When does ego start in a person? As children we fight, get pulled or pushed by other children while playing but we do not dwell on it and its all a part of the play, we continue to play. We forgive and forget within minutes. However, as time passes, we stop playing, stop forgiving and stop forgetting our hurts/memories. Our thinking is around the “I” and I am right, why should I forgive or forget? Our egos become so huge that its “I” who matters and nothing or nobody else does.

Spiritual gurus insist that the path for happiness is to be “like a Child”. I agree. There is so much we can learn by just watching our children play and learn. Can adults try to be like that? its worth a conscious try.

Do you think you are successful in life? I believe, all the people who do regular stuff, most importantly ‘being happy’ doing it, should say a resounding YES to this question. But, that doesn’t happen. We usually consider ourselves unsuccessful. In addition, we are always craving for it badly. The reason for this is our society’s obsession with fame and fortune and our perspectives/lifestyle are shaped by it.

Success is very subjective. However, we are trained to believe that success is just fame, power and money. People go all-out for it desperately and along the way lose happiness and contentment. We have seen a lot of instances of this happening, the most recent one being Michael Jackson’s death.

It’s time now to rethink our definition of success and enjoy whatever we have achieved till now.

I am spending a lot of time these days looking for additional content for the site. Using the standard Google search engine for any type of search has become a habit. However, now I am finding a few interesting search engines and information sources. The following a quick list of the latest search engines :

1. The other options in google:

• http://www.google.com/dirhp - Web organized in categories.
• http://scholar.google.com - Provides scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
• http://www.google.com/squared - returns search results in spreadsheet form, structuring the unstructured data in the web pages.

2. http://www.wolframalpha.com - Computational knowledge engine that draws on multiple sources to answer user queries.

3. www.mahalo.com - Mahalo is different kind of search engine, its actually a human-powered search engine built collaboratively by a team of editors and a community of dedicated users.

4. The next big thing will be the real time search engines. These search engines captures and organizes content being shared on the internet as it happens. The content are included from
different services like Flickr, Digg, Twitter, Delicious and popular blogs.

• http://collecta.com
• http://www.scoopler.com

5. “www.bing.com - The latest Microsoft search engine.

That’s it for now, will update this when I come across other interesting search engines.

I am taking a break from all the serious thinking in life…a short one, of course :). Usually, most of the issues/problems which has us so worked up will not even be remembered after a month. In spite of knowing this, we are getting stressed out. I think, letting go of the trivial issues and not taking life so seriously, will give a more positive attitude towards life. After all, everyone should stop taking life so seriously. The quote Don’t take life seriously, you will never get out of it alive - Elbert Hubbard pretty much sums it up.

The following are some more funny quotes on life which I like:

Life is like an onion. Why is life like an onion? Because you peel away layer after layer and when you come to the end you have nothing. - Yiddish Proverb

Life is just a phase you’re going through…you’ll get over it.- Anonymous

You live and you learn or you don’t live long. - Robert A. Heinlein

Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep. - Fran Lebowitz

Nothing matters very much, and very few things matter at all. - Arthur Balfour

Everything has been figured out, except how to live. - Jean-Paul Sartre

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.- Brendan gill

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.- Oscar wilde

The line, “I still haven’t found what I am looking for” from U2’s hit song seems to be the theme in our lives. We are in constant search of something or the other. Better job, better lifestyle, better pay, bigger car, interesting stuff to do etc. . the list goes on and on. Even if we find what we are looking, after sometime we get bored and start the search all over again.  In addition to this, we also crave for stability, quiet and idleness. These two wants within us contradict each other. I have found very few people who have found the perfect balance in life between these two. For most of us, this conflict of interests leads to restlessness and discontentment.

Understand this conflict and our basic nature will help us in striking the balance between the two. I personally think searching or not finding what we are looking for is a good thing. The search used productively can help us achieve bigger and better things in life.

At present, I am in constant search for better and more interesting contents for the site. Any suggestions/sources are welcome. The suggestions should be positive, obviously

We talk about attitude and how it affects our lives. Following are some of my thoughts on understanding and changing this. Let us start with the basic question of what exactly is attitude? I think attitude is way we feel and behave towards to a particular person or event. We know that different people feel/behave in different ways towards the same event. But, why do we do this? The answer lies in our genetic make-up and the external forces which affect us. The genetic make-up initially determines our attitude. Over a period of time, in addition to genetics our attitude is influenced by the external forces like schooling, parents, peers, events and the people whom we respect/fear. All our experiences together over the years have built our attitude.

This takes us to the next question, can we really change it? I believe, we absolutely can. It needs effort and patience with ourselves. The first step towards the change is to aware of the present moment. Awareness in what we are thinking and doing makes a lot of difference. The next step is, when you find yourself thinking negatively, immediately instruct yourself to “stop”. Be aware of what is going on in your mind and stop yourself immediately. Instruct your brain to STOP as loudly as possible and then be aware to switch to positive thoughts.

We instruct others all the time and expect our instructions to be followed also. Likewise, we have to instruct ourselves to be positive. It will not be easy but with practice, it is possible. These small steps will definitely ensure a positive change in ourselves and the world around us.

“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else” - Winston Churchill

We all know that optimism and positive attitude really makes a difference in the quality of our lives. However, knowing is one thing and actually implementing it is quite another.� In order to staying positive, we need to have the desire and make a effort.

We understand this and are in the process of providing an online environment to help stay positive. Reading positive and inspirational news in the morning will definitely make a difference.