Move beyond fear

A number of people dream how they could move beyond fear.  You may also ask how you can get out of the grips of this potentially-destructive emotion.

One friend of mine has a fear of flying, literally.  When she boards a plane to travel somewhere, she pops the gravel or some other pill to knock herself out so she can forget about what is happening.  She prefers not to be conscious because they she doesn't have to deal with it.  Denial and then using a quick fix is her way.  "This approach works well enough," she explains. I smile and shrug my shoulders.  I've also encouraged her to rethink the reasons for her fear.

Now, consider your own circumstances.  What experiences frighten you? Are you aware of the root causes of your fear? The moment you decide fear will no longer control you, you're life will begin to change for the better.  Attitude and conditioning can assist you to overcome fear. You must learn to decipher what is truly rational versus what is irrational in your thinking.

More specifically, you need to learn what is truth and when you're lying to yourself. Challenge every fear-based thought.  Find out what is real and what is your imagination running away with you.  This may seem like the ultimate risk, to be honest with yourself and take control of your life.  Just think of all the positive experiences waiting for you! 

Visually- impaired computer programming-a dream come true

Blind and visually- impaired people dream of creating lives which are valuable. Like many people, the visually-impaired seek employment and opportunities to develop themselves.  A good friend of mine participated in an IT and website development conference and shared some startling new developments about this that I thought many other people would like to hear about.

A team of engineers at the University of Canberra, Australia, have set up an audio programming assistant (APA).  This team won the Imagine Cup at the Remix 2007 conference in Melbourne.  For the second consecutive year, the judges recognized this University of Canberra team.  These winners will represent Australia to compete in a forthcoming international competition.

This system they put together applies voice recognition technology with prompts for voice instructions.  It offers blind people the opportunity to obtain practical, technical qualifications and also equips people with job skills when they were previously unemployed or unemployable.

In Australia, Access Economics 2004 statistics reveal ~50,000 blind people and 480,000 who are considered as 'visually-impaired.' Vision Australia published 2007 unemployment statistics which show 69% of the blind and visually-impaired unemployed. This is how things are and how they will be unless society reacts decisively. The APA engineers are forward-thinking and hopeful. They have taken bold steps to create what is needed to empower other people.

The APA system has three main sub-systems: APA Studio.net, APA Web Browser and the APA website. This involves a programming tool that allows blind users to write, compile and run C# programs. APA uses a customized web browser that accesses web pages and reads out links to marked web pages.  The APA website gives blind people access to programming lessons and help forums to help learners and to support and programmer who desire it.

APA helps develop equal access in information technology. It will not only benefit visually-impaired and blind persons, but also employers, governments and academic institutions. Its a wave of the future. Think-out-of-the-box. Applaud progress. Helping others is also helping yourself. Promoting empowerment betters our world.  People feel good because they make a contribution and feel a useful part of society.

At a crossroads

You may have arrived at a crossroads.  You may sense unresolved issues inside.  They will invite reasons to forgive.  Search your heart.  Unloading emotional burden will trigger positive change.

Losses you experience may leave emotional scars.  You may have been cheated in a business deal and lost huge sums of money.  Perhaps you were lied to, abandoned in a relationship, or prevented from being promoted because of deception around you.  Maybe a friend betrayed you. You may be mistreated, criticized or harmed.  You may wonder what happens next? As hard as it may be to believe, you're going to emerge better off than before.  You're passing another test.  This is a learning process.

The thing to do is not to stoop to the level of people who have wronged you.  Nonetheless, keep doing the right thing.  Respond to your situation with love.  To improve yourself is to learn to control your emotions.  Don't give into temptation to avenge offenders.  Regardless of whether people say nasty things about you, believe your have purpose.  It pays to retain self-control.

In order to understand, realize you need not have to fix or even react to everything.  You have no reason to pay someone back for whatever wrong might've been done.  Rather than try to manipulate the situation in your favor, learn to step back and refocus your energies productively.  You can renew and strengthen parts of yourself.  You have the choice to transform your life.   The crossroads is an opportunity.  

Shake it off & rise above it

A story has been passed down among generations about a farmer who owned an old mule.  After a long day's work in the field, this mule headed to his paddock and accidentally fell into the deep farmer's well.

Not long after that, the farmer heard the mule braying in a way the man hadn't heard before. After discovering what had happened and reviewing his options, the farmer felt guilty about the mule's suffering. He decide the best thing would be to put the animal out of his misery. So, he recruited a neighbor and explained things.  They sympathized with the farmer and the mule. Together, they hauled dirt toward the well and decided it would make a good grave marker.

Initially, as the old mule felt dirt landing on its back, he became frantic. But the farmer and his neighbor continued shoveling and the dirt.  It came in greater amounts.  Then, the mule had a revelation. Every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he could shake it off and step on the pile.   He did exactly that, as if to resist blow after blow.

He silently encouraged himself.  He didn't desire to die. No matter how discouraging it seemed that his beloved owner was trying to bury him alive, he decide to reframe his toughts.  AS the result, each pile of dirt went from being seen as very distressing to being seen as a blessing in disguise.  They knew where he was and they were helping him! He reframed his situation.  The mule fought  his impulse to panic and just kept right on shaking off the dirt and stepping up.

Low and behold, it wasn't long before the old mule, albeit exhausted, reached the top and stepped victorious over the opening og the well. Imagine the looks of amazement on the farmer and his neighbour.  They realized they could learn a few things from that old mule as the result of how he had handled his adversity.

Throughout life, just like the old mule, each of us is confronted with difficulties.  All-the-while, we always have choices.  We can refuse to give into the temptation to fear, doubt or, be consumed by negative thinking. There is hidden value in every situation which we can use to transform ourselves.  You can always devise a strategy to get out of the wells of despair.  How will you reframe aspects of your life to find good in every condition, every event, and every moment?  Learn how to shake your head and refuse to give into hardship, self-pity or defeat.  Shake off any thoughts that you aren't capable.  Realize that you are.  Go and rise above self-defeating thinking.

A tale of three trees & then some

The Tale of Three Trees has been retold and highlights familiar human traits.  This ficticious moral tale for children describes the ambitions of an olive tree, an oak tree and a pine tree.  Each of these trees had individual dreams, like a life plan people so often formulate and hope to realize. 

The olive tree imagined itself being carved into a magnificent treasure chest which would hold gold, silver and very precious jewels.  When a woodcutter distinguished this particular tree among all the tress around, the tree obviously felt extra sprecial. It was sold to a craftsman who began to shape it into something the tree soon understood wasn't to be a treasure chest.  Instead, the olive tree was carved into a trough for stinky animal food. You can surmise this tree was devastated at its apparent fate.  It believed it would never realize its dream to be appreciated at a higher level.  This tree felt degraded, almost compared with the gutter.

The oak tree also had a dream.  This tree envisaged becoming integrated into a glorious ship that would ferry important people like royalty across great bodies of water.  As this tree was cut down, you might speculate it was excited, feeling that much closer to realizing its dreams.  But alas, as time passed, this oak tree realized he wasn't destined to be part of a great vessel.  Instead, the woodworkers shaped the oak tree into a puny, non-descript fishing boat for one person.  Of course, the oak tree was deeply saddened by fate. The other dream wasn't realized.

Now the pine tree grew on a distant mountain and was pleased to act as a beacon for travellers on their journeys.  Its ultimate dream was to remain where it stood tall so that it could continue to guide people who felt lost.  Yet, unbeknownst to this tree, Mother Nature had other plans.  A huge storm led to a lightning bolt splitting the pine tree.  The future looked like a complete disaster.  A lumberjack eventually came by and took the dead tree to a wood scrap pile. It seemed as if its dreams were long since forgotten.

And yet, just when we feel the most discouraged, this is when we can realize that our idea of destiny may not have been what was planned for us at all.

As it happened, if you know any Christian history, you will recall how Mary and Joseph had baby Jesus in a stable, for the inns were all full.  They used a particular animal trough as a manger in which they put clean straw.  The olive tree had desired to hold precious jewles, but it turned out to be destined to hold a thing far more precious, a rather unique and cherished human life.

As Jesus grew up, there came a time when he desired to cross a river.  He didn't choose the most elegant or the largest ship for his journey.  He was a man of simplicty and chose the small fishing boat.  This enabled the oak tree to carry the king of kings, when it had originally had a far mroe limited vision for its destiny.

Years passed, and a group of Roman soldiers were rummaging around in scrap wood piled.  They chose the character of the severed pine tree to carve the cross on which Jesus was eventually crucified.  That tree was shaped into a symbol that continues to guide and assist people.

This tale reminds us all of our own inner value.  We're also drawn to realize that each of us has rather limited ideas of our abilities and potential.  The plan and purpose you think you're meant for in this lifetime may not turn out to be the real reason why you're alive.  You may in fact, be present for things you couldn't ever hope to anticipate.  Thus, it makes sense to learn to rethink disappointments.  After all, you're being prepared for even more fulfilling roles and experiences.