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Eckhart Tolle became famous with the help of Oprah Winfrey. He has best-selling books about his teachings about being happy by being in the present moment. His teachings have become very popular. WebMD.com has a recent article called Tips to Feel Better All Day. The tips include getting sunlight during the day (no mention of sunscreen or vitamin D), set yourself up for good sleep, eat “feel-good” foods like “fresh vegetables, fruits, and beans, and whole grains instead of refined or processed foods,” stay positive, make a spiritual connection and be around people.

One other tip that it has is “stay focused on the present moment.” It says “A practice called mindfulness can help you reduce the clutter by keeping your focus on the present moment.” Mindfulness does not mean being full of mind. It is another way of saying that you are in the present. But these descriptions are an attempt to describe something that is indescribable. It can be confusing when trying to figure it out.

A person could say how can they not be in the present since they do not have a time machine where they can travel into the future or the past. Eckhart Tolle uses this idea or concept to point to an experience that he had. This experience can be described as heaven or extreme peace and happiness. When you have an experience like this then you are not spending time thinking about past and future. But when thinking about the past or future, people are not usually aware of it since they do not have anything to compare it to. A person can think about being in the present but that is different than what Eckhart Tolle is talking about.

Some people have read his books and were very inspired by them. There was a hope from reading his book that in the future, they can be happier than they are now. But then they became disappointed when that does not manifest. Usually a teacher or coach will tell his students to do what he did when he was being taught. But Eckhart Tolle cannot do this since he did not have a teacher about this subject. He learned it from going through a great deal of depression.

After he leaned about this on his own, he learned about Buddhism to see how Buddhists taught about this to others. So he does not know how to get others to get where he got. Walking around saying to yourself “I will be in the present moment” will not help you. It is just thinking. So I feel that a better way to refer to being in the present moment is to say that you are trying to be deeper in the present moment.

People will think that they are in the present moment but not feel very happy. So instead of saying that are not in the present moment, you can say that they need to go deeper in the present moment to feel happier. Of course to do this someone should take up a particular practice that helps them to be deeper in the present moment.

Two practices that do help with this are yoga and martial arts. In fact in some Buddhist temples in China, they practice martial arts. For a more in depth view of being in the present moment to be happy, see Happiness: Being in the Present Moment. It has quotes about this from Buddha, Eckhart Tolle, psychologist Abraham Maslow and Positive Psychology.

To the Presenter:

So you’ve decided to use moderator* to help you monitor the Twitter backchannel. Smart move! Unless your moderator has done this before, chances are he or she will have a few questions for you. Below are some tips to help you and your moderator get the most out of your Twitter backchannel experience.

To the Moderator

A presenter has asked you to help moderate the Twitter backchannel. This will allow the presenter to have more audience interaction — which is always a good thing! By serving as the moderator, more people inside and outside of the room will become involved in the conversation. I’m sure your presenter and those watching the conversation through Twitter will appreciate what you’re doing!

Hashtags

The hashtag for the event is #___________.

The hashtag for the session is #___________.

Getting started. The Moderator should:
o Log into the Twitter stream monitoring tool recommended by the speaker. (I recommend TweetChat.com.)
o Search on the session hashtag #___________.
o Decrease the refresh speed to the fastest refresh speed (5 seconds last time I looked).
o Watch the twitter feed throughout the session.

What the Presenter will be doing
o The presenter will introduce the session hashtag toward the beginning of the session. He or she should also have it prominently posted in the room if at all possible.

o The presenter will let the audience know that you as the moderator will be monitoring tweets with the session hashtag. The presenter will encourage the audience to tweet questions or comments about what they’re hearing during the session.

o The presenter will also encourage anyone who wants to monitor the session hashtag to retweet anything they agree with. If the audience hears something they like, then they’re sharing valuable information with their followers. If the audience member has the same question or the same disagreement as another’s tweet, the presenter will encourage them to retweet that too. Those retweets let the presenter know that there is more than one person who has the same question or issue so he or she will want to be sure to address that topic.

What the Moderator needs to do

o As the moderator, tweet directly from TweetChat. TweetChat will automatically put in the session hashtag and post the tweet from your Twitter account. Also include the conference hashtag too so that the conference organizers and those who couldn’t make the conference get the benefit of the Twitter conversation.

o If someone has a simple questions that you can answer (What time does this session end? What did the speaker say her name was? What was the website that she said the moderator was using to monitor the Twitter stream?) please tweet a reply to help that person out.

o The presenter will take a Twitter break approximately 15 minutes into the program. The presenter will turn to you at that time and ask for any feedback from the tweets so far.

o As you monitor the tweets, look for trends. If anything is retweeted, particularly questions or disagreements with content, be sure and bring up that topic during the Twitter breaks.

o Subsequent Twitter breaks will be in approximately 15 minutes intervals. The presenter will again turn to you to see what questions or feedback there may be.

o For smaller audiences, expect that discussion and questions will come through traditional verbal exchanges between attendees and the presenter, even with the Twitter discussion.

o For audiences new to the concept, expect some experimentation and joking around (“Hey, world, look at me”, ribbing a buddy across in the room, etc.). That kind of experimentation is fine. Once the presenter get into the meat of the content, the audience should focus on the material and get involved in the conversation.

o Talk to your presenter to see how he or she wants to handle the situation if things start going off track and the Twitter backchannel is talking about it – for example – the audience can’t hear the speaker, the speaker is talking too quickly, people are going on too long with the “Hey, world, look at me” chatter. Generally speaking, getting the presenter’s attention and addressing the situation as soon as possible, with as much transparency as possible, works best. Better to discuss such a situation with the presenter before it happens so everyone – audience member, speaker and you as the moderator – is able to adjust to the interruption with their dignity intact.

o For larger audiences, Twitter will be a godsend to look for trends and to hear great questions from the introvert who would never speak up in a big crowd.

The Twitter backchannel is a great way to engage an audience. These guidelines can help everyone tweet each other well!

I’d love to hear your feedback after using these guidelines! Were they helpful? What was the hardest thing about moderating the backchannel? What was the most surprising? What was the coolest part? I’d love to hear what you think! Send me an email!

*If you moderator is relatively new to twitter, point him or her to this blog post for basic terminology:
http://kellyvandever.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/twitter-the-presenters-new-best-bud-part-2-the-terminology/

The birthday wish list of children can be quite a hefty scroll of parchment and it can change with every TV advertisement that the child sees, so how do you know what gifts for kids will stand the test of time? This article objectively reviews three unique gifts for kids from three separate manufacturers.

Learning to ride the bike is a monumental milestone in not only kids lives but those of the parents. It ranks up there with tying shoelaces and the first day of school, so a present that not only encourages them to ride, but makes them look good while they do it is surely ideal. At 75GBP the Early Rider Lite bike is not within all budgets. It is a pedal-less bike on a wooden frame that weighs just 3.25kg, with pneumatic tyres and a faux leather seat. It looks like the bikes that P-Diddy buys for his children and is a great way to get 2year olds started on their bike journeys.

When buying gifts for kids it is a bonus if you can get something out of it as well. One way of being the envy of all the soccer parents is to roll up in the Phil and Ted Sport Buggy. It is a great additional present that makes your life easier and provides comfort for the child. At 400GBP it is not for the terminally short of cash and the handling of the three-wheeler is not all that but it looks great and there is an additional compartment that can be attached to hold a younger child. This fitting does leave the child a bit close to the pavement though and it is very expensive.

If you think your child is more of the next Einstein as opposed to the next Chris Hoy then perhaps something more cerebrally stimulating is more in order. The Leap Frog Bilingual LeapStart Learning
Table is a classic and at 30GBP is cost effective. It is musical and colourful however is very annoying for adults but5 it does have an off-switch. The real gimmick behind this classic is that it encourages the child to learn French, so is ideal for ultra-pushy parents as a secondary gift.

There is a massive range of gifts for kids and half of the battle is finding the balance between gifts that will aid their development and the gifts they really want. Sometimes it is better to start with small learning aid gifts and judge the way the child interacts with it, as opposed to spending massive amounts on one learning aid toy and the child will spend the day playing with the box.