Take Your Clothes Off and Be Naked!!!

Being Naked. For some reason, I have been thinking a lot about this concept lately, and then I realize I have a friend who is loving being naked, who is so open and sharing in a culture I thought was not possible to be like this or I might have misplaced my hope (in the judging Turkish society of course). Then one of my yoga teachers, Mey Elbi, wrote about it on her blog (in Turkish, Çıplak Olmak), and I found myself talking about this topic with others and even people I just meet (could be considered a stranger but then we talk about such an intimate topic:)) Then, I can't help myself but write about it, feeling the extraordinary exciting energy of this month, with 3 eclipses and the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse coming on June 15.
So, what does being naked mean? Do you consider yourself naked if you take your clothes off, or when you tell someone (could be a friend) a secret, or tell them something that is embarrassing for you, or something you hardly share with others?
Well, I say, being naked is all of those things. In other words, it's literally taking your clothes off, or taking your masks, roles, acts, etc. off off off!
And I think it is a great thing:) Just think how much we are wearing. It's not just clothes we wear, but all those unwanted, ugly masks that are stuck to our faces, our body, our posture, even possibly tangled up inside, our aching muscles, sore bones... Some of us don't even realize these masks, and in that case maybe you have no idea what this is about...but keep reading:)
In some cultures there are hardly any clothing, possibly that is limited to mostly tribes in which also transcending healing and spiritual ceremonies or activities are practiced. They are truly being themselves, connecting their souls with each other and other energies in the universe during those ceremonies. Some of these ceremonies actually have healing power as they unravel hidden traumas. It's similar to yoga and meditation or even other therapies (modern people call these alternative therapies). A Tribe is described in the online dictionary as any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions; a division of some other people. We, the modern people, call these tribal people weird because they are naked...don't we? Because we know better, because we have research, data, medical tools, weapons, etc. We know what life should be like, what 'Normal' is...
I don't think like this anymore. I'm not even sure if I did think like this before, but I'm realizing now that I've also lived with wearing too much, I want to be just who I am, who I met and loved while living in US. I grew into myself in US. And why did this self decide to move to Turkey where being herself, naked, is like jumping in the middle of hungry tigers? Don't ask me, that is still unclear:)
I feel now I can be myself, I can accept the tigers and let them be the beautiful animal they are on that side of the territory and just have a long-distance relationship with them. I, myself can move on to make friends who are themselves, naked, in a different territory, forming a community, and have a close relationship with my kind; in a tribal fashion. Community is described in the online dictionary as a social or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists. It seems to be similar to a tribe, don't you think? Just what I needed in Istanbul. Happy ending!
So, in the end, being naked is being open, being who you are. Who you really are, only you, and accepting this whether you like it or not, and sharing this in any way you feel like. Not allowing others to force you to wear anything that you don't want. It's also being physically naked and accepting that we are humans, we have beautiful bodies, the skin, the senses and we have feelings! It's Your body and mind, so do what You want with it. Let go of yourself, let if flow... It's already there, you are already happening the way you're supposed to. So, dream if you want, or sunbathe naked, or make love, or go to that place you've always wanted to go, or share something with someone that you've never shared before, or do something you've never done before! Or you may simply do nothing and take a break for yourself, to feel yourself, and be naked:)
Just like Black & White...Just like the White Snow melting into Clear Water...

Life is Beautiful! La Vie Est Belle!

is a wonderful Italian movie which I highly recommend you watch if you haven't already. But regardless of this movie, and regardless of what might be going on in your life, Life! is really beautiful and that is what I would like for all of us to realize. Okay, don't be skeptical please, I'll explain how I come to this realization and how you can do it too...
Lately, I have been going in a spiritual direction, practicing yoga and meditation and chanting quite a lot (well about 2 hours per day or more sometimes which is more than I've done before) which could be why I've been feeling that every day is a beautiful day and life is really beautiful. And the more I do these rituals of mine I'm feeling I'm in a very special and new beginning where I can see material life and spiritual life separately and feel some beautiful energy around me like the cool wind blowing from all directions in a storm. I feel it in every little part of my physical body. It's an amazing feeling and I can see beauty everywhere with this energy. I'm inspired by Hare Krishna Consciousness and the Bhagavad Gita as well, and Kirtan music by Dave Russell and music by Mercan Dede who is an amazing DJ delicately composing sufi-electonica type of music inspired by the sufi poet Mevlana. Check it out on his website: http://www.mercandede.com/
Now, although I don't think we really need 2 hours or so of daily devotional practice for us humans to realize life and every moment of it is beautiful, these practices and my 6 years of yoga practice has helped me realize that we need some kind of practice every day to be able to keep this beautiful, heart-melting, loving feeling inside ourselves which then has the potential to dissolve and pass into other living beings.
But, please don't get offended if you're not spiritual or not into yoga at all. I do believe there are many ways you can achieve this feeling or at least get pretty close to it. It has to be an internal and very personal/intimate desire or yearning you have for a daily practice. A practice sure could be yoga and chanting but also could be some other exercise such as running, tennis, walking or could be journaling, singing, dancing or simply lying down on fresh green grass or warm sand and staring at the sky and simply BREATHING!...just something where you are really silent, alone and only listening to yourself, your breath, your inner feelings, your gut. So that you can connect with your inner-self, and learn about yourself, your feelings, real thoughts and desires and grow (mentally/spiritually). This will not only make you happy and feel every day is special and life is beautiful but also it will help you stay positive and get through every day of your life, and stay connected with the universe or whatever you want to believe in, but best of all it will make you love yourself! Love is a very powerful word...I wish people used it more wisely, knowing what it really means.
Anyway, you can also receive multiple benefits from this practice if you plan it well. For example, if you try out some daily simple exercises every day, not only is it making you feel happy and fall in love with your life but also its helping to strengthen your physical body which is important for you to do every day for your health and in order to think clearly and get through each day of your life. So, although you may prefer to just lay down on the grass or sit in a comfy chair and watch the sky or waves or something, if you can maybe just try to add some walking and then stretching your arms and legs a bit then you are going in a great direction and one day you may even feel you can start fast walking or running too or maybe different breathing exercises:)
Other benefits are if you haven't realized already, when you're happy and positive you look more beautiful and have an amazing glow surrounding yourself which attracts happy and positive people to you too and allows negative people or situations to pass by. So, in all aspects you will be in the direction to being happy yourself and also spreading that same positive energy around you which pretty much is a wonderful service for the community. Believe me, I have bad moments too where I feel angry, ugly, too fat for my bikini or moneyless, jobless, lost or hopeless and depressed. BUT NOooooooo! I wake up!! and you should also. Love yourself, Life is Beautiful!
And remember when I said in my previous post that I decided to make change within myself and share my energy with as many other souls as possible and asked Why in Turkey? Well...the south of Turkey, Bodrum is where I feel I belong to the community that really needs me, I can feel peace and love and freshness in Bodrum and feel that I can exchange these feelings with the community here and make it an even more beautiful place. I will let you know how it goes...

A side cute story from me:
Just before I left Boston, I was in moody days and came across one of those street sellers selling stone statues from Africa and bought this very interesting statue that has a carving of only half of a face and the other half is empty, carved completed as a hole in the middle of the stone. When I asked the beautiful seller lady what it meant she told me the artist meant it to mean that we should only look at the positive sides of any situation and that is why only half of the face is carved for our eyes to see. So, you see, I realized there is always and always a negative and a positive side to every thing and situation in our lives and it is up to the individual person to decide which side to see...well do you prefer to see negatives and be miserable or see positives and be happy. I am working on the positives and hope you can try it too, its wonderful!
So, let us all work on leaving negatives behind and welcoming positives, especially new ones to allow room for more growth and happy experiences and opportunities. I hope you feel and can share my positive energy once you read this and stay with that feeling. :)

And I apologize for writing so long. What can I say, I have so much energy in me that I like to share! Thank you for reading it all.

Transition or Transformation?

Well I know I have neglected my blog for quite some time. There is no good reason for this because this was very important to me, but my reason is that I have been going through a huge transition or maybe its a transformation. Let's see...3 months ago, I gave the decision to move to a different country and since then have been on an emotional roller coaster with happiness, sadness, confusion, doubt and every other humanly feeling thats possible passing through me like electrical waves, changing my mindset almost every minute...lets just say it was a good experience. So I did survive all that and finally moved in early October to Istanbul, Turkey. Mmmm not sure if I feel comfortable with the truth of this, but it has happened already! But now that it has happened I can't stop thinking of the tranisiton I went through during the packing, moving, and saying all sorts of good-bye's, see ya later's and the like...I have been trying to transition the moving experience into a positive experience although I've hated most of it. (of course any of you who have ever moved to another city or even to another country know what I mean). But I've questioned myself, as always, to create more learning experiences from all the actions I've been taking.
So, is this a transition or a transformation? Well, the dictionary explains transition as: movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change. And transform as: to change in condition, nature, or character; convert.
In this case, I have been in a transition but with lingering transformation. I say this because in the past few years I have been going through transformations which has lead me to this transition and brave decision to change almost everything in my life. Well, not everything, but many things because I had been reading a lot and learning a lot and craving all sorts of positive changes as the world to me is not changing in the most positive way right now. So I decided to make the change within myself and share my energy with as many other souls as possible. Why Turkey? I can't answer that yet, I hope to get a good answer soon...
Anyway, the point is that I am realizing that it is very important and natural to go through these emotions and changes in life because it helps us understand and become the person we naturally are:) And guess what else, there is no age, time, location limit in which these changes can happen so be prepared and open your heart and mind to change because although it can be rough at times, it really is beautiful in the end!
A note/quote of the month:
"What we see or what we make publically available may not be as they seem, as a consequence of the positioning and contrapositioning of the unseen lying withing the whole.  Understanding what is seen rests, in all its simplicity or complexity, within the individual himself or herself. "

Ani Celik Arevyan, 2010, Photography exhibition at the Istanbul Modern Art Museum

"Is this art? What is art is questionable to me." Hüseyin Çağlayan - Fashion Designer/Artist