Want to feel better in less than 60 seconds?

Today was one of those days when I felt rushed. I was checking emails every couple of minutes it felt like (honestly, it was probably like that) and just felt restless and a bit anxious.

As I was waiting for something, something big to come up.

But I was not waiting for something special today, it was just a normal day. But, somehow I was stressed.

Now writing and feeling the keys under my fingers is the moment when I my mind is starting to calm down and I am much more focus on this very moment, and that makes the stress and anxiousness slip away.

I realized that for me, writing this blog has become a habit for my mind to get into "be in the present mode" cause it is so much what this blog is about.

Being out the the real world, I have a much easier time to forget the present and instead hang out in the past or future. Not the best feeling.

This is what I do to get back into the present in 60 seconds or less:

- Wherever I am or whatever I am doing, I start to become aware of my breath.

- After a few breaths I start to become aware of how my body is feeling. Not emotionally, but how my body physcially feels. The way the air or clothing are touching.

I scan through my body and that, more often and not, brings me back into the present moment.

What I usually find out is that I am tense somewhere, maybe I am tensing my shoulders or clinching my hips or butt.

This gives me the opportunity to relax those areas, and by doing that, I start to feel better and my mind is saying "aaaaaaah"

Try it and report back my commening below,

Oh, I also have super exciting news, In October I am launching my first "Reset-To-Happy eCourse, where I will take you on a 4 week journey of self help and getting to know your body and mind on a whole another level.

more info about that to come. woho!

Want to know what pain can teach you?

Sitting still for an hour without moving can be very painful and uncomfortable.

So what can pain teach us?

I had to try it to truly understand.

It's not about torturing yourself or suffering, it is actually the opposite.

It's about sitting with the pain but instead of reacting be aware of the pain objectively. Without reacting.

And instead of thinking you are feeling the sensations of your body

That helps you get out of suffering.

The same thing applies for when something starts to feel good. Instead of reacting, you watch it objectively. 

What does it do? It gets you out of craving, cause you don't react to it.

It's all about feeling and require your brain to understand that everything changes and nothing lasts.

It's about being in this moment without suffering or craving for the past or future.

And what does objective do? It digs up unresolved issues from the subconscious and releases it. 

I experienced it first hand, 

I sill suffer and crave, but something has shifted. And I hope my shift can support others.

Your turn to take action,

Share your experiences about being in the present or,

if you have any questions; comment or email me at info@nuadthaiyoga.com

I look forward hearing from you!

10 days of silence

I just came back from a 10-days silent meditation course. (Vipassana)

People have asked me, how was it?

It took my a couple of days to know what to say.

In the upcoming weeks I will get deeper into what happen and what changes in my life and Nuad Thai Yoga practice it took.

This week I want to focus on something that I found not as hard as I thought it would be.

To be in noble silence where you don´t talk to anyone for 10 days. (Besides the teacher and a general manager when you had questions about the practice)

Being a person who have had the iPhone stuck to my hip for the last couple of years, and being used to talk to vent and connecting, I thought the silence would be very hard.

Also, knowing that I would be stuck with my own thoughts without escape (facebook,  emails, TV) that was very scary to me. Would things come up that I pushed down deep inside me? Would I suffer every moment of it?

The experience of a Vipassana meditation course is completely different from person to person, so what I experienced is totally individual.

What I experienced when the silence started was a big ease inside. A calm came over me. I felt relaxed and being in the present moment became easier than it has have been in many many years.

It was not scary to be alone with my thoughts, it was not scary to be silence. It was a big relief!

The meditation was hard many times, and things did come up. But the whole practice is about feeling your body's sensations, with a calm mind, so it´s not about thinking.

When I signed up I had no idea what it was about besides what I had heard and read. I just went with my gut, and I am so happy that I did.

Two big things I want to share with you this week that I learned and got confirmed:

•  If you are scared of being alone with your own thoughts, challenge it and try it for yourself. Leave your phone at home for a couple of hours so that you can´t use that when you feel bored or restless. Or, do something around the house without music or anything that distract yourself. Just be with yourself. It´s not about letting your thoughts take over. It´s about staying in the present moment, exactly where you are there and then.

• Listen to your gut, when you have a decisions to do. Scared to do so? Try it once this week, if you have a smaller decision to make and not sure what. Check in with your gut and just go with whatever it says.

Try these two things this week and report back here. What did you find out? Or maybe you did not find out anything, whatever happens or not, its all good:

Metta - Love and Compassion