And Christmas is over, so??

All the show and fun and gifts and kisses and hugs… all compressed in one day (more or less).

Now, I suggest you check on your gifts. Check also on your feelings, because that is what probably will last a while. Maybe a long while...

Our Christmas ritual, even though it has become more of a commercial success day, it is much more than that. In ways nobody can explain, it touches our heart and soul very deeply.

Personally, I was never so much into Christmas. That was until I moved to another country and realized I would be all by myself in that day.

I am not sure what I felt… Was it fear? Was I feeling abandoned? Loneliness? I decided to act so I’ve cooked a nice lunch and invited a bunch of people I know more or less and… I felt so good!! It was a unique feeling of belonging to a place I did not belong.

Many years later, I still remember that day although nowadays I am always with people I love around me. I had the taste of the spirit of Christmas, of that invisible feeling floating around us when that time comes.

But then, why to wait? Why to wait until a certain date comes? Just do it right now, with me and many other people around you.

A very merry ETERNAL Christmas!

Values in reality

Values move the world…

Even though we don’t see them clearly, they are there, before any action or behavior. Values are present in any rescue, birthday, death and war, even when their presence is because they are so absent we can see it is missing.

Most of the time, we focus our attention into whatever we see and touch. If it is bad, we try to fix it; if it is good, we try to multiply it. We don’t think much about what is behind, what generated that action or what is there that will make that behavior to repeat again.

As our world moves fast, too fast to be fixed or to replicate it, it is time we stop doing and start reflecting, understanding what is beneath every action. This would save lots of energy, money and time, even though that time to stop seems to be useless. It is not because when reflection happens, values emerge in mind and it is easy to realize them.

So, if you want to change an action, check those values; probably, a few good ones are missing and they are important to be there. If the action is really good, by knowing which values were present, they can be replicate.

Values are not something you can shop around, but they are inside you and me. When you start to reflect on them, you are awakening them. It is a similar process of liking someone or hating a person; you think of that and the emotions emerge, making you speak something or punching a guy.

The biggest and secret challenge we all have is to understand the values process and use it to change our life and the world. Although it is not the only thing that makes changes to take place, its importance is invaluable.

So, why not starting right now? Take this time to reflect upon something not so good happening to you, understand the values missing there and reflect on them.

As you and I reflect, values emerge in our minds and naturally we start to act on them. The more we reflect, more natural that will be until one day, we act in the way we always wanted to do.

What happened to living in a city?

By listening to Downtown from the voice of Petula Clark, you just wondered what kind of downtown she is referring… Maybe that clarify the point, when years later, when a TV series was about to end, a group of friends summarize that by commenting on the desire of one of them, to live in a place where “kids could ride their bikes in the street”: So you want to buy a house in the 50's?

The truth is that cities are less and less livable. Or you could say they are OK to live, but the quality of your life won’t be that great. You probably have to commute much more and stay less and less in your own place.

But one day they were a symbol of status and good life, and a high quality of life. Safety, prosperity and welfare were a synonym of living in a city; the bigger, the better.

What happened?

First, there are the visible facts of cars and more cars, of pollution in many places, the increasing population taking people to feel more insecure. After all, paradoxically the normal consequence of granting good quality to others is that gradually the numbers increase and quality decreases.

But there is something more: the disconnection of people with earth and the natural vocation of human beings as rural people. It happened slowly along the centuries, starting from our fascination for the cities – which were, in the beginning, rural outposts for selling and exchanging – attracting us to live there and to adapt our lives and customs to that. And losing some of it…

Probably if you live in a city you will think it is impossible to come back to those old values and way of life when you trusted completely in your neighbor and simplicity was a rule. Probably it is very difficult to go back there and if for some reason you are able to rebuild your city, probably it will attract so many people those values will get lost eventually again.

There is however something you can do, and it is related to your own values. Maybe you can’t avoid one-hour traffic but you can have a smile in your face and do something useful for yourself during that time. Perhaps you cannot prevent the noise and pollution, but you can make your mind silent and clean.

I tell you, it works. You start to love your time in the city, or wherever you are living. You start to love who you are, no matter your situation. You can see the quality of your life increases too. Externally, we can do little, but internally, we can do it all.

And the end is near...

If you go to a river that ends in a waterfall, the sensation is that closer to the cascade, the river speed up as if it wants to go as fast as possible to the end of its journey.

I guess that is how you are probably feeling right now. Yes, 2015 is ending and its speed has increased, with more things to do than available time.

And yet it is such an important time for humans. In our civilization we have created many customs and the end of the year is one that happens in most cultures. It is a time to end whatever has taken place during the year: accounts, projects, bad habits, wrong assumptions, animosity…

Because we live in a big cycle, with everything around us and inside us repeating itself from time to time, when the end comes, you know there is a beginning close. So, this is also a time to plan new things, to renew reality around you and to reignite the wonderful flame of hope in our hearts.

We have the will and the intuition and the feeling and the reasoning that 2016 will be an incredible year. Even though January 1^st will be probably quite similar to today…

It is that end-beginning phase we are going through that makes things seem so fast. A suggestion: don’t hurry and keep your pace and your reality in check. Enjoy the rush around you as if it is a big game and smile a lot.

A last suggestion is to start today ending things you want to finish with the end of the year. Start today to plan that marvelous 2016. Do that and I am sure 2016 will be more than just hope.

                                                                                                                                                                         

The power of reflection

Reflecting is a powerful tool. Before taking over his first term, President Obama talked about in relation to leadership and I guess from time to time all of us start to think on things we have to think about… Clear?

However, the power does not come by thinking or speaking. Reflection is something much more complex and at the same time, very simple to do: you let your thoughts go deep and deep into the roots and branches of any situation.

Still, that concept is not enough. After all, people who are used to brood onto something do that all the time and yet, they don’t look so powerful.

For instance, let’s say your company is starting to cut jobs and yours is in risk. A normal person would probably think something like this:

Oh no, they are going to fire me! What can I do, I don’t have any qualifications!! They can’t do that, can they?

Now consider an optimistic person:

Nah… they are not going to fire anyone. It is just another rumor. How can they fire us, who else are going to do the job? In fact, I think I am about to get promoted…

A reflection process would start like this:

They are firing people… let me understand the owners’ point of view. Of course, they have to save their investment and by cutting some people out, they will save money. However, if they save money like that, the remaining people will get more tired and productivity in the middle term will decrease, causing customers to go for another place.

The three samples are based on real thinking process. The main difference between reflection and other ways is that the person goes into a Detached Observer stage.

It is like playing chess: your strategy only works because you are out of the chessboard. Maybe if you were part of the game, you wouldn’t sacrifice that horse… Reflection means detaching from reality, without ignoring it, and then let your own thoughts go for its solution or conclusion.

Maybe your lifestyle does not allow you to stop and reflect, but at least once a week you just should do exactly that: just reflect about life, understand its process and find the best way to deal with it.

Do you have patience?

In a very fast-paced world, some virtues are not so cool and patience is one of them for it is connected to slow-moving men and women, weak individuals or very old people.

In fact, patience is connected to the reality of the world. If it is not for patience, your parents would not have expected you to be born – after all, NINE MONTHS!! So many things you can do during that time!!!!

For example, food and maturity come from a season and it is hard to be sped them up. When humans mix science with nature, results are not pleasant to everyone and there is a big wave in the world trying to revert that we did to our own food; same thing applies to maturity, which has its process and it is different to each person.

My observation is that patience is not the problem. The real challenge is how to discern between having patience and being slow. It is not that simple… Let’s take the example of a career.

On one hand, patience will help you to develop it in a pace that won’t stress you out but it will guarantee a good result at the end of the road. You will be focused on learning more than having immediate success as you know achievements will come along the way.

However you cannot just wait for things to happen. You will be pushed, threatened, taunted and even blackmailed by your bosses, co-workers, spouses and relatives to go for it! After all, your youth won’t last forever and maybe is already fading away…

Patience is good, it helps with health and it helps you to reach those goals you want to get, but it is not enough. No virtue or value is enough, they all need a partner. In the case of patience, its partner is perseverance that will help you to not accommodate to the situation but break reality and start your own change process.

OK, if you leave patience aside, you will be hurt as you will succumb to others’ and yours own desires, instead of waiting for the right season when fruit will be ripe. But if you don’t engage patience with perseverance you will live a very dull and boring life, and it is quite possible many of the things you are expecting won’t happen. After all, it is not only sowing seeds, you have to water and take care of whatever you have sown too.

Just perseverance without patience… Well, your life will be a big adventure, but you will probably miss some opportunities to just relax and flow with the flow.

At the end of this wonderful journey we all live, the most important thing will be the sense of balance. Life is all about balance… So, go and start it right now. Patiently…

The power you get by taking breaks

As our world evolves into a global village, with everything linked to everything, productivity is pushing us hard.

It is strange; as the world grows, more people would engage into tasks that would improve productivity. However, this is not happening and companies are decreasing their staff - especially the more creative - by their own will or just because these people are being widespread along the globe.

The negative effect is that those who remain have to produce more to keep the pace the department was having before. After all, less people should not mean less production...

Add to that the fast pace a person lives in the society with so many movies, parties, plays, Facebook posts, etc. Add to that an increasing health and spiritual consciousness, and add to that the importance to family and you will have a very stressing picture of people rushing around, virtually or physically, trying to fulfill all their duties...

In United States, many companies are encouraging their employees to take vacations. In many companies around the world, bosses are insisting with people to take a break now and then. An editor for a very important magazine decided to go to another country for the week-end - by himself, no spouse and no family...

There are several researches on the topic, but the most important point here is that those breaks we take allow us to breath and calm our body. It is a moment to enjoy someone else's company and especially not talking about whatever we were doing just before.

It will definitely increase productivity as we will come with refreshing ideas and new decisions.

Do you want to be more productive? Take a break from whatever you are doing and check the results.