Montserrat and Santiago

In this past week, that I spent in Barcelona, I did a little trip out of town with my friend Cristina. We went to the monastery of Montserrat and I really loved it! There was a fresh air scented of resin up there, and a stupendous wiew on the mountain with these particular cylindric rocks. Inside the monastery was the statue of the Virgin, that everybody aimed to touch to express a prayer. It’s a really beautiful place, go if you have the chance. In the meanwhile, up here is the video-report of my trip.

old videos – da caricare


santiago-pilgrimage-mapThen yesterday, while I was in the plane returning to Italy, I started an interesting conversation with a couple sit beside me, approximately of the age of my parents. She casually mentioned that they were returning from the pilgrimage to Santiago, and it was curious that I read the pilgrimage by Coelho just the week before, otherwise I wouldn’t even have known what she was talking about.

I told them I was actually surprised: when I read the book I figured that the pilgrimage was an “ancient” thing, that in modern days almost nobody would cross by foot the north of Spain, from the Pyrenees to Santiago. I was wrong! Not only they just made it in 35 days (as they explained me, the duration varies according to each pilgrim’s strength), but they also told me that there are spefic stations for the pilgrims along the way, where they can sleep and eat at “pigrim prices”, like 5 euro. And they said those stations were crowded!

Tired but clearly happy for the experience, the woman explained me that these hostels for the pilgrims headed to Santiago are very spartan: when you’re lucky you have a room where you sleep with other 2, 4 pilgrims… but sometimes there are huge dorms with even 100 other pilgrims. In some cases there are common showers for men and women!

For the husband, it was the third time he completed the pilgrimage, while his wife did it for the first time. They walked for hours every day, and she even fell once and hit her head. This explained the scar in the forehead, but she showed it to me with a philosophical smile. I saw some of their pictures, heard few stories about the small towns they crossed, I guess they had a very fascinating experience. It’s definitely a big commitment and it requires stamina, but who knows, maybe I’ll do it too one day!

3 Shifts that improve your life conditions

The following are three shifts that I strongly suggest, as they can improve your life conditions. On the left, the “entities” that are more popular today. The best thing you can do is to move your focus away from these, and orientate it towards the entities at the right. Let’s see why.shift-from-finance-to-economy1. Shift your focus from finance to economy. When I was younger I used to say that “economy is terribly boring”. Today I find it very interesting and exciting. The problem is that, when I was younger, I was confusing the two things. What I believed to be the economy was actually finance. Unfortunately, this is still a common belief for a wide spread of the population.

There is an overexposure of finance in the media today, that keep on talking about banks, paper money, indexes and graphics, as if they were meaningful topics. But they are not. All these things are related to a parasitic financial estabilishment that adds no practical value to the life of people. Real economy, instead, is the science that studies the desires of people, and how people behave in the free market to meet these desires.

Free from the intervertion of governments and banks, real economy truly serves the desires of everyone. Once you shift your focus on it, you will not be distracted and conditioned by the finance uselessness anymore, and you will put your desires first.shift-from-religion-to-spirituality2. Shift your focus from religion to spirituality. The main problem with religions is that they are human institutions. While many of them are founded on spiritual principles, with time they have taken a detour. Consider that most religions are hundreds or thousands of years old. There’s been plenty of time for groups of power to distort the spiritual messages, so to obtain privileges and control over the masses.

Getting rid of religious dogmas is a necessary step to make room for something else. …what else? When people are unsatisfied with religions, their typical first reaction is to embrace materialism. In this stage there is the belief that science has all the answers. I went through it. At this stage you believe that humans, animals and plants are machines without purpose. Evolution is going nowehere. There is usually no familiarity with the concept of consciousness, and if there is some, then it’s reserved only to humans. Animals, plants, object, the planet, the universe, they’re all unconscious.

The step further, once you realize that this vision is limiting as well, is in a direction that I label as “spirituality”, for simplicity. At this stage you start to see less coincindences in the events that happen, and find more purpose instead. You understand that reality is a projection of the mind, and that the mind itself is not strictly closed in your brain, but it’s also outside of you. This is a very complex topic and I will not expand the discussion here, but I want to remark that shifting to a spiritual vision comes with great advantages: it increases the connection with your inner self, it makes you listen more to your intuition, and pushes you to work with determination to achieve your dreams. Because you know they are achievable.

To clarify how religion and spirituality are different, click here.

shift-from-diet-to-nutrition3. Shift your focus from diet to nutrition. I made an entire video to explain why diets don’t work. Diets are usually stressful and orientated to the short term. They rarely help you mantain an ideal weight for long. In addition, a serious problem is that typically the main focus of diets is not health, but “shape”. Diets are all about quantity (of calories), but they rarely concentrate of the quality (of nutrients).

It’s smart to stop worrying about diets and develop a knowledge about nutrition, instead. It will give you two crucial advantages. First, if you eat mostly nutrient-dense foods, you can basically eat as much as you want without getting fat. Second, this way your body and your mind will get the fuel they really need. This is especially important for the mind: I think that it’s a greatly underestimated fact that the foods we eat impact our mental clarity.

I advice to stop wasting time with diets and pay bigger attention to nutrition. If you don’t know much about it, start to learn. Nutrition is the absolute #1 impact factor on your health.

Important quotes from the Matrix

matrix-quote-difference-between-knowing-the-path-and-walking-the-pathThere is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” Morpheus to Neo, after Neo rescued him from the agents.

matrix-quote-people-are-not-ready-to-be-unpluggedBusinessmen, theachers, lawyers, carpenters, the very minds of the people we are trying to save… most of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” by Morpheus, inside the training program that simulates the Matrix.

matrix-quote-you-got-the-gift-but-you-are-waiting-for-somethingYou got the gift, but it looks like you’re waiting for something… (what? Neo asks) …your next life maybe, who knows? That’s the way these things go.” The oracle talking to Neo, who still doesn’t believe he’s the one.

matrix-quote-being-the-one-is-like-being-in-loveBeing the one is just like being in love. No one can tell you you’re in love, you just know it.” the oracle again.matrix-quote-know-you-areDon’t think you are, know you are.” Morpheus while training Neo with kung fu.

matrix-quote-you-have-to-see-the-matrix-for-yourself

Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” Morpheus, before offering Neo the blue pill and red pill.

These are some of the most meaningful quotes from this fantastic movie, for me.

I love the Matrix!

Personal freedom and traffic and spring

Yesterday I was driving back from my town to Rome, and the road was almost desert, there was basically no traffic. A very relaxing trip. And while I was doing my voice exercises I was thinking at how great it is to be so desynchronized from all the people who have a standard job, who are forced to drive through the same road in the peak moments of the day, when it becomes incredibly congested. A trip that took me 40 mins yesterday would have taken 2 hours this morning. Yes, Rome’s traffic is that bad.

So, I realized that things like this are the results of some important changes that I made in my life in the last years, and these changes are definitely consequence of the very good input that I got from some special people. Then I was realizing, again, how this particular man called Harry Browne (that I adore, I think it’s obvious now) really had an enormous impact on my life with his book. Harry is dead, but boy how he produced changes -first in my mind- and then in my life. And I think it’s really suggestive. I don’t buy many common conceptions of eternal life and immortality, but when things like this happen, isn’t this the real, the best way to be immortal? Harry’s ideas and thoughts live in my life today, now, years after he’s passed away, and I am enjoying a great deal of increased personal freedom because of the messages he left for me. Thank you Harry! Just for you to know, I am enjoying it very much!

Yesterday was a lovely day that I spent in the countryside again. Really enjoying the weather and spring. And once again I took some pictures with my camera. Did I already say that I am a great photographer? Ah yeah, I think I already did…green-spiderA small green spider on a fig tree.

spider-webThe web of a spider (not the same spider).

oak-seedsThese are some wooden balls that some oak trees produce. I see them from time to time but I am not sure what is their function. They don’t look like seed containers to me.

bee-flowerA bee collecting pollen from a peach tree.

And this is the vase where I planted some cherry tomato seeds. As my grandpa is getting old he can’t plant as many veggies for the family as he did before (at 90 he’s actually still in great shape but he has to look after my grandma who suffers from total dementia and he doesn’t have much time for gardening anymore). So, to have some natural homemade veggies again this year I’ll return to some agricultural job!soil-vase