Tuesday, May 21, 2013

a better respect

Il n’y a rien à « faire » pour se faire respecter des autres sinon apprendre à se respecter soi-même.

‒ Renaud Perronnet

(There is nothing to "do" to be respected by others if not learn to respect oneself.)

Wise words from Monsieur Perronnet, psychopractitioner and the mastermind behind EVOLUTE Conseil.  Besides, the statement seems intuitive and exudes a certain harmony.  At least that is what I think.  Yet I have sometimes wondered why this advice would be effective.

In my own experience, I have discovered that by respecting myself more often, especially my most intimate self, the question of wanting to be respected by others becomes secondary and, at times, pointless.  Gradually, the focus shifts from "me versus the others" to "me versus myself" or better yet ‒ "me for myself".  In other words, the need for respect translates to nothing more than a quest for self-discipline.  Which is a lovely thing since progress in such a discipline is, by definition, under one's control.

In the process of following this quest, you know yourself better, you understand yourself better, you make yourself work better.  Ultimately, you love yourself more.

I think that people respect that.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

create your own inspiration

While searching the Internet for a scanned image of a page from Paul Arden's wonderful book, Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite, I stumbled on the image below.  I tend to stay away from lists of things to do, especially when they are titled "7 Steps to Achieving a Healthy Work/Life Balance" and the like.  But when I came across the one below, I found it hard to resist.


One of the points that struck a chord was "make your own inspiration".  I prefer to say "create your own inspiration".  Really.  Create your own inspiration.  Just do it.

As thinking beings, we all have thoughts that provoke joy, wonder, and other things within us that we consider good.  These delightful thoughts keep coming back, as if they are bound to us.  We don't even need to bounce them off other people; just being aware of them is sufficient, even fulfilling for a moment.  So why are we not creating from these thoughts?

I have been navigating through the world of self-help for several years now.  It’s a world full of insight and knowledge, some of which has fueled my imagination.  At some point, I realized that I was way too involved that the gap between the imagination that self-help fed me and the reality in which I was living was widening.  And what this realization brought me was distress.  I found myself at a crossroads with a choice to make.  Should I keep imagining a better life or start creating from the imagination that I already had?  I decided to do the latter.  The more I created, the more I discovered that my efforts were providing the inspiration to keep creating.  The gap started to close, the distress started to diminish.  And the delightful thoughts?  They started to multiply.

This process of creation has brought about marvelous experiences in my life, some of which have inspired this blog.  If only I could imagine what marvelous experiences this blog will bring about ...

Monday, May 6, 2013

souvenirs morbihannais

My friend Mélodie invited me to spend the weekend with her family in the Morbihan department, in the French region of Brittany.  We stayed in Séné, near Vannes.

The following are a few souvenirs from the visit.

Galette at L'Atelier (Vannes)

Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Vannes

The walls of the old city of Vannes and surrounding gardens

The port of Vannes

Hotel at Quiberon

Sand sculptures at Quiberon

Beach in Quiberon

The port of L'Île-aux-Moines

House at L'Île-aux-Moines

Restaurant at L'Île-aux-Moines