Affirmations

If you feel that you are doomed to fail, not worthy of love or not good enough, read the text below on Affirmations and begin to change your life. 

Affirmations are statements chosen and spoken consciously. Once they enter our realm of consciousness, they also enter our subconscious mind where they have the power to change our lives. 

The affirmations you create should be specific, not too long, worded positively, formed in complete sentences, and spoken in the present tense as if what you are affirming is already true. It is a good idea to repeat your affirmations daily. 

You may want to tell yourself that you deserve to be happy or that you are in control of your destiny. Or, you may want to focus on a particular goal, such as attracting new friends. Rather than telling yourself you want to be well-liked, say, “I am well-liked.” Your subconscious mind will pick up on these positive messages, and you will begin to live your life as if what you are affirming already has happened. 

Soon, your reality will begin to reflect your affirmations. Write your affirmations down and say them aloud or in your mind. Allow your conviction to grow stronger each time you say your affirmations, and your negativity will be overridden by your motivation and positive thoughts.

Affirmations are a powerful tool for creating our desired reality. We consciously and subconsciously invite opportunity into our lives when we say affirmations. Trust in the power of your affirmations, and you will very quickly create what you have already stated to be true.

Adapted from The Daily Om

You are worthy now

 I love it!!

Amistades especiales

 

"Algunas veces encuentras en la vida una amistad especial:

ese alguien que al entrar en tu vida la cambia por completo.

Ese alguien que te hace creer que en el mundo existen realmente cosas buenas.

Ese alguien que te convence de que hay una puerta lista para que tú la abras.

Esa es una amistad eterna...

Cuando estás triste y el mundo parece oscuro y vacío,

esa amistad eterna levanta tu ánimo y hace que ese mundo oscuro y vacío

de repente parezca brillante y pleno.

Tu amistad eterna te ayuda en los momentos difíciles, tristes y de gran confusión.

Si te alejas, tu amistad eterna te sigue con el corazón.

Si pierdes el camino, tu amistad eterna te guía y te alegra.

Tu amistad eterna te lleva de la mano y te dice que todo va a salir bien.

Si tú encuentras tal amistad, te sientes feliz y lleno de gozo

porque no tienes nada de qué preocuparte.

Tienes una amistad para toda la vida ya que una amistad eterna no tiene fin."

(Autor desconocido)

Reinforcing values

 This is a short video on Values, I have used excerpts from this video in different sessions with my trainees and they have used them with their students. It is never too much to insist on the importance of values.

 We have some good news for all those members of CTS family. You´ll find out about them soon.

 

CTS event April 23,2022

 

Evaluating our relationships

 "There comes a time in all our lives when we may need to evaluate our relationships, making sure that they are having a positive effect on us, rather than dragging us down. Without realizing it, we may be spending precious time and energy engaging in friendships that let us down, rather than cultivating ones that support and nourish us along our path. Life, with its many twists, turns, and challenges, is difficult enough without us entertaining people in our inner circle who drain our energy. We can do so much more in this world when we are surrounded by people who understand what we're trying to do and who positively support our efforts to walk our path". (The Daily Om)

I read this and understood how true this is regarding the relationship we keep with our friends and acquaintances. Normally, when we think about our friends, we start by seeing if an old friend keeps on carrying negative ideas that do not let him/ her move forward and drag us along. It could also happen that we have a friend who has a habit of letting us down any time we need his/her support. I am not sure if we should just let them go or should we try to talk to them in an open conversation telling them how we feel about the state of our friendship. Perhaps it may be better if we evaluate the kind of friend we are to them and this will help all of us to become the type of friend we need and expect to have. 

Teacher´s Day

"Doors open when the time is right for us to enter a new space, metaphorically speaking, and we can have faith that walking through is the right thing to do. Sometimes we linger in the threshold because we are afraid of leaving our old life for a life we know nothing about. We may have voices inside of our heads that try to hold us back or people in our lives saying discouraging things. These voices, internal and external, are known as threshold spirits, and they express all the fears and doubts that arise at the beginning of a new life. Nevertheless, none of these voices can hold us back, and they will fall silent as soon as we cross the threshold."

(Extracted from The Daily Om)

Congratulate yourself!

 

Ya todos nos felicitamos unos a otros con cariño y agradecimiento, pero...
TÚ, ya te felicitaste???
Ya te felicitaste por los momentos en que quisiste tirar la toalla y sacaste fuerza para salir adelante???
Ya te felicitaste por esas noches de insomnio y al día siguiente levantarte con una sonrisa???
Ya te felicitaste por luchar y lograr hacer realidad tu sueño???
Por esos días que no podías contener el llanto, pero aún así sacaste fuerza para apoyar a quien lo necesitaba???
Ya te felicitaste por guardar silencio ante una ofensa, aunque el alma te dolió profundamente???
Ya te felicitaste por los amaneceres llenos de Sol que tuviste la oportunidad de disfrutar???
Por los grandes amigos que has sabido conservar y aceptar con paz a quien se fue???
Ya te felicitaste por tus éxitos???
Por dar ánimo y amor sin esperar nada a cambio??
Te felicitaste por ser amado y respetado por alguien especial???
Ya te felicitaste por tener la satisfacción de un trabajo bien hecho???
Por el amor de tu familia y el cariño incondicional de tus amigos???
Hoy felicítate también POR SER QUIEN ERES: único e irrepetible!!!
Por tus sueños, por la pasión que pones en lo que haces, por el amor que ahora te tienes a tí mismo...
Por ser fuerte, por aprender día a día y por saber que la divinidad en la que crees (o tú mismo) te tiene deparadas las mejores cosas de este mundo...
Por la música, por el baile, por sonreír, por poder caminar, correr, saltar...
Por la magia de estar vivo!!!
Yo, hoy también  me felicito!!!

Changing the World

These days when we are all experiencing the effects of the Covid 19 Pandemic, I have heard people claiming that they would like to do something to help but wondering what to do since- they say- it is impossible that one person can have any effect in the current flow of events. Just when I was thinking about it, I bumped into this text from The Daily Om which I believe provide some help.

"Each of us is more than capable of helping the world, despite our fears and limitations and the uncertainty that holds us back.  . If we vow to make the world a better place one day at a time, the true significance of small good deeds reveals itself to us.  

We make our homes, workplaces, communities, and countries better and brighter when we think positive thoughts that echo outward, give donations of time or money, smile at everyone we meet, and lend those in need of aid our assistance.  

Even enthusiastically sharing ideas with others generates positive energy that then serves as the motivation for more tangible change. 

 

Helping the world often takes no more than a moment, just a wish for the world is a beautiful gesture and can be done by even the busiest of people effortlessly. The gift you give each day need not be grand or attention-worthy because the broader benefits are the same no matter the literal repercussions. Once a day, you can affect reality, and you can reap the rewards of knowing that you are making the world a better place, day by day."

The need for change

We have all had the experience of realizing that something in our lives is not working. This knowledge can come as a sudden realization or a nagging feeling of doubt that grows stronger, waking us up to the fact that something needs to change.

The first step is remembering that your life is made up of parts that belong to an interconnected whole. Changing one thing can change everything. Because of this, small changes often have a big effect. Sometimes much bigger changes are necessary, but the only way to know for sure is to take the time to really understand the problem. 

Examine your life as an entirety--your work- especially at these times of health crisis, your relationships, where you live--and determine what specifically is not functioning the way you would like.

The key to making changes that work is to accept the necessity of change as part of life. As we change, we may find it necessary to fine-tune our relationships, work, and living situations. Our lives are living, breathing entities that reflect our dynamic selves.

(Extracted from The Daily Om)

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Chinese New Year - Year Of The Rat

BY MADISYN TAYLOR The Year of the Rat is sure to offer the type of enjoyable challenges that will enable us to become all we can possibly be. Chinese New Year this time around is the Year of the Rat, which brings with it the promise of prosperity. The Chinese admire the rat for its quick mind and ability to gather valuables and save them for the future. Since 2020 is the Year of the Rat, the year ahead should offer many opportunities to acquire wealth, as well as the ability to make choices that enable us to provide comfort for a long time to come. This is especially true for those born in the year of the rat. Since the rat sign is the first in the Chinese zodiac calendar, we may feel the energy of a cycle beginning. We may also feel a pioneering spirit that helps us to forge ahead with a completely new endeavor. Looking beyond Western culture's distaste for rats, we may be able to appreciate their intelligence, resourcefulness and adaptability. This quality might offer us hope that whatever challenges we may face will only serve to make us stronger and more able. The rat's ability to solve problems is well-known, so we can choose to enjoy any challenge that helps us keep our minds sharp while also making life more of a game. A competitive nature may develop within us, leading us to use the rat's ability to focus on priorities. The rat can also remind us to be less worried about pleasing everyone we meet and more focused on our goals. We should be aware of the rat's habit for collecting and not allow ourselves to become so focused that we neglect those around us. Being constantly on the alert for opportunity can be stressful, so we can make the decision to balance our pursuit of prosperity with the enjoyment of good food and atmosphere and the people we trust to offer us both support and space. With the energy of challenge and possibility, the year is likely to be exciting without being explosive. The Year of the Rat is sure to offer the type of enjoyable challenges that will enable us to become all we can possibly be.

Happy New Year !!!

  

I read this a long time ago and could not write down the name of the author because of the state of the paper where it had been written so if anyone bumps into it (original is in Spanish, this is my attempted translation), please let me know so as to give him/her due credit. 

New Year´s Proposal

As I get older my perception of things has changed and I have reached the conclusion that there are no bad years. Some are years of deep learning and others are like a constant break, but they are not bad years. 

I strongly believe that the way to assess the past year has to do with how much we loved, we forgave, we laughed, we learnt new things; how much we challenged our ego and our attachments. And that is why we shouldn´t be afraid of suffering or failure because they are both learning episodes.

We need to understand that life and how we live it is up to us; how we hook to things we don´t like depends solely on how we raise our willpower. If we do not like the life we live, we should develop the necessary strategies to change it, that is in our willpower. “To be happy is a decision”, let´s not forget it.

According to this, what we need to do to build a better 2020 is basically three things:

To learn to love, To transcend and To be happy.

These are the three things we should work on everyday, How? I believe there are three factors that can help us achieve them:

1)      To learn to love responsibility as an opportunity to grow up. A job-whether paid or not- dignifies the soul and the spirit and is good for our mental health. Let´s stop thinking that getting tired is something negative. On the contrary, it is a privilege because it means that we are giving the best of us. We have come to this world to get tired…we will have centuries to sleep when we are dead.

2)      To value freedom as a way of defeating myself and understand that to be free is not to do what I want. Perhaps next year we should exert our freedom doing what we have to do with pleasure and say that we are happily tired so as to be able to love more and better.

3)      The third and last issue to consider next year is to develop willpower, that wonderful skill of being capable of waiting, postponing immediate gratification in order to obtain something better. In my opinion, this is the greatest thing to cultivate all along the 21^st century.

So, it is due to these factors that we should focus on:

·         Sitting at the table with all the members of the family, at least once a week, preferably every day.

·         Turning off the screens (TV, laptops, mobile phones, etc.) while we are eating; let´s not answer the phone and feel that the only sound to be heard is that of our voices.

·         Treating each other well, with love; love our country, treat it well-as family. Greet the people you meet in the elevators, the security people, the bus drivers, smile…at least once or several times a day.

·         Making your house a home with the smell of food, scruffy-and even stained- cushions, some untidiness that shows that people live there. Our houses- no matter how much money you have-are becoming a place so perfect that seems that nobody can live inside.

·         Having contact with nature, play, laugh, have the time to share with the grandparents, print the photos so they can see them as they prefer them, enjoy their wisdom and make our children share time with them so they can understand their history.

·         Trying to grow up spiritually. Transcendence and giving meaning to our actions is connected to the new century intelligence: spiritual intelligence.

·         Reduce the use of technology for the sake of face-to-face conversation, playing old games, family reunions, meeting with friends… at home. Value intimacy, warmth and love among the members of our family.

If we manage to do this or at least commit to try, we are aiming at happiness; this does not mean a life without problems but the understanding that happiness is linked to the attitude we have to face our share.

Next year will come with what it has (challenges, wonders, the good, the bad and the ugly), let´s welcome it with love and gratitude for what we will learn from it.

               “Sufrimos demasiado por lo poco que nos falta, y gozamos poco de lo mucho que tenemos” (Shakespeare).

The power of the subconscious mind

A Rippling effect

Last month I learned about the power of our minds and how we can use them to gear our lives. My friend América told me and taught me about the power hidden in our subconcious mind and how by commanding it we can do miracles.

After an initial sceptical period, I am now convinced that it is true. Our minds are powerful tools that we can harness to create our reality.  Each thought is like a stone dropped into a lake, sending ripples out into our world to affect all they touch. We can choose our focus and how we invest our energy and become whatever we choose in each and every moment.

Enjoy your Age

This photo was taken last year at a family reunion when my eldest niece turned 16. It was a very happy day since I do not have the chance to see my family so often as we lived in two different hemispheres. 

I like the laughter, the silliness and how much we care for each other. Now that I am in my early sixties I´ve come to the realization that I enjoy these gatherings more and more. Life is too short and kids grow too fast, I don´t want to miss them.

"In each stage of life, there are wonderful experiences one can savor and valuable insights one can absorb. Every new decade and, in fact, every new year brings with it wisdom, transformation, and growth, as well as ends and beginnings.   Taking pleasure in the delights of your age, whether you are in your 20s, 40s, 60s, or 80s, can help you see the magnificence and usefulness of the complex seasons of your life. 

Each new year gifted to us by the universe is replete with exciting and unfamiliar experiences. In our 20s, we can embrace the energy of youth and the learning process, knowing it's okay to not have all the answers. As we move through our third decade, we grow more self-assured as the confusion of our young adulthood melts away. We can honor these years by putting aside our fears of aging and concentrating instead on solidifying our values and enjoying our growing emotional maturity. In our 40s, we become conscious of the wisdom we have attained through life experience and are blessed with the ability to put it to good use. We are not afraid to explore unfamiliar territory or to change. In our 50s, we tend to have successfully navigated our midlife reevaluations and have prioritized our lives. In the decades beyond, we discover a greater sense of freedom than we have ever known and can truly enjoy the memory of all we've seen and done." (Madison Taylor)

Generosity

In the near future some of my school friends and I will be embarking in a trip  to celebrate our Class 71 dinner party in Las Vegas but will spend some time before that enjoying the hospitality of another school friend who lives in Los Angeles. 

My friend America has a heart as big as the continent whose name she shares. She has invited us to her home-there are 10 of us- and to sightsee Los Angeles and then she will take us to Las Vegas where she is paying for a time share for all of us to have our dinner party together.

I am sure that will be a blast. We have all been excited for months and that not only has created expectations but also strengthen the bonding between some of us.

My friend is not a millionaire but a successful entrepreneur who knows how to take good advantage of the miles and reward points you get by using your credit card. Why does she "waste" her points in us? Because making us happy makes her happy. It is always in giving that we receive. 

And talking about generosity, here is a quote from The Daily Om on unconditional generosity, an issue Ame knows so well.

Sometimes when we practice generosity, we practice it conditionally. We might be expecting to "receive back" from the person to whom we gave. We might even become angry or resentful if that person doesn't reciprocate. However, trust in the natural flow of energy, and you will find yourself practicing generosity with no strings attached. This is the purest form of giving. Remember that what you send out will always come back you. Selflessly help a friend in need without expecting them to return the same favor in the same way, and know that you, too, will receive that support from the universe when you need it. Besides, while giving conditionally creates stress (because we are waiting with an invisible balance sheet to receive our due), giving unconditionally creates and generates abundance. We give freely, because we trust that there is always an unlimited supply. 

 

I had a hectic week last week with academic presentations to make, family decisions to support and health issues to take care of. I also had to sit for an exam on a topic I am just learning and had not prepared well enough for it. I really thought I would not be able to make it through the week. However, while I was talking to a good friend of mine -more as catharsis than to keep small talk - she told me she was convinced that I could manage since I had been through worse. What she said shocked me at the beginning but she said it so convincingly that her faith in me gave me the courage to do it all. The cherry at the top was bumping into the text below in a magazine, it raised my spirit so high that I decided to share it.  Hope it helps somebody else as it helped me. There are times in our lives when we may find ourselves facing challenges that can seem overwhelming. The situation or task we are struggling with seems hopeless, and it is easy to stop believing in ourselves, our goals, and our dreams. It is during these moments that it can be reassuring and reaffirming to turn to the people in our lives who do believe in us, especially when we are finding it hard to believe in ourselves. An encouraging word, a reassuring look, or hearing the words "I believe in you" from someone who matters can help us turn our situations around in an instant.  Everybody has someone who believes in them, whether this person is a teacher, parent, friend, loved one, or an employer. Often their belief can wrap us in warmth, bolster us, and offer us a supportive hand to grab onto until we can regain our own support. Having that special person who believes in our abilities and our worth is a wonderful gift. But when we are feeling unworthy, it may be difficult to take in something so precious. We may even feel like we need to do it all on our own and that we shouldn't be asking for help. However, in letting their belief and support impact you, you are acknowledging the part of yourself that knows you are worthy of trust and esteem. By allowing them to believe in you, your own belief in yourself and your abilities will start to emerge again. Borrow their vision, and you can make it your own.

When I was a child, I did not know what I wanted to become when I grew up: a doctor? a vet?. Not even once I thought about becoming a teacher!. In my mind I thought I would rather be dead before I work as one.

I started the university at the age of 16 and was lucky enough to enter one of the oldest and well known public universities with relative facility in spite of the few vacancies and the high number of applicants. And I was so proud I got into the Biological Science School, a field I got to like when I was in my fourth year of secondary school and my teacher from San Marcos University-where I entered- introduced us, silly girls, to the world of the phisiology of living things. I could not dissect the hens, rats, chicken or fish she made us buy and take to school but I remember wondering about how all the organs worked and contributed to keep the animal alive. So it was natural to study to become a biologist as she was.

San Marcos is an ancient public university, the first one founded in South America and it used to be a beacon of political ideas and revolts and in the early seventies it was not an exception, there were always strikes to support teachers´unions, students´unions or workers´unions. In fact, the seeds of the terrorist movement that assolated the country a decade later were planted in this university and the number of strikes we had, made it possible that I studied another career: English language teaching. First, as a language student and then taking specialisation course to teach.

I was always good for languages and loved studying so this was not sacrifice, besides my Dad was passionate about learning English and had registered all his children in the Britanico for the summer classes.
During my training as a teacher at Británico I realised I could click with students and that because I had a good ear my pronunciation was not so bad so I decided to improve and studied and attended as many lectures and workshops as possible. 

Strikes at San Marcos finally stopped but I had got a part-time job as a teacher of English at Británico that accommodated well between my classes at the University. I still remember my first day of classes, my knees  and my voice trembling until I got so carried away in the activities that I forgot I had not taught before and fell in love with teaching. 

Since then I have had many groups of students that I loved and cared for very much. I was not an extraordinary teacher and even now that I look back I realise I could have done better things and my classes could have been more effective but I must have done some things well since until now whenever I meet a student I had taught before, they greet me with love and ask me to remember how good our classes are. My teaching at Británico were probably the best years of my working life; not only for how they hepled to become a teacher but also for the friends I made among my colleagues, friends that I still have and love. 

My teaching at different universities prepared me more for the administrative and academic skills I had to develop when becoming a coordinator and now that I am an Academic Director. Those years were useful and very well used but I do not look back on them with the love as I do with my first teaching years.

I do not teach students any more. For the past 7 years I have been working as a teacher training and the interaction is completely different since there is a lot of life sharing in our conversations now and it is harder for my trainees now to keep up for all the reasons: lack of time, life , loads of work, etc. However, and even if I have myself decided to reduce my workload, I think I will never stop teaching, I will never stop sharing if I still have something to share. 

With teaching, it is a life-time relationship: once a teacher, always a teacher!

Making changes in our lives

I am attending a course in NLP to shape some aspects of my behaviour that - I believe- can make my life more useful. Today I read an article about editing our lives and I thought it was close to what I wanted to express so I chose some excerpts.

"Our lives can be compared to an ongoing movie script over which we have complete creative control. Within us lies the power to examine what works or isn't working in our lives and make "edits" to our life's script, accordingly. Choosing to actively edit your life can be incredibly empowering. As you evolve, you have the choice to accept the script you've written thus far or edit it so you can create a life that fulfills you. You can cut out from your life's script what is no longer working for you. Acknowledging that you are responsible for the experience you create gives you the ability to create the life you've always longed for".
Isn´t it wonderful? However, I am not sure editing your real life  is as easy as erasing a line of text, especially if you've carried emotional baggage . But when you do cut out what isn't working from your life, you'll feel lighter and more alive. Editing out activities that you find stressful, disassociating yourself from people that drain your energy, and letting go of your emotional baggage are all beneficial cuts you can make.

What can we put in the empty spaces that are left behind? That´s the magic! you can add in anything you like. We can now include the kinds of positive experiences, people, and beliefs that you would like to fill your life with.   

I can´t wait to start!