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!

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