Alma gemela

It's Valentine's day. My last night's skyping with a very special person, who's unfortunately on the other side of the world put me in a bit of romantic mood. No matter how everybody is trying to convince everyone that Valentine's day is a bull or that they celebrate it throughout the year, nevertheless it's still a holiday of Love. Commercial or not, no one minds some extra affection and spoiling. But unfortunately not everybody is happily in love. I know how hard it is to be left heart-broken, but time always healed everything and you'll be back on the right track in no time!! If you think you just lost your soul mate, well you might have, but do you know what a true soul mate is? Just one perspective more, that can help with your broken heart, for the rest, chocolate will take care of.

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.

A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.

A soul mate purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master."

Eat, pray, love - Elizabeth Gilbert

Spend the Holiday of Love with the ones you love! Love people who least deserve it and help them out with loving them unconditionally and without any prejudices. Share love and spread it all around yourselves and put LOVE in each single aspect of your life. 

Best regards from sLOVEnia,

"I tried to paint you, but colours just weren't beautiful enough" Beyonce

Mayita

Have fun while building!

"Happiness is a journey, not a destination!" Ben Sweetland

This photo was taken somewhere between Kampot and Kep in Cambodia. This awesome girl Eimear and myself rented motorbikes and hit the road through the rural countryside, heading down to the coast. We had to stop when we saw these little fellas. Kids. Innocent. Happy. Curious. Without any prejudices, without a single drop of evil inside them. So pure. So inspirational!

All of my jobs lately relate to children. If I'm not working with them, I make sure I'm surrounded by them. There is nothing like child's love and affection. Unconditional love, sincere smile and approving look, which makes everything so easy. They love you for who you are, not for what you have been or what you'll about to become. There's no past and no future for them. Only present moments. And they fill all these moments with excitment and this enourmous need to have fun all the time! So what went wrong, where!? When did we stop enjoying each single day!? And forgot to smile each single minute?

When I was living in New Zealand I was working as an au pair. Au pair is a french expression for live-in nanny with household duties. The prime task is to take care of a child. Me and 4,5 years old Gracie were having a play hour and were about to build a certain shape out of Legos. But she did exactly the opposite. She was putting together the pieces they were not supposed to be put together. I was getting anxious because I wanted to build a legit shape and teach her how to follow the instructions. But then I just stopped for a while. I observed her and I realised she was having fun with building something random, similar to, well, nothing. But she was having so much fun, she didn't care it was random. I smiled. Sometimes the goal itself doesn't matter, if we're not having fun while achieving it. From time to time we have to throw the instructions away and have little bit of fun. It doesn't matter either we achieve our goal or not, because sometimes having fun while doing it, is a goal itself. 

That helped me a lot back then. I was just learning how to surf in my spare time. My only goal was to go from a longboard to a short stick, to ride big waves and be in the line-up like all the other surfers were. I struggled a lot, falling all the time, getting annoyed because I wasn't getting nowhere. But when I looked it from a different perspective, everything changed. What's the point of surfing, if I'm not enjoying while falling off and while trying to stand up on the board. So I stopped. Not surfing! I stopped trying to "build a shape out of my Legos"  and started to have fun "while building it." After few months I was surfing on a reef in Bali, I did manage to come to the line-up. I'm not surfing on a short stick, but my board did lose few inches in the length. But most of all, I'm having a ball each single time I fall off and get smashed in the waves. I don't want to surf on a short stick and on big waves anymore, I prefer to surf fun waves!

So YES, set your goals HIGH, dream BIG, but don't forget to have fun while walking towards them. Otherwise it's not worth it. "Life is what happens to you while you're bussy making other plans" once John Lennon said. And sometimes the goal itselt will lose it's importance, because the road you'll walk while going towards it, will be so much more exciting and satisfying. I have my goals set high, but if one day I don't end up as a National Geographic journalist, I'm most certantly going to have fun while visiting writting courses around the globe and meeting photographers and journalists. I'm going to have fun while writting and I'll put all my heart in each single article, even if it won't be published in a recognized magazine. I'm going to enjoy in each single shot i'm about to take and enjoy each single research, interview and debate I'm going to share with people. Isn't that what's all about? What actually matters!? To be happy and satisfied with what you're doing? 

Set your goals high, go for them, but who gives a damn about not scoring a goal, if you're having a ball while shooting! 

Happy "building" to y'all!!;))

Mayita

Spiritual satisfaction

From time to time I get a bit melancholic...I'm not exactly sure why. I probably consume all the positive energy and before going to bed I'm left with no energy at all. It's not that I'm tired after a long day. I don't think about past or future either. There's nothing wrong in my life, I'm just left unspoken and with hardly any emotions. I'm feeling kind of hollow and empty. But not in the bad way. Ever happend that to you? 

In the evenings like these I look up for some inspirational quotes. Something that gives me a spirirtual satisfaction...or just a simple confirmation I'm doing the right things in life...

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"Do not worry if you have build castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."  - Henry David Thoreau

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that is how I succeed."  - Michael Jordan

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right!" -  Henry Ford

"You make a living by what you earn. You make a life by what you give." - Winston Churchill

Good night!

Mayita

The Essence of dreams

Moto tour with my idol, travelling legend, Zvone Šeruga (not the one on the pic, tho)

Travelling the god damn world!!

Something about dreams...about fighting for your dreams...following and LIVING your dreams. On the road I am meeting so many people, who inspire me and affect my life in all possible ways. I admire them and I learn from them. But as well, I'm meeting so many people who doesn't believe in their dreams and won't do a single thing to achieve them. Why? Because it's too hard! Because you have to step out of your comfort zone, have loads of courage and actually DO something. Each beginning is hard, remember that! It wont be easy, never! You have to sacrifice a lot, sometimes your free time, sometimes friendships, sometimes money. You sweat, you cry, you fail, you don't get recognition when you deserve it and get rejected numerous times. But imagine, someday you might succeed, not might, you WILL. If you set your mind, put all your energy and all your life into something, believe me you're going to get it. 

All the crazy stuff in life...

OK, so let's start it like this. We all have idols, right? We all have someone to look up to, someone we admire, or even worship, don't we? And our idols are usually very successful, they love what they're doing and they seem to be perfect at doing it. A lot of people feel underestimated because of them. In the way "I'll never be as good as them...". And you know what? You won't, you'll never be as good as them. You'll be DIFFERENT, not better, not worse, simply different. What I'm trying to say is, don't compare yourself to others. If someone is good at something you love doing as well, try to learn from them, rather than feeling down because you're never going to be like them. "You were born an original, don't die a copy" John Mason

My mexican telenovela

You won't try yourself as a photographer, because photography became so popular these days, and everybody is doing it. But if you love to photograph and you believe you have a feeling for it, DO IT! Don't let something you love doing get away, just because you think everyone will do it better than you. It's so stupid, you could miss out an oportunity of becoming a proffesional photographer! If you love cooking and you're thinking of becoming a professional cook, well you better start trying out new recipes, apply for different jobs, cook for your mom, cook for your neighbours, let them tell you their opinion! Work on that decorations! Learn about different cousines, french, thai, chinese. There is so much to learn - and guess what, the more you know, the more you value! So don't wait a minute to start learning about your dreams and go for a hunt!! Don't limit yourself with the idea tha Michelin star is something you will never get! Or that National Geographic or Olympic games are impossible to achieve! Dream BIG! If you want to be a dancer, DANCE, even if your mom expects you to be a lawyer. If you want to be a journalist, then BE a journalist, even if you lack a degree in it. Do not come up with excuses such as "I cannot do this" or "there's no future in this", or "there are plenty of people doing it already!" "If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse" Jim Rohn

Camp counselor in North Carolina

When I was working in camp in the States, one day a really nice mid-age woman droped by to our camp. She was a storyteller and she was leading a small workshop for our girl scouts. In her speach she said something like this: "I always loved writting and telling stories. I was writting  stories all the time, I was telling stories all around the country. One day, I started to make money out of my storytelling. And you should do the same! Make your money out of something you love doing!" Isn't that great, doing something you love doing for the rest of your life and be payed for it at the same time? I still remember American writter Dan, I've met in Mexico. He said to me "If you don't know what would you like to do in your life, ask yourself what you would love to do for free!"

Work in yachting industry really breaks down your limits.

So if I understand correctly, hobby - your career! It might sound stupid or even impossible, but that's not true. If you say it's impossible, you are already setting limits to your dreams. But remember - there are no limits in achieving your dreams! If you limited yourself, remember, YOU did, no one else did! And now you'll say, that sometimes there are legal limits, there are evil people involved, boo-hoo-hoo. Yes, there are legal things and different people involved, I never said it will be easy! If it would be so easy to achieve your dreams, well then I guess the whole world would be living in a harmony, right? As I said, every beginning is hard. There are so many barriers to go through. And there are so many falls. You try and you faill, you try again and fail even deeper. So many disappointments, so many broken hopes. So be ready for that! Be ready for years of sweating, doing things with minimum or no result. But believe, if you have put in sooo much, eventually you will start to gain. You will become wiser and more experianced. You will suceed, you will live in all the glory of your hard work and hopeless moments. 

Don't stop believing, just because everybody else is saying you can't do it. "Don't let small minds convience you that your dreams are too big!" Be happy with your life. One way to achieve that is with doing what you love. And when you love doing something, you're probably be very good at it. So why not try it? Just try it at first. Or would you prefer to ask yourself for the rest of your life "What would happend, if...?" Yes, you will be feeling uncomfortable and you will be afraid of unknown. But don't be afraid to try. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to be afraid. 

See you later, alligator,

Mayita