¿Dónde esta el hogar?

De pequeños nuestros padres fueron nuestro primer hogar. Sin tener conocimiento de la palabra, sin siquiera saber dónde estaba nuestro hogar sabíamos ellos, él o ella eran nuestro lugar seguro. Con tan solo sentir ese abrazo lleno de amor incondicional éramos conscientes que sin ellos en nuestro mundo infante no tenia un principio, una raíz y un horizonte.,

De adultos nos encontramos como nómadas tratando de encontrar un espacio físico, un sentimiento que nos haga sentir seguros y amados, continuar practicar tradiciones para no perderlas y quedarnos sin identidad, pero aqui con consciencia y en busca desesperada y aveces sin decirlo en voz alta estamos preguntándonos: ¿Dónde esta nuestro hogar? Es como si al crecer, se expandiera el significado y el sentido de hogar se perdiera en nuestra amplia y profunda búsqueda de la misma.

Acabamos con su esencia, la arrastramos acuestas con una curiosidad, sed y ocasionalmente tristeza de no ubicarla. Casi que la dejamos en un plano dimensional y la romantizamos, la inventamos y modificamos en cada etapa de nuestra vida humana. Nos volvemos un embrollo de ideas, conceptos, hipotises y mentiras alrededor de lo que es, significa y esta el hogar. Nos complicamos al darle nombre desde el principio, pues dejamos que al ponerle nombre y darle un término ‘hogar’ dejamos de valorar su presencia y no nos dimos cuenta que el hogar esta presente y camuflado a la vez.

Nuestro hogar nos va a dejar pertenecer, si es un lugar, pero también puede ser un estado físico (un abrazo), puede ocupar tiempo y espacio (nuestras memorias, momentos); y es el habitar aquí - ahora y donde sea. Podemos describir hogar de diversas formas y combinado con o relacionado con una casa, la familia, un refugio, el yo, el género y el habitar.

Nos invito a experimentar el hogar, sin darle nombre y solo dejar que nos abrigue desde donde nos haga sentir que pertenecemos y estamos seguros. Ahi es donde esta el hogar.

Growing from the inside - out

• I wonder what's that intangible something I have stolen from other people?

I don't know the answer, but I can say one thing: I have probably stolen their time, and if we see it from a profound perspective, the time it's something important you need to learn, grow and gain maturity throughout years of life experience. Time is something one can't get back, something you lose it forever.

Taking time from others is a privilege when we learn from each other. It is an action that makes me happy. The exercise of exchanging opinions, backgrounds, and cultures, among others, enriches who we are and want to be. It makes us grow from the inside - out because listening and understanding others' points of view lets us come back to ours and challenge what we thought would be the only way of existing, doing, or having things.

I sometimes wonder if we are all trading time and knowledge to gain skills then. Interesting how short time is, and even more so, how we still get to share and spend it with others just for the sake of skills acquired by others’ living traditions. Growing from the inside out takes our and others' time. It is a special train that picks up more and more passengers every time, and it's also about your drive for more: the discovery and curiosity you have for the massive world of possibilities we have out there.

We Create Our Own Reality

• Have you ever wondered if what you live for is what you as a human with your free will and own experiences want of living and believing for or if it's all based on what your parents, schools, group of friends, home country inculcated in your childhood?

I want you to picture this: when we are little, as kids, we learn and absorb many things that stick with us forever, and most of those things come from our families, closest friends, school, cities, or towns, among others. The truth is that all of those beliefs, traditions could ruin our adult life if we are not deeply aware of them and decide to evolve from our own self-discovery, challenging, questioning all of those beliefs and traditions we inherited when we were little ones. I say this because think about it, even if we talk about self-discovery, we are self-discovering ourselves gleaned from all those things we learned, and there is not complete freedom to explore ourselves. It is almost as if we have to grow up already with a mind full of situations, beliefs, traditions, not to explore if there is more out there to help us in our journey but ready to live based upon and just for them.

I am not saying it is all wrong, but in the process of trial and error, we center on what we absorb from other's experiences, thinking it's going to be the same for us and it's not. That’s why we must be convinced that our purpose and intention are not only based on those values, beliefs from our childhood but also on the reality we as free individuals can create. For sure, our parents gave us the best of them and why not maybe the worst. Even so, it is a journey we can't have the same, and we must carry on with the best of what we got in our childhood from them and be willing to relearn on our own even more. That's what I am talking about.

Now, the impact of our thoughts, feelings, and awareness is superbly powerful. It is this impact that could modify and create our reality. If we take on one hand those beliefs, traditions, other's experiences, etc., and on the other hand our power of believing in what we could test work and ourselves, we will manage to experience what we want to experience in our perfectly unique way. We will manage to lead the way to our own and beautiful reality. The tricky part is realizing that our parents, friends, schools, etc. have their own energy, beliefs, issues, and it's our job to find our way to build our own and challenge those experiences, traditions, beliefs they shared with us to take it as an example but not as an adaptation to us.

When we believe, we give power. Let's challenge and believe in everything we think, live, and experience to create our own reality based on that.

You got this. It's your journey, your reality. The power is yours to create the best of life.

List

Have you written a list of positive affirmations? 

• Here is mine, maybe you find some similarities to yours: 

1. Taking good care of myself helps me take care of others

2. Working at the root means at my root 

3. Now is the moment

4. I will always work on my self-love

5. Self-recognize the question: How am I?

6. Rejoice and celebrate the achievements of my friends

7. Love is not attachment

8. I am energetic. I am the energy that I want to attract

9. It is important to believe 

10. Focus less on the “what if” and more on the “I can”

11. Consistency is a skill many people sadly lack, keep it up

12. Building my own success 

13. Believe in me a little more

14. I was born to be real, not perfect 

15. A good mood can be contagious, be the carrier of lightheartedness

16. Be persistent in the face of defeat

17. Your passion will carry you to your destination 

18. The intention is to share, there is nothing resolved, and I am working on the process

 Writing a list of affirmations, and encouraging words have helped me to be aware of who I am, and all the good things I am capable of doing. I encourage you to do the same. In addition, we must read them aloud every time we can. 

Actions

• Frida Kahlo once said: “Actions speak louder than words. If I want words, I read the book.”

Act

Cautiously

Think before you speak

If you want to be respected

One should always treat other people the way how they want to be treated.

No excuse for misbehavior.

Start small, but get things done. Show that you are made of decisions.

Most of us probably have a story where we pass from excitement and being afraid to action because somebody pushes us hard to do something about it. It is quite common we always get to be more afraid of leaving the comfort zone. Even if something gets us excited, we still don't get the courage to put our hands to work on it to build something significant for our life. Why does that happen? We will agree that we don’t know.

However, we are aware of: speak louder, further actions, hard work. The reality is that we are made of fears and decisions. Most of those decisions are actions. Some people say we need to speak our dreams loud so they will come true, but the truth is that they are not coming true if we don’t do anything about it, which is why actions come to action, and actions can talk for us. We all know it's hard to start. At least that is the difficult part, though the moment we get on that bus “actions,” we start having hope that we are approaching the “dreams come true” bus stop.

I wish you luck, and don't forget luck is when preparation and opportunity get to meet. Don’t wait for tomorrow to start building the life you dream of, the time is now.

Cup of Coffee

They walked their fingers around a cup of coffee, feeling its container warmth, just like someone walking barefoot on the sand of a Caribbean beach at noon. They walked through the aroma of the vapor simulating to flight. They held the weight. They complied with bringing the taste to the lips of someone who still refused to wake up completely. The taste invoked some thoughts…

One or another concern was rushing to take place in the presence of a curious mind that started questioning: are rebellion or good performance the only way and resources to draw attention in society? Being the logical contradiction, is it also absurd? How absurd is the obvious, and how obvious is the absurd? How do we really connect?  Indeed, we revolve around how we connect but Do we need similarities in a conversation between third parties to connect? Why is it so crucial for us to connect with others? Well, We do not understand what the important thing is about connecting here still. However, we are aware of other’s feelings and stories. We just need to realize that we connect through feelings. Next time we gather, let's not only take a cup of coffee but also experience connecting through our feelings, listening carefully and embracing the other person's feelings.

I hope you enjoyed this fragment that I named: Cup of Coffee. Don't forget connection is through our emotions. Coffee is always a good way to connect with others, even if these days we have to take one of it over videocall.

Photography

Why do we take photos?

• I know what you're thinking. To aid our memory and halt time. To tell stories, our stories. To stop the seconds and never become old, so that they remember us when we are not here, or we are not the same. We take photographs because we want to transcend and live the best moments forever. We want to break the laws of physics. We want to increase color, we want to expand black and white, we want to blur, to focus. We want to use filters that deteriorate the image. We want the new to look old and look new. We want to share with our family and friends those trips to which they were not invited, or the photos of the party to which they were invited. We want to upload photos on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever other social media they will invent. We want to be the rock stars for the next generation. We want to share with the world what our eyes see, and more importantly, we have the privilege of catching everything we experience on camera. 

You can see, these days lots and lots of people do like taking photos. From a cup of coffee, a touristic place, or selfies, we could count all of these as photo examples. However, what does a photo mean to us? You would tell me photos are photos, or they are a memory we capture in a photo. It is an unforgettable memory that will be remembered not only by our mind but also by the photo we took. I agree, I would also say, It is time stopped or captured in a photo. 

Besides, photos are all over social media. In fact, everything these days is caught on an image and is posted everywhere. It is fantastic to have everything captured in a photo, but I have a few concerns about living in the moment that we are actually living in, or living it through the lens while we are focusing on taking pictures and not living it at all in person.I am not a professional, but a photographer. I take photos because I want to capture the moment, the place, the sensation I feel, and a million more sensitive and thoughtful reasons for why. However, lately, I have been more conscious about if I am living the moment through my camera and just focusing on taking pictures and not living the experience at all, or if I am living the moment with all my senses. The truth is that I have found myself in both scenarios. 

I do not want to create this privilege I have of capturing histories, memories, beautiful landscapes, smiles, experiences, etc, through a bad habit. That is why we must be aware of living the experience right then and there and have fun taking memorable photos as well. It is okay if you don't want to take photos, or if you take one, or take a lot while you experience the moment. Let's be more conscious of why we take photos, what is the purpose of taking them, and whether or not we are experiencing the moment itself, a moment that we might not experience again. 

Photos are the memory that will last in our computers or social networks rather than the memory that will be created in our minds. Be aware, sometimes we do not live what we live. We photograph it. We go to a performance or concert, and the first thing we take out is our phone. We are the zombies that feed on images that will be downloaded or uploaded, but rarely do we retain the experience in our photographic memory.

It is the experience that we live with all of our senses, that is the one that lasts in our minds forever. You need to close your eyes, and if you truly lived that moment, then you will be transported to that time. Let's not forget that it is not about the camera, it is about the experience and the photographer who makes sure to live it. 

We have to stop and ask ourselves: Why do we take photographs? It is the beginning, it is the moment. You can respond in the comments of this post and start the change. Before we drown in the age of Iphonetography 

Curiosity

Humanity owes a lot to curiosity; thanks to it, man was able to become a scientist or researcher, since curiosity is what leads our minds to ask questions and to be interested in knowing the “why” of things. Curiosity is a state of active interest that genuinely makes you want to know more about something. Curiosity leads us through unfamiliar circumstances, thus allowing us to experience discovery, learning, retaining information, and the joy of existing since we understand beyond the “why we are here” and “what for.”

• Now, have you thought about what happens to our brain when we are curious?

Researchers at the University of California in the United States did a series of experiments to determine what exactly happens in the brain when we are curious. The researchers tested participants on how curious they were to know the answers to more than 100 trivial questions, such as "Which Beatles song was on the charts the longest?" Or "What does it really mean? The term "dinosaur." At certain times throughout the study, MRI scans were performed to see what was going on in the participants' brains when they were curious to know the answer to a question.

You might be wondering, what did these experiments reveal? Here are two of the most important findings:

• Curiosity prepares the brain for learning

• Curiosity makes future learning more rewarding

Interesting, right? You see, curiosity can make our brains learn and retain what we have learned because we have stimulated a part of our brain that makes us store and easily recall our memories. The region crucial for forming, retaining, and recalling declarative memories is called the hippocampus. That is why when we are not curious about every answer, we are more likely to not retain any information that was told to us. 

However, if we pursue that curiosity, we will be rewarded in retaining more and more information. Perhaps, when we are curious we will notice that being curious brings us: 

1.  Intelligence, and the process of learning: curiosity is the engine of intellectual achievement. Some studies show that people who are more curious about a topic tend to learn faster. According to psychologist George Loewenstein, curiosity is not only a state of mind; it is also an emotion that pushes us to fill the gaps in our knowledge.

2. Social relations: curiosity is something we always value in our friends. If they are curious about our life, then it means that they will show more empathy. Also, they will give us advice and make our life more fun. A study conducted by the University at Buffalo revealed that the degree to which people are curious is directly related to personal growth opportunities.

3. Happiness and meaning: a study showed that those who are more curious find more meaning and have a more satisfying life. You see, a curious person's life is far from boring. There are always new ideas and worlds to explore, which opens up possibilities for what is not ordinarily visible.

4. For brain health: some research has revealed that being open to new experiences keeps the brain active and alert, which is immensely helpful as you age. The mind is like a muscle, it gets stronger with exercise, and the best activity for the brain is curiosity.

Let's motivate our curiosity; not everything that we see, experience in life, is solved. Perhaps not everything is already done or made up for us; let's keep our curiosity at a high level so we will answer questions that no one has ever even asked before.

Meaningful

How do we know what really is meaningful for our existence?

• I have had this question on my mind for a while. Maybe you have asked the same question too. Let’s see. Meaningful means knowing the sense of something, having purpose and a value, sense of what we want, say and do. 

When we are making choices about something big in our life, destiny or future sometimes we hesitate because we doubt if it would be right or wrong. It is common we feel insecure, and wonder twice about every big and important decision we take. In fact, it is the fear camouflaging by itself, talking to the doubt. Nevertheless, what happens if it's not the fear, but it’s that we don’t clearly know what is and what isn’t meaningful for us. 

It may make sense that we are sometimes being tested by our fears. However, not knowing what's meaningful does not make sense to me, as meaning is having a purpose, at least having half a sense of what we actually intend to be, to do, to become, to see, to change, to live. This brings to mind a memory of a conversation I had with my mom when I was 8 years old. She was talking to me about how meaningful our existence is. She told me, “what's  meaningful about your existence is yourself.” At that age, at that moment I did not get what she meant by that. 

Years passed and I now know what she meant. Now, meaningful to me is purpose, and I am the biggest purpose, project of my existence. My mom was right. I have been experiencing it. For that reason, when I asked myself how I know what really makes sense, has purpose, is relevant and significant even in the times I am confused or do not have a complete sense of who I am, or want, I remember my mom’s words. Suddenly everything is clear, my fears go back to my subconscious and let me understand that what matters to me is how I know it means something. 

If we stick to our purpose that is already our own being, because it's the most significant project to work on, then identifying what is significant will be a matter of realizing that it is all that we already care about. 

Let's not forget and make sure that we: 

1. recognize we are already the most meaningful

2. connect our meaningful existence to what matters the most to us, because all of that is already significant, and surely worthy of everything.

3. to live is like breathing; it is a heartbeat; it is the dew of the dawn that falls on all the fields, so we better make sure we recognize and connect ourselves to our most honest and deepest beliefs, goals and dreams. 

Now, How do we know what is really meaningful to our existence? We would know how with just prioritizing us as the only meaningful fact in the first place. Later on, we get to know how, why, and what are the things that make the best sense for us to work, live, experience with. 

Aphorisms

A saying, metaphor, advice, not even words are enough to stay in our heads and help us to understand detail by detail how we really experience life, but aphorisms do. It helps us to understand how clear, trustful, and helpful a statement can be when we pay attention to its meanings. That is why the aphorism exists.

• It might not be clear for you here what I am saying, but don't worry, at the end of this blog post you will be able to understand what I meant by “staying in our heads and helping us to understand loud and clear, detail by detail, how our reality of life really is or could be experienced.”

The first time I heard, read this word was back in 2016 when I went to the FILBO for its initials in Spanish “Feria Internacional del Libro en Bogotá” in Bogotá, Colombia. In English “Bogotá International Book Fair,” which takes place every year at the end of April. I was there as I was discovering new books to read every year. I was going through the pavilions looking and scanning every book as much as I could. It was taking so much time, because I am the kind of book person who likes to click with books, until I get it. This small, brown kind of burgundy book titled Aphorism written by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, caught my attention. 

At first, I did not understand what it meant, but it took me five minutes to figure it out. An aphorism is a poetic idea, a literary idea. It is a writing by means of which a sudden idea can be emitted, it looks like a telegram. It means that it is intended to express a principle in a concise, coherent, and apparently closed way. Of course, I was very much struck by this. The book I found was written in a complicated, amusing, but smart and interesting way. Every sentence written in that book dug deep into my brain. It got me thinking, questioning my life experience, situations we get into, everything that goes around existing, thinking, and doing. I bought the book and took it home with me. 

After that, I did my research and found out that the term aphorism was used for the first time by Hippocrates. It was also used by Heraclitus of Ephesus, referring to a series of propositions related to symptoms and the diagnosis of diseases. This concept was later applied to physical science and later generalized to all kinds of principles. According to some authors, aphorisms never coincide with the truth, or are half truths. The ability of language to be able to hide itself or to shine has captivated many writers, who find a way to dazzle with their capacity for thought through the aphorism.

When we approach the different ways of thinking through language, we find the wonder of the aphorism, that thought smoothed over by the will to style. Like the metaphor in poetry, in language with philosophical purposes we have that concise and lapidary phrase that is the aphorism. The dictionary of the Spanish language defines the aphorism as a brief and doctrinal sentence that is proposed as a rule in a science or art. 

The aphorisms, therefore, are propositions that seek to pronounce something coherently and concisely. It is also common for aphorisms to be confused with sayings, proverbs, axioms, maxims, and adages, among other types of expressions. In many cases, these words are used synonymously. However, they are not the same, they are different, they are not synonymous. Specifically, we can determine that, while the aphorism is the fruit or result of experience, all of the latter are not. This is so clear and obvious a truth that no verification of it needs to be carried out.

In a general way, I can say that an aphorism arises from experience, and over time, aphorisms have become a kind of literary genre or format, often with poetic intent. There are those who maintain that aphorisms resurfaced thanks to Twitter and other social networks that promote the freedom of expression of short texts. In this way, the number of people writing their thoughts in a few lines is multiplied by this time. People doing their catharsis in social media is common these days. They exposed things that they have experienced with a simple or complicated sentence. We call that aphorism.

An example of an aphorism is "What does not kill, strengthens", which can also be found as "What does not kill you, strengthens you" or "What does not kill me, strengthens me". This aphorism tries to convey a message of hope, highlighting the possibility of emerging stronger from a situation that causes harm.

Among the long list of existing aphorisms, there are some that have achieved great international fame thanks to the fact that they were expressed by illustrious figures, such as writers or politicians. Specifically, among the most significant are the following:

1.  "Lost time is never found again" (Benjamin Franklin).

2. "Doubt is one of the names of intelligence" (Jorge Luis Borges).

3. “The future tortures us, the past chains us. This is why the present eludes us ” (Gustave Flaubert).

4. "The truth is not on the side of who shouts the most" (Rabindranath Tagore).

5. "The facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored" (T. Huxley).

6. "The cruelest lies are told in silence" (Robert Louis Stevenson).

7. "While the foolish decide, the intelligent deliberate" (Plutarch).

8. "What does not kill you makes you stronger" (Friedrich Nietzsche).

9. "Disguises do not disguise some men, but reveal them. Each one disguises himself as what he is inside" (Chesterton).

10. "Helping those who need it is not only part of duty, but of happiness" (Jose Marti).

11. "Benevolence does not mean tolerance of the mean, or conformity with the inept, but a will for good" (Antonio Machado).

Now, I do read when I want a couple of aphorisms from my book. Sometimes I read a random but shocking sentence from the book. The sentence always makes me realize that I have already experienced it or that I will be experiencing it.  It also provides me with a clear, reasonable meaning behind it, that is why I try to wrap my head around it and think of it as a lesson that I will put into practice soon. When I gather with my friends and we put all of our energy into the book, we then pick a random sentence and spend hours trying to figure the meaning behind the sentence if we don't get it right away. 

Aphorisms have changed the way I take the experience of life in the past, present, and future. If I have experienced something that I can put into words, something a little complicated but true, then I would write it down so my aphorism will be proven by other's experiences. If I could read other's aphorisms to prove it in my life, then I would be aware that it could also happen to me, I am always alert.

I am always reading and curious about aphorisms, they are my favorite kind of books. Have I got you interested in it, have you heard about aphorisms? If so, tell me your favorite ones - if you have not, will you give it a try and read, learn more about them? 

Charisma

Are we born with natural charisma, or can we learn, train to have it?

• Some could tell me that some have it or do not have it. On the other hand, some can say that if we use all the tools, train, and put into practice what we have learned about it, we can obtain that charisma.

Have you ever entered a meeting or a conference, and the person who is speaking has a magnetism that makes the entire audience, including you, feel good, comfortable, talented? Above all, that person transmits a feeling of power, presence, and warmth, right? Well, we call these types of people charismatic.

Beyond leadership, charisma is a skill that connects us with others in a genuine way. In difficult times we all want a leader. The one who makes the hard, but right decision, the one who has the vision. What about the people who are intelligent and have leadership, that charm; the charisma, which is more comprehensive and integral. Charismatic people don't have visions of the future. They see the future right in front of their eyes. They spread self-confidence in others just by breathing, they count on people, and people can count on them.

When we have a leader in a room, a charismatic person, we feel more attracted to the charm of the charismatic person. Now, we have heard charisma isn't something we develop or train to have. Through time, studies have demonstrated something different. We can possess, boost our charisma as a natural skill, and I will tell you the three necessary actions you should take to start moving towards that goal: being present, transmitting power, and transmitting warmth. This way we can go on practicing and improving or including the charisma in our personality. 

1. Being present means being connected one hundred percent with the present and to the person with whom we are generating contact. It is common to be absent from a conversation mentally because we are thinking a thousand miles per hour. However, we must work on being present in the body and mind at the right moment when people need us there. If we do not cultivate our presence, if we are not in the present, if we are not in the here and now, how are we going to connect with others, and how are we going to offer our help or perhaps pass judgment and even generously offer advice.

2. The power we transmit to others means that we can affect and change the world around everyone; we just share our ideas. Power not only implies authority, but also authority based on security, strength, expertise, and ethics.

3. The warmth we give to others means showing that we care about what others think, feel, and show they belong. Being kind, warm with others develops not only our good intentions but with what purpose we want to do things and for what reason. The good of all—being friendly means being coherent between our body language, communication, and behavior with others.

The charisma carries specific characteristics that make an attractive, motivating, magnetic person. People who have charm are people who will generally show you in the exercise of interacting with them, presence, warmth, and power. Steve Jobs, Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., and others; if you watch videos of these people, you feel attracted to them. That is why they are the right example of charismatic people.

I know you will be saying that these characters are from another category or level and that you do not fall into that category. Still, they are not from a completely unrelatable category, or another planet. They are charismatic human beings, and we could be too. We just need to listen, heed the call of society and use the confidence of the power, presence, and warmth to give the world a little bit of more of that charm. We need to evolve into a connected society that feels empathy and wants to do better for everybody. Let’s use charisma to help others to find confidence and strength.  It does not matter if some have natural charisma or others do not have it from the beginning of their lives. Let’s observe those who already have it and continue practicing so that we also can attract individuals with just our presence, actions, and words.

Now communicator, tell me, are you charismatic, do you know someone who is it and would you be willing to start learning from them, how to be or become one? 

Intuition

What comes to your mind when you hear the word intuition?

• Probably, you will tell me a presentiment, a sensation that comes to you out of the blue. Why not, a natural impulse that brings a reaction to do, say, know something instantly. There is no reason, no conscience telling you; it is something else. It is more a kind of rare, unconscious suspicion that comes to you out of nowhere in your mind, and you feel it is the right thing, even if you don't know why but you still trust it and go for it.

Let's see if the following is familiar to you: You arrived at a friend's dinner, and one of your friends brings a new friend of his/hers to introduce. You greet each other. After a few minutes, you instantly feel uncomfortable with that person. Although obviously this new person seems like a charming, amicable person. Anyway, no one takes away that feeling that you feel; it just does not feel good with that person around. You feel a twist in your stomach, your neck muscles tighten, the energy you perceive is quite rare, and even though you don't know why, you know you’re right.

If you have felt this, I want you to read this blog because we together can realize that intuition is not about knowing something because it’s obvious, that is common sense. However, common sense could help us to understand and not underestimate the power of intuition. 

I don't know about you, but I have always been curious about where this intuition comes from, and furthermore, how do we stimulate, develop it to appear more often in our decision, a situation in life? Well, I just decided to actually use my intuition about this topic and flow with the perception I get when it comes to intuition. It is common to find men and women using their intuition. Also, it is common for some people to get it more often than others. For years psychologists, mathematicians, astrologers, among others, have tried to define and see a reasonable sense of intuition. However, as a human being, I believe we stick to the thought that, for some reason, intuition is a premonition. Yes, it is because we are unconsciously sensing one day maybe more than others everything around us, every move, energy, physical, spiritual sign. 

It is common sense to realize some things that are right there in front of our eyes. For instance, when we are stressed we get a pain in the back of our neck. If we are in a rare situation and haven’t rationalized it yet, it is more likely our body could sense this and then unconsciously our intuition makes us react. Using our common sense to help us pay attention to obvious things may lead us to make strategically better decisions and in turn make greater use of our intuition in daily life. 

Seeing from this point of view, intuition could develop from the relationship that it can be between our unconscious sensations and the feedback that the world is giving us all the time. In fact, our impulses to react suddenly are the result of that relation, that's the intuition. We could understand that intuition comes to us as a response to some situations that, without the need for some type of reasoning it needs us to act instantly to that presentiment. This could answer my first question of how we get to the intuition. 

Now, how do we stimulate, or develop it, huh? If we carefully analyze where the intuition comes from, then we could say that developing or encouraging it comes to a set of practice habits. That been said, we could stimulate intuition from a habit such as: 

• Meditation

• Listening to our body 

• Connecting with others 

• Time with ourselves 

• Understanding our loneliness 

• Positivism 

• Creativity 

• Trusting the presentiment if it feels right 

• Everything surrounding us is telling us something, so let's close our eyes and listen to it with our ears 

• Observe everything

That and the list of habits that we should practice will aid in developing and encourage our intuition more strategically. When we think we know something that we don't know, but it feels right, that is our intuition talking. It is interesting how people trust their intuition, even more interesting when we have the tools in our hands to improve and make proper use of, and better understand the logic of our intuition. Tell me, do you believe that intuition exists intrinsically within us? Is the intuition telling us where the path is or just pointing at it?

Quarantine

How many of you have experienced a quarantine? How many of you have experienced a lockdown before Coronavirus?

• See, probably no one has experienced a quarantine or experienced a lockdown before. However, some sources say that a generation before us did indeed experience a pandemic 100 years ago. To our surprise, right now we are experiencing it as well, like them.

 Let's start by rewinding the tape. December 31, 2019 was such an exciting day for everybody on planet Earth. I cannot lie about it because I was right there in NYC, the capital of the world, on New Year’s Eve. We were all excited, celebrating and waiting for the countdown to welcome a new decade.

It would be for all of us the beginning of the most historic and futuristic decade. There is no doubt that 2020 had an impact on our lifestyle, financial, social, psychological, and emotional experiences a few months later. Unexpectedly a global pandemic marked the present and the future of what we have known as a comfortable, healthy, secure, typical or normal life. The entire planet shut down. A worldwide epidemic came to teach us that, after all, it is not such an elegant, comfortable, safe, or healthy life, because there is much more to change required during a crisis needed in order to evolve towards a better quality of life.

 This isolation is all we know and experience nowadays. That is our current and new lifestyle. We barely go for a walk; we hardly go out of the house; we now wear masks and surgical gloves; we see fear and disorientation from our window; we think about how God forbid the world can get worse next month. Lately, time is frozen in our watches. Days go by, and we don't know what day it is on the calendar, TV is not a hobby, and telecommuting is an endless daily routine. Breath is the most precious thing we have. It would be better if we left our phone or keys in our house, but not the mask and gloves. Now the internet is our best ally. Quarantine, isolation, lockdown. WOW, who would even imagine experiencing it in a modern world huh?

 The truth is that it does not longer matter if we live in a modern world or not, because a virus can make us go back to the origin of mankind: simplicity. Yes, simplicity. The simplicity of being equal, honest, and vulnerable. An illness that does not see social classes, extravagance, luxury, or complexity but the fragility of human beings. Do you see it? Such simplicity makes us feel free, even in isolation. I know, communicators, you may wonder, why on earth do you think this way if we are all locked down and the whole world is shut down, so are we? But see, we may feel anxious, afraid, bored, worried, etc. However, we are unconsciously freeing ourselves from our own complexity, demons, frustrations, expectations, worthless feelings of life during this isolation. 

We are now in the simplicity of being at home with our true selves in sweatpants and a dress-shirt every day. We are now forced to experience everything from the interior and not the exterior surface. We are forced to reevaluate everything from the core, the root of us, our vulnerability. There are no filters, no societal prejudice, no facades, nor pressured lifestyles pushing us to shape our behavior, our personality. It's just us at home in the middle of a pandemic living the simple truth of ourselves day by day. It’s as simple as the word by itself. Having the clarity to see simplicity in our life is the most valuable and beneficial treasure, that's what quarantine has been making us realize. Experiencing the simplification of life by itself, it requires us to focus on the truly important and necessary things, and ignore or avoid vain distractions. Think about it for one moment. Right now all we have is our true self, our true life, and all of the simple things that exist within it. 

 I know we are experiencing challenging times and that everything seems to be upside-down, but stop worrying about what you are missing on the outside and tell me: have you not been using this crisis to your advantage, to learn, discover, nurture yourself, and furthermore to experience the simplicity of life? Do you believe the discovery of simplicity will make you go back to the world with a real purpose in life?

Time

What is the most critical question that human beings have asked themselves from the beginning of time? 

• You could tell me it is: What’s the meaning of life, “my life”? Right. 

The truth is that even philosophers, teachers, and students put this question in their top ten philosophical questions most people wonder about, and they are right. We have asked from the beginning of humankind, we have faced this significant question ourselves. I would say that we struggle to answer it because we don’t realize we are already "living" the answer to that question. Welcome to another blog here in The Communicator’s Lens.

I will tell you that nowadays, the question has changed. It is about how much time we have to enjoy life, to take care of us, to live life to its fulfillment? Yes, Time, Time, Time, Time. 

 In nature and society, everything is in a state of perennial movement and constant change, as something that is constantly renewing and developing and where there is always something that is born and develops and something that dies and expires. All of these changes take place in space and time; space and time constitute the physical forms of existence of matter and are inseparable from it, just as a heart is unified for living. 

I wanted to talk about time because life is short, and through new developments in tech, construction of modern lifestyle by itself, and as the world keeps moving towards that world, we will be confusing being productive with busy. It's not like we stop aging like Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake in the movie In Time. In this film people stop aging at 25, where a new economy uses time instead of paper money as the currency. Each individual has a finite amount of time to live, this time is measured by a clock that counts down on their wrist. No, We can not stop aging and save time - or add more to our lives. No, well, no.

If anything, as hard workers who reach for the unattainable, we always keep running to a prosperous place, seeking fortune and comfortable lives. We do not notice that everything is revolving around a daily routine that has changed the purpose of using the time to our favor. Instead, we keep ourselves busy rather than being productive and using the time to our favor. Time keeps flying, running away from us. It is not a secret that time plays a huge role in the purpose of achieving dreams, goals, but it also makes us feel the tension of living. We perform as hard as we can and in the necessary time for us to achieve it, but it is still not enough time.

The point here is to understand the purpose of time by itself and our role as a complement with or within it. As the philosopher, Ricardo Yepes reflects, “man and woman are temporary beings and can genuinely transcend in time.” The temporal and the timeless coexist together in each one of us. They are not opposed but complementary. Therefore, activities such as loving, creating science, art, culture, tend to stay above time, and become lasting.

For that reason, the most humane way of overcoming time and not letting ourselves be dominated by it or lose track of our precious time is the ability that we have to see our life in advance, anticipating the future. I know we need to focus on the present. However, having a foot forward in the future is key to maintaining the order of what its priority and track of the specific time we must invest in the achievements of goals we want to achieve. It will give us the freedom of choices about time, our time. It is a balance between time, achieving dreams, and quality of living.

There is no doubt men and women are futuristic beings, open to the future, capable of dreaming, then projecting and living their own lives according to the project that each one of them plans for their lives, in search of happiness, experiences. Hence, the future is where we are heading with the hope of growing and being happy. 

If I tell you that time is our compass and we must move from a sense of love, then where do you think this combination will lead you? 

Self Discovery

How do we actually discover who we are and then be brave enough to be it, live it, and breathe it?

• What if I tell you that you will discover yourself in the process of the chaos?

Without chaos, there can be no change, and without change, there is no evolution. We are all seeking how to transform uncertainty, fears, insecurities, discomfort, complexes, pain into the powerful magic of evolving our lives for good, for an important reason to move forward and into the next stage in life. This is a good spark of energy that we intuitively know is possible in our lives. Welcome to the Communicator’s Lens, to my worlds of thoughts, perceptions, and life experience written in a blog. 

You will see, self-discovery it’s a word that a lot of dictionaries don’t address adequately. They do not provide the full definition, the characteristics of the word itself are not portrayed. They define this word as “the process of acquiring insight into one's character.” Well, I assure you that you and I have noticed in our journey of self-discovery that part of realizing and figuring out who we are takes much more than recognizing our character. Sure, we get to know, identify, and be aware of our emotions. 

However, knowing who you are indeed not only takes discovering more  about your courage but also bringing together everything that makes up the "self," for instance; self-love, self-control, self-esteem, self-care, self-respect, etc. What happens and matters is that sometimes recognizing “yourself” as total, as one individual with defects and abilities, means experiencing the chaos and letting that chaos bring out the best of yourself. In other words, the path of self-discovery inevitably leads to Personal Self-Realization, and we notice that the key to self-realization is the way you face and react to the chaos. Afterward, we can identify that chaos is needed to evolve. As a matter of fact, without chaos, there can be no change, and without change, there is no evolution; and without growth, there is no self-discovery.

I was two years old when I had a car accident. I was a little girl who spent more time in the hospital than at school or at home. I would say that my car accident was chaos putting my family into a moment of evolution. As a family, you just don’t expect that suddenly one day a car’s brakes would malfunction and that the vehicle would flip over, shattering your little girl’s arm. That is in fact what happened to my family and me, and I  was that little girl. It took thirteen years for the doctor to reconstruct my arm, and it took my mom one second to realize that what was coming after the accident was a war where she needed to become the captain, and I would become her first officer. Life doesn’t come easy, not for everyone. The point here is that because of that accident, my self-discovery is a journal that I can now share. I am currently in my late 20's and the Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect of the situation that happened to me when I was just a baby has made me more and more aware of who I am, who I have become, who I am becoming every day. 

When I talk about the famous Butterfly Effect, I refer to a concept that is directly related to what is also known as the effect of Chaos Theory. It means that a little change can catalyze more changes; a small incident can have a significant impact on your future. The latter ensures that slight variations in the initial conditions of an event can cause substantial differences in the  future. 

It is here in the butterfly effect that self-discovery can become the culmination of self-control. We can now decide how to react, then act in the face of challenging, tense, and stressful situations in our life. What happens is that sometimes it is difficult for people even to understand themselves, then to find the courage needed to face the difficulties that life throws at them. Part of the work of our life experience is to study human behavior and to try to provide ideas about our motivations and empowering factors as a complete individual. 

It is not a secret to anyone that the human mind is still an enigma. We should choose not to say that because then, we may stop trying to know ourselves and discover our mission in this life. Self-discovery seeks to define exactly what we are made for in the world. The path of self-discovery inevitably leads to Personal Self-Realization, a journey in which we may never get to know ourselves precisely, but one where it is quite possible that we do not even know the origin of our attitudes with certainty. What is certain is that through specific parameters, we can discover what we are passionate about and what fills us with life and organizes the chaos.

Many people think that self-discovery is something that is achieved in a certain timeframe with a simple analysis of yourself and through detecting and accepting our own mistakes. That idea could not be more distant from the truth. It is essential to always have a lot of self-motivation in our desire to discover ourselves, and it is here where many fail. During my surgeries, appointments with the doctors, experiencing bullying, accepting my disability while I was growing up, I started to understand that I was also part of the chaos because my mind was spinning around trying to go away from it instead of figure that the chaos was there to teach me something, to make me build a better version of myself. It took me years to let the chaos bring the best out of myself, but it did bring out the best. What I did first was to cheer myself up every time I felt defeated, cheer myself up every time people made me cry my eyes out, push myself to see the chaos and motivate myself to organize it. You might be wondering, How? Well, motivation played a massive part in that "how." I knew I needed to be wholly motivated so I wouldn't be scared and intimidated by the situations. I knew after that motivation, even if I did not know how to organize the chaos, I would still flow uncontrollably like the river. Every time I found an obstacle,I would do what the water does when it meets a rock as it moves around it, and keeps on flowing.  

Now, Communicators, tell me, do you believe that we need spells to discover ourselves? Or perhaps, do we need the help of other people to help us understand ourselves as a complete individual and to figure out that motivation is key to always moving  forward evenly through the universe? Life will throw chaos at us, how we respond, that is up to us.