A collection of meaningful quotes & my comments
On this journey of self-realization I started a few years ago, reading has been instrumental. Throughout my readings, I’ve come across deep words and genius ideas. Quotes that have impacted me and heavily contributed to the steps I’ve taken on my path.
They are all in a little black notebook that sits on my kitchen counter. I’d like to share them with the world now — they might spark something in you as they did in me.
To detach from the mind.
“A person cannot see the goodness of the laws if his or her mind is drugged by the love of pleasure and the fear of pain.” …
Before you try all the hacks, start with a simple thing: a clear intention.
I’m a people pleaser: I seek external approval. It’s a natural thing for me to do. I’m not going to spend time finding the culprit of this pattern, it’s something I have in me, and many other people do too.
For the past three years, I’ve developed a proper addiction to Instagram — the perfect place for people-pleasing and validation addicts like me.
In the beginning, it felt good. I was high on the likes, the comments; heck, I was an influencer! …
It feels like good-bye.
“I love you”, he said.
For the first time, I couldn’t say it back.
One thought repeated on a loop as I remained in an awkward silence: what does it mean, “I love you?”
What did you mean with this sentence? You said it at the end of a conversation that felt like a goodbye, like closing a long trailing relationship that ended in tears and hurt a few months ago — at least on my side.
You said it at the end of a call that felt like yet another reminder of our utter incompatibility; that showed me just how different we are, and how impossible it is to be myself and with you — as your partner, as your lover, and as your friend. …
How I manage to keep working even when I don’t want to.
It’s the day before Christmas eve, and I can feel the holidays all around me in the air.
All I want to do is to cozy-up and watch a movie or go on a walk in the forest, or paint, write (ahem, what I’m doing now), but I have to work. I’m not on leave, and there’s this blog I need to finish for Monday.
I sit at my desk. I’ve done everything I could to procrastinate — made coffee, watered the plants, got up again to get some water, went to the garbage bin to throw a pen and realized it didn't need to be thrown away. …
Yesterday, I celebrated death, my own.
Yesterday was the shortest day of the year, which means it was the longest night too. And what a dark night.
2020 has been for me, and I’m sure for many, a year of darkness. In my experience, it’s been a year of spending time alone, even if it’s something I abhor. But it’s what I needed, so I did it.
So when December 21st came around, I knew I had to celebrate it. The winter solstice this year felt like Christmas for me.
I know this is quite an uncommon statement. All around me, I heard the opposite: many were happy to jump into a new cycle, the age of Aquarius, new year, and so on. In other words, many of us are impatiently making their way to a new year and a new time. …
One of those little things in life
Today is December, 1st. Despite this being my birthday week, it’s also the start of what I consider proper winter. Brrrrrr.
I’m currently in Berlin and damn do I feel it’s winter.
I wake-up most days feeling low energy. Being human, I suffer from seasonal depression or SAD (seasonal affective disorder). After all, this is my first winter since 2014 and it is happening in Berlin.
Anyway, I am not writing this post to whine over my winter blues. If you know something about me you know I have a discipline of accepting things as they are, and if winter blues is the current scene in the movie called “Oumnia’s life”, then I’ll have exactly that. …
Stream of consciousness
Without the entertainment offered by the system, what remains?
why do we feel depressed without our team sports, concerts, cinema, travelling, clubbing, restaurants and bars? Why does it leave us feeling so… empty?
that's because we built our whole functioning and wellbeing on fake things. we say we have a full life but it’s full of distractions.
I've been feeling depressed and down for the past months. every week it's the same merry go round — there’s a moment of the day, usually around 3 pm, where i feel totally empty. i lose interest in everything and i just feel like I'm not where I'm supposed to be. i stare at my laptop screen, work waiting for me to do it and i just can't. …
A meditation
When things become uncomfortable. When my inner critic wakes up. When I compare myself to another woman. When I think of her with him. When the voice of trauma in me says “he chose her and not you” and “nobody wants you” and “you don’t know how to keep a man” and also “you’re not a real woman.”
When I feel lost. When I feel lonely. When I feel left-out and rejected.
When I feel disempowered. When my signals get scrambled. When I am thrown-off the seat at the centre of myself.
When I see myself as an imposter and a failure. …
Notes on my experimentation with boredom
In a world of hyperactivity, clutter and noise, I find the most valuable thing to be clarity.
Clarity, this feeling of knowing who you are, what your likes and dislikes are, and what you want. A peaceful way of moving through life.
When was the last time you experienced this? I can tell you about my last time: seated on a branch in the middle of a Portuguese forest.
Like many of you, I live an urban life. …
In her spacious flat, alone, she was free. She started stepping at the rhythm of the music, and something cracked open, the weight lifted, and for a moment, she was…
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