Ice bucket challenge 24/7

Perhaps many of my readers will not share my opinion on the following topic I want to write about. However, in the craze of the last weeks I got to the point that I wanted to express my opinion. Can't be silent about it anymore.

Two of my students, a sister and brother, both study in expensive private schools today proudly showed me the video recording of their Ice Bucket Challenge published on social media, naming their friends to follow their example within 24 hours.

While I understand the 'raising awareness' side of this challenge, I think it is more to do with 'look how cool I am', I am brave enough to pour a bucket of iced water on my head, I survived it and it gave me a reason to finally film myself and put it up on social media. For me this is like bungee jumping. Just an adrenalin rush.

One of my thoughts was that this craze will only continue until a kid dies. I don't believe that pouring iced water on your head is particularly good for you. Don't misunderstand me. I come from a country where minus 20C is normal in winter and one of my favourite health regime while I lived in Finland was to spend time in the sauna then jump in the frozen lake. This is just a normal pass-time, social activity and a health regime in many Scandinavian countries.

The other that made me quite upset is that pouring a bucket of iced water on your head is just a dare, just fun for most of these people who participate in the challenge. This is not raising awareness. It is just fun, if you jump, I jump type of game. A celebrity who filmed himself doing it in a bath tub even stayed in the iced bath to show how cool he is.

What they don't realise is that for many of the people who live with the disease or live with chronic pain this challenge is an insult. Nobody can imagine what it is to live with the disease. Nobody can imagine what it is to live in pain every minute, every day, every week, every months of your life year after year. Nobody can imagine what it is to live your life in pain not knowing if it will ever end, live your life in so much pain that you want to end it. Nobody can imagine what it is to not being able to live the life you used to or live the life you want to because you are stuck in a body that does not serve you anymore.

People who participate in this challenge only get an insight what it is to live with the disease or live in constant pain if they keep pouring that iced water on their head 24/7 but that none of them would dare to do that. None of them would cope with it.

Donate money if you want to help. So please, respect those who live with the disease and live in pain, stop insulting them with your adrenalin rush games. What's more, please stop wasting clean water for this nonsense. In many parts of the world that bucket of clean water would save lives. Get a grip. Get a life.

Do old beliefs serve us?

I remember many years ago sitting in the office of my then tax accountant working on that year's tax return. He was a trumpet player in his free time. He looked at me and told me that I need to smarten up. My tax accountant told me that I need to create royalties. I remember, I looked back at him like he was an alien. How could I create royalties? I was a conductor, university lecturer, aural and music education specialist! Not a song writer or composer!

However, just today I received a message from Amazon to update my details because they want to deposit USD $151.87 to my bank account for my books. This message inspired me to log in and check my payment from iTunes too, after my songs and albums. More royalties from there, too.

So much has changed in a decade....My tax accountant definitely has managed to put the bug in my head about the need to produce royalties....

Since his advice, I started to write books and publish them as eBooks which gave me total control over my intellectual properties. I started to write songs and similarly, I managed to publish them such a way digitally that I enjoy the full benefits of my own works.

But what is more, I started to look for business opportunities that bring royalties, create passive income. While as a musician I manage my own music studio and get paid based on the hours of lessons I teach, I managed to find and build a business that not only pays for my efforts now but also rewards me for my team building efforts forever and on many levels. The magic of duplication is the best kept secret of the business world.

A lot has happened since that advice from my tax accountant but forever I am grateful to him. He has managed to change my view of the world, my thinking when it comes to business and finances, but most importantly, he has changed my life and definitely he has changed my future.

It took a long time to get my head around what he said and to find a way to follow his advice. With his advice he challenged everything that I grew up with. He challenged all our conditioning, everything that our parents, our education and society taught us. Most importantly, he challenged the idea of getting a good job and working hard. It took a long time for the penny to drop on what "Work smarter not harder" means.

However, it looks like the seed that he planted is alive and is growing. The rest is now just question of time and increasing the activities that generate these royalties both in music, writing and in my businesses.

The most important that my tax accountant taught me is to challenge the age old beliefs and to look things with fresh eyes. Too many beliefs simply don't serve us anymore.

Return to Sanity

"My patient, Jim, worked ads an orderly in a mental institution. Jim's job included calming down and restraining difficult and sometimes violent patients. he usually got the upper hand, but sometimes the inmates won. He'd come in for an adjustment and scratched up, bitten and subluxated.
"A sucker punch, Doc. I didn't see it coming. She really surprised me."
But he did more than fight inmates. He also took more manageable patients out for walks and drives.

One evening, Jim appeared for his appointment with a tall, good-looking and very wary eighteen-year-old.
"Hi Jim, who is your friend?" I asked.
"This is Larry. He's an inmate. He was committed about eight months ago by his family. He's been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic - hears voices. His condition hasn't improved and he's on lots on meds (medications).
"Want to give Larry an adjustment?"
Larry let me palpate his neck and even agreed to lie on his side fort an upper cervical adjustment. His atlas was out. I positioned the drop headpiece and set it up on his neck. I probably won't get another chance to do this, I thought to myself.
The headpiece dropped down and Larry jumped up. It looked like he went from lying position to a standing one with no intermediate positions. "What did you do to me?" he yelled.
"I, uh, I adjusted your atlas, it was out." Not my finest patient lecture.
"It felt like you stuck a sword through my head, " said Larry.
I turned to Craig for some kind of help but he was doubled up in laughter. "Funniest thing I've seen. You should see your face Dr Tedd. "
Eventually he came up and put his arm around Larry. "Hey, he does this to me all the time. Let's go get some pizza. See you in a couple of days doc." They drove away. I never saw Larry again.

Jim came in two days later, "How's Larry?" were the first words out of my mouth.
"Oh yeh, I meant to tell call you doc. They've cut back Larry's meds. He suddenly seems better. The psychiatrists are convinced the drugs finally started working." Jim laughed.

Jim came by the next week with more news, "Larry was taken off all meds today. The voices have stopped, and his family is coming in tomorrow to bring him home." "He's back to normal? No more strange behaviour?" I asked. "Well, there's just one thing that's upsetting the staff." "What's that?" "He keeps telling people he wants to be a chiropractor." Tedd Koren, D.C.

A great story from the book Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Dr Fabrizio Mancini that I saw on the bookshelf of my wonderful Chiro Dr Kingsley and he was kind enough to lend it to me.

Green juicing- Cheers to your health!

I bought my first compact Braun juicer 29 years ago back in Hungary after finishing my studies at the Academy of Music. I remember this occasion well for a few reasons. 

One that I invested one of my first pays into my first juicer, two that juicing became a life long habit. Just the other day I bought a second juicer, a cold press slow juicer to gain even more benefits from juicing. 

While vegetable juice is nothing new, with the likes of V8 and carrot juice doing the rounds for years, green juicing uses large quantities of leafy veg and brassicas such as kale, spinach, chard and broccoli. The other main difference between (fresh) green juice and traditional vegetable drinks is the technique - cold-pressing, where the juice is extracted by a method of crushing and pressing. Traditional centrifugal juicers use fast-spinning blades that heat up as they whir, thus, cold-press converts say, oxidising and therefore destroying some of the nutrients in the juice. Clare Neill from juice company Radiance Cleanse says juice from a centrifugal machine "oxidises faster because so much air has gone through the juice while it's being made."

Green juice is surprisingly filling. To gain the most benefit., always juice in the morning on empty stomach and drink daily at least 0.5 litre to see positive changes. 

Some of my friends drank it mid-afternoon and found that it alleviated 4pm snack cravings. Try to  experiment with spinach, spring greens, asian vegetables. Almost everything can be juiced. The more variety, the better. 

I feel healthier and more energetic on days when I juice. If I am too busy to juice or travel and don't find a juice bar, I get this very special thirst that nothing else just green juice can satisfy!

The biggest stumbling block is the cost of the equipment. Is using a standard $250 plus juicer worth doing? "Definitely – 100%. Just drink it straight away, rather than storing it in the fridge, and bear in mind "they're not as good at juicing leafy greens, so you'll need to juice more to get the same volume."

Getting started with juicing is easy. You don't need to start with an expensive slow juicer, although they are better and their price is worth because you don't need that much fruit or vegetable to get the juice. The juice contains more nutrition and antioxidants when you use cold press slow juicer. However, getting started with juicing is the main thing! Start juicing your favourite fruits then start adding vegetables. There are plenty of websites with excellent recipes and advice on juicing. 

So is drinking a glass of green juice as good as eating the vegetables? Not quite. Registered dietician Iona Taylor says: "You'll get the vitamins and minerals but not the fibre. And the soluble fibre in vegetables is really good for your cholesterol and blood pressure." There is a potential way around this problem. Edgson suggests avoiding both standard centrifugal AND cold-press juicers, and using a powerful blender instead: "When you pulverise or blend with a Vitamix or similar blender, you get the benefits of the fibre as well. The blades go through everything."

Green juice seems an easy way to add more leafy veg to our diets. "You can put a lot more in a juice than you could sit and eat," says Edgson. 

Juicing or blending has different purpose and benefits. Juicing gets nutrients quickly to your cells and is light on the digestive system. Blending keeps fibre but makes it harder to digest. 

Both Edgson and Taylor say there are some people who should approach green juice with a little caution. Edgson checks clients aren't on anti-depressants or blood-thinning medication such as Warfarin, and is also "a little wary when women are in the first trimester of pregnancy." This is because "many of the ingredients that go into a green juice speed up detoxification through the liver," she says. "I don't want to exacerbate the moving through the system of those medications faster than they are designed to do."

The top benefits of juicing: 1. You get top nutrients 2. Quick absorption 3. Get to enjoy a variety of tastes 4. Give your system a rest with juice fasts and detoxification 5. It's fun and adventurous. 6. You will look and feel great and experience incredible energy and great skin!

So now you've found an affordable compromise, the new green juicing habit is here to stay. Celery and cucumber to go, please.

Click here for some great cleansing recipes!

One Hour Wisdom

I would like to share with you some thoughts from the book I am reading.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra

"Inspiration is a wonderful gift to give ourselves each day. To nurture our spirit, to be reminded of the power of life flowing through us, to be inspired to manage our power with greater awareness - this is the purpose of "One Hour of Wisdom".

Most of us spend more time taking care of our material possessions then we spend taking care of our spirit. In a world where so many things require our attention, the larger purpose of our lives can be forgotten. This book captures the essence of the author's wisdom and shares a wealth of information in less time than it takes to prepare ourselves a meal.

Words and ideas can heal the mind and nurture the soul. Words are alive with energy, they have the power to uplift, to enliven, to transform. Feel the energy of the words in these pages as you read them, intend for the gift of their wisdom to be received.

Life is a force flowing through us. Where we direct our attention, is where our life force flows. Every moment is an opportunity to direct our attention to ideas that inspire us. Every day brings the promise of a new beginning and the opportunity to transform every life challenge into a gift. One hour, one idea, one act of love can make all the difference. 

There is an art to living with joy, and a science to managing all forms of energy, including our own. Learning to manage the force of live flowing through us is a worthy endeavour, and one that brings many rewards. "

Show your Christmas Tree on Facebook!

It's Christmas! Today it is sunny, beautiful and 31C in Melbourne. Yesterday I was at a friend's house to celebrate Hungarian Christmas which we do on Christmas Eve. I had one of the best Christmas at their place that I have spent here in Australia.
I did not even dream about using my mobile devices during the party to post to Facebook. However, one of the guests has been using her phone taking pictures and posting during the night. I was quite surprised. Seeing her, everyone got in the Facebook spirit to take pictures, videos when the table was set and the traditional Hungarian apetizers and sweets appeared then when we sang along and opened our presents then later when the delicious dinner was served.
The evening was very relaxed with great conversations, singing and music making and playing with the games and toys the kids received from Santa.
It was well in the early hours for the time I got home and had a quick peek at 3.30am what everyone else was doing on Facebook. More and more Merry Christmas wishes started to appear with pictures of friends and their family, their trees and of course the menu.

As I looked around and enjoyed everyone's pictures and proof of happiness I also noticed a few other messages and pictures. Those, who felt they can't compete with the huge trees, colour coded decorations, large family celebrations and feasts. There were some soulful messages remembering those who are homeless, 'famililess', treeless, feastless, you know what I mean.
Fortunately, I did dot get any feeling that Facebook in my circle of influence became a place for Christmas competition. However, I got the feeling that some were very much aware that others maybe have a better Christmas than they. A few friends also decided to put up pictures that they downloaded from the web for whatever reason.

For me, the Hungarian beautiful White Christmas is a lovely memory but not a reality in Australia. Therefore, years ago I decided to create my own Australian Christmas traditions. The first step was to find a suitable tree. I felt that getting a real Christmas tree would be cruelty. In this heat to cut and torture a tree was not an option for me. I also wanted something that I can use year by year. My first tree was a small golden collapsible tree. I loved it! The small traditional wooden decorations that my brother sent to me looked beautiful on this tree. A few years ago my tree just disappeared at the last move. I was quite sad to loose it because it was the perfect unique tree for me. However, it was a good reason to get a new one!

This time I got a white tree with fairy lights on it. The tree looked great even without any decoration on it. For now, during the years I have received and given many beautiful, unique tree decorations. It became a little tradition that around Christmas I gave a piece of decoration to each of my students and my friends. Similarly, I have received decoration from friends. Whenever I prepare my tree to decorate, taking out the decorations from the boxes bring back lovely memories of people and their stories.

By not following the same traditions and setting the same type of tree that my family used to do, I think I protected myself from being terribly homesick during Christmas. Another, greater reason was that I thought that some of the traditions and foods were not suitable to this climate and my way of living.  Australia is hot, it's summer here in December, it's school holiday, it is traveling time and I rather enjoy the holiday after a busy year of teaching.

I have been thinking on how moving and living in another country changes us. In many and various ways, I believe. Many times I find myself in situations when I question the practicality of certain things, including traditions and customs. Living in another country allowed me to question the customs and the way of living I grew up with. Some of them I continue and still enjoy but others I decided not to practice. I feel that getting away from my conditioning and traditions gave me more freedom to find out who I am and what way I want to live. I very much enjoy this process.

The greatest surprise was that my new Indian neighbours dropped a Christmas card under my door after meeting their visiting parents the other day in the car park. People in this country embrace the heat and celebrate Christmas differently and create their own, new traditions.

Merry Christmas everyone!

An Auschwitz promise - After 70 years Iby Knill British writer tells her memories of Auschwitz

I saw this posting, An Auschwitz Promise on Facebook. Today is 23rd December, just a day before we, Hungarians celebrate Christmas. My first reaction was that this posting was not something I wanted to read or the video to watch just before Christmas. 

However, I was all prepared for Christmas so I clicked on it. I am glad I did. While I was watching Iby's video and listened to her memories, I realised that maybe exactly this is the best time to hear her story to remind people that under the skin we are all the same. 

Iby's story and video needs to be circulated that never ever anything like Auschwitz would ever happen again. 

I wish to all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Piroska

Rock Salt Lamp to neutralise electronic divices

Rock Salt Crystal Lamps are natural ion generators, emitting negative ions into the atmosphere. Why is it a good thing? Negative ions are good for you! The sea has a lot of negative ions that's why we feel refreshed after a walk on the beach.

A Salt Lamp is a large, hollow piece of salt with light inside. It gives a beautiful, warm colour, ranging from salmon to orange light. Salt Crystals for salt lamps are mined in Russia, and Central Europe and in the Himalayas.

Their main attraction is that the heating of the salt causes the crystal to release negative ions. Negative ions have long been considered healthy: the sea air, mountain air and the air around swiftly running water is high in negative ions. Indoor air, recirculated air and the air around electronic equipment is very low in negative ions. Many office workers who suffer health complaints around fluorescent lighting and computer monitors report considerably less fatigue and head aches if the concentration of negative ions in the air is increased. Why negative ions may be beneficial is only partially understood.

A blessing or a curse?

I don't know how you are but I LOVE technology. I enjoy figuring out how things work. I love the challenge of setting up a new device. I love that I can live my life the way I want and still feel connected to my family, friends, ex-students and colleagues from all over the world. I love that I can run my business while having a relaxing time at a cafe or on the beach. I love that I can travel and don't miss out on things if I choose to stay connected. I love that I can see all my messages coming in but don't need to answer them because I can decide right away what is urgent and what is important. It saves me time and worry.

However, I am not one of those people, who make long and loud conversations in public places ruining other people's meals or conversations. Neither I am one who need to check my Facebook page all the time. However, I love seeing what's happening if I have the time. I have a life. I run businesses and have a few very close and dear friends.

I have never been a big sleeper. Even as a teenager, I loved reading late into the night until my parents came in my room to make me turn off the light and told me to go to sleep. I operate really well on 4-6 hours sleep and wake refreshed and ready for action. Of course, it was not always like this. I remember times when I was lecturing and performing that I need that good 5-10 minutes nap in the car or in the chair in the office around 2-3pm to recharge my batteries to continue with the second half of the day.

Now, having an IPad and an IPhone on top of my MacBookPro, the concerning new habit is that I rest my IPad next to my bad. i do that because I use it as my alarm. I really like the very soft, gentle SCIFI sound as my wake up sound if I need an alarm. I like to go to bed and read on my IPad, watch a program I missed on IView, check my messages, pin a picture to my Pinterest board or get back to my friends who sent me an email through Facebook.

If I can't sleep, I don't toss and turn or spend agonizing hours in bed at night but I grab my IPad and check Facebook and see what my friends on the other part of world are up to. When I get sleepy, I just go back to sleep. The first thing I do when I wake up and before get out of bed is check my messages and share a few pictures on my business pages. Work is almost done before I get out of bed!

So for me technology is a blessing. It makes my life easier and my business dealings simple and fast. Without it no way, I could be in daily contact with my overseas friends, ex-students and with my only family member, my brother.

Many times I look around and I wonder...how did people survive in the past without mobile phones, smart phones and IPads?

It is like everything. Can be used for good or bad. Be smart and make these devices serve you. Don't be a slave to them!

One more advice. People that are in your presence enjoy priority. Always.

Brits are only male?

So Andy Murray was the first Brit to win in 70 years. Brits are only male?

(Sarah Virginia Wade, OBE (born 10 July 1945) is a British former tennis player. She won three Grand Slam singles championships (incl Aus 1972) and four Grand Slam doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments. She was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world in singles, and No. 1 in the world in doubles. She won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon on 1 July 1977, in that tournament's centenary year, and was the last British tennis player to have won a Grand Slam singles tournament until Andy Murray won the US Open in 2012. Wikipedia)

Wimbledon: Fred Perry's low-key win remembered as Andy Murray breaks Britain's drought.

The Rainbow in our lives

This week I have been on holiday at Lorne and Apollo Bay. The weather is wintery but beautiful. Honestly, I did not do much during the last days just connected to nature, enjoyed the sun, the cold, the wind, the crashing waves, the rainbows, saw a whale with a calf, enjoyed the beautiful, ever-changing colours of the sky and the ocean that I can never get enough of. I slept more than I normally do and now feel terribly relaxed. I had time to reflect while looking at the ocean searching the waters for whales. Admired the sunset and with disbelief I look at the rainbow that appears every day above the ocean since my arrival. I have never seen full-arch rainbows so intense in their colours shimmering above the ocean. I feel truly blessed that I have the opportunity to recharge my batteries like this.
I work hard. I always worked hard in my life. It makes me happy. It gives me a sense of achievement. I enjoy and love what I do. Otherwise I don't do it. But I work smarter than I used to. I made sure that I have many streams of income instead of having a well-paying dream job which I had for decades. I have totally restructured my life in the last 8 years. On this journey of change I have figured out a few things. I also see how much further I can go down on this path. The deeper I go, the more I see what can be done and how much smarter I can work to make money. Not to earn money. To make money. There is a HUGE difference between those two.
Lots of us carry negative ideas above money and how money behaves. Money is a means of exchange. It has its own energy. To me prosperity begins with feeling good about yourself. It is the freedom to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. It is never an amount of money; it is a state of mind. Prosperity or lack of it is an outer expression of the ideas in your head.
Be kind to yourself in your thoughts and in your actions. Believe that you deserve all the good things that the world has to offer in this life.
 "I deserve the best, and I accept the best, now."

Flavon Max Wins European Prizes again!

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Check out why Flavon Max is winning prizes in Europe as the best nutritional supplement!

Be Happy! Smile!

Be Happy! Smile! A great short film to make your day! Watch it and Share it! :)
Click here to watch the short film!

Legy Boldog! Mosolyogj! Egy kivalo rovidfilm, hogy felviditsa a napodat! Nezd meg es oszd meg! :)
Kattints ide a rovid filmhez, elvezd!

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Becoming an author...

Started up as a musician. Performing musician and a teacher of thousands of students. Sometimes I wonder if all the people I have ever taught and ever conducted or sang with would all come together...
Just the other day a few ex-students of mine were tagging the names on a photo of our children's choir called Gradus that had more than 120 singers in it and I used to conduct, perform and tour with back in Hungary. Those 'kids' are now adults, with families and children of their own holding serious jobs. Facebook notifies friends about their birthdays and I can't believe that those kids are now 40...Unbelievable. It was nice to read some of the comments that those times, singing in the choir and performing, were their nicest memories they have. I feel the same. Gradus was a very special choir in my professional life as well. We were close. Musically and personally.
Not only their lives have changed but mine as well. It is fabulous to have the opportunity to test ourselves in other territory as well. Writing a book and publishing something sounded so unachievable as a child. Only exceptional people write books and get published. My Dad, who was an engineer used to write poems and Sci-Fi novels. I thought that was fabulous and very exciting! Now I regret I don't have Dad's manuscript books.  I could get to know him. However, strangely, I am following his footsteps. A few years ago I started to think about putting my stories on paper. If nothing else, my biography, the highlight of my music career and my travels. Although I have started it, it is harder than I thought...The closer it is in time, the harder it is to write about it.  Fortunately, there are many things that interest me and I want to write about. That allowed me to get started, learn self-publishing and experience how things work once one has a few books out.
Honestly, it blows my mind that someone wants to read what I write. When I look at my stats and see that from week one the books are selling and just six month after publishing the first book, I have regular sales and downloads that are gradually increasing. It motivates me to keep writing and get better at it. It is much more exciting than I have ever thought it would be, to become a songwriter and an 'author'!
Please check out my author's page and if you like music, my albums!

Good Memories Jar

We all have tough days... for those days I highly recommend this great idea! Whenever something good happens, write it down on a piece of paper and collect them in a nice jar. At the end of year or on difficult days re-read those notes! It will make you smile! It helps you preserve your health and avoid serious illness. 

In Hungarian:
KÉSZÍTS EMLÉKÜVEGET
Ha sikerül megőrizni lelki egészségünket, azzal elkerülhetjük a komoly betegségek kialakulását. Íme egy remek ötlet, ami kreatív, nem kerül sokba és az év valamennyi napján mosolyra derít! ♥