Large talk

Collect moments, not things

As several recent researches brings out it may be better for you to invest your money into memorable moments in your life than into real estate, at least when it comes to happiness.
Forsaking travels, family, dinners or other activities to earn/save money for the sake of owning your own house may not give a better life in the long run. Loans, repairs, taxes etc. may cause worries. The pleasure of owning a property soon becomes a habit, and the responsibilities takes up your time and decide your priorities.
So why not try to think differently, after all people who rent a place is not more unhappy that those that own their own. Money saved for repairs could be spent making a nice travel to a place you never visited before, family activities, or you could sell your property and go volunteer working for a year or two! That would bring even more meaning into life, and boost the healthy ways of happiness!
Read more in the New York Times.





        Interesting places to go (Recommendations from National Geographic):

Madagaskar

                                                                               Cuba

                                                                       
                                                                         Australia

..or why not explore one of these European adventures, like joining a photo workshop in Paris ?
Make your own wish-list and make it real!
These arrangements are of course not necessary to follow but give ideas to work on.
More travel tips from Travel National Georaphic

You may find it even more interesting if you book accommodation through this page, private lodgings @ www.airbnb.com, a different way to see the culture and a great way to know the area you visit by getting to know local people.

Meaning of life vs "hedonic happiness"

What is the benefits of living a happy life? And how could we define "happy"?

Research shows an interesting connection between our immune system and feelings of happiness.

This have been known for a long time, but even more interesting is the distinction between "empty happiness" as in just being happy(feeling good) for having a good life, and "meaningful happiness" that comes from a life who has some form of higher meaning in it.

Surprisingly this article,a new study published in

 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

 brings out that our physical state/defense is strengthened by living a meaningful life even when it does not make us very happy. And being happy but without deeper meaning gives our immune system the same pattern as if we were under stress! 

It suggests that actually having a meaningful life is the real benefit for our wellbeing, and if we feel particularly happy or not have less importance. 

"Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided," the authors of the study wrote. "If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need.” While being happy is about feeling good, meaning is derived from contributing to others or to society in a bigger way. As Roy Baumeister, one of the researchers, told me, "Partly what we do as human beings is to take care of others and contribute to others. This makes life meaningful but it does not necessarily make us happy.”

If we sometimes struggle to help other people or our environment,  but do not feel the great happiness in our life  it it still is to our benefit. The deep satisfaction by knowing that what we do make a difference is more value than shallow feel-good.

We remember the words of Jesus "It is more happiness in giving than to receiving",and realize even more the truth that it holds- it is not only bringing true happiness, but healthy life.

Read more in the Atlantic

If you forget me, Pablo Neruda

I fell in love with this poem that I came across a while ago.
It made me look a little closer to the author Pablo Neruda, and I- as growing up in Norway did not have any slightest idea who this person was. Then I found even more great poetry and the background of a Nobel-winning poet in Spanish language:

Pablo Neruda's Biography

Pablo Neruda is Latin America’s most well-known and most read poet of the twentieth century. He was born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto on July 12, 1904, in the town of Parral, Chile. His father was a railroad worker and his mother died shortly after giving birth to him. When he was sixteen years old he began submitting articles to the literary journal “Selva Austra” using the pseudonym Pablo Neruda. Neruda chose to publish his poetry under a different name because his father adamantly opposed poetry as a career. Neruda quickly began publishing his books of poetry. Along with his literary exploits he studied French and pedagogy at the University of Chile in Santiago.

Neruda began a promising political career and moved to Europe to further that career; however, his writing never took a back seat. Neruda’s poetry can be seen as blueprints for his life. If you follow his poetry in chronological order, you can see every place he has been in his life –the young man full of blooming love, the depressed man writing of his home, the ardent politician, and the old man full-circle back to the rapture and passions of love. Beginning with 1927 until 1935, he was given consulships to many different countries: Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid. While in Europe, Neruda became a follower of Communism which would color his later poetry and politics.

In 1947 Neruda had to live underground, exiled from his home because of his anti-President González Videla sentiments. Neruda continued his poetry but during this time it expressed his fiery leftist political views. In 1952 he was invited back to Chile and he happily returned home.

In 1971 Pablo Neruda received the Nobel Prize for Literature among other awards.
Pablo Neruda passed way in a hospital in Santiago, Chile on September 23, 1973 from a battle with cancer. The beloved poet was dead, but his poetry would live on forever. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

More on the blog,  neruda.blogspot.no by Melissa

"If You Forget Me"

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
If I look
At the crystal moon, at the red branch
Of the slow autumn at my window,
If I touch
Near the fire
The impalpable ash
Or the wrinkled body of the log,
Everything carries me to you,
As if everything that exists,
Aromas, light, metals,
Were little boats that sail
Toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
If little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
You forget me
Do not look for me,
For I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
The wind of banners
That passes through my life,
And you decide
To leave me at the shore
Of the heart where I have roots,
Remember
That on that day,
At that hour,
I shall lift my arms
And my roots will set off
To seek another land.

But
If each day,
Each hour,
You feel that you are destined for me
With implacable sweetness,
If each day a flower
Climbs up to your lips to seek me,
Ah my love, ah my own,
In me all that fire is repeated,
In me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
My love feeds on your love, beloved,
And as long as you live it will be in your arms
Without leaving mine. 

Beautifully wrote and amen

John Cleese - a lecture on Creativity

Being creative is fun and inspiring but how do we get there if we are overwhelmed by daily craves and tasks that seem to be never ending? The lightness and playfulness seem to drown sometimes into all the should-do during the day. At least that is for me a reality.
John Cleese is a great example on how to get going and remind playful! We just have to

1. set aside enough time for it to open up and let it in

2. give yourself space, without all the craves

3. wait some more time and see if something better comes up

4. wiew everything in the light of humor,(of course!) and

5 . have confidence; when you play and being creative there is no wrong or right, just be open for whatever that comes along! ..take a look at this lecture:




Well done, let`s put a moment in the schedule for this and see what happens!

Quotes and a poem

-" When everything else fail:

time to breathe

and grow faith."

-"Any obstacle are allies for change.

Just try it."

"Hold on there..if any doubt, do nothing."

 "Lo más perfectamente divino que existe es luchar una batalla perdida
 - y no perderla"

Just Be!

-G

----.----.----

 Lifeline

I am swimming

keeping my head above the water

Threading waters

when my arms too tired

Then I am sinking

sinking in the oceans of your heart

You throw me a lifeline

and I know

everything will be allright

-L.T

Poesia

This poem was touching me deeply. I could not find one translated,so you better start learning Spanish..

Cuando ya nada se espera
personalmente exaltante
mas se palpita y se sigue
más acá de la consciencia.
fieramente existiendo
ciegamente afirmando,
como un pulso que golpea
las tinieblas,
que golpea las tinieblas.

Cuando se miran de frente
los vertiginosos ojos
claros de la muerte,
se dicen las verdades, las bárbaras,
terribles,amorosas crueldades,
amorosas crueldades.

Poesía para el pobre,
poesía necesaria
como el pan de cada día,
como el aire que exigimos
trece veces por minuto,
para ser y en tanto somos
dar un sí que glorifica.

Porque vivimos a golpes
porque apenas sí nos dejan
decir que somos quien somos.
Nuestros cantares no pueden ser
sin pecado un adorno;
estamos tocando el fondo,
estamos tocando el fondo.

La poesía es un arma cargada de futuro (extracto) , Gabriel Celaya. 

Musicado por Paco Ibáñez.