A Zen Stoic, New York, NY (2026)

01/27/2026

If restlessness, fixations, envy,
and other shadows live in you,
they climbs with you whenever you go.

Surely, a change of scenery can lift our mood,
a hike can boost our health,
and it gives us space to breathe.
But if we expect mountain tops to be a magic cure,
we’ll likely be disappointed...

Oftentimes, what is mistaken as enlightenment,
is just escape in disguise.

The ego is clever.
When it can’t dominate through ambition,
it can disguise itself as transcendence.
All this just to avoid some uncomfortable truths...

Zen doesn’t remove you from life.
It brings you back into it.

📌 Save this for the moments when your mind rushes to escape.

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01/26/2026

Maybe it’s taking you longer
because you refused take some shortcuts
at any cost, even at the cost of humanity.

Because you didn’t hide the truth when it would’ve helped.
Didn’t aim to use people as stepping stones.
Didn’t twist yourself into something convenient just for profit or approval.

You chose to build without draining yourself.
To move slower, but with more authenticity.
To keep your name, your word, your conscience intact.

More often than not, that path isn't full of hype.
And perhaps the success of other's will push your envy buttons,
as it doesn’t reward you immediately.
But it does something quieter and more important
beneath the surface.

It lets you arrive without shame.
Without having to explain who you became to get there.

Some timelines are longer
because they’re honest.

And that’s not failure.
That’s integrity taking its time.

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01/25/2026

Accountability isn’t a skill you hand over.
It’s a mirror someone has to choose to look into.

For some, that mirror feels unbearable.
It threatens the stories they’ve told themselves.
The roles they hide behind.
The comfort of always having someone else to blame.

Growth demands friction.
It asks for discomfort, humility, and self-examination.
And not everyone wants that price.

So instead, they protect the illusion.
They rationalize.
They deflect.
They rewrite events until responsibility disappears.

And when faced with a choice,
to face themselves
or to lose a relationship...
many choose the latter.

Not necessarily because they don’t care.
But because facing themselves would
require becoming someone “new”, different...

Accountability changes you.
Avoidance crystalizes you
in a state that makes it hard to evolve,
learn faster, go deeper,
and nurture meaningful bonds.

And that choice, quiet as it is,
can shape everything that follows.

—
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01/23/2026

More often than not,
the right choice is the one that meets resistance inside us.

And it can be difficult because
it asks us to give up something tempting.

Sometimes that temptation looks like a shortcut.
More money, faster superficial results, cheap wins,
at the cost of our principles,
our humanity,
our ability to look at ourselves in the mirror.

Yes, we could make money quickly by exploiting others,
by twisting the truth,
by numbing our conscience and calling it “strategy.”

Or we can move slower,
but with good will.
Build something honest.
Earn without draining the light in our soul...
Sleep without rehearsing excuses in our head.
(Provided we have a conscience...)

The same applies when dealing with injustice.
A wrong no one wants to address.
A situation where silence would be easier
and speaking up would make things awkward.

Doing nothing protects our comfort.
Doing the right thing risks it.

That’s why the body tightens.
That’s why the mind searches for justifications.
Because, the "harder" often threatens
the image we’re used to maintaining.

But difficulty isn’t always a warning sign.
Often, it’s the signal that your values are being tested.

Yes, the right thing doesn't always
bring immediate relief.
But it often brings alignment.
And over time, a kind of inner peace
that shortcuts can’t buy.

01/22/2026

Resentment doesn’t explode all at once.
It corrodes.

Quietly.
Slowly.
Often, out of sight.

Like rust in an engine,
it builds from what was never said,
never addressed,
never repaired while
it still wasn’t very costly…

On the surface,
things may still seem to go well.
Conversations continue.
Routines stay pretty much the same.

But underneath, damage is spreading.
Resentment forms when needs are ignored,
boundaries are crossed,
or compromises are made without honesty.

Left unchecked, it doesn’t stay small.
It crystalizes.
It leaks into tone, distance, indifference.
Until one day, the relationship breaks down
and no one remembers exactly when it started.

Maintenance matters.
Speak early.
Repair often,
even though it might not feel comfortable.
It’s often uncomfortable for the ego.

Clear what’s building before it becomes structural.

What we don’t address doesn’t disappear.
It builds up.
It can eat us from the inside,
and transform what once felt
as home, to something
that you see as intoxicating,
or worse, without life...

—
📌 In the book 📓8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨
I break down the subtle dynamics that keep repeating,
so you can spot them early.

🔗 Available on Amazon ⬇️

https://amzn.to/3LyQ9BD

01/20/2026

𝙋𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙖𝙙 𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖.
Through hardships to the stars.

Here I don't want to label struggle as romantic.
And definitely not define pain as noble on its own.
The thing is that life has a way of individuating us
through some resistances it places before us.

Oftentimes, the strength we admire in others
was not always chosen as a first option.
It was cultivated under pressure,
in moments that needed adaptation,
patience, courage, responsibility, restraint.

And the sooner we understand this,
the less we fight reality.
And the less we fight reality,
the less unnecessary stress we add to the load.

It can become a vicious cycle...
Excess resistance creates excess tension.
Excess tension floods the system.
When stress hormones run unchecked,
clarity fades, energy leaks, recovery slows.

But when hardship is met with understanding,
the nervous system steadies.
The body organizes itself.
The mind stops wasting energy on protest
and redirects it toward growth.

That’s when resilience develops faster.
That’s when virtues stop being only ideals
and become lived capacities.

And as we grow stronger inside,
we’re able to reach higher,
explore deeper
achieve more,
and give more without breaking entirely.

Surely, the path upward isn’t smooth.
But when walked with awareness,
it becomes sustainable.

—
⤴️Share this with a friend who is processing their way out of a tough experience.

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01/17/2026

Strength without understanding may turn reckless.
Knowledge without courage can stay unused in many occasions.

Fire forges you.
Knowledge tempers you.

Without the first, you may hesitate when it’s time to act.
Without the second, you will often fight without knowing why.

The balance matters.
Because the world doesn’t need more force without thought,
or more thought without backbone.

It needs people strong enough to act,
and wise enough to know what is worth fighting for.

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01/16/2026

You will stop at many branches,
sometimes to rest and gather your energy,
sometimes to enjoy the view,
and sometimes to connect with the ground,
and you can live without clinging to any of those branches.

Not because you are careless,
but because you are aligned with your nature.

You don't second-guess the sky.
You don't overthink the wind.
you move when it’s time to move.
Rest when it’s time to rest.
And trust the intelligence that lives deeper than thought.

When you are deeply attuned to yourself,
you don’t need constant reassurance,
external permission,
or someone else to tell you when to go.

You leave no heavy footprint behind
because you’re not dragging fear,
artificial identity, or regret with you.

You move.
And life moves with you.

PS: This description is more metaphoric than the ones
I usually write.
It's not without purpose.
I let you meditate with it.
The result will be something unique to your circumstances.
Something that can't be taught,
but lived...)

—
📌 Save this for days when impatience tries to steal your peace.

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01/14/2026

Like the famous Cherokee tale of two wolves, this illustration is symbolic too.

And besides the slight comedy nuance in this post, both the tale of two wolves, and the illustration shown in this post represent the same idea in essence.

🤔 But let us stick to this images here for today. Do you observe something similar in you?

If so, what do you think both these figures represent?

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01/13/2026

…

01/12/2026

Full paragraph for more context:

“A warrior of light knows that certain moments repeat themselves.
He often finds himself faced by the same problems and situations, and seeing these difficult situations return, he grows depressed, thinking that he is incapable of making any progress in life.
‘I’ve been through all this before,’ he says to his heart.
‘Yes, you have been through all this before,’ replies his heart. ‘But you have never been beyond it.’
Then the warrior realises that these repeated experiences have but one aim: to teach him what he does not want to learn”

― Paulo Coelho, Warrior of the Light

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01/11/2026

Often, the pain in relationships
doesn’t come only from having wounds.
Most of us do.

It comes from letting those wounds take the wheel.

From choosing closeness based on familiarity, not health.
From mistaking intensity for genuine connection.
From tolerating what hurts because, on some level, it feels known.
Form choosing from neediness, driven by unresolved wounds,
like fear of abandonment, fear of scarcity, fear of not being enough.

When old pain decides who we attach to,
more often than not, we don’t choose partners,
friends, or dynamics that are healthy.
Instead, we repeat patterns.

And repetition feels safer than uncertainty,
even when it costs us our inner peace, and fulfillment.

Certainly, healing doesn’t mean pretending the wounds aren’t there.
It means learning to pause before they decide for us.
To ask whether what feels "familiar" is actually healthy.
And to choose from awareness, not the impulse of our wounds.

Because wounds don’t just hurt.
When left unattended,
they quietly shape our standards, our boundaries,
the carrier, friendship, and love we believe we deserve.

Also, there are times where wounds speak
the language of the Past.
So, when a wound dictates a decision,
it is usually an attempt to fix history
that is already past,
and we tend to attach on that past shadow.

And ironically, even though people think that
clinging to this shadow will save them from
their pain, it is fact the very thing that
makes the pain worse.

On the other hand,
choosing from conscious standards,
disciplines us emotionally
and strengthens our character.

🔄 Share it with a friend who needs to hear this.

💾 Save it as a reminder

➕ Follow for more daily reflections

👇If this resonates, the book📓📓8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨.
explores how these wounds form, and how to stop letting them choose your relationships.

Available on Amazon ⬇️

https://amzn.to/3LyQ9BD

A Zen Stoic

01/27/2026

01/26/2026

01/25/2026

01/23/2026

01/22/2026

01/20/2026

01/17/2026

01/16/2026

01/14/2026

01/13/2026

01/12/2026

01/11/2026

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