Next stop....India!
Where attention goes, energy flows, or so the saying goes. I've been putting that into practice and it's all working out rather nicely. The past month was super busy and super fun. This Friday I'm graced with the title of 'Visiting Master' to a beautiful holistic wellness retreat in the Himalayas.....
Those of you that know me well, know that I love to travel for my trainings, and this month was no exception. This time, I went to Helsinki to take part in a meditation weekend for yoga bunnies; I am clearly still not one of them, but the chap who was teaching it was the same one whose course I attended in the summer in the USA with the first group of Rolfers. It was interesting to hear how he presented the information for a different audience, and, for me, it is always helpful to have things repeated, so there's a chance some of it will make it into my limited storage facility.
I am certainly no 'sitting' expert, as the well-practiced meditators might call themselves, but I do realise the importance of letting the mind switch off. Mine is usually running at 97% capacity, a little like my laptop, never truly resting, as something is always whirring in the background. It's nigh on impossible to go from this state to the unrealistic expectation of emptying one's mind. That's not even the goal - the point is to calm it. So, what better tactic than to distract it with something else - preferably an activity that absorbs you fully, so it doesn't even occur to you to think about shopping, cleaning, supper etc, just for 10 minutes. I'm a fan of colouring mandalas (my 7 year old mini me has clearly not left), which I can become quite obsessed about. It's slightly alarming how much time I can spend considering my next colour choice. If I didn't love food so much, I'd have not eaten for days.
Speaking of which, I almost didn't. My lovely friend very generously took me with her to her fat farm of choice, in Spain, where we spent a week trying not to think too much about the food we weren't eating, or the wine that would have paired so well with it. Somehow, this place stretched our daily 600 calories into a work of art, even if the portions were on the hamster snack-sized scale. Still, we both lost a little weight and are doing our level best to not put it on again, now we're back living in the real world. Challenges are there to be met. And sometimes possibly broken.
For my next adventure, I move my office to the mountains for 3 weeks. Mini visa crisis over, I am heading to north India to be a 'resident rolfer' for the guests of Ananda Spa, for which I'm so happy and incredibly grateful. I love the Himalayas, having already been to the Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Tibetan parts, but this will be my first time to the western end of the majestic mountain range. I shall be taking lots of snaps, so if you would like to join me on my journey from the comfort of your sofa, follow me @annalovestheworld on instagram.
As always, I love to hear all your news and stories, so do stay in touch.
With love & aloha,
Anna xx
