12 Tips For A Less Stressful 2009

For many people 2008 will go down as one of the most stressful in recent memory, and 2009 is promising more of the same.

Global Warming provides the paradigm for the social, economic and environmental damage we see around us. The trip to Global Warming is through Climate Change with increasingly radical, unpredictable and damaging weather patterns.

Coping with it all can be a major challenge, but there is a pathway we can follow, one that has been charted and followed for milennia by Zen Monks.

Fortunately, there is no need to renounce the world and become a monk in order to benefit from what they have learned.
.
According to the Zen Habits website ( http://www.zenhabits.net/2008/03/12-essential-rules-to-live-more-like-a-zen-monk/) these are twelve habits of Zen monks:. .

1. Do one thing at a time.
2. Do it slowly and deliberately.
3. Do it completely.
4. Do less.
5. Put space between things
6. Develop rituals .
7. Designate time for certain things.
8. Devote time to sitting.
9. Smile and serve others.

10. Make cleaning and cooking become meditation.
11. Think about what is necessary.
12. Live simply.

These are not easy to practice in our internet world, filled with all the demands of multi-tasking, which does not seem to simplify one's life. (It certainly can become a ritual, though.)

Wishing You A Happy And More Peaceful New Year!

What Hermann Scheer Thinks Of Ontario's Energy Policy

Check out this fantastic article in the Toronto Star today:
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/555638 If the link doesn't work, just click on the title of today's post above.

"Ontario could power itself exclusively on renewable energy one day if it thought differently about the operation and design of its entire electricity system, says the chief architect of Germany's green-energy law.

German legislator Hermann Scheer, largely credited for pushing through the policies that have turned his country into a renewable-energy powerhouse, said the biggest challenge is overcoming the belief that large, centralized power plants based on nuclear fission and fossil fuels are necessary for an electricity system to operate reliably."

Great comments online as well.