Day 406 - A visit to Brussel's Military Museum

I recently visited the Military History Museum in Bruxelles and would like to share some of my observations. When I entered the museum, my first impression was that of an old and completey outdated collection of military artifacts and national symbols (which made me regret my visit). But when I proceeded to the second hall, I found myself impressed by the collection of large artillery weapons and canons. 

I was mainly fascinated within the realisation that human beings had actually operated these machines (mostly from the first world war) and would have actually used those canons to try and decimate their so called enemies. As I proceeded through the hall, I saw even larger artillery and even full scale tanks. At this point it dawned on me how far humanity has gone in trying to specialise in forcing another party to agree with us and how much violence we are actually willing to use. 

If you are walking in a relationship with another being, you will find that reaching agreement through communication is actually one of the hardest things there is. You are simply not trained nor prepared for this - your education and entertainment has only prepared you for 'survival' and 'conflict'. Communication is not manipulation. I communicate with you because I accept you as an equal and I realise that I cannot move 'with you' unless we move in 'unison'. For that we both need to agree. 

The reason why international law is not actually working and why there are stil so many armed conflicts in the world, is because in the end, when all communication fails, we perceive that we can use violence and force, and because we perceive that we already have an advantage anyway. Why would we give up our advantage? 

The realisation that communication and equality are the only way forward, has still not matured within humanity. It is essential to maintain one’s inner calm and integrity when things around us seem to spin out of control. Fear and panic only lead to a more consequential outcome – stay calm, use common sense. You can see it in a person when they are possessed with fear. In a way they are ‘lost’ – they are out of touch with themselves, with life, with reality. Just breathe.

Humanity must learn to take ‘self’ as a startingpoint: I am here – I am responsible for me – I forgive myself. When self starts to take responsibility for self and starts caring for self – that is when change is actually possible and real. But you cannot ‘force’ this change in another. You walk your own process unconditionally – and the gratefulness you experience for you changing yourself is yours alone. 

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For more information about writing, self-forgiveness and applying self-change, visit: http://desteni.org

For the Free online writing and self-forgiveness course, visit: http://lite.desteniiprocess.com

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Day 398 - My Journey into Spain - First Chapter

Normally when I travel abroad, I prefer to stay more or less in one location and not move around too much. But this time, the suggestion came up that I should 'travel around' and explore the country. I have never done this before on my own. With my partner we did travel to countries and we traveled around, but the initiation and the movement would come from my partner and I would just 'ride along'. 

Within my personality I have quite a bit of 'fears' as regards 'unpredictable things' that can happen whilst traveling, consequently for me to do this ony my own was an important step. When I leanred that I would not be able to travel to Panama less than 24 hours before the departure flight, I looked at the situation and talking with my partner, I decided that I wanted to travel to Spain instead. I had 2 weeks of holiday ahead of me and it was the middle of the summer. In a way it was perfect. 

So within the span of one day, I booked a one way ticket to Barcelona plus a hotel for 4 nights in the city. I did not know what I would do after those 4 nights nor did I know when I would fly home. But most likely I would after those 4 days, hire a car and travel to other places and then see when I would be ready to return home. I just had to make sure I'd be back after two weeks. 

The benefit was that my suitcase was already packed for a 2-week holiday. I simply had to replace some stuff and do some different paperwork as regards traveling to Spain. I enjoyed being able to simply book a flight and not know exactly when I'd return home. Many people do this type of traveling already in their twenties, but as I said, for me it was all new. 

What was interesting within this trip is that I knew where my fears and insecurities were. I knew that I would have to deliberately move myself to challenge myself and not fall back into comfort zones and fears of the unknown. In that sense my trip was quite expansive, because I did succeed in identifying those moments where I usually 'back off' in fear and instead guided myself to take small leaps of faith. 

The rest of my amazing journey will be posted on this blog in days to come. 

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For more information about writing, self-forgiveness and applying self-change, visit: http://desteni.org

For the Free online self-forgiveness course, visit: http://lite.desteniiprocess.com

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