Latest log in my travel journal

Photo by China Guccio

I have been in China this week. This is definitely not my first time there. Every time I’ve been in China I always took something back with me – as an experience that is, or as a lesson.

In previous experiences I was impressed by perceptions such as human adaptability and ingenuity in highly competitive and dynamic environments, by greed and power, fragility and the dwarfing of the individual relative to the enormity of the place and the size of its population.

This time it has been a different insight altogether which is not so much tied to the place but to a more general perspective of things. I want to share them here with you because I am sure that most of them will resonate with some of your own experiences (which perhaps you might also want to share ).

If things go out of plan, relax, reinvent and celebrate change

Quite a few things went out of plan in my last trip.  A long delay which made me lose my connection and a day out of my schedule was the main theme. Other unforeseen deviations and little bumps and hiccups were not uncommon either.

But all in all my attitude remained a positive and relaxed one. I had prepared myself mentally for this. I had told myself that a lot of unpredictable variables can get along the way but that’s OK. It’s part of what traveling is about. And it was.

It’s nice to observe the bitter sweetness of having your plan scrambled up due to one unforeseen circumstance. But then after you accept it and reinvent yourself, it all takes shape perfectly and you realize that one blunder brought you along a more interesting course that you would have missed if your plan went unaltered.

It is in those moments when you open yourself  to change and see an underlying force at work. You don’t deny it. You celebrate it. (more…)

Overcome writer’s block: Understanding the Yin and Yang nature of the creative process

I have never done writing for a living yet. My writing has always been mostly for study or passion.

Yet even though I haven’t been under the pressure of having my monthly income depending on the flow and quality of my writing as any paid writer would, my own experiences still brought to my conscious awareness two important and closely linked notions: Inspiration and its dreaded enemy writer’s block.

Writer’s Block

This concept notoriously gained an iconic status having been so widely referred to in the media and arts. We all have collective unconscious images from the movie classics of some writer at a desk in front of an old-style typewriter, an ashtray full of half-snuffed cigarette butts and a paper bin overflowing with balled up papers of unfinished sentences.

Conventionally, writer’s block is understood as that part in a writer’s career where her creative process comes to a halt and her inspiration runs dry due to some psychological blockage or emotional distress. Less dramatically, it is when we are doing a writing job and words and ideas stop coming to our heads. We stop for hours trying to get the thing started again sometimes with no success.

There are two main views on writer’s block. Both views see it as some block in the overall creative process but while one view sees creativity as predominantly or even exclusively a generative process the other sees it as a receptive process. (more…)

Mindfulness Meditation: My Path

There is a lot of literature to read about the subject of Meditation, its spiritual and practical aspects or the different ways it is practiced throughout different traditions and for different ends. There are tonnes of information and I feel that I would be adding little value if I add more of what is already available and write articles about the subject per se.

I think it is more suitable in this context for me to write about Meditation through my own experiences and point of view on the subject. After all, there are no strict objective rules and know how on the matter. It is much more like a personal journey that one enters or walks along in his own particular path.

Of course there are general guidelines and valuable clues one has to pick up and learn. For example, one introductory book which I’d always suggest is ‘Meditation for Dummies’ – which I think the title betrays the fact that it is a very comprehensive and well written guide which has lots of valuable information for both beginners and even seasoned Meditators. Those of you who have read some of the ‘For Dummies’ series know that most of them have very good editorial quality.

There are also genuine and highly experienced teachers and Masters and it is always highly recommended to be guided by them.  I am not a student of any Meditation teacher. I have chosen to go out for the path on my own. It’s not that I disagree or dislike the idea, it’s just the way I set it out to be. This is my account of it. (more…)