Stay Curious...

We get sad, we get scared, we wonder what could we do to feel better when we're sad or feeling lost... Usually we grab on to a glass of wine, or cigarette, or more than a glass of wine or just one cigarette... but, do we actually feel better after it? We get drunk, we get drowsy but we don't actually feel better. Whatever pain is consuming our energy, it's still there when we wake up.

But if this is not happening to you and you're just watching someone else going through that "If I do this I'll better" process , no side effects right?!

Well,  that's what some neuroscientist are starting to notice and suggesting. Your mind is built by you as a witness. We see the world not exactly as it is, but through our own lenses, and we create our own virtual reality of reality. What we actually capture of reality is just a brief idea, because our mind is usually somewhere else. Hey, why is it so hard to meditate? Because the mind wonders into those short personal movies of what happened or must be done, it's hard to focus just on our breath and on the room temperature. The mind wonders and constructs castles, castles with dungeons...

So, what I'm suggesting here is that, instead of letting ourselves go in whatever movie the mind is on, we stop and be curious about what we're thinking and what we are feeling.

Stay curious and ask yourself why you feel you need an extra piece of cake, or why you need to go on Facebook/ Email/ Twitter / Youtube again...

If you're curious about yourself and your choices, you start catching your own mind and it's tricks. Don't let it win over you. Release your self from beliefs, addictions that are not good for you. Stay curious...

Ask yourself, am I really feeling a lot better after eating that whole chocolate? Does this cigarette taste that good? Why do I need to go to the bathroom when that person enters the room? ... you know.

So stay curious, don't let your mind tell you what you're feeling, feel it for yourself.

From Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom By Rick Hanson

"(...) What flows through your mind sculpts your brain. (...) In a larger scale your mind is made by your brain, body and natural world. (...)

(...) Cool the fires of greed and hatred to live with integrity; steady and concentrate the mind to see through its confusions; develop liberating insight.

(...) It's a remarkable fact that the people who have gone the very deepest into the human mind and heart - in others words, the sages and saints of every religious tradition - all say the same thing: the fundamental nature of every human being is pure, conscious, peaceful, radiant, kind, and wise... and is joined in mysterious ways with the ultimate underpinnings of reality, by whatever name we give That.

(...) well, who is the one person in the world you have the greatest power over? It's your future self..."

So how can you change your brain?

"(...) when remembering an upsetting experience, recall the feeling of being with someone who loves you, which will gradually infuse the upsetting memory with a positive feeling.

Nurturing your own development isn't selfish it's actually a great gift to other people.

stay young and pure
less is more...

Baddiewinkle: An Extraordinary 87 Year Old Woman from Refinery29 on Vimeo.

… After some thinking and feeling very grateful for all that Life has given me, I do wonder if we’re here just to have pleasure and fun and collect experiences after experiences. I don’t think so… I’ve been living as so, but I don’t believe in it anymore. We’re here to make efforts, to be the best version of ourselves. Who we are we don’t know. We’re something that has a Heart, a Soul and a Body. More than that it’s just our imagination doing it’s own creative thinking, its weekly creative team brainstorming. And because we don’t know but we’re constantly learning and being tested, I think I can say that finally ageing as started to open a bit more sense into this living “business”.

We’re not here to collect pleasurable moments and have the time of our Life. Great if we do, and some effort should be put in making Life sweeter, but how empty and how many mistakes can be avoided if we change that hedonistic perspective into a more humanistic one. To make our Life more about what we create, change and help build, than a collection of experiences that don’t connect with each other or create any meaning.

Life is not about what we collect, but what we do and pass on.

Have your own delightfully self pleasures, indulge your self in poetic wonders and discover amazing kingdoms inside that powerful mind of yours, but don’t be selfish, don’t think only about yourself, even, or especially, if you’re scared to loose, if you’re scared to loose control. Is our Life ever our own, ours? … It's not given to us by ourselves, neither do we choose when to let it go, so how can we call it ours? This life we live it’s not ours, it’s a gift.

When we put it that way, our Life has not being ours but instead, the best gift ever! I guess that feelings of gratitude and respect to whoever thought of creating us float to mind.

And in that regard, do we need more gifts? More free stuff? More entertainment?!

I’m gaining more appreciation for Life and everyday I have the chance to live I know I’m really lucky to be, just be. Yes, Life could be a lot easier, but it’s not Life that is stopping me, it’s my mind. My mind wants a job, a house, a relationship, adventures to show friends and friends to appreciate them. My mind demands, desires, asks… but, who is my mind if not myself?

I think our minds are like our personal “softwares”. We’re all upgraded through school, college, work, but we are also the designers of that software, that’s why we’re not all the same, even though we speak and think the same way. We are wired the same way, but we live (as in feeling and learning) differently.

What I wish/trying to share here are two linked ideas that I believe can really give our Life the meaning we so search for. We are responsible for our choices, even though we haven’t got a clue of what´s our mission in this planet, I guess we missed out that part of “your mission in case you decide to accept is…”, but we can choose and within that choice, we can be respectful and grateful for being free to choose, or we can act like selfish children who draw a tantrum when they don’t get what they want or can’t share the brand news toys given to them.

If we wish to have a fulfilled life, we need to be Full. Full in our words, in our commitments, in our decisions, in giving and receiving. Full as in, there’s no room for doubt, for dubious acting, deception. There’s only fullness on intentions, like a Full on Moon, that rises in the Sky, making crops grow, tides change and making untamed wild creatures howl. Lets be Full, and live what we really believe in. What makes you choose the things you do? ... 

Quando temos um sonho e esse sonho cresce, entranha-se, até que já não sabemos bem se o que pensamos é sonho, se é a realidade que todos partilham. Mas partilhamos mesmo uma só realidade? São questões que nos inebriam e nos seduzem a desacreditar no que nos ensinaram e nos forçam a crescer! Não, não partilhamos uma só realidade, partilhamos talvez o sonho de qualquer coisa, mas de real só temos as palavras, com verbos e regras gramaticais. Temos medo de nos sentirmos sozinhos, por isso nos copiamos e colamos, mas se perguntarmos em voz alta se o que vemos é o mesmo que o outro vê, levamos logo com outra pergunta, o quê? e outra pergunta, precisas de falar? já foste ver alguém sobre isso...? Isso o quê? Isso de pensar, sonhar e desacreditar no que nos ensinaram, arranjando força para crescer, tornar-se adulto, tornar-se independente e conseguir dizer com doçura, sim, estou feliz, estou contente, estou fixe! Não tenho o mesmo que tu, nem desejo o mesmo, mas estou bem com este agora.

Invisible Strings (trailer 2015) from Never Know Productions on Vimeo.

Educate the Heart

Dalai Lama Centre // Educate the Heart from Giant Ant on Vimeo.

Carpe Diem!

(...) My mother always taught us that if people don't agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you've listened to them carefully and you still think that you're right, then you must have the courage of your convictions. (...) From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That's what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest."

_
Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall on Spirit and Science from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.