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Monthly Archives: July 2012

Meditating for 8 months now

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Photo attributed to flickr user AlphaTangoBravo

I was thinking about it today and I realized that I have been meditating for 8 months now. I have been meditating for 8 months straight through, without any breaks, 3-5 days a week, 30 minutes each, for eight months.

Wow! I can’t believe it. I am actually a wee bit impressed with myself right now. Of course, this is just the beginning, but just by meditating every day, I feel like I have changed my life, my outlook, and my spirit.

I feel like a changed person and I have a changed life. I have so much more in my life than I did eight months ago. I am in a satisfied relationship that I wasn’t eight months ago, I have made great strides towards melting down my debt, I have gotten really, really fit and am improving my yoga practice all the time, and I have met an amazing group of positive, unique friends.

But it isn’t just the outward changes that I look towards. I am looking inwards, and I do not see cobwebs and dark corners with shadows lurking around in my mind anymore. I see bright light, clean spaces, and I see happiness. In all of its shapes and forms. Sometimes I am ecstatically happy, sometimes I am just content, sometimes I am happy to be alive, sometimes I am cruising.

There are myriad other changes that I am sure I am not even aware of, but are there just the same.

Maybe I should ask the people who are around me about it.

How long has your meditation practice been going on for? How has it affected you?

People who care too much about their appearance

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Photo attributed to flickr user Alaskan Dude

I was in a yoga class yesterday and my regular teacher wasn’t available. I was so disappointed, but as I had trudged all the way to the studio, I decided I had to take a class.

The teacher matters in a yoga class, but not as much as what you are going to bring and take away from the class. I was in the change room before class, and I noticed the teacher for the class. She was primping, I realized after a while. She was combing her hair, putting two or three different creams on her face, hands and feet, and taking some pills. She changed her outfit and then she was ready.

As Yogis we are taught that your body is just a vessel. You have to take care of yourself, body, mind and soul, but you have to remember that you are not taking this body with you when you go off to the great netherworld. You are going to leave everything behind, except something ethereal, something that no one has ever seen, and no one even knows exists.

I am not a true Yogi. I care about what I look like, I care about the way I dress, I care about the level of hair on my body, and I care what other people think of me ( to an extent).

But for some reason, I have this problem with people who care too much about their appearance. I find people who are too perfect, too groomed, too well-put-together, who do not look ruffled or show any emotion, I find them scary and hard to relate to. I find them inhuman somehow, and I find I cannot be friends or even acquainted with them.

What do you think of perfectionism in body and appearance? Do you think I am just jealous of these people?

Parents are teaching their children to be anti-social

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Photo attributed to flickr user Grant MacDonald

I was visiting with T’s friends over the weekend, and they have the two most adorable little children, with one more on the way. I noticed something when we were out on a beach with them. The children weren’t very social with strangers, which might or might not be a good thing when I thought about it further.

I noticed it, and I guess the mother saw me noticing it, because she commented, ‘In this day and age, I prefer to ensure that the children aren’t too trusting’.

Which makes complete sense, and is in my opinion, really, really sad. Of course, I do not want to bring up my childhood because it was a long time ago, in a land far, far away ( the outskirts of Yemen), and it was a different time, where people were generally more trusting of others. But I remember how I used to be out of the house for hours and hours, eating lunches at my friend’s houses, roaming around random beaches and construction sites with my siblings, biking to the far away neighborhoods without a concern for time or place.

I feel like the kind of person that I have become is because of all the experiences that I have had, with my adventures in the unknown, and my love for travel emanates directly from it. I have become a very adjustable, social personality, because of the fact that my mother trusted everyone in the neighborhood, and we were allowed to roam free.

Of course, the mother is being very cautious and smart, because it isn’t safe in this world to be too trusting, especially for young ‘uns, but I just wanted to share the thought of sadness over this occurrence.

What do you think of trust and the world today?

Half of US children will need food stamps at some point in their lives

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Photo attributed to flickr user Zanthia

Yet another way, I realize that I am a spoilt little Princess. I have never had to use food stamps in my life. I have been lucky enough throughout my life to have parents who worked so hard that they ensured that I never had to go hungry or without clothes or shoes. I never had to go on welfare, and there is a high probability that it will not happen at any point in the near future.

I know that we here in Canada are spoilt beyond belief. I know that in my head, but in my spoilt kingdom, I still complain about life occasionally. I complain that I wasn’t able to get a manicure or pedicure this month as I am saving up for a yearlong ‘vacation’, that most people on this planet can never even imagine as a possibility. I complain that I wasn’t able to buy a new dress last month because I had spent too much money on buying tickets for music festivals, another luxury that most people on this planet will never be able to afford.

I complain about my job because I am being lazy or sleepy. I complain about the commute to and from my job, because I do not like sitting on my arse in a temperature-controlled car while other ‘poor’ people trudge their stuff around in the heat or the cold. I complain about the heat or the cold, depending on the season, because I am just plain spoilt. I complain that I don’t have enough clothes when I have more than enough to clothe several families in certain countries of the world.

These are just a few of the complaints that I can think of. I am sure there are hundreds others that roam around in the recesses of my brain, that I unconsciously think about, every second of every day.

I think it is these moments where I read something about a different sect of society, ‘the poor people’ as we might call them, when I realize the luxurious era that I am living in and several of my compatriots are in. We do not have to deal with lower rungs of Abraham Maslow’s levels of hierarchy. We are comfortable, we do not have to think about survival.

Why does this matter? Because it is important to remember that we are lucky. To count our blessings. To be happy with the lot of stuff and blessings that we have. To stop complaining about the little things.

What do you think of the shocking stat above? Click here to read more on it.

Freedom as Motivation

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Photo attributed to flickr user snowpeak

I was wondering the other day about motivation. What motivates me? What motivates me to get out of bed every day and do the things that I do? Why do I go to Spanish or Mediterranean cooking lessons? Why do I go to yoga five times a week? Why do I try to eat healthy by cutting out the high glycemic index foods and fatty meats? Why do I go to work every day and try hard to do the work that is necessary to get the company going? Why do I cut down on my student loan debt, and not accumulate credit card debt?

I think figuring out your motivations are very important in life. I am thinking that if I know what motivates me, I can figure out how to motivate myself more towards doing the things in my life that are important, and motivate myself less towards doing the things that don’t matter?

I find that freedom is one of my main motivators. Everything I have done in my life till now has been motivated by the search for freedom. Freedom from oppressive (but amazing) parents, freedom from an oppressive job, freedom from the 9-5 grind, freedom from debt, freedom from worries about money, freedom to do anything I want with my day without restrictions.

When I was younger, I thought that the pathway to freedom lay with money. If I made loads of money, I would be rich and free! I wouldn’t have to worry about anything else, if I had oodles of money. I had a great job with the government, and I made a lot of money. But I wasn’t free. I was a consumer through and through, I bought thousands of dollars of items, and trips, and racked up credit card debt, that I was able to pay off because I made enough money, but I wasn’t free either of mind or body.

I figured maybe it was the job that was at fault, maybe it is money that is at fault. I left the job, and left North America, went travelling to the countries I believed might have the answer, the poorer countries, the countries that weren’t (in my wrong opinion) pillaging the earth as badly as we were in North America. I travelled, I gave away money, I tried to figure out something about myself.

But I realized that money is a necessary tool in life, but it is something that I didn’t know how to use properly. I wasn’t the master of it, I came back home and I set out to learn more about myself and about money. How to become the master of my situation was my life for the next two years, until this point.

Now I know a bit more about myself, and I want freedom to be the main theme for the next few years, until I realize something different.

How do you motivate yourself for the big things in life?

Strip clubs

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Photo attributed to flickr user Lamerie

My girlfriends always berate me when I go to strip clubs with my guy and friends, because apparently, I am supporting an industry that degrades women and causes inequality in society. But of course this doesn’t extend to wearing short skirts, high heels, and making a fool of ourselves in male strip clubs.

I find that prostitution and strip clubs in general do not promote a skewed view of women, unless we as women let it happen. I have been friends with many women who worked as strippers to pay their university tabs, or mortgages off, and they found that this was one of the easiest ways to make a load of cash in the shortest amount of time. They deliberately chose this path, when they had degrees in finance or marketing, because working in those fields paid a miniscule fraction of the money they would make working in a strip club. A lot of them had normal side jobs, working as servers or tellers before this, but a little taste of the money that they made in this field, removed them completely from those ‘normal’ side jobs.

They were able to make enough money in a few years to make themselves self-sufficient and independent of any man on this planet. I didn’t think when I heard these stories that these women were lopsided in society in anyway. I would say, they were actually better off then some working women in society, as the working women didn’t make enough money to ever be self-sufficient or independent.

Of course, these are just few of the women that I knew, and they are just a fraction of the women who actually work in the industry. I just wanted to point out that there are two sides to every situation. We can’t just berate something or commend something without realizing there are those two sides.

Do you frequent strip clubs? What do you think of them and the women who work in them?

Hard Working or Only Working

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Photo attributed to flickr user robysaltori

I have been surrounded by so many people in my generation who believe in work-life balance, who like to work only as much as they need to, that I was really surprised when I met someone who wasn’t inclined to believe in the work-life balance. Who genuinely enjoyed working every day and the weekends and evenings. Who enjoyed missing lunches and eating dinners from a take-out box at work. Who hasn’t dated in years, and who hasn’t seen her friends in ages because she’s working so hard.

I was so surprised to meet someone like that, because I haven’t seen someone like that in ages. I guess, I have been systematically changing the people in life to the kind of people who actually genuinely enjoy life in balance. Who are self-sufficient because they work, but work isn’t their life. They have several interests outside of work, and they have several friends outside of work, whom they mingle with. They take vacations every year, and do not take pride in carrying three or four years of vacation over, because they just didn’t have ‘time’ to take their vacation.

I felt, maybe wrongly, but I felt that she was proud of herself, she was so happy with herself for being the kind of individual that her company could rely on. She felt needed perhaps. She felt happy that she was needed, maybe. I don’t know what she felt on the inside, but I know she portrayed the feeling of delight in missing her lunch, in complaining that she hasn’t had a vacation in years, that she hasn’t had a moment in the last three years that she hasn’t thought about work.

What do you think about Working and Only Working?

Priming the writing pump

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Photo attributed to flickr user Rietje Swart

I find that I love to write. Even if no one on this planet appreciates the writing that I do, and for the longest time, when I journaled three or four pages a day in my youth, no one really did, I still loved to write. I like the idea of leaving behind your thoughts, for the next generations to read. Because I love to read, and I love to see how life was like in the past, by reading books from the past, I know the future generations will appreciate the same.

At least I hope they do.

I have noticed two things about writing that I wanted to share with you, which might help you if you write or are aspiring to write. Firstly, Writing begets more writing. It doesn’t necessarily beget good writing or exceptional writing. But the more you write, the more you want to write. I find that when I start writing one blog post, I usually write two or three in a row that day, because I am just used to the idea of writing, or maybe the ideas keep on flowing from inside of me, once I release the stop-cock.

I find also, that when I do not censor myself, when I write basically without much ‘thinking’, much ‘left-side brain thinking’, I am able to write better. I write poetically almost. When I think too much about writing, the writing comes out stinted and blocked. It isn’t beautiful and lovely, but hard, and solid.

Secondly, I love reading other people’s writing, because I find that unconsciously, I take in their writing style, and that day, if I write, I incorporate that into my own writing. It’s really subtle, but it is noticeable if I am looking for it myself. It isn’t plagiarism or anything blatant like that. It is just the subtle nature of it. For example, if a person writes poetically, I start writing poetically, if a person writes in a story-manner, I start doing the same, at least for a day or two, until it fades away. Until I read another person’s writing and that gets incorporated into mine.

Let me know what writing tips you have.

What happens as you get older?

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Photo attributed to flickr user Fitz C.

I find that I have been surrounded by a lot of people in their 50s and 60s in the past few weeks, as I have family over from India, and family friends over from Qatar. They are all amazing individuals who have worked hard to do the things they need to do, to get their children the best education and easiest lifestyle possible. They are the typical hardworking Indian parents. They put their children first and themselves even below last.

I have been thinking about this for the past two or three weeks since they started staying with us. I noticed how they never smile, and how their body language indicates defeat. Their shoulders are drooping downwards and forwards, and they are hunched over themselves, as if they were trying to protect themselves. I was wondering to myself, is this what people look forward to? Is this why people work so hard all of their lives, so they can enjoy the benefits of it never? So they can mangled in their old age, and be too tired to do anything fun?

Do older people get this way because of broken dreams and dashed hopes? Is it because they haven’t fulfilled their dreams from days gone by? Or were they hoping for a different life that never came? Is this what we all have to look forward to?

I know this post seems depressing, but I think it is extremely important to learn from the people around you. And I am choosing to take the lessons from their lives, and resolve not to repeat the mistakes. I have to resolve to follow my dreams, and my path, and not falter. That is the key in my mind. It is when people give up on their dreams in the moment, to do something and postpone that dream to the far-away future, I think that’s when people start losing hope in life.

If you do not have your dreams, you have nothing, in my opinion. You need the dreams in your life to keep on moving and dancing.

Why do I blog?

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Photo attributed to flickr user Pearl Photo

I had a few moments of doubt over the weekend, where I noticed that my readership and followers have stabilized and haven’t gone up in the past two weeks. I started wondering about why I blog. Why am I doing this? Why am I putting my thoughts on paper? What is the point of it? If there is no point, why keep on spending hours a week, crafting my hopefully-interesting blog posts?

I thought about it through a yoga class, and then I decided to follow the intention espoused by yoga in general, non-attachment, non-grasping, detachment.

To let go of wanting a specific outcome. To just let go of wanting in general.

I find that a lot of people think of detachment as not caring. Detachment doesn’t mean that you stop caring or you give up with life. In fact, I find those people who are going through day-to-day motions without thought behind it, are the ones who do not care. They are the ones who have given up.

I find that detachment teaches you that you should think about every action that you are undertaking, you try to work as hard as you can in every situation, but once you have done all you can, you should just stop thinking about it. Leave it up to the universe to take care of. It will happen as it is going to happen, worrying about it, or analyzing it, or doing anything related to it, is not going to help.

This expansive way of thinking helps relax you. You are just chilled out. You are letting things happen as they happen.

The universe will take care of things. As long as you do all you can to take care of things on your end.

So now I practice detachment over the blog. I am going to keep on blogging because I like it, because I think I post interesting matter, because its cathartic. And I am going to forget about the future.

Using Smoking as an Avoidance Mechanism

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Photo attributed to flickr user Fanch The System!!!

One of my very good friends said something in a facebook message that really surprised me, because I had never thought about it like that before:

Because people often smoke when they are stressed or whatever. So in order to not face any uncomfortable feelings or what not, people smoke. By the time the smoke is done, the person has calmed down, but the issue was never resolved, it just got pushed back.

The reason obviously this came up is because she quit smoking and after trying to quit several times in the past, and not succeeding, she decided finally to go deeper. Into the reason why she smokes. Why does she smoke?  After thinking about it, she came up with the reason above. She used it previously to get away from thinking about issue that were haunting her.

But then, I started thinking about it. Why do people smoke? That can’t be the only reason. True, it is an addiction, but there are other more pleasant things to be addicted to out there, like shopping or food. (mmm, food)

Especially with all the advertisements and knowledge out there about what smoking does to you, it has never made any sense to me why people smoke.

Then, I took a step back, and I analyzed my own behaviour. In spite of knowing that fried foods are bad for me, that chips are unhealthy, that eating 3 big meals a day is bad, I still do those three things. I eat junk food and crappy, fried foods, like no tomorrow. I love it. I thrive on it. I need it, almost. It is an addiction for me. I cannot go a month without those items. Maybe not even a week.

I am addicted as well. To food.

I had no right to judge or question. I am at peace now with the idea of being surrounded by smokers. I shall eat copious amounts of food, while you smoke and we shall be even.

My Advent into Green Smoothies

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Photo attributed to flickr user Zanthia

A few weeks ago, I was sitting with my mother in her room, trying to make conversation, while she watched her Bollywood movies, and tried to talk to a client at the same time. She is the queen of multi-tasking.

She suddenly noticed me there, as if for the first time, and looked down at my stomach. She looked up at me, and scowled. She wasn’t happy. Why have I gained so much weight and what was I going to do about it, were the two questions she asked me, before another phone call came in and she had to go back to doing her real estate work while watching Bollywood movies on the highest volume possible.

I thought about it that night and during my meditation session in the morning. How did I get so distracted by work, play and love that I had forgotten to take care of myself? The point was not about being skinny, but it was about feeling good. I thought about it and realized, I had been feeling out of sorts with my body, disconnected, low of energy, and it could all be contributed to a weak, pudgy core.

Although I wasn’t unfit by any normal standards, I was unfit to myself. I decided enough was enough. I had to hunker down and work on this myself. Dreaming about it or thinking about it, never does a thing. I had to start moving and start focusing on what I eat, and when I eat.

The three things I implemented were eating 6 times a day, drinking a green smoothie for breakfast, and going to yoga at least 5 times a week.

I would have to say that just the fact that I started replacing my breakfasts with an icky-green mixture of spinach, berries, banana, whey protein powder, and chia seeds, was a great start. I believe that if that was the only thing I had done, I would have seen results, not as quickly, but I would have seen results.

But because of all three, I have blasted through five pounds of fat in just two weeks. It worked quick and it worked hard. I am a total proponent of the green smoothie, and I recommend it in all of its different versions. I have included some links below to websites that speak about it. Enjoy!

http://greenmonstermovement.com/

http://ohsheglows.com/

Why do I love thee – let me count the ways?

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Photo attributed to flickr user ArloMagicMan

Alright, let me start off by saying, I have always been a cynic about love. I didn’t believe it existed. I thought people were making up stuff when they said, that when you meet the right one, you know. You just know.

I would ask again and again, how do you know? I mean, seriously, how can you just know? I used to despise those people who thought make-out sessions in public are a good idea.

It is a bit like yoga and meditation for me. I did yoga few times before I really got into it, but I never liked it too much. I didn’t think it was for me. I never even tried meditation before dismissing it as some new-age fad that would go away. Not until I was ready for it, did it really hit me like it did and has now.

I love every aspect of yoga and meditation. It is my love.

Now that I am in love myself, I understand everything that those people were saying is true. It is a little bit scary how right they were. I am in a mish-mash in my head because of it. How can something so simple screw us up so completely?

I am doing all of those things I used to despise in others. Really, I am guessing it was just jealousy. Once I realized its jealousy, I stopped despising and started loving it.

PDAs, grabbing his butt in public, making-out without a care, bed yoga in the middle of the day, eating a meal from one plate, drinking a drink from one cup, laughing over nothing really useful, living in a state of complete and utter bliss, induced by love.

I am sure this is just the honeymoon phase and it will end soon, but I finally understand what those people were talking about. I apologize to them for my naivety.

Googling Zest for Life

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Photo attributed to flickr user SLR Jester

I was in an Anusara Heart Yoga class on Monday and the teacher, Chrys, kept on expounding on Zest for Life, and Curiosity. He said, that children have a lot of curiosity in their hearts. They are always exploring and learning more about life. Every day is a new day to them. They are never bored by life, because there is so much to learn, so much to see, so much there.

I was thinking about it after class, and I realized that I was losing a bit of my zest for life. When the year began, I was gung-ho about life, because I felt like I had moved on from a major chapter in my life. I felt like major changes were coming in my life, just intuitively felt like my life was about to change completely. And of course, intuition never lies. My life is a complete 180 from where it was at the end of last year.

I feel like I am on the edge of another change though. I feel like I have grown all I can in the position I am in right now, in every way, career-wise, health-wise, relationship-wise, etc.

In order to grow at all from this point on, I have to change dramatically. I have to change in all aspects of my life. Everything has to either move forward and completely be removed from my life to be replaced by something else. Otherwise, I am being stagnant, and that stagnation is causing me to lose that zest for life.

Of course, like the title of the post, I did google Zest for Life, to see what comes up. And nothing useful did. Nothing useful ever does when it is something that is extremely important. You can’t seek the important answers in life by googling it, or by skipping over the important steps. It has to be done with care.

I have a lot of work in the next few weeks, but I am looking forward to it.

Doing one little thing to begin

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Photo attributed to flickr user Lamerie

Sometimes I find that it is easy to get overwhelmed by goals or even a to-do list. You are looking at a list that is a mile-long and you just feel instant paralysis. You are stuck. You don’t know where to start. You feel fear. You feel like procrastinating. You feel like doing anything else on this planet, even getting a Brazilian, would be preferable to doing anything on the list.

I have felt that fear, that anxiety, the butterflies in the stomach, often in my life. My to-do list is always extra-long, because I like to pack my life with as much accomplishment as possible. Even in the small things, like my wardrobe, or my relationship with my feet.

I realized that I am stressing myself out without any good reason, and on top of that, I am not even accomplishing anything with all the procrastinating I was doing.

I felt unaccomplished and useless.

I decided to look at it from a minimalistic perspective. What is the one thing I can do today? The one small thing that I can do today to move myself forward?

I think bite-sized now. I try not to look at the whole goal altogether, because that is just overwhelming and scary. Nowadays, I am thinking bite-sized. I think what is the small action, small bite-sized item that I can tackle right now. Maybe it’s a phone call. Maybe printing something out.

Whatever it might be, I just do it. Without thinking about it, without analysis. Mindlessly, I do it.

And then, I let go of the fear of inaction, and I let go of the anxiety of procrastinating. I took an action. Even though it was a small one. And that makes me feel good. I feel accomplished. I feel emotionally well and that prods me to take the next step.

How do you tackle the mountain of goals that most of us have tacked onto our boards?

Being Present in the Moment

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Photo attributed to flickr user derekadk

I was on the highway on the weekend, driving down to Niagara-on-the-lake to visit some of T’s friends. I was looking up at the clouds and I realized that instead of relaxing and enjoying the joyous summer ride, I was contemplating how it would be when we get to South America, and what we were going to eat.

But jokes aside, I was not present in the moment. That was in my mind a situation that requires further enquiry. I was thinking to myself why was I having a hard time being present in the moment? What was causing me to seek the future or the past, rather than being happy in the present moment?

And then I remembered what someone had said to me a few days ago, about my frustration with my yo-yoing mind-body connection, some days it’s strong, some days it’s gone. They said, it is not an on-off button. You can’t just flip a switch. Think of it as a gauge. A movement from strong to weak. A movement in the gray area, where it’s not black and it’s not white.

I was treating my body and my mind as if it were a piece of machinery.

I calmed myself down, and I closed my eyes, which is where I feel the most connected to myself. When I close my eyes, and I see darkness, I see the back of my eyelids, I see random shapes. I feel like I am connected to my mind, body and spirit. I closed my eyes on the weekend in the car, and I saw myself as I am here in this moment.

I tried to see how I felt about myself in the moment. Was I doing well? Was I doing everything I need to do in order to get to my goals? One or two items that I had been neglecting came up in my mind, so I put them aside to deal with during the week. But besides that, I felt like I was moving along. Nothing is ever perfect, but I felt like I am moving along.

What do you do to remain in the present moment?

The man with the pigeons

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Photo attributed to flickr user ZeroOne

 

 

There is a park downtown, next to the Spanish Centre, on Charles Street. I have been taking Spanish lessons for the past few weeks, and my class is at 730pm, and I always take a couple of hours rest from the busyness of a Monday, by sitting down in this park on a bench and munching on some good shawarma from the place nearby, Falafel House on Yonge Street.

I noticed every single time when I am there that there is this man who comes with a huge shopping cart of bird food, and as soon as he is nearby, all the pigeons in the area descend on the grass, like in a huge white cloud. They wait there patiently while he wheels over the cart and starts throwing bird food all over the grass. The ritual is obviously repeated every day or week, because everyone in the drama seems to know their moves.

If you ever happen to be in the area, around 6pm, please sit down and have a gander at the man and his pigeons.

Choice to have a child

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Photo attributed to flickr user theseanster93

I had a conversation with a friend of mine from New York a few days ago, about having children. He said, that he doesn’t want to have children. He realized this after a long time thinking about it. He knows it is something really unusual, but he didn’t come to the decision lightly.

I had come to the decision to not have children, a long time ago. I realized three things:

1. There are too many unattended, unloved children on this planet already, who would love to be adopted.

2. There are way too many people on this overcrowded planet already. Why would I want to bring more people into it?

3. There is nothing overly special about my genes, that needs to be propagated that would help the planet in any way. I am not especially beautiful, or especially intelligent, or especially tall. :P

I think for reasons above, that I am never going to have children of my own.

People always say two things to the above statements:

1. IF you really believed you were never going to have children, why haven’t you gotten your tubes tied? Obviously, you don’t really think this way.

2. You are still young, you will change your mind as soon as you hit your 30s, and then it will be too late for you. Then you are going to regret it.

What do you think of my choice?

Malls as a tourist destination

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Photo attributed to flickr user e3000

I have a few family members over, and I was asking my mother where she was planning to take them. I imagined CN tower would be on the list, maybe the harborfront, but what I didn’t expect was, Yorkdale Mall, figured high on the list as well. I was surprised. For a second, I wondered, what had happened to society, to result in malls being a major tourist destination.

I remembered back to the last few times, people have come to visit from the Middle East and India, and every time, they have gone to Eaton’s Centre, and Yorkdale Mall, as well as Costco, to get a feel for what Canada is all about. It is something that is laughable, but unfortunately, it is true. Our tourist destinations instead of being museums, and art galleries, are turning into malls and big-box stores.

I asked my friend this question, When did this happen? When did malls become a major tourist destination? And he replied, same time when what you wear became more important than your health. He told me a story about a friend of his who was speaking about a niece that she was worried about. The niece apparently was doing cocaine and his friend was worried about her. But then she said, I am going to take the girl shopping, because she dresses as a slut and that is really the most important thing to deal with right now, with regards to her.

My friend was obviously flabbergasted, but this is what our society is coming to. It is becoming a society where the size of your bank account is more important than your personality. Where your wardrobe is more important than your health. Where our malls are more important than the museums. Where we care more about what is on our phones, than what is in our food. The list can go on and on, but I am sure you get the idea.

It isn’t all pessimistic, things are slowly changing. Moving towards caring about the actual important things in life, like family, friends, love, spirit and health. It will take time, but it will happen. I’m sure of it. I have to believe that in my heart, otherwise, it does get a bit disheartening at times.

Do you pick up pennies?

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Photo attributed to flickr user marfis75

I was walking through a park a few days ago, and I noticed a penny on the floor. By habit, I picked it up, because I have always been told by my culture to never let pennies go. At least in my head. But, I stopped myself this time around, for a second, and I thought why? Why am I doing this?

I always feel embarrassed by the fact that I am bending down to pick up a penny, which I am probably never going to use, just because I want to follow something that I have in my head that says ‘Do not leave money on the ground; you are disrespecting money.’

I spoke to T about this and he said, that he never thought of money as something to respect. He always looked at money as a tool. When he didn’t have much money when he was a teenager, he used to pick up pennies, but now he only does, if its a quarter or more. I am guessing there are some people on this planet, who never pick up anything less than a $100.

But the thought of seeing money as a tool never occurred to me. It is true, money is a tool, but most of us have never really been taught to work with this tool. For a tool like money that everyone on this planet needs to use every day of their life, I believe humans spend more time teaching their children potty-training than how to master money.

For the longest time, money was my master. I used to let my debt, and my credit cards dictate my life. I didn’t know that I am the person who decides how much money I have or don’t have. I have the power. Little by little, I am reclaiming my power back. Which feels really, really good.

Money is a tool. Do YOU know how to use this tool?