Empower yourself

             Have you ever felt like everything was going wrong like really wrong? Waking up, starting your week on the wrong foot and realizing that every single thing you were doing was ultimately an epic fail? Well you pretty much have an overall picture of how my week looks like. I was on my way back home tonight and thinking about all kind of stuff mostly about the ones I was supposed to do and it felt like I had a trillion thoughts wandering around in my head. Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety… that was the only thing I could think about and everything went even worse when I realized that I was on the eve of writing an article to post on the blog and I had absolutely no clue about what I was going to write about. 
           I was like… that’s it… I will never be able to do it… life is just too complicated and things aren’t getting any easier and no I can’t do it… I can’t take it anymore. And I was walking on the street, my headphones in my ears when a song that I haven’t heard in a very long time started. And as I was listening to it, I felt as if I was being revived by it and it made me consider life, the real one. The one where you have to struggle to make your way to the top, the one where you have all the keys to open the door of success in your hands but it's up to you to prove that you can do it.

           My father used to tell me that life is not always easy and even when things seem to not workout you have to make them workout. You have to try everything until something works. Many reasons could explain why most of the time thing seems impossible for us to do or some goals seem unattainable. One of them could be that we are not realistic and patient: we want to achieve herculean results in a short period of time. Another could be that we give up on the way because we get tired of trying without knowing that the next key we will use to try to unlock the situation is actually the right one. Or we simply get overwhelmed by the size of the problem or the situation and we turn our back without even trying and run away instead of facing it and solving it. 

              Life can be considered as a battle where every victory opens up a door to let you move to the next level. It can be also considered a set of tests where the more you exercise your skills, the better you get and the sooner you move to the next problem until you have won the prize.  The harder the problem, the more satisfaction you get from solving it and also the more confident you feel about yourself and about your ability to make things work out. So if you never try you will never know if you would have been able to make it or not.

          You are stronger than what you think; you just don’t know it yet. You have to empower yourself, to change the way you think, to believe that you can do it and you will do it. Like I said in the previous article, you need to take one step after the other, don’t look at the number of times you have already tried, keep trying until you make it. When you feel like you are going weak, that you are about to give up remember that the possibilities are endless and that you have the power to make things change. Don’t let the circumstances put you down but instead find the strength deep inside to place yourself above them, to believe that everything is possible and you will see amazing things happen.

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says " 'I'm possible' " - Audrey Hepburn

Keep the dream alive

Lately I have been thinking a lot about life (yeah I know I am kind of a thinker/philosopher at my lost time) but mostly about the choices and decisions we make. Not decision such as what am I going to wear tomorrow or will I have the tomato soup or the noodles for lunch. I have been thinking about decisions that make our lives take the turns they are taking, decisions such as starting a new business, quitting your job to become I don’t know.. a full time painter or writer? Decision such as listening to your heart and follow your gut in doing what you think is right for you to do. When encountering adversity it can be really difficult to keep going with what you have in your mind. Adversity is not always people preventing you to achieve what you have in your mind and in your heart. It could also be represented as situations that are the opposite of what you were expecting so that when you are in the process of creating your happiness through realizing your dream the only questions that comes constantly in your mind are: is it worth doing all this? Will I ever be able to make it? What if I don’t?

It can be very challenging to face those times of trials and opposition especially when everyone else’s vision is different from yours. Most people walk by what they see and they don’t see what is in your heart and what is in your mind. They can’t envision what the achievement you are trying to reach today might represent for your life tomorrow; they can’t understand why you are so eager to make that vision come true because they don’t know what it means to you and how it might reshape your life in a totally new, positive way.

All they see sometimes are the fails, the flaws in your attempts to make the dream or the vision alive. They see your “vain” efforts and the amount of time you invest in order to see it happen and when they don’t see it happen in a timely manner, they might try to bring you down voluntarily or involuntarily. And you might get discouraged because you will look at all those sacrifices you made and how much you put your heart, time, strength and sweat to realize that dream/vision. And it is perfectly fine! It is okay to get discouraged, to cry, and to run out of strength and motivation as long as you plan on getting back on your feet later! Giving life to a vision or making a dream come true is much more like working on math problems. The more you practice, the better you get and it doesn’t happen all in one day and of course it is hard sometime! It takes months and sometimes years just to get to be among the good students and then from there you build up some more skills to upgrade and be among the best students and so on.

I remember when I first started writing it was just for me a way to feel alive, free. Then I stopped for years went back again onto writing few months ago and then I started the blog. I was so happy, so motivated and I was like this is it! Finally I get to do something that I like and make people enjoy it. I had never imagined it would be so hard to get things started. I remember there were times I didn’t have a single view for month. I was thinking about closing it down and going back to my old boring life where I will be writing on paper keep in in one of my numerous binders. But then I realized that I needed more than that to get me down, I needed more than people telling me that it was a waste of time to let go of it. Of course I got discouraged and tired and frustrated at times but I remembered that I had to be patient and to demonstrate perseverance to see my vision get into shape. I needed to have faith, to believe that I could make it and find the strength in me to keep going and make it happen. And I made it. Even though there is still a lot to do knowing that I have started not long ago, I am proud of what I have achieved and everyday I bow my head and pray to get the strength I need to keep believing and fighting to keep my dream alive.

Today I would like to encourage you to persevere, to believe and fight to keep the dream alive. It is your dream, your vision; don’t let people or circumstances prevent you to be where you want to be and where you know you can be. When you feel like you can’t do it anymore remember that you haven’t come so far to let it go now. It will certainly take time but you need to be patient, to take one day at the time and to do one step after the other. You will be amazed by what you can do and people will be even more amazed seeing you achieve when they thought and said you wouldn’t. So don’t give up so early, keep trying because the most important is not how many times you have tried, the most important is to keep the dream alive and make it come true.

Réseaux sociaux + technologie= génération pourrie?

Bon c’est pas un secret qu’entre le temps ou on jouait à cache-cache et maintenant beaucoup de choses ont changées. Beaucoup de choses comme? Vous me direz. Bah d’abord y’a les réseaux sociaux et qui dit réseaux sociaux dit avancée technologique. On pourrait dire ouais c’est le progres et tout. Je suis d’accord mais quels en sont les effets sur la nouvelle génération? Moi je pense qu’autant on a l’air plus “smart” que nos parents quand ils achètent des iPhone pour se la peter et savent pas s’en servir, autant on se retrouve avec des générations pourries pour lesquelles vivre en société se résume a un contact virtuel.

Mais franchement, pensons y quelques secondes, à mon temps je n’avais pas de PlayStation, de Xbox ou quoi que ce soit! Quand on se disait on se donne rendez-vous pour jouer, on se donnait rendez-vous pour jouer dehors, dans le quartier. Ou alors on se faisait des soirees ou des aprems pour glandouiller juste pour passer du temps ensemble. On avait une notion de ce que signifiait vivre en société. Maintenant c’est plus pareil tout est devenu virtuel. Des milliers d’amis sur Facebook et twitter, des amis aux Venezuela, au Pérou, et si vous deviez tous jouez dehors comment vous auriez fait?! On cause en ligne sur Facebook ou sur twitter, on se fait des amis c’est bien beau mais qu’est-ce que ça donne dans la vraie vie?

Avant pour se voir c'etait " je passe te voir tout a l'heure tu me manques" par texto maintenant c'est "mets toi en ligne qu'on parle un peu" sur facebook, "tu me manques dis donc!" sur twitter, "petit debriefing de fin de mois! mets ta webcam que je vois ta tronche" pour les adeptes de skype. On se donne même plus la peine d’avoir un vrai contact avec les gens qui nous entourent! Il y avait un temps où les gens redoutaient les ruptures, le moment où ils allaient devoir affronter la peine de l’autre en annonçant la nouvelle. Maintenant c’est par SMS. Une violente dispute avec ta copine, t’as passé toute la nuit à jouer en ligne avec tes potes pour te sortir ca de la tête. Pi après tu t’es senti un peu mal, t’attendais le matin pour la voir à l’école et lui dire combien t’es désolé. Finalement vers 7h00 tu reçois un texto d’elle :”c’est fini. De toute façon ca collait pas entre nous. Désolé.” WTF? Affolé, tu te précipites sur son profile Facebook. Elle a changé son statut amoureux et est passée de “en couple” a "célibataire". 

Si ce n'était que le fait de vivre que du virtuel ça irait encore! Ajouter à cela le fait qu'on ait plus de vie privée ça devient une salade avec tout sauf rien de sain! y'a quelques annees encore on se battait pour faire passer des lois pour protéger  notre vie privée et tout. Mais c’est tout le contraire aujourd’hui tout se sait, se dit et se voit surtout sur Facebook. Et le pire c’est qu’on sait jamais ce qui est vrai ou faux. C'est étonnant le nombre de choses que je savais pas et que j’ai apprises sur moi rien qu’en causant avec des gens mais vraiment quoi! Combien de conneries qui ont été dites ont brises des couples? Combien de filles se sont fait rasées par des salopes et des mecs bien par des connards? On parle souvent des relations qui sont nées mais à coté de ce tsunami de rupture c’est vraiment mais zéro quoi! Tout ça c’est la faute à la technologie! On vivrait a l’Age de pierre on n’aurait pas tous ces problèmes! On se plaint que les gamins n’ont plus de respect pour les parents.

 Tu rajoutes ta fille sur Facebook, tu aimes ses statuts, tu commentes ses photos! Hello!!!!!? Comment tu veux qu’elle te montre du respect quand tu la traite comme une copine de 3eme?? On ne dit pas d’installer une tyrannie mais bon quand même faut pas que les rôles s’inversent! Tu cèdes à tous les caprices de ton fils: la dernière psp, la Xbox, la PlayStation 3. A la moindre petite larme tu sors ton chéquier. Spoiled kid. Le pire c’est la réaction des parents quand ils font des bêtises! Avant on se faisait punir avec des vraies punitions nous! On se prenait des raclées, des vraies calottes qui faisait mal au derrière même deux jours après. Maintenant les punitions c’est ça :” files dans ta chambre, t’es puni. Pas de Xbox jusqu’à mercredi” et la encore c’est moins mou que de confisquer seulement la manette LOL. T’es sérieux??

Pas que je suis contre la technologie loin de la! parce que franchement je sais pas comment j’aurais pu garder le contact avec mes amis qui sont à l’autre bout de la terre sans avoir à attendre des lettres pendant des mois. Je dis juste qu’il y a un abus de la technologie et des réseaux sociaux qui sans qu’on le réalise est entrain de pervertir la jeunesse et on a du souci à se faire pour les générations futures. La solution ne serait certainement pas d'en interdire l’accès aux jeunes (de toutes façons ca servirait à rien!) mais plutôt leur ouvrir les yeux sur les dangers qu’ils peuvent représenter pour eux quand ils ne sont pas utilisés de façon appropriée.

Story of a journey... In music

Like most of the human being on the surface of the earth, I too have happened to fall under the power of music. The kind of power that involves music talking to your soul and touching it the way no word, no matter how magnificent it is, would. Over this past 2 years my music taste has varied according to the fluctuation of my emotions. In each of the melodies I have come across during this time, I have found a magic which is specific to each one of them. Each of these songs have spoken to my soul in various ways and have made me rediscovered that human side of me which over the years deceptions and the insulting and almost pathetic hypocrisy of people made me repress : my emotional side.

My emotional journey started with Adele. It was an delicate and really sensitive period of my life during which I had a really hard time getting myself together. I was fragile, exhausted, looking for a shoulder to just rest my head on and feel like I could finally have a break and breathe. I wasn't particularly looking for sympathy, I wasn’t asking for any comforting word: I just wanted a shoulder to rest my head on but mostly to cry over. I wanted to find the words to express how scattered my soul and my heart were but I couldn’t find any. Then I came across “Someone like you” by Adele first by listening to a guitar cover that a good friend of mine did. I found it so beautiful, so in phase with my emotions, I wanted to listen to the original version. I went online and googled it and listened to it. When the song ended, I just felt one tear roll down my cheek and I thought she said it all… She exactly had everything right, everything I would ever want to say if I had the right words. She knew how it felt, how hurt I was at this very moment, how difficult it was to see that one person you would have gave everything for walk away without turning back.

Then there was that moment where I was just home sick. I was missing my family, my friends, my homeland. And I heard about a song called “avant qu’elle parte” from Sexion d’assaut. They are not from my home country but that song constantly reminded me of my mother, of my father and also of all of my friends who also had found this song very inspiring. It reminded me of how short life is and how important a mother is into a child’s life no matter how old he/she is. No matter what  mistakes you make, no matter how bad you turn, no matter how successful you get or how many failures you go through, a mother will always have your back, believe that there’s still some good in you, stand by your sides and be proud or encourage you to try again until you succeed. Until today I still have it on my ipod, and whenever I listen to it I remember how blessed I am to have my mother by my side.

After that I got introduced to Brazilian music starting with Michel telo’s most popular song “Ai se eu te pego”. Boy, until today that song still gets me high! You cannot listen to that song and not get carried away (except if you don’t like the artist or if you really don’t care about music at all). Some people got sick of it but to be franc I highly doubt I can ever get sick of that one. Quickly I discovered some other songs such as “Larga de bobeira”, “O amor nao e paixao”, “Fugidinha”, “Boate Azul”, “Horizonte”, “Ponto certo”. Beyond the songs, to me the themes evoked by the artist sometimes are meaningful. They are most of the time about the complexity of relationships, the illusions that make us lose sight of what true love is (or should be and mean to us), the desire to find the right person (the one who cares about you and to whom you are more than just the person they can run to when thing don’t work out). Also, they are about learning how to swallow your pride, stop the B.S when you have to and make compromises to make a relationship work. the content for me of those songs as well as the way the artist communicate with his public tells a lot about his generosity, care, kindness, accessibility and awareness of life realities. These are not made up ideas but rather well-developed impressions and opinions from interacting with the artist (Thank you N. J )

Through him, I have done the musical acquaintance (pretty recent) of Bruninho e Davi. I haven’t really listened a lot to their songs but I have two big favorites which are on my top ten list: "Proibido liberou" and "Se namorar fosse bom". I don’t have a clear perception of what the first one is about as the main point for me was that I could spend some energy jumping all over the place on that song. The second song on the other hand talks about how being committed to someone (committed meaning married) can be complicated but also how being single can have advantages as well as inconvenients. Everything shinny is not necessarily gold.

As of now, I am kind of an electron floating around different music repertories going from Train, to Gavin Degraw passing by Pink J. But I mostly remain into the Brazilian mood.

Music (after time  of course!) has proved to be one of the best remedies to heal the deepest wounds of one’s soul. So when you feel like nothing is turning right you can still put on your headphones, put one of those songs that make you feel alive, blast the volume to maximum and let the power of music lead you on the journey to emotionland.

I leave you on a video of “proibido liberou” by Bruninho e Davi. Enjoy 

Time is the best remedy

They say chocolate and ice cream are good for your heart,
They make you forget the pain when your feelings are hurt.
I guess for me the cut was deeper than what I thought;
I still have the wounds of the love battles that I fought.

I tried it for few days to drown my sorrows and kill the pain.
It showed no encouraging results except weight gain.
Then I heard that time was great a remedy

But that the healing process was different for everybody.

I remember grinning at the mention of that ultimate solution;
For in love matters, time hasn't always been for me the best option.
How was I supposed to turn the page, move on and forget all about you,

To let go of the past and build something new?
When everything I had and did here was reminding me of you,
When my heart and my soul loved you more than I knew.

But then time flew away and gave me back the joy I lost that day I saw you walk away.
I got back that happiness and peace of mind I was filled with way before you walked into my life and blew it away.

Now the storm is over and the sun is shining brighter
And I came to realize that my life without you is somewhat better.

Better than what I would have expected back then,
Happier than is has never been since then.

As you can see I am fine so no need to call on holidays or send me cards,
Just be happy wherever you are and please don't come back.

 “Only time can heal your broken heart. Just as only time can heal his broken arms and legs.”
― Jim Henson