Nature’s Highlights:

This week nature’s gifted me not only with a beautiful picture,

But with a really important lesson as well:

No matter what you’re building, be sure to always keep its essence alive.

While I was in 7th grade a while back,

I was going through a pretty rough period in my life.

Along puberty, it was like all of my past traumas started kicking in (that’s what testosterone does to you, my boys)

And because of that, I started to have a seriously bad outlook on life - aka I started hating everyone. :))

I’m not kidding, the only person in the world I didn’t have hatred toward was my mom, and even her case was shaky sometimes.

My then-friends and classmates still remember this dark period of all our lives, one of them even reminding me of those dark ages through the name: “Victor 7”.

Yup, it was that bad.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I want you to see an interesting correlation.

The period of my life when my mental state was at its lowest, is also the period when I hated, judged, and spited others the most.

You see, our relationships with others are rarely a cause of the people we have in our environment,

But a cause of our relationship with the world, with life.

The happier I had gotten in my life, the less I wanted to judge others.

Ironically, it worked the other way around as well.

Being free of stupid judgments toward others made my life so much more beautiful and blissful in exchange.

To get this whole subject truly started, let me ask you one question:

What are you judging?

Are you judging actions, words, lifestyles, or what?

No matter what the answer to that may be (because it obviously differs from one case to another, but it will be important later), I have another one:

Who are you hurting exactly?

Most of the time when we judge, the other person is rarely even gonna understand what is going on in our minds about them.

So more often than not, the only person affected by your judgments is you.

And while your self-esteem may mildly go up for a short while because you’ve put someone else below and you’ve just moved one step higher on the social hierarchy,

Your mind, your soul, and your heart surely won’t fucking thank you for this.

In your attempt to deprecate others, you only wind up covering your mind with clouds of darkness and negativity.

I know how it feels, trust me, I’ve been there many times.

What’s the point of judgment and hatred when all it does is embellish your soul in pain?

Beyond even that, let me tell you a quote from “How to Win Friends and Influence People” that has stuck with me and has changed my life:

“Why judge someone…when you would be the exact same in their place? Yes, that’s true, if you had all of their life experience, from birth to the present moment, you would be exactly them.”

We judge others, without even realizing that we’re all just a big cluster of cells that have been molded in different ways.

Think a little about it,

Why are you the way you are, and not any other way?

Because you have lived your life in the exact sequence that you have.

Any change in that, no matter how subtle, would have caused you to be a different person than the one you are today. Isn’t that so?

So if we, like everyone else, are nothing more than simple creations of our lives,

Why hate, why judge others for being the same we would be in their place?

When I came across this philosophy, I said to myself that I wouldn’t share it with others here.

That’s because I think it’s too much of a nihilistic way to look at life, it sucks all hope from life in my opinion, because it amplifies the idea that life isn’t in our control.

I will admit, I still haven’t found an answer that could satisfy me in any way relating to this subject.

I am just choosing to do the best I can right now in the present, without letting this idea interfere.

Nonetheless, from all the thinking I’ve done, and all the people I’ve asked, it is a true one (if you think otherwise, I’d love to hear your opinion - just reply to this email)

And because it is true, what I said earlier about judgments stands tall as well.

I know it’s hard to stop judging others, especially when they hurt you, or when they do something completely wrong from your view.

But we are here on this planet (and you’re here reading this email) to better our lives and those of others as much as we can,

And this is the way to do it.

It won’t be fucking easy, that’s for sure.

I still have times where, as much as I try refraining it, thoughts still come to my brain…and that’s normal.

But it’s about what you do with those thoughts that sets you apart from the rest.

Do you let them take over your mind?

Or do you take a deep breath, and let it all go away?

After everything is said, it’s nothing but a simple decision, one that can alter your life like few things in this world can.

Now, you can listen to me, or fuck everything I said,

But stop for a second and think about this:

What kind of world do you wish to create?

One where hatred and judgment are the norm, the common way to act?

Or one where all of us can look at each other lovingly?

If you chose the latter, then you know as well as I do that you need to start by changing yourself.

No great change has started by changing the outside first, but by changing everything inside.

I believe in you.

And until next time, my friends, I hope you have an amazing week

And keep growing! Love ya <3.