Joy

When Joy enters our life,

it is like a calm and deep

flow of awareness.

Happiness is wonderful as well,

yet it is more like a feeling,

and like the wind –

coming and going.

Joy however

is more like the deep blue ocean,

steady, deep,

an amazingly beautiful gift.

Whoever experiences joy

does not need happiness as much.

Joy is the quieting of the soul

in the midst of everything.

Joy is when our soul rests in the

“Depth of life”,

in “God”,

in the “Source of Being”

May Joy

flow abundantly

in all our lives!

How to prepare?

Sometimes we worry about the future:

we anticipate challenges,

we fear obstacles,

we dread change.

How to prepare?

We sit in this very moment:

we breathe deeply,

we become one with our body,

we smile at ourselves.

We practice letting go:

of our racing thoughts,

of our negative predictions.

We are present in this very moment

and don’t allow our pain body

to dictate the future – that is not even real.

We practice breathing deeply,

calming our nervous system,

feeling peace enter our heart,

smiling and promising ourselves:

“I will be present, just like this,

in every change that will come.”

Letting go

There is this pull in us humans

to control the flow of life,

its natural development and the growth of things.

Resisting this pull to control

is the spiritual practice of “letting go” as in:

Letting life be, letting it flow, letting it transform

in its own time-

in its own way.

When we try to shape life

into the ways we imagine,

it will resist us,

and we will suffer.

We get restricted, stuck or anxious.

When we allow life

“to be”, flow, transform –

and we lean into it, appreciate it, welcome it –

life will reveal itself

in new colors, forms, shapes and ways

never known before.

Let go! Life invites you to dance with it!

Life after the Pandemic: “You can do this hard thing!”

Carrie Newcomer’s Song: “You can do this hard thing” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGnftH_g4I

“Letting go gives us freedom, 

and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

If, in our heart, we still cling to anything –

anger, anxiety, or possessions –

we cannot be free.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh

Did you notice the amount of hectic and stress that has come back into our lives?

Did you notice the amount of traffic on the roads?

Do you notice how we have more anxiety, more frustration and more worries

as life has sped up again.

And also: so many things have changed:

inside and outside, nothing is the same.

Letting go of the familiar is very hard.

Looking at anxiety and anger is hard.

Holding onto old familiar patterns

as if nothing has changed is hard.

Freedom comes when we embrace

this next hard thing

we need to do:

Letting go of old expectations,

old habits or possessions

and walk into the unknown.

Refusing to let stress, hectic and anxiety

determine how we feel or act.

“You can do this hard thing!” 

I completed my Yoga teacher training in 2022 with SoulWork, and I will start my two-year meditation teacher training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach next month.

My daughters are studying at Georgia State, and they created a beautiful apartment for themselves and for Luna and Stella their beloved cats.

I have started my private counseling practice “BodyMindSpiritHealth” in June last year, while I am also still working with TACC and the German Church here in Atlanta where I have served since 2014.

While remaining Christian, I have embraced Buddhism as part of my spirituality, and I have become vegan.

I am dating a man who brings joy and laughter in my life. He also went through a divorce after 25 years of marriage and raised two now grown children, just like me.

I am currently looking to buy my “forever home” close to Stone Mountain Park here in Atlanta, as I am longing to be closer to nature as I am getting older. A second home will always be in Bad Berleburg, Germany.

I feel deep gratitude to God, the Universe, for guiding me and for providing me with so much love, abundance and grace.

Grateful for family, all friends, colleagues, readers and well-wishers…. Blessings to you and to yours!

Why pray?

What if I don’t believe in a God?

Does prayer even work?

What does prayer do?

You don’t need to believe in God to pray.

Prayer is not intended to “work” or “achieve” anything.

Prayer does not “do” anything.

You don’t “have to” pray… it is not a chore or a duty.

Prayer is an invitation to practice being in “awe”

of the miracle of life itself.

Prayer means being present to this very moment, 

while seeing how interconnected everything is.

Prayer is the privilege to still breathe on this earth

and express our deepest humanity:

“as an attitude of gratitude”

Gratitude as the practice of

not taking anything for granted, 

of rejoicing even in the smallest

signs of life, of beauty and of health, 

which in itself can change 

our way of being present to life.

Here is a guided meditation 

in the form of a short gratitude prayer

that I am praying often first thing

when waking up in the morning:

https://insig.ht/U0wzyG7V3wb

If you don’t like it,

feel free to pray in your own words.

There is no right or wrong prayer.

I invite you as part of your life journey

to create your own healing practice

expressing gratitude.

Be well!

“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting  there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” Pema Chodron (“When things fall part; heart advice for difficult times”)

The journey of therapy is a healing walk.

Healing means

making room for everything that is.

Everything!

All that I think of as shameful or ugly.

All that society labels as dysfunctional or bad.

Everything!

Including those moments of joy,

of shifting and changing –

those new patterns evolving

and deep relief felt.

Everything!

There is a movement

of coming together

and of falling apart.

And when we fully explore

and accept

these movements,

healing happens within us.

Everything

finds its place,

even though life’s journey

will always remain 

messy and complex.

And that is OK.

                   “I have done my best today, and the rest – I let go”…

So much has come at me today,

so many tasks, challenges, people…

I have met everything as best I could,

And what I have missed, I let go…

I let my feelings come and honor them as best as I am able.

And those that are too much – I let go…

I watched my thoughts come by like clouds blown by strong winds –

I let in those that are life giving – and I let go of the rest.

As the evening comes, and the night welcomes me softly,

as if wrapping me in a warm blanket,

I whisper to myself: “I have done well today, and I forgive the rest”…

And then I let go and surrender to the friend,

the rhythm of my breath named “sleep”…

“Joy  and Happiness arise from letting go. Please, sit down and take an inventory of your life. There are things you’ve been hanging on to that really are not useful and deprive you of your freedom. Find the courage to let them go.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“Things” that deprive us of our freedom

and that really are not useful

nor bring us joy or happiness

can be:

possessions,

relationships,

old habits,

mindless attachments,

dependencies on certain comforts,

substances or behavior patterns.

It takes courage

to sit down,

to pause,

to reflect,

to take an inventory

of all of those “things”

and admit the deprivation

and lack of freedom

we feel holding on…

It takes courage

to let go.

It takes courage

to experience

the initial emptiness

that conscious

letting go brings,

and yet

suddenly

feel joy

like fresh spring water

bubble up,

flowing and

filling those empty spaces,

of heart and mind

with freedom

never known before…