Martha Medeiros: You start dying slowly

You start dying slowly

if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.
You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.
You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.
You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.
You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice...

Text's source: http://www.middlewaysociety.org/poetry-108-you-start-dying-slowly-by-pablo-neruda/

Article on the autorship: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=325275&CategoryId=14094

“The quality of our moments become the quality of our lives” - Dan Millman’s TEDx talk

Dan Millman
World Champion athlete (1964), motivational speaker, author of several books, martial arts instructor
Source of the photo: https://bolstablog.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/millman/

“Talent is about 20 percent innate, body type and so on for sports, but about 80 percent can be developed.”

“And I realized being able to do handstands and somersaults didn’t helped me much when I went out on a date and those skills really didn’t apply directly when I got married or had children and dealt with financial challenges and career decisions and all the challenges of everyday life we all face.”

“It’s not as if you have a story, you are a story in the making, you’re a novel being written and you never know what the next chapter is going to be.”

“At any time we face some adversity, some challenge we start to reflect and look at our lives once again and wonder if we can make some changes.”

“If you want to help people, of course, do what your heart tells you to do, but don’t neglect the work on yourself, because that’s what’s going to give you the clarity, the courage to know how to exert the right leverage at the right place at the right time and really make a positive difference in the world.”

“Two fundamental approaches to change, to doing what needs to be done and the first approach is very popular. It sounds something like this:‘first you need to quiet your mind so you can create empowering beliefs to raise your self-esteem so you can practice positive self-talk to find your focus and affirm you power to free your emotions and visualize positive outcomes so that you can find the courage to generate the confidence to make the determination to form the commitment to feel sufficiently motivated to do whatever it is you need to do’. That’s one approach. I recommend the other which is ‘just do it’. Life is always going to come down to that whether it takes us a few minutes, a few months or years, the question always remains before us: what will you do now in response to the circumstances?”

“We don’t have a spam filter in our heads, a lot of junk mail comes through and that’s perfectly natural.”

“Somebody came up to me after a seminar or a talk workshop I gave in ‘Dan, I don’t know, I have to tell you. I feel so inspired.’  I said, ‘Don’t worry, it will pass’. Because it’s true, isn’t it? Inspiration comes and goes, motivation rises and falls. The question remains: What will we do?”

“You made a resolution you stuck with. You’ve set aside a time every day for your exercise routine.”

“A little of something is better than a lot of nothing. In other words, it’s fine to dream big, but start small and then connect the dots.”

“The lesson is simple, the student is complicated.” (Barbara Rasp)

“Here and now, breath and relax.”

“I’ve had many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” (Mark Twain)

“Most of our troubles are self-created about past and future. Regrets, anxieties, but right now we can handle this moment.”

“Life comes at us in waves of change. We cannot predict or control those waves, but we can become better surfers.”

“Learn to surf the waves of change here and now each moment. We can always handle this moment and the quality of our moments become the quality of our lives.”

Peaceful Warrior (2006) - Quotes

The movie’s main characters: “Socrates” (Nick Nolte, right) and Dan Millman (Scott Mechlowicz, left)
Source of the photo: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/peaceful-warrior-2006

• I know more than you think.

■ And you think more than you know. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom. 

• Yeah? What’s the difference?

■ You know how to clean a windshield, right?

• Yeah.

■ Wisdom is doing it.

■ You can live a whole lifetime without ever being awake.

• Hey, Socrates, (if) you know so much, how come you’re working at a gas station?

■ This is a service station. We offer service. There’s no higher purpose.

• Than pumping gas?

■ Service to others.

• What?

■ Slow down. You might taste something.

• You sure got a lot of rules about stuff, don’t you?

■ Not rules. Thing I’ve learned form my own life experience. That’s why I’d say your eating is sloppy.

• Who cares?

■ You do. That’s the difference between us, Dan. You practice gymnastics. I practice everything.

■ Everyone tells you what to do, what’s good for you. They don’t want you to find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs.

• And let me guess. You want me to believe yours?

■ No. I want you to stop gathering information from outside of yourself and start gathering from the inside.

• Are you part of some cult or something?

■ People are afraid of what’s inside and that’s the only place they’ll ever going to find what they need.

People are not their thoughts. They think they are and it brings them all kinds of sadness.

The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose.

• You’re out of your mind. You know that?

■ It’s taken a lifetime of practice.

There’s never nothing going on. Take out the trash, Dan. The trash is anything that is keeping you from the only thing that matters, this moment. Here. Now. And when you truly are in the here and now, you’ll be amazed at what can you do and how well you can do it.

Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.

• I mean, what kind of a warrior trains by sitting around scrubbing toilets?

■ When you become a warrior, you learn to meditate in every action.

• Scrubbing toilets?

■ Letting go of attachments. Like your pride. Giving up your addictions.

• Yeah, name one thing I’m addicted to.

■ Talking. Especially interrupting. Knowing everything, when in fact you know nothing.

All you have is now, Jack.

You ever hear of the healing power of a touch?

The habit is the problem. All you need to do is be conscious about your choices and responsible for your actions.

Every action has its price and its pleasure. Recognizing both sides, a warrior becomes realistic and responsible for his actions.

Death isn’t sad. The sad thing is most people don’t live at all.

■ A warrior does not give up what he loves, Dan. He finds the love in what he does.

• Look at me! Look at me. I have a metal rod in my leg.

■ A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He’s about absolute vulnerability. That’s the only true courage.

• What kind of training you think I could do? Huh? I just had an accident!

■ The accident is your training. Life is choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.

• Just ignore what happened to me?

■ A warrior acts, only a fool reacts.

• What if I can’t do it?

■ That's the future. Throw it out.

• Well, how would we start?

■ There is no starting or stopping, only doing.

• Three?

■ Three.

• Life has just three rules?

■ And you already know them.

• Paradox, humor and change.

■ Paradox.

• Life is a mystery. Don’t waste time trying to figure it out.

■ Humor.

• Keep a sense of humor, especially about yourself. It is a strength beyond all measure.

■ Change.

• Know that nothing stays the same.

The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.

quotes from the movie Peaceful Warrior (2006) which was based on Dan Millman’s novel