Right & Wrong

Recently a good friend of mine told me what she announced as a horrible deed she had committed, before she told me; she was already warning me that she would never do it again and I could feel how worried and confused she was.

While she was telling me her story, there were moments where she admitted that the whole experience had been enjoyable but she kept on saying she “knew” it was “WRONG”

But according to WHO was this experience WRONG? This reminded me of all the pre-conceptions, judgments and beliefs we carry around, and they are not even ours! We have inherited so much of this baggage from what we have been taught and told. Very few people actually endorse their own beliefs and live according to them because they have decided to do so.

But what happens with the rest? The rest just accepts them and tries to live up to them at the best of their abilities, but isn’t that exactly the kind of pattern, the kind of attitude and conformism that creates the increasingly high rates of unhappiness and depression in the world today?

The experience my friend shared with me, was by far one of the best things that could have happened to her, why? Because for the first time in her entire life, she dared to leave absolutely all of the pre-conceptions, judgments and inherited beliefs she was carrying around and surrendered completely to herself, she embraced self-trust and gave a massive step towards her own growth and evolution. For the first time, her own voice was ‘speaking’ lauder than everyone else’s!

Unfortunately, my poor friend soon enough put back on her backpack full of everything she had just summed the courage to leave behind, even if for a moment. And she felt the heavy weight of the backpack once more, suddenly her recent experience was now looked at through judgment-full eyes and her worse fears came over her. She felt bad, she felt worthless and utterly confused.

Soon she will realize that this experience is something she will remember as the first big leap on the way to hearing her own voice, to finally be herself despite the world.

How heavy is your backpack today?
How much of the contents are truly yours?
Whose voice speaks lauder?
Whose voice are you listening to?

This, being YOUR life, the only life you truly own; shouldn’t it be your own voice the one to lead you?

As far as I am concerned; I am going to let my voice scream out laud so I may never fail to hear it!

Happy by Choice

Today I crossed roads with a tall, thin, smiley man on the street, on my way back home.

The man smiled at me as I looked at him, and said;

- “Hi, how are you?”

- “I am OK..I guess..”, I replied while a flash of my day up until then came to mind; I had totally hated the day, it started bad with some domestic problems, which then increased and irritated me beyond words. Nevertheless, that didn’t take away my manners so I asked;

- “..and yourself?”

- “Good, good, I have had nothing but green lights on my way, and it was a long hot hot day, but it was good, so I am happy” he replied, as we shared the walkway. I said;

- “well that’s good, and all those green traffic lights must be a good sign”, he smiled and mentioned again how hot and long the day seemed and thinking about me in my office, I didn’t really take a break so didn’t notice if it was sunny or not, if it was hot or not, so I asked;

- “what do you do?” and he raised an arm and showed me a shoeshine box he was carrying, it was painted in white and with black letters it said “Happy By Choice”

- “Oh, that’s a nice name”, I said

- “I choose to be Happy” he added as he smiled.

Our little casual conversation continued as we crossed the street and then in the corner we parted ways, not before he said;

- “you should come around and bring me some shoes when you can”, to which I replied:

- “sure, where are you located at?”

- “555 Ocean, at the Big US Bank and Fedex” he said, it was actually right behind us, I said:

- “I know where it is, I’ll see you around then, have a good night”, he said:

- “you have a good night too lady, God bless you”

It does suck when things don’t work exactly as one would want them to, when one would want them to, yet I realized is not enough reason to let that ruin a perfectly good brand new day.
I didn’t even notice the green traffic lights, I forgot to notice the nice fresh breeze that blows here beside the ocean.
I didn’t really pay attention when before leaving the office my colleague said to me; “Well done, you did a good job”.
SO today some things did not work exactly how I wanted them, exactly when I wanted them, SO I became upset and didn’t even take a break, as if I was punishing myself for something that is totally out of my control.

How stupid is that? Why should I feel anything but happy?

This man has reminded me of all those things I know but I sometimes tend to forget.

The day is not over yet, so before it goes I just want to say: I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!!!

And, should you happen to pass by 555 Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach, you might want to get your shoes shinning.

Let’s turn the “Automatic Mode” off

My dear friends welcome! It’s a pleasure to find you here again, in this planet of Light.

I hope you are all well, even though I imagine that you are all going through crazy times, just as I am.

The World keeps on turning and it seems to go faster and faster every day. And it does not stop, even when we might be feeling like we want to push “pause” and get out of the work for a while.
The relativity of time is something that becomes clearer for me day by day, there are days which seem eternal, while some others seem so so short. I know you know what I mean, we’ve all been there.

The daily tasks, home, work, family, friends, various commitments and the essential needs of life sometimes make us fall into a routine which puts us under “automatic mode”, and things seem to get much worse when something within the routine goes wrong, or something changes. Then; we feel lost, disoriented, time seems way too short and we just do not know what to do.

Nevertheless, these “changes” of routine may be just what we need. Perhaps a way of getting out of “automatic mode”, open our eyes, feel again and look around to see where our life is heading to. It isn’t a good sign for us to feel “lost” when out of automatic mode. We are adventurers, we’re pioneers, we are traveler souls, change and breaking the routine is part of who we are, so why don’t we just look inside ourselves and keep silent for a moment, to release the voice of that adventurous soul and give it back the helm of our lives?, thus turning off the automatic mode. Don’t you see that this is the reason why sometimes we feel like we want to “get off” this world? Because under automatic mode everything turns monotone, it tires us, it blinds us, we no longer see, nothing is new, nothing is interesting, so we feel drained and we want to disconnect from everything and everyone.

But the adventurous soul within us does not get tired, it feeds from everything around, breathes energy out of the air and enriches him/herself. There is much richness around us, many colors, many new places, many people, many blessings, and most of all; so much love. When we feel this, all of the changes, “problems” and challenges become more manageable, simpler and exciting, and so we enjoy once more the path we chose, because when we take the blinders off, we are able to recognize our own creation.

Come one, let’s feel again, let’s turn the “automatic mode” off!