A Drop of Om

In one of my parenting groups, someone asked the question of whether our children need to wear blue light filtering glasses while engaging with electronics. The answer is yes and we all need to be aware of the dangers of blue light and learn ways to filter it to preserve our health. Blue light from LED lights has a damaging effect on our retinas, hormonal cycles as well as our circadian rhythm.

Here’s the research on why filtering blue light matters:

• Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2017 went to a study about the importance of the circadian rhythms in health and well-being.
• 2012 Harvard Medical School article on how blue light can negatively affect circadian rhythms and sleep health. “While light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light at night does so more powerfully. Harvard researchers and their colleagues conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 1.5 hours).”
• A 2018 Forbes.com article on the damaging effects of blue light on our retinas.
• France adopted a National Light Pollution Policy in 2019, which includes restrictions on the emission of blue light.

Here’s what I have been doing the protect myself and my family‘s circadian rhythm, sleep health, and the health of our eyes:

• We changed ALL our light bulbs from LED to incandescent about 3 years ago. The light feels much warmer and healthier.
• I installed blue light filters to ALL our electronic devices including our desktop computer, laptops, iPad, phones, Kindles, and Nintendo Switch.
• I downloaded F.lux free blue light filtering app to all our laptops.
• The only device I couldn’t filter was our two large TVs. For them, I keep blue light filtering glasses around the house for everyone’s use. We also use these while traveling.

Here are some of my favorite tools for blue light protection. I have included all the device filters, light bulbs, blue light filtering glasses we use in our home:

Imagine what it would feel like to wake up feeling light in the morning. Not dreading your day but actually welcoming it with open arms.

When is the last time you have felt this way? Like life is on your side and everything is OK as it is. Like every day is an opportunity to fly higher.

What will it take for you to own your power and say ‘I am willing to go on a healing journey to re-claim my lightness, my joy.’ What will it take for you to own your wounds and take daily action to help ease your burden? What will it take for you to reach out for expert help and support to unfold your wounds?

I am here for you when you are ready to take flight. 

With love and light,

Damla

In this video, I am introducing a different and wider view of who your ancestors are and explaining what your ancestors need from you for healing. This is a brief introduction to how you can begin to heal your relationship with your ancestors.

Unhealed, unacknowledged wounds of your ancestors continue to live in you and through you and show up as pain and struggle. I encourage you to watch this video to begin to understand the roots of your pain and how to move beyond it.

In my online course Tending To Your Needs, I have included a dedicated healing meditation called ‘Ancestral and Cosmic Needs’, which helps you begin your ancestral healing journey. Find out more about the course and how to enroll here.

Check out my private online healing sessions to help you unfold and heal ancestral wounds.

With love and light,

Damla

There is so much uncertainty, anxiety, fear, sadness, and chaos in the air. In the midst of all of this, I am feeling pulled by the small things that matter.

The scent of the incense that I burn after each healing that carries out from my healing room window down to our deck.

The socks, the winter hat, and the small feathery toy that my cat carries everywhere and sometimes lays down on my yoga mat as gifts.

The giggles of my daughter as we tickle her and she playfully asks for more tickles.

The sound of the super loud video gaming podcast that my husband listens to. I have no idea what they are talking about but it lets me know he’s nearby.

The thoughtfulness of a friend, a loving and encouraging email, a short text message, just checking in.

The feeling of water running all over my body as I take a shower like taking a breath before diving deeper into life.

The size of our hearts asking to be expanded with every little obstacle to living from our truth.

The feeling of a cold compress against the back of my skull as a migraine hurricane rages inside my head.

The chill I feel at night and to be able to be surrounded by the safety and thickness of my comforter. 

The taste of good food, summer tomatoes, dark chocolate, Nutella on bread, and everything we cook with lots of love.

Hugging, holding hands, snuggling.

Becoming a good listener for myself and everyone else even on the days that I am struggling to exist beyond breathing.

Finding a spark in me and rushing to write the light out as words.

Love matters. Let’s find all the big and small things that surround us asking to be noticed with love. Let’s love more. 

With love and delight,

Damla

My favorite thing to do when I am folding laundry, driving or cooking is listening to a podcast. Here are some of my favorite podcasts:

• On Being is my all-time favorite podcast. Krista Tippett interviews people from all religions and backgrounds, as well as artists, poets, scientists on the meaning of our existence and all things related to how to be a human in the world. Some of my favorite episodes are the conversations with Mary Oliver, John O’Donohue, Gordon Hempton, and Richard Rohr.
• Armchair Expert has come into my life unexpectedly and became my go-to podcast for funny, deep and unapologetically real conversations. Host Dax Shepard has a way to disarm his guests with humor, his amazing vulnerability, and direct questions. Some of my favorite episodes are with Esther Perel, Ashton Kutcher, Jimmy Kimmel, Will Ferrell, Edward Norton, and I love the entire 10-episode series Monica and Jess Love Boys for the amazing insight into how to be with our relationship patterns.
• Meditative Story combines two of my favorite things, meditation and true inspirational stories. The stories are read by the person joining the podcast and the host prompts brief meditation cues here and there which helps you get back into experiencing the story with your body and breath. Here’s one that I love, this one and this one brought me to tears.
• Tara Brach’s podcast is a collection of her dharma talks that break down living as humans and how to find our way through everything with the help of meditation. Her wisdom, insight, and expert storytelling are like balms for the soul. You can listen to her and meditate with her. Here’s an episode that I really loved on Finding Freedom In The Midst Of Failure.

When you have a chance, check out my podcast Conversations With Healers, where I talk to self-healers and healers on all things related to healing and being and becoming a Healer.

Your turn, what are your favorite podcasts? Please comment below and let me know.

With love and light,

Damla

This is me. I am Damla Aktekin. I was born and raised in a tiny town in Turkey, went to undergrad in Istanbul, then to Germany for my graduate studies (my MBA), then to Washington, D.C. to finish my MBA. My name (Damla) means a water droplet in Turkish and the name of my business A Drop Of Om, came to me in a dream. This is the story of how I got to that dream.

It was while I was working in the corporate world in the US when I had my first healing crisis. In 2005, one day after being in the office until 9pm, I woke up in the middle of the night with an unbelievably painful headache and started to slur my words. We ended up in the emergency room and I was administered an erroneous spinal tap resulting in the leaking of my spinal fluid. I had to be on my hands and knees crawling on the floor for two weeks (if I didn’t, everything hurt). I was literally brought down to my knees by life, something had to change. So began my yoga journey, buying every book, taking endless workshops, attending many teacher trainings, managing a studio, and filling my life with all things yoga.

The more I dove into yoga, the more I got fascinated not by the movement, but the philosophy and the depth of the paradigm shift it was offering me. Before then, I lived in my head (hence the headache), and had no means, knowledge, or training to give attention to my body, which was a revelation. This is also the time that I discovered meditation and slowly fell in love with it.

My second healing crisis came in 2012 when I gave birth to my daughter through an emergency C-section. I lost all my connection to my body and the deliciousness I had experienced through movement and meditation. I had to discover new ways of finding a connection with my soul. It was through mantras first, then crystals, EFT, and tuning forks that I began to dive into not just my mind and body but the vibrational field around me and around all of us that is meant to an integral part of our lives here on Earth. I devised my own crystal healing method Chakra Bliss Healing, simply because I needed it. Through experimentation, I realized that I was getting glimpses into my vibrational reality really strongly with the help of crystals.

People usually ask me where I got trained to be a Healer. The truth is I didn’t get any formal training if you don’t count the three days I received my Reiki attunements between 2005 and 2012, which honestly felt like receiving energy healing from three different strangers. At the time I was receiving them, it never occurred to me that I might be using my hands for offering healing sessions. I don’t call what I do Reiki because what I do isn’t simply repeating something I was taught. Every time I am working with someone, I am diving into the landscape of their vibrational field, sometimes with my tuning forks, sometimes with my hands and the help of crystals, and sometimes simply by listening to them speak. I am not following a script or a prescribed set of movements and steps. We are co-creating an experience where what needs to be heard, seen, understood, and released is coming out to the surface safely and lovingly.

The reason I call myself a Healer is because every time I connect with someone’s energy field and stay with it and help that person discover a knot that they unfold and release, it feels like they are becoming who they are meant to be. I am not someone who aims to cure you, but someone who is here to help you be even more you, even deeper you, a more vibrationally healthy you. Sometimes the pain is part of it like it had been with the start of my migraines. I strongly believe that that ailment was my body’s way of awakening me to own who I am. When I get migraines I now know that a part of me needs to change and I need a new perspective in life.

The other part of it is that you can hear the call, but it takes a while to answer the call. At least it was for me. It took me falling down on my knees again through the journey of becoming a mother, to own who I am, and really, truly accept the call. Because there was no other way for me. I could no longer ignore it when my intuition spoke to me (louder and louder). I could no longer pretend to be happy in an office job and try to fit in. I could no longer put my time and energy into things that didn’t matter to me.

The journey continues. Now we collectively find ourselves in an awakening. What matters is to stay true to yourself and leave what doesn’t work for you and invite more of what feels good, authentic, and true to you, now more than ever. Your needs matter during this time as we are all carrying and feeling the heaviness of our collective trauma. These wounds can heal, as all wounds can. We all need a little more courage, a little more presence, a little more resilience.

I know from experience that these are the perfect times to lean into our tools. Tools like mantras, crystal healing, talking to a friend, a loved one, being out in nature, or simply taking a day or an afternoon off when you can be with and listen in to your vibrational reality. If you need help with that I am here for you.

With a huge hug and lots of love,

Damla

P. S. If you are looking for a simple tool to help you during this time, check out my new publication 40 Days Of Shanti Mantra Journal. It was made for these times, to help you begin to get connected to the peace that lives deep within you.

Photo taken by my 8-year-old daughter in our yard