Question of the Week

Recently, over a talk with friends, this very interesting question came up:
What is your personal hell?
Of course, we know our blessings, being heathy is the most important of all. But just for the sake of a mind game, I started to write down a list of things that would certainly make up for my personal hell and here it is:
- Not having Internet access
- Not drinking coffee throughout the day
- Seeing all my computer files out of order
- Being forced to wear really colourful clothes from fashion designers
- Being obliged to wake up early and going to sleep early
- Having to attend “gargantuesque” lunches
- Not being able to take a nap in the afternoon
- Being forbidden to play pinball every now and then
- Having someone sleeping in my bed with day clothes
- Being forbidden to do archery
- Waiting in queues
- Having to go to discotheques and talking loudly with friends that can’t hear me because of the noise
- When in the countryside, not walking every morning in the forests
These are just some of the little things that would make my life hell… What’s your list?

73 Responses to “Question of the Week”


  1. 1 fatosha

    Being forced to listen to someone who is saying a bad words about someone else

    watching on Tv to the children who don’t have any food or peace in Gaza

    listening to hard rock!!

  2. 2 Annie

    My list
    -not playing my piano or my guitar for a day
    -not hearing music for a day
    -not going for my evening walk or jogging
    -not having my green tea in the morning and in the evening
    -not having electricity
    -not reading your blog - it helps me stay sane in the madness around me - so many thank you
    -not speaking to my sister for a day - via email
    -not having slept enough
    -being in a room with too much noise
    -being in a room with too much smoke
    -shopping, i really hate it..and i cant understand ’shopping therapy’
    -finding myself in a w.c without paper…-funny one..
    p.s.I believe , Mr. Coelho is would be hell to you if you couldnt write…or if you didnt have access to writing..

  3. 3 Noura

    Hi..

    Some of the things you listed reminded me of my childhood, like sleeping and waking up early, wearing colorful clothes chosen by my mother, being forbidden to play certain games..

    Does that mean my childhood was a series of hells!?

    I’d rather list some of my personal hells of my adulthood:
    - Being responsible for every single word and action I speak and take
    - Feeling guilt (never felt that in my childhood)
    - Visiting my dentist for annual check ups
    - Flossing my teeth everynight

    There are much more..

  4. 4 Leaf

    I have thought about this one for some time….
    yes, no coffee is annoying, but I’ve done that and survived…
    as with no cigarettes, for a day, anyway, not by choice…
    I found it difficult to think of something, or lack of something, that would really be hell for me….but then I remembered my most recent horrific nightmare -
    - waking up blind
    (I was clawing at my eyes to try and get them to open and then I really woke up properly)
    ….but even then, if I was blind, I would probably get used to it eventually, I mean, other people have survived, and I could enjoy the new experience and even the dependency on other people and my other senses.
    SO
    I want to obnoxiously say
    that no hell exists for me
    because
    hell is what we fear
    or what we can not do without
    and I’ve had enough experiences of various ‘hells’ in my life that there is little or no effect anymore
    thank you
    I suddenly feel invincible again!!
    lol
    love
    xxxx

  5. 5 Francesca

    Il mio inferno personale?
    -Non avere internet
    -Non avere il cellulare
    -Stare da sola per giornate intere, o anche solo per ore
    -idea di prendere l’aereo
    -non avere soldi
    -Aspettare in coda
    -rimanere bloccati in macchina
    -Andare in ferie su un monte d’estate senza neve!

  6. 6 Joan

    Hell?

    Seeing the ones you love suffering and you can’t help them.

    Joan

  7. 7 wanbliska

    -Not having a shower, where I couldn’t sing, and give my sorrow to Earth.
    -Being forced to swallow rough eggs on an empty stomach, instead of chocolate for breakfast, as Rocky Balboa does
    -Not access to my friends for laughs or tears
    -Having any instrument to write ok, while my brain is creating a so true quote
    -Reading a law phrohibiting smokers on the pavement
    -Spending the whole day, not making the fool once
    -Having to put a feet in the temperamental castle of civil services
    -Being locked in, and so, not see entirely what Life’s answer is
    -Finding my guitar without strings
    -Seeing the stars has disappeared

    :)

  8. 8 mailajean

    - not being able to take a shower after a very hot day
    - not being able to listen to music
    - seeing your family slowly breaking into pieces and you can’t do anything about it
    - hearing your parents very proud of other people other than their very own children
    - listening to your bosses’ rantings as if everything is your fault
    - getting caught in traffic just when you’re in a hurry
    - nobody notices nor remembers it is your birthday
    - seeing people cutting down trees for no or for selfish reasons

  9. 9 mailajean

    - hearing my dad lie about his whereabouts
    - hearing my mom degrade all the people around her, including us

  10. 10 Liara Covert

    I think part of self-growth is learning there is no such thing as any personal “hell.” We create it and thus, we can learn to dissolve it. The truth is felt.

  11. 11 Kareyu

    Personal Hell huh? Had to think about this one for a long time. I thought at first I was living my own Hell. After awhile I thought about all the things I’ve gone though in life. Some things just happen… You have little choice but to endure it. You survive, and the sun still rises in the morning the next day. It will still happen whether or not you make it though. If you do make it, another day passes.

    You can tolerate and go though any personal hell as long as it doesn’t kill you.

    - having no friends available to talk to when I’m lonely or upset
    - being forced to sit still in one place all day
    - being sleep deprived to the point of collapsing
    - being completely helpless

  12. 12 Milou

    What is my personal hell?
    Presently some of my small, big or lack of …= hells are:
    The plight of children suffering and the inability to rescue them
    If music was not part of my day
    Moments of solitude(indispensable for me)
    Driving
    Being in the presence of nasty and badly mannered people
    Absence of silence throughout out the day
    Camouflaged prejudices
    Not being able to be in natures bosom
    The news and most media (purely exercises in directional perceptions)
    Absence of Beauty
    Being stuck
    If I had to stop drinking champagne
    Not having the gift of writing
    So many dreams not

    Milou

  13. 13 Shaima

    ok Hell , every day in my life is HELL
    - weake up @ 5.30 Am.
    -transportation to work take 1 hour .
    - working from 9 Am to 7 or 8 Pm .
    - I dont have break.
    - Transportation to home take 1 hour .
    - I cant find love .
    - surrounding wiz bad ppls.
    - have alot of freinds but i cant find time to go out .
    - ONLY HAVE FAITH THAT TOMORROW WILL BE GOOD but the patience game only i have it .
    I WILL NEVER LOSE HOPE i trying really i am trying inshallah i will never

    Shaima

  14. 14 Barcelona 20 euros en un cafe

    - Not being able to speak with anyone.
    - Not having electricity for days living in the city (like the last summer …)
    - Being forbiden write letters to my friends and short tales
    - Having to listen to music techno
    - Not being able to read anything for more than fifteen days.
    - Being in a smoke-filled room
    - Put on television and that only the programs of the heart.

  15. 15 Agnieszka

    seeing someone I love suffering,
    saying or doing something out of anger,
    without never meaning it,
    not being able to see the Light,
    not being able to write,
    not being able to listen to the music,
    not being able to go to the park on the sunny day,

    love
    Agnieszka

  16. 16 Joël

    being sleepless
    having fear
    not finding the good direction,getting lost
    full ash trays
    not finding my work tools
    noisy people
    people who don’t listen
    making faults
    people breaking their promisses

  17. 17 Jane

    Feeling useless
    Feeling guilty
    Having to listen to loud music

  18. 18 Anon

    Having no one to call randomly
    Not having a bed
    Being unoccupied
    Unable to open my eyes
    (I actually had that one time too)
    Living with a violent person
    Sleepy but unable to sleep

  19. 19 biljana

    my personal hell would be loosing my husband which I love more than aything in the world and loosing his sopport and loosing my son who gives me the reason to keep going on: therefore he is my sunshine and I would not like to loose sunrising and sunset in my life

  20. 20 ivan

    not been able to do meditation
    not appreciating the world around me.

  21. 21 Tina

    Here’s a list of things that would make up my personal hell…

    - running lost through the woods naked with horsefly’s biting me and nothing but the moonlight to guide me while being chased by some who are not into “the light” but rather darkness. And realizing that if I didn’t make it out of there, my spirit would be wandering in the woods, lost, naked and being bitten by horseflies forever.

    I think that’s hell enough…and I’m ever grateful to the Goddess for bringing me out of it unscathed, but for one bitemark on my ankle.

    -

  22. 22 Barbara Martinez

    Dear Maestro,
    At first when I read your post, I thought that I really didn’t have anything to contribute. Being a positive, child-like mind, I usually find “GOOD”, in almost anything….jejeje….or so I thought.
    Then, while walking my dog I was thinking about your little post, about the little things of life that can drive me crazy and guess what??? It turns out that there are more little “hells” in my days that I originally conceived…so here I go:
    1. Having to do the stupid small talk, in elevators, client-lunches, doctor’s office and any other place you are force to pretend to like or be interested by the “bodies” next to you!!!!
    2. Attend family functions, where you are force to mingle and pretend you like relatives, which you don’t.
    3. Having to say goodbye…it is the worst!
    4. Witnessing peer pressure or any type of group torture devise towards others…such as mocking, making fun of someone or just any form of ridiculed towards other people.
    5. Having to listen to derogatory, racism or ignorant comments from co-workers.
    6. Realizing that most people care more about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears than the genocide in Darfur or the current state of world hunger.
    7. Having to spend most of my life working and not having more hours to travel and spend with my love ones.
    8. Been trapped in my own body, unable to do and be in all the places I want to be at any giving time
    9. I hate to see how much we consumed and destroy and how little or nothing others have
    10. Can’t stand when people do not fight for what they want and let others decide for them
    11. Despise a person that uses the name of God to achieve personal goals of power and control
    12. I dislike intensely when parents inculcate prejudice to the innocent children
    13. Selling people things they DON’T NEED
    14. Watching people die because they can’t afford medical care
    15. Not having better candidates for our presidency

    So there you have it! I hope this is what you were looking for!
    Hugs maestro,
    Barbara

  23. 23 Paul from Austria

    Hell for me, would be to have lost all hope, that one day the entire human race will actually just shut up, wake up, stop fighting and being egotistical and realize that this wonderful planet is a gift and blessing and not a place for an ego trip

  24. 24 Helen McKinney

    My personal hell?
    Being too far away from my family in a crisis and having no means to return home.
    Being alone when I don’t want to be.
    Being with people when I want to be alone.
    Not having time to think and register my thoughts and then, later, when I do have time, ot remembering what I thought.
    Not having enough time to spend with those that I love and those that inspire me.
    Not having enough time.
    Being woken up early on a Sunday morning.

  25. 25 Maria Isabel

    My HELL

    1-Stay away from god!!!
    2-Not have nothing to do on Sundays.
    3-Not have dreams.
    4-Not have Paulo Coehlo books.
    5-Not have my family.
    6-Not have plant to the future.
    7-Not write in my blog.

  26. 26 Annie

    Dear Shaima, i m really sorry to hear your everydayprogramme..i wish your job fulfills you enough..if not try to change your day, little by little so to diminish this hell..ok the traffic is horrible..i can see that..but if you hear music on the way to work or on the way back home your mind will relax, you ll think about other things and you ll destress yourself from all the work..
    and consider if what you do is really what you want..if not try to figure out what is that you want to do, cause you spend all your day there and eventually all your life so it ‘d better be a job that doesnt consume you but fills you and lets you grow!
    MOreover,you say you have faith that tomorrow will be good..how it will be good if you dont do something about it?
    Sending love to you
    Please dont take me wrong, or forgive me for taking the opportunity to say all these if i am wrong.dont want to criticise you, only to help you…just wanted to shed light if you are in the dark, so as to prompt you to LIVE your life..after all it is your life..it is never too late …

  27. 27 Sanja

    My personal hell?
    Didn’t we all, as children, fear for the death of our loved ones?

    Every now and then my boyfriend, mother, grandmother, sister (…) turns up late for an appointment or neglects to answer the phone. Every time that fear creeps in, just for a minute, but long enough to remind me how important those people are in my life.

    But not to get all serious, I really hate to:
    -Wake up before sundawn (wich I’m forced to during those 6 long, cold months in Scandinavia).
    -Waking up feeling anxious about an exam 3 months ahead.
    -Holding on to waste because there are no trashbins around.
    -Discovering my computer is not working (could i be cursed?) and i have no clue as to why.

  28. 28 Heather

    Life is what we make of it…there are many things I don’t care for but I may have to do!!!

    Being blind after having sight would be a personal “hell” for me…I had a problem with my eyes about 5 years ago…my vision is fine but that experience made me realize how important my eyes are to me!!!

  29. 29 Leaf

    Barbara
    I wonder…
    why pretend to like anyone?
    does it make them feel better…even though they know it is false?
    and what of genocide etc? true compassion for the dead…annonymous dead people who probably would have appreciated more concern whilst they lived., in elevators, Dr’s surgery etc
    The rest of your points….i agree.
    with Love
    xxxx

  30. 30 Sam

    A really thought provoking comment
    My personal hell -
    people at work that are fake and pretend to be your friend, but you know that when you are gone they talk about you; because they do it to everyone else.
    watching a person succumb to a bully because they dont have the strength to stand up for themselves.
    not being able to visit my very good friends in Egypt during the summer each year

  31. 31 Tania

    My personal hell?
    - Being forbidden to take some time on my own now and then.
    - Feeling uncapable of working.
    - Crying non-stop without knowing why.
    - Anxiety/Panic attacks.
    - No internet/ No books.

    ^_^

  32. 32 Walaa Hamdan

    Some of mine would be:

    - Missing out on something I would enjoy, because I had to study or even worse, lack of money
    - Not having a good book to read
    - Missing people
    - Not getting the work done on time
    - Struggeling not to fall asleep in classes
    - Trying to convince some company why they should partner with you
    - Not listening to my favorite radio station
    - Waking up early for classes, or even worse; meetings
    - Lossing enthusiasm for something i once was so passionate about
    - Ignoring people i shouldn’t, and paying attention to people who don’t deserve it
    - Being torn between 2 or more choices

    Oh, God the list could go on and on..
    So i guess this is enough..

    Good Night all :)

  33. 33 jule k.

    it’s my personal hell if at a certain point and out of personal attitude i am unable to see or find heaven in this world. daily inconvenience to me is just a matter of personal perspective. i am my personal devil as long as i do not manage to wipe minor trouble (e.g. stress, illness, minor worries, irksome duties) off my eyes in order to perceive and acknowledge heaven in my life and my surroundings.

  34. 34 Lya

    It is interesting to notice that every one has its own notion of hell.
    Here is my personal vision of what hell is for me:
    - to argue with the people i love the most
    - feeling that i am misunderstood
    - not having desire for anything
    - loosing faith even for a second
    - writing (but i am trying to work on that)
    - when i let myself being swallowed by my emotions

  35. 35 Cecilia Portillo

    La encabezadora de mi infierno es perderme en algun detalle que me demanda tiempo y demora la finalización, al realizar algun proyecto ejemplo:
    Si estoy haciendo un collar, perderme en desenredar los hilos.
    Al hacer Planos, tener que poner mediciones, poner nombres y nortes.
    Al diseñar, tener que buscar quien imprima los diseños.
    Al cocinar, tener que pensar en una bonita mesa bien puesta.
    y etc, etc, etc.
    Saludos desde los andes Americanos
    Cecilia

  36. 36 Clary Lopez

    My hell would be:
    1-to live without the love of my life by my side
    2-Not having milk with my coffee
    3-No internet connection
    4-Having writer’s block
    5-A noisy house
    6-shopping with hardly no money
    7-listen to my kids’ fights and arguments
    8-not to have books to read

  37. 37 sheela

    My hell would be:
    1. waiting for someone who are late
    2. no music
    3. no coffee
    4. internet connection slow
    5. no umbrella in rain
    6. caught people lying
    7. hypocrite
    8. too much of exams!!!
    9. not enough money for shopping
    10. dad didn’t call
    11. people who drive very slow in a fast lane
    12. 8am class!!!
    13. feeling useless and guilty
    14. someone or people leave you with confusion!!

  38. 38 Ifrah Khalid Ghauri

    Hell is:
    .being snatched my personal freedom.
    .see my loved ones in pain.
    .not having good books to quench my thirst for reading.
    .not having green tea once in a while.
    .not doing justice with my position.
    .being afraid of the unknown.
    .not able to write.
    .not having an access to your blog Mr.Coelho..it keeps me going!!

  39. 39 Yza

    I can’t consider a mere difficulty or uncomfortability in my life as a personal hell, which, I find in most comments here. Because, for me, a “hell” is a state where you can do nothing, no hope, and no love. And, am thankful that I find these things everywhere I go. :)

  40. 40 Skylinekt

    Knowing that sometimes love just isn’t enough…

  41. 41 sam

    My family and life long friends are based all over the world. This is what today’s world is about. Everyone now moves to another country - I am the one that moved though. My personal hell is not being able to spend everyday even once a year with the people who are so important to me. I have loved one’s were I live and where I use to live so will always feel torn.

  42. 42 Carina

    - when the oil runs out in my house in the winter and I have to call the oil company to come on a Sunday.
    - changing from winter time to summer time and to winter time again. Once I made a mistake and I was at the airport 4 h(!) before take off early in the morning.
    - when I have started to exercise regularly and I get a bad cold and I cannot do any nordic waking and swimming for weeks.
    - when I have deers in my garden early Spring and they are eating all of my lovely tulips except the yellow ones.
    - when I regret not to have taken the opportunity to get to know an interesting person when I had the chance.
    - when I get serious allergic reaction and I don’t know from what.

  43. 43 bosiljka

    -Find out that God doesn’t exist.
    -Not be able to paint.
    -Not having love.

  44. 44 Agnieszka

    When emotions, fear, go away you’re realize that there’s no hell, only….love.
    You just have to find it in your heart.

    This love will liberates you from anything.

    love
    Agnieszka

  45. 45 Lucero

    My personal hell would be:
    -A world without books(especially Paulo’s),
    -A world without love,
    -And most importantly, a life without learning. I believe that most of our hells are self-made, but what keeps me sane and gives me hope is knowing that tomorrow(or more accurately, at any moment) I will learn one more thing that will make me better and help me vanquish the hells that I often send myself to. There will always be more to learn, more to discover, and more to become.

  46. 46 Larry100

    Well,

    I think my personal hell is when I can’t really be myself, for instance, when I’m forced to do something not pertaining to my nature… I feel very bad and abused.

    So, when in a relation there’s something she expects me to do or to say that I don’t want to do and to say… when at work by boss expects me to act in a given way while I want to do differently, and so on.

    Always be free: sex, money, god, drugs, politic are not the prize.

    Larry

  47. 47 Agnieszka

    The worst hell one may have is to not have the love inside.
    Knowing that, there’s no light and the fear becomes your companion for life.

    love

  48. 48 Ely

    Well, never thought of it before, but here is what it came to

    - being away from my son
    - having family fights and unloving husband
    - being unemployed
    - having a boss like the one from “Devil wears Prada” (in that sense I’m in hell aready:)
    - being forbidden to have any kind og change in life
    - war
    - cold
    - lose freedom (emotional and financial mainly)

  49. 49 aditya

    wishing a happy existance in hell, if you find yourself there. if we don’t expect but accept, there is no hell. does not mean one should not strive for this or that, whatever amuses us, but one should not have compalaints about the past which results in hell in present, complaining attitude perpetuates the hell, perpetuates the continuation of past into future. let’s strive and joyously accept whatever outcome, knowing fully well that life is an ongoing story and in it no outcome is final. little off the tpoic but this is what i wish to share here, hope it’s ahhrighht !

  50. 50 hope

    My personal hell would be,knowing almost everything that other will never know ,knowing everything about future but still not being able to calm my heart in times of trouble.Not being able to treat Papa ,and JC the best i should have,other would have done their best.And everyday,listening to others problems and solving it,and forgetting my own,sometimes it is boon but sometimes,when it comes back alive to attack everyday and becomes personal hell to me.

  51. 51 Ruth

    - Not finding the door back in my heaven.

  52. 52 Maria

    Wow! This is a long list, I didn’t expect it to be this long when I started to write, and I don’t expect anyone to read through it, but I guess I just had to put it out there.

    Some of these hells I have experience, some are just things I fear would happen.

    My hells:
    - losing a love one (that’s an obvious one)
    - seeing a love one waste away by illness (like aids, and Parkinson’s)
    - losing the memories of the love ones that are gone from this earth
    - losing any of my pictures, these are part of these memories
    - losing all my computer files
    - losing love
    - Not having companionship
    - Having any one of my children feel they can’t talk to me about anything.
    - Not been able to cook
    - Not been able to read
    - Not been able to sleep
    - Not been able to eat and enjoy my food
    - Not been able to entertain
    - Not been able to sing or dance
    - exercising!
    - Not been able to shut my brain down and rest at night because thoughts keep running through my head. Too many dreams.
    -depression
    -anxiety
    -physical excruciating pain, pain that won’t go away no matter what medicines you take
    - Emotional pain
    - Not been able to stay with the pain
    - trying to escape the pain with alcohol
    - Not having the support of my husband
    - Not been able to let go of my childhood, and my resentment towards my mother
    - Not having forgiven my father
    - Not having forgiven my mother
    - trying to accept people, just how they are
    - Dealing with petty people
    - Dealing with injustice
    - seeing suffering (of any kind)
    - Not having enough patience, with myself or others
    - losing faith
    - learning to say NO
    - learning to say YES
    - Not getting old
    - Not having grandchildren

  53. 53 monica burla

    il mio inferno personale in poche righe:
    - amare un uomo e sapere che lui prova lo stesso per te; ma essere coscienti che non può essere il TUO uomo
    -non vedere il sorriso di un bambino per un giorno intero
    -passare attraverso paesaggi da sogno con qualcuno che ti parla in continuazione di cose inutili…così…tanto per passare il tempo…
    -prendere l’autobus o il treno
    -visitare una città con la guida turistica
    -non sentire la presenza di mio padre

    potrei continuare…le idee non mancano…ma non so nemmeno se il sig. Coelho parla l’italiano!!!!!

  54. 54 Maria

    Shaima,

    I agree with Annie, it seems like you are letting routine take over your life. Yes! routine could become a hell, but only if if you let it.

    Read Paulo’s blog for April 3rd. Read the quote of the day, and also try reading people’s comments. I think this may help shed some light on the subject.

    Keep the faith!

  55. 55 Jenny R

    I’m with you on the waking/sleeping thing.

    I had to give up coffee and it was awful at first (took me six tries), but now I kinda dig it. Herbal teas aren’t so bad.

  56. 56 Rouie

    - not having someone to talk to
    - going home on foot during rainy days
    - noisy place/surroundings
    - being overworked
    - going to the dentist
    - feeling unproductive

  57. 57 Myrabeth

    Fear of Alzheimer’s or ALS
    Two very different diseases–one where your body stays pretty intact but your mind leaves you, but not without you knowing it.
    The second is ALS (Lou Gehrig’s) leaves the mind crystal clear and the body quickly (over a period of a few short years) shuts down, so that by the end the communication from a mind that is aware and cohesive is cut off.
    These, after lots of years of hospice work, are my 2 fears–and of course the fear is the hell, not the disease itself!

  58. 58 Luz

    Hell to me would be
    -in a locked place, caged, devoid of light.
    -Seeing the one I love and to know they love
    me not.
    -To live with constant violence and fear. I
    could not survive it.
    -To be trapped in my body, with no way to
    communicate with others.
    -To survive without hope.

  59. 59 kikiDelau

    - noisy place
    - not writing
    - not having love

  60. 60 ANLAO

    stunning question. i’ve been looking inside for the past few days. my personal hell is made of
    - first conscious breath in the morning, alone in a bed too big for one person. that’s why I sleep on the couch most of the time.
    - feeling that I am still the same, even after trying hard for years to improve/change, and fearing that years from now I will still be the same.
    - watching hours, days, years fly by without the love of a man and fearing more than anything else that my life will fly by without it, than feeling guilty for wanting it so badly.
    - finding myself again and again in situations in which no matter what i do, i fail somebody. Having to decide who do i save first, and who do i sacrifice by leaving it behind, because i cannot focus on every member of my family all the time.Seeing that this cycle never ends.
    - always being the ’shrink’ of the family, and when i want to stop doing it being accused of ‘not caring’.
    - faking that i know what i’m doing in the dating world because men judge technique more than genuity. i’m not used to how my body really reacts in many intimate-like situations, but nobody expects a beginner at my age (almost 30), so i have to hide it. whenever i control myself to act the way ‘i am supposed to’, i really do not feel much, and that terrifies me.
    - crying alone. i hate it.
    - feeling guilty for needing.
    - reaching out to people i thought were friends only to be told i have to ‘fix myself’.
    - wanting to express so much but not being able to. somedays for ethical reasons, others for fear of being ridiculed, or endless etiquette. Days go easily by without time to be myself, because time is filled with who i am supposd to be.
    - not feeling any desire to work in the past years, but still feeling guilty every time i don’t work. i miss the times i was truly passionate about what i was doing.
    - having to build “relationships” at work, and groups of ‘friends’, when i do not feel any need to. being judged on how sociable or ‘healty’ i am by the ability of forming somewhat superficial relationships, when all i feel i need or want is 1-3 really close people.
    - having projects in the back of my mind and ignoring them for years, because they are not what i studied for, not profit-bringing and because they seem stupid ideas. they don’t go away, and i so many times i wish they would.
    - having to belong to a belief-group. somedays i feel like thanking god, other days i would yell ‘f you’ in its face, and other days i am so sick of teh subject i just don’t want to see, hear or think about it. i don’t know what that makes me, but i feel pressured when people are looking for my beliefs to connect with me. ateists want me to be atheist, christians want me to be christian, and i don’t feel any of those.
    - living in a culture of perfect bodies, and trying to feel confident and sexy, when i really do not feel that way. my breasts are not as perky as they were, thighs are not small and i have the hands and feet of a peasant worker, no matter what i do. and men react to those things more than they do to my humour, kindness, intelligence, spontaneity, dancing, overall sexuality, or whatever charm.
    - carying on with unresolved regrets and anger. because the man i felt in love with is a player, always having 3-4 women around him, everything i do being judged, either by him or anotehr woman, until a crack is found and somebody else can get a leverage. regrets because a part of me wanted to express itself towards him, regardless of the fact that anything he did towards me was vague, and there was always some other woman in everything we did, from conversations to actual activities. anger both towards myself for allowing this to happen, and towards him for his part in it, especially the upfront one, like trying to justify it that this is evolution, and it is normal for hot women to want him, when a man is attached (ie: open dating) it means he is of value, and it is normal for other women to want him and pursue him. anger because i have spent months trying to understand that mentality, because in my mentality a man that does not choose a partner, a man that never stops encouraging otehrs to come towards him, and changes 8-9 partners in a year, is not exactly dictionary definition for a man of value. I found another definition in the meantime, that of narcissistic sociopath. (he found one too, most probably that of a frigid bitch.) but anyway, trying to escape this endless loop of regrets and anger, so i can be myself again, and build my life, yet finding myself back in again and again, trying to understand, or find out where i was wrong, has been just another hell on top of the previous ones.

  61. 61 Nicola

    Hell would be the following,

    Being stuck in a toilet cubicle with childrens music playing in the background.

    techno music.

    waiting in never ending queues at the airport.

    Letting go of a deep love, and being separated knowing that you may have to wait until a next lifetime to be re-united.

    Hell is losing the reception of a television just before the film starts.

    Losing a bank card ten minutes before going on a shopping spree.

    Hell is living in a confined space, with out personal freedoms, Hell is to lose the smallest of personal boundaries.

    Hell is to harbour the secrets of a loved ones trauma and be unable to process it, as its not your story to tell.

    Some of these aspects that feel hellish can bring perspective and a new level of maturation. I appreciate hellish moments I have been through, but missed the innocence that my eyes and soul once felt.

  62. 62 Gilda

    Mi infierno seria :
    -No tener internet
    -No poder escuchar musica
    -No poder programar sw
    -No tener nada que hacer en el trabajo
    - y mucho mas.

  63. 63 Angela

    my personal hell
    - not being able to converse with people and share and learn from each other
    - not having the internet and read paulo site everymorning to start my day and my books to read
    - not wearing my red lipstick everyday
    - not be able to compliment at least one person everyday
    - not be able to meet up with ‘wine’ friends at the wine bar where we all meet and converse on days events, not having those friends there when you just walk in
    - not having people genuinely happy to see you
    - not actually genuinely happy to see others
    - and forgetting that the best is yet to come.

  64. 64 Kathleen

    Here’s my list:

    1. Working in a job I hate.
    2. As Paulo stated - nightclubs with too loud music.
    3. People who talk too much lol
    4. Not being able to be creative and learn.
    5. Any accounts/paperwork - HELL!!
    6. No access to the internet.

  65. 65 mariana

    my personal hell
    1. i hate tsunami and flood
    2. family gathering,cause my cousins so rude
    3. my husband don’t pick me up from work
    4. rainy in the morning, it’s too cold to take a shower
    5. out of gas when i’m cooking

  66. 66 Brenda

    Hell is when my ego gets in the way of life’s purist pleasures.

  67. 67 German Fafian (KaosAxiom)

    Hell N1:
    Not being considered a “real musician” because I give my music away for free. Odd isn’t it?
    Hell N2:
    Not saying what I have/want to say because it will hurt someone else’s Ego, Even if it will do them good in the long run.

  68. 68 Anna

    my personal hell … (for the time being)

    to not be able to see the sun for many days because of the clouds and rain.

    limitations of colours around me.

    empty eyes of the people in the tube

    thank you

  69. 69 chieko

    bad hair cut!

  70. 70 LIANA

    Well,my personal hell is being forbidden to read books and watch soccer matches. And the most important-being forbidden to think and speak about the man whom I love……………..

  71. 71 rara

    not to be loved in return

  72. 72 Diana

    Not being able to hear my son’s voice or touch his skin, especially after a long day.

  73. 73 Diana

    I think being with or without everything else I can live with. Being without my son, I am not sure about.

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