Life is a gift

Iconic Present is the website connected to my Etsy shop

Iconic Present

Iconic Present is one of my other activities. When I was just eighteen and visited Greece for the first time, I didn’t know anything about the country, the culture or the religion, except some of the mythology we learn at school. Greece had just opened up for tourism after the dark years. I wanted to go there and so I did. I was a young blond girl and didn’t understand any Greek, but I felt at home. Years later I took lessons to learn to speak and write New Greek.

During the years I visited many iconic places on the mainland and many islands. Going to Greece changed me fundamentally. I lived under a tree on Gavdos for awhile, because by then there was nothing else, except some locals. No tourism and no rooms to rent, nothing there and because of that I loved it. In those days every church, big or small or far away on a mountain top, was open. To my amaze there was always an oillamp burning, when there seemed to be no one around.

Those churches were places of comfort and the only cool spots  after a long walk. I’ve spend many hours in there. Extraordinary acoustics, so I’ve enjoyed singing in those far away places, just on my own, no one listening, except some goats and sheeps.

More than 40 years later Greece is my second home and I can’t count the flights I took to get there. All together I’ve spent a few years of my life there and still it is one of my favourite places to do my YOUR INNER POWER retreats.

Fascinating iconic icons & fresco’s

There I found frescos, some were hundreds of years old, faded by the time, and fascinating ikones. I knew I could do it myself and that one day I would learn the technique and do it. I’ve been drawing and painting a lot when I was a child. Some years ago I started lessons in the technique of iconography. Actually this word means icon writing and not icon painting, because pictures where used as writing before we had the alphabeth.

Recently I was in Anilio on Mount Pilion, where we met Dimitrios, who opened the church for us and showed the damage and what was saved after the fire they had in the little church. 

I like to make stuff; portraits, collages, furniture, clothes, toys and practical stuff. I see it in my mind and find a way to make it. Icons have a tradition of copying, but I see them different and give my own twist to them.Although I love the art in churches, I’m not a fan of the institute, no matter what religion they practice. I also love to sing (choir) music by composers who where obviously inspired by their spirituality and/or what they believe in.

I found my own style

I’ve been giving icons to loved ones and then people started to ask me to sell them. After breaking my ankle in 2017, I was forced to sit for weeks and not able to do the work I did, so I was painting more icons. It’s a blessing!

Midden in de winternacht

Ken je dat kerstliedje? Ooit zong ik het uit volle borst mee “Midden in de winternacht ging de hemel open”. Ik vond het prachtig, vooral de melodie.

“Die ons ‘t heil der wereld bracht, antwoord op ons hopen.” Van die zin snapte ik niets, maar ik zong me er doorheen.

“Elke vogel zingt zijn lied, herders waarom zingt gij niet.” Vervolgens zong ik als tienjarige met al mijn blijheid verder. “Laat de bel, laat de trom, laat de beltrom horen.”

Maar zulke vrolijkheid voelen we vaak helemaal niet zo, midden in de winternacht. Ook niet als het kerstmis is.

Inmiddels snap ik, een paar jaar ouder, dat ‘hoe het voelt’ het gevolg is van hoe ik denk.

En ik heb ook ontdekt en ervaren hoe ik door allerlei gewoontes los te laten en andere gedachten te denken mijn leven, ook in de winter, makkelijker kan maken.

In de winterchallenge van deze week ontvang je van mij dagelijks tips.

  • Het kost je niets
  • Je kunt het doen wanneer je wilt.
  • Je ontvangt iedere ochtend een email. Meer niet.
  • Geen verplichte groepsbijeenkomsten en het is aan jou wat je ermee doet.


Op deze eerste dag van de winter challenge beginnen we met een 10 minuten durende meditatie. Kijk hier maar verder.

WIL JE DEZE WEEK MEE DOEN? Beantwoord dan deze mail met JA. Of vul het formuliertje onderaan de pagina in, waarop je net (niet) geklikt hebt. Dat is alles.

Ik wens je een mooie dag en een fijne winter!

PS
De afgelopen weken heb ik mijn websites moeten herinrichten. Daar ben ik nog mee bezig. Nog niet alles werkt zoals het moet.

PSS
Het boek loopt lekker en wie het leest is enthousiast, voor zover ik gehoord heb. Het is nu ook in de boekhandels te bestellen, volgens de uitgever. Misschien nog niet overal online te zien, want het is eind van het jaar altijd druk in ‘boekenland’.

Liefs,
Jeannette.

lekkerloslaten.nl

jeannettevanuffelen.com

Why am I resistant to change?

Why am I resistant to change?
What is holding me back, while the way I act is bothering me so much?
Do I actually not want to change?

I hear this question a lot and I notice that people get angry on themselves, because ‘something’ is not changing fast enough and/or because they are repeating themselves again and again.

Maybe it is not resistance to change at all? But the question we actually should ask is: Why do so many of us want to stay in alignment with what we hold? And the answer to that might be: because it helped us to survive. This way we’re playing it safe. It might not be true that you don’t want to change, but you just want to be safe.

If you got resources inside yourself, telling you: ‘It’s not safe to be different’, those resources will keep you inline. And those resources are unconsciously. Think of a little baby that ends up in a certain structure, where it has everything to stay alive. This way of living is all it knows: This is live, this is the world, this is how it is.

Why am I resistant to change? What is holding me back, while the way I act is bothering me so much? Do I actually not want to change? I hear this question a lot and I notice that people get angry on themselves, because 'something' is not changing fast enough and/or because they are repeating themselves again and again.

Outside the (familiar) lines

And than comes a moment this child is growing up and doing something ‘different’, steps ‘outside the lines’ and gets beaten up (not literally per se, it might be just a look or a frown) by mum, dad, sister, brother, auntie, granddad; at home, on the street, at school. And when that happens (a few times) she or he will take care of staying in alignment henceforth to be safe again. This happens before and faster than we realise it.

How and when you’ve decided to stay in alignment, you forget. You just do it automatically, it’s almost an instinctive response to be safe. But there were reasons and you’ve made your conclusions. You might have been ‘cut short’ to protect you. Or you were beaten, because the one that beat you didn’t know any other way. They loved you the way they were loved. Your mother probably was very fearful herself, for whatever what reason. Do you know it? Often we don’t. And does it mean anything about you? No. However, don’t you think it’s time to let go of all this and make room for yourself, your talents, your dreams and ideals? Yes, of course you do.

It’s safe to change

The best way to change this alignment is to go to all the alignment pieces in your mind and change them one by one¹. And than, all of a sudden, you naturally start to move in a different alignment, the lines dissolve and you start to go your own direction.

When you start doing this kind of work and change your memories, you might ruin your identity completely. You will no longer be that worthless piece of shit, that good-for-nothing, pantywaist, fatty or name it, that still defines your selfimage. Your personality will change and it is possible you become more succesfull than you’ve ever dared to dream of. So be warned!

Take a session

Resistant or is it the fear of being happy?

Allow yourself to see what you don’t allow yourself to see.
(Milton Erickson)

You’re probably just like your mother², you act like your mother, even though you say you hate her and you’re resistant to be like her. You replay and rewatch these memories over and over again and you still believe it. And you complain about your problems, just like your mum. Or you silently drink them away, just like your dad.

You have to change the rules yourself

I don’t believe you don’t want to change, you just want to be safe. That’s why you keep on doing like everyone at home does, just like your mother.

But you can change the rules and that you have to do yourself. To change the rules means: you go to your mother and you look after her. You heal your mother, inside you. Is it really your mother? NO, your mother is not even here. That is the key. You have to address your stuff and transform whatever it is you’re holding within you, for you and against you. Because there are no broken people. And you are more than your story, your history, your body, your mind and your conclusions. So the good news is that you can change it all!

But you can change the rules and that you have to do yourself. To change the rules means: you go to your mother and you look after her. You heal your mother, inside you. Is it really your mother? NO, your mother is not even here. That is the key. You have to address your stuff and transform whatever it is you’re holding within you, for you and against you. You’re not broken. You are more than your story, your history (herstory), more than your body, more than your mind and conclusions. You can change it all.

You are unlimited consciousness and at the same moment you are just a human being. Nothing special. (Why the hack should we all be special, rich, famous and happy all the time? But that’s another blog.) You’re doing a good job. You may not like the current results. If you want to change the results you’ve got to change what you holding in and start acting from a different set of rules. inside. And it’s up to you to define the rules.

¹   Cleaning up doesn’t need months. On the contrary, a lot can be done in some hours, because you don’t need to tell it all. How often have you told your stories? And did it bring you anything? Better not! In this method that’s not necessary. This works faster.

²   Mother can be replaced by: father, sister, brother, teacher, etc.