ebook - how to deal with stress on a daily basis - 2013

7/28/2019 eBook - How to Deal With Stress on a Daily Basis - 2013

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Hi, let me introduce mysel. My name is Andre, I am 32 years old, I work with busi-ness innovation, I have a post graduation degree and have a rushing routine.

I imagine that most readers are not so dierent as well, perhaps in dierent lietimes, but with one thing in common: whether in the major urban centers or inrural areas, the pace is no longer the same.

Nowadays, to greet another person with Im in a rush is the new okay. Al-though socially acceptable, this pace is unacceptable to our body and mind.

It is because, as a result o this state o rush, comes the atigue, anxiety, pan-

ic syndrome, depression, attention disorders and stress. These are some o themajor evils o modern era whose technological evolution on health sector onlysotens but does not eliminate the evil. And worse, this number will increase: theWorld Health Organization says that depression will be the most common diseasein the world in 2030.

So who can help me? This is the question. When the body and the mind maniestthose things, its a sign (as well as the ever or u) that your body is reacting tosome situation. And in these cases the mind suers, and the body pays the price,you have to reect and understand why the hell this is happening. And this is not

easy because you will begin to reect over issues and establish connections thatnever passed through your mind. Serious.

What you can expectrom this book.


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Ive been aected (and sometimes it come back again) by some o these modernills (mainly anxiety) and Im learning, slowly to cope better with these problems,and Im gradually understanding that there is no remedy or magic activity thatsolves it, but in act, to have a new perspective to live day by day.

And what I have learned - both rom what I have studied or elt in the skin - I wouldlike to share with people because I believe in doing good to others: I have alreadycreated a site called Rock Treatment (a music lyrics site divided by states o mindor emotions) and a simple guide to solve problems (you fnd it on slideshare.net).And now, ater having studied a little more and learned many things, I decided tocompile some thoughts and share with people who need or are interested in thesubject.

You can read just as a story, as a fction, as a blog, as you wish. Can be in the orderproposed, can be in the order you want or can be just an article.

I was inspired on the internet, in TV series, flms, documentaries, even bar con-versations, so dont expect ootnotes, reerences or academic preciousness. Tipsand keywords are in the texts or you to search as you preer. My big question, thesubtitle o the book change the perspective and enjoy lie, reers to the mannerin which Eastern culture (dont know enough about the oriental one, ok?) orgedus on its values, behaviors and ways o thinking.

The cool thing is that a lot o people are trying to innovate in many diverse areas,

such as education, communication, health, urban mobility, etc. However, we lookso much or other things that we orget about us. And there are ew people whoare trying to innovate in their own way o being, thinking and acting in the worldtoday. And in my opinion, this makes all the dierence.

That is why this book is divided into three parts. First, it is an invitation to Discoversomething that, I believe you must today, imagine that it has always been so. Inthe second chapter, Understand, the idea is to establish a connection betweenthe discoveries and you, today. And the third chapter, Exercise, ater discoveringand understanding, brings tips and thoughts or you to exercise this new perspec-

tive in your daily lie.

Thank you or your attention and happy reading!

I hope you enjoy it and contribute to your lie.


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PART 1_DISCOVER


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The meteors that ended the dinosaurs occurred 65 million years ago. At 60 millionyears ago appeared the frst primates that would come to be the monkeys. Now,aster: 200 thousand years ago Homo sapiens appeared in Arica and at 50 thou-sand arrived in Europe. And now I quote to you the oldest sculpture in Europe,dating back to 25 thousand years beore Christ, ound in Austria in 1908, calledPaleolithic Venus.

I believe that you should be thinking: Hummm, she should be a playmate o thattime. Should pose in PaleoBoy. But what about her ace? Naughty, the ace with-out highlight should be some etish o that class.

There it is. The representation o women at the time, had nothing o our currentconception o woman, emininity and beauty. In this case, the ace is not taken asimportant.

On the other hand, the parts o the body, to ensure the reproduction, were high-lighted and valued.

This intrigued, at that time, anthropologists, sociologists and other studious. Totry to get a sense, they created a scenario in which people lived in groups, butwithout demarcation o territories or people. Procreation was a natural act, only

the mother could determine who was the son or its various partners and the a-ther (while hunting and planted), had only the role o the sower.

People who lived

beore theirgrandparents.


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This sculpture still gave out to a lot o discussion because about 50 years beoreDarwin had written the Origin o the Species and this new discovery helped try tourther understand our condition and context in the past.

This time was called by some thinkers (and in this case, I reer whom I read more,

Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana), as Matriarchy. I think this term is misun-derstood in present times, and then Ill use it just to ensure the uidity o thoughtsand your uture polarization with patriarchy which I will mention.

Anyway, the great thing at that time is there was no concept o property. In otherwords, no one has home, there were no housing estates to ensure space, therewas no sewer and water pipes to ensure sanitation.

All this to say, i there is no delimitation o territory means that, everything isyour house, right ?

An interesting quote rom the recent book Present Shock, by Douglas Rushko, isthat, at this time, we were unable to even distinguish ourselves rom nature, ani-mals and others. O course, as i there were mirrors at the time :). More, your dailypressure was only to ensure the next meal and not die: there are no pressure tosucceed or progressing because simply the concept o uture had not yet beeninvented and they lived the present, harmonically.

Its super difcult to abstract the thought o private property, but at that time,

said that the man lived in harmony with the animals, nature, and lived in a holistic(integrated to environment and themselves), i only by innocence or ignorance.

Important: the word holistic is not bullshitting to fll the page. Holistic meanswith the whole and portrays a human integration with the environment (ora andauna), your body, mind and soul. And I will hit this key to make tangible and di-dactic this thought or you.

And yes, as o the title, there were many people who lived beore their grand-parents in a very dierent way you are accustomed to. Things were not always as

today, and probably will not continue this way. To discover and accept the imper-manence o things and people is our frst challenge.


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Twenty fve thousand years ago, the man would hunt the cattle and, o course,divide the cattle with the starving wol and also with the Earth, because the de-composition o animal would turn compost and establish a cycle. However, whenhumans began to domesticate animals and learn arming, he began to eel em-powered, accumulating possessions and, consequently, being araid o losingthose possessions. Then, the man laid siege to people, plants and animals in itsterritory. In this new context, the wol could not eed and die. It was the frst indica-tion o disintegration with the environment.

From there, the man took the initiative, by physical strength and ftness or hunt-ing, to protect their amilies and turned his wie and children in the same pos-

sessions.

It was the start o the called Patriarchy, rom Greek pater+ archein (governmento the patriarch or ather). As we have seen that the patriarch defned their spacesand possessions, it is natural that rom this word derive the concepts o home-land and country.

This is the model o social organization that hosts us today, based on hierarchy, onthe domination o nature or the accumulation o goods, in war and competition asvalues, linear thought and relations o authority, obedience and control: we have

the owner o the house, the boss, the ruler.

About the man and

the wol (and its notTwilight, ok?).


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In this rhythm, catching the mythological hook beore the introduction o the pa-triarchal system, which in the theological representation was guided by male godsin heaven, the old Europe was dominated by the Goddesses that, by partheno-genesis (give birth without sex) gave birth to nothing more than the universe. Gaiaor the Greeks, the Ceres to the Romans, Isis to the Egyptians, and so on.

And importantly, they represented, mainly the land or the ground. Is the naturaland organic cycle: to perish, to be absorbed into the Earth to create new lives ina cycle.

However, with the beginning o the Patriarchy, the possession and the ear o loss,the mythologies were rewritten. The goddesses were ought in these new stories,by the Titans, and the male gods assumed the power, as the Greek example oZeus.

And more than assume power, the representativeness o the gods men is relatedto the heavens, as opposed to the Earth-acing Matriarchy. Thereore, transersrom Earth to heaven the relationship with the gods.

In Ancient Greece, who lived this transition, the two types o rituals were accept-ed. The patriarchal rituals were carried out up to heaven-I give so that you leave.Already the matriarchal were perormed down to Earth I give so that you giveme.

This is gorgeous and beautiul to speak, but lets understand why this reallycounts? The Patriarchy (such as people live to this day) was the speech o thegods. And as they would not be able to justiy a god among mortals because theissues were handled in the fst at that time and put up there at the top, away romour ability to touch them.

The curious thing is that we did not live always so: in the evolutions big picture,it only has about three thousand years.

In this case, in this short time we already have three great truths rooted in our

being: 1) we need to possess things to be happy and secure (including people), 2)the response to certain property issues is through the war, competition and, mostnotably, 3) the transer o the gods to the heavens distanced himsel rom our be-lie that we are more than we are one and complete. Well said, literally, raised thebar o the challenge to be up to the heavens. But this is not true and we will seethat throughout this book.

So, i the man was integrated with everything, to separate themselves rom wolves,began their process o disintegration with the environment (ora and auna).


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I wars were the inevitable consequences o a possessive relationship with things,the eervescent Greek culture in antiquity still cultivated very rich stories.

One is the myth o Psyche, that has two meanings. Has all his beautiul story withEros, but the frst meaning that we are dealing with here is their origin. This wordmeans, in Greek, blow. It was the breath o lie, thereore, meaning soul. This wasunderstood as the principle o lie. The word Psychology itsel derives rom it.

A second meaning o the Greek word psyche is buttery. The Psyche o Mythologywas represented by a emale fgure with buttery wings. This symbolized the soulbecause, when the person died, his soul took the orm o a buttery and ew. The-

re are those who justiy the analogy with the buttery or his mutations: since thesuccessive changes o the skin o the caterpillar and the buttery transormation,leaving the earthly body, literally.

However, as we talk about myths, we know that they are easily interpretable indierent directions. In this case, we should remember that this myth was alreadyin the service o a thought turned to the heavens (to the male gods, or Zeus).

Thereore, your concept o impermanence and awareness o a cycle gave space,over the years, to a Kingdom o heaven that took advantage o the ignorance o

people to make butteries, beore part o our lives, as unreachable in the heavens.

The unreachablebuttery.


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So i the wars brought insecurity and ear, wars, amine and the plague added,brought a complete loss o aith in yoursel and in others.

The Middle Ages in an Europe without hope, set or once the distance o man andhis soul, promoting an outsourcing o the soul to a divine power. It means, the soul

could only be accessed by means o a God.

That is why, or example, in the Catholic Church the Pope is called the Ponti,which means bridge-builder- bridges between men and the gods.

I in Ancient Greece, we started to separate ourselves rom the environment, in theMiddle Ages, in addition to the environment, we parted entirely rom our souls.

The buttery has become unreachable.


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For each action there is a reaction. I the Middle Ages tried to outsource solu-tions or a divine entity, the Enlightenment came to do the man the great centerthrough the rational knowledge. In this way, we gain a big head, but with blinkers(that thing that arises in the horses head to orce him to look only at the ront). Soor people dont get lost, its frst movement began in the 16th century, still reer-ring to in Europe.

To clariy the rational knowledge, beore, we have to explain what is knowledge.Knowledge is rom where derives the word science, conscience, aware, or simplyknow. The science that studies the science is called epistemology (rom the Greekepisteme, knowledge and logos, study o). The crazy is that, until the Enlighten-

ment, the way o knowing it was not always so and, yes, as other things, is alsochanging.

The frst orms o knowledge were oral and justifed by myths, stories invented andpassed in generations. It rained a lot? Oh, its because the Kraken. . Not to getin this speculative hyping in Ancient Greece began to work with concepts o logicand reason. That is, someone should have seen a real Kraken and a rainy seasonand seek this logical connection.

Big head, but withblinkers.


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More than that, in the Enlightenment the Frenchman Ren Descartes wanted togo one step urther, streamlining the most o that knowledge. How he did it? Withthe principles o objectivity, stability and simplicity. In other words, Descartes putthe Kraken in a controlled environment, set a goal o research and analyzed thesimple reaction o Kraken within that context (I cant imagine the Kraken in a lab,

perhaps in some kind o CERN). Ok, orcing the imagination, he would pass a bat-tery o tests to see i their presence would raise the local humidity and, thereore,rationally, would result in the phenomenon o rain.

This seems to be insane. But quoting a study object, insert it into a stable andcontrolled environment and analyze it just under the assumptions listed doesntlook like your fnal project conducted at the University? Yes, this model o rationalknowledge o hal a Millennium ago is still our contemporary way o constructingknowledge.

It is clear that this orm o science secured many progresses. It secured a big headand our lie were conditioned only to learn, as Descartes himsel said: I think,thereore I am. However, give us blinkers that, with many reductionism o phe-nomena, prevented to see and consider other elements that Systemic Thinkingis helping us to understand. For example, in quantum physics, the atom is a re-quency or matter? How an observer can observe the atom without interering inits trajectory and speed? Impossible, as several theories rom Descartes are beingquestioned today and put to the test.

But the great inormation here is that, i we split ourselves rom the environmentand soul in times past, now we also separates the mind and body. The body isrelegated to a scientifc object, man is a perect calculation, as Da Vinci shows uswith the Vitruvian man. So perect, but with blinkers.


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At the end o the 18th century, Industrial Revolution started in England. This Rev-olution took England to be the worlds largest economy and made the UnitedStates and Europe the great global powers.

Despite this economic domination has a date to fnish, its impact on Western cul-ture, already disconnected rom the environment, soul, body and mind, was huge.

As or the dated domination, according to the British publication The Economist,in the last one thousand years, the Asian economic power has always been morethan 50% o the world, just reducing this percentage in the Industrial Revolution.According to the publication, by 2025, Asia will ensure over 50% o world share o

money, leaving North America and Europe with only 20% o the global economy.

For those who began talking about 25 thousand years ago, theoretically, 300 yearsis bare nothing. However, the impact o this Revolution in the West redefned a loto things.

The social organization, at the time that preceded the Industrial Revolution in Eu-rope was quite clear. The noble keeps the power because they were ... noble, andthe peasants were there, taking care o the feld and the merchants traded.

The 300 years oame.


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So ar so good, but the big point is that, depending on a number o actors (thevictories o war, discovery o raw materials, technological developments, amongothers), along with the liberal thought and Protestantism, helped to incorporatethe idea o the material progress o the society.

This set o situations allowed the frst major movement o social escalation in thehistory o the world that was not caused by wars. That is, the social organizationand, thereore, the relations were re-signifed: in this model, it was possible to abourgeois take the place o an aristocrat, having better economic perormance.

Just Imagine: I you make more money, you will take the place o another. Andeconomic policy rewards it and religion endorses. Lets work!. It means, anyone,even being small, can destroy the competitor and be greater than him.

With this liberal and Protestant thought o the British public schools were set up,previously not public, but were called so because accepts aristocrats and bur-geois. According to the article Olympism rom sports psychologist Katia Rubio,they were ar rom the major centers and, during the weekends, students wentto neighbor villages and just played. These games involved balls with the hands,balls with their eet... and then that began to be born ootball and rugby. On therhythm o Liberalism and Protestantism, the relationship o any (team), even small-est ones (in titles or sta), can destroy the competition (win) and be greater thanhim (champion).

I introduce you the two most amous sports in the world, that sharpen the rivalryand hatred between opponents-twisted, violent and unnecessary deaths.

The big question here is not to judge i the model is right or wrong (even becauseI love ootball and support Grmio o Porto Alegre), but make it clear that thismodel had stimulated a new way o people to relate. The reedom o the State tothe people let then ree to produce and market, but also encouraged the compe-tition in a way never seen beore in history. The Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin,historian and educator, creator o the International Olympic Committee - the a-ther o the modern Olympic Games, tried, through this new sport boom at the

19th century, recreate all the Greek thought.

However, his phrase the important thing is to compete was never understoodas meaning the Greeks. The concept o competition was related to the overruno the athlete and not the overcoming o the adversary. In Ancient Greece, itwas common or the winner to thank the contestants or the opportunity to evolveand vice versa.

The 300 years o economic ame are ending in Europe. But his legacy to the West-ern social organizations, added to the concern with the mind, the separation othe soul rom the environment, are putting the man in a crisis o values.


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PART 2_UNDERSTAND


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As much as we have seen how we are ragmented rom our minds, our body, oursoul, rom the environment and against the other, despite the causes that seemsto make sense, we ail to realize this ragmentation.

Because since I was born it was so. And my ather and the ather o my atheralso thought so - you can say that, and makes perect sense. We became easilyaccustomed with some context that has been taught and we were comortable, isa nice shortcut to save brain synapses, without question a lot.

Anyway, in practical terms, we are the product o all these ragmentations and saythat, although there is no right or wrong, the way we live today is the arthest rom

a holistic look.

And yes, today we are living in a way based on aggressive competition that re-wards the domination and the consequent submission o another.

Man is a social animal, but is increasingly reclusive in their condos and, thereore,increasingly distant rom himsel, o his essence. I believe that this prison is one othe causes o these evils.

I mysel have tried to make this move and, yes, I have had good results.

The man: social, butinmate.


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The more I know mysel, the more I try to connect and bring that more holisticpoint-o-view to my lie, the more I think it has helped me to become a betterperson.

And as a good optimist, the next pages will have a little as this may be under-

standable-and without ado - or each o the discoveries made previously.


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The man had his last big evolutionary step 50 thousand years ago. Imagine howmuch stu in history has happened in 2013 years. Now, practically, multiply those2 thousand years by 25. Yes, this is the story that happened with our ancestors.

A lot has changed: the body has adapted and qualifed, the brain grew and, in thewake, also grew the questions to fnd out what was going on around them. Themore they understood what was happening, the greater was his development andgreater was their sense o empowerment in relation to the environment (ora andauna) and in relation with each other.

So, this vision that we are the greatest in the Earth, put us ar rom an integrated

vision and made us see the planet just like another consumable good.

Natural resources are coming to terminate? So lets fnd another planet to para-sitize, as i it were as simple as catching a plane and cross a continent. But it is not,I do not believe that our great-grandchildren will live in another planet.

So, its time to look at our planet and see that it is, as well as our body sometimes,showing signs o trouble. However, it has a chain that is not limited to linear think-ing and see the Earth as a single body that remains alive: sel-regulated whererocks, volcanoes and even we have job descriptions to make the system work.

The rock thatcooperates with

the volcano whichcooperates with us.


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It is the recent Gaia theory, created by the British scientist James Lovelock in 1972.In his study, in comparison with the atmosphere o other planets, a recognitionthat the whole being (alive or not-alive) on Earth has an active role in the mainte-nance o conditions or their existence.

A good example is the cycle o carbon dioxide (CO2). The volcanoes o the Earthhave spewed CO2 or millions o years and are responsible or heating up theEarth, so the Earth need to ship it rom the atmosphere, or would be too hotto live. Technically, we know that plants and animals are able to recycle a lot oCO2 and oxygen in photosynthesis, respiration and decomposition. But it is notenough.

Enters the rock. It begins to erode and its erosion is absorbed by algae that pro-duce shells. When the algae die, their shells are going to the bottom o the sea,orming limestone sediments that merge, orming huge and thick layers o sedi-ment.

And when these sediments give a messy in tectonics plates, earthquakes or mightbe ... volcanoes may erupt once again spewing CO2 into a eedback cycle. I wethink well, the volcano expels a thing and is ed by ... the rock. And in the process,we are also active perorming gas exchange, the same that will be eroded by rocksand expelled by the volcano. It is an involuntary cooperation process that makesthe planet be like it is. More than that: under this optics, which is rock, pure andsimple ? What is volcano only? What is only the man?

I fnd this story and this theory this extremely interesting because, regardless owhether or not global warming is happening, the Earth, as a living organism, isshowing signs (as well as our body when with u). The big question behind all othis is that yes, the place is not the environment in which man lives, and yes, we arepart o something bigger, the organism Earth: where the volcano cooperates withthe rock that cooperates with us.

Do not think that we, the Eastern, will embrace this idea because our essence isexplorative and domineering. But I have a theory: the Patriarchy made us fght with

the neighbor. Solved that and attached to the neighbor, argue about a city withanother. Solved that and joined the cities, had a fght with another country. Withglobalization, the internet and the empowerment o people, we can possible termthe phase o Eurasia, Oceania and Lestasia o George Orwell. And the enemy isout o this planet. Thats why the man will come together and make best use othe environment.

Imagine when we lose the frst Miss Universe contest?


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The Live Science site made an election o the worlds cutest animals: won theclouded leopard, the polar bear and the gentoo Penguin. They are cute, but onlyestablish a relationship with the amily (mother, ather and brothers) in illustrationscreated by people because, in real lie, the ospring grows ast and is already oneo the group, without love relations and, worse, violence on the group dynamics odominance and submission.

With the human being is dierent. In the evolution o man, monkey transition tobecome bipedal, the woman would not be able to ensure the 21 months o gesta-tion, that would be ideal or the child become able to survive. This would confguretwo problems: a danger to the mothers metabolism and an obstetric dilemma

due to birth weight o the child .

There is that okay. According to the biologist Humberto Maturana, technically, ourbabies are premature and totally dependent on other people.

That is why, i real in nature, the necessary coupling (where beings engage inecosystems as a guarantee o survival), or man, there are also the spontaneouscoupling. More than ensure the survival, there are dynamic and reciprocal unjus-tifable fttings and ree even ater birth and, or the most part, lasting a lietime.

This is the phenomenon o neoteny (rom Greek, neo - new and tenia - extend), toextend the relationship with the new being or something that transcends survival,

Our ospring are

more beloved thanother animals.


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is a ree and clean eeling. As said the conversations designer, Luiz Algarra, in acourse I attended, i you ask why a mother love her son, there will not be a rationalresponse, is almost instinctive, natural. In humans, love is a biological phenom-enon: we rely on love in all ages and not just rom parents, but o other people.And the extended love is the clear concept o socialization.

It was not the survival o the fttest that secured the lie, but cooperation and co-existence. The hominids were humans as more shared the results o hunting andtheir aections. How said that Arican proverb I you want to go ast, go alone. Iyou want to go ar, go with other people.

I competition is arm yoursel (Machiavelli-Beore anything, arm yoursel), coop-eration is disarm (Maturana-Without love we are not social beings.). Thats whyrecently it turned out that the same area in the brain that accuses pain is the sameas accusing the social rejection, nature is wise.

More than believe that we should work together and consider each other, in theprogram presented by American actor Morgan Freeman, one o interviewed phys-icists argues that, each day, we conducted exchanges o 10 million atoms o ourbodies with others and with the environment.

That is, what we are? Who am I? Who are you? How can I ensure that I am I? We willcooperate with the other? Or rather, we are all o us.

To not cooperate with the other is to not cooperate with ourselves.


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The outsourcing strategy, it means, to outsource some activities that theoreticallythe person should do, help people and companies ocus on their main activities.

And within that Cartesian and simpliying thought that rules us, we decided toocus in mind and do outsourcing o the soul.

By this way, we could ocus on work and reserve a ew minutes in the day or a dayo the week to establish a link with the soul which, according to religion, will keepour essence alive - even ater death - to decide its ate guided by the actions inlie.

Thereore, it is good to behave. Its nice to ear the rules laid down by religion. Insummary: it is good to do what the Religion says.

The Crusades were a great example o this. The Catholic Church had a clear stra-tegic role around the 10th century in putting together and serve the interests oEuropean conquest o territories.

With the promise o heaven, the Church not only recruited good warriors, but alsoa bunch o starving people, elders and teens were seduced by the shortcut toheaven, with the condition o kill some Muslims and conquer territories.

The outsourcing othe soul.


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Ok. The outsourcing o the soul was (and is) a tool o domination and control. Butwhat is it? How can I see it? Do you take Kirlian pictures?

I repeat: I am an atheist, I do not know how to see souls and maybe we can evensee something more (we know that our eyes have a range o color lower than the

potential), but the concept o soul I like most is that we are, frst o all, energy.Simple as that.

Energy as well as the animals, the trees, the stone or the garbage itsel, withoutjudgment o good or bad, just energy.

It means, I think in the soul as a reminder that we are not just body and mind.We are not here just to accumulate knowledge and possessions, to survive andprocreate.

Sounds simple because its really simple, but its hard to assimilate: we want vi-sual elements, to see energy felds, watch the freworks or supernatural shows osoul, but in act the soul is the essence o every one o us that transcends ourknowledge and our body.

To close, citing a post o the site 9gag, you dont have a soul, you are a soul andyou have a body. In other words, our thinking, ocused on mind and ruled bythe patriarchal model always think o accumulation, possessions, but i we havesomething is the body that makes tangible our presence and allows us, ahnn, to

live here.

I in the body (and mind) is the limitation, in the soul we fnd the motivation: swim-mers without arms, people with Down syndrome making movies or even StephenHawking, are clear examples o the purpose.

Body is our avatar. And the soul is our essence to remember that we are more thanwe think we are. In the uture, we will be able to do the outsourcing o the mainunctions o the body, but the soul is going to be more difcult.


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We are ar rom the environment, the others and the soul. It even has a certain log-ic, right? But now I would like to say that we are also away rom our body. I Explain.

As a child, one o the ways to evolve and understand us in the world, beore study-ing philosophy or whatever, is gaining awareness o the body. It learns to run,jump, somersault, kick the ball. However, in parallel, we have parents who regu-late this understanding o the body always ocusing on the worst and tragic. Becareul, you gonna get hurt!, Look at that horrible thing, you scraped your armin the tree!.

The consequence is that we become oriented to avoid the pain. And with that

extremely reactive thought, we make the body consciousness something bad. Orworse, on the assumption o anthroposophy that well-being is the homeostasis(the body in balance), nowadays, we are aware only o the body in negative, in theso-called evil (back pain, headache, etc.).

So the question: it was worthy to block body awareness i awareness today justhappens by the negative? We make us insensitive to the good things and sensi-tive to bad things, a lot o it guided by the rules o relationships and market: Bestrong, not weak and vulnerable.

For us, the body consciousness is a taboo. Even in sex there is a genitalizationjust because we do not know how to turn on and eel the other parts o the body.

The body was madeto eel.


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Anyway, this lack o conscience only makes us deal with the body in a unctional,objective and practical way, because we still disbelieve that there is an integra-tion and a relationship between body and mind (and soul, and environment andothers).

For example: our latest genetic evolution put us to run (spend a lot o energy) andeed with minimal (store enough energy). Today, we do exactly... the contrary: donot move and eat a lot.

All this started because we are victims o a very poor physical education classesin schools, based on competition with winners, and losers humiliated, we grewrustrated and do things without a real purpose: I need to lose weight or I needto get more beautiul.

Today we have the understanding that the main physical ailments-such as heartdisease, cancer, HIV/AIDS - are gaining eective treatments that guarantee a cure.

However, another lesson that nature and the environment gives us are the psycho-somatic reactions. Psycho is the mind, the psyche, and Soma is the body. What a-ects the mind, attacks the body. And vice versa. Once again, we are ragmented.

I we are a soul that has a body, we should recall that it was done just to be elt.Touch, see, eel. Body is pleased, but the Middle Ages makes this a villain, theEnlightenment shunned them to mind and our parents limited our corporal con-

sciousness, but it is never too late to eel yoursel.


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Meet Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, Swiss physi-cian and alchemist who lived in 16th century and adopted the stage name o Para-celsus. He is the author o the phrase, in 1538, Dosis sola acit venenum. It means,only the dose makes the poison (or remedy).

Thats why all this talk started in the Enlightenment o ocus on man, extreme ap-preciation o the mind through the simplifcation, stabilization and objectifcationo phenomena around us, then, understand them, was or a ew centuries remedy,but now is poison.

With the separation o the environment, the others and the body (psychology,

or example, is just beginning to think treatments using the body and which gobeyond the rational mind, as breathing), we created a super intelligent big head.

However, as well as the linear thought himsel sabotaged Physics with quantumphysics, we are now living the phenomenon o our own mind sabotaging our think-ing separately, big head with psychosomatic illnesses.

No matter where you live, you have heard o (or have lived or are living) with somepsychosomatic illness. The terms are together in the word just because it cannotbe separated. This thought, in spite o Aristotle had already warned in Ancient

Greece, only at the beginning o the 20 century, when started to reconsider thelinear thinking and begin to discuss the systemic thinking, that drives to deal with

Our mind: with great

power comes greatresponsibility.


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the inuence o the mind on the body and vice versa.

However, the ocus in mind was so strong over the last ew centuries that blindedus to the psychosomatic diseases that, in the coming decades, will be the largestincidence worldwide.

I by one hand we are able to overcome diseases that aect primarily the body,such as heart disease, AIDS, etc., we are oundering in the water not to bedrowned in this universe thus ar misunderstood o the psychosomatic illnesses,such as depression, stress and anxiety, because we could not see exactly the cor-relation between mind and body.

Imagine you 18 years old, ull o lie, o gas, studying or the test that will take youto College, taking another important step in your lie. Your body is 100%, yourmind is on top with lots o study and a certain pressure (by amily members whoexpect their approval in somewhere cool place, and your colleagues, who havemanaged to entered beore, giving the impression that you had lost a year be-cause they are a step ahead).

So youre in a bar with your riends to unwind and relax and your heart starts tobeat aster, your sight starts to get cloudy, you start getting sick, your body doesnot respond to your movements and, to top it o, the eeling that youll simply dieat that moment is a chance as well.

This was my frst panic crisis. My mind was so stubborn to pass the entrance examthat any diversion o route was liable to punishment. My mind sabotaging my body.

Yes, when approved at the entrance exam, as i by magic, everything went away.But to understand exactly the reason and what the hell was happening to me, ittook a good ew years o sel-examination. Good to see at the beginning o thecentury some started talking about psychosomatic reactions, otherwise probablyI would end up making a heart surgery and would not solve the real problem.

With great power, comes great responsibility, but the mind cannot be the main

responsible or everything. The good side o the holism is that it helps to reducethe ull weight o our overloaded head.


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PART 3_EXERCISE


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Although we are, today, only a big head, we are increasingly wanting to connect uswith the mind, with the body, with others and with the environment.

And the technology is doing its part.

The man in his natural state, took about 200 thousand years to complete his latestevolutionary process. I the technology, by its side, guided the stressing way theman handles your routine, is also creating tools to seek this reconnection betweenbody, soul, mind, each other and the environment.

The technology deconstructed our routine because we are lost i there are no

tasks in the schedule, because we decided to open emails at 4 a.m. ater a baddream and because the goddamn notebook led doesnt stop blinking during theearly hours ;). On the other hand, at the same time, technology is increasingly hu-manized and under service to acilitate people lives. We are at a click rom people,products, services, our gadgets and even our plants; there is already an app orthat.

And there is more.

On the body, we are increasingly flled with technology that, rom one side monitorour health and, on the other, encourage the practice o sports, our body aware-

Althoughdisconnected, we are

converging more andmore.


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ness, and Im even learning meditation breathing techniques with one o theseapplications.

Speaking about mind, the older ones may not understand, but a digital smiley,today, in the overwhelming and stressul urban routine, has nearly the value o

a physical hug. Alone, we have access to a world o inormation, good and badthings. For example, with Skype, I can see my girlriend rom any city that I am.

And speaking o other people, I realize a clear truce movement and o coopera-tion with the next. I believe that we are coming into a stage o saturation o thecompetition because, through collaboration, we are being more successul bothin interpersonal relationships and in business innovation projects. For example,you can think o an idea with 3 riends, but i you share it with, you know, 30 people,it will grow at a rightening speed and much stronger than you could imagine.Close to each other and compete time and time again, surprisingly, is losing thegame. And it is not in this feld that you want to play, right?

Talking about feld, I remembered the environment. This is perhaps the most glar-ing actor that made us want to reconnect, due to the stress in big cities and thesearch or moments o peace close to nature or re-staging scenes rom when wewere younger, or to keep an environment that has long been degraded.

For example, I cant stand the mosquitoes in So Paulo, I must be in the restau-rants route o Mosquitos Restaurant Week. And it is the environmental imbalance

o the Atlantic orest in southeastern Brazil. We ended up with their natural victimsand now we are them, unortunately. Theres no point getting angry with the mos-quitoes, because i we get rid o them, something even worse will come. This is therule o nature, we must coexist organically.

Speaking o co-existence and assuming the statement o 9gag (yes, I careullychoose my reerences and I dont care), i we are a soul that has a body, what is theproblem to give a little blood to the mosquito i it is only ulflling its role to survive,and, in addition, mosquitoes larva eed on organic particles that are suspendedin rivers and lakes? In their absence, the water o these places could get rotten

aster. Yes, Im naturally optimistic, Monty Python an and always try to see thebright side o lie. Do not think o you, dont think linearly, think on the whole, thinksystemically. The linear thinking stops us in ront o an obstacle because the lineis straight. Do not be satisfed with the same response. With the complex thoughtthere is never pessimism, because there are always other actors and paths. Andyou innovate :).


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When I say that I am optimistic because we can think and do things dierently isnot because someone will come back rom heaven. It is because the answer liesin ourselves: just need to change our perspective on things, about the routine.

For example, you can change a lot just coming o the autopilot. How so? Lets goin two parts, as we were taught to do and as we deal.

To talk as we have been taught, remember (or imagine) one o those guys un-prepared, that suddenly, put!, assumed the post o chie. To eel comortable intheir positions, ensuring their role and importance in the company and gainingconfdence, what do they do? The basics, and are looks strongly not to spoil ev-

erything. It is natural. You and I already did or will do this.

However, our parents and our social organization, in this analogy, also looks a lotlike the unprepared chie. Do you know why? Because they always think dontscrew it up. As mentioned in previous chapters, we are traumatized in eel thebody because our parents, teachers, etc. always associated the body conscious-ness to a atality. This explain why we have this relationship o pleasure concen-trated on genitals, and body awareness is a taboo.

And in the urban routine, we think the same thing, dont screw it up.

You dont know,

but you live in theautopilot mode.


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Thats why we give relevance and value o bad, but small, acts as much larger thanthe good, but small, ones. Thats how an autopilot works: has to run like that, isomething goes wrong, ops...

No autopilot was prized by some glorious act only an human being can do. Thats

why we need to leave the autopilot mode. And it begins, ironically, since your wakeup. The alarm clock rings, coee, bath, work, transit, dining, bath and ... the alarmclock rings.

The routine is so. To reach the end o the line, to start all over again. What is the re-sult? It is when we are asked: how was your day? Rush. And this response escapesthe pattern i you experience small bad situations or great good situations.

For example, the day was ok, the every days rush, but an idiot closed me in trafcand somebody knocked my coee, staining all my clothes. Remember that youreported your latest, humm, 12 hours, and you theoretically lived on autopilot, butgained consciousness in 2 times. However, small bad situations. In a simple calcu-lation, in the last 12 hours, there were 2 bad things outside the normality.

And the only good situations are highlighted when they are big, huge. In otherwords, a promotion, a wedding request or even your team win the Championship.Make the calculation now: how many times are you promoted, start a date or yourteam wins Championships? And how many times you are stuck in trafc or youhave the clothes stained by coee or any other kind o ood? In overall, at the end

o the week, you still dont know why you are stressed?

Reect, we live a alse concept o well-being, because welare is the body in bal-ance and we think this is enough. However, being in balance is to assume theautopilot and just try to avoid the worst, but not pursuit the best. And the best isnot to have 3 jobs to ensure 3 promotions or have a harem to keep 5 girlriendsor even buy all the uniorms o Arab Championship teams. Is simply adopt a moreoptimistic view o lie. And it can be applied now, simply swapping the lens o yourroutine.

Appreciate the small, but good moments: today was great, we had a relaxedlunch, perormed a lot at work and not waste a lot o time in trafc.

Treasure the time with riends, working lunch, happy hour, or even the moments opeace, alone. Substitute the autopilot by presence.


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As the world has its peculiarities, the British industrial revolution defned in wholeworld, the hours we work, we sleep and we should dedicate to leisure. And regard-less o the continent, we have a common behavior pattern o worker Friday. Toillustrate this guy, in Brazil, there is a beer brand that said today is Friday, giveme a beer... and so on. This analogy is a great insight that talks with thousands oBrazilians and workers around the world.

However, i we think ahead and better understand the context o the urban rou-tine, these guys are exactly those o the autopilot, which survive rom Monday toFriday and at the end o the day, allow themselves to escape rom that reality ullo stress, problems, and everything else. It is as i it was (and is) a reality acceptedand, i there werent so many errors or problems during the week, so lets cel-ebrate!

Naturally most o these people, around the world, without the stratum o the classor type o work, are stagnant in your routines based by preventing error and prob-

ably will not innovate or try to see dierent things. And the urban routine is relent-less, even the creative economy can be a hostage o this and, sooner or later, willacknowledge atigue, stress, depression and, o course, wont know why.

And thats where I go back to the idea o creating an awareness to see the positiveand enhance even the simplest things. In other words, to turn o the autopilot andbe present.

For example, there is a topic on Fast Company that speaks about Lie o Pi hitmovie whose story was plagiarized rom Gaucho writer Moacyr Scliar. This history

shows how a boy, lost in the Pacifc Ocean or more than 200 days, hungry, desper-ate, without amily and still sharing a boat with a tiger, decides to see his situation

I on autopilot we

tried to avoid thebad stu, with thepresence, we value

the good.


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the other way.

In the end, Pi asks a question valid or all o us and our urban routines: what kind ostory we preer to count when asked how was your day? It is important to make itclear that, when I speak about autopilot, is not a key that turns our brain on or o.

This orm o thinking and acting is already so ingrained in us which, or the mostpart, is not at all easy to deconstruct. I m always on beta in this.

That is why, on this same subject o FC, a parallel was drawn between three wayso dealing with a time o adversity: frst, unloading the anger; second, doing noth-ing and third, looking or a meaning.

The curious thing is that, in the research, the act o unloading the anger (hittinga punching bag-what I like to do- do not solve nothing and only makes you evenworse). The second, doing nothing, does not solve the problem, but at least notmade it worse. And the third, in which people goes out o automatic and tried tounderstand and take any lesson o what happened, ound a meaning in adversity,and eel better in time, throughout the study period, were less oten visiting thedoctor than the others.

Now, i Im closed in trafc I will have to keep trying to understand the positive sideo this act or me to eel better and go less to the doctor? Exactly.

Youre just thinking linearly, trying to cross the obstacle. But the good side and

the possible measures may be adopting other alternatives to the car. You can goby public transport, or rather, bicycle or even on oot, thus living the environment,exercising and enjoying the scenery.

And how simply be optimistic and try to see the good side? In the same matter o(awesome) Fast Company, two groups o people were put in a situation o stress.Optimistic people aced as a challenge and were up rom adversity; pessimisticpeople, who saw the activity as a threat, weakened against the situation. In anycase, be optimistic is not a git, but a orm o exercise everyday: in the survey,most resilient people have experienced the same levels o rustration and stress

than the others, but recovered aster. I mysel, as I write, was a little anxious or aew days rom now, travel 10 + 6 hours. But, in act, I realized with the text itsel thatI was eeling threatened. The mere act o writing and reect already helped me.How do you see yoursel in ace o adversities? Challenges or threats?


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Generation X loves to criticize Gen Y, the millennials. Instead o criticizing, theyshould learn.

Im a hybrid, a little more X than Y, but Im trying to update my mental frmwareto evolve with this guys.

It is a act that our generation X, born in the early 1960 until about 1980, has alwaysbeen very ull o stereotypes: you are a skater, then you should listen to punk rock,must have skate clothes, and under any circumstances, cannot use a hip hop cloth-ing because it is not part o the tribe dress code. Tribe is a great word becausethis behavior is really outdated.

Generation Y, born between the 1980s and the early 2000s, deconstructed com-pletely this tribal way o thinking. Instead o choosing one thing OR another, thisgeneration allowed himsel to be one thing AND another.

Thus, this generation can transit in various territories, in various ways o being, thatis, to live all the possibilities. And they have the rights and the great good ortuneto have grown up in an era that we have no great wars and social dysunction. Sowe have only positive points: democracy, technology, purchasing power, accessand a somewhat more peaceul relation compared to past generations.

Because when wasthe last thing that youdid something or the

frst time is a greatclich.


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That is why that image, shared abundantly over the internet, which was the lasttime you did something or the frst time, is a delightul clich.

Walls, taboos, orthodoxies, absolute truths, all elt.

Thats why, regardless o generation, we have the opportunity to experience di-erent things and choose dierent paths, without stop being who we are or whowe want to be. Only things dont need to be as linear as well.

It makes no more sense to think o a vertical and linear. You dont need to studythe basics, go to College, work, graduate, be promoted, marry, have children, etc.

Everything is option, everything is possible. The world is a constant ball in thecenter o the feld, on which the play is about to begin. Dont think in reverse i

your decision doesnt work , think it was a great learning and try to scoop as mucho the experience.

There is not only one path, there are dozens, hundreds, thousands o ways.

And the examples o success are out there. People who neither fnished Collegeand have enterprise, and are now millionaires; people who changed their careereven in older age and were super successul, and people like you and me who arealways evaluating whether the path is right and whether it is worth continuing. Atthe beginning may seem stressul, but the truth is that its extremely liberating.

One o the ormulas to deal with the urban routine is exactly deconstruct it.

When was the last time you did something or the frst time? And dont wait untilFriday. The weekend is more a schedule imposed.

Have to happen when comes the will to, in the better way, without so much pro-gramming, allowing you be able to reconcile your responsibilities with these (frsto many) times that you set aside or you.

This is quality o lie. This is fnd loopholes o pleasure in the urban routine. I youare eager or the end o the day, complaining that is near Monday, keeps standingby to arrive Friday, you are a person who needs to learn rom generation Y andsimply deconstruct your routine to live your lie and be happier.

Reect: when was the last time you did something or the frst time?


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Nowadays, regardless o how much income we earn, we are always with a list oactivities on the day that is, or the most part, divided into periods o hours. And,o course, as all programming, there is always some possible disruption someurgency at work or at home.

That is why, nowadays, rather than time is money, the new reality is that money istime. Our routines are so busy with trafc, stress, workload, work home, that wecould not fnd time or our own activities.

That is why, i the time is the new currency, the presence in the present is the newgold. Simple as that.

In daily lie, we are tired, unmotivated and stressed and, as saety valve, we werehoping to survive until the end o the week to vent, then it makes sense to get rido the prison that set up the days o the week. Think well, 5 o 7 days, means 86%o your week. Do you want to continue to endure 86% to vent in 14% o the wholeweek?

But, as said Douglas Rushko, in his book Present Shock, i the 20th century turnedto the uture, the 21st century will come back to the present.

The present, the now, worth gold, believe me. It is extremely difcult, nowadays,

I time is the newcurrency, the

presence in the now isthe new gold.


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be present. Is how to play the game o lie in hard level.

You are at works lunch. You are actually having lunch and chatting with your col-leagues or are thinking o all the things that should make early in the aternoon?

You are with your kids at the end o the day. Are you really enjoying that momentwith who you like or are thinking about all the stress you have in the next morning?

You are in bed with the person that you like. Youre really eeling horny or want toscratch another activity in your agenda to prepare the bags or another businesstrip?

The vast majority o people, and even many who claim to be able to cope with theurban routine, are hostages o this way o thinking and acting.

We are hardly present in the present. Seems simple, but according to an orientalthought, we suer rom depression or thinking in the past and anxiety by thinkingand living in the uture.

How twitted the Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton, a milestone in history: thefrst person who elt that he or she had many things going on.

We think so much on what has happened in the past and what may happen in theuture, that we orget to enjoy the present.

Im not saying to appreciate the act o being beggars and enjoy each alms o-ered, I think natural the man aiming or something, but it doesnt make sense tobelieve that happiness and that the activity will be completed only when achievingsome specifc goal.

We need to fnd pleasure in every moment o lie and value them to eel satisfedwith that. Previous generations might have thought in the uture to ensure thesurvival o their own. But nowadays, rankly, economic crisis aside, you do notneed this.

Make the most o your now, now.


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Regardless o religions, I do Buddhist meditations in So Paulo. In one o themonks speeches (which was in suit and tie, making an amazing deconstruction othe ritual) he spoke meditation, the return to yoursel, makes us to be less vulner-able to everyday situations.

This sentence tagged me a lot. Suddenly, I saw the analogy and I it fnd extremelytrue. I you ride a motorcycle, your ace is the windshield. I you dont meditate(or exercises another orm o sel-knowledge in their own way), in any situation ostress, your mind is the windshield.

That is, with meditation and sel-awareness, you create a orce feld that prevents

the little things o everyday reach you.

It is not easy to think, but it is extremely easy to implement.

You will see that even the most stressul things will be treated in a clearer man-ner, smoother, more serene, more certain and less exhausting when viewed romoutside.

When I speak in orce feld I dont want to create more separation. The orce feldelement is a valid analogy to show that, yes, we can transcend the stress o every-day lie, but the real achievement is at an integration o things.

Have your own orce

feld or stress ourban routine.


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And this integration starts on each one, starts on you, when you are sae and inte-grated with the environment, with your body, with your mind, your soul.

This is the challenge (and not a threat) that stays or you.

I am not going to tell you to be happy because it would be clich and is ake, buteel your body, eel your lie, eel your presence in the world and increase yourability to react positively to an adversity, taking an apprenticeship and a meaningrom the things that happens to you on a daily basis.

I the helmet is to avoid the impact rom an accident on a highway, meditation is toavoid the impact o any gossip o the urban routine. This is a orce feld extremelyuseul or everyday because it puts us in a real place, more realistic than the littlethings spoken by small people.


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Despite questioning all this outsourcing o the soul and look at the sky, the anal-ogy that I have used to understand me and try to be a better person, is o theballoon.

In this balloon analogy, imagine those hot air balloons that we see in Turkey, butthe great unction o this analogy is not to rise to the heavens, in any way. Thegreat value o this exercise is to translate the detachment. And what better anal-ogy to translate detachment, that drop those sandbags that holds us (or fx) to theground?

Thats okay. The smaller our conscience, more stuck to the downside o routine

and, thereore, more vulnerable to small things.

There is a viral image going on internet: small minds discuss people; averageminds talk about things and great minds talk about ideas.

And the sum o these contents inspired me to perorm the ollowing exercise.

The frst sand bag (not necessarily has sequence, ok?), is the one the vast majorityo people in the major urban centers are hostages o the routine: both care aboutthe opinions o others and suer issues imposed by society (weight loss, sexualpower, physical beauty, etc.). And because we are hostages, this means that we

The balloon othe evolution oconsciousness (or

the balloon odetachment).


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are vulnerable to these issues. That is why we need to drop the bag o sand, thatis, we need to get rid o these issues.

The sand bag two, when we started to get distance o the small things o peoplein everyday lie, and start to gain more awareness o ourselves. And its in this mo-

ment that we can allow us to carry out a physical activity, to meditate, to seek outsituations and moments that we eel our body and realize the unifcation betweenit and our mind. Disaect o the concept o ragmentation that holds us and pre-vents us rom evolving. In other words, know yoursel better.

The sand bag three is the consciousness o the environment: auna, ora. Thiscomes rom the understanding o the role o every being on Earth: as we haveseen, it makes no sense to kill a mosquito and even the erupting volcano has alarge role in the lie cycle o the planet as a whole. This can be done by being closeto nature when possible, close to the animals and understanding that even insectshave a role on Earth. Disaect rom a ragmented vision and domineering in themiddle and eel an integral part o the medium.

The ourth sand bag, fnally, is the understanding that we are all one. Is the un-derstanding that we are energy, which we are ully integrated and are part o theenvironment. This is, perhaps, the most difcult to let go, but the consciousnesso integration and unity completely changes our view o the world and how wesee ourselves. I have a symbol o oneness at the door o my house and every timeI go out the door, I remember that we are all one. How we do this? Exercising

compassion, orgiveness, trying to see a problem or situation rom someone elsesperspective, etc.

And the coolest thing is more prisoners and more hostages o the urban routinewe are more vulnerable to, or example, a gossip, which - just between us - is toosmall, dont you agree? That is why, with the exercise o detachment and the ex-pansion o consciousness, we are lighter, stronger, more prepared to cope - not ina military way, but in a collaborative and evolutionary way - with the urban routine.

Well, that was my point-o-view shared with you, the reader - by ree will, with

humility and dedicating hours o study - o how I think all answers are within usand how we can expand our consciousness and deal increasingly with the urbanroutine and stress. From now on, to question everything you read and reect howyou may exercise these ideas or your daily lie, your way.

Appreciate the nature, question lie and seek harmony.


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Imagination, research, writing, edition and review: Andre Torales.

Contacts: [email protected] . +55.11.9.7596.9663

Thanks: my amily (Fred, Angela, Fabio and Dalva), my girlriend Vanessa and mycolleagues and riends. In particular, concerning this book, or the learning andexchange with Mara Liguori, Daniel Kano, Diego Carneiro, Nathalia Iervolino andRita Almeida.

Illustration: Daniel Kano (www.behance.net/dsk)

The end.

ebook - how to deal with stress on a daily basis - 2013

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