Category: Featured

  • The Work of Byron Katie: a beautiful example for changemakers

    The Work of Byron Katie: a beautiful example for changemakers

    In this enlightening and entertaining video, you’ll see The Work by Byron Katie applied by a woman who holds strong grudges towards the meat industry.

    She quickly realises how her negative thoughts are preventing her from seeing clearly and compassionately. She comes to see how she has been a slave to her own thinking, and wakes up from that illusion.

    She comes out so much wiser and lighter, the truly powerful woman that she is.

    The video is a beautiful example both of The Work (a simple process for inner awakening) and of conscious activism.

  • Stop believing your mind (read The Untethered Soul)

    Stop believing your mind (read The Untethered Soul)

    “There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.”
    ― Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

    Here’s a fun exercise: write down your thoughts for a day, or even a couple of hours. Then read out loud what you’ve written down.

    It will be a dreamlike, rather incomprehensive monologue or inner conversation, a collection of words and sentences pretty random, often contradictive and colored by emotion.

    If this were a real life professional you were consulting for guidance in your life, would you be happy with their service? If this was your friend talking, would you think they are sane?

    In his book The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer helps readers let go of the sense that they are their minds, or even that they should believe their thoughts all the time. Instead, he helps them find their sense of I somewhere deeper, in a place untainted by the turbulence of life.

    Reading this book has helped me and many friends live from love, not fear, even when things get busy, messy or tough. I always recommend it to people who suffer from an overactive mind or who notice they live in their heads much of the time.

    “Do not let anything that happens in life be important enough that you’re willing to close your heart over it.”
    ― Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

  • Emden, Northern Germany (Summer in a VW campervan I)

    Emden, Northern Germany (Summer in a VW campervan I)

    Moin! I’m in Emden, Ost-Friesland, Northern Germany and here, ‘Moin!’ is the way to say hi.

    Update

    Life has been wild and deep and the blog has been silent for the last couple of months. A new love has entered my life and I’ve spent quite some time here in Germany and roaming different places in The Netherlands, looking out for a steady place to live and meanwhile enjoying the location independent lifestyle.

    Nomading

    Sometimes, I really long to live somewhere steady, just to have a ‘basecamp’. However, the apartments I applied for so far have not yet turned out to be a match and although my mind sometimes feels sorry about that, my heart is calm and knows everything is alright and life is providing everything that is needed in just the right time.

    As a direct example, this roaming lifestyle enables me to pay off my debt faster than I could have otherwise and frankly, feeling that weight slowly but steadily being lifted off my shoulders is huge.

    Hit the road again

    After six months of profound work, the hurt of the breakup still being felt, some exciting website jobs, a couple of ceremonial workshops, and five different houses I’ve taken care of or stayed at, the time has come for me to hit the road again.

    Love Jan has bought a Volkswagen T5 van and is turning it into a comfortable campervan. He is a carpenter and works miracles with wood, making everything in here fit the curves of the bus just perfectly.

    Meanwhile, I am working on a brand new look and functionality for this website using the van as my office. We expect to both be ready in a few days.

    judith-jan-campervan-emden

    Volkswagen T5 campervan makeover

    Some highlights of the work he is getting done: a big bed annex chill area, optimal storage space, a multifunctional mini kitchen to be used inside or outside of the vehicle and ‘swivel seats’, meaning we can turn around the driver and passenger seats to create a spacious and comfy home using the full length of the van.

    He is getting all that done AND making us lovely breakfast each morning in his mother’s ‘Cafétje’, too!

    What’s next

    We’re almost done: Jan with the van, and I with the website. I’m totally excited about putting that live and then roadtripping down south, through Belgium, to France, Spain and Portugal. I’ve recently picked up playing guitar and expect to add a few songs to my songbook along the way, visit faraway friends and get some work done in the meantime as well.

    I’m ready to find out what living in a campervan is really like… and will of course keep you posted whenever I can! If you have ever traveled this way, please do share your experience in the comments. Or, if you have questions about the VW campervan makeover, those are welcome as well!

  • Beauty and the invitation to let go

    A few days ago I ran into a friend whom I hadn’t seen in over a year. I was delighted to see him, we hugged and exchanged some updates about our lives. I felt vibrant and enthusiastic, but somehow that didn’t translate into our communication. Something in my facial expression felt weirdly off. The feedback I got from my face’s muscles didn’t seem to reflect the emotion I was feeling.

    What’s happening with my face?

    The left side of my tongue had been numb for a little over a day as well, and as I became aware of the strange sensations in my face, suddenly an unsettling understanding kicked in. I rushed to the toilet and tried to smile at myself in the mirror. Bang, there it was. My face was split in half: the right half was my familiar face, with fine lines, a few wrinkles and full of expression. The left half looked years younger and strangely still… moving the muscles required hard work and sorted minimum effects. What was going on?!

    Decay

    Lately, I have been reflecting on the changes of my body. Skin is wrinkling and getting saggy in places, cellulitis is showing and my breasts and arms are not as firm as they used to be. My joints need longer to readjust after sitting in one posture for some time. It’s not as easy to jump a fence as it was only a few years ago. These things are moving from subtle changes into unmistakable first signs of decay. As everything in nature and life is a constant movement of birth and death, so is this body…

    ‘You are so beautiful’

    For most of my life (and still now) I have felt incredibly blessed with having a healthy, pretty body and face. Wherever I go, people respond positively to the way I look. I have often been told I look beautiful. I have always appreciated my luck and also always known that this beauty was futile and fleeting when just concerning the outside, the packaging. That could all fall away in a split second. And then what’s left? My efforts in self development have therefore mostly been on the inside, and much less the outside. These last days, I have thanked myself over and over for that.

    Bell’s Palsy

    So now here it is: a facial paralysis. The doctor gave it a name: Bell’s palsy (my Mac has a sense of humor and keeps trying to autocorrect it into Bell’s party). There is about an 80% chance the nerve will fully recover within a month or three, and I trust that it will be so. (Especially when watching the video, I seem to have a rather mild case.) And whatever is here to stay, is welcome as well. I am inviting in whatever experience is here to unwind any false attachments.

    Change

    It is with wonder that I look at my new face these days. In a way, it’s a look back into the past, because in the ‘silent’ part of my face, there are no more wrinkles nor frowns. The paralyzed part of my face is youthful and serene, like the effects botox would have (free trial, yay 😉 ).

    Also, eating and drinking are a whole new experience. Whatever is not working now, shows the intricate teamwork of so many facial muscles that usually provide for a pleasant, clean and efficient meal.

    Sad about the loss of expression

    What saddens me, is the changed look of spontaneous laughter and surprise, or love, or friendliness on my face. When I express these emotions while seeing myself, for example when making a Skype call, I can see it looks off. I’m becoming aware of how much the expression of an emotion also feeds back into the experience of a situation. When I laugh out loud and see or feel my face ‘stuck’ in a different configuration of muscle tensions, the emotion doesn’t last as long and changes into something new faster.

    Why hide?

    Plus, of course, people’s reactions are different. With strangers I sometimes want to hide my face. With family and friends it feels ok to be naked like this. I will have the next couple of weeks to explore this further.

    What’s this telling me?

    And then there is the question of how I invited this medical situation into my life. It’s a huge signpost that something wants to be changed. I am making small changes to my diet, have started eating meat and fish every now and then because it feels good for my body in this moment and I have let go of sugary candies again. It’s also inviting a deeper look into self expression in my life. Writing, dancing, playing music, conversations with people, work, relationship, physical activity. I realized that I need to move way more than I have in the past couple of months.

    What remains of me?

    And most of all, it is inviting me to let go of any false image that remains of ‘me’. It is great to enjoy a body that works without fail and looks pretty, making it easy to connect with others and express myself. But what remains of me when that falls away? Is it anything less? As with the aging process, thoughts arise about parts of this body being unpleasant to look at, accompanied with feelings of unworthiness. The clear seeing of this knows without question that this is utter bullshit, but the thoughts arising deserve attention rather than just being cast aside as nonsense.

    I can see how this party Mr Bell is throwing for me could be here to show me exactly that.

    ***

    PS: although the video shows the case a bit milder than it actually is, I have already seen some improvements since this morning and I am in good hopes that all function will return. Many cases of Bell’s may be more severe than this one.

  • Stop selling your soul and start doing work that you love

    Stop selling your soul and start doing work that you love

    Do you ever feel that in order to make money, you are selling your soul?

    I used to feel like that:

    …When I was working for a company division where I didn’t agree with their approach and solutions.
    …When scoring a deal was so important that I worked with clients whose business was against my beliefs.
    …When I was running my own business and wasn’t clear on the value I could bring to people.

    I could say it felt horrible, but that is not even true. Back then, it felt… normal. Although some voice inside was always saying that maybe it could (and should) be different, I just gently put it aside.

    Until I didn’t.
    It took a mental breakdown for me to turn things around.

    I remember crying every morning in the car on my way to work. Until one day, I cracked. I panicked at work and went in fright mode. Heart racing, cold sweat, nausea, mind in overdrive, unstoppable tears. Exhausted.

    I stayed at home, sick, for months. And I wasn’t taking good care of myself either, drinking too much and smoking cigarettes.

    At the same time, I was finding ways towards healing: meditation, ayahuasca. Doing great amounts of self reflection, facing my shadows. Discovering my talents. Accepting the loving care and patience of my love Marco*, my friends and dear family.

    And eventually, all of that is what led me to become an entrepreneur.

    Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.
    Elisabeth Gilbert

    When I was at home, unable to go back to the work place, I started doing the things that I loved: cooking, writing, sharing recipes. I read many blogs and started my own. I taught myself how to work with WordPress.

    I didn’t know it at the time, but one year later I would be teaching people how to start THEIR own website. It felt great to be selling something which had helped me in my life. Even when I still considered myself a beginner, there were already so many people who could benefit from my experience! And as my skills and insight increased, my business mirrored that growth.

    The process hasn’t ended there. Still now, I keep moving closer towards more authenticity, more personality, more truth, speaking from the heart. No more selling your soul, ever. Unless “selling your soul” means “to make a living sharing what you value most”.

    I now exclusively work with people who aim to have their website and newsletter reflect what they REALLY stand for (and with individuals on their health through breathwork, but that’s another chapter). If you’re interested and wondering if this is for you, contact me.

    My work serves people to bring out the best in themselves and share their gift with the world, because I know from my own experience how deeply satisfying it is to live your life like this.

    What do you truly value in life? Is the way you earn money aligned with this?

    * Update: life goes on, things change and Judith and Marco are no longer together as a couple. We are still close friends.

  • Mindmapping for beginners

    Mindmapping for beginners

    Have you ever felt overloaded with thoughts and ideas? Was it ever hard for you to start writing on a report, presentation or project because there was so much going on in your head?

    Knowing how to make a mindmap gives you clarity, focus, creativity and helps you to convey a set of ideas more easily to other people. I often advise clients to develop their ideas in a mind map.

    Be it their life vision, business ideas, or website wishes: what used to be an amorphous cloud of thoughts, questions and to do’s through creating the mindmap becomes a beautiful and energizing set of ideas and their relationships.

    It may require some exercise, but soon you’ll be drawing mindmaps for everything. All my ideas, I pour in a mind map. Whether it is a vision for years or a site plan for the day: there is a mind map. It especially helps me to clear my mind when it’s overloaded with big and small ideas.

    Why mind mapping in stead of a to do list?

    The reason that mind mapping works so well is that the mind mapping process reflects our brain processes way better than linear lists do. Think about it: thoughts are never neatly categorized by your thought machine, are they? Details and guidelines, risk factors and pots of gold, they all come in the same minute, with the same sense of urgency. And just when you’re working out something BIG, occasionally there will be a little voice saying: “I need new shoelaces.”

    For all those ‘entities’ there is space in the mindmapping process. Eventually, they will all settle in their rightful place.

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    Become an expertMy dear friend Tomas Libas is rapid learning coach.

    In a recent workshop here in Thailand, he advised to always create a mind map when reading a book. This way, you can easily revisit the book anytime and in a glance get the essence of it.

    Review your mind maps daily, then weekly, then monthly and yearly and everything you read, will stick.

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    How to create a mind map

    This basic approach has been working wonders for me:

    Sit down with an empty sheet of paper (or a few of them), a pen and colored pencils or crayons.

    Close your eyes. Take a few slow breaths.

    Now gently focus your concentration on the subject of your mindmap.

    Then, open your eyes, take the pen and start writing keywords.
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    Dump all your ideas, knowledge, tasks (depending on what your mind maps is about) from your brain onto paper. Use keywords. It may be criss-cross. You will categorize later, don’t worry about that now. Good or bad idea, important or unimportant, large or small, crazy or completely obvious, everything gets a spot. Just write down everything that comes to mind.

    It’s like popping popcorn

    Have you ever popped popcorn (in a pan or in the microwave oven)? Have you noticed how the speed at which the corn kernels pop first increases, until there’s a blast, and then it slows down?

    Mindmapping feels the same. You will notice that at first you’ll be searching a bit, preparing the brain for the release to come. Finding the ‘way in’.

    Probably within one or a few minutes, you will be writing fast, because there is so much ‘stuff’ (from the brightest insight to the smallest nagging thought) occupying space in your mind that wants to come out. This will build up to the ‘popcorn blast’.

    Finally, you will slow down. The rate at which new ideas surface, will decrease. You will know when you are ready. Take a minute to enjoy the spaciousness of your mind at ease…. Ahhhhh.

    Now, it’s time for the next step.

    In a moment, you’ll circle the words that are related with the same color. First, take a moment to look at your paper and take up the words that are there.

    You will start to see how some of them belong together in groups. So now, grab your crayons and start circling, using one color for each group.

    This is the part where new insights often emerge as well! For example, you may find a whole new source of solutions to your problem.

    Tennis-mindmapFinished with coloring? Grab a new sheet of paper, put your subject in the center and from the center, draw branches. give each color its own branch. If a group is subdivided, make a smaller branch. You may also doodle and get all artsy with it, if you like. When you finish, you have a colorful and inspiring image instead of a boring list like any other.

    New links and fresh ideas
    In workshops, I have facilitated groups of people in mindmapping together. That is a magical process where new things arise that previously didn’t. This happens also if you make a mind map just for yourself: you will start to see connections that you had not put first. Insights and epiphanies will arise, and you and your project can go into flow.

    Many people use a mind map when they give a presentation. It’s easier to remember your presentation and improvisation comes more naturally when using a mindmap. The one that is shown above, for example, would be great if you wanted to teach people the basics of tennis.

    In the Inspired Web Presence Program, one of the many things we cover is how you can use the mindmapping process to create awesome, inspiring blog posts or a the outline of an ebook, for example. Learn more.

    This blog post is an adaptation of my earlier post on mindmapping on my Dutch website: In1DagOnline.nl.
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  • Fiery Chocolate Love Cake

    Fiery Chocolate Love Cake

    I was watching a movie last night: Chocolat. I saw it years ago, had always remembered it but probably hadn’t realized how much the film has affected my life.

    Here’s how it goes: Vianne is a French lady, a nomad whose South American mother used to perform sacred cacao rituals. Together with her daughter, she sets up a chocolatérie in a quiet and seemingly unwelcoming French village. She meets with fear and resistance in the villagers.

    Through her medicine bonbons though, and with help of her creativity, wisdom, warmheartedness and chocolate drinks, she ignites curiosity in the people and becomes a refuge for those who are open for connection and hungry for love.

    (Ahw, i love this story. There’s romance in it, too, but really the lovingly original shop, her open home, the medicinal delis and the eccentric clientele already have me all soft and happy inside.)

    A beautiful message in the priest’s sermon at the end of the movie:

    Here’s what I think: I think we can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do, by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude.

    I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create and who we include.

    Recipe for Fiery RAWR Chocolate Cake

    So here i’m going to include YOU into my most recent love adventure with chocolate cake. It’s in three layers plus topping of chocolate sprinkles. It’s VERY nice and tasty, it will melt on your tongue and heighten your senses, boosting your love life.

    Extra tip
    Stock up on granola, raw cacao, extra virgin coconut oil, lemon, ripe avocados, vanilla extract, dates or honey, and cashews. If you have those, all you need is fresh fruits and you’ll have raw cakes to die for in no-time, always.

    Ditch the scale
    I’m really sorry if you need exact measures; i can’t give them. I hardly measure, i just splash around with foods. A standard-sized bag or jug of each ingredient will definitely do for one cake.

    Also, make sure your coconut oil and honey are nice and soft so that you can easily add them to your blender.

    For the crunchy bottom:
    Take any crunchy granola (cereal-nut mixture, with or without coconut flakes – have it just the way you like it) and mix it in a blender or herb chopper with cacao, honey, a good twist of salt and a few tablespoons of coconut oil. Spread out and put in the fridge. The bottom can be quite salty, it’s nice when the salt is in the crunch layer and not so much in the main filling.

    For the main filling:
    Follow this recipe for heavenly chocolate but as this is a fiery love cake, substitute the lemon rind for chili flakes and black pepper:

    Combine 2 ripe avocado’s, 1 cup honey or more, 1 cup liquid coconut oil or more, 80-100 gr raw cacao, a few pinches of salt, 1 ts vanilla & freshly ground chili flakes and 4 season peppercorns in a blender. Don’t hesitate to add more of anything :). All ingredients are essential, don’t skip any. The consistency should be a thick cream while in the blender. When cooled in the fridge, it will be fudgy.

    Add the filling on top of the bottom layer in your cake form and put back in the fridge.

    For the topping:
    Blend a handful of cashews with water until creamy, then add raw cacao, lemon rind and honey. You may want to make add some lemon juice for added freshness, just try how it goes with your version of fiery heavenly filling.

    Add the topping and sprinkle with chocolate or chili flakes.

    Endulge.

  • Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    Basics of juicing: avocado-apple-kiwi juice

    My best kitchen purchase ever: a juicer. A bought it a year ago and have been using it about every two days. Superhealthy and really, really delicious. Friends love it, too.

    Here are some good-to-knows, tips and tricks:

    How does a juicer work:
    This is how the juicer works: vegetables and fruits are grated into pulp. The pulp is being centrifuged and thus pushed outward against the walls with very fine holes. Only the juice and finest pulp goes through. The result: superfresh, naturally cloudy juice. Best is to choose a machine that fits whole apples in the shaft.

    The above is for high-speed juicers. If you want to retain even more nutrients in your juice, choose a mechanically driven slow juicer.

    What do you need for juicing?
    For fruit juices, use apples or pears as a basis. Jason Vale (Philips’ marketing puppet juice chef): apple-sandwich. Start with an apple, stuff in anything else you lie in your juice and then end with an apple again. It works for me! I always have apples, pears, kiwifruits, carrots, lemons, ginger, mint, beetroot and leafy greens lying around so i always have my favorite juice ingredients at hand.

    Don’t peel your veggies!
    Apples, pears, carrots, beets, cucumbers, zucchinis, and even lemons and pineapples (well, be a bit careful with those): don’t peel! That would be a waste of vitamins ánd time! They can all go inside the juicer without peeling.

    Juicing oranges
    Oranges and clementines do need to be peeled (but not lemons and limes), because the rind holds bitter oils which will spoil your juice.

    Juicing bananas
    Veggies and fruits with a lot of starch, are not suitable for the juicer. The filter would get clogged with pulp. Ideally, use a blender or hand mixer to blend banana, avocado, papaya, mango, prunes etc into the juice.

    Superfast juicing process
    I’ll let mr. Vale do the talking:

    Recipe for Apple-kiwifruit-avocado juice:
    Juice 3-4 apples and 1-2 kiwis. Blend the juice with one half avocado. The avocado creates a deliciously light, luffy, creamy texture. It’s like ice cream, everybody loves it!

    (Update, 4+ years later: I still love juicers, nothing beats the taste of fresh juice! But I found with all those juices, I was drinking a LOT of sugar and missing most of the fibres. And although I often used the pulp to make something different, it felt like a pity to leave so much of the fruit and veg unused. Long story short… I’m back to smoothies, using the blender. Simply add water or any kind of juice to chunks of whole fruits and vegs in the blender and you can basically drink your daily dose.)