Are you Brave Enough?

You certainly know how a usual life should look like:
- Kindergarten
- Elementary school
- High school
- High-school diploma
- Study
- Job
- Wedding
- Children
- …

For many people this is how a perfect life should look like.
Yes, these people are right. This could be a perfect life.

But perhaps some people have another imagination of a perfect life.

One example for such a different life is my own one.
I'm making an apprenticeship for a pre-school teacher, earning enough money to live a simple but good life and have an amazing relationship. I also have a plan for the next 10 years.

For an onlooker my life looks like it would be a perfect one. But my best friends and my family know that it isn't perfect. It was very hard for me.

Till I finished high school my life looked similar to the described one at the beginning of this text. But after high school I decided to move to Hanover because I wanted to live together with my boyfriend. I decided to start an apprenticeship instead of continuing school and make my high-school diploma and study. I also have mental issues.

But I was brave enough to let bygones be bygones.

What I want to say is: Don't live someone else's life! Stay true to yourself and be brave enough to live your own life.

Lindsey Stirling's song “Something wild” described it perfectly:
“You had your maps drawn
You had other plans
To hang your hopes on
Every road they let you down felt so wrong
So you found another way”

Let your feeling be your guide. Listen to your heart.
Following your dreams isn't wrong. You only have to be brave enough.

Being brave enough doesn't only mean to follow your dreams. It also means to be brave enough to live an open-hearted life. Love is most important. A life without love isn't worth to be lived. It's empty, sad and lonely. That's why be brave enough, let your love grow and spread around the world.

Here's another quote from Lindsey Stirling's song “Something Wild”:
"You've got a big heart
The way you see the world
It got you this far
You might have some bruises
And a few of scars
But you know you're gonna be okay
Even though you're scared
You're stronger than you know."

Of course you will be feared to change your save life and start living your dreams. But you are only able to reach happiness, if you pass the hard times. Only if you know the darkness you will be able to see the light.

That's why don't give up. Fight against your fears and start living your dreams. Never forget that you're not alone. You have a family and friends which will help you.

If you need something which cheers you up, listen to Lindsey Stirling's amazing song “Something Wild”:

This photo shows Lindsey Stirling.

Written by
Laura Grochla

Beauty begins with loving yourself

Beauty begins with loving yourself. Beauty comes from inner and not from outside. Also Lindsey Stirling is confident of this.
But many people don't accept themselves the way they are. One person in charge is the today´s society. The pressure to look perfect is constantly increasing. For many people the beauty of their body is most important. They think that they must be perfectly dressed and apply make-up all the time. But what worth does a perfect appearance have when there is a complete mess inside. Fears and doubts create an iron mask for the inner beauty. This iron mask, Lindsey Stirling calls it a glass ball, has to be broken.

,,Beauty comes from inner and not from outside. If a woman respects herself and that do what she want and like in her life”-  Lindsey Stirling.

To love oneself is hard work. You must work on your strong suit. Here are a few questions you should be able to answer:

• What can I do best?
• What makes me unique?
• How do my friends view me?
• What do I want in my life?
• What is my dream?

Do something new! Express your wishes and try to enforce them. Say NO to everything that you don’t want. Don't be afraid of mistakes and try to stop running yourself down. If you hears the voice of the criticism, then answer: You're wrong! I'm OK the way I am! Bolster yourself up.

• These sentences might help you:
• Anything is better than doing nothing.
• Live your life, you only life once.
• Behind every cloud is the blue sky.

"We all have negative days, but that doesn't mean we are pessimistic. We all do stupid things, but that doesn't mean we are stupid. It's important to be able to distinguish between what happens to us and who we are, and look forward with hope for new and better days ahead!"- Lindsey Stirling

Praise yourself as often as possible even if it's only a small progress. Criticism weakens you, praise makes you stronger. Realize that all of us have our own weaknesses and failings.
Each time you take a look in the mirror, smile and say positive things about yourself. Loving yourself means to treat yourself like a good friend.

The message of Lindsey Stirling's song Crystallize is:
Learn from the water: Discover and strengthen your inside beauty. Surround yourself with good people.

 Here you can watch Lindsey Stirling's Crystallize:

To reach inner beauty it isn't enough to surround yourself with good friends. You have to change yourself. Break the glass ball!
Your light is only able to spread if you break the glass. Then other people will see your light and perhaps also will try to follow your example.

My advice for you is to listen to Lindsey Stirling´s Shatter me:

Think about her message: “Beauty begins with loving yourself!”

Written by Laura Grochla

Live your dream

“Live your dream” is a very popular slogan which you find in the internet/TV/radio and so on all the time. The meaning of this short sentence should be clear.
Many people around the world are trying to heed this advice. One popular example is the Dubstep violinist Lindsey Stirling. Her dream was to play violin and to make people happy with her music.

During the last years she released two very successful albums “Lindsey Stirling” (released 2013) and “Shatter Me” (released 2014). This summer (August 19th 2016) she will release her third album “Brave Enough” which you can preorder at Pledge, iTunes and so on. She also took part in several German telecasts like “Klein gegen Groß”, “Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel” or “Die Helene Fischer Show”. In the years 2014 and 2015 she won the German Music Award Echo in the category Crossover each time. Her songs were already used in German movie productions like “Terra X”.

Even if a few people around the world live their dreams, are you as an average person also able to live your dream or is this only a slogan?

If you watch news in TV, it's often difficult to believe that you should be able to live your dream. There are so many terrible things happening around the world. All these victims are certainly not living their dreams. But how could you live your dream? Is this possible?

Living your dream is possible and this is a very important aspect to attain happiness. But no one said that this will be easy. :-)

The first step is to understand yourself, to learn who you are.
All of you immediately will be able to answer the question “Who are you?”. Most of you probably will mention their name, title, job and so on. Of course all this is correct. But is this really you? Are you a name, a title or a job? I think “No!”. You're an individual person with a history, wishes, fears, hopes, interests and many more.

That's why I ask you once again: “Who are you?”.
You hopefully see that answering this question isn't so easy. Responding this question is very difficult and complex. I'm sure that some people never will be able to answer it completely.

But even if you take time and think about your answer, are you really sure that all the wishes, hopes, interests, etc. you mention, are aspects of your own personality? Or are you only repeating the wishes etc. from your friends, colleagues and so on?

All of us are part of a society and we have many relations to other people like family, friends and so on. And all these people are having an effect on us. For example your father hopes that you'll do the same job as he is doing. Even if your father doesn't try to affect you, you know that he is hoping this. That's why you perhaps decide to do his job. But is doing this job your own dream or your father's dream?

Now you perhaps see why it is so difficult to answer the question “Who are you?”. But although it is so difficult, it is absolutely necessary. How could you live your dream if you don't know who you are?

Many people never think about this question because either they don't have the idea to do it or they are too afraid what they perhaps will find out. That's why they are living a life which is controlled by others. Of course living such a live makes them unhappy. That's why they are dreaming that one day there will appear the Prince Charming and rescue them. But this usually doesn't happen because Prince Charming doesn't know that there is a princess living inside her crystal ball.
That's why it's so important to find out who you are.

When you finally know or at least have an idea who your are, you have to find out your interests. This step is usually very easy. If you shouldn't know what you want to do, try out as many things as possible. I'm sure you'll discover your interests very fast.

After you successfully mastered both steps there is still a problem. You have to begin to live your dream. That means you have to break free! You have to implement your thoughts. As I already wrote before, dreaming of Prince Charming won't help because he doesn't know that there is a princess living inside the crystal ball who is waiting for him.

Doing this step is risky and needs much courage because now you're responsible for your life and you have to make your own decisions. There is no one who is telling you what to do. But always remember that you aren't alone. You have family and friends who will be there for you. And of course God always will help you to find the right way. Trust in him.

After you break free you're able to begin to live your dream. But this doesn't mean that everything is easy from now on. When you begin to live your dream, you probably won't be very successful in the beginning. You have to learn much and you'll make lots of mistakes, till you are a master in what you're doing. But never loose hope. Always remember that you're just living your dream.

Also such a popular and talented person like Lindsey Stirling started on a shoestring. Her dream was to make violin music. That's why she had to learn how to play the violin correctly for years till she became a master in this one day. Learning the violin wasn't fun all the time but she kept up till she mastered it. For living your dream you have to work very hard. But it is worth it.

But even you are successfully living your dream there will be hard times. That's why it is necessary to have family and friends who help you. Family and friends are great but they are living their own dreams. It's important to find someone who will spend his/her life with you and who is living your dream together with you. Finding such a person is really very difficult. The only way to find the right one is living an open-hearted life. If you are living such a life, it's very easy for bad guys to hurt you, because you pulled down all your protective walls around your soul. And there always will be bad guys who will hurt you. But although your soul is bleeding, never give up. God knows your pain and he will help you to find the right person at the right time. Trust in him.

Some of you perhaps think that all this is theoretically right and that there are people who are living their dreams, but you never will be able to live your dream. If you're one of these guys then you're wrong. You are able to live every dream you want to live. There are no limits except the ones inside your mind. If you're able to imagine something you'll be able to do it. You only have to try it.

For example learning how to play a violin correctly isn't easy. But if you want to learn it, you are able to learn it. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to master it. Of course there always will be people who are more talented than you. But this doesn't matter. You don't have to be the best  violinist around the world to live your dream. If you are doing your best this is absolutely enough.

But why are there so many people around the world who are believing that they won't be able to live their dream. One reason is that living your dream, that everything you do and that each decision you make have a price or you could say it has a consequence. If you want to learn playing a violin you have to work hard and to spend lots of time to master it. That's why other aspects of your life will disappear. For example you decided to become a musician and you are working hard to achieve your dream. That's why your musical skills will grow. But other skills will be reduced. This is a logical consequence. You can't be a master in everything. This is only one example for a price you have to pay for living your dream.
Especially if you only have little talent in doing something but it's your dream to do it, then you have to pay a very high price for reaching your goal. Of course if you want to live this dream, you always will be able to live it. But many people are bent on paying such a high price for reaching their goal.
Another reason why so many people are believing that they won't be able to live their dream is fear. They're not brave enough to answer the question “Who are you?” or to break free.

There's one last aspect I want to explain.
Even if you are living your dream successfully, there is one high risk to attain unhappiness. This risk is comparing your life with someone else's life. If you are comparing your life with the life from others, you will attain unhappiness because one day you will find someone who is living a more successful or more happy live than you. And most people don't like if someone else is living a better life than yourself.

There is a very interesting story in the Bible which is explaining this problem. It's called the “Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard”.
There is an owner of a vineyard and it's time to pick the grapes. But he has too few workers for this job. That's why he goes to the marketplace and asks some people if they would help him to pick the grapes. He would pay them a penny a day. They accepted his offer. During the day he went several times to the marketplace and hired more and more workers. He always promised to pay one penny.
After the work was done he payed the workers. Because he always promised one penny, everyone gets the same, no matter how long they worked. The workers who worked whole the day were angry because the workers who only worked a few hours got the same wage.

At the first moment you probably think that the owner of the vineyard was unfair and the early workers were right to be angry. But is this true?
The owner asked all the workers if they would work for a penny and they accepted it. If the early workers wouldn't have compared their wage with the wage from the late workers, everyone would be happy. But the second they compared they attained unhappiness.

Perhaps some of you still think that the early workers were right to be angry because the owner was unfair. But this is wrong. The payment was fair. The owner told them the conditions of the offer before and they accepted them. All the workers got their money the owner promised them.

Everyone always gets what he/she needs. In the parable all the workers needed money. But this doesn't mean that everyone always gets the same. If God or you also could say the Life gives you for example one talent, this is a gift. If someone else got many talents, God/Life is still fair. Firstly if someone else gets more gifts than you, you shouldn't be jealous or even angry about this. And second you don't know the reason why he/she got so many gifts. Perhaps he/she did a better job than you or he/she has a bigger family than you and needs more money. There are so many possible reasons why someone gets more than you. You never will know all these reasons. That's why you shouldn't be jealous. Be happy about the gifts you got.

Even if you think that life isn't fair, it's your own decision to be happy or not. If you only focus on the bad things in your life, you always will be unhappy. Of course you went through bad times and other people treated you bad. This is life. Everybody passed such bad times in life. But if you only focus on these bad memories, you won't be able to see all the good things which are currently happening in your life.

That's why always remember:
God gifted you everything you need to live your dream and attain happiness. But happiness is a decision. That's why make the right choice: Focus on the good things in your life and not on the bad memories.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She passed very bad times. But she didn't give up. She decided to go inside and found out who she is and what dream she wants to live. Then she did the very brave step to break free and to live her dream open-hearted.

This photo from Lindsey Stirling was taken by Lionel Bonizzardi at Paris, France.

Here you can watch Lindsey Stirling's latest original music video "The Arena":

Lindsey Stirling's new single “The Arena” is available at iTunes and Amazon.

This is the cover from Lindsey Stirling's new single "The Arena".

Lindsey Stirling's new album “Brave Enough” will be released August 19th 2016. You can preorder it at Pledge and iTunes.

This is the cover from Lindsey Stirling's new album "Brave Enough".

Here you can find Lindsey Stirling:
Website: http://www.lindseystirling.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lindseystirlingmusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindseyStirling
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindseystirling/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lindseystomp

Here you can find my fan page Lindsey Stirling GER:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindseyStirlingGermany/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LS_GER
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsey_stirling_ger/ 

Written by: Andreas S. Janke

Fighting against the darkness

Who doesn't know the bad feelings when you are watching a movie or the news and the bad guys are winning against the good guys? Usually the bad ones have all the money, the power, the people and so on. And the good ones only have themselves, their believes, conviction and so on.

I'm sure that all of us already saw or even went through such a situation. Unfortunately those things are reality and happen all over the world day after day.

If you saw or even went through such a terrible situation, you are feeling angry, sad, helpless and much more. You are probably thinking why something like this has to happen or what could you do so that this never will happen again.

A religious person would perhaps answer something like this:
“God is testing you.” or “This is a test of your faith.”

This is true, but this doesn't explain anything and this doesn't really help.

Is there no other way without all these bad things?
Unfortunately not. These bad things have to happen. They are necessary.

Of course it isn't easy to see why they are necessary, but I will try to explain it here.

An important question you have to answer first is:
What is the difference between humans and animals? Are humans only animals or are they more?

Some of you may ask now why this question is important. Trust me. It's very important.

A scientist usually would answer the question this way:
Humans developed from apes. Apes are animals. That's why humans are animals too.

Yes, this is right. But is this everything? Are humans only a special and of course successful form of animals?
No! There is at least one big difference. But what is it? Scientists are searching for it since many years.

I can tell you. The difference between humans and animals is the free will.

Animals don't have the choice to be good or bad. They are only acting completely logic like the nature is doing. They are doing everything so that they or their group will survive or have the best chances. This is everything. Living such a live isn't good or bad. It's neutral.
Animals never would kill another animal for fun. There is no need to do this. This wouldn't be logic. That's why they never would do something like this. But animals also never would risk or even give their life for another unknown creature or even a rival. This also isn't logic.

Some of you perhaps think at animal parents who risk their life for their children. That's true. They are doing this. But this situation is completely different to the one I described. Risking your life for your children or your group is logic. Without children life on earth would end very fast. That's why all parents especially mothers have a genetic predisposition (mother instinct) to protect their children. And risking your life for your group is also logic because the group has better chances to survive then. Sacrifice one individual so that the group consisting of many individuals can survive. This is very simple logic. Humans usually think that this is cruel. But it isn't. This is nature. This is neutral. But what some humans are doing is cruel.

Now you perhaps see that animals aren't good or bad. They are neutral. They don't have the free will or the choice.
But humans have it. They have the choice between the easy or the difficult but right way. This is the most important and I even think the only decision in a human's life. All of us has the free will. We have the great ability to decide whether we want to be good or bad. But having this ability also implicates that humans aren't able to be neutral anymore. No one is completely dark or white and no one is neutral. All of us are gray. Of course some of us have darker and some others have brighter souls.

You will have to make this decision again and again during your life. In the beginning it's easy to change from one side to the other. But the more often you made the decision on the same way the more difficult it is to change it the next time. Your body, brain and soul are trained on the way you are acting. But changing is always possible although it's very hard to become a good person after you did much bad.

Because of this choice you are able to help foreign people. You are even able to help your rival. But you are also able to do very terrible things. Unfortunately it's much easier to take what you want to have than to renounce it. That's why it's no surprise for me that there are so many bad guys all over the world. Why should you choose the difficult way if it looks like that you are able to reach your goal on the easy way too? All of us have to answer this question on his/her own.

But unfortunately this is the consequence of the free will. There is no other possible way. Now you perhaps see that the good isn't able to exist without the bad. They are the two sides of the same coin. If you want that there is the good then automatically there is the bad. But it's your own choice which side you choose. Although there always will be the bad, if no one choose this side of the coin, it has no power.

After you see that the bad is necessary for the good, it perhaps will be easier for you to go through bad times.

But what could you do against such bad guys the news are always telling about? Fighting?

My answer is NO!
Fighting with weapons or something like this never is a solution. If you are fighting this way you have to kill the bad guy in the end. This way you are creating more enemies than you ever will be able to kill.
The other possibility to fight against these guys is going to court or something like this. This would be a possible solution. But what could you achieve? Perhaps you are able to win a battle but never the war. There always will be the bad.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to say that you shouldn't do or try this way. If you want to do it, then do it. Doing this isn't bad and perhaps you really achieve something good.

But I think that there is a better way. For this new way you have to change your point of view. Of course the bad guys are doing terrible things and it would be great if there wouldn't be such humans. But I think helping other people and spreading love is much better than fighting against the darkness. Help the people who are treated bad by these bad guys.

That's why always remember:
The darkness is necessary so that the light is able to shine. That's why don't waste your time and energy with fighting against the darkness. Begin to spread your own light.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She passed very bad times. But she never lost hope and began to spread her own light all over the world.

This photo was taken during the filming of Lindsey Stirling's and Peter Hollens' very funny Star Wars Medley

Written by Andreas S. Janke

The problem with the fanaticism

This time I want to write about the fanaticism.

There are many different forms of fanaticism. I don't want to write about the usual/daily one here. If you take a great interest in something for example playing video games or watching soccer then you are a fan. And a fan is the short form of fanatic. Being a fan is OK. This is no problem, except you are spending too much time for your hobby. In this case you disregard yourself, your family and friends and so on. This is a problem. Although this could be a great problem for some of you, I don't want to write about this aspect of fanaticism here. I want to focus on the narrow sense of the fanaticism, mainly on the religious fanaticism.

What is the religious fanaticism?

A simple answer is:
For the religious fanaticism you have to think that your faith/religion is the only one which is right and all the others are wrong. The humans all over the world have to believe the same like you.

I think several of you would have answered this question in a similar way. Of course this answer isn't wrong. It contains several right aspects. But it only explains the ramifications and not the reasons for it.

For all of you who are looking for a new hobby, here's a short guide how to become a religious fanatical: ;-)
To become a religious fanatical, you need a faith and a religion. If you don't find a religion which fit to your faith found your own one. To found a religion and to find members isn't easy, but if you want to become a religious fanatical, you need a very strong faith which gives you the strength to pass difficult times. In the case your faith isn't strong enough, you really should have choosing another hobby in contemplation. After you convinced a few persons to think the same way like you, finding new members who will follow you will become easier. In the case you meet someone who don't want to think the same like you, kill him/her. This is the fastest way to handle dissidents. If you are a very successful religious fanatical, every survivor of your proselytizing will believe the same like you and you will live in your own perfect but very boring and empty world. Isn't this the wish from all of us? ;-)

In the case you didn't understand the last chapter, this was only a joke. But is this really only a joke? If you take a look at several people around this world, you unfortunately will see that they are doing or at least trying to do something very similar.

Some of you perhaps think at the conflict between the Christianity and the Islam. Both religions are thinking that each of them is the only one which is right and the other one is wrong. That's why they are fighting since centuries and are still fighting today.

But is the different faith really the reason for this conflict?
It's right that both religions have a faith which is a little bit different from each other. But this doesn't cause the conflict. Both religions were leaded by humans who wanted to get more power, influence and so on. But of course the leaders never fight themselves. They need people who will fight for them. If they would have told the people to fight for them because the leaders want to have more power or influence, no one would have fought for them. That's why they told the people that the members of the other religion are unbelievers and they are doing bad things. And they told them that if you combat these foreign persons, you are a good person and that your sins will be forgiven. Unfortunately many people believed them and combat the foreigners. Many of the fighting people really believed and are still believing that they are doing something good and that they are fighting to protect their face.

What shall you say about these very stupid persons?
Like I wrote above, the fastest way to handle people who are thinking/believing something different than you, is killing them. But unfortunately many of these people who are thinking so, don't see, that you never will solve a problem with fighting. For each enemy/dissident who you kill, you creates many more. With fighting you always creates more enemies than you are able to kill. There is only one way to eliminate an enemy. Becoming friends! Of course this isn't easy or works fast, but only if an enemy becomes a friend, you eliminate the conflict. And the first and most important step on the way becoming friends is talking with each other and trying to see the problem from the point of view of the other one.

Today of course only a small minority of the Christians and Muslims are still combating each other. A huge part of these minorities are religion fanaticals.

But why are they doing these terrible things?
To find the answer you have to take a closer look. You have to take a look at the individual person and not at the whole conflict.

If you have a faith, of course you think that this is right. In the case you think it would be wrong, you wouldn't believe in it. :-)
And even you have a very strong faith and this faith is the most important part of your life or even from you, this is no problem. Everything is OK.

But when does a strong faith becomes a religious fanaticism?

As I wrote above you have to think that your faith is right. This is necessary. But you always should know that you perhaps misinterpreted some aspects of the Bible, the Koran or howsoever your religious book is called. You and also the leaders of each religion are only humans. And humans are making mistakes.
But if you are a religious fanatical, you think that your interpretations of the religion texts are completely correct, that you didn't make any mistakes. And this is the main problem. Persons who are thinking so, are too self-centered. They never would think that they are perhaps wrong. And this is the most stupid and most dangerous way of thinking. As long as these people are thinking this way, they aren't able to find or correct their mistakes. They aren't able to develop.

In the case you are thinking that your interpretations of the texts are perfect, the stringent conclusion is that all the persons who are thinking different are wrong. Even if you are a peaceable person and you don't do anything against the dissidents, you are a religious fanatical.

But if you are already thinking this way it's only a very small step trying to convince or even to combat the dissidents. Even if you are trying to convince the dissidents only with words, this is force. You never should try to convince someone else. The other person is an individual and free person like you. If he/she believes something else, this is OK and you have to accept this.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to say, that you shouldn't talk with others about your faith or religion. You really should do this. Without talking with others about your thoughts, you never will be able to find your mistakes and to develop. Talking with others is very important. But there is a big difference between talking with someone else about your faith or trying to convince him/her!

Perhaps some of you are asking now how you could accept all the different faiths/religions without thinking that your own one is better or more right than the other ones.
This is a problem and everyone has to find a way to handle this.

I like the following idea:
My own faith is good but not perfect. There are still certainly many mistakes. That's why I always continue thinking and talking with others about it to find these mistakes, to develop my faith and myself. And the members from all the other religions are doing the same. Everybody has his/her own incomplete faith, his/her own view. But in the end, if you found and corrected all your mistakes, developed your faith, you will see that everyone is right. Everyone is believing at the same God and is talking about exactly the same. The only reason why there are so many different faiths and religions, is that we are only humans. We aren't able to see the whole picture or to interpret all the details right. We are making mistakes all the time but we are always thinking that we are perfect and all the others are wrong. We finally should see that we are all the same. All of us are humans who are doing their best to interpret the details. Instead of combat the dissidents we should talk with them! Perhaps they see some details we didn't see till now? Only if we are working all together, we perhaps will be able to see the whole picture.

That's why always remember:
Having a strong faith is good and very important. But always remember that you aren't able to see the whole picture yourself. You need all the dissidents too. Only together you perhaps will be able to see the whole picture and to solve all the problems in our lifes.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She has a very strong faith which gives her the power to pass all the bad times she had to go through. But even she has such a strong faith, she accepts all the dissidents. She is always thinking about herself and is trying to become a better person.

This photo shows Lindsey Stirling and two of the main aspects of her life: Faith and Music.

Written by Andreas S. Janke

Love versus Hate

This time I again want to write about a difficult topic: The well known opposite feelings Love and Hate.

At the beginning I want to ask you two simple questions:
What is love and what is hate?

Everyone probably is able to answer these questions immediately, because these feelings are the most important and strongest ones in our whole life. All of you heard about them or even already felt them.

A few simple answers to these questions are:
Love and hate are two opposite feelings.
Love is responsible for everything what is good and hate is responsible for everything what is bad in this world.

But are the answers to these questions really so simple? I don't think so. Love and hate are more complex than this.

In this blog post I want to explain my thoughts about what love and hate are. I again want to emphasize that the content of this blog post is only my own opinion and that there are certainly many other persons around the world who have other opinions. And this is good so. The world would be a very boring and sad place if everyone would have the same opinion. :-)

Before I'm able to explain my thoughts about love and hate, I have to explain two assumptions which I made.

My first assumption is that everything (the dead world around us, the plants and animals and also the humans) are made of energy. Some of you probably will think that I'm wrong “The world isn't made of energy. It's made of matter.”. Yes you're right. Everything is made of matter. But matter and energy are exactly the same. Matter is only a particular appearance of energy. Albert Einstein proved this.
My second assumption is that each human has a soul which is also made of energy. I know that there is no proof of the human soul till now. Perhaps there never will be a proof. But I believe, I KNOW, that there is a human soul in all of us. These souls are the most powerful but at the same time also the most sensitive objects in the universe. There is nothing similar like them. A human soul is the sum of all your experiences, decisions and so on. It is your personality, the soul are you!

When a human is born, he/she already has a soul, but it's unspecific/unfinished. Only because of the life, all the experiences and particularly because of the decisions which you made during your life, your soul becomes a unique strong individual character.
During a life a soul comes in contact with many other souls. It's connected with them or even with all souls around the world. That's why all of your decisions always impacts other persons you are connected with.

After you know my assumptions now, I'm able to answer the question what love and hate are. First I will potter at the love.

I think, that love is also an energy. But this energy is different from the one the whole world and also the humans are made of. This energy appears because of such a connection between two souls. There are many different kinds of love, for example: the love between the parents and their children, the love between friends, the love between two lovers and also the love for a foreign person who you meet randomly on the road and help him/her.
These are only a few kinds of love. There are many more. But all kinds of love only appear because of a connection between two souls. This love helps people to make the right decision, to help others, even they have a disadvantage because of this. The world only works because there are always people who are doing the right things because of love.
Without love you aren't able to survive. Love is the “food” for your soul. It heals the wounds and gives you the power to pass bad times.

But there is one big problem. When love is created by the connection between two souls, how could you create such a connection?
There is only one solution. Both persons have to be willing to give love, even both of them don't know if the other one will reciprocate this love. It's a risk without any guaranty. Sometimes you have luck and sometimes you have bad luck. No one will ever know this before risking it.

In the case you have luck and the other one is willing to reciprocate your love, a very powerful connection appears between these two souls. Love is born! You could say that love is born because two souls are interacting with each other. This love is the most powerful energy. It is able to heal each wound and gives you all the strength which you need to pass the bad times in your life. There is nothing similar like love.

But in the case the other person isn't willing to reciprocate the love, no connection/interaction appears. This hurts. That's why there are some people who don't risk this any more. They were disappointed too often. But they still want to be loved like all of us. Of course I see their problem but unfortunately there is no other way than risking it again and again. Don't loose hope. Even it will last a very long time till you find a person who deserves your love who will reciprocate the love. The love you will experience then is worth everything.

Unfortunately there are some people who were disappointed too often. These people aren't able to feel the love anymore. And one day they begin to hate all the other people, especially the ones who are still able to feel the love.

There is one important question left: Is hate the opposite energy of love or is it only the absence of love?
My opinion is that hate isn't the opposite energy of love. It's only the absence or the lack of love. Hate is something very bad. And bad things can't survive. Only the good things like love or the souls are able to exist forever.
Some of you perhaps think at all the terrible things which were done because of hate. You perhaps think that you need a powerful energy to do such terrible things. These are interesting thoughts. But take a look at the world around you. There are so many things happening only because of the lack of something for example if there is a lack of food, resources, lifetime, faith, love or whatever. It isn't important if the lack is there because of nature, because of another person who stole something from you or because you are living too high standards. The reason for the lack does not matter.

The lack of something is one of the two most powerful motivators to do something. The other one is love. I even think that the lack of something and the love are the only motivators which exists.

That's why I think that hate is only a feeling because of the lack of love. Perhaps “Love versus Lack” would be the better title for this blog post? :-)

Always remember:
Always live your life open-hearted, no matter how often your love wasn't reciprocated. Don't loose hope and try it again and again. This is the only way to find the persons who deserve your love and to be loved. The alternative, a life without love, can't be worthwhile by no stretch of the imagination.

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. Even she passed very bad times and lost her very best friend Jason Gaviati, she never stopped living her life open-hearted. I try to follow Lindsey's example and I hope that there perhaps will be other persons around the world who also will follow her example.

Here you can see Lindsey Stirling, Drew Steen and Jason Gaviati in Australia. The photo was taken 2013.

Written by Andreas S. Janke

Differences between women and men

In my last post you could read my thoughts about "The problem with the obsession with beauty".
Now I want to write about another interesting topic the “Differences between women and men”.

All of you know that women and men are looking different and why this is necessary. That's why I won't write about the distinction between the female and male body. But women and men are also different in their inside. (I don't mean the organs here. :-))

I want to start with one interesting example, which I saw in a German documentary movie a few month ago.
You probably know that girls usually play with dolls and boys usually play with toy cars. But why is this so?
You probably will answer ”It's the fault of the society.”. Yes you're right. The society tells the parents that girls should play with dolls and boys with toy cars, because this is normal and everybody is doing so. And the parents think “Why changing it? The society certainly know what's the best.” And this was so for many many years.

Nowadays in times of equal rights of men and women parents often offers their children both dolls and toy cars so that the children are able to choose themselves. But even today girls usually choose dolls and boys toy cars. Why?
This time you again could argue with the society, for example that the society needs more time to change, ….

But is the society the real reason for this?
Several scientists wanted to know if this is so. Are girls only preferring dolls because the society and their parents told them this?
But how could you test this? There are no children who grew up without the influence of the society. Even children from native tribes don't grew up without such an influence.
Then the scientists had an idea. They could test it with apes. Apes are very similar to humans and they aren't influenced by the human society. That's why they took several female and male apes and put them together into one big cage. Then they put some dolls and toy cars on the floor and left the cage.

What do you think happened?

The female apes preferred playing with the dolls and the male apes preferred playing with toy cars, although apes don't know what a doll or a toy car is. Now it's very difficult to argue with the society. :-)

Unfortunately the scientists don't know till now why it is so. An obvious reason why female apes and girls prefer playing with dolls is that they will get children and usually they are responsible for raising them. But why are male apes and boys preferring toy cars? This is really a good question. They scientists think that they are interested in moving things through the space. In the past men were hunting while women stay in the cave and look after the children. For hunting you need the ability to see moving animals and so on. This would be perhaps one answer for this but till now you don't know it exactly.

Another interesting example for the differences between women and men is the way of thinking. Scientist watched several brains from men and women solving problems. And they discover something very astonishing. If men are solving a problem they use the left or right part of the brain depending on what kind of problem they are solving. All their thoughts are only moving in one of the hemispheres. This of course is an advantage to solve a problem very fast. The signals only have to travel short ways in your brain. But the brains of women work different. They are always using both sides of their brains. They think more complex and involve more aspects while solving a problem. This way they are able to find better solutions but they need more time to find them. Unfortunately schools, most jobs and also most intelligence tests only focus on the speed of solving a problem. If the solution works, everything is OK even if there would be a better one. This is completely mad.

Please don't misinterpret me. I didn't write this blog post to tell that men are better than women or the other way around. But there are differences between both sexes and it is very interesting and necessary to explore them. For example most of the medicines are developed by men for men because most doctors thought that the male and female body are working mainly the same. But this isn't so. If a man and a woman takes the same medicine it could operate completely different. Even the symptoms from a disease could be completely different between men and women. One example is the heart attack. Men have clear and well known symptoms like a violent pain in the chest. But women don't have such clear symptoms. That's why many women and even doctors don't realize that a woman had a heart attack.

Now you perhaps see why it is important to explore the differences between women and men.

But even many differences between men and women are already and will be discovered, it's a silly and wrong point of view to think that men are better than women or the other way around. Even today in times of equal rights of men and women there are unfortunately many people who are thinking that their own sex is better than the other one. There are still much more men working in responsible and well-paid jobs, studying science, and so on. As I already wrote before the society and the companies are still focusing on the speed of solving a problem instead on the quality.

Stop thinking that one sex is better than the other one. God (or the nature) created two different humans, men and women. They belong together and not only because of biology. In my mind women and men are the perfect match. The differences between the sexes aren't a disadvantage or a reason to discriminate each other. They are very important advantages! No one is able to solve all problems alone. For living a happy and successful life, you need the ability from men and women. Women and men complement each other on the best possible way. There is no better match. That's why I think that all responsible jobs in politics, companies and also in religions should be done by a couple, a man and a woman who work together. Only this way you are able to solve all problems on the best way.

Always remember: Women and men belong together! There is no need do discriminate each other!

I was inspired by Lindsey Stirling to write this blog post. She is talking regularly in front of pupils to help them finding their way in life. She is mainly focusing on girls and young women because they are still discriminated in our society.

Written by Andreas S. Janke

Lindsey Stirling talking to a school class.

Lindsey Stirling performing for a school class.