Patrick Hassel Zein's Philosophy of Life

Why don't I give you some examples? When I was about 17 years old I dreamt about studying Chinese, but I didn't. Instead the time turned out to be favourable when I turned 27. At about the same time I really started putting on too much weight. From time to time I wanted and tried to loose some weight, but I simply wasn't motivated enough and the time was simply never right. Today, five years later, the time is right and I loose one kilogram every second week. I feel great!!!

Timing is important, and not to have fear. Fears have a tendency of blocking all possible roads in life – no matter how widely open they actually are. But if you would feel regrets about something – anything! – you should learn from this experience and try to do something about it instead of "harping" your regrets. "Harping" will only consume all your energy without leading to any result.

I once read a book filled with philosophical questions. One of the questions that I remember goes like this; "If it is your destiny to die today, what would cause you the most sorrow NOT to have said to your friends and beloved?". It is really easy to understand the implications of such a question, but that doesn't make the question less interesting. This is one of the first question to ask yourself. Other similar questions may be "What have I always wanted to do, but never done?", "Whereto am I actually leading my life?", "Have I not forgotten to tell myself something important?".

I have heard that the aborigines make use of what they refer to as "walkabout". Sometimes it may happen that you turn to the right on the path of life, but you soul turns to the left. This will obviously make you feel lost. At such a time in your life, you should give yourself lots and lots of free time just to walk about and experience all facets of life. After having walked for some time you will in the end find your soul. At this time you should sit down and have a long conversation with your soul. Talk, talk, talk until you can not find more words – that's when the discussion will become really interesting!

Everybody usually think that they know exactly who they are, what they want / like / dislike / dream and so on. But somehow it is quite usual that people still are not in phase with their own souls. It is very important always to know who you are, where you are and what you really are doing – and not just on the surface, but deep inside. "Temet Nosce" is a Latin quote that means "to know thyself" – I find this to be an important quote to remember at all times, because when I feel in harmony with my own soul I feel capable of almost anything.

There's a lot of stress in the modern world. It gets more and more important for everyone to find an inner peace. Follow your soul, please do! Learn what mental powers you possess, learn to use them, learn to trust them and not to be afraid of using them.

To help others and to give compliments makes me feel better with my own life. To give gifts to others is for me a greater joy than receiving their gifts. The best gift I can get is the joy in the face of the receiver!

Throughout my life I've had dreams of moving abroad, to work in some exciting country like Italy or China. Because of different reasons I haven't been mature for the move, and have not found the right ways. But suddenly the proper doors were opened – to a totally unexpected country. How could I have known that I was supposed to go to Iceland? Anyway, now that I sit here, I realise that it will be a time filled with useful lessons and experiences. I really feel that I'm the right person at the right place – even if Icelandic happens to be one of the languages that I do not know. Now I can see that this is something that I like. I get a new perspective on everything in my life, a perspective on what I find to be good and bad in my home country of Sweden – but I also learn, probably most of all, to cherish my family, my home town, my friends.

What I'm trying to say is that if you don't know your "destiny", or how you can control it, the best thing to do is probably to be alert and catch the lines that are thrown out to you. It may very well prove that not all decisions prove to be the best, even if you are ever so convinced about them at the beginning, but the experiences are always guaranteed to give you help to judge what way to continue forward to find the place where your seed can grow.