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Yoga Props – what you need and what not

Yoga Props – what you need and what not

During my Yoga Teacher Training I realised that the props I have at home indeed have their sense.

The mat

One really essential prop for me is my mat. Of course you can practice Yoga without a mat, but if you want to have a regular practice I would recommend to get one. Yoga mats are a market and it surely does not have to be the most expensive or en vogue mat. Most important is that you don’t slip on it and that you feel good on your mat. My real first good mat has been the one I recommend you below, Manduka Eko Lite. I have this mat for almost 10 years now and it still feels like just bought. If you invest once in a good mat, you really have it for a long time.

The second mat I can recommend by heart is Obove. I have it now since more than 6 months and love that it’s so easy to carry – in comparison to Manduka this one weighs almost nothing but gives you the full comfort of a mat. Perfect for travelling.

During the teacher training I had one really important lesson learned and this has been that it is absolutely fine not to be able to get into each pose easily. That’s why there are props available, so why should we be shy to use them? Each body is different and when we need support that is totally fine.

The Yoga Block

There are blocks – these are the most important “helper” for me. I like natural props, that’s why I give you the link of cork blocks. You may want to start with others, this is absolutely up to your preference. Cork is quite hard, but therefore the longevity of the blocks is much higher than for others. I like to buy as sustainable as possible and therefore recommend you cork.

What can you do with blocks? You can use them to deepen your stretches and poses. They also work perfectly as prolongation for your arms, for instance in forward bends where you normally wouldn’t reach the floor with your hands. And of course they can ensure a proper alignment during poses. 

The Yoga Bolster

A bolster is also one of my personal must haves for Yin and restorative Yoga. You can use it in various ways, it’s like a huge pillow, but harder. I love to use my bolster for relaxation in restorative yoga. You can also put it under your legs in Savasana at the end of a yoga practice to de-stress and rest. My son loves to play with it and we also use it sometimes to deepen our backbend or to relax on it during a seated forward bend. There are various possibilities to use it, also outside of a yoga class.

The Yoga Strap

A yoga strap – this is something nice to have. Not because I don’t use it but because you can simply use for instance your bathrobe belt instead, or a normal belt. But if you want to have one, this is a strap I can recommend. Straps are used in a similar way as you use blocks. They will help you to align your posture.

The Meditation Pillow

Meditation pillows are wonderful – not only for meditation but to support you in many seated poses. There is a big market out there and we all cannot deny that we also choose by design. A meditation pillow is like a good mat or block something that lasts really long. So choose what you like, I love the one below.

The Yoga Wheel

Next prop, the yoga wheel. I have one and truly use it very rarely. What it can do, it can massage your spine in a very safe and deep way. If you want to go into back bending it will be a good friend for you as well. But in all honesty, it is not a must to own a yoga wheel. 

The Yoga Blanket

A yoga blanket is something which every yoga teacher calls yoga blanket, but it is indeed just a blanket. I don’t own one but have the one below on my wish list. If you need a nice gift or if you are asked what you want to have for Christmas, birthday or any other celebration you may consider it. Until then any blanket you have in the house will do the same job.

The Yoga Chair

Last but not least the yoga chair and here I have to say that I don’t own one personally but that I am thinking of buying one. If you read through the reviews it seems that the below is the best. If you plan to do many inversions, then it maybe is a good thing to have to feel safer but here as well, it is not a must have for a normal yoga practice.

I hope you liked the list of yoga props and I could give you some helpful information. The first step towards Yoga is not to buy Yoga props.

This post contains affiliate links – these are simply my personal recommendations and surely no prompt to go for these items.

Namaste and stay safe on your way into each pose.

If you want to read more about Yoga:

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Learn to think positive when feeling down

Learn to think positive

Learn to think positive when feeling down

If you start to learn how to think in a positive way this can lead to a ton of positive changes in your life. 

A hopeful outlook can not only be useful for your psychological well-being but also for your physical health.

We all know that certain circumstances can arise and makes it difficult to keep an inspirational positive mindset but the good part is that these situations will pass. The more you find a way of making positive thinking a daily habit, the more you will be able to face these “downs” in life from a different perspective. A positive mind guides you through hard times different than a negative mind.

I want to give you a couple of ideas on how to work on a positive mindset – it is not complicated, believe me.

Take ownership for your behaviour 

At the point when you experience issues and challenges throughout everyday life, don’t assume that others are responsible for it. Recognise your part in the game and take ownership. It is rarely others who make your day a disaster, it is in your hands or better said it is in your mind. 

Giving instead of taking 

If you start to see what you have instead of what you don’t have, then you start to see the good. And even better, you also see what you can give. We are all living with quite high standards compared to others, instead of buying the fifth winter coat, give away the fourth you have to someone in need.

This view will open up a whole new way of feeling grateful – which leads to the next point.

Surround yourself with positive people 

I bet you have heard already about toxic people, like consistent whiners, persons who love to complain even on the brightest sunniest day. Their negativity can become part of you. Better invest energy and time with positive loved ones to improve the probability that their positivity will turn into yours as well. It is difficult to be negative when everybody around you is spreading positive thoughts.

Make a daily gratitude list 

On the off chance that you begin keeping a day by day appreciation list, you’ll begin seeing precisely the amount you must be grateful for. This can assist you with zeroing in on the positive in your life as opposed to pondering all the terrible things that have occurred in the day. 

Getting prone to show a demeanor of appreciation makes positive thinking more about a propensity.

See also my blog post: 30 Days of Gratitude

30 Days of Gratitude

Set up goals to achieve

With achieve I mean achievable. There’s nothing worse than unrealistic goals. It will add up on being frustrated and raise negative thoughts. Make small steps towards your goal, like a checklist it will give you a positive mindset as you check completed steps. We tend to want more than we are capable of and this causes negative stress. 

A simple trick really is break the goal down into the steps needed to achieve it and then work them off.

Reading

Invest energy every day in something that energizes your positive mindset. 

Inspirational books, statements, follow motivational social media accounts, read positive news – all of this can assist you with being more positive.

If you listen to bad news the whole day you surely will be depressed, so balance it, there are many positive things happening every day. One is that you are alive.

I would recommend to end your day with positive thoughts as well, immerse yourself in a good book before you sleep. IT helps you not only to sleep better but also to wake up more positive.

A few proposals for you: 

Inspirational Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Books

Practices to change your mindset 

How to react to negative thoughts 

To successfully erase negative thinking you need to actively react to these thoughts when they appear. There are thought patterns which need to be broken, like the word ‘never’. It will never work out, I will never succeed, these thoughts will bring you into a kind of vicious cycle.

Instead replace them with ‘this time it didn’t work out, so I analyse why and won’t make the same mistakes next time’ or ‘I failed because…so I know what do to different to succeed’. 

All in life is a lesson learned, this is how you started to talk, to walk, to ride a bike. 

6 Tips to Tame Negative Thoughts (So You Can Live a Less Limited Life)

Think about what results a permanent negativity could have

If you regularly turn towards a negative mindset, it can turn into an inevitable outcome. 

For instance, you think, “I likely won’t learn how to cope with the stress at work because it never subsides” and therefore you don’t invest energy into reducing the stress. Thus, your will find yourself in the same surrounding until retirement. 

Wouldn’t it be better to take this stress and start to analyse it? Why is it there, from whom is it coming (maybe it’s your own stress out of a subconscious perfectionism), can you minimise it? 

Make a rundown of all the manners in which a negative mindset effects your life. It probably impacts your whole life. At that point, start to replace the negative mindset with a positive mindset, step by step. 

Tell others something positive

Instead of just thinking that your’ neighbours new fence looks great, why don’t you tell them? Your colleague achieved a tremendous result, then congratulate. It sounds like small acts but these small acts of kindness create a positive mindset, not only for yourself but also for the persons around you. You remember, surround yourself with positive people? Be one of these positive persons yourself.

an honest compliment

#BeTheChangeYouWantToSee

Be good to yourself

People often think they don’t need for instance a massage, but they gift it to their friend. Why do you think that you don’t need or deserve it?

Taking care of yourself is a big step towards being positive and thinking positive.

Mens sana in corpore sano – a healthy mind in a healthy body

Our ancestors knew it already and we seem to have it forgotten while striving for a career, a family, a whatever you are striving for.

Our body and our mind needs nourishment, only then we are able to reach our goals and cope with what we face along the way.

Make yourself a priority...
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World Peace – wouldn’t it be great?

World Peace – wouldn’t it be great?

But if I look around we are further away from it than ever before.

The freedom the internet gives us is taking the peace away.

This sentence is on point – we are so free in this century than never before but instead of using this freedom wisely it is abused. People are hiding behind their mobile devices and hit other with words, written out, stamped and traceable, the seem to be fearless in the sanctuary of their own home.

I love to reach many people across the globe with what I write here but if I check social media it also scares me. For almost every news line you read you find comments below which are hard to take in. Many are so awfully beyond what is considered respectful that I wonder what monsters hide behind these profiles.

Online disinhibition effect

Have we lost the ability of being empathic?

A mother loses her child – comments start from “why didn’t she watch her child better” and end with “She doesn’t deserve to be called mother”.

People in an ICU were burned to death due to a fire breakout in the hospital track – comments are “You see, with the flu symptoms you better would have stayed at home instead of calling it Covid-19 and blocking the ICUs” or “who cares, their own fault”.

A new Corona-Hotspot has been named and one of the first comments is “Why don’t the finally stop to let immigrants in, the borders should be closed” – this is so completely out of context.

I’m just sitting and staring at the screen, wondering when all of this happened.

A major shift in society does not happen over night.

It is like a disease, slowly entering every space. These “monsters” start to reveal their faces when going out on the streets, we have seen it several times. I’ve never heard about so many demonstrations before against the government than in 2020. Especially when it would be the time to stay at home they start to show up in masses outside.

If we want peace, the start should be within us! If we want freedom, we should not try to take freedom away from others. It is just a simple game, only do to others what you want others to do to yourself. Do I want to be attacked by strangers because of my mindset? Surely not! So why would I attack someone who is different than I?

Spirituality is abused instead of being lived.

When it comes to spirituality many people claim it for themselves, as if they own it, as if they are the incarnation of wisdom. If you are a spiritual person, then you don’t fight for it! You live it because you want to go ahead and be a role model for others.

Don’t give others the soil to plant their faulty seeds!

Smile and step away. Know when it is worth to explain your side but also know when it is completely senseless. Being quiet sometimes means being wise and not getting involved in the drama. I’m a person who loves to “correct” if I see false assumptions but I also know how to take care of my mind and soul. The more I get involved with stubborn people, the more my energy levels disappear. I don’t want to feel depressed because of what others think? Their drama is not my cup of tea, instead I rather drink a cup of tea in peace and surround myself with the positive things life has in store for us.

Positive thoughts are essential for happiness!

With all the bad news and craziness around us, we can learn to see the positive and once we change our mindset we start to be happier. You cannot change the world, no, but you can change your world and the more you change the more others see that it works.

To live peacefully is our right and we are the first person to be in charge of it. Only when you change profoundly to the good you can start to see the good in every situation.

Let’s be the best versions of ourself and start this wave of positive thoughts.

What if we comment on each and every bad comment we read something nice?

Let’s start a wave of positivity rolling over the web – there must be more people out there who are compassionate and empathic and nice than the ones who are not.

For every nice reply to a mean comment add the hashtag #BeThePeaceYouWantToSee Who is with me? I can’t take it any longer that mean and harsh comments remain uncommented and instead of starting war we just are as we would all to be, peaceful and positive!

I never ask you to share something – this time I ask you – please do us all a favour and share, the more who participate the more we reach together.

Thanks so much <3 Namaste & stay safe

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Why are conspiracy people so famous – help me understand

Why are conspiracy people so famous - help me understand

Why are conspiracy people so famous – help me understand

This pandemic brought up what I thought is long behind us.
People who start to influence masses with their strange theories.

I can tell you upfront, I’m a realistic person, I don’t believe in conspiracy which doesn’t mean automatically that I trust 100% all systems in charge and walk blindfolded, surely not.

But between a healthy mistrust and a conspiracy are lightyears of fairytale authors.

How can it be that someone tells you we will all be chipped and you run after that person? As soon as we use smartphones, smartwatches, the internet, even old-fashioned land line phones, we can be tracked, we can be spied on…but seriously, how important are you that you believe your way to work and back would be of the utmost importance to any secret service?

We have profile picture on our social media profiles, we send holiday pictures over servers, we play games, do online banking and have chip cards for healthcare and bonus systems and the local pizza delivery – why you you think you need to get another “chip”, what for?

Denying a pandemic is also a very interesting part of all these conspiracy theories.

It’s a calculation, simple like that, to give a virus which spreads quickly the status pandemic. The probability of severe cases, actual severe cases, actual total cases, incubation time, spread and there we are, pandemic due to an unknown virus spreading really fast across the world.

Scientist love to do all these calculations and research. An unknown virus is something which isn’t happening very often (like every other week) and especially not with this speed. And one principle of science and research is “try and error” because with something totally unknown you have no other chance. 

That means YES, they make mistakes, because that’s the only way to learn.

Each try can give a result which is great or not. With each patient something is learnt and one day they will know how this virus works, mutates, attacks, and unfortunately sometimes a minimal risk of the unknown will remain. That’s life, nature and human capability. 

So everyone who criticises the scientists and all the doctors working with Covid19 right now, do you want to be in their position? Do you want to explain what triage means to the relatives of severe cases?

Politics – please help me, that’s a very wide field and I don’t even want to start with right wing, left wing, alternative, extreme, whatever.

Just a general statement – which politician could have the aim to ruin his country by stopping everything if there would be any other choice?

Are you seriously believing that countries want to stop their production, their exports, their trading, their alliances?

Seriously – what do these people think?

I just followed a few of the German conspiracy people on the platform “telegram” because that’s the “only uncensored platform” in the whole wide web, according to them. What I read there is beyond imagination. Not only that they ask people to break rules wherever possible and stand up for their rights – they talk about a German dictatorship, about supply chains outside of the web because all will be monitored, about forced mass vaccinations…they share wildly links to websites nobody ever heard of, not reviewed of course. Mass instead of class – scare instead of educate – call to action against the government, call to action against recommendations.

I honestly had to delete this app because you feel sick after a couple of days of these awful “news”. The people who call it dictatorship in Germany never ever lived in a dictatorship! 

Who ever talked about a forced mass vaccination??? Nobody?

What had the whole election in the US to do with the German lockdown? Why are there links against the rescue of immigrants shared? Why do they use typical sentences which specially germans know from the darkest German history under Hitler?

Why are all of a sudden all the former celebrities, who weren’t in the news since felt ages, the leaders of this weird conspiracy clan?

You have the feeling as if you are watching the conversations between psychiatry patients from the schizophrenic department but the dangerous part is that all of them are spreading their news and people take it seriously, a quite large amount of people…

This says a lot about our society – this is scarier than the virus itself.

It’s their truth – you cannot convince them because they are so deep inside their spiderweb similar network that even if they would start to doubt the next would tell them we want to make them doubt with telling lies.

Psychologically a very interesting topic, but this is the job of others, not mine.

I just sit and stare and wonder how it can happen – how can someone drift in such a weird direction even though their families and friends give their best to show them all the lies he/she follows?

Many seem to be lost and I don’t judge this. These times are harder than we would have ever imagined. These times influence all of us.

I doubt, I agree, I follow, I overthink, I stay quiet, I speak up, I hide, I go out before I go crazy at home – all of this is Corona. 

But what I don’t do, I don’t lose the realistic view, I don’t assume, I don’t follow blindly, I don’t blame, because who’s to blame? The virus is here (manmade or not, it doesn’t matter). Most important is to get the curve down as we did in March/April. It’s not helpful to gather for demonstrations, it’s not helpful to call for action against the use of masks, it is surely not helpful to use your own children as an instrument against the rules and I write this because it just happened yesterday.

An 11-year old girl on stage of a conspiracy demonstration. She states that she had to celebrate her birthday five times to have all guests at home not to exceed the number of allowed persons per meeting. She has to celebrate her birthday with her friends quietly as they were too many children and scared that neighbours may call the police. She had to hide like ANNE FRANK! (Is this seriously what an 11-year old girl thinks? The mom standing proud next to her and now I assume although I know I shouldn’t but the notes in the girl’s hand were obviously tweaked by her mother).

The next, a 13-year old is attacking the chancellor Merkel with “You are not even a mother or a grandmother, how dare you to tell us that we should wear masks in school? …. my friends are “deforming” me when I don’t wear one” – best example, defame is what she should have said, but she has no idea of what she is saying there! 

What if Merkel wanted children but for whatever reason wasn’t able to conceive? Is this how you attack politicians who struggle, who try to make it right? Of course nobody will ever reach the whole population, but personal attacks won’t help in this Covid pandemic.

Parents should protect their children, I agree on that, and that doesn’t mean I use them when I have no other arguments anymore.

Thanks if you read so far – I hope you stay safe and healthy!

As a side note – this is my blog and if there will be comments pro conspiracy or rude I will delete them – sorry, not sorry!

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Hello Lockdown 2.0

Hello Lockdown 2.0

Here we go, in the beginning / middle of the second wave we start lockdown 2.0 in Germany.

We went through the first lockdown in March/April and it feels somehow like an old companion and somehow weird and new.

Our life has changed profoundly in 2020 and still we remain somehow the same.

If someone would have told me what comes next, would I have changed something? 

No.

How?

What could I have changed?

Life is what happens to us when we are making plans, right?

What we can do is the following:

Stay positive 

Positive thoughts are so important in our life. The more we think in a positive way, the happier we are.

Stop complaining 

I know it is hard and I know that this wasn’t the plan for all of us this year, but we are alive, we have access to many things others could wish for.

Adhere to a new normal, at least for a while 

These rules are not that complicated, if we can get a virus under control with distance, masks and hygiene this is something great. Nothing in life is permanent so this will pass too.

Learn 

Everything that happens is teaching us lessons in life, right? What did you learn so far from this pandemic state?

Grow 

Did you surprise yourself? I think many of us grew already because we realised how flexible we are.

Use modern technology 

Instead of the coffee in the city schedule coffee dates via FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, whatever you like. We are honestly rich to have these possibilities, staying safe at home and not losing contact and eye sight with the people we love.

Immerse into nature 

For many this has been a long forgotten treasure and just now they re-discover the beauty around us. Walking from one shop to the next with a coffee in between versus walking through the fields and forests, having a steaming coffee out of a thermo cup. What is nourishing your soul more?

Get a hobby 

Now is the time to think about what you love to do. There are many activities you can do in the safe space of your own home. Reading all the books you ever wanted to read, start writing yourself, put an empty canvas in front of you and create something new, yoga (perfect for a mindful home workout), learn to meditate, cook all the recipes from your cooking books, I’m sure you will find something that suits you.

Let go of what’s no longer needed, free your stuff. 

During this time many homeless will be thankful to receive a warm coat, boots or a blanket.

The stricter we are now the easier it becomes in future. What I think is indeed astonishing is that many asian countries have close to zero new cases. They wore masks even before Covid19 was appearing, they keep distance in general (which isn’t a bad thing at all when it comes to strangers) and they complain less.

Germany (and this is where I am and where I grew up) is a nation of complainers – I always said they complain on a very high level and indeed this is what they do now as well. Instead of being thankful that we haven’t had many deaths up to now it is turned into “the virus isn’t dangerous, otherwise more would have died”. 

This kind of thinking is what I believe is dangerous. 

Reflect and trust and believe that scientist are trying to find the best way for all of us seems to be impossible for many. I don’t know where this mistrust is originating in because I cannot understand it at all. 

Of course you don’t take everything in and of course you don’t like every step a government is doing but in general our life in Germany is very good. 

We have the freedom of speech which many would love to have, we can walk around outside without being scared that military or who ever is controlling, we get news all over the world unfiltered if we want to, there are no restrictions of the internet, we have a legal system others would wish for. 

And of course nothing is perfect but I don’t expect everything to be perfect. All in life is flowing and changing and once you realise this life is much easier to handle.

Perfection is unreachable and also not needed, all the cracks and set backs and mistakes make our life so colourful and interesting. 

All agree with me if I say that nobody needed this virus, I guess, but that’s nothing we can change right now. 

So please, let’s focus on what good it brought us and what we can learn from this time which will one day be part of history books? 

I’d rather have my grand-grand-children reading how wonderful we all made it, how helpful we were, how kindness took over instead of that tis was the start of a war because of selfishness and mistrust.

What do you want them to read?