I read recently Times article entitled, ‘Angelina Jolie and the superfast generation
Nothing happens quickly enough for us anymore‘.

It was suggested that,

‘Barack Obama stands out like a welcome beacon of zen. This week in an overheard aside to David Cameron he confided that “the most important thing you need to do is have big chunks of time during the day when all you’re doing is thinking”. Without that, he said, “you lose the big picture”.

and

In his essay Is Google Making us Stupid?, Nicholas Carr observes that he now seems less able to engage himself deeply in long, complicated narratives or arguments. “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski,” he says. It’s so obviously true. Anyone who doubts that our attention spans are dwindling is seriously…oh, who cares? I sometimes find myself talking to two-year-olds and having to stop myself saying: “Yes, yes, but what’s your point?”

The general gist of the article is the suggestion that the world has become to fast.
I too suffer from the syndrome as I often declare to my staff, ‘hurry-up. What is taking so long!?’
Therefore, I’m not setting a good example.

What I found helped and again ironically I do not make time for it is Yoga.
On what I like to call my Spanish episode (August 2006) I had lost patience. I also blame the fact that it was also a very hot day that day.

Anyway, upon returning to London I attended a couple of Kundalini Yoga sessions. I found that it was almost as if someone had pressed my ‘reset’ button.

The Times article is interesting in that it exposes what we suffer from. However, does it suggests few solutions.
Here are some that I have managed to research. I call it strategies for focus…

1. Dedicate time to think
2. Establish set times to perform particular activities
3. Consider Yoga
4. If you do a lot of report writing, then try a creative writing exercise - It helps to become more creative
5. Before you sleep think of 3 good things that happened or made you happy
6. Don’t use a computer/laptop or watch TV for up to 2-3 hours before retiring to bed (easier said than done!)

The latter tip I picked up from Snatam Kaur’s blog site.

The article is definitely worth a read to help us realise that to obtain quality of life, we all have to try harder.

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Some of you may know that myself and SACA help to organise the annual Birmingham to London Charity.
Here is an update of what happened on Sunday 27th Jan 2008…

Much loved actor and current King of the Jungle Christopher Biggins took time out of his busy schedule to meet fundraisers, including 96 year old Fauja Singh, after they completed the annual Birmingham to London bike ride in aid of CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA.

The presentation took place on Sunday 27 January at the Wyke Green Golf Club, Isleworth, where the star was presented with a cheque for £25,368.44 from SACA, the organisers behind the event.

SACA also took the opportunity to announce that, further to the success of last year’s event, they have nominated CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA to be the beneficiary of the event for a second year running.  Deputy CEO of CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA Peter Reynolds said “We are honoured to be the nominated charity for a second year. It is a privilege to be associated with SACA again and we look forward to another successful event”.

Over 250 cyclists covered over 130 miles in July last year, enduring unseasonably adverse weather conditions throughout. Fauja Singh (aged 96), who currently holds eight different UK, European and world running records in the men over 90 age category, ran in a relay, with a team of ten other runners, along the same route as the cyclists, to show their support for the riders

Biggins beat eleven celebrities to be crowned King of the Jungle in November last year, on ITV’s Primetime show ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’. Talking from the event he said “Well the bush tucker trials really pale into insignificance compared to the lengths these wonderful supporters have gone to in order to raise vital funds for a wonderful cause.  The money raised will be used to fight the UK’s most common childhood cancer and is much needed, so all I can say is a huge thank you”.

Esther Lay, from SACA said “We’re delighting to able to donate £25,000 to such a worthy cause.  I would like to thank each and every rider, whose dedication and support has resulted in a fantastic contribution to CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA and look forward to working with them again in 2008”.

The Annual Birmingham to London Charity Bike Ride is one of the most challenging rides organized in the UK.  The event has been held each year since 1989, when a group of 14 aspiring youths decided to establish a challenge that could help both local and national children’s charities. They considered a number of sporting events that would test both their determination and personal fitness. They also considered the key element of working as a team and supporting each other.

Each year SACA choose a children’s charity to benefit from the event.  CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA is the sole beneficiary of the 2007 event.  To date the ride has raised over £135,000 for children’s charities.

CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA is Britain’s leading national charity dedicated exclusively to the conquest of childhood leukaemia through pioneering research, new treatment and support of leukaemic children and their families.

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As you may know, I with a friend, The Professor run the Smooth Groover Review Licensed Podcast.
We’re holding an event on 21st Oct 2007, Noon-6pm (The Guru Restaurant followed by Studio 1 at Watermans) in West London.

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This afternoon I had a crazy little idea. No, not because I had some spare time. Inspired by laughing clubs in the East I wondered, ‘What if I could re-create the magic of feeling good, but virtually’. As I said, for a start this was a crazy idea and I was really taking a risk on what kind of people could join in or what they would say. Therefore, I set some ground rules. Jokes had to be clean and we had to try and make each other laugh by initially some false laughter – hopefully generating a momentum to joint laughter. In addition, a starting statement that I would not be responsible for the impact of laughing, for example, someone falling off their chair or doing themselves some damage!

The Motivation behind the task
The motivation behind all of this was the thought that laughter apparently does lead to reduced blood pressure and de-stressing. How did I arrange the virtual and International tie-up?
At approx 2pm today I set-up a: Skypecast. This allows up to 100 people to conference call on the Internet for free! What is also excellent about this service is the way in which the assigned host can control the session.The Result…
Within 60 seconds, over 30 people turned up – quite good in one sense as a total of only 55 people internationally were using Skypecast. Unless I misread the statistics, especially as just under 9,000,000 people were online performing one-to-one calls.. It took me a few moments to understand how to use the system. I decided to get only one person at a time to talk, with the rest on listening mode.People tuned in from London, Manchester, Netherlands and China. One person had just come back from a business trip in London, some were using the system for the first time. Anyway, they all loved it - That was what they said!

I also had some instant messaging going on at the same time and noticed that some people were happy to just listen in the background and occassionally comment.As the host I got people to introduce themselves, talk about where they were, what time it was in their part of the world and then attempt to tell us some clean humour. I even setup some laughing tasks, for example, 10 second burst? Or, suggesting, ‘Please give me an example of how you would chuckle’. At one point I was talking to a couple in the North part of China and doing Star Wars Yoda impressions – for example, reversing the first and last word’s and producing Star wars Jedi phrases! The couple in China found this really funny - Thanks.

At times the whole session felt a little crazy and stupid but the whole exercise gave me a buzz. Surprisingly it reinstated my faith in humanity. Across national boundaries it brought us together. Many placed friend requests in my contact list, hoping to build new online relationships. I felt for once that the Internet was not being used for profit or mistermenia. The Internet was allowing people in their homes to switch-off their televisions and widen their contact horizons.Unity through laughter was awesome. Shall I set it up again?    

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