{source: link} Creation starts from the void. Or so the Holy Books tell us. I get my inspiration in the morning, driving to work, listening to music. Or sometimes, in an empty room, writing on my laptop. Or listening to a presentation and going through idle thoughts. Either way, creativity and results focus don't really go together. You have to give up ...
About: Maria
Recent Posts by Maria
Creating space for family
{source: link} As my uncle passed away this week, I spent some brief time with his family. His kids, my favorite cousins, and their mother, closest sister of my own mom. We were close when we were little, but somehow grew apart and shared only the occasional phone calls or a brief visit once per year. Somehow stressed by ...
A manifest for running
(photo by link) Yesterday I went for another run, in the heat of 32 degrees C. It was harder than running at 10 degrees, in the pouring rain. There were not many people in the park - few were walking in the heat, preferring to stay at home or longer hours in the office in the cool ...
Review: Rituals for Living Dreambook & Planner
I know I've been away for quite some time. In the meanwhile I finished another coaching school, trained for and then ran a half marathon, and tried to find more time for myself (as you can see from the above, not working that well :)). So when I received the offer to do a review for ...
How Whiplash helped me get over myself
I saw "Whiplash" a week ago, and something stuck with me. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you should. Despite JK Simmons being the beacon of acting (he won an Oscar for it), it's a movie about an eternal fight for recognition and coming of age. Also, it's a story about how NOT to coach. But that's ...
The multiple aspects of being
When I was little, I was fascinated by kaleidoscopes. I especially loved those with little pieces of coloured glass, which you would rotate and then you would see countless designs, shifting and changing as you tilted the angle. Perhaps we are the same as these little pieces of glass - they remain the same, but as ...
Trust the process
I'm fascinated by my personal growth process. I've gone through ups and downs, had months in which I felt tremendously strong and stable, and days and weeks when I felt like I don't know who I am anymore. It's easy to give up and say "This is who I am. I'm probably never going to change." The hard ...
HR = Human Relationships
source: http://masteringlifeandhappiness.com/humanrelations.html Reading Carl Rogers recently again after a few months an interesting idea came to mind: HR is normally understood as the corporate acronym for Human Resources. In fact, perhaps we should think of HR more as Human Relationships. During my experience as an HR professional, I kept believing that my work will be complete when I will ...
Self-actualization and lessons on becoming a Person
Many people tell me I'm calm, a good listener and quite well balanced (yeah, that helps with coaching). Sometimes I laugh and say "You have no idea." I've been doing therapy for one and a half year now. No, I'm not mentally disturbed and I don't have major issues (well, not more than most people out there). Personally, ...
Minimalist packing
I try to never check my bag, unless it's a long vacation (2 weeks or similar) and/or I plan to carry back 3 bottles of local alcohol produce, which is the case for most of my travels in foreign locations. Anyways. I may not be the minimalist traveler as Leo of ZenHabits, but I gathered a ...
Are we all asleep?
This is a post responding to Alis' thought-provoking post from last week, in which she challenged people who are "asleep" in their own lives, living mechanically, like Neo from the Matrix before taking the red pill. She said people who live consciously, breaking away from the nice warm beds of mundane lives, those are awake. That ...
Happy Monday!
The following story starts with something we're all familiar with - a Monday morning in which everything that can go wrong, does :( . However, it's not what it may seem at first glance. Keep reading... It was a sunny Monday morning and I decided to stop by a bakery to grab a coffee and a sandwich. ...
Integrating who you are into what you do
Last week I had a funny breakthrough - I brought something quite personal, almost a part of me, into the professional. And not only did it work out fine, it was even inspiring. I've been a fan intrigued quite obsessed with Alice (the one from Wonderland..you know) pretty much my entire life. I saw the movies, the cartoons, ...
My view on happiness
I haven't posted in many months. Partly because 2013 was a difficult year for me, full of emotional rollercoasters and long trips into the darker areas of my mind. Partly because I couldn't think of anything useful to post to my (few) readers. I went into a dark corner sometime around spring, and decided around that ...
Career Planning for Young Graduates
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/04/unemployment-not-kids-problem I recently took up two mentees from a student organization, and part of the Get To Know Each Other phase, we talked a lot about what they know and what they would like to know, about the "outside world", the corporate environment. We're talking about a reputed, large, well structured and well organized student ...
