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The housing market in Berlin is known to be very challenging. I have no idea how it compares to other cities around the world, I do know that there’s a significant amount of people complaining about it: about how hard it is to find a place – even when we’re willing to pay the price. It’s a shortage of offer. Too many people, not enough flats… you know the drill.

This has led to a very common complain that summarises the overall perception around the topic: “It’s impossible to find a nice flat at a decent price in Berlin”. I would like to highlight the liberty with which many of us use the word “impossible”.

This is about a fairly recent situation where I was helping a friend of mine to find a flat. They’re Brazilians and this is relevant because a part of the market in Berlin is highly xenophobic, making things even harder. To make a long story short… they were able to find a flat and move in within 3 months or so. In the exact neighbourhood they wanted and within their budget.

Sometimes the choice of words matter: unlikely is not the same as impossible.

Building an opinion gradually

When I tell other people about this, there’s a natural curiosity around the topic: “How did they do it?”. The variable that they didn’t consider was insider information: having a friend already living in the city with knowledge about a flat that was about to become available. As simple as this example is, it illustrates how quickly many of us are to tag something as “impossible”.

Once they are told how it happened, once they have more information, there’s always the “Ah! Of course” moment. The truth of the matter is that many of us tend to judge whether things are possible or not possible even when we have insufficient amount of data. We tend to overestimate our critical thinking in scenarios where we lack context.

A humble mindset for Spirituality

Spirituality is not the “day to day topic” for most people. When we cross from the concrete into the abstract, when we move from the tangible to the intangible… the risk of making a snap judgement gets higher:

  • When we’re too quick to accept something without validating it before, we risk being gullible
  • When we’re too stubborn to accept something because it is not logical, we risk becoming cynical

What’s the healthy approach then? How do we avoid being fooled? How can we also reduce the risk of missing opportunities out of stubborness?

Discernment is the answer

I have a clear memory of one of the requests that my Basic Pranic Healing instructor made to me: “You’re not expected to believe in any of this but you’re expected to experiment, to keep on trying it out, and to make your own conclusions”. It’s one of the reasons I am a huge fan of this school.

When we look at the history of highly developed souls around the world, we’re bound to bump into the stories of saints and masters that did things that defy our understanding of nature and the laws of physics.

  • If you’re excessively materialistic… you might dismiss these feats as folklore and myth
  • If you’re excessively mystical… you might accept everything as true, even that which is not

I am aware that I am repeating myself. There’s a purpose behind it: this is a request for open mindedness.

What I usually try to do is to take my time with these teachings. To try them out, to experiment interpreting situations under a new perspective and see what makes sense, what is helpful, and what is actionable. And many times I end up positively shocked by what I discover.

Part of the beauty of this process is that no one else can travel this journey, experience these moments, and collect the data on our behalf. We each have our own path.

And I hope we can keep this sense of wonder and openness moving forward