.SOMETIMES RAW.

Hello and Happy Friday! 

What a great evening spent with my family. My brother and his girlfriend are here for the weekend and it is awesome talking and laughing with both. Family is the best. Friends of my parent’s hosted a village BBQ and party that we were all able to attend. It was nice to watch how this little community sticks together and help each other out. How happy they all were, happy with what they have, happy where they live. We saw the most beautiful sunset and enjoyed nature while we sat close to the fire. I also had been reminded again today that I have to stop thinking and analyzing everything all the time. I need to relax and give my brain a break once in a while. Just enjoy the moment. Here are my Friday Five Things I would like to share. Keep reading if you would like. Enjoy! 

Reading:   I finished Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery and loved it. I like crime novels. Sally Andrew’s novel set in rural South Africa is full of mystery, delicious recipes, humor, romance and was hands down an awesome read. From South Africa I traveled straight to Russia and read Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Currently I am finishing The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Fantastic, sad — a masterpiece! Highly recommended. Book reviews will follow. 

Watching: Michael Moore’s latest movie Where to Invade Next. Eye-opening, thought-provoking and right-on on so many levels. 

I also enjoyed the movie The Danish Girl. 

“The remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.”

Learning/Discovering: Have you heard of Rage Yoga? 

“[reyj yoh-guh] noun: a practice involving stretching, positional exercises and bad humor, with the goal of attaining good health and to become zen as f*ck. More than just a practice, Rage Yoga is an attitude.”

I love Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s latest project in Italy. So awesome, beautiful and worth a trip to Italy. Well, Italy is always worth  trip. The Floating Piers construction will open on 18 June until 3 July 2016. 

 I looked somewhat like this when I first heard about Skin Food Hydro Fitting Snail Mask. Am I really supposed to put snail trails in my face to make my skin tighter, regenerate cells and give it a healthy glow? Well, snails to the rescue, hah! Would you try this mask? 

Enjoying: Spending time outdoors with my son. This place is great for kids and to see local animals. Plan a visit when it is sunny and don’t forget sunscreen, a camera and a bottle of water. 

Looking Forward to: Lars von Trier’s new movie The House That Jack Built. 

I love Lars von Trier and think all his movies are fantastic. Have you ever seen Dogville? Or Dancer in the Dark? 

Have a great weekend. 

Hello and Happy Tuesday! 

Sunday, the 8th of May is Mother’s Day. Just a little reminder here, in case you forget/forgot. Let’s just be honest here: It is just  a day like any other but as a mother, I do like it and feel special. I like to do something just for myself that day but most often with other dates and appointments here and there, the planning to do something amazing fails. Responsibilities pile up and sometimes even stress. I thought what I haven’t done for myself recently. It is important to take time here and there just for myself – not only on Mother’s Day. As a mother, this responsibility I have for my son is huge. Many times I feel run down, tired or annoyed. 

Mother’s Day or not, it is important to connect to passions we have outside of taking care of child and house. I don’t want to be someone who only gives, gives and gives and forgot how to receive. Receive help, love and just the simplest thing — to slow down. Taking care of myself, pampering myself is fantastic. Making myself a healthy breakfast in the morning and spending time alone without interruption while eating is something I love to do every day. Even if this means getting up early. I need this time alone before my son wakes up and his day begins. Going to bed early, especially after a tough day is necessary to keep my balance. Reading in bed for some time while my husband takes care of everything, makes lunch, dinner or plays outside with him are little things I appreciate. 

Looking at other mom’s I know that nothing and nobody is perfect. Even though it seems like it is sometimes. [Baby Yoga, Baby Piano lessons and whatnot] They are all just doing their job. Whatever feels right to them. Whatever is the perfect way for them to handle it all. Who am I to judge? I am just trying to be my best friend and work on a plan that works for my son and I or for us as a family.  One day my son will grow up and realize that I am a person who will do whatever she can to support him and give him all the love in the world. When he is down, I will always lift him up. I am just happy and grateful to be his mom. It is a pretty amazing, spectacular and rewarding task. Something I never imagined. 

Okay, long story short. What are your favorite Mother’s Day gifts? Hah! 

Do you want your significant other to run out and get you something? A perfume, flowers? Or just a simple thing that is not even seen as a “gift”?  In my imagination, I would love to be woken up with breakfast in bed by my husband who then gives me a voucher for a SPA day and he packed my bag already telling me he takes care of everything else and “See you tonight because I also bought you a ticket for the movie you wanted to see for such a long time”. Or second imagination: Same breakfast scenario but then he brings me my laptop, my books and journals and sends me off to my favorite café to spend all day writing, researching and drinking coffee. Or he sends me to this place in Mexico. Haha! 

This is what I found browsing the web. The top four things, women would like to get on Mother’s Day. 

Sleep. As long as I want to. 

Cook. No cooking for mommy.

SPA. Pamper myself all day long. Alone!

No Cleaning the house/garden by mommy. 

What are your plans on Mother’s Day? I would love to hear from you. 

Hello and Happy Saturday! 

[intuition – noun: the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning]

When it comes to decisions, do you listen to your head or do you “trust your gut”? Can you feel it when your stomach tries to tell you something? I believe that it is very important to listen to this important sign of your body. It is somewhat a spiritual connection we have with our inner self. Is a women’s intuition different from a men’s? There is just so much to say and discuss about this. Whenever I trust my gut or my instincts I am usually right and everything goes well. Sometimes this is rather difficult for me because I am a thinker. I think every damn thing through one hundred times and then my head wins. It is just this mechanical thing – my Ego. I then also try to rationally analyze everything, which makes it even worse. Do you know this feeling when you mind goes crazy Pro and Con? I am working on getting better with all this for some time now but it is difficult. Here are some of the things that work for me to tap into my intuition a bit. 

Yoga and walking/spending time in nature. Practicing Yoga and really trying to coming to focus and stay on this mat is a great tool for me to truly feel my body. To feel how far I can go with my practice as long as it feels good. Breathing deeper and stretching a bit lower is awesome. With Yoga or while walking in nature I am  able to be physically present and tap into my intuition. In the beginning of a yoga session I make sure that I practice for myself and be fully present because my body tells me 100% what he likes and what not. All I need to do is listen. 

Mediation. I have practiced mediation for a bit over one year now and I have to say that it is easier to hear little whispers from my soul when my mind is totally quiet. Whenever I need some time for myself I meditate. Whenever there are some decisions to be made, I meditate. It makes me see things more clearly afterwards. 

Eating healthier. I started to listen more closely to my body when I felt so bad a couple of days ago. [There is only so much the body can take!] I ate meat – and actually a bunch of it. I usually don’t. I felt really bad overall and I had great conversations with my Reiki mentor at Sehes about what food is good for my body and what I should avoid. What he recommended made an amazing difference to my digestion, mood and weight. He gave me tips on how I can clean up a lot and allow calmness in my whole body. I love how I can come more in tune with my body by simply eating better. This excess meat for two or three days was really bad and unnecessary. 

Dreams. Yesterday I wrote that everything might just be a dream and I got a plethora of emails and people asking me to clarify. Well, dreams are our brain’s way of processing all this information we deal with on a daily basis and whatever is just left over from the day. I love my dreams. They are sometimes very weird. Last night I dreamed that I wanted to go swimming in the neighbors tiny pond. It is really very tiny. But the neighbor told me to just go for a swim. So I dove right in. And it was so so deep. I dove deeper and deeper and could not see the bottom or the sky anymore after a while. It felt so amazing. I was able to breathe the entire time while just floating around. Dreams are just rich with valuable data I believe. All these experiences and memories we deal with on a daily basis – just think about it. And the brain then creates a dreamworld full of awesomeness when we sleep. So I just thought that maybe our life is just a dream in itself. Maybe we are just all actors and have a role to play? I am not a psychologist but I know that when we sleep our consciousness is at some sort of rest. I just guess now that this is the opportunity for my soul to bring information to me through my dreams. What do you think? 

Love and Positive Thinking.When I look at my husband or son I feel love. I feel this unconditional, heartwarming feeling when I think about them. It is just pure and beautiful. Listening to my intuition I know that likes attract likes. This law of attraction applies to everything. I know that I just have to align myself with abundance, joy and love in a way or another and then it is pretty difficult for the world to not give me just that. When I am going through tough times I trust this feeling that I am right where I am supposed to be. Then I switch and focus on all the positive in my life. There is just so much. Soon, the “problems” dissolve. It is just an energy shift of some sort. Things will fall into place eventually. And aren’t all these self-doubting thoughts just fears? My husband is really good at positive thinking but I sometimes tend to focus on the space in-between – this space where I am now and where I want to be. This is when I am now focusing on the happiness an beauty I already have. This is when I think that I want to be just HERE, NOW. If something did not work out the way I wanted it to work out is for my best and I learn something from it and just move forward. “Everything will work out in the end. And if it does not work out it is not the end.” I am the only one who can pull myself out of whatever I am stuck in.