TENSIONS

Through practicing yoga and meditation, I’ve come to realize that I have a lot of tensions in my body. Especially in the upper back and neck. When practicing if feels like I constantly wear the invisible huge backpack of junk. Thankfully from one practice through another, I feel I am releasing a piece by piece of that junk.  And the first step was being aware of that huge "backpack". 

Everything that happens to us, all the emotions and feelings that accompany situations we come across, are not only written in our self consciousness, but also our bodies.

It’s in our muscles, it’s in our body structures – how we stand, how we sit... There’s a LOT of people who are not standing straight because they have a huge invisible weight on their shoulders, because they have a low self-esteem, because they are scared, sad,... 

Everything is in the body. I believe a good masseur can feel it ALL. All the tensions. And through the touch of their fingertips I believe they can feel the energy we have stored in our body. 

It is important to take care of yourself. To release those tensions, not only with a good massage, but with certain practice as well. And most importantly… to confess yourself the fears, deepest secrets that you have, because with confessing, with confronting your fears (I think) you make the most of it. A huge weight on your shoulders would just come off. And I think, you would feel … lighter.

I remember keeping so many things inside that I shared only into my journal, but there were some that I just couldn’t write down on a piece of paper, or talk about them. And then, one day that balloon of emotions just exploded. That invisible backpack on my shoulders was too full. There were just too many emotions coming in.
Thankfully I had someone to listen at that time. And who would have thought… I felt lighter after it. I felt like a HUGE piece was coming down off of my shoulders.  
It was not a really good circumstance to do it at that time, but I couldn’t help my emotions. And looking back… it was worth it, because I wouldn’t be doing things as how I am doing them now. It made me who I am today. Everything happens for a reason. 

Years after, I am tearing down the backpack off of my shoulders. If you also feel any tensions in your body… feel them all. Ask yourself why you have them… and write it down, or talk to someone. Release them with practice, meditation, massage, breath… Let them go! And most importantly… TREAT YOURSELF GOOD! Don’t think you don’t deserve it. 

T R E A T yourself GOOD! Do it for you and for the benefit of your own health and happiness. 

Art by unknown artist 

QUIET

IN TRANSFORMATION ...

Art by Krista Huot 

WHAT IF...

Lately I get a lot of “what if” moments in my head. What if here, and what if there. Why is it so hard to just let go and be in the moment? Why can’t we just trust life? Why? We all know that thinking about the future is always going to make us worry. I guess our egos are programmed this way - to keep on talking, when we want a quiet time…a clear mind… when we just want to trust life. 

The most amazing moments are the ones that are not planned, they say. Which is true. And they don’t come by while thinking how’s the future going to be like. They just come… and that is where you find yourself … trusting life. You go with that moment. You catch the flow and just let go. Freeing. 

And I want that, I want exactly that. To feel the moment. To let go and just trust it. Whatever is going to be, is going to be. To not care so much about the materialistic things, but make more way for the un-materialistic. The ones that matter in a heart and make you grow. Make you learn. 

I want to trust. Set myself into an adventure. Book a ticket, go on a trip and just go, and not think about if there are events/projects that I’m going to miss back home. Because I will and also - on the other hand - I am missing an adventure that is out there. Adventure that might give me stories for life, might teach me something, might give me something to feed my imagination, make me grow inside … that’s where I might find myself. 

Somewhere unexpected. Somewhere unknown. Life happens outside of the comfort zone, I read somewhere. This is when you can get the most stories out. Stories I want to share. Stories with which I want to build new stories. There is so much out there that I want to taste, feel, see, express… and here I am left with a big thing called – fear of letting go. Letting myself go and letting the projects that I’m afraid of losing, go. 

I'm like a mountain. Stubborn like a rock. There are some good things about it, but the bad ones are the ones that are eating me sometimes. Especially when there are some big decisions  coming up.  I guess I’m going to have to let my mountain become a wave and just trust the moon (life) taking it to the shore. 

I’ve never been so hungry for exploring the new grounds. Hungry for trusting life. Hungry for letting go and just breathe into life. Be spontaneous. 
I NEED stories, not in the books, but real stories. Sunrises and sunsets of the world, beauty of the milky way on a night sky, touch of seven seas and kiss of the lands. 

Knowledge and wisdom of the tradition for the experience of the today. The now. 
Yes, I want to grow… within! 

MORNING

Seize the day. 

Wake up early to smell the morning air. 

To catch the first rays of the sun. 

To touch the starting of the day. 

Listen to the nature wake up. 

Have a quiet moment with yourself, while others are still sleeping/dreaming. 

Breathe in, breathe out. 

Mornings like these make way for a positive day. 

WANDER

USE YOUR IMAGINATION

If we would travel few kilometers further – even just to the stratosphere of our planet would be enough, I think we would appreciate our planet way more than we do now. I’m sure we would do things differently. Our problems would become so small. 

Our planet floating in space is like a dream to us, or a scene in a fantasy movie. 
Because you can’t see it as how the eyes of an astronaut see it, we forget (or just can’t imagine) that we our living in the big blue ball surrounded by black raw space. We forget that we are IN THE UNIVERSE and that our planet is not the center of everything. 

I haven’t seen our planet from up there, neither. But I was drawn to the mysterious universe since I was little. I was blown away, when my dad told me about another world that is above me. My imagination just exploded. We would go to our balcony and he would tell me about the stars, planets, he even pretend that the moving stars (objects) that I saw were comets – well it was just satellites passing us by. But he sure gave me something to feed my imagination. So, already back then, I was aware of an amazing coincidence that we are here, breathing, walking on this planet for so many years. It made me even wish to become an astronaut, just to see Earth from up there. 

Summer evenings bring me back to those memories of that little dreamy girl I was. Dreaming about the stars, galaxies, raw beauty that is above us... I imagine astronauts on the moon and even though I was not even born when Armstrong took a first step up there, it still feels so surreal that years ago someone was walking up there and saw our planet, just like we see our moon. 

Those scientists who have a chance to go into space, sure do come back with an amazing experience. Some of it is also shared in the video bellow. 

There’s a very, very, very little chance that I will see our planet from space, but I’m pretty sure the next generations will have that amazing opportunity. I’m going to keep on dreaming and be blown away about the beauty and rawness that is presented to us by scientists, and with it I will continue to paint my own imagination of the universe. On warm summer evenings, YOU try it as well. Go up to the hill, where there’s no lights and just look at the stars… some of them don’t even exist anymore, yet there light still shines on us. 

Paint your own imagination. Imagine that our sun is a little starry dot in the sky of another world (planet). Imagine our blue ball floating in the space with our little moon. It’s not hard to use your imagination. Just USE it. You’ll be blown away. 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

― Albert Einstein

INSPIRATIONAL

"What is your love? What were you put on planet earth to do?" 

www.soulandsurf.com

REMEMBER ...

BEAUTY, COURAGE, DISCIPLINE, SACRIFICE

CONNECTED

We are all connected more than we can even imagine. In some weird unexplained way we are connected with the universe above, Earth, Moon, energy…Every SINGLE part of our body is connected to another.  We sometimes even feel strange connections to certain people, or beings. 

Every action is connected to reaction. If you really wish for something, one day all the dots will connect and you'll get what you wished for. 

Thoughts and attitude make an important role in this situation. Old Buddha quote says, »The mind is everything, what you think, you become.« So be careful about your thoughts, because they do have an impact.

Lately I’ve been fascinated about how our body is connected. How certain parts of your skin are connected to certain organs. How organs are connected with each other. How food is important because it connects or disconnects (it depends) the "communications" between the organs etc… Complicated. 

Our bodies are “insane” instruments. Truly amazing. And all this knowledge is in front of us for so MANY years (like in an old eastern medicine), but we (westerns) still don’t get it. Don’t take your body for granted.  “Enjoy your body, use it every way you can… It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.« (Baz Luhrman – Wear Sunscreen; written by Mary Schmich). 

Everything is connected. Just open your eyes and you'll see (feel) it...  Situations (the good and bad), mind, body, nature,... everything. 

“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” 
― Leonardo da Vinci

Photos: Authors unknown 

DREAM

"Legend says, when you can't sleep at night, it's because you're awake in someone else's dream."

Art by ROB GONSLAVES 

WRITINGS IN A JOURNAL

PERSONAL JOURNAL, Archive - July, a year ago. 

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Sitting by my home desk, watching the moon take the place of the sky. And slowly the sky is turning from pure blue to bright blue and in minutes it will be dark. Moon is getting bigger and bigger and you can feel its power shining towards our earthly sky.

Magical, it is.

....

On the nights like these I surely can feel it. The life all around and the life within. Connection with my ancestors and maybe even descendants. All historic and future eyes to the sky.  Quietly staring and admiring all the sacred and historic beauty. Why don’t we take a moment and just look and be grateful for what it is all around us, for so many years. We need to, so that it doesn’t disappear. Or else in couple of years/decades we will be left with beauty locked in writings in an old journal. 

PHOTOS:  My archive 

INHALE EXHALE

Sit down. Relax. Let your hands fall freely. Close your eyes. Listen to the sound of your breath and the sound of the place you're staying. Inhale, exhale…. Feel the air on your skin. Ask yourself - Is it cold, is it warm? 
Feel your body. Feet, legs, hips, genitals, torso, neck, arms, fingers, head, face, ears, hair… Imagine your body being pulled by gravity. You are light as a feather. 
Feel the taste in your mouth. 
Take a deep breath through your nose. Can you notice you're breathing more through one nostril (nose hole), than through another? Inhale, exhale… Slow down. 
Now slowly listen again. Can you hear the silence in you? When you reach to that point, just breathe. 
And just be… YOU. Nobody else but -  YOU. Not your neighbor, not your classmate, not your idol. Be YOU!
Keep your eyes closed and breathe deeply. Don’t check what time it is. Don’t check your phone. Just be YOU! Feel the present moment.  
After some time… slowly … open your eyes.

When your mind is clear,  it feels like everything is changed. It's not. The change is in you. You can feel clearly, because your mind is like a calm morning sea. 
Clear and calm. Ready for the adventure. 

LEARN

YES!

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”

- Eckhart Tolle 

Georgia O’Keeffe: Pink Spotted Lilies, 1936 (oil on canvas)

Tracks

“The two important things that I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.” 

― Robyn Davidson, Tracks

Robyn Davidson and camel by Rick Smolan, National Geographic - May 1978

DISCONNECT TO RECONNECT

Remember those summer moments as a child when everything was so unimportant, when TIME didn’t exist. You didn’t have phone around EVERYWHERE but you could still find your friends and mom still found you somewhere for lunch break. You didn’t have camera around but you still remember these moments clearly, you can even remember the smell of it, the taste of it… It was magical.

Today the picture of summer is waaay different. Everyone is wired. Everyone is obsessed with daily dose of morning information that they must get before they even make themselves breakfast.

Can you imagine a day with none of that bullshit? Or let’s say a week. No “likes”, no “comments” and bunch of negative news… Disconnect. Just you and LIFE around you, that you are missing while scrolling down your cell phone. It’s difficult if you are at home, sitting and doing nothing, basically bored at everything. For the real adventure you have to go out. To the nature, to a trip, a walk,… Just OUT of your couch, TV, Computer etc… And yes, summer is perfect for that.

It’s stupid what kind of a routine we’ve created. If you don’t get online, you think you’re missing something REALLY extremely important etc… But no one has the same kind of feeling while online (or busy making pictures) about missing something extremely important in reality as well. And we are missing it big time.  We are missing the important touch with ourselves and life around us. While checking all the apps on our phones or taking dozens of pictures for these apps…, we are missing the light, the smell, the touch, the taste, the sound all around us. We are missing the whole picture.

While watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen - while on the boat at the seaside when the sky was so clear you could actually see the sun going behind the Italian Alps - I wanted to capture EVERY single moment of that magic on camera. I kept photographing it and photographing it, just like I want to capture it, like you capture a bird and you keep it in a cage. One picture would be IT. After a little while I just stopped. There’s no need to have all of these pictures on my camera if I am experiencing it RIGHT NOW. The moment will soon pass and it’s not going to be as beautiful as it is RIGHT NOW.

Remember! No bird (animal) is happy in a cage. And (metaphorically speaking) the same goes for all of these beautiful moments that you want to capture and put it EVERYWHERE so that everyone will see it and you’ll be left with only the pictures, because you didn’t have time to enjoy the magic of it in the present moment.  

Make one or two photos and then leave it. Those beautiful moments like “my” sunset were not made to be captured in (a cage, or ) cell phone app, or camera… there’re made to be captured in a heart! So let yourself go and enjoy the moment. Feel the life around you, because it will give you a special MEMORY. The one you’ll remember when you’re going to smell one particular flower, or hear particular song,…

So, disconnect to reconnect YOURSELF.

Feel the air and sun, smell the flowers, talk with people, laugh and MAKE memories …in your heart. 

Art by VLADIMIR KUSH