30. December 2021 • Katja Laurien
If hiking is your passion, you should come to Madeira! Even though the island is small, it has loads of diverse hikes to offer. Before I start to list the best hikes on this paradise, I want to give you some information you might consider before going there. Let’s start with the question whether or not to rent a car. I personally didn’t rent a car, because I don’t feel secure enough to drive on narrow roads in the mountains (bear in mind that I’m Dutch) next to huge buses that drive like crazy, especially when I’m tired after a long hike.
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24. November 2021 • Katja Laurien
I guess the title already says it all: This is a pretty short hike of maximum 3 hours, but you’ll be rewarded with amazing views! Even better, you don’t need to take an expensive cable car. You can either reach the starting point with the bus or by car. The hike starts at Gurnigel Wasserscheide. From here you first follow the signs to the Leiterepass. The hike starts very easy with some wonderful views over the valley.
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7. November 2021 • Katja Laurien
We all long to be loved. It’s a fact. We are hardwired to be connected to our fellow human beings in a variety of ways. And still there are more and more people who seem to be fine with not having friends or being single. In this post I want to discuss the lacking desire to be connected to others and I’ll specifically focus on romantic relationships.
Let’s start with the question why we are so opposed to our own human nature by cutting ourselves off from love?
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19. October 2021 • Katja Laurien
I didn’t really think of Mallorca as a place to go hiking before I searched for a place in Europe where I could hike in the mountains and chill at the beach at the same time. I always thought Mallorca is a place for party people and not so much for nature lovers. Well, guess I was wrong, it turns out the GR221 is a proper multi day hike with very rewarding views!
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3. October 2021 • Katja Laurien
Effort has a bad reputation in the spiritual world. It’s associated with stress, resistance and action which is out of alignment. On the spiritual path we attempt to do things from a place of ease, guidance and allowance. Whereas this is definitely desirable, I noticed that we tend to forget that we took our ego with us on this path which tends to twist and turn spiritual concepts to its own needs and desires.
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5. September 2021 • Katja Laurien
We all want to live with an open heart - theoretically. But in practice we see that the majority of people keep their hearts closed to a certain extent. Some of us do it consciously, but most people are not even aware of it. Those who are aware would say that they “protect” themselves from being hurt and would even call it a form of self love to not let anyone enter their hearts without proving themselves worthy of it.
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1. August 2021 • Katja Laurien
Eventually we’re all on the spiritual path for one reason: healing. Inspired by romanticized ideas of spirituality, we think that being healed means we’re constantly living in bliss. Life is suddenly one big party, we only encounter friendly people, everyone likes us and negative emotions are vague memories from the past. I would lie if I would say that this isn’t exactly the idea with which I embarked on the spiritual journey.
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4. July 2021 • Katja Laurien
In my last post I shared common misconceptions about love and how our ego can turn the most romantic ideas into dreadfully painful situations. I finished the post by letting you know that these ego-tendencies are in fact normal and necessary to our evolution which I will discuss in this post.
If you’ve read more of my post you’ll know that I’m not necessarily opposed to our ego - to the contrary.
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6. June 2021 • Katja Laurien
Despite the growing consciousness of mankind, I keep realizing how many people still hold on to misconceptions about love. The way our society thinks of love and the aspects of love that are praised by most people are in fact the exact opposite of love. No wonder we all have difficulties in finding satisfaction in love if we nurture the wrong aspects of it. In this post I discuss some of the most common misconceptions about love, which - once correctly understood - could spare you the pain of investing more energy into these false beliefs.
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2. May 2021 • Katja Laurien
Everyone who has walked the spiritual path will have experienced themselves using spiritual practices in order to avoid facing painful emotions or unwanted truths. We do this by thinking rigidly positive and denying the negative (“Me, angry? No way!”) or by rationalizing how we should feel instead of simply acknowledging what is going on inside of us (“I can’t be angry. Anger arises from the ego and I am NOT my ego!
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