Tag: meditation

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Finding Happiness – SleepyOne Ayurveda Beach Resort Day 3

Picture by Chris Remspecher in 2016 on the way finding happiness.SleepyOne Ayurveda Beach Resort Day 3 – finding happiness

A rainy day, filled with finding happiness and even more frogs :) In the past, rain has never been my best friend. That changed when I got to know Ala”™aa from Kuwait. She loves rain! Since I send her clouds and rain, oh and snow, videos whenever possible, my perception of rain changed drastically. In Europe we tend to complain when it rains. If you think about it, every plant needs rain and the sun. We breathe in and out. All the time only sun is”¦ well – Kuwait :) Today was a very rainy day and surprisingly, it made at least 3 people happy.

This brings us directly to the Ayurveda center.

Today the information sign had the following message:

“The answer lies within ourselves. If we can”™t find peace and happiness then it”™s not going to come from outside”¦”

Take rain. It made me sad in the past. Rain these days is still wet but makes me smile now. The rain did not change. Experience and knowledge changed my pre-programmed reaction towards rain. How can we change our coding? Let”™s keep it easy and have a look at our routine “Rain”:

Rain {
       mood=okay;

       weather = what_is_the_weather_outside?

       if weather=rain
           then
              mood=sad
           else
              mood=happy
           endif
     }

The trick and problem we have is our bandwidth for mood$. Horrible, desperate, sad, bored, yeah, ok-ish, okey, good, great, supergreat, awesome, terrific, bombastic and YUM! A lot of choices. If you want to sell marmalade don”™t present the customer more than 5 different flavours. If you present more, they will be confused, too much information, and finally the brain will lock-down and start the escape routine – they run away.

A ZEN proposal: can we reduce the code variables for mood$, say down to 3?

sad – smile – happy

Next time it rains, you might still be sad. Around the 3rd time you notice the new code still has a bug. That”™s OK. Our brains need some time to compile the new code. You reached the next level when you suddenly notice yourself watching or standing in the rain and you smile :) When you are happy with your new rain routine, you can move on with the next one on your path finding happiness.

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SleepyOne Ayurveda Beach Resort Day 1

SleepyOne Ayurveda Beach Resort picture by Chris Remspecher in 2016.SleepyOne Ayurveda Beach Resort, Day #1.

My Ayurveda doctor has 6 fingers but only on her left hand. When I first saw it, better, when my eyes first saw it, I did not see it. It took my brain some time to find something similar to bring it to my attention. Suddenly a scene from the movie GATTACA popped into my mind. A genetically ”žoptimised“ piano player had 6 fingers but on both of his hands. There were special piano concerts for two hands with 6 fingers. Is she a better doctor with 11 fingers? Why am I here?

Today I was wondering when we stop to ask important questions, why are bananas yellow, why is the sky blue, are red chilies spicier than the green ones, why is the upload of this wifi connection so slow? Today I ate a green banana! And yes, it was 100% ready and super yummy! There are green bananas on earth!

So when and why do we stop?

Why do we settle for mediocre knowledge and TV-wisdom? Guess we, include me, got lazy. No more standing up to switch a TV-channel. If you read this later than 2030”¦ well a TV was something like Youtube. But only with 3 channels. Fixed. In content and time. The future was very predictive, two weeks ahead, no surprises. Is surprise a negative or positive feeling for you”¦ and why?

In the evolution of mankind surprises could mean: a tiger jumps into your cave and eats your BAE for dinner. Not funny, unless you are the tiger. Building fences helped to minimise surprises. Oh! And a gate, we need a great GATE.

Can you see a connection between the evolution of remotes and the rise of fast food? With only 3 channels, the marketing departments would have had a hard time to explain the use of the buttons 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. So we got more TV-channels. When we passed around 30+ channels, the print media got a bit nervous. The TV-future became more and more less predictive. TV-shows and movies on demand changed the way we lived, how we shop and when. The fixed plan to prepare meals got corrupted and et voilà, fast food is here!

Why waste time for cooking? Just plug in something, pizza, chips”¦ even eatable in the dark.

These days, 2016, the remotes – we call them ”žsmart“-phones now – can also display the content. In other words, we eliminated the way from the couch to the TV. Less steps, great! That”™s why we need fitness trackers now to tell us if we reached our goals. Smart.

In an Ayurveda lesson today, a 10-finger doctor spoke about several rules or daily routines. One was about sweating. His point was: people hop from one AC to the next. Automatic climate controlled spaces everywhere. Home, car, work. If you live in Iceland, well, think about something else.

Our skin is like a firewall, or a security system. If we don”™t sweat on a regular basis, daily”¦, we don’t get rid of stinky stuff. Nature designed our temple, the body, very intelligently but we are smart a$$es these days. Maybe that”™s why we don”™t like surprises. The ”ževerything under control“ feeling is much more powerful. I guess, that is why we get some illnesses from time to time. To teach us modesty.

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Lessons learned in 2016

Lessons learned in 2016 by Chris Remspecher.

Lessons learned in 2016

My personal keyword for 2016 is: health. So essential and yet so overlooked, underestimated and out of focus in our busy lives. We take it for granted, most times we take little responsibility but feel huge anger when our body gives us signals. How did my Ayurveda chief doctor in India say ”žour bodies are wonderful machines“. Again, all starts with the monkeys in our head.

”žYou are what you think.“ Buddha, Ghandi, your brain, any TV, ”¦

What”™s going on inside your head? Are you the BOSS of your neurons? How do you sleep? Some say, we are all connected. If we talk about the internet, nobody would disagree. And then again, is your consciousness connected to your body signals? Do you notice them AND do you take action according to them?

Maybe you like to work a lot to feel needed. Your body is your greatest supporter and delivers more for less over a real long period. A day filled with 8 hours of work, or 9, 10, well, more is possible, too. At one point, you feel out of balance but that’s a relative feeling. There are a lot of tricky things to make you feel ”žback in the game“. They even work for a little while and your body keeps sending you signals. Off course, you can also ignore the red flashing low fuel sign in your car. Finally, your body will tell you when it needs your immediate attention and pulls in the hard brakes. You know it: ”žoh hello sickness“ or if you are on the professional level ”žoh hello hospital“.

Do we learn from it? Hopefully. For a little while in the aftershock we are super sensible, cautious, enlightened and eat super healthy, treat our body first class, pray and what else is needed to get it back on track. And then, laziness strikes back. No signals, no attention, bring on the champagne and potato chips!

In the last few years, I seen too many good people die way too early. Life is short. And just recently I had to disagree with my best friend in London about ”ževerything is under control“. Nothing is under control. Think about it. We don”™t even know if our galaxy is inside a dream of a squirrel and thats the real reason why the world is going nuts these days!

My lessons learned in 2016?

  • Life is short.
  • Your health is your wealth.
  • Life is a journey, only travel with those, who will catch you in case you fall.
  • Your brain is your world: shit in, shit out.
  • You can”™t buy happiness. Yeah, no real news.
  • Ayurveda is kick-ass science!

If I have useless suggestions for 2017?

  • Get your brain in order. Train it, own it. Re-write your code. Meditate. You create your world.
  • Be crazy. Intelligent. Love your-self.
  • Let all energy suckers go. Yes Steph, also you!
  • No need to save the world. Save your own ass and drag some others with you.
  • Travel. Life is a journey. If physical not possible for you, feed your brain with new nuts.
  • SMILE! 😊

Hope this is somehow useful for you. And thank you to all those lovely souls worldwide who kick my ass to write more on my blog. Bizous!

Namaste Chris

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Another day in paradise or why life is so lovely

Another day in paradise picture for the blog post by Chris Remspecher in 2016.Another day in paradise or why life is so lovely

Not everyday feels like another day in paradise. Some start weird, tired, sad or a mixture of all. Recently a workmate died very unexpectedly and way too early. Most of us were shocked, sad or just did not want to believe it.

Right now, it”™s just like he is still on holidays.

Yesterday was his funeral. It was sunny, hot and a bit windy. If you wear a black suit with a tie while standing in the direct sunlight, it”™s like waiting for the overheating alert on your mobile phone. My brain was about to complain not being within acceptable operating temperatures, but thankfully the ZEN switch kicked in and suddenly I was very happy to be alive!

Life is so lovely outside your comfort zone!

Why do we (I) need funerals or serious illnesses to really understand that each day is another day in paradise? When you wake up tired or feel totally like a sleepy one, there are at least two options:

  • hating the day, work, life and every mosquito on the planet
  • modeling a micro grin and being thankful for another day in paradise

Do you remember how many training lessons your brain needed to keep you in balance on a bicycle? Our brain needs our help for a better morning routine! Some ideas of a better foundation for your day:

  1. realize you are awake, breathe in and out, smile
  2. stand up (slowly) and drink a glass of (warm) water
  3. do a short meditation for 1-2 minutes
  4. eat something light like an oatmeal with an apple
  5. surprise somebody with a special smile 🙂

At the end of the day, or your life, all those little things changed us. A smile, a motivating ”žwe will make it!“ or a friendly ”žgood morning“. Thank you!

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Work Life Balance in 2016

work life balance in 2016 picture by Chris Remspecher in 2015.How is your work life balance in 2016 so far? Yes, we all have plans, but sometimes it seems, that God just laughs about them.

An emergency surgery was not in my plans for 2016! Total reset of my work life balance.

If you love your job (or not), it happens that you are going to work overtime. What starts in homeopathic doses can quickly end up in a supersize meal. To commute daily between home and work burns out additional time. Maybe you know the feeling:

There is never enough time.

In our work life balance pie, the percentage share of work is continuously growing. We trick our brain in thinking that everything is still fine. Hey, it’s still a full pie! While the shareholder value of life is invisibly shrinking, balance is silently fading into the background.
When there is not enough time, we start to postpone things: Meetings with friends and family, our hobbies, dreams and health. Food is just something on the sidetrack, time for cooking is rare and meditation is pure luxury. At some point, the cosmos (or the empire) strikes back.

To be under general anesthetic is like somebody pushed the reset button. While sliding back into your very own reality, I bet you are not immediately pondering about work related problems. A fluffy void embraces you. Painkiller pancake peace.
Being out of balance inevitably attracts stress which sooner or later leads to pain. No, not the French baguette! The real one, like something is tearing you apart, physically or mentally. That’s the moment for baseball:

Balance is the bat, work the ball and life is your home run.

Below are notes I have taken for my work life balance in the fluffy void.

More heart:

  • To oneself.
  • Personal.
  • Job wise.

Wait less, do:

  • Fulfill dreams yourself. Do not wait for somebody who MAYBE will satisfy yours.
  • Communicate your ideas.
  • Share your opinion in shorter intervals. If they like it or not.
  1. Love.
  2. Live.
  3. Work.

Hamsters do love their wheels and that’s OK. Work life balance is not something you can buy in a shopping mall or book in a travel agency. Finding your personal work life balance is work (ha!), but finally it’s an investment in your most important shareholder: your life.

 

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Front Desk Manager Stress

Front Desk Manager Stress picture by Chris Remspecher in 2015.Have you ever experienced any form of front desk manager stress? Recently I had a medical appointment at the end of a long day.

Perfect moment for front desk manager stress!

Me: waiting silently 1-2min in front of the desk.

Assistant suddenly: “You have to wait!”

Me confused: “Then I have to.”

Assistant already stressed: “Please?”

Me grumpy: “If you say so, then I have to wait.”

Assistant f$!%&: “… !”

Me wondering: not so happy about the actual vibes…

After pondering for a while, next time I will use a better response, something like:

“I see you are very busy right now. Off course I wait until you have time for me. 🙂 (the SMILE is important)”

Benefits for front desk manager stress:

  • Me feeling less grumpy while waiting.
  • Assistant feeling less stressed while finishing her current task.
  • Waiting time will be same or even shorter.

Proposal for assistants with future ZEN grumpy clients:

“Thank you for waiting another moment! :-)”

Hope this is useful for somebody. Namaste.

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Jealousy in a relationship

Jealousy in a relationship is like old dry emotions. Free the jellyfish from your brain!

Jealousy in a relationship.

Is jealousy a useful feeling? Absolutely! It tells you immediately, that you lost your inner peace. Most probably you see or hear something around you, which is not in harmony with your inner world.

Imagine a jealous feeling like one of these old tree branches. One alone is still an obstacle, but quite good to handle. With time, we collect more of them, they just seem to swap over us with the waves. Like old, dry emotions occupying our mind.

Jealousy in a relationship is like a jellyfish in a lousy environment. Yea(h), lousy. Next time the jellyfish is in your brain, ask yourself:

“What does this topic has to do with myself?”

  1. Think about it.
  2. Speak about it.
  3. Change, what you don’t like about it.

If others are jealous of you, yea(h) lousy, but not your business! Their jellyfish.

Big thanks to Miyuki who asked me to write about it and Merci! to the lovely photo location scout, Katharina!

 

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The Keymaker of Pont des Arts

Picture for "The Keymaker of Pont des Arts" by Chris Remspecher in 2014.The Keymaker of Pont des Arts

What do all the love locks at Pont des Arts and a Tibetan sand mandala have in common? They both disappear very soon. Just a few weeks back a railing finally collapsed under the weight of thousands of love locks.

While I took some pictures at Pont des Arts, an old gentleman was passing by. Let us call him, Claus. Claus did cross the bridge in a slow, but efficient speed. He did not have to stop, because of all the tourist like some fast sportive runners had to. Reminds me of the Tibetan saying:

”žSometimes you have to walk slower to reach your goal faster.“

Did he think about the narrow-mindedness of the humans species trying to grab a glimpse of infinity? Or did he wonder about those coming back and searching the traces of the past, checking if their love (lock) is still there”¦Â Some say

”žall wisdom is useless without work. And work is senseless without love“.

Can we carry any load?
Maybe Claus is the Keymaker of Pont des Arts. Sure, all the heart locks attract Photoshop lovers from around the world, too. Can a piece of rusting, heavy-metal be something like a promise?

”žIf I”™m knocking on heavens door, do I have to unlock all these locks?“

Again, the problem with external, material symbols is: they soon fade away. You might be quite happily while you are at Pont des Arts and kinda locked down your love (”¦) via a love lock. You jump for joy and think ”žI”™m glad my key is in my pocket“! Years later you come back searching your love (lock) and be like ”žOh god!! Where is mine??“

Claus has been crossing the Pont des Arts already for decades. He knows a lot about the burden of locks, love and liberty. After all those years, he knows the perfect place for a love lock and its key: a loving heart and a smile.

A big Merci! goes to: Eu Genie, Leon H., Roman Tiker, Gisela H., Nicole M., Simon S., Steven K., Gwenette S., Uwe S., lesewunder, supercalifragelistik, insidemyorbit, hexepimmie and diamor3.

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Travelling to Paris

Picture for Travelling to Paris by Chris Remspecher in 2014.What happens if you are travelling to Paris?

1. You leave your comfort zone.
Yes, my couch loves and understands me too. But your sofa will not kick you up the Montmartre to the most loveliest view over Paris.

2. You have to move your butt.
When you made it up to the top at Sacre Coeur, you will most probably miss your couch already”¦ but(t) remember(s), that our body was made for exploring, walking around, dancing , or running in the rain!

3. You have to adapt to unforeseen situations.
The sign might clearly tell you, the train will leave from the left track, but there”™s already a train to the right of the platform. In Germany, we would expect the train to leave precisely from the left side. In France it”™s possible that, for no understandable reason, the train on the left, today, leaves from the right side. Open your mind”¦ 😉

4. You might see things you don”™t like.
In the area of the 18th arrondissement and generally in Paris, you might see homeless, beggars, guys who want to give you stuff for ”žfree“ (never-ever take something in your hand, unless you really want to buy it) and others might sell you ”žtop-new“ mobile phones. Without a receipt for sure. If you feel like you want to help, focus and do it in an organized way, for example via mycharitywater. And from the ZEN side, it might sound harsh but it”™s not your business.

5. You might see things that make you smile bright.
You can”™t plan or buy to meet a very old French couple in the streets of Montmartre giving you tips and insider info you”™ll find nowhere else. Unforgettable are their smiles when you *listen* to them and just be thankful and give them a smile and a ”žMerci!“ for goodbye.

6. You could visit friends or find new ones.
Life is a journey. It”™s up to you, who you let go or keep by your side. Yes, you can travel all alone, but it”™s more fun to make another face smile and have enlightening conversations along the way 🙂 In my case: merci, Klaus! Hope to meet you soon again – here or there”¦

7. You might find inner peace.
I”™m writing this on the TGV on my way back home. You never get again, again this life. Traveling can help you to re-evaluate your life from a distance. Are all those things you have to do really that important to you, really? Even the shortest trip, 1-2 days, can bring you back on the right (or left) track.

Happy travelling to Paris!