Here's a question for you: do you remember the day when you started to decide for yourself? The reason I'm asking is that, obviously, in the beginning, you didn't have that right: Mom and Dad (or whoever was raising you) were probably rather precise regarding the stuff you could or could not do. Eat your vegetables. Stop picking your nose. Take out the trash. Don't tease your sister. And so on, and so forth. We've been told what to do from the day we were born, and the good thing about it was that we knew how to act, we were offered a way to navigate this complex world and stay safe while we were learning and growing. The bad thing about it though was that we didn't really have a choice. We didn't even realize we could have a choice up until we got to our teenage years.

That's when people usually start questioning everything, starting, of course, with the adequacy of their parents. Why are my parents living such miserable lives, we ask. How did it happen that they gave up on their dreams, we ask? And will the same happen to us if we continue to listen to them instead of doing what we are destined to do?

At this very moment, we start taking a stand against this dull, mechanical, mindless life our parents (just as well as most of the other people around us for that matter) are living. We start rebelling, doing some stupid things, all just for the sake of separating ourselves from "them", those-who-don't-understand. And even though starting a drunk wrestling session with your dad or getting a tramp stamp is generally not a good idea by itself, it is totally reasonable in this case: we can't evolve by following the exact same patterns our predecessors established. We desperately need that reality check our teenage years are asking for.

However, that state of wakefulness doesn't usually last that long. No epiphany or anything like that happens — at some point, we just forget what we were fighting for. Crushed by the routine, swamped with the necessity to make our living, we forget we were even fighting. Moreover, we become such an organic part of this make-money-to-spend-money symphony that we stop thinking. Just like good dancers who never think about their next step, we get up, go to work, come back home, and get to bed again. We put some food into our bodies, but we don't care if it's doing us any good at all. We drink colored and aromatized water without thinking if we are actually enjoying it. We make love and don't realize how little love we feel. Just as our parents did. Most people carry on with that without asking questions, right until the last day of what they call life. Because this is what karma is.

But what about you?

One day you wake up. Maybe it already happened. Maybe it's yet to come. Maybe it's happening right now.

You wake up, but you can fall asleep again. Or you can take the proverbial "red pill". I'm not saying it's gonna be easy. In fact, there's a strong chance you're gonna be having some tough times. Not only you'll have to let go of a lot of stuff you've never even questioned, but you'll also have to use your head way more, which most people subconsciously consider uncomfortable. However, believe it or not, that's exactly what you need. Because, as someone quite smart said, a comfort zone is a nice place, but nothing ever grows there. And I'm terribly sorry, but if you're not growing, that means that you're gradually degrading, especially in our world that changes at such an insane speed.

For what it's worth, the red pill is made of questions. The kind of questions that can be unsettling and even straight painful. You'll have to learn a lot, you'll have to forget even more. You'll have to re-learn what you thought was obvious.

You'll feel very lonely at times, especially at the beginning of your journey. But you won't be alone, trust me. You'll realize it by following in the footsteps of those who went the same way before. You'll see that with your every step, you're paving the road for those who will come after you. That you're following and leading at the same time.

And if you don't give up, one day you'll realize that you reached your destination. Even better, that there's no destination at all because the destination is the way. The way that's called mindful life.

Are you with me?

Stay healthy, be happy, and let's reconnect to life.