2007: Hold On To The Hallmark Moments

The year 2007 began on a high note for me. No sooner followed a few setbacks. The choices were hard and the solutions seemed scarce. Time, friends and family kept the rhythm of life flowing. I don't have any regrets. It was indeed one of those life lessons. Perhaps I had to learn it the hard way. Given the same situation now, I probably would handle it differently.

Mid year came, I had to make some deceive decisions relating to my career. It was a tough one to make at the time. Looking back at it now, I know I made the right choice.

All in all, I have enough hallmark moments I can take away with me to the year 2008. I suppose at the end of it all, it really comes down to two things for me.

* The people…. who left a foot print in my life.
* The moments/memories…. that made me smile, happy and sad.

As you might have realized, this year has been a mixed bag of experiences for me. Through it all, I am proud to say that I have learned, grown and matured!

"Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us." ~ Hal Borland

As I step into another new year, I have hope…Hope of better days for you and me. What will year 2008 have in store for us?

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How Smorty can benifit you

Bloggers
• You could to write reviews about the campaigns that are offered to you.
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Payment details
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2007 Wind Down Of Enhance Life

I am going to uphold the tradition I started last year continue with my nominees for the year 2007.

* Most commented post - Its a tie between The Heart Of A Leader By Ken Blanchard and people Come Into Your Life For A Reason, A Season Or A Lifetime
* Most linked post (source:Technorati)- Top 5 Ways To Make Your Week-End Last Longer
* Most visited post (source:Google Analytics)- people Come Into Your Life For A Reason, A Season Or A Lifetime
* Favorite post - A Journal Doesn’t Have To Be A ‘Dear Diary’
* Debatable post - Are We There Yet?
* Blogging post - 6 'American Idol Ways' To Enhance Your Blogging
* Humor post - Top 5 Reasons Why The Voices Inside Your Head Talk Only To You
* Health post - Staying Motivated When We Don't Loose Weight, The Way We Want!
* Book review post - Reaching Your Potential By Norman Vincent Peale
* ‘Such is Life’ post - Designing Your future Begins Here ….
* Living simplified post - 6 Timeless Ways To Stay Out Of Trouble
* Relationship post- How To Easily (and Lazily!) Make Your Loved One Feel Special
* Finance post- 10 Questions that Determine your Financial Fitness
* Seasonal post – The Best Christmas Gift You Can Give Yourself

Many thanks for your all your comments, contributions and, most of all, continued
interest in Enhance Life. I enjoy writing it and it's always great to hear that other people enjoy reading it :-)

Please leave a comment and make your vote heard!

The Boston Globe - Dangerous Treatment

The provisional reauthorization was given by the Department of Mental Retardation, which is responsible for overseeing the shock therapy program. The Rotenberg Center is the only school in the nation that depends so heavily on shock treatments for its students, most of whom are autistic, mentally retarded, or have serious emotional problems.

Source: boston.com via Boston

I wish more people would speak out about these abuses and stop these type of "treatments".

The Best Christmas Gift You Can Give Yourself

It’s that time of the year …
The city is nicely lit with various breathtaking decorations. The roads are never a lonely sight. There are so many people walking about, one begins to wonder where they were all through the year!

I bet you also did your round of shopping for your loved ones. Did you get something for yourself as well? Probably spent a few dollars on that as well huh?

The gift I am proposing doesn’t cost you anything, in terms of any financial sense. If you thought this post was a way of using affiliate marketing… shame on you. :-)

I can’t take any credit for this idea. The idea originated from one of my mother’s good friend’s. She is an UK citizen and came to Sri Lanka(that’s where I live!) for a short holiday. About a week before her flight, she discovered a small lump under her chin while washing her face. As days passed by she began to get a tingling pain and went to the doctor to get it checked. The doctor had given her medication and as a precautionary measure asked her to get a biopsy done as well. She continued with her holiday plans and came to Sri Lanka. After a few days in Sri Lanka, she got her report. The biopsy confirmed that she has cancer. The doctor instructed her to come to UK immediately to proceed with chemotherapy.

With much regret she re-scheduled her flight. Even though she wanted to stay in Sri Lanka for about 5 weeks, the holiday was cut short. Hearing about it my mother went to visit her. When she talked about Christmas and what she wanted this year this is what she has said. “I want to have the courage to HOPE, that I will able to have by pass this hurdle and be back in Sri Lanka next year to relive the Christmas I couldn’t have this year.”

When my mother related the story to me, I was really moved. In my childhood days I too have spent time with her, and it was hard to believe that such things could happen to some I know.

Within each of us, there usually is something we long for. It may not be something as crucial as surviving cancer. You may have dreams which are yet to come true.So keep that HOPE alive. Don’t give up.

This Christmas 2007, I truly wish that you get what you HOPE for. Very Merry Christmas. Have a good one!


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Tame Your Temper; 6 Tips That Actually Work

You don’t wake up in the morning thinking “I am going to get mad today”. But it happens. There are moments in life where you get so annoyed, that you lose your temper and say and do things you might regret.
The following excerpt from the book It’s ok to ask them to work sums it up pretty well.

The madder you get, the dumber you are
I never met a person who could make better decisions when angry than when calm. We even have a word for this:Irrational. Not rational. Not thinking.

Who among us has not-in the heat of an argument-said and done things that we would have moved heaven and earth to un-say and un-do when we finally returned to out rational state. Our observations and our lived experience validate it. The madder we get, the dumber we are. Our challenge, then, is to manage ourselves in a way that we can avoid anger-at least the trembling anger that leaves us sputtering rather than speaking. Anger creates situations that rupture relationships, ruptured relationships lead to enemies, and enemies accumulate.

With or without your knowledge, your outbursts negatively affect your relationships. Ranging from your family to friends to co-works or may be even totally unknown people you meet on the road! Yes, I know, controlling your temper is not as easy as it sounds. However, try... you will get there..

1. Will it matter?
I went to a friend’s place one morning, to help her out with her baby’s first birthday party. She had nicely cleaned the main dining table when her eldest son( 4 yr old) Mark came and sat down for breakfast. The dog, who was sitting by our side, saw Mark and ran to greet him. Mark shifted his hand to pat the dog's head and accidentally split the milk on the table and then it dripped into the carpet. My friend was furious. She lost her temper and if I wasn’t there I think she probably would have even hit him. Later on of course she felt very guilty about her outburst and apologized profusely to Mark.
When confronted with such situations, ask your self “Will it matter in x years time?” Sometimes we just “lose it” over things that don’t really matter in the long run

2. Take a break
If you are trying to negotiate something you want, but you are not getting your way…. your emotions start to boil and you tend to lose your cool. Take a break.
Yes, count down to 10(heard it before huh?), take deep breaths. It all helps. If you have some paper around you, its also a nice feeling to tear the papers apart!

3. Give the other person a break!
Countless times I hear my father yell to drivers passing by, for various wrong doings. In fact, sometimes people yell at him too, for his maniac driving!

Have a bit of patient and visualize yourself doing the same thing. Come on now, give the other person a break!

4. Physical exercise
When I am annoyed or angry I like to take long walks, run or even swim. I even played badminton once, picturing the face of the person I was mad with on the shuttle cock! Seriously, It works.

5. Write it down
Sometimes, when people make us mad, you have so many things we want to tell them but out of courtesy you can’t. So write those thoughts. Of course make sure that they don’t get into the wrong hands ;-)

6. Monitor your progress
Keep an anger log. Note down the situations you got really mad and how you reacted.

What techniques do you use to control your anger?

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Why Read Books When We Have Blogs?

This was one of the lunch table topics yesterday. I know it’s a bit geeky for a lunch time conversation. But hey, I work for a software firm!

Anyway, I thought I would take the discussion further by writing a post about it. Here are some thoughts by my fellow colleagues.

* Most people who write books have blogs. They use the blog as a means of advertising for the book. In order to create an interest about the book, the blog entries revolve around book.

* A blog post can be read and done with in quick time. It was argued that it is sometimes a summarized version of a book.

* Blogs are free, books are not!

My 2 cents on the matter
* Books are generally centered around one main goal or rather a central idea. Every chapter in book is structure in a manner to achieve that goal. (Generally speaking of course!)
*Unless it’s a series of posts, blog entries are rarely inter-related.

* Not everyone who has a blog write a book. In terms of sharing ideas, the possibilities are endless.

* For novels/ fiction etc you NEED books. I can’t picture myself reading a novel on a blog.

* Books are more portable and hazzle free!

My Conclusion: we need the best of both worlds. What your view on this?

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Why In The World Do I Blog
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Staying Motivated When We Don't Loose Weight, The Way We Want!

As my regular readers would know, I returned from Oslo about two weeks ago. I didn’t sort out the luggage the first week thinking I will wear my old cloths for the time being. To my utter shock, I discovered that I couldn’t wear most of jeans I left behind. This led me to check my weight. Yes, I had put on a few ponds. Even though I was away for only 3 months, come to think of it I wasn’t too careful with my diet. I did a quick calculation on the Body Mass Index (BMI), and was relieved to find out that I am still in the “normal” range.

With the sole motivation of fitting into my old clothes I started an exercise routine. I have been cautious with my diet as well. It has been two whole weeks now, however I am not too thrilled with the progress I made.

It is all too easy to give up and blame it on the scale. However, I still continue with the exercise routine. Here are a few things that stop me from quitting!

1. There is no quick fix
Starting from fantastic fitness machines to, too good to be true diets…. The media makes you believe that there is a quick solution out there. Watching such advertisements or even reading magazines, it seems too good to be true. I have come to realize that it is!

2. Set realistic goals
Following up on the above point, you might have seen headlines like “Loose 50 pounds in 50 days”. Yes, I agree that there many be people who have achieved that. However, the dynamics we have to deal with are different. For example due to work, I don’t get as many hours as I would like to exercise during weekdays. Thus, I need to take into account such constrains and set realistic goals. What works for you may not work for me and visa versa.

3. Temptation - The only thing I can’t resist
This is one of my biggest setbacks. It’s probably why the scale doesn’t show a favorable result. I bought several packets of chocolate at the air port duty free. Having so many chocolates, how can I not eat one?

That’s not the only temptation. Some days when I return from work I am so tired that I want to head straight to bed.

So how badly do you want to loose weight? :-)


4. Find some friends to “join” you
It can be encouraging if you are working with a group to loose weight. You will be able to discuss what works and what doesn’t. Not forgetting, sharing complaints!

5. Variety
Doing the same set of exercise every day can be very boring. I started varying it by going for swimming and playing badminton.

6. Have something to look forward to
As silly as it might sound, I am looking forward fit into my old jeans again. What do you have to look forward to?

Deciding to loose weight is rather easy. However, it takes a lot of determination and self persuasion to keep going. You have come so far, don’t give up now! Good Luck

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Youth for Human Rights #20

It Couldn't Be Done

By Edgar A. Guest

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't be done, and he did it.


Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it.


There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.