Understand your mind

What is central to this blog post is self-love. Self-love is the most important ingredient for you to live a successful, healthy and happy life.

Briefly think about Indian curry. Would you ever consider cooking that dish without curry? I don’t think so. So, really think about self-love as the single most important thing that you can’t live without. Because believe me, you really shouldn’t.

With this blog post I want to encourage you to become aware of your thoughts and emotions. Afterwards it’s important to express these in order to let them go. Lastly, it’s essential to bring your thoughts and emotions into movement (emotion = energy in motion), so that everything that you are can flow again. We are meant to flow, our energies are meant to flow, our whole life is meant to be in flow.

You have to understand that you can train your mind to be a successful mind.

If I speak about ‘success’, I don’t relate to ‘success’ in classic terms, I mean success on your terms, in whatever area of your life, for example work, relationships, partner, health, free-time etc.

So, whichever areas in your life you consider important, please be in the knowing that you have the power to train your mind to be successful.

You are the creator of your dream life.

Once your mind is trained to success, once you are ready to see the positive, yet handle the challenging, your successful mind will give you findings, insights and inspirations.

Make your mind your best friend – with awareness and through findings. Because then you will be able to use your mind instead of only possessing it.

Use your mind, don’t only possess it.

Do you want to befriend your mind? Do you want to get guidance from me on how to train your mind? Then get my eBook FEEL UNDERSTAND HEAL #1 on Amazon. Just click here to receive guidance and practical exercises from me on how to get started with understanding your mind. Also, attend my next workshop FEEL UNDERSTAND HEAL #3 in Munich to dive (deeper) into your personal growth journey and to start your shift. Click here to save one of the last spots.

If you have any questions, leave me a pink note!

Yours, Nina

 

 

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Feel your body

The central thought for this article is self-love. Awake to the knowing that a successful body gives you energy and lightness.

Be aware and know that your body is there for your wellbeing. Treat your body accordingly. See your body as your friend, your best friend.

• Observe how you talk to your body. Would you talk like this, if it was your best friend’s body?
• Observe how you look at your body. Would you look at it like this, if it was your best friend’s body?
• Observe how you feel in your body. Would you like it, if your best friend felt like this in her* body?

*Solely for the ease of writing, I will refer to she/her without any discrimination.

I know not only from myself, but also from family and friends and even acquaintances how hard we are on ourselves when it comes to our body, be it height, weight or size. However, when our best friend complains about being too small, too tall, too thin or too big, we immediately tell that person how beautiful she is just the way she is.

Sounds familiar? Doesn’t that feel strange to you? Don’t you feel disconnected when reading this?

Now, I want you to feel amazing in your body. I want you to look in the mirror thinking ‘Wow’. I want you to look down on yourself thinking ‘Wow’. I want you to walk through life feeling connected with yourself, because you think ‘Wow’, because you love yourself. Self-love is not only key, it is the base to your wellbeing.

In order to feel your body, it is essential to tune into it. Feel, observe, and perceive any tensions that you might hold. Consciously or not. Be aware, be present, be curious. And especially, be kind to yourself. Do not fight your body, befriend it.

Do you want to befriend your body? Do you want to get guidance from me on how to tune into your body and feel your body? Then get my eBook FEEL UNDERSTAND HEAL #1 on Amazon. Just click here to receive guidance and practical exercises from me on how to get started with connecting and feeling your body. Also, attend my workshop FEEL UNDERSTAND HEAL #3 in Munich to go deeper in your personal growth journey and to take your body consciousness to the next level. Click here to save one of the last spots.

If you have any questions, leave me a pink note!

Yours, Nina

 

Drop the judgment

Inspired by my life & Gabby Bernstein

This blog post is not only for you to drop the judgment, it is also for me, it is for everyone.  It’s my reflection of life.

I’m writing this article today, as someone close to me has been judging another person close to me for the last three years. This created a feeling of being torn, of disruption within me. Now, this morning, the said judgment has been dropped. And I instantly felt such a big relief. Tears were shed. I smiled. And my heart filled up with even more love.

Stop the vicious circle

This incident made me realise stronger than ever just how quickly we judge others. And then once we realise we judged someone else, we judge ourselves for having judged. What a vicious circle!

I’m sure we all struggle with judgment every single day. That’s okay. However, let’s make an effort all together to show more love, openness and compassion to the people surrounding us and to ourselves! We won’t be able to change our behaviour within one day, but how about taking the first step?

The first step: Notice & feel

The first step for anything relating to personal development is always to be honest with yourself and to notice any judgment patterns that you may have. Notice, when you judge. Notice, what you judge. Notice, how you judge. Notice, why you judge. Notice the feelings arising. Feel!

The second step: Understand

The second step is to understand the associated feelings with judgment. This goes hand in hand with the reasons for judging. Very often, judging another person or behaviour makes us feel better, at least for that moment. In a way, judgment is a result of comparisons. Since we compare ourselves to others a lot thinking that others might be ‘better’ at something, ‘smarter’ or ‘prettier’, we start the judgment process, mostly to protect ourselves. Instead of accepting that yes, there are other people out there who might be ‘better’ at something, we almost automatically jump into the process of judgment.

‘She never managed this on her own.’ ‘He is only successful because of his parents.’ ‘I’m sure she had surgery.’ 

Sounds familiar? Why can we not accept others for who they are. Why can we not accept and love ourselves just the way we are. Why do not embrace our individuality? Why do we strive for meaningless competitiveness? Why are we so harsh on ourselves?

If, whilst reading this, you reflect on my words…

Stop judging yourself.

Life is not just black and white.

Begin with noticing. Continue with feeling. Go on with understanding.

The third step: Heal

In order to heal judgement, we need to start a transformation from the inside out.

• Move to love. Accept what is for yourself and others.
• Move to individuality & authenticity. Accept that everyone is different.
• Move to your true self. Feel the relief once you’ve returned to your truth.

Be kind to yourself though and be clear that it’s difficult to be judgment free all the time. What counts is how quickly you notice judgment and move through the steps above.

I just know that this practice holds so many ‘goodies’ for us. Less tension, more ease and peace, relief, freedom, more love and compassion and most importantly for me:

Happiness from the inside out.

If you truly want to live a happier life, I invite you to to join my workshop Feel Understand Heal in Munich on Friday, 8th June, 6-9pm. Click here for details.

Let’s do this journey to love, light and happiness together.

Yours, Nina

 

 

Reconnect

I’ve heard the words ‘Connect’, ‘Disconnected’ and ‘Reconnect’ a lot lately. Maybe this is because so many people feel disconnected from themselves and want to reconnect with their body, mind, and spirit, or I’ve noticed it increasingly since it has become one of my favourite topics. I truly believe that if we lost connection with ourselves that we can get it back, we can build the connection with ourselves again. We can reconnect.

Reconnect on different levels

In my opinion, this needs to happen on different levels, physically, mentally and spiritually. Reconnecting with yourself means first of all to become aware, of your body, mind and soul. Ask yourself what is going on here? Where are my pain points physically? Where is my mind going? What keeps my mind busy? Is your soul telling you something? Do you sometimes feel restless? Why? When do you feel most disconnected with yourself? When do you most feel the urge to connect with yourself?

Notice and sit with it

Become aware, notice and sit with it to start with. You don’t have to take any action right away. I know it’s difficult, but it’s better not to fight it, because that would mean you are fighting life, and that in return would mean that you are fighting yourself.

So, start with bringing more awareness into your being. De-automize your being and your actions, whatever you do, do it less automatically, more consciously. Bring more awareness into your life.

Maybe you wonder now, what this is all about and how this should help you reconnect?

Awareness

I know from experience that bringing more awareness to my being, to my body, mind and soul is the first and only step required to commence the reconnection process.

How do you think you can connect with your beautiful life, if you don’t start connecting with yourself? How can you see, feel, smell and taste all the beautiful things in our world, if you cannot even see or feel yourself? Awareness and appreciation are your entry to reconnect with yourself.  Use your 5 senses consciously to bring more awareness into your life, they’ve been given to us with reason, so use them and enjoy them.

Feel Understand Heal

Once you feel & understand, you can heal. Once you start your individual reconnection process, you can come closer to your true self. Once you start the journey becoming the real you, you’ll feel lighter and happier. Of course, there will be difficult moments, of course, you won’t feel light 24/7, but again I know from my own inner journey how amazingly rewarding it is to start this process. To walk the liberating path of personal development.

A liberating feeling

It is liberating. ‘Cause every day feels lighter, with less bullshit, instead with more awareness and gratitude, especially for the small things in our life. Because I also noticed one more thing, it is not really the big things that make up our lives, it is the small things.

And if we manage to appreciate the small things, if we manage to appreciate ourselves, we can reconnect with ourselves, we can let go of bullshit and instead embrace all the beautiful new things flowing (or flooding!) into our lives.

Become yourself

The closer you get to yourself, the more you become yourself, the lighter you will feel and the happier you will be. Because you are truly you. Isn’t that a wonderful outlook?

You can be happy only if you become yourself

If you feel disconnected, if you sometimes wonder who you are, if you truly want to start your reconnection journey, but don’t know where to start, then I cannot imagine anything more beautiful than supporting you on your journey and taking that first step.

I have been on this journey (still am, it’s an ongoing process) and whilst it was tough at times, I am deeply grateful to have (had) people by my side supporting me.

If you resonate with this blog post, then check out my 3-hour workshop FEEL UNDERSTAND HEAL that I will be holding in Munich on Tuesday, 22nd May. I’m so excited about this journey and it gets better every day (with some exceptions haha).

Love to life, love to you and love to myself.

Yours, Nina

 

 

 

Perception

Do you love what you do?

In order to explore this question in more detail, I went to a workshop hosted by Do Work You Love. The workshop was about visualising my dream job as part of my dream life as well as planning the first action steps to achieve this goal.  This process was supported by a big poster named Canvas, comprising information and knowledge from different areas, such as personal development, business development, coaching and psychology.

The canvas looks at different areas in your life, such as

• Who do you want to be in the future? How do you want to live?
• Which role does the job play in your life?
• How does the job need to be in order to achieve self-realisation and to use your skills and strengths accordingly?
• What are your immediate next steps in order to get closer to your dream job and dream life?

After an introduction of all 8 participants, we teamed up in pairs of 2 to become sparring partners or dream life buddies for the next 6 weeks in order to support each other, but also to challenge each other on our visualisations. We worked on the Canvas for 2.5 hours by talking about our dreams and by asking each other questions. When the workshop was about to end, we did a final round to talk about our experiences during and after the workshop. When it was my turn to talk, I said something like “Well, my topics seem to repeat themselves, and I don’t seem to make much progress. I feel like I’ve been working on the same stuff for a while now.” When I shared this with my workshop buddies, they clarified – against my own perception – that I actually made progress and that topics didn’t repeat themselves, but that I developed them and moved them into a new dimension (e.g. more frequent, bigger etc.). The workshop organiser listed the ‘projects’ I had already started and that I was currently working on. It was only then that I realised how much I had already achieved in 2017, but that I didn’t give myself enough credit for it. I didn’t acknowledge my achievements sufficiently. Just to give you a few examples: I currently do my yoga teacher training, I hold yoga classes on a regular basis for friends and friends of friends, I have launched my blog, I have established an Instagram account called ninaspinknotes and only recently I have set up a fan page on Facebook for the same account. I read books about yoga and personal development, I listen to podcasts and I network with people to seek and give inspiration.

Hence, how can I say that I’m not making any progress? I’ve learned the following from this workshop and the feedback, thank you!!!

There may be a discrepancy between self-perception and perception of others.

Acknowledge yourself, your progress and your achievements.

After this workshop, I decided I wanted to go a step further concerning self-perception versus perception of others. I wanted to understand how I’m perceived by other people, and to reflect on what I like or dislike about the results, to understand discrepancies between self-perception and perception of others and to confirm my strengths whilst working on my perceived weaknesses. So, I used a questionnaire from the workshop and sent it to friends, family and acquaintances. It holds questions about associations with me, about emotions felt, which colour/animal or furniture I could be and what I could do more or less of. I gave people about 1 week time to get back to me and up until now I have received 20 responses.

The feedback was lovely, interesting and touching. Luckily, there was a good match on my strengths and potential for improvement, which means I am pretty well aware and have a good self-perception, yay. However, I also received a few comments that I wanted and needed to understand in a bit more detail, so I can make sense of it. A few comments to work on in the future, as they repeat themselves. And some comments to simply take note of.

Obviously I am me, with all my experiences, emotions, feelings, character and personality, and it’s not like I will become a new person based on the feedback received, but I think it’s essential to reflect on ourselves in order to grow, to improve. Hence, my path of self-reflection included being brave by asking others for their honest and direct feedback, but at the same time to trust my intuition. . This means that I can make use of my strengths even more, just by having moved them more into my conscious mind, and to be more aware of my ‘weaknesses’ or things to do less. At the end of the day, it’s like Anais Nin says:

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Everybody sees the world through their own filter, and very often we are mirrored by other people. For example, if we dislike something about another person or we get annoyed about someone’s behaviour, we most likely hold this characteristic within us, too. Or it could be something we’d like to have, hence the annoyance about someone else having it or living it. If criticism gets to us, then we should probably think about the reasons why, because it is very likely it has got to do with us. If that is the case, we can and should solve this limiting belief for us first, as otherwise we will always doubt our capabilities. Once we have solved these limiting beliefs within us though, we are free, we feel good and we can simply enjoy…life!

Yours, Nina