The writer, coach and neuro-linguistic programming specialist Ana Albiol has published a new work, to death with life, in which, through her personal history, she manages to immerse the reader in a process of reflection and self-knowledge that leads him to empathize with the author herself, while questioning aspects of her current life. Love, lack of love, social stability, spirituality, transcendence, Carpe Diemthe courage to choose to live one’s own life and change oneself are aspects addressed in a book that leaves no one indifferent. The debate has been able to speak with this young author about “how to go to death with life”.
–It impels the reader to go “to death with life”. Are we looking at an autobiography or a book of coaching or self help?
-The truth is that it is a mixture of everything said. In to death with life there is autobiography, fiction, humor, adventure, and there is much coaching and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). It is a book in which many powerful and open questions are formulated, so that the reader is moved, wonders and wonders, while reading the story.
–It is true that it is a book in which, as one reads and gets to know the story, one does not stop questioning oneself.
-I really have no personal interest in my story being published, because I don’t think it’s an exceptional story, far from it. But I am well aware that the only way to subtly attract the reader’s attention is for him to read a story, through which he ends up questioning aspects of his own life. That’s what I’m looking for.
-The story has a lot of truth, why did you decide to open up in the channel?
-Because I don’t see myself making a self-help manual or a book that directs people, that doesn’t go with me. I believe that what I can offer the reader, with truth and authenticity, is to share my personal story, because there is nothing more true than that, and it is through sharing with the reader that he is able to identify with his reality. In this way and in a very subtle way, people ask themselves, reflect on their own life through the story I share and it is much more effective. I think that if this work were a self-help manual there would be many skeptical people and that is why I have chosen to share my life experience with all of them.
-You talk about love, lack of love, deceit, traditions, change… What would be the message you wanted to send by telling us your story?
-I would like people to finish reading the book thinking that they are willing to do anything, as long as they don’t lose themselves. I would like them to finish the book with the desire to put each one in their place, taking the reins of their lives; that they begin to question things to understand and find their own truth and, above all, that they eliminate from their lives anything that harms them or with which they are not satisfied or comfortable.
–Reading your story, one gets the impression that you are a person in constant search.
–It is a search for my own truth and for the things that make me feel well-being, certainty, calm and peace. I look for my place, my place and my way.
–Does the human being live lost in a world in which he is subjected to so much stress, speed, stimuli, tension?
–One of the great gifts that social networks give me is being able to meet and interact with people and see what is happening to them and how they are doing. I notice people and I see them very sad. I perceive a lot of sadness, a lot of nonsense and a lot of fatigue due to the rhythm of life that we have. People want to stop, but they can’t because the rhythm of life takes us ahead. I have the feeling that we are running ahead of a snowball, before which we cannot stop because it can take us ahead. And this also happens to me because, when I’m not careful, I see myself running without being able to stop and with the risk of being run over by her. We go so fast that we don’t have time to be, to stop, to feel, to enjoy. It’s all about running until you reach targets that don’t tell you anything because, normally, you don’t like the ones you’re after. It’s all nonsense, really.
I notice people and I see them very sad. I perceive a lot of sadness, a lot of nonsense and a lot of fatigue due to the rhythm of life that we have
–You got away from that snowball by traveling to Bali, but most people don’t have that opportunity. How can one make that break, refocus and rediscover oneself?
-The first thing I would recommend is to find moments of silence. It is true that the reader sees that great leaps have been made in my life and that I have experienced great situations, but one can break with that dizzying rhythm by meditating, seeking silence, writing in a personal diary where one can pour out one’s emotions. Searching and making silence in our lives helps us to listen to ourselves internally and to discover aspects of ourselves that, due to external noise, we do not find. And those aspects, that information that you discover, helps you to change aspects of your life. My trip to Bali lasted four months, but everyone can seek that silence on a regular basis right here, making silence for a moment every day, thus breaking with the inertia of day to day.
-The paradox is that, usually, people are afraid of being alone with themselves and in silence.
– Is there fear of silence? Of course! But it is in the silence where the answers are, because I assure you that the answers are not in Bali, nor in China! The answers are in the silence, in the fact of stopping, because that is when all the emotions come out, when you can check how you are, how you feel, discover how you really are…
Searching and making silence in our lives helps us to listen to ourselves internally
–If people don’t stop because they don’t want silence, nor to be alone, much less listen to each other, how do we do it?
–It is true that we have not been taught what emotions and feelings are, and that is scary, because when one remains silent and alone, the first thing they have is anguish and anxiety and this happens because they need to self-manage; finally meet. When you have self-knowledge and know what your emotions are like and what they are for, you are not so afraid.
– Is it difficult to talk about emotions?
–The reality is that, if you have not been told about emotions, what they are like, how to identify them and how to manage them, it is difficult to manage everything that happens to one when one is left alone with oneself.
–There is an aspect that is openly addressed in this new work and that is spirituality, the sense of transcendence and of life. How important are these questions in your life?
–For me, the intangible part of the human being, spirituality, transcendence, is very important. On many occasions I ask myself why I am in this world, here and now, and I have no answer, but I do know that when I do something that impacts the people around me or I feel fulfillment or well-being, that gives my life meaning; Much more than letting myself go with the flow. Faith calms me and gives me hope. Having the conviction that there is something more than the body, that the soul exists, gives me calm and hope.
–He unapologetically confesses his Christianity declaring himself a believer, something unusual for public figures.
-Totally. The values of Jesus Christ seem wonderful to me, only that, on occasions, I believe that they have been distorted at the mercy of various interests, but I believe that Jesus Christ was the first influencer. I do believe, as I also believe in life, in God, in many things, and I don’t care what the rest tell me because I know how I feel and I know how it makes me feel.
The values of Jesus Christ seem wonderful to me, only that, on occasions, I think they have been distorted at the mercy of various interests
– Do you think that rationality has crushed us as a society and as individuals?
-I think so. Feeling and opening ourselves to feeling is necessary. We all have intuition, but many times we do not pay attention to it. The body is very wise and many times it alerts us to a situation, a person, a fact or event, but on many occasions we do not pay attention to it. We must listen to the language of our body and what we feel through it. Intuition is nothing more than an accumulation of small memories in such a way that, over the years, we accumulate information that we do not rationally assimilate, but our body does, although we do not pay attention to it. Descartes did a lot of damage! There is no doubt that the mind is wonderful, but emotions and bodily sensations, emotional intelligence, intuition… are for something and we have disconnected.
– How can we reconnect?
–Connecting with our essence and with nature. Nature and silence anchor us to who we are and to that part of the natural wisdom that we have. We must listen to our inner voice. You have to feel, listen to the inner voice and listen to it! We must listen to ourselves more and stop asking questions or looking for self-affirmation in others. It is necessary to reconnect that rational part of the human being with the emotional part of him, it is necessary.
–Given the times we live in, what can we do to recover our smile?
-People, when they connect with each other from the authenticity, explode with joy. I believe that we must recover the enjoyment of simplicity and recover the child that we all have inside. We must fight to recover the joy and enjoyment of simple things, because that is where true happiness and joy reside, in the least. And, for this, we must reduce the obligations that we impose on ourselves, because they are expendable.
-Less is more?
-Yes, and more so in the society in which we live. We have so many options to choose from that complicate our lives because it forces us to be constantly deciding, that is why it is necessary to limit it because if we do not limit it, we lose ourselves, we do not enjoy, we are not happy.
-You have to know how to let go…
-Yes, of course, you have to limit, decide and let go, because when in this society you don’t decide, others decide for you.
Ana Albiol, writer and ‘coach’: «I think that Jesus Christ was the first ‘influencer’»