Summary: Thank You @AuntieVera for the generous shout out on his podcast, even though he said that it was only my accent that made up for me being stupid :-) Thanks to Mark for his tweet: https://twitter.com/laffingbuddha/status/265871884686610432 And TimmySimms too! https://twitter.com/TimmySimms/status/264803537672880129 Don Barron KCnDEN& NCLTony Our latest members of the community, Eric Miller has been busy saying hello to everyone and starting some great new topics so pop over and have a look for yourself and join in! News I've been exceptionally busy over the last week or so, and I've been acutely aware that I'm running behind with my podcast. But I made a commitment to myself very early on in this project that although I wanted to get a new podcast out every week, I wasn't going to drive myself crazy and get stressed about it if I fell behind. I'd rather produce a show that was calm, relaxed and had good content, than just cramming in a podcast to keep the numbers up. So I hope that comes across and that you don't mind too much waiting for a quality podcast. Tech of the week @DrusillaBloeme from Twitter very kindly suggested this app for me last week. I'd never heard of it before, so rather than just a vague overview I wanted spend some time actually using the app before I gave it a review. So the description of the app is : The Now is an app to help you retrain your mind to live more fully in the moment. The Now accomplishes this using a technique called continuous mindfulness training. The process works by using periodic cues, in this case, free iPhone push notifications with an audible chime and relevant message, to remind you to be fully focused on the present. The ultimate goal being to make mindfulness essentially continuous. I get the premise, we often spend so much time reminiscing on the good and bad things that have happened, and worrying about the future that sometime we can forget to simple enjoy the present. Living in the moment can really be a huge benefit to people by helping them see the good things that are happening in their life and allows them to focus on what they can do right now to make things better. I often try to do this myself by actively paying attention to something, in a little more detail than I would normally. Walking along the river is a classic example, I often take the time to look around me rather than just the 10 feet of floor in front of me. I look at the buildings around me, how the light bounces off the windows or the corners. What types of clouds are in the sky and how the sun or moon is reflecting off them. What can I smell in the air? I've noticed recently that there often seems to be the wonderful scent of roasting coffee beans near where I live, I love to take in a deep breath and try to imagine where it is and what they are doing. Sometimes I'll even take a snap shot on my phone to really help me capture and identify that I was taken by the moment. Or using my phone to record a note, or a voice recording, anything that helps me highlight the moment and what made it special. So when I downloaded the app I was expecting it to be encouraging these types of activities, and to some degree it does. I have to be really honest here and state that I'm not a big fan of motivational quotes, I feel that are often irrelevant and only momentarily effective. I find that it's what my friends, family and clients say far more powerful than an overused quote from Mark Twain or Deepak Choopra. So having said that I was disappointed to find that, for the most part this is simply and app that pops up motivational quotes about 4 times a day. They are in a set order and if delete the app and reload it, the quotes will start from the beginning and just cycle through the same order. A few of them seemed to be original and encourage you to "enjoy the moment" or "remember the last time you had a cold and that you wished you felt healthy, now breath in a relish your good health",
