Dream Killers

Just recently I was cyber bullied by a dream killer and eventhough it sounds harmless, at least I thought it was, it really isn't, so beware of those who try to push you down and pull you apart from your dreams and innermost desires. Trust me, it's not a pretty sight. How do you block yourself from them? How can you escape from the ever miserable individual who wants everybody else to feel miserable too?
Just when you think you've found a sweet haven where you can express yourself, in comes a dream killer with an Uzi pistol shooting everything down. It's very empowering to learn there are ways to block these people from cyber space but what  can we do when were dealing with real life bullies or dream killers. I know a couple of them, and you must too. They lurk around the corners waiting to hear any sense of hope or joy come out of your mouth and that's when the shooting begins. Your like a knight without armor. But it's time to change this. It's time to stand up and fight for what is righteously ours, our right to express ourselves and make visible the path to the realization of our dreams. If the Beastie Boys fought for their right to party then we can certainly fight for our dreams, don't you think?

Peeking through the leaves

It's always nice to lie on the grass just with our thoughts and our feelings to sort things out. And
there's nothing like feeling the warmth of a ray of sunshine peeking through the leaves of that old tree from our childhood years to welcome us home.

l'évolution - la deuxième partie

The Evolution - Part Two

When we think of evolution we inevitably think of  Darwin, of the evolution of mankind, of the Australopithecus, Neanderthals, and the likes. But what does all of that have to do with us now? What does evolution really mean? Do we still evolve even to this day? Darwin established survival of the fittest is what evolution is about. Although this isn't a science blog (but just for those of you who don't know) he stated that in the fight for survival, "the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment".  But these days survival of the fittest goes along Machiavelli's line: "the end justifies the means". Both of these quotes make everyone seem like their out to get someone's head just to get to the top. It seems trust, respect, compassion, and faith are all virtues of yesteryear. Is it that to survive we have to step all over others to achieve our goals? Or can we just help our companions to achieve their goals while we achieve our goals as well? Can we even work together? Can I decide into what I want to evolve? Will my evolution help people around me? Will they begin to evolve as well?

I have so many questions and so many answers in my mind that knowing is not sufficient. What is knowledge without action. So where can I begin. The answer again is so simple, evolution or change, however you want to call it, always has to start from within, but it's easier said than done. Probably the first step could be to stop excusing ourselves. We tend to excuse ourselves for and from everything, from not going to the gym because we feel tired to eating too much because were anxious to getting late to our date  because it's just fashionably late. We have excuses for everything and that is what prevents us from evolving into something more. Evolution is not just about biology, it's also a mental, spiritual and social process that we need to address. We can focus on the traits that we want to change and will help us grow, adapt, evolve and ultimately, let us be a part of the fittest group, or we can decide to not change at all and settle. Which is it? 

Now I ask: can we face ourselves and look hard enough to admit what we want to change or into what we want to evolve? Nobody said it would be easy but it never hurts to try.

Evolution Pt. 1

In this life I have had to endure several lives each with its own set of rules and just like a credit card with its own terms and conditions as well. Sometimes we don't realize we have this lifetime to evolve spiritually, mentally, socially and even physically. Unfortunately, so often we take life for granted and don't worry that our thoughts and our actions affect every future second of our lives. Are we sabotaging ourselves with the wrong thoughts or actions? Or are we fully taking advantage of every second? I've always heard, every second counts, so let's not waste any more seconds. There is a need in our world right now to change our mindset. I believe this will improve our life and the life of others, by making small changes we can create a positive tidal wave that will affect a larger group of people each second. What can we do? How is it that my thoughts will affect my surroundings, you might ask? Simple. Change starts from within, if we want to change something we need to start with ourselves first. Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where people say: "yes, you can" instead of "no you can't" all the time. Well, I'm telling you: yes, we can. We can make a difference, we can make a change, we can change. I can change.Let's just set our mind, shift our perspective and I assure you great things will start to happen all around.

Love

Many live and die for and out of love. It has been said love conquers all, yet so many wars have been fought for love. These days love is the principal cause of many tragedies but it is also the main cause of a multitude of miracles. What we don't realize is in order for love to be a virtue, in order for it to be the ultimate expression it needs to encompass all the other virtues. One must be patient, tolerant, kind, compassionate and gentle with our self and others. Our fast paced world prohibit us from developing our virtues and yet we pretend to simply love and be loved without understanding we need to love ourselves first in order to be loved, we need to grow and mature to better understand that special someone. We need to have a clear idea of what we want and that is why pursuing our dreams and our goals is so important. Often times we push aside what we really want in life, sacrifice ourselves "voluntarily", let life pass us by and afterwards start blaming everyone else for doing exactly that: sacrificing and not achieving. Not reaching our full potential makes us miserable when we know we can do much more. We need to let our gifts and talents shine, we need to let our inner fire ignite, for if we love and are happy with our self by ourselves, if we feel complete we will be able to love freely without attachments and make the other feel loved, truly loved.

Passion

This weekend has started out being very intense, so many mixed emotions towards people that I wasn't sure I wanted to see, towards situations that I didn't want to get into and places that I wasn't sure that I wanted to go, maybe out of fear and worry, who knows? Really, who knows why we get so afraid of life sometimes, but life is about taking risks and those risks are what help us learn in this journey. Recently I've been expressing myself about the importance of a dream in our lives and today I discovered that even a dream is not sufficient to give us that drive we need to cross the finish line or even cross the road. There are a few missing ingredients in the recipe I've been trying to concoct, and one of them is passion. Passion must go hand in hand with our innermost desires, dreams and goals in order for them to become a reality. Passion is what drove Romeo and Juliet, and it's also what ignites our soul, heart and mind to move on. Passion lights the fire inside when our body and mind are tiresome and our dream is not seen clearly anymore. Only when we realize and know our dream, our ultimate goal, is a fact only then can we achieve victory over ourselves.  

Dreams

Henry David Thoreau said "dreams are the touchstones of our character", Martin Luther King in  his last public speech spoke about his dream of freedom and justice, Gandhi dreamt of a truly democratic India where the weakest could have the same opportunities as the strongest. And Ariel, the little mermaid, dreamt about having legs and being able to live on land. Everybody has a dream, whether they keep it hidden or not, everybody has one. What is your dream? What are you doing to make that dream a reality?

We can get so absorbed in our own busy lives that we can sweep our dreams under the rug and forget about them, and until we do that spring cleaning we won't look under the rug, on the contrary, we will go right over it. Isn't it strange that we sabotage ourselves from the attainment of our innermost desires, dreams and goals? While some sacrifice their lives for the acquisition of their ultimate dream others just sit back and hang the gloves? In what group are we, really? Do we even want to admit we swept our dreams under the rug? No matter how hard it is to admit it, that spring cleaning is way overdue. So let's get to it!  

Maktub

Maktub, it is written.

Most of the time if not always we go through life aimless like a ship without sail and we get so engrossed in our daily schedules that we miss the signs that hold the key to our personal book of life. You might ask about our free will, and the answer is yes, we have our free will that's why we probably don't see what we should really see and just see what we want to see. There are signs all around us pointing to the answers yet it seems we need so much assurance that we ignore what lies in front of us. We might ask ourselves: is this person the right one? is this the right job for me? is this what I should do? is this the right way to go? We have so many questions and so much in our minds that until we stop our mind from chattering away it will be hard to see what lies in front of us and it will certainly be harder for us to let it flow.

Let it snow or is it let it flow?

Dean Martin has a famous Christmas song that we all remember, "Let it Snow", and as the day starts I just want to tell myself and a friend to change those words and sing: "let it flow, let it flow, let it flow". We not only ask too much of ourselves, we make huge demands that on occasion can barely meet. So why not relax a little today, make a list of our dreams and goals and start by prioritizing, start checking off and start flowing with the day. The one that makes the decisions on what we can handle and at what time we can handle it, is us. The one who decides how much our peace of mind is worth, is also us so why stress ourselves with the little unimportant things when there is so much to live for. Often times the things that really matter to us are exactly the things we push aside because we feel there not necessary or because we have decided to put that special list of personal dreams and goals aside. Let's think about what we really want today and start making choices that will move us closer to checking off what's on that list.

As I have said before we are only here for a brief moment, never knowing when our time is going to be up, we waste time, why not live doing what we really want to do, why not make our innermost dreams a reality? Sometimes we are indecisive about what we really want so I'll leave your mind flowing with a question that a friend of mine once asked me: "if time and money were not a problem, what would you be doing?"  

Pollutants vs. Purifiers

As I surf through the web, through TV channels, newspapers and even people I notice we are constantly being bombarded by pessimistic impressions of a world's end. It seems the world is ending at every corner, the economy is "doomed" and all people keep saying is "things are bad", I mean throw in a few more zombies in the picture and were really headed for doomsday.

Where did all the hope and dreams go? What do people actually mean by "things are bad"? Are they contributing to make "things better" or are they just pollutants that contribute to the doomsday picture? Having an inquisitive mind I asked one of  those "pollutants": what do you mean by "things are bad"? his answer was "well, you know, things",

I asked: "are you unemployed?" he said "no",

I asked again "is your wife unemployed?" he answered "no",

I decided to ask just a little bit more: "are your children OK? are they healthy? are you and your family in good health?"  he answered "yes". So I asked again, what do you mean by things are bad? And he just looked puzzled. It seems to me people answer without giving  much thought to what they are saying, so do they even know what they are referring to?

Don't be an emotional pollutant instead be an emotional purifier. See the goodness within yourself, see the blessings you have, be thankful for this new and wondrous day and amazing things will come to happen into your life. As soon as you see the good within you, your whole life will change and you will see beauty and goodness everywhere you look. The biggest treasure was given to you the first day you opened your eyes on this earth so take full advantage.

Promise of a new day

Often times we wake up in the morning feeling tired and continue where we left off the day before as if we had only a brief interruption of our day, meaning if we had a day full of worries and disarrays we tend to continue that on the next day. Instead of seeing each day as a gift or simply put, as Sting would sing, a brand new day we leave our beds numb and in disbelief that this could be the day where the solutions and answers to our questions and problems could be found at will. I dare myself to change that for once and see what the new day brings, in just a few hours I'll  have to wake up and face the world once again and a change of spirit might do the trick. As I walk into the light I also dare those around me to accompany me in this journey of hope, faith and enlightenment.

Carpe Diem

To enjoy the simple pleasures of life one has to go out there, expose one's self and seize the moment. People tend to wait for the right time and say I cannot do this because now is not the time, can't go talk to that special someone I can't get off my mind because I'm not ready, not applying for the right job because I'm not prepared yet, and we give ourselves excuses like this on a daily basis that hinder our creative force and energy. Why? Why stop ourselves from growing, from getting to the finish line, again the answer would be fear. Fear destroys our dreams, our goals and everything that we want to get out of life. It destroys everything we are meant to be. Ultimately, it destroys life. Love heals all or so we hear, but why is it so difficult to surrender ourselves to that feeling. Some people spend there whole lives waiting for the right time, the perfect moment, they just sit and wait and life just passes them by. So dare yourself to do, to seize, to feel and I can assure you life will not pass you by because you will be living life to the fullest. We are only here for a brief moment so make it count. The good, the bad, the "ugly" all happened for a reason, to make you the person you are today. But it's you who makes the call, it's you who stands up for what it is you believe, it's you who decides.

What are you going to do today, tomorrow, and the day after that?

What will become of you if you don't stand up and move?

Raging Bulls, Sluggish Bears

Everyday were hearing about the ups and downs in the financial market, raging bulls and sluggish bears, I'm thinking those terms can probably describe our ups and downs in real life as well. Our general attitude towards our endeavors and life, tend to spiral out of control every once in a while. Sometimes we can feel we can take on the world like a raging bull full of spirit and determination yet other times we can be as sluggish and shy as a bear. Our ultimate goal is just around the corner we can see the finish line and suddenly that inner force tends to whine down and a second breath is needed in order to get there, but it's gone. Where does it come from? And we start to think, how can I get rid of that feeling that I can't go on? Is it that maybe I don't want to go on? Is it fear of moving forward? or fear of being free? Where can I reach out to get that second breath? Nowhere, and as terrible as it sounds that's the answer. We can go look in the mountains, in the forests, in the streets and we could even go look in the temples and we will not be able to find it anywhere. Seems we would be looking for a treasure and it really is. It cannot be found in  a place because it's deep inside us. Sounds easy once again to theorize but really, how deep do we have to dig in order to find that treasure. How many lessons do we have to learn? and, how many "obstacles" do we have to surpass? Maybe, it's even in plain sight and were not able to see because the truth is always hard to see.  

Ghost of Christmas Past

On this journey walking towards the future one tends to carry baggage, an excess baggage I might add, which makes it hard for us to move forward more rapidly than we would wish. It's hard to let go of people, relationships, events, and even decisions that have affected us in any way. That's when our ghosts from our past start to reappear reminding us of what once was and making us doubt on our present and future endeavors. How can we let go? How can we move forward without that baggage that can keep us detained as if we were in a prison camp? And how can we understand that our only prison is in our minds. We can become our jail keeper or our liberator. It is all in the way we think, in the way we focus, in the way we think, in the way we approach our life. How do you approach life? Do you keep an open mind? Do you look at the past with regret or with ease? In answering these questions one can begin to understand why moving forward is so hard and why we often feel stuck. Letting go is probably one of the hardest lessons we have to learn. We have a tendency to attach ourselves to everything from objects to ideas, from the material to the immaterial. Knowing is easy, theorizing even easier, but what about its application. Maybe we cannot jump to the top of the mountain but we can certainly leave our baggage at the foot of the mountain and climb one step at a time and eventually get to the top. Now once on top all that's left to do is: breathe. We're free.

What goes around, comes around

It seems life is like a merry go round it just goes round and round and when your getting the hang of it or even getting to like it, the ride is over. Everyday we confront situations that make us react a certain way and at the moment we can dismiss it with a little bit of attitude, say, the incorrect attitude for that matter, but some time later we will have to learn how to react, deal and cope with it because until we have learned our lesson it just keeps coming back and always with a vengeance, right in front of our face when we least expect it. Once we see the picture clearly and see life as a learning process, as a journey, we can keep moving forward and maybe take a few rest stops along the way to reflect, to breathe and meditate on how to see life as what it really is a treasure.

My Sunset

Do I even need to say how pleasurable it is to watch the sunset. Even after a rainy day comes a rainbow and after all the worries of the day one must put aside everything and fall asleep. You only have to decide when to turn the worry switch off.

It's A Beautiful Day

In these turning times a positive outlook on life is sometimes hard. We can easily become weary with all the situations that arise day to day and soon life seems more of a burden than a gift. But when we shift our attention to those wonderful moments, to the goals that we have and its attainment, to making our dreams a reality, and even to the simplest of things: smelling a rose, watching the sunset, taking a swim and the list could go on and on filled with endless possibilities, just there and then we can relax and think clearly. And that's exactly when everything around us begins to change. There are so many beautiful things around us that we can just begin to count our blessings instead of counting our problems. A shift in our perspective will help us see solutions where we once saw a problem. So go ahead and enjoy life. Just live. It's a beautiful day!

Am I wide awake yet?

Life is full of surprises, life is full of decisions and just when you think your grabbing life by the horns as they say everything comes crumbling down and that's when a new lesson is about to be learned or supposed to be learned, whether you like it or not. So this is a neverending learning process that is never fully mastered, and when a living cycle ends another one begins. It just goes on and on. In all this one must ask oneself: have I learned any lesson's today, have I surpassed any situations or any obstacles today, have I felt another one's pain or happiness, have I walked in another's shoe, have I seen through the eyes of another to better understand what they are going through. Better yet have I understood that there is no division between me and the other and that there is just one.