Inspiration
Articles to inspire authentic living on the topics of resilience, spirituality, and self-growth with touches of storytelling, depth, and humor.
You can browse themes below
Do you want to explore other resources? Check my favorite books and podcasts
The Connection Jackpot
With my heart as complete as it was, feeling extremely lucky for the beautiful relationships that surround me, I got to reflect on the kind of connections that feed my soul. Because let’s be honest, we may have tons of friends, but not every tie makes our heart swell. So, what are the criteria? What makes an acquaintance move from “yes-you-are-fun” to “I-am-a-different-person-because-of-you”? What makes us want to go the distance to cultivate a relationship?
Maybe this will be the theme of this year for me, but I want to spend more time with meaningful people. I just don’t have as much energy to stay in places that don’t elevate me or support me.
How do I define who those people are worth keeping close to?
Living Authentically, with open wings
Blame it on my artist’s heart but here has always been a certainty in me that the only road to happiness comes from living as authentically as we can. Hiding behind a more acceptable persona seems like an incredibly expensive prison. But sometimes honesty and transparency come with a very high price tag as well. I used to believe that those who live portraying an image of who they are not, to be liked by a group of people who don’t even like themselves, had to be in constant anguish. The fear of someone holding a mirror in front of them should be terrifying. And then there are all the lies and all the schemes that need to be strategized in order to support that unstable structure. Nope, too much work for me!
But then I realized how much courage, how much strength it takes to live authentically and I discovered that veracity was not exactly an easy road either. There are internal voices, society rules and expectation, unspoken commitments to keep connections no longer valid, and then our own insecurities that make living in full honesty an unsurmountable task.
Brave Heart
I have had a good share of hits, as everyone else, I suppose. It is hard for me to think objectively to determine if I have been strong or nor, but I can assume that yes, strength has been one of my prizes and my only way of salvation.
Today as I reflected in many of my life’s events, I realized that really going through something is not a sign of victory. Sometimes we go through because we are carried away and sometimes out of stubbornness. Real victory, the stuff that transform us into superheroes, is not going through difficulties until we can see them in the rearview mirror.
Real victory is to remain open hearted even when our hearts have been broken.
Of Kryptonite and Super Powers
I had never been into super heroes. In fact, I despise them. I don’t like the idea of a character who is invincible. Call it Spider Man, Batman, Jack Bauer, Jason Borne or Jon Snow, if they survive the unsurvivable many times in a row I loose interest on them (well, not in Jon Snow, but that is the exception). Of course, as life loves to play tricks on us and gives of us a double dose of of whatever we despise, I was blessed with a baby boy who loves super heroes. At three and a half he is obsessed with them. One day he is a super hero, next one he is the bad guy.
I like my character with flaws. The good ones have a dark side, the bad ones never learned to deal with pain. And regardless of the side they identify most with, they will sometimes fail, many time they will succeed. Life is not a string of constant achievements because everyone eventually falls down, a few steps down, a whole wall or into the darkest abyss.
About honesty and pain and watching angels sleep
A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a friend about how sometimes people choose not to tell truths to their loved ones because they are afraid of hurting them. For some reason, some words came through me and I expelled them without filter. The weight of them did not hit me until later. At that moment I told her: “We all have a different level of tolerance for the truth.”
That sank in me….deep.
Yesterday, I stayed a few seconds observing my three-year-old son while he was still asleep. That peaceful face, his cute lips, the way he puts his hands as if he was praying, the glow of innocence. My heart swelled while I rejoiced in the moment, thinking how much I love him and how I want to protect him from pain for the rest of his life. I did the same thing with my daughters too when they were younger but now they had grown and if they find me looking at them while they are sleeping they would probably scream, “moooom, creepy!” So I don’t do it anymore. However that desire to protect them has not evaporated. They have had their shares of pain, and for the most part, I had been completely unable to shield their hearts.
The key to recover strength
Last night I had a dream—not the MLKjr kind—that had kept me reflecting on a word that is very close to my heart: vulnerability.
Some time ago I discovered the importance of being vulnerable in order to heal and get stronger. Our human nature gravitates towards trying to shield ourselves from heartbreaks and in the process we band-aid our pain and pretend to go through life as if we were soldiers, closeted wounded soldiers. It is only natural to do that—who wants to be in pain?
There is no greater pain than that of being backstabbed, kicked, pushed and spitted on when we are at our lowest. Sometimes it only takes a hurtful word—a harsh judgement disguised as advice—to make us shattered when we thought we could not break into even smaller fragments. I have no doubt, however, that from those tiny pieces, we can recover ourselves like a phoenix.