Aikido

ENG
Today I'll be writing about Aikido, a Japanese martial art created by Morihei Ueshiba.
I practice this art for 2 years and 2 months now, and I'm writing today about it because Monday I've done the 2nd Kyu exam and I passed.
This martial art is not about attacking, it's about inducing an attack from your opponent and using his energy against him in the form of projections (nage-waza) or pin down techniques (katame-waza).
But I'll keep this post brief. I will talk about the influence of Aikido in me and the influence of my life in my Aikido.
For me, the practice of Aikido is about expressing your emotions without using strength or hurting your training partner. That being said I don't mean that when you practice Aikido you always have to be calm because you don't, you practice Aikido because you like it and because it makes you more calm during and after the practice. So I really hate when people that are training with you are always telling you to be calm, to relax, and when you look at them you just see a bag of repressed emotions, at work, at home and even at Aikido practice. If you are angry, practice faster to let go that energy; if you are excited do the same; and if you are sad practice you're breathing and practice being a uke (the one that receives the techniques), this are examples of forms to cope with your emotions and still practice Aikido that I found from my experience.
To end this post I just want to say that Aikido made my life better because I love to practice it, I love to have an hobby that you can practice at least three times a week and I love the friendships that come with this practice so I totally recommend Aikido as an hobby if you like martial arts and want to expand the way you look at the world.
Most times using forcing an emotion will do you no good, you need to accept your emotions in harmony in order for it to pass.

Homo vs Pan

ENG
Today I'll be writing about a controversial topic, and that topic is related to calling the chimpanzee Pan troglodytes or Homo troglodytes.
I got to say, I was influenced by a book that I'm reading at the moment and that book is: The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, from the writer Jared Diamond. This author in this book writes about the third chimpanzee which are the humans (with the regular chimpanzee and the pygmy chimpanzee  being the other two), more specifically he writes about how we became what we are in an evolutionary point of view and how we are gonna destroy our planet, the other races and even our race if we don't change the way we look at our surroundings.
Our genetic distance from the regular chimpanzees is just 1,6%. Let's just understand what this means, we are 98,4% chimpanzee and we say that we are superior because of that little percentage? Yes okay, this percentage changed things because it is due to our social, cultural development and even due to our posture. But even knowing that, just know that chimps are closer to us than they are to the gorillas or to any other ape for that matter.
All that I'm asking is for you to think about something that a lot of people defend that is to think what it would be like to call the chimps Homo Troglodytes and not Pan Troglodytes. Can you think about the difference that that would have? You would enter a zoo and see a chimp in really bad conditions or being mistreated. Or you would read about studies that have been done, using chimps as subjects, injecting them with something that will kill them, slowly, painfully and the enterprises saying that it is for the development of science and healthcare. How would you feel when you're son that learned in school that the chimps are called Homo Troglodytes and that humans are called Homo Sapiens Sapiens asked you why are this almost humans, so similar to us being treated and killed in this ways when we cannot do this to humans?
When does it change from scientific tests to murder?

Express your Emotions

ENG
Today I will be writing about, but mostly introducing Bioenergetics. Bioenergetics are positions and certain forms of breathing that help you express your repressed emotions.
I was first introduced to this therapy 3 months ago when I watched a video on Youtube from Elliott Hulse that is called Brain Slave NO MORE! (the link is at the end of the post). And this video at first made me laugh because Elliott is making all sorts of noises and funny faces, but then I noticed my ignorance because he was showing me a way to let these repressed emotions go, and that was exactly what he was doing, so I was laughing at a man that had the courage to expose himself and make himself vulnerable in a way that I couldn't, to help others.

This therapy works like this: you put yourself in a certain position breathing for example with your mouth wide open and with your tongue out (for some time, it isn't instantaneous). After some time this will make you experience all sorts of emotions that you had inside you and that you didn't know or want to come out. You may feel angry, sad, happy (this one is truly good because, yes people repress happiness)... But more important is to express those feelings entirely and fully (remember some of these emotions were building up inside you for a really long time), if you need to cry, cry; if you need to scream, scream; if you need to laugh your guts out, then do it. That's what this practice is about.
I try to do this every week since I saw the video (when no one is at home because this is embarrassing just with myself so I don't need people watching or hearing me). I think this is a good one to give a try, with this fast passed and stressed out society, 10 minutes could help you release that anger and stress that you have inside.
The link from the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHFYEQRnQew

Thank you Nature

ENG

In this post I will be writing about a habit that I have for about 6 months now and that is to thank nature for all the good things that happened in my day, to describe the ones that I see has bad and try to look them on a different perspective to understand what good came or will come out of them (most times I can't figure that out), and lastly I ask her to watch over the ones I love.
Now, this is my habit but when I say nature, that's how I see it, but if you are a christian you might thank Jesus Christ. I call it nature because that's something I really care about and that was always really important to me (nature, the elements and our senses) and it is easier for me, looking at the stars, to imagine a being that watches over us who is alive but not humanlike, that is everything: us, the stars, the trees, the animals, everything. And this being guides us through our path if we dare to listen. To listen what? To listen to our intuition because that is him too.
But I also wanna say that this belief, this faith ain't all sunshines and rainbows because there will be times when I ask myself: What the fuck is the meaning of this, what do you want me to do, what do I want to do and what it'll be for? And the shitty part is you will never get an instant answer, maybe if you don't give up you will see signs that may or not be an indication of an answer.
And to finish this post I want to say that I don't always thank nature because there is one night that I tell her to fuck herself and that night is the New Year's Eve at midnight. At that time I tell her to fuck herself for all the bad things that happened to me and that I didn't find an answer for, but I also understand that maybe I wasn't looking in the right way or maybe I shouldn't be trying to find answers.

Zen in Everyday Life

ENG

In this post I will talk about a book that is inspiring me and that book is: Zen in the Martial Arts, from the writer Joe Hyams. More specifically I will talk about a chapter within that book that is expanding my view the most and that chapter is: process not product.
On this chapter the writer is having tea with his Hapkidô master (master Han) and he tells him that he can never do things in a satisfactory way unless he is willing to give himself time. Hyams tells the master that he is patient, and master Han answers that he wasn't talking about patience because having patience is the capability of resisting calmly but giving yourself time is actively working toward a goal without establishing a limit to where you want to reach (Hyams, 1979).
This last sentence is really interesting because that is always something at least I do. I impose upon myself the idea that within a certain amount of time I'll have to reach objective X and if I don't reach it I feel like that time was wasted. And other times I do reach that goal but the result isn't much better also because I get that slight satisfaction and think that it is cool, I reached my goal but what follows is: either quitting because I didn't put more challenging goals; or this process repeats.
Joe Hyams proposes to eliminate the notion of deadline from our heads because doing that will make your body, mind and spirit lighter and more relaxed, therefore improving more in whatever you want to improve.
I don't share that thought entirely. On the one hand I agree that in things you will do in the "long run" you should do that, everyday work toward getting better, learning more but without setting yourself limits, just small goals that don't work as barriers but as boosters that help you break your limits. On the other hand I know that in today's society, in school or in our everyday jobs we have deadlines to accomplish and that if we don't, there will be consequences like when you don't deliver a paper in time, you get 0. Relating the later example I think we should define those same small goals everyday so that when the time to deliver that paper comes you will have it finished with much less stress than if you had it written the night before.
So, to conclude this post, we should give ourselves time to get better every single day and not try to reach a big goal in a very small period of time or you will not get much better and you will be really stressed. How? Putting small goals everyday that push us to stop limiting ourselves.

Inspiration Inside an Animal

ENG
There is one animal in my house or more accurately in my backyard that inspires me everyday, and that animal is my dog, Botero.

Why does he inspire you?He's just a dog...  Indeed he's "just a dog" as much as we are "just humans" but he is an inspiration to me in my everyday life because he is a 11 years old Saint Bernard that has arthritis and for this reason he has a lot of difficulty to walk and to get up everyday. And you would think that with this disease would come symptoms like depression for not being able to play and run properly like every dog loves, but that isn't the case because he has a really strong personality that can be happy with little, even when life is taking the little out of him.
So, to end this post I can say that when I feel down, I sometimes look at my dog as an inspiration. If he can be happy with so little and can find the strength to get up every day, I can too since I luckily own more than him (I know that the minds of dogs and humans aren't equal) and unlike him I have the possibility and power to change what makes me upset, I just need the will (that comes more easily with the push of ... inspirations).

A beginning of a Wider Sight

ENG

My goal with this blog is: first of all, to help me get the will, the motivation and determination to travel to new places, meet new people, taste new foods and in a general way, broaden my vision of the world because I think that's my life's purpose (at least at the moment); and secondly, but of similar importance, to share with the readers of this blog my experiences and perceptions in order to inspire or just to influence them to do as I will or at least try to do.
The main subjects of this blog will be related to places that I travel to and visit, foods I taste, recipes I experiment, books I read that have enlarged my spectrum of the world. Or, in a simple way, things that contribute to my life's purpose be it on a physical, mental, sensorial or spiritual level.