2020

Photograph by Alice Karayianni

Accept what is.
Release what was.
Create what must be.

2019 was a year of growth and positive transition for me, in many aspects, and I have been filled with immense gratitude. Life always has a way of showing us that nothing is ever as it seems and this ephemerality is the very beauty of it. This impermanence that can surprise you from one moment to the next, that can turn your world around. Of course, these are two sides of the same coin! But I’ve learned that whatever will be, will be, no matter what, and that the one thing I can do is to just keep giving any given moment my best. At the end of the day, our life is as good as our mindset and it is the energy that we bring into every situation that matters, how we respond to things. We need to keep those vibrations high!

Every day, we are given the opportunity to build on who we are, to become a version which is closer to who we really are, or who we want to become, at least. Every time I felt lost, I was only just getting closer to new realisations, leading me to a better version of myself. We need to let go of whatever weighs us down and needs to be lost, in order to find our truth. After all, we cannot lose what we no longer are and what is truly ours will never leave us. We just need to have the courage to face our life in all its light and its darkness; I always keep reminding myself that it is through the cracks that the light gets in. It has become a personal mantra over the years. It’s through these cracks that we learn to love ourselves a little more, to accept ourselves for who we are and, in turn, to accept others for who they are. It’s through the cracks that we grow.

And this brings me to my last point, letting go of expectations and the pursuit of perfection. We have this impulse of wanting to know how everything will unfold, a need to figure everything out before its time, to be in control. We have this fear that if we are not prepared then something might go wrong and things won’t be as perfect as we imagined them to be. But how many times has life proved to us that it is unpredictable? And how many times have we resisted a moment simply because it did not satisfy our expectations? We should finally start embracing that uncertainty and allow ourselves to linger in the unknown from time to time. When nothing is certain, everything is possible, the landscape is infinite.

For 2020, I hope we learn to slow down and take a step back from all the chaos around us; to surrender to what is rather than what should be. To appreciate the people we love a little more, to love with actions and not just words, to really experience each moment life brings to us and to make the most of the opportunities brought our way. The present moment is all there is. I hope we learn to embrace the imperfect nature of the world around us and, in doing that, become more understanding and compassionate with ourselves as we are, transforming only in ways that bring us closer to our true self. And, in our continuous pursuit of finding meaning and whatever it is that makes our soul expand, I hope we always keep an open heart and an open mind.

Here’s to a year of magic!

Happy 2020 to all :)

Peace of Wild Things

Photograph by Alice Karayianni

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry

Float Away

Photograph by Alice Karayianni

I've built you a boat 

To be the will that guides you 

I'd be the way, 

I'd be the one that holds you 

Holds you

Under the Same Sky

So long, lonesome by Explosions in the Sky

I’m not very good at making specific plans. Just meet me under the sky somewhere and be alive with me.

~ Victoria Erickson

I’ll take you to my favourite rock.
We’ll get sun-soaked while marvelling at the view;
The vast panorama of endless green,
The crystal clear, turquoise waters in the distance,
The blue, above us, infinite.

You’ll feel differently up there;
Disconnected, yet very connected.
We’ll close our eyes;
The gentle breeze caressing our faces, 
We'll tune into the stillness without and within.

I promise you'll feel the magic...

By Alice Karayianni

2019

Photograph by Alice Karayianni

To be a gentle mover in a swiftly spinning world. To be present. To extract the poetry. To only entertain the real. To listen. To seek the genuine. To stand inside of the stretch, the momentum, the tall discomfort of change, the knowing that you don't need to rush the practice, or ever fake or force a thing. To believe in rhythm and movement. To trust in the river, the song, the stillness, the storm, and the seed.

~ Victoria Erickson

Yet another year is coming to an end and here I am writing yet another 'end of the year' blog post. One thing I’ve realised is that my blog posts have greatly decreased in number over the last couple of years. It’s funny because I’ve had an increasing (desperate) need to express myself and yet the more I wish for words to just flow right out, spill readily on paper, the more stagnant I feel. I’ve been suffering from persistent lack of inspiration and it’s been frustrating!

You see, my head is a very busy place. I feel too much and yet I don’t write enough to make up for it, to balance things out inside. I just can’t. Creating and analysing don’t go together, and I tend to analyse, a lot. And language hasn’t been in my favour recently either, it seems. Eternally faced by a blank page - or screen for that matter. So how can you tame a heart that is bursting with feelings when the voice within you runs out of words? (I’m actually asking, here.)

My continuous struggle over the last years has been to know myself and to be real. REAL. But it’s been quite hard. Because what does it mean to know thyself? It means to be connected to the source of who we really are, to our higher self. That is the only way to live authentically. But it seems that we are all living in this prison we have created over time, limitations we have created in our minds through our experiences in life while growing up, through conditioning. But it is only by going beyond that conditioning that we can find our true essence, that we can be free… 

Knowing thyself entails being true to yourself. It begins when you start loving yourself enough to be open and honest about every single thing. Learning to say ‘no' to whatever doesn’t feel right and starting to let go of whatever no longer serves you. It begins by understanding and making room for who you really are, all your feelings and emotions, both positive and negative. You have to deal with the darkness if you are to break this shell that you’ve created. And don’t worry about being vulnerable in the process, it’s through that crack that the light gets in. 

So be present, be mindful in every single moment because this is the only way to allow your true self to emerge. This is where you free yourself from mental barriers and stop identifying with a false sense of self, it is where you stop being unconscious. I find that we constantly define ourselves by what other people say about us, but what do they really know about us other than what we show them? They are merely projecting their own unconsciousness onto us and mistaking that for who we are. We are all wonderfully complex beings who keep growing and transforming, so stop letting other people’s perceptions of you halt your progress!

Not everyone will understand your journey, but that’s okay, because what is real will always stay either way, I can guarantee that. 

So for 2019, I hope you finally get to travel lighter. I hope you keep remembering to let go and just BE where you are, alive, in the moment and, most importantly, at peace (with yourself). And I hope that, in this everlasting process of finding yourself, you finally find the happiness you long for.

Remember, the only way out is in. 

May this be a year of beautiful transformation :)

Butterfly Effect

Photograph by Alice Karayianni

My brother used to ask the birds to forgive him; that sounds senseless but it is right; for all is like the ocean, all things flow and touch each other; a disturbance in one place is felt at the other end of the world.

The Butterfly Effect. I've always found this theory quite fascinating. How a single action can affect a whole path and, not only yours, but the paths of all other people who are meant to cross your path at some point in their life. It's something that's always on my mind. If I'd done this, how would things be different now? And if I hadn't done that then I wouldn't be where I am now. 

I don't believe in randomness. It makes life pointless. I believe that there is some sort of predetermined fate, a certain course we are each meant to follow, a set of lessons we are meant to learn. A different set for each one of us, depending on our level of consciousness. We don't get to choose the experiences we are handed in life, but we get to choose how to react to them, we get to make our own decisions. This, in turn, determines whether we've learnt our lesson or whether we need a similar experience to happen again in order for us to learn what we have to learn. Isn't this the point of life? To grow and to become better? 

I also don't believe in a single life. Once again, what's the point. What’s the point of the soul even, why nurture it and help it grow if nothing is to come out of it? The soul is what continues on to our next life, it’s what gets reincarnated, and it carries with it all the lessons and experiences gained from our previous lives. We tend not to be aware of that. That’s why we sometimes feel that we’re not all on the same frequency. But that’s fine because we’re all growing somehow, each at our own pace. 

We are all striving for the same thing, even if it’s not apparent to us. So we should accept people as they are; be kind, be compassionate and, most importantly, be loving. And remember, a single positive action can create a positive ripple effect. We are all connected, we are all one. 

The Wilderness

Alone Time by Explosions in the Sky

I carry veins that consistently need nature injections.

I’ve always been a nature girl. I’ve always been drawn to the deep magnetic pull of nature, be it the mystical mountains or the sea. Both overwhelmingly beautiful. Wild landscapes are my thing. This is where I feel most like myself, this is where I keep finding myself. How can something be both grounding yet elevating?

How is it that my mind is most clear when I’m laying on top of my favourite rock - on top of the world? How is it that water - salt water - is so emotionally and physically healing? How is it that forests leave me in awe? How is it that I’m most grounded when walking barefoot on sand? The calming power of the sunset and peach-tinted skies. The soothing energy of the moon, always overlooking.

In nature I feel most protected; in nature I feel most comfortable. In nature I feel whole and one with everything, connected. This is where I make my most genuine connections. I could live in this world of mountains and forests, the sea, forever. Always dreaming, always feeling, loving, always.

We lay on the grass, under the blue sky. Our warm skin touching. We talk endlessly, we soak each other in. 

Lavender

Photo by Alice Karayianni

The first time I slept in his bed 

he asked me if I liked the smell of lavender 

and since then 

everything that calms me has been purple.

~ Alessia di Cesare