A Zen Stoic, New York, NY (2025)

11/12/2025

Anger is often grief in disguise.
It’s what forms when pain crystalizes over time,
when sorrow isn’t given the space to breathe,
when loss is carried too long without being named.

We lash out because it’s easier than breaking down.
We clench our fists because it SEEMS
safer than letting ourselves feel what’s beneath.

Of course, that doesn’t make anger harmless,
it can still wound, destroy, and distance.
But understanding its root allows compassion to enter.
For ourselves.
For others.

Because when you see the grief beneath someone’s rage,
you stop seeing a monster,
and start seeing a story...
a heart that didn’t know where else to put its pain.

So before you condemn your anger,
or that of others,
listen to it.
Ask what loss it’s guarding.
What disappointment, betrayal, or memory it’s trying to protect.

When you build bridges of understanding with your own emotions,
you stop fighting yourself,
and start healing the parts that only needed to be seen.

💾Save this post as a reminder:
Your anger isn’t always destruction, sometimes, it’s a cry for recognition.

🔁 Share this with someone who mistakes anger for darkness.

11/11/2025

For those who don’t know him, Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941–1996) was Polish filmmaker, philosopher of cinema, a poet of fate, chance, and the quiet moral struggles that define what it means to be human.

His films don’t just give answers, they ask questions. About love, freedom, conscience, and the invisible threads that bind us all.

👇His work and some of the ideas he deeply explored:

🔹 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙮

- The Decalogue (1989): Ten stories where ethics meet emotion, and right and wrong blur into humanity.

🔹 𝙁𝙖𝙩𝙚 & 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙡

- Blind Chance (1981): One missed train, three possible lives.

-The Double Life of Véronique (1991): Two women, one soul; a meditation on destiny and spiritual connection.

🔹𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣 & 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙮𝙨𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡

- Mirrors, doubles, and silent witnesses: symbols of a world guided by mystery.

🔹𝙀𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙮 & 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

- Three Colors: Blue, White, Red (1993–1994)

Talks about liberty, equality, fraternity reimagined through grief, love, and compassion.

His Cinema was subtle, yet soulful. It’s like every frame asks: 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙪𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣?

👉 Have you watched any of his work?

If so, which ones and what you thought of them in the comments?

😊 I’d love to hear your impressions.

👉 Follow for more reflections

⬆️ Share this video with a friend who needs to hear this!

11/10/2025

In love, we give someone the power to harm us,
and trust they won’t use it.

That’s what makes love both
terrifying (for some) and sacred.

Genuine, sincere love asks for exposure,
for us to reveal the vulnerable, unguarded parts
we keep hidden from the world.

And no matter how strong or wise we become,
there’s no way to offer that without risk.

You can’t love deeply while clinging to absolute ̶s̶e̶c̶u̶r̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶ control.
You can’t open your heart while building walls around it.

Yes, someone might misuse that power.
They might misunderstand your openness,
mistake your care for weakness,
or turn your vulnerability into a weapon.

But choosing to love anyway,
knowing that possibility exists,
isn’t foolishness.
It’s courage. It's a strong backbone.

Because the easiest thing in the world is to shut down.
To let fear disguise itself as wisdom.
To convince yourself that isolation is strength.

But behind those walls, love withers.
The air grows toxic.
The soul becomes suffocated by its own defense.

To love sincerely is to walk into uncertainty with awareness.
To say: I know the risk, but I choose connection over comulsive control.

That’s not naivety, it’s bravery.
And it’s the only soil where real love can grow.

11/09/2025

Many people think the grass is always greener somewhere else,
that peace, purpose, or fulfillment always live in some other place,
some other person, some other projection of themselves.

But more often than not, the truth is simpler.
The grass is greener where we water it.

What we nurture grows.
What we neglect fades.

It’s easy to give up, get bored,
and chase the next thing,
the new environment, the new relationship, the new start...
believing the thrill of something new alone will heal what’s missing.

But if we bring the same patterns, the same restlessness,
the same unhealed mind into new soil,
we'll most likely recreate the same emptiness in a different field.

Growth doesn’t come from escape.
It never will.
Escapes can help to catch our breath,
but not to heal.
Because things have a way to catch up with us,
often in the more unexpected ways.

Therefore, genuine growth comes from presence.
From tending to what we have now,
with care, with dedication, patience, and awareness.

Water your discipline.
Water your gratitude.
Water your relationships with honesty.
And the same ground you once called barren
might start to bloom again.

The thing is that
you don’t need greener pastures.
You need deeper roots.

11/08/2025

🌀 Book Launch Alert 🌀

I’m very happy to announce that my new book
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗰: 8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙎𝙩𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨.
is finally finished!

This project came from years of observing, studying, writing, inner work and healing.

I know perhaps I got your attention with the bold title,
but let’s be honest… “𝙩𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘” 𝙞𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙚𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙮,
𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣.
And patterns can be broken.

Many people carry patterns that once protected them.
Defenses that helped them survive…
but now keep them stuck in loops,
repeating the similar scenarios.

They shut down when things get hard.
They try to control what you fear losing.
They please others so they won’t leave, and more.

None of that makes them a bad person.
It just means there are still wounds steering their reactions.

Healing and inner work begins when one stops judging themselves
and start understanding why they do what they do.

That’s what this book is about:
seeing the hidden loops that shape our choices
and learning how to break them.

🔻
✦ Available now on Amazon
✦ Launch offer: $9.99 until November 30 (regular price $19.99) ⏳
🔺

If you’re ready to stop reacting from pain
and start responding with clarity and strength
this book will be like a friendly counselor that will help you in the direction.

If you’re ready to stop repeating the same story
and start becoming more whole,
you will find the method here very helpful.

No shortcuts, no tricks.
Just honest inner work.

👉 Book link: https://amzn.to/3LyQ9BD

11/07/2025

We don't do this because we’re foolish,
(or at least not always)
but because pain somehow bonds with pain,
where there's no awareness guiding it.

Wounds often attract "mirrors".
And our shadow, in its strange ways,
draws us to those who will expose what still needs inner work.

Sometimes the lesson isn’t just in what we gain from someone,
but also, above all, in what they awaken in us...
like the unhealed parts, the suppressed emotions,
the shadows we thought we’d outgrown.

Jungian teachings note that,
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious.”

And that’s what these encounters do.
They pull the shadow out of hiding,
through conflict, heartbreak, disappointment,
until we finally see what’s been shaping our choices all along.

I know, it’s rarely pleasant, but it’s real.
The “wrong” people are often the right catalysts.

They reveal where we still give away power,
where we confuse love with control,
loyalty with fear,
acceptance with avoidance.

Eventually, with awareness,
we can break the pattern .
We can stop choosing from the wound
and start choosing from the best part of us.

And when that happens,
we realize even the painful connections
were part of a greater guidance,
not mistakes,
but mirrors that helped us meet ourselves more completely.

—
📘 If this resonates, I explore this deeply in my upcoming book,
“8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨. ⬇️

https://amzn.to/3LyQ9BD

11/06/2025

Imagine your inner world as a garden.

At first, it can be overgrown,
w**ds of old fears, roots of resentment,
seeds planted by others that you never meant to grow.

The gardener in you starts with patience.
He observes.
He pulls one w**d at a time,
not with anger, but with understanding.

He knows that every w**d once had a purpose,
it grew to protect the soil from something harsher.
But now, it’s time to clear the space
so something new can take root.

Then comes the warrior.
Because not every part of you will let go easily.
Some roots are stubborn,
some shadows resist the light.

The warrior steps in when the gardener’s hands begin to tremble.
He cuts through illusion, defends the work,
faces the discomfort most people turn away from.
He doesn’t fight out of hatred,
but out of devotion to truth.

Together, they restore balance.
The gardener nurtures what’s fragile and sacred.
The warrior protects them.

And slowly, the garden begins to breathe again,
not perfect, not finished,
but alive.
Everything you plant is a new pattern,
every w**d you pull a released one.

This is the real inner work:
gentle, yet fierce,
vulnerable at times, yet disciplined,
the harmony of creation and destruction within the same soul.

Because to tend your inner garden,
you must learn when to plant,
and when to wield the sword.

—
📘 If this resonates, I explore this deeply in my upcoming book,
“8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨.”

It reveals how trauma bonds, victimization, and hidden emotional payoffs keep us stuck
and how to finally break those cycles through awareness, boundaries, and self-responsibility.

🔗 Available by the end of this week.

💾 Save this as a reminder: both the gardener and the warrior in you are sacred.
🔁 Share this with someone who’s learning to balance gentleness with strength.

11/03/2025

Some people don’t want healing,
they are addicted to sympathy that protects their comfort.

It sounds harsh, but some people don’t actually want to get better, at least not consciously.
They unconsciously (more often than not)
have found comfort in their actual state.

They want relief without responsibility.
They want empathy without effort.
They want to be seen as broken,
because “broken” gives them a kind of identity,
a story, a role that excuses staying still.
It gives attention...

As I said, this is not always conscious.
For many, pain has become familiar, it feels like home.
The turmoil they complain about gives them structure.
The victim role keeps them safe from accountability.
And as long as the problem gives them meaning,
the solution will always feel threatening.

That’s why you can’t drag someone into healing.
They have to reach a point of clarity where they finally ask:
𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙢 𝙄 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨?

The thing is that every attachment, even to suffering,
serves a function.
Sometimes it protects us from change.
Sometimes it saves us from confronting guilt, grief, or fear.
But until a person sees that, and chooses to face it,
advice, love, logic will not reach them easily, if not at all.

True healing begins with surrender, acceptance,
the quiet decision to stop identifying with the wound.
To stop saying, “This is just who I am,”
and start asking, “Who could I become if I let this go?”

You can walk beside someone, but you can’t walk for them.
You can’t teach inner strength to someone still devoted to their chains.

And that’s the hard truth of growth:
awareness is an invitation, not a rescue.
—
📘 If this resonates, I explore this deeply in my upcoming book,
“8 𝙏𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙘 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙥𝙨.”

It reveals how trauma bonds, victimization, and hidden emotional payoffs keep us stuck
and how to finally break those cycles through awareness, boundaries, and self-responsibility.

🔗 Available by the end of this week.

🔁 Share this with someone who carries the weight of helping everyone

11/02/2025

You can care deeply… and still lose yourself

Because sometimes, what looks like caring
is actually self-erasure...

In the video, the man keeps pouring water into the woman’s glass.
At first, it’s care.
You a slight smile at the beginning,
which represent how the pouring of water
feels at first.
It seems/feels like care.

But soon that smile is frozen.
Without realizing,
what seemed like cring becomes too much.

The glass overflows. She’s drenched.
He doesn’t stop,
he even climbs higher, keeps pouring,
and "wipes" the mess he caused.

That’s a great symbolic representation of
what it feels like to lose your boundaries.
You keep saying “it’s okay,”
because you’re afraid that saying “enough”
might make you seem ungrateful, cold, or unkind.

You tell yourself: “They mean well.”
But deeo down you know.
The uneasiness, the fatigue, the quiet resentment,
they’re signals that your limits have been crossed.

Psychologist Karen Horney called this the 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮,
the one who moves toward others to feel safe.
They please, over-give, and suppress their truth,
hoping to earn love or peace.
But in doing so, they become "invisible".
And invisibility always breeds silent anger.

That overflowing glass isn’t just water.
It’s every unspoken “no.”
Every forced smile.
Every time you made yourself smaller to keep someone comfortable.

Rememeber this friendly advice, dear reader:
You don’t owe anyone your overflow.
Real love doesn’t require you to "disappear".

Amd boundaries aren’t walls,
they’re a manifestation of your will,
a strength that keeps you whole.

So if you’re the one always giving,
remember this:
You can care deeply without losing yourself.
You can love others and still protect your own peace.
---
💾 Save this for when you feel guilt for saying “no.”
🔄Share it with someone who gives too much.

Because sometimes, the reminder that you’re allowed to stop the pouring
is what someone needs to finally breathe again. 🙏

11/01/2025

When you’re not sure, flip a coin.
Not to let chance decide for you,
but to let truth speak from the space within you.

Because in that small moment,
as the coin spins through the air,
you’ll feel something,
a quiet pull toward one side.
That’s not luck. That’s clarity.

Your mind might still be tangled in logic,
but your heart already knows.
The coin just gives you permission to listen.

🪙Then, when it lands,
don’t rush to act.
Stay still.
Notice what rises in you.
Do you feel relief? Warmth? Regret?
Those feelings are direction markers,
pointing to the choice that aligns with your deeper self.

This is more than a trick of chance.
It’s a kind of meditation.
A way to bypass noise, doubt, and overthinking,
and reconnect with the part of you
that already holds the answer...
the one that’s always been there,
quietly waiting for you to listen.

10/31/2025

Every once in a while, it’s good to pour a little water into your own boat,
not to drown, but to see who starts to swim away.

This isn’t about mistrust or testing people with paranoia.
It’s about observation, about learning who
stands with you when the surface isn’t calm.

Because when everything’s smooth, everyone wants a seat.
But when life rocks a little, you see who holds the line and who looks for the exit.

People reveal themselves in subtle ways:

- When you’re no longer shining as bright, not because you failed, but because attention shifted. Do they fade too, or still show up?
- When money, power, or conflicting interests come into play. Do they stay loyal, or start calculating?
- When you’re struggling, low, unseen. Do they reach out, or stay silent until you rise again?
- When gossip spreads. Do they defend your name, stay neutral, or join in quietly?
- When disagreement happens. Do they still respect you, or try to win by wounding you?
- When plans fall apart. Do they adapt, or start assigning blame?

Storms strip away illusion.
They show who’s with you for the journey,
and who’s only there for the view.

So don’t fear a little water in your boat.
Let it rise just enough to reveal the truth.
Because loyalty that only survives calm seas
was never loyalty at all.

—
💭 Save this for when you need a reminder of who truly stands beside you.
🔁 Send this to someone who values depth over convenience.

10/30/2025

Don’t allow people change who you are
just so you can become what’s convenient for them.

Yes, every relationship asks for compromise.
For understanding, for patience, for small acts of adaptation.
But that’s not what this post is about.

This is about when someone tries to reshape you,
in an unnatural way, so they can feel more comfortable.
For instance, when they ask you to neglect your passions
so you can work to help them achieve theirs.

When they make you question your intuition,
your reasoning, your boundaries,
so they can be more clear to control
through gaslighting.

Or, when “love” or “loyalty” starts to mean silence.
That’s not connection.
That’s control disguised as care.

It’s the same pattern in toxic relationships,
in manipulative cults,
even in the way society sometimes
rewards compliance over authenticity.

They want the version of you that’s easier to manage,
not the one that thinks, questions, or stands firm.

But the moment you give away your individuality,
you give away your power.
And once they’ve "reshaped" your character,
they can convince you that the mold
they created is who you really are.

Don’t fall for that illusion.

Believe that you have all the right to compromise without self-erasing.
You have all the right to care without surrendering your center.

So adapt, but don’t let others
turn you into a spineless creature.
Listen, but don’t lose your voice.
Meet others halfway,
if you care for them,
but don’t abandon yourself on the road.

Because the highest form of connection
is not when someone changes you to fit them,
it’s when both grow without losing their essence.

—
💭 Save this reminder for when you feel pulled to please.

A Zen Stoic

11/12/2025

11/11/2025

11/10/2025

11/09/2025

11/08/2025

11/07/2025

11/06/2025

11/03/2025

11/02/2025

11/01/2025

10/31/2025

10/30/2025

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category