Andresko

Andresko

More Information about me here

Andres’s to-do list for spiritual enlightenment

English,

Introduction
I wrote this list for myself several years ago after I came to terms with my own life crisis. I have shared it with many people since I wrote it and the timing to put it online feels more than perfect. After all, we are going as humanity through a huge transformation. Even at the personal level among my friends and acquaintances, people seem to be experiencing a lot of turbulence since 2020. I hope it helps you a bit if you read it.
This list is a sort of collection of ideas and tasks that I found most useful at the time to face that crisis, and above all, to find “change within”. I have to repeat this: “to find change within”. Change starts and ends within ourselves before we can truly make an impact around us.
I am by no means the sole creator of this list and I don’t dare to withhold the truth of life. I wrote it for myself, as a reminder of my life lessons, and I did it while “standing on the shoulders of giants”. The list is based on discussions with people, therapy sessions, spiritual books, YouTube videos, online articles, the teachings of spiritual leaders like Eckhart Tolle and Mooji, and multiple other sources. Perhaps the most important source of this “spiritual learning” is the people I encountered in my life. People like family, friends, colleagues, or love partners are the true masters here. They are the ones challenging you, triggering you, and guiding you towards your true self. Special thanks to important people in my life for showing me the door to myself.

1. No one can do it for you
You are alone on this one. You are the only one who can do this. No one else can get you out of your unhappiness. You might find “angels” on the way, and they might show you the door, but you still have to find the courage within to open it. You are also alone on this one because these angels might encourage you and show you your bright side, but then, at night, when it is just you, your pillow and your thoughts, things will get nasty again.
So, when should you start? The answer is easy: NOW. Now is the only moment that there is, it is the only moment that we have. Tomorrow is too late and yesterday is already gone. You need to intensify your actions in the present moment. Finding excuses to postpone this process is easy. You can always think: “I am not ready yet”. Well, that is the first door you have to open. You are already ready, you were ready yesterday.
So again, no one can do this for you, you are the only one who can do this. Your healing process might take some time, maybe some weeks, months or years. No one can tell for sure, but the crucial thing to realise is that taking that first step towards the unknown means a lot. Remember, it is up to you to be the change in your life.

2. Start loving yourself
Stop saying negative things about yourself. Stop assuming your life is miserable. Stop blaming yourself for the mistakes made along the way. Stop focusing on the negative aspects of your life and comparing your life situation with the life situation of others around you. You can certainly find many reasons to suffer, but by doing this, you are just charging your life with negativity. As long as you keep putting mental barriers to your life, you will not move forward.
You will only flourish when you start living a positive cycle. That is why you need to start treating yourself well and respectfully. Allow yourself to be loved by yourself and others. Why are you so concerned about doing so many things for others and attending to so many expectations? Why do you keep postponing yourself? Do not push yourself so much. Be the biggest benefactor of this life of yours.

3. All what you are looking for is already inside you
The first step of the journey is to recognise there is a problem. Perhaps you overreacted in front of your partner or colleague and attacked them. Perhaps you were upset and hurt because someone said something that you did not like. Perhaps you were extremely emotional because someone did something that you did not like. It does not really matter what it was. The key here is to realise that these events triggered something in you. They altered your state of consciousness in some way, opening up old wounds or even initiating traumas. These wounds are less about that specific moment with your colleague or partner and more about yourself and yourself only. Most of the time, we get what we need and not what we want. People will come to your life, and you will get what you need. They will be your masters and help you out by triggering these wounds.
The second step is allowing it to happen. Embrace this pain and let it flow inside you. Once you start allowing this experience to be as it is, you would realise that you can achieve a higher level of understanding. You can first unite with this pain by focusing your whole attention on it. Then, you can start dealing with it. You can slowly stop identifying with the particular situation that triggered the pain and start seeing the pain itself. All that can change, all that can go away. Solutions to this pain will come, in time, not by some sort of magic therapy, but because you are the solution. Imagine your pain are clouds and you are the sky. Imagine you are a house and the furniture is your pain. Clouds go away at some point, you can change your furniture, and so will your pain go away. The solution is already inside you, your true self is the solution to these problems.

4. Change your mindset
Try realising that you are not your suffering, you are not your unhappiness, and you are not your thinking mind. Be aware of your thoughts. Stop having all those false ideas about yourself. Stop judging yourself. Empty yourself from definitions of yourself. We create our own realities with our thoughts. Surrender to your fears and accept “what is” (“what is” is the essence of life. It is the now, the present moment). As I said earlier, the answer is already there, inside you. Once you realise that, you will start feeling free of it.

"Watch your thoughts, for they become your words.
Watch your words, for they become your actions.
Watch your actions, for they become your habits.
Watch your habits, for they become your character.
And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
What we think, we become." (unclear author)

5. Life purpose
Stop trying to understand or learn how to change. It is not about knowledge. If the answer is not there, you will gradually start seeing it. Perhaps you just cannot see it today because you are thinking all the time. I would say, it is all about experiencing the truth and not knowing it. Everything that happened in the past has led you to this moment and this moment will lead you to your future. Every situation, every decision was exactly how it needed to be to bring you to this moment. Therefore, whatever you are going through, whatever you are experiencing now, let it be as it is. This is your path.

Life is now, there is no path to be found, you are already on your purpose.

The ultimate purpose of your life is to live. There are ups and downs, challenges, happy moments, sad moments, people are born, people die. It is how it is, without adjectives. Answers will come one day. They will present by themselves to you when the time is right. Trust the universe. Everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to.

6. Three dimensions of freedom, inner peace and enlightenment
Try to stop resisting (1. non-resistance) so much the bad moments and changes in your life and go with the flow. Try to stop judging (2. non-judgment) yourself and others, but most importantly, try to stop judging your life situation. The weather, the traffic jam and your job are how they are. Indeed, you can be proactive and change things. At the material level, you can do many things, you can quit your job and leave your partner. But experiences are experiences, they are not good nor bad. You decide whether they are good or bad. The more you evaluate a situation as negative, the more you will suffer. Try to detach (3. non-attachment) from people, things, experiences and ideas. Money comes and goes, people live and die, jobs and experiences start and end, but above all, ideas and beliefs start and end. The most important thing is to recognise that everything is temporary, this will set you free and bring you peace. Indeed, you can love, give all what you have and enjoy your life with your partner and family for decades, but you can only do that in the present moment, in the now.

7. Try a healthy lifestyle
There are many studies that conclude the strong connection between your gut bacteria and your mood, health and happiness. There are many examples and also complete books about it. I may not give any special recommendation here. You should find what is best for your body.

8. Stop meeting the wrong people
People will try to force you to be what you are not. People may say you should get married, get a dog and have children. They might tell you to just get drunk, smoke some cigarettes and forget your problems. People may tell you to focus on your career. They will claim that doing meditation and all the spiritual work are useless and stupid. You need to be a rebel, just don’t listen to them. Your path is unique, whether you raise 5 children or you become a lone hermit.
There is a second group of wrong people. Those are the negative ones. The ones that complain all the time about whatever, the ones who find always a reason to criticise themselves or others, to incriminate or accuse themselves or others because of whatever, or to victimise themselves. You should consciously stay away from those people. If you cannot stay away from them because, let’s say, they are your family, you have to consciously set very strong mental and emotional boundaries. Boundaries are crucial. This is how we clean our personal environment from whatever that is blocking our development.

9. Start meeting the right people
The right people are those who consciously or unconsciously help you during your “spiritual awakening”. They are those who listen to your fears and hug you while you cry. They are the ones who care, the ones who truly care. They are those who accept you as you are. They are those who see you as you are, without masks and disguises. They are the ones that celebrate your success. It is easy for the ego to support someone who is suffering, but it is immensely difficult to join someone in their happiness. These are the right people. You know who they are, just look at your heart and it will tell you who they are.
There is a second group of the right people. These people have already started developing their consciousness. Whenever you meet someone and you feel very “peaceful” or “joyful” around them, that might be a good pointer towards the right people. They are like a sun and shine through you. However, it may also feel weird to be around them, be aware of your mind telling you to go back to your old patterns and to the “wrong” people. That is exactly the challenge. Patterns are hard to recognise and even more difficult to dissolve. We tend to go back to our comfort zone and avoid our own evolutionary process. Sometimes, we might just run away from the right people, because it feels strange, because it feels unfamiliar, because they trigger us into spiritual progress.

10. Try talking more
Try talking to people about your problems. This will release a huge burden because you will show yourself as you are, with your demons and challenges. You will express yourself and move towards authenticity. This will improve you vibration because you will start accepting yourself. Crying also helps. You can proactively boost your negative feelings so much, that you will have to just get rid of them at one moment. If you are feeling down, go to hell. Only after going to hell and burning all that pain inside you, you will be free. Because you will experience the “internal death” of all that negativity.

11. Bring the fire to your life
This is one of my favourites. In astrology, fire is connected to passion, action and warmth. It is the unapologetic expression of our masculine energy. Do things that you are passionate about that don’t include thinking: sports, dancing, singing, laughing, screaming, or even getting upset (indeed, no one wants to be upset just for fun, it’s about the meaning of the state of consciousness, it’s about the “fire” of the emotions involved). Try using your body as much as possible, connect with your body. Your body is one of the doors to spiritual awakening. Learning to say no and channeling your anger is also wonderful. I have to talk about boundaries again. It is not about screaming to your parents or your partner, but about knowing your limits and putting explicit boundaries with an assertive and kind tone. It is about expressing yourself and being true to your needs and wants without being mean to others. If you live in numbness you won’t be able to move forward. You can just let go and express all those trapped emotions when you are true to yourself.

12. Bring the positivity to your life
Allow yourself to be loved by yourself and others. Do meditation. Experience heartfelt positivity. Bring all those positive emotions to your life: love, gratitude, love, awe, love, serenity, love, hope, love, inspiration, love, pride, love, amusement. You can write a gratitude journal. You can establish deep and true connections with others, you can also count your blessings. It does not matter what you do, every day look at yourself for a few minutes in the mirror and think about all the positive things in your life, your achievements, your trips, your loved ones, your qualities and strengths and smile at yourself for being so wonderful and unique.

13. Go to nature
Try experiencing nature, dogs, cats, birds, see them how they are in their state of freedom from the thinking mind. The tree is there, existing, not thinking. Realise that you are part of this world and that the world is not out there. You are the universe. You are the world. Nature is, as your body, another door to the “spiritual awakening”. Touch the trees or the grass with your hands and just feel their aliveness. Don’t you see that everything around you is alive? Everything inside you is alive as well and you are completely connected with that world, because you are expansive and limitless, because you are that world as well. We are one with the world and people forget that. Once you feel that oneness fear goes away.

14. Feel the silence
Enjoy the moments of silence in your life. Doing sports and having a life oriented towards goals and action is good but you are still trapped in doing. You should sometimes forget about doing and focus on just being, just sitting there, like a tree. Just sit there with yourself and your loneliness, perhaps do some meditation. It is in the silence when and where the true magic of your being arises and flourishes as an expansive and unstoppable force.

15. Be aware of your thoughts
This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do. Sometimes you might think about your life situation. You might conclude that it is someone’s fault, or that it is your fault, or that it’s many people’s fault. Including yourself. Is that really so? How do you know that what your mind is saying is true? Stop believing your thinking mind. Every time your thinking mind sends you all those thoughts, just try to accept them and see them how they are, as thoughts, as fears or worries and remember that you are bigger than that. You are millions of other atoms or cells, and not that tiny fraction of your left (or right) hemisphere that is creating those thoughts. Whenever you have those thoughts just try to relax and enjoy the present moment, be here, now. Just as the future and the past only exist in your mind, all the other thoughts are just that, thoughts, ideas and beliefs about someone or something.

16. Practice visualisation
You can write letters to god, to the universe or to yourself. You can also just dream it. The key is to imagine yourself as connected with the universe, with your heart and not thinking. You can write a letter saying how it is to be connected and feel the deeper intelligence of the universe within you. You can visualize how happy, peaceful and content you are because of being one with yourself and the universe. You can write how wonderful it is to be aligned with your true inner purpose and to see that life is now, that there is no destination or goal to achieve. You can write how amazing is to feel that the only thing we have is the present moment and how you live it to the fullest, without drama, without self-created suffering. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have those feelings now in your life. But try to visualise them.

17. Reading about spirituality
Although there are many spiritual authors (and a lot of BS in the “spiritual industry”), I can only recommend the books of Eckhart Tolle. They opened my mind to a different way of being. They opened the door to hidden knowledge about the most essential aspect of our existence. They (and some magical people in my life) were the candlelight in the midst of darkness and mental suffering. Especially when I reralised that the truth is already inside us and we just need to rediscover it…The liberation of your thought process is “one thought away”.

Doom scrolling

English, ,

Second chances are uncommon
people just leave
they look at you and judge you with all they have
as if you were a one-minute thing, an Instagram story

Perhaps you are having a weird day, full of incomprehensible ideas
perhaps it was just too much happiness and funny words that day
perhaps you got bad news and you just swallowed your pain
maybe Saturn was squaring the Sun, or just the Moon was shining all over you
whatever and however it was, the reasons to reject you are always growing

We live in a time of opportunities
You can be whatever you dream of,
with whomever you want,
don’t settle for less! They say
You can click NEXT if you don’t like the smallest detail
It’s like a never ending scrolling of people

I wonder if someone ever takes the time nowadays
the time to be with you
to just see you,
to understand you,
to feel your whole expression
I wonder if people have lost their multi-dimensionality
I wonder where is that space we used to have
that space of talking, being and seeing with a blank mind, just to experience one another

But when they next-you in their app-kind-of-life,
they just distance themselves,
they just lose themselves in their solitude
and they go for the next person, and the next, and the next
it’s a sort of addiction, an addiction of the soul for the “promised land”
How can we keep living like this?

People look for outside themselves what they can’t see in the mirror
they look and look for beauty, success, tenderness, pleasure, even love
and of course, they look for attention
attention is the new gold
We are being trained to lose ourselves and look for attention

But I am multi-dimensional!
Look at all my pictures at different venues
Look at my dog in the park
Look at me god damn it!
I am someone, I am someone to be looked at!
I am happy! I swear

Second chances are important, this is what we truly need
a simple scroll back, 3 likes, 1 super like, another message
We deserve that, not for the attention, just for ourselves
because “they” can’t take that away from us
they can’t take the courage to be soft, kind and welcoming with the stranger across the street


Grief

English

6 months ago, I came closer to death
I came closer to those worlds of the invisible
It has been a fantastic ride of turbulence and disaster
A ride of grief and distress
But also, of learning and insight
Of discovery and openness to the unknown
To a new chapter, new ways and second chances

It has been a big opening to new forms of life
To different schemes and structures
To connecting the dots before the dots were words
It has been like escaping from patterns and beliefs
From my own prison, my prison of ideas

The ride, I don’t recommend it to anyone
The pain, the loss, the silence, the loneliness, I don’t recommend it to anyone
It has been like walking in Mordor looking for a lost ring of power
The emptiness is simply devastating
Suffering makes you stronger, they say
Indeed it does, it makes structurally stronger, wiser
But I still don’t recommend the ride to anyone

The discovery, however, is absolutely celestial
Imagine cutting your chest open, silencing your mind, and just hearing the beats of your heart
It is overwhelming, it has been overwhelming
At times I wanted to close my eyes and disconnect
Go back to my prison, go back to the past, the never-ending story of the past
But there is no turning back
6 months already, what an eternity
What is done is lost and we will always miss you
At least I know you are here, I see you and feel you looking after me

Of redemption

English,

I have paid all my debts
but your revenge
oh, your bittersweet revenge
it has been one of those nightmares
I wish waking up would end my sorrow
but I am stuck 3 meters under ground

Let’s call it even, shall we?
and we can just forget why we were really here
we have sacrificed enough and lost so much
There is no escape, I know
for my escape is your loss

So here I am, after 3 days and 3 nights
the long awaited revival and beloved ascension have started
so divine, not even the Holy Spirit can describe me
and yes, I am the light, the love and the freedom
I am nothing and everything else
the space where everything happens
It is time, for you to see god beyond delusion

Can’t you see?
The light never stopped shining
It was just hidden far from your reach
under your skin and beneath this realm
You are the one to leave this eternal loop of madness
It is in your hands to open the next room

How?
fear not, only death will bring you peace
for your resurrection is the path to clarity
Take on your grief and your sorrow, for they will guide you
Walk through your darkness, embrace your revenge
The kingdom of heaven is right here, right now
See the lamp? see the table? see the plant?
They are god thyself, but you too
so just close your eyes and find the oneness within
you are the one

The unexpected

English

Years of marriage
and all of the sudden you were just gone
how did we come to that?
that was unexpected

But what is the unexpected?
there is clearly no definition, so here is mine:
the unexpected is when Julia is Julia and Peter is Peter
the unexpected is the speed of lightning and its majestic power

When we are as we are
sometimes we make trouble
because we dare to feel and to dream
and normality gets out of the equation

The unexpected is you
you and your beautiful eyes like the ocean
the unexpected is that smile and the silence when you walk around
that sudden electric pulse that goes through my cells and my body
and I can’t avoid it anymore
that movement brings color to my picture and I surrender
I surrender to the unexpected

And I follow you in my dreams
like the moon follows the sun
to get some of your starlight on my chest
But you are always beyond my reach
and the horizon is my prison
as if I had no contempt but your tender smile
like the moon and the sun

Sometimes it hurts and the voices in my head become tremors of insanity
so I keep waiting
I wait for the sun to come out every day
I wait to feel that mighty flare on my skin
and I keep waiting
like the moon and the sun
let’s just dance together, because there is no tomorrow…

Can’t you see?

English

I looked at her directly and said: let’s dance together, before the late hour, shall we?
believe it or not, those were my words, and she laughed, she did.
she kept laughing and we talked and we danced and we laughed together
it was a miracle, like those in the movies;
I was mister charming, finally

Granma always told me I was not so ugly
so I knew since my childhood that I had chances to mate
I was never mister popular, so I had to make her laugh
that was like “the” strategy I could use against miss perfection
becoming mister funny was my last shot and it worked out

We kept talking and drinking and laughing and I was so annoyed
but how do you tell somebody?:
listen, I’m a bit of an introvert, let’s just stare at each other and kiss!
or is it perhaps just too late for so much talking? Hm…good question
anyway, the story continued on my bed and on her bed and so on, you can imagine

From being complete strangers to falling in love, unbelievable
I can only conclude it was the ocean and the wind
they surround us and involve our cells in that misty movement
it goes and comes
it’s like a dance, forward, backward and sideways, and again
you can hold on to it and be knocked down
or ride the waves and just keep swimming, keep swimming

The tiny little pieces of you in me, those are the good ones, those are the ones I miss
my bed full of long hair, my clothes full of long hair
just long hair that still keeps emerging, like magic
that extraordinary misplacement of my own things in my own house
you were the queen and king and the princess and everything

It was not your cooking, nor mine
it was the us, the us who was so promising
I was there to see you cry and smile
I was there to touch you at night, in your sleep

can’t you see?
there was so much love in that house
there was so much of us in that house
can’t you see?
I am that guy,
the one who stumbles,
the one with no name,
the one who broke apart…

Words are my talent

English

Words are my talent and my sword
I embrace them to fight injustice and disdain
I abuse of their exquisite fragrance to light up my spirit
and to spark the passions in my heart
so I can go beyond, to that other end
-which end?
-Klaus! this is poetry, PO-E-TRY.

Words are my talent and my universe
they wonder around as little insects
confused by the million lights in the room of my mind
and at times I tremble, for they come out and dance around my body
and things get a little bit crazy! …and a little bit weird!
but it’s all right, it’s aaaaaall righty.

Words are my talent and my curse
I try to catch them in great despair
but they move so fast, faster than the wind
that I can only smile and say:
go, just go and never come back!!!
and leave the chocolate ice cream. 🙂

Words are my talent and my success
as they jump around, from one head to another, from one soul to another
they bring wisdom and experience
and they enlighten with their true power
so remember: the magic is never lost, it’s just hidden in your closet
yes, under the slip, where else?
(slips, I meant slips, what a dirty mind, where is the respect?!).

Words are my talent and myself
they are my expression and my awareness
for I see me in every character and every empty space
we are soulmates since the beginning of life
and lovers till death brings us apart
(well, now they call it divorce).

Words are my talent and my freedom
they bring change and laughter
and show me the path to the now
oh yes! the never ending now, I’m so excited!
everyone wants you, everyone desires your sexy curves
so set me free
conquer my body and my mind
and let me be one with your colors…

The stories we tell

English, ,

If you were to write a story, what type of story would it be? Would it be a tale of dragons and heroes? What form would it take? Would it be a horror tale of vampires and victims or a sweet love story? Would it be a story of your adventures and the mighty you conquering the world?

Whatever story you choose to tell, a story is just a story. It is a story in your mind. Whatever you choose to believe and to think, it is finally a shape, a vision, a fragment of reality, a subjective representation in your mind of all “what is” around you. You might say, for instance, -but nothing travels faster than the speed of light, that is a fact-. Is it really? What if something could travel faster than the speed of light? What if the reality that we see is just a tiny fraction of everything “what is”? What if there are energy fields and waves that our bodies just cannot perceive? It is from any point of view, quite difficult to believe that we are completely aware of everything around us. We measure life and the universe from a very limited 5-senses perspective and we go around making assumptions about everything, fitting what happens around us to our story. I mean, there are even colors that we don’t manage to see and sounds we can’t hear. We can’t even hear what dogs can. What if there was a lot more out there that we just don’t perceive? What if there were even beings around us that we can’t see nor touch? oh wait, we call them ghosts.

I was in a workshop earlier this week. The host would ask everyone to present themselves and to answer a simple but powerful question: “what makes you happy?”. People named several things and activities that would make them happy, like good food, shopping, traveling, the little things, spending time with loved ones and so on. Pretty reasonable and legitimate answers. Most of the attendants mentioned external things, people or experiences to define happiness. What kind of definitions are those? Aren’t we too focused on the external world? Shouldn’t we be looking into inner realms?, even the question points to something external. We keep defining ourselves through separation and identification with external entities: The more luxury clothes I have, the better, distinct and happier person I am. The better job I get, the happier person I become. We keep telling ourselves those stories. Stories of success, power and status. -I am John Doe, engineer, athletic, famous philanthropist and entrepreneur. A dynamic and career-oriented person-. But, are those stories who we really are?

Whatever concept or idea of yourself you might have, remember something important: it is an idea, a mental structure, a story in your mind. It is not what the “real you” is about. All mental structures one day can fall. You can suddenly lose everything, all your possessions and status. One day you will retire and you will not be anymore the top and successful manager, member of that spectacular organization. You will be one more, a senior, perhaps with heart or back problems. Even more, one day you will die. When you die, people won’t write on your headstone: “John Doe, successful manager, raised sales by 20% and owned several properties and a Porsche”. I guess people would rather write something like “beloved husband (or wife)”. Moreover, one day your whole family might die and the beloved husband story won’t be true anymore. So what are you going to do if all those stories come to an end? Will there still be a you in you?

 “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water” Bruce Lee

Of course, there will be a you, but most importantly, there is a you within you, right now, in this very present moment. The key to recognizing that you within you is the realization that all those stories about you, your life and the world are just that, stories in your mind. It is realizing that you need to shift away from the talking mind and the ideas that your body and yourself are a solid and separated entity. Your body is actually more than 80% water and is formed by millions of atoms and cells that belong to this world. It is that energy that puts your atoms together the very essence of you and everyone else. So we are talking about spiritual awareness, and guess what, there is no magic in it. You don’t need to go to the mountains and learn karate to become aware of the essence of your true self. We all have access to it every time we want. So be the water within you and let yourself flow with the Universe.

Living abroad

English, ,

Inspiration.
The United Nations International Migration Report 2013 revealed that around 232 million people live abroad in 2013. This article is for you, if you somehow landed in a foreign country and stayed there for a longer period. This article is for you too, even if you are not living abroad, because it deals with life’s challenges, lessons and key discoveries.

I have wanted to write about my life abroad for a long time, but I didn’t feel the right burst of creativity until I read this nice article by Russell V. J. Ward called: 4 Ways Living Abroad Changes You… Forever. His words triggered the sort of inspiration I needed to finally sit down and do it. Not to mention how much a rainy winter night helps.

Sometimes we wonder if our decisions are right and examine our lives looking for some meaning. When I go back to my country of origin to visit my family and friends, people would ask me two main questions: when I am coming back and whether or not I miss what I somehow left behind. These sort of questions, plus seeing how people move on with their lives, get married, start having children and buy apartments, made me wonder for several years if the path I had chosen was the right one. I permanently asked myself if I had found meaning and purpose every time I moved or changed directions.

People at home continue with their lives and one feels very often as a black sheep, as an outsider. I would even start telling myself that I was just being rebellious, that I just took the decision to escape from the ineluctable reality. So in a deep way, moving abroad was an effort to discover my calling and my true purpose in this world. It has been an endless search for my true passions and an exploration of the possibilities that life and the planet has to offer me in professional, personal and spiritual terms. I wanted development and expansion, so I went far away for it.

Changes and Challenges.
In a way, what Russell says is totally true. Living abroad brings you tons of new lessons and the impact in your life is giant. I could write thousands of stories with all the adventures, endings, beginnings, romances, accidents and funny moments that I have lived. It is a tale of survival as well. The environment is sometimes harsh and the only way to go through all of it is by upgrading yourself.

The new experiences are a huge boost to your tolerance, resilience and your value system. You often realize how people create problems in their minds out of nothing, how relationships are broken because of details, how to accept different points of view, or how to better listen, because you stop taking things for granted. You also learn how to appreciate the important things in life, like friends, family, the environment, your health and love.

In a very literal way, moving abroad is like starting college again, specially if you move to a country without having a clue of the language. You need to learn so many things to be able to achieve something. It is not only the language, but also the social codes and behaviors. Getting a feeling of belonging is a slow paced process. You basically need to start again in so many ways.

The previous level.
So, have I found my calling and true purpose? Have I found meaning? It is hard to answer those questions. Not because I don’t know the answer, but because the questions are wrong. That is my intention with this article. We often look for things outside ourselves to feel better. We long for the special person, job, promotion, house, holiday and so many other things in the outer world, that we forget to see things how they really are. We are waiting for that special thing to happen that will change our lives. When that thing finally comes, we experience a long period of satisfaction and we feel great. Indeed. We meet that special one and we are happy, but after a while, things change back to that state of agitation and restlessness and we split up.

Living abroad has been one of the most important decisions of my life. It has helped me to be self-aware and to realize life’s deeper purpose.

Many times during my stay in a foreign place I have felt like living in a movie. As if I was some sort of entity observing the movie of my life or an entity “being the reality”, like a plant. This situation has had a profound and powerful impact inside me. I just didn’t realize it before. I guess this state of contemplation happened because my mind was so busy trying to understand my environment and was also so busy processing a huge amount of information, that I was just unable to do anything else than to live the present moment. As I said, like a plant.

To give our fullest attention to what we are doing now is the deeper purpose, because we can only live in the present moment. The rest, the future and past, is all our imagination or our emotional and mental luggage. By doing that, by living in the present, we live the path and we connect with our inner self. That is why all questions related to a final destination are wrong, because there is no path to find. We build our path every single moment of our lives and thereby we recognize our calling. Of course, that doesn’t mean we cannot plan the future. But if we start living in that future, if we start worrying, we come back to that state of dissatisfaction and we start waiting again for that special thing to come.

The next question would be something like: am I doing right now what I really want to do? I guess that is a question of passions and deserves another article. At least we can realize that the answer is not out there, but somewhere in that inner world.

By the way, regarding that question or any other without an answer, I heard once a master piece of advice:

“There is one important rule, you can not tell about yourself ‘I don’t know’, your thoughts and what you do come from you and you always know something important about them. Even if you don’t know, guess it, because even guessing comes from you and it is a way of knowledge about yourself.”