The Cosmopolitan Blog

So my european experience continues… on the tube… aaaah, the british tube!  Actually, i’ll be honest, it took me a while to remember, it wasn’t called the subway like in NYC, it wasn’t called the metro like in Montreal, or the T like in boston. it’s the underground, or the tube in good ol’ England.

I remember hating it when i was growing up here. I remember thinking the stations were dirty & old looking, the trains were run down, and i just remember wishing that something, anything! would change or get updated.

I got to montreal & thought, waow, now this is nice. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m starting to draw a mighty big list of cons, when it comes to technology. Surprising, considering it’s the field i work in… or not… i hear those who work in chocolate factories never want to eat another piece of chocolate ever again, so….

For something that’s supposed to make us more productive, have u ever counted how much time you spend fiddling with, fine-tuning that technology for it to ACTUALLY do what you want it to do? Settings new systems up, figuring out how to make them better, fixing something that doesn’t work, installing product updates, rebooting, watching progress bars… UGH. I’d love someone to actually study this and tell us if we’re actually more productive or if we’re just more… well… busy…

We complain that the computer is making jobs obsolete, but what about all those jobs created to make sure that technology actually works?

Today, as i continue my european experiment, i realize one thing… technology takes your attention away from life. When you’re watching tv, it’s time you’re NOT spending outside taking a walk, when you’re surfing the Read the rest of this entry »

I recently mentioned that a lot of my posts, from now on, would be of the introspective nature. So why is introspection so huge for me right now? Because this is MY year, the year where everything falls into place:

• In terms of actual years alive, I’m … years old, and it’s a nice “milestone-like” number, the prime of age
• In numerology, where we go through 9-year cycles, I’ve recently started a new cycle, I’m in year 1: the beginning, the creation, unlimited potential
• It’s the year of the tiger in the chinese zodiac and I’m a tiger!

I didn’t hunt these numbers down, over the past 2 months, they got revealed to me (no, not in a freaky “twilight zone” way, just naturally, through reading and sharing with others). As per my “Time is of the essence” post, this is all about living in the now, making every day count, creating everyday, and living life to the fullest. It’s like being at the top of a ski slope filled with trepidation and excitement at the prospect of enjoying an amazing ride. THIS IS MY RIDE, here i go!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

A short blog post (I hope, cuz you know I can rarely manage that) about dreaming. I’m about to confess something, and you may laugh at me, or you may be honest and admit that it’s happened to you before too.

Dreaming is important. We know that. And it’s in our nature to dream. Call it wishing, if you like. We dream of the day when your children won’t wake you up at 5am, we dream of having 3 day weekends every week, we dream of a cruise to the Bahamas, we wish our boss would stop hounding us with more requests, we dream of meeting the perfect guy…

Either way, there’s always a place your mind goes that’s “wishful thinking”, and whether the dream is achievable or not, it’s were the ideas start, where our creativity begins. My favorite quote of all times is Albert Einstein’s:

Imagination is everything. It’s the preview of life’s coming attractions.

So has it ever happened to you NOT to dream big? To compromise, even in your dreams? I caught myself doing that and realized I’d been doing it for years. “I really want to do a job I love, I’d be ok if it paid less”. “I want to be financially comfortable, I mean, I don’t have to be a millionnaire or anything…”. “I really want to meet the perfect guy for me, who’s got this or that quality. It would even be ok if he wasn’t THAT good looking”.

Is it just me? Maybe it’s that part of my cultural background that teaches to be humble and considerate to others, not to be greedy or demanding. I don’t know but either way, it’s ridiculous.

IT’S YOUR DREAMS for goodness’ sake. Yours, not anyone else’s. So they can be anything you want. If you can’t even dream to the fullest, how are you ever going to live to the fullest. If your dreams are already a watered down version of “perfect”, then, if we take for granted that we don’t reach ALL our goals, our life will never be more than average.

Dream big. Exaggerate. Imagine the best case scenario. Your wildest dreams, remember those?

In an ideal world, I would have a blog post for every person who’s influenced my life. Ever since I’ve started on the path to self-actualization, so many have helped me, by adding something to my life, because I asked for it, and just when I needed it. But the bottom line in self-development is that you’re the only one who can change your own life.

So I’m not here to tell you that Deepak changed my life. But he sure gave me some tools and he definitely came at the right time. I feel like I’m back at school about to write a book report, but here’s what I remember from the book I bought in December 2009:

• Remembering how we’re all connected, how all positivity we bring gets put into the “pot” and therefore comes right back to us, but the same goes for negativity. I liked the connectivity theme in Avatar too.
• How meditating helps to reach that higher plane of consciousness
• How to identify with archetypes that guide you
• How to bring meaning and focus to every single day
• How signs are all around (and not in some fluffy way) and the answers to your questions are right there, you just have to ask

Finally, the book gives you daily mediation exercises for every day of the week, so it’s handy to keep around.

Speaking of answers…. here I was at the airport on the way to Spain, and I realized I had nothing to read. At that point, I walked past a airport newsstand. Usually, I would have picked up a couple gossip magazines, but this time, i walked towards the book section. At the same time, my mind wandered to how quickly time flies and that it was already the end of 2009, and how i wished I would be more focused in 2010. I ended up choosing Deepak’s book that day. My answer was in that book.

PS. I’m hoping to go see him when he visits Montreal this March.