A Love Letter

 

Dear,

It’s not always easy, is it? This marriage with yourself. The contract you’re upholding between your divine masculine and your divine feminine. The relationships you’re trying to nurture, and the life you’re trying to grow.

The bond between you and your love. You try, you fall down, you get back up.

You could keep fighting it, or you could let go. Stop dragging your feet baby! Open your heart wide, and dive for the treasures at the bottom.

It’s exhausting sometimes, I know. Take a break, take a nap, take a walk. Take a fresh perspective. Look up at the sky and smile.

Find something to laugh about, and many things to be grateful for.

Love in every moment.

Laugh whenever you can.

The sun is always shining, above the clouds. Rise above.

I love you, deeply & fiercely,

Namaste.

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Eloquence

The trees speak of the

Beauty of this barefoot tango.

Two forms in the window

Inviting to dance.

 

The trees speak,

of his cherry stained mouth

dipped

In her crystal lake.

 

The trees speak of this corpse

rewiring

with brown earth tendrils,

 

brimming heart stuffed full

of green leaves

& words of peace.

 

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💓 Join me on Instagram @kimberleybeatrix 💎

✨ Sign up for email notifications every time there’s a new post up here

How to: Start your days off right

Welcome to the fifth and final article of my five-part “How To” series.

The dawn breeze has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep.

-Rumi

Mornings can be wonderful! The key to enjoying them is practicing a few morning rituals.

Rituals are important. Their repetition provides a focal point from distraction. They give a level of comfort and familiarity, and most importantly, they provide a space and time for us to practice being in the moment, moment to moment.

In this article I share with you my top 3 favourite morning rituals that have helped me learn to love mornings!

How to start your day off right:

1. Japanese water therapy

Japanese water therapy sounds fancy, but it’s simple.

It’s just drinking water on an empty stomach. Six to eight glasses, to be precise.

Why?

The Japanese believe that drinking lots of water first thing in the morning has many health benefits. From improved metabolism, to reduction of inflammations and body aches, and better digestion, the benefits seem to far outweigh the effort of doing something we can’t live without anyway.

I’ve found that starting the day off with the water element really helps me flow throughout the rest of my day with ease.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think in the comments below!

2. (Wim-Hof) Breathing

Developed by the superhuman known as the Ice Man (aka Dutch athlete Wim Hof), the Wim-Hof breathing technique is about as simple as it sounds.

That’s right, after drinking, I’m now proposing that you breathe 😹

Jokes aside, Wim-Hof breathing is amazing. You breathe deeply for 3×30 breaths. At the end of each round, you see for how long you can hold your breath for.

The Ice Man developed the technique from ancient Tibetan practices, and has kindly adapted it for our often hectic modern lifestyles.

So much so that there is even a great free app you can download here, with full instructions and a handy tracker, so you can see your progress.

Remember, be gentle with your rigour! It’s ok to just drink your water and breathe in bed before you get up, if you’re not quite a natural morning person just yet. Respecting yourself also involves knowing your boundaries, and working with yourself in a way that is right for you!

3. Healthy breakfast

I used to never eat breakfast. As a teenager, I preferred sleeping in until the last possible minute and if possible even later than that. Skipping breakfast over sleep seemed sensible.

Oops.

Now that I’m a little older and wiser, I have learnt a lot about the benefits of eating breakfast.

I wrote about the benefits of nourishing yourself here. A healthy morning breakfast ritual is the key to unlocking this!

Why?

1. It helps boost your metabolism.
2. It gives you energy for the rest of the day.
3. It balances your moods

It’s important to remember that not every breakfast is the best for you. A lot of breakfast cereals have hidden nasties, and they’re not giving you the right mix of complex carbs that both power you up and keep your blood sugars consistent for a long period of time. Or until lunch time, anyway.

I usually eat my chef husband’s amazing Inca oatmeal. The Very Secret Recipe goes as follows:

• Oatmeal
• Raw cacao powder
• Maca
• Salt
• Coconut butter
• Chia seeds
• Black seeds
• Hemp seeds
• Coconut sugar

Quantities are up to you. We don’t measure. Try it, see what happens. As he likes to say ‘it’s all about imagination in the kitchen’. And in life, too.

Keep dreaming friend. And when you’re done…good morning!

Namasté,

Kimberley

Xxx

How to: Trust again after trauma

Welcome to the first article of my five-part “How To” series.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it” – Buddha

As a rape survivor, trust is a topic I am still learning to navigate.  This is because after any type of trauma, we lose trust. In ourselves, and in others.

Our minds like to ask questions, and to talk. They like to say things like ” How can we trust ourselves, if we did not manage to protect ourselves from the trauma?”

Or “How can we trust others,  if the other is the one who raped us, hurt us, crashed into us, or cheated on us?”

Our minds are precious, but sometimes they really are like wild monkeys stealing our fruits of joy!

This is why training our minds through yoga and meditation is great for trauma survivors. This in turn helps us to rebuild trust.

Rebuilding trust is crucial for taking those steps from surviving to living after trauma.

I wanted to share some of the great tips I’ve learnt along the recovery road regarding trust:

1. We live the life that we choose to create 

Remembering this mantra has really helped me on those bad scary days, when the world has felt dark, because I am so distrustful and full of fear.

Grab a pen and paper, and ask yourself now “What do I want my life to look like? (I bet the answer is beautiful, and full of creativity!)

Keep this paper on you, and pull it out in those bad moments

You will notice your mindset starting to shift! Your perspective will show you what you have already created that is beautiful for yourself in your own life.

This will start to show you how much you do for yourself. How worthy of your own love and trust you are.

2. Kindness and patience

Looking at yourself with kind and forgiving eyes is perhaps the number one thing I learnt early on during recovery.

Trauma recovery is one of the most difficult things we have to face. It’s silent, and can be very poisonous (sometimes fatal. PTSD and suicide go hand in hand.)

Acknowledging that it’s hard already gives us a break. Say to yourself “it’s hard being me today. And that’s ok”.

 

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Visualization exercise:

1. Imagine someone you love. This can be your best friend, sibling, parent, or partner.
2. Imagine them coming to you and saying “I’m having such a hard day today. I feel worthless, and like I can’t trust anyone. I’m scared of everything”. You can replace these words with some of the negative thoughts that come to you during moments of distrust.
3. Imagine what you would say and do to comfort that person.
4. Now say and do those same things for yourself!

---

 

Remember, above all you are your own best friend. Your own sibling. Your own parent. Your own partner.

Cultivating self-love is key to rebuilding trust!

I am sure you would not say to them “You’re right, you’re worthless, and you can’t trust anyone because the world is a terrible place!”

Instead you would be kind, and compassionate. Offer some words of comfort, and love. Give them a hug, and maybe some chocolate!

By reminding yourself of keeping your kind and forgiving eyes on, you will start to see yourself as your friend. You will stop the negative mind chatter that can be so paralysing, and hurtful, and you will

3. Dive deep

After my trauma, one of my coping mechanisms was to do what I now like to call “surface swimming.”

You know the doggy paddle, with the hair and face and preferably shoulders above the water style?

That.

What I mean by surface swimming is that I did not trust myself to dive deep into experiences, or life anymore. I liked to chat to someone for 10 minutes but not more, in case my trauma started to surface.

I would go for a coffee and date casually, but kept my heart and soul closed. “Better to stick to the surface, so no one gets hurt.”

After the trauma, I felt like minefield. A ticking time bomb. Surface swimming meant that there was less chance of anything going off.

This is not to say that we should start dating immediately, and everyone learns to swim at different paces! Remember tip no.2 about kind and forgiving eyes, whatever stage you are at is the best for you right now, and loving yourself for it is so important!

However, aiming for deep diving will start to open your world up again. There is so much joy, light and beauty in this life, and you deserve to enjoy it my friend.

 

Good luck friend,

Namasté

Kimberley

xxx

 

 

 

 

Deep sea diving

There’s a point that will come, when it’s all over. A point of calm, and stillness. A point of pure light, and reflection.

A point of stability. Knowing that as much as the boat will rock, you’ve got your sea legs now. You move with it, dance with it, and you enjoy the breeze on your face.

The salt on your lips. The feel of your hair drying in the sun. Your bleached white clothes.

You reach a point where you’re not bailing water out anymore. You’re not cold, drenched, and tired. You’re not traveling alone, and it’s not dark.

Your time will come, if it hasn’t already.

Open your eyes. There is beauty everywhere.

Awakening

The true crisis in our world is not social, political or economic. Our crisis is a crisis of consciousness… an inability to directly experience our true nature… an inability to recognise that nature in everyone and in all things.

Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds