Vani is the Managing Director at Kalaari Capital, a venture capital firm based in Bangalore. She is a renowned investor and a visionary known for identifying emerging markets. Vani enjoys spending time with her family, practices yoga and Heartfulness meditation,believes in sustainable living and grows enough organic produce in her garden to meet her family’s needs.

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Vani Kola

<h4>VANI KOLA, venture capitalist and founder of Kalaari Capital, is interviewed by LAYA IYER about moving to the United States to study, and what she has learned from her experience of living and working in different cultures. She also shares her views on the value of direct communication and setting expectations.</h4><hr>Q: What were the most important things you learned when you moved to the US from India?VK: I moved when I was 20. It felt like limitless possibility. I was discovering my potential, both academic and creative. I was going into a university environment, a melting pot, so maybe the cultural shock was not too great. It was a stepping stone, because it was an insular environment. There were so many resources available – libraries, the variety of classes – and it was a time of enjoyable learning and having fun!Q: Are there any experiences or stories that stand out for you still today?VK: I found that people were mostly very helpful. I learned to ask. When you don’t know something, and you ask, people take the time to help you. That is something that has stayed with me. Also, how important it is to do the same for others. That’s on the positive side.During my first summer, I was looking for a job. I found one, but I didn’t think to ask, “How much are you going to pay me?” or “Is there a contract I need to sign?” Instead I said, “I want to work,” and they said, “Yeah, sure come on over.” I didn’t get paid at the end of the first month, but I couldn’t ask. I thought, “Oh well, maybe they’re just running late, and they’ll pay me later.” Obviously, that was very naive.I really needed that summer job, because as a student I didn’t have a lot of money. So, after six weeks, I said, “Hey, I just need to check when I’ll get paid.” They said, “But this was not a paid assignment. We didn’t say we’d pay you.”I learned two valuable lessons. One, never do that to somebody else because there is a cultural difference or naivety – do not try to benefit from somebody else’s ignorance. I think they knew I was ignorant, because I came from a different country, and I didn’t know to ask how much they would pay me, I just assumed they’d pay me. Leveraging somebody else’s ignorance burns that person up!The second important lesson was to be very clear about expectations, about anything, from anybody. Ask, be upfront, and don’t be shy about it. Often, people say, “Don’t worry, we’ll deal with it later.” And you don’t know when they’re going to deal with it or if they’re going to deal with it. “Let’s deal with it now, before we embark on something. Let’s have clarity.”Sometimes people think it’s not nice to ask, but my experience says it’s better to have very direct communication and clear expectations in a relationship, whether professional or personal. You can avoid unexpected disappointments, and you can avoid friction in relationships.Q: What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received about being a woman in STEM?VK: I happen to be a woman who is working in STEM, but it’s not an identity. I think we label ourselves too much. I don’t want that. I don’t like to be boxed into those categories&nbsp; like, “What is it like to be a woman and a venture capitalist?” or “What is it like to be in technology?”If I were to give advice, it would be against overthinking or overanalyzing risks while taking decisions, and just going ahead with whatever it is that you are trying to do. Don’t try to be a conformist; don’t try to be a rebel either.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Clear_Communication2_49dac56a23.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T12:06:19.921Z" alt="Clear-Communication12">&nbsp;<hr>Q: What does #leveltheplayingfield mean to you?VK: Democratization of opportunity. It means that we are thoughtful about our unconscious bias and we change this to provide opportunity to people equally. For instance, in the context of working women, level the playing field means giving women the opportunity to continuously rise in their organizations.Q: And what’s your advice for people who are looking to be entrepreneurs? What are their next steps forward? What actions can they take?VK: First, build some experience. Also, to be an entrepreneur, it’s important that you are passionate about some idea, some problem you wish to solve, and have the skills required to solve it. Work systematically on developing these skills.Another is perseverance to achieve your goals. There may be many setbacks, so learn to deal with setbacks. And find the right mentors who can be there and can help you.Q: How would you go about finding a mentor? Or is there a specific way you recommend approaching people to be your mentor?VK: You have to be specific about what you are looking for. For instance, I am looking to understand how I can build my early sales compensation structure; or I’m trying to solve a design problem; or I’m trying to get some feedback on our marketing strategy. Approach mentors in a way that they can be in a problem-solving mode with you.Second, don’t look for mentors who can help you with everything. For instance, I may be the wrong person to ask, “How should I build a sales structure?” Ask people who can help you in a specific area?Q: Thank you so much for your time.VK: You’re welcome.<hr>

How clear is your communication?

Varsha is an interdisciplinary artist based in Baroda, India. Her works and projects have been exhibited internationally, most recently at Documenta 15, Kassel, in Germany. &nbsp;She is currently co-organizing Womanifesto: Flowing Connections, which will open at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center in September 2023.

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Varsha Nair

<h4>The Womanifesto collective came together in Bangkok in the late 1990s to fulfill the need for an inclusive, creative, and open-ended art platform for artists from Southeast Asia. It was primarily set up as an independent project run by women, and is now a globally recognized entity, involving multiple art forms and artists from all over the world. One of the coordinators, VARSHA NAIR, shares her experience of this movement and its evolution with VANESSA PATEL.</h4>Q: The Womanifesto collective has members who are artists, poets, writers, and activists, with the outcome based on shared experiences and dialogue exchanges. So, has it been more about the gathering and feeling of community that it has engendered rather than the creative work produced?VN: Yes, absolutely. Always, we have brought what we would like to present, to exhibit, to talk about – it was never curated. It was not only about the artwork, but about what led to that artwork and how we arrived at that point. It has also been very much about the ethos of caring for and supporting each other. For the second event, one artist was short of money and everyone pitched in to support her.&nbsp;With funding for projects from sponsors, we have retained our autonomy for decision-making, e.g., how big their logo is on posters and catalogues, and where it is placed. These are important decisions that came out of our conversations about running Womanifesto.We don’t ask our members to register; no one has to pay money to belong. We don’t exclude people. If somebody reaches out to us with interest, we engage with them and invite them if there is an exhibition coming up. Also, we don’t limit ourselves to exhibitions; we have diverse ways of engagement.&nbsp;Our first project was on a farm, involving the local community; the second was a very big exhibition in a public park. We didn’t want to be based in the center and limit our output to having exhibitions only.&nbsp;Q: How often did you gather for these collaborative events?VN: Every two years. As artists we are also the organizers, and we have our own lives. After an event, there’s a lot of follow up. Then you need another year to realize another event.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We want to involve as many women artists,&nbsp; and&nbsp;also have a cross generational approach,&nbsp; because that’s the other thing about the art world&nbsp; – age discrimination, especially for women.</h4><hr>Q: How is Womanifesto different from other artists’ platforms?VN: In the mainstream art world, there’s a way of looking at things top down. Whenever there is a big show with a lot of funding, the big names in the art world are invited to participate, and then they reach out to minor players, almost as fillers to complete the curation. The funders have a stake in it, and the curator has to keep them happy, so it all becomes a big game.&nbsp;Womanifesto is the opposite; it is inclusive and representative. We invite men into thematic projects to talk about human issues and to listen, because in the art world it’s a known reality that we’re always talking from the male perspective. So, one idea is proper representation.&nbsp;Q: Apart from gender, in what other ways does Womanifesto encourage representation?VN: In our second event, we had artists from Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Croatia, America, and many other places. And we are open to the idea of anyone organizing projects under the Womanifesto banner and adhering to what it stands for. Suppose you have an idea of doing a workshop in Indonesia, you could involve us in the organization and set it up however you wish.&nbsp;We want to involve as many women artists, and also have a cross-generational approach, because that’s the other thing about the art world – age discrimination, especially for women. What we emphasize is conversations with elders. They are the ones who have lived through many experiences and gained wisdom and knowledge. That’s where the interest is; that’s where the real conversations can happen. And we now set up projects that are pointedly cross-generational. We soon realized that we didn’t want to just do exhibitions, and that we enjoyed the gathering of women artists.&nbsp;We have tried to look at everything through a different lens; for example, in a residency, do we have to produce and display work at the end of it? Can we have a workshop without a “work” to take away from it? That was the idea behind the 2001 workshop on the farm: even though it was a workshop, we didn’t have to make work. It was inter-generational, we were going away on a picnic, all living together, cooking, eating, and spending time together. And this brought about a lot of exchange, sorrow, and fun.&nbsp;The focus was on conversation, exchange, and working with children on an educational program. All the artists came up with workshop models that we could run with children from the age of 7 up to senior students from a local technical college. At the end we had an open day, which was a great celebration with local music and lots of food.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2008_Residency_wrkshp_by_Naruemon_Padsamran_f7b0fa788c.jpg"></figure>Everybody from the surrounding villages was involved; we put contemporary artists with local traditional craftspeople and artisans, who were making fishing baskets, mats, woven cloth – everything that they still continue to use in their day-to-day life. These were agrarian communities and there’s a real rhythm to their existence. During the rice planting season, everybody is in the fields. Once the rice is planted, and they’re waiting for it to grow, the weaving and the dyeing of yarn happens.We hosted everything on the farm so that the community members would come to the farm every day and show us how they made various things, talk about it, spend the day with us, and food would be cooked for everybody. &nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2008_Womanifesto_Mae_Pan_explains_natural_dyes_copy_46db7a9286.jpg"></figure>Q: So they shared the arts and crafts of their everyday life – not necessarily something to hang on the wall or display.&nbsp;VN: Exactly, it’s an integral part of their life.&nbsp;We also talked about new forms. For example, they were interested to see an artist make a fishing basket with a slightly different look. Already the object is faultless in that it’s been used to track fish for centuries, and it works very well. But the exchange, another level of creativity, awakened both sides. In many ways it was the artists who learned more – we gained knowledge of materials, the locality, the skills, and how to scout things out.&nbsp;For example, one of the artists running a workshop asked the kids to lead her through the farm, which had a little creek running through it, a forested area, and rice fields. In the forested area, she asked them, “Show me what you know about the plants growing here: which are good, for cooking, for eating, and why?” She wanted to determine how much of that traditional knowledge was being handed down. They were asked, “What has your grandmother told you?” “What has your grandfather told you?” “Has your mom told you anything?” There was an emphasis on keeping that knowledge at the forefront, because the gaze is so much turned towards cities for employment.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Everybody from the surrounding villages was involved;&nbsp; we put contemporary artists with local traditional craftspeople&nbsp; and artisans, who were making fishing baskets, mats,&nbsp; woven cloth – everything that they still continue to use&nbsp; in their day-to-day life.</h4><hr>It reinforced the richness of the rural environment and honored our codependence with Nature. There is immeasurable wealth in community living and the handing down of the tiniest of details. One girl said, “If you touch that flower, don’t put the finger to your mouth or it will make you sick.” From childhood, she’d been made aware of all of those little things.&nbsp;We’re planning a similar workshop in a couple of months, which will be included in the next exhibition later this year.Q: Is that to celebrate any particular milestone of Womanifesto?VN: We started in 1997, which was a milestone already because we did it against many odds and with a lack of funding. We have managed to sustain this format over the years with some core members who were there from the beginning. In terms of organization, we did everything inhouse, from write-ups to accounting. We’ve always had other artists joining, and doing projects that involved a lot of artists.&nbsp;One recent project was a publication, Procreation Postcreation, which went out as an open call globally for artists to participate. We had an amazing response with people from Mongolia to St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands sending us their work. The idea was that you procreate, and then what happens after you’ve created? Those are very widely interpreted in many ways. One response was from a man who had recently become a grandfather, writing about his experience of being in a hospital waiting for his daughter to give birth. Another person documented children’s textiles. We had really diverse contributions. In this way we’ve set up projects to bring in new people.Womanifesto is very agile. We frequently change format, and we tend not to decide on the next project while one project is coming to an end. It’s never preconceived. One is a stepping-stone to the next. We went from a community-based workshop, to a publication, to a web-based project, to establishing a residency in the same community where we did the workshop.&nbsp;Our next project, the workshop residency, is a bit more thematic. We’re concentrating on ceramics and earthenware pottery, because it’s close to a UNESCO World Heritage site called Ban Chiang. Their pottery is well known and valued, and there’s still a community of mostly women potters. So we’ll probably only bring in four or five outside artists, and mainly invite potters from the local community. We don’t differentiate between those who’ve been brought in as contemporary artists and those from the local community. We are all partners.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2008_Residency_Students_workshop_f254be6415.JPG"></figure>Q: Recently, Womanifesto had its work included in the Asia Art Archives in Hong Kong, which is a huge deal. How significant is this for the collective?VN: We don’t always realize how valuable it is to gather our material, our documentation. While working with the archive, I’ve realized that every single bit of paper created from 1997 onward is so valuable. It was a fantastic process to archive it, and we did it mostly during the pandemic lockdown. At Womanifesto, we’ve always had to talk about ourselves, so as not to become invisible, and this has helped us do just that. These days, you cannot talk about art in Southeast Asia without mentioning Womanifesto.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2006_No_Mans_Land_web_project_postcard_front_75b0c851fa.jpg"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">We don’t differentiate between those who’ve been&nbsp; brought in as contemporary artists and those&nbsp; from the local community. We are all partners.</h4><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2003_Pro_Post_publication_2a1214788c.jpg">We’ve kept meticulous records, and beautiful photo albums with hand-stitched covers that are works of art in themselves, lovingly put together. We have every slide, every negative, every project proposal, every application for funding – we’ve kept it all. Already there are researchers who’ve reached out, for example, the Cooper Gallery at the University of Dundee. We were part of a project called the Ignorant Art School, which is looking at artists engaging in alternative modes of education.&nbsp;Q: So the next big thing for Womanifesto is the exhibition coming up in September at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.VN: Yes, and simultaneously there is an online anthology of Womanifesto, called the Womanifesto Way. Now there is a recognition of our “way,” which is to be hospitable, caring, open, engaged in community conversations, and with the capacity to be agile.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2008_Womanifesto_Residency_open_day_89f53f298f.jpg">This anthology project was spearheaded by the Power Institute at the University of Sydney. And in the meantime, we were approached by the Bangkok Art and Cultural Center to showcase Womanifesto in what they call their Master Series of exhibitions. It’s a massive project.&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/2020_Varsha_Nair_performance_for_Gatherings_2020_Baroda_She_found_herself_standing_there_e26dde5192.JPG"></figure>There was a hiatus for 10 years, from 2008 to 2018, because of various personal challenges for the team members. Early on we had decided that we would would not push ourselves beyond our limits to ignore all the other things that we needed to take care of in life. And ironically, just when things started to revive, and we planned a physical gathering, we were hit by Covid. During that time, we came up with the idea of the Digital Courtyard, where a team of artists from multiple locations had small gatherings. We met over Zoom from Bangkok to Baroda, Berlin, Sydney, Basel, and London. And we realized what it meant to have this connection during the lockdown, to be able to gather and to be able to exchange our stories.&nbsp;www.varshanair.studio/ <a href="http://www.womanifesto.com/">www.womanifesto.com/</a> <a href="http://blog.womanifesto.com/">blog.womanifesto.com/</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by VANESSA PATEL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Womanifesto

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Varshitha Kusi

Guidance

Vasco lives in Portugal. He works as a Human Flourishing Facilitator, inspiring change and transformation in organizations worldwide for a more human and compassionate world. With a toolbox of cutting-edge awareness-based technologies, and trained directly by some of the world’s greatest specialists in the fields of Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, neuroscience and Heartfulness, his dream is to co-create the future, something that he has been doing in different organizations, training people worldwide. He is now dedicated to merging different practices, like Mindfulness, Heartfulness and Presencing, into the service of a greater good: Human Flourishing. What really drives him is his love of nature and animals, being a positive activist for the protection of the planet.

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Vasco Gaspar

<h4>VASCO GASPAR is a Mindfulness consultant and Heartfulness trainer living in Portugal. Here he shares a simple effective practice to down-regulate emotions.</h4>We all sometimes feel stressed, anxious, fearful or angry. It’s part of the experience of being human to feel emotions, something we share with all other mammals to some extent. Actually the part of our brain that is involved in the processing of emotions is called the limbic brain or mammalian brain.Emotions have been helping us for thousands of years to deal with the environment and survive. For instance, if we’re crossing a busy road and a car is coming straight towards us, it is very good for us to feel fear. It will mobilize our physical resources to run away or jump back from the front of the car. And we don’t even think about it because most emotions are faster than our conscious mind. That is also an advantage from an evolutionary point of view. Taking the car example again, it would not be useful for us to think about whether it is a Mercedes or a Ford. That split second of reflection could cost us our lives.But that evolutionary advantage comes with a price. I had a teacher who used to joke that we are all descendants of the nervous monkeys. Why? Because all the relaxed ones didn’t made it. The ones that were the first to run were able to survive and reproduce. In fact most of us, by default, constantly keep scanning the environment for threats, and we react to them using the same mechanisms we used to fight lions or run away from other ferocious beasts.In our modern lives fortunately we don’t have as many physical threats as our ancestors, but we’re using the same brain mechanisms to deal with problems that are mostly conceptual, like the fear of losing a job, the anxiety of speaking in public etc.What can we do when we are in an emotional state that is not useful? For instance, imagine that you have to speak in public and feel so afraid that you lose the capacity to think clearly; or you had an argument with a colleague in a meeting and now you arrive at the next meeting still angry with him. Or even that you feel mad after spending an hour in the car on your way home after a frantic day at work and don’t want to take those toxic emotions to your small child waiting for you at home.Is there a simple practice we could do before stepping onto the stage, into the meeting, or arriving home?Something that would help us down-regulate the excessive emotional state and bring us to a balanced and coherent state. If you’re a Heartfulness practitioner my suggestion is to use the Cleaning process, which I find very useful.Another possibility is to do the following steps that take less than five minutes:Go to a place where you can be alone. It can be a room, your car or even the toilet.Breathe in deeply, filling your lungs, and then breathe out as if you were blowing a candle, until your lungs are completely empty.Repeat the process three times. That will help you bring oxygen to your system and balance your inner state.Allow your breath to come to a regular rhythm and put one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. Sense the hand you prefer on these parts of your body. Normally one combination will feel more familiar than the other.For one minute or so, notice how your hands move as you breathe. Is it the hand on your chest that moves more, or is it the one on your belly? Are they moving more or less the same way? Just follow the movement, with a sense of curiosity. Some people notice that just by doing this they feel calmer. Some scientists argue that it is related with our physical memory of a hug, especially when our parents held us when we were babies, when we were crying.Now just move the hand on your belly along with the breath. Do it as if you had a balloon in your belly: As you breathe in the ‘balloon’ fills and your hand moves away from your body. As you breathe out the ‘balloon’ empties and your hand moves closer to your body. Your breathing process will become more abdominal. Since the lungs are bigger at the bottom, you will bring more oxygen to your system, allowing you to be more awake, aware and able to self-regulate. Try to keep this abdominal breathing going for 30 to 60 seconds.Continuing abdominal breathing, now add some counting to the breathing process. Breathe in and count mentally up to four. Breathe out and count mentally up to six. Do it at your own pace. Breathe in counting to four; breathe out counting to six. Keep doing this for one minute, coming back to the process of counting if you are distracted.This will help your mind to keep focused on an object and not to think about what is stressing you. And by regulating the breathing process it will also impact your heart and circulatory system, bringing your whole system to a more coherent state.In the last minute of the exercise see if you can bring your mind to an image of someone you love and care about. It can be someone from your family, a friend, or even an animal. Just hold that image in your heart for a while.You can keep doing the breathing process if it is useful, or simply just rest in the image of a loved one. The rationale here is simple: the same way that you feel stressed when you think about something that stresses you, you feel calmer and more balanced when you think about someone who evokes positive emotions in you.That’s it. Very simple, right? Even my almost 90-year-old grandmother does it daily. And it takes less than 5 minutes.Just give it a try. The next time you feel that your emotional system is out of control, just stop and go through these simple steps. You can do them together or just do one or two. Notice which steps have a deeper impact in downregulating your emotional state and then use them whenever you need. After that, go into your day.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by VASCO GASPAR</h4><hr>

Bringing your system to balance

Practices for human flourishing

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">VASCO GASPAR asks us to explore how we can become truly alive. Like Einstein, he invites us to remove the delusion of separateness and connect with the whole. He challenges us to move from “ego to eco,” and gives us the tools to manifest the world of the Heart.</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">&nbsp;</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Becoming whole, connecting our essence with Life</h4>Life is a great mystery. Many times we wonder about our role and who we really are. I invite you to get in touch with the depths of your Heart and reflect on the following questions:What is the real goal or purpose of human life? What blocks us from manifesting that potential? Who can help us flourish into that higher possibility?I’m always inspired by a letter Einstein wrote to his daughter, where he said, “A human being is a part of the whole called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”To me, that seems like an inspiring answer to the first question-that our real goal is to dissolve our boundaries and unite with the whole, unite with the Universe/Life/Source/God (use the term you prefer that resonates the most). That is what words like yoga and religion seem to point to in their origins.What is blocking the way to achieving that goal? What really stops us is our ego, with its fears, desires, and attachments. Also, the parts of us that, although trying to protect us, end up creating even more constriction and boundaries between ourselves, other people, and Life in general. As some say, the word ego can be an acronym for “edging God out,” which seems entirely aligned with what blocks us from flourishing.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Our real goal is to dissolve our boundaries and unite with the whole, unite with the Universe/Life/Source/God.</h4><hr><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/connecting_with_life3_888adfccd5.webp" alt="connecting-with-life3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_connecting_with_life3_888adfccd5.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_connecting_with_life3_888adfccd5.webp 432w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/connecting_with_life3_888adfccd5.webp 432w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h4 style="text-align:justify;">From ego to eco</h4>How can we move from “ego to eco,” from the constriction of our small self to the infinite expansion of our being, our higher Self, connecting with the whole web of life? And who can help us achieve that?I believe the answer lies within, beyond the body and beyond the mind. It resides in the Heart, in the Heart of our Heart, the Self, that deeper healthy core inside, that inner divine Light that has always been shining. The Chandogya Upanishad pointed to it many centuries ago: “There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in your heart.”As we connect with that divine presence within, we start getting guidance to attune to Life. We start “stepping out” of our own way and letting Life live through us. The words “surrender” and “service” become the beacons of our existence. We start surrendering to the guidance that Life is constantly sending us, receiving it with our Hearts, which in turn then guide us in the right direction. We manifest who we truly are in the world and how we can be of service to the larger existence we are part of, contributing to the greater good.Step by step, we become a walking prayer, as the Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast says: “Prayer is not sending an order and expecting it to be fulfilled. Prayer is attuning yourself to the life of the world, to Love, the force that moves the sun and the moon and the stars.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/connecting_with_life4_76e48f35c8.webp" alt="connecting-with-life4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_connecting_with_life4_76e48f35c8.webp 145w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/large_connecting_with_life4_76e48f35c8.webp 697w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/connecting_with_life4_76e48f35c8.webp 697w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Nurturing the connection</h4>I find many practices helpful to establish, attune, and nurture that connection with Source, but the main ones guiding my journey have been <a href="https://bit.ly/hfnmedit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Heartfulness Meditation</a> and the <a href="https://bit.ly/hfnprayer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Heartfulness Prayer</a>. Prayer helps to create an inner connection with that divine presence, and meditation strengthens it, allowing me to be in tune with Nature and evolve spiritually.We are all sparks of the Divine, walking each other home, back to the Source. What would happen if we could maintain that connection, that remembrance of the Divine within and without? To see ourselves and others beyond the masks. To see us all as one, part of the same Being. Imagine a world like that.Is it easy to do? No. Is it possible? Yes. It takes one step at a time, expanding our awareness to a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness we share with each other and our environment. The more we expand, the more we include and transcend our boundaries and realize our full potential for goodness, compassion, and peace, while navigating through the challenges of Life.May we all find ways to become our divine essence and manifest it in the world for the benefit of all beings. May we all realize who we truly are, surrendering ourselves to the divine guidance that is always present. May our spirits blossom and flourish while we help others to flourish as well. May we, together, manifest the world our hearts know is possible.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL</h4><hr>

Connecting with life

Vedo’s roots are in India, and he now lives in the UK. An engineer by profession, he also enjoys the great outdoors and nature's beauty, and his personal practices of Heartfulness Meditation and restorative yoga.

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Vedo Chatterjee

Being present

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">VEDO CHATTERJEE is on a journey to experience what it means to be truly present in the moment. He shares the pitfalls and triumphs along the way, and his current learnings as a “work in progress.”</h4>With an air of professional calm, the therapist asked Ed to pick out five things in the room. Nervously scanning the room, Ed identified the desk, a plant, the coffee machine, the computer, and a stuffed toy. Though the task seemed odd, he noticed the details of the room more than he had ever done before. He realized the purpose of this exercise was to pull him into the present moment, albeit in a dry and procedural manner.Halfway across the world, Maya was asked to close her eyes and remember a cherished moment. She picked a day when her mom had hugged her despite a colossal mess-up. The memory had assumed greater significance over time, and she always felt safe when she remembered that day. The act of recalling and revisiting the memory was meant to change her emotional state in the present, by accessing love and joy she had felt in the past.These accounts suggest a certain degree of complexity in the interplay of our emotions, motivations, and perception of time.And that raises a question: what does it truly mean to “be present”? The essence might lie in the directing of our attention. Attention exists in the present moment, even when it relates to past experiences or future thoughts. We focus our attention using the energy that is available to us at any given time. Then, perhaps energy is that fundamental irreducible aspect of our experience, which is truly rooted in the present moment.&nbsp;Imagine an ideal state where we’re energized and paying attention to matters that positively affect our life in the present, crafting a more desirable future. We all know that life is more complicated than that. Many of us feel stuck in the past, as it is still affecting us. Our attempts to regain control over an event we couldn’t control is what we classically know as “living in the past.” The complex emotions that develop from the lack of control that was experienced may be hard to navigate. And this can develop into an intense distrust and fear of being hurt again in the future. The difficult emotions, in order to protect us, can keep traveling to the past or running into the future, seeking closure. We continue with life as if being controlled by what we could not control.Control, despite its negative connotations, is an important aspect of our lives. Some amount of control is necessary to guide us toward our aspirations. It allows us to align with our dreams and goals. When we lose control, we lose the ability to steer our life in the direction we desire. It can send us off the rails, giving rise to emotional disturbance, opening the door for past regrets, future fears, and a general lack of energy, due to its dissipation in multiple directions.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">By understanding the importance of energy emotions, control, and the general sense of my life’s narrative I am able to enrich the issue and find helpful pathways along other dimensions.</h4><hr>Being present, in the way I want to be, has proven difficult many times in life. I can only suggest what might be valuable, based on my personal experiences. Limiting the idea to a temporal construct imposed upon the contents of the mind is restrictive. Being obsessed with the occupations of the mind only imprisons me in a vicious cycle of mental activity.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/being_present2_13d2f26762.jpg"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Positive emotions help me connect with my energy allowing me to find expression and meaning. I am slowly learning to give myself more readily to the present moment without being pulled in different directions.</h4><hr>By understanding the importance of energy, emotions, control, and the general sense of my life’s narrative, I am able to enrich the issue and find helpful pathways along other dimensions. By devoting my energy to the things that matter, and the people I love, I may experience positive emotions. By devoting my energy to the things that matter, and the people I love, I may experience positive emotions.Positive emotions help me connect with my energy, allowing me to find expression and meaning. I am slowly learning to give myself more readily to the present moment, without being pulled in different directions. The process can be painfully slow.Although my life’s journey has brought me to the present moment, being fully present in that moment is itself a journey!<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM</h4><hr>

Veena Mishra is a software engineer and is currently working with Ernst & Young. Apart from technology, she is also passionate about  writing and loves to pen down her thoughts and ruminations. 

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Veena Mishra

<h4>VEENA MISHRA shares her experience of learning to listen to the voice of the heart through a meditation practice. She describes meditation as the way she learned to allow the heart to speak out – “that magical tool we are all unknowingly looking for.”</h4><hr>Everything has a tendency to age and decay with time. The outer glamor of this so-called “perfect world” continues to fade slowly but steadily with each passing day. What we often do not realize is that, amid all this pomp and show, our tiny hearts are trying to speak to us. The noise around us is so clamorous, however, that the heart’s voice is drowned even before it can surface.Our heart is the most beautiful creation. This inner heart of ours is not subject to any kind of disintegration. What it needs is nourishment. If the heart is properly nourished and taken care of, then over time, as the body shrivels, the heart continues to shine, radiate love and, most importantly, guide us through life.How do we nourish our hearts? I think that meditation is a very simple yet effective way of achieving this. Meditation is that magical tool we are all unknowingly looking for. It enables us to lend our ear to the voice within that is trying to speak to us. As we meditate, the outer cacophony begins to die out and that voice becomes prominent.<hr><hr><h5>Meditation is that magical tool&nbsp; we are all unknowingly looking for.&nbsp; It enables us to lend our ear to the voice within&nbsp; that is trying to speak to us.&nbsp; As we meditate, the outer cacophony begins to die out&nbsp; and that voice becomes prominent.&nbsp;</h5><hr><hr>We often wonder how to discriminate between the voice of the heart and the so-called voice of the mind. When I began meditation, I started to realize that there is only one voice, and it is that of the heart. When caught up in any kind of situation, this voice is always trying to tell me the right thing to do. Whether I am able to listen to it or not depends on how much I have been able to detune myself from the other unwanted noises, which are a culmination of desires and ego. Meditation helps to refine these and lessen their impact on my thinking, enabling me to know my heart’s wish.Whether we listen to it or not depends on us.<hr><hr><h4>Illustration by ARATI SHEDDE</h4><hr><hr>

Magic to open the heart

The Venerable is the Director, Tibet House, Cultural Center of H.H. the Dalai Lama, New Delhi. He is the former official translator to H.H., teacher of comparative studies of modern science and philosophy, author, and advocate for universal ethics as a solution to humanity's problems.

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Venerable Geshe Dorji Damdul

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">The VENERABLE GESHE DORJI DAMDUL is the Director, Tibet House, Cultural Center of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, New Delhi. He advocates for universal ethics as a solution to humanity’s problems, and here explores the psychology of world peace, and some practical approaches we can all take to move in that direction.</h4>&nbsp;If we are to talk about world peace, we must first experience inner peace. In order to export gold, we should have gold ourselves. So, with this in mind, where do we go wrong? It’s primarily in failing to understand the psychology of inner peace.&nbsp;Think of a moment in your life when you felt the greatest peace—the most beautiful moment. Imagine now extending it to all your family members, to everyone in your country, and to everyone in the world; this is world peace.&nbsp;For that matter, just imagine the most beautiful momentous event in your mind. Often times people talk about watching a sunset, but one thing most of us have experienced is the love of our mothers when we were aged two, three, four, five, six. If you can replicate this love and affection toward all beings, that is universal peace, universal compassion.Now, how to make it happen? We have to know the psychology, how the mind works. When we were born, we didn’t have love for our mothers. But within the span of a few years, we developed such intense love for them. What made this love develop was seeing our mothers as sources of benefit. In other words, we were dependent on her for our well-being.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Think of a moment in your life when you felt&nbsp; the greatest peace- the most beautiful moment.&nbsp; Imagine now extending it to all your family members,&nbsp; to everyone in your country, and to everyone in the world; this is world peace.&nbsp;</h4><hr>So, if there’s a way to feel our dependency on others—our neighbours, our countrymen and women, the world, and Nature—that is the key. It is the secret of our understanding that “I have to take care of Nature, I have to take care of my family members, and the world’s citizens.” It gives a sense of connectedness. This is known as universal peace.In this connection, I remember when His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, was traveling in India and abroad, one question would regularly come from the audience, particularly educationists and social activists: “Where are we going wrong? World peace is going down.” And without a second thought, His Holiness would answer, “Because of the limitation in our modern education system.” Our modern education system is designed in such a way that whoever can say “two plus five equals seven” is applauded. Whereas even if you have the potential to become the next Mahatma Gandhi, if you say, “two plus five equals seven-ish,” you fail. Nobody will count your heart. Nobody will count your courage and determination, and so forth.His Holiness says we need to supplement modern education, which is actually a remnant of the industrial revolution; it must be supplemented by the education of the heart. This is the message. If this is what we can do through the cognitive understanding of our interconnectedness with our fellow human beings and with Nature, then automatically our love for Nature, and our love for our fellow human beings will happen.From a talk given during the Global Spirituality Mahotsav at Kanha Shanti Vanam, March 14 to 17, 2024.

The psychology of peace

Venkata is a qualified hospitality professional, who has been both a chef in leading hotels and a trainer of aspiring chefs. He has been a Heartfulness practitioner and volunteer since 1985.

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Venkata Murthy

<h4>
 VENKAT MURTHY
 is a hospitality professional, chef, and an educator who trains aspiring
 student chefs in Sydney, Australia. This year, he will be sharing his
 favorite Indian recipes with Heartfulness Magazine.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 45 minutes Serves: 4

<h4 id="h-ingredients">
 Ingredients
</h4>

<h5>
 Rice – 500 g Water – 750 ml Oil – 2 tbs Cashew nuts – 30 g Coriander
 leaves, chopped – 2 tbs Mint, chopped – 2 tbs Cinnamon stick – 1 Cardamom
 pods – 2 Cloves – 2 Bay leaves – 2 Star anise – 1 Onion,
 sliced – 1 medium Green chillies, slit – 2 small Ginger and garlic
 paste – 1 tbs Chilli powder – 1 tbs Garam masala powder – 1 tsp Yoghurt
 – 1 tbs Tomatoes, chopped – 4 medium Mushrooms, halved or quartered
 – 200 g Green peas – 100 g Salt to taste Lemon juice – 1 tsp
</h5>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<figure class="block-image">
 <img decoding="async" width="700" height="463" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/mushroom_biryani2_700x463_296bccfad8.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T06:16:44.747Z" />
</figure>


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


<h4>
 Method
</h4>


 Wash and soak the rice in cold water. You may soak it for as long as half an
 hour for a better result. Keep aside.&nbsp;



 Mix together the chopped coriander and mint and divide it in 5 portions. Set
 aside.&nbsp;



 Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed deep pan on a medium flame. Add cashew nuts
 and sauté until they are lightly brown. Remove.&nbsp;


Add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and star anise. Stir.


 Add onion, slit green chillies and 1/5 of the chopped coriander and mint mix.
 Stir and sauté until the onion is lightly coloured.&nbsp;



 Add ginger and garlic paste, stir and sauté for a further 2 minutes, or until
 the raw flavour is removed.&nbsp;



 Add another 1/5 of the mint and coriander mix, chilli and garam masala powder.
 Stir and cook for a few seconds.&nbsp;



 Add yoghurt, stir, and simmer, on a low heat until the liquid evaporates.
 Follow this with tomatoes, another 1/5 of the mint and coriander, mix and cook
 until the tomatoes are well blended.&nbsp;



 Add mushrooms and peas and stir for a few minutes. Now add 750 ml or 1½ times
 that of rice water, another 1/5 portion of the mint coriander mix, and wait
 until water boils vigorously. Add salt.&nbsp;



 Drain the rice and add it to the boiling liquid. Simmer until water is
 absorbed.&nbsp;



 Add lemon juice, the fried nuts, and the last 1/5 of mint and coriander on top
 of the rice.&nbsp;Do not stir.



 Cover with a cloth and then a tight-fitting lid. Place it in a preheated oven
 at 200° C for 15 minutes.&nbsp;



 Remove and rest for 5 minutes.&nbsp;Open the lid, remove the cloth, and stir
 carefully so as not to break the rice.


Serve hot with raita.&nbsp;

<h4>
 Raita:
</h4>

<h5>
 Yoghurt – 250 ml Salt to taste Coriander leaves (chopped) – 1 tbs Cumin
 Powder – ½ tsp ½ a small green chili, slit (Optional)
</h5>

<h4>
 Method
</h4>


 Whisk yoghurt lightly. Add salt and ½ of the chopped coriander leaves and
 cumin powder and stir. Sprinkle green chili and the other coriander leaves on
 top. Serve chilled.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<figure class="block-image">
 <img decoding="async" width="700" alt="mushroom_biryani3" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/mushroom_biryani3_700x463_cd533c6836.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T06:15:53.567Z" />
</figure>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h4>
 Variations:&nbsp;
</h4>


 Mint Raita: Replace fresh coriander by
 fresh mint.



 Onion Raita:
 Add chopped Spanish onion and stir carefully.



 Tomato Raita:
 Add chopped tomato and stir carefully.



 Cucumber Raita:
 Add chopped cucumber and stir carefully.



 Capsicum Raita:
 Chop capsicum, sauté until tender and add to yoghurt.



 Carrot Raita:
 Add grated carrots and stir carefully.


You can also make different combinations of vegetables.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

Photography by CLAYTON HAIRS

<hr />

Mushroom biriyani

Véronique Brasselet and Emma Milesi

<h4>This is an excerpt of a workshop coordinated by VÉRONIQUE BRASSELET and EMMA MILESI during the Heartfulness days at the Cité Internationale in Lyon in January 2016.</h4><hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">The heart’s simplicity reduces stress</h4>Stress is everywhere in our daily lives. When it is positive (eustress), it is considered beneficial; when it is negative (distress), it inhibits our potential and prevents us from accomplishing our objectives.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">What is stress?</h4>Stress is something that causes a state of strain or tension.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">What hides behind stress?</h4>Our fears. Fear is part of daily life, and it is present everywhere. According to its intensity, stress will be more or less severe, uncomfortable, challenging or crippling.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Various sources of stress</h4><ol><li style="text-align:justify;">Daily worries, for example, missing the bus and arriving late, the inability to finish all that was planned for the day.</li><li style="text-align:justify;">Undergoing fear, for example, speaking in public, a job interview, not reaching our parents’ expectations, required job performance.</li><li>Undergoing binding, sometimes crippling fear, for example, reliving an old wound that made us suffer. Examples include not being loved, being abandoned, failing, hurting others, the fear of being judged by others.</li><li>The growing pace of life, for example, fear of anything new, of change, not adapting.</li></ol>Fear/Stress is a film we create for ourselves, a mental scenario, which confines us to a narrow vision excluding reality. Our interpretation distorts reality into false beliefs about ourselves and others.Stress, in particular distress, reveals that something is not quite right, and allows us to question ourselves: “What is causing me to feel stressed or frightened?”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Various reactions under stress</h4>Our survival instinct forces us to act in one of three ways: defend ourselves, flee, or stay dumbstruck on the spot!<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Stress acts specifically at different levels</h4><h5 style="text-align:justify;">1. The Brain</h5>Stress specifically targets the brain areas implicated in coordinating cognition and emotions:a) The cognitive functions coordinated by the prefrontal cortex, such as language, memory, the ability to reason, to plan and to organize. b) Adaptability – calmness, problem solving and decision-making. c) Emotions, such as aggression, fear and pleasure, controlled by the limbic system.According to the degree of stress, we more or less lose these faculties and this can lead to lack of spontaneity, depression and even psychomotor retardation.The limbic system is the seat of our impulses, fears and angers. It emotionally colors any information received and grades it as agreeable or disagreeable. Its main function is survival by suitable adaptation to the social environment. Under stress, it focuses on survival – fight or flight – and deprives us from thinking clearly, e.g. blank page syndrome.Consequently, with stress (distress), we lose our capacity for reflection and emotions take over. Take, for example, a job interview; some will have clammy hands while others will not turn up, the stress being too unbearable.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Free_yourself_from_stress2_f516b9445b.jpg" alt="Free-yourself-from-stress2"><h4 style="text-align:justify;">How does the brain treat information? &nbsp;</h4>Imagine your brain as a multistorey house.First of all, information goes to the reptilian brain, the instinctive brain. If the body is in survival mode, for example if you are hungry, the information will be slowed down, even completely blocked if the hunger is severe. If body survival is not threatened, the information moves to the second storey into the limbic system, the emotional brain.Here the information is classified as agreeable or disagreeable. If it is agreeable, it passes through to the cortex and then you may have an answer to your mathematics problem! If it is considered disagreeable, failure is guaranteed! In the worst of cases, the limbic system will not allow the information to pass to the cortex.How does the limbic system assess information? Like an arbitrator, it adds up the plusses and minuses.For each disagreeable thought it allocates a minus, and for each agreeable thought it allocates a plus. Say you have a maths problem. If you say, “I am hopeless at maths,” or “This teacher is poor,” or “My family has never been good at maths,” it is a minus. If on the other hand you are feeling positive, then you create a plus.To continue the metaphor of the multistorey house, let’s say there is a door to go from the limbic system to the cortex. The plusses try to open the door the minuses try to shut it. The team that has the most wins.What does a team coach do before a football match? He talks positively to the players saying, “We will win,” and “We are the best,” so the information passes directly to the cortex and the team can play at its best level.In fact when information is considered agreeable or very agreeable by the limbic system, the limbic system passes it to the cortex, and then the cortex deals with it as a priority.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Free_yourself_from_stress1_eef621a864.jpg" alt="Free-yourself-from-stress1"><h5 style="text-align:justify;">2. The Hormones</h5>The hormones adrenaline and noradrenalin are released in stressful situations, and they accelerate our heart rhythm and breathing to allow the organs linked to movement to increase their functions and thus to support defense or escape.<h5 style="text-align:justify;">3. Behavior and Emotions</h5>Stress leads to:Dependency, jealousy, withdrawal and even submission, Withdrawal due to fear of showing weaknesses and not meet expectations, Difficulty in saying no, tendency to avoid conflicts, Hinders all action and relations, Withdrawal due to sadness and despondency, Compensation, such as eating disorders, drinking and smoking.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Activity: How to liberate stress in 4 stages</h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/free_yourself_from_stress_3_img_431e8b027f.jpg" alt="free-yourself-from-stress">Ask a friend to guide you through the steps.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 1: Observe it</h4>Put yourself at ease, breathe calmly and close your eyes. Observe any current stress that you feel.Identify the emotions that take place inside you when you are aware of that stress.Identify the physical symptoms that appear, such as sweating, breathing, clammy hands, etc.Identify how you react to this stress: do you run away, stand up to it, or become inert?Note the stress level on a scale from 1 to 10.Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose, and breathe out through your mouth.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 2: Feel it</h4>Recognize it, expressing inwardly, “I feel stressed because …”Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale through your mouth.Feel this stress as deeply as possible, so as to integrate it.Feel the emotions that surface. We are often afraid to feel these emotions because we think they are bad and we will become like that.Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale through your mouth.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 3: Accept it</h4>Welcome your stress without judging and with benevolence, as it is part of you.Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale through your mouth.Accept it. What feelings occur when you do? What physical changes do you observe?Welcome this new sensation, explore it, appreciate it, amplify it while breathing naturally, let it spread throughout your body, and feel the energy circulating.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 4: Integrate it</h4>Do you feel that something has changed or loosened?Be ready to listen to a new understanding.Bring your attention again to the same stress: how do you feel now with it? If there is no improvement, wait some time and if necessary try again.Note the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/unplugging-to-reconnect" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stress</a> level that you feel now on a scale of 1 to 10.Thank yourself that you took care of yourself.When we take the time to welcome what happens inside us and acknowledge it, we digest it better. We give ourselves permission to live in the present. Then slowly we will accept it, integrate it, and then transcend it.This is our personal work.When we cut ourselves off from our feelings, we try to stand back and intellectualize, and then our emotions take over. To free ourselves from our stresses is a proof of maturity and wisdom.<hr><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article and activity by VÉRONIQUE BRASSELET and EMMA MILESI</h4><hr>

Free yourself from stress

Veronique is a Montessori teacher in international schools. Her focus now is to develop Brighter Minds programs in Europe to give children the opportunity to connect with their intuition and sense of observation, which are lacking in most modern education. She finds that the practice of Heartfulness has helped her bring harmony into the classroom and bring up her own children joyfully.

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Veronique Desvigne

<h4>VERONIQUE DESVIGNE has a passion for education and teaching. So she went&nbsp;with her family to one of the most inspiring schools on the planet, near Ubud on&nbsp;the island of Bali.</h4>&nbsp;One evening in December 2008, while&nbsp;living in Seoul and being tired of the&nbsp;mass media that only speaks about&nbsp;the economic crisis and world degradation, my&nbsp;husband Alain saw a TED talk, and there we were!&nbsp;John Hardy resonated with him. The school’s&nbsp;founder and his wife Cynthia had envisioned&nbsp;creating an environment in which students are&nbsp;enabled and inspired to be creative, innovative and&nbsp;tomorrow’s ‘green leaders’. This is how the Green&nbsp;School project was born.Alain works in the field of renewable energy while&nbsp;I am involved in Montessori education. Eager to&nbsp;pass on to our children a ‘vision of a colorful world’,&nbsp;we looked forward to visiting this Green School. In&nbsp;July 2016 this dream came true.It is nestled in a green landscape on the island of&nbsp;Bali near Ubud, between the rice paddy fields and&nbsp;the Ayung river. After walking across a suspension&nbsp;bridge with such elegant curves that it seemed to&nbsp;fly, an architecture of outstanding beauty came&nbsp;into sight. The focus of the campus is called the&nbsp;heart of the school. It is made of a natural resource&nbsp;that is a giant grass, is both local and renewable,&nbsp;grows to a height of a coconut tree within two&nbsp;months and is harvested three years later. Yes,&nbsp;bamboo!Green School aims to have the lowest carbon&nbsp;footprint possible, and to be the first model of&nbsp;a sustainable economy in the educational field.&nbsp;Meshing with the surrounding ecosystem, the&nbsp;campus blends into nature and strives to set the&nbsp;bar high by hoping to induce many schools in its&nbsp;wake.The bamboo columns set a framework for classes&nbsp;without walls.&nbsp;It is an ideal space to learn to think differently and&nbsp;without limits. Each class cultivates its own organic&nbsp;garden supplying the school canteen. Children in&nbsp;permanent contact with nature interact with the&nbsp;natural environment, and we observe the direct&nbsp;impact on their behavior. A symbiotic relationship&nbsp;is then created and a respectful attitude towards&nbsp;the world that surrounds them becomes obvious.&nbsp;The students are encouraged to be responsible&nbsp;from an early age to take care of the environment&nbsp;and play while devising environmental solutions.<h4>A sustainable and holistic education</h4>At Green School, desks are not aligned in squares or&nbsp;positioned in the same direction. Time schedules&nbsp;are flexible to leave room for creativity and more&nbsp;fluidity.Green School offers a ‘hands-on’ and ‘learn&nbsp;by doing’ approach to education, stimulating&nbsp;students to be conscious and discerning. By living&nbsp;with nature and observing its rhythms, students&nbsp;develop a satisfaction to learn that goes well&nbsp;beyond the class, resulting in creative, innovative&nbsp;and critical thinkers, who are confident and&nbsp;capable of developing a long-term vision.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Students are encouraged&nbsp;to take initiative from&nbsp;a very young age, as&nbsp;a part of the school’s&nbsp;commitment to create a&nbsp;new generation of green&nbsp;leaders.</h5><hr>The curriculum covers three topics: classical&nbsp;subjects, such as maths, English and science,&nbsp;green studies and the arts.These are all influenced by geographical and&nbsp;cultural fields. It offers a balanced approach to&nbsp;inspire young children to learn, and equips them&nbsp;with the appropriate and relevant tools to nurture&nbsp;their passion, preserving our planet at the same&nbsp;time.By studying rice, for example, children learn to&nbsp;have a global vision of the development of the&nbsp;seeds they plant. They also learn to appreciate the&nbsp;need for healthy nutrition while cooking the crops&nbsp;they have grown and serving them for meals.&nbsp;Habits change naturally when being conscious&nbsp;that our blue planet is not indestructible.Climate change and sustainable economy are&nbsp;essential subjects, which enrich the programs&nbsp;for older students. Applied physics is encouraged&nbsp;during engineering projects such as a bridge&nbsp;construction. Focusing on the natural environment,&nbsp;the students explore this project from A to Z and&nbsp;highlight all the physical elements and forces to&nbsp;be studied. Students are given the space and&nbsp;time to create a dynamic and interactive project,&nbsp;where everyone’s enriched contribution boosts&nbsp;confidence and stimulates entrepreneurial spirit.<h4>Read the complete article in Volume 2, Issue 1 &nbsp;</h4><h4><a href="//www.heartfulnessmagazine.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SUBSCRIBE &amp; DOWNLOAD</a></h4><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article By&nbsp;VERONIQUE DESVIGNE</h4><hr>

Green School: an inspiring source

Véronique is a French pediatrician, meditation trainer, and Yoga instructor. She was a coordinator of the International Heartfulness Training Programs and a co-founder of the Heartfulness program for cancer patients. She is currently the Director of the Heartfulness Yoga Academy.

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VERONIQUE NICOLAI

<h4>DR VERONIQUE NICOLAI presents the Yoga programs now offered by internationally certified Heartfulness Yoga teachers. These programs integrate the meditative practices of Heartfulness with traditional Yoga postures, and a deep knowledge of the human system from Yoga, Ayurveda and medical science.</h4>“Can you come every day to do these sessions? It will help us to sit through the day.” This 32-year-old man from Switzerland is part of an Executive MBA program in a five-star hotel in Chennai. Like the rest of this group, he is fit and young, hitting the gym several times a week to stay in the competition that his professional life demands.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness2_6703100599.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:13:19.609Z" alt="hfnwellness1">Yet he, and the group in our Yoga session that morning, felt the effect of Transmission. He was sharp enough to understand that starting the day in this condition would help him get through the intense corporate training. So at the demand of the group, we came seven days in a row, teaching them all the tools of Heartfulness. It was our first attempt to integrate Heartfulness Meditation and Asanas.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness3_566db6be43.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:07:49.414Z" alt="hfnwellness3">Heartfulness is Raja Yoga for the modern world. The practice starts directly with the seventh step of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga, Dhyana or meditation. It is a shortcut to human evolution. The possibility of evolution of consciousness is given in this pure and simple approach. There is nothing superfluous; maybe it seems too simple at first glance and therefore it is not attractive. But if you study deeply the philosophy behind Heartfulness, if you experience it genuinely, you will see that the practice encapsulates Ashtanga Yoga, with all the eight limbs concentrated in their purest form.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness4_fd7e52bd80.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:08:22.040Z" alt="hfnwellness4">The fast pace of our daily life is not conducive for all to sit quietly with eyes closed. Asana prepares the person to sit; through body movement the mind is quietened, and Asana allows a deep relaxation. Not many are attracted at first glance by meditation but many are interested in doing something good and holistic like Yoga; and meditation is part of a Yoga class. With the help of Yogic Transmission, there is no need for long hours or years of purification of the body and mind through Asana, Pranayama, and the Shatkarmas, as this is taken care of by the practices of Heartfulness.<h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness5_721430f196.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:09:08.800Z" alt="hfnwellness5"></h4>Since that first attempt to integrate ‘Yoga + Heartfulness’ in a five-star hotel, Heartfulness has developed many wellness programs. With a group of Yoga professionals and Ayurvedic experts, the Heartfulness Wellness and Yoga team offers preventive health weekends, daily Yoga classes, an introduction to Heartfulness Yoga, and a one-month certification program to become a Yoga teacher with international recognition.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">WHAT IS HEARTFULNESS YOGA?</h4>Heartfulness Yoga offers a series of simple Asanas, not only for the sake of exercise, but to improve health and posture. At the same time, these Asanas help us to calm the mental and sit comfortably for meditation. Heartfulness Yoga allows us to experience the fundamental elements of Heartfulness through movement. We discover our subtle structure and the three bodies, we open the heartspace and feel its immensity, introspect and note our inner condition, and witness its transformation through journaling. We start our spiritual journey or Yatra, connect to the Source and stay connected while being in action. We quieten the mind, enjoy meditation, and rejuvenate in order to start a balanced and happy day.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness6_e9d5a7825a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:09:48.300Z" alt="hfnwellness6">This practice also brings people together: as we refer to the heart throughout the class, and as all the hearts are connected, the group naturally and beautifully moves from ‘me to we’, removing the veils that keep us apart.For those who want to dive deeper, who are interested in the philosophy of Yoga, and who look for a full immersion, we offer the Heartfulness Yoga Teacher Training Course. This TTC is a transformative one-month program that takes us step-by-step through traditional Yoga, its philosophy, the modern schools of Yoga, all the eight limbs of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga, and the transformative effect of Transmission in the Heartfulness Way.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness7_349f4ae9b9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:10:23.383Z" alt="hfnwellness7">Transmission is pure love and works at the deepest level. At the end of the month, a group of certified Yoga teachers graduate with the possibility to teach all over the world and pass on their experience. They also transform into new beings and witness the changes offered by Heartfulness, when it is practiced intensely for a short time.<h5><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/hfnwellness8_4553cd71e8.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T08:10:59.946Z" alt="hfnwellness8"></h5>Heartfulness Yoga programs are open to all: people who already practice Heartfulness, new seekers, Yoga professionals and complete beginners. It is a different way to learn and live Yoga.https://heartfulness.org/education/yoga-trainers/ in.wellness@heartfulness.org<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by DR VERONIQUE NICOLAI</h4><hr>

Wellness & Yoga

<h4
 id="h-veronique-nicolai-is-the-director-of-the-heartfulness-yoga-academy-and-the-coordinator-of-the-yoga4unity-platform-as-a-pediatrician-she-is-also-passionate-about-mental-and-physical-well-being-for-all-ages-especially-children-here-she-is-interviewed-by-varsha-kushwaha-about-her-own-journey">
 VERONIQUE NICOLAI is the Director of the
 Heartfulness Yoga Academy and the coordinator of the Yoga4Unity platform. As a pediatrician, she is also
 passionate about mental and physical well-being for all ages, especially children. Here she is interviewed by
 VARSHA KUSHWAHA about her own journey.
</h4>



<hr class="vertical-space1">



Q: Thanks for joining us Dr. Veronique. We wish to know where
 your journey started, and how is it you’re here today?&nbsp;



VN: Thank you for inviting me. To make it short, I
 started with Heartfulness Meditation, a modern form of Raja Yoga. I didn’t start with Asana and Pranayama but
 directly with meditation. It answered the need I had when young to understand myself better. That’s why I also
 became a doctor, to understand how we work.



Why Heartfulness? I was impressed with the people who were doing it. To be precise, they attracted me because they
 were joyful. I felt they were well established in their family, successful in their profession, fun and authentic. I
 could be who I wanted to be, and it was extremely relaxing. Maybe that’s the purpose of yoga, to feel relaxed. I
 wanted to know what made them like that, and made me feel that way in their presence. There was joy. Only much later
 I discovered that yoga is all about inner joy.



I didn’t stumble into yoga after a trauma or an event. I was having quite a nice life, but I did have a question from
 childhood onward: “Why are we here?” I would ask, “Why go to bed if I have to wake up in the morning?” I felt that
 deep search for the purpose of life.



By the age of 21, I had an apartment, I was studying to be a doctor, I had great relationships with friends, and I
 thought, “If this is life, then I’m done. It can’t just be this! What am I going to do for the rest of my life?” I
 needed to find something deeper. And when I met people who were meditating, I could see that they didn’t have the
 same insecurity.



<hr class="vertical-space1">



<hr>



<h4 class="has-text-align-center">The Heartfulness way
 offers all the limbs of yoga, including asanas and pranayama. It encompasses the entire philosophy
 of yoga, based on the Vedas, Sankhya philosophy, and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, all for modern
 life.</h4>



<hr>



<hr class="vertical-space1">



Heartfulness did not give me immediate answers, but it showed me a path so I knew the answers would come. I think
 everyone has the same question at some stage in their life. One day it comes. Some suppress it, but it’s there in
 everyone.



For many years, I was part of a team coordinating an international scholarship program for Heartfulness, with people
 coming from many countries, especially those where we didn’t have trainers. They would spend a month with us and go
 back to their countries as trainers. We had amazing people from all walks of life, from Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka,
 South America, CIS countries, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, etc.



<hr class="vertical-space1">




<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="568" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga_self_development3_700x568_365b5fcd38.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:40:05.225Z">
</figure>




<hr class="vertical-space1">



Meditation with a trainer, with Pranahuti, is a catalyst for growth. You see the results quickly without
 much effort. It is like climbing a mountain; you can climb up on your own, or you hold onto a rope and go up much
 faster. Pranahuti is the rope that takes you up. You just make the effort to sit in meditation everyday. Of
 course, there is practice, there is continuity, and there is discipline. Once you have all three, you become
 effective in everything you do. You work faster, make better choices, and manage your time better. For me, time
 management equals meditation. When I am all over the place, and I’m not able to get to where I want to be, I first
 align myself by doing my practice well. I then become more efficient, to manage my life successfully and give back.
 I think we’re here for that.



Heartfulness Meditation is simple. You don’t need a mantra, chanting, or any preparation. It’s silent. You don’t need
 an education. Even if you cannot read and write, you will receive the same benefit when you meditate. There is no
 need to speak. That’s its strength. Heartfulness is for everyone.



Nowadays, the Heartfulness way offers all the limbs of Yoga, including asanas and pranayama. It encompasses the
 entire philosophy of yoga, based on the Vedas, Sankhya philosophy, and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, all for modern life.
 It’s extremely practical. You cannot know by reading or by watching other people do it.



Heartfulness Meditation is supported by Pranahuti (from the word “prana,” which means energy). We call it
 Transmission in English. It is the subtlest energy that flows from the heart of the trainer to the heart of the
 practitioner, and it was the key for me. I will remember that first experience all my life. After I had my
 introductory sessions, I was walking home from the trainer’s place and I wanted to tell everyone, “This is so
 simple. This is available.” I wanted to wake up my entire city.



I was in France at that time. To this day, that has been my effort, the revelation was so strong. Many Heartfulness
 volunteers have a similar experience and dedication. We want to give time to train others, because it’s the best
 thing that has happened to us. Actually, for yoga teachers, the spirit of service is part of the fiber of our being.
 In Heartfulness, the trainers never charge for the practices.



<hr class="vertical-space1">



<figure><img decoding="async" width="700" height="475" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga_self_development4_700x475_ca8a9ad202.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:42:31.559Z">
</figure>




<hr class="vertical-space1">



Q: When you say yoga, I only think of asanas. I think meditation
 comes later in life. So how do asanas, meditation, and all the other parts of yoga fit together?



VN: Heartfulness is known for meditation, but it has
 always been based on Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga philosophy.



What is asana? In Patanjali’s words, it means to be comfortable and stable in your posture so that you can sit for
 meditation.



Heartfulness starts with meditation, but there is still a need to take care of the body. Being a doctor, I know it’s
 very important to do something for the body. I used to do all kinds of sports, like anybody raised in the West. I
 came to yoga later. At the beginning, I didn’t like it much, because it was too slow for me, my mind was too fast;
 but asanas have definitely helped me. They are good preparation.



Even if you already meditate, asanas are a fantastic way to take care of your health. You can hit the gym, swim, and
 walk, but if you want to do something that is complete and aligned to your practice of meditation, then yoga is a
 great way to take care of your body.



The asanas evolved that way. In ancient times, when yogis meditated, they sat for hours. Their muscles, their
 strength, even their nervous system started withering away, because they were not using them. So they devised a way
 to take care of the body, too. Asanas support meditation. Start with meditation, then include pranayama, and then
 use asanas to prolong the condition that you have after meditation.



There’s another element that’s extremely important. In Heartfulness we meditate on the heart, reconnecting us to the
 heart. Children bring joy because they’re in touch with their hearts so completely and freely. In psychology, we
 know that children develop ego at the age of three. They start to say “I” when they speak. Before that, they live in
 the present and bring joy to the whole family.



Unfortunately, when we educate the brain, and the mind takes over, we start remembering and worrying, so we’re no
 longer in the present. Linking people back to the heart is the most important thing we can do. In Heartfulness,
 before we do any asanas, we sit on the mat and connect to the heart. Then, throughout the practice, we come back to
 the heart. Meditation connects us to the heart and nourishes the qualities of the heart.



<hr class="vertical-space1">



<hr>



<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Asanas are a fantastic
 way to take care of your health. You can hit the gym, swim, and walk, but if you want to do something that is complete and aligned to your practice of meditation, then yoga is a great way to
 take care of your body.</h4>



<hr>



<hr class="vertical-space1">



From the perspective of the chakras, the heart chakra is the middle one; it’s connected to all the other chakras. So
 we start with the heart chakra, nourish it, and clean it. Asanas and pranayama are also all about cleaning and
 preparing. We prepare the mind to be still. So, in Heartfulness, we start from inside with meditation, developing
 the qualities of the heart, and from outside we also shape the body.




<figure><img decoding="async" width="300" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga_self_development5_d99710cd56.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T09:43:48.871Z">
</figure>




<hr class="vertical-space1">



To be continued.



<hr class="vertical-space1">

Yoga for self-development

<h4>VERONIQUE NICOLAI is the Director of the Heartfulness Yoga Academy and the coordinator of the Yoga4Unity platform. As a pediatrician, she is also passionate about mental and physical well-being for all ages, especially children. Here, Veronique speaks about Yoga4Unity – 100 days of Yoga. What’s on offer and how can you join up?</h4><hr>In traditional Yoga, you have the Kriyas. There are proper cleaning practices, starting with Jal Neti, washing the nose, and the Kunjal Kriya, which are practices for the digestive system. Then you have the Asanas, which clean knots of energy in your shoulders, your hips, etc.Movement also allows energy or prana to flow without any hindrance. This is what we mean by cleaning. We let energy flow from the gross, the physical, to the more subtle with Pranayama, which cleans the nadis. The nadis are channels of vital energy flow. Prana flows through the nadis, and when we do Nadi-Shudhi (alternate nostril breathing) the nadis are cleansed.Beyond this, there are deeper, subtler layers that can be accessed with the inner practices of Heartfulness. We have an every-day cleaning practice that purifies the field of consciousness and the emotional load of the day.So, Heartfulness Yoga covers all the layers of your being – from the physical to the mind, and then to the core, the heart. It’s the only practice that allows a beginner to start working on all the layers from day one, rather than after many years of practice.That’s a revolution! Many other schools already teach Asanas and Pranayama. But Pranahuti (Transmission) and the Cleaning practice add depth to the practice of meditation, which in my experience is the need of the hour.Meditation enables the values that are intrinsic to a human being. We need people to genuinely feel that they don’t want to fight each other, and that comes from the heart. If we can clean the heart, which Heartfulness Cleaning does, if we can nourish the good qualities of the heart, which Transmission does, we grow naturally into confident, balanced human beings, and that will change the world.<hr><hr><h4>Meditation enables the&nbsp; values that are intrinsic to a human being.&nbsp; We need people to genuinely feel&nbsp; that they don’t want to fight each other, and that comes from the heart.</h4><hr><hr>We’re also running a project of unity. Unity is the meaning of the word Yoga. First, unite within yourself. Then, you grow by your neighbors also growing. There’s a need to take care of the entire population. We grow together, and that is the idea behind this program, Yoga4Unity – 100 Days of Yoga. The beauty is to recognize that we grow together. People have started practicing Yoga for that reason. They want to grow, they want to change. When they feel the change, the magic of yoga, they want to become Yoga teachers.You can start wherever you want in yoga. Start with Asanas if you want, or start with meditation. First know that there’s a science behind it, which is ancient and universal. It has nothing to do with religion. It starts with the Yamas and Niyamas, and moves toward Samadhi. We all agree on the same ancient texts, which are the base of the science of Yoga. It is being adapted and re-introduced in the present times, and this is not something we can do working in our own corners in isolation. We need to unite.Fortunately, when we invited some of the great mother Yoga schools of India to join us, such as Parmarth Niketan, Iyengar, Sivananda, Kaivalyadhama, Krishnamacharya, and the teachers abroad, they all said, “Yes, we will give our time.” In this second year, we’ve consciously built the program together and we have a 100-day curriculum for four different audiences. There are programs for the elderly, for children, for enthusiasts, and for Yoga teachers.<hr><h4>Unity is the meaning of the word Yoga.&nbsp; First, unite within yourself.&nbsp; Then, you grow by your neighbors also growing. There’s a need to take care of the entire population.</h4><hr><hr>The directors of all the schools have 30 to 40 years teaching experience. They offer what they can in these sessions. It’s an opportunity, it’s free, and it’s online. You can register whenever you want to. The content is put up, and you follow it at your own pace. It is a 100–day course culminating in June 21, the International Day of Yoga.The Heartfulness Yoga Academy is based in Kanha Shanti Vanam, Hyderabad, at the international headquarters of Heartfulness. It’s a super place. The Academy offers regular yoga classes and meditation training free of charge, both in situ and online. We have introductory Yoga programs, and short trainings for people who want to add to their meditation, for example, yoga on the chair and simple breathing practices.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga4unity2_700x375_7f5c96d81c.jpg" alt="yoga-4-unity">International Headquarters of Heartfulness, Kanha Shanti Vanam, Hyderabad.<hr>The Academy also offers teacher-training programs, and other educational, paid programs, with the curricula and criteria needed for certification in India and abroad. You can become a certified international Yoga trainer or a yoga professional by taking one of these programs.The best time to practice is early in the morning, but simply start whenever you can. Just do it and things will fall into place. It will change your life. Let the magic of yoga happen.Nowadays, there’s a lot of lightness in the way I look at life and the way I handle difficulties. My yogic practice gives me a line of support, a lifeline to manage any situation I feel uncomfortable with. One of the enormous changes I feel is that I have learned to manage anger. I used to have a very angry side to myself, but I don’t have the energy to be angry anymore. It’s a waste of time. There are other ways to deal with disappointment. I’m sure other things have changed too. I feel that I have cultivated lightness and softness, but you would have to ask my husband and my children, and the team here at the Heartfulness Yoga Academy.&nbsp;Please join us! Thank you.<hr>

Yoga4unity

Vibe was one of the first people to start the Heartfulness practice in Europe. She has been a sincere practitioner for more than 50 years and has devoted most of her life in the service for humanity as a Heartfulness trainer. She is also a Danish architect, who travelled to India as often as she could, first with the Academy of Art in 1963. Later she became a frequent visitor to Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, and feels deeply connected to the Indian culture in her heart. 

Vibe.jpg

Vibe Erstad

<h4>VIBE ERSTAD has been a Heartfulness practitioner for 52 years, having started in Copenhagen in 1970. The journey that has unfolded throughout those years is one of heartache and joy, and of participating in something bigger than an individual journey – a collective evolution of humanity looking to the future for all the children of the world.</h4><hr>Relationships have been a source of sorrow in my life. I was 5 when my father ended his own life, and it left me with a deep feeling of not being able to truly count on the connection and love everyone looks for here on Earth. He was a very talented landscape architect, but a politician criticized him in a newspaper for a project he did in Copenhagen, and it was the trigger for him to take his own life. I can only begin to imagine how much pain a father is in, if he chooses to pass forward such a trauma to two little daughters.He did not believe in God, he believed in aesthetics. He took beautiful photos of my mother in our garden. His father(also a landscape architect) and my mother exchanged poetry, and she also had a plant education. There was much beauty on the outside and much nervous energy on the inside.I was gifted in drawing, and I drew portraits, starting in Italy where our family spent two months in our Volkswagen. They were happy days indeed. My mother had built up an artistic papercutting business that did very well, but then she died of cancer when we girls were 19 and 16, so my younger sister took over the business with our stepfather.I became an architect and worked for a town planning firm. I remember a fascination with small-scale houses in communities –places to live while being near the rest of the community. I was not into modern architecture, so square and often so “cold.” I liked the old houses in the countryside and villages, and classical buildings. Both my mother and my stepfather had friends who lived in manor houses, but nowhere did I find an environment that really appealed to my heart. Nice communities of modern design fascinated me in magazines, but they were always a disappointment. And politics and beer also did not interest me!Why do I relate all this? So that you understand how much it meant for me to find what I had come for!When I was 15, I was walking in nature when suddenly I was in another realm. Things did not look different, they were different! It was a spiritual awakening, and I remember saying to myself, “Whoever I marry, and whatever education I get, it is ‘water’ compared to THIS!” From then on, I started reading all Paul Brunton’s books on meditation. I found them on my mother’s shelves – she became interested while grieving the loss of her husband. I also read about mystics from all different religions. But I did not find a practice yet.Through my youth and adult life, I often felt a deep sense of loneliness. I didn’t fit in a modern and material world. Then I met Thomas, who had planned a trip to India with some friends. I left the Academy for a year and spent seven months in India with them, searching for spiritual guidance. Thomas became the father of our two children. Once Thomas heard inside himself, “Vibe has lived as a Brahmin.” On arriving back in Denmark, we found Heartfulness. It had come to our country while we were in India. We started in 1970, and soon we visited Babuji in Shahjahanpur.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Inner_Community2_700x496_70d2316cdf.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:13:53.801Z" alt=""><hr>I spent a lot of time with my spiritual Masters. Those were the most meaningful days in my life. We can’t all go and stay with Masters, but we can all connect deeply to the place inside that I connected to when I was with Babuji – a place of joy and bliss, unknown to me in any other circumstances in life.I brought the joy with me home to Denmark. Once, after a long stay in India with Babuji, I explained to my four-year-old son how the ashram in Shahjahanpur was created with curves on the sides, indicating the idea of a bowl open to receiving Grace (the opposite of a dome). My son replied, “You are like that now, mom.” I felt it was true. My inner condition was more like an empty vessel after those long trips to India, and there was less of me and more space for him. I was able to be more present around my son when I allowed myself to dive into my inner space and meditate.The practice became my sanctuary and my true place of rejuvenation. It has brought so much joy into my life, in a simple and very innocent way. It is not about doing something, but about being something. I feel a meaning in life that my father didn’t feel when he chose to take his own life. It prepared me to appreciate beyond measure the kind of love I found so pure and simple in Babuji, and in those souls who gave their hearts so fully to him that they became like him.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Inner_Community3_700x496_c44352e3c8.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:15:13.388Z" alt=""><hr>It is a role I was put here to play, going far beyond my ability to comprehend. When I assist other people with their meditation, I feel connected to them in a very profound way. It led me to devoting a large amount of time to working as a meditation trainer. I volunteered to leave the architect’s studio when they said they needed to cut their budget. I felt protected financially by the money my parents had left me, a house, and the social system in Denmark. I felt it correct to leave the job so others could keep their jobs, even though nobody in that studio could draw like I could.This allowed me to spend more time with my son and daughter, and I could say “Yes” every time someone asked me for a meditation session. It is a privilege for which I am truly grateful, because I can contribute to people’s lives when I meditate with them.My spiritual practice led me to live near the Heartfulness Meditation Center in the countryside of Denmark. Here I have used my skills in repairing and decorating, and have experienced wonderful moments of true community happiness, even while doing something so simple as washing dishes.I built my own wooden house with a mass oven and solar panels, close enough that I can bike home and meditate. When I do, I feel profoundly connected to the inner community, with a sense of togetherness, despite being alone there in my meditation chair.Offering meditation sessions, meeting and reuniting over the years with people from maybe 30 countries, is a heartwarming part of my life. At other times I am disappointed with myself, because I still suffer from difficulties around relationships. I feel that we humans tend to be so much in competition and irrelevant interaction. But that is life, also, and we learn.Maybe my life is not so much about experiencing community in a time-space reality. Maybe I have come to feel it as a vision, and to hold that vision so dear to me that it becomes contagious, what we call an “egregore,” a community of kindred spirits. Invisible but felt.<hr><hr><h4>My heart believes in communities&nbsp; where people live together&nbsp; in peace and love.</h4><hr><hr>I feel my path interwoven in the collective evolution of humanity, and I can only guess and wonder. My heart believes in communities where people live together in peace and love. When I designed housing in my youth, I felt so happy to draw kids and grown-ups of all ages, while I was going into the details of all the buzzing and happy activity taking place in the vision. My 52 years of spiritual practice have made me able to hold space for that hope, while feeling a deep-felt meaning in life.I hope my grandchildren, and all other children on Earth, will experience life in communities of peace and mutual respect. I hope my contribution of feeling and loving these communities will echo into eternity and leave an impact in the greater intelligence.Actually, the glimpses I have sometimes had, while polishing my windows in the quiet afternoon, is that they are already a reality on subtle levels of consciousness.<hr>

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