Take Action Now

''To kill or not to kill? That is the question''

in·de·ci·sion (nd-szhn)   n.

Reluctance or an inability to make up one's mind; irresolution.

To change my life or not?

To close down my business or not?

To get a divorce or not?

To follow my bliss or follow my security?

To put a price tag on my dreams or not?

To fuck him or say 'fuck it'?

 The next thing you know is that you get bogged down with indecision. Indecision can easily lead to procrastination, and next thing you know you’re stuck not going anywhere.

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” –Eva Young

Solution:

Take Action to Fight Indecision!

Here is how:

Wipe the slate clean – If you have too many projects on the go, clear them all and start from scratch. When you have wiped the slate clean, concentrate on thing at a time until it’s finished and then move onto the next. If you can’t clear everything, just drop them temporarily, concentrate on one thing until it’s finished and then move on. You will find you move a lot quicker through everything you need to get done.

Clear the clutter – Clearing the clutter, whether it be from your desk, your house, or your wardrobe. When there is clutter in your life there is clutter in your mind, clearing the clutters clears your mind.

Analysis paralysis – This is the term given to people who are analysing things too much and it keeps them from moving on. Stop analysing and just do it. There comes a time when you have to stop evaluating something and just bite the bullet and do it, if it doesn’t work out do something else and start again.

List everything – Make a list of everything you would like to do, whether it be cleaning the house to taking the dog a walk. Write it down.

Prioritise – Pick the most important thing you have to do for the day, or week or year, and then pick the next most important thing and so on until you have reached the bottom off your list.

Take Action Now!

 If we wait for the anxiety and conflict to subside first, we will never do anything.  

Thinking about jumping is necessary and helpful. But at some point, you have to just do it.

Just do it!

                                                                                                                  

Writing something makes it real

Writing something makes it real

No wonder the ancient Egyptians had a god of Writing,whose job was to simply write on scrolls, tablets etc. He was  considered one of the most powerful Gods.

When it comes to accomplishing goals, here is my all time favorite-and very powerful- technique:

-Clear your mind and focus it on your goal

-Write a declaration clearly and with intent onto a piece of paper. Make it a declaration of what is

-Save the declaration and forget about it

There are a couple of simple rules to this.

First, you have to be very clear and very specific about what you are going to accomplish or have.

Secondly make sure you keep it to a declaration of what is, not of what will be or might be. 

PHRASING IT CORRECTLY MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE, BECAUSE THE DECLARATION IS GOING TO BE IMPRINTED IN YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS IN THE EXACT SAME WORDS YOU WILL BE USING.

If you put it in the future, it is going to stay up there indefinitely, never materializing in our world of reality.

Thirdly, do not let anyone or let only people who will support you in this see your written declaration. This is of utmost importance too. Other people's doubts, fears or intent might interfere with your goal if they see it, even if they do not tell you a word about it. Their will and intent might be stronger than yours and aspoil your plans. Or simply, wwhy let other people's doubts and misconceptions in the mix? Better keep it pure and unadultered.

Keep it simple. Write a time reference if you have to.

That's it. Sooner or later your subconscious will guide you towards taking the write steps to accomplish or have your desired goal.

                                              Love, peace and goals accomplished

                                                                          Eirini

Shut up, you little bastard!

 

That voice,that little bastard  in my head. I can't get it to shut up, ever.

It sounds something like this (or a variation of it) :


“You closed down your school. Now you have no insurance. Is it really smart to not have insurance? Aren't you getting too old for these kinds of risks? What if you get in an accident and you still don’t have insurance? What if a seriously disturbed person attacks you, stabs you in the back and you need hospitalization?Or worse, what if you are abducted by aliens, have one of your internal organs removed and then thrown into a ditch? ''

And so on and so on. With so many changes in my life and so much on my plate these days, that little voice had been getting louder, and oftentimes it felt productive to indulge it . It wasn’t ( see alien abduction scenario above). I bet you already know that  this type of incessant thinking takes away far more than it gives.

Being the happiest I have ever been for years is one thing. Staying like this all the time is another.
And all because of this little bastard in my head that won't shut up.


What is exactly this voice, this mental noise? 
(taken from an online dictionary)

1. Thoughts that repeat themselves like a tape that keeps playing the same tune.
2. Reliving negative past situations or visualizing fears over and over again.
3. Dwelling on the past or fearing the future. This prevents us from enjoying the present. The past is gone, and the future is the product of our present thinking and actions. The only time that exists is now, the present moment.
4. Compulsive inner monologue that disturbs our peace and makes the mind busy.
5. Never being here. Always thinking on something else, instead of what we are doing now. If we always think on something else we never enjoy the moment.
6. Constant analysis of our and other people's situations, reactions and behavior. Analyzing the past, the future, things we need or want to do, our day, yesterday and the distant past.
   

It’s hard to be fully present and have fun when a part of you is getting lost in a mental maze.

On average 70% of our thoughts are negative or redundant. What a waste of mind power!
How can we expect our collective experience to improve when most of the time we are immersed in negative thinking?

Doing something while judging, analyzing, worrying, fearing, or regretting in your head is like experiencing the world from inside a plastic bubble. You can see and hear everything, but it’s all diluted.
I don’t believe it’s possible to completely silence the nagging inner voice that constantly interprets and judges. That little mental hamster wheel will spin on occasion all throughout our lives.

 “I love how Michael Singer describes this inner voice as a completely whacked roommate:

''If somehow that voice managed to manifest in a body outside of you, and you had to take it with you everywhere you went, you wouldn’t last a day. If somebody were to ask you what your new friend is like, you’d say, “this is one seriously disturbed person. Just look up neurosis in the dictionary and you’ll get the picture.”

Another powerful author, Annie Lamott, calls this voice  a radio station that is turned to the channel “you are screwed” constantly. It’s mean, vicious, terrified or horrendously grief-stricken.

But I do think it’s possible to slow it down and even stop it for lengths of time. It’s possible to make presence, peace, and fun the norm and not the rarity.

It’s actually quite simple. Silencing the inner voice means experiencing more joy, because when you are experiencing joy you are fully present without any conscious effort on your part.

There is an off-switch for the mind. It's the present moment. Bringing your entire focus into this moment can stop the chatter. But even if you feel like you touch this space, you'll notice that it evaporates quickly. Your mental programming has been taught your whole life to continue constantly.

So what's the plan?

I've tried mental mindfulness and meditation, emptying my mind, journaling and all the rest of the hype, but they seem either too much work or they won't work at all. I wanted something that would come easily and naturally and without any conscious effort on my part (yeah, I am that mentally lazy). So I came up with a better plan:

 Incorporate things you enjoy into your day

I actually noticed that when I was having fun, real fun, the mental chatter would come to a halt. Can you remember a time when you lost yourself in a task? Not lost in thought, but lost in the doing of the task itself — you were concentrating fully, you thought of nothing else. The world disappeared. It might have been work — you might have achieved that state of mind known as “flow” — or it could have been a hobby, playing sports, yardwork, fixing something, anything.

Everybody’s idea of what constitutes fun will be different. Some people love thrills like bungee jumping while others prefer sensual pleasure like massage. Some people love to play board games and others long to dance. Do you know what things you really enjoy? What activities do you get completely consumed in so that time passes and you don’t even realize it? Make a list of your top ten fun activities including things you would like to try because you think they might be fun. The list doesn’t have to include anything to do with self-development, keeping fit or other noble causes, just things that are pure fun to you no matter how silly, childish or indulgent they may appear to other people.

When we were kids, fun was a priority. We always did the things we loved simply because we loved doing them. We didn’t stress about homework at the park because play time was for playing. A boring waiting room wasn’t an obstacle—it was where we played doctor. As we grow older we seem to forget how to do this and often give up the hobbies we had when we were young. What did you love to do when you were 10? Whatever it was is it still in your life now?Life can quickly seem monotonous and boring if we don’t nurture the side of ourselves that needs to play.


The point of this post: we can choose to quiet those annoying thoughts by immersing in fun activities, and get better at it with practice.

                                  
                                                         Love, peace and inner calm

                                                                         Eirini

School Is Where Brilliant Kids Go To Die

 

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be.You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements.Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”

― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

 I posted the above quote, as I always do, on my facebook wall. Then a friend sent me the above response that I loved:

 

''I like your post about education. Except for one line in it. It's the "It's the best we can do" line.

Because it's not the best we can do. And the part right before it, the "We're sorry" part.

We're not sorry.

We purposfully designed the system this way.

We have it the way we want it.

What that line should say is "We hate children. We hate children because we are jeαlous of them. We hate that you have fun and a lust for life that we lost. So we designed this system to drive that same sense of fun and lust for life out of you so you will be more like us, so we won't constantly be reminded of what we lost. So suck it you little fuckers!" Yea, that's more like what that line should say.

But there are a few of us that are sorry that the system is this way, but we still use this 'tired' 'bullshit' line. We say that "it's the best we can do" because of our own laziness and lack of imagination.

It's time we stop saying I'm sorry and actually do something to be worthy of forgiveness.''

 I loved this response, so honest and true.

My very own brief experience with state schools confirmed this.

Since we both see eye to eye on matters of education and I am very into such views on schooling, I asked permission to post this friend's educational vision here, as food for thought.

Enjoy!



''I think that school is where brilliant kids go to die.
If the kids are set free to learn at their own speed then kids will graduate from high school sooner.

The entire system should be reorganized.


Instead of having the traditional 12 grade system I'll change it to 4 grades. K-3 in one grade, 4-6 in one grade, then all of junior high school in one grade and senior high school in one grade.

Instead of a strict time schedule, schools will be open 24/7.

Students will be able to go to school whenever they want. There will be no books within this new system. Instead all students will receve a IPad style device.I think that this system will be cheaper in the long run if the school system didn't need to buy new books every few years.

The IPads will be able to be updated regularly with the latest knowledge.

There will be atleast 3 teachers in a class room at one time, perhaps less during the evening and night hours. But the teachers themselves will not be holding classes but instead be there to help students as needed. 

The primary source of learning will be done by the IPads themselves by means of video lectures, and also by their fellow students that have already passed that level of education.There will only be a few classes in other rooms that will be on a schedule. The only ones that I can think of at the moment will be Music, Physical Education, Religious Studies and Home Economics.

These classes will be held every hour so the individual student can dictate their own schedule as needed.
These classes will be in the standard manner however the main class room will be quite different.
They will be quite a bit larger, able to hold more students at a time.

Instead of desks lined up in rows like military formations the classroom will be filled with couches, chairs, carpets to lay on. It will feel more like a home. It will be filled with plants and animals that the students that wish so  will care for. 

I will also be changing the Parent/Teacher dynamic.
Gone will be the days of the parent teacher meetings, usually initiated by the teacher to make the parent feel less of a parent for not having a child progress the way the teacher feels is best.
(As I've seen personally and heard from you)

The teachers will be there anytime for the parents to talk to and review their kid's progress.

To progress to the next grade will not be that different from what they are now. The kid will need to show that they have the level of knowledge to progress to the next level.

With this new system we will eliminate the embarassment of being undereducated and be held back. Going on to the next grade will no longer be dictated by the age the kid has or how societiy feels a kid should develop.


The child will develop naturally with love and understanding instead of forcing and condemnation.''

                                                            
                                                      Love, peace and breakthroughs

                                                                       Eirini

The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

                             

 

I had great difficulty writing this post.  

In fact I was planning it for months, draft, content and all, but somehow I couldn't write it. Mostly I wouldn't feel like it so I kept postponing it. Or I'd half-heartedly drag myself to my blog page, open up the new post page and then stare at the blank screen with a mind equally blank.

 ''I just don't feel like writing anymore, I've grown over it'',  I would say to myself. Lame excuse. The 'thing' was burning in me, begging to be let out. I just knew it that unless I wrote about this one, I'd never be able to write about anything else at all. Or feel like me again, for that matter. 

But the timing wasn't right. The canvas wasn't complete, I was still in the middle of it and  too busy living it to be able to write about it. It just didn't feel right writing about an experience while I was still fighting my inner demons,gasping for breath, praying for strength and guidance and direction.

This day has come now.

After 9+ years of owning my own private school, LEXIS, I've decided -as of this September- to close down the business and leave it all behind me.

 I've spent one hell of a 9 years' time growing my business at an almost unbelievable rate, growing as a person myself along the way.

What an adventure it has been, guys!

It’s been amazing, it’s been fun, and I’ve had such a blast doing it.

But it’s time I moved on, and I hope you’re all happy for me to move on .

Thank You

 

To my students, to all my amazing students, to the ones I personally taught and became friends with and to all those who had lessons with us, who've been inspired to learn a new foreign  language or brush up a forgotten one and get a certificate, improve their job prospects or go after a better opportunity through LEXIS, thank you.  

Thank you so much. I cannot thank you all enough. If it wasn’t for you, I would never have continued to pursue growing the business, trying to make LEXIS the best for you, or, as my accountant put it the other day -getting almost all the adult student population of the town to come and sample a taste of our services.

I cannot tell you just how grateful I am to have been able to get to know you all, to be your teacher and occasionally friend, and to consider you as my students. I am proud of your accievements and successes and I am absolutely touched by how generous you’ve all been with your praise of the school and with trusting us with your education. Thank you. A million times, thank you.

 To my employees and my sponsors, to those I've done business with and to those new teachers I've personally 'discovered' or to ones that came with working experience, to all those I have fallen in love with their potential, thank you for proving me right in every sense of the word when it came to trusting my students with you. Thank you for trusting me to be your employer and occasionally mentor and thank you for putting up with me. I have seen more happiness, more luck, and more prosperity thanks to your hard work, dedication and talents and I would be a fool to feel ungrateful for it all — thank you.  

Thank you so much.

Thank you.
Thank you again.
Thank you to all of you for everything

What Now?

 

Now life goes on. 

My life as a mother, blogger, friend and of course, teacher 

(can't get this one off me, it's who I am, part of my identity).

 
I  embrace all of the things that I’ve grown to  love and create, and I keep it all with me for ever, part of what I have become.

And I can truly and honestly state that

I am the happiest and the most content I have been in years!

                                             Read on to find out why.

                                 The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me or 

                 Why I am the happiest and the most content I have been in years


Closing down my business was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Not as in 'I-Sold-The-Business-And-I- Can-Now-Retire-With- A-Handsome-Amount-That-Will-See-That-I-Am-Provided for-For-The-Rest-Of-My-Life kind of way.

 Not as in 'I've seen the light at last, got sick and tired of working 10-12 hours a day so I've finally found my life purpose and I'mnow free as the wind and off to follow my bliss.

Not even as in 'I had to close down the business because it was no longer profitable, but once I did close it down, after much soul searching and mental suffering I realized that life is not about material success or money and I'm much wiser and happier for the realization.'

Nothing of the above happened.

Selling a business during this economic crisis in this country is either impossible or means practically giving up your life's efforts and dreams for a pittance, which, in my books at least, is worse than giving the business away, so that one was out of the question. Better keep my business systems, manuals ,methods and all- to myself for a possible future use in a distant future when better financial prospects come up in this country than feeling stupid for selling it at an outrageously low prize.

Tired of working? No, I  was never tired of that , in spite of the crazy, long hours, the inevitable stress of owning a business or what those long hours and stress meant for my family.

No, I really loved every minute of it. Because I've dreamed it and created it from scratch without any help or previous experience in the field or in business in general, which meant that it was, from beginning to end, a labor of love.

Not to mention how dreadfully I miss working hard for something I loved and how any kind of work I do now, be it professional or otherwise, feels like a breeze and unworthy of my attention in comparison and so endlessly pisses me off for not being challenging enough.

And as for seeing the light after closing down my school, realizing that material things mean nothing compared to other important stuff in our lives like,health, love friends etc? Oh come on guys, this is pure nonsence coming from fake new age gurus with a fat and not at all fake bank account that actually proves how fake their claims actually are. 

Because love and light and the like are all  nice and wonderful to think and talk about, but let's face it, life's hard currency is money and without it neither love nor light can prove adequate alternatives to feeding you or those that depend on you. I believe in 'all things in moderation' and going destitute just to prove how spiritually evolved one is has never been my kind of thing. Hard work should be rewarded with material success and this is as enlightened a belief as one can ever be.

So what is it then?

Why am I the happiest I have been in years? 

It has nothing to do with winning the lottery ticket. In case you were wondering.

It's not about falling in love either, though falling in love can certainly feel like winning the lottery ticket! 


 All over the world people face many heartbreaking, difficult circumstances in life, much worse than closing down one's business, I guess- that evoke every emotion except happiness. 

A loved one dies, a needed job is lost due to cutbacks, a child is using drugs; these are all things that will cause feelings of grief. In times like this, grief is exactly what needs to be felt and expressed because that is the appropriate response to the situation. In some cases it escalates to severe symptoms controlled only with prescription medication, alcoholism, or street drugs to mask the pain inside. On a daily basis we all  face less stressful circumstances but they still evoke feelings of unhappiness within us.So how do one deals with all this? After all, we don't get to choose our emotions...

Or do we???


Is your happiness within your control? Is making the correct choices in life—choosing a spouse, a career, a lifestyle—the best way to be happy in life? Are outer circumstances responsible for how happy you are? Or is your level of happiness pretty much hardwired, a product of your genes and your childhood experience?

 If you have given up hope of ever being happy, cheer up.

Never lose hope.

Your soul, being a reflection of the ever joyous Spirit, is, in essence, happiness itself.

Yes, happiness depends to some extent upon external conditions, but chiefly upon mental attitudes.Consider this metaphor. You see a beautiful dress, worn by a gorgeous model. You go 'wow, what a dress'. Yes, the dress is indeed gorgeous, but if you a really unattractive person with a flabby, unattractive body wore the same garment, you might not have liked as much.

On the other hand, even a cheap tee can look great on a fit, gorgeous body. Same with your attitude and external circumstances. Clothes stand for material success, body for mental attitude. External circumstances can make life glamorous, but they wont give you happiness,just as a gorgeous outfit wont do much to change the shape of one's body.
 
 Real happiness can stand the challenge of all outer experiences.

 Essentially, conditions are neither good nor bad; they are always neutral, seeming to be either depressing or encouraging because of the sad or bright attitude of the mind of the person concerned with them.

 The more you depend upon conditions outside yourself for happiness, the less happiness you will experience.

TO HAVE A GORGEOUS BODY THAT LOOKS AWESOME IN ALL KINDS OF OUTFITS, GLAMOROUS OR OTHERWISE, YOU HAVE TO EXERCISE. IT.
HARD AND CONSISTENTLY.

TO BE HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT GOES ON IN YOUR LIFE, YOU HAVE TO EXERCISE YOUR MIND.
HARD AND CONSISTENTLY.

The mind, being the master concerning feeling and perception of all ourliving cells, can keep our body alert or depressed. The mind is the king, and all its cellular subjects behave exactly according to the mood of their royal master.

Just as we concern ourselves with the nutritive value of our daily food menus, so should we consider the nutritive potency of the psychological menu that we daily serve our mind.

This is my secret to happiness, which is actually no secret at all:

I cultivate an attitude if happiness consistently and on a daily basis.

Just as I exercise my mind daily, I daily pick up my mood, consistently choosing to feel happy.

Mental workout, guys. Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, it can be done.

No, its not easy. Knowing one thing is good for you and doing it on a daily basis is another.
That's where most of us fail. We're not good at persevering, not good at sticking with it.

We get lazy or lose hope. We just quit.

That's why closing down my business was the best thing that ever happened to me .

Because it essentially meant giving up on my dream,  a great source of happiness and financial freedom for me.

It meant plunging me headlong into the depths of despair for a while ( just like Eliza Doolittle in the movie musical ''My Fair Lady'', I felt like exclaiming 'What's to become of me?' ).
 And that meant I had essentially two choices:

-I either stayed there and sunk even deeper

or

-I would choose to be happy, no matter what.

This is what I did. This is what my plan looked like:

After I went through the initial grieving process, I decided that I'd do two things.

-Have the body of my dreams

-Have the mindset  of a happiness pro .

Both entailed hard work. Both required  consistent work on a daily basis.

Having a fit body proved to be easier, because my body was a more obedient servant than my rebellious mind could ever be,.

Consistency was the key.

To keep at it, I just had to keep at it! Day in, day out.

And eventually I started seeing results in both fronts:

A fit, well-toned body.

And a mindset that keeps me  in a constant state of joy, no matter what goes on in my life.

Which, in turn, has led to a couple of great blessing in my life that I am still in the process of creating (and not ready to share yet!)

     You can do it too.

You don't need me to give you the specifics on how to go about dieting and exercising. I bet you know that already.


Likewise, you dont need me to tell you how to elevate your mood , I bet you know that too.
(but I'll give you a few hints ; prayer, uplifting muic, meditation, gratitude journals, affirmations and of course exercising)

Just do it consistently and on a daily basis. Set up a specific time every day, allocated only for the purpose of uplifting your spirit, of putting you in the frequency of joy.

                                                      It is as simple as that:

                                   Choose Happy On A Daily Basis

                                  

                                      Love, peace and happiness

                                                  Eirini