Daily advice, stress and flow, give and take, save everyone (including the cheerleader)

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."
- Alan Watts -

It is like a Tai Chi move, a water type kung-fu, a way to keep your flow even in the direst need. You should try it, and you will be surprised. Because, as we already learned, stress means resistance to the way the events happen around us. The opposite of stress is flow. Learn how to ride the wave, and you will become more than an expert, you will master that skill.


"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."
- John Bunyan -

This is even more than my daily ritual of random acts of kindness. This will imply observance, intuition and compassion. You need to become proactive, to find the perfect recipient of your benevolence. It is the next step. And in doing this every day, you will start to change. To glow and laugh, to smile and give, to have plentiful of resources there where before was none.


"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. "
- William James -

It is all about our daily habits. Buy local, invest in renewable and fair-trade products. Eat organic, Live as a minimalist. Recover and use again, avoiding waste. It is not about one singular effort. It is about being a model, and changing others without trying. The biggest heroes are always unsung. Nobody knows what they did, but they saved the planet many times over. Become one of them .

Focus and habit, power and light

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."
- Dan Millman -

Some will say that it is easier to destroy than to create. But when we are talking about habits, good or bad, the reinforcement is the problem. Fighting against is much more dangerous than creating the opposite good habit. Building the new will work in your favor if you try to get rid of some bad habit. The less you keep the problem in your mind, the faster will fade away. The more you focus on it, the stronger will be. Remember that.

"When sleeping women wake, mountains move."
- Chinese Proverb -

Just think about suffragettes, the moms whom do not like a teacher at the local college or the modern feminists. There is something there, deep inside, an enormous energy waiting for you to tap in. You can be a star and shine eternally, as a woman who embrace her inner beauty and power. Start now.

"Real freedom begins with obedience to a higher influence -- a higher, finer energy within oneself."
- Jacob Needleman -

Who are you? Are you your left hand, or the right one? Are you your left leg, or the right one? All these are yours, but are not you. Are you your head? Your ears? Your eyes? Are you your body or this is it yours? Are you your pain, your happiness, your thoughts? Who are you really? You know who you aren't, but this powerful inner self is somehow elusive. Even though, you still need to tune in and reach your full potential. Brighter than thousand suns. Yes. That's you.

Technology, attention span and the real worlds

Motto: Technology challenges us to assert our human values, which means that first of all, we have to figure out what they are. (Sherry Turkle)

Look at this picture. Can you see something familiar? Do you see this too often? Why? What do you think it is the solution?

We got hooked, we got a whole life and expectancies inside that little screen. And in doing this, we forget to look around us, to see that majestic tree, that bunny shaped cloud, the rainbow behind the neighbor house. 

And we don't have time. We never have enough time, spare time is an urban myth, it is a legend similar to Excalibur, the sword from the stone. Just for you to know, right now, year 2016, the human attention span is 8 seconds (down from average 60 seconds 30 years ago). The goldfish has a 9 seconds attention span. That's telling us something, right? Everybody complain, but nobody want to learn that looking at the screen will change the way that we perceive the world, and speaking about something else, did you know that being in awe for one minute will modify your time perception, making you to feel that you have enough time for the next 24 hours? You see, i am good enough to give you the solution too. Now it is your turn. Go out, put everything in action. 

And thank me later for it.

Yours truly,

G.

About meaning ( Mastery ep.01)

Motto: Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give it. 

(T. Robbins)

   Din you ever wonder what controls and determines the quality of our life? Why are you doing the things you do?We are shaped by our beliefs and our values, and doesn't matter if they are right or wrong. It is more important what we think, even if they are false for the rest of the world, if we believe it, they will be real for us. The meaning we give will shape us, and like the dog of Pavlov, we will manage to attach a set of emotions to every meaning and belief that it is important for us. And then we will limit ourselves to a set number of emotions. We will become predictable, encompassed in our routine. How our life will be? Depends, if we have the right beliefs and values, we will live a happy life, if we have the wrong beliefs and our values will be in conflict, we will suffer and self-sabotage. If we will have a mix of right and wrong beliefs and values (this being the case of the majority of us), we will have an ordinary life, with good and bad things happening to us. 

   Can we change all this, can we sort out the mess, and navigate towards a happy life, defined by excellency? Yes, we can and i will try to explain how we gonna make this changes, how to not be ruled by emotions, and how to use them as fuel, instead of being burned in a witch trial fire. By tampering with the bundle of emotions that are behind each meaning, we can define new ones and we can grow as a being. There are three ways to do that, three forces that can shape a meaning. First, we can do this being helped by physiology, how we use our physical body, such as breath, posture, movement, second, by changing focus, whatever you focus on, you will feel, and a method to change your focus is by asking better questions, which will lead to better answers, and third, by being aware of our language, because as soon as we put different words to an experience, it change the meaning we experience. 

I hope I made you curious, as i will continue with this ideas very soon. 

Have a wonderful end of the week,

G.

Slow food

I never get tired to talk about this. In a modern era of being in a hurry every moment of your day, slow food is a luxury you think you cannot afford. But think again, because you need it. It will help you in many ways, some of them unknown to you. While fast food seems to be the easiest way, to eat something of our way to or after work, slow food is a totally opposite concept. To eat for the sake of it, to sit down, switch of your phone, think about what you gonna cook or order, anticipate the taste, the smell, and eat slowly, enjoying every mouthful. Do not let your mind wander, this is an exercise per se. Focus only on eating, and use all your five senses to enjoy this. First you can try with your favorite meals, then later use this method with every meal. Not only you will learn how to focus and not be easily distracted (skill that will help you in any given area of your life), but you will wait gladly and enjoy in anticipation a good food, you will solve a lot of stomach problems that are mostly related to stress and poor dieting habits, and you will even extend this to your whole day. As a method of staying in the present, to live now and here, it is easy to be done, because all of us have our preferred meals, and all of us need a break for past problems and future worries.

Good luck with it, if anything great happen because of this, please let me know,

G.

Quote of the day

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at the time"
(Sir Robert Cecil)

We live in a society that promotes multi-tasking, we watch the news while eating, we play on our phone while working, we try to do much more in less time. There is even a discrimination theory in it (women are better at multi-tasking?). The problem is that we try to do many things at once, and we lose more time switching from one task to another, that to do the things. And in doing this, we often outsource our brain activity to our phone, tablets, watch or god knows what is the latest trend now. All of this because our mind it trained to be the perfect monkey, jumping from one branch of thoughts to another. The key to break this bad habit is focus, unrelenting focus on one single activity. What do you think?

See you soon,
G.