by Vienda | 10 Feb 2015 | Travel + Freedom
It is in the circumvent moment of taking a leap of faith that we taste true freedom.
It is in the letting go that we gain so much more.
Saying no leads to better yes’.
When we let go of expectations that we feel the sweetness of success.
As the dreamer we realise that our dream was being realised all along.
It’s not judging…..and relinquishing the need to care about what others think.
It’s in the shedding of tears, in feeling lost and still moving forward.
It’s having tremendous faith…..that everything will work out….better than fine.
It’s in the questions we pose of ourselves, just enough to widen our horizons and move past our limitations.
Freedom is being a bright beacon of light…..clarity, honesty and love….no matter what else is going on around us.
When disappointment turns to longing turns to the realisation that what we thought we wanted we didn’t actually want.
It’s in the receiving….graciously, openly, without feeling we owe something in return.
It’s in the giving selflessly…altruistically without expecting anything in return.
It’s in the loving someone fearlessly…completely, whether or not they may love you back
It’s in the intoxicating joy, the serenity, the happiness without a reason.
It’s in realising that no-one’s got it all figured out ….. and nothing is permanent.
It’s when we teeter beyond our imaginations with nothing but trust and hope to catch us.
And when we do fall, we fall up….and everything gets unexpectedly better.
It’s in reinventing yourself every single day.
It’s when simplicity takes over.
This is freedom.
by Vienda | 5 Jun 2012 | Intuition + Manifestation
Happiness is a choice. Not something that happens to you in exchange for effort.
People spend hundreds of thousands of wasted hours, dollars and tears in the pursuit of happiness. As if it is something that you have to seek, rather than something that is already within you.
Happiness, joy and love ~ these are your birthright.
Not something you must work for, strive for, buy, beg for or steal.
Life is actually very simple.
If you want to be happy, try something new.
It may be a little scary. It may feel kinda weird but really, what do you have to lose?
In every single moment, choose happiness.
That’s it.
Ask yourself, in this very moment, what makes me feel the better feeling? What feels good? What feels exciting?
Choose to do what feels good. This is the very simple way of becoming happier and happier.
Choose happiness.
It is when we fully realise and embrace that our happiness is a choice made in the present moment, that our lives completely transform.
Image: fit to be thin
by Vienda | 28 Feb 2012 | Psychology + Soul
We are witnessing an uprising; in consciousness; in the way we do things; in the choices we make. We are awakening from a slumber of unconsciousness and becoming aware that we are responsible for every aspect of our lives, our selves, our communities, our world. We are recognising that we are one and everything we do, say and think matters.
As we awaken to what we we really want for ourselves, for each other and our communal lives, and then compare it against what we have seen happening. The wars, the violence, the cruelty, the hunger, the lack of love, of resources, the greed, the hurt, we also realise that we all must heal. And to heal with love, with compassion and with sincerity.
There has to be a revolution. But it has to be a revolution of consciousness.
It’s all becoming so much more real. The old value systems from the past no longer support us. We all want to be well and happy and loved and to share that with others rather than cut ourselves off and try to get the largest piece of the pie, when there’s actually plenty of pie for everyone. We need to learn what true wealth is.
We have become so secular, so insular and departed from the true nature of ourselves and what drives us, that we need to relearn how to feel, how to be present and fully experience life as it comes, moment to moment. No longer allowing our minds to strain from one craving to the next but being wholly, fully appreciative of where we find ourselves right now and knowing that this is exactly where we are meant to be.
It is in our minds that we create our worlds. What we believe is true for us.
And with this recognition of our own responsibility, the frailty of life and the importance that we all step forward and change NOW we point to ourselves and say “I am.”
“I am responsible for the quality of my life, my happiness, the strength of my relationships, and the environment in which I live. I empower myself to surface my values and personal passions, and to live in alignment with them. I choose to build the world I want to live in, starting with becoming the kind of person I would imagine myself to be in that world.“
This is what we are doing. It is a transformation of consciousness, that then radiates out into others and becomes reality.
It takes action; growth; self realisation. It takes commitment to yourself and your life. It means facing yourself, being honest, truly honest, vulnerable, and looking beyond the surface. This can be a very confronting process as we have all learnt to placate ourselves with fairly superficial attributions yet our souls yearn and hunger for more.
Here is our opportunity to live more simply, with more beauty and grace, to connect deeply with ourselves and each other and create the world that we really want for ourselves, for each other and for our children. We are delighting in the discovery that we can create the life experience of our dreams….. one thought, one forgiveness, one opening up to others, one step at a time.
Viva la revolution. This is our world. We get to create it.
What do you want for your world?
Image source 1 and 2.
by Vienda | 30 Dec 2011 | Intuition + Manifestation
So 2011 has been a pretty amazing year all round…I finally found my feet in Sydney and life has catapulted in all sorts of creative and inspirational directions but the truth is, it’s always the people that make it! So here’s my gratuitous adoration in the form of a love letter to you.
Thank you to the girls:
Girlfriends…..you are like sweet honey to my soul. You always know when to nurture me, entertain me ……and when to let me make my own mistakes.
Thank you for loving music with me the way only girls can.
Thank you to the sister that saves my days with dirty comedy and laughter until my stomach hurts, feeding me at every possible opportunity and bursting into tears with me at any unreasonable hour on account of any irrespective impulse. You are the one I lean on. Thanks for moving to Sydney to be with me. (Even though I know you moved here for your boyfriend!).
Thank you to the little blonde girl who held my hand through uni years ago and is still holding my hand now, has saved me from many capricious moments with boys and listened to my whims and fantasies for hours. Thank you for sharing my ridiculous obsession with philosophy and trying to understand EVERYTHING even though I know I can’t. My world would not exist the way it does without you.
Thank you to the gorgeous trio, my United Nations girls with whom we represent (almost) every corner of the world. You’ve made Sydney sane for me and been my family. Thank you for allowing me to entertain you with my fanciful stories of the local dating scene, for letting me scold you when you were frivolous with your judgements and ringing me with all you boy dilemmas. Thank you for being worried for me and laughing with me and thinking of me with all of your sweetness and love.
Thank you for safely escorting me home when I’ve had enough to drink. Thank you for being foolish and faithful and honest. Thank you for telling me when I look good. Thank you for worrying when I don’t. Thank you for telling me that you appreciate me and welcoming me into your homes and hearts.
Thank you to all of you who have let me interfere with your love lives (always with my best intentions), for letting me ramble fantastical notions about life and love and stuff ….. and nodding and smiling even when it doesn’t make any sense.
Thank you for letting me play with your cute little babies and then hand them back to you at the end of the day. And then scaring me with stories of childbirth and motherhood. Your rock my world!
Thank you for my glittery twitter posse, you define the meaning of girl power! You are all so talented and unique and creative, I feel so blessed to be able to call on you with my every distress and confusion. Thank you for listening and always coming back with such relevant solutions. Thank you for all your support and being on this radical, cosmic twitter-verse ride of technology with me. You are all heart!
Thank you to the boys:
Boy(friends)…..you are the strength and the power that stabilises my whims.
Thank you to those of you who managed to just be my friend when all I really needed was a friend. Thank you for listening and sharing your masculine views. Thank you for giving every story two sides of perspective, for your kindness and strength and pulling me back in line when I am flighty and impetuous and my feet are no longer on the ground. Thank you for laughing with me at my stories and feeling protective over me simply because I’m a girl.
Thank you for loving music with me the way only boys can.
Thank you to the 10 english lads that embraced my chemical romances and indulged my musical whims towards electronic grime. You were there for me when I just needed to take my life down to gutter level for a few months and relive some of that twisted melodic madness that is London.
Thank you to the young sweet lover who warmed my bed for a few months and thereby helped me move swiftly on from the last relationship that I had just barely escaped before it fell apart in ruin and shambles. Thank you for being so attentive and eager to please. You were the medicine that my deprived body longed for. Unabashed. Non-commital. Perfection.
Thank you for the random drunken compliments and deep and meaningful conversations with strangers on my late night walks home.
Thank you for all the funny dates that I went on which gave me endless romantic comedy-esque stories to share. You boys really make me laugh. Thank you for the awkward goodbyes and the half-mouth-half-cheek-missed-kisses. Thank you for the endless text messages of endearment ….. you always put a smile on my face.
Thank you for the short-lived love affair with the man we now call Buzz Lightyear….(the resemblance is uncanny!) Thank you for making me feel like a little minx in the bedroom after renouncing my nun-hood after 6 months of just pure unadulterated dating. Thanks for making me feel like everything I said and thought was spectacularly brilliant … you did wonders to my self esteem!
I really love and appreciate you all! Thanks for playing with me this year. Let’s do it all again! x HAPPY 2012 KIDS! It’s just getting better and better every year!
NB: There are so many more of you to thank but I couldn’t fit you all in together …. to all of you scattered around the globe, I am often thinking of you and carry you with me in my heart always.
And just FYI: I am taking the first week of 2012 off to do pretty much nothing and will be back with our regular schedule in the second week of January. Happy holidays! x
Image source 1 + 2 .
by Vienda | 27 Dec 2011 | Psychology + Soul
To complete the “what I know for sure” series I am starting today on a slightly different note. The last two posts here and here have lead us to this significant point: the concept that life is a journey….and that this very journey is the destination. There is no future focal point. This, right now, here, is it.
You and I, we are evolving every single day. In every moment, every decision, every thought. We fuck up. Sometimes big. Sometimes small. And that’s ok.
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all.” – Oscar Wilde
And then there are some things that you and and I, we just know for sure. Even if only subconsciously at this moment. They are the simple life philosophies that makes life better, sweeter and worthwhile.
STILLNESS: At the centre of every single human being is a deep expansive well of stillness. It is our ethereal connection to all that is. Within this stillness lies our inner peace and wisdom. We all have access to this part of ourselves. We just have to remember to connect to it. And there are many ways to do so. Figure out what works for you.
Stay connected with your inner source. This brings peace, contentment and unwavering stability. Things don’t matter as much and life can flow cause your not getting all involved and in its face.
Move your attention from your thoughts to your body … to the sweet spot in your centre…from thinking to feeling….
SPACE: From the stillness comes a new-found sense of space. A gentle, warm and luxuriant buffer zone between the purest part of ourselves and out thoughts, experiences and mental bedlam. When we sit within our stillness the space appears and expands…… and then fills with joy and love.
LOVE: This is the best word used to describe the sensation we have when experiencing our own awareness and life-force or energy. Eckhart Tolle calls it “being the observer”. When we are connected we become receptive of what BEING FEELS like…. It feels like love. Like being IN LOVE. But not with someone or something. This sensation fills you up and then overflows into forgiveness and compassion for yourself and others.
Forgiveness allows all hurts and wounds to heal. You don’t need to be carrying that stuff with you any longer.
“You aren’t given the people that you want, you are given the people that you need. To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you the person you were meant to be.“ – Unknown
PRESENCE: When you are fully engaged in the moment and at the same time connected with your inner stillness you are practicing presence. Try it, it is ecstasy.
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” – Diane Ackerman
ACCEPTANCE: Being fully present leaves little room for latent thoughts to permeate, meaning all you have is acceptance of what is, right now. Acceptance arrives in the form of non-resistance. Embracing life however it shows up for you in this very moment is powerfully relieving. It’s the trust that life will always work out the best for you and releasing the need to make things happen. No forcing, pushing or pulling. Just allowing.
It means letting go of concepts such as judging things, people or situations to be good or bad. The contrasts that we experience in life simply give it flavour and colour and allow us to discern our preferences in life.
Acceptance also means recognising that everything happens for a reason, even if we don’t understand it yet.
You don’t have to know everything. Get comfortable with uncertainty….it’s a very safe place to be.
“I don’t mind what happens.” – Krishnamurti
MINDFULNESS: Our thoughts and beliefs create our reality. Even though we can move our attention away from out chatter-box minds by connecting with stillness, we can’t stop thinking. So we might as well think thoughts that support us. Mindfulness means being aware of our thought patterns and changing them accordingly if they are out of line of what you really want in life.
“Outside of this moment I pretty much have no idea what might happen… I have some ideas, some plans perhaps but nothing is set in stone. I let life surprise me because I realise that it is so much wiser than my mind can ever be. All my mind can do is recreate what it already knows. If I give space to that what I don’t know, something amazing and magical will happen.” – Vienda Maria
Image source.
