Satisfying everyone can be tricky

How much do you let others make you feel bad about yourself? Everything starts from what you believe for yourself and for what you are doing. If you are not sure about the choices you have made, then your parents, for example, will make you feel bad. Basically the people that disagree with our choices are usual our closest ones, that love us. Why is that? Because they have made a dream for us, without asking us, even without knowing what makes us happy.

You should know that whatever you do, some people will have complains from you. You cannot satisfy everyone, you can satisfy some people. Begin by satisfying your dreams. If you have a dream to be a doctor and you need to study, you cannot choose to go back to the house and live with your mother because she feels lonely. You could do that, if your dream was to keep people company and be happy with that. Don't let other influence you in the way you have chosen to live your life. There are different point of views. It doesn't mean yours is wrong, or anyone else's. It is just different. Different does not mean bad. Save energy by focusing on what you want and give your best to it.

The more you give the more you get

Someone told me once that I am too selfish that I cannot look over my nose. I thought my problems were bigger than anyone's else, that I am very weak and everyone should support me. I used to feel bad about myself and I couldn't solve my problems because they seemed huge to me. I was always tired and disatisfied with what I am doing. Everything was going wrong and I expected people to understand my situation and show love to me.

Start thinking of others and your problems will seem tiny and you will find the courage to overcome them. Listen to others and their problems and try to help them. Most of the time, when we have a problem we cannot listen to others because we feel weak. Believe me, if you try to listen you will help yourself too. Concentrate on how you can help others instead of concentrating on how to help yourself and you will find your problems solved in no time.

Be generous as much as you can. Whatever you give you will get back. This is the law of nature. Don't expect to receive first in order to give. This will not happen. Try your best to understand others and make them believe in themselves. Try thinking about that they are more important than you are.

If you want to be happy

"If you want to be happy desire what you have and not what you don't have"

This means that you have to train yourself to be satisfied with the situation you are now. Love the job you have now, love the boyfriend or girlfriend you have now, love the parents you have and don't desire what you miss. We humsns have a natural habit to desire what we can't have and when we have it we are not happy even then. We feel intrigued by the impossible, by the life of someone else but not by our own circumstances. We live in a cloud thinking about what we don't have. "What if I had this job, what if I had been married, what if I haven't been married.....etc" Who trained us like that? Who is responsible for this "never satisfied" personality. When we are sick we say, all I want to be healty. When we are healthy, we say why don't I have this car, or this job, or this friend?

Don't wait to lose something to know what is worth. Think about it earlier and appreciate this very situation you are in. This doesn't mean that you should stop fighting for a better future. Appreciation is not opposite of dreams. It is the first step to a better life.

Take a few moments at the end of the day to ask yourself this simple question: "What can I rightly feel proud of today?" If you are committed to constant self-improvement, you can also ask yourself, "What could I do better tomorrow?" Both questions hold your value.

A little lie did not harm anyone

Hello my friends,

tomorrow is a big day.. I had a call from a clothes company that I gave my resumate to and they told me to go tomorrow for a trial. I had to lie to go there. I have never worked in a shop with clothes before and I told them I have worked for a whole year. It is not that bad to lie if it does not harm anybody. Isn't it? A little lie never harmed anyone.

From a philosophical point of view whatever you do, you find it in your way (karma). Sooner or later I would have to pay the price for this lie. Just whenever someone is lieing he should weigh the consiquences and he should know if it is worth it. Better say nothing than a lie.

10 things I need to tell you

1. Do one generous act every day
2. Tell someone you love him/her
3. Appreciate what you have around you
4. Think that there is always someone somewhere that is inspired by you
5. You are a very important person with alot of virtues
6. Help someone you don't even know
7. Find a virtue of a person around you and tell him/her about it.
8. Say thank you to someone.
9. Forgive someone who hurt you and forget about it.
10. Find one thing you are good at and do it more often.

Duty contains love

I have this project that I am doing mistakes all the time. I find it difficult to handle and I am trying really hard to accomplish it. I am really good at doing what I have to do. I am good with deadlines and people can trust me at work. Something though is missing and this is the reason why I am making the same mistakes.

What is missing is love and real interest. Is it possible to make your work interesting and love it? It is like cooking. If you don't put love in it, it will not be tasty. The energy is flat and the result is flat as well. I had this idea that when it comes to a job, you don't have to love it, you just need to get it done. It is not true though. How many times you have heard people or yourself saying "I am trying my best and it is not working!" Trying without love is the same as not trying at all.

So, if you have to be good at something, even in a relationship, all you need to do is create love for the situation or the person and the effort you will need to put will be less than you imagine to make it work.

Try it...

Dislike or personality test?

There is this person at work that I can't stand seeing. I have tried all the ways. I have tried to avoid him, I have tried to be a friend and have tried to be an enemy. None of these is working. I'm still bothered from his behaviour. I am now at a point that I am doing as if he doesn't exist and I don't care what he will think.

So what are the characteristics that bother me? Hipocrisy, arrogance, "teacher's pet". People around us and especially the ones that makes us angry are a mirror of us. What do I mean by that? The defects that we see in other people are the ones that we have. This means I am hipocritic, arrogant and teacher's pet, or exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite is the same. The two edges are connected. For example, I am not the teacher's pet with my boss, but I don't talk to him at all. It is the same thing. I am trying to make a difference. Opposite ways, same result though.

I have once read in a book.. "There was this man that talked to God and said.." why God do you send me all the wrong women for me? My previous girlfriend cheated on me, this girlfriend is a lier, why does this happen to me all the time? And God answers "I am doing to best I can to show you your mistakes but you don't seem to get any lessons, so until you learn who you are and see your own mistakes you will get a repetition of this class."

Instead of complaining about our luck maybe we need to see what does the other person has to show us. If we pass the test we will not have the same problem again.What is the test? You have to find out yourself..

Are you tired? I' ll tell you a secret..

Years ago, I used to wake up in the morning really tired and during the day I didn't have any energy. My body was aching all the time and once a week I had to sleep 24 hours to be able to continue with me life again. Looking back I know the reasons why I felt this way.

Today I feel full of energy all the time. I wake up very easily, even I have dreams in my sleep, I am go to bed and I am not that tired. I sleep almost seven hours a day and and my whole day is full of activities. I have the same program as I have always had.

What has changed? I' ll tell you my small secrets...

1. I have a hobby.
2. Every day I do something for myself (whatever I enjoy) even if it is for 15 minutes.Time does not matter.
3. I see work as pleasure and as an opportunity to be creative.
4. I don't depend on what other people want for me or from me or even better for what I believe they want from me.
5. I have learnt to say no, depending on my priorities.
6.  I have gratitute, I have learnt to say thank you.
7. I don't think so much of what other people think of me.
8. I love people more than I used to.
9. I enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend.
10. I wear more colourful clothes.

That' s about it and I hope it is helpful...

Why get up when you have nothing to do

Whenever I get up early in the morning I feel better about myself. Why is that though? If I have nothing to do, why not sleep? I am going to analyse to you why it is important to wake up in a specific time every morning.

The human being has a body and the body has some needs that don't always agree with what the mind says. For example, the mind, which is our concious, says we need to get up to go to work. The body wants to eat, sleep and have sex. If we allow the body to do whatever it wants every time, then we have a boss. If we do what our mind says then the boss is our concious. Sometimes we postpone something that we need to do, because of our body's needs and then we feel quilty about it. Why? Because the body has won the battle with our mind. Our body is the lowest level a human being has.  Are we really free if we listen to it? It is like a small animal that needs more and more and is never satisfied. The more you satisfy the body the more it asks from you. Control your body's needs and you will get more confidence in who you are.

I have a dream...

Do you have a dream? Do you know where you want to be? How you want to be? There were times in my life that I felt depressed and nothing seemed to matter to me. The days passed in routine and I felt nothing inside. I didn't have the strength to wake up in the morning. I didn't have a reason to live.

This phase lasted almost a year.. till I remembered what I did when I was a kid. Every night before I went to bed, I prayed for what I wanted. At that time my prayers were more like "Please God, make him love me and ask me out", or "Please God, help me pass the exams". What does this prayer mean? It means you remind yourself your goal, what you want and what is this that will make you happy at the time. Every night you create a dream for yourself for the next day or more and this is clear in your head. The most important is that you make yourself think about the dream and not the problem. Imagine the difference if instead this, you are thinking "He doesn't love me", "I have exams". Which of the two ways will make you happier you think?

Dreams helps you be positive in life, set goals and many times magically achieve them. And then you say.... God helped me because I prayed. I would tell you, you helped yourself by thinking about your dream.

So, I started doing this again and my life changed. I started having faith in me and every day I could see more clearly that the problems can be solved because I believe so. Faith is a strong ally to a positive turn in our lives. If you have a dream, it means you believe..

Securiry or risk?

I am trying to find a job at a little shop as a saler. I am overqualified they said. I changed my CV, but again, my attitude doesn't help. I am too arrogant to make them believe I need a job. So... I haven't found one yet. I am pretty much close to giving up.. It is not easy to find a job in Greece but I didn't expect it to be that hard. You will be amazed if I tell you the salary of a full time job a friend of mine found. As a secretary she would get 350euros!! By law! Unbelievable! And if she has a rent of 200, what is this possible??

Anyway, my enthousiasm is diminishing... I need to learn to have more patience in what I want. If I don't have patience it means I don't want it as much as I say. Patience...when am I supposed to stop when I see that nothing happens and change my plans? And if something different from what I want comes along should I try it or should I stick to my initial plan? Distinction is the virtue I need to realize what I need to do.

It is like you are looking for the man or woman you have imagined, but you meet someone else in the meantime that doesn't quite meet your needs and it is a bit risky. The first choice brings security and the second choice is unknown where it will take you. Would you give this man/ woman a chance or  would you  stick to your dream????

Getting out of bad thoughts

How many times we feel down and after a while we feel up again.. Some external circumstances make us feel this way or the reason lies within us? Most of the time both happens simultaneously. In fact when something bad happens to us or a problem occurs this is a mirror of our inner self.

How do you get out of this bad feelings? I have tried some things and I would like to share it with you:

1. Listen to classical music
2. Write down how you feel.
3. Read a book that will make you think something else than yourself.
4. Watch a heroic movie such as the Lord of the Rings.
5. Talk to a friend.
6. Make a generous act. Make a present to someone or do something for somenone for no return.
7. Clean the floor of your house and at the same time imagine that you are sweeping away all of the bad thoughts.
8. Make a bath.
9. Take a walk and observe whatever surrounds you without thinking the problem.

Try any of these and you will see that the problem is not that big as it seems. This way, you calm down your inner self and you will be able to find a solution right for you.

Freedom

Hello my friends,

I found out that my biggest problem that doesn't let me be free is my obsession with order. Everyone has obsessions, mine is everything to be tidy always and at all times, which of course is impossible. This means I want order not only in my things in the house, in my life as well. You could say, this is good...but hear why it is not. When everything is not in order I feel depressed and stressed out! This means only a few times I am fine!

Don't you think order is a bit impossible to preserve when everything is moving and I am moving? This makes me think I dont really have the need of order, but the need of static situations, where nothing moves and nothing changes. When something is static I feel ok and secure. In other words I have a fear of change!

When you find out something about yourself three steps follow:
1. Observe yourserlf if this idea is true and where is it shown
2. Think about it
3. Realize and confirm
4. Change behaviour to improve your life

I am at phase 1.

Just wondering

Hello!
One of you has added me at google plus circles! Wow! I was wondering if anyone is reading what I am writing and if it is even interesting to any of you. I know I don't to this to be famous... haha! But it would be nice to know that someone somewhere has read it and has an opinion about what I am doing here..

Basically, in philosophy there is one common truth. It is called "right action". It means that you do things: you help people, you work, you bring somebody a glass of water, you try to be kind and nice to people and on and on, but all this... without waiting for a reward! Doing the right thing or whatever you think is right not for loving you but because you just are a good person or trying to be..

What do I mean? How many times do we make somebody's favor just to like us? How many times do we speak kindly to a person, maybe a boss (!), while all we want to do is scream. We do things to gain love or, for men... power (in any form).

If..for a while, we stopped expecting anything at all, we would be happier, and magically we would get more!! Weird eh? That's the way it goes... :)

Here is a quote from the book of Vivekananda in the book "Karma Yoga"..

Going out of my comfort zone

Remember that I said I have a small dream to work at a shop ? Maybe my karma is to continue having a business. No matter how much I try to escape what I am, opportunities come in my way to show me that maybe my dream is made of fear. In this specific event, fear of having the stress of owning a business and of course fear of the risk. Of course I prefer security.. This is what any normal person would want.

Being safe and in the zone of comfort is what most people want. I don't really know yet which of the two choices are taking me out of my comfort zone. Going out of my box will of course make my life more interesting, but it will also bring me troubles.

How to decide what is best for me? Ok, what excites me more... I know. It's hard though to make this desicion because what your heart wants is always a risk. This is where the excitement hides.

To cheat or not to cheat

Who says when you are married it is forbidden to have feelings for someone else? This friend of mine is married and happened to see her first love. This person transforms her to another person, a person from the past. She was wondering... Why would it be bad to kiss him just for this time and live an intense moment? It doesn't mean she will have a divorce to be with her husband neither she will continue to see this other guy. It will be only this moment. It would even renew her marriage if  the husband doesn't find out of course.

What is the right thing to do? What is right or wrong is very subjective. I dont't really know the answer to this. 

I could only say that there is a price for every desicion we make. So I am guessing that if she
shows temperance and stops before she makes any move further with this guy from the past, she will be rewarded from karma and have a better relationship with her husband. I see it as a test in her marriage to confirm her choices. The choices we make in our lives face obstacles that if we overcome we go closer to our goal. On the other hand if she makes this move, she would have to face some problems that would magically come up in her marriage (it could be a relationship, it does't matter). 

If you have any ideas let me know..

Quit or put up with it?

Let's say there is something that bothers you at work or in a relationship.. When is a good time to quit and thus you have won the battle?And how do you know you have done enough effort to make it work?

As I said before every difficulty we have in our lifes happens for us as a lesson. I am patient with this client for the past 2 years and every Friday that we meet, and I mean every Friday, he yells at me because I have done something that he has asked for and then he changed his mind. So, I said to myself, ok Alice, here you will learn how to control your anger every time he yells you will try to ccontrol yourself and be kind. In the beginning I used to get angry and didn't speak to him for days because of his behaviour. Later on, trying to control my emotions and doing my job I didn't react to his unreasonable demands and tried to do the best I can. He changed for a while, but not for long.

It is wise to know what you are learning from each situation and see it as a battle with yourself, but it is even wiser to distinguish which battle you have to take and which is useless. How do you know when to stop trying? When you feel you have done the best you could and you are only staying because of the fear of losing what you have.Try to think the reason you want to stay.. If the answer is I don't want to lose it, they leave. If the answer is I will find the way to make it work and it depends on me, then stay.. Take the risk to act though.

Help doesn't mean I do it instead of you

I love to help people believe in themselves and give them courage and strength to overcome any obstacles they have in their way. Two questions come to my mind though depending on my day. Does the person I want to help want to be helped? And, if it does what are the boundaries that I need to have concerning  the influence I have in the other person's life? How much am allowed to interfere if I know what is good for him/her? Do I really know what is good for him/her??

Every human has a karma and obstacles to overcome that are only made for him/her and he has to realize this opportunity to overcome the problem and come out of it stronger and with a little bit more knowledge about him. I believe the right thing to do would be to advice but accept that the challenge is not mine and the fight as well.

Magnifying Lens

Hello my invisible friends!
I got a ticket fee from the local police for parking the car. It is very usual in Greece to park anywhere you want. It is the nowadays philosophy "I dont care about others, I just care about myself and my job to be done, and the others have to understand". Even the ticket from the police is seen as a way for the police to make money and not as a way to establish an order to the society.

This culture has been built and enhanced in our minds and hearts as something natural. It has to change. And it has to change for the good of us all. Don';t we want to have a better world, a better society? This is why you will hear philosophers say, every change starts from ourselves. If everyone is doing it, it doesn't mean it is good for the society.

At Kant's philosophy there is a theory: How can someone distinguish good from bad actions? Just take your action and multiple it as if every one at the planet was doing it at the same time. How would the world be then? If the answer is better, then ok, go ahead and do it. If the answer is worse, maybe you are thinking only of yourself... again.

For example if you throw a gum on the street, you say, ok, it is one gum. Who could hurt? Imagine if everyone is doing it at the same time! The whole street would fill with gums! Disgusting? Think about it...

Is it less than me, or is it an opportunity?

Do you remember that I told you I would like to work at a little shop with clothes and accessories? I went to an interview today. It didn't go very well, because I was more than enthousiastic. I didn't have to be that much overwhelmed. He told me I am overqualified and he doesn't understand why would I work there, since I could be anywhere else. He sounded like my parents. And why does he care if I want to do something less than my qualifications? Who says is less after all?

Everything we do in our life we do it to learn abit more about ourselves. This is what philosophers do. I will explain what I mean. For example, this job will be a trial for my personality because: I will have a boss and will have to be nice and kind at all times, despite my emotions, I will have a specific time schedule I will have to follow and many more... Why these are a challenge to me? I run a business and have noone to judge me or tell me what to do. Can you see that this change is an opportunity to learn abit more about myself and my reactions?

One of the most important tasks a philosopher has to do every day is to control his/her personality, overcome the routine and grow his/ her virtues, by exercising on habits that are good for the people around him/her. 

If you cannot skip it, enjoy it

Today I had the obligation to be at a seminar that I didn't like, I didn't learn anything new and also didn't even like the person teaching it. I had two options: To complain all day about it and be negative or be as quiet as possible to let the others enjoy it and take advantage of this time to do other things I had to do online. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me and I could listen to the seminar and at the same time do my thing.

Every minute counts in our life and we cannot let it pass in boredom. We always need to find ways to give interest to whatever we do! When we do that, we don't get tired. Observe yourselves.... what do you do in a situation like this? If you tell me, patience... I would tell you that patience can be negative or positive. It is our job to turn the negative into a positive situation. What is positive? Something that makes you a better person, something that makes you overcome yourself...

xxx

Violin

When I listen the sound of a violin I feel butterflies in my stomach.. It's a feeling that I don't know how to explain..

Source: http://vimeo.com/52711779

Whatever makes you enthousiastic!

Platon, the Greek philosopher, says that the recipe for one's happiness is to love what they do for a living. Every man at an ideal society is doing the work that they are meant to do depending on the reason they have been born, for the good of the society, their virtues and their destiny. In simple words, they love what they do and they don' t do it for the money but because they feel that they are offering their services to others with love and generosity.

Basically this is kind of hard nowadays. If it is hard to find any job, it is even harder to find a job you love! But on the other hand if you are already looking for job why not try first to find the one that you love... First of all, you need to know what you want and be sure that this is your own dream and not somebody else's. Second, you need to make the dream as specific as possible and picture it with all the details (the power of thought will help you here) and third, you need to act on it.

This is how I feel these days. My family and friends know me as a business woman, someone with alot of degrees and skills that could easily have a job at a big company. But what if I just want a simple job as a saler in a little shop with clothes and accessories,  where I can talk to people and help them dress and express their own style? That would be beyond my parents' expectations.... and I mean it in a bad way.. This may never happen, but why do I get excited when I am thinking of it? I am so tired of own job?

Once I' ve heard a speech from a man giving advice to people how to live and this lady asked him what to do between two choices. His answer was " Whatever makes you enthousiastic!" No matter what the cost, this was the key answer to every dilemma the crowd had. If you are in front of a decision enthousiasm or the lack of enthousiasm will help you decide what is good for you! Always this kind of enthousiasm comes together with a little sting in the heart and bit of fear... Cause every time this happens, you have to leave something behind...

Love

My day starts at 8:00 o' clock in the morning and finishes arount 1:00 at night. I have a busy but interesting life, that includes philosophy..

I love ballet, classic music, reading books and hanging out with my friends. I am always in love, and mostly in love with my husband. When you are in love, does it mean that you love? "In love" means that you want someone or something for yourself. Love means you accept the person as it is and you want his/her happiness. It doesn't involve how much time you spent together or how much love you get.

Some people feel lonely despite the fact that are surrounded by people. Lately I have discovered that when you really love and you don't expect return, you never feel lonely. Mostly love is egoistic and if you say you are lonely then maybe you need to find love inside your heart first and learn how to love, not to be loved.

This is philosophy... trying to get better everyday and find the reason behind my actions. First step is to observe myself and my reactions trying to get to know my inner self. Everything is an opportunity for observation. This way I try not to find problems, but challenges to observe and overcome.

Purpose

Hello,
my name is Alice and I am from Greece. I was born in 1981 in Thessaloniki and when I turned 27 years old, philosophy changed me life. I am writing this blog to tell you my little story and my everyday point of view when it comes to troubles and problems we all have! What is that point of view I am talking about?
Three rules:
1. Everything happens for a reason.
2. We came in this world to find out our purpose.
3. Our purpose is to be happy.
My everyday life includes alot of "whys".... You will find out later what I mean..