How to Filter Out All the Noise

 

Noise can be harmful and new research suggests the damage it causes is even worse than we previously thought.

Technology has offered one solution: noise-cancelling headphones are booming. But despite the innovation, there's still an overwhelming amount of sound: street noise, buzzing cell phones, loud conversations. Noise pollution, especially in urban environments, is on the rise. Colombia recently approved a law to regulate it, but honestly… it’s not working yet.

But not all noise is physical.

There are two other types of noise that can affect our health just as much - and perhaps more deeply - than the sounds outside our windows.

The first kind is internal: the noise of our own worries and the anxiety that has quietly gripped modern society. It hums constantly in the background, making it difficult to think clearly or reflect. And reflection is essential as it is what allows us to understand what is happening in our lives, make good decisions and move forward.

The second kind of noise comes from outside, but not through our ears. It comes from other people and their constant interference in our thoughts. Maybe you think you're immune. Maybe you believe you’re completely independent. But ask yourself: Why do you use that particular brand of soap? Why did you change your job? What shaped your political views?

This noise comes from the not-so-silent world of social media, which feeds us other people’s opinions, judgments and beliefs. It doesn’t just speak; IT SHOUTS! And often, it drowns out our own voice.

For these two kinds of noise, there’s no technological noise-cancelling solution… yet.

Except… there is something we can do.

From experience, I’d recommend three simple practices that can help you filter out the noise and listen to yourself more clearly:

• Meditation and a shift in lifestyle. A regular meditation practice and a healthier, slower lifestyle help reduce the mental buzz of anxiety. Even something as simple as a walk in the park can bring surprising silence.
• Self-esteem. When you build a deeper awareness of your own value, it becomes easier to overcome the pressure of outside opinions. Reflection exercises and inner work can reconnect you with your core, your own voice.
• Boundaries for your attention. Be intentional about what (and who) you allow into your mental space. Curate your social media, your conversations and your environment like you would do with your home.

Filtering the noise isn’t about escaping the world; rather than that, it is about creating enough quiet to listen to what truly matters, that which comes often from deep reflection or from the heart.

A life-long learning process

To have a dynamic life, full of energy and meaning, it is important to understand that this is the greatest university!

Every day, every moment, at every interaction or chance to contemplate, you and I are learning. There is no ending for that.

So, I would like to suggest you two things.

First, always be OPEN TO LEARN. This requires humility and self-esteem, kindness and courage, and most importantly, the deep desire to progress.

Second, always be OPEN TO SHARE. You will need to feel the pulse of the person with whom you are sharing, teaching, coaching or mentoring. You will have to go beyond knowledge and trust your own wisdom. And share with generosity, openness, mercy and love.

We are sharing the same classroom, let’s make the best of it.

 

Discovering that part of yourself that is hidden from others

Johari Window: exploring the hidden parts…

 

You have a secret!

Maybe the reason you have it is because you consider it so valuable, you don’t want to share, at least not to everyone and not until this moment; which is OK, after all, treasures are to be kept. They are an object of legend! Right?

I give you an alternative. Find the right moment (soon, please!) and show that talent you have, what you have been studying or the wonderful discovery you are not revealing to others.

In fact, the more you expose your treasures, the more you will develop them.

However, there are secrets you don’t tell others because of some type of fear. What are they going to tell me if they know this?

If you really want to develop a good relationship with other people, those secrets can turn into an obstacle. There are a few options for you:

• Find the RIGHT MOMENT, that instant people will value what you have. It is true particularly in relation to talents or skills.
• Generate a space of dialogue and talk to those people, open your heart. Before doing that, take some mercy balm in the form of a nice book with encouraging words or a song that will remind you how great you are. This is specially for those secrets that can harm a relationship.
• In both cases, I suggest you to meditate before doing any of those things. Meditation will empower you.
• If people hurt you because what you have shown or told them, don’t cry. The meditation will help you to not get into despair and something good you can do is to remind yourself THAT IS MY TREASURE. As they didn’t recognize its value, it is time to look for other people who will value it as much as you do.

There may be many more reasons for you to keep things hidden from others, but I would like to highlight two more:

• Self-doubt. Yes, you have that treasure, but you are not sure it is so interesting or others need it. The best thing for that is to talk with someone you trust and work on what to do about it.
• Maybe OTHERS haven’t acknowledged you have that treasure. Well, that hurts! You have already shown them, you have talked to them and you have posted it everywhere, but people seem to ignore it or at least they don’t give the value you think it should receive. Well, in that case, a talk with experts in the area of your treasure will clear your mind in relation to others’ reasons. After that, you can plan what to do to make others appreciate that wonderful treasure.

8 asana of the heart – a LEVER?

 

Love can be creative, so think of your heart as a LEVER…

Hard? Maybe, but the idea is that love can change the world…[1]

Just check your life and think of an area of your existence that is in crisis, a big crisis – maybe confusion, perhaps anger. Now, focus on your own love, the love that is in your heart… let that love flows through you and through that wound.

After one or two days doing that, just check because I am sure things would have changed, at least partially.

Why? Love activates the best of you and it is obvious that part of the best of you keeps the solution for your problem. When you feel love in a conscious way, you are also opening the door of many other beautiful things that you keep there in the cupboard of the self.

Love is the lever that opens a treasure within, but most of the time we don’t use love in that way. So, try again: think of your heart as a LEVER.

Another image you can use is your heart as a lift that elevates you, because by connecting with all that reservoir of love, you are also increasing dramatically your own self-esteem.

Problems look so small from up above…

Let your love make you open difficult doors or elevate yourself. Problems will still be problems, but you will have the key in your hand.

 

This post is part of a series called 8 asana of the heart.

I recommend you to watch 8 postures of the heart.

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[1] Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world. Archimedes (c.287 – c.212 BC)

Privacy at very public times

One thing I notice is that most people I know knows where I am. By the way, I know where most people I know are right now…

It seems that the time for total surveillance – and we could say matrix surveillance since everyone can check on everybody else – is here, for a few years now. So, what about privacy?

In fact, the feeling of privacy is needed to build a strong sense of self-esteem. Without privacy, it is hard to understand a person’s role in the society and, as a result, to love and appreciate the self, the very basis of self-esteem. Without self-esteem… well, we may have a society, but people won’t thrive for success, they won’t try their best and they will normally drift away.

However, in certain human civilizations, that is not so true. The example of Ubuntu in Africa comes to mind and it implies that self-esteem may also be built on the basis of a strong bond with each other, where everyone’s welfare means a person’s welfare.

Maybe the lack of privacy is pushing the rest of civilization to rethink itself; Ubuntu and other cultural practices and systems can provide a model for a new era where privacy wouldn’t be an issue due to its absence.

When volunteering is more than a pastime

Many years ago, I've met a very interesting Colombian man who was a full time volunteer. Even though he had a family, he managed to get small jobs here and there, so he could keep with his mission. I was part of his mission; I went to a small village in the Choco to talk about values, as a volunteer. His spirit really impressed me. Yes, for the last 30 years I have been a volunteer in Brahma Kumaris, but, I don't have a family that relies on me...

Out of the four main functions all human beings have, to be a volunteer is the most interesting one for me, because I have never thought before I could do something to another person without a direct reward. Yes, we do need a job or something where we earn something - that is another of the four functions. But when we do something without a payback... It is as if you had a beautiful bird jailed in a cage inside you and when you go and help someone, you would open that cage, experiencing the beauty of its presence, giving happiness beyond measure. You do feel like you are earning more than in your own job.

Of course, that will only work if there is a balance with the rest of the functions, but volunteering opens your mind and awareness to the greatness of the self, because you can only give what you have; volunteering helps you to realize your own treasures and how they can support the world where you live.

I've lost touch with that Colombian, but I still remember his smile, even when he described the terrors he witnessed during the war our country goes through. I hope he is well and I hope he keeps on distributing his treasures everywhere. Our world needs them...

About coming back to work

As I said in a former post, this blog was designed because of my lack of proper work. Something happened in my life, and companies were not calling me for help. In fact, they were not calling me for anything, really.

I really had the opportunity, the golden chance of learning that having a job is more than working, and that is the reason of this blog.

Now, work is coming back. Slowly, but steady, I am being called by many companies to help them. They are still small projects, but for me they are BIG, because they are a direct fruit of a long work on my own self.

Then, I see other issues emerging, and I feel it is good to revise them, turning them in valuable lessons others can be benefitted:

• The need of having humility and high self-esteem. Working with spirituality, I always know and talk about to have the balance between these two qualities, but I have been faced with them a lot. After all, you cannot tell others something you are not doing, but you have to value your conquests and ideas, as they are your real wealth. As a consultant, one of the techniques is to share examples, and sometimes you think your examples are good, when they are not. But at other times, your example will be the perfect one for the situation, be ready to know the difference.
• The need of researching and studying. One of the opportunities I've got was to deliver a course that I did not do for at least TEN YEARS! It evolved, and I realised (unfortunately, during the same course) that I should study more and research more. One of my mistakes would be too embarrassing, if it was not noticed by a good friend, who did not push.
• Focus, more focus. During my time without job, I generated around 10 areas of work. But, as I am performing again, to keep up with 10 areas of work is not easy, and it would be stressing in the long term. With the help of a coach, I was able to group those 10 areas in... well, 7 areas... As you see, I am still working on that focus.
• CLEAR AIM. I've put myself an immediate aim - 10 days of work! And that is what I have got. So, I have to clear my aim a little bit, remind myself the year has 365 days and my life won't finish on 2012, no matter what fake Mayans are saying. So, don't talk about such a short aim, rather than that plan it better.
• Don't lose courage. When I am working, I feel sometimes a little "rusty". Courage is needed to keep on doing, to just keep on performing and little by little rust will fade away eventually and you will see your optimum performance coming back.
• Don't be afraid of checking yourself. It is harsh. That course with my friend... my God, he was calling me apart, telling me what was wrong with me, with no mercy. And that was wonderful. You do need to check yourself, or being checked by someone else, so that you can improve.

Take care and keep on moving.

A chai in the morning

In many different countries, the term chai is already know as tea with (or "in") milk. However, there is no chai as in India.

Some days ago, drinking chai in the mountains of Northern India, I was thinking about its recipe. It is pretty simple: you boil milk, add tea herb, sugar as you like and spices (ginger is probably the most used). ¿Easy? Yes, but for some reason...

Well, nobody prepares a chai like Indians do!

It is just like the Southamerican arepa or the Brazilian farofa - you can have the recipe, but there is something deeper. Genes? Not sure, but there is something more than the recipe, definitely.

In the same way, every person, every community or country, has a chai recipe, something which is unique to them, which cannot be replicate by anybody else. It is the "special" speciality everyone has, something we have been preparing and cultivating inside our beings for years and years.

For me, human kind is like a vitral: not only it is beautiful as a whole, but each piece in itself is a wonder.

Your chai can be the way you speak, a skill, art, the fact you know how to cook pizza or smile, not matter what happes around you. Perhaps it is the way you deal with stress, your profession, love or being a mother. Your chai can be the fact you know stadistics by heart or you sing in the shower.

And that chai has a deep effect in everything that happens around you. It is the colour and shape of you, in the vitral of humanity.

Well, do you recognise your own chai?