The Cosmopolitan Blog

A friend asked me the other day what my creative outlet was, and I realized i don’t really have one. I mean, i love to write, but I don’t even blog that often. I love to cook, but i only cook creatively once in a while (the rest is just auto-pilot-gotta-fill-the-fridge-and-use-the-ingredients-i-just-bought). I love photography but don’t make time for it, even in the fabulous city i live in (it only seems to come out when i go on trips). I don’t paint or draw because i think i suck at it. i give speeches occasionally but struggle with the creative “finding a topic” part which reduces the number of speeches I do actually give.

So last week, this seed was planted and i couldn’t ignore it. Read the rest of this entry »

Peace is the antonym of war, right? The word ‘peace’ and the word ‘anti-war’ mean the same right? Because obviously, if you’re anti-war, then you’re pro-peace, right?

WRONG.

Mother Teresa once said “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” My hero Greg Mortenson said “If you fight terrorism, that’s based in fear. But if you promote peace, that’s based in hope”.

If you’re trying to stop wars, then all your doing is focusing on those wars and conflicts, and the more you focus on something, the more it perpetuates. If your focus is peace, however, then your mind and your heart is thinking, feeling, visualizing peace.

That’s all folks. No lengthy drawn-out conclusion, let the giants speak. Have a good weekend!

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?

Time… strange lil’ bugger that one! Have you recently asked yourself:

• OMG, it’s 2010, where did 2009 go?
• has it really been 10 years since the millennium?
• It’s already February and I haven’t even begun to put my new years resolutions in place

If any of this sounds familiar, then Read the rest of this entry »