AmAre Way: happiness, living joyfully

The more I adventured into this journey, the more I understand it dates back in my life. I had a sudden change in awareness as a teenager: things were not working in the way I wanted, and wanted to change them. Firs step was to understand we usually do not get different results by acting as we always did: new results often demand new course of action. Before acting, I needed to understand what to change and what to keep.

So, working on my awareness, I started to clarify goals and see what was necessary to do to get there. I tried to learn breathing meditation reading books, but soon I found a more straight-forward approach which was suitable for me at the time: listening to the same song,… And the power of such process is so strong that, when I hear the songs used for this, I already feel a sense of peacefulness and awareness.

Thanks to awareness and meditation supporting each other, I started to act and understood focus should have been on respecting people’s feelings and needs. We can be happy all together, it is not realistic to aim to be happy in a vacuum, people near us need to be happy as well.

When I was at home, eating was not really an issue: my mother always took care of this. When I was in my early 20s and understood the only way to learn about the World was to leave my country and bring my journey to the next step, then eating properly became one of my priorities.

This journey took me around North America and Europe, not only as a visitor but often with work-obbligations to support myself, and also studying to improve knowledge. It also allowed my wife and I to meet, and to start building our life together.

Looking from here, I understand this journey dates back to long time ago. It started at least with my grand-parents, who showed by example to my parents what love and having a family means. My parents brought this lesson to life, and took care of me. Then, I started to grow, with my happy moments, fun, doubts and mistakes. Learning from the lessons my ancestors gave passed along the family, and from personal experience travelling, I decided to consolidate my happiness – to make it durable, not only a short sprees – and to share it with my partner and everyone who wants to be part of this journey.

While every situation requires a specific approach, experience showed me there are common basic approaches to life. If we are Aware, Meditate (or at least think), Act and Respect other people, and also respecting ourselves by Eating properly, then we are on the right track for happiness. This is the journey I want to share with you; there will be ups and downs, merry time and times to learn lessons from. Together, we can make the best of here and now, learning from the past and planning for the future, without getting attached to past or future by always remembering the only time and space where we can act is here and now.

So, let’s start this adventure together, here and now! What is the first step we want to take? Maybe it is just to call our beloved ones, to go and meet a person who was dear to us but with whom we lost touch, to volunteer for the causes we believe in, to help the person in front of us who is in need. Whatever we decide to do, let’s do it the A.M.A.R.E. way!