The Green School

There are plenty of schools out there with green practices among their goals, but a new school opening this fall in Bali will be entrepreneurially green from top to bottom.

The Green School, which will offer preschool through year eight, aims to provide a place where students can become more curious and more passionate about their education and the planet. The school’s eight-hectare campus in Sibang Kaja is divided by the Ayung River, on whose western bank are the school’s classrooms, libraries, laboratories and kitchens. Aquaculture ponds, organic vegetable gardens, edible mazes and permacultural gardens are interspersed throughout the vast campus, which is built entirely of low-impact and environmentally conscious materials such as bamboo, alang-alang grass and traditional Balinese mud walls. For energy supplies, the school is experimenting with micro-hydro power generation as well as producing methane from cow manure to fuel stoves and developing a gasification unit that will use rice husks and other organic materials to produce electricity. A working organic chocolate factory, large sports fields, gymnasium, high ropes course and a network of bicycle paths are also part of the campus.

The Green School’s curriculum, meanwhile, combines demanding academic content taught through a holistic approach that aims to inspire and enhance all of a child’s capacities. The school’s Learning Village, for example, gives students a chance to apply lessons to specific disciplines and real business situations, making abstract ideas come to practical life. Students are involved in everything from manufacturing their own chocolate to helping manage the organic fields, bamboo plantations and rice paddies that are integral to the campus. The Green School is open to children from all over the world, with boarding available starting next year for those in seventh grade and up. Villas are available for international families whose children attend the school. Tuition ranges from roughly USD 4,000 to USD 9,000 per year, depending on grade.

It doesn’t get much more eco-iconic than a thoroughly green school, and eco-minded consumers with the means to afford it will surely find the Green School compelling. Of course, the concept seems like one that could also work in other parts of the world. One to watch!

This wonderful concept bears a rigorous curriculum within an entrepreneurial bent using sustainable practices. It opens in September 2008 and will offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma.

 

The Law of Attraction from the Oprah Soul Series

I have to apologize.

I know I’ve been lifting stuff off from here and there but I really prefer to keep these valuable readings (well, to me anyway) as how I read them the first time.  And as I give myself an opportunity to read them in another time, I know that I will interpret it differently again.

Also, I try to avoid being too preachy about stuff like these. Because people have different truths and different ways of looking at things. Something as important as this is bound to be interpreted from so many angles. I don’t want be a know it all. I really just want to share this information kept in it’s original form and I leave it t you to find its value in your life.  It’s that important to me…..

LOA: AM I DOING IT WRONG?

Millions of people have now heard of The Secret, a theory which brings phrases like “positive thinking” and “the law of attraction” to everyday conversations. Although the The Secret is a fairly recent phenomenon, spiritual thinkers say they’ve been studying the concepts for years.

Acclaimed author Louise Hay is considered the mother of positive thinking. She is back to continue the conversation about the law of attraction, which is the basis of The Secret. “The law of attraction is that our thinking creates and brings to us whatever we think about,” she says. “It’s as though every time we think a thought, every time we speak a word, the universe is listening and responding to us.”

Louise says negativity can keep you from obtaining the things you want in life. “We don’t want to put ourselves down,” she says. “We don’t want to say, ‘Oh, it will never work for me,’ or ‘I’m not good enough.’ Because that’s what the universe hears and returns to you.”

Instead, Louise says you can transform your life by staying positive. “You have to start saying things that you feel really good about yourself. ‘I love who I am. I love life. Life loves me. It’s going to be smooth and easy. Life works for me.’ And you just start doing that—it’s planting seeds. You’re not going to get it the first day, but you plant a seed and you water it and you continue the affirmations, and things start to shift and change in your life.”

Author, life coach and O, The Oprah Magazine columnist Martha Beck says the law of attraction doesn’t work at the snap of your fingers—at least not at first. “At the beginning, you have to be careful what level you are on in your consciousness when you’re making your requests of the universe,” she says. Martha says it’s important that your thoughts are not coming from a negative place. “If you’re in a fear-based place where you need and you want and you’re going to die and everything’s scary, none of your intentions or desires has much power.”

People hoping to use the law of attraction are told to write lists of what they want to obtain, like a “love list.” So why is it that some people still don’t get what they want? Cheryl Richardson, life coach and author, explains that negative energy could be the cause. “I think sometimes it can be exactly what Martha said—that we’re asking from a place of desperation,” she says. “When you put desperate energy out into the world, you don’t get back what it is you want.”

Cheryl says the items on your list may not come to you right away. “I know that there’s something called divine timing,” she says. “Some of the most amazing things that have occurred to me in my life took longer to occur than I wanted because I needed to grow as a woman. I needed to evolve in some way.”

For people who are more concerned about being able to pay their next bill than they are with the law of attraction, it’s hard to think that keeping a positive attitude will change anything. Louise says that just hearing the ideas behind the law of attraction can help a person begin to make small changes in her life. “When the student is ready, the teacher appears,” she says.

Martha says she noticed the law of attraction at work in an unlikely situation—while coaching homeless heroin addicts in Phoenix. Martha says they lived on the street because they couldn’t afford apartments. “Then, I found out they were spending an average of $180,000 a year on heroin,” she says. When Martha asked how they got the money for their addiction, she saw a change. “They would become completely different when they were talking about the one thing they believed was necessary. And as I’ve worked with them, I’ve seen that what they believe and expect is what they get.”

Before Karen had ever heard of the law of attraction, she was going through a very frightening time in her life. “A year and a half ago, I thought I was having a heart attack, and I literally thought I was going to die,” she says. “My heart was beating really fast. I had a burning sensation throughout my chest and into my stomach. My whole body went numb.”

After that experience, Karen says she started having panic attacks and didn’t leave her home. “I always felt like something bad was going to happen to me,” she says. “I didn’t leave the house for close to a month and a half. I had to have someone by my side at all times.”

Karen says her healing began when she started reading about the law of attraction and began saying affirmations every day. “My two biggest ones are ‘I feel safe’ [and] ‘I deeply and profoundly love and accept myself,’” she says. “I would say them over and over again, and I think that instead of just saying it, it became the essence of my life. It’s what I believed in.”

Louise says affirmations help the law of attraction work. “It smooths your mind so the universe can work out the answer.”

Now, Karen says she is in a completely different place in her life. “Everything started to fall into place, and I became more positive,” she says. “I started to love myself, and I stopped thinking with regrets.”

In addition to affirmations, a vision board is a great way to visualize the positive things you want to bring into your life. When creating your vision board, Martha says you shouldn’t expect a straightforward process. “I get in a really calm place. I go to my core of peace, and I taste what is delicious in the future. It could be something I’ve never heard of, or it could be just the essence of something. I’m not sure what it is. And then I go through magazines or on the Internet, and I find pictures of things that represent that to me. It could be the actual object or it could be something that has the same feeling.”

Some of the things Martha put on her vision board were money, friends and spirituality. Martha says she also included pictures of people on the board—poets Mary Oliver and Maya Angelou, author Alice Walker and even Oprah! Martha says she wasn’t looking to meet these people, but instead put them on her board because she admires their spirits.

Martha says you need to be careful that you really want what you put on your vision board. She says one day she pasted a picture of puppies on her board because she thought they were cute. “Now I have a yellow lab and a golden retriever,” she says. “They need so much walking, it drives me nuts.”

Joking aside, Martha says has received many of the things she hoped for on her vision board, including a visit to Africa. “I have to say, as I was putting it together to bring here, I realized that I have to add more because everything on this board has already happened,” she says. “It happens so fast now I have to keep making new ones.”

Since Cheryl made her vision board 15 years ago, she says much of what she’s wanted has come true. At the time, Cheryl says she was looking for a partner—and now is married to a man who looks like the picture of the man on her vision board. Other than love, Cheryl says her vision board has also brought her success. “Phil Donahue was on here, and that’s the first national show I ever did after I put him on the board,” she says.

In the center of her board Cheryl has the word “God.” She says a vision board shouldn’t only be filled with material objects like fancy cars and expensive jewelry. “It’s not just about getting things,” she says. “It’s a spiritual principle, which we’ve said a million times. But, yes, these work. And they’re kind of cool to look at.”

After welcoming the bounty of good things from your vision board, Louise says it’s important to have proper gratitude for all you’ve received. This will keep those positive gifts coming. “The more grateful you are, the more you get to be grateful about. It’s that simple,” she says. “The universe really loves gratitude. And the more gratitude you have, the more goodies you get.”

When should you show this gratitude? “Morning, noon and night,” Louise says. “Be grateful when you look in the mirror at your own face. ‘I love you. I’m so grateful.’”

“What God loves most is appreciation,” Oprah says. “So when you show appreciation, you get appreciated.”

Wendy says long before she had heard of the “law of attraction” or The Secret, she knew she could change her life by picturing exactly what she wanted. “No one has ever taught me this,” she says. “I have just known that in my soul. It’s so awesome because it’s not something that we have to go get somewhere. It’s something we all have within us.”

After years of bad relationships with men, Wendy says she decided to focus attention on herself. “I deserved something better,” she says. “I was not going to waste my time anymore. And the moment I made that really clear decision, I met the greatest man I’ve ever known in my life.”

Cheryl says though everyone wants good relationships, bad relationships don’t have to be all bad. “The gift of the bad relationship is you get very clear [about] what you don’t want anymore,” she says.

While Wendy found what she was looking for almost immediately, Cheryl and Louise describe finding things they were looking in stages or in waves.

“You’re always being steered.” Martha says. “If I start to go the wrong way for myself, my body starts to hurt and I know immediately [to] pay attention.”

It’s easy to feel gratitude when good things happen…but what about dealing with a devastating blow? Denise says she was once a very positive person with what seemed like a charmed life. “A supermom, a wife, beautiful boys, a nice home,” she says. “Just a really good, good life.”

When her son was diagnosed with cancer, she says everything changed. After about a year and a half of fighting the disease, he died at age 18. Shortly after that, Denise’s husband left. “He wasn’t happy, and he wanted to start his life over and felt it was too much pain,” she says. “When he left, just everything crumbled. And it’s surreal. You just almost can’t believe that it’s actually happening. I felt like I was just waking up from a nightmare.”

Denise says her despair was so bad that she was on the verge of suicide. “I literally had his pain medication, a bunch of pills, in my hand,” she says.

Then, Denise says she felt the pills being knocked from her hand and heard the words of her late son in her head. “He said, ‘Mom, I was here as a gift for you, and you have to go on with your life,’” she says. “I felt his presence around me—that warmth, that comforting feeling of someone standing with you.”

Denise says dealing with the twin blows of her son dying and her husband leaving left her with so much pain and so many questions. “It’s hard to see that you can do something more with your life. You think God doesn’t love you, and why are you going through all these things?”

While watching the movie You Can Heal Your Own Life, based on Louise’s book, Denise says she found herself relating to the main character—a woman who was completely withdrawn from the world. “I saw her and I thought, ‘Oh, my God. That’s me,’” she says.

The film made her realize that she needed to forgive her husband, which she did on his birthday. “I said, ‘Good morning. I just want to wish you a happy birthday and hope you’re having a beautiful life because I know I am. And I know I’m on that path,’” she says. “It was like a weight lifted from me.”

Louise says Denise should prepare herself to live again. “You have no idea what’s in store for you,” she says. “The most wonderful adventures are coming.”

Susan from the audience asks for clarification on the difference between an intention and a wish or dream.

Cheryl says the biggest difference between the two is how they originate. “A wish is often coming from what isn’t working in your life. Like, ‘I wish I would win the lottery because I’m in debt. I wish I would meet a partner because I’m lonely and I don’t feel comfortable living alone.’”

“An intention is a soul goal, not a head goal,” she says. “My prayer is always, ‘If this is in the highest and best interest for me and those around me, then please allow it to happen.‘ And that sort of is a humble way of saying it’s not just about me and what my head thinks because I’m a physical being and I’m having a physical experience. It is also about me and this greater energy, this greater creative force, and that’s where an intention is set from.”

Martha says she has an even simpler way of knowing whether something is a wish or an intention. “What I found is that if you really want something, it makes you feel physically stronger,” she says. “And if you think you want it but you don’t really want it, it makes you feel physically weaker.”

One thing many parents wonder is how they can raise children to grow up living with of the law of attraction.

Twelve-year-old Dominique and 9-year-old Brittany are sisters already are! They’ve even created their own vision boards. “The law of attraction is a way of life. The way you think. The way you react to situations,” Dominique says. “If you’re a positive person, you get positive results. If you’re a negative person, you get negative results.”

“On my vision board are some of my long-term goals,” Brittany says. She’s included things like becoming a fashion designer, visiting the Great Wall of China and meeting Johnny Depp.

Dominique says the law of attraction is good for more than just long-term goals. “During school, I try to keep a positive attitude with my friends,” she says. “Because I notice that if I’m negative, then I’ll attract negative things and negative people during the day. So I try to keep a positive attitude.”

Dominique’s vision board includes places she would like to go in her life, like Rome and England, and people she wants to meet, like the Dalai Lama. One of her vision board goals just came true…she wanted to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show!

 

From Yehuda Berg: Limits of Human Perception

According to kabbalistic teachings, just as we are limited in our ability to see energy on a physical level, we are also limited in our ability to see the energy of fulfillment.

Everything we want could be inches away from our lives, yet we pass right over it.

The reason for this limitation is our five senses. Our five senses prevent us from perceiving total reality. We fail to see radio waves, atoms and TV signals that bounce off the walls of our home. Our five senses act as curtains that filter out most of true reality, leaving us with a very limited picture.

Even medical science tells us that humanity utilizes a mere 4% of our total brain capacity. Where is the remaining 96%?

And how are we to make decisions and judgments in life when we are permitted to glimpse only a microscopic portion of truth?

The great 20th century kabbalist, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, revealed a stunning secret when it comes to our five senses. He said that a human being usually perceives things in the opposite.

For example, consider a person living in total isolation since birth. He’s never seen a living creature. Suddenly, placed before him is a newborn calf and a newborn baby. What does he perceive? Well, the baby obviously cannot take care of itself. It cannot walk or move around. It cannot feed itself. The infant cannot perceive his surroundings. If a fire erupted, the child would not sense any immediate danger. In essence, the newborn is helpless.

The calf, on the other hand, immediately perceives its environment. It knows to run from fire.

The person perceiving this situation would now have to assume that the calf is the superior, more advanced and far more intelligent creature.

Rav Ashlag tells us that as much as one creature is advanced and evolved at the beginning of its process of growth, it will be less developed at the end. And as much as another creature is less developed at the beginning of its process, it will develop that much more at the end.

Sure enough, over time, the baby advances far beyond the calf. Meanwhile, the calf hardly advances at all.

How many times have your five senses showed you the opposite in business deals and human relationships? What looked promising and full of potential at the beginning turned out to be disastrous in the end! And vice versa.

This simple analogy is worth pondering this week. Look for opposites and know that nothing is what it seems

All the best,

Yehuda

 

More than a Zoo Trip

The boys were totally oblivious that their pictures were being taken. They kept rambling here and there and ignored John and Mel, a volunteer photographer.  I also kept my distance and the pressure off them. I wanted them to enjoy the sights and being with the animals more. The good photos will flow more naturally.

Aside from being a great subject, Henry has a potential to be photographer as he took a great shot of Derek giving me a kiss. His little brother on the other hand, is trigger happy and has to work on his aim.

After 2 hours, the boys had tired out John and Mel but it was enough for John to find directions on how to conduct his class and more so, lots and lots of great shots of the boys.

Click on the slideshow to see some more pcitures! :-D 

To read more about this zoo trip / photo session…..

 

Henry’s First Billboard

FINALLY! I have a digital copy of Henry’s first billboard! I had all the print copies but never the digital file.

This ad was done around 2001 or 2002 when Henry was 3 years old. This happened before his diagnosis with Autism, if I remember it right. Henry kept pointing in every direction except where they were directing him. When he finally got it, they were caught unaware. The whole crew ended up laughing.  It did come out really well, don’t you agree?  This was a national campaign with the local major newspapers and Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay magazine.

The billboard used to be seen along Tagaytay enroute to Batangas. It’s no longer there but Henry still thinks it’s his country club and the couple with him are his other parents.

 

I Hate You

I know I haven’t written anything in a while. I now have a drozen drafts in my WordPress Dashboard but haven’t had the chance to finish them.  I promise to get them published as soon as possible or else, everything is going to pile up on me.

I’ve lifted this from my Kabbalah mail in full. I find no justice in condensing publications about Awakening and  Consciousness. Interpretation is always unique to the individual and I prefer to allow the people I care about to digest it as how it is relevant as it is to their own unique experience.

Kabbalah E-mail Newsletter, June 13, 2008, Friday

I hate you.

How many times during the day does that thought pop into your mind? How many times does it spill out of your mouth? How many?

If I tell you it’s not nice to hate, will you stop? I don’t think so. If I tell you hatred brings chaos into your life, now will you change?

“Turmoil is a sign of hatred” - Rav Nachman of Breslov

Every time you are hating someone [even for no reason, which is the case most of the time] you are inviting a little more chaos into your life.

With that in mind, I’ve only one guiding questions for you today. Where’s the love?

 

As much as I try to meditate on Forgiveness and Compassion everyday, it’s one of the most difficult things to do. We can forgive the sins of society and make jokes about them so easily but when one closest to us does us wrong, our vindictive nature causes us to choose survival over the Law of Love and Understanding. It’s tough but at least I try everyday… Someday I will get to that point wherein no one can tell me how and who I am suppose to be.  Someday I will no longer feel less about who I am. ….Someday I will get there….Someday….

 

A good one inspite of it all

Last week had not been my most healthful week.

I was bogged by lots of writing deadlines but couldn’t get myself to think straight because of a viral infection. On top of that, it felt like borderline anemia all over again with lots of head rushes everytime I stood up from bed.

Derek also had a mishap at his paternal grandfather’s house which I will post privately. His accident shook the entire household into panic. He’s been a real trooper about it but I don’t think he has learned his lesson about safety just yet.

Yet inspite of the sluggishness and the mishaps, this blog took in a massive amount of page views (A Big Thank You!). By monday after the weekend, the total become 12,000+. I was floored! The excitement gave me another head rush but a welcome one.

I was also interviewed by Kids on Q last saturday for a segment on Yoga for Kids. Henry, Derek and I were in class and I was the only mom who participated while the TV crew were filming. Well, Derek kept running around and someone had to keep him back in line for the TV crew. The class yogi, Peachie Kilayko, was pretty cool about it. She let him run around and discover the shala. They asked me a few questions as a parent, on why yoga should be considered for kids.

We were also doing some public testing on Hula Hotline for Chikka.com. After an onslaught of questions about love, cheating boyfriends and husbands, childless parents, fortune and some people who want to talk to the dead (Jeez!), the service has been declared officially live today. Finally!

I feel a lot of good things coming with this new service. All the members of the team are pretty psched. Me, on the other hand, is still sluggish from the head rushes that I am still getting.

And yes, inspite of the drama of the weekend (or the week), some things came out pretty good. Hope you all had a good one!

 

Little Wonders

I haven’t been adding anything to my playlist lately…. I mean there are just so many good songs out there!

The Meet the Robinsons movie didn’t move me so much but this is a great theme song. I mean, apart from me being a big Rob Thomas fan. This is a song about letting go and moving forward.

I counsel a lot of people. Even more so, lately.

Most of them believe in life lessons and karma but their analysis still falls short.

They cannot look beyond what’s in front of them when dealing with their problems. They always look into what society rules and what is expected of them by others. It’s really sad how some of them think of the things they “should” instead of what their hearts dictate. They pit their lives against the standards of others, and not of their own.

Even Fergie knew that she needed “peace, clarity, serenity and centering.” She’s smarter, I guess.

Most of them listen to me but their fears tell them to go with what their mother or friends expect from them. I try to be optomistic for them but behind their smiles, I still feel their yearnings to be free and happy…..if only they can see.

Their inability to find solutions come from their fear, guilt, depression, anger, misery, lack of control and low self-esteem….They never take the time to see themselves in a good light. Or to even just take a break from everyone and be alone with themselves for a while….Clarity will define you in the end….It’s the heart that really matters in the end.

Everyday, I pray for them. I meditate and bless them with light. May they one day forgive themselves and see how more beautiful life can be if they lived according to their own terms, with deliberate intention.

 

A Big Thank You!

I’ve been blogging on and off since January 2007 I think. It started as an online diary of sorts. When I migrated to WordPress 4 months ago, I didn’t think I could expand it any further than what it was before. Even I found my own blog boring back then.  Nevertheless, I’m glad that I did because, in 4 months, my blog has reached over 8,500 page views!

Makes me wonder what I’m doing right.

I’m not a great writer. I only write for two reasons: to get my thoughts down so I don’t have look for an audience and bug people I know about them and to have an accessible chronicle of things that I don’t want to forget. My writing doesn’t specialize in any specific topic. Everything is just random. I don’t sensationalize anything. It never occured to me that people would be interested in the crap I write about.

Maybe it’s Okasaneko, for making me re-think how interesting blogging can be?

Maybe its Jen Tan of mom.exhange.ph for convincing me to post my thoughts over to her website and helping me re-discover WordPress.com?

Maybe it’s WordPress that’s doing something right?

Or is it The Force?

Well, whatever or whoever the reason, I must express my appreciation for all this activity in my blog. THANK YOU! …. I mean, how can I ignore something good like this? Have a good one, everyone!

 

 

May 24, 2008 at 2:21 am (Manila Time) 

Blog Stats at 10,301 page views

 This blog surpassed the 10,000 mark 3 days later.