The Photographer Collection: The Canary Islands in a T-Shirt

The Photographer Collection: The Canary Islands in a T-Shirt

by | May 21, 2021 | The Pursuit of Happiness | 0 comments

The Photographer Collection: a new Apparel Brand inspired by a photographer point of view, starting with the Canary Islands in a T-Shirt.

It is with very pleasure that I announce the launch of my first line of clothing: The Photographer Collection! The Canary Islands have inspired me to create this amazing new apparel. Finally, you can now literally wear your favorite Canarian landscape in a T-Shirt, a Hoodie or in a Phone Case. All the designs are from the best pictures that I took around the Canary Islands during these last 5 years. Living in this paradise is a privilege, and I wanted to transmit this beautiful feeling giving to everybody the possibily to wear the place that has special spot in their heart. In this case that place will be one of the best landscape of the Canarian archipelago. You can choose between many place of Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and El Hierro, there are sooo many designs!

The Photographer Collection gives you the possibility to wear your favorite destination from the Canary Islands not only in a T-Shirt but also in an amazing Hoodie. These Sweatshirts are really soft and they definitely are my favorite piece of clothing! They are so warm and the material is super amazing. I am sure that everybody will fall in love with these Hoodies!

The White T-Shirts are also really nice. They are 100% Cotton and it is possible to wear them all year long because of their good material. Washing them is really easy and the print doesn’t fade after few washing.

If fashion isn’t really your thing but you want a piece of the Canary Islands with you, you can always get one of the beautiful Phone Cases! You can find them for all the models of iPhone and the latest models of Samsung. This is also a great way to have always your favorite destination close to you.

Sooo, what are you waiting for? Get now your favorite T-Shirt of the Canary Islands from The Photographer Collection, or an amazing sweatshirt or a phone case. Your dream destination has never been so close before!

Positive Thinking: a weapon against pessimistic society

Positive Thinking: a weapon against pessimistic society

by | Jun 23, 2017 | The Pursuit of Happiness | 11 comments

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Positive thinking: a weapon against our pessimistic society
Stress, anxiety, frustration and pessimism: who hasn’t experienced these emotions lately?

In the frantic society we live in, we are in constant contact with negative emotions, due to our daily stress for having to carry on our duties: finish a work, study, try to get fit, etc… Everything leads us to anxiety and to a consequent fear of not making it.

But, I would like to reveal a simple trick.
Instead of being afraid of not reaching your goal, imagine yourself in the situation where you’ve finally got it. I assure you this pleasant feeling will have a positive impact on your efforts!

The society of the third millennium is definitely more frenetic and pessimistic than in the past. We want and demand more things, we don’t live in a simple way and we are constantly influenced by TV and social networks who tell us what we need to buy, how we should behave and how we should look.

HOW TO START TO BE POSITIVE IN A FEW STEPS

The more positive are your thoughts, the more positive your results will be.
But where to start?

• Don’t watch too much TV

Don’t get stuck all day long listening bad news. Unfortunately, negative events have always happened but in 2017 it’s so much easier and quicker to become aware of every information. Tragic events influence our mood and they sometimes block our efforts to be positive.

• Don’t spend entire days on Social Network

Monitoring what other people are doing doesn’t help us to be positive, especially if we are angry, envy or jealous of these people!

When we wish to keep someone under control, it’s better we focus on things we are fond of or simply think about our responsibilities instead.

• Don’t play the victim!

We must remember that if we keep on being pessimistic, we’ll only attract more negativity.
Instead, concentrate on something you are fond of and when you feel more relaxed and in a good mood, you will also begin to have insights and ideas to solve your problems.

• Don’t criticize or judge others

Everyone’s own experience of life is different from ours. We don’t know what or how he or she has lived, so we have no right to judge the choices that other people make.
Let’s not get angry, then, if someone takes decisions different from ours, it makes no sense to get nervous and attract negativity in our lives for something that doesn’t even concern us personally!

Exercise to attract positivity in your life

Some months ago, I was taught this exercise to improve my positive thinking and I’d like to share it with you as it has been very helpful to me.

Take paper and pen and think of something you don’t like in your life.
Now, analyze this thought and write down the positive sides that this thing brings to you. Try to make an effort and go deeper, looking for as many positive sides as possible.

Example:
You think you don’t like your job, that you’re settling for something that doesn’t really make you happy, but maybe:
• colleagues are nice.
• Working part time allows you to dedicate your time to other activities.
• Working full time permits you to put aside some money.
• The boss is very flexible.
• Customers appreciate your work.
• With the money you earn you can pay your bills until you find the job you like.
•etc…

Read them when you feel frustrated!
If you can’t find not even one positive side, maybe it’s time to be courageous and try to change something.

I finish this article with a quote by Allen Klein, and if you have any doubts about positive thinking you can leave a comment below!

“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.”

How to start over and take life in your own hands

How to start over and take life in your own hands

by | Jun 6, 2017 | The Pursuit of Happiness | 8 comments

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How to start over and take life in your own hands

I had never given my heart to someone in such a way. Unexpectedly, I trusted somebody so much and I didn’t think one day he would take that heart and destroyed it in thousands pieces.

Love makes you fragile.

 

I thought my life was over. I found no reason to plan a future without him. For months I’ve wondered why he behaved like this, with wickedness for no reason.

 

I really trusted him. A good person shouldn’t deserve to feel so bad.
An year and half later I look in the mirror and I can see a strong woman and a fighter, ready to face life and make her dreams come true by any means.
But through this heartbreak I can also see a grown up girl,  that is living the smart life she had always wished.

When everything falls apart, remember that:

• When we do something on our own, we’re worth.

• Nothing and no one has the power to wreck our life, it’s you who has to decide if to allow it or not.

• We must grab our dreams and restart.

• Nobody better than us can understand how we feel and can’t expect people support and pity us all the time.

• Inside each of us there is enough strength to get rid out of negative thoughts and be positive.

• Meditation could be a big help.

But what we must really remember is that:

THERE IS ALWAY A RAINBOW AFTER THE STORM
Can you imagine to see a rainbow without a storm? Impossible. And so that’s life.
Sometimes we don’t realize it and we choose to withdraw from others rather than to get down thinking what it would be better for us.
I decided to have a one week journey….but one year and half later I’m still here. For once in my life, I’ve taken care of myself. I didn’t listen to friends, parents and social rules.
I followed my heart. I realized that the end of my relationship had been a blessing. I should have changed my lifestyle for a long time but I had never been brave enough.
Sometimes life confronts us with circumstances that seem impossible to overcome. If we aren’t resolute to change what’s bad for our life in a calm way, life will change it hardly.
These unpleasant events block our life like a boulder and they appear as a wrong punishment that we didn’t really deserve.

But when, finally, the storm moves away the rainbow you’ll see it will be the most amazing and satisfactory view ever.

You’ll feel like being soaked in a barrel of positivity, you’ll enjoy to live in the present moment, smiling about the past and eventually you’ll find out that without all that pain you’d have never reached such results.

HAPPINESS IS STRICTLY LINKED TO AWARENESS

We can look for happiness when, observing our life, we realize there is always something to be grateful for. Once we get this awareness, it will be so easy to feel joy for little things, that we’ll wonder why could live without happiness so far!

I conclude this article with a quote from John Lennon! I hope you’ve enjoyed and if you have some doubt or question you can leave a comment below! 🙂

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

How the beneficial effect of meditation affects our lives

How the beneficial effect of meditation affects our lives

by | May 12, 2017 | The Pursuit of Happiness | 2 comments

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How the beneficial effect of meditation affects our lives

From the moment I started to meditate, it seemed to me to live in a different world.

Since I’ve discovered the world of meditation, I see every single detail with different eyes. Before, I was just like many other people: in a world always anxious, getting angry with everyone, taking my anger out on every single foolishness. Now I’m very happy to live in “my own world”: I can explore the deep meaning of every little gesture. Today, I don’t get angry if something goes wrong, but I wonder if it is really worth to waste mental and physical energies on something that I probably can not even control. It’s better to be present, relaxed and any situation will resolve in the best way.

This is what meditation is doing. It allows us to live and appreciate the present moment, also helping us to unlock some situations that we would never have had the courage to face.

Main Benefits of Meditation:
  • Increases concentration
  • Reduces anxiety and stress
  • Increases the sensitivity of perception of the world around us
  • Reduces slackness
  • Increases self-esteem
  • Reduces anger

It would take me hours to list what benefits meditation increases and what defects it decreases. They are generally very subjective and always positive!

We always feel so taken by our habits that sometimes we are not even aware of the world around us. We do things automatically, like a robot. We go to work and think about the issues that will be waiting for us. We brush our teeth and we remember how we looked bad today in front of our colleague. We shower and we blame ourselves for not having started studying time before for that damn exam.

Thinking, thinking, and still thinking – we do it all the time. In fact, we are simply taking away the space for our happiness but continuing to stuff our mind with thoughts, we are no longer able to appreciate what surrounds us.

All we have to do is to strive and not collapsing in our thoughts without taking care of what we are at the moment living

All this is much easier if you start doing small meditation exercises every day.

 

How do you meditate?

• Take a few minutes just for you, in a place where you know you can’t be disturbed.
• Sit or lie down, and slowly close your eyes.
• Begin by breathing slowly and deeply, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
• Count on your breaths and focus only on them.
• When a thought begins to distract you, try to send it away and concentrate on your breath.
• Keep doing this for a few minutes, and every day try to do your best, enduring more and more in concentratiing on your breath.

Congratulations! You have just completed a meditation session! Did you think it was more difficult?

You will find that if you are constant in your daily doing this practice, it will be easier to concentrate on your everyday activities and, by shutting the negative thoughts out, you will enjoy each single instant of your life better.

In the long run, you will realize that this practice will improve your mood, making you feel more relaxed, even unlocking situations that seemed insurmountable before.

The more you meditate the more you will begin to feel a particular sensitivity to the surrounding world, for example you will want to spend more time in a park or on a beach rather than being locked in the house. Your sensitivity will allow you to be less selfish and more empathic: you will better understand the needs of those around you and make you angry less easily.

If you have anxiety problems, meditation will help you reduce the agitation that follows you daily and you will feel much more serene.

If you have any doubt about meditation, do not be afraid to leave a comment below!

I conclude the article with this quote of Swami Kriyananda about meditation.
I hope it can inspire you 🙂

“Become a cause, not an effect, of whatever happens in your life. Live at the center, not on the periphery, of your personal universe. Be who you are and not an echo of others’ expectations and desires.”

Welcome to the first article of my blog!

Welcome to the first article of my blog!

by | May 11, 2017 | The Pursuit of Happiness | 0 comments

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first article the italian chica
Welcome to the first article of my blog!

I introduce myself.
My name is Caterina, but friends have always called me Kate. I am an Italian girl who currently lives in Lanzarote: a beautiful island of the Canary archipelago. Here I started to meditate and live a quiet and relaxed life, trying to follow, day after day, all my dreams.

How did I get to LANZAROTE?

As I wrote in the ABOUT ME section, in Italy I was leading a rather stressful, uncontrolled and disorganized life without any prospect for the future. Some of the decisions I made in the past have been influenced by what my parents and family wanted of me, and I often felt guilty when I wanted to do what I really liked and I was never really happy. At the University I was studying subjects I didn’t like and to escape from them I used to work for a student association, organizing parties and trips. This activity gave me some satisfaction at first, but some time later routine and monotony started to take over.

Besides this, there is a toxic relationship that, although it may have started well, has brought to light the worst sides of my character, at  the time agitated, anxious, argumentative and easily irritable. With all this suffocating environment I felt more and more depressed and misunderstood, as if society was pulling me in its dark vortex, leaving me with no strength to react.

But, one day ,I hit rock bottom: the toxic relationship ended and my recurring thoughts were depressing. By that time nothing had any sense without that person, with whom I believed I shared dreams and projects. For a period I was drowning in the worst depression, only thinking about why the universe was being cruel to have so unjustly punished me. I didn’t understand how it was possible to experience such pain, after giving my heart and trust to someone. I didn’t want to eat anymore and I didn’t sleep at night, I only went out if I knew I could meet this person … but every time I went home in an even worse state than the previous one.

I don’t remember what happened in my head, but one day I woke up in a different way from the usual, thinking that I needed to do something that I really loved. So my mind began to travel … yes, travel! It was just what I wanted to do! It was December, it was cold in Italy, and I wanted to travel to a warm place, to jump into the ocean and to feel myself alive again … and so it happened. I knew where I could buy a plane ticket, I knew perfectly the airline websites. When my eyes saw an offer for the Canary Islands I had no doubt: I had to book! Duration: one week. And so the flight was mine. Soon after, I informed my parents, who were not happy at all and tried to dissuade me: “Where does a girl go, alone, many miles away! But most of all, a few days after the Paris attack!”

For once I only listened to my heart. What else could it be if not the best choice of my life? Not only did I do that trip … but I also decided not to return anymore! I fell in love with the life I was living in this magical island, I felt I finally belonged to a place. I found a job and a place to live and decided to cultivate and follow my passion for photography. The breathtaking panoramas of Lanzarote introduced me to a more direct contact with nature and I began to meditate. Day after day, my agitated and perpetually anxious character began to disappear following the quiet “flow” of the island. At the same time, the more I was relaxed, the more opportunities and benefits begun to appear in my life.

Finally, for the first time,I have no doubt I can finally consider myself truly Happy. Happy with capital H, pure, spiritual happiness that makes me appreciate the little things the world has to offer and suggest to me every day. I learned to listen, to think, to not judge, and to not be too impulsive. I learned that the more we smile at life, the more life smiles back at us and giving us exciting opportunities. Opportunity like my job: every time I see a beautiful picture, it gives me a magnetic feeling of gratitude for being part of this amazing universe.

The idea of this blog is to reveal simple tricks to achieve happiness even if it seems impossible and far, and to help people who are facing a difficult time and do not know where to start or who simply want to change their life but are too negative or too anxious to really put it into practice.

In addition, on this site under construction there’s a guide dedicated to the beautiful and magical island that made me feel reborn, Lanzarote. This guide enhances its most spectacular and evocative places, in which I get lost every time I visit them.

 

 

I conclude the article with a quote from Mark Twain, which I hope you can seize and exploit to the best, as I am doing!


Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!

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