If we fill our time taking care of plants we can get rid of stress, it is a scientifically proved thing. Taking care of our green friends (the ones with leaves not Martians!) we will discover new hidden sides of our personality and will get to know better how to love and care for others, firstly because a plant that we won’t care for will die for sure.

Accepting a plant we are assuming a new responsibility, we are adopting a breathing being. This way, we learn just what it means to pay attention to those around you.

We have to concentrate over needs that are exterior to our ego. We become aware of the needs of another being: we know how much water the plant needs, how much light it gets, the intervals it needs to receive water again, and slowly we will transfer these cares and abilities in our social relations. We become more and more aware of others. Visual contact with a beautiful plant makes us realize our own beauty.

Studies show more and more that taking care of plants can be the most efficient method to improve the physical and emotional general condition. They have a serene effect, they can reduce stress and relax muscles and therefore improve the mood people taking care of them are in.

Different studies have demonstrated that the existence of plants reduce mental exhaustion. When we are overwhelmed with work, we just have to look up for a couple of minutes to a plant and we’ll instantly feel more relaxed. In conclusion, plants fascinate and attract people, they break boredom and monotony generated by forced attention. The oxygen generated by plants creates a feeling of mental agility.

Some big plants placed on the right spot will help us insolate ourselves from annoying surrounding noises. The technique is the same as the one of hanging paintings in an empty room to minimize the echo effects. The thick leaves will absorb a part of the noises, including the sound of the phone, Xerox, printer or coffee maker, making these sounds a little bit friendlier.

I would like to introduce you to two people. The first person is Ben and the second person is Bob. Ben lives in the city. He works as a Market Analyst for a firm. Ben loves his job and he is one of the best in his field. He has an office on the 56th floor of one of those skyscrapers down town.

n fact, even if he takes an elevator, it would take him a good 2 minutes to reach his floor. I need not say that Ben has a very busy life. He does a lot of running around, he does market surveys, he doesn’t do it directly; he has people to do the work for him. But still he does a lot of running around and he is on his toes all day long. No he is not a ballet dancer; that was just a figure of speech that I used to tell you how busy he is. So let’s take a closer look at Ben’s life.

Ding-a-ling-a-ling! That’s Ben’s alarm clock gone off at 6 in the morning and Ben is up already. Just look at him, though he is in his…well…underwear, he still looks as large as life and as right as rain. What makes a man all perked up than a good night’s sleep. There, Ben is already out of the bathroom and he has put on a track suit. At half past six, he is already in his car and heading for the gym.

I forgot to tell you that Ben is one hell of a looker and is very conscious about his trim body. And in order to keep it that way he works out in the gym every single day and that too for an hour. So that means at quarter to eight he is on his way back home. There is a fifteen minute drive from his apartment to the gym. At 8.15 he has had a shower and dressed and is going down the elevator holding his morning paper in his hand. His office is only a ten minute drive from his apartment but at this rush hour, the traffic just crawls.

So Ben chooses to use his electric razor in the car while he is driving, dangerous though it may seem. Did you really think a man could have a shave and a shower in just 15 minutes? Well, think again. And so the traffic crawls on and Ben reaches his office at ten minutes to nine.

There is hardly time for him to grab a bite to eat, so what he does is that he runs to the cafeteria and gets a sandwich and coffee. The coffee he manages to gulp down but the sandwich remains in its wrapper as he notices an interesting article in the newspaper that was still tucked away under his arm. He reads it in the elevator on his way up and reaches his office just in time for his secretary to tell him that there is important meeting for him with the Board Members within half an hour. Ben suddenly realizes that the meeting is about some projects that he had done but the paper work was in no way complete.

There is something like a whirlwind in the office as Ben and his secretary strain themselves to get things done and finally just in the nick of time, Ben is able to walk into the Board room with the necessary documents with which Ben is in no way satisfied.

The meeting goes on till noon, you know how people love to talk, and Ben leaves the room with a lot of praises and even more new assignments. He has had one more coffee, but the sandwich that he had ordered is now fit for the waste bin. And mind you this is the third time this week that Ben missed breakfast. Just before noon Ben gets a seemingly endless number of calls from this agent and then that. Oh yes, his secretary had been screening the calls, you should see the number of calls that she didn’t send his way.

At last by half past two Ben leaves his office and makes a beeline to the cafeteria. Just as he takes a big bite out of his monster burger, his cell phone beeps. He answers the call to find out that it is a call from a very important client whom he had been trying to fix an appointment with.

The client had agreed for an appointment which was to be had immediately. Out rushes Ben and into the waste bin goes his burger. The meeting turned out to better than he expected and a beaming Ben returns to his office and sits down to a host of pending paper work which keeps him occupied till seven in the evening. At half past seven he remembers his date with Kellie and though he rushes to the spot, he reaches there half an hour late and goes home without meeting Kellie and with an empty stomach and a weary body. So much for working out and being health conscious!

Now that you are acquainted with Ben, I would like you to meet Bob. Bob lives in the country. He has a farm. It is not a very big farm; it is one of those medium sized farms from which you can get enough produce to make both ends meet. Bob is up at when the cock crows at five in the morning. As soon as he is up, he goes to his dairy and milks his three cows. I must add that Bob does not walk, he ambles. Having milked the cows he heads back to the farm and sits down with his morning paper. He chats leisurely with his wife who is going about her daily business. Around 8am he hops into his tractor and drives to the nearby dairy to deliver the milk. There he meets a couple of his friends and spends a good half hour exchanging news with them. He gets back to the farm at nine and has a relaxed breakfast.

When breakfast is over, he puts on his straw-hat and taking his dog along starts his daily excursion among his cornfields. His corn has a couple a weeks to go before harvest and now there is nothing much to do but walk around inspecting the rat traps. At eleven he is back at the farm and settles down to listen to his radio playing some old favorite tunes. He has lunch at 1 and then settles down in his favorite chair for a long afternoon siesta. In the evening he again goes to milk his cows, gives them some fresh feed and has one more walk around the farm.

After dinner by seven, by eight he is in bed and the lights are out. Let’s admit it, Bobs life is so leisurely that we feel like screaming when we watch the pace at which he gets along. He is happy and contented and the only clock in his farm stopped ticking a few years ago. We cannot even draw a parallel line between the lives of bob and Ben. They are two worlds apart.

The point I was trying to drive home is that it is our lifestyle that decides how much time we have for each thing we need and want to do. The way we live and what we do decides how we spend our time and how much time we have to spend. We CHOOSE our lifestyles and that DECIDES what we do with our time, and therefore, our own time cages.

Psst…I do not think there are many Bob’s alive in the world today.)

So what kind of life do you live? We, that is most of us live in a world of aero planes, and jets, and fast cars and supercomputers and elevators and escalators, and electric trains and a thousand more contraptions and machines that are all intended to save time and do things faster.

Yeah, yeah we talk about convenience, but the fact is that all these machines were the result of man’s endeavor to get things done faster. And the result is that life moves so fast that we could get dizzy if we were to take a minute break and just look around at all the people whizzing around in the daily business called life.

For most people, 24 hours is hardly enough to finish a day’s work. And so what most working people do is that they start compromising on the other seemingly not so important thing like eating and getting eight hours sleep in the night. And so there is such a large number of people suffering from stress related diseases like ulcers, high blood pressure and heart problems.

We cannot can do much about the lifestyle that we have chosen. It is not impossible to suddenly decide to take a break, quit the job, go to the country and live like Bob on his farm — at least for a short period of time every little while if it isn’t done permanently.

But most of us don’t even want that shift, so what does that mean? Are we all doomed to suffer as ulcer patients and blood pressure patients? Far from it; if we are able to manage our time effectively we ca live a city life that is as enjoyable and comfortable as Bob’s life in the country. And that’s what I plan on exploring in some articles this April.

So if you must build yourself a Time cage, go ahead and do so but make sure you make it big enough so that you have time for every thing and do not feel all cramped and cluttered in a single celled prison.

“Today is the Day” blogger Aaron Potts has recently started a project called “Simply Successful Secrets” in which he calls all bloggers to write a list of 5-10 daily success habits that they incorporate into their life. So I’ve joined in the fun, and here are my top habits that by doing each day have brought success in my life.

• You dont have to get it right, you just have to get it going. I live each day using this slogan. No matter what I do, I don’t wait for perfection. I simply jump in and get my hands dirty so that I can learn and move forward in the right way.

• I read each day - whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, I spend at least 60-minutes each day feeding my mind in this way.

• Daily writing - Ever since I listened to my friend Jon Gordon and started doing some daily writing, it has helped clear my head, draw together my emotions and make me more aware. Whether this is through private journalling or writing on this blog, I spend a few minutes writing each day.

• I complete my daily incompletions - there are two ways to get energy: (1) eat and drink healthily and (2) complete your incompletions. Each day I complete the tasks I’ve set out to do, ensuring that as much as possible, I never leave it unfinished. This means I need to have immaculate time management and organisation skills to handle my numerous projects.

• Release all resistance several times a day - I hugely believe in the law of attraction and one aspect of it is to remove any resistance so each day and at several times in the day by clearing and calming my mind. Flexibility is power. Learn to cultivate it. No matter what happens in your life, you always have a choice in how you respond. The choice is always yours, in every circumstance.

In the last ten years, the way in which financial success is measured has changed amongst the average person - it’s not just how much money one has accumulated, but it’s about how much money that person is donating.

Take the Forbes 2007 report. It shows that although the richest man in the world, Bill Gatest, donated $30 billion through his foundation and the second richest man, Donald Trump, donated $40 billion, both men had big increases in their bottom lines too. Bill Gates fortune rose by $6 billion to $56 billion last year and Donald Trump’s increased by $10 billion to $52 billion.

These two men are setting real examples to millions around the world and the last decade has seen many big businesses also give away some of their wealth to help a particular aspect of the world’s development. It was Ted Turner who 10 years ago challenged the richest people in the world to give more money away. And what a good idea it is.

So I believe one’s financial success thermometer isn’t measured by how much money is earnt, but it’s measured by how much is given away. If we look at it from a higher purpose or level, it’s important to note that successful individuals realise that when they leave this world, they take nothing with them. So accumulating all this money isn’t really a success. What would be a success then, is how much is given to be used for good causes around the world.

I guess this article will push a few buttons with those who believe the rich are greedy and are giving away huge, huge sums of money just to show off their wealth. Again, my belief is that they are living with the knowing that they can’t keep anything when they are gone. Earning is not for storing. Earning is for you to give yourself a choice as to what to do with the money.

Fred Gratzon is the man behind The Lazy Way To Success (Amazon: UK / USA) - a philosophy that is eye-catching because of it’s difference in society’s teaching. Fred teaches “smart laziness” - a concept where success comes through cleverly avoiding work but still getting the job done. It’s a brilliant philosophy where one can celebrate more for doing less work.In one of his articles, Fred says, “Laziness is the impulse to avoid work and this admirable attribute drives all progress in civilization. However, instead of being celebrated as it should be, laziness is reviled. Tragically, throughout one’s schooling and continuing through one’s professional career, a person who happens to be blessed with the glorious God-given asset of laziness is brow-beaten and insulted by parents, teachers, and employers to forsake it.”

You can read his new book here: The Lazy Way To Success (Amazon: UK / USA). His work as an author and speaker debunks the commonly-accepted notion that hard work has anything to do with success. He not only explains why success comes from finding ways to avoid work, he shows how to be successful by avoiding work.

My belief is that most of us are looking for wealth in the wrong place. The greatest wealth anyone can have is HEALTH. All that we crave and spend hundreds and thousands searching for - money, homes, stocks, yachts, clothing and all other kinds of luxury shouldn’t be the first place we look. The first place we should start to look is our health. My belief is that if we can get our health to be optimum, it’ll become easier to focus on building wealth.

The majority of the population in US and UK have cancer. And diabetes is also spreading extremely fast too. I also believe that because we focus on building wealth as money and other material cravings, such illnesses appear from ill eating habits in the form of herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, and chemical fertilizers. There is also a massive lack of exercise within communities and a mixture of lack of sleep and bad habits.

Mark Anastasi in his ebook says that our health care system is in fact a disease-care system because of how it’s controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. (Check out his book on Diabetes here).

My solution to building enormous wealth (or at least the strategy I’m following) is to deal with and fix what’s hurting and broken inside my body so it doesn’t lead to fast death internally or externally. And then I’m following my passion, doing and living what I love and ensuring I laugh and play. Enormous wealth can only follow in that process.

Chief Happiness Officer Alexander Kjerulf or PositiveSharing.com has a brilliant book called “Happy Hour is 9 to 5 - Learn how to love your job, create a great business and kick butt at work”. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to be more happier in their work whether you’re a newbie, a long-time employee or a manager.

After skimming through the book, I can say that I truly enjoyed Alexander’s style with lots of writing and lots of exercises. It’s all about bringing more love and joy into your work. Alexander says “People are discovering, that when they love their jobs, they are more productive, creative and motivated. They’re also happier in life. Similarly, happy companies find they are more efficient, innovative and make more money than their unhappy competitors.”

Now what I find even better is Alexander’s commitment to creating more happiness in those who work because of the way he’s allowing you to get his book. He offers you three ways in which you can get the book - you can purchase it as a physical print, you can buy it as a pdf or you can simply just read it online on a HTML page for free.

I think this is a great way to work, I suspect that it has and will continue to impact many people who read it and those with good hearts will perhaps pay the fee regardless or donate to one of Alexander’s causes in the future.

To me, it shows great commitment, trust and passion from Alexander. I highly recommend you check out his work here: Happy Hour is 9 to 5.

Every child has dreams and visions. They could be the most animated, excited and breathtaking dreams or they could be the most scarriest dreams. But only children can have these kind of dreams. As a child, I used to frequently have dreams about the great people I wanted to turn out like. Here are my “five things I wanted to be”

• I wanted to be a professional tennis player, number 1 in the world like Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi during their times. I must admit, I dream about this to this very day and sometimes have a negative internal dialogue as to why I didn’t take this up.

• I wanted to be like a well-known world president like Bill Clinton.

• I wanted to do BIG, out-of-this-world, extraordinary things that created buzz and made a difference like the Amazon swimmer, Martin Strel right now.

• I wanted to be a professional Tabla player like my guru, Pandit Sharda Sahai

• I wanted to be a pilot.

What did you dream of being when you were a child?

One of the best ways to save the environment is to watch what you put into your trash bin. Already the local council in my town are doing their part by providing us with three big bins - a green one, a blue one and a brown one.

The green bin is for all plastics and carrier bags with trash. The blue bin is for all recyclable items such as cardboard, newspaper and magazines, tins and plastic bottles. The brown bin is for all raw food, peel and other food-like items to be disposed of.

The council is taking social responsibility, but as Arvind put’s it, we need to step up and take personal social responsibility too.

I’ve come to see that there are some ways that you can not only save the environment by reusing your trash, but you can also save money. Here are five ways to start off. Do share your own ways in the comments section below.

• Use your fruit peels - oranges, in particular - as air fresheners.

• When you purchase your washing up liquids, detergents and other such household items, keep the bottles when finished and just purchase the liquid in bulk so you can refill it. Save throwing away plastics each time.

• When you boil vegetables, let the same water cool down and water the plants with that water. No need to throw it down the sink and open the tank for more water.

• Use your opened envelopes and junk mail as rough paper. Don’t use a fresh sheet of paper to make shopping lists. Use what is already there before disposing so you dispose less.

• Cut up old cloths that won’t go to charity as towels for cleaning windows and dusting cupboards once washed.

Antioxidants are substances that include vitamins C, E and A amongst others, that help your body in preventing cancer, heart disease and stroke. They do this at a molecular level by dealing with molecules called free radicals.Free radicals, in human bodies, are oxygen molecules which are yet still waiting to be oxidised. In their unoxidised state, they are not safe and have the ability to cause cancer. Free radicals are the natural by-products of many processes within and among cells. They are also created by exposure to various environmental factors, tobacco smoke and radiation, for instance.

So just like Acai berries are one type of powerful antioxidants that come natural from Mother Nature, we too have many fruits around us that can freely antioxidise the other areas of our life.

For example, one of the most common dream-basher’s is a free radical in our life - a painful element that on it’s own can take our wonderful dreams and flush them down the toilet. And of course, a powerful “antioxidant” to beat that “free radical” of lack of focus is the ability to get clear, set goals, build momentum and focus our success where we want it to go.

Another free radicaln our life is an extremely powerful and detrimental one. The average person tries so hard to get out of debt, yet never falls out of the trap of spending more than he/she earns. Yet when we bring an antioxidant - the power of budgeting - into consideration, we throw out and eliminate any possibility that the individual overspends because of cautious budgeting and daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tracking.

So we can see how powerful it is to have antioxidants in our life - and not just for our health. What are the “free radicals” in your life - that if continued can be detrimental - and what “antioxidants” can you begin to use consistently to remove any possibility of danger?