19.Shake up the world (in silence)
Reflections on Crepe by Michela Barcella**
I read Crepe during one night..
Yes, that's how I am: when something fascinates me, I don't give myself a break.
I advance page after page as if in a video game where, instead of getting tired, I gather energy, insights, emotions—and I keep going until I reach the end.
I laughed. I cried.
And above all, I felt deeply touched by a humanity that I recognize even when I don't want to.
Perhaps not everyone will experience the book as I did, but I am sure that anyone who reads it will feel something stir: a subtle emotion, a spark of determination, a new clarity.
Today, I want to start with two lines that were real catalysts for me
“We were not given this soul just to exist.”
Our mission is to shake up the world, turn it upside down, and show our fellow human beings the difference between surviving and living. — MB
This sentence is like a crack opening up in the wall: sudden, bright, impossible to ignore.
It took me back to yesterday: I finished my tenth day of fasting.
I hadn't done it for fifteen years.
It used to be an annual ritual: a break from the world, a return to myself, a time for deep listening.
Then I got a little lost in the rhythms, the roles, the needs of others. And the practice faded away.
Yet returning felt natural.
I turned my world upside down for ten days, in the only way I really know how: by taking away, rather than adding.
And every time I take away— food, noise, expectations—the same thing always happens: I return.
And returning is good for me. Always.
I often watch my daughter: she goes upside down, twists herself into improbable shapes, and constantly explores the world from a reversed perspective.
At first, I scolded her.
Then I started watching her.
And eventually, I understood that she was teaching me something too:
to turn the world upside down, you don’t need a revolution — you just need to tilt your gaze.
This is the core of my coaching method, Natural Transformation:
Everyone can change their perspective, embrace challenges, transform themselves...
But we don't all have the same pace or the same methods.
And that's okay.
“Don't ask yourself what the world needs.”
Because what the world really needs is people who feel alive.” — Howard Thurman
This sentence touched me even more deeply.
I have always lived with one constant thought:
"I must be useful. I must go where I am needed."
A noble vision, certainly.
But also an invisible cage.
And today, in a landscape full of struggling coaches, I have asked myself several times:
"Why should I join the queue?
What new can I offer?
Am I really useful?"
The truth is that this question is wrong.
Or rather, it is asked from the wrong perspective.
Why did Michela write another book on personal growth when there were already so many?
The answer is simple:
because it had something to say.
Because it is alive.
Because its approach is different, genuine, necessary.
The result?
A masterpiece that has brought personal growth closer even to those who had never touched a manual before.
A book that arouses curiosity, awareness, and wonder.
A book that changes something—even if only a millimeter—in the lives of those who read it.
And if the world becomes even just a millimeter more awake, more sensitive, more courageous...
then yes, something has been shaken up.
The right way.
I will soon have to make some choices in my life, and it's not certain that I'm ready for huge leaps. Maybe I am, but I definitely want it to be something that puts
together, usefulness and happiness, because they are both part of me. We all need to find that middle ground that allows us to move forward without despairing, respecting ourselves but pushing ourselves a little further towards our growth each time.
Thank you, Michela
For writing a book that doesn't fix the cracks: it honors them.
And reminds us that light passes through them.
And life returns.
Sources of inspiration
Books
Crepe The Science of Personal Transformation
