All posts tagged: ease

What To Do When The World Says No

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The easiest option is of course to join in and say ‘no’ with them. To accept that you really aren’t that great and don’t deserve more. Of course you can’t have anything you want, I mean that’s ludicrous, it just doesn’t work like that. Go out, have that 2nd, 3rd, 4th beer or that double chocolate cookie and slip back into the hum drumness of everyday existence. I don’t believe it has to be like this. Most of us accept that a select few get to live their dreams. That they are blessed with luck and that things just come to them without much effort. We believe that we can’t really follow our dreams – whether it’s starting that pottery business; making toy airplanes, or opening a specialist sweet shop – these are just fantasies that can’t be realised in the ‘real world’. I think this is all bullsh*t. Excuse my French, but it had to be said. Perhaps the real issue is that most of us just aren’t prepared to put in the effort. To apply ourselves daily to achieving our dreams, however simple …

Aaah Nostalgia…

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nos·tal·gia:  A sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.   I am busy preparing for my move to Taiwan, and part of that preparation is a major decluttering. I’ve had some boxes and bags stored at my parent’s farm for a few years now and it’s finally time to let them go. Sometimes I feel like life is a beautiful act of learning to let go. Releasing our attachment to physical forms that weigh us down and make us heavy, releasing our attachment to people, outcomes, feelings and experiences; freeing us up for the new that life has to offer. I’ll never forget the lightness I felt when I left South Africa to live in Japan a few years back, leaving with nothing but my backpack and a small carry bag. It was liberating! And now as I venture out into the world again, this time I plan to be gone for a lot longer so I want to free myself up  just a little more. Whilst decluttering, …

I want to become like water

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 (Beautiful words from a special friend this Christmas) I like the idea of becoming like water… free, flowing, unconstricted, living life with ease, flowing around life’s challenges and rushing into life’s adventures. I read these beautiful words last night in Paulo Coelho’s, Manual of the Warrior of Light – “The warrior of light sometimes behaves like water, flowing around the obstacles he encounters. Occasionally resisting might mean being destroyed, and so he adapts to the circumstances. He accepts without complaint that the stones along the path hinder his way across the mountains. Therein lies the strength of water: it cannot be shattered by a hammer or wounded by a knife. The strongest sword in the world cannot scar its surface. The waters of a river adapt themselves to whatever route proves possible, but the river never forgets its one objective: the sea. So fragile at its source, it gradually gathers the strength of the other rivers it encounters. And after a certain point, its power is absolute.”

Day 6: Getting into the flow

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Today’s post is inspired by a special friend of mine who has been through a lot of change lately. In fact, this seems to be a pattern in many people’s lives, including my own. So how can we calm ourselves in these overwhelming times and learn to let go of the reins a bit? First, we have to accept what is, knowing that we won’t feel this way forever and things will change soon enough. And then they’ll change again. And again. Isn’t that the beauty of life? We can view the unknown from a place of fear or we can embrace it and feel excited about the future, knowing that there’s a reason we are going through whatever we are going through right now, and in the end it all works out for the greater good. So instead of fighting and resisting, we learn to accept things as they are and imagine them as we’d like them to be. We meditate. We move – yoga, chi kung or a walk on the beach (whatever …

Oil and Water

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You know that feeling when you desperately want something to work but it just doesn’t. When you keep trying and trying but things just don’t seem to flow as they should. It feels heavy, it feels doubtful, it feels confusing, it feels difficult. That’s when you know it’s time to let go. I love the way Abraham Hicks describes how a good-feeling relationship should feel. One word… EASE….. Watch the video here

A sensory weekend at the Buddhist Retreat

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I just got back from an awesome weekend at the Buddhist Retreat Centre (BRC) in the sleepy village of Ixopo, Western Midlands in the KwaZulu-Natal region. A friend and I ventured up with no idea what to expect, just super keen to escape into the wilderness for the weekend.  The retreat was held by the lovely Yasmin Lambat, a pilates instructor and Wellness Coach who is passionate about the Body Sensing technique. Body Sensing is a a somatic therapy that uses a body centered approach to heal. It recognises the inexplicable link between our emotions (how we feel) and our physical wellbeing. “Our biography becomes our biology” – Caroline Myss As Yasmin explains on her website, “It works on influencing our fascia, the largest sensory organ in the body and our sixth sense. Fascia is a web of connective tissue that not only influences posture and alignment, but responds to mood, softening when we’re relaxed and tensing when we’re stressing. It forms part of our body’s intelligent network of communication, often responding subconsciously. Under physical and emotional stress, our …