The streets have already been lit with Christmas lights. Last weekend was supposed to be a shopping weekend, to take advantage of the Black Friday offers, that is, the beginning of the Christmas campaign, which is going to be different, whether we want it to be or not. I went out to try to imbibe that spirit that every year encourages me, creates butterflies in my stomach, and makes me feel happy, but I didn’t succeed. Walking through the illuminated streets, with people without smiles, I was not able to feel the Christmas’ spirit. Those lights that had always cheered me up, were now black and white, as if it were impossible for me to get out of a foggy loop I had been anchored in since March 13th, trying to get my head out every now and then. Had I suddenly become Mr. Scrooge? Dickens’s Christmas Carol has always been one of my favorite’s stories, and I could never understand why anyone wouldn’t like Christmas, and helping others, giving and sharing. However, this 2020 is being a hard year for the whole world, a year which makes us fight to be alive, in all senses, firstly not to fall ill, and secondly not to have our heart and soul die. I have the feeling that there is no time to think about happiness and that we are surviving, not living.
 
What I find most difficult is to keep my heart beating for emotions that I cannot express, and to keep my soul active so that it does not become a grey soul like Mr.Scrooge’s, but in another sense, since he was a selfish miser, whose eyes were opened by the ghosts of the past, present and future so that he would have the opportunity to change. But this cursed virus, which fights to take away our emotions, is leaving me breathless and unwilling, turning me into a person I do not recognize, sadder, and even if the ghosts come to my rescue to try to make me understand that the most important thing is the present, that the past has already happened and that the future is uncertain and uncontrollable, that lack of feeling, of approach and of affection with others, is taking its toll on me. Now I know that my vitamins to face the world with joy are love, affection, and being able to express it to those who I love the most. For this reason, in this blog I am going to recommend you the books that have helped me and that are helping me in these moments where life has become like a black and white movie.
 
LA LIBERTAD INTEIROR by Gaspar Hernández and LA SIETE LLAVES by Álex Rovira and Fernando Trias de Bes, which deal with the same subject from different perspectives, FREEDOM. Gaspar explains how to find THE INNER FREEDOM and that only by finding it we can be happy, and Àlex explains the seven important steps to achieve the vital freedom, which is the same concept, and for this reason I emphasize the importance of knowing what is the inner or vital freedom and how to get it.
 
WABISABI FOR EVERYDAY LIFE by Nobuo Suzuki is another book that has made me think, because knowing that there is a wise culture, like the Japanese, that endorses the beauty of the imperfect, encourages me to overcome that having the feeling of being imperfect so many times, makes sense.
 
TIME MINDFULNESS and MONEY MINDFULNESS by Cristina Benito, are two books that have changed my view on how to approach the issue of money, which now more than ever is one of the issues that concerns more than one, and the issue of time, which flies by, almost unnoticed, and although we have clear the theory that the urgent should not pass before the important, to apply it is another story. Two short but intense books that help you with these two vital issues, today and always.
 
RECONECTA CON TU CUERPO by Anna Sólyom has been an essential guide to understand my body’s demands and how to find meaning in those calls so I can act according to my emotions and do what my body needs to feel better.
 
And the last book that I would recommend, if you are one of the few that have not read it yet, is our international bestseller, already a classic, which is IKIGAI, by Francesc Miralles and Héctor García, because finding the true meaning to this life today is more important than ever, since most of the times we get up, and even more in this current situation many of us ask ourselves: why? Finding a reason to get up every morning is enough to want to follow the path of life, even if there are several stones to overcome on the way.