My Blog, My Inspiration

TEDxBerkeley - Nipun Mehta - Designing For Generosity

2012-06-12T17:43:00.001-07:00

From Evernote:

TEDxBerkeley - Nipun Mehta - Designing For Generosity

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jinobutsu has shared a video with you on YouTube: TEDxBerkeley - Nipun Mehta - Designing For Generosity Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace (formerly Charity Focus), an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology and gift-economy. What started as an experiment with four friends in the Silicon Valley has now grown to an global ecosystem of over 350,000 members that has delivered millions of dollars in service for free. Nipun has received many awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the President's Volunteer Service Award and Wavy Gravy's Humanitarian award. He is routinely invited to share his message of "giftivism" to wide ranging audiences, from inner city youth in Memphis to academics in London to international dignitaries at the United Nations. He serves on the advisory boards of the Seva Foundation, the Dalai Lama Foundation, and Greater Good Science Center. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like ... more
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William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind

2012-04-22T16:00:00.002-07:00

Learning Through the Moment of Joy

2012-01-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

There is a saying that we learn through the moment of joy. This old adage holds true for me. By referring to my past, things that I did well in life are those that I enjoyed most. Take cooking for example, with no experience in cooking before I started my university, I now managed prepare eight dishes of Chinese cooking for 40 people. I enjoyed cooking. However, the question is where did I instil my joy from? I obtain mine from:

· Encouragement of others;

· Good instructor/teacher/mentor/coach ;

· Breaking a challenge.

93 words

My Bonsai Tree

2010-05-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, lil' sis and I got ourselves a pot of 4 year old Bonsai plant (Zantoxylum) at Tesco, on the basis that it would be a great addition to our flat's decoration.

Until now, tips of most branches dried up and leaves fell. I was worrying whether it could survive under our care. As now I realise that taking care of a bonsai plant is like taking care of a child. No wonder, taking care of a bonsai tree is an art which requires patience, observation and education.

Finally after finding myself some free time today (well it is a bank holiday weekend), I was able to educate myself a little bit about the tree. After doing some research, I have decided to start with the art of watering the plant as recommended by the www.helpfulgarder.com - http://www.helpfulgardener.com/bonsai/03/care.html

May be, one day, I might be able to share some inspirational thoughts through taking care this little plant.

I have also visited the following websites http://www.bonsaigardener.org/

God's Post-It Notes

2010-03-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

Received an email from my dear friend with a few of the following post-it messages. Loved it and have used one of the messages as my desktop wallpaper. I have also checked out the blog for the designer of the notes. nubiagroup.blogspot.com A very nice blog indeed.

Eu Jin

Quote from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

2010-03-15T06:05:00.001-07:00

With even an iota of faith, you will see many things happen in life. Every moment, every step and every day is a day of some miracle, a day of some wonder, something new, something beautiful.

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Plug Into Your Hard Wire Happiness

2010-03-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

Love the talk by Shivkumar Rao.

Nothing new but true indeed...

Let's discard the "If... then ..." model.

Start investing in the process not outcome.

Smile Video - Validation

2010-02-24T15:23:00.000-08:00

This video lives up to my life message and hit the nail on the head of the importance of smiling.

Smile, smile and smile again.

Enjoy!

Eu Jin

Things Required to Sustain a Community

2010-02-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

1) Turning human waste into fertiliser (Sanitation)

2) Turning agriculture waste and animal waste into fuel

3) Rain Water Harvesting

4) Knowledge on agriculture

5) Knowledge of health care

6) System to preserve culture and transferring knowledge

Jason Mraz - LIfe is Wonderful

2010-02-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

Life is wonderful indeed. My inspiration.

It takes a crane to build a crane
It takes two floors to make a storie
It takes an egg to make a hen
It takes a hen to make an egg
There is no end to what I'm saying

It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes some words to make an action
And it takes some work to make it work
It takes some good to make it hurt
It takes some bad for satisfaction

Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la

It takes a night to make it done
And it takes a day to make you young brother
And it takes some old to make you young
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other

And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
And it takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished

Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la

It takes some silence to make sound
And it takes a lost before you found it
And it takes a road to go nowhere
It takes a toll to show you care
It takes a hole to see a mountain

Ah la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la life is meaningful
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la life is meaningful
Ah la la la la la la life is full of
Ah la la la la la life is so full of love
Ah la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life is meaningful
Ah la la la la la life is full of
Ah la la la la la life is so full of love

Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan

2010-01-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, Dean of Marshall Law School of USC. This concept was introduced to me by my friend/mentee via Altitude Monthly Mentor by Eben Pagan about few months ago. It was an interview between Eben and Dave.

Recently, after browsing through amazing and mind blowing videos from TED (for those of you who don't know TED, you are in real treat! TED - Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading for more info please visit www.ted.com), I found a presentation by Dave! Please find below a presentation by Dave that I would like to share with everyone.

In summary, there are five tribal stages;

Stage one - 'Life Sucks'
Stage two - ' My Life Sucks'
Stage three - 'I'm Great'
Stage four - 'We're Great'
Stage five - 'Life is Great'

We all form tribes.

Leaders need to talk to all five levels (stages) in the society.

You don't leave them where you found them.

Tribes can only hear one stage above or below where they are.

Leaders nudge people and the tribe to the next stage.

For more info visit http://www.triballeadership.net/index.php

Feel free the share you thoughts and experiences on this for the benefits of others. Thank you .

Visualisation - Burns Supper

2010-01-26T11:38:00.000-08:00

Few years ago, if I were being asked to chair a dinner event in Scotland, the immediate thought that came were "Oh gosh, how can I click with the audiences?" As a foreigner from Far East and having very little knowledge on the Scottish history and culture, this seemed impossible.

The recent success in chairing a Burns Supper dinner (a dinner to commemorate Robert Burns, Scottish Poet) for a group of 41 in Scotland made me realised a technique that I sometimes used but didn't pay much attention to.

It is a technique that form the basis for 'The Law of Attraction'.

It is called 'Visualisation'.

So, what did I do?

I would like to share my recent experiences and hopefully I could improve on the this technique to achieve things that seem impossible to achieve in life.

Step 1 - Background Research (two weeks before the event)

The theme for the dinner is simple - its about Robert Burns. So, I need to know more about Robert Burns. I asked myself the following questions: Who is he? What did he do? What's his story?

In order for me to understand Robert in a short time span, instead of borrowing a complete biography on Robert, I went to the children's library to borrow a 60 page mini book to get a summary of his life.

Step 2 - Visualise

After that, almost everyday, I read the same book over and over again. Read out loud and even recorded my own reading.

I also tried to relate my life and things that happen around me with Robert's life.

Step 3 - More Research

Well, the 60 page book is just a rough guideline. Throughout the course of 2 weeks, I went to various websites to read bits of his life that interest me most, listening to some of the music and poems written by him. www.bbc.co.uk/robertburns is a good source for Robert Burns work and provide a good summary on how to run a Burns Supper dinner.

Step 4 - See It, Talk It, Do It

Yes, I talked about Robert's work with friends and colleagues, I asked other's opinion on Robert Burns and I ate haggis nips and tatties pie from Greggs almost everyday one week before the event.

I get myself very excited about the event, and turn the event into something that I really look forward to.

Step 5 - Visualise the Event

Just three days before the dinner, I started to visualised the event with someone who had successfully chaired the event before.

The visual was initially very crude as it was initially not my own visualisation. However, after a few days of fine tuning by adding things that I felt and observed, my visualisation for the event became more real.

Even before the event started, I ran through my visualisation with the catering team provided by the hotel. The process of visualisation kept on running in my head throughout the event and allowed me to adjust any hiccups that happened during the event. To be honest, its actually fun and enjoyable to watch the things that I visualised turned into reality.

So, what's next? Visualising Richard Branson? Start to visualise the life that I really want?

David Blaine - Quote

2010-01-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

Watched a presentation by David Blaine talking about his journey for setting a record in holding his breath for 17 minutes 4 seconds in Oprah Winfrey's US TV show in Chicago. At the very end of his presentation, he quoted:

"As a magician, I am trying to show people things that seem impossible.

And I think magic, whether its holding my breath or shuffling a deck of card, its pretty simple:

its practice, its training and its experimenting

while pushing through the pain to be the best that I can be.

And that's what magic is to me." - David Blaine.

Very true and meaningful, that's what life is all about, magic!

Fasting Day #21

2009-12-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

Time does fly. I have been surviving well during the 21 days fasting day period. Following are the interesting things that happen between day #6 and now:

I have been asked "What is your purpose of fasting?" I am pretty good at answering this question now. It has evolved from for the sake of trying it to coming up with 3 pretty convincing reasons (a) to cleanse my body from my regular caffeine 4 times a day intake over the past 3 years (b) its a personal calling of doing so (c) to understand my body better by testing its limit.
Sudden increase of awareness - this feeling is amazing. Although the feeling of hunger strikes during the lunch hour period (for approximately 10-15 minutes), after that, my mind is able to focus more on the things that I do. No sign of memory lost, however, nearing dinner time, the feeling of anxiety kicks in.
Flow of good knowledge into my life during my fasting period. Things that I do (read, listen, see) all seemed to carry messages that evolves around personal growth, understand myself better and life purpose.

There were two occasions where I break my fast during the 12 hours daily windows - It was during Swami's birthday celebration up in Aberdeen (29 November) and on Friday (4 December)

After today's traditional Ceilidh invited by Neil, I have got the realisation that musical instrument that we use, our body organ (such as voice box, heart etc) have their own life. What we need to do is to learn the language to communicate with them. One way to achieve this is to practice the attitude of gratitude.

Helping and Caring

2009-11-21T16:14:00.001-08:00

Interesting topic of conversation with Ma today.

She said:

One should take care of himself before taking care of others.

I added:

One should also care for others like how he/she cares for his parents and siblings, vice versa.

Then I continued:

One should give full focus in helping and caring others if he/she enjoys the process of helping and caring. Don't help others just for the sake of help and not enjoying the process.

5 Steps to Turn Around Your Life

2009-11-21T15:26:00.001-08:00

Love this video - from Anthony Robbins' Blog.

Feed and strengthen your mind
Feed and strengthen your body
Find a role model
Have a plan and take action
Feed and strengthen your spirit

Fasting Day #6

2009-11-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

The fasting schedule of 8.00am until 8.00pm with pre-fasting breakfast worked quite well for my 8.45-5.30 job. Managed to sustain my focus at work. During the fasting period, I felt tired after 10pm and woke up at around 7am. For my usual day without fasting, I would usually sleep between 12am and wake up at around 6am.

Therefore, in my opinion, not having food and drinks for a continuous 12 hour period during the day (when you brain is working) would actually drain more brain energy than passing a day without fasting, at least for my case.

Today - Saturday, I woke up at 8.30am and missed my pre-fasting breakfast. At around 10am, I felt slight pain in my stomach. Fearing of having stomach gastric, I ate a bar of Jordan Frusli cereal bar and a glass of water. The fasting continued until 6pm.

***

Came across the following blog from Dr Ben Kim (http://drbenkim.com/fasting.html) regarding the benefit of water fasting

Fasting for Health

Posted By Dr. Ben Kim on Dec 15, 2006

Historical records tell us that fasting has been used for health recovery for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Socrates, and Plato all recommended fasting for health recovery. The Bible tells us that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal. Mahatma Gandhi fasted for 21 days to promote respect and compassion between people with different religions.

For much of human history, fasting has been guided by intuition and spiritual purpose. Today, our understanding of human physiology confirms the powerful healing effects of fasting.

Fasting is a powerful therapeutic process that can help people recover from mild to severe health conditions. Some of the most common ones are high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), irritable bowel syndrome, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, acne, uterine fibroids, benign tumours, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Fasting provides a period of concentrated physiological rest during which time the body can devote its self-healing mechanisms to repairing and strengthening damaged organs. The process of fasting also allows the body to cleanse cells of accumulated toxins and waste products.

Fasting gives the digestive tract time to completely rest and strengthen its mucosal lining. A healthy intestinal mucosal lining is necessary for preventing the leakage of incompletely digested proteins into the bloodstream, thereby offering protection against autoimmune conditions. A healthy digestive tract also helps to protect the blood and inner organs against a variety of environmental and metabolic toxins.

A fast that is appropriate for your situation will allow for you to experience some or all of the following:

More energy
Healthier skin
Healthier teeth and gums
Better quality sleep
A clean and healthy cardiovascular system
A decrease in anxiety and tension
Dramatic reduction or complete elimination of aches and pains in muscles and joints
Decrease or elimination of headaches
Stabilization of blood pressure
Stronger and more efficient digestion
Stabilization of bowel movements
Loss of excess weight
Elimination of stored toxins
Improvement with a wide variety of chronic degenerative health conditions, including autoimmune disorders

It is important to understand that the detoxifying and healing processes that occur during a fast are also active when a person is consuming food. A fast can be helpful for people whose conditions are not improving as quickly as they would like, or for people who have health conditions that require a concentrated period of healing to resolve. It is also important to understand that the most important part of a fast is how a person lives after the fast. Fasting can provide a clean and revitalized foundation upon which you can build and maintain a strong and well-conditioned body by consistently making healthy food and lifestyle choices.

Thought of The Day

2009-11-20T00:08:00.001-08:00

Its scary to experience 'the world is a reflection of you'. Will write more about it over the weekend.

Fasting Day #5

2009-11-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

Managed to survive a fasting day + a Toastmasters meeting on day #4. No food and water for approximately 14 hours. Felt very exhausted at the end of the day.

Fasting Day #3

2009-11-18T00:04:00.001-08:00

For some reason, I slept longer than usual after day #1 and day #2. On both occasions, due to me waking up during the fasting period that I set for myself (6am-6pm), I skipped my pre-fasting food intake. That may affect my body physiology.

Today I have decided to have my breakfast and try out a 8.30am to 8.30pm cycle.

Fasting day #1

2009-11-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

Fasting day #1. I had not taken any food for about 18 hours and water for 9. I would say the experience of having my first few bites of the plum and clementines were indescribably good.

After today's experience, I am planing out a pre-fasting and post-fasting meal schedule that would keep me going for the day and see how that works.

Why not raise some fund for charity while doing this? Crazy idea huh? Well people fast anyway.

Thought of the day

2009-11-16T04:58:00.001-08:00

Woke up this morning and noticed the quote on my Goal Board.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is then, not an action, but a habit." by Aristotle.

Then life is simple isn't it? Where the only thing that we need to do in order to achieve the best outcome is merely just the act of doing the thing over and over again, and turning it into a habit.

***

Reading this quote reminds me to cultivate back the habit of reading out my affirmation every morning.

P.s read about the ancient Persians way of drinking from the book called Brida.

Trial

2009-11-15T14:46:00.001-08:00

Testing la.

Engineers Without Borders

2009-11-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

A very interesting weekend trip to Wales and meet up with old friends.

Three years after university, I noticed that things have changed. Friends that I spoken to has grown mentally and spiritually (which of course is a good sign).

I shared my vision. And my friend mentioned an organisation called Engineers Without Borders. I came across this organization before during my university years but never pay much attention to it.

Engineers Without Borders... is it able to satisfy my vision of empowering people across the globe and improve their quality of life?

Speaking to Inform - Project 1 The Speech to Inform

2009-10-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

The goal is to become a professional speaker with the following profile description:

Eu Jin will entertain, provide practical advice and inspire native and non-native speakers to deliver their ideas with confidence.

This description is also listed in my Speakers Bureau profile description http://www.capitalcommunicators.org/page2.html

After completing my Competent Communication manual, I am on my journey to give speeches from advance manuals (a world that is full of excitements, a dimension that would lead me to unknown opportunities). As a stepping stone to become a professional speaker, I had chosen two advance manuals to start of with, i.e.

Speaking to Inform and
Storytelling.

Now the challenge is to plant the spirit as described in my profile description in all the speech projects from the above two manuals.

As I have been given the opportunity to speak for the coming Toastmasters meeting, 27 October 2009, I decided to give a speech which satisfies the objectives of Project 1 The Speech to Inform from the Speaking to Inform manual.

After a long thought, the outline of my first advance speech could be summarised as follows:

My speech title is ... Don't be afraid, Let's Smile
After listening to my speech... the audience will understand by practising to smile at people will allow one to develop the confidence in delivering their ideas.
Introduction - Telling the audience of my great big smile and my journey of smiling through my speeches
Body point #1 - Smile = Research to show the power of smiling, explain how smiling could benefit in developing self confidence when delivering an ideas,
Body point #2 - show the impact of smiling/not smiling on the introduction story
Body point #3 - when to use/not to use it
Conclusion - Re-emphasis the 3 points.