Hypnagogic State

Let me start with one of my favourite stories ever: the one of Petra Majdič. She was a professional cross-country skiier from Slovenia who proved that four broken ribs and a punctured lung wasn't enough to stop her from getting the bronze during the Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver. After skidding on a patch of ice and suffering from a harsh fall while warming up, Petra defied her coach's advice and proceded get through with the qualifications, all the way to the semi-finals. In fact, it was only during the semi-final that one of her broken ribs punctured a lung. But that didn't stop her as she went on and competed on the final. She got the bronze medal. Despite the excruciating pain that Petra must've felt and the fact that what she did was plain dangerous, she went through with what she wanted the most, which in this case was competing. And compete she did. Now, I'm not saying that you have to go through extreme physical pain and fatigue in order to accompl

There are nuances in life that can, sometimes, confuse us. Lately, it is more than common to hear about meditation and mindfulness as the single best thing you can do for you self right now in your life. (It may just be). Meditation can, in a way, be described as an act of focusing on only one thing at a time. Maybe it's your breath, a certain part of the body, some type of movement: walking. It can even be music. Meditation trains your attention, calms your mind, and soothes your body. Not to be mistaken with mindfulness: being mindful of your activities may or may not be meditation. One can argue that when one is meditating, one is mindful, but the opposite is not necessarily true. Now, we've all heard about carpe diem . It can be an extension of the concept of being mindful: if one is mindful, one is present at all times. And since the future or the past cannot exist in the present moment, then, by being mindful, you can only truly leave in the moment. But where do

It's official: the viral app is now out of the Google Play and Apple's App Store. For the less attentive to these matters, Flappy Bird is a videogame that was running rampant on smartphones and tablets. The premise of the game? Well, nothing. You control a (flappy) bird by tapping on the screen in order to avoid Super Mario looking pipes and if you can't, it's game over for you. Each set of pipes you avoid getting hit by is worth a point. The beauty about this is that it doesn't have any of the usual evil methods used by these games in order to stay addictive. You don't have to wait for anything, buy anything, learn or achieve anything other than the sheer simplistic gameplay and reaching the highest high score possible. According to very serious reports, this game is highly addictive and it will put you under high amounts of pressure every time you won't be able to beat your own high score. Dong Nguyen, the game's creator

What's so wrong with wanting less? No, wait, I'm not going to go on another less is more mantra, that's not what it's about. I'm talking about the so-called information we receive everyday. No matter if you abstain from TV, news headlines, internet, and even if you live in a rather remote location, information is all around and we're getting worse and worse at captivating it. We just can't seem to tame this animal, can we? Well, the reason is easy. You're overloaded. You got too much on your mind. Too many problems, too many people, too many things happening at once. Even relaxing and taking it easy is seen as an activity that must comply to a routine. That's not relaxing at all, is it? I think this, in a way, comes as an obsession with productivity and activity for the sake of it. The obsession that you have to know everything and that you forgot how to filter what you really need. The created need that you need to read this article, watch a

Recently, I came to a realization. There is something that creeps over us from time to time and that even thought is present in everyday life, we seem to blatantly and purposely ignore its perks. Feeling uncomfortable. It is a necessary state for everyone. It's much more just than feeling sad, bad, anxious, in pain, stressed, hungry, sleepy. But this is not about just striving for these things. Also, I'm not wanting to relate them with extreme feelings of uncomfortableness. It's about something else. Getting out of your comfort zone? Closer. But that's still not exactly what is meant with these words. Being out of your comfort zone is sometimes synonymous with adventuring. Travelling, doing something different, more extreme. What I intend here is the core of what leaving your comfort zone means. It's a beyond pushing boundaries, and it's beyond accepting bad things in your life and learning with them, it's not only allowing a degree of distress, but welc

There are many ways to confuse a human being: giving him too much to eat, cutting off the internet connection, making him/her watch Only God Forgives, or have him win the lottery or have a very sudden increase in wealth. I'm going to talk about the last one. Let me get started with the tale of MC Hammer, a convenient example to help me pave the road to explaining excessive personal spending. The rapper, who got over 33 million US dollars just with his third album, proceeded then to go on a spending spree that is more common among the newly rich than anyone could possibly suspect. To start it up nicely, he bought a house for 12 million US dollars (which later on he couldn't afford to keep). Did I say house? Well. This humble crib had a bowling alley, a recording studio, a 33 seat movie theater, tennis courts, pools, and a couple other much needed goodies. This house ended up being sold for less than half its original price. Hammer also hired around two hundred people,