Never underestimate the power of your drop

Every time you feel that you are powerless, every time you feel that you - alone - are not enough, remember:

The beginning of rain is but a single drop.                                                            (Arab proverb)

No More Resolutions!

"Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities."
  Sir William Throsby Bridges

Every 365 days, for most of the world, a calendar change is the perfect external opportunity to reflect and make promises for the genuine beginnings that we so much desire.

Every year usually 45% of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions.  A research from the Scranton University suggests that only 8% will successfully achieve their resolutions.

As much as I would like me to be in this 8%, to my frustration – and embarrassment – I am not. But this year I am determined to change that.

This year I am not making any more resolutions. As of today, no more resolutions, no more promises. From now on it will only be commitments.

One of the first commitments in my long list is about this blog. Today I start my new project – challenge: 365 days of empowerment. 365 posts, 365 moments of insights, of inspiration and maybe motivation here with you.  Hope you enjoy it!

Happy 2014! 

To genuine beginnings, to commitments! 

Always!

Live!

Pause In The Air

Leaving for another business trip, I was all stressed and worried. Finishing arrangements of the things left behind, making sure everything is set for the things awaiting at destination, juggling obligations, preparations, time and agendas. 

Two hours before my flight, all I wanted was to pause for 5 minutes and breath. Press the pause button and stop the time, stop the motion, stop the worries. But I had a suitcase to pack and a plane to catch.

Then, two and a half hours later a magical thing happened; something I very rarely do: I pressed the pause button. I put my handbag at the closet and let it there with all the files, the papers, and the notes. I laid back, closed my eyes and let myself surrender to the absolute nothing. No in-flight entertainment, no music, no work, no reading. Nothing. Allowing my body and my brain to enjoy the ride at 36000 feet altitude making it my own empty space.

It was a short flight, just 3:40 hrs. But, it was a great flight of a 250 minutes pause interrupted only by the note of this short text at my new toy, sorry business tool called tablet J

There's no in-between!

Information vs Attention

We are often concerned about the incredible amount of information that is there available online, waiting for us to reach it with just a click: how do we manage it, how do we keep up with it, how do we make space for it. Technology is developing to allow us to save time and energy to get the information that we need or prefer at the time.

But what about the information that we already have there, in front of us, on our screen?

Last Wednesday I posted on Facebook:

In the corridors of the Attica Hospital and from the lips of a retired psychiatrist: "There are no excuses. There is only Injustice and Stupidity."

Bitter truths at the most critical moments…

The post was in Greek. From my 956 (at the time) FB friends, let’s say that at least 300 are Greek speaking. The post was read by at least 17 persons who “liked” it. Three of them contacted me to ask me what happened.

You see, the post includes a quote and some information, like the place where the quote was heard.

I thanked one of the friends who contacted me to find out why I was at the hospital, mentioning that only a couple of people had asked me. He wrote back that social media has brought us superficially closer, when indeed we have lost our humanity.

Part of me thought that he is right. Part of me wanted to find a good excuse (paradoxically).

What if the crisis, the daily struggle of people to survive, has made us too “busy” to process everything we hear or see?

What if, in the midst of all this information we choose to keep what makes better sense, what makes us feel good, what helps us to keep going?

Finally, what if it is just in human nature not to pay attention to all the information, but just part of it?

In any case it made me wonder about how selectively we read information and how much of it we miss each time.