Little details can make a big difference if they happen at the right moment and we are receptive enough.
It is lovely how nice and supporting words can change our approach to an event. It's been only a week since I started my radio rubric on e-volution radio platform, but I have already received several positive feedbacks from my friends.
Guys, you have been amazing: so many words of support, love, and inspiration!
You might say, they're you friends, they're just being kind with you; yes, you're not that bad, but get off your horse, girl!
Well, I think you're right.
No one out there cares about this rubric, which is lovely, nice, and funny; that's okay, but there are thousands of people doing the same thing. That's true, but there's nothing to struggle about. When I talk on the microphone, no matter how many people are listening - two, three, ten, fifty - it feels so cool.
For me, feeling motivated in what I'm doing, and the fact that this is actually happening are already great achievements.
And I'm fulfilled.
To be honest, it doesn't really matter how it will last - I do enjoy, and in those moments in which I'm in the radio I feel complete, boundless, and timeless. Sincererly speaking. And I really do wish you could find something that makes you experience those feelings.
Many things have happened this week. First of all, winter came to Bulgaria: cities are again covered in snow - which, until a week ago, was a prerogative of the highest peaks. It is nice to see snow on Central Balkans, but it's even nicer to see it on town rooftops, and to see sunset on completely white fields. That's how it's supposed to be in February.
But there's not only the snow. Some warmer things are making my days better. What's warmer than give love and, in return, feeling loved, appreciated, and knowing that your friends are making small steps towards the achievement of their goals?
That's why I feel happy when I got to know that my friend Salma started her project about healthy food platform (check it out, I've tried her cuisine and I guarantee she's a great chef!). She's working on this project and I wish her good luck and success. Keep doing what you love!
That's why I am so happy and proud that my friend Kristina is very close to achieve her goal. Kristina is working hard to organize a photo exhibition in Sofia about the topic of loneliness. It's still a taboo topic but Kristina is very brave and she collected stories from people who wanted to share their experiences, and will make a photo exhibition and create a web page with their stories. When you do something straight from your heart, people smile back at you. She is obtaining a huge response to her fundraising to substain her photo exibition about loneliness. And I am really looking forward to hosting her in my radio show, so stay tuned for more news.
And, last but not least, I am so happy because I got a new logo for my project! I am very grateful to Agita, which spend some of her time working on the logo - you can see it's beautiful, isn't it?
The most valuable thing is that Agita did it spontaneously and you can imagine what a nice suprise was to read her message - the fact that she is on holiday in Jordan makes it even more valuable - thank you Agita for making some time for me! Lots of love to you!
I have the feeling that if we surround ourselves by supportive, caring and inspiring people, some big wonders can happen. Open your heart, give love, and you'll receive love back.
I must admit that I really got into this project, and after my first podcast I started collecting stories and inspirational facts, and I was constantly writing down thoughts and impressions on a notebook.
I found so many inspiring news, and I shared them during my radio show last Tuesday. Here's a couple of motivational stories I've talked about.
The first story is related to hip-hop, solidarity, kids, education, and much more. How I found it out? That's a nice anecdote. Some years ago - if I don't get wrong, it was 2015 - I was walking on the sea promenade in Naples, and I stopped at a guy who was doing some freestyle. I really do love rap, so I stood there for around 15 minutes or more. I was very impressed by the enthusiasm and the skills of this guy - which turned out to be a quite known rapper in town, named Oyoshe. Guys, if you don't know about him, check it out.
It's been a while since I have been following him on social media, and few months ago I found out that he has been involved into something really amazing. Together with other Italian rappers, break-dancers, and cultural mediators, they started the project Gaza is Alive. The aim of this project is to get closer to the kids in Gaza, deal with their psychological suffering related to the devastating effects of the war, and provide artistic, psychologic and social tools to the teachers. The team has been to the Camps Breakers crew, a break-dancers crew in the Gaza strip, and during two weeks of full immersion into the hip-hop culture (graffiti, break-dance, rapping and music production), they got closer to the kids and created something really meaningful. When we have a microphone, a beat, and feel the vibes of the music, we feel like we are able to say those thing that we can't express in real life. Rap is a powerful tool of expression. Music makes us powerful! Music is amazing! In this interview (only available in Italian language), the team talks about expectations, objectives and impressions about the global experience. Since the first day, they received a great feedback by the kids. Teaching the basis of hip-hop culture, trying some freestyle all together, playing football on the beach and singing songs in a positive environment: those are the moments that make the team happiest. The experience has now come to an end, but the memories of the project are still fresh! There's another happy news about it - Oyoshe recorded and produced an album, Gaza is Alive Experience Album, which includes rap and instrumental songs sampled from Palestinian music and also involved the young Palestinians who participated in the hip hop-pedagogical workshops of the project.
What makes hip-hop so unique? I guess it gives us the possibility of expressing ourselves through a flux of thoughts, to create powerful beats and to be spontaneous. When we rap, we can really express the most intimate parts of ourselves, it can be related to a sort of therapy.
For the next motivational story, we'll fly to Japan.
Kamikatsu is a remote and small village with 2000 inhabitans, but has got a great ambitions. The village's residents aim to become the first village in the world to 100% recicle their wastes. They're already on the right track as, at the beginning of the 2020, the 81% of waste is recycled. People are obliged to separate their waste and to divide it into 45 different (and super-specific!) categories (like aluminium cans, steel cans, paper cartons, paper flyers); furthermore, they have to bring their waste to a collecting station (only old people who don't have a car are exempt) - this clearly has a positive side effect, that is, no camions are involved! That's not all: in the city, there's also an exchange place where people can bring their old clothes and furniture, and take what other people don't need. It took time for the people to get used to it, but this is now routine. Amazing, isn't it?
I was reading this article while I was drinking a coffee on a sunny (and cold!) Sunday in Plovdiv city center. I found it very inspiring, no doubts about it, and it immediately got chosen as one of my Tuesday's motivational stories.
But I want to warn you guys. It's so hard to embrace positive change and adopt a habit for more than 30 days. Trying to wake up every morning at 6 a.m. to do jogging and meditation sessions, quitting smoking, starting a healthy diet... that's all so hard - how can we start to separate our rubbish into aluminium cans, steel cans, glass cans, plastic cans, paper cans? Too many cans: my head's already exploding!
Kamikatsu is a relatively small village, can we make it in a bigger city, like Plovdiv? There's plenty of tourists all year long, hotels, restaurants, universities, travellers. Is it utopia?
Well, we can't change all at once, but starting with implementing little habits in our daily routine we can definitely make one step forward. What if we don't throw the aluminum foil that we used to store our sandwich, and reuse it? What if we use tetra pack from milk to make pencil cases? They don't have to be fancy, but to perform the task for which they're meant to be: storing our pens and pencils.
What if instead of complaining, we start from our flats? If we are able to change our small world, we can definitely feel better, more motivated, more conscious, a little more satisfied about our small achievements. And that's already a big improvement.
Take a look at the cute piggy bank I've done with a plastic bottle. It is so pretty that I even made one for my friend's birthday, and she liked it so much that she started using it. I saved one plastic bottle, and I made someone smile.
Little moments of joy during our busy, scheduled days.
That's all for today, I'll be back with my podcast next Tuesday at 14:00 Bulgarian time, 13:00 CET - Central European Time.
Warm hugs from cold Bulgaria.
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