Hypnagogic State

There is a lot of talk about productivity, stress and burnout. No wonder. We're constantly bashed with an array of information. From our city lives, our friends and family, from the screens inside and outside our houses and pockets, and well, from a fast-paced type of lifestyle that we so cherish in the Western World. Sometimes we may say "I'll sleep when I'm dead", but truth be said, unless you truly are getting enough sleep to feel energised throughout your days, then you'll be dead sooner than before if you don't get enough sleep. Lack of sleep is tied to a lot of health issues and is hurting your productivity and happiness. A lot. While sleeping is resting, we also forget to, well, rest. Be it in the form of just laying down for a while, closing your eyes, meditating or just swerving away from the daily grind a bit, all forms of resting are beneficial. We should not confuse procrastinating or being lazy with resting; in fact, if you're procra...

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, ...

From birth until your bones can no longer bear the weight of yourself, it seems that we have been taught that failure not only is bad, it's actually the worst thing ever: not only sets you back, but prevents you from doing what you have to do and what you want to do, and is, in the end, a source of humiliation. It's curious that even self-created goals that other people know about can be a predictor of humiliation in case of failure. Even if there are others around you about who you don't really care, depending on your personallity, there's a chance you will. Such will make you perceive such humiliation as something that you'll have to carry unrelentlessly. Where's the problem here? Is it part of our nature to avoid failure in order to achieve set goals, or was it (and pardon the cliché) society that throughout all the history and the years that created this unchanging need to succeed and to shun failure in any way or form? In schools, universities, and mo...

Despite my previous entry I would like now to delve on a rather different topic. Perhaps, in a way, almost opposite to collecting and hoarding: cutting down on items. In short, and before going on too strong, I do not believe you can own either too little or too much. In fact, it is better to avoid any judgements based on what someone owns, right? I hope so. The point of what I'm writing today goes directly to the 100 things project. Me, as an aspiring minimalist, who was trying to sever any sort of emotional contact with objects, also started cutting down on useless clutter. Well, most of it you definitely don't really have any emotional contact, but it definitely clutters your space. To be honest, I was guilty of what many people probably are: not getting rid of that old maganize or toy that even thought nothing kept me from throwing it away, I still didn't. So I went ahead and revised all my stuff. But I did this carefully, as I can't be arsed to follow strict ...

Seeking out for something is thrilling. This is how most of my collections started out. I have a hard time trying to describe what exactly prompts us to have a collection: coins, stamps, vinyl, clothing, empty cans, cats; collections come in all sorts of forms. I am not sure whether to call it a need, an urge, a necessity, or just let it on the hobby shelve. Whatever it is, the amassing of physical (usually) items seems to be taken as an extension of the self. One collects because it is nostalgic, pleasurable, related to an area of interest, or some things are just too good to collect. I'll use coins and bills as an example, as they can be found anywhere, with great variations in value, and there are million different possibilities and ranges in this sort of collection; in short, coins are dependend on time, location, value, aesthetics, material, events (commemorative coins and the such), and of course, there are also coins made specifically for collecting. Anot...

Books. Yes, I used a whole paragraph for that. Today, I choose to write this post to hint a bit at what I would call exagerations of the modern world. The very constant battle you can listen to now everyday on whether books are being left on the shelves for their supposed substitutes: ebooks. Or in short, any form of digital text, which is now getting easier and easier to access and read. Not only on computers or tablets, but on devices designed purposely for the reading of digital text. To go at this from a very simplistic point of view we have to look at two of the factions: the extremes. The ones that can be used better to get this over with. The ones that say ebooks are the future of reading, and the ones that say ebooks should be eradicated, because otherwise, real paper books will. Now, I won't even bother using the 'vinyl argument' here. The main point is that, even though I'm not particularly tech-savvy, I cannot possibly deny the advantages of sometimes...

Eat lots of greens, cut down on your red meat, stop smoking and drinking so much. We pretty much know what's good and bad for our health, don't we? Well, yeah, but there are things we don't that could drastically improve nutrition and well-being. Seeds. Yep, seeds . When added to regular meals, snacks, or even smoothies, they can offer quite the nutritional punch needed to keep you healthy and going through the motions. Here's a compiled list of five of the most powerful seeds you can implement in your diet: #1 - Chia Seeds: Getting a lot more exposure lately, you can add chias to pretty much anything you ingest. From the top of my head, I do not see any dish or salad where you can't add them, which makes these extremelly versatile. What makes them so special, then? Well, first off, they're an amazing source of Omega-3. This, however, is not what makes these seeds so craved. They're also packed with calcium, sodium, fiber, and protein. Not to mention th...

Here is a well-known fact that you haven't thought about lately: people nowadays, with all the buzz from a productive day to day life, either sleep too little or too much. Which, in turn, makes them all the less productive and happy in every single way. While it is hard to ascertain the right ammount of sleep for everyone, as we all have different body clocks, and sleep patterns alter depending on a lot of factors: age, tiredness, sleep deprivation, etc. Truth is: you can never make up for a badly slept night. Sure, you can always sleep more the night after, but what's lost is lost. As such, it is always better to keep consistent sleep everytime the opportunity arises. Sleeping too little is the most common in these burdened days. Too much work, too much play, too much drink: everything contributes to sleeping less which affects our attention span, health, way we eat, how efficiently we learn, motivation, and overall health. Sleeping too much is also connected with an unh...

At this point in time, I'd say it's quite useless to discuss advantages and disadvantages of credit cards. With some financial literacy and careful thinking, one can access whether having a credit card is beneficial or not. However, many people still seem to get credit cards as an emergency measure. This is one of the biggest financial mistakes most do. Yes, you can build credit, get discounts, frequent flier km, and banks usually offer you some kinds of perks or gifts on sign up. And yes, you can get easily accessible money you can spend in case some clouds start to form in the horizon. The problem with this line of thinking is that someone who is currently financially stable should not be thinking about credit cards, but rather about building up savings which would, with due preparation, be ready for that sudden car tire change or fridge breakdown. It's undeniable that one who uses a credit card responsibly can take advantage of its advantages; moreover, each person...

Technology and gadgets became a part of our daily lives, with them, a new way to look at how we spend our time, and the possible health implications of a changed lifestyle. The advent of television changed how we lead our lives. Instead of spending time with family and friends, we started getting home from work and going straight to the couch to watch our favourite shows. All kinds of activities were massively altered, even the sacred and usual family dinner; instead of sitting and talking, people were diverting their attention to the news. What has this brought about? In short: sedentarism. People started moving less and less, and as a consequence obesity, heart problems, among others started being claimed as one of the main problems of too much television. Not only this, but also less social contact. However, televisions are not the only screens we have today. In the developed world most of us have TVs, computers, cellphones, screens that pretend to be books, books that pretend ...

The longer money has been around, the harder it seems it is to understand it. Spiralling debt is now one of the biggest problems for several households in Europe and North America. It is fair to ask, then: where is the proper financial advice and why is it so hard for households to stay out of debt? One personal example will never be quite like the other, but there are always a couple of maxims anyone can follow, or at least, try to live by. Understanding how money works and why it exists is something everyone should strive for. Frugality is a tough term to describe but can always be considered a starting point. Some define it as trying to live with as little as possible and making as many cuts as they can, while others define it just as spending a little part of your income. Obviously, if you have an income of 5000€ per month, then frugality shouldn’t be hard to come by. Personally, I would describe frugality as spending just what is in fact needed. By needed, I am including ...