HOW DID YOU HAPPEN TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK?
In fact, books have been my close friends for as long as I can remember. Participating in recitation competitions, spending time reading the stories of various heroes, but also delving into knowledge and broadening my horizons. All this and more. They say that those who read, live many lives. And this is how I have always perceived my experiences with various types of novels, poetry collections, essays, guides, reports, and travel guides. During the pandemic, I started writing down many things in electronic form. These were reflections on life: another year passed, which I spent abroad as a stewardess for one of the largest airlines in the world. At that time, I was also interested in yoga. Everything merged into one whole: the desire to write, to spend quality time with myself (less work, flights; more time for sleep, rest were conducive to this idea). After a few months, life began to get back on track: more work, less free time. And so I put the book aside for an indefinite period of time. Thinking that someday there would be an opportunity to publish it. So, the pandemic times have passed, but every time I returned to this book, I had the impression that the message was timeless... This thought would not let go... There were people in my circle who supported me, including you, Ania, for which I will always be grateful. Let's never forget that we are one big family on Earth and a kind word can greatly support a person who needs this inspiration. The weight of words, I have always felt it...
WHAT WAS THE PANDEMIC LIKE FOR YOU? IT SEEMS LIKE IT WAS DURING THIS PERIOD THAT YOU GOT WINGS TO WRITE AND CREATE.
I remember that day like it was yesterday. Within a few days, my schedule changed literally from hour to hour. My life was already relatively unstable (different wake-up times, flight times, meal times, millions of changing faces in the form of passengers or work colleagues), but the whole situation related to the pandemic intensified this feeling. Suddenly, countries started closing their land and air borders one by one, like dominoes once set in motion. Poland closed. The country to which I took my last flight before a few months' break from work, France (the flight to Paris that I operated was overloaded, and on the way back we took several passengers to Dubai on a plane that could carry about 500 people! A380-800) also closed its borders. I was lying in bed then and asking myself: I won't fly anymore, I won't work anymore - my only reason for still being in Dubai disappeared. A slight anxiety appeared. Some friends were returning on repatriation flights to Poland. Others suggested waiting and seeing what would happen next. After all, the world wouldn't close forever. And yet it did. Mine for exactly a month. We didn't leave the building for several weeks, we ordered food online, kept a distance of 2m, didn't meet in person. I used this time as best I could. I didn't personally fight the virus, although I know that many did, whether it was friends from work or compatriots in the country. Everyone went through this time of isolation in their own way. I know that at no point did I feel fear. I didn't feel the fear that my life would change beyond recognition, or that the consequences of the virus would be even more unpredictable, such as no one had even dreamed of before. Two things that allowed me to continue in the light of positive thoughts. First, it was a huge inspiration. It helped me continue every day, get up and know deeply that no matter what happened, it would be fine. Namely, let's say I lose my job, maybe I die - these are probably the darkest scenarios, I didn't know how the whole situation related to the pandemic would turn out, but great faith and belief that everything would somehow work out allowed me to see meaning in everything I decided to do every day. And the second factor: discipline. It's what really led me to the moment I am at. Getting up at a specific time, routine (a word so foreign to my schedule), preparing healthy meals, meetings, if any, full of love and complete presence and especially time for myself: for books that I didn't have time to read earlier, for training with Ewa Chodakowska, meditation and especially for writing. Something that has always filled me up so much, and which I have put aside many times because I was tired, distracted, busy with work, which was a paramount value for me. This time was extremely motivating, as well as inspiring. Two key words then? Inspiration and motivation.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SELF-PUBLISH THE BOOK?
The fact that I could convey something deeper gave me a great sense of meaning in writing. I know that it helped people. I know that it helped me. The truth is that we live in beautiful times, when we can share not only our vision of the world on social media, internet blogs, photoblogs, Twitter, but we can also create wonderful content. Simply put, if you want to do something, you do it. The conditions for this will appear sooner or later. So if you want to be a writer, then write. Simply. We can hear someone through words, images; in physical or electronic form. There are no boundaries, standards, guidelines that say what your personal work called life should look like, as well as the best-composed novel. These times are exceptional, let's make the best use of them, let's live our truth.
IN ADDITION TO TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD, YOU HAVE ALREADY VISITED OVER 80 COUNTRIES, YOU ARE A VOTION TO WRITE, AND YOU HAVE BEEN A DEVOTED YOGA STUDENT AND TEACHER FOR OVER TWO YEARS. HOW DID THIS ADVENTURE BEGIN?
Yoga is for everyone. Many people think it's just a physical practice, but in reality it's much more: it's a state of mind, it's breathing, it's awareness, it's perseverance, it's acceptance. I feel like yoga has always been in me, and now it's just found its way to me in this form. First of all, Ania, and most importantly, but again I have to and of course I want to emphasize how huge a role you played in all of this. I remember when you gave me a YOGAFLOW mat, Wonderlust, in 2020. I loved it immediately. I wanted to take it everywhere, to every new place, to practice on it... I had already taken a few yoga classes back then. Interestingly, Hatha (because it was the first class I attended) appeared at a very critical moment for me. To my surprise, after a few classes I started to feel better inside, as if some balance was returning to me, but from the inside. And it was so wonderful, because these were not the most wonderful and dreamed of journeys around the world, it was not a vision of the most romantic relationship that I had experienced at that time. It was something very real for the first time: contact with myself. But such, conscious. Because ultimately we are in contact with ourselves all the time. Sometimes we simply focus our attention on something else, not on this very valuable information about ourselves. Later, for various reasons, I would leave the classes for a while, only to return to them again. And hear that voice again. It is a unique unification and an incredibly good feeling. In 2021, I made a decision: I am going to Nepal for a month to do the first 200-hour YTT instructor course. It was an amazing time. As my Guru summed it up: the fire that burns in me will burn even stronger; and the sound of my heart will be even louder. And that is how I feel it too.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE YOGA STYLE?
I respect all styles of yoga that support spiritual development in their mission. For me, yoga is about going deep into myself, looking at my body, which I have to admit that for so many years I had been trivializing or taking for granted. I was aggressively demanding and wanted it to always be at its best without any complaints. Yoga allowed me to relax. To understand that there is time for everything: for work and for rest. And both parts of the practice are equally important. After more or less intense effort on the mat, there is time for the final position: shavasana. There are people who, as soon as the more intense part is over, leave the gym. This only shows what state of mind they are in: they are unable to relax, let go, allow themselves a time to stop. For me, yoga is about looking inside and feeling everything within myself: all the emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable. Telling myself to continue through the discomfort, or to rest for a while, gather my strength and move on.
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT YOGA?
Everything. Apart from the fact that we become healthily focused on ourselves, we build ourselves from the inside, beyond all conditioning, thought patterns, coming from someone else, we first and foremost become a holistic being: integrating mind, body and soul into one. I will give one example taken from one of the kundalini classes I attended during a spring morning in Dubai. The instructor described a few basic positions/asanas combined into a small flow: Let's start with the first, basic sequence known in yoga: sun salutation (surya namaskar). Downward facing dog (Adho mukha svanasana) through plank to upward facing dog (Urdhvamukhasvanasana), this sequence teaches us the dynamics of life in the clearest form: first we relax (head down, hanging without tension), we rest. We remain alone with ourselves in a place that is safe, familiar, warm and comfortable for us. Next, plank - we decide to build strength by working on a strong chest, arms, lower abdomen, belly, so that we can go out into the world with all our accumulated strength. With an open heart. The chest in the upright dog says: I accept everything as it is; I give the best of myself. I love everything unconditionally. And exactly the same thing happens in life: how many times did we have to return to a place called the comfort of home just and only to rest, regenerate, gain distance, control raging thoughts and emotions. Next, we decided to take up specific work again. To believe in ourselves, the world again. That what we have to convey is important, that we can feel safe outside our own place, that no one will hurt us and that I will continue the work called life without any expectations of others, but especially myself. With one message: to love and accept unconditionally. Yoga is a lifestyle. Yoga is for everyone.
WHAT IS YOUR BOOK ABOUT?
This book is an extension of my mental processing of reality, which comes down to 3 components: gratitude for everything and everyone; faith that everything that happens makes sense; faith in yourself and in the unlimited possibilities associated with fulfilling dreams, traveling (internal and external), Creating relationships full of love, inspiration, acceptance, harmony, and especially awareness of depth, resulting from a sense of mission and true "talent" for which we are here. As the title suggests: I talk a lot in the book about a conscious approach to life, to seeing how the universe takes care of us and has always taken care of us. The sun rises every day for all of us and feeds us with its energy, regardless of race, culture, age, gender, place, time, religion... This awareness is the first step to calming the mind full of fear, living in the idea of scarcity, maybe in the desire to control everything, because we lack trust in a higher plan. The media feeds us a daily dose of information full of fear, inflation, war, accidents. Know, however, that there is a world in which there is much less of it, it is not talked about as much. Quite the opposite is done: every success is celebrated, every act of love and gratitude to another person. Every day is celebrated as if it were the first and the last. A real delight, a desire to create resulting from one thing: the desire to share the best and to serve each other. That is why gratitude is such an important element. I write about this in the first part of the book. Affirmations are one of the tools that direct our thinking in specific directions. Tens of thousands of thoughts flow through our minds every day. We must have solid foundations to choose those thoughts that are constructive for us and for everyone around us. But all of this must flow from us. For affirmations to work, one thing must happen: the body, mind, heart, soul are in harmony: they believe in goodness, even if they still do not see it, do not feel it, they choose it above everything else. SHARE A FRAGMENT. The whole book is really an attempt to find a balance between male and female energy: the energy of being and acting. Day and night, sun and moon. It speaks of dualism, but not the kind that excludes each other, but complements each other. From a person who lived from one extreme to another, because she thought that it was impossible to integrate the two, I wanted to find harmony. Of course, the inspiration was external journeys, in which your mat accompanied me wonderfully. These journeys around the world became the beginning of an even more wonderful expedition: because the one deep inside myself. The photos included in the book are my own, and they were taken by Krzyś Kołbas in the form of impressionistic paintings. It is a kind of internal album of memories from flights, which I received many times not literally, but between words. As you put it beautifully in your message, after I gave you the book with a dedication. " Then, silence and a moment of contemplation will take me away. New acquaintances will also be born from this silence. Some of them deep, others momentary, forever, or maybe just as a souvenir. Every acquaintance is perfect in its totality. Each one has given me something, has enriched my life with something. "Life is the most beautiful fairy tale" (Andersen), life is the most wonderful film. It happens before our eyes, it absorbs us completely, so that we play the main role in it. Yoga has taught me inner peace: no matter what happens, today we are on top, tomorrow we will be down again. One results from the other and in such a situation you have to remain composed. Not withdrawn, not uninvolved, simply in the belief that, just like in a film, the characters go through various adventures, there will be no end, without a good ending. There are also films with a tragic ending, but when we take a closer look at a specific issue, we will notice: there is no such thing as bad that does not turn out good. The art is to see the positive in every moment, if we can fix something, do it, and if all methods have failed, admit to yourself: I need time and space. I have absolutely no idea how to approach a given topic so that the effect is as successful as possible for everyone involved. Wait, wait, leave for a while, come back after some time. With a fresh perspective, and also with the awareness that the reality we find may be completely different from the one we left. We want certainty and uncertainty. We want change and we want a sense of stability. We want to know that whatever happens, it will be for our good. And this, and this is the only thing we can be sure of a million percent. We can also be sure that one day someone will break us so much that we will become indestructible. Whatever we do, we do it out of love. Not for love, not for any thing. We do not expect anything in return, and yet we still have the impression that although we give, we receive a hundredfold what we give. Therefore, thank you for being there. Perfect, wonderful, full of potential and possibilities, developing completely with the rhythm of life, expanding consciousness with new experiences. Indescribable, inexpressible, unique, unrepeatable. One and only.”
DO YOU HAVE A DREAM TO FULFILL?
A lot, but I also live for the unknown. That which cannot be predicted, but can only be fully experienced.
