I think you’ve got a Trojan horse inside your head!
Happppppyyyyyyy FriYAYYYYYY!
(It is Pizza day, ok, so please join my general excitement.) 🍕
Another important event, apart from the cheesy bread-loving, soul-filling, and mind-hugging baked goodness that will be delivered just in time for lunch to our doorstep, happened on this day today - but 3204 years earlier.
The Greeks entered Troy using their famous Trojan Horse, and ended a 10 year long war (after casually destroying the entire city, too). So, what happened again? (Begin of history class 🤓)
The strife began after the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus, who was the King of Sparta. After a fruitless 10-year siege, trying to get Helen back to her hubby, Epeius, THE master carpenter of his time, was tasked to construct a gigantic wooden horse. The idea: To hide 40 soldiers inside, including, so the legend goes, the legendary king Odysseus. The Greeks dropped the horse outside the city gates, and then pretended to sail away. The Trojans thought it was a victory gift (such idiots 😆), and pulled the horse into their city (it was approximately 7.6 metres tall, and 2 tons heavy - but hey, who wouldn't keep a thing like this?) 🐎
That same night, the Greek soldiers crept out of the horse, and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The result: Troy was defeated, Helen returned to Sparta, and Odysseus took 10 years to go back home in a rather arduous and often-interrupted journey, famously recounted in Homer's “Odyssey". It's quite a story - you should really read it once in your lifetime! 🤓 (End of history class).
Today, however, the term “Trojan horse” is commonly used for computer codes that seem legitimate but are written with the intent to damage or disrupt the programming. Thus, a Troyan Horse is a metaphor for something bad, hiding in something deceptively normal or even nice, but with the actual intent to hurt us. And isn't the world full of stuff like this these days? 😢
Our thoughts are often our biggest Troyan horses.
When I tried to find the Troyan Horses in my life, I actually started to realise that the main elements that harm me most are my own thoughts. Self-made misery, and if you opt for it, available 24/7! 🥴 Often, we don't need to look to other people or situations, because if you check hard enough, it is mostly us sabotaging our own happiness and joy. Over the years, many of us have become absolute experts in it!
For instance, if we tell ourselves, "Oh, we are not yet good enough for this or that, I better wait, and do it in 1 / 5 / 20 years", it is our mind telling us to not wander into the darkness, explore the unknown, and face potential danger. Perceptively, a nice idea, as our mind simply tries to protect us. What actually happens, however, is that this very thought hinders us to fully self-actualise. ☀️To flourish. ☘️To test new boundaries. 💖To experience new things. 🌸To learn something about ourselves. 🤓To maybe fail... and to then get up again.🤸♀️ In a nutshell: If we always listen to what we think, we will not get closer TO WHO WE REALLY ARE. 🙏 We have fallen, like the Troyans, for our own, self-made Troyan Horses.
Don't believe everything you think.
Today, I want to invite you to search for your own Troyan Horses. The thoughts that you keep telling yourself repeatedly, often without fully being aware of the same, and that keep you away from being YOUR BEST, WONDERFUL, AMAZING, MOST AUTHENTIC SELF. And what is the best way to do this? Correct: In silent meditation. 🧘♀️
So find a comfortable space, remove all distractions (kids, husbands, pets, phones, or pizza deliveries 😅), plug in your headphones, close your eyes, and just listen. This lovely 30 min track, chanting OM, "the eternal mantra" (more to this in a few weeks, I just started a course on the science of OM, and will share my learnings), is perfect to allow yourself to sink in, match your breath with the chant, and make space for your Horses to gallop all the way up to the surface of your consciousness.
Once done, take a piece of paper, and write down what you experienced... Trust me, it is a truly beautiful and mind-opening experience - and a lovely way to end the week. ☘️☀️🙏
Enjoy the inner ride!
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
