4 May 2012

A matter of choices...

Today a friend came to me and told me she was not feeling well, she told me that when she looks around her, she sees people who do so well whatever it is they do and who seem so smart and comfortable, whereas on the other hand, she felt so uncertain that it was making her wish she could be like all these people she sees. Be anyone but herself.


She then explained how helpless that thought makes her feel and so when she is facing her challenges and she feels very alone surrounded by uncertainty. This made me think of my own moments where in front of a challenge I wonder if I can do it or not, fear quickly comes in and whispers "maybe you won’t be able do it", and as that uncomfortable shiver shakes me, before it goes on any longer, the practical part of my mind asks "so, what are you going to do?" and whatever the situation, wherever it is you find yourself in your life, the options to answer that question seem to be always the same:

Option 1: Give up, there's a high chance you wont make it, you don’t know what you are getting yourself into, it might only make things worse, it would require a lot of effort, you don’t have what it takes, etc.

Option 2: Just do it, what's the worse that can happen? you will never know if you don’t try, you may as well go for it and fail trying or accomplish it with flying colors, it may be fun, there's a high chance you'll learn a lot and you will never wonder "what if?".

As I reflected on this ,I came to the realization that I always take the second option, and looking back: 99.9%  it was the best thing to do and that lead me to several great opportunities and instances I would have never had, had I not chose to Not give up.

I decided to share this realization with my friend who was glad to learn she is not the only person in the world who feels that way and we both agreed on the fact that every single moment like this, is a moment that defines us and defines the direction our lives take.

So rather than staying in an uncertainty state when the question comes, the choice is completely yours, and only you will be responsible for that decision and all it brings. If you can handle that awareness, means you are ready to make your own decision and move ahead.

Beware that option number two in most cases means that you will be challenged on the way, there might be plenty of moments when you doubt yourself and the same question comes up and you must once more re-commit to your choice, or of course, change your mind. If you decide to stay firm on your decision and keep on trying, those challenges will be pushed away and will be fewer and fewer as you move along and into new ways of experiencing yourself and your own life.

There are no bad or good choices, there are choices with results and its up to us to use them in our favor or against us. I encourage you to find your strength and trust yourself. As I said to my friend; the only difference between us all lies in the trust and thus the choices we make. Some give up and their lives turn in one direction, some decide to try and their lives take another direction.

As on pretty much everything...the choice remains solely yours.

Much light and love on whichever choice you decide to make.

6 Nov 2011

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Indeed, the greatest speech ever made, not by a politician, but by a comedian, and one of the best we've had.

It's amazing, yet sad, that the message is still so valid and modern, we can easily relate to it, it is so true and current.

I hope there will come a day when all of this is behind us, and this incredible speech is no longer valid.



Until the next!

15 Sept 2011

When the grass is greener on the other side...

Greetings my dear friends, visitors and residents of The Light Planet! I hope you are all well in every possible level.


Recently on a trip to Paris, in the middle of a friends reunion, everyone was asking me how things are going here in Los Angeles, and how life is in general. They all seemed fascinated with the idea of the American Dream and the life in this side of the world. During a brief moment of silence most of them stood looking up as if to some invisible point on the horizon, yearning to be in L.A. and one of them broke the silence with a toast to Los Angeles, to which we all joined.

As this unfolded in front of my eyes, I sensed a bit of irony seeing how all this Parisians who, live and experience on a daily basis one of the most beautiful cities in the world, were yearning to be in Los Angeles. I instantly remembered having experienced the exact same reaction when I told my friends in Los Angeles that I was traveling to Paris; they were all yearning to be in Paris.

Right after this, I suddenly felt conscious of the phrase: “The grass is always greener on the other side”.

I found myself witnessing a perfect example of such phrase.
Those who are here yearn to be there, those who are there yearn to be here. And so we are constantly yearning to be "on the other side", having all that which we don’t have and so we forget to touch base with all that which we do have but start taking for granted.

When we are not able to appreciate what we have, we slowly stop seeing all that which is good in our life, we lose perspective and get into the game of looking for validation elsewhere, to be told that “everything is OK” and we feel the need to feed off of external elements that can help us feel that we are indeed “well positioned” in life.

We fail to remember that everything is well in the universe, in its own balance even when we might find it hard to understand and that if we really need to touch base with the essence of the life we’ve created; a simple inventory of the big and small things we can easily identify becomes the fastest reconnection and the only compass we need to put us back in track.

Let’s maintain and walk barefoot over our own grass, let’s appreciate and enjoy it for it’s the only one we have, let’s turn it into the garden of our dreams and then there wont be any garden "on the other side" that we fancy more than our own.