If there is one thing I take from this year is adaptation: finding the power to admit I am stuck in place and find a new way to fulfil my dreams and sometimes survive. Though there is a catch. It might sound easy to do, but in reality there is so much going on in your life and mind that the effort that has to be made is huge and takes all the emotional power your body carries.
I am going through these thoughts at the moment. I think of the stress and fear I feel, which makes me uncomfortable, almost like I am not loyal to who I am. I know this is not true and that I have so many dreams and aspirations, and that eventually I am on the right way for me.
I learn daily that these thoughts aren’t necessarily bad. Growing and changing is a big part of who we are as humans and it is Okay to change and have new dreams. More than that, the new dreams can help us achieve the old ones and make our lives even more fulfilled.
I am still at the beginning of my 20s and have so much more to achieve in life. It is okay to have doubt. It makes us leave our comfort zone and evolve.
For a very long time, I have been stressing over my own future. To be honest, I have been stressing about it ever since I was young. I have tried to worry less, but I have always wanted to be one step ahead. There were situations where I started underestimating myself or worse- telling myself that I am just not good or worthy enough.
Now I know that I am good enough.
The more I think about it, the more I realise that at this point, stressing over the future has no point: I have done my best and the rest is out of my control. More importantly, my new approach to the future helps me to be more present at the moment and this makes me happier. Enjoying the small moments with my family and friends is just so much more valuable than giving up to the thought of the upcoming future.
I will eventually figure out what will happen, yet all I can do now is to wait patiently, so why should I worry?
There are so many psychological researchers discussing these kind of behaviour, but that is not my point. All these negative thoughts about the future had a negative effect on my behaviour in the present. I did not have to conduct a research to understand that. The minute I switched my approach and became more present, I started appreciating my environment and myself!
Maybe I have a good reason to worry about the future, but there is always another road to take. It is okay to fail and make mistakes. This is how we grow and evolve as human beings.
Our brain is so powerful and we should always navigate ourselves into positive thinking!
When I think about freedom I think of an abstract concept that humans have evolved to perceive as the most important thing for their survival and evolution. We fight for other abstract concepts in the name of freedom and feel satisfied when we get a little bit spare time to have a little bit control over our lives. As I think about it more and more I have more questions about the mysterious evolution of the entire human race.
In the army, I have very little freedom; I can no longer choose my clothes, I share a room with four other girls, share the shower and sometimes I even get my dresser checked by the officers. I can’t even leave for a vacation without informing my commanders about it. This leaves very little freedom to me. Then it hit me: humans, the masters and rulers over both the animal and the plant kingdoms, evolved to have very little freedom!
Yuval Noah Harari put this concept beautifully in his book “Sapiens- a Brief History of Humankind” my all-time favourite book) and as I kept reading this made more sense to me.
We tend to overthink and build bigger platforms that eventually take every little bit of freedom (both consciously and unconsciously) from our lives. Even when we think we reached freedom, do we actually?
Here is an example: Let’s say I am the richest woman in the world and can afford anything I want. There are several platforms that might take over here; law that restricts me from buying illegal things, my conscience that will eventually force me to give money to charity; the fear of running out of money and even the concept of money itself and the social need to use money as a trade tool (and trade in general).
Animals and plants, on the other hand, don’t think about these kind of things at all (from my understanding at least); they care very little about freedom or trade. This makes life so much simpler. Even if humans wanted to give up on all the different social agreements that build our society, it would be so hard for one simple reason: we THINK. Our thoughts is what builds and can easily destroy our society and eventually the entire human race. Much like the different science fiction movies with the robots that eventually kill all the humans.
Our lives are full of abstract concepts like that. Understanding that these are just all imaginary agreements we have as humans can make it easier (or harder) for us to live, now that we fully understand this fact. Would we ever reach freedom? I don’t think so. Why? It is very simple: when we leave one platform, a social agreement, we tend to think of it as freedom, yet we still struggle with hundreds and even thousands of other platforms and social agreements in our lives.
The only thing we can actually do is to enjoy these little victories, the little moments of freedom and be happy!
On women’s day we celebrate the of the existence and the hard work of different women in our lives. I spent the majority of this day with the most powerful woman in my life- my mom.
When I think about it on a deeper level, I am surrounded by strong women- my mom and sister, friends and colleagues. My job in the military is all about strong women working together, protecting the Israel’s borders and citizens. I am glad women’s day exists but I don’t need such a day to acknowledge the hard work of all these strong women in my life.
What does it say about us as a global community, who needs the existence of such a day to understand that women can achieve whatever they want and be whoever they want? Why don’t we have international men’s day? In the 21st century we would probably expect men and women to be equal, yet in fact the existence of women’s day only tells us that as a community we still have a very long journey until we finally reach equality.
I hope that in the near future the number of female doctors (surgeons in particular), politician, business owners, CEOs, military officers and so on, will equal their male companions. I hope that our future society will normalize the discussion about periods, body hair and sexuality. That we will teach men not to rape instead of teaching women self defense.
Until that happens, YES. We do need women’s day. I hope that our future generation would learn about such a day only in History class and would never understand the need of such a day.
For years I wanted to witness the the almond blossom, just like other Israelis on social media. For many reasons, this never happened until a few days ago. It was worth the long journey. Since most of my friends live in breathtaking places, I love going on small journeys with them.
Looking at the almond blossom I wondered how could I miss out on this view for so many years? I promised to explore the country a little bit more during my time off from the army. I love Israel. It has so much to offer and in so many aspects. The nature has many stories hidden in it, looking for those who are willing to listen. The Almonds have a story too. They aren’t necessarily telling the story of some ancient heroes living in Cna’an but rather the story of one’s dreams and aspirations.
For me, this experience meant finding meaning in the things I chose to do in life. Gathering all the thoughts into somethings that eventually makes sense to me. Honestly I am not there yet and probably will not have clear understanding until I am a bit older. With that being said, the almond blossom was in a way, a sign for me that some major changes are needed to be done- and for now, it is enough for me.
Sandra Chen 