The 2nd Half: Your guide to a more fulfilling career (and life)‪.‬ Eva Zahrawi Ruiz

Everything is possible. We can achieve anything we want. That dream life that seems impossible, that career we can not believe we could have. There is a way to get there where you end saying to yourself "I can't believe this is my life, this is what I am doing every day". I have a very practical approach on how to make it, without risk and with success. There is of course a number of things we need to do for it, but if we do, that thought, that idea, that dream, that intention is all attainable.

Are you at your best? On every aspect of your life, how are you showing up? To your work, to your relationships? If we are not showing up, every day, at everything we do at our best or at least trying to do so, then there is work to do and some changes might be needed. Showing up at our best some times might be not showing up at all to events, social engagements we don’t want to go to. It is not good for us but more importantly for the other. Working on an improved version of ourselves in a constant basis is not a selfish act, but rather an act or responsibility, accountability, respect and love to ourselves and those around us.
For me that is taking time off, on my own, far away from my daily reality to do some personal work. My “going inward annual reset”. For you it might look completely different. Let’s give it a thought.

Dealing with difficult situations: a complaint, unexpected harsh feedback, being at the receiving end of negativity from someone else. What do we do? Very commonly, we freeze, we get blocked, we take it personal, we question ourselves, we doubt our skills, we react emotionally, we take it to our side of the court. And we jump into fixing mode. But is that really necessary? Is it our responsibility? Does it belong to us? How can we identify what is actually going on? And more importantly, what is the appropriate response before we make it our issue? A tool that helps? Something I call “The theatre technique”.

Music Production by Jarl Hector at Clear Music Amsterdam
Podcast Editing by Jorge Pastrana
Artwork by Laszlito Kovacs

Documenting has proven to be the key to success to transition into doing something you truly love 100% of the time, even turning it into your living or as the way to naturally grow your own business. Without forcing or having to do anything difficult. We underestimate the power of showing what we do to the world even if we believe it is not important or valuable to anybody. If no one has a clue that you do that one thing nobody will think of you. But if you give them the thought, provoke the idea, show yourself in a different way you would be surprised what kind of avenues, opportunities, sources of income and new directions are "suddenly" generated. 

During a recent dinner I was asked what was the biggest shift I experienced in the last few years. My answer was: Getting rid of attachments. This truly has been a big change. Not only the obvious bad attachments, often linked to addiction but also the “positive” ones: obsessively meditating, extreme exercising daily. Any kind of attachment, anything that rules your life, those things we believe we can’t live without. Any time we start our sentences with “I need to…” and “I have to” we need to pay attention. On this episode I share how I got rid of attachments, from plant medicine to willpower. And what happens when you actually change habits and you realise that you actually don’t need what you think you need.

Imagine a piece of furniture standing outside for a long period of time, the dirt, the water, the environment gets on top of it and at a certain moment you can’t see what that wood was originally like. You can clean it, you can wash it, but the layers are too thick to be removed with simply some soap. So we might need to sand it, get a machine and peel all the layers, so we can come back to its original beauty. And that however we don’t do with our own bodies, carrying all the emotions since the moment we were born piling up, layer after layer, after layer… On the latest episode of The 2nd Half podcast I look at the body and how we can create some true self care, so that we can start removing and releasing stuck emotions in our in our bodies as a regular practice, as part of our regular ongoing work. Body care that is not necessarily going to the gym, kicking, boxing cycling, having a facial and a pedicure. This year my theme is the body and I have gone deeper into different practices. Here are some of the things I covered during this episode as part of my own journey of exploration:

Breath - Wim Hof and Hollotropic breathwork
Movement - Ecstatic dance, 5 rhythms
Sound - Any kind of Sound Healing sessions
Yoga - Yin, Kundalini
Massage - Nurturing, healing massages 

Books:
Breath by James Nestor
Training the Mind, Healing the Body by Deepak Chopra and David Simon
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

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Music Production by Jarl Hector at Clear Music Amsterdam
Podcast Editing by Jorge Pastrana
Artwork by Lazslito Kovaks