Agatha Seymour's

You don’t build self-worth by doing more. True confidence comes from inner alignment, not constant effort. For a long time, I believed that self-worth was something you build through action. That if I tried harder, did more, proved myself enough—eventually I would feel confident, stable, certain. But it never really worked. No matter how much I did, something inside remained unsettled. There was always another step, another expectation, another version of myself I thought I needed to become. And then something shifted. Not outside—but inside. I stopped trying to fix my life by doing more, and I started paying attention to what was happening within me. The noise. The pressure. The constant need to become something else.Instead of pushing forward, I turned inward. And slowly, something unexpected happened. I didn’t become more productive. I didn’t become more impressive. But I became… steady. Clear. Present. And from that place, things started to change on their own. Dec...

Are intelligent women seen as a threat or an ideal partner? This article explores conflicting male and female perspectives on intelligence, control, and trust in relationships. “Smart women are dangerous,” says one of my friends. “Men don’t like it when a woman has too much intelligence. It’s dangerous because she can stand up for her interests, she can’t be easily fooled, she values herself, and she expects respect and appreciation.” “Why?” I ask. “What exactly is dangerous about that? To me, this isn’t a dangerous state at all—it’s completely natural and normal.” “Maybe it is to you,” she replies, “but these days everyone is protective of everything they have. Their time, their attention, their home, their money—they’re protective of their entire lives. People feel they’ve been disappointed enough already, so they become cautious and tend to avoid so-called ‘smart people’ from a distance. Instead, they choose a slightly less intelligent woman—someone they think is easier to contr...

Can a relationship be both thrilling and deeply painful at the same time? This story explores the emotional highs and devastating lows of a passionate but ultimately unfulfilling love. There are relationships that serve as profound lessons—ones that reveal so much, and whose true value we may only recognize years later. “They were necessary,” we might say with a sigh—painful teachings that gifted us experiences which, in the best case, spared us from even more unpleasant ones down the road. “Of course, these so-called difficult or important relationships are necessary,” a friend of mine says. “For example, as strange as it may sound, one of the greatest loves of my life was exactly this kind of painful experience. He was an incredible man—exciting, entertaining, handsome, successful—the kind of man everyone wants. That in itself wasn’t really the problem, because it’s natural that a man like that is every woman’s dream. But living with him, or being in a long-term relationship with ...

Why do so many conflicts arise when we expect others to live by our rules? This reflection explores acceptance, mutual respect, and the difficulty of letting go of control in relationships and families. I believe many conflicts stem from the assumption that we—and only we—can be right. The possibility rarely even arises that we should truly consider the other person’s perspective—that they matter too, that they also have a past and a system of habits they bring with them, one they have every right to hold onto. There’s probably no one who hasn’t encountered this phenomenon when entering a new family. Almost all of us have stood there at some point, helplessly wondering why we should suddenly live according to another family’s norms, when we ourselves also have our own values, history, and habits. The other side may feel the same confusion, wondering why we can’t instantly accept their norms and why we insist on holding onto our own. Having gone through a marriage—and all the mad...

Have you ever questioned whether your past relationships were truly real? This reflection explores the difference between genuine partnership and connections built on control, games, and imbalance. A person can live half their life before making new discoveries about themselves. For so long, you believe your life is one way—then suddenly you realize it’s something entirely different. You may think you’ve had a dozen relationships behind you, only to see later that the reality was not quite what you thought… “I know it sounds strange at first, because you know my past relationships—my ex-husband, my great loves and the smaller ones,” one of my friends says. “But I still feel this way: I’ve never actually been in a relationship. Because the relationships I’ve had so far weren’t real relationships. A true relationship doesn’t look anything like any of the ones I used to have.” “In the relationships I experienced, there was no real appreciation, no respect, no genuine love. They wer...

Is jealousy really a sign of deep love—or just unnecessary drama? Discover how a relationship without jealousy can bring more peace, trust, and genuine connection into your life. I think jealousy is fundamentally part of human nature—and perhaps also, to some extent, a matter of age. As time goes by, it seems to me that people are less and less willing to stay in relationships where even the suspicion of infidelity arises. They no longer have the patience for nonsense, for games, for pointless arguments—they say they want peace, a quiet, calm home to return to after work. Of course, for some it’s not about age or experience at all; there are those who, even very young, are capable of going through a relationship without jealousy or dramatic scenes. “If you think jealousy belongs to great loves and intense passions, you’re mistaken,” my friend says. “I’ve never been the jealous type. I couldn’t even tell you why—maybe it’s just my nature, maybe I simply have no inclination toward dram...

Life encounters difficulties everywhere, both in the wealthy districts of the city and in the poorer areas. Undeniably, money is necessary for happiness, because bills and the expenses required to live must be covered, yet happiness is still a completely different matter. If it were simply a matter of money, everyone who had plenty would be happy, and anyone living on a modest income would be unhappy—but this is far from the case. Surely everyone knows people in their circle who are far wealthier than average, yet are unhappy. The passionate fire of their marriage has long since cooled; they live side by side in a home that is either quietly tense or filled with shouting. “Why would we divorce?” they look at you when the subject comes up. At least this way, they have everything; even if they’re not happy, they can live their lives comfortably, in prosperity. There is no need to worry about tomorrow—they can be certain that both the near and presumably distant future will provide them ...

I often find myself puzzled by relationship problems. Despite life experience, reading, and research on the topic, it’s still difficult to see real solutions to the many questions that arise. In the end, I often come to the same conclusion: as a Buddhist, perhaps it’s best to face life’s great truth—that everything passes. Bad relationships, good ones, problems… and we ourselves as well. Of course, I have friends—fellow “researchers” of this topic—who say we don’t need to go that far. “There are solutions,” one of them told me. “You just have to pay attention.” “One of the biggest problems,” my friend said, “is that we practically starve ourselves emotionally. We long so deeply for someone to finally find us, to belong, to curl up next to someone at night—to be loved and to be happy. And while we wait for this great love, we actually have very clear ideas about what happiness would look like. We imagine what we want to experience with that person, how we would build a family, how w...

Why do so many relationships and life paths fail today? Because without commitment, nothing can grow, deepen, or truly matter. I believe what is missing from people today is commitment. The ability to say, with a full heart, that I truly want someone—or something—and to stand by that choice in good times and in bad. Even when I get hurt. Even when, from the outside, it might look like I’m losing (or I may even feel that way). Because none of that changes how I relate to people or to what I believe in. If I commit, then what matters is that I am someone you can build with. Someone you can plan a future with. Someone you can begin long-term work with—because I remain consistent in what I want: the other person, and our shared vision. I act for it with persistence. I believe in it. And whatever we invest energy in begins to grow, to take shape, to gain value. I think this is also the reason behind so many failed human relationships: the lack of commitment. Most people today—men, and jus...

What if healing a relationship was simpler than you think? A story about letting go of pride, overthinking, and choosing love instead. Life is actually very simple—much simpler than we tend to believe. We are the ones who make it complicated by constantly overthinking, analyzing, and surrounding ourselves with endless assumptions. We convince and frighten ourselves with all kinds of imagined outcomes, just to reassure ourselves that things won’t work anyway. But human relationships are, in truth, very simple: everyone wants to be loved, to belong to someone, to have the people who matter close to them. “I had a falling out with one of my friends five years ago,” a friend of mine told me. “In reality, it was something trivial. Both of our lives were in crisis—relationship struggles, divorce on the horizon. I was going through my own separation at the time. And just like that, our friendship ended over something insignificant, followed by a long silence…” Although she didn’t think abo...

Do you truly believe you deserve to be happy? Discover how your everyday choices shape your life—and why happiness is something you can choose. I believe we have fundamentally mistaken ideas about life—at least from my perspective, and based on what I see around me: we tend to live our lives without conscious decisions. Somehow, this is just how we live. We don’t really stop to think about what we are doing or why—we simply do things because others do them, because that’s how it was done at home. So, without much thought, we recreate our lives based on the patterns we see around us. And yet, sometimes, we do stop and think. “Do you remember what you said to me on Sunday?” my friend asked me the other day. “I’m not sure what you mean exactly,” I replied. We had lunch together, talked for at least an hour, then went to the cinema—so much was said, I had no idea what might have stood out to her. “You said that you deserve to be happy,” she said. “Yes, that’s true,” I answered...

Life does not change unless you have the courage to take risks and step into the unknown. Discover why growth, freedom, and true strength begin where fear ends. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage,” said my favorite writer, Anaïs Nin, and I often remind myself of her wise words. We can be so soft, so fearful, so willing to settle. So often, we remain in familiar yet unfulfilling situations—or in ones where everyone is suffering—and still, we do nothing. Out of laziness, fear, or cowardice, we dismiss with a wave of the hand everything life might still have in store for us. Our desire for security is so strong that we don’t even notice we are no longer truly living—we are merely trying to survive life. We don’t dare to take a step because we are afraid. We try to hold on to what we have already gained, what we once worked for, and we refuse to let it go at any cost. We guard it like a precious treasure, even though its true value may have already faded—or perhaps i...

What if you were already good enough, exactly as you are? A reflection on self-acceptance, letting go of people-pleasing, and finding peace within yourself. I don’t know when I let go of the habit of always smiling when I felt uncomfortable. I only recently noticed that the awkward, forced, frozen smile I had worn for half my life has simply disappeared from my behavior. Perhaps I shed it when I grew tired of playing the “good girl.” When I finally decided to stop trying to please everyone—and when I became exhausted from the constant failures, criticism, and judgment I experienced. Because no matter how hard I tried, I could never be good enough. Even with that polite, well-behaved smile fixed across my face, I still felt unlovable and unacceptable. And then, one day, I saw something within myself—very deep down, in a place we rarely look, and only when we gather enough courage. I saw that I have value. That the being the Creator formed—the person looking back at me from the mirror...

We are all meant to walk different paths in life, shaped by our unique purpose and experiences. Learn why self-acceptance is the key to understanding yourself—and others. Self-acceptance may be the path that allows us to accept one another—to see the value in ourselves and in others. I don’t know why it is so difficult for all of us, but we struggle with it nonetheless. That’s alright—the result is what matters: love and respect for ourselves and for others. I believe it all begins with accepting that we were each born with a different purpose. We are talented in different things, we are made happy by different experiences, we have different tastes, and we are meant to go through different paths—therefore, we make different choices. Some people fulfill themselves most deeply in the role of a mother. They bring children into the world and enrich it by raising remarkable human beings. Others find fulfillment as partners, standing beside someone they love, growing together, supporting ea...

It’s difficult—or sometimes impossible—to accept when a relationship ends in a way that is not the result of our own decision. We cannot bear to accept how things unfold, no matter how hard we try, because we struggle so much to understand, and then it feels like we’ll die from the effort… I watch people around me struggling with breakups, and I am stunned by their explanations of what might have really caused the separation—because, they insist, it certainly wasn’t anything to do with the other person. So they blame everyone. They blame the man, who has become heartless, cruel, and altogether someone different from the person we all knew before. They blame his family, for allowing him to commit such acts against them. They blame their own family: didn’t they see back then that they were about to marry such a terrible person? Couldn’t they have said something, urged them to use a little sense? They blame the other friends: what kind of friends are those who don’t feel responsible for ...

You were not born to live in self-pity or fear, but to create a strong and meaningful life. Learn why taking responsibility and moving forward is the only way to grow and truly live. One of the greatest struggles of human nature is the tendency toward self-pity and self-sabotage. We are capable of complaining, of grieving for years over past losses, clinging to our pain, weeping over it—acting as though no one else has ever experienced what we have. Unfortunately, the people around us often do not encourage us to stand back up. Instead, they sit beside us and add to the number of those who are suffering. “It’s fine this way,” they say. “Don’t do anything, you might get hurt again. Don’t even try something new.” They encourage what they themselves have chosen: certain failure, future regret, a life lived in fear. I consider myself fortunate, because the people around me have never supported my suffering or self-pity. No one has ever pitied me—in fact, if I ever tried to complain about...

Growth often begins where comfort ends, even when we resist it. A personal story about fear, change, and learning to stand on your own - without support. I had absolutely no intention of joining another group! Even though I had completed the introductory course, my plan was to stay put. I loved the group, the teacher, the challenging lessons that pushed me physically, mentally, and spiritually. So I decided: I would remain in the beginner ballet group for the second semester as well. I studied the new schedule on the bulletin board, trying to figure out how to arrange my classes so that I could dance every day. I would have to go to another teacher occasionally, since there weren’t enough beginner classes mid-semester—but that would be fine too, I reassured myself. The new semester arrived, and with it, an unfamiliar class with a new ballet teacher. Something seemed off about the space, I thought as I looked around the studio. They must have misprinted something, because there ...

Life is difficult, filled with struggle and pain - but that is exactly what gives it meaning. Discover why challenges are not obstacles, but the path to growth, choice, and true transformation. Life is difficult. It is full of suffering, struggle, and pain. That is a fact—or, as Buddhist teachings hold, merely a reliable sign that we are alive. For the moment we die, all of life’s hardships—and with them, all of our possibilities—cease. So once we accept this fact, we can move on to the next thought: life is difficult, and that is actually very good news. It is difficult because it is full of challenges, and if they weren’t difficult, they wouldn’t be challenges at all; without them, we would not grow. None of us was given life to spend our time as parasites, feeding off others. Time was not given for laziness, idleness, or cowardice, but to create. To build a truly magnificent life for ourselves. Life always unfolds according to our choices, even if it doesn’t always appear that wa...

I believe in everyday spirituality, in the idea that a person lives their life—after all, that’s what life is for—and when they encounter some external or internal problem that they cannot solve immediately, they pause and reflect. From my own experience, I’ve noticed that it’s often more important to understand something multiple times than to act right away—I mean that I act only when I am certain I am acting correctly; in uncertainty, I don’t rush or fumble. This is especially true for inner struggles, which often manifest in incomprehensible ways in the physical world. For example, I have experienced things that led me to conclude that my faith in myself had been severely shaken. I knew exactly that certain difficulties had occurred in my life, challenges I had dealt with enough but still could not overcome; something was missing for a final release. Then, suddenly, I realized: it was my faith in myself that the events had unsettled. Since I am fully aware that things do not just...

I no longer consider it clear what counts as a good deed in life and what does not. Increasingly, I believe that world peace will only emerge when everyone finally starts dealing with the problems in their own lives instead of meddling in the lives of others. Then something truly remarkable will begin! Until that happens, we lecture, give advice, and judge others, often noticing the speck in someone else’s eye while failing to see the beam in our own. We behave the same way even when offering help. In most cases I’ve witnessed up close, the person offering help was only feeding their own ego, proving to themselves and everyone else how good a person they were. They explained to the other what to do and how, sometimes even trying to dominate them. Of course, the possibilities are endless… “Do you understand this?” a friend of mine asked me. For at least five years, my buddy came around weekly, pestering me and asking for money. Because I am not heartless and always felt sorry for him...

Silence Within. Nothing is missing. You are just not used to this kind of quiet.

Just as we find all kinds of women (and I’m not trying to measure people here), we also find all kinds of men. There are some we would rather not look back on, and others for whom, even though the relationship ended for some reason, we still feel love and gratitude deep in our hearts. These men—how and why, I don’t know, perhaps it comes from their self-respect—are capable of being true partners, the kind most of us probably long for: kind, confident, supportive. One of the most important things they know, among many, is how to communicate well. In my life, I have experienced relationships that, in theory, should have brought me a great deal of happiness, yet we could not understand each other at all. We interpreted things so differently that we could not find common ground, and the relationship ended painfully, in stormy arguments. Then there were others—unfortunately fewer—where we understood each other perfectly. Partly because we had a shared understanding, and partly because we...

4. A man cannot work for himself; quite simply, he cannot clearly define goals or directions. He needs a woman to show him the way, to indicate what they should achieve together. She is the one who envisions their shared life, the big plans, dreams up the family home, brings children into the world, and breathes life into everything that is called family or partnership. “If I argue with my wife,” says a friend of mine, “I don’t even feel like working. Why would I? Just to have something for myself? That doesn’t interest me, it leads nowhere, it’s not motivating. But my family, my wife—that does. It’s worth working for them, for my children. A man cannot get up and go to the office just to someday have money for an apartment or anything else. It’s completely meaningless; even if he gets a flat or a car, he cannot create a home. Maintaining it, keeping it in order—that’s not his role. A man’s job, then as now, is to lay the foundations so that a woman can build something beautiful, so...

I don’t remember the exact year, but I think it must have been about seven years ago. I was saying goodbye to my therapist friend. “I’m rushing,” I told her, “I have so much to do, and I need to eat something quickly.” “Pay more attention to yourself,” she said. “Also to what you eat, and whatever you do—whether eating, drinking, reading, doing yoga, working, etc.—treat yourself kindly and with care.” Right then and there, I resolved to follow her advice. I began practicing this gentle self-care with something as ordinary as the lunch I just mentioned. Since then, I believe I have elevated the love and attentiveness I bring to my relationship with myself to a high level. As I started engaging in internal dialogues in which I spoke kindly and treated myself well, my whole relationship with myself transformed: it became more refined, more valuable, and more important to me. I was astonished at how different, how rich a life I was able to create entirely on my own, based on a simple decis...

A person falls in love with someone who is kind, sweet, polite, someone who becomes the love of their life. Then, as the years go by, the situation often changes, and the person becomes unbearable. Suddenly, it turns out that the other person isn’t really as kind, as chivalrous, etc., as we once thought. Or is there something else wrong with them? Or maybe there’s nothing wrong at all? “My husband has changed so much,” says a friend of mine. “You wouldn’t know, but when we first met, he was so different: kind, considerate, a true gentleman. And now? There’s no trace of that man who used to be. He’s insufferable and impossible. I have no idea what happened to him; I think it’s his friends influencing him.” “What about the relationship before him?” I ask. “That one was just as foolish too,” she replies. “Then maybe,” I say, “it’s not just them. It could also be that you made a poor choice—that you picked the same type again.” “No!” she says firmly. “My second husband was completely norm...

I believe that life, by giving us free will, expects us to create beauty on this planet. Joyful things that are pleasing to the eye, that bring a smile to our faces, that awaken in us the sense of delight in life—the very feeling with which life (energy) created us. It urges us to realize things that require time, energy, and attention to bring into existence, accompanied by the intention to make the world a better place. It expects from us the ecstasy of beauty, from which every human being was breathed into the world. It asks us to remember! To remember who we are and why we are here! To find the courageous self that resides within us and to receive with an open heart the opportunities life places in our path. To grasp our individual truths, take our destiny into our own hands, and be conscious creators of our lives, our art, our thoughts, and our spiritual journey. To see both our outer and inner beauty, and to accept who we are! “All these things have you said of beauty. Yet...

Back then, when we decided we would have two kittens, we were thinking of one boy and one girl. Picasso’s name was never in question! We thought we would name the little girl Françoise—after Pablo Picasso’s partner, the painter Françoise Gilot. After a long search, it turned out that we were expecting two little male kittens from a Lithuanian breeder. We named the other little boy Matisse, because of his lifelong friendship with Picasso. Françoise was no longer mentioned. When this autumn I started looking for a kitten to keep Picasso company, it never even crossed my mind to look for a female. Strangely enough, despite all my efforts, I kept missing out on the kittens I had chosen. Many breeders live in the countryside, and I had to plan when I could travel to see the little ones. After a while, I decided to let go of my expectations—let the cat come who Life intends for us! Françoise surpasses all our dreams! We didn’t know it, but she was exactly who was missing from our lives...

As usual, I was listening to a lecture on YouTube when a well-known French song drifted in through the open window, and in an instant I traveled back in time. I was sitting in a café by the Danube during my French class. Autumn, scented with earth and rain, rested in the air, and we were chatting and learning wrapped in blankets. My goodness, how wonderful it was! – I sighed to myself – in a way that isn’t typical of me, because I’m not the most romantic person in the world, and yet… Then it occurred to me how many great hobbies I’ve had over the past years, how many exciting adventures, human connections, and most of all, how many kinds of resources I’ve created for myself—things I can actually access anytime. And looking back, this was one of the best, most useful ways I could have spent my time. Because although human relationships are important to me, life often pulls us apart. We start different kinds of lives, we move away, we choose different paths—whatever the reason, we often ...