There are several people who in recent months have been bothered by what I write - and they have not been slow to tell me so in the comments.
That is completely fine and I understand it well.
Perhaps they imagine that I have appeared in their feed to lecture them. To tell them what they should think. To pull them over to "my side" or shape their thoughts according to mine.
But the truth is far simpler.
And far more human.
I have not appeared in your feed to tell you what you should think.
There are already enough voices trying to do exactly that.
School tells you.
The Man on Television tells you.
The Woman in the Party tells you.
The Celebrity in the Adverts tells you.
The Man in the White Coat tells you.
The Entertainment Machine tells you - almost more insistently than all the others.
They shout and whisper, tempt and promise, point and admonish, as if your soul were a property that can be taken over by whoever gets hold of you... and recently, often and strangely enough, agreeing on what they want from you and what they want you to think...
So no.
That is not why I am here.
I am here for something else.
I am here - like a sort of bonus dad - to get you to think about what you actually think. And what you believe.
And even more importantly -
Why you think precisely that.
And why you believe as you do.
I am that because I myself - many years ago - discovered an uncomfortable truth about myself -
That much of what I walked around believing were my thoughts... were not mine at all. They had simply settled in me, like seeds carried by a wind I had never chosen myself. I had just collected it. Like dust that settles on a piece of furniture.
Inheritance.
Habits.
Voices.
Stories that had been repeated so many times that I had begun to mistake them for my own thoughts. Many of them, deliberately installed by the actors listed at the top of the text.
And once I saw it... there was no way back.
Because I discovered that I had - or had been given - some truly miserable answers to completely fundamental questions -
Who am I actually?
Why do I live my life as I do?
What do I believe in - if I believe in anything at all?
Why am I here?
Where am I?
What do I hope for?
What is important and worth fighting for?
What is worth losing friends over?
And what would I stand by if everything external were taken from me?
Many of the questions I was, truth be told, afraid to know the answer to... and the ones that first came out of me were not pretty. But they were honest.
And that course correction changed my life.
I believe - that all people at some point in their lives meet these questions. Not as theories - but as beings knocking on the door of one's own heart, DEMANDING answers.
And perhaps... perhaps that is where you stand now.
And why you follow along here.
So allow me to give you a small exercise that helped me -
Take all the external away for a moment - forget the opinions, the media, the moods, the ballot papers, the opinion makers, the celebrities - yes even the Islamists - forget for a brief moment all that shapes us in our blind spots.
Set it aside, as one lays wet clothes out to dry, so the soul can breathe freely again.
Then ask yourself -
What is it I actually think?
Not what I have learned to say.
Not what I have inherited.
Not what I repeat to fit in.
But what I actually know is true - even if no one applauds, even if no one nods, even if I should stand completely alone with it - and even if I have no authority to lean on.
Because if you cannot answer that with calm and certainty in yourself, then it is not a position you have. It is a reflex living in you, like a guest you never invited.
I write this because right now we live in a time when the world can no longer be carried by automatic people.
We live in a world that requires souls that are awake. Hearts that are brave. And people who know where they stand - and why.
You do not need to answer today.
The most important answers rarely come quickly.
They come when one has stared long enough into the darkness to glimpse the first light.
So if you feel you stand in darkness - and still must start somewhere, then let these be the two questions that lead you to the way out -
Why do I think what I think?
What do I believe in - and why do I do so?
If you answer honestly, then not only will the world change for you - you will change for the world.
And that is almost always where the miracle begins.
❤️🔥🪽
....
And as a small sidenote - once you begin to get the scent that you yourself, freely and consciously, can shape your own thoughts, values and habits... something almost magical happens.
You begin to see patterns. Repetitions. Roads that lead out into darkness - and roads that lead home. And suddenly it dawns on you that you can actually change direction. Not only in opinions. But in your entire life.
When you discover that, there is almost not a single major life area you do not want to look at, turn and examine, and perhaps begin again with more honesty and more courage.
So here at the precipice of 'goodnight', you can have the week's fitness picture as a thirst trap.
51 years old. The first 35 of them I walked directly opposite
to what I believe in today. I listened to all the others back then - the right opinions and to those who "knew best". And as expected I got exactly the results their path leads to...
That changed when I began to correct the compass.
It paid off.
On the body.
In love.
In relationships.
In meaningfulness.
In connection.
And in everything that cannot be measured but can be felt.
Free Your Mind as En Vogue sang.
To discover, liberate and correct oneself - is one of the most underrated gifts a human being has.
Sleep well. ❤
