The Good Circulation of Wisdom

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Álvaro Reinoso is an artist I met at the conference in honor of the 20th birthday of XMM-Newton, my favorite satellite.

Álvaro was at the conference to draw faces, impressions, and scientific talks which were then projected on big screens, and delighted scientists and visitors during coffee breaks.

Since then I follow him on twitter, where he shares everyday scenes filled with his fantasy; do you want an example of what it means to enrich existence, reality, what exists? Visit the page of Álvaro.

Yesterday he delighted me with this post, which with his permission I reproduce here: as I love Álvaro’s style of drawing, I loved the idea, and in general I cannot resist a well-made scheme.


How to live well during the quarantine period: tips for a good Circulation of Wisdom

Circulation of Wisdom in difficult moments: let everything you can control enter your heart (-> courage), and leave everything you cannot control out of your mind (-> calm).

The idea behind the Circulation of Wisdom in difficult times is as follows:

  • letting go of everything that cannot be controlled through the mind, to gain calm;

  • let everything you can control enter through your heart, to gain courage.
How to circulate wisdom well: let everything you can’t control get out of your mind, getting calm; let everything you can control enter your heart, gaining courage.

It is possible to summarize the strategy of Good Circulation of Wisdom in a scheme, where you can list all the things that you cannot control, and what you can do to get calm; and all the things that you can control, and what can be done to gain courage.

Example of things I cannot control:

  • the news;
  • social network trolling;
  • alarm and stress level of other people;
  • how long is all this going to last;
  • the number of whatsapp messages I receive every day;

…and what can I do to gain calm (filtering out through the mind):

  • read the news only once or twice per day;
  • visit social network profiles which publish positive content;
  • try to calm down others, whenever I have the energy to do so;
  • do not count the days;
  • take care about the messages of the people I love;

Example of things I can control:

  • wash my hands;
  • take care about the norms of social confinement;
  • take care when leaving the house;
  • take quality time with the ones I love, and be supportive of others;
  • take some time all for myself;

…and what can I do to gain courage (flowing in through the heart):

  • understand that rituals can be boring but are necessary;
  • think about people in the hospital;
  • understand that prudence is the intelligence of love;
  • look at myself in the mirror and ask what can I do for my neighbours and society.
  • stay positive;

These days, each of us has various things under control and various things out of control; some are common to everyone (“How long will this story last?”), others are special, individual (“When will my dear friend be released from the hospital?”). For this reason, Álvaro leaves us with a free scheme, to help elaborating our own personal strategy to obtain Calm and Courage, the two fundamental ingredients for a good Circulation of Wisdom.

Top left: “Things I cannot control”; top right: “Things I can control”; bottom left: “What can I do to gain calm”; bottom right: “What can I do to gain courage”.

So what to say: calm and courage, people!

Published by marghezz

Astronomer, human of planet Earth investigating supermassive black holes.

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