Category: Thoughts

Getting Started Thoughts

Making Music – For A Better Monday Style

Making Music

Finding and Pursuing Our True Passion in Life

Although the title of this post is Making Music, this post is, in fact, more about finding and pursuing our true passion in life. This true passion of mine happened to be making rock music, but I believe that it can actually be pretty much anything as long as the true passion factor is there. This is definitely not a “how-to” post. For this starting point, I decided to rather share with you the story of how making rock music and playing in bands acted as a guiding factor and pretty much shaped my entire life. Despite all the sacrifices I’ve chosen to make in order to peruse my dream, it has pretty much brought me all the joy and positive things I highly value in life. Without this passion of mine, I am certain that my professional career and my finances would be better off today, but my life and my personal history would most likely be way duller. Finding my true passion relatively early on was certainly a blessing in order to turn this life that was given to me into an exciting adventure. That said, not having found our true passion yet, and going out there to find it, can turn itself into an exciting and enriching adventure as well. I hope that some elements of my 28-year-old story of pursuing something I am deeply passionate about can contribute to inspiring others to pursue or find their true passion in life.

My First Exposure to John Bonham in Ankara

I had the chance to grow up in a home where music was highly appreciated. My parents (especially my dad) were into the 70s rock and classical music. At a very early age, while we were still living in the Turkish capital Ankara, I was exposed to bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and composers such as Mahler, Beethoven and more. Besides all these great names, I personally was fascinated by what was after fact called the Turkish Psychedelic Rock movement. As a child, I was a great fan of artists such as Barış Manço, Cem Karaca, and Erkin Koray. For me, they were more than just rock stars. I used to perceive them as some kinds of superheroes. Besides the fact that they played great music in a language I could understand, they also had big Turkish mustaches just like my dad did. The ‘stache element alone could have sufficed to raise them to the superhero status for me at that time, but the reality was that they were fascinating in all aspects of their music and image.Continue reading

Getting Started Thoughts

Disconnecting 101 – For a Better Monday Style –

Disconnecting  101

Creating Zones for Disconnection

After near two decades of being exposed to connected technologies, at one point I decided to embrace a certain discipline to allow my brain have some resting time on a regular basis. It all started while I was actually working for a tech company. Communication via e-mail and ticketing systems were an important part of my job. I didn’t mind working overtime when needed. What mattered the most to me at that time, was to know at one point the workday was over. Back then I was working full time.  What tended to tire me the most wasn’t that much the actual work, but the constant state of being connected. I started by deleting my work mailbox from my personal phone. I know this can not always be possible depending on the situation, but for me it actually worked pretty well. My rational was that there was no need for me to access work related information, if I wasn’t going to be able to act on it immediately. That way I was only doing work related activities while I was physically at work. I was often the first one to make it to the office, and last one to leave.  For real emergencies, I could be reached on my cellphone. I was able to work this way for several years. I don’t think anybody actually noticed that I wasn’t accessing work related e-mails outside of work, since I was able to respond to all work related communication in a timely manner.Continue reading

Journal Thoughts

Journal Entry: December 28th 2017 – Traveling into the Unknown

December 28th 2017

Traveling into the Unknown

Despite my journey towards a healthier living being extremely positive so far, I have to admit that it has challenged me in areas where I was not expecting to be challenged. As a result of me changing my life-style, my desires, and the elements that would trigger my motivation have been changing as well. This situation is forcing me to constantly adapt my plans to my current inner-reality, and cope with the consequences of the decisions I took in the past when I wasn’t feeling and thinking the way I think and feel today.Continue reading

Exercising Journal Kidney Filtration Thoughts

Journal Entry: December 22nd 2017 – Moving with Romance

December 22nd 2017

Moving

I am in the process of moving into a new place. I decided to move all my belongings by foot from the old apartment to the new one. At first I wasn’t sure if it will be a total waste of time, or on the contrary this out of the ordinary little adventure could make me experience something different. The new and old apartments are 1.1 km / 0.7 mile apart from one an other. The distance separating the two places represents about 15 min of walk. So far I’ve made seven trips back and forth. I have 90% of my belongings in the new apartment already. Today I am going to clean the old apartment so I can do the check out with the old landlord, and recuperate my deposit tomorrow. The new apartment is excellent. It’s not facing the street. I was able to sleep like a baby for the past couple of nights.Continue reading

Fasting Fasting Patterns Journal Thoughts

Journal Entry: December 20th 2017 – Getting in shape – End of No Facebook – Writing – Living Situation – Compensating -Breathing

December 20th 2017

I am slowly getting back in shape

For the past two weeks I’ve dry-fasted a total number of three days. Two Sundays and one Friday. I have been eating plenty. In addition to my morning yoga, light jogging, and walking activities, I’ve added a bit more physically challenging exercises, and I increased the number of days I go out for a run. I’ve been also using my bike more. My physical activity remains mild, but I feel like I have gained a bit more strength. I am still in the mindset of regeneration, that is why I try to avoid physical activities that may be too taxing for my body. My strategy is to increase my physical activity as my organism is becoming cleaner, more alkaline and  more resilient. I don’t want to steal energy away for regeneration by exercising intensely. Although I think exercising is very beneficial for me, it can also cause fatigue if not adapted to my current situation in terms of my nervous energy capital.Continue reading

Fasting Fasting Patterns Journal Kidney Filtration Thoughts

Journal Entry: December 1st 2017 – Juice Fasting – Religious Practices as Temporal Filters – Disconnecting – No Cell-Phone Plan

December 1st 2017

Changing My Fasting Pattern

As we start the month of December I have decided to switch gears and change my fasting pattern. For the past month and a half, I’ve been dry-fasting between three to four days a week. During that period the actual pattern helped me in being more productive, and I saw a considerable increase in my kidney filtration abilities. Before getting started with the new pattern I intend to do an intermittent fast today during the day, and eat plenty at night. Tomorrow Saturday, I am planning on eating and drinking plenty as well. On Sunday, I will start a 36 hour dry-fast until Monday afternoon.

Starting Monday I want to introduce the new fasting-pattern. A 100% juice fast. The idea is to only consume juice and coconut oil for x amount of consecutive days. I am planning on avoiding all solid food. I haven’t decided how long I am going to fast this way. As usual I expect my body to guide me. Continue reading

Eating Outside of Home Journal Thoughts

Journal Entry: November 20th 2017 – Eating Raw, Eating Cooked – Facebook-Fast – Moving Out Soon

November 20th 2017

Alternating Raw and Cooked Food

It has now been over a month that I’ve been allowing myself some cooked food containing animal products. At home I’ve been eating quasi all raw except for quinoa. I’ve been eating out about three times a week for the last month. I was able to eat some red meat and seafood. My favorite restaurant for the month has been Mumbai, preparing to perfection some northern Indian dishes. I truly have been enjoying every bite of their food. Since eating more traditionally cooked food, I’ve been always feeling good the next day. I even think that having some animal origin food and Indian spices have been boosting my overall energy levels.Continue reading

Eating Eating Outside of Home Fasting Journal Recipes Thoughts

Journal Entry: November 2nd 2017 – Eating Abundantly – Soccer Addiction – The Facebook Dilemma

November 2nd 2017

Plunge into a Cheat-Meal Spree

Yesterday I was planning on breaking my 40 hour dry-fast around 3:00PM. I was able to get some work done in the morning, then I went to the “Barrancas de Belgrano “to sunbath and read. I knew I was going to break my fast soon, but I did not know with what type of food yet. I usually break my fast  with slow-pressed home made juices. Since it was a short fast, and lately I had been experimenting with new approaches to break my fast, I wanted to change a bit. The raw vegetarian option was to go to Buenos Aires Verde and have a salad from the menu of the day. If I were to allow myself some animal origin food, having  some seafood was the second option that came to my mind. Few days earlier I had spotted a Peruvian restaurant in “Barrio Chino” specialized in ceviches. The actual place is called Lucumma. I thought raw seafood to break my fast could be an interesting approach. They had a ceviche lunch menu combo, which seemed perfect for the situation. Continue reading

Fasting Journal Kidney Filtration Recipes Sleep Thoughts

Journal Entry: October 31st 2017 – The Mystery of Kidney Filtration

October 31st 2017

My modest attempt to solve the kidney filtration mystery…

Since I had the Indian food at Mumbai last week, I’ve been feeling amazing. Besides feeling amazing, my kidneys have been filtering regularly since. I have to admit that I am a bit lost trying in figuring out how kidney filtration works. In order to have a better understanding of the situation I decided to rewind the film of my life a bit,  and reflect on my actions and the nutrition I’ve been exposed to for the past weeks. Maybe that way I can get a better understanding of how kidney filtration has been working for me.Continue reading