About 15 to 20 years years ago I had the immense pleasure of doing a yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Institute of Yoga and Health in Massachusetts.  It was in the days back when the school was already famous and well known yet still relatively small.   I treasure the good memories I have. Silence breakfast; very tasty vegetarian food, a stunning lake at the foot of the evenly stunning gardens, with canoes lying on the shoreline to disappear into the wild. And then of course there were the many many skilled teachers and courses passing on profound information.

One of the teachers was Stephen Cope, a psychotherapist who coupled psychotherapy and the quest of finding the true self-  (Nan Yar- Who Am I ) the basic question of Yoga philosophy, Nan Yar- Who Am I) to Yoga and…. Meditation.

I remember one story quite specifically because I felt it was hilarious and at the same time so very very very true. It involves a small group of students being taught by Stephen how to meditate.   All were sitting in a semi circle; eyes closed, legs folded, trunks resting and rising from the pelvic  floor, in connected to the earth; spines and necks nicely straight and stretched, the crowns of their heads pointed towards the Universe; shoulders relaxed hanging off the centre of their sockets, neither leaning too much forward nor stretched too far backward; all in all the puurrrfect position to sink into the oblivion of meditation, to cleanse the ever busy mind and find that place of wonder and revelation within, where we can be at ease with ourselves.

One student however felt terribly restless.  His folded legs were hurting; all sorts of emotions were knocking at his consciousness and troubled  thoughts were disturbing his quest to be mindful. Through his eye-lashes he peeked around in the room and observed the others sitting in precision buddha pose some with smiles on their faces some looking extremely serious and concentrated, some even with a soft satisfied glow   ‘Why, o. why, this one particular student wondered ‘Where is everybody? Where are they that I cannot find. How did they get to where I apparently cannot go?

After the meditation session  all students gathered around to sit and share their experiences , guided by Stephen Cope. The unhappy student was the first to share his feelings of misery and confess he was jealous of all the others who seemed to float seamlessly into their meditations.

Now it was the other student’s turn to get restless. Some confessed they ware just closing their eyes and took on the pose they  thought they were was expected to take. They shared how their thoughts were bouncing around, tumbling all over each other and how inadequate that made them feel. Stephen always shared this anecdote in his teachings; an early advocate of confessing and showing vulnerability.

To this day I think it is a wonderful metaphor for daily life; where we often keep up with the Jones’s by taking the position we think is expected of us while within, our true self is crying out for help.  Something to keep in mind next time when you try and meet set expectations and ask yourself whether this is really you.

The card that goes with this this is the Knight of Challenges.

Challenges as this Suit personifies the development of the I-consciousness which has everything to do with becoming aware of who you really are and what your role in this life is meant to be;
the Knight, as this is your personal protector and explorer of who you are; the guide of your soul purpose.

To read more, click the card.
You can also draw your own card at the right side of this blog

Wishing you an insightful time

Ingrid

The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated February  6 , 2019 or click the link below

The post The Make Belief Meditation appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Over the years the theme of gratitude crossed my path in many ways.  I try to remind myself  to count my blessings. Yet like so many of us, I also tend to get drawn into the every day drama of life, often forgetting in that process how much I have to be grateful for.

I could of course claim this to be the inevitable consequence of living in a world  where many things have yet to change for the better.  But when I point at the outside world only, I overlook my own ability to make a contribution in how I experience life. It’s quite simple really. When I only focus on the negativity surrounding me; my view of the world literally becomes a negative one. When I focus on things to be grateful for, it soothes my heart and relaxes the frown between my eyebrows.

To quote an old Buddhist saying:

We suffer not because we live in the world, we suffer because the world lives in us

Or as, American author and personal development counselor Wayne Dyer puts it:

Most people spend the last minutes before falling asleep thinking about the things that went wrong that day; or how they were wronged by others.  By doing so they program their subconscious to marinate negative feelings all night long and wake up next morning with the effects of it.

The first weeks in January are quite notorious for people waking up in the morning feeling off. After the consuming Christmas holidays, life goes back to normal and back to the barricades. While sipping my morning tea last week in one of those early January moods, my eye fell on a social media post suggesting to take a big glass jar and fill it over the year with notes on things to be grateful for. Empty it by next new years eve and you have a year full of goodness to look back on.

I really liked that suggestion and adopted it with a little twist. Every year for Christmas my children give me a big personalized weekly calendar with little notes, thumbnail pictures and previews of highlights for the coming year to look forward to. In fact last year I had already started to record memorable events, adding small notes on the back pages of my weeks.

For this year, 2019, my resolution is  to write down at least one thing I am grateful for with every passed day in my calendar and use it as my mantra before I go to sleep. I’ll be curious to see how this affects my view on on the world and in effect my contentment in life.

The card that goes with this line of thoughts might well be the  Knight of Gifts; the knight who observes the world from within and decides accordingly what to think, rather than allowing the outside to determine the knights way of thinking. As such it is entirely up to the knight how life unravels itself…

Click the card to learn more and/or draw your own card on the right of this blog,

Wishing you a grateful day,

Ingrid

The abridged spoken version of this spoken blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated January 15 , 2019 or click the link below

The post 365 days of gratitude appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Who Do You Think You Are? This is more than the question on where you come from. You might think who you are is determined by the name
you were given at birth, the family you grew up in or  the cultural values that you were taught; yet a whole lot of who you are, depends on who you think you are.

The way we think about ourselves determines basically everything.  Thoughts, the intentions behind what you plan to do and  the assumptions you have about yourself  and your capabilities, precede everything else and play a major role in the outcome of whatever it is you undertake in life.

The way we think about ourselves however, is highly influenced by what others think of us.  When we’re being bullied we start to doubt ourselves. Thoughts tumbling in our minds ‘What is wrong with me? Why is this happening to me instead of someone else?”
I would say there is nothing wrong with you. Even more so, I would say there is something wrong with the people doing that to you. They are probably bullying because you mirror something that threatens them.  And the people following the people who are bullying do so because they fail to think for themselves. Some primal gene makes them follow the pretender.

Then there is the 20th century invention of television; television commercials, reality t.v,  next to glossies, gossip magazines, politicians, historians, multinationals and social media. Together they wash your brain thousands of impulses a day, telling you how to think. And again also here there is apparently  some programming within the human species that makes us follow the adventures of the Kardashians, gloat over Jersey-, Geordie- or our own The Hague Barbie shore. In some cases we even want to mimic them; to be as thin as the one; stay as young as the other, on which my dear friend Anne recently quoted:

We all want to become old, but none of us wants to be old.

Its all in our heads! How old, fat, smart, successful, good looking, loving, kind, or special we are all depends on how we think about ourselves. Unfortunately we all grew up in a society with the emphasis on what is wrong rather than praise over what is right.

So my take on this is :

Never let what other people think of you be more important than what you think of yourself.

You’d be surprised how it will clarify communication; or as my father used to put it:

Basically one person is 3 people.

• The one he truly is,
• The one he thinks he is and
• The one he thinks other people think he is.

When two people communicate with each other, the big question is: which of the three is talking to which of the three.

The card that goes with sort of thinking is The Queen of Insights: Who Am I

• ‘Queen’ as she is the ultimate Yin energy, with Yin energy being all about self care, self validation, self recognition
• ‘Insights” as it is all about the things we learn in the course of life; in this case about ourselves.

To read more click the link or card at the top of this blog

Ingrid Schippers, November 2018

The abridged spoken version of this blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals, every Tuesday  from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated November 27, 2018

OR you can click and listen to the file below:

And on the right of this blog, you can draw your own card …

The post Who Do You Think You Are appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

A dear Dutch Energy Medicine friend inspired me big time today by publishing a post from the NOS.nl national news station about five American ex presidents, Bush Jr, Bush Sr, Carter, Obama and Clinton, participating in a fundraising event for the survivors o hurricanes Harvey. Irma and Maria.

For 5 American ex presidents to come together like this I think is a stroke of genius.They presented themselves as they are at this point in time, vulnerabilities and charisma included.

• Bush Sr, not afraid to show up in stage in spite of the fact he can hardly respond due to Parkison’s disease;
• Bush Jr, whom I never admired for his politics but who had the guts to speak up about a fellow republican president;
• Carter, whom I actually learned to appreciate after his presidency.
• Clinton, from the ambitious Clinton clan who held the world’s attention during one of the most public political catfights ever
• and then ofcourse Obama, whom I can only admire.

The present president of the United States showed up on a big screen. Had it been Obama’s days, America’s first would have been on stage as well, but maybe in a morbid sort of way this worked even better.

Mr. Trump, – I’ll say his name once- , had to make an appearance because of the other 5 ex-presidents stating their case. Had it be up to him he would have left it at what he was criticized for, supplying not enough aid to the people of Puerto Rico. Now however he was forced to praise his predecessors for their effort to stand united and serve as an example on how America should stand united to help those in need.

A brilliant brilliant move against today’s ruling narcissism and self interest politics.

It taught me an important lesson on a personal development level as well. For even tough quite well acquainted with the principle of forgiveness and turning the other cheek towards those who make my life miserable, I find it extremely hard to live up to the challenge of being mild to people I dislike. Instead I turn my back on them and avoid any form of interaction.

What The Bushes, Carter, Clinton and Obama are doing here however is facing the problem heads on. They are doing something about the deadlock by cheerfully stepping right in the middle of it, saying ‘hi, we are here to help’.

We should all be doing that. Defy how world leaders want us to think and act, pack our own suitcase and do what we think needs doing, rather than pointing the fingers at those who are not doing what they should be doing.

Something to chew on perhaps. If you need some inspiration; click the link at the top of this blog, to watch the NOS.NL news story on the ‘Amerikaanse Presidenten’.

I say:  Let’s All Embrace Each Other Now

Ingrid Schippers, for Dutchbuzz 24-10-2017.

Click on the cards to learn more about their background

The spoken version of this blog, features as end note on  ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday ( with the exception of summer and Christmas recess) from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM and can be found in the Programme Archive of  the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated October 24 th 2017

Scroll through the website for details on the

Body Language of Energy and Nan Yar Who Am I,

personal development  individual and group sessions

or send me a mail at info@energycounseling.nl

The post Let’s All Embrace Each Other NOW! appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Throughout life I’ve met quite some teachers to whom I owe a lot; but then we all do.

Even when we are not aware of it we encounter people along the way who supply us with bits and pieces that shape us into who we are.

Sometimes it is that one book, that one brief exchange, that one chance encounter on a totally unexpected moment; that one  one seminar, that one saying at the inside of a restroom door, that will change your view and as a consequence change your reality.

For me there are 3 basic rules that I have derived from the roughly 3 decades of encounters , books, seminars , and sayings on toilet doors during my roller coasterride after I left the coocoo’s nest,

1: Nothing is Personal.

I owe gratitude to Camillo Villa for this wisdom, whom I met in The Hague a good 10 years ago and who now lives and works in his country of birth: Columbia and is involved in all sorts of shamanic work. (you’ll find him on Facebook)

My interpretation of what Camillo taught me about ‘Nothing is Personal’ is that the behavior of others is the behavior of others. We tend to think it is us, doing something to trigger another person’s behavior, but it’s not. The way the other behaves is due to the other, not to you or me.

In the Nan Yar – Who Am I method, this concept is reflected in ‘The Lovers”, the card reflecting all relationships. Lovers; but also parent-child, boss, employee, politician-voter anything to do with communicating with another; the number VI (6) also being the number of communication.

2: What you think , see and the way you speak about things is what shapes your reality. (What You See is What You Get)

“Thoughts turn into things” the celebrated American spiritual teacher Mike Dooley, also known as Mr. Universe calls it.

Note that that what you think, say and see, is more often than not shaped after your cultural conditioning, i.e. the way you were  taught to think,  subsequently resulting in the way you view things, in turn resulting in the way you speak about them.

Always do the reality check deep down inside to see if what you say or think is also how you feel (note the different verb) about what you were taught to believe.

The gatekeeper of the physical journey, The Illusionist or Magician, tells the story of how looking behind the veil of illusion; knowing its tricks, brings clarity on your path. Click the card for more.

3: Do not attach to outcome

Life is about what is happening now, not about what will happen tomorrow. In fact what will happen tomorrow depends on how you think now.

Once I have enough money, I will…;

Once I’m in a happy relationship I will…

Once I have good job, I will….

These outcome thoughts are not (yet) relevant. The moment to create the outcome you want is NOW,  by wanting it with every fiber of your inner being, not by wishing it to happen, instigated by forces outside of you.

To visualize what you want, put it out there in the Universe so to speak, is a good first step. But stay there; observe its development by looking inside and observe how you respond. Don’t wait for it to happen . Life is what happens while you’re making plans, the famous saying goes, so be sure leave your options open and don;t victimize yourself thinking there is nothing you can do about it.

Attachment may well be the Victims biggest enemy. Attachment to money, making yourself dependent on other people, relationships.  In your own world it is important to rely on what you have to offer, and most of all use it, rather than locking yourself up in a tower of cultivated truth or need.

Ingrid Schippers, March 18 2017

Click the cards featured in this blog to read more….

To connect, send me a mail at info@energycounseling.nl, or scroll down and leave you comments through the contact form.

And before you leave….draw your own Nan Yar- Who Am I card of the day on the right of this blog. Click the card and let your subconscious do the thinking…

This blog is featured as spoken end note of the Dutchbuzz edition of April 18  2017 and broadcasted  on The Hague FM from 10.00 tot 11.00 pm every Tuesday or can be heard as a closing note at the end of the Dutchbuzz podcast of  April 18 2017

The post Calling all Victims appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

The year is 2117; the day January 17.

82-year old  Luther is in his rocking chair on the porch of his self sustaining, solar pannelled house overlooking the organic vegetable garden. A few feet away his grandson Oliver sits at the picknick table . Oliver is preparing a presentation he will be giving at the creative learning institute of his local community on the theme:

The World a Hundred Years Ago Today

The evening is quiet. Other than the chirpin’ of criquets and the occasional cackle from the chicken pen, the setting is still, the first stars visible at the darkening sky, a content Old Luther watching them, his arms folded under his head.

“Grampa?”

“Yes Son?”

“Why were so many people hungry in 2017? There was enough food available to feed everyone 3 times over; the supermarkets were stuffed, they even tossed out loads of foods!”

“I think that was because profits were seen as more important than sustainability in those days Oliver”.

Using his holographic imager Oliver now projects pictures of a man with a funny looking hairdo and a double chin when you look at him from the side. The man is making a speech to a whole lot of people and waving his finger angrily in the air.

“Grampa?”

“Yes Son”

“Why did people build walls and keep others outside of their borders in places where these others perished?”

Old Luther sighs. “We’re not quite sure Son. It seems people thought they could own themselves by owning the land they lived on and use it to their own advantage.”

Oliver frowns. “You mean they didn’t know about the value of legacy?”

“No…unfortunately most of them didn’t,”

“But why did they have to own everything and leave very little or none for others? Could they not just own themselves the way they wanted and grant other people that same right? There seemed to have been enough in the world to give each and every person a comfortable lifetime?”

“Well you know Son, this is a phenomenon we do not understand any more these days, but people back then thought that to have a lot of money invested in matter was what gave them a life. They did not grasp the concept that life is about who you are, Luther emphasized, and not about what you are or what you own.”

Old Luther unfolds his arms from under his head, leans over  to Oliver and continues: “But you do not want to make your project about those people Oliver. You want to commemorate the ones who made the difference; the ones that really mattered. The ones that grasped the concept of sharing. The ones who understood that keeping everything to yourself leaves you with nothing in the end.  The ones you want to commemorate are the ones who saved this world.
Go find yourself those role models.

At that old Luther folds his arms back under his head and returns to gazing at the stars.

Ingrid Schippers, 17 January 2017

To connect, send me a mail at info@energycounseling.nl,

And before you leave….draw your own Nan Yar- Who Am I card of the day on the right of this blog. Click the card and let your subconscious do the thinking…

This blog is featured as spoken end note of the Dutchbuzz edition of January 17 2017 and broadcasted  on The Hague FM from 10.00 tot 11.00 pm every Tuesday or can be heard on the Dutchbuzz podcast of  January 17 2017

The post The World a Hundred Years Ago Today appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

While Fate in Life is often blamed,

for Goals that go astray,

The Truth might well be tougher yet

in that we always may

Choose our own Intentions

in how we Think and Feel and Act.

It’s really never Fate that mentions

how we should React.

So Treasure what you have in hand

and capture all of what it holds

Your Decisions in Life, are Yours to make

it is up to you how all Unfolds

Let Gratitude for Life itself

be your Angel Guide

May Groundedness in Freedom of Choice

lead You to the Light

Draw your own card and observe your reflection in it 

The post Is it about what 2017 will bring? appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

There is this famous saying of I believe of Buddhist origin, which says:

 “You suffer not because you live in the world but because the world lives in you,

I believe it means as much as that we are more inspired and directed by what happens in the world around us, than by what lives within us.

Now more than ever, this is supported by modern day communications.
During most of our waking hours, either through our cellphones, i-pads, pods, computers and whatever else or simply by watching television;  we are constantly tossed around to all corners of the world witnessing Brexit, presidential elections,terrorist attacks, beheadings, torture, at least one staged coupe also this year, false statements, governments exploiting their peoples, fellow human beings being denied a safe place to stay, and the list goes on and on and on.
Looking back at 2016, offers a wide choice of home and hand made human disaster, corruption, narcisism and materialism that can easily make you sick to the stomach.

But we don’t really want that do we? So what should we look back on during the upcoming holidays, in which we are supposed to commemorate the holy power that came to earth to save humanity, and which we celebrate by overeating and giving far too expensive presents to each other?

To those of you who feel I’m spoiling the Christmas Spirit I would like to say I’m merely highlighting a sad truth.
But then you would be right to say that we cannot make the world a better place by summing up its evil and miseries and that especially Christmas is the time of year where we should grab the chance to show eachother that amidst world wide gruesomeness, we still can find ways to be nice and kind and understanding towards each other.

I think the secret to that positive state of mind is to pierce through the veil of illussion. To remember that the one hour news bulletin is but an abridged report of what happened during 24 hours to 7 billion people, selected by money controlled media stations (yes also in the so called free western world) and cleverly made money making oriented commercials that pentetrate and manipulate our subconscious like there is no tomorrow.

The good news however  is that there is a tomorrow. It’s called 2017, a new start, a new chance, with new beginnings.

Even better news is that we all have the same potential, each in our very special ordinary way, to make this word a better place, simply by replacing polarity with morality; self-centeredness with the willingness to share and the need to own lots and lots of material goodies by the need to lead an accomplished life in the spiritual sense of the word.

It’s not that complicated, looked upon like this.

So, I wish you all lots of good times, gratifying and satisfying endeavors for 2017, and I’d say start practicing now; it might well give a peaceful and content 2016 Christmas.

One extra tip: switch off the television, computer and cell phone, even if its only for one afternoon; choose your old time favorite book from your bookcase, make yourself a punch, wrap your woolen blanket around you; read for a few hours and then go for a walk in nature and ask yourself what you would like to change for 2017.

Let’s be loving, forgiving and grateful for what we do have. Let’s be good.
Santa is coming to town.

Ingrid Schippers, December 13 2016

To connect, send me a mail at info@energycounseling.nl, or leave a comment through the form at the bottom of the page.

And before you leave….draw your own Nan Yar- Who Am I card of the day on the right of this blog. Click the card and let your subconscious do the thinking…

This blog is featured as spoken end note of the Dutchbuzz edition of December 13 2016, broadcasted  on The Hague FM from 10.00 tot 11.00 pm or on the Dutchbuzz podcast of  December 13  2016

The post I suffered not because I lived in 2016, appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Do you recognize this? When you feel like giving yourself a treat, you go and look for it outside your regular environment? A short getaway to be away for a while? But away from what, one may wonder?

Wouldn’t it be better to change your regular environment? Take a different stand towards your daily routines? Re-apply the energy it takes to do on a daily basis what is expected of you? Or what you think is expected of you? Or what you expect of yourself?

On coming back from their holidays, some people tend to get the holiday blues, with their time-out having been so nice that they are reluctant to return to the daily treadmill.

Todays inhabitants of the fast-moving society, are constantly directed through stress, with adrenaline consistently urging the body to go to its limits. In some ways this is even experienced as pleasurable because the hormones responsible for making us active, also have the added effect of making us feel ‘on top of the world’.

In itself ‘stress’ is a healthy and natural response of the body to take action, a mechanism humanity has tagged along since the dawn of (wo)mankind.

In our hunter and gatherer days ‘stress’ was desperately needed to outrun the sabertooth tiger or hunt for food. But 5000+ year ago, that wasn’t something we did all-day-long.

There was no 70-80 hour ‘saber-tooth-avoiding-working-week’. Nor was there the necessity to be able to buy all sorts of material trophies; possessions of which commerce tells us we can’t live without them.

Yet what do these trophies actually bring us? Peace and quiet? Relaxation time? Can we finally unwind when we have the latest television sets in our rooms to watch the latest news? Or the latest action-movie? Does our daily environment support our self care needs? Or is the balance somewhat off, slowly undermining the constant flow of energy; if you don’t watch it, to a point where you desperately need a holiday…

Maybe it’s time we did what our ancestors did and weave holiday self care into daily life.
The Hunter and Gatherers certainly weren’t hunting and gathering all day. They took their moments in between, made sure they were as comfortable as possible during what was expected of them. They certainly didn’t take a break for a couple of days to be away from it all.

Literally for a start, a simple way to achieve this in today’s world, would be not to jump out of bed immediately after sleep but take some time instead. As if you are on a holiday. Stretch. Take a look out of the window. Take it easy. Make yourself some breakfast. Sit yourself down and observe your environment, like you would on a holiday. Take a few moments entirely for yourself; repeat that a couple of times throughout your day.

Another one is: Don’t rush. If you’re late, you’re late. Being anxious about it does’t change being late. Getting up or leaving 20 minutes earlier,- taking your time-, does.

And it doesn’t require any material trophies.
It’s free! It’s within you and always there when you need it.
It’s the Art of Self Care

Ingrid Schippers, September 6 2016

Visit the other pages of www.energycounseling.nl for information on the Body Language of Energy and Nan Yar – Who Am I personal development Group, Individual and Skype sessions.

To connect send me a mail at info@energycounseling.nl, optionally with a phone number.

And before you leave….draw your own Nan Yar- Who Am I card of the day on the right of this blog. Click the card and let your subconscious do the thinking…

The post The Art of Self-Care appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

One of the big enigmas in the way we perceive things when it concerns personal development, may well be the difference between the way we think we perceive ourselves in our own inner world as opposed to the way we think the outside world perceives us.

When we are  happy we literally beam happiness, with the feelings of bliss affecting the people in our environment. It makes the people around us more open, more approachable, which in turn makes it easier to connect.

In general it can be said happiness attracts happiness. Happy environments make people feel good and attracts them like bears to honey.
This however also goes the other way around. Someone who is constantly moping and muttering, who without obvious reason claims to be maltreated and has something to say about all and everything, will attract only few people willing to listen.

What is interesting about both phenomena, is that in both cases the person creating the good or bad vibes, most of the time has no awareness of the effect they resort.  This while it could literally make a world of difference in the way we perceive or are perceived.

The key to this enigma is the degree to which we experience ‘our moments’, the ones we all have, as that is the frequency with which we send our messages into the world.

Ask yourself this:

How many times a day do you feel content about something?
How many times are you discontent about something?

It’s worth while to keep track of these two different facets on paper
On the left side, write down the moments of discontentment, with a number of evaluation between 1 and 10, with 1 being simply discontent and 10 being highly unhappy.
On the right you register the moments of contentment, with the same numeral evaluation between 1-10 , with 1 being simply content and 10 being unconditionally happy.
At the end of the day you add up both columns and evaluate which one has the highest score, the column of contentment/happiness or the column of discontentment/unhappiness.

An evaluation like this shows how many times we seem to draw negativity into our lives or …it makes us aware of the number of good moments or how we at times take good moments for granted.
It brings awareness, just like honestly writing down the number of calories one eats per day will be more surprising than one  would have thought.
Registering the moments of content/discontentment gives insight in how moments of discontentment come to exist and how moments of contentment are at times undervalued.

There’s one condition to doing this self evaluation: you have to want it. Nobody can be forced to evaluate themselves, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from climbing the ladder of awareness.

Ingrid Schippers, 22-03-2016

This blog is recorded as weekly end-note of Dutchbuzz.nl, the radio program for internationals, every Tuesday on The Hague FM from 10 to 11 pm. All programs are archived at Dutchbuzz.nl.

The post The Key to Happiness. appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

‘Mindfulness’ is an ancient human capacity, that was rediscovered , much like Yoga, Tai Chi, Energy Medicine and other ancient forms of healing, in the course of the 20th century.
It came back into the Western world in all sorts of new publications, courses and seminars which, fortunately I might add, resonated with many people.

It was about time The Art of Being Mindful should surface from the vaults of what makes us human; especially in this day and age, where materialism is rife, together with the tendency to measure accomplishments in money rather than the ability to care about ourselves, one and other and the world that surrounds us.

‘Mindfullness’ has been around as long as humanity.
It is an ability that resides within every human being.
As with everything else, the mechanism of mindfulness, starts to work, when opening up to the principles of it and change our ways of thinking from defining how much things ‘cost’ to what they can bring us to be grateful for.

This is exactly why it is so necessary at this point in human evolution to bring the Art of Being Mindful back to our conscious thinking and make the world a little bit of a better place.

Being mindful goes beyond the pleasantries of buying someone flowers to say thank you or sorry or commemorate a special event. Being Mindful is about communicating from the heart rather than in terms of matter; respecting the feelings of others as much as you would your own, about minding the world as much as we would our own backyards.

At the same time, it is as simple as putting garbage in a garbage-can rather than toss it out the car window or on the pavement which is there for all of us to walk on.
It is as simple as helping somebody cross a busy street;
It reflects in the simple act of taking good care of yourself, taking a few minutes in the morning to do your stretches, giving yourself the pleasure of supporting your available flow of energy throughout the day.
It is as simple as taking a break before you get too tired;
As simple as making yourself a proper meal rather than eating ‘fast food’
As simple as saying thank when you feel grateful;
As simple as taking the time to listen,when someone has something to say.
You’ll find that in exchange for what you have to offer the world gives back to you.

Mindfulness is about investing in the positive rather than the negative, about being assertive in a mindful way.
Most of all…mindfulness is unconditional;
the ability be cared for without feeling you need to deserve it first
as well as the ability to care without expecting anything in return.
That is what makes the world go around.

Ingrid Schippers, 29-02-2016

This blog is recorded as weekly end-note of Dutchbuzz.nl, the radio program for internationals, every Tuesday on The Hague FM from 10 to 11 pm. All programs are archived at Dutchbuzz.nl.

The post Mindful over Matter appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

A lovely card today, filled with positive Energy and Inspiration.

Look around you with intention today and watch what happens.
Synchronicity will step into your life, simply by opening the door to it.
Also be kind to yourself, so those positive vibes can easily find their way…

       Draw your own Nan Yar – Who Am I card

         or click on the 9 of Insights to read more.

The post Card of the Day: Inspiration appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

In all 4 suits, Challenges, Insights, Gifts & Tools,
the Knights are all about knowing what you want for yourself, while asserting yourself and obtaining your goals peacefully, without letting the dragons get the better of you.

I had to smile when I drew this card in the early hours of this morning, for I have an appointment this afternoon, where the rules of give & take need to be handled with care;
not giving too much away, nor being too greedy.

What aspect does the Knight of Challenges reflect for you?

Click on the card for more information on its characteristics.

Januari 2016 special!

Book your individual life counseling reading  for January 2016 and get a full session reading voucher for you or to give as a present for only 20 euro.  (valid for one year)

You can make appointment by using the contact form.

The post The Knight of Challenges appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

Recently I read on the internet it is statistically proven I have less chance of contracting diabetes when I sit while I eat; than when I walk while I eat.

Statistic results however always confuse me.
Many components compound to an event or occurrence; I always find it dangerous to take one aspect out of a context to then base data on it.
Would the research have concluded a more general concept, f.i. how I stand less of a chance to get diabetes when I relax more during my day or take my time while I eat I would have found that more plausible than being told I should sit while I eat in order to avoid getting ill.

I can see why being more relaxed in general would decrease my risks. Most, if not almost all modern day diseases, are basically caused by the constant overload of stress factors we are expected to cope with on a daily basis; our fast food and general eating habits only adding to the risk factor.
But to narrow that down to a ‘no walking while you eat conclusion’ seems a dangerous statement to me.

It reminds me of a case study I read about once, about a little town in the south of the United States, where the number of children attracting a certain debilitating disease was considerably higher than in other little towns in that exact same area.
The living conditions of the children in that specific little town where more children became ill;
were exactly the same as the living conditions in all other little towns of that particular district.
Same cultural habits, same sort of foods, same sort of water…

until….someone found out that in that particular town children at more ice cream than children from other little towns in the area.

Focus zoomed in on the ice cream parlor of the town.
All ice cream was tested and researched and even though no fault with the ice cream was found; the owner of the parlor went broke for nobody came in anymore to buy his ice cream. The rumor the ice cream could be the source of the disease was enough. The fact that people had statistically deduced that children who ate more ice cream ran a higher risk of contracting a debilitating disease was enough for people to blame the ice cream.

Until…someone found out that because of the geographical location of that specific little town in the district; – the distance it was removed from the water and the relatively ‘low altitude’ it was located on in comparison to the other  villages, caused the temperatures in that town to be slightly higher than anywhere else.
In fact they were just the right temperature for a bacteria that caused a debilitating children’s disease to flourish significantly more than in the other surrounding villages.
But by then the ice cream parlor had gone bust and children of the specific little village were not allowed ice cream anymore.

What it tells me is that we often don’t know what causes something and can easily be wrong in what we deduce, even causing damage to people or products falsely accused of something.
To me it proves statistics can be 100% wrong. Ever since I’m very careful with what I conclude as a result of statistics.

I wish you an open mindful week.

Ingrid Schippers

This blog is recorded as weekly end-note of Dutchbuzz.nl, the radio program for internationals, every Tuesday on The Hague FM from 10 to 11 pm. All programs are archived at Dutchbuzz.nl.

The post Being careful with conclusions appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.

While the brain wonders and questions,
the heart knows.

This may come as a bit of a shock to some, but actually our brains are not that smart.
Our true intelligence resides in the heart.
Unfortunately many of us live in the head rather than the heart,thus sourcing their lifestyle and decision-making from calculated thinking.
What will it cost me; what do I get in exchange, meanwhile forgetting true value lies in how something feels.

This, while there are so many clues as to why living from the heart is so much healthier and even more so, so much easier.
Think about it for a moment, preferably from the heart.
Place an imaginary chair or yoga mat in the center of an imaginary heart and observe the brain.

It is the brain that is judgmental, not the heart.
It is the brain that wonders what other people will think, not the heart.
It is the brain that makes mistakes, while the heart only follows itself (and captures those moments where we confess how deep down inside we already knew)

Now pick up your imaginary chair or yoga mat and place it in the brain to observe the heart.
You already know why living from the heart is so much easier.

The heart has no boundaries.
It does not restrict itself to preconceived ideas, preoccupied fears or conditioned convictions.
It simply beats and is there for you all day long, as long as you live.
It warns you, makes you smile, supports you when you need it the most and when your heart is in love (for we do all know the heart to be the source of love) it gives you the gift of being able to love another person.

While the brain wonders and questions,
the heart knows.
The heart lives in the Now.
The heart cannot think ahead of itself or fear what will be next;
nor can it regret what happened in the past; that’s for the brain to decide.

And perhaps most importantly the heart is where our physical energies originate from;
And while the brain can feel lost, the heart keeps on beating and connects us to everything around us in this world;
While the brain divides and rules; the heart connects and supports.
While the brain can be extremely unkind to yourself, the heart never judges.
While the brain thinks in money, the heart donates in love.

We may mock ‘brainless people’ and refer to them as fools;
but I’d rather be a fool in my heart than a wizard in my brain.

To conclude: a heartwarming energy minute, presented by Donna Eden and her daughters Dondi Dahlin and Titanya Dahlin

I wish you a self-loving week

Ingrid Schippers

This blog is recorded as weekly end-note of Dutchbuzz.nl, the radio program for internationals, every Tuesday on The Hague FM from 10 to 11 pm and archived in the podcast of September 15

The post Living from the Heart appeared first on EN Energycounseling.nl.