Our retreat in Bali has been an amazing experience on many levels.

We have really enjoyed the peaceful, hospitable and calming, at the same time absolutely reviving energy of the island and it’s people.

We have moved on the mat daily and each of the participants have had amazing physical breakthroughs.

We breathed, we meditated and some amazing insights were shared.

We spoke about the amazing yogic philosophy of the inner fight we go through everyday, and how to use the tools given in the ancient scriptures to help us in that inner battle, allowing us to live more conscious and spiritual life daily.

We also focused on letting go of what did not serve us anymore.

We all have things, thoughts, habits, rituals we carry around, knowing they are just a weight to us, but it seems so difficult to set an intention and put in the action to let go of the old to make space for the new… but does it really have to be so hard?

Beginning of the new year brings most of us towards reflexions over the one that has just finished. It also makes us think how we would like to upgrade our life in the new year. It is such a great time for a change we have been longing for.

At the retreat we had an amazing opportunity to take part in a water blessing under the waterfall where we could use our contemplation from the practices on what did not serve us anymore and let go of it with the flow of the water running over us.

It was a beautiful ceremony and we did feel weight off our chests and minds so profoundly afterwards.

But we can also do it anytime, anywhere. We do not have to travel to Bali. (Although the sensations are much stronger there).

To practice at home letting go of the old that does not serve you anymore and making space to bring in the new:

• Sit down, close your eyes and stay with your natural breath for a moment. Then slowly extend your breath, inhaling for 4 seconds, exhaling for 4.

• After a few moments start elongating the exhalation even more, first to a count of 6 and then, if comfortable, increase to a count of 8. Keep that breath going for a while. Inhale 4, exhale 8 (if too long do a ratio of 3/6).

• Keeping the breath going feel the physical tension slowly leaving your body. Then start reflecting on what is not serving you anymore…. with each exhalation release it from your body, from your mind. Continue letting go all that comes to you… till you feel lightness, pleasantness, spaciousness inside.

• Resume normal breathing and sit in this beautiful, emptied space for a while.

• Then go back to the long, even breaths. Inhale for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4.

• Think of what you would like to bring more of into your new year.

• With each inhalation feel yourself filling up with exactly that.

• Keep the breaths going till you feel yourself filled up to the brim with the new. Resume normal breathing and stay in that space for a while.

Once you are done you can journal your reflexions.

Have an amazing, purposeful and intentional New Year.

If you would like to work on your goals individually, in a more structured way, to create new habits that will bring the change in your life that you need, schedule your free call with me to discuss it at: www.calendly.com/boostbykasiagendis

Affirmations have been my absolute life saver for many years.
It is my number one recommendation to anyone who is starting on the journey of self awareness.
They can be extremely helpful when dealing with difficult and stressful situations in life.
They set our energy field in the higher frequency that matches the high energy of the affirmation. If repeated daily, it becomes our reality. It can counteract all our tendencies of self doubt, self sabotage and self criticism. We all have to deal with them in a different degree, on a daily basis. What we believe is what we have been telling ourselves or what we have been told by others for years. This creates strong patterns of our belief system. Most of the time they are really difficult to break, resulting in sabotaging every wholesome intention we try to undertake. For our intentions to become actions and materialise, we need to believe in our abilities.
That is where the affirmations play a crucial role. They shift, change and redesign our belief system. And the best thing about it is that we can program it the way we want.

In yogic philosophy our belief system is ruled by Svadisthana chakra – energy center located around the upper pelvis space in our physical body. Through the power of that chakra we can co-create ourselves anew over and over again by chosing and reaffirming our beliefs.

Repeating your chosen affirmations daily will make them become your new reality.
These are just a few of my favourite general affirmations from Louise Hay you could use daily:

All is well in my world, my life supports me.
Life brings me only good experiences.
I am open to new and wonderful changes.
All that I seek is already within me.
I handle my own life with joy and ease.
I love myself just the way I am.
I am grateful for my healthy body.
I love my life.
I am unlimited in my wealth.
All areas of my life are abundant and fulfilling.
I flow easily with new experiences, new challenges and new people who enter my life.
My heart is open, I speak with loving words.
I now free myself from destructive fears and doubts.
I am safe.
I am in perfect health.
As I forgive myself it is easier to forgive others.

You can choose any of the above if it resonated with you or you can customise your affirmations.

Practice:
How to customise affirmations for yourself?

Sit down and close your eyes. Think about your biggest fear or doubt you have about yourself. What tends to be the most common narration about yourself in your head?
Then open your eyes and note it down one by one.

Now change each doubt into a positive sentence. For example if your usual belief about yourself is “I am not good enough” change it into “I succeed in everything I set my mind on.”

Create your list of affirmations in this way, using your negative beliefs and changing them to the empowering affirmations. Reading it out loud daily has the best effects.
Then just watch the change in your consciousness and in your life over a short time.

If you would like to chat more about your limiting beliefs and affirmations you could use to shift them, schedule a free consultation call with me at calendly.com/boostbykasiagendis.

Is “a too busy mind for a meditation practice” a thing?

We all know meditation practice is challenging, especially when we are starting out.
I so often hear that ‘a too busy mind’ is a reason why you give up at a very early stage or you do not even attempt to try the practices.

Let’s see if there is such a thing as “a too busy mind for meditation” .
The ancient teachings say that our mind (manas) is chanchala – always moving around and asthiram – never steady.
So even from that description we can see that it is the nature of the mind to wonder.
All minds wonder, some less other more, but they all do.
And that is something we need to acknowledge at the start of our journey with meditation. The mind will wonder.

But a not trained or cleanse mind, as we like to call it in yogic language, will have control over us. It will be constantly taking us to places, people, situations and stories often against our will.

Is overthinking, constant worries, fears of the future, reminiscing especially sad, emotional events over and over something that you notice is happening to you a lot?
Instead of being here and living your life in this moment you are mostly spending time in the past or in the future? It is said that over 90 % of our thoughts are the same every day. So we keep going over and over the same things. It sounds tiring even reading about it.

On the other hand it is actually a great thing that the mind can travel in time to the past and to the future, we can remember beautiful events or plan great things for the future. We just need to have more control over where our “manas” (mind) is going.

All of us have a capacity to get out of our head more. We can gradually get more in control of our thoughts with a regular practice. We can train our mind to become more still and focused through different tools and techniques.
Similarly as we cleanse our body daily taking a shower, brushing our teeth etc we should take care of our mind daily to keep it clean and spacious. Then, all the energy gained from overthinking can be directed towards more practices, contemplations and reflexions. Regular practices will allow us to improve and extend mind’s concentration capacities, freeing us from constant inner chatter, connecting us to more joy and purpose and helping coping with stress and overwhelm in life. It will help us think more positively and that in turn will attract even more positive outcomes to our life.
The more busy your mind seems the faster you should start your concentration practices.

If you would like to give it a try I will share the simplest technique we can use to bring ourselves into the moment, by making space in our mind.
Deep, even breaths. In Manasa Yoga we call it tanu 3. Let’s do a short practice now.

To prepare sit comfortably on the chair or on the floor, keep your spine straight, chest open, head centred and eyes closed. Then shift your awareness to your breath. Exhale completely and then inhale long counting to 4 and exhale long counting to 4 (both are done through the nose). If you are comfortable with this pace you can try to elongate the breath even more, so inhale in a count of 5, exhale in a count of 5. Repeat elongated breaths 5 times…and then sit for a moment in silence…
Reflect on the effect the breaths had on your mind. Does it feel a bit calmer, slower, more spacious?

You can contact me for a free consultation here if you need more guidance with starting your practices.

We know for sure that we can’t change the external life stressors that affect our mind on a daily basis. Life goes on and there is not much we can do about what is happening around us.

But fortunately, we can have control over our own mind. Here lays our POWER.

Commonly an external stressor triggers an immediate, spontaneous reaction in our mind.

That reaction comes from our emotional brain called amygdala.The prefrontal cortex (logical brain) is still turned off, as it usually needs more time to log back into the system. So when we encounter a stressor an immediate, often emotional reaction happens.

The good news is that we can influence this mechanism.

We can create SPACE between the stressor and the response to it – it will no longer be a reaction then.
There are many ways of creating this space that I usually work with my clients on. It should include mindset shift and a daily practice, as when introduced collectively they can produce a much greater effect.

One of the most important mindset shifts is: “Let go of what you cannot control”
I know it’s easy to say, but let’s explore this for a moment…
Your life consist of 2 elements in this respect:

• what you can influence and
• what you cannot control.

No matter what we do, nothing will change it. That’s how it is.
That is why it is so important to realise and accept it.

The rule, that I personally apply in all life situations, that seem to look like a challenge in the future (future emotion are those giving us most fear and anxiety) is:
“I will worry when I have this problem” or “I will cross this bridge when I get to it” .
We so often worry even before there is a problem.
This approach, of course, will not change the future stressor, but it will allow us to operate from a space of calm and focus, which may change our response and way of acting.

We must remember that life, in the general sense of the word, is beyond our control. So it is good to learn to let go and trust in what awaits us. That all will be good for us.

So how do you let go?

Focus on what you can influence.
Stick to your routine.
Move forward in small steps, without looking too far into the future.
Have faith and trust.
I know that faith, trust and hope are less tangible concepts, but very important.

It’s a bit like breathing, when we exhale completely, we have full faith that the next inhalation will come soon, but are we sure of this? NO! We don’t think about it, we trust that it will happen, so we don’t even stress with each exhalation… and that’s exactly the kind of trust we need in life 🙂 it changes a lot what comes to us, believe me…

So, in moments of challenge, remember to ground your attention in your body, feel your feet on the floor, open your chest, notice your breathing and take a few longer breaths that will help create that inner space from which you can respond rather than react and trust the Universe, in the highest and best outcome for you.

I am attaching a short 5-min practice of extended exhalations that can help you create that inner space.

Seems like mindfulness has become a really hot topic in recent times. We hear about it from almost everywhere. 

We mostly understand it as a focus on being intensely aware of what we are sensing, feeling and  experiencing in the moment.

But why it is so important and why should we practice it.

Typically we spend most of our time in the past or in the future. Only a small percentage of our life is spent in the present moment. 

And that IS ACTUALLY WHERE OUR LIFE IS HAPPENING. Here and now.

Our mind has this amazing ability of shifting between the past, present and future but our body and our breath exist only here.  It is a great ability for the mind to be able to travel in time, but a downside is that it takes us for uncontrolled rollercoaster rides of thoughts. Oftentimes we are finding ourselves in places we were not even intending to be in. It leaves us with restless mind, lack of attention, lack of sleep and complete exhaustion, as we entirely lose control over what is happening in our head.

That is why practising anchoring the mind into the present moment, into the experiences that are happening now is so important. Over time it will give us more control over what we tend to focus on. We will be able to use the mind to remember or plan things when we need to, but also we will be able to easily chose to be present to all that life is revealing to us right now.

Spending more time in the present moment initially requires a regular practice of concentration techniques, that will help us ground into now. Here we use breath and body awareness practices to keep strengthening our attention in the present moment. The more we are able to stay here, the more we start connecting into the deeper layers of our existence. Only from that space of the auspiciousness of the present moment the inner wisdom can start rising. We start connecting to the knowledge we all have within us. We start feeling ourselves not merely as a mass of flesh in a certain shape but also as a spiralling energy, similar to everything else is in the Universe (even quantum physics confirms us to be exactly that). Being more present will help us notice different, positive and less positive, tendencies in us, set powerful intentions in life to change what does not serve us anymore, let us connect to strong beliefs about ourselves and our unique capacities, help us create deep and caring connections with others and give us an opportunity to connect to our true essence. In daily life, we will be able to make more wholesome choices and appreciate more the beauty of the world around us. It will help us to be more in charge of our life process.

Ready to start the practice?

Most of us have really busy lives. Our daily routine is usually fully packed and it is hard for us to find time to chill. Am I right?

That is why Summer time is such an amazing time to slow down a bit, and maybe spend some time away to recharge our batteries.

But even if we can not escape town to a relaxing, peaceful and sunny place we can still enjoy more active time, barbecues with friends, bike excursions, and just being outside more, in a warmer weather.

And if in that chilled and relaxed environment we can find space in the mind to stop for a while and appreciate our blessings that is the best thing we can do for our well being’s lasting effect.

I can only speak for myself though and how taking a break, slowing down and appreciating simple moments, relationships, touch, warmth, laughter helped me refill my energy over and over again.

I believe that we do not give enough appreciation to what we already have in our lives, on daily basis.
We spend most of our time chasing things we do not have yet or complaining about things we don’t want, forgetting to just look around us.

Noticing what is, gives us an enormous power to tap into the present moment, appreciate it and from there step with much more ease into the stream of all abundance. And then everything in life just starts happening as we would desire it to be or even beyond what we ever dreamt of.

That is why it is so important to take breaks to rest, relax, reconnect with ourselves and with our close ones, appreciate what we have, and really enjoy the gifts of the moment. Summer is a perfect time for that.

How often do you take breaks to fill yourself up again?

Any change seems difficult. We generally do not like changes. We prefer staying in our comfort zone and just repeating old patterns over and over again. For a lot of us it seems easier. 

We live on an automatic pilot. The patterns are engraved in our bodies and also in our minds.

Any tweak needs energy to be invested. But it is not as difficult as it seems, if we have a set out system for it.

 I will use a simple example from my life of the set patterns being changed. 

When I first moved back to four seasons, after living in tropics for 15 years, my body did not handle it very well. For the first few months of the cold season I was freezing all the time, no matter what I wore. My body craved totally different things or different quantities to what I was used to eating in a hot weather. A funny one was extra virgin olive oil, when I would see the bottle of it I felt like literally just downing all of it in one go :)) That was a sign for me. The body needed a change in the diet. More warming foods, more healthy fat, more spices. I did just that.

I also went to see my Tibetan Medicine doctor and he told me that my body forgot its warming function, as it was not using it for so many years. Now I needed to give it time to readjust. And it sure did, after a few months. 

But what I struggled with for longer was my head, that is the mental pattern. Each year, around the same time, I would just totally resist the change of seasons. Just denying it. Funny right, as it is not really possible to avoid, yet my head for a long time was struggling. I even would refuse to buy Autumn flowers. When I would see them in the shops it would create panic and sadness. I know it sounds quite dramatic.

Then, one sunny day as I was looking at the beautiful, colourful autumn leaves waving to me in the wind when it suddenly hit me. The beauty of the nature’s cycle. How the flora blooms in the Spring, is totally out there throughout the Summer, till Autumn comes. Then it slowly starts closing up again. Getting into a winter rest. A reflective and restoring vibe. 

It is needed for us too. After the Summer and all its craziness it is time to go within, reflect and restore. 

So I focused on all the positives of that change. The cosiness of the couch, the softness of the blanket, the warmth and flavours of tea, the taste of all the colder season spiced foods, the pleasantness of the candle lights and last but not least the luxury of more time to go within. The Danish call this cosiness hygge. So that is what I gave in to.

Suddenly it all seemed so amazing and highly needed. It was just at that time when I felt a shift. The resistance in my head started to melt away, exactly the same way it happened earlier in my body, naturally, with no objection.

So based on my experience I would like to share with you the process of the change. It can be used to initiate any change in your life that you set yourself up for.

Step 1 – Identify the Resistance

So for example, if your change would be to eat healthier, just pause and see what is stopping you from it? Is it lack of time, lack of knowledge, lack of interest in cooking. Find that exact obstacle.

Step 2 – Soften Around that Resistance

Focus on all the positives of the change. In our example focus on how would you feel after you make your dietary changes. Maybe feeling more energy, maybe sleeping better or maybe just finally stopping to worry about your weight, as it will be all taken care of by your body, working super efficiently. Just dwell on those for a moment. Imagine that you already have it, feel it, be in that energy of success.

Step 3 – Write down 1-2 Small Steps towards your goal, that you can start right now

Maybe you could focus on adding more healthy foods first, before you start cutting out what does not serve you. For example adding more vegetables to each of your meals. Or focusing daily on drinking more water. It is that simple.

The above steps will work for initiating any change. Just take a moment, sit down, rect on what would you like to change and go through the steps.

If you need support you can always book a free chat with me here

And remember “Great things never come from comfort zone”

Step out of it! You can do it!