Of happiness

You can be full of money, incredibly rich, drive the most expensive cars, have yachts, houses, lovers, get high or drunk every day and be ultimately miserable. Well, if you think, this is not true, look at all those people, from Kurt Cobain to Amy Winehouse, so many musicians, singers, actors, top managers... They all were rich and ended their lives.

They all needed sex, alcohol, drugs and so many material things to make them happy. And the more money they have, the more addiction they needed. They don't have true and honest friends, often no such relatives as well. They live in a world where they believe everyone wants their money. Or they believe that people around them love only their money or things that money can buy. 

Have you seen kids that have all of the newest PC's, consoles, electric bikes, toys and games, branded clothes, and gadgets? Have you seen them really happy? The moment someone has newer mobile, they have to have it. If they see a new commercial for a toy, they have to have it. And so on. Until they don't have it, they are utmost unhappy. No matter that they have 100 toys (playing with each a day or two in total), they need that 101st toy. If they have 50 shoes, they are unhappy until shoe number 51 is not bought. They can't live without it. 

When you don't trust people around you and their motives, and you feel unhappy until you have something new, the only way to be in good vibe is to use substances - alcohol or drugs. You need to have followers, fans, trophies, or new things every day. The majority of the rich can only be happy through addictive substances. 

      

No responsibility or competencies

We are living in a broken society. Everyone is complaining about the fact that no one is willing to take responsibility for what (s)he does, but at the same time, one that complains doesn't want to take responsibility. Employers want their employees to be responsible, but they don't want to be responsible to their employees. 

It is hard to find a person who will say "Sorry, I have made a mistake and I'm willing to repair the damage caused". Such an honest person will be first to be fired, even though employers proclaim they want honesty. Everyone is looking for the justification so that they can blame others for mistakes they did, or so that they can complain endlessly. What employers don't understand is that taking responsibility doesn't only demand courage, but it also shows that the person has the following competencies: knowledge to improve, ability to correct a mistake, and behavior/attitude to make it happen. Instead of trying to make a company culture of it, employers mostly fire such a person.

So we teach others, particularly younger generations, that they can do whatever they want, but if they do make mistake, it is OK not to admit it, apologize, or try to make things right. 

Thus we have the global crisis of values and competencies. The best example was the recession in 2008. The crisis of values has caused the economic crisis because it was "normal" to be immoral in business and immoral doings in the banking sector caused global financial shock. A person without morality and, more importantly, competencies to work a certain job can't do anything else when the problem occurs than to blame others and complain, creating a vicious circle. 

Lack of competencies and morality is not a surprise in the culture where new morality is to lie in a job application or CV (as much I know from recruiters, more than 50% of people lie in it). And it is cool if you manage to cheat on your exam or get a job having zero competencies, but just being in right party, relationship, family to have a "right connection".      

Few more thoughts on complaining

We know that we are what we eat. Figuratively and literally. The food we eat becomes our body. But also goes with our thoughts. We are what we think and even more. As I already wrote, we attract in our life people and situations we think about dominantly. Energy flows towards what we think and creates there. So we can change our thoughts and change our lives. This is neither easy nor fast. We have to stop negative thoughts, but if we try to do it consciously, we will fail. We have to do it not by trying to deny negative but to change it to more positive thoughts.

Why do I mean? There are many scales of emotions. Some even have energy frequency attached to it.   

Complaining is also physically changing us. We become uglier, we make our blood acid and your positive motivation is weakened. Instead of expressing self-pity, condemning, accusing, complaining, frowning, or despairing, change it all by more using positive words like an opportunity, results, solutions, gratefulness, or manifesting.       

Complaining, Law of Attraction and Neuroplasticity

When you have a person complaining, let's say "This work is hard" or "Working with customers is dumbing", this person wants to make others do a job or things that her/him are supposed to do. Often, others can't cope with all that complaining, so they actually do it, instead of a person complaining. 

Yet, we have to know a basic fundament of the Law of Attraction, and that is that what you focus your attention on increases. People often don't get this. They will say, "Yes, but I do affirmation every day to have more money", so if I focus on that, shouldn't I have more money. You can affirm (this is a very good thing to do) something consciously but don't forget unconscious affirmations. When you say positive affirmation 5 times a day, but you think negative 50 times a day, then your positive affirmation will never come to the fruition.  You can not affirm "Money is easily flowing into my life" 5 times, and think or even say that you don't have money for this or that, or that you will never buy this, never have enough money, etc. Until number of your positive affirmations is not significantly higher than negative thoughts about the same thing, you will never manifest what you want. 

Instead, a person that complains hundred times a day will be given even more things to complain about. She/he will attract endless reasons for complaint. 

Many things we thought about our brain proved to be wrong. The brain can regenerate, can make new connections even in older age, brain cells are being created all the life, etc. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change itself. Self-help authors will say that our brain was created to be happy. But the reasons for mental diseases are in our negative thoughts that poison it and change it.  

Scientists have found out that if we are complaining or being forced to listen to the complaints for more than 30 minutes a day, this will cause real structural damage on the cerebral level. If we consciously chose to turn obstacles into opportunities, we are improving the quality of perception and ability to find solutions.       

Traps of complaining

Traps of complaining or our wrong beliefs about complaining are the following:

1. People say that inclination to complaining is in our character. 

No! It is only our habit. By changing our habits we are changing our character.

2. Complaining is useful. 

Hell, no! It is quite damaging belief. Why it is not useful? There are some facts about the effects of complaining:

• Our spirit is focused on a problem and can't focus on the solution,
• It prevents new views that would help us see the problem in a different way, 
• It keeps our thoughts tied to the past (often to the worst memories), stealing our energy from the present (I already wrote a bit about it),
• It makes us trapped in thinking, philosophizing, preventing us to act,
• It kills our belief that change is possible,
• and maybe the worst of all, complaining is convincing us to identify with our negative thoughts and beliefs, thinking we are "cosmic victims".

3. Complaining is the best way to rid us of negative emotions.

No, that is so wrong. Because complaining is a habit and a temporary action to "let out the steam" is not. When something negative happens to us, it is good to share it with the people that care. Or express it through emotions, either verbally, written, or by painting/drawing. When we don't "throw out" (express) that negative emotion, it can stay trapped inside of us and do us a lot of damage.

I always like to tell a story I love about a poisonous snake that bites us. We don't die because of the bite, we die because of poison. The negative emotion that we bottle inside of ourselves is a poison that will not kill a person we now hate or dislike or whatever, it will kill us. It's like drinking poison, expecting that other person will die. No, it won't. We will die. So to let out the steam is an excellent way for our health, but it is not complaining. Letting the steam is limited in time and it is orientated to find a solution to the problem. Complaining takes a long time, usually never stops but gets momentum and becomes an avalanche - a daily routine that we repeat but never seek for a solution.

If I just complain about how there is no work, I can peacefully sit in a local cafe or pub and spend all my days there. If I let steam for being refused for a job, but then make a deliberate action like finding a book or a course how to write a better CV or cover letter, take and implement the knowledge to make new CV and start looking for another job, then it is like saying "Excuses begone!"

No complain

There is a psychologist called Salvo Noe who wrote a book titled "Forbidden complain".

I want to point some of his observations in this post.

Some of the reasons why we live better than at any time in history but never have been so many unhappy people around us are because we forgot to use enthusiasm and gratitude in our lives. A huge problem is that people tend to accept less and less responsibility for anything. Particularly their lives. Showing gratitude is something every spiritual teacher urges us to do. Every time I get up from bed in the morning I listen to meditations by Louise Hay expressing gratitude for myriad things. And more I do it, more things come in my life to be grateful for. 

To activate enthusiasm, gratitude, and responsibility, we must activate new feelings and new views that will lead us to physical and mental wellbeing, lead us to the harmony between practical and emotional elements in our lives. This is the only way to avoid being a victim or feeling as being a victim. This is something Eckhart Tolle wrote a lot, warning us to take responsibility for our lives and not let us be victims.    

I very much like the quote "Complaining is the black hole in which we lose energy". 

The emotion of complaining and feeling as a victim is energetically draining our body energy, leaving us weak and angry or miserable. By complaining, we undermine and depreciate ourselves and prevent us to find a solution to a problem we are facing. We can't see a solution when we are in such vibration. 

We are creatures of habits, and habits often provide us with a sense of safety. But habits are very dangerous as more habits we have, harder for us is to change. Habits often prevent us from changing from misery to joy, from poverty thinking to abundance thinking. Why? When we have a habit than any wish to change is foreseen by our ego as a dangerous and negative thing. We tend to stay in the comfort zone, avoiding anything challenging. More we want to change more our ego resists. 

So when we have a limiting belief that we have turned into the habit (like complaining), we can't approach aggressively to change it. We have to find a pleasant replacement, something that will be useful and beneficial to us, something that will fulfill us on a personal level.  

So whenever we feel a tendency to complain, we have to stop ourselves and ask the question "How can I increase my abilities to overcome this situation?" This brings us to review our competencies. But that is another topic. 

God and suicide

When you find yourself to be thrown out of your home, your kids taken from you, you have a loan but no job, you have for a few rents, for a junk-food as it is cheap. When you freeze as you can't pay for electricity, when you have one or two meals a day, as you have to save every single cent to try to not become homeless for as long as you can, then thoughts of suicide are so strong. 

When you have a lonely Christmas, first time ever, you just wish to end this miserable experience once and for all. You feel you have lost all purpose, all joy, all love in your life. Going away from this is so seductive and so much easier as you don't see any future for yourself. Even if you look for a job, even with few friends scaring for you, even if you train yourself to wish less, search cheaper things, don't eat so often, cook low-cost meals for several days, save as much as you can. Still, suicide looks like a bright future. 

So I was on this way (I am still partially on it as I can't get a job that will help me to survive for the start and then give me some modest but "normal" life), thinking how cowardly I am to slit my veins and thinking how much it would cost my mother to transport my body and that she can't afford it (so you have such a good heart that even if you want to die, you don't want to ruin others), and you are afraid to jump in a river and drown, the best possible thing is to jump from the cliff. Atlantic will take your body and no funeral costs, nothing, you just feed the fish and circle of life goes on. 

I was in and out of thinking and preparing myself to jump when the last cent is gone, but my positive side was trying to fight this thought. So I pray, meditate, affirm, do all I can to stay positive and attract positivity, but no changes in my life. No job, no money, no mentors, no new friends, no miracles. So suicide is the way out. 

After prayer, I decided I have to go to the Cathedral where I have prayed the first time I came to Ireland and after that, I got a job. I find a kind soul to take me there, but then on the way, we are guided to turn a different way, to go to some tourist attraction and this is on the way to the cliffs. So I enjoy the company, enjoy the experience, the sites, the people on the way. 

And God says: So, you want to jump from cliffs? Let's go there." And the friend says, cliffs are so close, we can still come there while there is daylight. And here I am, on the way to cliffs. But now, seeing them, walking on a path on a heavy wind that brings sea foam over 200 meters in the air and over you, you feel terrified that you will fall. That wind will blow you away. That you will die with your music still in you. That you did not say goodbye to your kids, to your friends. And your idea of jumping off the cliffs is now gone. You feel the love of God and his/her smile on a crazy child you are and you ask yourself what the Hell are you doing? Did you survive a birth when doctors said you have no chance, did you survive so many situations during the war when so many others have died, when you survived heart attack that most die from, just to take your life?

So now I hope and pray, and learn and do even more to get a job and try to survive. God (and you, dear reader) will know did I make it or not. So if this blog has no new posts, then I have succumbed to misery, lack, and suffering. Let us pray this will not happen.  

      

Let it go

"Some people will not hear you regardless of how much, how loud, how truthful, how loving or how profound you speak or write. Wish them well and let them go."

This is true. So many times have I seen people who would not understand me no matter how much I have tried to explain, no matter how many different examples I give, no matter how much love and care I did put into my words and gestures. And then, few months or a few years later, they would reappear and confess that my words were so truthful, but the refused to accept it then. Or they were not on the level high enough for (my) truth to come to them. "They were blind, but now they see". 

Then I have learned to let them go. When the time comes, if it is important to their soul, they will find me again, or my words will come up from their memory. And I will be happy to touch their lives. 

So if in the situation that you wish all the best to someone, but that person doesn't see the grand jewel you are offering, don't get angry or sad. Just let it go. And let it be.     

We are breathing but are we living?

"- Oh, but Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, you haven't left me any time all just to - to live.

- To live, child! What do you mean? As if you weren't living all the time! 

- Oh, of course I'd be breathing all the time ... but I won't be living. ... I mean living - doing the things you want to do..."

So, are you living?

Let's say that out of 24 hours in a day, you sleep 8 hrs, work 8 hrs, travel 1 hour, eat 1 hour, cook 1 hour, take care of the body (shower, toilet, brushing teeth) for an hour. So you spent 20 hours on breathing. 

4 hours are left for living. Then you spend 2 hours on your phone browsing social networks to see what is happening and your friends are doing. Or all 4. But let's say that you have excellent control and spent only 2 hours. It gives you 2 hours to live. Do you exercise? Walk a dog? Watch 2 hours of TV? Play with kids? Play games? Read a book? 

So since we start working, we can live 2-4 hours a day. Unfortunately, most don't live those 4 hours as well. When people want 4 working days per week or 5-6 hours work a day, this doesn't mean that they will live a few extra hours. But it may give us more time to live. 

Do you listen to your heart? And fill desires you feel there? Listen to your inner child and have fun and live. Kiss your partner, hug your kids, play with them, have a drink with people you love, call them on the phone, read the book, or write one. Paint a picture, write or compose a song. 

Live, and, as legendary dr. Dyer says, don't die with your music still in you.      

Truth and Punishment

In the old times, if you would challenge "science" (at that time religion), you would be most probably killed. Stoned, drowned, burned. Depending on the religion. Or thrown to lions. We look at those times and say that people were stupid, evil, fanatics, bigots, non-civilized. 

We are fancy ourselves to be modern, civilized, intelligent, open-minded. But try to say anything about today's science. Yes, you will not be killed (probably). It would be far worse than that. You will be ridiculed, shamed, attacked, bullied, your funding will be removed, your titles (if possible) taken, all doors closed, friends will deny you. Why? Because we are not at all different than 5000 or 500 years ago. We only think so. And pretend. To calm our consciousness and bad feeling deep inside that knows that what we are doing is wrong. 

So it is best to stop kidding ourselves - if you are against the mainstream, you will be severely punished. And this is how the world functions today as it was 5000 years ago. You know, the truth is out there (but don't tell it to no one).     

Illusion of separation

One of the biggest illusions of mankind is the illusion of separation. That we are separate from others, that we are separate from nature. That we are separate from our environment. 

More and more people are realizing this fact, but not consciously doing anything to accept it into daily life. 

If you think you are separate from others think about this. Every 30 days your body changes all its cells. So every 30 days we die and are reborn again with completely different cells than before. Where we get material for this? Well, we'll say from food and water, but we also get it through the air we breathe.

When someone has a swim in a river or a lake, part of his molecules are washed by the water. Then we drink the water, containing those molecules or atoms and incorporate it into our bodies. When people are growing food many of their molecules go into the ground, it is absorbed by plants and incorporated into the food. Then we eat the food and incorporate it into our bodies. When you drive in the bus or plane, go to cinema, concert or shopping mall, you incorporate millions of atoms and molecules exhaled by other people.  They become you. So just by drinking, eating, and breathing every single day you build your body from molecules of other people. And not only them. Molecules of plants or animals as well. 

You can think you are vegan or vegetarian, but this is also an illusion, as by eating plant products you are still incorporating parts of animals and humans into your body. Your ethics can trick you to think different, but without animal manure, and earthworms, and fungi and different animals there would never be fertile soil. Soil can't be fertile from artificial fertilizers from factories. This is a known scientific fact. Such fertilizers just make soil dead in a certain amount of years.

I will not go into the aura, quantum physics, field theory. It is enough what I have already written, that you can understand that we are connected with everything around us. If you disagree, do the following. Hold your breath and never breathe in again. Can you do it? Of course that no one can. Because we need to be connected with the air we need, and the air comes from our surroundings. From nature. Without this simple connection, we are gone. 

And if you know that without a tree that is producing your oxygen you are gone, will you cut the tree? Or will you rather plant a tree? Will you set fires in nature or will you join reforestation efforts? It is a simple question but needs a huge change in thinking. The same goes with everything in the environment and with other people as well. Understanding that we are connected and not separate, that cooperation if more fruitful than the competition, that eat or be eaten is no longer the way of evolution, will evolve humankind more than we can imagine. And make this lovely planet a better place for generations to come.        

Digital dementia

Today, for the first time, I've heard about a disorder called digital dementia. It is like standard dementia that can come at an old age, but it is caused by smartphones. 

It is not a secret why are children addicted to smartphones. Using a smartphone causes dopamine and endorphins secretion in the brain, just as using some drugs. There were tests on animals that would get brain stimulation as of "happiness hormones" when an animal will press a certain button. What was discovered is that an animal will press the button until it dies, forgetting to eat, drink or do anything else but press the button. 

The same is happening to our children when using a smartphone. Researchers found out that if you don't give your kids to use a smartphone too much, they would wake at night and secretly use it. Information mess coming from smartphones is very dangerous. Today's children received and processed more information than the average adult in his/her whole life living in the 15th century. 

Researchers from Harvard University found out almost 10 years ago that deep parts of the brain in average teen have atrophied, shrinking in size. This causes a permanent decrease in the cognitive capacities of the brain. For this reason, more and more children can't sit, write, read, calculate, and can't concentrate. This all causes the diminishing of learning capacities in the young generation. 

Result: Whole humankind stopped cognitive ascend and is in cognitive descent. Making for the first time in human history fact that every new generation is more stupid compared with the previous. All thanks to advances in technology that made us addicts and slaves.      

Body cleaning

We all know and practice body cleaning using water. Shower before work, shower after heavy exercise in the gym, warm bath to relax and indulge ourselves. This is nothing new. 

But how often do you bath yourself with fire? Fire?!? Who washes with fire? 

Well, having in mind that our body is not only physical but that we also have other bodies, like astral or etheric, water can clean only physical. And water is only one of the 4 or 5 metaphysical elements. 

In Tibet, it is common practice to wash your body with the wind. You stand with your hands stretched to the side and let the wind (air) clean your body. It is very uncommon for Western civilization to use it. Not that there is no wind, but it is not practice brought from the East. 

More practiced, but also quite rare is the practice of sound bathing. You can say it is metal quality as we usually use triangle or Tibetan bowl to make the sound. You may have seen Tibetan bowls used for healing or for Feng Shui to clear stale energies in your home. The patient sits and the therapist goes around him, using a sound-producing instrument. As sound is a wave just as our bodies are, it cleans deep inside of us.

In Roman, Greek or other ancient text, fire is used for cleansing as well. Similar to sound cleaning, this time the therapist has a candle or vessel that is filled with burning oil that hangs on a chain and uses it going around the body of the patient. In the East, they say that it cleans our aura and astral body.

The oddest practice is using mud for cleaning. Oddest as adults often are not happy if their kids come home all muddy. But, in many spas and medical facilities, mud is used as therapy. It is also used in cosmetic parlors. In India, it is a common practice of holy men to cover themselves with mud. You have surely seen photos of not very nice looking muddy gurus. But mud is earth and has this stable energy to ground us.

So from now on, if you want your body to be clean, besides the water, use sound, fire, mud, and air to clean it as well. There is saying that fire should be used once a week, and the other three at least once a month.          

Pollyanna and psychology

When I heard for this name for the first time it was watching UFC fighter, Polyana Viana. I had the impression this is the name of someone from Polynesia. 

Then, listening to some self-help lecture, I heard about the little girl Pollyanna, who was always seeking something positive in every situation, no matter how bad it was. I also found out that she's the character from the children's book with the same title, written by Eleanor H. Porter. 

In the book, Pollyanna got a name from her sisters Polly and Anna who died as babies. Her mother and father have died also. So this child of eleven, filled with so many tragedies already, moves to her rich aunt to live kind of Harry Potter life with Dursleys. But she's not a super-human. She's just a child to who the father said to seek positive things (play "glad game") in every bad situation, preparing her for his death. 

So, she sometimes gets sad, tears start rolling, but she remembers her father's words and always finds something positive. By doing so, she changes situations and people around her. 

This is exactly how we should be. If you had a chance to see The Unsinkable movie by Sonia Ricotti, you heard many stories of tragedy and bouncing back. If you think it is hard for you, and you can't come back, imagine you are the kid, and your father takes a gun and kills your mother in front of you, and then he kills himself. All a sudden your life is over. And this little girl came back. Not as unsinkable Pollyanna, but still. 

Pollyanna's story is so strong that psychology knows Pollyanna's hypothesis, Pollyanna's principle, and Pollyanna syndrome.

Pollyanna hypothesis is a universal human tendency to use positive words more frequently and diversely than negative words.

Pollyanna principle is a principle saying the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. So we tend to color our past experience more rosy than they really were.  By focusing on positive, we program our subconscious mind to notice positive things more than they really occur. 

Pollyanna syndrome in psychotherapy means “an excessively or blindly optimistic person.” Many psychiatrists think this is bad, as, in their opinion, people can only grow is they suffer. And life is and should be suffering. There is no space for positivity in the negative world as they see it. This is of course nonsense for many other, more spiritual people who don't see our life as "the valley of sorrow", but creative heaven. And find out that we can grow even more through positive stimuli. Meaning, if you are positive, your creativity is stronger than if you are negative. If you are depressed, you will hardly create anything good or useful, but when you are inspired (in spirit), you soar and your creativity bursts. 

So my advice is, no matter how hard it seems, stay positive, find even the smallest positive thing in that situation and you will change your reality, and attract more positive things. Just remember the Oscar-winning movie "La vita e bella". 

     

Wisdom of dr. Wayne Dyer

I have a long "relationship" with late dr. Wayne Dyer, who influenced me as he influenced hundreds of million people.

For tonight, I have taken some of his popular quotes I would like to present to you.

1. Have a mind that is opened to anything and attached to nothing. 

If we look at a world as children, in awe and admiration, we have a mind open to anything - including miracles. Everything is allowed to come to our experience. But if we attach ourselves to something, either person, thing or the idea, we tend to become biased, we start to judge instead of being curious. 

2. You can't give away what you don't have.

This seems quite logical, don't you think? Yes or no? If I don't have money, I can't give money. If I don't have a yacht, I can't give yacht. But this is not what dr. Dyer had in mind. If I don't have peace in me, I can't give peace to someone. If I don't have empathy in me, I can't give empathy. If I don't have love (or don't know it as I have never received it), then I can't give love. Very simple, but very deep.  

3. There are no justified resentments. 

There is a nice story. If we are been bitten by the snake, we won't die because of bite, we will die because the poison runs through our blood. If we hate, blame, resent someone, unless we are a black mage, this person will continue living a normal life. No matter how much poison we spit on him/her. But this poison is running through us, and we will die because of it. Expecting someone else to die because we have drunk the poison is fullish. Yes or yes? And it is scientifically proven that if you are in low emotions like hate, blame, shame, fear, guilt, etc. our blood changes it's pH value, becoming acid. And acidity is the best way to get cancer. So hold no resentments as they can't be justified, only toxic to you.  

Important things when moving out of you rental home

This is the last post in the series about renting in Ireland, at least for some time. 

As I started by moving in, it is right to finish by moving out of your rented home.

One of the most important things that can be quite costly for your deposit, is to leave the apartment as clean as possible. A few days before moving out it is time for a major cleaning. You probably won't be able to clean it in a single day, so plan accordingly. 

Kitchen:

Clean you cooker thoroughly, degrease hobs and oven if necessary. Do the same with a microwave. The fridge should be fully defrosted and cleaned, so make sure you don't have food left.

Clean the drains with the special liquid and clean sinks. As in Ireland kitchen is usually the place where you will find a washing machine, be sure to check and clean filters if possible.

Clean all surfaces and dishes/cups/glasses and shelves in the kitchen. Check that there is no garbage or food left anywhere in the kitchen. Clean the floors as well.

Dining/Livingroom:

Clean tables and all surfaces (usually here are several tables), move sofas so you can clean under it.

Bedroom:

If possible move the bed and clean under it. Clean wardrobe and nightstands.         

Bathroom and toilet:

If you have a shower, clean the cabin glass spotlessly. Clean tiles and floor as well. The same goes for the bathtub. The sink and toilet bowl should be clean as well. It's quite usual practice to put blue tabs in a water reservoir of the toilet and flush it so that water turns blue and stays in this state when you leave. This will probably be the last room to clean as you will probably use it on a day of moving out. 

Other:

Vacuum thoroughly all carpets. It is not a bad idea to clean them with special liquids, even use odor-removing agents. Clean all other floors as well. I'm absolutely sure that the biggest problem to clean will be windows if you are not on the ground floor. Most of the windows in Ireland can be barely opened or you can access only part of the window, no matter what tools you are using. And with the rains and wind blowing dust every day, often no matter how thoroughly you clean it, windows will get dirty the next day as if you didn't clean it. So prepare to be frustrated with it.

Last day:

Finally, on the last day take photos of every single thing in the apartment, just in case a landlord wants to take your deposit for no justified reason, claming that you didn't clean something. Make the list of things you are leaving (like cups, bowls, cutlery, kitchen cloth, toilet paper, etc.) 

Take any garbage that is left. Anything your landlord takes for garbage will be deducted from your deposit.  

Turn all appliances and electricity switch. 

Note final readings for electricity, gas or level of oil.

Be sure you have canceled or transferred your TV license and broadband to the new location. The same goes to any subscription.  

Inform all institutions from Revenue to bank about changing addresses so that you don't get important mail to your old address. 

Don't forget to return all the keys.

Before leaving, be sure that you have reported any possible damage before you moved out and that you have proof of it from the landlord or agent, to avoid any later misunderstandings. 

Did you know? Renting in Ireland

As the majority of people in Ireland, foreigners in particular, are renting their homes from landlords or agencies, it is quite strange that so many people don't know some basic facts about renting.

Did you know:

1. That, if your main income is from social welfare, you have a right for Rent Supplement - money to help you pay private rented accommodation? 

2. That if you are living in Ireland for more than10 years (or prior to 07/12/2010 you may qualify for tax relief on the rent you pay? 

3. That Fully Furnished in Ireland means that you have a sofa or couch and other seating, coffee table/TV table, kitchen/dining table and chairs, beds and mattresses, bedside lockers, large appliances (fridge/freezer, cooker, washing machine), carpets or flooring, window blinds and/or curtains? Now, you also have to have a microwave and often kettle. 

4. That you have Part 4 Rights if you lived in a rental property for 6 months or more? This happens automatically and gives you additional rights as a tenant.  

5. That you can legally terminate a lease if you offer to assign the lease to a new tenant and the landlord refuses to consent? So if you want to move out of a property for any reason (you find better and/or cheaper place to rent) and you find someone to step-in instead of you, you have a right to terminate a lease without consequence even if landlord objects or don't agree. We know the reason why he would not agree with a new person moving in - the greed. If your 12 months of rent ends, a landlord can raise the price of rent to an amount he/she likes (if rent cap is not in order), but if someone new moves in, this may not be the case. 

6. That hanging your pictures on the walls without written consent by a landlord will be taken from your deposit? Also, any cuts or rips on curtains or carpet that you didn't take note when you moved in, will be taken from your deposit, even if a landlord did make them.

7. That reasonable tear and wear depend on the fact are you single or you have kids in the property?

8. That the landlord can increase the rent once in any 12 months period?

9. That all rooms must contain a fixed heating appliance? And that you must be able to control it? It can't be automatic! 

10. That every room must have proper ventilation? 

11. That if you don't have a garden, your washing machine has to have a tumble dryer? 

12. That all habitable rooms must have adequate natural lighting?

13. That you must have access to proper, pest and vermin-proof refuse storage facilities?

14. That you should know the building energy rating (BER)?

These are some of the legal requirements and data so few or people renting knows. Some of them were completely new to me, too.   

    

Six Blocks for Receiving Money and Abundance - part 2

Last three blocks Zeenat calls Set of lack

So block No. 4 or Lack No. 1 is:
1. Lack of Receiving

It is associated with the guilt to receive. Often we feel ashamed or even guilty for receiving gifts. It is not necessary that gifts are in value, but you all know a situation when you give something to someone and a person blushes because of it. Or you surely know people that can't take compliments. I hope you are not one of them. This means that people mostly feel insecure about themselves so when someone gives them a compliment, they think that a person is mocking them or making a joke. It is easy to overcome this, you just have to learn how to receive. And don't forget to be thankful for any gift, no matter how small it may seem. If beggar gives you one euro it is much more than if Jeff Bezos gives you one hundred euro.

2. Lack of Self-Acceptance

This is associated with a lack of self-worth. We are born with 100% self-worth and self-acceptance, but as we grow up, we tend to lose it on the way. Spiritual teachers would say that we forgot our purpose in this life, that we are on the path that is taking us from our soul purpose. We can say that we lost ourselves. We put many masks to fit in, to comply, to not stand-up, to please others. This ultimately leads us to live someone else's life. If you remember the movie "Dead Poets Society" and brilliant role of late Robin Williams when he teaches students to be themselves so at the end, they climb tables even if it means they will lose their way of living in conformity. 

We look for others to give us credibility or validate us. If parents say we will never be good at something, we are prone to believe. If the teacher says we are stupid for Math, we will accept it, even though it may not be the truth. Same goes with a partner, and particularly friends. We are so keen to listen to what "friends" are telling us, that we completely lose ourselves. 

In order to attract more money, this "modus operandi" has to go. The energy of money doesn't need nobody's validation. It is supreme. So to be in the money energy (necessary to attract wealth), we need to boost self-acceptance. Remember the famous "Mirror Work" by late Louise Hay, Queen of self-development. "I accept of myself"; "I approve of myself" are her famous words in many lectures. 

So, we can conclude that this is the key block to receive more money and abundance. 

3. Lack of Gratitude (being unable/unwilling to say "Thanks!")  

This is the last, sixth block. Many people don't know to say "Thank you!" when receiving something. You find a dollar on the street, and you just take it. You don't look up and say "Thanks! Send me more!". Shop assistants give you the item you have purchased, you just take it and go out. So many people are not willing or even capable (trained) to express gratitude. We tend to take things for granted. But it is not so. 

If we don't know to say thanks when we are getting something, imagine how impossible is to say thanks when you did not get something you want. You go to a shop and your favorite item is gone. You get crazy. You don't stop for a moment and say "Great, now is the opportunity to try this other product I wanted to try but I didn't as I always bought my favorite one." You are denying yourself of possible positive surprise. Or good laugh if the other item is far worse than one you like. I always like the affirmation by F.S. Shinn that goes something like "If I didn't get, give me something of the same value or better" as this happened to many people so the wanted thing was even way better than one they wished for. Law of attraction will say the same - don't intervene in God's/Universe/Devine work as you don't have a clear picture of what possibilities there are. 

Zeenat says the same - "don't get upset why this or that didn't happen or not given to me. Not getting it helps you get something bigger or different." It is important that we stay in the space of gratitude as it raises our vibration. So we attract more positive things. So every morning I do one of the meditations by Louise Hay that is packed with gratitude. And when you open your mind, you discover that there are so many things to be grateful, even if your life is miserable by your standards. Do you have a bed? Do you have a roof overhead? Do you have access to drinking water? Do you have clothes? Is the air around you breathable? Do you have electricity? Do you have hands or legs or eyes or ears, etc.? There are so many things we take for granted, not thinking that many people on this beautiful planet don't have it. And I'm not talking private jets, yachts, fast cars. No, basic things I have listed, that so many people don't have and will not have in their life. So, each morning, when you wake up, be gratefull for everything you have around yourself. And be open to receive. 

Six Blocks of Receiving Money & Abundance - part1

As promised yesterday, here are Six Blocks that prevent us from Receiving Money and Abundance.

1. FEAR (of not having enough)

We know this one very well. You want to buy something but that little voice is saying "Don't, you won't have for this or that (usually for living, food, etc.). 

This is also the fear that there will never be enough (money, love, food, friends, you name it) that feeds on us making us feel insecure, and thus falling deeper into the fear state/energy/vibration. I've personally have been (partially still am) in a situation that I feel (know) that if money doesn't come, I will die. Some of you have maybe been in this feeling if you were unemployed and without savings or other means to support you. Maybe you had that fear that often leads people to make suicide as they don't see any other way out.

We have to know that, as long we are in a fear state, we will not be able to grow our energy or vibration.     

2. GUILT - SHAME

It can correlate to many things, but here we think about you feeling guilty for spending the money. You buy a book and then feel guilty as you could have borrowed it from the library. Or you buy something for you and feel guilty as you didn't buy anything for your kids/partner. 

The basic truth about money (now more than ever) is that money is energy. For energy to work, it has to flow. If energy is stagnant (check Feng Shui) it will cause disease, financial problems and myriad of different problems for places/people. So you have to receive and give money freely so that this energy can flow. This is very hard when you come from low energy (fear), as fear will prevent you to enjoy spending or cause you to be very reluctant to spend. 

There are many ways to prevent being reluctant, from affirmations (check Florence Scovel Shinn), using gratitude every time you pay for something, not blaming yourself if you spend more than you wanted, trying not to buy everything on a discount, but buy something small but luxury. 

This guilt is often associated with our upbringing, with what we were told as kids or teens. Mostly it was our parents saying: "Money doesn't grow on the tree"; "Money has to be earned, not spent"; "It is hard to get/have money"; "You have to work really hard to have money"; "Money is evil"; "Only bad people have a lot of money". And it goes on and on. You have surely heard such statements, over and over. More you have been "programmed" with such negative affirmations, more difficult it is for you to give. You block money energy and you experience a lack of abundance in your life. So give money with a smile, bless every purchase you make, bill you pay and fear will subside. 

3. GRIEF (from loss of money)

Fear and guilt lead to grief. Every time we spend money, we feel sad. We are grieving money that has left us. We feel we will not be able to earn enough to cover the expense, to cover the loss of money we are experiencing. We often also fear we will not receive enough, not only money but love as well. So we feel sad and we grieve. If we give with love and bless the money that is leaving us (just as we bless money that comes to us), we will cancel reasons for grief, and it will go away, not being able to feed on our low energy. 

Zeenat Lakdawalla

For the last few days, I've been listening to some of the lectures from the Life Transformation Summit (www.lifetransformationsummit.com).

And in my life, I have listened to hundreds of gurus, life coaches, spiritual teachers, healers, etc. It's hard for me to find something really awesome anymore, as most of the things I have heard one way or the other.

Then today I had discovered Zeenat Lakdawalla. Believe me or not, I didn't google her to learn more about her. I was in awe of her lecture. Still got goose skin just thinking about it.

Most of the people in her branch will give you nice presentations on what they do, what they "preach", how it is related to you, what will you get if you buy their book, CD, DVD, course. Zeenat didn't do anything like it. She gave a meditation and blessing to participants doing "healing" for people listening. And only after that, she explained more about it, gave a lecture, and only a last few minutes offered her product.

Unfortunately, I can't share with you this video as it was 24 hours online and removed (as usual, you have to buy access to the seminar to be able to listen to it for longer).

What she did is some kind of language (called Light Language) she uses during this guided meditation that made me in a long-lasting state of awe and my body reacting incredibly to it. 

But I will share a link to her seminar she will have later this month (this was free gift for participants) and if she repeats what she did today, you will be blessed too. Also, tomorrow I will give you some main points about her lecture of Six Blocks of Receiving Money & Abundance, so you can have a clearer picture. 

The link I'm allowed to share is: healexploreexpand.com/gift