COURAGE

Today I am back. Since 2 weeks I came back to Brazil. And because of this 100% change in my life that is happening right now I decided to write about courage. Courage is to live in the abscence of fear. That is the most amazing decision someone can take in life. Unfortunately,we are taught since early age to fear. To back off when something or someone is going to cause you pain or debt. That is the worst option for you to overcome yourself. When you walk away from your pain, your are in fact saying no to yourself. You are saying no to the things that you know that need to be fixed. You are saying no to destroy the misconception that the only way is the safe way. I completely disagree with this statement. For me, the best way is the way you face the fears with courage. Courage is the attitude, which is deeply associated with fullness. 

The courageous people are those who challenge the mainstream beliefs. The more traditional way of behaving, of making choices, in the essence of living. Our time frame in this existence is very short. Because of that, there is no time to think too much and  to give up on something, which at first seems crazy or ridiculous. In fact, when people laugh at your dreams is a good sign. Is a sign that you can dream where others can only see problems or difficulties. A  courageous person is strong in every aspect. Is a person with personality. Is someone who faces the challenges positively, and who never give up until everything has been attempted. A courageous person has a magnetic attraction. He can attract everything to the reality, in the way he chooses. This happens because all boundaries are completely set to the side, and new rules are applied in order to make things and thoughts to become a reality. In fact, they like to be challenged because they will develop the courage to change perspectives to achieve the goals they have. And no matter who or what problem tries to stop him, he moves forward. He is like a gladiator, a fighter, a jedi. 

Because in the heart of a coraugeous person lies a spirit of happiness and strenght, There are some turn downs yes, but they do not stop him.  Even very hard hits from life cannot make them to fall. A corageous person goes with the natural flow of things. He can perceive much more than the majority. This happens because his awareness is wider and more adaptable. He can change directions quickly and use his skills to change plans, change the reality to a better one. There is no loss. Loss is an oportunity to learn. In fact, corageous people live on their failures, because they do not give up and therefore, they keep going no matter what.  In the end, the most amazing sign of courage (and I have already mentioned this in other texts in the past) is tha ability to be vulnerable and to show yourself as you are. People are afraid and do not have the courage to show what they are. They prefer to play a game where they are only caracters of some ideal role, which is not the true self they are. The true self fails. He has a lot of difficulties, defects and limitations. But those do give him something to proceed and to win. The victory comes when you find and accept from deep that you are a limited being. You have fears. The greatest courage is perhaps the acceptance of fear. And then the fear is transformed in one different dimension, which is not a negative one anymore.It is a positive, good energy that works as a fuel  towards  new endeavours. Only those who are brave can actually go through such an adventure. Finally, this is very individually tailored, but the way you face it will make all the difference through the adventure of life. I am now living a very challenging situation, but somehow, I face it with positivity to the best I can. It is not easy, true, and that is why very few decide to try. Thus,  the courageous people will gather something the cowards or the actors of life don't: experiences. And those are the only gifts that can NEVER be stolen from you. It is the only true treasure we collect through this life. I am gathering many experiences and I wish to all that with courage you can also collect this priceless gift that we are offered from life.

DUALITY

Duality

The word today is duality. It has been sometime since I wrote my last post. This was due to many reasons, but projects like this are for the lifetime and never end. So let's move on. The word duality is a good pick to make a wide discussion. We have been bombarded with news every day, and they are more or less divided into two groups: good and bad news. We are also a dual society in many aspects. There are always the hard worker and the lazy, the honest and the cheater, the good guy and the evil, the selfish and the generous. The list is endless. The point is that duality is the way we organize many of our day by day activities. We prioritize what is very important and postpone or cancel those things that are not so meaningful or heart catching. The problem with duality is that it works in many occasions as a binary system, similarly as computer language works: you either classify something as 1 or 0. That is very extreme in a sense that in between you have a full range of options, which are also in the end valid options. I usually have problems to figure out someone's else real message because of that. Maybe a 1 to me is a 0.6 to you. Or the 0 to you is a 0.7 to me. This leads to a very important issue: communication skills. Many of our misunderstandings in life occur due to the misinterpretation of duality. This means that I may say "the sun is yellow" and in your mind may wrong interpret "the sun is blue". This usually happens because the duality scale from the receiver and the person who talks are not matching. This creates a lot of problematic events, which lead us to face unnecessary problems. The core problem end up being how to put out the message in a way that you can achieve a "close" to universal binary communication system, where the receiver can really understand in its completeness what is being informed. In the era of instantaneous messaging or e-mails this becomes more tricky. The binary system of a text or a what's app is far more difficult to interpret. That said, it is much wiser to give information in person or through skype when the information involves complex issues, especially those involving conflicting feelings. Duality awareness is a term that I want to come with. This concept would  essentially lead to this: It is important, do not text, talk. It is no major issue: texting is fine. However, here comes another problem: Once you decided to classify something into important or not you are again "binarizing" ! So, if we think deeper, that means that we are in an infinite dimensions matrix of binary options that are impossible to predict. Each one of us runs a different operating system in our brains, due to the beauty of individuality. This a nature law, which cannot be changed. It makes even identic twins, with the same DNA code in their bodies, behave slightly or even completely different. The best way to reverse the bias of this matrix is to develop a very important emotional skill: empathy. Empathy demands you to work from your matrix to understand a different person matrix, trying to cope at the best possible way.  In real life the goal is to match what the receiver would feel or think when you do or tell something. Probably the best practical rule for that to work in practical situations is to follow one of the bible's laws: do to others exactly what you would like that they would do to you. Or even better: do to others what you would do to yourself. This does not guarantee that the outcome will be 100% successful. But at least you will be based on a theoretical framework, which seems to be reliable: your own set of values, (hopefully towards the good side of the options range, unless you are a masoquist!). Then it comes to the quintessential skill: to know yourself. With self-development you are able to act more authentically. With no masks. "Raw" you. So duality is there, ever was and ever will be. But in the information era, is almost a mortal sin to communicate inefficiently with others. Especially the close ones, family, work colleagues and mainly your love partner. So realize that your binary matrix is different. Accept it. And from that try to observe how to empathize with others by applying your own values mirrored into a different human being. By showing your nude identity you may still fail, but you will eventually succeed. If you fail a certain feeling will arise from deep: I did what I am. That, my friends, is priceless. Nice Sunday to all!

ANSIEDADE – ANXIETY -  BEDENKLICHKEIT

Dear blog readers let’s talk about anxiety! Today is Easter and because of that many of us are spending time with our families and friends. Due to the fact that is not my case at the moment, I decided to use my free time to help others and myself as well with this new text.  I hope these reflexions can lead us to become better persons, today that we celebrate the rebirth of Christ. 

Well, where does anxiety come from? From a biological point of view it comes from an over activation of our warning system. We are equipped with a complex group of hormones and those are chemicals in our body that regulate some of our autonomic responses; those that we cannot consciously control. The effects that hormones of stress usually activate are heart rate increase, body temperature changes, sweating glands activation and many others. The thing is that anxiety; because of being an over reaction becomes very annoying. It makes our body to become accelerated and ready for the danger. It generates a feeling of prediction, usually biased to the negative outcome. It informs that something may harm us somehow in the future, so that we become ready for the fight/flight stress response. But I would say anxiety is annoying and unpleasant because even though the self-defense system makes sense from a survival point of view the anticipation of the possible harm outcome makes it unnecessary in a great number of occasions. In some situations it makes us fail to response accordingly, to react without reasoning or to postpone a decision fearing the consequence. It is a break that stops many of us to enjoy life experiences to the fullest. 

The psychological part of anxiety is also very interesting. My readings have taught me that anxiety is “excess of future”. The time frame we are inserted in makes us to live a lot of times out of the now. When the attention is taken towards the future, anxiety appears. Similarly, excess of past leads to depression, but for now I will just leave it for other text. The problem to live according to the future (actually to the expectation of what the future might be) freezes many of our actions. We fear and do not risk because of that. And even worse, we live an illusion. The life as we know can happen only in the now. I know that the society has been told that we should also take precautions to avoid pain of any sort in the future. That is why we have savings accounts (money for some emergency), car insurance (in case we hit the car), life insurance (in case we die and our family suffers) and so on. This is neurotic. This is no life. To make plans is very wise, yes, but cannot rule our life. The risk taking must be developed in such a way that we dare to take steps that are usually out of our comfort zone NOW. Otherwise, we are living like a plastic flower, who may look very beautiful but has no life inside. It is a theoretic way of experiencing life. And anxiety is the reflexion of the amount of importance we give to the future over the present moment. But, it is of vital importance to notice that we live a sequence of NOWS, and not in any other time construct. Excess of past=depression. Excess of future=anxiety. This belief is so into our society that the bestseller drugs in the market are either antidepressants or anti-anxiety pills. We have become a society out of the present moment and that has turned a great portion of the population sick. Anxiety is just the tip of a bigger problem. And this leads not only to legal drugs consumption, but also alcohol, gambling, smoking and ilicit drugs, to name a few harmful consequences of being out of the now towards the future. 

The cure? It is not in any of those strategies. The cure resides on our effort to understand that life is risky, has many dangers along the way and those cannot be predicted. One must face it and to take action, which in my opinion is always better than the “watch and see” approach. Anxiety can be controlled, only when we understand that there is no reason for us to worry too much because of the upcoming events. As long as we are in tune with our values and life goals, things will naturally resolve. And then anxiety simply dies, due to the fact that the future will be there anyways but we decide not give the future any power to put us down. So, relax, take the present moment seat and enjoy what you can NOW. Wish you all a nice Easter!

LIBERDADE - FREEDOM - FREIHEIT

Dear blog readers. Today it is a special day for Brazil. Those who are brazilians have been following the corruption scandal involving the former president, Lula and the worker's Party. I want to do now a reflexion using this as background theme, but in one attempt to expand the real complexities under the term freedom in my view. To start, I want to say that I consider myself free to write and to think on my own way. As this is a reflexion about freedom, I am also considering that many may not agree and I respect their freedom to choose so, with no bad feelings. What I think is happening is that the concept of freedom has been lately taken in to the wrong direction. Many of us believe that freedom is the possibility to do whatever we want without asking someone's else opinion and in accordance to our own desires. In humans, this system is way too complex. The variables are in my view not possibly to be organized in such a way where we can eliminate all the bias. The perceivable bias relies mainly on where we were born, how we were raised/in what kind of culture and what were the values/beliefs thought to us along our childhood and adolescence in order to create our  adult identity. Add to  that the fact that this is also not enough to explain everything. In my studies of many writers and alternative science readings I have found out that the concept of self-construction goes way beyond any boundaries we know in formal academia. I would include, even though there is no scientific proof, that we have a self-awareness identity even before we were born. I dare to suggest that because of biological reasons. When we get to check two identical twins, with exact the same DNA code into their billions of cells, we should assume that they should develop at least similar if not identical personalities constructs, given the fact they are usually raised togheter. In practice, we NEVER see that. They are always different individuals. Therefore, something before the conception may have come along with this new physical body.  This concept comes from one of my inspirational teachers, Dr. Sergio Felipe de Oliveira, a brazilian doctor who is interested in the study of the pineal gland. In his opinion the reason for our self is the presence of the spirit (and I agree with that, even though no one has ever "proved" the existence of a spirit through a measurement, either photography, thermal camera or spectral analysis of any kind). Moreover, especially nowadays, the access to vast amount of information allows us to modify concepts and beliefs in light speed if we compare to 30 years ago. The personal resiliency is much more present nowadays, because we can prove or disprove something very quickly (not by googling of course, but by doing a deeper research over the internet). Freedom then is a mix of complex components, playing a role togheter. In the end freedom creates a unique  musical piece of values, which is individually tailored and never identical (even in biologically identical organisms as stated above).
Then it comes to how we manifest our freedom. We learned through or life journey all that we know now and then we want to apply those values to our day-by-day life. And at the moment we express our choices, backgrounded by our freedom, we are already in disagreement with anyone next to us. This is inevitable. It is human nature not to think the same way in comparison to other human being. This is in my view the way the nature has created mankind, to challenge all human life in one attempt to ascend as biological life. As far as science has reached to date, there is no reason to discredit that we are in this world to get better (as we systematically try every day to improve, e.g. in my case to become a better doctor by doing a PhD). So, freedom is never 100%. Even when we do not tell anything. The freedom to remain silent is maybe a high level of freedom, because it demands a high amount of self discipline. When we feel that someone has been unfair to us, as an instinct behavior, we react with self defense mechanisms, aiming homeosthasis, aiming  to prove our beliefs, aiming  to decrease our anxiety, aiming to be right  and ultimately to feel that our freedom allowed us to be different and express ourselves. When we judge someone's else action (or no action) we are actually hurting their universal right to be free according to their own set of rules. And the concept of wrong or right is then buried. Let's remember that laws are human created. They prevent us to do/act someways considered to be inappropriate, wrong. Bringing now Brazil's situation to the context, I feel that the people in the country are strongly lost in the way they express freedom. And this creates violence, war, hate and anger.  Naturally, it is very sad  to see our politicians being so unaware of those basic rules of choices. Freedom should be regulated on a set of rules that does not exist at the moment. Even though this is not a religious driven text (apart from the fact that I believe in a supreme intelligence that has created all of what we experience), I imagine that the Bible's quotation "do for the others what you would like them to do for you" makes an absolute sense. Even for atheists. It creates a possibility to have a self-developed set of rules that is standardized on our own unique values. With exception of some people with psychiatric disorders who are inclined to commit  self-destructive behaviours, the majority of people do not want to put themselves down. They wish instead to get better, to feel good, to be happy and to continuously improve until they die.  That is the fuel that makes me to get up everyday and it should be the aim of everybody. So freedom is not a comprehensible concept at this point of time. This is the reason so many discussion still raises out of divergent opinions. The real truth, as stated by the courts of justice and which is the final outcome justice pursues is also far from be understood by our limited minds. The absolute truth will never exist in my opinion, in any subject. And that is also the reason we should try to build a relative truth based on the prevalent beliefs we develop through the big adventure of being a human. I wish that today the brazilians can step forward towards a more balanced sense of justice, where the individual values can resonate in one big act and represent the relative truth that may take the country out of the situation. With no ideology from political parties.  To conclude, I wish that the invisible dimensions and universes (those already being proposed by physicists) which are way beyond our understanding may have a certain degree of influence over the outcome of such a big event, and that this "inspirational" energies that we cannot still grasp consciously, can bring  discernment  to people and wisdom  for them to make the best choice towards the future of the country, which will change as the freedom concepts of its people change.

Achievement - Realização - Leistung

Dear bloggers, coming back after a small pause. The word today is achievement. Achievement has been part of my life since sometime. It took time for me to understand what is this about. I tend to think now that achievement can have many different nuances and I will try to reflect some of those in this text. If you bring to the conclusion that achievement is just a goal that was completed, you are probably meaning only the outcome, and this is very simplistic and superficial. Achievement is the whole process. In order to really state the real meaning of the word achievement,  I believe we need to have a flaw, a challenge, something in our life or within you for which a development aiming an objective makes logical sense. In my case, and probably in most people's case, the great motivation is to start it all over. When something suddenly just brakes our life path in a meaningful way, the tendency is that this fact may have the potential to be our best fuel towards growth in life, and eventually an achievement will be the final result. I believe that because our evolutionary level is still somehow very primitive, to have our breakthroughs solved, is still necessary to suffer in order to achieve something. However, I believe this is only the start. If we decide after the suffering process that it was enough, and you try to be 100% committed with our own self to get better in whatever aspect, I dare to state that the suffering feelings are replaced by other more advanced evolutionary feelings towards becoming the best version of ourselves. Nothing takes out of my head that the only path to be fully satisfied with life is to work on our own flaws. That said and understood, we will have the start to begin  the deep understanding behind achievement, which is the final product of our choice to change. Change is key to achieve something. On top of that, resilience, self-discipline, willpower, persistence will keep us fearless and focused. There is no way to succeed but to keep continuously trying. And failing is part of the path. No one who has achieved something good, and who could be really considered an outlier in terms of success (to the upside of the curve), have had no failures. I dare to state that failures tend to be more fruitful than the success itself. Because to reach the good, the bad was somehow necessary at the moments preceding the good. In other words, we must thank the universe and the destiny to put obstacles in our way. The secret is to see them as a great (if not the greatest opportunity) to move forward and do something in benefit of ourselves and in many cases of others as well. As soon as we see that "shit happens" but this is no big deal, we start to crave for problems to come. If everything is in place, perfect, believe me, something in our life is not in place. Maybe we are not pushing enough or our choices are not in tune with our real purposes. I believe that a great sign of development towards achievement is to feel that something is out of place.  And to look at it saying from the deepest "thank you for that". It takes effort to see from a positive perspective things that are not pleasant to our eyes at first, but if we face them positively and with courage, they may become our greatest gift. The gift that our life has given us for free, so from there, we can move, and do, and be. To be is essential. To be ourselves. No fear, no restrictions, no blocks.  And the achievement will come. More interestingly, at a higher level of self realization we will notice along the path that the achievement will come when we feel good. The physical representations may be e.g. a  job promotion, or the fact that we could get a new house or have our first child. The "thing" itself is irrelevant, because the beauty of being  unique beings, makes us incomparable to each other and the physical world is just a construct so we can see it with our brains. I think that at this stage you will start to be aware that competition is only a human mindset of something very subjective. There is no need to compare ourselves to others when we feel 100% safe on our own skin. Moreover, there is NOBODY in the world like us, and this give us a particular, single custom way of perceiving the reality without giving too much of our energy to someone's else opinion or judgment. Achievement is for me when we get to a point where we look at the mirror, we see our own reflection and we can feel from our deepest roots that it is completely enough only to exist as what we are and that all the  other things society tells to be necessary are just noise. We are our greatest treasure, and that is why if we find ourselves stuck or unhappy, we will have to work this pain with wisdom to step in the direction of satisfaction and achievement that really will be forever attached to us: our own self.

ETERNITY - ETERNIDADE

Hello blog readers. Here comes another of my reflexions. The word today is eternity. Well, to talk about eternity, a so abstract concept, one must before start with the basics. The word eternity makes sense, only and really only if one considers that nothing has ever been created in the past and that no end is going to happen in the future, in what we call time continuum. That being said, we already can start to question over some of our common sense postulates.

First, and maybe the most mysterious drawback we have now is our complete ignorance when it comes to explain the nature of our reality. For me, the main limitation would be that our "advanced" physical body would be incapable of interpreting things, ideas and subjectivity that seem to be be included in some "space" that we cannot comprehend given our machinery technical obsolescence.  Following that, due to a physical principle that no energy is created, neither lost, only changes states, all that is out there, including biological life, has always been there. Probably, in some different format, consistency or range of vibration. So perhaps the recordings from life forms in the past that we have tracked with the scientific development we achieved are too rudimental to depict all the records from the past that  in fact may have occurred.  When looking back, we are very limited. The fact, that for example, we may have pyramids in the south pole, may change completely our own history as a planet, civilization  and as a species (check in google). A very small change in the tracking records we have can therefore give some more hints of what is this eternity.

Religious beliefs, especially those claiming reincarnation or spiritual ascent consider that makes no logic, from a philosophical perspective to consider this life to be as the only one, limited, closed and driven by no purpose, if one accepts that it ends after physical degradation and death of the body. But, coming back to the beginning, if no energy can be created nor destroyed, it makes sense that it was just exchanged to another set of rules kind of energetic world. Some say spiritual world, heaven, paradise or whatever. The name is really not important. Why all this? Why and for what reasons would someone construct a thing without beginning or end? Instinctively, what we do in life? We always try to progress. In our professional, personal, or whatever field of our life. Being that true, (as I have noticed in everybody), it is now the time to realize the reason or the eternity as an entity. So what moves us is essentially our own unexplainable willpower to evolve to someplace/somehow/somewhat better condition than now. Thus, eternity brings the real beauty and illumination path, of nature existence, within our own understanding capabilities (determined by our levels of intelligence, moral evolution and also by our processing power limit from the body. Whatever/whoever/whenever has design all of this, made with a purpose. Time as defined by humans is nothing really. The process of evolution in our stage of understanding has been designed to occur like that, and that is probably the reason why our minds perceive a time construct.

I believe that there is a strong association with what we are and what we can experience. In the last 200 years the exponential technology boom has allowed humans to experience much more than ever. At this very moment, I am sitting in one cafe, connected to the world wide web, being able to find/to communicate/to do whatever. I am wearing a bluetooth headphone connected to my smartphone, listening to a record from my favorite band that was released yesterday all over the world and that I already have now in my music collection. Given this is a 2015 common thing (which was impossible less than some years ago) we can realize how humankind is evolving. But how this affects us? By allowing the awakening to new forms of "information processing" that the body surely has, which in consequence of this nature rule, has also to evolve. That is why many people are in the "search" nowadays of extra dimensions, UFO associated societies or where we go / what happens to our self when we die. I put myself in this quest. Eternity is therefore a good thing, if not the best thing that we should have in mind when facing such questions. You have all of the "time" which will never end at your disposal (in spite of having an opinion that this interpretation might be a small piece of the whole recipe), the solution is just to keep moving forward.

The logic luckily brings us the absolute certainty that no matter what you do, right or wrong , fast or slow, to the good or to the bad, you will MOVE forward, at your own speed, and depending on your freedom of CHOICES.  That is how , in my view, we can interpret this right now. Hopefully, the species will evolve and bring new ways for us to experience all of this we call life. Eternity, in the end, should makes us fearless and willing to risk. I hope this all does not sound too crazy for you, but I found it was important to write about this now, because of my moment and also because I think that the more we reflect on such subjects, no matter if completely right or completely wrong,the more we are giving the opportunity to our brains/spirits/souls to look for a better life. May all have a great sunday!

MOVEMENT - MOVIMENTO - BEWEGUNG

Dear blog readers. Happy 2016! To begin our new year I decided to talk about movement. It seems a bit strange to discuss this word, but I will try to make it valuable somehow to all who will read. Movement states in our rational mind the idea of space dislocation. In physics is what we study through all those classic formulas and movements’ types. From a more intelectual perspective, not only regarding solid matter, it means much more. And it can be conceptualized in a deep, intricating manner. From the mind point of view, movement is when you put your brain to work and make it process whatever information you may choose. That is also correct, and neuroscience has measured this movement objectively through electrical signals (e.g. electroencefalogram), magnetic fields (e.g. functional magnetic ressonance imaging) or radioative markers interventions along with advanced X-rays techniques (positron emission computer tomography). Science has also tried to measure it objectively through standardized clinical tools (questionnaires, psychological tests, scales of function and many more). In essence, movement refers to change from one state to another, may it be physically visible or not.

However I want to go a bit deeper with that, when it comes to not well-established concepts of movement. For example (and this is my own finding in the last 3 weeks), do you consider when you are actually doing nothing, laying down on your bed, thinking nothing, simply being present in the moment also a movement of a different kind? My answer to that, at least from this experience is a certain YES.  And why? Well, in my view, the mind does not really need to be “active” as measured by traditional science to be considered to move. In another words, just by being alive, no matter what activity you do, you are actually moving. On the worst case, at least, moving in time (forward at a constant pace). But, what if we are actually also active from a perspective not yet described? Interestingly I have made so many discoveries about myself, the world and also physically manifested a lot of good, pleasant experiences, that it makes me conclude that we DO move ininterruptly through our life path, no matter if we are aware of it or not.  Secondly, by carefully attenting to your main mood, you tend to manifest in your visible reality something that pehaps was designed and planned in this realm of the invisible, mystic, out of the earth, or whatever names you may give dimension. Labelling in this particular case makes no sense, because all theories in this direction, even though very profound and widespread are not yet “proved” by our best true check tool to date, formal academic science.

But in the last century, and mainly in the last decade, I have noticed a shift in the society towards the development of this unknown dimension of movement in our lives. This means, a simpler life, a capitalist free mindset, a sense of sharing with others with no attachement or charges in return, a more well contructed goal driven life with different objectives but money, success or proud exacerbation. I can list a number of signs that we are probably much faster in our movement thorugh life, but not at the same pace with our happiness or life fullfillment. Today, a report from BBC states that this generation of children (even though with all the techonologies and modern possibilites life offers) is the saddest ever seen. The main concerns they have? To move fast enough to appear “cool” (meaning more successful/richer/happier and so on) than their peers in social media internet. Another main concern: virtual bullying. In the 80’s it was violence, fights in the familiy and fear of being alone. This is ONE example among thousands that are just as terrifying. Now it comes the movement. By being in a state of  “intended near-coma state” I slowed down my mind. This brougth a new perspective of realization to me. The results: more clarity, better decisions, incisive and sharp future plans leading to? Happier, slower, calmer life and a profound sense of being alive in this world. This may not be the solution to everybody. Different people, different paths, different solutions. However, one thing is clear coming back to the children example: if our kids are unhappier than ever being so fast in their achievements and accomplishments, the results they get in the end do not justify the reasons for this pursue.

So to conclude this briefly: Movement is necessary, but to be still, doing nothing, just looking and trying to get something out of the silence and the steadiness may be a very good tool to track a balanced speed of movement in life, where you move forward, progress, but do not overthink or overact, “burning” your chances of being in a better state of mind. Tools to achieve that? Many. You must find yours. For me what worked: Eating good food, sleeping well, exercising, praying, meditating, learning everyday with insipiring people (sports' heros, inovative and provocative authors) and connecting to people that really matter something and are willing not only to get energy from you but also to give it back. I hope all can find this track towards your own custom designed needs. May all have a great week and a very successful 2016, balancing your movement thorugh life with wisdom.

SUCESSO - SUCCESS - ERFOLG

Those who have followed me for sometime have noticed that my journey through this year has been very busy. Because I had the opportunity to get in touch with some many different people in so many different settings and situations I wanted to talk about success. This is a word which I have misinterpreted for many years, meaning that I had a complete distorted notion of what success really means. By being in touch with many different people, from many different nationalities and backgrounds, what came to my mind is that success is actually a very broad concept. It depends on how you were raised, among what kind of people and what you have been told to fight for. I think it is interesting to start dividing the world in two, so ocidental and oriental. The symbol of success in the ocident are the rich countries. So success is deeply linked to economic power and wealth abundance. 

Interestingly, I had the opportunity in a very short period to be in touch with two of the most famous "physical" representations of that: famous cities located in the richest country on the planet, USA. I was recently for the first time since more than 20 years in the heart of this kind of mindset: New York City and Las Vegas. To be honest, I was very impressed at first. Huge buildings, lights and big screens everywhere and an infinite range of choices of things to do, from places to eat to places to party. Honestly, I tried it out. It was fun, but after I was finished, the impression was that something in the people there was missing. Their brains where so busy in trying to find something "cool" to do that paradoxically, in my opinion, they were just complete lost where to go. Should I buy? Should I eat? Should I gamble? Should I party? Should I get drunk, smoke and forget about my regular life? That was the impression I had while I was talking randomly to people around those places. And the more I saw people coming back and forth through the streets, casinos, clubs or whatever place created to make you feel satisfied, the more I could see that our society is nowadays a never-ending  representation of the non-stop to be happy culture. 

I realized after coming back that my brain was so accelerated that it took me a week or so to get back to my normal speed of thought. The link I want to make with success is this: in this kind of environment, the more you have/do/experience in your outer life, the greater level of success you have in life. I felt sad to see that I somehow was always trapped in such kind of thinking. This is the success type that in my view most of the people are driven to.  Money earning success is what most of us are going through right now. Unfortunately I did not have any experience on the oriental world. But the far east we go, the more it seems that this mindset goes towards a decreased speed of thought and a greater self awareness realization of life with less need of outer achievements. I had also the opportunity to be at London and Monaco this year. Two of the most expensive cities in the world, and very well known by their high standards of living. To be honest, I felt much more linked to these places, even though the money issue was also very evident. However, in those two places there was a kind of slower speed. The food was not served in a hurry, in huge amounts of everything in the portions. Even the McDonalds were slower, more peaceful somehow (I could not afford to eat high class everyday!). The point is, even though the amount of financial success was as high as in America, the people seem to care more about their own self awareness. By standing in front of the Monaco's casino or at Piccadilly square in London, I could feel a bit of less stress about doing everything that exists to be fullfilled and happy. 

The speed of thought was significantly slower than in America, and even though those people were also very wealthy, they were having a good time in a more intimate and personal level. I could feel through the places a sort of "happy feeling" that was more calm and focused into the moment, with no need for hurry.  So, in those places, even though the success was also money-linked, people  managed to be able to slow down their minds and enjoy life from a different perspective. The most east I went was Poland. The polish are very easy-going people. I made good connections by talking to random people on the streets. They are not considered  a rich country in Europe. However, perhaps because of that, their focus was more towards small things. They were not contaminated by the excess of options you have in a rich culture. But, it was clear to me that they were very happy having cheap vodka and walking through historical medieval streets in the cities I visited, Torun and Gdansk. I might be a bit contradictory with this essay, because as a brazilian I was very influenced by the "american dream", and this actually made me choose to live there as a teenager in 1994/95. But now, 20 years later, and after this experience there, I can say that success does not relate at any level with the amount of things you have or do. It has to do with how you can learn to live without having to do it and still be happy and fulfilled. I am convinced that this kind of mindset will have to change. The capitalism structure make people act like zumbis, and their freewill ends up biased by the system, which  makes them a sort of slaves. Slaves of the system itself. Of course the world leaders know that very well, and manipulate our expectations to hypnotize our minds towards a behaviour that reinforces the survival of this cycle. I am also a victim of this, and I do not think I will be ever free of this system, where success is linked to financial achievement and things you can pay with physical money. I do wish that our new generations will be able to form a society that will bring new horizons to this anomaly that our people live today. Again, this is a personal opinion and I am not trying to sell that we are wrong in doing what we do. I am just suggesting that our way of living can be a bit different and the priorities towards the success may be perhaps in small and simple circumstances. I would like to have comments on this, and generate discussion. If you have something to add/criticize/comment, please do so. I think that is through the sharing of our ideas and beliefs that we will be able to build a better place to live, where success may be redefined and where we will be able to have it through different ways in our lives.

RELATIVIDADE - RELATIVITY - RELATIVITAET

Hello dear blog readers. Here comes one more of my reflections. I decided to use a very famous word from Einstein , relativity to give me space to brainstorm it in any direction, not only on the physics-science side of it. So be open to no standard interpretation concepts. I have experienced relativity in my life. That is why I want to give my own individual feel and tell that yes, everything you have/experience/get/lose in your life has its own relative value/significance/purpose. What I mean by that is that we can have different interpretations at different moments for the same things. Example: sometimes you meet someone and this person makes you think one way. He/she gives an opinion about a specific subject and you start to believe or not on that. Let's assume in this case you have believed in some new theory. You were convinced that this was a good way to explain or give background in regards to something you did not know before. However, as time went by, you started to challenge this. You started to notice that even though it made sense it did not work in every situation. Or it would work according to a certain choice you make. That's when the concept of relativity come into place. By constant motion in terms of intelectual self talk or learning one can figure out that something which was a complete true at one moment becomes a lie after sometime. How cool is that? I believe that this relativity of which I am talking about has to do with our adaptive nature. In practical terminology, how we can by our own choice turn something supposed to be 100% true into something meaningless. I think that the humans have this great ability to make everything relative when it does not make sense anymore, of if it does not fit into your collection of beliefs. That once said, it is obvious that Einstein used this to explain time, by clearly saying that depending on the speed you travel the time perception changes. I would like to add a more easy to grasp concept into that. I dare to hypothesize that this happens even though we are not still able to travel through any human-made machine near speed of light. However we can travel into our minds in a limitless speed. This has deep implications. It means that your perception can be altered by the speed your thoughts travel inside your own brain. Want an example? Think about the last holidays you had. The one you loved the most perhaps. Now, try to remember the 2 weeks before you were actually at that trip. How fast was the time going? Very slow, right? You were waiting and waiting and the clock just seemed to be frozen or slowed down. But finally, the time to go to the airport came and as soon as you stepped  through the check-in hall door, this speed of time perception just changed. Suddenly you were looking the watch wishing it to stop, so that you did not need to come back anymore, to your regular life. And those two weeks which were endless became  instantenous pieces of moments, and before you had time to blink your eyes, you were already back home. How come? If time is a constant physical dimension, always going forward at a constant speed, how come you could not feel it steady? Did time change? Or did you change? If your travel speed at any moment did not reach the near speed-of-light speed, it is impossible to assume that this was a physics related effect, macroscopically speaking. So, by logic conclusion, the only plausible hypothesis is that the speed of your thoughts (which turned into emotions) have a deep connection with this anomaly. For me, though, this is just an effect of our own brains playing  a joke to us. It is obvious that a life without novelty, challenge or strong emotions (in this case very positive), is perceived at different speed rates. Maybe, this has to do with the speed of thoughts "traffic" in the brain. Maybe, because the momentum of the basal normal day particles dislocations in our neuronal synapses were altered from the baseline rate, the perception just followed this disbalance, giving you a shortened time frame understanding, although you have measured it as the same length (in your wrist watch e.g.)  in comparison with the previous 2 weeks. The point is, the more movement you put into your life, mentally speaking, the faster it will go. For me this sounds great, and I am very happy to realize that this year for me was "instantaneous". I made so many new things, traveled so much, made so many new discoveries, met so many new cool people, that it is impossible to compare with times when I was bored or not in deep touch with my most profound values. And I am getting afraid (but at the same time blessed) to feel like my life is going to unfold pretty "fast", in mind time scale. It is a good and pleasant feeling, to discover you can steer your destiny and make it a sequence of "instantaneous" moments. It means, you live but you don't feel the time frame of your life sequence, making it possible to conclude that the presence into the NOW becomes your greatest tool to pursue towards a "relativity-linked life", meaning, a very fast, exciting, emotional, engaging life. I have recalled my whole year today, while laying down on my bed in the morning, and the only thing I could conclude is that I had a great year. Because, in the end I could not feel it, timely speaking. I still have many cool moments coming, and they will be as "light flashes" ending up that I can tell was the most exciting time/year of my life. I am sharing this experience, to assure that anyone, at any condition can reach this kind of experience. I am planning to continue with that, and as long I have the full control of my destiny, this can be a lot of fun to achieve. I kindly ask to all people who took the time to read this, to rethink your goals and what is the most important in life. I am not the perfect example or anything, I am just a normal, passionate guy searching for my own answers. I only want to bring people I like with. Wish to all, a great weekend. We are close to Christmas, 2016 is almost there and these times are a good opportunity to bring those issues to discussion in order to improve our future life experiences.

MEDO - FEAR - ANGST

Today I decide to talk about a topic that is somehow negative, but in a positive manner. This is fear. Fear is one of the most basic human feelings we can experience. Essentially is a mechanism based on the self-preservation mode that all of us have. It leads us to the well know concept of fight or flight response, where we make a decision when facing a life threat to run away  or to fight against whatever is in front of us in order to continue to live. In the animal kingdom, this is the case in most of times, because of the limtiation of the animal’s brains and of the lack of hability to subjectively evaluate other kinds of threats. This means that they do it with the final purpose of keeping themselves alive so they can continue to carry on their physical existence. However, when it comes to humans, the mechanism of fear starts to appear much more complex. Even though, essentially it prevents us from having life threatening events, it also, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many scholars from psychology or neurosicence, may prevent us to experience the good. I have already discussed this in previous texts, but I think it deserves more insights. Imagine you have won the lottery. The first reaction is to be happy right? However, instinctively we may also at the same time experience a great fear. And if someonens finds out I am rich now? And if people want to kill me to get my money? Or if they want to get close to me just to take advantage? Or even worse, what if they come close trying to spoil my moment of glory and victory? This is just a silly example, but many situations in our lives raise this kind of paradox felling, which does not make sense, if we think only rationally about that. But, our mind and our default software program come with fear as key to the functioning of our operating system. This means, that no matter how brave you are, fear is an undeniable human feeling that cannot be completely blocked. I think that this awareness leads us to the next question. If we have fear, even when it is not necessary, and paradoxically, when we are vey happy, how should we cope with it? What is the key to incorporate this fear in out day-by-day life without loosing the great opportunities that may be blocked by this contradictory physiologic response? Well, that is where I think it comes to the understanding of what we humans have and that most animals do not. We have the choice. We can counsciouslly affect what we are and how we react. It is obvious that to fight such a primitive behavior, one must commit deeply to access and block those annoying feelings that do not match with the potential gains that sometimes are lost because we were not able to figure out how to overcome the unpleasantness of having fear. The good news, (at least it has been for me) is that we can modify, or better, atenuate such response so that we do not loose great moments in life because of fear. I think that most people function pretty much in fear mode most of the time. This comes from the early phase of our lives, when we were threatned by our parents or teatchers, with punishments, which were upleasant, and that therefore we would like to avoid. This mindset of fear modifying behavior can be translated to the adult world in situation involving people like work colleagues, relationship partners or family members, even thoug in a more hidden, subjective perspective. I believe that this is wrong. This is with no doubt the wrong way to go. To put people around you because they fear what may happen is one of the weakest manners to manipulate people. This is even clearer, when you are talking to toxic people, the so-called “energetic vampires”. They suck what is good and try to keep it under control by acts generating fear feelings. So, what is the answer to get out of this mess, and to put fear in a more proactive perspective? For me is to trust in you. This comes with loving yourself.  This comes with strenght to beat up people who want to put you down or to make you feel uncapable of achieveing your goals. Brave and focused people suffer from this, because they put fear into the weak people’s mind, so that to avoid this, they counter action to put fear into your life so they fell less fear. The fact is that the more you achieve, the more you get, the more likely will be the presence of people trying to destroy your confidence through a fear mechanism. This means: be aware of yourself and love yourself. Don’t ever give the power to someone else to provoke fear in you. And if they try, overcome it, with patience, wisdom and intelligence. Emotional development is essential to avoid fear to block you. You need to change your attention when such a problem appears in front of you. And if you are really convinced about your own value and hold your trust that everything will come allright, the chances are that, if you could not block the fear, you could at least bring it to a level where it does not stop you from being you and to achieve whatever you have planned in your life. Fear is good. Is a human feature that no one can block completely. But those who dare to face it directly and who make the option to fight it with self-development are those who will stand out of the crowd. I am already one of those who are trying this option, and the fearless choice appears to be the most adequate for those with big dreams. I wish that all of you can find that inner power to fight your fears and make them to be your next leap to a better and fullfilling life.