Silviamar

How to improve your motivation for life?

2006-10-22T09:54:01Z

In my opinion, the magic recipe has these ingredients:

# More appreciation of our current life: When we appreciate what we have, then it's easier to feel happy; and when we feel happy it's easier to stay motivated to walk more steps in the journey. To feel happy, we shouldn't wait for big things to happen, as life gives us everyday little presents to enjoy. Let's appreciate the little things as much as the big ones, like children do!. In this way, we will savour each step of the path.

Besides, we tend to focus on what we don't have or on what we want to change. Wanting to improve our life is great, but if we base our motivation in this improvement, the most probable thing that is going to happen is to end up with a feeling of frustration. We want to get everything now, in a hurry, and as we cannot get it now, we then become sad and demotivated, thinking that we will never get it. A bit of patience and more appreciation of our current life, should be a good foundation for more motivation and better success in life.

# Listen to ourselves: Sometimes we focus on things that in reality are not interesting for us, but maybe we are expected to achieve them. Our society expects from us a lot, our family, friends... These expectations can generate pressure in ourselves and lead us in a direction that it's not the one we really want to take.

We should listen to ourselves more often, for instance doing meditation, and learn what we really want and what our expectations from life are. Once we know WHAT we really want and WHY we want it, motivation should be always our partner in the journey.

# More confidence: Our own confidence is also something to work on, because if we don't believe that we can achieve certain things, then all motivation is lost and we don't even try the first step to reach them. We can achieve lots of things but the first step is to believe in ourselves, to feel that we CAN really achieve all those things and that we DESERVE to get them. We are usually our main limitation.

In summary, I think that to improve the motivation for life we have to get to know ourselves better, appreciate what we have and understand deeply what we want to achieve and why. :-)

Visiting Castilla-León (Spain): Going back in time

2006-09-30T22:27:01Z

To enjoy my last week of summer holidays I found a wonderful rural house in the mountains of Avila, where I could spend some time in close contact with nature. On our way there we visited Segovia. I was amazed at the huge roman aqueduct from year 50 AD, the old monasteries and the espectacular "alcazar", built by the Moors in the XII century. It looked like a magic place, as if time had decided to stop there many centuries ago.

Then we arrived to the cozy rural house in the province of Avila, in a little village named Vallehondo ("deep valley"), that has around 20 inhabitants. It's close to the "Sierra de Gredos", a mountain range with beautiful valleys and clean rivers. I especially liked to walk by narrow paths through the mountains to enjoy solitude with nature and breathe fresh air. And there I've ridden a horse for the first time in my life!! What an experience!! It was a female horse named April, she was soooo lovely! I still remember her turning her face towards me from time to time to know who was riding her hehehe.

Driving towards east from Villahondo, you arrive to the city of Avila, the highest capital of Spain, located at 1,117m above sea level. It's surrounded by a huge wall, that has 88 towers and nine gateways. There are stairs to go up to the wall and see the city from there. When I was sitting down up there I imagined the pressure that many people felt lots of years back, while defending their city and their lives from the invaders.

In a village close to Vallehondo they were celebrating their local holidays, and there was a foam party in the plaza. It was fun to observe the kids playing there! :-)

On our way back home we stopped at Salamanca, a city that has the oldest university in Spain, started in the XIII century. And there were charming little villages along the way, not touristy at all, with wonderful views and a rich gastronomy. I especially enjoyed the "gambas al ajillo" ("prawns with garlic") showed in the photo below, though actually all the dishes were delicious!

In summary, it was a great trip through the old land of Spain, away from tourists and noise; through little villages where people still let nature to shine. A great way to say goodbye to my summer holidays!

The wind of love

2006-08-22T18:20:01Z

The wind of love

I open my eyes and see
peace flying above the clouds,
looking for a little hole
to cross the veil and go down.

I open my eyes and see
millions of human beings
living below the clouds,
waiting with hopeful hearts
for a better time to come.

I close my eyes and dream
with a magic wind coming up,
it's blowing to remove the clouds
and let the peace land and grow.
It's a magic wind. The wind of love!

--------

Silvia Martínez Sánchez, August 2006

PS: This time the photo is not mine, it was sent by a friend who I think took it from cloudappreciationsociety.org, and sent it to me because it fits so well here! :-)

Renewing energy in Alicante (Spain)

2006-08-12T16:35:01Z

The little villages along the coast, like Altea are lovely. Hilly and narrow alleyways paved with cobblestones, white houses looking to the world through old balconies, the sun playing at dawn on the surface of the peaceful Mediterranean sea...

Alicante has many other interesting spots. There are breathtaking mountains where the wind whispers at your ear. Atop of them you can go back in time, feeling the history excavated on the rocks, witness of invasions and recaptures. There you can come across a cleft running through a rocky mountain and arrive to Guadalest, an old fortress built by the Moors over 1200 years ago. It can be only accessed through this tunnel carved through 50 feet of solid rock and its views over the valley are spectacular.

Guadalest from the outside:

Accessing to the village:

Inside the ancient fortress:

Local villagers are kind and welcoming, and the atmosphere is lively day and night. Moreover, the gastronomy is excellent, as in any part of Spain. Plenty of sidewalk cafés in the streets, full of people enjoying the colourful salads, lamb slowly roasted over wood, the famous paella or desserts that would make you feel like if you had arrived to a sweet heaven.

In summary, Alicante is a charming place worthy to be visited. I've come back home with renewed energy after letting nature embrace me in this beautiful land. A great holiday!

The magic night: Noche de San Juan

2006-06-24T17:40:01Z

The fire becomes the king of the place, blazing in every corner of the country. Bonfires are started at 12am everwhere and the party goes on all night. Old and young people sing and dance around the bonfire, throwing to the flames their wishes written in a piece of paper.

Facing the bonfire, when you close your eyes and listen to the fire's crackle, it's like if you were back many many years in history to the pagans time, when the God of Sun was adored. This day is supposed to be in honour of Sain John the Baptist, but in reality it's an old pagan festival to celebrate the summer solstice and the power of the sun. It's the day when the sun shines in the sky longer, but also begins its journey to the winter solstice, that is a symbolic death. So in this day we celebrate life and death, light and darkness, what is to be born and what is to be left.

It's a night of magic and mistery, also called the witches's night. There are many legends from ancient times, saying that in this night Nature can show all its power, and the world of humans mixes with the world of Faerie. Conjurations and celtic rituals for love or money are made. Asturias, my region, is a land with celtic roots and celebrations like the San John's night are lived very intensely.

I was invited to my uncle's for dinner and we lit also our own bonfire in the garden. It was a lovely night, spent together with my family and my uncle's dog, who was scared most part of the time because of the fire. Here are some of the pictures of this night:

I see you

2006-05-29T09:37:01Z

I SEE YOU

I see you in the wind,

you come silently,

touching me with gentle fingers,

whispering magic words

that resound in my spirit.

I see you in the grass,

soft caress of mother Earth

embracing my inner peace,

bringing me to the borderline

where nothing more exists.

I see you in the sky,

clouds of forgotten tears

painting a veil of dreams,

flowing in the empty space

shaped by you and me.

I see you in the tree,

eternal witness of the echo

lost in the infinity,

a memory that always blossoms

like flowers in spring.

I see you there,

I feel you here,

I live you always,

I'm one with you forever.

------

Silvia Martínez, May 2006

Squidoo lenses

2006-05-25T10:14:01Z

This is what they write in their main page:
We have built a new online platform and community that makes it easy for anyone to build a single page--called a lens--on a topic, idea, product or cause he is passionate about. These lenses in turn help finders get unique, human perspectives instead of computer-selected and often irrelevant search results. Not only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their knowledge, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs—they could also earn royalties. They also give you the option to donate your earnings to charity.

I've set up two lenses there:
- Chemistry of daily life
- Words from the soul

You can make your own lenses for free as well, simply setting up an account in Squidoo. They have many modules available, that make the process very easy to do.

A day at the beach

2006-05-14T16:09:01Z

A day at the beach

Sand caressing my feet,
gulls in the sky,
the rumour of the sea,
the smell of the grass.

Fresh breeze blowing around,
water reflecting the light,
waves come and leave...
A great day at the beach!

A forum in NCN??

2006-04-08T09:58:01Z

I've seen that there's also a sort of forum in NCN (Link), which seems to be part of a bigger network named Global Perspectives. I don't understand the organization of that forum, maybe it made sense in the past when NCN started. Most of the threads date from years 2000-2001. And I don't know neither if the people who posted there were members of NCN or not. Besides, in that forum it's not possible to follow a thread in a single page, as you have to click on every individual reply to read it.

We could maybe have here for example a phpbb forum or any other forum utility that can be installed in the server. In this way, we could have a forum divided in certain boards or sections, where members could read the threads in an organized way, and participate with their own messages. Some sections for this forum could be for example:

- A Help board, where members could ask for help. Not only for newcomers but for anybody to comment about a problem with their newslog or with other tool.
- A board about NCN, where we could post the articles written in the Landing newslog about the different NCN tools and thus make them available to everybody. We could also post here suggestions to improve NCN.
- A conversation board, where any member can start a thread and have a conversation with those willing to join.

And any other section or board that you could think about.

In these kind of forums, when a thread is replied it goes to the top of the list, so it can be easily followed up. And also there is the possibility of an email notification when a thread where you have participated is replied. I believe that in this way we all could have a clearer communication channel. This is an exampe of this kind of forum: Link

I wonder what the rest of members think about this possibility. Please, add your comments. I also encourage newcomers to post their opinion, as this article has been created partially because of your comments in the Landing group. And Ming, could this be done in an easy way or would it be very difficult?

Flowing (Fluyendo)

2006-03-09T14:14:01Z

FLOWING

Air flows inside;

willful torrent exhaling

breath of restrained emotion;

hurricane that the sand stirs

in search of lost illusions.

Waves flow inside;

lonely, the energy

embraces the tree trunk;

chords of hope blossom

amidst the lyre murmur.

And poetry flows,

the path inside the soul,

echo of a verse still resounding.

Between Heaven, Earth and me

life is flowing...

--------

FLUYENDO

Fluye dentro el aire;

torrente intencionado que exhala

aliento de emoción contenida;

huracán que la arena remueve

en busca de ilusiones perdidas.

Fluyen dentro las olas,

al tronco del árbol solitaria

se abraza la energía;

acordes de esperanza nacen

entre el rumor de la lira.

Y fluye la poesía,

dentro del alma el camino,

eco de un verso que aún vibra.

Entre el cielo, la tierra y el Yo

fluye la vida...

----------

Silvia Martínez, March 2006