Looking at the other side

Daily

“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence” Thomas Szasz

I think both are as important, but courage come first.

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There is a little voice within my skull that points out the worst of every situation I encounter.

Someone told me once, this is like a nasty friend who is constantly giving me unwise advising—yet, he is me, and I am him. Although I rejected this idea at first, I had to embrace it later as it proved to be accurate.

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As I'm finishing my morning back coffee, everything is quiet.

I enjoy silence, it is a frugal luxury.

Every couple of minutes, I can hear cars passing by. Dropping the kids to school or heading to work (or both). I do not know.

In-between the cars rumbling on the street. Quietness, even the fridge is silent.

Only the old Philips clock on the walk ... tick .. tock ... tick ... tock.

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The Spring is around the corner :)

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There is nothing more intimate, which connect us with life, than our breathing.

When we are connected with our breath, we feel grounded under any circumstance.

If we are continuously present through our breathing, handling any situation we face becomes easier—even when handling means painfully leaving everything behind.

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  1. How to breathe properly.
  2. Follow a schedule.

If we are alive, our breathing is good enough. However, there is a huge difference between being good enough and mastering something.

Breathing mindfully is something is not as easy as it sounds. But it is a useful skill.

Learning how to follow our breath improves our physical and mental health. As soon as you start taking this practice seriously, you quickly realize you can spend your whole life mastering it.

If you manage to go back to your breathe over and over. Eventually, dealing with difficult life situations is easier. Your mind stops dwelling too much in the past or in the future.

Counterintuitively, following rituals and a strict schedule every day is astonishingly liberating. It helps to deal with overwhelm and anxiety, but requires discipline.

Maybe the most important part of our daily schedule is the wake-up and sleeping times, and what we do the first and last hour of every day.

If you combine these two skills—breathe properly and follow a daily schedule—your life changes completely.

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I was sipping my coffee besides the window at my workplace. After many cloudy and rainy days, this morning is sunny again.

The sun slowly evaporates the small puddles on the asphalt. For some reason, witnessing that had a soothing effect on me.

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A friend once told me: “You should respectfully listen to your father's advice, then go out and live your life however you want”, or something along those lines. That happened 10 years ago.

At the time, I disagreed with many most of my father's world-views. It was is difficult to listen to him. And yet, I do it, with great respect.

But also, I always take my own decisions. I have done what I pleased with my life. I've made mistakes, but have no huge regrets.

Something I appreciate about my father is that he always respected my decisions and supported me as much as he could, even when he didn't fully agree with me. No matter how complicated our relationship is, it is based in mutual respect and love.

Ten years later, my father's and friend's words make more sense. They were right in many things they said, I see it now. I had to make my own mistakes, to feel the pain, to learn the hard way. Why? Because I'm stubborn.

Still, I have no regrets, only gratitude for the people in my life and their generosity with words.

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I moved to a new place during the weekend. The move was quite expensive in all levels—physically, emotionally, financially. But it is done, and I am sure that when I look back in some years, I will say: “it was worth it”.

With changes, there is always a good deal of uncertainty. Certainty comes from the known, as the known always provides a—fake—sense of security and safety.

Anyway.

It is done. But that's not the end, it is the beginning.

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I'm dubious.

Writing a short post everyday is definitely better than writing a long one once in a while. For me, at least.

Some topics, however, require more words and don't quite fit the style of these daily posts where I casually share random stuff.

Also, the topics are currently very diverse. I wonder if I should focus on one or two topics at the time. Trying to limit the topics for a period of time, say a quartile, might be a good idea.

These are the writing thoughts entertaining my mind these days.

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