Aug 19
Inspired advertising
icon1 Amit Sodha | icon2 Perception, Spiritual | icon4 08 19th, 2008| icon3No Comments »

I’ve been intrigued recently by two particular adverts I’ve seen on T.V. that have a deeper message behind them. Yep, they are advertising their products, but they also have a taken a brave step by conveying messages of hope, human definition and spirituality.

If you haven’t already seen them check them out for yourself and see what you think!

- Nike Advert

- Orange TV Advert

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Aug 18

I’ve not been blogging for the last two weeks or so as my sister passed away. She was diagnosed with cancer 6 years ago and had opted not to take the conventional treatment method. It’s been a challenging time for me and the family with everyone dealing with it in their own way. There is no right or wrong way to deal with death; everyone will find their own way and take away their own lessons from it.

My sister also started a blog but she never told me what the address was. A friend has the link and I’ve heard that she posted some very inspiring articles so when I get my hands on them I will post them up here to honour her memory. :-)

I wish I could say I handled it in the most noble way possible but that is not the case. What it has done for me though is remind me to continue making a life. I was watching that film ‘Kung Fu Panda’ recently and init the character ‘Master Oogway’ says to Po the Panda: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that is why it is called the present.”

As tough as death can be it can also serve as a reminder that there is much to cherish about the now even though at that moment things might seem tough or challenging.

I intend to cover this topic much deeper tomorrow.

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Aug 1

Life in the 21st Century. How to Excel

Saying that life in the 21st century is challenging and confusing is probably a huge understatment! We’ve entered a new paradigm especially with technology and all it’s extra benefits and pitfalls and most people feel stress as a result as there is so much other there; not just technology but choices in general.

With all the additional components of life that we have to deal with it’s ever increasingly important to filter our lives in the same way that you might filter the email entering into your inbox. If you don’t filter you will become inundated. Take facebook as a prime example. I’ve got nearly 600 contacts on there now and ever increasingly I’m being invited to groups, events, fan pages etc and the list just goes on and on! I want facebook to serve me and my ultimate goals and not become a pain in the backside.

The amount of importance and value you place on these things will also have a big impact. If you place a huge amount of value making public appearances, and you become overwhelmed with requests to make public appearances, if you don’t know how to filter those events you may well become frustrated if you can’t fulfill all of them. I do like what the Roger Hamilton says about success in that: “It’s not what you say yes to but what you say no to.”

We as human beings are filtering creatures anyway so we may as well tune that skill and make it work for us. In addtion to filtering, the other thing which will be of immense value to you, will be the ability to make quick decisions. The uncanny thing was I began writing this post on Wednesday and had already made a start on writing this paragraph on the ability on making quick decisions. Yesterday I was on a flight to Milan and I was speed reading the book ‘Think and grow rich’ and in it there is a whole section about having the ability to make quick firm decisions. Looks like Napolean Hill and I share a common philosophy about success! ;-)

The caveat with regards to quick decisions is learning to deal with you own ’second guessing’. It doesn’t actually matter how long you take to make a decision. Most people think that they need a good length of time to make a decision and in some cases it does matter but in the majority of decision we face on a day to day basis we take our time because we’re asking ourselves if the decision is the ‘right’ decision. Length of time will not necessarily make it any more right, wrong or better. Even if you’ve taken time with your decision you may still be questioning yourself in the back of your mind. “Did I make the right choice?” etc.

So ultimately this all comes down to you and how you deal with the influx of different opportunities that arrive at your doorstep. The onus is on you to think quicker and smarter about the ever growing list of avenues and gateways through to the road of success. Stop expecting yourself to be ‘right’ all the time and just go with your gut. Sometimes you will lose out but ultimately what you’re doing by adopting these ideas is disposing quickly of things that have no value to you and increasing your time to focus on the things that do truly have benefit for you and ultimately taking you step by step towards fulfilling your purpose.

To summarise:

1) Learn to filter quickly; learn when to say no and learn to say it firmly. Saying ‘Yes’ to everything that comes along isn’t obligatory. What you’re learning to do is spot and differentiate the real opportunities from the ones that leech your time and energy

2) Decide quickly. Every minute spent trying to make a choice is just a waste of your time and time you could be using more productively.

3) Escape the habit of second guessing your decisions. You not always going to make the right decisions all you can do is make them quickly and move on as fast as possible without subjecting yourself to regret or hindsight.

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Jul 30

If the saying: “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know” is true then your objective becomes simple. If your power is extended by the people you know, rather than bitch and moan about that principle, and the people who do get ahead because of the people they know, then why not use that same principle to your advantage. Create a social network of excellence. Knowledge is power and if that can be enhanced even further by associating with people who can elevate you then do exactly that! Learn to become great at networking and learn to value yourself. When people of influence see someone who knows their own value they will work with you to increase your value.

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Jul 29

For those who’ve been here before or to those who regularly visit the blog you’ll have noticed that I’ve installed a new wordpress plugin that allows me to see the number of times each post has been viewed and on the right hand side you’ll see links to the top 5 viewed posts.

Even though many of my posts will have been viewed thousands of times already I decided to install this now as I will be useful for me in the future in seeing which are my posts are drawing the most attention and which ones are not so in the future I can then improve the titles and content of my blog posts.

I already have a rough idea of which posts are my most viewed but it will be interesting to see over the next few months which posts will be in the top 5. Currently, among the most popular, and most found through google are:

Building your will power
The power of a repetitive thought
Perception Vs Reality
Internalizing Vs Externalizing
Stuck and not sure what to do with life

If you’re thinking of adding a new feature to your blog it’s a great feature to have and will give you some interesting and useful stats upon which to build and grow your blog.

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Jul 28

Yesterday was my fourth stand-up appearance and one thing I can say for certain is that is definitely doesn’t get any easier! It was my third perfomance with Humili-Asian out of the four that we’ve done in total.

I probably didn’t make it any easier for myself by leaving my preparations till the last minute. Even though I’d created my joke concepts and ideas I hadn’t written or polished off my act until an hour before I was due to be in the theatre.

On the Saturday, the day before the event, I got my head down and started the process of polishing off my act. I went to a cafe and got to work. Thankfully I did a smart thing and I created a routine that was 8 minutes long which was ideal! Any longer and I wouldn’t have been able to memorise it in time; any shorter and I wouldn’t have given the audience their monies worth.

Sunday had arrived and I still had not quite finished off the final version so first thing in the morning I switched on my laptop and got straight to work. With four hours remaining before I had to be at the theatre I did my first practise. I always time my routines to that I have a good idea of how long I’ll be on stage. My routine, without pauses for laughter, was just about hittting the 8 minute mark so I guessed I would be on stage for about 9 minutes in total.

Something I learned from this experience that I haven’t verbalised until now is that the more you practise as if you’re on stage what will happen is as you’re practising you’ll get new ideas, different punchlines or even the premise of the joke my change or a different combination in your routine. The more you practise the more that your act will become refined.

I had an hour left at the theatre and I managed two successful practises without looking at my notes so I collected everything I needed and got to the theatre. Once again I was asked (forced) :lol: to go first!

I can say with confidence that my routine was successful and I got some great laughs. I did miss one of my main jokes but I did my routine and finished on a strong note which I struggled to do on the last couple of occasions.

Oh and something which I haven’t even mentioned yet also is that my goal for this event was to create a routine that was free from swearing and contained no blue humour. I can’t even begin to describe how much of challange that is! Why did I create a clean set? Well because for me the ultimate goal is to get good at public speaking and be an international speaker and I wanted to create humour that I could integrate into my speeches and be acceptable wherever I go; especially for younger audiences!

I love being on stage and doing stand-up. It’s just a wonderful experience being on stage and holding the attention of the audience and being able to make then laugh. Now that I’ve learned to deal with my own fears of being on stage and the other additional challenges of speaking and writing I am offering my services of coaching to anyone that would like to be coached in that area. ;-)

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Jul 23

Here is a list of 50 things I’ve achieved, which writing in itself, is an achievement! (Which is why that is point 50 on my list!) I came up with the idea of writing this list not to satisfy my ego and show to people “oooh look what I’ve done” but more as an exercise at looking at which areas in my life I have focussed and created a outcome as a result of dedicated and directed energy! In addition to that as I perused my list afterwards I realised that each of those items within the list required some different skill or mindset.

What I encourage you to do is write a list of your own and once you completed your list I recommend that you look over it and extract the skills and mindset tools you used to achieve each one and then look at how you can take those tools and apply them in areas of your life where you feel you’re stagnating. Go on, give it a go, and enjoy the results and let me know how you get on with your list…maybe even post it in the comments! ;-)

Oh and lastly, I encourage you to find 50. I promise that if you dig deep you will easily reach the 50 mark even if in the beginning you struggle!

1) I got rated very highly for an art project at school which in turn led me to meet the prime minister
2) I performed in the ‘Noah’s Ark’ opera at school as one of the main characters
3) I performed in a play called ‘Pedro’s Revenge’ as the evil gangster called ‘Rocadura’
4) I’ve run the JPMorgan Chase race 3 times and completed it faster each time
5) I managed to lose lots of weight and keep my weight consistent over the past 3 years
6) I taught myself how to juggle and developed a fast way of teaching others
7) I learned magic and performed a magic act in front of over 500 people
8 ) I performed magic in front of a large family gathering, completely unprepared, for over 2 hours with only a deck of cards
9) I got an award for indian dancing
10) I once went to Mt Snowdon and took a very difficult route and climbed it by myself
11) I’ve appeared on TV several times (always purely by accident)
12) To date I’ve written in the region of 360 blog posts…the equivalent to three books worth
13) I learned to meditate and was teaching others by the time I was 16
14) I’ve been awarded for my contribution and voluntary work
15) I have so far performed stand-up comedy three times and this Sunday will be my fourth
16) I completed my 100 days of wisdom project on this blog
17) I’ve had articles published
18) I’ve met great masters like Deepak Chopra, John DeMartini and Tony Robbins
19) I’ve read somewhere in the region of 100 books on personal development
20) I have my own radio show
21) I ran the bupa 10K race
22) I’ve run the half marathon (on the same day that I also performed stand-up comedy)
23) I been interviewed on Radio 5 about ‘The Secret’
24) I’ve now Life Coached several clients
25) I’ve done countless events at schools and worked with 100’s of children
26) I taught myself how to spin a basketball on my finger for over 2 minutes
27) I mastered the martial arts weapon Nun-Chukka (completely self taught)
28) I can do some seriously cool things with a deck of bicycle cards
29) I play badminton regularly and am now very good at it
30) I’ve played with the top badminton player in England
31) For the last year I’ve only used the stairs at work
32) I’ve sung in a choir
33) I’ve hosted the stage of a carnival
34) I got the top personality award at school
35) I got the best newcomer award at a job I had selling mobile phones
36) I’ve walked on fire…twice
37) I tried ‘fire-eating’
38) I’ve danced on stage in front of 12,000 people
39) I’ve managed to keep people off anti-depressents
40) I’ve tried various different vocations including musician management
41) I’ve raised loads of money for charity
42) I’ve jumped off a totem pole (luckily while harnassed) :-P
43) In the 10 years I’ve been driving I’ve driven the equivalent to 10 times around the world
44) I’ve DJ’d at a party
45) I’ve given talks
46) My shortest length of employment was 1.5 days (definitely quite an achievement…don’t ask!)
47) I can do about 250 kick-ups with a football
48) My tennis serve is 100MPH (had it measured) (and sometimes it even goes in! :lol: )
49) I can play table tennis with both hands (almost to an equal level)
50) I’ve written a list of 50 things I’ve achieved…in itself an achievement :-D

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Jul 20

I had my interview yesterday on the Inspire a nation radio show with Elliot Kay who himself is a fellow Radio Presenter and Life Coach. The hour went by so quickly and we unded up speaking so much he has invited me back again so that we can continue where I left off.

One of the project or goals that Elliot has set himself is to get 1,000,000 listeners to the show so if you haven’t already do check out his website and look him up on facebook too.

I do this feature on my radio show called beditation which is kind of like a mock meditation for people that are still in bed! :-P I do this just for fun and what we do is do it to focus all our vibez in one direction so whether that be to change the weather, for someone to get good grades in their exams, for good luck on a date or anything crazily of the like!

How does that tie in? Well yesterday Elliot himself asked me and as did one of the listeners to the show what my goals are for the future and I was inspired by a new vision on Friday just as I happened to be driving along to play a game of badminton. One theme that is common among all the books I’ve by all the masters like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra or John DeMartini is that they Meditate and then something occured to me.

I used to be a meditation teacher many years ago and only learned one type of meditation but I realised what I hugely powerful tool it can be. So the inspired vision that occured to me was very simple: I want meditation to be introduced in every school in the UK and possibly even the globe! I want meditation lessons to be as compulsory as learned to read or learn math.

Meditation is such an import skill to learn. Often the term ‘Meditation’ itself can been seen to have a religious attitude associated with it but let me make this clear that meditation is something everyone on the planet already does. They just do it in a very unfocussed way and so the challenge is bringing that skill to everyone so that they can make full use of it. Meditation is skill and tool to channel the mind. It’s a way of just for a few moments each day harnessing your internal creative engine and focussing it in a particular area. It’s easy to do and teach and all it needs is you…nothing more! You can use music as an aid but it isn’t necessary.

So there is a new inspired vision I have to bring a practical form of meditation into the education system to the point where it becomes a core part of the curriculam as learning to read and write.

Watch this space for more on this in the future!

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Jul 16
Interview on Inspire a Nation
icon1 Amit Sodha | icon2 Daily | icon4 07 16th, 2008| icon3No Comments »

I’m being interviewed this Saturday at 9pm on Playvybz internet radio station. I’m being interviewed by Elliot Kay who himself is a Life Coach and hosts the ‘Inspire a Nation’ show on Playvybz. To listen in click on the Playvybz logo below and I’ll be sharing some of my stories about how I began with my blogging, coaching and my whole journey into the personal development world. ;-)

(If you can’t connect through the link visit http://www.playvybz.com and connect through the homepage)

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Jul 10

If there is one thing you can pass onto your children it’s simply this: Pass on the power of gratitude. Get your children from an early age practising the art of gratitude. All it takes is a few minutes at the beginning and a few minutes at the end of the day to go through everything you’re grateful for. Count your blessing and get into the habit of reaching that genuine feeling of appreciation for everything in your life. Not even just the good stuff but even appreciating the bad stuff that challenges us too.

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Jul 9

Something I’ve learned recently is that adversity is my greatest friend. You cannot hide from it; you cannot avoid it; you cannot run from it. All you can truly do is look at the adversity, discover it’s gift to you and then say: ‘Thank you’.

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Jul 4

Mike Harris, the creator of 3 1bn+ businesses will be speaking on Monday the 14th of July at the London Hilton Metropole and sharing his stories of innovation and creation.

If you would like to attend this rare event click the link below to get you ticket now!

http://www.triumphantevents.co.uk/?unlock=905-buk52sh978kas5y92zqr8tab

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Jul 1

There’s nothing quite like a weekend with John DeMartini to shake up your perception of the world! As I’ve said in the past that your perception shapes the world and this was one of the core ‘knowings’ that John has.

One of the biggest things that I personally took away from the weekend was that I now appreciate more than ever those people who’ve hurt me, pissed me off or challenged me because it’s through them that I’ve grown the most! I used to often tread on egg shells trying to protect peoples but in many ways that is probably one of the most detrimental things I can do, not only to myself but to others too!

Another I thing I learned well was to not to subhordinate to or think of myself above anyone. As soon as you do you negate yourself or negate them instead of that owning all the traits you see. Whether you percieve them to be negtive or positive, you have those traits, take ownership of them as you also have them and be grateful for them because whether you realise it or not they have served you. Ask yourself where they have served you and feel gratitude; say ‘thank you’!

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Jun 23

Hi All,

John DeMartini is back in London and I’m fortunate enough to be attending the Breakthrough Experience this weekend. He is also giving his inspiring talks on Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th of June and there are still tickets available and because you found out through here you can get the special rate ticket of just £20. Click here to book your ticket!

I believe there are also still tickets available for John DeMartini’s Breakthrough Experience weekend for which you can get tickets from here. He is also running a speed reading course on Friday 27th of June and you can get tickets for that here

For those that have not heard of him, JDM was also featured on ‘The Secret’ and has written somewhere in the region of 250 books and has himself read over 29000 texts on philosophy, science, spirituality and theology.

If you’ve never heard John speak then I can assure you his is by far one of the most inspiring speakers I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. So take this opportunity now, get a ticket and make sure you get down there to hear this inspiring man speak!

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Jun 19

24 hours in one day is a long time and there is so much that you can do with it. If you let it get repetitive every day will seem the same to you and you will get bored with life. Thats why I decided to create this list of 101 mini purposes or goals where you can pick and choose one to make the primary focus of your day. You will notice that the first 50 or so are quite random and more fun orientated whereas the last 50 or so are more specific in the area of personal development. I hope you get something out of this list and maybe even make one of your own! In fact create your own list and let me know when you have so we can link them all together so that people can get new ideas of goals they can keep throughout the day! :-D

1) Eat a little healthier
2) Smile more
3) Smile and talk to a complete stranger
4) Write a poem
5) Be a better listener
6) Try something completely new
7) Cut down on the junk food
8 ) Be more grateful for the food dished
9) Feel a bit better than yesterday
10 Help a stranger
11) Call an old friend and catch up
12) Stand tall in the face of adversity
13) Be a better driver
14) Write a song
15) Write a positive review of a product you like
16) Create a new TV show concept
17) Call a radio show and request a song
18) Enter a talent show
19) Start reading a new book
20) Start writing a book
21) Go for a drive with no destination in mind
22) Watch an old movie
23) Watch re-runs of your favourite TV shows
24) Go and see some famous works of art
25) Track down a lost friend and get in touch
26) Call a distant relative
27) Give some spare change to a beggar without thinking about what they might spend it on
28) Plan your strategy for becoming world famous
29) Start a trend
30) Create a cool new word that the young generation can catch onto
31) Organise a fantasy football tournament
32) Complete a crossword or soduku puzzle without help
33) Go old skool and write a letter to a pen-pal
34) Take a picture of something random and submit it to a photography competition
35) Make a fun video on your phone with your friends
36) Laugh for no reason
37) Poke some strangers on Facebook
38) Do some charity work
39) Raise some money for charity
40) Donate money to a random charity.
41) Do one ‘ARK’ (Act of Random Kindness)
42) Go explore a park
43) Get out the old photo albums and reminisce
44) Introduce someone who’s never see it to ‘The Secret’
45) Set yourself a challenge to double the money in your pocket by being savvy
46) Invent a new game
47) Play a board game instead of watching T.V.
48) Give someone a lift
49) Wear something you wouldn’t normally wear
50) Write an inspirational text message and send it onto friends
51) Wash your car
52) Focus on abundance for the whole day
53) Become more in-tune with people
54) Create a better rapport with people
55) Improve your attitude of gratitude
56) Remember that you have the power of choice at every step
57) Attract something simple like a sweet
58) Start a blog
59) Write a blog post
60) Let out pearls of wisdom you’ve been holding onto
61) Write to your favourite author or inspiration and say thank you
62) Shift your focus from the bad to the good
63) Focus on healing any minor ailments or injuries
64) Increase your sensory acuity
65) Give advice and guidance to those who need it
66) Ask yourself better questions
67) Pray
68) Meditate for brief moments throughout the day aka Minute Meditations
69) Practise following through on your decisions
70) Complete an unfinished project
71) Create some SOS’s (Simple Obvious Strategies) for enhancing your life
72) Focus on getting better at what you do
73) Practise being ‘in the moment’
74) Create a new way of doing a repetitive task
75) Look at a repetitive task in a new light
76) Listen to audio books throughout the day and at night
77) Apply your wisdom
78) Meditate in an open space like a park
79) Do some tai chi or yoga and allow people to join you if they wish
80) Get a book on NLP or EFT and learn it
81) Improve your memory and remember peoples names and other info
82) Find a good Life Coach and hire them
83) Start a new course or evening class
84) Learn to breathe more fully
85) Cook a healthy meal
86) Volunteer at a school and give some personal development tips to the students
87) Sort out your finances
88) Book some ‘you’ time
89) Be more charming and attractive to the opposite sex
90) Do a very challenging task e.g. walk on fire
91) Arrange a tournament of some kind
92) Get rid of clutter
93) Act more consciously
94) Appreciate the rain
95) Tackle something you fear head on
96) Overwrite a limiting belief with an empowering one
97) Anchor your positive emotions
98) Send out healing vibes to the whole world
99) Utilise the technology you have to do good
100) Get leverage on yourself to get into action
101) Write your own list of 101 mini goals/purposes for yourself.

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Jun 19
This week…
icon1 Amit Sodha | icon2 Daily, Humour | icon4 06 19th, 2008| icon3No Comments »

Just last week I got asked to do a charity stand-up comedy gig at a bar called Ruby Blues in Leicester Sq which I’ll be doing that this evening. It hasn’t given me much time to prepare and I have yet to complete my new routine so I decided for now, as it was such short notice, that I’d stick with my older material.

This in itself is a new challenge as this time I will not be with the usual Humili-Asian crew. It’ll be my first gig as just me performing for an audience. I won’t lie, I’m incredibly nervous but I’m just going to go out there and have as much fun as I possibly can!! :lol: As Susan Jeffers would say, feel the fear and do it anyway!

Also, on Saturday I’ll be on stage hosting the Hanwell Carnival. This is the first time I’ve been asked to do it and I’m really excited about that. It’s open to anyone who wants to come along so if you want to come along and have fun you’re more than welcome to do so, the kids will love it and feel free to bring along friends and family too!

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Jun 17

I saw the clip of the ‘Evolution of Dance’ with Judson Laipply on youtube a long while ago but I didn’t realise at the time that he was an inspirational speaker and does stand-up comedy just like I do. I found another clip of him being interviewed and also talking about the power of choice and I thought I would share it with you too.

And if you’ve never seen the full clip of the ‘Evolution of Dance’ then here it is; you’re in for a real treat!! ;-)

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Jun 13

A lot of people have asked me why I’ve gotten into doing stand-up comedy and there are two main reasons that have driven me to give it a go:

1) Firstly comedy has the ability of taking any predjudices, insecurities, differences, etc and giving people a new perspective on them that makes them see the lighter side of it. Comedy the ability of showing the lighter side of any dark situation. Not only that it allows me to take the things I feel most fear over and make them funny. Because of that the fear evaporates quickly and effortlessly. I have had my fair share of animosity and self loathing and I knew that comedy would be one sure fire way of demolishing both of those.

2) I wanted to become a better public speaker as it’s something that has given me a lot of fear over the years and I knew that doing stand-up comedy would be one excellent way of essentially taking a crash course in public speaking. I happen to agree with people now when they that stand-up comedy is one of the most difficult thngs you can do. It really is!! It takes so much preparation and planning and ultimately you don’t know whether you’ll be funny or not but all you can go is go and give it your best! I will definitely say that it has helped my public speaking. I do have a long way to go but I’ve probably learned more it so far than most people do by doing 5 years of public speaking courses.

It’s scary but if it’s an idea you’ve toyed then my advice to you is go for it!

Essentially though it’s about feeling good and comedy is a great way of getting past things like anger, fear, and resentment! No one will expect you to become an expert at it but give it a go, just a 5 minute set and think about all the things you’ve feared in the past and how you can now see the lighter side of them! ;-)

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Jun 12

The true identity crisis is one where people get so caught up in being identified with labels that they forget the bigger picture. Are you caught up with the labels of being: ‘British’, ‘Christian’, ‘Jew’, ‘Muslim’, ‘American’ etc?

More often than not it doesn’t represent a divide in values as most people believe it to be as globally people want the same thing but it just represents borders of laws and economics.

The truth is there is only one label that we all really need to identify with that that is the label of the spirit of humanity. Forget about putting so much importance on being a ‘Hindu’ or being ‘British’ and only focus on the label of humanity.

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Jun 9

The greatest social challenge facing humanity is not one of economic divide but one of spiritual divide. The gap between those who want to help others and those that want to hurt others is increasing. The solution is simple; More acts of kindness and more compassion. Just as negativity can be contagious so can positivity too and it can spread faster too. Think of the person you admire the most, the person you find seems to ooze and aura of inner self certainty and mirror them in the things you do.

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