| Do you consider life easy those days? If I talk to friends and family almost everyone tells me that times are hard and the pandemic takes a toll on them. And it is true. I also experienced the same over the last few weeks – a lot of beautiful work projects were cancelled due to the lockdown. Because I love to run retreats and coachings in person, it made me sad to let go of all those heart to heart connections. With the lockdown many regular social and sport activities also got canceled and for a moment I felt: Life is hard. But then I remembered one of the most important lessons from one of my teachers Wim Hof, also known as “The Iceman”: If we always choose comfort, we never learn the deepest capabilities of our mind & body. That basically means: if you just choose easy things, life feels hard. But if you choose hard things beyond comfort, your day-to-day live becomes easier. So maybe my life had just become too easy & comfortable? 🤪 (seems not enough of a challenge yet to get 2 kids through the lockdown and run Tiger & Turtle 🐯🐢 as well as my children’s book publishing.) I sat down on my yoga mat, lit a candle and asked myself: How can I choose my own challenges so that external challenges impact me less? What struggles can I choose that might feel hard in the first moment but soo good looking back? What are regular tools that allow me to grow and improve my resilience? For me – next to breathwork with lots of breathholding – it is the cold and it is waking up early. So I set my new goal for the month of December: To get up every morning at 5.45 am for an hour of power (and in the cold, rainy, dark Dutch winters this clearly is a challenge). To remind me that the joy and beauty is deep within when I sit down with myself before the world wakes up. To allow me to feel the gratitude for being alive when I am inhaling again after a long breathhold. To teach me that a cold shower is my friend because it brings me into the moment right here and right now. Tools for growth, resilience and self-improvement can be different for anyone and I invite you to sit down and ask yourself what tools you have at your fingertips that might feel challenging at first, but always help you grow in the long term. If you find yourself at times – feeling overwhelmed, stressed and anxious, – struggling with panic, overload and sleep issues or mood swings or – just feel that you need some natural tools at your fingertips to let go & fly high in those crazy times I want to give you the chance to get early access to my upcoming VIRTUAL RETREAT because I am sure that it could make a huge impact in your life. If this virtual retreat sounds exactly what you or a friend might need, jump the waitlist and send me a DM for the details to get in at a discount and secure your ticket to my 1 month Virtual Retreat, starting 28th of December. Gift vouchers are available. (Early bird: STANDARD TICKET: 165 EUR instead of 195 EUR; PREMIUM 1:1 495 EUR instead of 545 EUR) – SEND ME A DM for Early bird. I cannot wait to meet you! Love and light. Johanna |
