Last weekend in Zurich we did a workshop with Gurmukh. Oooooh. And Sunday. Sunday was blissful. I came back to “Earth” filled with tremendous amount of energy. Not because Gurmukh spreads energy. She is not magical. But that woman. She knew what she was doing. That kind gracious lady Gurmukh made us dance. She made us move. She made us go crazy. Read More
Growing up in Sarajevo in a pretty much dysfunctional family, I thought I was different because other families were “normal”. Growing up in Berlin as a refugee later I thought I was different because I was poor and I lived in a refugee center. Then I came to Holland. And felt different again. I couldn’t say why.Read More
Do not love half lovers.
Do not entertain half friends.
Do not indulge in works of the half talented.
Do not live half a life and do not die a half death.
If you choose silence, then be silent.
When you speak, do so until you are finished.
Do not silence yourself to say something.
And do not speak to be silent.
If you accept, then express it bluntly.
Do not mask it.
If you refuse then be clear about it.
For an ambiguous refusal Is but a weak acceptance.
Do not accept half a solution.
Do not believe half truths.
Do not dream half a dream.
Do not fantasize about half hopes.
Half a drink will not quench your thirst.
Half a meal will not satiate your hunger.
Half the way will get you no where.
Half an idea will bear you no results.
Your other half is not the one you love.
It is you in another time yet in the same space.
It is you when you are not.
Half a life is a life you didn’t live,
A word you have not said,
A smile you postponed,
A love you have not had,
A friendship you did not know,
To reach and not arrive,
Work and not work,
Attend only to be absent,
What makes you a stranger to them closest to you,
And they strangers to you.
The half is a mere moment of inability
But you are able for you are not half a being.
You are a whole that exists to live a life, not half a life.
~ Khalil Gibran
“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” – Albert Einstein
Sometimes I just can’t find the right words to explain what I feel. Sometimes words just don’t give the meaning to a feeling or to an experience. Maybe there are no right words that could be understood by the intellect when you experience something. And maybe it’s even better this way. Only it makes communication (on an intellectual level) difficult.
We found a new mantra you can practice everyday which will make you feel more aware about your and other people’s freedom or the lack of it.
Mudra: make a fist and put it up towards the sky.
Eyes: eyes are open, looking in the same direction.
Mantra: chant it out loud – Freedom!
Feeling a little bit more free already?
If you have love, share it. WHATSOEVER you have, share it, spread it all over; let it spread like the fragrance of a flower going to the winds. ~ OSHO
This week it’s exactly a year ago that I went to Ibiza for Kundalini yoga teacher training. Exactly a year ago my transformational journey started and I realize now – it’s a never ending journey. A thought, which is exciting and discomforting at the same time. Exciting, because every step on this journey inwards is a chance to learn, to get inspired. To get surprised. By your own body. And by your own mind. It is a chance to get closer to something bigger than the previous two, your true self.
I’m inspired by a conversation I had with my father and my grandmother. We were talking about family life and how it was back then. My grandmother remembered how difficult life was but also how simple it was just appreciating what was given or received. She had take care of the family, raising three boys, while running the house, making the food and working 5 days a week to earn money. My grandfather worked as well
The green diet not only limits your food choices, it pretty much puts your social options on hold as well. Forget the afternoon coffee or the evening drink with friends. Going out to restaurants is way more complicated and tedious then just preparing your own meals so it’s time to take the green off the plate and out into nature.
Do you think that if you would practice yoga every day you would be nothing but happy all the time? Well, call me naive but I thought so! And it is true. For a part. But only for a part… Bad news is that even with a regular yoga practice we can’t control what life throws at us. But good news is that with help of yogic techniques we can definitely control our response to all of it. We still have a choice.
The funny (or not so funny) thing about wearing a turban is that it makes you realize how judgmental the world is. And I’m sure you (without exception) are a part of it. You never caught yourself judging people only because they’re wearing something you dislike or you’re not used to? We are all judgmental.
… or is your aura expanding?
By the fifth day of the green diet you’ve pretty much exhausted all the green options at your local market, so that’s when you head down to Chinatown.
There you’ll find your green options are off the charts. Probably cause you’ve never seen any of these babies on any chart unless you like to browse through underwater plant catalogues.
I read this amazing tale of courage about an American doctor who contracts Ebola working in a clinic in Sierra Leone. He recovers after coming very close to death in an Atlanta hospital and is released being declared Ebola free.
But two months later after experiencing excruciating eye pain, he finds himself back in hospital as they discover the virus still lurking in his inner eye. It’s a fascinating story about the incredible complexity of the human body but also how incredibly vast is the human heart.
My mother would be so proud of me. Last week it was Kingsday here in Holland and the only thing I bhought there is a pressure cooker. 10 euro. Brand new. A pressure cooker. That thing that cooks food very quickly. It’s huge and looks kind of dangerous. It looks like it could explode. Above all it makes very annoying noises which let every heart of a Bosnian immigrant melt nostalgically. Every good Bosnian household has to have one. Including me now. Wahe guru!
I got it right on time for all the green stuff I wanted to cook this week. Stuff like mung beans, green lentils, string beans, you know. Stuff that needs lots of time cooking. With the pressure cooker I could cook bigger amounts of food and put it in the fridge for next days. It saves time = money. And energy (gas/electricity) =money. In the end your investment in a good pressure cooker will pay off definitely!
It’s a week now that I’m on green diet. And today I suffer. I would really love to eat anything else but green. I’m longing for cakes. I want to have a nice warm goat cheese in my salad. I even caught myself thinking that I could secretly eat a piece of bread. Nobody would notice. My hand slowly slowly moved towards the cupboard. But hey! Hallo!? What am I doing? I gave my hand a little slap. I am not exaggerating here. My mind is unstoppable finding it’s ways out of this cleanse.
Last year started just great. In December 2013 I quit my regular job and started working as a freelancer. I was full of enthusiasm and thought I could have it all. January, February and March were great. I had my assignments. The freedom to work when I wanted. What I wanted. As I wanted. I had time for myself. I finally started a life I was kind of dreaming of.
Let us come back to day 6… after a few days of feeling great, light and focused I started to feel the craving of sweetness and experienced difficulty not thinking of my bad habits and wish to eat what I wanted.
Do you believe it if I tell you that I even started to dream about food. One night I dreamt I was hanging out with friends and all of a sudden, I was in front of a ‘Creperie’. It is not that I am that fond of crepes, not at all, but that night in that dream yes. I wanted a crepe and I ordered one, but at least with a green tea.
3d day of my green detox and I enjoy it enormously. Yesterday I cooked so much that I managed to prepare delicious green meals for the next 2 days! I will share all recipes with you soon but for today I will share a superfast lunch. It’s green. It’s tasty. It’s made in a minute. It’s a proper meal. And guaranteed no afternoon energy slump afterwards!!!
After reading this fast recipe you can’t come up with an excuse anymore of not having time for a green meal. For real.
Last week I tried several new tastes and green diet recipes out. With the knowledge I have now I think I can do my green diet without getting very stressed about it. Preparation is the key! You have to buy right stuff on time (easy). Prepare your lunch and dinner maybe already a day before (not so easy). Say no to your lunches and coffees with friends (super heavy)… From yesterday on I committed to my green diet fully. There is no coffee, bread, cheese and sweets for me for the next 11 days. Yikes!
As always my mind is telling me it’s impossible to do it. My body is loving it. And my true self is watching from a neutral distance those two fighting each other.
This week I am wearing a turban. The whole week. Maybe even longer than a week. Will see. As an experiment. Not only when I teach. No. I wear it 24/7. Since the moment I wake up till I go to sleep. I wear it like you wear your underwear. I hope at least. I made it mandatory!
I found Pascal’s class because, in exchange for the infamous basement space, he gives a free Kundalini class at the community center once a week. I initially came to ask him, with my newly acquired teacher’s accreditation in pocket, if I could replace him when he wasn’t available to teach.
Today is T(h)ur(ban)sday! And every T(h)ur(ban)sday we will share an inspirational story about turbans. Why? As you may know Kundalini yogis and yoginis wear turbans.
Why do we wear turbans? We will tell you more about it next time…
This is how we tie them. Enjoy but don’t try this at home!!!
When I started my yoga teacher training I never felt like doing a diet… actually I never did any kind of diet in my life and that was something I couldn’t even imagine, so I made a conscious choice not to do the recommended diet during the training. It was not the right time, the right moment and, most important, I wasn’t ready for it.
It was about 6:30 in the morning when she arrived. I opened the door and there she was. My Asja. My very 1st very best friend from the school bench. She arrived from India, where she now lived with her husband and their little baby daughter. We didn’t see each other for years. 4, 5, 6? I didn’t count anymore! Too many for sure. There were no words to describe my happiness and excitement about her staying at my place in Amsterdam for a week. But when I opened my apartment’s door to let her in, I almost crashed down and cried. I never told her this, but she scared me to death that morning. Asja looked almost like a ghost. Very skinny, super pale, very fragile, visibly weak, lost. Her enormous baggage looked so big next to her whilst she appeared so small and weak. It was such a ridiculous contrast that made her appear even more lost somehow.
When I saw this video I diffused it liberally to urge people not to wait till they’re almost blind to pursue what truly makes them happy in life
This was the reply I got from my friend Sarah…
Kundalini comes in different shapes and sizes but most teachers stick to a basic game plan.
There’s a formula, a ritualistic order that the class can follow. It usually starts with what is known as ‘tuning in’. You repeat a mantra, the Golden Chain mantra, to set the space and connect you.
The body as temple is not a poetic metaphor but a sober statement of fact.
The form you inhabit is shakti, consciousness-in-energy form.
You are living in the manifestation of the divine.
The identification of body with the multiverse is the key to causing change in the phenomenal world.
By identifying your body and your reality with the entire macrocosm – and vica versa – both can influence each other.
Jan Fries – Kali Kaula A Manuel of Tantric Magick
Go with the flow. Sounds great but what does it really mean… Am I going somewhere….will I be coming back??? On the yoga mat and even off it, I often feel the flow of energy through my body but in my daily life I don’t necessarily feel part of a cosmic stream.
What has brought me to ponder this particular mode of conscious transportation?
I met a woman at a party last summer through a mutual friend. She introduced herself as a yoga teacher. Full of enthusiasm, I told her that I started a teacher training to become a yoga teacher too. She asked me what kind of yoga I am going to teach. And I proudly said that I am becoming a Kundalini yoga teacher. She took another sip of her beer and said: “Oh? Okay. Kundalini? So you guys just breathe, right?” And I answered: “Yeah! You’re right. We Breathe!”
