Solsten 212

Do you live in the past, present or future?

A friend that I used to play tennis with back in Brazil died a couple of days ago in a motorcycle accident. He was two years younger than me, and now he is gone.

So many of us, including myself, plan our lives so that “one day” we will be happy, “one day” we will feel complete, “one day” we will feel that we have reached our vision of what life “should look like”.

The death of my friend was a reminder to myself that maybe that “one day” may never come.

If you knew that you were going to die tomorrow, would you live your life differently today? I am always reminded of how ephemeral life is and that all we have is NOW. The past is gone and the future is in our plans and expectations.

Before my car accident over 20 years ago, I lived in the future. Always knowing that “some day” I would live a fulfilled life, would be happy, would feel complete. That accident was such a wake up call that I went from living in the future to living completely in the present. The only problem was that there was no balance of present and future.

In my opinion, a healthy balance of living in the past, present and future is necessary for us to live a fulfilled life. Not just planning for the future, not only living in the present, not allowing the melancholy of the “good old days” to take over and obscure what we are experiencing today.

So, where do you live? And what would life be like if you lived in all three realms?

I look forward to reading your comments and perceptions on this post. And please feel free to share it with your friends.

Carpe diem!

{Claudio}

Are you living the life of your dreams right now?

If you answered yes, congratulations! You are one of the few people on earth who have accomplished this. If you answered ‘no’, you are not the only one. Today’s society almost ‘demands’ that you be dissatisfied with your life as this dissatisfaction is what keeps the economy running (or at least that’s the belief). Can you imagine a society where everyone was happy with the house, the car, the job and all other material belongings they had? What would be the incentive to buy the latest or the newest fad?

If you look at how our economy is structured, the media tells us that the world is falling apart, and advertisements promise ‘if you buy the product xyz you will feel happy and fulfilled’. Interesting …

We can blame the cultural discourse for some of our dissatisfaction and discomfort, but something much bigger than this discourse is our core belief about ourselves.

I have come across so many people that truly believe, deep inside, that they don’t feel they deserve to live the life of their dreams. Sometimes they feel undeserving of attention, sometimes they feel undeserving of love, sometimes they feel undeserving of being wealthy, sometimes they feel undeserving of being as athletic, healthy, cared for as they could be.

But my question is: What is stopping you from living the life that you want? If your answer is ‘well, life gets in the way’, then I suggest you look at your life and acknowledge where these diversions have been taking place. You may start to notice some patterns.

The interesting fact is that these patterns are based on some deep core beliefs about yourself. The good news is that these can be worked on if you become aware of them.

Awareness is the first step. Once you acknowledge the patterns, you can start working on reframing the core beliefs about yourself so that they work with (and not against) you. I’ll talk more about these core beliefs and how to reframe them in subsequent posts.

What does this post bring up for you? I look forward to hearing your feedback below.

Thanks for reading! And please feel free to share this post with your friends.

{Claudio}