The new era: is this the dawning of the age of awareness?

Dear readers,
in unit 3 of our textbook, Strands of Language (B1, part 1) -available for free in the virtual course-, and for anyone who contacts me, we deal with another topic which is current trend these days: psychology, self awareness, personal growth...
Some decades ago, specially in Spain, it was difficult to confess you were going to the therapy, because of being afraid of being judged as crazy or freak, or whatever.
Nowadays, it is almost the other way around: if you tell your friends you are not going to personal growth workshops, you don't talk about your therapist and his/her valuable pieces of advice, or you don't at least do yoga or follow a coaching program, they may take you as an outdated person who is sticking to the old system, or as a person with a very low degree of awareness.
What has happened? Is this just a matter of fashions and tendencies? Or is it because there is, indeed, an increase in people's awareness, in the global consciousness?
Personally, I believe that the need of the human being to know him/herself is a part of his/her nature. It has always been there. Socrates said it already thousands of years ago: "To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom". Humanity has gone through different periods and phases, not necessarily at the same time. We are a bunch of different cultures, and while Europe was being absolutely repressed by the Catholic Church and the Inquisition there were probably other parts of the planet (India, China, Latin America) where other religions were helping people to gain inner power and consciousness. Nowadays the spiritual aspirations of the Western world are not so controlled by the church. Therefore, there is a whole to be filled. A basic and essential need, our need for spirituality. And then, all kinds of New Age philosophies, religions, coaches, spiritual leaders, etc., emerge. Besides, we have turned our attention to other ancient wisdoms, to the East, to the Native Americans...And we have probably found many more answers there.
How many yoga centres did we find in a city 10 years ago? How many do we find now?
This is very positive in my opinion. However, something new is emerging too: Freedom. And not everyone is ready to be free, to not be told how to think, how to lead his/her life. Freedom entails great deal of responsibility. Are we ready to take it to the fullest? Freedom is scary, but so rewarding!
Some of my favourite inspiring sages are: Thich Nhat Hanh, author of The Miracle of Mindfulness, Osho, Deepak Chopra, author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Jorge Bucay, Eckhart Tolle, Borja Vilaseca, Alex Rovira, and so many more.
The books that changed my life are the ones by the polemic Osho, and from then on, many other authors have guided my way. Here you have a example of inspiring talk:

And what do you think? Leave your comments below!

The big problem of plastic

Dear readers,

the topic of this unit is alternative energies, and, in connection to it, I would like to talk this time about the big problem of plastic, because in a way, it all has to do with the same basic problem: its terribly negative human impact on the planet.
With me and my family, this concern started last year, around the same dates as know now. My partner is a vegan, and a Bulgarian friend of mine who lives in Gent was visiting. This friend, Petya, is very keen discussing on all kind of social and political issues, and so is my partner. So they started talking about the negative impact that growing cattle has on the environment.
(Have you ever heard about that? Did you know that cow burps and farts are full of methane, which is a gas that promotes global warming? This post explains it very well:
https://ideas.ted.com/methane-isnt-just-cow-farts-its-also-cow-burps-and-other-weird-facts-you-didnt-know-about-this-potent-greenhouse-gas/ )
It is not the only reason why Diego turned vegan, he is mainly vegan because of animal suffering, but we will leave this topic for another post. The thing is, Petya reacted to this argument against meat eating by saying "and what about plastic? Don't you think that the extremely high amount of plastic and non recyclable waste is a bigger problem than cows farting and burping?".
Well, I replied by saying that a counterargument based on proposing another pollution problem is not really fair. It is as if a policeman gives me a fine for driving too fast and I say "yes, ok, I was driving too fast, but what about all these drivers that did not respect the Stop sign over there?".
However, it made us think. We realized that plastic waste is indeed a really serious problem. And that plastic industry is one of the most dangerous lobbies that has ever existed. We did then some research on the terrible consequences that plastic overuse and overproduction have on the planet, and on us.

Source https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gallery/horrifying-images-show-devastating-impact-11589617

Source: http://tryforgood.com/plastic-impact-on-human-health/

So, we decided to reduce our plastic use to the maximum minimum. We looked for more information, and we found shops in our area and community which do try to avoid plastic and to promote buying in bulk (such as Unpacked and Granel in Madrid, or El granero de Tina in El Escorial), we substituted plastic whenever it was possible for other materials (check this post for instance: http://plasticpolluters.org/alternatives-to-plastic/), and so on. And this is when we realized that fully eliminating plastic from our lives was almost impossible...we are still trying! 

We buy in bulk as much as we can

We buy in glass or paper packaging as much as we can

We say no to plastic bags whenever we are offered one...

But there is still so much more to be done! 

And you, are you trying to reduce your plastic use? Share your experience with us, every little bit counts!

New families and ways of relating

Dear all,
we start this year with the first topic in our course:
Marriage and love affairs. 
However, this title is getting more and more outdated, due to the emergence of new family models, and new modes of loving and relating. How to speak now of "love affairs"? How to talk only about heterosexual marriage (still the biggest and largest institution, true, but not any more the mandatory one) if there are so many other ways of establishing relationships?
What matters now is freedom. Osho used to say that freedom is above love, because there cannot be love without freedom.

 Freedom is essential for establishing authentic love relationships. Freedom is scary, though. It does not imply doing whatever you one want, it requires a great deal of responsibility for the free choices you make. And many people fear taking responsibility over their one own life decisions. That is why dictatorships exist or have existed, and some people have even preferred them to democracies. It is easier not to take decisions. You stay in your comfort zone, you don't take risks, someone else, or society, takes them for you.
Well, the same goes for marriage. Probably most people marry because they really want to, but others may just marry because it is "the thing to do", what they are supposed to do. And they do not even think, deep inside, whether it is really what they really want to do. So of course, later on comes divorce...and so on.
And you? What do you think about society and the new ways of creating a family and bonding?
Have you watched Modern Family?

Do you remember Married and with Children?

Share your ideas and experiences with us!

If you want to practice your reading skills, you can check this article too:  New Family Models: Same-Sex Marriage and Descendants
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137033949_5


PS. Please note: the personal opinions conveyed here are just mine, no indoctrination or whatsoever is aimed with them. This blog is an informal why way of encouraging English as a Foreign Language students to write and practice their English skills. The ideas contained in them are just examples of how to express views and ideas, no judgement should be made on either of them.