Peace

Saying "to look for peace" doesn't mean anything. Peace cannot be looked for because it was never hidden. It has always existed inside yourself, because this is your (and everybody else's) nature. The only task that you can - and should - carry out is to endeavor to "discover" it. How can you do that? First of all, you must believe it exists, in spite of circumstances. Then you have to be aware enough to recognize it. Finally, accept it! Life situations may contribute to let you down, to upset you, to deprive you from hope and serenity. Yes, usually life is not too easy. But - an any moment - you can withdraw into your personal private space where no-one and nothing can touch you. There (your inner self) you feel safe, you are at peace.

Attitudes

The “new world” that is being created day by day appears inspired to the greatest selfishness and self-centeredness. Selfish is the person who lacks consideration for others and is mainly concerned with his (or her) personal profit or pleasure. Self-centered is the one who only thinks about his (or her) desires, needs or interests. These are therefore the people who, being so engrossed in themselves and in their businesses, totally disregard the feelings, the needs and even the rights of their fellow human beings. On a larger scale, look at how political figures, establishment leaders, “rich and famous” individuals behave. The “others” are seen either as enemies to be annihilated or as individuals to be totally ignored. Very, very few truly "care" for others.

Where do you place yourself?

Reflection

You may be a person who, every now and then, thinks that maybe there is something else beside the daily work, food, sleep, entertainment. You hope there is something better awaiting you But how can you forecast when this will materialize? You don't want to really ponder upon how much time you still have to be in this world. But such thought exists, it is there, always, hidden in the deepest corners of your inner self. You know it but you don't want to think about it. Maybe you should. What is life, "your" life? Why are you here? Are you trying to live as well as you can, to be the best you can? A new year is drawing closer, just a few days left. Maybe this could be a good meditation to prepare yourself for the possible new challenges.

Christmas

Many people around the world celebrate Christmas. I wonder what this celebration means, beyond the religious aspect (which is widely overlooked anyway). Is there a practical message behind such festivities? People talk about love, family ties, forgiveness, generosity, peace etc. But how many do really believe in the meaning of these words and take action accordingly? 

Foundation

People think and act in a certain way, sure that they know the reasons behind their thinking and acting. Most times, they only "believe" they know. If you get an ailment, you immediately think of its physical cause. Some may go as far as trying to detect the "mental" cause, such as a negative thought or behavior. Both may be true. But there is something else that is very difficult to detect. It is the layer of beliefs and feelings that are deeply rooted "below" your conscious mind and of which you are totally unaware. Past experiences actually create a sort of foundation upon which your daily life is being built. Therefore, if you stop to look, you will only see the building (the way your life is, your health situation etc.) while being unaware of what lays underneath. But discovering such foundation is not easy. It takes strong motivation and serious commitment.   

Decision Making

At important crossroads in your life, you should follow your intuition and dare to step out of your old ways. If this possibility entered your mind, it means that you have to take it into consideration because it could mark a positive shift in your well-arranged existence. But, be careful. Making a choice does not mean that you are going to be chained to it forever. You step onto the new path and do your best to make it work. But if, at a certain point, you realize that it did not yield the result you had hoped for, you can still go back to the old road and... try to make it work better. Never forget that you are free to decide what you want to do with your life. But wisdom (not haste or unawareness) must be your guide. 

Be "Yourself"

As long as you believe that being like  others increases your value as a human being, you will keep being unaware of how important you "already" are. You deserve to be the "original" person that you are, without pettily imitating anybody else. Money, clothes and jewels don't make you an individual worth of admiration. A few might envy wealth, but many more will appreciate a shining personality, a welcoming attitude, generous availability. A wise actress said that she preferred to be a first-class "herself" rather than a second-class copy of someone else. Who admires the myriad starlets who desperately tried to look like Marilyn Monroe? Only those who chose to be "themselves" and displayed their true talents became as admired and appreciated as Marilyn had been.

Habits

Are habits useful or harmful? They can be both. The mindful repetition can help you improve your performance as to your physical skills are concerned, as well as your attitude and behavior. Excellence does not reside so much in the action itself as in the way you carry it out. On the other hand, a habit can be harmful when it makes you lazy, when it brings you to passively accept a mediocre lifestyle, depriving you of enthusiasm and initiative. Therefore, all you need is awareness, that means understanding when the "shoes" you are wearing on you "hike" are the right ones or when you need to replace them with a more suitable pair. After all, habits, too, can be changed, can't they?

"Your" Meaning

In order to understand, decide, choose, you have two possibilities: either to think by yourself or you let someone else tell you (or at least "advise" you about) what to do.  The problem is that, if you prefer (or "allow") another person to give you an explanation or make a decision on your behalf, the explanation and the decision will be according to his or her own point of view, which may not necessarily be the one that suits you best. No-one can find your "meaning" for you. No-one knows who you really are and your true needs. You may prefer the second solution because you don't want to make the effort. But the first one is much more fulfilling.

Viewpoints

The weather is the same for everybody, yet some feel warm, some feel cold. It seems an additional proof that reality exists all in the mind. Whatever you believe to be true, it "is". You may be willing to think about this apparent contradiction ("I'm sweating and that guy is wearing a coat" / "I find this to be a rip-off and she says it's a bargain"). This reflection is greatly useful when you are dealing with someone who has a different opinion from yours on any matter. Be lenient, accept people and things as they are, without any negative judgment and without trying to impose your viewpoint. Each is entitled to their own.

Open Mindedness

People often open their mouths without having first opened their minds. Opening your mind means to be flexible, to take into consideration other possibilities, not to be stubborn and rigid on your positions. In a nutshell, it means not to have a "closed mind". If you reflect, you realize how important it is to be well aware of how things are - from both your point of view and the other's - in order to say something intelligent, logical, meaningful, useful. Unfortunately human beings often tend to blurt out anything that comes to their minds, thus allowing themselves to become prey of sudden emotions, without first thinking of the possible (negative) consequences of their words.

Comparison

A trait that is common to many (if not all) human beings is to compare themselves to someone else. It could be a sibling, a friend, a neighbor, a colleague... The outcome of a comparison doesn't usually yield a positive result. In fact, you will end up deciding that you are either better or worse than the other person. You may see yourself as definitely superior to a lesser skilled individual, and conceit is born, with a consequent condescending attitude. On the other hand, you may not perceive yourself as good as the other, and a complex of inferiority arises. The point here is to realize that you are "never" more or less than anybody else. You are "you" and they are "they": well distinct people, with different abilities, all useful in their own personal ways.

Giving

How do you feel when you do something that you believe to be useful to others and see your effort appreciated? It's a nice sensation, isn't it? On the other hand, how do you feel when the opposite happens, when you see that what you offered with all your heart is mostly ignored or overlooked? You may decide to give everything up. You say, "What's the use?". Nevertheless - when your service is given to a number of people - if even just one shows their appreciation or acknowledgement, be assured that it is worth it to keep doing what you are doing. Why? Because you might be giving that "one" fellow human being what they needed, at that precise moment. You are "helping".

Wrong Change

Here is a possible scenario. The environment you live in may be trying to convince you that – as "yourself" – you are not enough. Therefore, in order to "fit in", you feel the need to change. You compare yourself to others and believe you can acquire what you think you are lacking by transforming your appearance and your habits. You allow yourself to be convinced that you do not have "enough" and that, therefore, you need to keep on buying any kind of (useless) stuff, altering your mentality, beliefs and habits, using items that you don't need. Do you honestly believe that changing what you are gives you luster, makes you better and happier?  

Looking For Peace

According to writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (and to many others), no one can give you peace except yourself. Do you remember the well-known story of the man who, looking everywhere for a treasure, ended up in his own garden? It is not easy to experience such truth because you are used to look for “things” outside yourself. In fact, you feel separated from the rest of the world and therefore tend to give others the responsibility of what happens to you. You - and most of us - don’t realize that everyone's life is tightly interwoven with the rest of mankind’s existence and that all human beings are responsible for their own personal choices (peace included).

Wiilpower

You have almost certainly heard the expression “mind over matter”.  You might know its meaning or you might not. If you do, you may agree with it or you may not. But one thing is certain: your mind can perform actual "miracles" if you trust it enough and give it the chance to show its power. Just for once put your ego, your constant reasoning, your resisting, your judging aside for a while. Choose to just expect your determination to help you achieve your goal. Willpower walks along with faith. And, as you are the “master” of your mind, i.e. “you” decide what to think, it should not be an impossible enterprise.

Plans

When you are young you envision a certain path, you see it clearly in front of your eyes and you are sure you'll carry it out. Yet, many times things go differently. You thought your career would be such and such, but it wasn't. You were sure you would immediately pinpoint the perfect partner and, although at first you believed you had succeeded, you eventually realized that you hadn't. You were positive about being able to create the best family ever, but later you had to admit that the results were not up to your expectations. Why does all this happen? Could it be that planning is kind of useless and that all you can do is your best and then accept what comes along?

Achievement

Ask yourself: "What do I do when I want to achieve a goal?". Your answer will probably be: "I start working towards it". Unfortunately, working, doing is not enough. Action without a suitable preparation will not achieve the best result. First, you must have a clear goal in your mind. Many times people want to achieve a certain outcome without knowing "exactly" what it is. Another important element is motivation: your goal must be important to you because only in this way will you be able to find the energy and the resources to carry it out. Commitment is another element for success, because without application and dedication you won't go too far. If you don't continue steadily, your energy will decrease at a faster rate. Finally, you need to trust, to have faith in the positive outcome of your endeavor because you believe it is good, useful (to you and possibly to others) and that you deserve it. 

Being "Informed"

I recently read this intriguing quote: "The advantage of modern means of communication is that they enable you to worry about things in all of the world". Most people, if not all, believe that the new technology, having created the so-called 'global village', has also made mankind a great favor. It certainly has, from certain points of view. But not all. Being able to communicate with far away places in a very short time is undeniably an advantage. But do you need to be told about all the worst happenings (big and small) that take place all over the planet - 24/7? Do you feel happier, after knowing about them? Can you do anything to help? Do you even care? Oh, I see, you just want to be "informed". Well, if this is your choice... enjoy!

Eternity

Eternity is defined as timelessness, a state to which time has no application, a "situation" where time does not exist anymore, and upon which we have no control whatsoever. Time moves on inexorably, either you are happy (and wish it never passes) or you are sad (and wish it would go on quickly). Time flows like the water of a river, on and on and on... But, while in the distant future the river will stop flowing, time will never come to a halt. Even when all things exist no more, time will keep going on and on and on... Wait a minute: Einstein said that time and space must coexist, meaning that when matter is "created", time comes along with it. Without matter, time does not exist. Here is the good news, though: after the end of our Universe, we can wait for a new Big Bang, and then we shall be able to start counting seconds, minutes and hours once again!

Expanding Your Mind

No one knows where pursuing the still unknown parts of quantum mechanics will lead. It will possibly go beyond our wildest imagination. Believe it or not, in a (who knows how) distant future we, too, will be able to say, like Star Trek's Captain Kirk: "Beam me up, Scotty!" Experiments have already been carried out about teleportation, with positive results - although still at a quantum level. In conclusion, once you learn something about the quantum world, you will never be the same. Your mind will be eager to keep on expanding... Your traditional thinking and beliefs will be greatly challenged. It's just like Positive Thinking. Once you become aware that you can be whoever you choose to be and shape your life accordingly, a new "you" is born.

Different "Worlds"

If you are interested in knowing more about the reality you live in, about the Universe, you may be content just accepting the way they were described by Sir Isaac Newton first, and by Albert Einstein later. But if you are someone who - whenever the possibility arises to go deeper into things - does not miss the chance, you might like to investigate some more. Traditional physics says that reality is matter. Quantum mechanics says that it is not. It says it's possibility. The laws that stand in the former, do not exist in the latter. In one world you see matter as solid, liquid or gaseous, in a specific place, and it can be experienced as "it is" (as "you see it"). In quantum physics you don't see something that is there, but something that could be anywhere, and only when you decide to observe or measure it, it becomes something specific, in a precise form and located in a definite place. 

Reality or Possibility?

If the actual reality at an elementary (subatomic) level does not actually "exist", how come that we see ourselves - and the world - as we are, physically solid and standing right here? Some quantum physicists say that, although all possibilities exist, on their way up, particles (quanta) coincide in one only (who we are), while the rest of them disappear. Other physicists say that the remaining possibilities do not go away. They keep existing in parallel universes. Mind-blowing idea, isn't it? One physicist said that the beauty of science allows us to learn that  reality goes beyond the Universe we see and branches out... we don't now where ("yet", I'd like to add). 

Different Speed

Different places on Earth experience different manifestation of the nature cycles because their speed is not the same. Their pace can differ greatly. Warmer or colder, dry or wet climate, create distinct environments. But, in spite of all this, nature comes out from its winter slumber, flowers bloom, fruit ripe. The same happens to human beings. According to where they live, to their environment, family situation, intellectual, physical, or material conditions, they grow at different speed from a spiritual point of view. Nevertheless, if they are motivated and make the effort, they will all reach the same point, they will all cut the arrival line. If they want, they can all be winners. And what is greater victory than becoming a better person? If you, too, do that, you can become the "someone" you secretly want to be. And, then, you will be proud of yourself.