There is a truth beyond the duality of our lives. Beyond right and wrong, true and false, good and bad is the truth: the wisdom and the infinite divinity of our souls.

Although at times it is hard to access it, this wisdom lives within you in your field of existence. You need to tap into this essence during:

• Moments of feeling lost, by remembering your true essence is that of wisdom and love
• Life’s tough decisions, by knowing you already have the highest vibrational answers that rest in your heart
• Health, money, relationship issues, by reconnecting again and again with your knowing soul and remembering it is all a mirror to get to know the many aspects of yourself

Your truth (your soul) doesn’t always arrive where you are unless you consciously take the time to connect with it. Reminding yourself to bring it with you to wherever you are and wherever you go becomes an exercise in connecting with your soul’s wisdom and embodying your truth.

Just take a moment and close your eyes. Bring to mind whatever challenge you are facing right now. Can you sense how this challenge shows up in your body? Go ahead and call your soul’s wisdom in. Let it permeate your body until you feel completely embodied with your soul. And whenever you get lost, close your eyes and bring your soul back into your body until you are one with your truth.

With love and light,

Damla

Healing does not mean getting rid of all your issues. It does mean however making peace with them.

When you make peace with what is, you are no longer fighting it. You can come to a deeper understanding of your struggles with an impartial look. You can then, in time, observe what it is that it is trying to teach you.

There are tools and methods that can show you how to do this. Crystals are a huge help because they bring you to a consciousness that can hold space for what is. Mantra does it too. Mantra Dance adds another layer where you can be the issue, you can give it a body to dance and express itself. The issue then feels seen and heard and understood. And often something magical happens: it releases its tight grip on you.

My life had been a constant struggle until I finally figured out how to use these tools. I know what it means to struggle. And I now know how to rise above it and see everything  as my dear teacher who is helping me become whole. I am here to teach you to do the same.

I hope to see you soon at my next Chakra Bliss Group Healing or Mantra Dance.

With love and light,

It is the end of the year and I am contemplating a gift for you. My gift for you is this one phrase that saved my life this year over and over again.

It is so simple “what a gift it is….” and then you fill the blanks. Think of the worst thing, conversation, person, accident, global or personal event that happened to you this year, and then describe it, followed by what you think or feel is the gift hidden in this circumstance. Here are some of mine:

• What a gift it is that I’ve had moments of exhaustion reminding me to take better care of myself.
• What a gift it is that I did not realize all my business and personal goals this year and learned to meet myself and all that came out to the surface with love, and chose to still trust life.
• What a gift it is that I have had moments that I needed encouragement and love. I’ve found the courage to seek them within, and to get help where I fall short.
• What a gift it is that we live in times filled with fear and uncertainty, giving us the opportunity to choose love in our every word, thought, and action, at every moment.

I invite you to take a moment to count your gifts. Settle in your favorite chair, grab yourself your favorite winter tea/drink and start counting the gifts hidden in your troubles. You might be surprised at what comes out.

Happy holidays and a happy (almost) new year,

With love and light,

Damla

It doesn’t matter where you are on your life’s journey, you can still be of service. You can have completely blocked chakras, you may be struggling with your emotions, your health, or your finances, and still be a light to someone or some being in your life. If you are a healer, you don’t need to be a guru to help others. If you are a mom, you don’t need to have a perfect day to care for your children. If you are a person who feels lost, you can still learn to hold space for light and hope, to come into being for yourself and others.

Even while you struggle, you are medicine for someone or some being in your life. Your existence and your vibration help someone expand theirs, sometimes lovingly, sometimes painfully. Call it karma, call it coexistence, you are medicine.

And you become a powerful, positive, loving medicine when you choose your thoughts, words, and actions to be of service. Today I invite you to find one being in your life (it can be you) that you can be kind and loving to, to the best of your ability. Give them from your heart, really be there for them, look into their eyes lovingly, smile and genuinely ask questions about their needs and dreams. And be open to receiving just by giving.

With love and light,

Damla Aktekin

I am beautiful. It is not often that I pause and say myself this. I am changing that. Here’s why you should do the same:

• Your truth, my truth, our truth is being beautiful. It is not because your nose is proportional to your eyes or your skin glows, but because I am, you are a wild expression of life, one of the millions of possibilities. There’s a unique beauty in that.
• I realized that the only times I recognize my own beauty are when I put an extra effort into my outfit or my husband/soulmate sees and recognizes my beauty. I know that in his eyes I am always beautiful no matter how I look. And I realized that in my eyes I am beautiful only when I put an extra effort into it. This is no longer OK for me because I have a four year old daughter and I don’t want her to seek the recognition of her own beauty elsewhere, or have to work extra hard for seeing and feeling it herself. I see her beauty shine even when she is covered in mud. It is time to see the same beauty in myself and often.
• Which brings me to my last point, not only am I beautiful, but you and everyone and everything in this world are too. As I walk in the street I know this, I cannot see my own inner beauty until I see and recognize it in every living soul around me. No judgment, no turning away, no categorizing. I see and know that the beauty around me is the same as the beauty within me.

When did you last feel beautiful? More importantly, when did you last make yourself and others feel beautiful? Let’s say it together: I am beautiful. You are beautiful. We are beautiful. And we all deserve to feel that.

With love and light,

Damla

A couple of years ago, I was coming out of a yoga class, climbing the stairs leading to the street together with one of the women who took the class that day. We were both in the lovely haze that is created in the aftermath of a connected yoga practice, and started to chat about why we need to come to the class anyway. I remember saying to her ‘I feel like we are here to reset ourselves over and over again.’ and she whispered ‘and to be ok with that…’. We both walked into the beautiful, crisp autumn air outside and then it hit me, she had just given me one of the most beautiful and elegant lessons of my life: to reset ourselves over and over again and to be ok with that.

I have thought about it often since then, especially in the times when it feels like the weight of my life and the drama of the world is too much to bear. As a mom, woman, free-thinking citizen of the world, I notice the deep drama going on in our individual and collective lives. The issues that keep coming back are not new. Yet we all seem to struggle on some level to make peace within ourselves and to create the peace we seek in our outer lives and in our immediate and far communities. Yoga is just one refuge in this confusing mess. One that connects us to our reserves of hope. And then we go back into our daily lives and come back to the practice over and over again to renew our connection to this healing balm. The practice of coming back itself becomes the hope that helps us survive the unruly chaos of our reality. And yet every time we lose touch with this connection, we need to re-believe that hope is a possibility.

Today is one of those days. I choose to believe that we can change our reality. I choose to believe that my practice matters, my conscious thoughts, words, feelings and actions can lift the world. I choose to believe that even though I have to reset my beliefs, my nervous system, my digestion, my posture, my relationship with myself and the world, almost every single day, that it matters that I connect with my truth. And that truth is accepting and seeing the beauty that my hope stays alive despite everything. The hope that my/our consciousness is evolving and that we will go beyond the current struggles of our species and make peace with ourselves, with other human beings and all the other residents of the world.

The fact that we are not there yet, and that it takes courage to exist right now in this time, and that I/we still need to believe, hope, practice, reset ourselves and come back to the world with a renewed courage and refilled peace reserves, and to be ok with all of this, is the real practice of yoga.

~with special thanks to Patty Welch for her wisdom and her quiet, courageous presence

photo credit: @dlopezt

You are allowed to be blissful.

You are allowed to feel what you feel.

You are allowed to not be ok all the time.

You are allowed to be the unapologetic, imperfect, joyful you.

You are allowed to lose it and then find it again (whatever ‘it’ may be).

You are allowed to make big and small mistakes.

You are allowed to arrive the destination your own way.

You are allowed to say no to whomever or whatever your heart says no to.

You are allowed to be you.

You are allowed to feel a big burst of joy.

You are allowed to daydream and lie in bed.

You are allowed to do nothing sometimes.

You are allowed to let it go.

You are allowed to let it be.

You are allowed to be the unique expression of your beautiful soul in every possible way.

With love and light,

Damla

I talk a lot about bliss. Bliss begins with joy. Joy begins with giving yourself the permission to enjoy the moment.

Enjoyment comes from seeing something as a wonder. Losing yourself in the beauty of a child’s face or in the eyes of your lover. Being silly and opening your mouth to the sky to eat some snow or drink some rain 🙂 Smelling the flowers and noticing how these magnificent beings have the power to shift your senses from ordinary to bursting with joy. Looking at the seasons or the weather as something to be cherished ( and noticing how you talk about the weather is mainly a reflection of your inner state). Noticing and enjoying the changing colors of the day. Being in tune with the flow of life.

Start with the small moments and enjoy your life! What better time to start than now? This season that you are in is the perfect one, where you are at is just the right spot, and this moment in your life is the one you have been waiting for.

With love and light,

Damla

With love and light,

Damla

“You’ve got to cut your cords with that city. The one where you fell in love with your husband, gave birth to your first baby, decorated your first home. Otherwise there’s no life for you here, at every step, every corner, the city you left behind will follow you.” She started to cry, we hugged. Her Chakra Bliss Healing session had just ended and as my hands hovered over the crystals I placed on her body, getting as hot as coals, and as I asked her and my soul helpers to bless, heal, love, and renew the both of us, these words came into my inner space and they dropped out of my mouth as soon as the session ended: “Cut the cords with that city”.

Just like the way you cut your cord when you came out of your mommy’s womb. Just like that first threshold, when you stepped out of the known water into the unknown air, going into a place where you didn’t know if you would be nourished, taken care of, a place where you didn’t know if everything was going to be alright. Even before you knew what being fearful meant, you trusted that someone will hold you, and instinctively knew that the universe will always and always be your sweet smelling mother hugging you into her chest.

Blessing what is and what was. Thanking them for what they taught you, for all the experiences they gave you and how they contributed to your today. Offering flowers to the past, bowing thankfully, washing it with light. Wishing it happiness, blessings and love. Saying “Thank you. I bless you. I release you.” to all the people, places, events, cities, and emotions in your life. Saying “Goodbye” to what needs to go and “Hello” to what needs to come.

Our unhappiness stories are a great many: 

• I wish I was there, not here. This is not my ideal place to live.
• I wish you weren’t like this. You are different than the ideal in my head.
• I wish I wasn’t like this. I am far from my ideal self.
• I wish things weren’t like this.
• I didn’t come to this city, this job, this relationship at the right time and under the conditions I hoped for.
• My family, my past, my work life, my finances aren’t how I want them to be.
• I am not the problem, it is my conditions and the people around me.
• I am the problem. I can never make it to my ideals.
• If I get this promotion, buy this dress, drop this much weight, finish this school and then this master’s degree, find someone like this to be with, get pregnant right at this time, have a child that is just like this and that, buy a house in this neighborhood, etc. etc. THEN I will be super happy.

Close your eyes. You are an infinite being. You are a light that holds unimaginable happiness, love, and soul journeys inside. Everything else is an illusion. Everything else is a city to leave behind whose only purpose was to bring you to this magical moment. Take a stroll in this city, place flowers of gratitude at every corner. Thank it for all that it taught you and how it made you you. Then slowly, gently untie the cord between you and the city.

At the point where you leave all the cords behind, you are the precious love child of the universe. Everything is as it should be. Everything is ONLY of light and love. 

With love and light,

Damla