Biomimetic tiny home as antifragile prototype for new urbanism

We already have everything we need to make this planet a better place for all of us. Technology serving Mother Earth to accommodate humans in harmony with all beings around. Kind of perfect, I would say.
Check out this documentary made by Kristen Dirksen.

Cheers,
Gloria

Your actions do matter!

"Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him".James Allen

Dear all, we are facing challenging times, and we are forced to take action according to the circumstances. In this kind of situation, some people react, letting fear and sorrow dominate their lives, quite understandable, we are just humans. But others act despite this fear and take action not only to protect themselves but to protect those who can't do it for themselves. That is really extraordinary.

Today I want to share with you the journey of two dear friends of mine and fellow achievers of our community Angela and Adrian BUZULOIU who are volunteering as couriers around the city of Timisoara in Romania.

Angela and Adrian are working every day as volunteers, bringing groceries and medicine to the older people in the town and the ones in insolation. They began just by themselves, and now they have inspired others to do the same and have a team of around 20 people taking orders, buying and distributing groceries and medicines around the city. I was lucky to have them for a short interview to share their experiences and everyday challenges. 

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” Barrak Obama

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.”― Gordon B. Hinckle

Dear Angela, dear Adrian, thank you for your time and thank you for being so courageous and help others in need. From the bottom of my heart, I wish you the best. May you be safe, healthy and strong to be able to continue your mission.

Cheers,

Gloria

In times like this, mind your own business

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. The calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” James Allen

I have been a long week quiet. I did not make an entry as usual. Not for lack of material but because I needed to understand what is happening, and what I could control in this craziness and, the answer was simple, me, just me.

I minded my own business and, that worked for me. How did I do it? The way I always do it. Stillness. Stillness is the only state that allows me to go inside, find wisdom, and produce what a need to survive. I came back with the urge to make a plan for the days to come, and I am already working on it.

"A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.” “Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are". James Allen

The first thing we need to consider in this situation is to create a new routine, a way to have the feeling we are masters of our see.

For me, it was for my soul first: meditation, yoga, calling good friends, zooming, skyping, emailing, and being grateful for everything, and I mean everything.

For my body: yoga, less food, I went back to OMAD (one meal a day) experimenting with new sprouts mix.

For my brain, I am listening to a book or reading every day. Second, I decided to learn something, so I concentrate on learning to trade. I think trading is going to be my peaceful way to financial freedom, so I finally began to take it seriously.

For my inner child, I dance every hour when I am sitting too long, and I alternate with 30 jumping jacks. I am happy my neighbors can´t come and complain 😉

For my environment, I had to take advantage of the situation and minimalize even more. I took extra care of my plants, cleaned everything. That was liberating.

For my finances, I reviewed my expenses and cut already everything that is not for survival. I think it is mandatory to do so in case the situation gets even worst. It would be nice to have some goodies as an extra backup from what we can spare at this time. We got to be very conscious of our resources right now.

So that´s my new routine during the lockdown.

I hope you all find out how to cope with this challenging situation and the most important thing, and I hope you all stay healthy and sane.

PS1: If I recommended just one small yet powerful book for these days, I would say, read or listen to “As a man thinketh” by James Allen. All quotes in this post are from that book. I hope I made you curious to read or listen to the book.

“A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.” James Allen

PS2: I am sorry for all of you working from home and having your kids all day without any aid. Friends of mine are suffering, and I am feeling mad because I have the time and can do nothing to help them.

PS3: Listen to music instead of conspiracy theories

PS4: Watch funny movies instead of watching the news

PS5: Send LOVE to the world whenever you feel overwhelmed

PS6: Breathe, smile, dance a song with your partner or your children or all together

PS7: Please share this post and comment, thank you

Cheers,

Gloria

No pain, no gain

What´s your story with Juan Valentín CORTÉS FÁBREGAS

Fellow achievers, today is indeed a special day. I will post the first interview from the series: What´s your story. I decided to feature fellow achievers here to share with us their experiences and how they are developing their skills in this journey we all are in which is to achieve financial freedom and inner peace and be able to live the life we dream of.

I am very excited to offer you this series, and I want to encourage you to be my next guest. Every one of us has something unique to share and to teach. I will be happy to be the medium in this matter. Let´s help each other and make this community grow even faster and stronger.

My first guest is Juan Cortés Fábregas from Madrid, Spain, and living currently in Germany. He is an IT engineer, fellow NWA 2019 achiever, author, and blogger.

                                    

The first part is about a personal introduction and the two primary questions: What does keep him motivated? His own projects like the book business, learning how to trade, and blogging about mindset. 

How does he define financial freedom? Having enough passive income to not depend on the job. Having enough to live the real-life, doing what really matters.

The second part covers the 4 legs for success: Mindset, his book business, trading, and blogging.

Three things he will do as a millionaire:  give up his current job, spend more time with his family, learn more languages and improve the ones he already speaks and third but not least, give back to the universe by working as a volunteer

                                           

The third part is about book recommendations, 3 must-read books.

Robert Kiyosaki's rich dad poor dad because it is an eye-opener; The secrets of a millionaire mind from T. Harv Eker to learn about mindset, how to achieve financial freedom and personal development in general. The third book is Unlimited power from Tony Robbins, a book about mindset, which is the foundation to achieve and maintain success in the first place.

What Juan does to keep his body and soul healthy: Sport and healthy food. If you want to achieve your goals, you need good energy.

A crazy thing he would do with a lot of money: Throw a BIG party with friends, not thinking about the cost. Travel first class. If you are doing well, you have to reward yourself.

                                           

The last part is about his passion. He wants to become a coach because he loves teaching. The second thing is learning languages to communicate better and also become your better version. 

Finally, his statement: NO PAIN, NO GAIN! You can achieve whatever you want, but you have to take action, make mistakes, learn from them, and move forward to your goals.

Social media connections

If you want to get in touch with Juan, check his blog on mindset mindsetmasters

Linkedin Juanvalentincortes 

Instagram @juanva86 

His book OLÉ easy  Spanish for German and English speakers 

The space between my thoughts

What happens when nothing else is happening?

Well, I admit it sounds crazy, confusing, and not logical. That all is understandable, yet it is true, at least for me, according to my experience.

I will talk today about how to achieve a certain level of inner peace that will allow you to see yourself out of the box. As Les Brown says: "If you are on the picture, you can't see the frame" We need from time to time to get out of the picture so that we can see what else is out there or deep inside.

We are achievers, we are on our way to greatness by that I mean becoming the best version of ourselves. This process requires a lot of energy in the form of information, knowledge, and wisdom. To get these things, you need resources, to create the funds, you got to take some actions, to make the right actions you need to see the big picture inside and out. That is a lot of stuff to process and a real challenge.

What I do to stay sane and see the light and at the end of the tunnel is to meditate. I would like to share with you three simple ways to do this and achieve some fractions of eternity, which is what I call it. I always have this feeling after meditation. It is like the time does not exist anymore, there is space, but no time, I am just there. In this state, I see my thoughts, coming, and going. It is like looking at clouds. You see them, but in a second they are not there as you saw them, they change and eventually disappear by taking another form.  That is how I see the space between my thoughts, this space is for me a kind of eternity, the fractions of eternity, I need to recover my power and continue living my life and achieving my goals.

Three simple ways to meditate

one

1. Sit down, put your phone and other electronic devices in plane modus
2. Inhale and hold your breath for 3 seconds, exhale
3. Inhale and hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale
4. Inhale and hold your breath for 5 seconds, exhale
5. Inhale and hold your breath for 6 seconds, exhale
6. Inhale and hold your breath for 7 seconds, exhale
7. Inhale and hold your breath for 8 seconds, exhale
8. Repeat the process three times.

two

1. Sit down and put your electronic devices on plane modus
2. Use the timer on your phone and set it off for 5 minutes
3. Close your eyes and put your right hand on your chaste or belly
4. Breathe normally and listen to your breath until you hear the ring tone.

That's it

three

1. Sit down
2. Look at your feet
3. Look at your legs
4. Look at your hands and arms
5. Close your eyes and see your feet, your legs and your arms with closed eyes
6. Open your eyes
7. Repeat the process three times.

These are simple ways to calm down and meditate. Now, if you want to go to the next level, let this be just the beginning, and after doing one of them, continue breathing peacefully and allow your thoughts to come and let them go, welcome the next one and let it go as well. Sometimes you will want to entertain one of these thoughts longer, do so, and then let it go. If one idea is persistent, don't worry, use it to go even deeper. Analyze it, put it upsidedown, observe it from the right, from the left side, from above, right from the front, show it your tongue, smile at it. At some point, the thought gets tired, and it leaves you. Then you can continue the process of letting them pass by. Before you know, time does not exist anymore. This is so refreshing.

Happy fractions of eternity to you

Cheers

Gloria

Take a break!

"Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges," Bryant McGill."

Photo by Aldo Picaso from Pexels

A friend of mine had a nasty accident and broke her ankle in three different parts. After surgery, she had to stay at home and lay down like 8 weeks or more. She is a very active person and her own woman. As you can imagine, it's been not easy. I have seen her changing in the last weeks, especially now that the pain is almost gone, and she can move a lot more by herself. What I saw and inspired me to look inside myself was the new light in her eyes. I see new energy, clarity of intention, her skin looks more tender, she even lost weight despite being almost unable to do any movement. In summary, she is radiant.

I asked myself, how did these positive changes happen? My answer is more straightforward than I would have expected: it was rest. Having the time to rest without chores to do, meetings to attend, not having to perform for a while, that was the secret.

I find it challenging to be, just be without doing. I confess I used to feel remorse sometimes during my lazy day, but still, I had it because I knew that after having it, I would be more productive.
The idea of scheduling a lazy day is from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen monk and bestselling author.

I learned from Thich Nhat Hanh how good it is to have a lazy day. I usually want to DO, want to be active not because I really want to do things all the time but because most of the time, I used to think that it is not right to be lazy. It is against the rules of productivity to be lazy. Since I was so impressed by all the other lessons I learned from him, I decided to give it a try and have my lazy day. That trial began four years ago. The first time was horrible. I mean, how can you do NOTHING!!! Let me explain, for Thich Nhat Hanh, a lazy day it's not just a day free from your regular job; for example, if you work from Monday to Friday, then you have weekends open to do all the chores you are not able to do during the week. These are free days, but none of them is a lazy day if you are doing chores and running errands.

That's what the monks at Plumvillage say:

A Lazy Day is a day for us to be true with the day without any schedule activities. We just let the day unfold naturally, timelessly. It is a day in which we can practice as we like. We may do walking meditation on our own or with a friend or do sitting meditation in the forest. We might want to read lightly or write home to our family or to a friend.

Got the picture?

Well, I now have a lazy day every week, and I enjoy it. In time I decided to combine laziness with digital communication fasting. What do I mean by that? I don't switch my phone on this day. Yes, I have a free day from my mobile phone, and I extend this policy to the computer and tablet. So that I am free and just by myself. Not always an easy task to accomplish but very rewarding at the end.

So, these are the two things I do. 

1. I am lazy, so I can rest and recover my energy, and 
2. I fast from digital communication to regain my focus.

I let you with some words from another master, Wayne Dyer:

"Everything that's created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness. Your sense of inner peace depends on spending some of your life energy in silence to recharge your battery, remove tension and anxiety."

Let's be lazy to be more efficient, productive, and stay focused!

Cheers
Gloria

Apartment farmer? Yes, that´s me

more pictures on Instagram @wintersprouts

I live in a tiny apartment and grow most of my own food in the kitchen. I also have more than 30 plants around me. And I am a minimalist. You won't believe it, but it's true.


One of the things I do to keep my waste under control is to grow food in the kitchen. As you can imagine, if you live in a small place, you don't have that much room to be a farmer. But if you choose to grow sprout, space becomes really relative. I use a table which is 90 x 60 cm big or small if you want. That's all I need. In there, I have all my best-growing sprouts. Some of them grow in jars and others in towers or trays.

more pictures on Instagram @wintersprouts

                                                       

In the beginning, it was very stressful. To much to learn and coordinate: rinsing time, kind of jar, days to go, light, etc. But at the same time, I was so excited to see them grow until I could harvest them. The taste, so fresh, so delicious. The experience is fantastic! Living food is definitely a different Liga when we are talking about food.

more pictures on Instagram @wintersprouts

There is some work to do, that is true. You also need to make some investments in knowledge as well as some gear, but mostly, it is time to let them become what they are. The benefits are every penny and every second worth. Becoming a sprout queen is one of these things that changes everything. I changed the way I related to food. I began to see it as nutrition and not compensation for frustrations of any kind. I peacefully began to eat less not because I was on a diet, but because sprouts are so nutritious that you don't grieve for the unhealthy snacks or eating without control in any form.

The jar system for beginners 

This jar system is a little bit different from our MMI jar system but still perfect for you.
Look for a jar in your kitchen. Finish the marmalade if necessary and take that jar to begin with. Rinse it thoroughly. We don't want any germs in it.

more pictures on Instagram @wintersprouts

Take a look at your pantry. Do you have any lentils, pea, or mung beans in there? Yes? Perfect!

1. Put a spoonful in the jar and fill it four fingers with water.
2. Let the seeds rest overnight.
3. Rinse them in the morning and close the jar ( use a piece of cloth to avoid the seeds to be rinsed out
4. Rinse again in the evening
5. Repeat the process every day during the following 5 days
6. Finally, look at your work, the sprout is ready to eat. Enjoy!

If you really don't have any seeds at home, go to the supermarket first thing tomorrow after work. You don't need special seeds, you can take the ones you usually eat. They work just fine. I personally buy always organic food, so my seeds are natural, but as I said, the normal ones will do the job as well.

A beautiful side effect besides saving money was the fact that my allergy reactions almost disappear. Nowadays, I eat more different kinds of food than ever and do not need to take antihistamine pills regularly. I am fit, my immune system is strong, my skin looks better, and I have a lot of energy and clarity to think, act, and react.

Maybe it just a placebo effect; it is perhaps because they are so nutritious I do not know. I just know sprouts are good for me, and maybe they could be right for you as well. Give them a try and do share your experience.

For more pictures, visit me on Instagram, @wintersprouts I post every day some of my experiments or sprout challenges.

Happy sprouting!
Cheers
Gloria