From perfection to courage

In many areas of society some teach people to get the maximum score, as a sign of perfection to be reached.

This logic of thinking only encourages fear, distrust, shyness and other created sensations… If people fail in one aspect they fail in all.

But gradually, the pedestal of perfection has been falling apart because some souls have understood that it is not a matter of finding the integrity or completeness at the expense of the expectations… of others or ourselves.

It is here where the courage comes to sweep those other forms that have been established almost as methods. Courage is a more human way to teach, to interact, to learn, to operate.

Courage allows us to open ourselves without fear, make a query, a comment, an idea, show others that we are struggling to create better versions… but without control or force.

The difference lies in learning encoding and decoding, i.e., a process of polishing and climbing, to find the garbage and sweep, cleaning (in present continuous) and facing our internal characters…

All this is: to value and feel loved, not because “our” perfection DOES NOT exist, but because of our courage to overcome and search for better methods to survive and continue.

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Rejuvenating

We can become younger if we make changes in our minds… Many experts still find clues about the great power that provides positive thoughts… No! We cannot see two separate entities. Mind and body are ONE, but they forgot it and began having relationship and communication problems. Part of our life project is to put them together as ONE.

If the mind plays its part, it would help rejuvenate the body and so we would be making better versions of ourselves. The experiences we bring to life are just a collection of words or ideas that we were picking at some point. With this we might think that stress is not caused by events, but by the views we create about these events, as the philosopher Epictetus said.

What if we take this as a game? Why do we care about everything instead of observing and internalizing good experience? Do we depend just on this moment? Our current life is not a last chance, it’s just full of scenes we bring, as when we are in a play… we interpret scenes, but they are not real.

The evils only look out when there is room for unconsciousness. Everything is evolving naturally and when that consciousness will be more visible, the mind-body relationships will be successful, and therefore also the relationships with other human beings. The ego still plays in the big leagues and we need to beat it to help the SOUL shine for the eternity.

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The child and the ashes

A nice anecdote that happened in Costa Rica…

— It’s raining ashes in San Jose, we tell to our friends dancers.

— Really? And in Paraíso of Cartago?, a frightened child asked suddenly. He was at the academy.

— We do not know. Why?

— Because my cousins live there, he answered shocked and pretending to pray.

— Calm!, the wind goes to San Jose, Heredia and elsewhere…

— Heredia? That’s weird! It’s far.

— Good question. We do not know.

— What if there is no wind?

— Yes, there is.

— What if the morning will be sunny and without wind? The ashes will fall.

— No! No! We call the wind.

— So, DO we make WIND with VENTILATORS?

After this comment all the dancers started to laugh. It was certainly a nice afternoon to dance.

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From the inside

The reverence that matters, but from its practical term of valuable composition, which is felt and honored. Some say: “that buried virtue”… Oh if we could awaken it! The human warmth will begin to do its own thing.

The reverence protects, it is life and of course that gives us breathing. The trip starts to have sense. Channels of a fluid communication are opened, with great eloquence between.

Breathing well IS to speak well and IS having reverence… Yes! You are the reverence yourself, Creator of all.

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The happy brain

Our brain can reveal great things every time we react to different moments of life: to the traffic, the lines in the bank, meetings with people, heavy afternoons, etc. But what to do with various events? Do we ignore the negative? Do we strengthen the positive? Do we remain positive and address the negative?

Neuroscience experts were studying the amygdala for a long time, a small almond (so to speak), located in the deep brain and acquiescent to varied emotions. There memories were processed and stored… They called it “the fear center” because it is activated in case of depression, anxiety, sadness, etc…

Even so, something was difficult for them, to know where the joy or happiness occurred. Recently they discovered that the positive stimuli are activated in the same amygdala… Of course, with moments of compassion, happiness and gratitude…

This means that people ultimately do not ignore the “bad times” or “threats” but learn to look for the good in every detail, without focusing on harmful agents that have prevailed for years. This way amygdala negative patterns are changed by pleasing patterns of wellbeing.

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Great wonders

To study them or not…  It’s the simple fact of thinking about them. We are surprised by their great performance. They are our own representation. They contain files of each of our stages of life, which sometimes we have access to… and when we don’t… more advanced ways arrive at those unsearchable spaces we did not even know existed…

The brain and heart love each other, talk, challenge, wonder, doubt, they work together, as a metaphor and as matter. They are alive and are always seeking each other. They are electricity and magnetism, acquiescing dreams of one and many. They always undertake to walk into the light of life.

Beauty is inside both, with the great privilege of exploring… That is the manifestation of love to find and remove blockages, to find the best experiences to resurrect the BEING and the DOING of people: souls, humans. It is the desire to build each way to make a better internal city and then materialize it in this world… OUR GREAT CITY.

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Warm journey

A windy and familiar awakening. No space for time, nor for the incongruent feelings of anxiety. Alone, with sounds and yellow from Above, with food and songs, with tea and joy on paper.

A windy and calm walk. The green responsible for relaxed footsteps. Spontaneous preparation of homemade dishes, very much from the heart. Conversations, anecdotes and laughter that can only be perceived on the first day of December and make it feel at home.

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Mr. Coffee

It is not to because it’s Israel or the Mount of Olives, but we have to say: FOR NOW THIS WAS THE BEST COFFEE WE HAVE EVER DRUNK.

We were testing thousands of coffees everywhere, but this was special for us… We cannot forget that feeling. We cannot exactly describe it.

If only we could record those feelings to share. It was like creamy, more than delicious. Really we do not know its extreme composition, but we thank God for having it in our palate…

We hope to meet again soon with that creamy texture, not bitter, different, soft and full of FLAVOR which adheres to the rest of life. Something out of place…

It was coffee, just the coffee… Perfect measures that made it unique. We apologize for not being able to make a better description. Excuse us, but only after drinking it, we realized its graceful walk… and yet… we have not assimilated it.

Mr. Coffee! You have a very passionate, stylish and praised flavor. For sure you have another time to fill us with your risky strokes.

Picture: Gloriana Quesada
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Tallinn, Estonia. Personal travel

Tallinn, capital of Estonia… There is much to say, but the words that really matter are those EXPERIENCED in the flesh, so that others can also EXPERIENCE the reading.

The trips are particular and will always have a different emphasis when you glance at the stories of each “storyteller”… When you can also find some commonalities…

For us it was like entering into a fairytale… To enjoy details that changed the whole picture and challenged the heart… It was to enjoy every corner and human energies that smiled when they watched the sun color the town.

The local rain started when we got out of the cruise… but it stopped… without pressure… guiding us to this medieval place. This always has something that catches. We can imagine all the possibilities of a surreal sweetness in the midst of what others call reality…

And there are always elements that touch the heart (apart from the picturesque architecture), those moments of a great coffee with people you love. It was invaluable… And what about the color hats produced by the people? Definitely it was to feel a very clear representation of ourselves…

There was another magical space featured by the ALMONDS… Nutrients, antioxidants, control blood sugar, cholesterol lowering?… None of this went through our minds… We just wanted to live! We just wanted to enjoy everything!

We walked near a known place. There was a well-known little car in the area. It was like imagining a scene from a movie… Having tested these good and warm almonds, coverd with cinnamon… Now that was priceless! We could not go home without buying a little package to imagine again in Tallin at the return of our trip.

These moments are made up of small vibrations in the environment that weave those great moments together. Tallinn is the medieval city of the XIV-XVIII centuries, declared World Heritage… She still captivates every visitor who believes in the beauty of the stories, love, art… That same: HERITAGE…

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We are a sigh

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We changed our BEING for something we could not even describe… It’s like we changed NORTH. Immediately we did everything in ACCELERATION mode.

We went here and there, moving very fast, our brain was going in an impressive speed, our body was worn and our SOUL cried out for some reason, but we did not understand its language.

Until one day we sat alone in the room, closed our eyes, tried to slow down and started to LISTEN for the first time… We realized that every day, each of us breathes about 26,000 times… but most of the time we are breathing from the CHEST and not from the DIAPHRAGM.

When does it happen? When we are stressed, worried, or when we move. Some experts say that we take about 20 breaths per minute, when perhaps it should be 4 or 6. They also say that 99% of our energy should come from breathing, but we’re just picking up 10 or 20% of that energy.

We are really locked in, busy in life… In that way, who will really think about breathing? We are so focused on other things and we do not see the value, do not enjoy the small but great details of which we could be grateful.

So we started thinking about the BREATH and remember that the great name of G-d in its original language, in Hebrew, are the same sounds of the breath: Yud, Hei, Vav, Hei… This made us transport ourselves to the moment of our creation… right there where the breath of life was blown on us.

It’s that beautiful. Our life is a SIGH… In every breath, we breathe the name of G-d… and the same G-d. And in that breath we find our essence, our BEING… That breath flows in you who is reading this, in the person you are going to interact with, in the person sitting in the bus and in every encounter you have with your family. Look!

When we realized this a few years ago, we started writing… Something pushed us to do it… We did it every day… as gratefulness in the midst of situations that we did not understand and as a project of life. That’s how My Citadel News was born, but we understood that it was not just My Citadel… but also Your Citadel and Our Citadel.

So we woke up from those forgotten worlds, overshadowed by the routine… We left this world and arrived to another… to a world that come to life… We became real STORYTELLERS to capture every detail that sometimes goes unnoticed and so express it in words, feelings and internal changes. We wanted to make a better version of ourselves!

Although we have tried to internalize this message many times… this time it was different… At the end we pronounce words of motivation… we began to look at each person with love.

From there we proposed something: smile and dedicate to meet and talk more with the people we will have contact in our lives. To marvel at the great stories of their SOULS. Once again, we have decided to make it part of a lifestyle… rather… our LIFE PROJECT.

Remember that every time we slow down, we become aware that it is for each inhalation and exhalation that we are still living, moving, breathing… G-d is our breath. We are a SIGH.

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