Living life as a practice

The sun is slowly peeking its eyes over the horizon. The silence is broken by the resolute movement of the sword. The Samurai is completing his morning practice. You can find him here everyday. For the last 10 years. Every morning, the same time, same place, same movements. On a rainy day, on a snowy day, in the summer in the winter, whatever is happening in his life, he is here, ready to practice one more time. It goes beyond an exercise, it is a way of life. Intention, aspiration, humility and discipline…

‘Swimming’ with the flow…

As some of you know, I am a passionate swimmer. I have been swimming competitively for 8 years since I was 10, which meant 3 hours a day commitment. Swimming was and still is one of my big teachers and helps me to grow as a person. Though today I swim more just to keep in shape, it still is a big part of my life…

As I was swimming today I thought to share something with you. Swimming is a very particular sport where the most powerful outcome is achieved when you marry your power and desire to swim as fast as you can with the flow of the water. One of my swimming coaches used to say that swimming is like a ‘dance in the water’.

This applies to many sports but especially in swimming, simply wanting to go faster and putting all your energy into it is not enough. What is necessary is to put all your energy but at the same time ‘blend’ with the water, do the right moves at the right time. If you do them too quickly, it actually makes you go slower, if you do them too slow you don’t get the optimum glide in the water. For all you aspiring swimmers, I can’t fully explain how to do this, but your body knows how, trust me. It knows exactly what is the right speed, right moves and how to use best what the water already offers…

I find this a powerful metaphor for achieving things in my life. I often hear around me ‘You can manifest anything that you want, all is in your power’. On the other side I also hear, ‘You need to let go and fully surrender to what needs to happen’. How about both? Like in swimming, can we put all our energy, efforts, dreams and aspirations to ‘create’ our reality, while at the same time ‘blend’ with what is waiting to happen, what is flowing around us like the water? Can we harmonize our intentions with what is most needed to happen at this point of time? For us, our communities and the world alike? Where else can this principle help us as we look around our World(s)?

Recently, I have moved countries and one of the things I struggle with at the moment is looking for an appartment, the right place for me to live for next few years, the place that would make my ‘soul’ sing. The same principle applies here, after 3 weeks of tireless browsing, looking and visiting appartments, I have learned that it is not ‘only’ in my power to find this place. No matter how many hours I spent looking for it, no matter how much I want it as soon as possible, no matter how much I can get frustrated that I did not find it yet… No matter what, I also need to wait for the appartment to appear. This does not mean giving up, this means looking as I do and increasing chances I will see it when it appears, but at the same time allowing things to take time and providing I know what I am looking for, to be patient until it appears…

What do you think? Which situation are you facing right now that would benefit from this approach?

Like this I believe we can ‘swim’ with the flow of evolution unfolding around us and achieve flawless elegance in how we live our lives. Good luck in all your ‘swims’…

Winning with honour…

Watching Sebastian Vettel win the Formula 1 World Championship has inspired me. I do not know enough about this season to be commenting on whether he deserved or not, but from the little I know he did. In the moment he was cruising the last lap right after going through the finish as the World Champion, the team radio came on. Estimate of 600 million people around the entire world has heard him cry with joy, screaming “Unbelievable” in the times he could actually grasp enough control of his voice to speak… The connection so strong that I had tears in my eyes despite the distance, despite not knowing him, despite his history and how much it took for him to achieve what he achieved today.

Genuine victory with honour, grace and authenticity. How important it is that people we look up to, whether they are politicians, sportsman, celebrities, public figures, our role models, our friends, ourselves… How important it is not only to win and prove we can compete and have enough ambition and courage to make it all the way, but also to win with honour, dignity and in the spirit of fair play. How important it is to do the thing we know needs to be done especially when no one is watching. How important it is to achieve the outside victory without suffering even worse defeat inside.

In the volatile times of today, it is every victory achieved like this that counts towards the new world we are building.

In the lives of the ones we admire the most as much as in our own lives, even in the lives of people we do not know. We face smaller and bigger battles every day, often unprepared, without ideal conditions and sufficient knowledge or previous experience to have it easy. We stand in front of these moments, when we make choices, when we speak to each other, when we stand in front of living our dreams without a drop of assurance yet with a pool of courage. In our personal and professional lives alike, one moment after another. This is where our future is being defined, this is where we build its foundations…

To win with honour, to win without losing a piece of ourselves. To take choices we are proud of for the years to come. To both win and to travel with grace, commitment and sensitivity, to acknowledge that the journey is as important as the destination.

Not because we are wrong or bad when we don’t, but because there is so much more possible for us and all alike when we do…

The Spectacle of our Lives

The highs. The lows. The things we strive for and the things we avoid. The moments where everything will be perfect that come and go before we realize they are there. The search for better. The guilt and the shame when things are not as they should. Blaming the outside, blaming the inside. The big successes and disasters, dramas, dilemmas, life choices and tragedies. The same pattern unfolding in us, in others through our projections, in the world through our projections… The constant classification and no escape…Unless we choose the third way. To step once in a while in a space of an observer. Observing the moments of joy and success and smiling inside. Observing the drama, the pain and the disasters and… smiling inside. The spectacle of our lives unfolding in front of our eyes. All as is, an experience. All part of our journey, all to wonder, to ponder and to notice. Without judgment, value or attachment to what is next. Our life unfolding step by step, moment by moment, happening by happening. The same pattern unfolding in us, in others through our projections, in the world through our projections… The constant awareness and the ultimate freedom…

Can I? Can you? Can we?