WorldSave

A link to the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7309202.stm

And back-story can be found here: http://world-save.com/boards/index.php?topic=16.msg21#msg21

As for this recent unfolding of events, I find it totally unbelievable. China is out of control. I want to like it but their actions are ridiculous. They won’t admit they were wrong to overtake Tibet, and it seems they will overcome any cost to defend their ignorance.

The sentence that disturbs me most: “Authorities are not allowing foreign journalists into Tibet.”

Well why not?! Because they probably have something to hide. That they’re wrong. China is wrong, and they are hiding something. They are trying to quiet Tibet so that they can continue their rule of it.

“Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama for orchestrating the unrest in an attempt to sabotage this summer’s Beijing Olympics and promote Tibetan independence.

The Dalai Lama has criticised the violence. ”

The Dalai Lama would not encourage violence. At least, I would not think so. However, even if he did, even if he wanted to sabotage the Olympics in Beijing and promote Tibetan independence, I would not view that as a bad thing. He has every right to try and free his people. Still, I’ve seen the Dalai Lama, and I cannot imagine him asking anybody to do a violent act. He promotes peace through and through, every fiber of his being is about love — to the point where looking upon him makes you want to cry tears of joy. I’m completely serious.

I do not think that China is a suitable place to hold the Olympics. The Olympics are about brotherhood, peace, coming together, working as one. It is not about celebrating a nation coming into its own, becoming industrialized and all that. As such, China should not hold the Olympics. However, I suppose by that regard, many other nations that have held the Olympics technically shouldn’t have either. Who practices true brotherhood nowadays?

Lia Cross

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I have recently purchased many products from a company called Shaklee.  Their website is as follows:  http://www.shaklee.com/index.shtml 

I purchased the Get Clean starter kit.  I have been using it for about a month now, maybe more.  My first consensus is that their products are wonderful and work very well.  While I am pleased with that, I was uncertain as to whether their products were as clean as they promised.  None of the items came with a list of ingredients.  When I questioned Shaklee, this was their response:

Thanks for your inquiry regarding ingredients in Get Clean products.

Your Friends at Shaklee

As you can see, it is not required that they list any non-harmful ingredients according to the EPA.  While I do not trust the EPA to determine what is or is not harmful, Shaklee’s response thankfully did not stop there. They included two attachments, one Product Profile and the other a Get Clean ingredient list.  I currently can’t figure out how to get both adobe attachments posted here, but I will include some ingredients:

-”The ingredient base for most of the Get Clean products are from sustainable sources such as corn and coconut, and a mix of natural enzymes, as well as mineral-dervied compounds, such as sodium carbonate.” (Shaklee Corp.)

-”Basic H2tm Organic Super Concentrate Cleaner - the active ingredients in this product are derived from corn and coconut.  Fragrance-free and color-free.”  (Shaklee Corp.)  — As you can see, they aren’t specific ingredients.  When I looked at the Product Profile in Adobe, it says the following:  “Concentrated Formula:  Naturally-derived cleaning agents (corn and coconut-based surfactant), natural thickener, biodegradable earth-friendly preservative, and water.”  (Shaklee Corp.)

I hope to soon see the specific ingredients that the response message I got says will become available.

Another item that had more specific details (and one I use often) was the Fresh Laundry Concentrate Liquid HE.  The following was on the Product Profile:  “Concentrated Formula:  A low-foaming blend of naturally-derived cleaning agents (corn and coconut-derived surfactants), vegetable glycerin, mineral salts, anti-redeposition agents, vegetable enzymes to remove protein and starch stains and protect fabrics, anti-foaming agents, natural enzymes, optical brighteners, and water.  Preservative free, bleach free.”  (Shaklee Corp.)

It all sounds good, but I have to remain inconclusive until I see more specific ingredients.

Even if the ingredients were completely earth friendly, I still have reservations about using any products that are fractioned and manufactured in any way.  I do recognize, however, that most people don’t live in a way that allows them to not use such products.  In such instances, I would recommend products like Shaklee to help keep your home clean.  I may retract this after I review the specific ingredients, but so far so good.

 Lia Cross

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Recently, a friend of mine is having trouble deciding what to do with his life. We’ve all been there. We have a lifetime in front of us and no clue what to spend it on. We may have passions, but we’re not certain we can make a living with those passions. Or we’re just totally at a loss for everything. No clue.

Not only this, but many of us are stuck in jobs that we do not love. We still don’t know what we want out of life, but we do know that this job just isn’t it. I know I’ve been there, and I know a ton of other people who know that experience all too well.

So what does one do when stuck like that? They find out what their true purpose is.

I have a few resources I would like to share with you. I hope these two sites don’t mind me sending you their way because I have found them both extraordinarily helpful in both my life and in getting WorldSave up and running.

The first is about how to know what your true purpose is: http://www.relfe.com/life_purpose.html

The second tells you how you can find that purpose out in a relatively easy manner: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose-in-about-20-minutes/

Granted, I haven’t tried the second one yet. We got WorldSave running before then and I feel like this is my purpose in life. Still, I may yet give it a go to fine-tune my purpose and to really get an understanding for it.

I would like to add my two cents now about being unhappy about your job, wanting to do something but either not knowing what it is or how to do it, and finding true purpose in life so you can be satisfied as well as productive to the rest of the world.

First, about being unhappy in your job. What are you doing? Really? Why are you wasting your time? Your energy can always be better spent doing something you enjoy. Even if you need the money, you can always make it work to get a better job. Always. You, as an individual, are a unique being with your own lessons, your own wisdom, and you can find a way to share that with others and make money. So, if you are unhappy in your job, follow some of the steps above and find out what your true purpose is. Then seek it. Don’t quit your job, not yet anyway. Make sure you are secure in your new way of life. Make sure your new source of income is flowing and you will be supported in a switch. You may want to leave your old job as soon as possible, but you can’t do anything if you’re not supported. Rule number one is to take care of you. You can’t usually take care of you without some cash.

If you don’t know what it is you want to do, as I said, try those steps above. If that doesn’t work, write a list of all the things that make you happy. Things you enjoy. Go crazy, make a HUGE list. It can be ANYTHING. Take your sweet time with it. It can take days if you want. Search every nook and cranny of your soul until you feel satisfied that this is a complete list. After you’re done, circle the things that are also valuable to someone else. The things that can make someone else’s life richer if you did it. Then re-write your list with those circled things. If you couldn’t find anything on your list that you think would be valuable to someone else, you’re probably not approaching it in the right way. I’m not talking about valuable as in “I can type, so I’d be a good secretary” or “I can drive, maybe I’ll be a delivery person.” Not at all. I mean something like “I know about health, and I can make people healthy” or “I know how to grow things, I can teach people how to grow their own food.” Things like that, things that are truly valuable–not just in a monetary way but also (and more importantly) in way that adds lasting value to their life. Think of: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

Moving on… Pick the things on the new list that you truly feel you would enjoy most. Or, if you’ve done the “true purpose” exercise, pick things that match that purpose (things you feel strongly about). Now you have a list of things you can pursue and would 1) make you satisfied and 2) be of value to the rest of the world. Congratulations. Now, about getting started…

Find a way to express this new idea. You want to teach people about time management? How about start a blog to make money from it? That’s a simple way to get started in your free time. Want to teach people about health? Start holding lectures at some local places for a small fee, or no fee at all if you want to get some clients. Write a book. Write essays for a paper. Teach people how to care for their pets properly, including nutrition. It can be anything, really. Use your ingenuity. When whatever you choose takes off the ground, then you can spend less and less hours at your other job and eventually just leave it entirely.

Finding a purpose in life is very important. You don’t need one to survive — of course not. So many people survive without knowing theirs every day. But in order to survive happily — to thrive — then you may be interested in figuring it out and actually pursuing it. All I know is that I was sick and tired of grocery store jobs, of retail and nasty customers, of bosses treating me like less than a person. If you can relate, then do it your way. Become your own boss. Do whatever it is that makes your life satisfying to you and worthwhile to others. Add value to the world, don’t take it away like so many other people do.

Lia Cross

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As I worked in a position, until recently, that put me into contact with a high volume of people, I’ve noticed a thing or two about patience. Most people have it and are gracious, but one person who is impatient and negative seems to make up for every twenty people with patience.

What is patience, when should we have it, and when should we not have it anymore? A discussion of this kind can only be 100% conclusive when applied to a specific situation, and even then not always, but generally, I think guidelines can be laid to help people keep themselves in check.

The first thing we should do to work on patience is to identify the things that make us impatient. For some people, it’s standing in line at a grocery store and watching an elderly woman count out 99 cents (or more) in change, penny by penny. For others, it’s being nagged by a parent, significant other, etc., when they already have things on their mind. I think identifying the things that make us lose it is almost half of the battle.

We are largely controlled by our subconscious. The reason people get into the same arguments over and over is because our bodies make us into creatures of habit. Perhaps your girlfriend makes a huffing sound when she’s angry. You hear that, and your muscles automatically tense, because you know that sound and you know she always does it when you argue. It seems silly to evaluate it rationally now, but that’s what the subconscious does. If you can pinpoint that moment, that thing that gets you annoyed, then it becomes easier to avoid it or fend it off. If you say “Not this argument again,” then you’re one step closer to having a discussion about the situation and perhaps end it, rather than the same old argument.

Another way to avoid a situation where impatience flourishes is to manage your time properly. Nerves tend to set people on edge and make them react intensely and unhappily. People in a grocery line who are stuck waiting often say they have to be someplace in a short time, and thus are angry that they have to wait. Life will never be perfect, and although no one can time their day perfectly either, it seems that so many people expect the world to unfold for them, and get angry at those who can’t control certain aspects of what “went wrong.”

One way to know when to gather up your patience is when you start to feel that anger and look at the person it’s directed at. Ask yourself if that person deserves your wrath or unkind words, if it’s really their fault, and if it is, if it’s constructive or moral to take out your frustrations on them. Think about how the other person’s day is going, what kind of a situation they’re in. I think once you ponder all these things, most of the time you’ll find it’s not worth it to get angry - and maybe the thought process will calm you down as well.

Also good for anger and nerves are breathing exercises. Kind of like that “count to ten” saying, breathing is a great way to relax a person at any time. Sometimes when I feel tense and stressed before I go to sleep and it’s keeping me awake, I do a short breathing exercise to take the tension out of my body and clear my mind. Breathing in through the mouth, take a deep breath in for ten seconds, focusing on collecting breath downward toward the navel. Hold it for a moment, then breathe out for twenty seconds, slowly. Do this as many more times as you want. If ten seconds in and twenty out is too long, just double the exhale from however many seconds of inhale you take.

If everyone took steps to increase their patience, were friendly and understanding in tense situations (without letting themselves be stepped all over, that is), I think the world would be a better place. Even if it wouldn’t solve global warming, poverty, or huge social problems we have now that people may find more important than common courtesy, our day to day lives often include a lot of time out in public with others, and much of the time, our days might very well be more enjoyable if people, and ourselves, were more patient.

- candela.

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I realized that not everyone will understand what is meant by the WorldSave slogan: Find the bars to your cage… and break them.

Breaking a cage is obvious enough, but what about these bars?

The quote comes from paraphrasing the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. In it, he mentions how, if you don’t know where the bars to your cage are, how can you break them? You may want to break them, you’re raring to go, but you just don’t know how because you can’t see them in the first place. An example would be the hippie movement. They wanted to tear down something. Change something. But they didn’t know what they were fighting against. Not specifically. What were the bars holding this society together? How could they break them to bring the meaningless society down?

WorldSave hopes to help you identify the bars to both world and personal cages. We hope to help you figure out whats standing in your way of a better world. Once we know the problems, we can move to change them. When the problems go away, we’ve effectively broken a bar. Eventually, when all the bars are broken, we have demolished the cage, and we should find outselves standing in a bright, open, free world. An example of a broken cage and free world would be the eradication of poverty and/or world hunger. It would be a healthier world with healthier people, who are at least a little less pissed off at each other. It would mean less war and more global cultural understanding and tolerance. It would mean total non-violence. Everything and anything that would make this world a better place is a cage torn down.

As for your personal cages, I hope you can find whatever it is that is holding you back. Tear down that cage that makes you scared to do what’s right. Break the bars so you take responsibility for your own health and don’t settle with your sickness. Don’t just step out of your cage—break it. Totally tear down the walls so that you couldn’t run back into it, couldn’t be captured again, even if you wanted to. Set yourself up for success. Do what you know you need to in order to accomplish your goal not just today, but tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, until you find the cage has decomposed into nothingness.

Tips on how to succeed in your personal goals and break down your cages will follow in subsequent blogs. As for breaking down global cages, that’s what WorldSave is all about.

Lia Cross

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