It's not the same to read, study, or practice philosophy.

We can read philosophy like reading a story. In search of inspiration, perhaps learning something, incorporating some thought model to solve an issue that afflicts us.

We can go to university to study philosophy. Read many authors. Compare them. Listen to profound explanations of the context in which the texts were written, the stories and lives of their authors. Become expert connoisseurs of the proposals of each philosophical line.

But practicing philosophy is another thing.

Practicing philosophy is living it. It is having a compass and using it so as not to walk aimlessly. It is permanently applying the proposed thought models to the small and big moments of life. Especially to the small ones, because with a little luck that prepares us for the big ones.

The path of self-knowledge is the pursuit of authenticity. And the pursuit of authenticity is a process of freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the common.

Discovering those things that at some point we imagined could be different, that could be better, but that we resigned ourselves to because they are common. Oh well, everyone does it that way.

Staying attentive to those things that we never imagined possible, that are totally outside our imagination, but that when we see them we recognize them as authentically our own.

Like all qualities, some people have them innately and others need to develop them. Some are endowed with authenticity and are indissoluble in the mass. Others find it more difficult, they mirror themselves in the nearest one and have difficulty differentiating their own thoughts from the echo of someone else's.

And it all starts with innocent observation. Observe what we feel in certain situations, but what we really feel and not the idea we have of what someone should feel in that circumstance. Observe the flow of our thoughts and perceive how sometimes brilliant ideas, warnings or questions spring up that we simply ignore. Observe what we dream, which in the language of symbols puts us face to face with everything that our subconscious is processing.

Through simple observation, all artificial additions fade away and we find that authentic core that knows no limits and is totally free from the moorings of the normal.