves consumers. Readers can visit this web resource, Understanding Latex Gloves.
Do Celebrities Know The Cosmic Ordering Secrets?
As more and more people learn about cosmic ordering, more and more are looking to get involved with it. Place an order and learn to move forward!
There are so many people around the world who are getting what they consciously desire. But it doesn’t work first time for everyone. Do the people who it does work for know something the others don’t? Are there really cosmic ordering secrets.
Think about the last time you saw someone succeed or win big. If you were grumbling and unhappy, you were just placing your order with the cosmos! The emotions of envy and disdain at another person’s success reinforces the belief that you will never be a success and that you will never get what you want. You are saying you always want to be poor and sad!
Think about going out to dinner. If you see someone with a great dinner, do you get angry? Chances are, all you do is order what they’re having! You’d be happy for them and hope that it would be as good for you whenever your dinner shows up.
With that in mind, why not be happy at someone else’s success? You’ll find that you can take happiness in their success and understand that your own is just as sweet. Don’t be angry or bitter or disappointed because that reinforces what you already have; you are essentially planning for failure.
Lots of religions tell us that prayer and thought can bring us anything we want, but they don’t tell us there is a catch. Belief is something that needs to be a part of this equation. More and more scientists have found that if you apply the principals of quantum physics to belief, it comes out quite the same. Many tenets of religious dogma show up to be quite true indeed!
It is the application of the mind’s energy that makes it happen. This doesn’t take away from the religious doctrine but enhances it with proof.
There are many things that block a person from achieving their dreams if they just use positive affirmations. Past beliefs negate all the phrases you say and eliminate most of the good that the affirmation creates. Some affirmations manage to stick, but it takes time if you allow the old beliefs to remain.
So what are the cosmic ordering secrets? You need to do a thorough housecleaning of your brain before you start any program to attain your life’s desires. You need to start with a clean slate and realize it’s okay to accept all the great wealth the Universe has to offer.
Lots of things can help you get rid of the old. Would you use a vacuum on a dirty carpet or a small tooth brush? There are lots of scientific designs out there that can help you make your mind more open to what it is you want.
Look at self-hypnosis, subliminal affirmations and binaural frequency waves to help you move forward. These tools are great when it comes to helping you get the results that you want, and when you use them, you can understand your own subconscious a lot better. This will help you avoid sabotaging your own attempts at success.
Your mind hates change. It fights to keep you in a steady state so unless you believe that you already have what you want, just by using your cosmic ordering system; it fights you tooth and nail. These additional tools help to believe you already are there and relieves you of the fight to improve. It even makes it uncomfortable not to achieve and receive everything you want, because you already believe it exists.
The cosmic ordering system can give you whatever it is you want. Pick out your order and then find a way to make it a reality!
Secrets Of Telepathic Humans
When we say an individual is ‘telepathic’ what is it that we really mean by this? The idea is usually considered science fiction or mysticism and is just dismissed by most people. But think of what science has made possible. Everyday we live with cell phones, computers and use of invisible radio and micro waves which retrieve the information we need. Hundreds of jets (controlled by computers) take off and land everyday world wide.
Is has been said that a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The human race has used science and technology to learn things about the natural world we never knew. We’ve done things that were considered impossible flights of fancy just a hundred years ago. We’ve had men walk on the bottoms of the oceans and on the surface of the moon (and we did it with technology that, by today’s standards, seems primitive). We can gather energy from the sun, the wind, and the water. And anyone can have a small device in their pocket that allows them to talk to anyone anywhere in the world. But this isn’t magic, its science right?
Is it then really too much of a stretch to accept the possibility of telepathic people? An individual who developed these mental properties would just be misunderstood by most people.
The scientific investigation of Telepathic people falls under the area of paraphysics or parapsychology. The people who investigate it, paraphysicists or parapsychologists, try hard to use experiments and the scientific method to answer questions about telepathy, whether or not they like the answers they find.
Some experiments on people with Telepathic powers have produced tantalizing results. In order to consider something scientifically provable, however, the test results must be measurable, consistent, and repeatable. This is where the scientific investigation of telepathy falls short. The test results are inconsistent and can’t always be duplicated. Some say this proves people can’t really be Telepathic. Others say this only proves that we don’t understand how it works yet, and haven’t developed the proper tests to measure it.
How can a person be Telepathic? Without the use of other senses, telepaths use their minds and how can they do this? This is not understood completely and is one that doesn’t use the sense of taste, smell, hearing and touch. Nevertheless it does exists. This can already be done artificially. Radio waves are invisible and you can’t see, smell or touch them, but they are real.
Many scientists are now investigating the concept of ‘thought waves’? These are possibly electrical or magnetic fields generated by the brain and these have been scientifically proven to exist. Explaining this in terms for the average person might be a little difficult, but stay with us.
Scientifically, human thought is just a biochemical process of neurons being transferred between different synapses in the brain. However, this transfer of neurons creates an electrical current. Tiny, sure, but measurable. This electrical current also generates a tiny magnetic field. Keep in mind the brain has tens of thousands of synapses firing at any one time.
Can humans use these bio-magnetic and bio-electric fields to communicate? Are the magnetic and electrical waves carrying content or is it meaningless static? Can mental training control brain waves? Meditation, controlled thoughts, can these techniques possibly be used in shaping brain waves, like these, into significant communication?
With the magnetic or electrical fields there are problems and these fields can easily be drowned out by the technology of everyday items like televisions, microwaves, refrigerators, stereos produce much bigger electrical and magnetic fields.
Can there possibly be a way to amplify the magnetic and electrical fields of the human brain? For example during an emotionally heightened state, such as shock, fear, pain, or the feeling of danger. A temporary spike in bio-magnetic and bio-electrical is created by the neural synapses firing in the brain.
Researchers of parapsychology have documented brief instances of Telepathic communication during such moments. A mother knowing instantly that their child has been hurt, for example, even though they are miles away. Is there a link between such brain chemistry activity spikes and instances of telepathic communication? Does the fact that the two people are genetically related play a role? Or is it all just a coincidence?
Unfortunately, there is not enough scientific evidence at the moment to prove that telepathy is a fact beyond doubt, as far as mainstream science is concerned. However this is gradually changing as more and more studies are showing that telepathic communication really does exist and with the right training, all humans can learn to become telepathic.
Start Living Again With Chakra Meditation
Meditation has been around for around two thousand years, it’s been a way of life for mankind. In fact every religion that is practiced by men uses some sort of meditation as a way of achieving a higher form of spiritual consciousness.
At first meditation was used mostly by religious priests, but through the years meditation has been picked up by ordinary people when they discover just how the various benefits work.
For those who are new to meditation, it is simply the practice of concentrated and intense focus on sounds, objects, ideas, breathing rhythm, action or movement to be able to intensify perception, cut down stress, enhance relaxation, personal and spiritual growth.
Meditation has been used in the past to build up a persons spiritual knowledge and even there awareness of the ultimate reality, but now it has begun to be employed by people who want to relieve stress and even pain.
Western medical practitioners are realizing that meditation has help people to cope with different health issues, so they are beginning to promote it to their patients more and more. In fact they have begun to use it along with medicines to help and relieve aches and pains for several people.
It is rather interesting when you see that medical clinics and hospitals across the nation have been offering meditation as a method for patients to improve their health. In fact meditation is now being used as a method of treatment for some diseases, and also as an additional therapeutic process for comprehensive treatment programs, and a way of improving people who have chronic health problems and their way of living.
There are three different approaches to meditation, first is transcendental, then relaxation response and third is mindfulness meditation, which is usually referred to as mindfulness-based stress reduction.
The practice of meditation brings to bear on the seven major chakras (which correspond to the body’s major endocrine glands) the power of the environment and the universe.
If you would practice meditation for at least 30 minutes a day it will contribute to your balanced and harmonious interdependent functions of the major chakras with one another.
The energy flows from the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown chakras while meditating your entire body’s biological, emotional and spiritual aspects will be equally nourished and balanced, while this is happening the physical, emotional, and spiritual toxins are cleansed from the body.
Since chakra meditation requires deep concentration the uninterrupted flow of energy into the body also gives a boost to the major chakras (and their corresponding endocrine counterparts).
You know how catalytic converters work? Well imagine your chakra meditation as a catalytic converter for your body. It gathers the energy outside of your body and channels it to the useful portions of your body’s chakra system.
Since chakras are such an essential part of our body and its metaphysical and physical manifestations, the tuning of them is very important to our everyday lives. And it will also affect our lives in directly or indirectly, emotionally, physically, intellectually and even spiritually.
There a different ways that people practice chakra meditation, but no matter what way they use the may step is to be able to concentrate and allow the focus to spread throughout your body.
Once you begin chakra meditation you are not going to notice an immediate change in your life. But with time you will find that you are going to experience a more positive outlook on life, and your perceptions will be sharper. Also you will be able to understand events and behaviors better. Meditation has been shown to be responsible for peoples overall better lives, and this is both physically and emotionally.
It seems that one of the biggest advantages is that people are more able to concentrate and their awareness is greater.
Also other noted benefits of chakra meditation are heightened creativity, better resourcefulness because of better perception. Also another proven benefit of chakra meditation is people tend to sleep much better and deeper, thus they will awake more refreshed in the morning, and overall health will also benefit by getting deeper sleep.
With daily chakra meditation, you can willfully reduce the effect of stress (although you can do away with them) from work, family, inter-personal relations, in order to better control your emotions with patience. Besides, the ability to control stress, the number one cause of many medical problems, not only leads to a healthier lifestyle but also a more confident individual.
Normally one’s overall health is greatly improved through the practice of meditation. It will help to lower blood pressure, which in turn will reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes. Also with meditation stress of people who suffer from chronic health conditions has been lowered.
Even if you only practice meditation for half an hour daily you will be surprised on how much it will help to reduce your stress, improve your health, and just in general make your days better, and more productive.
Live Better and Enjoy Life More Through Chakra Healing
What is Chakra
The human body consists of 88,000 chakras, also referred to as continuously spinning or active energy points that act as portals to receive, interact and transmit life forces between an individual and his surroundings. Chakra is Hindu for spinning wheel. Of the bodys 88,000 energy points, seven are regarded to have major importance in the overall function of our being.
Located along the spine, the seven key chakras are the root, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown. These energy axes (chakra) in our body continuously receive and give out energies from their interaction with our environment such as other people, plants, trees, animals and other elements. They are credited with having a direct effect on our physical, emotional and spiritual character.
One interesting aspect of the explanation and characterization of chakras is the uncanny similarity reached by both the Hindus and Chinese that they are an integral part of mans conscious and subconscious experience. Add to this the fact that both civilizations use the same theory for promoting a healthy and successful life of an individual.
Since the chakras are constantly in motion regardless if we are awake or not, their constant activity influences our bodys structure and appearance, glandular processes, physical disorders, even our thoughts and conduct. Therefore when one or more of our chakras malfunction due to any number of reasons, the result is an imbalance that becomes manifest in all aspects of our being.
Each of these energy points have a direct influence on a particular endocrine gland in our body which is how imbalance and ill health can be made known to us.
Maintaining Chakra Balance Using the above as our starting point, we can then safely conclude that most of our major illnesses and ailments are chakra related. Although there may not be enough physical manifestations of the illness or imbalance (yet) there may be emotions and concerns from way back our childhood that affect us today physically, spiritually or emotionally.
Forgotten or repressed emotional baggage due to traumatic experiences in the past is one of the major causes of chakra imbalance. Since most people have a habit of burying bad memories in their subconscious, we are unaware that these buried emotional toxins have an effect on our bodies at the cellular level. It is therefore necessary to come to terms with our emotional baggage and resolve them in order to maintain the proper balance of our chakra and heal our physical self in the process.
Chakra Healing is Good for Our Body We can directly influence our chakras and their functions and through them our health and lives by employing techniques such as Reiki healing, aromatherapy, color therapy, chakra balancing with the aid of a pendulum, crystals or gemstones.
Some people prefer to attend yoga exercise classes as the breathing and physical exercises used in the practice of yoga are beneficial to maintain chakra balance in the body.
One commonly used chakra healing method is through yogic meditation which enhances the ability of a person to relax his mind and body at will. Meditation is one highly proven method that promotes natural healing and relaxation techniques.
Another important factor to consider is that although our chakras can not be seen nor touched, they work on their own to support our body. We have to keep them healthy too.
The human body has to be healthy and fed properly in order for us to have balanced chakras. There are foods that help maintain the balance of each of the seven primary chakras.
Our root chakra thrives on root-type vegetables and protein-rich foods. Sweet fruits, nuts directly affect our navel chakra while our solar plexus chakra is enhanced by a healthy diet of breads, dairy product and cereals.
The heart chakra thrives on our intake of green leafy vegetables and green tea. Our throat chakra needs lots of liquid like water and fruit juices and tangy fruits including apples and peaches.
Blueberries and grapes are the primary source of nourishment of our energy point for the third eye. It is also helps if we drink wine or grape juice.
Our crown chakra, the center of our spiritual and emotional center needs detoxification through fasting and/or ritual inhalation of incense and herbs.
With these simple methods of influencing our bodys energy points (chakras), we are at the same time also influencing our physical wellness towards a more responsive way of life completely with our body and our environment. They are very simple ways but very effective at the same time in order for us to achieve a goal of physical and emotional wellness.
Eight Stages Of Giving – Your Guide To Wealth
A new development is revolutionizing many lives in the hamlets of India by bringing brightness where there used to be blackness.
The New York Times published an article titled, “Husk Power for India”. Electricity, which is prevalent in the lives of many in developed nations, is a pure luxury in remote areas of developing ones. What was once fed to animals now is used to generate electricity – rice husks.
Being brought up in the pastoral Bihar State, Manoj Sinha knew what it was like to be without light at night. Being an engineer with Intel Corporation he had all the competence to bring a life long idea to fruition. He led the creation of his power generation equipment from rice husks and other wastes from farms and now he sells power to rural areas across India.
Sinha is what could be called a reformative businessman because he feels business is the answer to major social problems. “Business leaders must realise that the world’s poor need investments more than handouts,” he says, adding, “these are customers, not victims.”
The article motivated me to think about offering things in a different way that made me ask myself, “what is the most perfect form of giving?” Is it edification, commerce or disaster aid? There are so many ways to create a difference. One way of giving can seem more productive or practical than other ways depending on the way it is given expression, viewed or put into practice.
I then came to define there were eight parts to giving as a way to look at this. So, let me map out the eight distinctions; which in effect are often ’stages’ of giving as well.
Stage one: Urgency – rescuing and supporting others who are struck by natural disaster, epidemic diseases or other uncontrollable circumstances.
Stage two: Relief – providing relief from long-standing hunger, poverty, diseases, handicaps or discrimination which otherwise would continue or worsened because of the lack of information, education or resources.
Stage three: Healing and protection – mentally, physically and emotionally. Many people carry traumas that may be invisible but severely limiting their lives. Giving the healing to release the deep-rooted pain creates more opportunities for them while giving suitable protection gives them a sense of security.
Phase four: Edification – giving better edification, awareness and skill imparting to create empowered and innovative solutions to generating resources while helping people to discover their exclusive talent to succeed.
Phase five: Innovative investment – giving a helping hand, cash or material to those who have the ability to make a change. This gets weighed many times as the materials increase and is passed on to several others who again create more out of the chances given.
Phase six: Maintainability – working collectively involving the people in the local surroundings, creating maintainable society – ecologically and communally.
Phase seven: Empowerment – enabling and motivating the people to release their true ability and power to make a change. In this group of sharing, the aim of giving changes from ‘giving to the people who want’ to ‘giving people a chance to give to others’ and to the society.
Stage eight: Loving – just doing whatever we feel to do to love and care for others. No strategy or expected outcome exists in this stage of giving. ‘Giving’ does not even exist here in the traditional sense of the word, as there is no sense of possession or judgment or desire to change anything. This is where we do not even have to think about anything, we give as a part of our own joyful experience.
What we also perceive is that at each one of these eight stages of giving there are distinctive things that the donor gets back.
One: Sense of connection
Two: Sense of contentment
Three: respite from hurt (our own)
Four: Gratification for our own understanding, talents and situations
Five: Long-term sense of contribution and satisfaction for our own life
Six: Improved environment for our own life and for the lives for all those we love and care for
Seven: Soul gratifying encouragement and devotion to our own purpose
Eight: Care
Giving has many planes and understandings upon the basis of the giver and the beneficiary. And the ‘levels’ do not explain which one is higher than the other. All are imperative.
I was lucky to have an experience early in 2008 while journeying with a group of devoted entrepreneurs across India to see how we could be more productive in our helping. I was particularly happy to have one outstanding encounter that led me to think about what ‘actual giving’ really meant.
We were travelling in a small town one day. Four of us had just called a taxi to take us to another nearby town. We dealt with the driver cautiously as our hotel staff had forewarned us about the possible swindle when they see that we were not local.
We stopped in front of the local train station for a short break on the way. While the others disappeared off to use the bathroom, I started a conversation with our taxi driver standing next to the taxi. With very limited English and a full smile exposing his blackened front teeth, he told me that he had a house on the outskirts of the town and he had a young wife and two children who went to the local school – I started to feel connected to him.
I patted him on the back for having an affectionate family and told him that I also had two kids of the same age as his. When the others came back the driver instantly asked us to come to his house for food. I thought it was just a formality he wanted to convey at first. However, after leaving us at the centre of the town, he was particular that he would wait for us till we were done with our traveling around the town. And he actually did. I was in fact quite taken aback to see him still standing by the side of the road next to his taxi even after an hour. We hopped back into the taxi and he whizzed off up the road to where his home was.
When we arrived we were actually quite shocked to see how he was living. It was almost like the same condition (if not worse) to the lifestyle of people living in slums we had visited previously. From the nice new taxi he was driving, who could have imagined
As the car turned into the narrow unsealed road between the hut-like houses that were constructed with crudely made concrete blocks and painted mud walls, we felt contrite about having agreed to his invitation. For a brief moment I felt mortified. “How could I have exploited the generosity of a man who didn’t seem to have anything and I didn’t even get any edible stuff or presents for his family”, I thought.
As we got into his house, we saw a small pot and a stove on the mud floor. His shy sweet wife smiled and blushed at the sight of visitors and vanished into the cupboard sized storeroom of the house. As I looked around, I saw the man’s neighbours giving the woman a few cups over the crumbling concrete walls. They simply didn’t have enough cups in their house. There was just a single small room that had a lone cot and an old galvanised trunk adjacent to it.
The cab driver swiftly took out three hand-woven rugs from the galvanised box and placed it neatly on the small space of the mud floor keeping one on the bed.
Soon the cups of tea and some snacks arrived. All his children and children from the neighborhood came to see us and stood in the doorway. All six of us were totally squashed in the tiny room. I curiously asked him where all his children were sleeping. I thought they probably had another space somewhere. To my surprise, he cheerfully pointed the chest and said it was their bed with his beaming smile.
He gleefully told us that he was a dancing champion in town and pointed to some trophies on the shelf above the bed. Keen to show us his dancing skills he suddenly dashed outside. From nowhere music filled the tiny room. He didn’t have any music system in the house, it was coming from outside. I was curious so I stood up to see him reversing his taxi right against the back wall of his house with the doors wide open with car radio on full volume!
The time quickly passed (dancing together and having more cups of tea) and it was finally time to say thank you for their great hospitality and head on our way. As we stood up to leave and thank him and his wife, he reached to the best looking rug on the bed, rolled it up and handed it to us. It was one of the only few things he had. I could not believe he offered it to us.
We all respectfully refused his gift and came out saying goodbye to every one waving at us. We got perplexed about this whole thing. Should we have offered some cash to the family as they obviously had limited means? Should we have agreed to take his wonderful gift?
As I was thinking about this life-changing experience a few days later, I thought about the refusal of his gift. He looked disappointed that we didn’t take the gift. It wasn’t just about saying no to the gift that stuck in my mind.
I understood that the sense of unease I felt was really ensuing from viewing him as unfortunate. I was perhaps thinking that I couldn’t possibly accept something from a person who had very little.
But did he actually have modest means? Maybe he had other things – a lot more.
Maybe the perfect gift we could have given him then was to accept his gift in total surrender and gratefulness.
All acts of giving and receiving are necessary for us to fill our world with abundance and fulfillment equally for both giver and receiver. We can start doing this instead of judging and justifying one over another. The pure act of giving and receiving requires no further explanation.
Manoj Sinha’s words echo in my mind once again, “these are customers, not victims.” I can imagine the smiling faces of the villagers who are now proud to have electricity in their villages and the children who now can read books and learn in their homes at night.
Oxfam Blamed For Closure Of Second Hand Bookshops
Oxfam is under criticism from second hand book dealers. It is rare that feel the need to take a pop at such a well loved charity as Oxfam. But things have got so bad for the second hand book industry that they are willing to speak out and claim that Oxfams bookshops are putting them out of business.
Booksellers claim that Oxfam is the “Tesco of the second hand book market” and that unfair competition from Oxfam is responsible for the closure of many seconds hand book shops recently.
Since opening its first second hand book shop in 1987 Oxfam now has 121 second hand bookshops in different parts of the country, selling over 19 million pounds worth of books lat year, and is considered the largest retailer of second hand books in Europe.
The basis of the book dealer’s argument is that Oxfam is able to compete unfairly in the marketplace, they get staffing for free on the most part, they do not have to pay for stock and they get an 80% reduction in business rates.
Oxfam have responded by stating that in an open market there are many other factors currently affecting the viability of second hand book sellers, such as lower new book prices, and the ability to purchase second hand books online. To single out Oxfam for blame and the decline of the industry is unfair.
Bookdealers seem unclear about what measures should be taken. Do they want Oxfam stopped from selling books? Do they reject the idea that an obvious charity should receive charitable status? Do they believe they should receive free product and staffing to be donated to themselves by general populace so they can make personal profit?
In Times of Apathy – Kenny G And Philanthropy
There’s no denying the negative impact of our bad economic conditions. People spend less money, reduce donations and generally becoming apathetic. Kenny G, on the other hand, is leveraging his enormous popularity for philanthropy and just plain good causes. At a time, when we need leadership and vision, Kenny G has stepped up to the task. He is helping to lead others understand that philanthropy is even more important now than ever before.
Throughout the world, Kenny G – the Grammy award-winning saxophonist, is well known and loved. In America, he was once labeled as the 25th highest selling artist. A few things Kenny G’s not very known for is his thing for philanthropy and his efforts to give back to people in need. His foundation called “Kenny G Miracles Foundation,” founded 1999, is just one of his charitable causes. He has donated $250,000, through his foundation, to Communities in Schools in order to help kids stay in school and learn the joy of music at the same time.
Interestingly, the “parallels between 1999 and today” is. During tough times, economic downturns and all, the first things that were cut are music and arts. Even before, Kenny G has been emphasizing that there’s to much weight being given to money and jobs, and less on beauty and art. And with the fact that there’s too much promiscuity and violence on TV and the Internet, the parallel goes on. Kenny G put stress on ensuring the future of our children, which is clearly tied to the future of our society.
Kenny G did not stop doing his philanthropy, he continued his charitable causes to help victims of 9/11 incident. He donated “Auld Lang Syne” royalties to benefit police officers, firefighters, medical technicians, family survivors and all others who survived the 9/11 terrorist attack. Kenny G has indeed made a difference, by boosting people’s morale and creating sense of unity.
Today, these are tough times for our country, as well as the world. While many people hunker down and begin to retreat inward, Kenny G has opened up his heart and turned apathy into empathy. In his latest philanthropic endeavor, Kenny G has participated in collaborative effort called “Eternally.” Eternally, was written and performed in support of the George Mark Children’s House. Proceeds from the sale of this single will directly benefit this palliative children’s care facility. George Mark Children’s House is the only comprehensive care of its kind in the US, servicing the needs of terminally ill children and their families.
This song and its movement was certainly a labor of love. It took many months of deliberation, production, mixing and finally launching in order to bring the right exposure to this cause which leads to another very important aspect of celebrities, like Kenny G. Leaders, visionaries, and people who hold huge influential power can utilize their unique positions for the betterment of society. By wrapping their brands around causes, such as Kenny G has done throughout his career, celebrities will be remembered far beyond their particular artful talents. They will have created a lasting foundation for generations to come.
Step By Step Guide on Donating Used Cars Effectively
There are many things that you need to think about before you donate your used car. Its a small decision and it should be taken seriously. Whether you just want to get rid of that old beater that has been rusting in your front yard for the past 20 years or you are just feeling charitable, there are rules and regulations that need to be followed. If you want a tax return for your car donation, keep in mind the following tips and you’ll do just fine.
Below are a few important things to keep in mind:
-It is important that your selected charity is registered with the IRS under the status 501 (c) 3. Without this criteria, YOU will not be eligible to receive your tax refund. Call ahead and make sure they have registered so you don’t have to worry about this small detail!
-The Letter of Determination that your charity has is a very important document. Ask to see it so you know that they are registered with the IRS. If they don’t have it, DO NOT GET INVOLVE.
- Try not to rely on any advertised mediator to donate used cars; Do the transfer yourself. When you donate such a valuable item, you want to make sure that the charity you choose does indeed receive the best percentage value of the vehicle.
-Free towing services offered by the charities are not the best way to go. They may be free for you but not for the charities. Take it there yourself and save your charities resources and time.
-Keep everything. Not only that, organize everything; that way your are ready for IRS if they decide to pay you a visit. Don’t forget to you are dealing with the infamous IRS after all, and they are huge fans of paperwork. Make sure you are able to prove that you did in fact donate your vehicle.
- Once you donate your vehicle, you will need to transfer or re-title the car to the charity you have chosen. You must fill in the ownership line on the donation forms. After doing this, you must report the transfer of your vehicle to the proper authorities.
Below are 2 out of many limitations for when you donate used cars:
-Car dealers may NOT donate cars to charities for tax refunds. Sorry!
-You can’t donate your vehicle to Charities where you have Relatives involve in the charity. To many people have taken advantage in the past and now it’s a big no-no.
Those two limitations aren’t all of them, so make sure you do your research! Good luck.