If you ask what I would do now if I had the choice of a new life, my answer will always be that I choose my life with the same path. The horrors that I went through forced me to grow better and faster. I was lucky to be strong mentally and physically, and I was lucky to survive and stay alive. As my dear friend told me one day, “the divine gives its biggest challenges to his best students.”
Read MoreWhen I was driving home from the event, I reflected on this question. I looked at which other habits or behaviors had contributed to my successes. Hard work and resilience were the two that stood out. So, I dug deeper, asking myself when and why I had started to behave that way.
The answer came to my mind with extreme clarity. When I was in the 5th and 6th grade at school, around 11 or 12 years old, I was really struggling academically. I had barely made the minimum grade in the previous years to pass to the next year. During these years I was terrified to go to school.
Read MoreHave you ever felt disconnected from the people around you? You might have spent years, even decades with friends and suddenly you feel that the connection is not there anymore? Well, you are not alone. Know that this is normal. Some relationships just fade slowly over time. Others have an abrupt ending.
Read MoreOver the past few months I have been working on a program focused on helping youth. This has encouraged me to reflect on my life, from my early childhood to now. What I am certain of is that I have learned “life” the hard way. In my teenage years I had no mentors, coaches, or role models, and I was living with neglectful and unavailable parents. I know that there are many young people out there living in similar situations. They try the best they can to figure out how life works, to make sense of what is happening to them, and to find a way to break the cycle to get the life that they want.
Read MoreI spent a few days at a seminar learning about how to gain mastery of the mind based on the teachings of Gotama Siddhartha. During many days of discourse and countless hours of work on the mind-body, we came to a section where we talked about who we are. What is the essence of a human being; basically, who am I? Gotama’s explanation hit home. I finally understood how, as a species, we can define the “I”. It really helped me to understand how my mind works and how I react to certain events in life. Everything was making sense; simple to understand...
Read MoreWho doesn’t want to feel happier, have more energy, be more connected and creative in their life? Who doesn’t want to feel more fulfilled, have better relationships, and have a positive impact on people around them or in their community? We all want this, right? So what can we do to get there?
Read MoreLately, I have been reflecting on what type of patterns have occurred regularly over my life. I made two interesting observations.
The first is that I often chose difficult and challenging objectives. As a teenager, I wanted to become a fighter pilot, which is a difficult path. It was not easy to become a fighter pilot. 3,000 applicants at the beginning of training came down to only 6. By 22, I was one of those six who received wings on their uniform.
The second thing I observed is that in my life I have experienced multiple life-changing transitions. I transitioned from the military world to the civilian world. I moved from one country to another. I transitioned from receiving a paycheck at the end of every month to being my own boss and creating my own income.
Read MoreWhen was the last time you said or thought: “I can’t take this anymore…I am done with it…When is it going to end…This is taking too long…”? Not so long ago, right? You are not alone; we are all in the same boat. We all want things to happen faster. Our western culture and education system has ingrained in us from a young age to achieve our goals, get results, move to the next level, or climb the corporate ladder. There is nothing wrong with having ambition, except if that said ambition narrows your focus to a point of impatience.
Read MoreImagine… spending 20 hours a day with your eyes closed. You sit for 13 hours meditating, three of them without moving even a toe, and one hour led in discourse by a teacher. You will receive two meals a day, one at 6:30 am and one at 11 am. You will sleep on a wooden plank with a small mattress and a pillow. You will have no phone, computer or other electronic devices and no books to read, paper to write on, or journaling. You will respect Noble Silence which means no talking, no looking at other people, no interaction with others or the outside world in any form. This day I am describing, you will repeat it 10 times. Could you do it?
Read More
