Cool and Calm

Have you ever heard this little whisper in your ear: start a new job, write about your dream, take the opportunity… But our mind is louder: better do what is safe, don't take risks, ... and then we follow the same old patterns again and again. This little voice is our intuition - our gut-feeling, and we should listen to it because we often overhear our inner desires and needs. Daily meditation helps. To be still for a while and listen within can also improve your awareness. Here is a 10 step method on how you can improve to listen to your gut-feeling.

• Sit or lie down in a relaxed position and close your eyes.
• Place your hands gently on your belly chakra, about two finger-widths above your belly button.
• Breathe deeply into your belly and visualize yourself supplying the area with fresh energy. You can also imagine breathing in directly through your hands into the belly.
• After a while, visualize a warm yellow field under your hands, spreading like a sun around your belly button.
• Immerse yourself in the color and the image as deeply as possible. Now go in the helicopter position and observe yourself.
• Listen curiously to all impulses that arise - without judging and wanting to force something.
• Stay relaxed and listen to your breath whenever thoughts come up to distract you
• Decide for yourself when you want to leave this state. You can always leave this exercise and try another time again if you wish. Let images that appeared go and dissolve. Then feel your breath on your belly.
• Release your hands from your belly, inhale deeply through your nose and exhale heartily through your mouth.
• Open your eyes and turn your attention outward again.

Imagine having a hot flash and jumping into ice-cold water.
Does it feel good? Then next time you get a hot flash, imagine exactly that.
It helps.
Have a nice weekend everybody and take some time just for yourself!

Today I would like to share a beautiful salad recipe.
It's originally from Annabel Langbein, but we added and changed some ingredients and still vary it from time to time. I love it so much because it contains lots of peppermints which has a cooling effect.

The dressing is relatively standard: olive oil, vinegar, mustard, pepper.
Ingredients: thinly sliced onions, thinly sliced fennel, two handful baby spinach, two handful peppermint, one handful basil, lettuce, peas, 6-8 cocktail tomatoes, and pieces of cucumber. Pomegranates or frozen raspberries and parmesan cheese on top (parmesan is full of calcium, so great for your bones.).
You can also add asparagus or any other green vegetable.
I hope you like it.

The practise of gratitude has become so important to me.
I do it every morning before I start to meditate. It is a beautiful way to begin a day. Not only does it bring me in a positive mood, but it also reminds me of the good things that happened to me. It lifts my mood and gives me the energy to follow my dreams. As Lisa Nichols says: " If your dream is the seed and the action is the water to grow the seed, sunlight is the consistency to grow the same seed, called your dream, gratitude is the fertilizer that makes it grow sooner, quicker and faster. Energy grows, where energy goes.“

There is no doubt about it: coffee is not good during menopause.

It wounds up the nervous system, increases hot flushes and can even make you more tired after a first energy push.
But do you like coffee as much as I do? So what can we do? Drink coffee, live with hot flashes, become even more stressed in menopause or skip coffee, and drink peppermint tea (which is very cooling)?

I decided to keep my daily coffee but do my hormone yoga exercises beforehand.
I also don’t have my coffee for breakfast anymore. I try to drink it before or afterwards, so I am aware of every sip I drink and really enjoy it. Sometimes it happens that we have a coffee, and it’s gone before we even have thought about it. By enjoying every moment of it, you keep yourself in the present time and make sure you don’t want another one. The best, of course, is to get rid of coffee and have only a cup from time to time. What is your coffee experience?