Answer to the question "Why?"

Sometimes certain things happen to us in life. And no one can and will answer the question “Why?”.

We will have to go through the phase of uncertainty, fear, anger, resentment… And we have to fight and believe that this is not all there is. That there are still steps we can take in life, that this is not the end.

And even if it will feel every day like it was the end, then still we need to have hope.
Without hope we are nowhere. And we should never loose faith, because we are not alone.

And perhaps there will be more setbacks; still we need to keep moving on. Even when it seems that there is no other path, mentally we should not be letting ourselves down.

We shouldn’t think we are weak, we are not realizing how powerful we really are. And although there are clouds and storms, keep looking for a ray of sun.

Until we keep fighting till the bitter end, for ourselves and for the world, act because you need to act, do good because that is our sole purpose, believe that kind hearts still exist, don’t have a single bad thought ruin our precious minds and have confidence in yourself and your creator, peace will be there.

-- I strive to follow this and I keep learning every day, sometimes the soft way and sometimes the hard way

The seeker?

"I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I’m beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn’t pleasant, it’s not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves." — Hermann Hesse, Demian

Learning about life: Quotes from the hospital (1)

“I am not afraid of death anymore. But it is the way I will die. The only thing I think about are my children I will be leaving behind.” – survived breast cancer, now diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

“My wife and I have been married for 70 years now. I can’t sleep at night. How can I leave her behind, I want her to be safe and have a comfortable place first. She has been taken so good care of me and the kids.” – A 93 year old man, while telling me stories about 2nd world war too.

"It is because I'm fighting I'm still here"

“Even when life comes to its end. Keep laughing and make laugh.”

A morning cheer up quote!

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” ― Dr. Seuss

On Freedom

We do not realise how free we actually are." Question is then: what do you consider as freedom :)? - quote from a book I read: Two men are behind prison bars, one looks outside and sees mud, the other sees the stars.

Poverty, famine, governments - solutions?

The solution for poverty would be globalization. - Who agrees?

Money from development aid almost directly flows out of the poor country it went to, back to the rich countries. - what to think about that?

Famine is not because there is lack of food, or lack of money, it is about governments not putting enough effort to get food to their citizens. - What is a country without citizens.. because they all die from famine?

And governments setting up citizens against eachother - supporting them with weapons -from time to time for their own benefit - Is every politician a bad politician?

Questions that arise after watching a very interesting documentary

Most of these points are known - but to hear them again makes realize in what kind of world we live. Any solutions?

The Doctor and Hope

This is so true :) - know matter what - this is how I feel too.

"I think of hope as an emotional vital sign. I can't do my work as a doctor without knowing my patient's temperature, blood pressure and pulse rate. If I am to do my job well, it is just as important for me to take a 'reading' of their level of hopefulness or hopelessness. There is so much we can do as medical professionals even when our treatments fail to cure disease, we can help them cope and to fulfill some realizable goals. But to do so requires knowledge of what people hope for. Goal setting allows doctor and patient to align their expectations and focus on small steps they can take jointly and experience small 'triumphs,'." - Lidia Schapira, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School

Appreciation - short

The moment we start appreciating things (a few): something you took for granted is not here anymore, someone makes you aware with a "slap" in the face ;-), you just forgot how beautiful some things (or people) can be :-).

Being grateful for a bit of sunshine today :-)!

About Beauty - just a reminder for Women, and perhaps also Men ;-)!

Powerful quotes of people who say it just as it is! It is good to look beautiful and okay to make yourself look best - but outer appearance is not key in being nd feeling beautiful :)

- You are imperfect. Permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful. - Amy Bloom

- It's also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that is sitting right here right now... with its aches and pleasures... is exactly what we need to be fully human. fully awake. fully alive. - Pema Chodron

- People often say that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. And I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. - Salma Hayek

- Real beauty isn't about symmetry or weight or make-up: it's about looking life right in the face seeing all the magnificence reflected in your own. - Valerie Monroe

- When you're always trying to conform to the norm, you loose your uniqueness, which can be the foundation for your greatness. - Dale Archer

- Each individual body demands to be accepted on its own terms

- Everybody has a part of their body that they don't like. I've stopped complaining about mine, because I don't want to critique nature's handiwork. My job is simply to allow the light to shine out of the masterpiece. - Alfe Woodard.

Life lessons from our children: Nupur Kohli at TEDxDelft

Man's vs. a Woman's brain

Man's brain: in boxes that do not touch, woman's brain: like a wire, all is connected. And men have a "nothing" box, which we don't have. They are able to do and think nothing! Women hate it when a man does nothing :D!! Because we don't really know what that "nothing" is, our "nothing" box somehow always has to be filled. - Explains why men are difficult to understand ;-) lol! From a lovely speech I heard today :)

A different look at being proud

Last few weeks lot of people told me to be proud; because I have achieved one of the things I have been dreaming of. A dream I secretly believed could become reality.

What did I achieve? I have won a competition to speak at a TEDx conference and with all passion I delivered my speech at TEDx. I believe one day I can reach even higher than this, for my dream has to be continued.

Despite being told to be proud, not only of this achievement, I have never thought about actually feeling proud. I always tried to keep my modesty about any thing I have achieved.

Slowly I am becoming aware of how important it is to be proud and to really feel it. Being proud makes feeling as being on top of the world! And it gives self-confidence a huge boost.

I think what is left, is to be proud of my failures also, for they also make me what I am today.

I believe we should be proud of what we achieved and are going to achieve. To be proud of our failures, for they play a big role in whom we are.

Last but not least, we should be proud of our voice. Being proud that we can use our voice to reach the whole world. A daily practice of being proud will lift up our society :-).

The gift of time

"the greatest gift you can give to someone is your TIME, because when you give your time, you're giving them a portion of life you NEVER get back" A beautiful quote. Everyone appreciates it when someone gifts them their time.

On my way to make "it"! (1)

I am on my way to make "it"! What the "it" is, is not yet fully defined. But it will have components of success, fun, struggles, discoveries, experiences, a mix of everything on a journey.

Therefore it is a good idea to keep record or sometimes to reflect back on my way to make it. Chances are small someone reads this, but perhaps some day someone will pass by and think "this might be useful!". Or has tips to make "it" haha :D!

It will be a fun way to look how far I can get.

At the moment one of things I want, is to become a good communicator. Everything is via communication, communication is very broad and there are many ways to communicate.

I choose to focus on the spoken word first. This is a very powerful way to convey your message and the most primitive way of communication. A face to face encounter or speaking for a whole audience. To make the other understand exactly what you have in mind is a skill anyone would wish to have.

Paying attention to my tone of voice and choice of words and how compact and clear I can make my message, will be things I am practicing.

Ending with a quote I love:
‎"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way"

How to start a business? - Issues that occur

I don't have tips to start a business.

But I believe there are issues people face in starting a business and which are hard to deal with.

Money
Perhaps the biggest problem is, how to get money to get your business started. One can pitch their project somewhere, but there is lot of competition, so it can take ages before there is some money to get started.

Second question is then: do you really need that much money to start up a business? And if one doesn't need much money, how to proceed?

People
It sounds fun starting up a business, but you need people to support you starting up your business or to become partners.

Also a big problem, because where do you find people who are as dedicated as you are and won't try to steal your ideas and eventually your money?

Risks
How much risk is worth taking? It is good to take risks I believe, but to a certain extent. How to know how far one can go?

These are just a few. There will sure come up more and I will post them then. For these kind of points it is good to see them on screen or on paper and to keep reviewing these problems once in a while.

Perhaps we make things more difficult than they are and time will teach us if that is true.

3 times Thanks for Yesterday

Thank you for the fact that my family is crazy, stubborn, criticizing and caring - I had a good time with them yesterday and they challenge me wherever I am.

Thank you for the existence of music, for it makes my heart fly - I listened to some great music yesterday and I am able to make music in many different ways.

Thank you for a sunny day yesterday - when the sun shines, everyone seems happier and that counts for me as well. That is what makes summer summer :-).

Questions to ourselves

Your whole life is about asking questions. To yourself or to others. To keep you sharp and to realize if you are doing the right things. If you are on the path you want to be. To know the truth, to gain strength, for a lot of things. So we must keep asking ourselves critical questions, then we get further.

I realize I don't do this enough. I forget to ask myself critical questions and keep going on like I do. While it is so important to have a moment of reflection. To ask myself: "Why am I doing this? I this what I want to do? Why did I act in a certain way?".

Valuable questions, from which I can learn a lot, when searching for an answer. And we should not be afraid to ask other people questions either.

For there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers :-).

Forget the blunders :-)!

"If I cannot forgive myself for all the blunders
That I have made over the years,
Then how can I proceed?
How can I ever dream perfection-dreams?
Move, I must, forward.
Fly, I must, upward.
Dive, I must, inward,
To be once more
What I truly am
And shall forever remain" - Sri Chinmoy

And this way we should think. It is tough to forget blunders and we always want ourselves to be perfect. But this is a challenge we must accept, to forgive ourselves for all the blunders we make.

Only then can we live without hesitation I think. For myself it is still a way to go, but we work on this.

Verification of what we hear and see!

How many times do we actually verify if what we heard from someone, or what we read or what we saw, is actually the right information?

Recently I tried to pay attention to that. It happens quite often that someone tells me that a colleague did this or that or something more general about something that happened in the news. The first we could call gossip in some cases, the second should be objective, right?

In both cases I believe we should not just take information just as it is. Try to verify if it is true. Be curious! If someone says a certain product is not available anymore, don’t just believe that person! Check if that really is true. Same with people, who tell you a certain colleague is a horrible person. Experience a conversation with the horrible colleague and decide yourself.

And then our so-called media, that seem to be objective. Nothing is hundred percent objectified, so if possible try to verify what you hear in the news as well. Either with asking people more directly involved with that news, or checking other sources as well.

We often don’t do this and this makes us very shortsighted. We take things for granted and sometimes we regret this later on.

So let’s take a view from the other side and then again from another side, keeps us active ;-)!

To believe in yourself is the key
to motivate yourself, find a way

To trust you will make a decision,
and that it will be all right
whatever the decision will be

We face hard times
finding what we want
we need encouragement
support
but we stand alone
in the end

Because it is ourselves
who will be the driving factor
to make us do
what we want to do

There must be a little bit of luck
But after all
we must keep believing
for what we believe
is , I guess, all that we have

Believe
let come
let go
Trust

What will happen
set things in motion
and in this way we will keep on going
until we reach what we are looking for
:)

Oh, those feelings! What to do with it!

You know that feeling, that you are missing out on things? Things you loved to do and you don’t know when you are going to do them again. For me at the moment those are playing hockey and acting. Nice things have taken their place; I am very busy with my studies, but those sweet memories, that enthusiastic feeling. I miss that.

Feelings are strange things. They can totally control you. When singing or hearing a beautiful song, getting lost in a certain feeling. Sometimes you have a feeling and you don’t know how to define that feeling. Is it a good or a bad feeling? Can we rely on our feelings? Are they true? Or should we use our minds more? And put the feelings aside.

Feelings raise a lot of questions, especially a gut feeling. What is a gut feeling anyway? I don’t even know if I ever very well experienced one. And when it is there, do you need to follow that feeling? According to each and every situation, the feeling could be right or wrong.

And a following thought obviously will be: what is right or wrong? I hope I can use my feelings one day to help me discover that. Until now sometimes my feelings were true and I used my mind too much. If I had really really felt what I am feeling, I don’t know if things would or would have improved, or turned out better than they are now.

It is good to think about those feelings, but also not too much. Perhaps we should just let things come just as they are, let the feelings be there and keep looking ahead. And that feels much nicer at the moment!