First, warm greetings to the Holos&Lotus community, as well as to all my readers and followers. I would like to tell you that when I read this initiative I felt quite identified or represented in it, since it speaks or narrates a life experience I had, which made me change my way of being, for the better, according to many friends, family and acquaintances, and on the other hand, another group of people, with whom I broke up when deciding to change my life, saw me as a strange being, who had betrayed the path I had decided to follow.

Normally, when one is young, one marries ideals, principles and values, and one does not see if they are good or bad, or if they are as good or bad as those of others, but in reality one feels, the only one who possesses reason and feels the owner of truth.

And that happens with politics, religion and morality, and many times one is so blinded by one's beliefs that one is unable to see another reality and, if one sees it, one always looks for a way to justify, in one way or another, one's beliefs and one's ways of thinking.

In fact, I think that almost all human beings go through that experience, some get stuck in them, others overcome them and advance, and others jump from one vision, ideal or belief to another, without knowing "on which stick to hang themselves’’ as the popular saying of my country says, until they get an environment in life where they are comfortable and in a state of comfort.

Something very similar to the above happened to me, however, life is a wonderful teacher. In my particular case, I was very involved in social struggles and, above all, in the struggles related to the defence of the human rights of indigenous communities and in those related to the field of health and safety at work.

When reviewing that process, I get with two personal situations, the first is that I was an extremely annoying person, I felt like the owner of reason and as I had effectively led struggles and social projects, I considered myself an exceptional leader, the second situation that I encountered when I did that review in my life, is that I thought that no situation could be solved if I was not present or did not direct it.

However, my life changed when I had two experiences that made me break with my paradigms and my beliefs, and showed me very openly how wrong I was in the vision I had of the world and in my relationship with it.

The first situation arose, when I was hired to work in Bolivia, in the promotion of the constituent assembly promoted by Evo Morales and the indigenous communities.

This was very interesting, because when I arrived in Bolivia, I arrived full of the Western intelligentsia and at the meetings, one would quote texts and writers, to reinforce the proposals and give them wisdom.

I remember that one day in Cochabamba, I was giving a talk, trying to impose my criteria on those present, when I saw that my speech was not well received, I asked those present what they wanted from life.

At that moment, an indigenous lady got up, dressed in her traditional skirt and hat, and simply told me "With all due respect, I am not interested in anything you are saying, the only thing that interests me is that you, understand and respect my world view of the world and my way of living life’

That position was endorsed by almost everyone present, so I had to lower my head and look at those present at the talk with regret and tell them, ‘I really don't know what you're talking about.’ And far from being frowned upon by the members of the indigenous communities for my politically and intellectually embarrassing attitude, what happened was that I received an invitation to go live with them for a while and learn what they meant by their position and their world view.

Indeed, I did that, I went away with them for several weeks and when I returned, that experience had caused a change in me intellectually and about the world view, although I still will not fully accept it.

The other experience was more traumatic, and it happened a few months after arriving from Bolivia. At that time I had several active projects and I had also started working for the government, and I wasn't really living, I was dedicated to projects and solving other people's lives and problems, but I personally had no life.

There were times when I only went to my house to have a bath and change my clothes, ate on the street, lived in meetings, had an average of more than 50 calls a day and had 95 people in my care.

One day, one of my aunts, who is a very spiritual woman, told me ‘You must stop, you are not living, life is getting out of hand, and you don't even realize it’ In the end, I ignored her and continued with my life, believing that this was the way to go, until I had an accident on the motorcycle, and spent a year and a half lying in a bed, where the first months I depended on others even to be able to drink water.

At that moment, I stopped, or rather, life stopped me and gave me a lot of time to think. In that situation, it was of no use to have been a leader in social struggles, the books read were of no use and the recognition received was of no use. In fact, the "friends and companions" were disappearing within weeks of being in bed, just like the companion I had, who was with me at the end, more for the processes of struggle and militancy, than for love.

And finally, the people to whom I paid the least attention and to whom I devoted the least time in my life, were those who were with me, my mother and my family. I also realized that being dedicated to others, solving their problems and trying to change their world, was nothing more than an escape route, which I had created in my life and which did not allow me to mature and see other realities. Really, now I see it as a fear, as an excuse, dominated by my ego, not to face or know other things in life.

But thanks to those processes and experiences, mentioned above, I broke with my old paradigms and beliefs.

In that breakup, I learned to be more spiritual, I learned to enjoy the simplest things in life, one of them was being able to get out of bed, sit in a wheelchair and reach a window to receive the sun's rays on my hands and my legs, at that moment after weeks of lockdown, I almost cried with joy. In addition, I learned to enjoy such simple and beautiful experiences, such as the vision of trees, the sky and the real company of people.

I also learned to enjoy solitude, since I spend a lot of time alone, and there were times that the control of the TV, or the phone, was left out of my reach when I was asleep in bed, and I spent hours, in absolute solitude and silence. And there I learned to meditate and listen to everything that we don't really hear when we are surrounded by people and noise.

Finally, I put aside everything related to social struggles and working with the government, since that time, I worked only twice with the State and for economic reasons, both in management positions, and although I did my job well, I ran out of there as soon as I could, looking for other ways to generate income in a freer way and without political or ideological pressures.

In short, I broke with my old beliefs and paradigms, I left the chains behind and, if I had to define myself from the point of view of epistemology today, I would say that I am a member of socioconstructionism, since I believe that reality, the way we live and interact with the world, including economic, moral, religious, spiritual and political factors, we build them ourselves as we live the reality of our life and interact with all the factors that surround us, and more so when we live in a world as changing and dynamic as this. And I really like what Kenet Gergen and other authors raise on this topic.

Thank you very much for reading me.