Happiness in marriage and relationships is one of the big components of being happy overall. However, there is not much practical and smart literature on the subject. There are no high quality, verified schools or classes where one could learn the basics, and it’s pretty much expected that we figure it out by ourselves, often by repeating same costly mistakes as the people before us.
Enter Alain de Botton who I regard as one of the best living philosophers and his video above.
Continue readingI had a really stressful week. I had to deal with some deeply unconscious, ego driven people who completely forgot they were mortal. There was no way around it, and I was not intending to let negativity take over me, so I got prepared. Here is a checklist I kept in front of me throughout the meeting. If you have a negative meeting or experience that you can not avoid, perhaps these will help you.
I found this one on Quora. I did not fact check it but it resonated. If you wonder, “Should I or should not I?” instead think “What will I regret more — doing it or not doing it?”
This speech has blown me away. The unexpected side to the speaker, its depth, the very Tolle’sque terminology he uses and the profoundness of advice given. The jokes too of course, eg ‘Monsanto seed’ or ‘I can not be contained because I am the container’.
I’ve been left so touched after watching it that I might need to watch it again. Two pieces of advice particularly stood out for me:
1) risk being seen in all of your glory
2) you will have 2 choices in life: love or fear. Don’t let your fear turn you against your playful heart.
What an amazing speech from an amazing man. Must see.
In my recent post about stress I have discovered that apparently stress has same physical symptoms as courage (this is not scientific but seems plausible enough), so in some cases it may make sense to reframe feeling stressed as being brave. I’ve already used this trick a couple of times actually, during those fight or flight situations, and it works!
Interestingly, same week I ran into another post with a different albeit also interesting angle on stress. Continue reading
My song of the week/ weekend/ spring! Kpop rules and G-Dragon is the best. This video energises and/or puts a smile on a face 🙂 I want his hair!!
I’ve been silent for a while – I was in Seoul, at a friend’s wedding. It was an amazing, once in a lifetime, thank-you-Universe experience. I met some cool people and had lots of fun. I will post about it later, with photos.
Today I wanted to highlight this post in Wired, because there are 2 things that equally excite and fascinate me – art and gif’s. Not sure about you, but I have been communicating a lot in gif’s lately (there is some serious research on the impact of gif’s on our communication which you can google), and art prize and exhibition dedicated to gif’s just sounds like an amazing idea to me. Continue reading
I have been working on self development, or self improvement, however you call it, for now almost 15 years, perhaps even more. Over the years I have uncovered a variety of truths – underlying motivations behind my actions, implications of the big choices I made in life, influences of various people on my personality and decisions, etc.
At different points in my life I’ve been working on different things – overcoming fears, procrastination and indecisiveness, taking risks, embracing change, being open to new, willpower, living in the now rather than past – the list goes on. Last couple of years I focused on several things, among them overcoming the temptations.
Temptations come in different shapes and forms. They may be things, objects. They may be people. They may be feelings. Although it seems that WikiHow and Yahoo Answers covered most of them in terms of the action plan 🙂 (eg check this step-by-step WikiHow guide on overcoming lust, actually some very good tips, going to army must be my fave!). In my case, temptations are unnecessarily distracting and do not allow me to fully focus my life energy on things, projects and people that are important and that I want to focus on. They keep my mind busy with the wrong thoughts and in turn, its incessant buzz is sapping energy from my present.
After a period of meditating, reflection and talking to my close and very life-wise friends (Lia, I owe you big!), I left myself no choice and through a powerful, yet simple, technique of self analysis (where you constantly ask ‘why?’ until you arrive at the answer) arrived at 4 causes of temptations in my case. This was a big breakthrough for me, and it took 10 years to come to this. I list them below, in case they help you dig dipper and uncover your motivations and/or overcome your temptations which prevent you from realising your full potential.
1. I create DRAMA to feel alive, instead of living in the present – live in the now
2. I always want MORE, I am not happy with what I’ve got – ditto, meditation helps
3. I am ADDICTED to pain-pleasure cycle (as defined by E.Tolle) – stop it
4. I DISTRACT myself from important projects, I procrastinate – face your fears
Once you know the causes, you solved the problem half way. It will be easier to be aware, present whenever temptations re-emerge and hence easier to overcome them. And you will gain a new perspective in life which will inevitably contribute to your personal growth. All the best, my fellow nomads. Do not give in 😉
Source: The Hunting Happiness Project
I am back to work after 9 months of self discovery and career break. I have escaped the city! I am now an account manager at the cool digital agency. I wrote this in my first week at work.
Last Monday was a nightmare.
The weather was horrid (although probably not as bad as those of you affected by snow storm in the US and Canada). Commute went wrong – a man under train (I only later connected it to Blue Monday, oh 😦 ). First day at work after holidays. Busy but in a fog (all last week). Little one got ill again and refused to fall asleep until midnight… Oh Universe. Continue reading
The Christmas before I helped a homeless Big Issue vendor. I kept seeing him on my way to the office and he always looked so sad. I got in touch with the Big Issue and found out his name. I anonymously bought him a Christmas gift (some new clothes) and later helped to get a new passport. In person, whenever I’d see him, I’d buy him coffee. Continue reading
Nomad of the Universe 