Be Inspired by Loving Kindness

During the Christmas Season it is wonderful to witness the kindness of the members in your community in helping those who have it tough and might not be able to celebrate Christmas because of the hardship they are in.

Many apply their 'random acts of kindness' inspiration in warriors ways. This year I have seen every kind of acts of kindness from families dropping in small food bags to our community centre to politicians donating and organising toy runs for the community appeals. I have received cheques from the local businesses and other local charity organisations, who know how tough it is to collect money donations this year. How can you not be inspired?

It is a good feeling to be able to contribute. The combined impact to the community in everyone engaging a little, or as much as possible is tremendous. The amount of good cheer created is unmeasurable. We might be able to determine the results in money and in donated hours and even take a guess on the impact measurement thorough theories such as 'the principle of care', but how do we measure the smiles on the recipients faces, especially children? Priceless!

The delight of seeing the thoughts and the care in practice in the form of choosing the presents or packing the gifts is ensuring me that there are people around us that are genuinely compassionate and show their kindness by sharing with others during this time of the year.

I look forward to experiencing the day when the presents are delivered. I also encourage us all to contribute to the best of our ability by having a Very Merry Christmas ourselves.


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Be Inspired by Learning New Things While Flying Around the World

Sometimes flying around the world can be tedious. It is hours upon hours sitting in uncomfortable seats and sharing space with crowds in the small space of the aircraft. What could be inspiring about that?

Well, recently I spent four weeks traveling around the world in airplanes. It was altogether 10 flights and 55 hours in the planes alone. And after that it was waiting at the airports to transit to the next plane


I saw a few things and spoke to some interesting people and watched lots of movies. I also ate some vegetarian food I thought was quite different.

I was greatly inspired by the discussion on social media I had with the gentleman sitting next to me. He happened to work for Nokia and gave me insights to the new Lumix phone and its capabilities. I got a new business contact just by default.

I was also able to shop a lot. The airports are great for shopping, especially for brands.

I was very inspired by the public art displayed at the airports along the way. It adds value to the airports and to your travel. It can easily make someone's day.


This sand art is from the Brisbane Airport in Australia. The other excellent exhibit was at the Atlanta Airport in the USA.

I was walking the long corridors and suddenly I find startling stone sculptures depicting the Afro-American culture of the South. Very impressive. Would have stayed longer, if I could have.


Last but not least, I had a wonderful view of the first snow falls in the Northern Hemisphere, both in Europe and in the USA.
How cool is that! Very inspiring indeed.

Why not try it yourselves?
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Be Inspired by The First Snow in the Northern Hemisphere

Sometimes, it is very uplifting to remind yourself how much your cultural background does define you. Take experiencing the first snow fall in autumn as an example.

I moved to Australia, because I like the weather there. It is always warm or relatively so, at least where I live, but when I go back for a visit in Finland, I'd be really disappointed if I do not experience snow. After all, that is what the winter is all about, if you choose to travel in Scandinavia.

So, what a lucky strike for me to have arrived to Helsinki with my new trendy boots and find that the first snow arrived with me. How inspirational is that!

Experiencing a lovely walk in the winter wonderland style is a treat hard to forget. And everyone of my loved ones will remember that the first snow came along with my visit. Building those special memories, outside the usual brain patterns is something that is so special in the human experience.

My cultural background makes me excited about the first snow by default. It is in me to be waiting for that experience. It does not go away by moving to the tropics to live in the warmer weather. I might like the eternal summer and I do, but experiencing the first snow, once in the while just makes that more of a treat.

So, I got to walk again in my winter boots, feeling the nippy cold wind on my cheeks and the crust of the frozen leaves and icy snow under my feet. I got to dress up in all my winter wear, in all the cloths I brought and the once I had to loan to keep me extra warm, hats, cloves, the cardigan and the socks. Wow, it was such an inspirational experience.

Now, after I am back home in Australia, I can remember that experience while sitting on my balcony, perusing at the palm trees around me. It is good to remember, to revisit the first experiences. They give a new positive slant to your life by reminding you of the possibilities buried in old and the familiar wonders, re-opening and exciting.

Hurrah, for Finland and the winter there and especially I am clad about the first snow.

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Be Inspired by Contemplations on Quotations

This morning when I woke up, it occurred to me to pick up a small book of quotations I have on my bed table. It is a book filled with various thoughts presented by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and compiled by Winfried A. Parley already in 1921 and edited, added to and reprinted in 1981 and 2000. I got it years ago while in India at the Theosophical Society's Headquarters in Adyar, Chennai.

It is a delightful book with one short quotation for each day. Really handy if you want to just think about something from a slightly philosophical point of view. I like it and I always find relevance in the quotations to my life.

There are thousands of books filled with quotations, in most of the languages where people can find inspiration and advice to make their daily life more grounded in the mind. Many times I find myself surprised how well a quotation for the day will reflect that particular day in my life. And it is not just quotations. Sometimes, life seems to be in great synchronicity in its all aspects.

To my thinking, life shows its best with small details that contribute to the wellbeing of my family and my immediate surroundings.

Today, for example, the quotation book states:
"In our opinion, if psychometry is one of the greatest proofs of the indestructibility of matter, retaining eternally the impressions of the outward world, the possession of that faculty by our inner sight is a still greater one in favour of the man's [sic] individual spirit."

Considering that this quotation is from Blavatsky's first epic Isis Unveiled published in 1877, I am simply staggered by it.

The dictionary I use states that 'psychometry' means "the measurement of mental abilities." I am inspired to think that our mental abilities should include a charitable heart that reaches towards the others with helping gestures, like the Radom Acts of Kindness, Compassion and Love.

I am greatly uplifted by the though that if we possess this in our 'inner sight' it gives us hope for the future in building a more sustainable and caring community.

Inspiration comes from small measures and one doesn't have to possess great quantities of these qualities. However, if you make nurturing kindness, compassion and love a measurable goal using the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) approach, the psychometrics of it can be seen in the real life by the measured success of creating a more sustainable and just future for everybody in our community.

Inspiration application is everything! Let's make it our business and congratulate everyone who have acknowledged these qualities as part of their daily life goals.

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Be Inspired by Attending Seminars and Conferences

As a young woman, just starting my university in Sweden many, many years ago, a very famous lecturer of what then was called the Women's Studies gave me some well thought and used advise. She said that if I wanted to be on the cutting edge of knowledge on any subject or field, I should attend seminars and conferences. She suggested that three days of true engagement and networking in a convention would give me an edge in knowing all that I need to know on trends and research on the subject I was interested in.

I took her words at heart and have followed her direction for the last thirty odd years. It has shown to have been really good advise. I have been able to get to know a lot of people and have had many privileges that have lead to wonderful opportunities for my career and my life.


Attending conferences is great fun. You get to listen carefully, try lots of interesting foods, see lots of exhibitions and engage in many inspiring and fruitful conversation. You also have a change to build relationships with people from your own and off field that you otherwise would not possibly meet. These relationships can lead to wonderful partnerships and lifelong friendships.


If you pick your conferences well and use all the modern technology available to you afterwards, your skills base will get a huge boost after each conference. The usage of Social Media afterwards will ensure that the relationships last.

You only need to be able to hold on to the initial inspiration the conference has presented and find a constructive and beneficial application for it in your practical daily working or family life.

My recommendation is to use every opportunity to get really inspired through building you knowledge and networking base through engaging and enjoying yourself at seminars, training sessions, congresses, gatherings and conferences.

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Be Inspired to Changing Your Environment by The Quick Feng Shui Method

I was reading this romance novel the other day on my iPad. It was called Sparks Fly by Lucy Kevin. It is one of the freely downloadable books on the iBooks to pass some time in utter frivolity.

Anyhow, the heroine is a Feng Shui consultant and she is out to fix a man's attitude on romance. She sets out to advice him about the importance of 'clearing clutter' in his office and how that might affect his love life.

While reading this, I look around my bedroom and go wow, wow, hang on. How am I inviting romance to my life or how is the Feng Shui in my house enhancing my life goal settings?

To my utter amazement, I find that I have completely and utterly overlooked the effect of Feng Shui in my live. What a horrible thing to do, when everything is related to everything.

So, I set out to research about Fen Shui for the next five minutes on Internet. I came up with a quick remedy plan and the next day go to Spotlight and buy new sheets to my bed and to Target to buy a new picture. I judge my old dearly loved, inherited naivistic art work will remain with some improvements on the side.



And the next day, I have a totally new environment. I feel better, my family gets a laugh from seeing mom's new enthusiastic way of inspiration application and I am having lots of fun.



Ah! There is the new picture of the romantically lit Eiffel Tower where I will be again some day with my loved ones.

Of course, my fun is not done yet. There is more to accomplish, but at least that is a start. I feel a lot better, now that I have applied some science to my life. It is highly recommended.
Please, enjoy!
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Be Inspired by the Energy in the City Centre

There is something captivating about city centres. Sometimes, it is a real job to get there, to spend a day shopping or working. For a person, living and working in the suburbs, spending time in the city itself can be a rare occurrence.

However, it can also be a really inspiring event. It might mean travelling long distances, experiencing crowded streets, finding parking spots where you pay enormous amounts for few hours in rush and urgency.

After that, you just stroll in the shopping centres, sit in the cafés sipping fancy coffee and observing people. It is a different energy, vitalising and draining at the same time. You might find new inspiring art works, a whole wall that you never noticed before, or two painted living sculptures that put on a fanny act.

You find new shops and products that you never saw before and the old familiar shops where you have visited before have filled up with new things that you can find cool and inviting to purchase or just browse.  You might find that suddenly all the fancy shops are sporting the 60’s and the 70’s reproductions, including your favourite clothes and accessories stores.

Wow! So, why not be inspired instead of irritated that everything is taking its time, that it is raining a little, that there are such crowds. Let the energy of the city centre lure you. Then, when you are back home in your own familiar environment, you can think about how different people are in their relationship to cities and suburbs, the places we live in and love. 

Be Inspired by the Cutting Edge Information from the Recent Nonfiction Books and Articles

I have always been inspired by books. Ever since I remember, reading books has been my most favourite past time.  Any bookshop and I am happy to spend hours in there, no sweat. Lately, though, since there is so much to do, mostly work, I have had to cut the reading of the books to the bare minimum just before going to sleep.

The good news is that I have had to focus on the most important information I could find in relation to whatever I am interested in at any given time. I cannot turn all my enquiries to a huge research project any more. Istead I choose the well researched most representative and most gutting edge information on anything and everything.

Internet is a huge help, since any enquiry can be turned to a mini-research lasting a few minutes or an hour. Then the results or the quick study can be evaluated and the book that is the most recommended by the popularity or the academia gets to be the next in line for the night time reading.

I have been thoroughly stimulated by the books on the neurology of the brain. How wonderful is it that we now can say how an enlightened person’s brains work or start changing our thinking into a positive mode and measure it through an online ratio testing.

I have also been very enthused by the books on longevity, health and nutrition. How marvellous is it that somebody has thought to develop age defying technologies that impact in the human cellular level so that there is a possibility to slow the aging process and die healthy instead of sick and tired.

Finally, how extraordinary that there is so much evidence about our sugar eating habits since the turn of the 20^th Century that we can adjust and live a sustainable and long life in happiness and health if we so wish.

Wow,  isn’t that inspiring?

I urge you to be inspired by the cutting edge information in good, well researched books. Be inspired by the open-mindedness and the discovery of innovative and natural ways to live.  

Be Inspired by Your Growing Garden

This year I have had a pleasure of following my growing garden. No, I am no gardener. In fact I employ a gardening service to maintain the garden I got as a birthday present from my son and son-in-law in Christmas 2010. What I do is to watch it grow and bloom every now and then. I always wanted to have a garden with flowers around the year. In Queensland, Australia, it is a possible thing to do.

Every so often I take pictures and report back to my son on how much the garden has grown. It is to say thank you and to show him how much I have enjoyed the garden and the huge work he and his friends put into designing, building and planting it for me.


Here, for example is my favorite red flower. In my home country in Finland, we call it the Christmas Star. There it only grows inside and rarely lasts long at that.

In Australia, Euphorbia Pulcherrima is a tree, commonly known as Poinsettia and blooms in June-July. Here is how much my tree has grown in one year.


It has been my pleasure to know that here in Queensland we truly can celebrate the current month as 'Christmas in July' as most of the things, including the warming food selection is just right for this time of the year.

It is truly wonderful to be able to enjoy and be inspired by a lovingly built and maintained garden.
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Be inspired by Cultural Traditions

It is the Midsummer Night's Festival time in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and Estonia and thereabouts. The real day for the St John's birthday is on the 24th of June, but the celebration starts early. Having a look at the tradition of Midsummer in midwinter Down Under is quite exhilarating.

It is interesting to note how the brain understands the connections between what I can remember from my childhood Midsummer nights in Lapland, where the Sun never went down during this time of the year and now, where instead of the longest day, it is the longest night. However, the weather conditions are about the same.

A few times now, just at the end of May, I have traveled to Melbourne for a conference and there it is exciting to experience the Australian autumn with it's falling Mabel and Birch tree leaves. This has come to represent the Midsummer for me. Even though it is the complete opposite to what my childhood was like, I get very inspired by the walk along the streets in the city where I can experience the winter.



Every year, though, the Scandinavian people in Australia celebrate the Midsummer festival with bonfires and Maypole dancing. It serves as invitation to be inspired by cultural traditions and wonderful memories from you ancestry.

Hyvää Juhannusta & Glad Midsommar, for all.
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Be Inspired By Playful Puppeteering at Any Age

How inspired can you get when someone who has had a long experience in puppeteering is entertaining you and a group of older citizens with playful professionalism? Laughter can lift your spirits high and make your day much brighter.



This is what George Bernard Shaw had to say about play and aging:
"We don't stop playing, because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." His words hold true in every occasion.

Meet Dale Woodward, an Australian pioneering puppeteer and theatre performer. He certainly knows how to hold the attention of his audience. His performance is at the same time informative and fun. He is not lying down after retirement. Oh, no! He is capturing a new audience of fellow senior citizens with his compelling and inspiring ways.

This elephant character named Jazz is made out of junk. He walks to a very jazzy tune and performed to a delighted audience at the Caddies Community Care Centre in Jimboomba inspiring his audience to laughter and playfulness.
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New Nail Polish Technology Presenting Some Fun Inspiration

A few weeks ago, I went to get a manicure at the local Professional Nails Salon. Usually I enjoy getting some nail art done by the 14-year old daughter of the salon owner. It is fun and inspirational and can easily make your day. Not to mention of the conversations it can lead to with family, friends, the work colleagues and other acquaintances.

On this particular day, my usual nail artist was absent, so the owner suggested that I would try the new colour changing acrylic nail polish technology. I am always open to new positive experiences so, yes!




The nail polish has been a huge success in every way. It is an even better conversation starter that the nail art. People have noticed, commented and asked about it at every possible occasion.

At a resent conference, there were several people leaning onto me just to see how the colour changed during an hour when the room went from freezing cold to impossibly warm due to the large audience generating lots of heat.




My ever changing nail polish has created many friendly conversations and led me to meet some very interesting people, who are now my friends on LinkedIn. Anything to enhance the networking opportunities.

Seriously, try it yourself. It does require a positive disposition and an openness to people crowding your space. It might also create a distraction, so some caution is to be applied.

Otherwise, it is just so much fun that I would recommend this kind of inspiration to be adopted by everyone who thinks that creating meaningful conversations on a regular bases is a great goal to accomplish.

So, have fun and enjoy!
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Be Inspired By Top Performance

I went to visit my friend in Victoria, Australia. She took me to her friend's house to see a demonstration of how the Nu Skin, skin-care products, vitamins and the business opportunity works. I had no expectations what so ever. I've seen these things before and not paid much attention. We were six invited women and the AgeLoc technology demonstrator, Colette. I was there just to observe.

However, not very long and I was asking if I could take pictures. Yes, I was told, they wouldn't mind if the pictures ended up on a blog or a Facebook page.




What caught my attention and held it undivided was the ease in which Colette was able to hold on to the group keeping their attention and interest during an approximately three hour demonstration. I was totally fascinated by her top performance. It was incredible inspiring.




The pictures show the intensity the group discussions. All the participants were totally into the moment. It was really extraordinary. I was left thinking about it ever since. If I was doing a demonstration, this would be the way I would do it.

How would I accomplish such ease, such grace of performance?

Partly, it comes from knowing what you are talking about, knowing your stuff, but partly it is the person, the way she holds herself, the way she presents and interacts with her audience.

Experience and training is important but in the end, it is the self-efficiency and the self-confidence of the leader that builds the group dynamics ensuring the overall positive experience for the whole group, leaving you thinking about it for a long time afterwards. So, thanks Colette for your top performance.

I am now a happy user of the Nu Skin products, especially the Galvanic Body Spa and AgeLoc technology. I keep thinking that my grandmother who was a cosmetologist from the 1950's, would have loved the modern technology, too. It definitely is inspiring to live in the world of such a wealth of possibilities.
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Simple and smart advertising can inspire you and make your day

I was driving along the highway, minding my own business, in a serious conversation with myself about the tasks I was supposed to do during the coming day. I could literally feel my jaws crunching.

Ever felt that way? Your mind is so busy that since you know where you are going, the driving task goes on an automatic pilot and some time later you find yourself in the destination wondering how on earth you got there anyway. Suddenly, I saw this sign and not only once, but twice. A simple advertising slogan at the street corners.

Not that I would have anything to put on the sign at the location, but it did inspire me to unclenching my jaws and smiling to myself and to the world. Suddenly, I felt much better!



Maybe, the advertising company is not going to gain much profit from me, but certainly they are gaining this blog posting. And who knows, bringing back my attention to the road helped me to focus on the positives of the day. Like, that it was a sunny day and life generally was going fine. The act of smiling relaxed the muscles of my face and reminded me to stretch and my general wellbeing improved. I simply had to stop, twice, and walk in the sunshine taking pictures, say hello to the people sitting on their poach, waving at me. What a beautiful day!

Drawing inspiration from everything is an important skill and this blog is dedicated to finding the inspiration from the smallest things and making that 3-1 positivity ratio that the modern positive psychology movement is talking about. The challenge is to be inspired again and again by the mundane daily occurrences as well as those great moments in time which truly make you feel like your life is rejuvenating and after which you feel you can do anything.

The further challenge comes from holding to that initial inspiration and maybe even consciously building a mindset that allows that inspiration to spread to your whole being and so affect your actions during the coming days. It is grand stuff to be shared with others and that is what this blog is all about.

So, take care and get into the Inspiration Application Business! :)


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