WEEKLY 'INSPIRER' ARTICLES

Romi's Way is delighted to introduce you to our Inspirer of the week Bijay Anand. Bijay is an Indian actor and superstar who fell in love with Kundalini Yoga in 2006 and soon became a world famous and much loved teacher and founder of Anahata Retreats (www.anahata.in) who now balances the two worlds of 'unreality' (= acting) and the true reality within, which he connected through Kundalini Yoga.

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In his own words, Bijay describes this balancing beautifully. According to him, "the world that is drawn to unreal and unrealistic images is trapped in the illusion that we called ‘Maya’. Maya has the ability to entice us with worldly desires of greed, lust, fame and vices.

How I manage to maintain my spiritual equilibrium is by surrendering to the cosmic dance and allowing this ‘unreal world' and all its experiences to guide me towards higher plains of realisation and wisdom. I don’t need to get trapped by my fame and my fortune. I just allow myself to be and to observe its character the same way as you would watch an opera when you go to one.

The realisation that everything around us is an illusion does not mean that we recoil into a shell and withdraw from this world. Rather, we surrender to the cosmic dance and we dance IN IT. WITH IT. 

Life becomes a beautiful and enigmatic journey that I see everyday from the eyes of an infant. Learning, growing and experiencing bliss. Every moment."

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We wanted to know how Bijay found yoga (or how did yoga find him). "I lost millions in the crash of 2006 and it made me realise that nothing material that we own is really ours. It made me see through ‘Maya’ and her bewitching allure. I started looking for answers.

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The questions I had in my mind took me to different lands over many years. I took part in yoga retreats, spiritual events, yoga festivals and then, one day, I came across Kundalini Yoga.

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My first 5 minutes in this practice made me realise that I had finally ‘come home’.

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I immediately signed up for the teachers training course, not to become a teacher, but to simply expose myself to 21 days of healing and learning. After I finished, I was a totally different soul. Nothing about my past life would reflect upon my aura. I was shining with an inner light and bliss that I never even knew existed. 

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It was my moment of awakening. Akin to waking up from a deep slumber."

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Romi's Way asked what would Bijay say to people who feel hopeless or depressed in the current times and feel their individual change or input would be meaningless to help our planet and its flora and fauna to survive? He says: "To those who feel hopeless or depressed about current global affairs, I just want to say that it is not your Karma to save the world. Your priority is to first become enlightened yourself.

It is only when you shine bright and are luminous with a beautiful aura that you will be able to become the candle that can light up this world. 

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Do not attempt to help anybody from drowning without becoming an expert swimmer yourself. You will both drown!"

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Romi's Way promotes unity and compassion through its actions. Therefore we asked Bijay how he sees unity in his frequent teaching travels around the world. "Humanity is currently divided between the lost souls, those who are seekers on the path and those who are enlightened beings.

When the enlightened beings light up the path for the seekers to follow that will in turn lead to their spiritual growth and upliftment, there will come a day when this thread of wisdom that will then weave through these awakened beings will become the catalyst for global change.

As teachers, it is incumbent upon us to have an urgency within us to effect this change and to help as many souls as we can to find their way or as I like to put it, “to find their way back home”."

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Lastly we talked about what may future potentially hold for Bijay: "I have a vision, what some would like to call goals but I have no plans at all, ever.

I would like to see hundreds of Anahata retreat centres around the world helping people to find themselves. I would like to advise governments interested in the health and wellbeing of their citizens on these issues. 

Once I manifest this vision and set it out there, the universe will conspire to make this happen. So you see, I don’t need to make any plans. Not for the future, not for this month, not even for today. 

Surrendering to the cosmic dance and flowing in it is all that I know to do. One of the first quotes I ever wrote was, “I don’t decide what happens in my life, I allow my life to happen to itself”."

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Thank you for being our inspirer Bijay! We hope your light has lit hope and joy for our readers day.

Find more about Anahata Retreats www.anahata.in 

3. INSPIRER OF THE WEEK: 
LYNN MYLOU FOUNDER OF A VIDA FAUSTO

August 29, 2019

Romi’s Way is excited to share our chat with Lynn, who in her own words has agreed to share her story - how she changed her Life 180degrees around and moved to Portugal to life off-grid in the foothills of Serra de Estrela mountains and how she thinks everyone can do something to start a change towards greener future.

Firstly we asked Lynn to tell how the radical change in her lifestyle starded: 

Lynn: “Between my 20s and 30s I lived an exciting life in various large cities (such as Amsterdam, Berlin and New York), while working as a freelancer in the marketing, branding, music and film industries. It was a fast paced lifestyle that brought me to many corners on the planet while getting paid for it, included free tickets for music festivals and art exhibitions, met lots of talented and inspiring people and every day brought new impulses and discoveries. Because I a lot and lived in different countries, I was able to experience different cultures, perspectives and ways of life early on. These experiences started me to question my believes and how societal/cultural programming affected me. Working for 8+ years in marketing and advertising taught me the psychological manipulation that goes on behind the shiny facade of HD videos and glossy magazine.  Over the years it became apparent to me that our capitalistic system in Western Society portraits a false sense of happiness and well-being, because we are programmed to chase after material goods under the pretends to accumulate happiness. However this chase never ends because we will never feel truly fulfilled. The system only sustains itself through exponential growth of which only a few benefit, while the others need to keep consuming. Our capitalistic society has driven consumption needs to an exorbitant level, prioritising profit, while sacrificing the well-being of people and planet. I had started to make lifestyle changes such as buying second hand and turned to a whole food organic plant based diet, while sourcing ethical suppliers. The more I educated myself, the more grim the world around me started to look. That is normal and a lot of intense emotions surface such as anger, despair, disbelief and sadness. Once we start to realise that we’ve been lied to all our lives and that, through our daily choices, we individually contribute to the issues we experience in today’s world, it’s not easy to accept that unintentionally we are part of the problems we’ve been so actively disapproving all the time by posting articles on our social media channels. However, once these heavy emotions pass through, we find that individually we also posses the power to change things by making different choices, which is a very empowering place to be.”

We wanted to learn more how did the change start coming to her and what inspired her in the process:

Lynn: “I became more and more aware that my daily choices, no matter how small or big, determine whether I empower those who mean well for people, the planet and all life or if I engage with those who are driven by greed, power, control, inflicting destruction and violence and aim to keep our false sense of separation into place. I explain our human existence by the notion that everything is energy, frequency and vibration. As science shows us, everything has a certain frequency, including our human bodies as well as our emotions. I realised that if I wanted to live a reality of non-violence, of pure love, of bliss and harmony, I had to match my own frequency with the high frequency of these attributes (>500hz). That’s easier said than done as most of our energetic patterns are stored in our subconscious of which we most often are not aware. However I decided to start clearing all the emotional luggage and blocks I had created over my life and went into a huge healing process, raising my own variation every time I cleared these lower frequencies. Simultaneously I started to make different choices and took actions in my life that aligned with those values I wanted to see in my life. One of the biggest impacts we can make as individuals in today’s world is to examine and change our food choices. Industrial agriculture has the largest impact on environmental collapse, but it also justifies cruelty, exploitation and abuse. As long as we engage with these practices by buying those products on a daily base, we keep those horrific practices into place and give power to that what we don’t want to experience. As a start we have to educate ourselves and the easiest way is to trace our euros back all the way to the source. We have to investigate practices of producers and manufacturers and often that consist of a long chain which is often not very transparent. Buying organic products from ethical suppliers who apply regenerative practices, as locally produced as possible, is the first step. And if we combine that with an organic, whole food, (largely) plant based diet we inflict the least damage to our planet, while also feeding our bodies with the most pure food, exempt from the frequencies of cruelty, violence, exploitation and toxic substances, which in turn raises the vibration of our own bodies. We can do the same for all areas in our lives, from the clothes we wear to the household products we use. Choosing which news we consume and the articles we post on our social media determine whether we feed into fear, despair and hopelessness or whether we actively participate in bringing more inspiration, hope and love into this world. In our Western society we are taught to believe that our power lays in checking a box every 4 years by voting for governmental representatives. However  capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Therefore we actually vote every single day with our daily choices and the euros we spend. It’s a very empowering taught that we individually can have a huge impact on changing our current reality into one we wish to see by making lifestyle changes and different choices every single day. The despair, anger and fear that so many of us currently experience can make the problems and issues we are facing globally seem overwhelming, which paralyses us. However, if we start with small steps and changes towards the goal the process will unfold naturally and you’ll make progress very quickly. There are millions already doing it and together we can create a huge impact.”

After the small and big steps and changes, where is Lynn standing now and how is her personal ‘big-change’ looking at the moment: 

Lynn: “Although I spend the first three decades of my lifetime in large urban environments, I now understand that I feel most at home in nature. We are nature after all. After I escaped the corporate monoculture of city-life, I realized that it’s my purpose to redefine Luxury and that’s what I am doing in Portugal through various projects. A luxury which is not dictated by consumerism, but by the experience of true freedom in all forms. The luxury of being independent from large corporations, being able to supply in my basic needs myself or with the local community. Nature has showed me the way towards luxury. The luxury of finding joy in every moment and beauty in everything I encounter. The luxury that comes with a lifestyle in harmony with our natural environment free from cruelty, violence and exploitation that cause (subconscious) feelings of guild and shame; The luxury of experiencing the exquisite feeling of freedom once you let go of programmed beliefs and conditioning that keep you mentally enslaved. The luxury of silence and the feeling of true unconditional love for all beings that can only be found within. The luxury of giving up the chase to find happiness outside of me but rather nurture that precious place within myself. With our collective Wildlings (http://wildlings.pt) we highlight the importance of Rewilding, both the landscape as our human selves. In order get our planet and ecosystem back to a healthy, thriving environment, we need to rewild large areas on our planet that are now destroyed by industrial practices. We don’t have to wait for governments to take responsibility, we all can create wild habitat in our backyards, neighbourhoods and community spaces to increase biodiversity, provide habitat for essential species and create a large patchwork all together. Simultaneously we as humans have to find our way back to nature. We are nature. Our false sense of separation is an illusion that contributes to the destruction that is currently going on our planet. By spending time in nature, reflecting on our own thoughts, actions and behaviour as well as understanding our role in the web of life and how everything is connected, will allow us to form a new way of relating to our environment, each other and other life on earth, which is non-violent, harmonious and in the highest good of all. We want to establish a pilot project here in the mountain region of Portugal that shows a new model that takes returns on Nature, returns on Social Capital and returns on Finance into account. We regenerate 1500ha of land of which 70% is reserved for native wildlife and highlight the environmental, social and economical values of non-timber forest produce. This place will be open to the public and offer various experiences and education on the topic of Rewilding.“

Lastly we wanted to hear from this inspirational woman what would be her thoughts and tips for people who feel like they are too small to make a difference or do not know how to start:

Lynn: “It always starts with a nagging feeling that something ain’t right about how we do things. Once we are ready and willing to explore the possibility of doing things differently, we are invited on an exciting journey of self-discovery, learning and growth. I think that for every individual this journey is different, because our preferred way of learning is unique to every single one of us. Being open and willing to change is a requirement for all of us and sometimes this can be a very challenging, painful and unpleasant experience. However if you are brave enough to navigate through these waves of discomfort, you’ll be rewarded with more and more miracles coming your way. Engaging with friends and strangers who are on a similar path definitely helps, but it also means that you sometimes have to let go of those who are not longer on the same vibe. For me “The 5th Agreement” by Miguel Ruiz gave me a good framework and starting point. Another guideline that shows up for me daily is: “Question everything, especially yourself” and another important one: "Be gentle with yourself". Self-love is the key that unlocks the doors to our heart’s desire.”

We thank you Lynn for your very inspirational sharing and hope your remarkable journey evokes thought and small changes in readers. 

Learn more about Wildlings: http://wildlings.pt

Learn more about A Vida Fausto and Lynn: http://www.avidafausto.net