Tough Question

The present year is moving - quite fast - towards its end. Summer is almost over and soon leaves will start changing color on the trees. A feeling of completion will soon fill Nature and a reflection might spring up from your soul. Every year is a rung on the 'ladder' that symbolizes Life. When you climb a ladder, you move your feet higher and higher with the aim of reaching a specific place or point to carry out your chore. What about your life? Are you moving, regularly and steadily, towards your 'goal'? Do you have a goal? Are you aware of where you are going? In a nutshell, do you know what the meaning of your existence is? Nature seems to know. What about you, me, all of us?

New Learning

To learn anything new, you need three steps:

Accept the new idea.

Absorb it, make it your own until you thoroughly believe it.

Apply it in your life.

An example? If you often fight with a person close to you, examine the situation and see how the fight starts. If it is because - when he/she says something that you don’t like - you usually react in an aggressive or defensive way, tell yourself that

*you don’t need to take it personal

*you don’t need to prove your point at all costs

*it’s not worth it to get so upset over “stuff”.

It’s not that easy to do it but, if your motivation is strong enough, sooner or later you will decide to give it a try. And you will succeed.

Your Personality

If there are one or more traits in your personality you are not too happy with, change will not happen too easily. Why? Because the way you behave usually depends on what you think. Thoughts have been defined the building blocks of Life as what you think about most of the time determines how you live your life. This means that the thoughts you entertain create one specific kind of life. And the people you mix with, help you keep "things" as they are. As like attracts like, if you are a friendly person, you will tend to deal with friendly people and avoid withdrawn individuals. Similarly, if you like to complain, you will love to surround yourself with other complainers, so you can all be...unhappy together. Give it a thought. You might get some useful insight.

Change Something

Some people are lucky enough to have a job they love or activities they like and can choose from at leisure. If they are interested in finance or in teaching, they get a job in a bank or in a school. If they like gardening or exercising, they can afford a house with a garden or are truly committed to attending a gym regularly. What about you? Here is the question to ponder upon, Presently, am I doing what I really love doing? If - luckily - your answer is ‘yes’, acknowledge how fortunate you are and experience a feeling of gratitude. If your answer is ‘no’, ask yourself, Do I really wish to make a change? Or do you prefer to go on in the status quo? You may choose to stay where you are rather than face the hassle of change. On the other hand, if you don’t dismiss the possibility of change, you might endeavor to find out the real reason for such dissatisfaction and check out the possibility of making an adjustment.

Freedom of Choice

One of the main conditionings you have received is that, once you made a choice, you cannot change it. It is certainly necessary to think carefully before making a decision, because such decision will give origin to certain consequences for yourself and possibly for others. But this doesn’t mean that another choice does not exist. So the question here is, Am I sure that I always have a choice? If you reflect upon it, you may realize that you are often convinced that there is no choice at all, that you “must” follow the path that is set in front of you. A certain type of education, religious instructions, the general opinion heavily weigh on how you see  your personal freedom of choice. “Others” might have decided for you and made you believe that there is no other way except the one they want you to accept. Beware!

From Kindergarten to PhD

Let's say that you believe you can make your life better. Some change could help you to improve your daily existence and give you more serenity. It goes without saying that it will take some time and willful commitment. Life will not immediately become as sparkling as a diamond, though. Be happy if, from a simple piece of glass, it starts by becoming a crystal or a zircon. Change doesn't happen once and for all either. Nothing is forever. Although you feel that your first change is the perfect one, at a certain point you may realize that it is not enough any more. You need to move forward to the next step. So... go ahead and do it - because you can. By now, you have acquired the tools you need. Starting from kindergarten, you are reaching...even a PhD!

Two Kinds of Conditioning

If there is anything in your thinking that you would like to change, do you believe that it is possible? You may say: “I would like to change this trait in my character, but I just can't. I was born this way”. You are wrong. You were not created “this way”. You have become the way you are. How? Through all the conditionings you have received since birth. What kind of conditionings? Different kinds, some good, others not so good. Some could be considered good when you were a kid. The well-known “Don't talk to strangers” was useful when you were in primary school, but it can certainly not be carried out throughout your life, unless you want to become a hermit.  Some, such as moral and ethical principles, are certainly good all the way through. But quite a few are not. These are the ones that you kept on believing and that are now creating problems in your life. Care to find them out?

Actually Doing

Ask yourself how you could get what you want that you believe you are lacking. Many a times you consider something to be impossible to obtain because you don’t make the effort to analyze the situation in detail and try to gain awareness of your actual capabilities to reach your goal. When you have been led to believe that you have no real choice beside the one that is the most apparently acceptable and the result greatly differs from the one you had hoped for, what is your assessment? Do you tend to feel a victim of the circumstances? You may think: "It was not my fault / I couldn’t do it differently / There was nothing else I could do / They made me do it." Does any of these statements ring a bell? If it does, please re-think!

Liking What You Must Do

In case you are not happy with what you are presently doing, another interesting question to ask yourself might be: Do I believe it possible to start liking what I presently am compelled to do? Many people tend to complain about what they have to do, even if initially it had been their own choice. There is something in the human nature that encourages them to never be completely satisfied with what they have or do. A little wicked voice keeps whispering, “You could have more. You could do better.” Hence, the eternal human dissatisfaction. If this is also your situation, decide to analyze “what” is it exactly that you would do differently and  endeavor to find out “how” you could achieve such goal.

Responsibility Towards Others

You are often told that you "are responsible for your brother". And you try to comply. Yet, there are times when your brother doesn't want to be helped. He (or she) wants to follow his own path and, in spite of how wrong it is, you simply cannot do anything to help him. You suffer because you are aware of the situation, with all your heart do you wish you were allowed to intervene but... you find yourself powerless. In such a case, you might end up feeling 'guilty' for not having helped. Discard this feeling, it is not your fault. It is not even your direct responsibility. Everyone is responsible for themselves. Therefore, in whatever situation one finds themselves into, it has been their "choice" (it doesn't matter how unconscious or unaware such choice has been). Sad, but true.

Of Cyborgs and Robots

A documentary, entitled "The Next Humans", is about a possible future dominated by cyborgs (cybernetic organisms) or even robots (totally mechanical 'individuals'). The final question it proposes is: Will mankind become obsolete? Interesting, actually 'frightening' possibility. Is the present, apparently blind technological frenzy the world seems to be in, going to be carried out to such extreme where - yes - mechanical beings will replace humans? It's not such a far-fetched prospect. When they talk about replacing your brain with an artificial one where all your knowledge has been transferred, you are brought to believe that you can live forever. My question is: your knowledge, your memories etc. will be in there all right, but... where will your "self" (your consciousness, your soul, your spirit) be? Where will YOU be?