“As a child, at the end of the day, I would lay down on the floor and tell my parents I was ‘going to relax a little’. I would breathe in and out and when breathing out I would let myself sink deep into the floor. It gave me a lot of rest.
My first ‘official’ introduction with meditation was during a Reiki course in New Delhi, India when I had just turned 21 years old. We were asked to meditate and chant “Om” and I absolutely loved it. It gave me a start in exploring many different ways of meditation.
When I was 26 years old I entered my first silent retreat. It was was a Vipassana retreat of 10 days during a Christmas and New Years period. It was a cold, dark winter in the Netherlands and that made it a wonderful opportunity to dive deep inside. Just before, I had experienced some serious disillusionment in my life and during that first retreat I was very driven to find out ‘What is real? What is true?’ Also, I wanted to get in better touch with my body and the here-and-now and Vipassana helped me with that.
After this, I have been intensely and more explicitly exploring truth through Advaita-Vedanta, also known as Non-Duality. Pointing towards life as it is right now it is an open invitation to find out who you are beyond all (stressful) thoughts, concepts and ideas about yourself and the world. I have had the good luck to come across great teachers like Mooji, Gangaji, Jeff Foster, GangaMira, Rupert Spira and others, and have immersed myself in many silent retreats over the years. Also, I have started exploring classical Tantra, which is closely related to Advaita-Vedanta and which is all-inclusive: it regards the body, senses and the world as intimate and sacred.
Throughout my life, I’ve practiced many different styles of meditation and bodywork: mantra singing, visualization, vipassana, active meditations, breath work, holistic dance and mindfulness. Thanks to all these experiences I have been finding myself ever deepening into the true place of rest.
During my meditation classes in Amsterdam and online I make use of and share that which I’ve found until so far. The classes are open to all, young or old, with little or a lot of meditation experience.
I enjoy sharing meditation with anyone who is open to feel more relaxed and find effortless joy. What that means? Come and find out!
