How many directions can you walk in simultaneously?

One of the assignments for Week two of my yoga MOOC was to create a meme. I made this because I feel like I want to walk in all directions simultaneously, and I want to bring more presence and love into each moment. Therefore, less multitasking, more intention. If you still want to walk this walk with me, follow the link. #yogaMOOC

Setting realistic goals

I have just started this onlince MOOC and I am excited! That is not the reason why I am blogging about it, though. I am blogging about this experience because that is one of the requirements of the course. 

They have asked us to set one goal; a specific, challenging, attainable goal. Well, I have decided to set two goals! Setting realistic goals is a goal in itself for me, as I tend to float around a lot! I am delighted that despite my busy work life I have joined this MOOC. Letting others know our goals can encourage us because there is more accountability; people ask!  So, here goes! My goals are: 
1. To incorporate yoga into my routines every day. Specifically, I aim to do one 1-hour session per week and shorter routines every day. These shorter routines may be a back stretch, some sun salutations... anything in my search to 'Find what feels good' (Go, Adriene!) 
2. To tune into me and become more aware of my feelings, desires and triggers.

Has this made you want to join the yoga fun? #yogaMOOC

Amizade, David Whyte

Tradução livre de um texto belíssimo sobre a amizade. Texto original aqui, por David Whyte.

"A amizade é um espelho para a presença e um testamento ao perdão. A amizade ajuda-nos a vermo-nos através dos olhos do outro, e só pode sustentar-se ao longo dos anos com alguém que repetidamente consegue perdoar as nossas transgressões, e temos de encontrar em nós a capacidade de perdoar também. Um amigo conhece as nossas dificuldades e sombras e mantém-se ‘a vista, companheiro das nossas vulnerabilidades mais do que dos nossos triunfos, quando estamos sob a estranha ilusão de que não precisamos dele. A força de uma amizade verdadeira é uma bênção precisamente porque a sua forma elementar é descoberta e redescoberta através da compreensão e compaixão. Todas as amizades, de qualquer duração, baseiam-se no perdão contínuo e mútuo. Sem tolerância e compaixão todas as amizades morrem...

A amizade é o grande transmutador de qualquer relação: pode transformar um casamento problemático, tornar respeitável uma rivalidade profissional, fazer sentido de um desgosto amoroso não correspondido e tornar-se lugar fértil para uma relação mãe-filho madura.

A dinâmica da amizade é quase sempre subestimada enquanto força constante na vida humana: um círculo de amigos que permanente diminui é o primeiro terrível diagnóstico de uma vida problemática: demasiado trabalho, demasiado ênfase numa identidade profissional, esquecer quem estará do nosso lado quando as nossas personalidades blindadas vieram de encontro aos desastres naturais e ‘as vulnerabilidades encontradas mesmo na mais mediana existência...

A amizade transcende o desaparecimento: uma amizade duradoura continua para além da morte, a troca apenas transmutada pela ausência, a relação avançando e maturando num silencioso diálogo interno mesmo quando metade da ligação desaparece.

Mas independentemente das virtudes medicinais de se ser um verdadeiro amigo, ou de se sustentar uma longa relação próxima com outra pessoa, a derradeira pedra-de-toque da amizade não é o aperfeiçoamento, nem do próprio nem do outro, a derradeira pedra-de-toque é testemunhar e ser testemunhado, o privilegio de se ter sido visto por alguém e o privilegio de se ter podido ver a essência do outro, de ter caminhado com eles e acreditado neles, e ‘as vezes simplesmente tê-los acompanhado, por pouco tempo que tenha sido, numa jornada impossível de se cumprir sozinho."

You can be a leader

Thoughts of the day:

1 - Everyone can be a leader. What is your vision for a better world/workplace/etc?

2 - As a leader you will fail. Remember to not take yourself too seriously and that what failed was the idea, the tool, the activity. Not you! 

3 - Learn from the failures. Now you know one thing that does not work. 

This is following a course I did with Seth Godin on Udemy, which I highly recommend.

Pensamentos do dia:

1 - Todos podemos ser líderes. Qual é a tua visão para um mundo melhor? Um local de trabalho melhor? Etc.

2 - Enquanto líder, tu vais falhar. Lembra-te que não foste tu que falhaste. Foi a ideia, a ferramenta, a actividade. Não tu!

3 - Aprende de cada vez que falhes. Agora sabes o que não funciona.

Isto vem na sequência de um curso online que fiz com o Seth Godin na Udemy e que recomendo vivamente.

#lideranca #sethgodin

How to solve the equation: Wedding planning = 0% stress + 100% fun

Why

Enjoy

DIY

Delegate

Ignore

Numbers

Gratitude

Why

Ask why all the time! As soon as you say the word ‘wedding’, prices quadruple, and the world seems to surround you with things you can buy and pay for that would ‘be just perfect’, when in fact you had never even thought of them  and have zero interest in them. Save the dosh and do it your way! Examples of stuff that people tried to sell us:

• Red carpet for.a.public.beach.wedding!
• Sound system for the beach ceremony. We almost bought into this because the company were adamant that we wouldn't be able to hear each other during the ceremony. Luckily we went down to the beach and experimented with sound, which made us realise it would all be audible (Thanks priests Jorge & Ryan!). Had we gone with the idea, we would have ended up sounding like a dodgy church!
• Portuguese beaches have concessionaires who are responsible for the little cafés and life guards on the beach. It's only natural that they see you wanting to get married on the beach and try to get you to pay for a private spot on a public beach. This is fine if you want ‘your’ area to be sealed off and safe from passers by. However, we love the idea that beaches are free and open to everyone and so did not want to create artificial barriers. This was fabulous on the day, as our group became surrounded by strangers who smiled and shouted words of love and encouragement.

Enjoy

Don't be a control freak. Take it easy! It is your wedding day and that has a different meaning to every person; for me and D it was all about throwing a party to celebrate love and show our gratitude towards our family and friends. As a result, we had nothing to worry about!

DIY

Do what you want to do and do it yourself (if that's what you want to do). Here are some things we did ourselves:

• Gifts - I learned the basics of sewing with long distance help from my friend Jona and decided to create little sachets filled with lavender from my grandparents’ garden. This was a way of giving it a personal touch and including my grandparents and their marvellous garden more.

• Choreography - In our case, we wanted to surprise our guests with a silly fun dance choreography. So we got in touch with a dance school Fujairah School of Arts and designed a choreography with a couple of awesome teachers (Thanks Danny & Andrea!), using a compilation we made (Thanks for mixing, Pedro!).

• Photography - We looked at no budgets… instead we had 50 honorary photographers for the day! All our guests took photos, and put them onto a Dropbox folder. As a result, we got the most incredible photos, because personal touches and artistic inspirations were all there. D and I then sat down and selected some photos, which D patiently put into an online album. We got it printed out and voila, we have a stunning photo album of our wedding (currently travelling with friends so they can see). As a thank you, we printed out a few photos of each guest and sent them their way, with a thank you note. We did this while on honeymoon - Great to think back to the day!
• Decorations - My mum is a crochet ninja (Obrigada, mommy!) and created the most amazing bits and pieces for the wedding, as you can see in the photos (bouquet, table pieces, sandals, gloves, flowers and string for sachets). My friend Nela also created something very special: a few boxes for people to write in (Where they see us in a year`s sime, where they see us in 10 years' time, and advice). The seating plan was also homemade - I used an IKEA blackboard and because we love food, each table was a flavour.

• Vows - Write your own wedding vows and share them with a friend you both trust, if you want the vows to be a surprise to your partner (Thanks Ryan!). Don’t be afraid to dig deep inside you. Again, remember it is your chance to tell your world why you want to marry this person and also to thank them for being in your life.
• Games - Definitely the best way to get shy people to interact! We supported the Portuguese charity Operacao Nariz Vermelho, who dress up as clown nurses and doctors and cheer up children in hospitals. We did this by buying their clown noses and inserting a bilingual 'find the person who...'. People got to know each other better and had fun!

Delegate

It might seem contradictory after I told you to DIY, nevertheless you must delegate! Delegating still give you more time to enjoy and you'll be surprised how happy you'll make close friends and family by giving them important roles. A random example of delegation without even delegating was my best women's dresses. They decided what to wear together and surprised us too. Zu & Raquel Tree Rock!

My favourite example of delegation at our wedding, was the cake making. We visited Sandie & Luis about a year before the wedding, and Sandie offered to make the cake. We couldn't believe it, but she insisted and ask what we would like. A surprise, we both said! And what a surprise it was. The most beautiful and delicious cake ever to be seen and eaten at a wedding. Thank you Sandie for baking and Luis for all the sous chef hard work!

Ignore

Ignore most of the advice you get. Just like with having babies, people think that because they’ve been there, they know exactly what needs to happen, and they are sometimes even right, but if you genuinely want something else you need to do it your way. This is your chance to get it all your way. How sweet is that?

I remember having this obsession with Lenços dos namorados, a Portuguese tradition of embroidery. I had a feeling it might not quite suit my dress, but deep down inside I still wanted to have them on my dress. In fact I wanted it so badly that the feeling overflowed, so I was obviously saddened by one of my best friend’s advice against it. And she justified her logic perfectly; the dress already had some embroideries and twinkles and so it would be a bit out of sync with itself. I thanked her and appreciated she might be aesthetically right, but I had to do it my way. Don’t regret it, just wish I could wear the dress every now and then!

Another piece of advice I got from several people was to get professional make up done. Make up? If you never wear make up, why go all dollie on your wedding day? I would recommend purchasing some make up you love, but keeping youself looking like yourself.

Numbers

Keep the numbers to a minimum. Think about it for 20 seconds: how many people would you like at your wedding? Right, I mean less than that! This was the hardest of all decisions to stick to, because friends and family are always linked to someone else you would like to share the day with. However, there's only that many people you can actually engage in conversation with in one afternoon/evening!

Gratitude

Be grateful in everything you do. The day is about you and your loved one, you are who you are thanks to the marvellous people around you. We were fortunate enough to marry on paper a few days before the beach wedding and decided to only have our parents there. This was their moment. D and I prepared a BBQ and our parents were able to sit back, relax and get to know each other better. We decided to do this because we wanted to share quality time with our parents, who have taught us so much.

How much does your pay cheque define you?

Disclaimer: I am writing this filled with anger and have not written down facts and numbers, so this is an opinion-and-feelings filled text.

While on honeymoon in the awesome Azores, my husband and I did some canyoning with a random family of 5; a mum and her 4 kids. I fell immediately in love with this adventurous family, who seemed to be having a great holiday out in the Azores. As we absailed, climbed, crawled and jumped off cliffs we got to chat and find out about each other.

As a Portuguese person, an early thought I had was ‘Wow, they must be well off to travel this far on a long holiday and do all these adventures’. Well, if they were Portuguese, they probably would have to be. Mum could be a doctor, and the older kids would be doing a law degree or something like that. But this Swiss family was different: the older kids were studying; one will soon be a florist and the other an electro-technician. As for the mum, she works in a restaurant. How the…?! Never in a dream would that be possible in my sad old Portugal. I feel entitled to talk like this because I am Portuguese, I have spent most of my life in Portugal and I experienced the pressure of ‘you must get a degree in something that will give you access to a well paid aka good job’, which is the equivalent of virtually forcing all teenagers to spend (and often waste) 5 years in university studying something they have limited interest in.

When I was doing my initial degree to become a primary teacher (which I was lucky enough to be in wild love with and is definitely what I was built for), I ended up writing papers for a colleague who wasted those four years of his life. Nearly 15 years later he is finally pursuing his passion and interest. An area in which he is very creative and competent: carpentry. It is sad that he had to waste a lot of money on university tuition fees and even more importantly than money, that he had to waste 6 years of his life because he had been driven to believe that that was the only way forward, if he wanted to do better than his parents had done before him.

I have nothing against university and learning, very much the contrary. I believe in education, but in a broader way. I believe that every single profession matters: if your job is to lay cobblestones on the road, I expect your job to be done properly so people can drive safely. If your job is cleaning, I expect it to be done in detail, so places are actually clean. If you are a doctor, I expect you to know your science well and treat your patients as human beings to whom their health is an important foundation. This said, I expect every working person to be paid a dignified salary, not the joke Portuguese are paid when on a minimum wage. Not the joke Portuguese are paid in general, excluding the big masters at the top of the iceberg who have mismanaged and robbed for years.

I dream of a Portugal I suspect I will not live long enough to see, but hope will come true one day: a Portugal where your job does not label you, a Portugal where we all do our best at whatever the hell we do. A Portugal where we are not trying to outsmart someone and are not being outsmarted either.

Numbers from the OECD

Lucky to be surrounded (close and far) by people who have hearts of gold and goodness to share. People who always see the bright side or at least learn from every hardship. To those who always see the cloud even when it's only in the forecasts or keep feeling sorry for themselves, as if the world owes anything to them, I hope one day you learn to see how blessed you also are.


Sortuda por estar rodeada (longe e perto) de pessoas com corações de ouro e cheios de bondade para partilhar. Gente que sempre vê o lado positivo ou pelo menos aprende com cada dificuldade. 'Aqueles que v'em sempre uma nuvem mesmo que esteja apenas nas previsões, ou que se sentem sempre uns desgraçados, espero que um dia aprendam a ver o quão abençoados são também.