Thankfully, I’ve been able to take classes in Isadora Duncan dance technique through zoom, again this summer on 6 occasions, 2,5 hours at a time. And without becoming sore! Here are some pointers that help me:
Regular practice: I have kept doing 1 hr practices on my own to a video weekly, throughout the year, besides yoga.
Enough sleep: I’ve understood through my own experience, how much a good night’s sleep before and after helps.
Rest: Not practicing every day allows for rest and rebuild. Something I learned lifting weights in my skinny era, in my 30’s.
Warm-up: I go for a walk first, to get fresh air and my blood pumping.
Eating well: Both before and after is a must. My lunch before practice, consist of for example gluten-free pasta with broccoli and tofu, or quinoa and tomatoes. And for my dinner afterwards, I like to eat a heavier meal with more protein, such as chicken breast and rice, or smoked salmon and boiled potatoes.
Hydrate: Drinking filtered water and pressed juice daily is a must. Just like adding electrolytes or a bottle of vitamin well.
Mindset: Most of all, it’s a matter of pushing my body more gently through the motions, that it now recognizes better. To feel what resistance to push through and what not. And softer.
Happy World Indigenous People Day! The more we learn to relate to the land, the more the land will teach us and nurture us back. Today is the World Indigenous People Day and thus a day to remember to honor and respect the original inhabitants of the country you live in. It’s said we all originate from the African tribe and from there, man evolved and moved.
Here in Sweden and the Nordic countries, our indigenous people are called Sapmi. They live mostly up north, where they herd and take care of reindeers, used for meat. They have their own traditional clothing and culture, with a special kind of chanting called jojk, and their own local government. The Sapmi people also have a seat in our House of Representatives and are among the tribes recognized as original inhabitants.
In Hawaii, the indigenous people are called Kanaka Maoli, which seen in combination with all the islands of the pacific, becomes Pacific Islanders. In Hawaii, it’s often important to be able to trace your bloodline, to be fully upheld as a Kanaka Maoli. And it’s not without controversy, as many wish to have their sovereignty back from the illegal overthrow by the US Government after claiming sugar plantations to use for profit. If you’re simply local and respect and live according to the Hawaiian values with Aloha, you can call yourself a Kama’aina, which means to be a child of the land, and is part of the very inspiration for my last name Telluselle, that I wish to stand for a brand with indigenous values, regardless of one’s ethnicity.
And then there are of course numerous of tribes both in North America, in the United States and Canada, as well as in South America, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, one could argue that the original Celtic people from Ireland and Scotland would be the indigenous equivalent, but for the most part, by indigenous we mean those of a browner skin tone and usually exploited by the white. According to the UN, about 6.2% of the world population is indigenous.
As someone fascinated early by Shamanism, it became what brought me to study some of the indigenous ways, first through literature like Carlos Castaneda and Lynn Andrews, and then Sandra Ingerman. When life brought me an opportunity to go to Hawaii, I was gifted with introductions to Hawaiian healing arts, such as lei making, dancing Hula, chanting ‘Oli and doing Ho’oponopono. Receiving their Lomilomi massage made wonders for me, as it enabled me to become fully grounded. When I was staying at the YWCA Fernhurst in Honolulu 2011, one of their staff was a native practitioner with whom I had many talks about spiritual things. She also showed me how she fermented the Noni fruit to make the special juice, seen as medicine. I found it very strengthening and restoring.
What these people all have in common, I think, is a way of looking at mother nature and all living beings as connected through spirit, which is to show reverence for. We relate, not just dominate. And in this way, a mutual form of respect can be formed also with wild animals. When we show our own soul, they show us theirs.
Another thing in common, is of course the white man’s exploitation. It’s through the chase for profit, often based on indigenous culture, crafts and resources, many lose their own financial stability due to the unfair inequalities emerging through the raised prices due to tourism or agriculture at scale, for example.
When it comes to indigenous practices, it’s important to not be culturally appropriating them. We can learn, practice and study alongside them, but not neither earn money, nor assume teaching without proper protocol. As a comparison, yoga is very culturally appropriated. We all know it stems from India, but how many people practicing do even know what the asanas are called in Sanskrit? Or even why we do yoga? The same with Qigong. Some forms originate in Tibet and some in China. This is more regulated through the recognition of Chinese Medicine, but this too has taken many years. When I first received acupuncture in the mid 90’s, it was considered a little frou-frou. Now, regular doctors even prescribe it! Would you ever go to someone offering acupuncture, without being licensed, taught and trained according to Chinese Medicine? I don’t think so. How come so many just overlook the origin of Yoga?
Here in Sweden, the number of yoga studios and variations with lots of props disgust me. One of them, even have the name YogaMana, which I think they directly appropriated from my blog about Hawaii and falsely and without anyone’s permission used for their business, without knowing a word Hawaiian, less showing any respect for its meaning. I tried to sue them for that but was told there were some Indian languages that the world also existed in, but with dubious meanings! And the judge, ruled that Mana would be considered a fantasy word. I would have to say, I expected far more respect from Sweden than that, but apparently not, if you’re not a blonde, ironically. This, however, will not be the case at Telluselle Living Center, would I be able to build it. At Telluselle Living Center, my plan is to offer classes with only initiated teachers according to each tradition.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Happy Nature Walk Day! When there isn’t anything special to celebrate, make something mundane into something special! Today marks the calendar August 1st, which in many ways marks a shift from summer to late summer. In both Chinese Medicine and in the Nordic Indigenous people’s way of looking at the seasons, this time of year is considered the beginning of late summer, as its own season. Here in the northern hemisphere, you can notice this through how the sun has begun to set earlier again and how fruit trees and berry bushes are beginning to ripen. While it’s not quite fall yet, and therefore not quite time to harvest yet, the apple blossoms have now turned into small carts of fruit, small apples visibly growing. Then hopefully, we’ve been able to slow down, to be more outdoors and gotten used to walking more barefoot and relish salads in the warm weather. Summer has begun turning into fall, but we still have a month left to just enjoy!
The season of late summer is connected to the natural element of Earth. In Chinese Medicine, this stands for grounding your body and harnessing the fire from the peak of summer. In life coaching terms, this can be translated into understanding your passion and living it, and now being able to and reminded to, distill it and ground it so you don’t burn out and instead can nurture your own inner flame in ways that will sustain you the months to come. Perhaps you can take your practice outside or look for inspiration to make art with. Living our passion doesn’t mean to be filled with emotion all the time, but to plan and practice regularly what lights us up, to help us keep going and at best, help us earn a living with a clear purpose and direction. What is your passion and dream? How can you turn this into a practical application of what you love? What can you do to embody your passion, little by little, step by step?
The element Earth can also be understood as the body of Earth, and our body. Maybe you need to rest differently with a siesta during late afternoon, since it might be too hot, or even too light outside, to sleep well during the night. It might be a good time to be more physically inclined with activities outdoors. A simple thing you can do, is to take regular walks in nature. A regular park will do, but if you can, strive to seek out some wild pastures, forests, lakes or beaches to walk alongside, to get closer to nature. Going for a walk, means no headphones on and minimal of talk if you’re walking together with someone. Focus instead on really noticing the nature around you. If you go the same path or trails regularly, you’ll soon be able to see all the shifts yourself, which makes you more in tune with the natural cycles and more in harmony with nature, which in turn grounds us with less anxiety and more peace. You can practice looking for different things, different days.
One day you can focus on the greenery. Which kind of trees do you see? How does a newly formed leaf look like, and which flowers are in bloom?
Another day you can focus on the wildlife. Anything from little ants crossing the road, to meeting a deer family or trying to differentiate the different kinds of birds there are where you live, makes for a good lesson and repetition of what we learned in school, as well as becomes a way to get to know nature more intimately.
And some days, you might just need to walk off all your thoughts and emotions and can just focus on where you’re putting down your feet. This too is ok. Let the air fill your lungs and exhale everything that you no longer wish to carry.
And speaking of putting down our feet, marveling at how the soil looks and feels, or the sand or the grass, connects you even deeper with nature if you can walk barefoot for a while. Children do this naturally, but we must remind ourselves again and again as adults, to let go of our minds and to get into our bodies more, so we can experience life with more presence, and ultimately more joy and wonder. Dare also to feel the ground as you lay down to tan or to rest on your picnic blanket or towel. Often, we lose ourselves in books, talks or scrolling also outside, so make it a habit to use some of your time, to just be and take it all in. The more of nature’s beauty we take in, the more we can balance our lesser wanted memories and impressions from the world. So, go for a walk!
To listen to this blogpost, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Happy International Day of Friendship! While women often have a bestie and men prefer hanging out in groups, we all feel better in good company. In Sweden we have a saying: “Love comes and goes, while friendship lasts.” What do you think? Is this true for you? I think it’s like that when we’re young but here, friends are often a substitute for a partner, since that makes many women prioritize his agenda over her friends. And it hasn’t become better with internet.
The more time we spend online, the less time we have for building real connections and develop sound relationships. We can of course stay updated and communicate online with people that can become our friends, or that already are our friends, but apart from that, scrolling on social media, we’re just viewers.
What is then a good friend and how do you become friends? To me, a friend is someone who accepts you for who you are and tell you the truth when you ask for their opinion. It’s someone who I share values with and who is interested in me and my life, who enjoys my company, taste and sense of humor, just as I enjoy theirs.
Many of my friendships started where I was spending my time, such as through workplaces, schools, churches, riding classes and dance practices. I’ve always been a very open and validating person and have always found it easy to start talking. I don’t mind some chitter-chatter about the weather in the elevator with my neighbors, because this is how we create both safety, trust and recognition. I certainly have no problem extending a compliment to another fellow woman, stranger or known, for anything that she is wearing or how she is carrying herself, simply because I’ve already received many compliments too. While there sometimes can be a sense of competition and rivalry, a good friend is someone who wants what is best for you and believes in your dreams and goals, and want you to reach them. Often, we’ve shared what has happened in our lives during the past week, month or even year, which is nice to catch up with and to get it off our chests. Not so often, but more importantly, doing things together though, like travelling or hosting a party, makes for creating both memories and bonds.
Unfortunately, many women seem to put their friendships on the back burner as soon as they think they’ve met Mr Right, especially when they had their children and everything revolves around them. Lucky for me, I’ve also had quite a few male friends, both for partying with, being in the same fraternity organization with, or working or studying with. Sometimes, our friendship builds more after either of us have finished our studies or changed workplace. And sometimes, it ebbs out instead.
What the biggest caveat is, is of course money. Just as with regular romantic relationships, having a similar standard is key for a more friction-less friendship. To not always be the one asking for a loan, or be the one always paying, is healthier and doesn’t create an unwanted pattern of power positions. Equality really begins in our relationships. That we value and cherish each other equally much from a positive and empowering stance.
So, how do you become friends with someone and where? The first thing we have to accept is that we must leave our comfort zone a little. At best, we find people we can invite into our comfort zone, our home, but where we still can inspire each other to grow. And if not, we can spend time together outside, or in the specific setting we met.
We can commute together, go for a lunch or an after-work drink, if we’re colleagues.
We can study together, talk about the classes and lend each other books, if we’re students.
We can create a Bible-study group or sit at the same table and have a coffee after church, if we’ve met there.
We can help each other out with a choreography or just talk about the time we spend outside of class, and catch a ride, if we’ve met at dance practice.
And of course, by talking about what we have in common, including our bosses, teachers and other co-workers, we can improve our communication skills and broaden our understanding and perspectives, while ensuring that we don’t fall into gossip.
To me, building a friendship is a lot like dating a guy, but without the sex. And just like with a romantic relationship, friendship takes time and effort, where we invite the acquaintances into our lives outside of the place we met, and create mutual support.
So, who are you as a friend? Are you balancing initiatives and being supportive? How would you like a good friend to be? Who can you show appreciation for being one, and who can you get to know some more?
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube or click here:
Happy National Ice-cream Day! It’s summer, it’s hot and you hopefully are on a vacation or at least have some time off. Then what is the most natural thing to eat, if not ice-cream! So, let’s begin feeling into which flavor you prefer. In the summertime when I grew up and we often went travelling during summer, we had Italian sorbet. It’s a kind of ice-cream made of frozen fruit and without any dairy. Perfect to cool off with after dinner or as a treat in the afternoon. Lemon, raspberry or chocolate are my favorites.
Fast forward some years, and I found a place where they sell their own home-made flavors like mint-chocolate, crushed candies, and even champagne. It really tasted like it! Eating it in a fresh baked cone, made it even more delicious. Then there were the combinations with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and even a creamy marshmallow bun on top, making it into its own sweet meal. Or the kind of soft serve that you roll around in sprinkles. Have you had those?
After that came Frozen yoghurt, and in Hawaii, I had Shave ice and Mochi ice-cream.
Then I realized that my stomach was too sensitive, so I began eating lactose-free and vegan alternatives, like Oatly. In Sweden, it’s very common to have strawberry ice-cream when you’re little. As a grown-up, I prefer vanilla with some fresh strawberries instead. But does that mean that I’m vanilla?
For me, ice-cream is like a snack or a dessert, but rarely with any emotional attachment to it.
In most American movies, we see a sad girl, or a girl with her bestie, gulping down a bucket of ice-cream as part of her grieving ritual from a break-up. Perhaps there is where it begins with the emotional eating that is ruining it for so many. I think most people can be divided into two categories, at least women, either you eat less or not at all when you’re sad and upset, or you eat too much when you are. I’ve never eaten when I was sad. I do snack more when I’m very tired or stressed though.
I’ve never been overweight until a couple of years ago, when I had to spend more than two years locked up in a psychiatric ward, so I’ve always belonged to the lucky few who can be skinny and eat whatever I want anyway. Now, I think about it more, but having a good health comes before checking the scale. And as someone with food intolerances, being able to eat at all, is a blessing.
I also have had ice-creams on two different dates in Honolulu many years ago. One with Joel, who took me to his favorite part of the beach to watch the sunset after we had driven to see the view on the Tantalus. And another with Jesse, the evening before he was leaving back for Minnesota, we went down to the ice-cream bar in Waikiki and walked back to the hostel. Would a guy in Sweden ever take out a girl for ice-cream? I have never heard of it. Maybe because it’s so cold here, normally. Now we’ve had a heatwave here too, with some 82 degrees Fahrenheit. But anyway, as part of a meal or to cozy up with in the couch while watching a movie perhaps, but never as a date by itself. I enjoyed both.
So, when do you eat ice-cream and why do you? Do you eat it to stuff down emotions, to comfort yourself, or to enjoy a treat? And do you judge others by the flavors they choose?
To me, having vanilla is the easiest to pair with different berries. And it’s the simplest thing. It’s not at all, that I feel coy or bland, but that I sometimes prefer simplicity. I even think there’s an element of elegance to that. I might indeed prefer predictable routines, to alleviate some of my stress, but am I someone who isn’t adventurous? Who moved to Hawaii on my own? And even have had sex in English as my second language, and with an African American guy. Not so vanilla, I think.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Happy World Population Day! What is it to be global and how do you become more global?
The world as we currently know it, consists of 195 recognized countries. If you want to count territories, it might be a couple of more, but all in all, 195 is the official number. And altogether, the world population is about 8.3 billion people, where India and China top the list with more than a billion in each, followed by the United States, Indonesia and Pakistan. In the little country of Sweden, where I’m from, the population is 10.7 million. And many are migrating! About 304 million people are migrants, where the United States hosts the most and India are the most emigrating.
When I grew up, my parents took me travelling a lot, since my dad conducted Ethnographic studies and has written many articles for the news. Most of my trips were done in my toddler years, wherefor I can’t remember many of them. My first bestie at daycare and preschool though, was a Mulatto-girl.
All in all, I’ve visited Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany (both West and East), Estonia, France, Portugal, Italy, Vatican, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom. I’ve also passed through Poland and Yugoslavia and been to Hungary and Romania in Europe. In Asia, I’ve visited India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq. And in the United States, I’ve been to Connecticut, New York, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, DC, Florida, Illinois, California and Hawaii, with a short layover in Texas, and to Canada. That makes it some 30 countries!
Then add all the people I’ve met from other states, such as Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.
And met people from other countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, Nigeria, Mozambique, Senegal, Kamerun, Sudan, Somalia, Angola, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Kongo, Madagascar, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, North Korea, Lithuania, Spain, South Africa, Singapore, China, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Virgin Islands, Guam, Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, Timor, Japan, Samoa and Palau. And Taiwan.
So, I learned early to tell where someone comes from. It’s a secret hack of mine. It also is a connector, to know something about a country someone is coming from, especially with my own experiences, so we easier can relate. And while our looks, cultures and languages differ, there are so much more in common. You just have to look for it!
Which countries have you visited and/or have met people from?
This doesn’t mean that I would be someone without prejudice. Just the other day, when I was strolling through a department store in Stockholm, I saw a fabulous dress that caught my attention, so I went up to look and feel it. Directly, a salesperson approached me and kindly said hello. When I looked up to greet her, I noticed that she was a Muslim wearing a veil. While this young woman sounded Swedish with little to no accent, and displayed a friendly demeanor, I still felt that she was out of place among those clothes. And part of me wondered, how come she got that job and I none? I used to work in a clothing store when I was younger. This has of course made it easier for me to understand the immigration policies that the United States use to lessen immigrants’ ability to get a job, unless it doesn’t compete with an American’s, but nonetheless, if she must and wants to live here, can I not just be allowed to live and work elsewhere just as much? Isn’t this the point of being global? That we open for trade everywhere, for both people and goods, while keeping each country pristine with its specialties, culture and environment. Therefore, to me, being global is to be caring about people simply based on us all being humans. And therefore, I think the work of the United Nations is so important.
We all have the same needs and want to be treated with the same respect. We all have similar bodies. And I’m pretty sure, all natives are adapted even biologically to the place from where they origin. The question is, where do we who are mixed go? Both me, my brother and my parents, were born in Sweden. But on my mother’s side, her mother came from Poland and on my father’s side, his mother came from Belgium, his stepmother from Germany and us as a heritage from Normandie, France. Where is then my best place to live? I was devastated for many years after I was deported from the United States, where I hoped to become a citizen already more than a decade ago. To learn more about what happened, you can find that in my book The Call for Divine Fathering – flying with the feathers of the eagle, where I also share my own lessons of safety. Available on Amazon and Kindle!
This is part of why I call Mother Earth my home, not just the name of the planet, but mother nature. Where I feel connected to nature, is my home. And this is of course everywhere. Mother Earth has her own spirit, her own life force, that can be perceived through all wildlife and vegetation. To recognize this spirit, is to connect with nature, with earth.
Photo of planet Earth made through ChatGPT.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
Happy Independence Day United States! The United States certainly is a country of continuous development, holding many extremes, yet always with an Achilles heel of both being founded through immigrants and exploiting Native American Indians and Hawaiians. Nonetheless, it’s a country that have provided me with much inspiration ever since my first visit in 1987. Then to Hartford, Connecticut with my mother and brother to visit her American fiancée and with a day tour through New York City. After that I became an exchange student for a year as a senior in High School in Ticonderoga, upstate New York, when I also got to see Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and visited an American guy I had gotten to know in Baltimore, Maryland, with a tour of Washington DC. My travel to the United States continued with several more visits during the years to come. I’ve been to Chicago, to Los Angeles and San Francisco and driven around California for a job at a Swedish advertising firm preparing the making of a dairy sponsored magazine about food. Back to San Francisco the year after for a combined vacation and applying for two jobs with my portfolio. Some years later, to Miami and New York City again, to make interviews of personal coaches for my exam papers and to Honolulu four times, the last one for three years but unfortunately deported, even with a valid student visa. Now, that’s been more than ten years ago, so I should be allowed to re-enter without any hassle by ICE, but who knows? About two years ago, I found out that the first asylum for persecuted people in the United States, was created by a French couple in Pennsylvania, named Tavanne and Charpentier, who then were bought by the founding fathers. Guess what, my heritage is French and my last name by birth is Charpentier. Maybe it was one of my ancestors who created the asylum? It would make sense to me.
What does it then mean to be independent, and do you feel that you are? To learn about being independent yourself, you can begin by acknowledging what and who you feel dependent on. We are often dependent on others for both income, food, housing, being able to buy clothes et cetera. But we can also be dependent on others emotionally for support and through our relationships, for intellectual stimulation and even spiritually if we belong to a congregation, with a dominant leader. A healthy dependency, is good and can be distinguished through acknowledging that others are dependent on you too – we are interdependent. Nonetheless, if the dependency is lopsided, you can feel that you lose your own power and your own sovereignty. To not fall into this trap, think of things you can do just for you, even if you’re for example dependent on someone else financially. Make your own choices with awareness and gratitude and you’ll soon grow in your independence instead. To be independent is to be sovereign, while interdependence is found in the balance between autonomy and belonging.
Who are you depending on and for what? Make a list. What can you do to become more independent?
The next step after becoming independent is to experience the exhilarating emotion of feeling free. Perhaps we even need to feel independent to be able to feel free. What do you think?
I often feel the freest when I travel, when I let loose on a dance floor or practice Isadora Duncan dance. And of course, freedom to me is to be able to voice my opinion, both when speaking and in writing. To not have anyone decide what I should write or say is the most liberating thing. Even if it’s just a matter of sharing my own feelings or thoughts of the moment of the mundane or my private life, there’s a freedom in that. That doesn’t exclude taking responsibility for what I write or to not exercise caution. With the increased lunacy online, this has become an increasing must. I rest on my experiences, rather than just my convictions. As long as I keep it real, I’ve followed the path of truth and that to me, is the most important thing.
When do you feel the freest? What does freedom of speech mean to you? And do you honor others’ right to? How do you like to best express yourself? Through talking, writing, painting or dancing? Or something else?
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Youtube.
The photo shows the winner and the runner-ups at the Ticonderoga Junior Miss Pageant 1988, where I performed solo the first time. Can you spot me?
Happy International Camera Day! How do we take good pictures and how does this affect our wellbeing and norms of society? If you’re a regular on Instagram like me, I’m pretty sure you remember how most young women frantically drew big eyebrows tilted upward, about two years ago. Like with all trends, many followed suit, and if you didn’t, you might even have lost followers because of. Now, it has mostly disappeared (Thank God!). What happened was, besides the ideals we have been fed by regular fashion magazines and media, we got up close and personal with ourselves. With photo taking, comes a more developed eye for details, with both more scrutiny and criticism, as well as an improved quality and technical advancement. So, how can we best use this more trained eye for something positive?
We can of course enjoy both nature and design much more, now that every nuance and angle can be discovered and tried for ourselves. Something so simple as turning our phone camera upside down, can make wonders for a better sharpness and focus. Have you tried it? What are your tricks?
We can also let photos of ourselves be guiding us towards a healthy improvement. As someone practicing both dance and yoga mostly at home currently, due to financial reasons, it’s crucial that I can look at myself through the lens of a camera, when I can’t dance in front of mirrors, so that I can correct my body, posture and pose, accordingly. Hopefully, posting some of it can show improvements over time and be a tale of the process.
It’s easy to succumb to the inner critic, when we pinch and enlarge our selfies. Do I really have that big of a crease in my forehead? And how much weight have I gained the last couple of years? Would this have bothered me as much, if I hadn’t seen myself in photos? Probably not. We get used to our own reflection in the bathroom mirror and hopefully have other things on our minds and in our hearts, that we like tending to more than our superficial looks. Nonetheless, we want to feel beautiful and stand up to the competition. What do you truly see when you look at a photo of yourself? Can you recognize what is beautiful about you?
Nobody wants to look at picture perfect. We strive to connect through our posts on social media and for that to happen, our humanness must come forth. We want to look our best, but we want to keep it real. Especially in times of the increased use of AI. I don’t at all use AI, more than as a tool on occasion, and I hope to keep it this way. I do see its benefits for small businesses, that may not have a budget for hiring advertising firms, photographers and stylists. But we can never connect with AI.
My dad loved taking photos of us and all the trips we went to, when I grew up. He wanted to become a photographer when he grew up, but his dad didn’t want him to and demanded him to get an advanced university degree instead. His mother, however, went ahead and bought him his first camera. For most of us, life is like that. We might have a passion or desire to create art, but we’re still required to pay our bills and most likely need a good education for that. Being on the other side of the lens, is usually more rewarding. Once, when I was 22 years old, I met a guy, who worked in a photo store, who wanted to take photos of me and make me into a model. I pursued becoming a copywriter within advertising instead but still enjoy playing one in photo shoots. A tip I can give, is to always try to be in motion when you take your photo. It can be a slight turning, or simply a look with intent. Think of something that makes you either smile naturally, or something you feel serious about to radiate that expression. And don’t look at the camera, look through it to the person (or tripod) on the other side!
While we all now get a chance to see more of the world through the increased sharing of photos, both the everyday lives and the fancier destinations, through our social media feeds and blogs, remember that a photo always just captures a moment. What transpired before or will happen after, is seldom told and shared, but might just be the actual point. To practice presence, require us to not be pre-occupied with how we look or how we should record an event, but actually experience it. Most of all, what we all want and need, is to be seen and heard. And that, is where the potential for real connection and increased compassion is, and can be, created online.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
Happy Summer Solstice and Midsummer! We have now entered the longest day in the northern hemisphere, with only a couple of hours of darkness. This our peak of daylight, is something almost a little magical to experience in the evenings, when the light still lingers and the sky still keeps its blue color. And it so happens that this event is celebrated at the same time, Sweden celebrates Midsummer. Tradition has it, that we dance around a maypole, dressed in leaves, grass and wildflowers, eat herring and potatoes, with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Grown-ups don’t mind taking a shot of snaps to go with it! We often make wraths for our hair, resembling the maypole. Then later in the evening, unmarried young women are supposed to go outside and pick seven different wildflowers on seven different meadows under silence and put underneath the pillow. The legend says that our husband to be, then can be seen in our dreams when we sleep. Not surprisingly, given the looks of the maypole with its adjoining two rings, Midsummer is also said to be the best day to get pregnant. It’s a celebration of fertility.
You can let this inspire you too, also symbolically. What needs to be fertilized in your life? What projects do you need to tend to a little extra or add something to, to make them better or simply happen? One sure way, is to ask someone to join you in your making or simply for some advice or a second opinion. It can also be a good time to remake something, improve, or mend, to ensure a better growth, a better result for your ideas or projects.
The summer solstice, teaches us our need for balance. This time of year, it’s easy to get fooled into thinking we can achieve more than we have energy for, since the sun is up longer. But our bodies still need the same amount of sleep and rest, so instead, the peak of daylight can be a call for discipline – to actually look at the time more deliberately and make sure to follow our most healthy schedule. In one way, we can greet the sun, such as with a sun salutation in yoga or qigong, and show it reverence. But, we can also look at it as a reminder of not burning out our inner fire and to not let ourselves getting burnt by the sun and its heat. How do you best look out for your health during summer? Here in the northern hemisphere, we often chase getting a suntan and many run out to get one. We even call it “fry ourselves”. Having lived both in Hawaii and in Portugal, where the amount of daylight is much more even during the year, and where the sun is more accessible for outdoor activities, I’ve learned not to get too stressed about it anymore and to enjoy the shade too. One thing I do, is to always limit the time I lay on the beach to 2 or max 3 hours and usually never the day after, so my skin and body can restore afterwards. To soothe any redness, which never happens in Sweden since this is too north, but in other countries, I use some Aloe Vera gel to put on. And drink electrolytes to ensure that I stay enough hydrated. Having some salty crackers together with your water, is another good trick. While a couple of ice-cubes in our drinks can keep them cool and fresher, drinking too cold beverages, can actually upset your stomach and make it work even harder to warm up. In really hot countries, most people drink for example mint-tea instead. Then our stomach automatically tries to cool down, and our bodies become less hot. But most of all, sunshine is to be enjoyed of course!
When it comes to our own inner sun, it’s often associated with our solar plexus. Isadora Duncan liked her dance motions to emanate from solar plexus. This means that we should aim to let it lead us. It’s the seat of the soul, yearning to be acknowledged and expressed. We can think of it as our inner sun, our source of wellbeing and wisdom, of inspiration and divine connection. You can practice this too if you want. Next time you go for a walk, let it lead your steps. And next time you watch a good speaker on a stage, look to see if it isn’t someone who has a very open body language where his or her solar plexus is both grounded and open. Are yours?
And just like with the actual sun, we must also protect our solar plexus at times, when we’re around people we can’t trust or that are harming us. Sometimes, placing a hand on it, makes a difference. Try doing that the next time you read, hear or see something upsetting. Wouldn’t the world be more lovely, if we all could shine like the sun towards each other?
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Youtube.
Happy International Day of Play! We’re encouraged by the Bible to be like little children, but that doesn’t mean to whine and not take responsibility. It means to approach the world with awe and wonder.
We’ve now entered the season of summer and the element of fire, according to Chinese Medicine. The element of fire is something I associate with passion; to live with passion. To live fully, and to enjoy life more. But how do we find our passion?
There are two things that can be clues in our search for our passion: What is a cause you feel deeply for? And what did you like doing as a child? When we incorporate these two things, or at least one of them into our daily strife, we can begin to thrive. A cause can be things like care about the environment, justice, equality, rights or a specific question or topic like immigration. Caring about a cause with full intent, means to not only pay to a charity, but to actively make it your purpose. It starts with defining your most important values and see how you can work to fulfill these. For example, if you’re someone with concerns about the environment, you can rule out businesses, products and people who don’t align, as much as you can, whether when you choose what to buy and from whom, or when you apply for jobs.
When it comes to treasuring and reviving our childhood fun, it can become our motivation and reward at the same time, to do something similar as a grown up. If your most fun thing to do was sports or something creative, you might not be able to work fulltime all your life with that. But you can keep enjoying it as a hobby after work. When you do, this will bring you joy naturally, make you feel like you have something to look forward to and something that is your most precious activity grounding you in your own authenticity. It can even become your true source of happiness. Dance is that to me. While I also like writing and have worked professionally as one, writing to me has more to do with expressing myself, to process things I’ve been through and to communicate and sell knowledge I hope others can benefit from. Dance on the other hand, is simply fun! It gives me a good workout, lets me move my body to music in ways that reflect my current state of mind and mood, just as much as I can put that aside and just focus on dancing. To you, it might be something completely different! And it can be several things, like what you enjoyed reading and playing, either alone or with friends, or a dream you had of becoming when you grew up. Choosing to take up something of this again, will for sure enliven you!
Then there’s the way of the child, our inner child, that can be a way to look at and approach the world. This is a practice. It’s a deliberate approach we take, when we go out for a walk sometimes and let ourselves become amazed by little things like the shape of an oak-leaf, pick up a stone that glimmers in the sun or get lost inside of a really good book, fantasizing we would be part of it. We can play dress up and take on a character for a day or at a local bar. This is especially fun to surprise others with who are used to your normal style and lets you feel like a star for a night. Taking care of our inner child, of course, isn’t only about play and fun and passion, but to care for ourselves the way a good parent would and tending to our needs properly. But, for today, we’re focusing on play!
So today, or the coming weekend perhaps, do something fun with your own children, the children of your relatives or just watch some play for a while. What’s a current game that’s in fashion? Which games did you play when you grew up? Play it again or re-read that favorite book of yours. Watch a movie that makes you laugh or simply allow yourself to marvel at the little things.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Happy World Oceans’ Day! There is nothing as so soothing and scary as the waves of the ocean. They can calm us down with their soft sound, and they can swallow us whole.
The big blue body of water has enthralled humans for centuries. Both Hawaiians and Vikings have canoed across the oceans, while the Spanish and Portuguese wayfarers have built bridges through their discoveries of new land. And of course, since our human bodies are made of approximately 60% of water, this our most essential element, besides oxygen through the air we breathe, is necessary for our survival. So, let’s start with our water intake: How much water do you drink every day and is it enough? I like mine filtered and try to drink more than half a gallon every day, depending on what else I drink in terms of fruit juices and herbal teas, and whether I worked out or not. That means two liters is my goal. And since I take medicine that is dehydrating, I ensure to add some electrolytes a couple of times per week.
All continents on Earth are connected through the oceans and the seas and sounds. At least theoretically, this means, that one drop of water, could have travelled around the world before it reached you!
The ocean is always in motion. Whether with small undercurrents or through stormy seas, you can be sure there’s always going to be motion. This in turn enables a thriving world underneath the surface, where corals and fish develop their own habitat. All now more vulnerable through the impact of us humans littering and spilling various type of waste. Why does some people do that? Would you want trash to be piled up in your bathtub? Luckily, more and more people also become more aware, so let’s increase our care together, to keep it clean.
Since I almost drowned as a little girl, and both my parents don’t like swimming (and my mother couldn’t at all), I have had a great fear of water for most of my life. I still have a problem to be in the vast open, or even in the middle of pool, where I easily can become panicked. But… I have also practiced and overcome some! I managed to put my head under water for the first time as an adult in 2015, when I was on a vacation in Estoril, Portugal. I dipped myself both in the pool where the spa was, I had gone to, and in the ocean. The liberating sense of victory afterwards was priceless and became joy several times, years later when I returned to Portugal. Little, by little, I became more used to being by the ocean, picking seashells, or just noticing how the tide had changed. I even got to see dolphins a couple of times from a far. It was in one of these afternoons, in Estoril, that I saw a couple of sardines swimming around my legs and when immersing myself fully, I almost felt weightless, like I was completely one with the ocean! Have you ever experienced that? What if, we decided to see the water as our conductor of connection, between all of us humans and all life? Even if we have separate bodies, we’re still pretty much made the same. I like to remind us of, that we should focus on what we have in common instead of what always sets us apart. Whether that is something we both like, or dislike, or a place we both have visited or lived in, we can always find something in common. The sooner we do this jointly, the sooner our fears of the other will lessen in favor of curiosity and willingness to become good neighbors instead. So, like the oceans: What do you have in common with the next person you meet?
Understanding the importance of the oceans, is something I became more aware of when I lived in Hawai’i. I’ll never forget that time when I was taking a private Hula class at the premises of University of Hawaii in an old classroom and saw a map hanging down by the blackboard. It didn’t show Europe at all and almost nothing of neither Asia, nor US mainland except for the Westcoast, but the island chain in the center of the map with lots and lots of ocean around it. It was then and there in 2005, I finally began to grasp how I had gotten to see the other side of the globe, literally. It changed my whole perspective, not only geographically speaking, but also culturally.
If you had the opportunity to travel anywhere, where would you go? Take a minute and allow yourself to look it up online and let yourself imagine how it would be like. Which ocean would you have to cross? And how would you look at your current country from that perspective?
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. Photo from Portugal 2020.
I’ve realised again, that when I have several things to do the same day, they all tend to flow better, whereas when I have one thing to focus on, I tend to procrastinate more and become more exhausted. Perhaps it’s a matter of not having to concentrate so much on one thing, or the variation of doing different things, makes it more stimulating and inspiring.
When we can decide over our own time, we can choose what to do and when, as well as be flexible about which day, we can do what. This isn’t as possible with commitments to others of course, unless we take charge of when, in those instances too. Taking deliberate breaks and doing something else helps, where scrolling on social media can be a break if it’s time constrained and not too engaging. We all need down-time and that isn’t possible when others crave our attention all the time, whether online or in life. Watching TV instead for an hour and a half, suddenly feels like the best luxury. Imagine that, when it used to be what we “doom-scrolled” on.
Another way to create portions of each project, is to set a limit for how much we’re doing every day. When I wrote on my thesis, for example, I made sure to not write more than a part of a chapter, or one chapter, my planned days to work on it, to ensure my quality wouldn’t become lower with the pure extent of it all. Likewise, I made sure to finish what I intended, regardless of at which time of day I did it. Dealing with constant interferences made it tougher, but nonetheless with perseverance, I pulled it through. And because of these outer interferences, I haven’t been able to stick to a pre-set schedule for many years, so to me, it’s been a matter of waiting for a time with less, to do more then. Often, our stress becomes less, when we do what we set out to do, and have our own little rituals before the end of the day, even if this takes a little longer. Eliminating stress before bedtime, obviously makes it easier and faster to fall asleep too.
Deciding to divide our activities into portions, enable us to economise our energy, which makes it more fun and rewarding when we continue our undertakings. How does your days or weeks look like?
Today, it’s the birthday of Isadora Duncan, who was born on May 26th, 1877 in San Francisco and was one of the founding mothers of modern dance. She grew up under poor conditions after her mother had divorced her father early and they moved to Oakland. Here she began dancing outside in the woods and by the ocean becoming inspired by the wind and the natural rhythms of the waves. She began early to teach her dance to children in her neighborhood. And when she grew up, she continued her pursuit of dancing outdoors and barefoot, releasing herself from the burden of the corsets used in classical ballet.
Isadora sought freedom. To feel free when she danced, and to portray freedom in her movements. She realized how her center of the soul was in the solar plexus and decided to create her motions as emanations of expressions from this our center. She used her body’s natural way of letting one motion flow into the next, with the natural forces of gravity, seeking to reach upwardly and downwardly in a dynamic between the two. Her signature movements include an elongated neck but that is relaxed as she looks up to the sky and her arms stretched to the sides, but with her hands drooping down in a gesture of laissez-faire.
Isadora lived a tumultuous life, including moving around Europe, first to Britain, then to France and Germany, and with a sejour to Russia, where she became a citizen thanks to her relationship with a Russian poet, and her dedication to honor the Russian workers, through her choreography called The Revolutionary. Her greatest inspiration came from Greece though, from where she sought to give life to the design and form of antique urns, as well as to find the strength and grace in Greek gods and goddesses and their games at Olympus, as models for her motifs.
She had several romantic relationships but wasn’t married to all. Her beaus were often poets and playwrights, enhancing her own artistic performances at theatres.
Isadora lost her young children in France through a car accident with their nanny driving into the Seine, so that they drowned. While struck with grief and sadness, she decided to incorporate these emotions too into her dancing, besides her seeking of joy, that she wanted to forward through her dance schools. Her first school, had six young women as students, that became her first dance company, called The Isadorables. These young women took it on them to continue her legacy, by continuing to teach Isadora’s original choreographies to new students. These students in turn became the next generation of teachers, and so her art is preserved and developed in a direct lineage. Isadora’s ambition was to teach her art worldwide and not only let her schools teach dance, but to teach a way to look at life.
She preferred to dance to music by classical composers like Chopin, Schubert and Brahms, and often created her choreographies with themes of love letters, picturing figurines, or delving into the underworld and its mysteries. Besides always dancing barefoot, she wore silk tunics, inspired by the Greek and often with a scarf to enhance her dances. Sadly, it was also a scarf that killed Isadora Duncan, when it got caught in the wheels of her car and broke her neck in 1927.
To me, Isadora offers an ethereal combination of expressing my soul and spirit with that of dance motions, enabling me to flutter around like a butterfly, or skip like a little girl, and finding joy. While her technique suggests high lifted legs and pirouettes in combination with jumps, there’s a femininity and relaxation coming with them, making them easier to practice than traditional ballet. She also uses the rhythm of the waltz for several of her pieces, and dance in dialogues with both other dancers, and the audience, fitting with my own love for the stage, I had when I grew up. Dancing Isadora Duncan enables me to enjoy the art for art’s own sake and feel more free. Something I hope, to continue doing.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or Youtube.
Even though, the World Meditation Day is honored at the same time as the Winter solstice, on Dec 21st, there seems to be another alternative celebration today May 21st too, so I decided to share one of my own meditations that I like doing after practicing an hour of yoga asanas. And, since we’re in the culminating phase of the element of wood, before we enter the element of fire for summer, according to Chinese Medicine, what better opportunity than to mirror this with a guided meditation, visualising being a tree.
Begin by sitting down with your back straight in the lotus position. You can sit on your yoga mat or directly on the floor. You can also sit on a pillow to be more comfortable and make sure your pelvis isn’t tilting. Take a deep breath and fill your lungs. Exhale firmly. Now, begin to breathe softer and slower. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your nose and throat chakra with your mouth closed. Repeat.
Count your breaths in fours. Inhale and count to four. Hold your breath for four counts. Exhale and count to four. Pause your breath for four counts. Inhale again and continue with this. After a while, it will become your natural way of breathing through the meditation. In the pause, you can feel stillness. Close your eyes.
Turn your focus onto your root chakra. Feel the mat or the floor underneath you, so that you are very present. Then visualize roots coming out from underneath you and into the ground. With every inhale you gather roots, with every exhale you send them deep down.
Feel your spine. Think of it as a tree trunk. Not too stiff, so it can be flexible in the wind. But not slouched either. Sit up on your sitting bones. Connect your spine with your roots.
Now open your crown chakra and visualize how your energy field right above your head, is like the crown of a tree. Feel it opening and expanding. The tree unfolding its leaves and multiplying in a green cascade.
Visualize a channel, like a straw, on top of your crown, going directly up into the sun. Feel it filling up yourself with light and letting it flood all the way into your roots. Perhaps you only feel it above yourself and the roots below yourself. This is fine. With time, when the energy flows freely through your spine, you can embody the tree. Continue to sit like this and just breathe for a while.
Take a deep breath and open your eyes again. Close with your hands together in prayer position and feel the peace. Namasté!
There is nothing as emotionally vulnerable as talking about your family, whether the one you grew up in and how that was, or the one you’re having yourself, or not having. While we all know that people you call family doesn’t have to be the one you were born into, today’s blogpost is about reconciling with your birth parents.
I was born in Sweden, by Swedish parents and grew for the most part up here together with my four-year younger brother. However, we moved and travelled a lot, so I never felt rooted and thus not safe. On my mother’s side was poverty and her Polish mother survived two workcamps during World War II. On my father’s side was nobility and my dad spent summer vacations in Italy every year. His mother came from Belgium but passed away before he turned 18. My mother worked as a language teacher in various forms and a little as a secretary. My father worked as an ethnographic author and art critic, and giving talks occasionally. They were both young when they had me, after meeting at the university where both studied.
My dad had just gotten a scholarship to study for his dissertation in Heidelberg, Germany, where we moved for about six months, when my mother suddenly began to get early contractions. After a tumultuous train-ride back to Sweden, she almost bled to death and was taken with an ambulance into the hospital where she had an emergency c-section and gave birth to my brother, two months premature. I was put on a train by her girlfriend to go and live with my grandparents, while my dad finished up in Germany. While I adored my grandfather’s second wife and always called her grandma, it’s one of my first memories and was very much a trauma. In fact, another time my dad left us travelling for several months again and I can recall trying to comfort my crying mother in her bedroom a late night. He was always on the go and I never felt prioritized. While we always had good food and wore nice clothes, we didn’t have color TV until I was 18 and none of my parents had a driver’s license and thus no car. It was seen as a bit odd, where we lived in a small town, down south of Sweden.
Not too surprisingly, my parents filed for divorce and battled whether they should or not, and for child alimony for altogether almost five years. They had loud arguments and I tried to keep myself busy with schoolwork, or after school activities such as taking drama and dance classes, when I wasn’t horseback riding and immersed into the riding club’s competitions and stable care.
I often didn’t sleep well, and I wasn’t always feeling well growing up. My parents sought psychiatric help but only to find out I was one of the healthiest kids they had ever encountered and simply showed symptoms of how their marriage was deteriorating. My brother used to stay with one of his classmates’ mother after school, so he was already taken care of. My mother went to England several summers in a row to be a teacher there for summer courses. One summer, my dad just wanted to write on another book and therefor sent me away to a foster family for six weeks. It was terrible and they just wanted me to be a perfect babysitter to their perfect newborn, in a perfect pedantic house where nothing was to be touched. I cried to get out of there and was eventually allowed to leave and go live at a kid’s type of emergency shelter.
However, when I turned 15 years old at the last year of Junior High, I was offered to go and live with my school counsellor for a couple of months at her dairy farm. She was an older woman, who had helped many kids and had her own large family. Here, I got to see a cow giving birth and a whole different type of family dynamics. I began to understand how dysfunctional mine had been and how affected I and my brother had become.
High School was easier and more fun. I went on my own language course trip but to France with a classmate for six weeks. I worked after school and during summers. And my mother started dating an American through the firm where she was working. We went to see him and his son in Hartford; Connecticut and I got my first taste of the Big Apple at a daytrip. A friend of his, also working for the same firm, offered me to come and live with them for a year as an exchange student upstate New York, which I also did! They, however, ended up in a divorce too and it turned out that my mother was more into him than her fiancé, so she remained in Sweden. Here, she unfortunately started dating married men and I began to understand how her boundaryless life, was in one way giving me lots of freedom, but in another way, forcing me to be the adult of the family, my entire life. And while she sought my validation all the time and not sure of how to deal with my maturing, my dad tried to give me a bad conscious for not wanting to spend time with him weekends, when I rather meet my friends or horseback ride. My mother wanted me to talk about my dad’s life and my dad about my mother’s. I didn’t want to deal with either.
Fast forward to 2004, when my mother’s cancer got worse, I understood how I had assumed a parental role in my family and in most of my relationships and decided to heal this and any generational traumas, and to break any destructive patterns. I began to look for my inner child and work with forgiveness.
Through several travels to Hawaii, which you can read about in my books, I learned to pray the Morrnah Simeona Ho’oponopono prayer. While many native Hawaiians think it’s controversial to let white people use it, I’m so glad I found it and learned it. The beginning part of it reads: Divine Father, Mother, Child as One. When I said this the first time, in my own apartment in Sweden 2008, I became very moved and understood at some plane how I carried these pieces within and now could mend them together. I wrote down examples of events and hurt in all my relationships and used this prayer. And little by little, my life changed and improved. I, changed and improved! Step by step, I felt myself reconnecting to my inner child and learning what had scared her away, now being able to embrace her and comfort her myself.
The Ho’oponopono prayer works, besides as a prayer, by finding within how you might have hurt someone else and provoked the same kind of feelings, you now are experiencing or someone is accusing you of. By taking responsibility for how you have made someone feel, you can ask for forgiveness at least within and in spirit, and therethrough let go. The forgiveness prayer also incorporates a tracing of ancestral lineages both backwards and forward in time, to make sure the hurt stops.
It reads:
DIVINE CREATOR, Father, Mother, Child as ONE:
If * I (insert your name), my family, relatives, and ancestors have offended you (insert the other’s name) in thoughts, words, deeds and actions from the beginning of our creation to the present, please forgive us.
Cleanse, purify, release, sever, and cut all the unwanted energies and vibrations we have created, accumulated and/or accepted from the beginning of our creation to the present.
Please transmute all the negative, unwanted energies to PURE LIGHT. WE ARE SET FREE! AND IT IS DONE!
Working with Ho’oponopono, visualization and breath, enable us to also heal the connection between our Higher self, Middle self and Lower self. All to become whole again with faith in God, who handles the rest.
Now: What and who can you forgive and ask for forgiveness?
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
I began practicing yoga in the early 2000’s. I had worked at a local fitness club expanding into a whole health and wellness service, where I planned, wrote and edited their membership magazine. As part of my payment, I got to practice for free. I started with lifting weights and then moved on to something called Body Balance. It was soft motions, yet strengthening, and it became the precursor to later take classes in Poweryoga. Poweryoga is based on Ashtanga yoga, although not as physically challenging and for one hour. I practiced there for a couple of years and later for another teacher too.
Yoga to me, became a way to align the motions with a type of breath, that enabled me to endure more. Often, we practiced with lower lights and lit candles to really be able to relax and turn inwardly. In Savasana, the last motion laying down in our practice, I began experiencing stillness. A pause between my thoughts as I paused my breath. And in this stillness, I felt I gained access to the spiritual realm.
When I went to Hawaii in 2004 and 2005, I bought a mat there and practiced at sunset by the beach, or on my own, inside my little studio, when I wasn’t studying Organizational Change.
Back in Sweden, I focused more on my dancing but have kept practicing yoga at home, once a week or so, ever since! That is practicing yoga for 25 years! Besides at the beach park in Hawaii, I’ve even practiced inside a prison cell directly on the floor, when I at another stint back in Hawaii, was later detained by ICE. And I’ve practiced in hostel rooms in Portugal.
In 2008, I was approached online by a man from Kerala in India, who wanted to teach me to chant the Gayatri Mantra, I gladly accepted and soon found a melody I could use for it. It became a way of praying for six years. Then I realized, it wasn’t right for me to do, as I had decided to become a devout Christian. At the end of my practices, I had begun feeling threatened and nauseous, just like with the type of Qigong I used to do, so I stopped the Indian chanting and nowadays only do Hawaiian for Hula, and on occasion I chant a Buddhist kind.
Does practicing yoga really mean that we have to become spiritual and study with a guru? A part of me really felt weird about that, to call someone a Master or Guru as if to worship them. That is not what I’m about. I was given Deeksha and Shaktipat and was introduced to the Oneness University by people in Sweden, who were associated with them, but felt a lingering darkness with it. I have read some of the Vedic books, but I prefer to keep to the Bible. If I would mention any Yogi guru that I like, it would only be Krishnamurti. He was born in 1895 and died in 1986 after spreading his writings in California. And he has advised to not follow any discipline, teacher, authority or guru, even himself, but instead focusing on living righteously in meditation and in full presence, always open for dialogue.
To me, yoga became a tool to get to know my body better. Since we most of the time, were doing the same motions, or asanas, it became a way to notice whether it felt different or harder some days and easier others, and why that could be. With time, I felt like I had gotten access to a better control of my body from within, a more open and flexible body that allows my organs to function better, which in turn has made me a better dancer, a little more centered. And I had just improved and was able to begin standing on my wrists for the Peacock pose, or Mayurasana, when I was abruptly forced into a psychiatric ward for two years by a yoga teacher I’ve never talked to, or met, in Sweden, but reported for plagiarism, instead of investigating that. So much for humility! I think there is a great risk of cult like powerplays with yoga practitioners trying to compensate letting go of their egos, with a spiritually founded ego instead. All becoming a false narrative of being better than, as a person, when in fact it’s been a refusal to communicate and solve our indifferences. How immature and evil! Not very enlightened and yogic. Unfortunately, I gained lots of weight unexpectedly, together with some other physical health challenges, rewinding my abilities to almost like on a beginner’s level. The good news, I still practice yoga at home of course.
I strive to only follow yoga teachers on social media who are from India. When I was in Germany 2018, I shared hostel room with a girl from India, who invited me to visit Rishikesh if I wanted to learn more yoga. And in Portugal in 2020, I met a couple of Indian guys and asked them about their yoga. They shared that it’s a type of morning gymnastics in schools nowadays and they can’t understand the Western hype at all. It solidifies the importance to uphold indigenous traditions with integrity, which is what Telluselle Living Center is all about. To strike a pose, but with a local, in a local style.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.
Happy Lei Day! Today is May the 1st and the official first day of spring. The theme for this blogpost is Lei Day – the day when the art of making Hawaiian flower garlands, called Lei, is upheld.
You know the invigorating feeling of scenting a nice flower like the rose? Imagine wearing a garland made of a hundred of them! In Hawaii, it’s tradition to make lei of various flowers, leaves, shells and nuts and give away to someone you love, especially for their birthday, wedding, anniversary or graduation day. Funny enough, here in Sweden where I am from, we hang bouquets of flowers around a graduating student’s neck too, a little of the same.
When we give someone a lei, we give it with Aloha as a greeting and a wish for someone to have a good day and even life, as a blessing. Aloha is a word that can be translated into an acknowledgement that we all share the same breath, the same air, and therefor are united and interdependent, which should be respected and honored.
The lei in Hawaii, are made by hand through picking and cleansing a basket full of flowers or leaves that are taken apart into pieces. Then you use a long needle and plastic or sturdy thread, and pierce through the flower at the base and tie together. These lei are also used for dancing Hula and part of showing which island one is from or representing. Some flowers are endemic to a specific island, such as the Ohi’a Lehua tree with its bright red flowers, that only grows on Big Island and is the first thing to grow on lava. In Hawaiian mythology, picking these flowers are said to bring rain, which are considered the tears of the lovers ‘Ohi’a and Lehua, that the goddess Pele had transformed in one of her acts of rage and jealousy. The flower symbolic for the island of Oahu is the yellow Hibiscus. And all islands hold the Ti’leaf in high regard, used both for grass-skirts and as adornments along Maile flowers that often are worn open-ended in weddings, speeches and blessings symbolizing respect, friendship and love. To wear a lei open and not tied together is especially important for pregnant women, as it is said to be symbolic of the umbilical cord that is to remain open for the baby in the mother to be’s womb.
A flower more common, is the Plumeria, that also grows on trees and comes in colorful variations, both in Hawaii, Thailand, Indonesia and India. It’s this flower, that I hope to resemble when I find someone who can help me saw, cut or carve out its shape in bamboo rods, to make a sustainable lei. I came up with this design idea as an alternative to the many fake lei made of plastic that are sold outside of Hawaii. While some can be made of fabric, I think little ones made of bamboo, can be worn both by men and women, are light weight and durable.
The royal family and nobles sometimes wore leis made of feathers. They are rare and very expensive to make, but nonetheless an important tradition in Hawaii.
In songs, lei and flowers are often used to symbolize someone you love, together with a description of the place he or she is from or where they met. You can even think of each flower as a certain event in your relationship, to make it a lei of memories. Leis are made with love and given and received with love. This welcoming and blessing way is part of living Aloha, where loving-kindness and generosity of heart permeate the culture and the communities. It’s a way to relate to others and be helpful towards one another, remembering that on an island, one must! And, even planet Earth can be seen as one big island, which is part of my inspiration to build Telluselle Living Center and foster a more caring attitude in action elsewhere too. If Hawaii is paradise, why don’t we then aim to recreate it in more places, adapted to the local nature and language?
Something happens when you wear a lei. You feel more beautiful and the energy of the flowers or leaves combines itself with yours for a while. This is behind the making of flower essences and essential oils.
To store fresh lei for up to a week, sprinkle some water and keep refrigerated in containers.
Then, go out today and smell a flower!
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify, Apple or Youtube. To learn more about Aloha, click here.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to dance in a tutu, so what better way than to celebrate this International Dance Day, by cherishing my inner child and the joy it feels from dancing!
It was when I hadn’t danced for almost ten years and stepped into the old dance studio, where I had used to go for practice, that I felt my first contact with my inner child. You know the way we can’t help but smile and feel giddy with expectation. That is the way I felt when I went to my first West African dance class in Sweden 2004.
When I some months later was allowed to enter a Hawaiian Halau and begin learning their way of dancing, it was with a hidden awe and longing to be doing this instead of just all the tedious intellectual work I had been focused on. As I began to learn the various steps and some hand motions, I realized how creative dance can be and how our bodies not only are our instrument, but also have a language of their own. And by that I don’t mean just our regular body language when we talk to someone, but how we to music can let our bodies lead an improvisation and not just move by a pre-set choreography. If we learn a style well enough, we can even embody this style to make new steps and motions with it, completely organically. All through the dynamics of the different sides and directions, the contractions and releases, that makes up dancing. Often inspired by nature.
There are two ways of using our emotions when we dance. One is to use what we’re feeling, or what our choreography aims to express, and charge our motions and scenic expression with that feeling. For example, to dance the Isadora Duncan dance choreography called The Furies about going into the underworld and exploring what’s hidden in the dark and even the inferno, it becomes natural to use a little bit of fury, of anger, put into our motions too as an energy.
The other way, is to experience the emotions coming because of dancing. The grounding and released feelings. Sensuality and power. Or peace and harmony. All as an effect of our practice. The first time I danced Isadora Duncan’s The Rose Petals in 2014, I felt something similar to what I had experienced when I first had watched Hawaiian Hula. A way of becoming moved, as if stirred by grace and recognition on a soul level. At least, that is how I understand it. And, when I lived in Portugal and took a couple of Isadora Duncan classes through zoom, I felt a cooing laughter bubbling forth, a sincere joy, when I skipped around in my hostel room, reconnected to my younger self in my 20’s and feeling free and abundant. It was during this trip in Portugal 2019 to 2020, that I felt and experienced my inner child as an even younger spirit by me, like a child version of myself that I could talk to and learn about what traumas and fears had driven her away. It was like a sweet sensation of love, of a little girl standing on top of my feet and wanting to dance with me. I embraced this in my heart and danced with it! And since then, she is with me when she feels safe and well.
We can’t always explain what elates us. The music is of course an important part of it. Even if I don’t know all the choreographies yet, each melody becomes interwoven with the motions, that it soon becomes like one. Like the music is calling forth the movement. It’s a wonderful experience!
Would you like to dance? What often comes in the way, is our own inhibitions and our self-consciousness about how we look and the limits of our bodies. We don’t want to make a fool of ourselves and might fear not knowing where our feet are going and how. But there’s a trick. When we let our motions begin in our hips instead, or even our solar plexus for Isadora Duncan, our steps and hand motions become a natural extension of what we feel the music is beckoning us to.
To begin practicing this, listen to a drumbeat or the beat of a bass, feel it in your pelvis and hips, and let yourself move to this beat. Then the added instruments and their melodies and harmonies, become the foundation for the rest of our body’s movement. You might just sway from side to side, try forward and backwards, loosening in your shoulders and then let your arms swing however you please. This is how you can find dance from within.
What is a bit of a challenge with West African dance, is their variety of rhythms. Sometimes, the count is on 6, instead of the regular 8, in different combinations, while Isadora Duncan often incorporates the waltz on 3 and Hawaiian Hula is by 4. Then find the rhythm in your feet and become one with it. This often requires us something even more fascinating, which is to let go of understanding and thinking about what to do at the same time, and just do instead. It’s when we relax and rock ourselves into the rhythm, our bodies can take over and go from there. Through the repetitions of movement, we soon can remember the steps and motions, even in our muscle memory. It’s a way of storing a habitual way of moving our bodies, for better or for worse, because the body can also store and remember any harm that was done to it. Our muscle memory enables us to connect certain motions with certain passages in the music. So, whether you want to take a dance class, go clubbing or just dance around in your living room, let yourself feel joy today!
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on Spotify,Apple and YouTube.
Have you ever seen a group of people in a park, moving in slow motion with a flow like the breeze? Then you might have encountered Qigong practitioners.
Qigong comes from Tibet and China and is practiced on the same fundamentals as Chinese Medicine, where each motion corresponds to an organ and its meridians, together with a natural element and an emotion, that we seek to balance. Qigong can both be practiced to invigorate ourselves and to relax after we have released stress. It’s said that some practices were invented in the Shaolin Temple and therefor is the foundation of Martial Arts. After some practice, you learn to feel energy in your hands and can even direct energy or withdraw, if you’re very advanced. Some old practitioners have even used Qigong as part of surgery techniques in the Philippines. I have both received healing and given healing. It’s simply a matter of removing stagnant energy blocks and invite more energy to flow. Nowadays, there are tons of videos online that shows and teaches Qigong, but as always, the best way is of course in person with a renowned master. The master takes on adepts or students that he teaches. Eventually, they will continue the master’s teachings and achieve mastery themselves in initiated lineages. So, always ask who the teacher’s teacher has been!
I was first introduced to Medical Qigong in 1995 through a co-worker I had a brief relationship with. He noticed my stress and anxiety and took me first to get acupuncture. I received this weekly for a couple of months by a Chinese doctor, working together with Master Marcus Bongart in the south of Sweden. He has been taught his qigong in direct lineage with the Wu family. Soon, I was recommended to start practicing and learned the program called Six Secret Words. This is a series of motions that each target one of the organs and I soon learned it enough to be able to practice it at home too. I did this, as well as tried Luohan, regularly for 20 years! At the first instructed workshop however, my Kundalini began rising when Master Marcus stimulated my spine and I had a strong reaction, where I felt I needed to defend myself and suddenly felt like I was 12 years old again. This only lasted for half an hour or so, but it would take some weeks for me to gain trust enough to feel good about continuing. Luckily, I could talk about it with both my co-worker and my teacher, so I pushed through. But it wasn’t until I felt my inner child returning in Portugal 2019 that I understood what had transpired and was behind my reaction.
I also learned how to meditate by doing the Microcosmic Orbit, that aims to move energy up the spine and down our front through breath and visualization. I had never meditated before and the first times, I could hardly sit still for more than 10 minutes, less focus on my breath as long. But with time, this became easier and I could increase my concentration, at least sometimes! I began adding affirmations to my gather of energy to become instead of a mantra, with focused breathing.
While Qigong is founded on Taoism and not directly opposed to Christianity, I began to feel awkward about it and stopped for a while. In 2015, however, I found Lee Holden Qigong online and decided to try his 7 minutesroutine. It provided me with immediate relief and with no strings attached in relationships, or anything feeling like power dominance, it became better for me to let go of the other series and try his programs instead. I have done this off and on since then, that is, for another ten years, making my practice experience now come to 30 years! I also practice 8 pieces of Silk Brocade since 2023, which feels wholesome and like a good resource.
Practicing Qigong to me, is like taking an internal shower, a mental and emotional reset with a physical clearing.
Once when I lived in Honolulu in 2011, I prayed and directed energy, blessing and placing my hands on the kidneys of a young woman, scheduled for a transplant and was calling the ambulance. I continued until they came and surprisingly to all of us, she came back to the YWCA already the next day, with a placed shunt, and no need for a transplant any longer! Several months later, she was still healed.
If you’d like to watch me practice some Qigong, you can see that on Instagram. To learn from Lee Holden, find him on holdenqigong.com and his Master Mantak Chia at mantakchia.com
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find The Source Podcast on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
How do we best care about the environment and what does that really mean?
I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors in nature. In fact, both my grandparents on each side, had it as a ritual to go for almost daily walks in the forest or around where they lived. As a teenager, I used to horseback ride a lot, and we often went for rides in the forest on Sundays. It was on one of these rides, I met a deer in the wild for the first time. My horse pointed his ears with both trepidation and curiosity, at the animal standing on the path in front of us. Me safe on his back, while calming him down and learning all about his signals. Another time, when we were having a field day to go orienteering in high school, me and one of my classmates were walking the trail and talking, not quite sure if we were following the map and instructions properly, so we stopped and tried to figure it out. We stood in silence for a while. When we looked up, a wild moose came our way, screaming as loud as we were, before it ran back into the woods. We made it safely back to the others and had a fun story to share.
It’s therefore not that surprising that I kept my outdoor habit on Sundays also later in life, first with girlfriends catching up after the work week, and then by myself, just enjoying the fresh air and scenery, refilling my energy and connecting with nature and all its beauty and aliveness. I still do.
This type of appreciation and connectedness is what makes up the foundation for growing in relationship with nature, while being both stewards and stewardesses, and part of the eco-system. To see all living things as relatives to us. This is why I changed my name to Telluselle – which means to be a child of earth – an earth woman – to make a brand. It’s a name that I now have had for almost exactly 20 years!
To be able to continue enjoying nature’s beauty, it’s important that we don’t litter or intrude in the animals’ natural habitats too much, as well as make eco-friendly choices, when it comes to anything we wear or use, eat or put on our bodies. I began using biological products for my face, hair and skin in 2005, after returning from my first longer stay in Hawai’i. I used to have some issues with little blisters on my face and was taught to never use anything topical that I wouldn’t be able to also eat. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb! Our skin absorbs what we put on it, which can affect us internally. When I was younger, I liked going to the tanning booth about once a week, to not look so pale, become a little warmer and to feel better about my looks. This might be why I later developed skin cancer though, unless it was even coming from having lived not too far away from a nuclear power plant, giving off radiation.
To me, skin is like the the ground of Mother Earth, and like the bark of trees. When polluted rain becomes absorbed by plants and trees, they too become sick and full of toxins. Everything is connected and everything is interdependent.
This is even more important when it comes to how we source our food of course. I try to eat organic as much as I can, besides choosing gluten free and lactose free alternatives due to my sensitive stomach. I became a part vegetarian in the mid 90’s after learning about how the meat industry works in Sweden, when I was working as a copywriter in advertising. We had several accounts on various firms, that sometimes repackaged old frozen meat, that after it became thawed just named differently. I was told to write a letter once from a CEO to Swedish farmers, to encourage them to use more antibiotics in the feed for pigs, to make sure we’d have enough ham for Christmas. And I was told that hamburgers are made of the rest inside cows’ heads after the brain has been taken out. And that is why Mad Cow’s disease spread! No wonder I became nauseous so often! I’ve never been against eating meat per say though, and had an interesting discussion once with a friend of mine, who like to hunt deer. It’s the large-scale industry that must change! My body began craving meat some more a couple of years ago, when I needed more iron, so nowadays I eat both clean chicken and fish. What do you eat? Can you make more organic choices? I believe that this is better for the health of nature, and thus better for our health too.
Many Native American Indians like to remind us of how we must think of our next generations, when it comes to how we treat Mother Earth. If we pollute the environment too much, we won’t be able to get our own food in the future, besides any further urban exploitations. The dilemma unfolds when we take transportation into account too. If we only can get organic alternatives through long-distance import, is that good for the environment, if it must be transported through heavy traffic? This is what sustainability is about. To think and act more long-term, both in terms of how we work with agriculture and how we handle our waste. Do you recycle? Reuse or repurpose? Is that something you can do more of?
One of the good things about our current situation is that it also becomes a necessity to innovate and be more creative! Not too long ago, I discovered how one business is making a substitute for plastic by seaweed and another using orange peel to make a substitute for leather. Have you seen them? What do you think is needed to restore nature and keep it pristine, while still being able to live a comfortable life? What would you invent if you could?
To improve your connection with nature, go outside and use your senses. Feel it, scent it, watch it, listen to it and taste something. We’re part of nature and nature is part of us. A good enough reason to be more caring.
To listen to this blogpost as a podcast, find it on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, or click here:
TELLUSELLE LIVING CENTER 