“There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.”

 ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

this beauty made my day -thank you

Yoga retreats in Italy

Today I felt a tiny moment of Spring in the air. 
Sky a little bit brighter.
I saw snowdrops who survived their way from the Earth and stretched up into the light.
I had a moment of nostalgia. 
Springtime. 

You are invited to join me in Tuscany this Spring. 
I will return to beautiful Il Casone in Val d`Orcia Pienza 
Rise and Reconnect May 18 - 25
Yoga, meditation, contemplation and damn good coffee.

It is a journey for all your senses.
An awakening for your body. 
Turn your heart towards the sun.

See event on Facebook: Rise & Reconnect YogaRetreat

For more information, or questions, please contact maria@rommelyoga.no

If you wanna retreat and nourish yourself during fall, you are invited to join me for
Restore and Revitalize  Sep 21-28 2014 
The yoga and coffee are the same but the figs are ripe and ready to eat directly from the trees :)

Yoga Retreat 2013

S U R R E N D E R - and unfold your true Nature

Maybe the deepest part of who we are is what scares us or breaks our hearts and we don’t want to share that with anyone and when we do, we don’t want to lose those people

 - unknown

 

 

Healing Hippie Love

This view

Imagine see this magnificant view over Mount Amiata every morning?
And meditate with the energy of Her.
So precious.

I recognize how easy it is to get used to daily impressions.
I see the same woman smoking her cigarettes in the window across the street every day.
The sky from my bedroom in early mornings.
The roses in the backyard.
And so on.
While teaching a retreat in Tuscany a couple of weeks ago I could indulge in this amazing view over sacred Monte Amiata every day.
I just couldn`t get enough of "her". I could drink this view throughout the day and night.
I´m quite sure I get used to it if I lived there. Maybe.
Or maybe I would indulge and merge with her as often and amazed as I did the ten days I had there.
Who know?

I will remind myself to look around and see my usual  surroundings with even more curiousity.
With childlike wonder.
With presence.
And allow myself to be moved and touched by the everydays Beauty.

Life, Love & Death

Contasts creates creativity.

From vibrant NYC to peaceful Ängsbacka.
For me, it means moving from outside pulsation to inner pulsation.
I can hear my heart a little more clearly in Nature.
Who doesen´t?

Life. Love. Death.

It`s just the beginning.

Let your heart explode.

Ängsbacka

Midsummer & celebrate light

For us who live in Scandinavia we are reaching Midsummer, the peak celebration of the summertime when the days are longer than the nights. In the north, the sun never sets.
Nature is lush green and bursting with chlorophyll, it is definatly a time of celebrating the fullness of life.

Go outside. Pick some flowers. Contemplate. Let nature embrace you.
Honouring this very moment. Count your blessings.

Forever Grateful

Maria

Bonfire at Ängsbacka 2013

 

 

Freedom is a state of mind

---- Krishnamurti


Summer in Norway.
Naked feet in the grass.
Strawberries.
Never ending light.
Nature is lush and green.
Exploding in beauty.
I can eat my dinner outside and maybe catch some sunrays
Birds singing.
That`s so much love I almost can`t embrace it all.
I feel so close to Earth I wanna kiss her.
I feel alive and free.
Can I please conserve this sparkling ether on a bottle?
Sniffing during winter?

Free.

What is freedom?
What does it mean for you?
Do we need boundaries to create more freedom or space into our bodies? Our beings.
I ask you.

Do we we really want to be free?


Read more about Freedom from Krishnamurti here.



Alive at Ängsbacka 2013

every moment is a new adventure

contrast create our light

Let`s surf a little bit more on this colourful rainbow...
In my rainbow, the colour black is also represented.
Of course.
I believe that we need the darkness to really embrace and enjoy the light.
Like day and night.
The pearls and the junk.
Like the tides.
Hot and cold.
The sweet and the bitter.
The up`s and down`s
In my experience life becomes quite hollow without that pulsation.
Like this: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Instead of this: ^^^¨¨^^----^-----^^^^***^^^¨¨¨¨^¨¨¨¨^^----¨^-----^^^*^^^¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨*****
Something like that ;)

Spanda is the idea of all things existing in a rhythmic state of expansion and contracting

 "Spanda is a Sanskrit term for the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. Spanda can be translated to vibration, movement, or motion.
Spanda is the movement from darkness to light.
It is the energy of creation.
On a more personal level, spanda refers to consciousness as it orients through thought and intention to organize into authentic action.
You may experience spanda as a desire to live according to your own innermost urging, act in line with your interest, follow your curiosity, and attend to your body’s natural rhythms as they harmonize within the grander scale of natural life seasons and cycles"
written by Jamie Stover Schmidt

Spanda is the desire to love and be loved.
Contracting and expanding.
Spanda moves love from the ideal, the fairytale, into action.
When we actively give love, when our heart’s pulses with humility and compassion,
we design the possibility for thriving and for a life that is wild, abundant and rich.

I believe that contrasts create inner light.

In Love M.

family

Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders

of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

Mary Oliver

lifelines

Easter Blessings & rituals

It is still cold and winter here in Norway.
But the light and that days are longer is a promise that Spring will come this year too.
This is a time to make space for new growth and abundance. 
Making space for your dreams and visions.
Invite clarity.
I´m a devotee of rituals. 
And I love creating my own.
Set up a spring altar, with gemstones and colored eggs, daffodils and tulips, chocolate bunnies, candles, Maybe some crystals; rose quartz, blue calcite, amethyst and citrine.
Use your own fantasy and create the altar you want to celebrate the coming Spring.
Celebrate Abundance. 
Celebrate Ēostre. I wrote more about that last year.

my fertilizer

Pleasure&Pain

As my days pass here in Tulum Mexico I´m getting more and more convinced that I was borned to to inspire my surroundings to really enjoy life. Enjoy and listen.

I mean really indulge in the fact that life is a pleasurable mystery.

Because right here and now I´m so damn good at it.

Belly breathing. Pleasure inside out. A treat that lasts forever. If I want to.

Like a yoga practice which never ends. It`s always here.

A practice for life.

Life IS 

In every moment incredible as it is.

dark & light

smear it all over your heart peeps

mornings

Dum spiro spero

While I breathe, I hope



killersurf ulu watu 2012

L O V E G E C K O

I miss these "chichak" guys



Gecko on billboard Bali 2012

Guru Purnima गुरु पूर्णिमा

Oct 29th and a powerful full moon. In sanskrit Guru Purnima.


The word guru is coming from two words, 'Gu' and 'Ru' .
The Sanskrit root "Gu" means darkness or ignorance.
"Ru" represents the remover of that darkness. Light.
Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is called a Guru.

 
The Full Moon brings light to the dark.
It helps us transform and see what we can change.
This is a good time of cleansing and healing.
Invite this illuminating full moon to transform darkness into light and fear into love.

And contemplate about:

What in my life moves me from darkness into light?

 

 

bali light 2012

 

 

 

What If...

What if.....

What if religion was each other
If our practice was our life
If prayer was our words

What if the temple was the Earth
If forests were our church
If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans

What if meditation was our relationships
If the Teacher was life
If wisdom was self-knowledge
If love was the center of our being.

Ganga White




horses and nature - summer in skåne 2012
click for larger view