lORENZO PILASTRI

I see life as divided into chapters. Every single chapter tells a story about us.

 

Many situations change our life but our core always remains the same, our story is always dictated by who we are.

 

 

"Who am I?"

 

I have been asking this question to myself so many times that I have lost the count. I will start with the basic. My name is Lorenzo Pilastri, I am Italian and I moved from a small town near Florence when I was 22 to build a future in London. I studied nursing and I am currently working in the NHS as charge nurse. I love cooking, I practice yoga, I like XX’s centuries art and my aim in life is to find ways to make people happier. I have an amazing girlfriend who literally changed my life and I am planning my future with her.

 

I believe there are few things it is worth to live for:

• Family

• Love (that kind of genuine love where the happiness of the other person is the most important part of the relationship)

• Happiness

 

 

"Happiness"

 

Shawn Achor describes happiness like the joy you feel striving toward your potential. It is true. I feel that. Have you ever ask yourself what your potential is? I did. Asking yourself what your potential means looking inside yourself and discovering the light we all have. I have been practicing Nichiren Buddhism for few years and there is one concept it represents it all. They compare the human being like a lotus flower. The lotus flower has the seeds of new life inside them already while they float on the surface of a pond. I see those seeds as our potential. It takes not only time, but hard work to discover them.

 

The first key questions that can change your life are:

• Who am I?

• What is it that makes me happy?

• How can I transform what makes me happy into something real?

 

Three simple questions, but man!? How hard to answer them?!

I found myself answering the first question in the last 2 years of my life. After going through a breakup, I was in such a bad state that I was doubting every single decision I took until that moment. I was devastated. The only thing I wanted to do was to stay in the dark, in my bed and lay there, waiting for some form of cure which of course did not arrive. Cure does not come if you do not look for it. That was the first lesson I learned at that time. I had to get up from bed, prepare something to eat, carry on working and carry on with my life. The time spent in that bed WANTING TO BE MISERABLE nobody is going to give me back. The show must go on and if you think the opposite, stop reading, is not time yet.

 

 

"Reset"

 

In that period of self-questioning my life I decided to press the RESET button. That allowed me to look at every single part of my life with different eyes, things I was giving for granted until that moment they were not there anymore and life looked very different.

 

Appreciating basic, simple, ordinary aspects of my life, like having a job or being healthy was different this time. I started to collect those shredded pieces of myself and I decided I needed some help (I remember only accepting the fact that I needed some help being so though). I understood my second lesson, everybody and me included NEED HELP AND ARE ALLOWED TO ASK FOR IT. I went for almost one year to a psychologist. She basically listened to me and advised me to accept who I am and, in good or bad moments, no matter what, to be with myself, to stay with my feelings, the bad and the good ones, TO KNOW ME BETTER AND ACCEPT MYSELF. I managed to write who I thought I was in 3 or 4 lines but it was not that easy and still today, it is not easy. However, it helped me to understand who was I at that time.

 

So I accepted I needed help, I looked for it, I stayed with myself sitting with my emotions and I started to accept myself for who I was. Those weaknesses that I was so scared of were not that scary anymore once I looked at them in the eyes. When you accept your weaknesses as if they are just part of your persona, you can transform them into your main strengths.

 

During that time, I met my actual partner which was the key for everything to unfold. She saw whatever in me when I couldn't, she started to BELIEVE IN ME and I started to believe in myself. I understood my third lesson, you need someone that truly BELIEVES IN YOU at least once to start believing in yourself. I achieved point number one of the key questions answering who I was. I did not get the full picture of course, but I had a good glance at myself and still today I try to put into practice what I learned.

 

 

"What makes you happy that change your life in better?"

 

I then started to ask myself what is that really makes me happy. I am not talking about Nutella, even though it gives me that instant pleasant spark of happiness every time I eat it, I am talking about WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY THAT CAN CHANGE MY LIFE IN BETTER?

I started to notice some qualities of myself I had never noticed before or that I had not taken much into consideration. I am emphatic and that helps me a lot in communication. I am able to listen and I am social, very social. I like smiling and it makes a difference. I have always loved sports and after many years playing football, I think I discovered a life-changing discipline; YOGA.

 

I am a dreamer and most of the time I can also be very naive. I am a caring partner and showing love is not a disease as I thought. I do one of the most difficult jobs in the world, I am a nurse and often, I am recognized to be good at it.

 

 

"Nursing"

 

From here, my dreamer ego started to function so much it was very difficult to stop. Spending most of the time facing the many challenges nurses go through at work and being a NON-COMPLAINER for nature, I started to think about ways to improve it. I created a method to increase happiness at work in order to increase the performance. I THEN STARTED TO think to TRANSFORM WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY INTO SOMETHING REAL.

 

I have this in mind and that is the reason why I am starting this adventure. I want to help nurses, student nurses and health professionals to be happier at work and recognize their hard work. There are many dynamics going on in a role like mine and I can understand that very well, most of the time in my profession we give 10 and we only get back 1. The number of resources and energy we generously give to the patients, their relatives, and our colleagues is gigantic. Very little sometimes comes back in return.

 

 

 

I am interested in helping nurses in difficulties in their careers and transform their frustration into active, practical solutions to be a better person first and a better employee.

 

I want nurses to feel proud of their efforts, of what they do at work and to be happy with their job.

 

I want to help student nurses to decide if nursing is their future and their reasons behind.

 

I want a future where nurses get back what they deserve.

 

That is my dream, I am passionate about this and I am ready to make the difference in your life.

 

THIS IS ONE OF THE STEP BY STEP TO HAPPINESS,

ENJOY THE PROCESS.