Category Archives: conscious parenting

conscious parenting, Going sailing, Sailing Family, Yogic Philosophy

Change

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Re-reading several of the old Yoga scriptures has been the literacy guideline for my year so far. As such I am ploughing through Desikachar’s Heart of Yoga and although I’d love to quote almost all, this is one every part of me resonates with:

We can never experience our real nature if we do not expose ourselves to change. That is why we must test ourselves sometimes by doing something completely different.

Have you done anything different yet this year? or are planning something which you’ve never done before?

#welovecomments

Few spots left for our Bali Yoga Retreat this April: https://sailingyogafamily.com/yoga/yoga-retreats-2/blissful-bali-yoga-retreat-april2017/

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conscious parenting, home-schooling, Parenthood, Sailing Family, sailing with kids

School vs Home-school

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How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard!

Winnie the Pooh

Last week I had a moment when I dropped our five&1/2-year-old off at a PlayBall camp organised by lovely friends of ours. That same bench in the park which was loaded with kids’ lunchboxes, balls and drink bottles, something like 8 years ago was where Pablo proposed to me. Had I known back then that little later I’d be standing here with three toddlers back in Sydney after a three-year sailing adventure…

Where has the time gone?

And tomorrow Noah will start big school and I’m feeling rather sad about it. Last minute doubts and reconsidering all the home-schooling pros and cons. Yes, a hard time letting go. When we’ll be back on a boat, no doubt we’ll embrace home/un/free-schooling in the smoothest manner suitable to each family member. But being land-locked for a few years – I’m keen to equally embrace all that schooling has to offer here in Bondi Beach.

Besides a few hick-ups, I have great memories of school myself and that is despite (or because) of changing school and country many times. Have the ‘hick-ups’ screwed me up? Probably a little, but not less than what the great memories, experiences and friendships  have allowed me to become the person I am today.

Noah in Bondi Beach Public School Uniform.jpg

Where I’m at right now?

Living in Sydney, it feels to me home-schooling my boy who’s 150% ready and keen to throw himself into our local community’s amazing, sustainable and creative school environment would be egoistic more than anything else. When we’ll be travelling again and the world and its oceans will be our home and classroom, it will be a different cup of tea – an extremely stimulating environment more prone to something less structured. And yet, a little bit of structure no matter where and how – although labelled as the ‘baddy’ or ‘creativity-killer’  in most home-school circles – I have found provides children with safety, and through that more smiles, less tantrums, a higher self-esteem and ultimately even more space to explore their creativity in different ways.

As a last word it seems to me that there is no one solution to fit all. Every child is so different. And like in Yoga and Ayurveda, the paramount to optimal well-being on all levels, and there within the optimal space to learn and grow, is taking the individual into account and finding the most suitable approach at the time.

Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life. Education is life.

John Dewey

conscious parenting, Sailing Family, sailing with kids, Spirituality

Being in awe

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A friend sent me a scientific article this morning which seemed to prove how optimistic feelings and moods influence positively on the body’s physcial health and well-being. More specifically, the feeling of being in awe was linked to reducing inflammation in the body.

It’s interesting how science more and more proves what is pretty obvious when you live ‘in tune’. Sailors would know that despite the challenges of living among the most hostile environments, there’s not much to beat sunrises at Sea. Parents would know there’s not much that beats that first little smile or gaze of a newborn. Anyone, who embraces live to the fullest would know, that being in awe can be a daily, casual thing which enhances our health and well-being on so many levels. So turn off your device  (I’d say it’s pretty unlikely to find  that feeling through a screen…) and look around you. Notice something to be in awe of?

With love, lightness and gratitude. Dini

Beautiiful Things

 

conscious parenting, Parenthood, Sailing Family, sailing with kids, Spirituality, yoga retreats, Yogic Philosophy

Learn. Grow. Love.

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Sunday morning writing time. FIRST readers in Malta can look forward to the September issue which will include an insight into my personal journal of crossing the Australian Outback. (Blog readers will find a copy on my Media page a few months down the track). Finishing the article, I tumble across a quote which stayed with me from a visit to one of the remote Aboriginal communities out there in the vast, red land . An obvious fact which unfortunately has become less obvious in the obscure and crazy materialistic world we live in:

We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love and then, we return home.

  • How to make the most of our little time on Earth;
  • Envisioning your passion, practising yoga and connecting with your dreams;
  • Bringing more clarity to your path and life;
  • Getting inspired by someone who’s stepped away from security in exchange for a life closer to her dreams than ever thought possible;

All of the above and more, you can experience at my upcoming Bali Retreat. Feeling inspired? Learn more and join the other amazing yogis from around the world who have already signed up to transform the power of your dreams into your reality.

conscious parenting, Sailing Family

Yoga Family on Boat Radio

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Coinciding with yesterday’s powerful full moon, Guru Purnima, and Sydney Boatshow preparations, the wonderful Mike and James from Boat Radio in Mallorca, Spain, have interviewed us on life afloat, travelling with kids and yoga. It was a fantastic opportunity to reflect back six months into land-life as we are slowly starting to redefine ourselves and our path and our family.

Moving back in land is on so many ways a breeze: Nothing moves around all the time, no anchors get unhooked in the middle of the night, if the wind picks up – so what?, plenty of machines like dish-washer and washing machine facilitate life to a ridiculous degree, provisioning is a matter of heading to a massive supermarket and an flabbergasting choice of fresh produce markets and organic stores and you’ve got a supportive, loving community around you to catch you when you fall and celebrate with you when you fly. And still… there’s an adventure missing, the thrill of living a dream and the life that you are meant to rather than just following the herd, a part of your soul which feels empty…

For the whole interview and more amazing, amusing and interesting sea stories on Boat Radio, click on the picture below. As well as directly from Audioboom, it’s also available on the iPhone / iPad Podcast app, through iTunes, on Stitcher and on Tunein!

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Boats are safe in a marina, but that’s not what they were made for!

conscious parenting, Our Journey, Parenthood, Sailing Family, sailing with kids, Spirituality, Sydney

52 cm of perfection

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We somehow haven’t ended up in India for now, but India has come to us in the shape of 52 cm of perfection.

While I still felt somehow lost in space when I closed Happy Dancer’s sailing chapter by finishing and posting last week’s video about our sailing summer in Greece and Turkey, since the blissful birth of our beautiful baby daughter last Saturday it all fell into place. It was and is so obvious that she had to be born here at home in Sydney with the best midwife, doula and friends’ support I could dream of. My Divine sisters and my gorgeous boys have been nourishing me and her to the moon and back and those little dark eyes have been drawing me into hours and hours of baby-bliss.

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First family picture as a family of five

Most new mums seem to see mostly the tough side of these early motherhood days which undoubtedly exist. But what I do, mainly, is compare what we have, to what this birth, including pre- and post-partum period, would have looked like on a boat. While it would have made for cuter blog pictures and a more adventurous story for sure, the reality of it is that it would have been a whole deal more exhausting, less supported and much, much harder on all levels. There’s many things I wouldn’t have wanted to miss like my fabulous doula and amazing midwife who’s been with me since pregnancy #1; my lovely post-partum Doula who’s just wrapped me up in a beautiful birth-sealing ceremony returning some of the qi which one loses at birth; and all the friends who shared food, baby stuff and blessings.

ToTheStarsAndBackWhen giving birth, a woman and a family need a nourishing, supportive community around them and that’s one of the very things which boat-life compromises on as you constantly move from one place to another. We’ve had to promise the boys to sail the Pacific the day all three kids can swim and snorkel like little champions while they keep asking for their Happy Dancer pretty much every day. But in the meantime, I’m still treasuring all those beautiful things which land-life has to offer – especially now, bathed in oxytocin, the love-hormone which makes the world go round.

We have a secret in our culture. It’s not that birth is painful, but that women are strong.