» Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category

Ain’t it a Pip?

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 by Maryam Webster

I just wrote the below to the folks taking the 12 Keys to Bliss class with us over at ECI and thought I’d share, as it really applies to all of us. I get the daily motivational niblet from TUT.COM. The messages come, "From the Universe" and they always touch or tickle me. This one though, my mom would have called a real pip. To wit:

Every once in a while, with gaps in time that stretch for eons, someone like you comes along who instinctively trusts their inner senses more than their physical senses, the unseen more than the seen, and whose life-insights are so piercing that they unwittingly blow the entire model of spiritual evolution to smithereens.

"Gabriel, did you register Maryam Webster’s epiphany yesterday? Raise expectations on all human beings another 72 gigatrons, and tell not a soul."

How do you do that?
The Universe

It’s worthwhile to note that this message is sent out to everyone who signs up. This is one of the more fruitilicious ones, but it does have a point. How can we all:

  • trust our inner senses
  • trust the unseen
  • stay present
  • have piercing life insights and epiphanies
  • do what we do for the highest good of all

Post a commment if you like. The folks in the 12 Keys course have been having a busy little dialogue about this in the ecampus, but I can’t share that with you here. You can however share your thoughts for others to read if you like. Just hit the button below and let us know: How would you feel if this message came to YOU, with your name on it, telling you that these things had already happened, were a foregone conclusion. What might the difference in your life be?

In my thinking for one, self-esteem would not be an issue. Neither would courage, bravery, personal strength or any of the other traits that people seem to have trouble with. This is a small subset of all the possible personal betterment practices. As a spiritual practice, this list above pretty much covers what a shaman, priest or priestess does. As spiritual teachers in our own lives, who are we when we have these skills native in us, and intact and functioning since birth?

In a future week, we’ll learn how to reinvent your early life to give you what you would like to have from birth onwards as skills, tools or other resources. And we’ll experience how our life changes in moments, and the different timeline that arises. Generally speaking, a much more copacetic timeline. Interested?

Your feelings on this would be lovely to read.

Warmly,
Maryam

Climatic Destruction Tipping Points Coming…Next Year

Friday, February 8th, 2008 by Maryam Webster

pollution‘TIPPING POINTS’ COULD COME THIS CENTURY

A number of key components of the earth’s climate system could pass their ‘tipping point’ this century, according to new research led by a scientist at the University of East Anglia. The collapse of the Indian monsoon season could happen as early as next year, followed in ten years by the complete melt of the Arctic sea ice and displacement of the West African monsoon season causing greening of the Sahara desert and Sahel border territories. The Sahel includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and the "Horn" of Africa.

Other events are hundreds of years in the future, and are increasingly worse in perspective. And may or may not be good.

Published today by the prestigious international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), the researchers have coined a new term, ‘tipping elements’, to describe those components of the climate system that are at risk of passing a tipping point.

The term ‘tipping point’ is used to describe a critical threshold at which a small change in human activity can have large, long-term consequences for the Earth’s climate system.

The nine tipping elements and the time it will take them to undergo a major transition are:

  • Melting of Arctic sea-ice (approx 10 years)
  • Decay of the Greenland ice sheet (more than 300 years)
  • Collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet (more than 300 years)
  • Collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (approx 100 years)
  • Increase in the El Nino Southern Oscillation (approx 100 years)
  • Collapse of the Indian summer monsoon (approx 1 year)
  • Greening of the Sahara/Sahel and disruption of the West African monsoon (approx 10 years)
  • Dieback of the Amazon rainforest (approx 50 years)
  • Dieback of the Boreal Forest (approx 50 years)

These were the findings of lead author Prof Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and colleagues at the Postdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK), Carnegie Mellon University, Newcastle University and Oxford University.

The paper also demonstrates how, in principle, early warning systems could be established using real-time monitoring and modelling to detect the proximity of certain tipping points.

"Society must not be lulled into a false sense of security by smooth projections of global change," said Prof Lenton.

"Our findings suggest that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point within this century under human-induced climate change. The greatest threats are tipping of the Arctic sea-ice and the Greenland ice sheet, and at least five other elements could surprise us by exhibiting a nearby tipping point."

Read the original here: http://snipurl.com/9climatetippingpoint

The Great SF Bay Area Storm of ‘08 (video)

Friday, January 4th, 2008 by Maryam Webster

I’m taking time off and have been enjoying myself with various creative projects. Today, I videoed a hurricane taking place outside my back door. The deluge was widely reported in various formats, but I got to hear of it when spouse banged on bedroom door in the wee hours, informing me that our beloved gazebo (where we host outdoor parties) had folded in upon itself, torn its moorings and was no more. And further, that it was reanimating post-death and crawling up the house, trying to gain the roof and freedom, beyond.

Several pairs of soggy socks, pants, shoes and soaked mackintoshes later, world freedom was secured from this marauding skeleton. The hubby had a scalding shower in the big double steamer bath and battled his way off to work, leaving me on cleanup detail. Thank the gods, we had no leaks or interior drips.

Here is my own local view of the Great San Francisco Bay Storm of Ought-Eight, including a relaxing freshly-recorded rain track for those of you who enjoy such things. There is bliss to be found in being outside, the only human being around, filling lungs full of cold air, the wonderful fresh ozone sweeping the cobwebs out of one’s head. The Mitties provided support by nestling against me when I came back in, the purr-buzzing of their hot, fluffed-out little bodies providing just the right dose of warmth and comfort. Right-click to download if you like…and keep your galoshes handy.

Join us for our MONDAY DEC. 10th HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY

Friday, December 7th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Join Us for a Festive and Transformative Holiday Party!

Date:
Monday, December 10, 2007

Call Time:
9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK

(To translate correct time for your area, check the Meeting Planner link at: www.timeanddate.com)

You’ll learn a technique never seen before…

You’re going to learn a special part of The Everyday Bliss Process -  how to make situations, memories, even objectionable family members bearable and even blissful for the holidays…and onward. This technique is a blend you’ve never experienced before - no one has. And it will be yours from now on.

But there’s also a higher purpose to this telegathering.

"The opportunity for us to grow exponentially as individuals  and community is already present." Join Us!

Many people are feeling the pull towards a new dimension of being, thought, and freedom from limitation. 

How will you leverage this  opportunity as an individual? As a member of a community?  

And how can you maximize your growth while remaining relaxed, present and in bliss?

Let’s discover how together, using what we’ll learn on this call.

We will be discussing precepts rooted in the teachings of Abraham-Hicks, Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer and The Dalai Lama on how to remain Present when all around you dissolves in chaos. And further, on how to use that chaos as a personal  path to Bliss.

Note:  If you’ve never registered for one of our calls before, you’ll receive an opt-in email which you MUST click through to get call details, downloads and extras.  

Simply enter your name and primary email below and I’ll whisk the details right to your inbox


Name
Email

*** No spam ever - guaranteed!  ***

Thanksgiving Is For All Nations

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Happy Thanksgiving!I’ve been privileged to live most of my life in a richly multi-cultural environment, and to have friends from many areas of the world living both in Europe and here in America. We have shared Thanksgiving with all of them - Vietnamese, Arab,  German, Chinese, Malaysian, French, British, Italian, Iranian, Greek, Norwegian and people of many other nations.

As I like to say, Thanksgiving isn’t really an American holiday, it’s a holiday for all people to give thanks for what we have, for the richness of our lives. It is a time to give thanks not only for surviving to see another day, but to do so richly, in beauty, and in a state of surpassing grace.

Grace is what comes when we are thankful, when we live in a state of constant gratitude. And grace is accessible to each and every one of us, just by the virtue of our giving thanks for what we have.

No matter how money or possession deficient we may be at the present, we are all rich beyond measure. We have our health, we have wonderful energy therapy techniques to keep us well and happy, and we have each other in community. We have breath in our bodies, and purpose in each and every one of our lives. No matter how much we may perceive that we "don’t have", we are truly rolling in abundance.

Most of those reading this have clothes on our backs and a place to live. The lucky have someone, or many people to love them. The very, very lucky love others in abundance and are aware of how very rich this makes them.

What a treasure trove is ours!!

I give thanks for each and every single person in my life who has helped me, who has challenged me, who has championed me, and who has told me I couldn’t, shouldn’t or better not.

It is because of all of them that I have tried, failed, succeeded and kept on going. It is because of all those who love me and whom I love that I continue, and because I was given the gift of gratitude, that I do so in bliss and beauty. How very, very lucky I am.

We are all very, very blessed. When storm clouds gather and the wolf may seem to be at your door, remember this, and remember that the wolf is really a blessing in disguise, that the clouds always part to let the sun shine through. All we need do is return our thoughts to the present moment and reflect that in the now, all is well. And in the next moment and in the next.

And if, temporarily, all is not well and survival is threatened, that this too shall pass, and we have that to be so very thankful for. There is never a cloud without a silver lining, nor a storm that does not bring nourishment to our fields and forests, with sunshine to follow.

May the sun always shine in your life, and may you always know how rich you truly are -

Love and Blessings to you and yours,
Maryam

Join Me At The Shelter Networks Benefit

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Women With Strings Attached
My friend Mira Wooten (one of my awesome "Women of Everyday Bliss" interviewees) with her band, "Women with Strings Attached"  returns for the third time, to the Little Fox Theater in Redwood City, CA, on Sunday, November 18 at 7:00 pm.  This show will be a fundraiser for Shelter Networks, with 50% of the proceeds going to the charity.
 
http://www.shelternetwork.org

Shelter Network is committed to providing housing and support services that create opportunities for homeless families and individuals on the San Francisco Peninsula to re-establish self-sufficiency and to return to permanent homes of their own.

Please get your tickets in advance as this show will sell out.  $14 in advance, $16 at the door.

http://www.foxdream.com

If you cannot make the event and would like to make a contribution, you can do so at

http://www.shelternetwork.org/donate.html

See you there!

Calling All Boardroom Yoginis…

Friday, November 2nd, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Do you Yoga? Yin Yoga and power sessions of Vinyasa Flow keep me unstressed and working in the top level of my capabilities most days. I don’t get colds anymore - I credit yoga among other self-care methods with keeping me healthy.  And it helps us ladies of a certain age to keep limber, prevent joint and back pain and keep the body fit and flexible

And others in business have found yoga to be their secret stress-busting weapon. Just listen to these professionals:

If you asked him a couple years ago whether he’d be doing yoga, Eddy Kelly would have called you crazy.

"My thing, for exercise, was to lift weights, go for a run, maybe play hockey in the fall and winter - but no thoughts of yoga," the 36-year-old said.

To the untrained eye, yoga looks more like the stretching you do before exercising than the actual exercise itself. It’s the warmup, not the muscle burner.

"I won’t say I thought of it as feminine at the time, but certainly not the type of workout where I would get in shape - not that strenuous thing I look to do twice a week," Kelly said. "But my opinion’s changed.

"It looks like you are stretching, but 10 minutes in, you are sweating."

"(Yoga) balances your day," Brenda Brown said. An executive assistant at a Bayers Lake-based company, she came up with the idea of holding the class. Yoga was offered at her previous job, and when she moved to Halifax, she made it her mission to introduce yoga at work.

"You have stressful things going on outside the office, inside the office, and if you just take an hour of your day, it really is productive. You can go back to your desk and tackle what you have to," she said.

Every Tuesday, about a dozen - mostly women - of the more than 100 employees get together in the cafeteria, push back tables, and roll out their yoga mats.

Read the whole article here.

See you at “Pink” in San Francisco!

Thursday, October 25th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Come, join me tomorrow at the Pink Magazine Conference for Women Executives at the San Francisco Marriott in San Francisco, CA  - October 26th, 2007!  If you show up, seek me out! I’ll be greeting people as they arrive. Here is our wonderful lineup of speakers:

 

MODERATOR
Marie C. Wilson, founder and president, The White House Project
Marie Wilson founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly representative democracy – one where women lead alongside men. The White House Project has since led groundbreaking initiatives toward that goal. Wilson is also author of Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World (Penguin, 2006).

 

Karen Ferguson, president of North American operations, Resources Global Professionals
In 1996 Karen Ferguson helped found Resources Global Professionals, today a professional services firm with more than 3,900 employees. Ferguson helps manage the company’s global growth and leads business development and services for the firm’s U.S. operations. She also supports the Financial Women’s Association and the Jersey Battered Women’s Service.

Stephanie Gallo, director of marketing, Gallo Family Vineyards Twin Valley
Stephanie Gallo is the granddaughter of Ernest Gallo, who along with his brother founded E&J Gallo Winery in 1933. Today she leads all marketing for Gallo Family Vineyards Twin Valley, a $1.8 billion company. She started in the sales department of Romano Brothers Beverage Co., but after completing her master’s degree devoted herself to the family business.

 

Mellody Hobson, president, Ariel Capital Management
The subject of PINK’s June.July 2007 cover profile, Mellody Hobson is responsible for management and strategic planning for Ariel Capital Management and was recently elected chairman of the Ariel Mutual Funds board of trustees. She is a contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and serves on multiple boards, including those of DreamWorks Animation, Estée Lauder and Starbucks.

 

Karen Quintos, VP and general manager, services for the small business segment, Dell Inc.
Karen Quintos is responsible for revenue and operating performance for Dell, which she joined in 2000 as director of the Demand/Supply organization in Dell Americas Operations. In 2001, she became vice president of supply chain management and in 2002 assumed a role on the Americas team. Quintos has served on several nonprofit boards.

 

Joanne Smith, SVP, in-flight service and global product development, Delta Air Lines
Joanne Smith leads more than 11,000 flight attendants, supervisors and administrative personnel worldwide for Delta Air Lines. Smith previously served as VP of marketing and as president of Song, the airline’s low-fare air service. Prior to joining Delta, Smith was VP of marketing and planning for DHL Airways Inc. in Chicago.

 

Women Work Longer, Unhealthier Hours

Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Last week I gave a speech to a group of technology workers about workaholism being the standard, not the exception these days. I also shared the statistic that women work longer hours than men do, traditionally in the home  and also at outplacement work sites. Remember mom putting in hours on dinner, cleanup and mending or other jobs while you and dad watched tv and hung out? Most moms worked up to bedtime when I was a kid. Work at home COUNTS as "work". We’re seeing this historical tendency transfer into the corporate workplace as well where women are asked to work longer hours and then come home to resume working. Reading a 1980’s women’s magazine, my mother was once heard to mutter "Time for myself? Whatever do they mean by that?" For many women world-wide, little has changed in the past twenty years.

The point I was making is that housework and child rearing are historically un-valued or undervalued jobs, and are typically taken on in a majority of households by women. Once a woman has worked a full day in the office, she potentially comes home to meal preparation, cleaning and parenting taking up her time in far greater proportions than do male parents. This is not my observation, but that of dozens of clients, industry research and formal surveys. I cited the article below and so am running it again for those of you who missed it back when…

This study cites how women in the UK are working longer, harder and as a result, are accumulating more stress. When you translate that to America, you can tack on a few hours and perhaps even add a quarter more bother to the stress load. Why? While they are fast approaching levels of job-stress we have in the U.S., Europeans tend to have more realistic work/life balance than Americans.

From:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3178554.stm

WOMEN WORK LONGER HOURS

A woman’s work is never done may sound like a tired old cliché - but it may be more true than ever.

According to a new survey a woman’s working week is now half a day longer than it was five years ago - and that’s without housework.

The increase is down to the growing number of women in more high-powered management and professional jobs, say researchers.

In contrast, the total number of hours worked by men has fallen slightly over the same period - from 45.5 hours to 44.8 hours.

Key Findings
* Average working week for all workers is 39.6 hours

* Men’s working hours have fallen slightly over the same period - from 45.5 to 44.8 hours

* The working week for younger workers (18-24 year olds) is 36.3 hours

* Almost a quarter have reduced working hours since 1998, largely due to parenthood

* A quarter of workers now work long hours, compared to only 10% in 1998

Girls to work more

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (www.cipd.co.uk/default.cipd ) who conducted the survey, the shifting pattern is down to changes in the UK economy.

And these are more likely to become more magnified, not less, in the future, as the UK economy shifting from male-dominated manufacturing to the more female-friendly service sector.

Mike Emmott, head of employee relations at CIPD, said: "If efforts to secure equal treatment for women at work are to bear fruit we can expect to see their experience of work and working patterns aligned more closely with those of men."

However, men are still working much longer hours in paid jobs than women.

Compared to an average week of 44.8 hours for a man, women are working 33.9 hours.

Flexible friend?

The impact of the government’s campaign on work-life balance has had little effect, the report says.

The element of the report’s findings contradicts a recent report for the Office of National Statistics which said that six million workers were now benefiting from flexible work.

The government has introduced a range of family-friendly and flexible working measures.

It signed up to the European Social Chapter shortly after coming into power - and many European-inspired policies have subsequently been introduced.

In recent years: new fathers have gained paternity rights; women can take up to a year’s maternity leave - and parents now have the right to request flexible working patterns.

In addition, people working part-time have gained the right to equal treatment as full-time employees.

But according to the report there is an increasing proportion of people working long hours - more than 48 hours a week - up from 10% in 1998 to 25% today.

These long hours can have a negative effect on quality of life, with more than a quarter of those people who are working long hours admitting health problems as a result.

A quarter said had led to stress or depression and it had affected their sex lives and their relationship with their children.

More than four in ten workers say long hours "gets in the way of" their relationship with their partner or spouse.

"The only crumb of comfort", the report says is that one in four employees have cut back their hours in the past five years, although this is largely down to parenthood.

What Your Grandmother Told You…Still Holds True

Monday, June 25th, 2007 by Maryam Webster

Purple Coneflower, aka, Echinacea. Isn't she pretty?Last year the National Institute of Health published a study that said echinacea, or purple coneflower (at right - isn’t she pretty?), does nothing to help or cure the common cold. (Hundreds of years of pioneer and native American experience to the contrary). Now, the British Journal Lancet has published a counter study that says granny was right. From USA Today Health:

A new study published today in the British journal The Lancet: Infectious Diseases  finds that the popular herbal supplement echinacea cuts the chance of catching a cold by 58% and can reduce the duration of colds by about a day and a half.

This directly contradicts a major study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that echinacea doesn’t work.

The Lancet study looked at the results of 14 previous clinical trials that investigated echinacea’s effects on the common cold. Those trials involved a total of over 1,600 patients.

The analysis was done by Craig Coleman, a professor of pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, and colleagues. Meta-analyses combine the findings of large numbers of studies to tease out trends that might not be visible individually.

Coleman and his colleagues looked at all the randomized, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed studies available and by combining their data, found that echinacea reduced the incidence of contracting the common cold and its duration.

And they wonder why the herb grannies sometimes cast a jaundiced eye at ‘that newfangled doctorin". While science has its place, you’ve got to wonder sometimes why hundreds of years of anecdotal evidence is often pooh-poohed. Perhaps because big pharma can’t lay patent to what is essentially a weed?  Full article here