I want to start a blog. I have always wanted to become one of them. Those people who put words to their lives and into the worlds of others. I decided to become it, but the difficulty has always been in finding the topic to pick. The to-pic-to-pic. Choices make me uncomfortable. I have always hated it, even when I was a kid, and I had to pick my favorite color: I kept thinking of all the other colors that were left behind as I picked. All colors are pretty, why make them feel “not enough”?
A more recent one of my choice conundrums was in choosing a place to live. I’m an immigrant and I have been moving for most of my adult years. To put it differently, I have grown, and then I have moved. And then it didn’t stop. From Paris to Venice, to the center of France: I have moved for studies, I have moved for love, and I have moved for work. The only move I have never done yet, is moving for myself. And now, it’s beginning.
But where to go, when you could go anywhere?
They say that when all else fails, you need to check the answer within. I didn’t have my “answer within”, so I decided to go away and look for it. Kind of like the alchemist from Paolo Coelho, I went looking for cues across the globe. My “part-of-the-world tour” began in January 2018: I left my job and my apartment, bought a backpack, and the first of many tickets to come… The answer may have been within long before, but time was essential in order to let it bloom.
My plan was to not spend more than three weeks in one spot, and to only go where my heart takes me. It first took me to my hometown in Lebanon, to see family (because roots are important). My second stop was to meet my best friend in Spain, and then came all the others: from Iceland to Thailand, Europe to the States, Jordan to Mexico…. I have seen so much worlds and I have been blown away with beauty, a desire to create, and to be part of the movement – because movement is life.
Across this path, I have been discovering life, as a human and a social scientist, through different cultures and lifestyles. I have always been fascinated by how the human mind functions, and I realized that I had never stopped observing and analyzing life from different perspectives – gluing the pieces together from different theories to create a fuller understanding of what is. I needed to assume that this has always been a part of me, and to let it grow and become through my writings, that I will share with you weekly.
I do not pretend to know what is true: we are all conditioned and biased to act and think the way we do, using one method or another. Among these conditions, there remains a small portion of possibilities within the felt, the observed and the studied. A small portion of people conditioned to act differently than others, and change the way we think, behave and observe. A small portion of freedom left in any one of us, to recreate what has been and to prepare what will be. I am choosing this portion of freedom, to describe what is, and target a bunch of humans, with their own mindsets, in their own chains, with their own freedom. These people, they fascinate me. And I am going to write about them.
As a choice-avoidant, it is thus quite predictable that I ended up choosing to write about all the colors of the world, BECAUSE all colors are pretty. I still haven’t decided on a place to live, on the contrary, I decided to keep exploring and write for the free, the unique, the international who, like me, sets his own path in the discovery of life.
Among all the choices we face in our everyday lives, with all the skills we have developed, it can become hard to separate what is from what could be, what we really want from what we fear we might need – mere adaptation from a true sense of self. Cognitive Behavioral therapy is a science that I have learned long ago and have been practicing for a while, and it will surely mold my writings and consults. I will take the time to explain this practice on my blog, as well as other just as interesting modern psychology orientations, but I will also be particularly highlighting the beauty of being. There is an art, in blending your own core values, your own priorities and colors, and turning them into an optimal harmonious masterpiece that is your own self. And I will be writing about that.
I truly hope that, while I talk you through my journey, you will feel inspired, and trustful enough, to let me be by your side as well in your own personal journey.
Sincerely yours,
Ingrid Zablith
