NICOLE OHME

My dear Yogis and Yoginis,

I know a lot of us are carrying so much weight on our shoulders.
A lot of stress and too many things to complete by the holidays and end of year.
Maybe it’s a good time to reset. To let go of some that heaviness and get some energy and clarity. 

“Consciousness is
the new sexy

Inner Peace is
the new success

Kindness is
the new beautiful”

~ Themindunleashed.com

Whatever it is that helps you to find moments of peace and clarity:
– journaling helps you to set your goals and track your habits
– conscious breathing and meditation helps to center yourself and find some inner peace
– practicing to feel gratitude helps you to connect to your heart,
elevates your state of being and find clarity

All of these are great tools and can be practiced in just a few minutes and are easily integrated in your daily schedule.
Taking more time out of your day to practice yoga will allow you to move stagnant energy and tension. Most of the day we are living in our heads. Your yoga practice brings you back into your body and
connects you on a deeper level with your essence while including the tools above in your practice.

Monday 28.11.
Stirring up the Energy
Flow

Wednesday 30.11.
Full Consciousness
Slow Flow

Thursday 01.12.
Open Theme
Yogis Choice

Friday 02.12.
Clear Intention
Flow

I am sure you know all this, but sometimes we just need a little
reminder 🙂

Love,

Nicole

My dear Yogis and Yoginis,

I got beautiful and encouraging feedback for my blog about
“Trust & Control”, because it was very personal.
This is another recent personal experience and I found this article
addressing some of the issues. Here a few excerpts out of it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Man’s freedom doesn’t lie in being able to do what he wants, but in not having to do what he doesn’t want to do.”
~ Jean-Jaques Rousseau

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“If you love me and my development is important to you, you will not forbid my NO or take it away. Not even with quiet pressure. And if I love you, I won’t blame you for the fact that sometimes the only way you can be true to yourself is to say NO to me. When the word NO is honest between the two of us, we manage to stay free.”
~ Ulrich Schaffer

“Self-care means that we say goodbye to everything that is not good for us. And that works by consistently saying NO to everything that doesn’t suit us. By daring to set boundaries, we show that we have the courage to love ourselves at the risk of disappointing others.
However, many of us lost a sense of healthy boundaries in early
childhood, leaving us stuck in disproportionate adaptive behavior. And that makes it extremely difficult to lead a self-sufficient,
self-determined life. But: We can develop this authentic, autonomous self. Can learn to take good care of ourselves.
In fact, that is our mission in life. It is the task, the fulfillment of which makes our soul shine. …

This ability to set boundaries requires courage, strength, perseverance and a willingness to deal with conflict.
But it is precisely these skills that we need in order to develop a stable, self-determined ego. …

The path to inner peace and true strength is therefore to take good care of ourselves. That means we need to be clear about our own needs, interests, and goals, define them for ourselves, live by them, and commit oneself to it. …

Too often, however, we expect others to know when they’re going too far. But each of us has very individual limits. So we have to be very clear about what is tolerable for us and what is not.”
~ Christiane Schönemann

When I grew up I was raised to please people and that my needs are not as important as other’s. Taking care of everybody around me
became second nature and if you feel needed or appreciated, it felt
almost equal to being loved. It was so easy and I became like a chameleon. I needed less and less which doesn’t sound that bad. But I didn’t even know anymore what I want or need myself and had no idea where my boundaries are or where to set them.

I have been questioning all of my behaviors already quite a few years, but change doesn’t come easily when you practiced these trades so well for more than half a life time.

Covid arrived and I felt like not only life changed a lot, but
relation/friendships as well. At that time I also had to let go of my beloved dog and soul mate. Almost a year later I adopted an other dog.
As many of you know she is challenging me since almost 2 years now
and I finally got it – I have to change!
This beautiful soul had me set boundaries; what a painful process.
In the last couple months I was able to do this also in other parts of my life. Changes concerning family dynamics and old friends are not easy and equally painful, but at the same time freeing and
empowering. 🙂 I know these are the first steps in the right direction and by staying aware I will be able to stay on the path.

Monday 21.11.
Energizing the Center for Strength
Flow

Wednesday 23.11.
Full-Hearted Yes or No
Flow

Friday 25.11.
Put that Love on Yourself
Slow Flow

You may not be able to relate to any of what I am writing, but there is always a bit more care we can give to ourselves in this fast paced life!

Love,

Nicole

My dear Yogis and Yoginis,

If you look humility up in the dictionary, it sounds rather degrading and negative, but if you have a deeper look into it you will find that it is actually a strong and not weak character trade. A virtue that sounds to most people old fashioned and seems almost forgotten about.

In different religions it is a necessity; also writers and C. G. Jung
writing about it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Humility is the ability to view yourself accurately as an individual with talents as well as flaws while being void of arrogance and low self-esteem. Some believe that humility is having low opinions of yourself, low self-esteem, and a lack of confidence. It is in fact the
opposite, humility is having the self-esteem to understand that even though you are doing well, you do not have to brag or gloat about it.

It is important to stay humble because having humility not only helps you develop a more kind approach to interacting with others but it also influences how you perceive yourself and the world around you.
Humility helps one extend more compassion and empathy to others.

Most would consider humility the antonym of pride and may associate pride as being a bad trait to possess. Pride is the appreciation of
yourself and your beliefs, it is having confidence and assurance that you are an important and relevant contribution to this world.
However, if pride becomes extreme that is when humility is absent and a person may exhibit selfish or narcissistic behaviors.”
~ Tiara Blain

“Humility is the courage to go beyond one’s limits – it is what lifts us, makes us grow and expands our hearts. And it is only through it that we learn to truly love…

We can’t learn, practice or study humility – we must mature in life
itself before we have the opportunity to truly develop it.
Mindfulness, self-love, letting go, honesty, devotion, gratitude – all of these will ultimately lead to humility.”
~ Dorothee Teves

“Humility is the courage to descend into one’s depth and darkness.”
” Humility is not a goal, but a constant touchstone on this path – it asks and questions again and again: who are you – why do you do what you do?”
~ Benedictine Father Anselm Grün

“The attitude of humility frees us from false prestige; At the same time, however, it requires a healthy dose of self-confidence, because it is
often harder than you think to see and accept yourself as you are and not as you would like to be.”
~ Cistercians of the Abbey Seligenthal

“Humility is a virtue of the second half of life, in which it is about
letting go of the outward orientation, the striving for recognition and prestige; turning inward to listen to those voices of the unconscious that challenge the standards of the conscious.”
~ C. G. Jung

Monday 14.11.
Letting go within the structure
Slow Flow

Wednesday 16.11.
Open Heart
Gratitude Flow

Thursday 17.11.
Open Theme
Yogis Choice

Friday 18.11.
Self-Acceptance & -Love
Flow

I can’t think of more wonderful people to walk the path together with than all of you!

Love,

Nicole

My dear Yogis and Yoginis,

These definitions and meanings I found in the net
about trust:
 ‘Belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc. …
Trust, assurance, confidence imply a feeling of security. trust implies instinctive unquestioning belief in and reliance upon something, …’

about control:
‘In psychology, control is a person’s ability or perception of their
ability to affect themselves, others, their conditions, their
environment or some other circumstance.’

~ ~ ~ ~

I don’t know about you, but I find it more and more difficult to trust humanity and feel the circle of trustworthy people has been shrinking in my life. At the same time a life without trust brings so much
unsettling feelings with.
So much in this world is about trying to control or being controlled. Trust is becoming foreign. As you know only if we are aware of things, we can change them.

Here is a little collection of different inspirational quotes I would like to share with you.

“Life without trust is a life in turmoil.” 
M. K. Soni

“Trust is what we do each day, when we get out of our bed and put our clothes on. It is the thing that makes it possible for us to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Iyanla Vanzant, Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts

“Without self-trust, we can never become wise because we will
continue to look outside ourselves for the answer. 
M. J. Ryan, Trusting Yourself

“Trust can be gained or lost in the small things as well as in the big
areas of life.” 
Tony DiLorenzo, The Trust Factor

As some of you know the blogs are mostly about things that occupy my mind at that particular time. I would like to share with you a little life story of mine.

I grew up in a rather strict household. Leaving Germany in my late teens I thought I left quite a bit of it behind me. Till recently when I discovered that the german saying “trust is good, but control is better” was pretty much ingrained in me.

I have been struggling with my young rescued dog for quite some time, trying to getting her under control especially when it comes to our walks. Because of her being a hunter, I haven’t been able to let her of the leash ever. I managed to teach her to not pull that much
anymore while on the leash and lately I have been doing exercises with her to develop a stronger bond between us.
I didn’t trust her in almost all areas – other dogs, people, walking on the leash; it was exhausting and made me feel sad, helpless, stuck and at moments having anxiety.

Two days ago on my walk with her I was thinking, I want her to trust me, so I need to start to trust her as well.
And just like you probably wouldn’t let your kids take your car on a vacation trip right after receiving their license, I decided to let her off the leash only for a short period in an area with the least amount of distraction. She stayed close by and came back to me at times to get a treat. I hardly can put it into words what I felt – such a heartwarming and rewarding experience!
To see a glimpse of what our “companionship” could be like brought such joy and hope back to me. Today she was more than half of the walk without the leash, I played the edge as well and once won, once lost, but still in the end I had her back by my side. I know that there will be times where I will be there waiting or looking for her, but something inside me shifted after feeling a spark of freedom for the both of us.

Now I am looking at trust like a muscle that needs to be trained. There will be moments where you see you were not strong enough to do a certain thing yet, but with great awareness, joy, patience and a light heart you will built a strong lasting muscle.
I think it is time to transfer this experience to other areas in my life.
Like they say, you always get the dog/animal you need to grow in your life. Her first lessons were about setting boundaries and becoming a stronger person and she was not holding back to teach me already the next lesson about trust and control 🙂

~ ~ ~ ~

Of course we are all different. Are you more trusting or controlling? Are you overly trusting or controlling? Or are you lacking trust or control? I believe to find a balance in all of this takes a lot of
conscious awareness and the willingness to inquire within.

How does that affect our yoga practice on the mat?
We control our movements to our best of knowledge, but then there is the time to trust the body and body memory, enjoying the ride.
Sensing, feeling, becoming aware will lead our practice from control to trust to freedom inside and out.

Monday 07.11.
Balance Trust & Control
Continues Flow

Wednesday 09.11.
Trust
Blind Flow

Thursday 10.11.
Open Theme
Yogis Choice

Friday 11.11.
Transition & Balance
Flow

Thank you for your trust in me – see you on the mat!

Love,

Nicole