You are not Alone

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” 

― Helen Keller

You don't have to do anything alone. That is something I am learning the great value of lately. Even better, trying to everything is rather selfish, as my mentor say. Can you imagine and understand that concept? I wouldn't even have been able to understand that concept a year ago. Why would doing everything would be selfish? Why would being responsible be selfish? Why would taking care of myself completely would be selfish? I am not bothering anyone, if anything, I AM HELPING OTHER PEOPLE! right? But, the answer is NO. Because you are not giving other people an opportunity to love you. Because you are saying NO to other people's kindness and love. Because you are shutting yourself out from the rest of the world. You are not even acknowledging their existence. And THAT is selfish.

We often think that asking help is a sign of weakness, that we are not capable, that we are incompetent, that we are not good enough. Because of the idea that we have to be perfect or independent. Because we think as an adult, "we should be able to take care of ourselves". And a lot of us tend to be a giver. We give, give, give and not allowing ourself to receive. Giving is great, by serving others, we shift our focus to what's more than our ego. Serving for others gives us the great deal of kindness and gratitude. At the same time, ask yourself. What else are we getting from? Are we making ourselves feel better only by serving others? or by making ourselves believe that because we are a giver, we are better than them? Are we building the false idea that as long as we give, people won't reject us? It's great to feel being needed, being relied on.. because it gives you the sense of purpose, something to live for, right? Brene Brown talks about this in one of her talk. She said, "As long as we can't ask for help without judgement, we are always helping others with judgement". It blew my mind. And that is true, at least to me.

Do you remember the first time when your parents asked you to help them? Taking your dishes to the sink or, helping the bag from the market, or doing anything, because you are big enough to help them. Do you remember how that made you feel? It made you feel like you are being acknowledged, or believing in you, or being encouraged even. And that made us feel good, didn't it? Whether we actually were helping them or not, at least it made us feel like they found value in us. It empowered us. That's still the same. Even though we are grown up, we can still have that same effect on other people. The fact that we don't ask for help, it means we are not acknowledging other people around you and their strength. You could be even robbing the opportunity for them to grow. Imagine, if your parents kept brushing your teeth, you would never learn how to brush your teeth on your own. It's the same thing. People say a good leader knows how to find value in others and delicate the task. It doesn't mean that you can just drop everything on them. That's a different story. The point is, we don't have to do everything all on our own. We can do it together. We can lean in and create something even better. We can feed off of each other and make things more powerful. That's the beauty of co-creation. We are all different, have unique skills and that is exactly why when we work together we can create something more powerful. A piano player can create a beautiful music on her own, yet, when that pianist join force with the whole orchestra, that multiplies the scale, add some choir, then that'll add more power, add the audience.... It doesn't mean what that pianist created isn't good enough. It's beautiful. And there are much more possibilities all around the world.

We all want the same thing.  Not being alone. We want someone to listen to us, someone to hold us and say "Everything is gonna be ok, I got your back." And you are not alone. So, you don't have to do it alone. Ask for help. If you are so uncomfortable ask for help, start from something small, like "can you please pass that salt for me?" It doesn't matter. Start from somewhere. And practice. You are not alone.

Love, Hope, Faith

Enjoy the ride, not only the destination.

“I may be going nowhere, but what a ride.” 

― Shaun Hick

Miracles happen everywhere, when you see things from different perspective. The truth is that the fact we are all here in this Universe at this exact moment, that is already a miracle. And when you start seeing things from a different lens than what you are used to, you'll be surprised to see how blessed you are, how much of magic you've neglected to see till that exact moment. 

Last night, I went to C.R.E.A.T.E., the theme of the night was "DELAY", in continuation to the "instant manifestation" from the last week. So, the gap between when the desire happens and till the point things come to manifest, that's delay. As much as we want things to happen right away, there are many things that we wish it didn't come to manifest, right? Imagine, when you are feeling bad and start thinking "I wish I get hit by a bus!", then that manifests right away? That's not what we want, is it? Whether we admit it or not, we are being saved by having that delay. So, the whole session was about that delay and the tension. We live in the where things don't happen when we want or how we want. It's just that's how it is. There's a power that's bigger than us that's orchestrating this whole thing. You can call it however you like. But we are all a part of that bigger picture, and everything and anything we do is a part of that. So, we don't get to decide when we want, how we want or what we want for that matter. Our ego, our small vision which isn't capable of seeing things from the bigger picture, that prevents us from opening up to the possibilities of what can actually happen. We think we know what's best for us, but we don't. We really don't. When you are a child, you think you know everything. Yet, your parents usually know what's best for you, or the better options for you. Only because they have learned to see thing from different perspectives. And they know that they don't know everything. They know that the things happen when or how we want. So what's the point of having goals or trying to go for anything?! What's the point? The answer is there is NO POINT! The journey itself, that is the point.  Someone said, "I feel like I'm stuck all the time just waiting for the life boat to come save me". Then the other person answered, "What if you are already on that life boat? but you just haven't seen that yet." We are on that life boat. We are the journey. We are the LIFE. 

If I may, I've wrote about the journey with my obsession with Miss Saigon multiple times. I was obsessed, I was beyond narrow minded, I was not seeing anything else. For more than 10 years, from the beginning where I fell in love with that show to the point I auditioned for the broadway production, I changed. And I changed so much. My path has changed completely. Everything has changed. And guess what? If I did book that show, if I did play Kim, if I did get what I wanted, I wouldn't have come to this path. I wouldn't have been able to allow myself to take this journey, meet all these amazing people, and say that I am happy with who I am. And it's all because I didn't get what I wanted. Of course it took me a long time to see it that way, but I was able to come to this place. It's different from giving up and making some excuses. It's not that. I did find a different path. I did find different passion and calling. I did chose to get on this path. I allowed myself to say it's ok not to keep going in that path and that life changes. It took a course to admit that you are not the same person. It took me a lot of time to admit that acting/musical theatre isn't my priority. And I felt guilty for feeling that way. I wanted to keep doing because that was my passion, Ive invested on it, and that was all I know how to do. Yet, life took me somewhere else. And when you allow yourself to follow that path, that's when miracles start to happen. I decided to leave my acting class because of that. It's a great class, the teacher is one of the best, it's a very popular class with a waitlist. So giving up that spot also took me a courage. I kept thinking "What if I want to come back and I can't get back in?" "I want to keep my spot".... But I knew that if the life wants me to be back, it'll be available. So I left. Then yesterday, I found out that because I left, a friend of mine was able to get in the class. And that made me happy. That was absolute synchronicity. When you make space for yourself, you are not only creating something else to come into your life, but also creating space for others. That's fascinating. This clicked me more to see that we ARE INDEED a part of a bigger picture, filling each pieces of the puzzle. And that's beautiful. That's magical. And I love that. See things from bigger picture. Always have room for something new to come in. Be available and open to change. Be willing to accept things for what is. Learn to accept and see things from the bigger picture. And love yourself more than anything else in the world. You have to love yourself first in order for you to do something great, something wonderful, something that you are created to do. Enjoy that ride. this Ride is everything. You have to fill your own cup first. You are divine. You are love. You are miracle. Don't ever forget that. I love you. and I am so honored to be a part of this bigger picture with you. 

Love, Hope, Faith...

Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything.

“It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” 
― Nicholas Sparks

People say this all the time, things don't happen to you, it happens FOR you. It's all about perspectives. The other day, a friend of mine and I had a great conversation. It was mainly about duality, perspectives, and moving forward. The world we live in, that's the world of duality, where everything is nothing and nothing is everything. Life and death coexists. Good and Evil, right and wrong, light and darkness, pain and healing, love and hate. We cannot see one without the there. Everything exist side by side.  Things are also permanent and temporary. What we see, what we feel, if every existence in this Universe is an energy, which I believe that's the case, the energy will remain in this realm in various form. Yet its physical form is so tangible and temporary. My mother always says that everything that has physical form will break sooner or later. It is the circle of life, isn't it? So, there might not even be any "true form" to begin with. It's all about how we see it. 

The more we take part in this spiritual journey, the more we learn about ourself. Our limiting beliefs, verbal or physical patterns, even personal or genetic history of the belief system... we become more aware of those things. We also become more aware of the new ways, the way of light, the way of love... And at one point or the other, we struggle to find the balance. We start feeling bad for not being able to see things or feel things from the way of love and light. We thought that we passed that part and moved on. We feel like we were back to the beginning and haven't grown. We feel even guilty for feeling this way. And if anything, the pain feels worse than before. The voice inside starts telling us that "you thought you were better? well, you thought wrong!" It is painful. A teacher told us that "You will experience the same issue over and over till you fully make peace with it. And the deeper the layer is, the longer it might stay. It may seem like you are just making the same circle over and over again. But the truth is that you are making the spiral. You keep moving upward, closer and closer to the light. So, you will experience those pain again and again, actually in a bigger scale each time". 

Everything is nothing and nothing is everything. 

What we see it as THE truth might not be the same for others. if we can all live in the place of love and compassion and peace, that will be ideal. And in the spiritual level, that's how I would love all of us to live. Yet, we also live in the physical world, where things are temporary. It doesn't mean that one is better than the other. We live in the both world at the same time. We need to learn to live in both world. And that's the journey we are on.

Love, Hope, Faith....