Being usual

Common and unique

There are two things hard to understand and accept:

1. I'm a usual, common person, like any other. I have no exceptional rights and no special brilliance among others.

2. I'm unique, there's no one like me. What I am and what I do, no one else can do.

They're both true.

Illuminated manuscripts

Copying books manually and illuminating them with your own pictures is the forgotten branch of reading. 

- It makes you read the book carefully.
- It makes you write carefully.
- It offers you an opportunity to express your own ideas about the contents of the book in pictures.

Overall, it helps you to make the book a part of you. 

That's why you must choose the book very carefully.

Big problems, small problems

When I was at school, every start of a school year seemed very difficult to me. We had new subjects, new - and difficult - assignments, new tests. But the following year, the problems of the previous year seemed so simple and insignificant to me. By the Year 5, I've articulated a rule which sounded something like this:

Every year's problems will seem silly and insignificant next year.

By remembering this rule, I've saved myself a lot of worries. :)

Defending your principles

Source

More often than not, people don't follow the principles they defend. It's easy to formulate perfect situations, but it's hard to create them every day, all your life.

Does it mean I shouldn't talk perfect?

No.

Defending principles gives inspiration and a reference point.

Someone said:
Aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll still land among the stars.

Priorities

1. Live my life my way and let others live their lives their way.

2. Curious mind and joyful heart.

3. Always improve myself and develop my world.

    - Improve my skills, both physical and intellectual.
    - Learn something new all the time.
    - Travel, broaden my horizons.
    - Simplify whatever can be simplified without losing the essence.
    
4. Keep the link to the nature.

Mars

Source

I hope humans will never exploit this place the way they exploit the Earth.

Instrument practice

There's a simple way to excellence in music:

Practice your instrument every day. 

Get used to it, express your ups and downs on it. Try out different techniques and invent your own ones.

Just do it every day. Let time work for you.

The simplest meditation ever

This meditation won't allow you to doze out. It is a simplified version of a technique described by Andrey Levshinov (unfortunately, his page is only available in Russian).

1. Find a wooden stick or staff. Standing on the floor, it should reach your shoulders or be at least 150 cm/5 ft long, and thick enough to be comfortable to grab.

2. Stand comfortably with your feet apart by shoulder width, with one foot somewhat further to the front, knees slightly bent to your comfort.

3. On your right hand, cover your ring and little fingers with your thumb, leaving the other two fingers straight.

4. Put the staff onto the two free fingers and try to keep it standing on them. Use your hips and thighs as levers.

5. The first milestone is to try to keep the staff standing on your fingers for 12 seconds. The ideal time is 144 seconds (12 by 12).

6. Do the same with your left hand.

7. Don't rush it. Make it as safe as you can. The goal is to do it every day rather than to break any 'time records'.

Time

Time is the most precious treasure we have. What we do with our time defines what we do with our lives, naturally. And the conclusion is:

Don't waste your time on things and people you don't like and don't want in your life. Whatever you spend your time on will stay, and whatever you don't spend your time on will disappear from your life.

Getting over pain

Emotional pain is energy conserved in one idea, one memory. To get over pain, you need to open it up, let it go.

1. Concentrate on the pain.

2. Feel it, let it flow. 

3. Don't suppress it, let it hurt. 

4. Watch it. If it grows weaker, remember the painful situation once again and concentrate on the pain again.

5. Watch the pain go up to your heart, then your throat, then higher.

6. Don't rush it, let it transform naturally.

This way, you can get rid of almost any painful feelings, memories or emotions.

Old frames

My old feelings and my past perceptions of the world are kept in old things and childhood artifacts. They help me remember who I am, who I was before I became a boring adult. 

I do declutter, but I don't throw away all of them. Old things keep the essence of me intact.

Wrinkles

Wrinkles on a face are like words in a book. They tell a story of a lifetime, and the more wrinkles, the more stories.

A perfectly smooth face of a model tells me nothing. It's as plain and boring as an empty book.

The difference

I was looking at this really big spider in the corner and thought I should relocate it, because my cat wouldn't give it a chance. It was the kind of spider that don't build a web, so it wouldn't stay in one corner.

I thought, if I were a bug, I'd certainly not want to be around it. And if I were a bird, I'd love to catch it, and it wouldn't have a chance.

And then I thought: here's the difference between humans and animals. Only a human would want to catch one animal (which is clearly not their kind) and let it go in a different place in order to save it from another animal, because they just wanted it to have a chance to live a little longer.