Slow: Three Seconds

I thought this was a great animated gif to help you ponder the power of slooooow breathing: blue is breathe in... green is breathe out...

Reading Day

Let's be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week

that is devoted exclusively to reading. 

I've seen this quote attributed to Lena Dunham, but I don't have a source for that. The picture shows the Science Library of Upper Lusatia in Görlitz, Germany.

READING IS FUN: IMAGINATION CELEBRATION

Some BEAUTIFUL posters by Maurice Sendak about the joys of reading, from Maria Popova's Brain Pickings:

IMAGINATION CELEBRATION

READING IS FUN

Pause Button

It's important to know where the pause button is on your self-control. The graphic is from Lori Deschesne, founder of the TinyBuddha.com website.

Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you're about to react harshly and you'll avoid doing and saying things you'll later regret.

Reading is Dangerous

Grant Snider is an ingenious artist, and he has created many posters inspired by reading and writing. I really like this poster about the dangers of reading, especially the part about proofreading of course, ha ha. For the full-size view, see Grant Snider's blog: Reading Is Dangerous. His work is also available in poster-size to put on your wall.

Procrastination Panda

You can make your own "Procrastination Panda" meme here: DIYLOL. I think these are so cute! Here are some that I found online:

Escape from Reality... Into New Worlds

Two beautiful graphics from Caro Martini:

Escape from Reality... 

Into New Worlds

What you should focus on

Things that matter and things that you can control: where they overlap is what you should focus on. And if you want to make a Venn diagram of your own, there are lots of Venn-diagram-makers. :-)

Things that matter.
Things you can control.
The intersection: what you should focus on.

Importance and Urgency

This is a nice 2x2 diagram for helping to identity what things are urgent and/or important and how to focus your attention based on those four categories: Important / Urgent.

Important AND Urgent: Manage these short-term crises and problems.
Important NOT Urgent: Focus on long-term strategic goals.
Urgent NOT Important: Avoid distractions and interruptations.
NOT Urgent NOT Important: Limit time-wasting activities.

Choose to be optimistic; it feels better.

You can see more of Molly Hahn's beautiful "Buddha Doodles" at her website, and she also has a series of books (including a Kindle book) at Amazon.

The quote is: Choose to be optimistic; it feels better. Dalai Lama XIV

You will see this quote all over the Internet; I don't have a specific source for it... but it sounds like the Dalai Lama! You can find out more about Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama) at Wikipedia, and you can find more quotes from the Dalai Lama at Wikiquote.

There's no such thing as too many books.

This is a wonderful graphic from Last Lemon, which is the work of Lisa Swerling & Ralph Lazar:

There's no such thing as too many books.

When everything is highlighted...

Here's a great meme for the attention files:

When everything is highlighted,

nothing is highlighted.

The Joy of Tech-Meditation

From the Joy of Tech by Nitrozac and Snaggy (Liza Schmalcel and Bruce Evans). I like this techno approach to meditation! In your mind's browser, clear your cache... now delete your history... now navigate to a blank web page.

Advice from a Tree.

This graphic is from a poem by Ilan Shamir: Advice from a Tree. And you can read the whole poem for more advice!

Advice From a Tree:

Stand Tall and Proud

Go Out on a Limb

Remember Your Roots

Drink Plenty of Water

Be Content With Your Natural Beauty

Enjoy the View

Shake it off

Movement is good for the body... and good for the mind too: if you have some worry, just shake it off!

(by Molly Hahn at Buddha Doodles)

Odysseus and Facebook

Here's a good one from Shoebox: in the ancient world, they were called Sirens; today... Facebook. You can read about the legend of Odysseus and the Sirens at Wikipedia, and, yes, this is where the modern English word "sirens" comes from!

A Field Guide to Procrastinators

Here is a great comic from twentypixels: A Field Guide to Procrastinators - click here for full-size image, and here is a link to more 20pixels comics. I created an animated GIF that goes through the items one by one:

And here is the poster:

The Secret Powers of Time

This is a talk by the psychologist Philip Zimbardo about the different ways people experience time and how our perceptions of time are a fundamental part of how we think and how we act: The Secret Powers of Time.

Control-Alt-Delete

Some good advice from the world of computing:

Just three keys that are found on your computer to enjoy life:
CTRL control yourself
ALT look for alternative solutions
DEL delete situations that give you tension and negative energy

The Last Lemon: On reading

Some lovely graphics from HaroldsPlanet.com: The Last Lemon.