I’m a Naturopathic medicine specialist and here is what you need to know!

Naturopathy or Naturopathic medicine is according to Wikipedia; “a form of alternative medicine that employs an array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", and as promoting "self-healing". The ideology and methods of Naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine, rather than evidence-based medicine. Naturopathic practitioners generally recommend against following modern medical practices, including and not limited to, medical testing, drugs, vaccinations, and surgery. Instead, Naturopathic study and practice rely on unscientific notions, often leading Naturopathic doctors to diagnoses and treatments that have no factual merit.”

Naturopathic medicine specialist is not a protected profession, so basically anyone can call (him or) herself like that. Like probably read on this blog, my journey since changing my food habits has been all about living more in sync with myself and nature. I never had the plan on studying Naturopathic medicine, now at some point in the past when not having any lecture anymore at home, I came across an e-learning book ‘Centre de Formation à Distance - Naturopathie - Carol Panne’ my soul mate had here, in order to become a Naturopathic medicine. I started reading it and read the complete 799 pages.

I did not do the test in order to get a certificate, since I’ve no plans of becoming a Naturopathic medicine specialist and just want to share what I learned.

Here are the different topics that caught my attention;

• As a human, as a basis, I have to take care of 3 main things; Air, Water and Food.

• There are 10 basic techniques of Naturopathic medicine;
• Food
• Physical activity
• Relaxation
• Herbal medicine
• Hydrotherapy
• Breathing
• Manual technics
• Reflexology
• Energy technics
• Vibration technics

• Food is constituted of glucides, proteins and lipids. It (food) doesn’t cure, it helps the autoimmune system of the body to restore health.

• 4 main food categories are used in naturopathy;
• Diuretics (they make me urinate) -> examples of plants: watermelon, tomatoes, celery, dandelions, asparagus...
• Laxative (they make me defecate) -> examples of plants: water, strawberries, almonds, broccoli, black Beans, prunes...
• Sudoxic (they make me sweat) -> examples of plants: chamomile, carrot, elm...
• Expectorant (they make me spit) -> examples of plants: thyme, fennel, marjoram...

• There is also quite some importance provided to the 7 chakras, here below a little explanation about them (source: https://navutudreams.com/2017/01/11/chakras-explained-the-7-chakras-you-need-to-know-about/)

The word Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning “wheel” or “circle”, and it refers to the individual circular spinning wheels of energy located throughout the body.

The Chakra System is a complex network of energy channels connecting these wheels and is mapped throughout the whole body, much like a spiritual nervous system.

There are 7 main and biggest Chakras which are found running alongside the spine (not actually in the spine).

Each chakra is said to vibrate at a different frequency and is associated with a particular color, very handy for chakra meditations where you can visualize the colors.

They are also each associated with certain emotions and organs and their function. Here is a very simple run down of the Chakras.

• #1 Root Chakra (Muladhara) - Located at the base or root, the perineum, this chakra represents grounding, and survival needs like shelter and security, often a good one to focus on if you travel a lot and don’t always have a fixed home or sense of security. Associated with the color red and the spinal column, the kidneys, legs and colon.

• #2 Sacral Chakra (Svadisthana) - Located by the Sacrum, a large piece of bone at the base of the spine, but above the coccyx. This chakra represents pleasure, emotional balance and sexuality. Associated with the color orange and the reproductive organs, prostate and bladder.

• #3 Navel Chakra (Manipura) - Located by the belly button, this chakra represents our willpower and assertion, it is yellow in colour and associated with the pancreas, liver and stomach.

• #4 Heart Chakra (Anahata) - Located centrally near the heart, this chakra represents of course, love, unconditional love, acceptance, compassion and intuitiveness. The color is green and the associated organs are the heart, the circulatory system, the arms and hands.

• #5 Throat Chakra (Vishudha) - Located at the throat (what a surprise!), this chakra is all about communication, creativity, truth and reliability. The color is blue and the organs associated are the thyroid, hypothalamus, throat and mouth.

• #6 Third Eye Chakra (Ajna) - Located in the center of the brain, at a cross section found between the eyes and just above the ears. This chakra represents wisdom, imagination, intuition and an ability to analyse and perceive truth in the world. The color is a deep purple and the associated organs are the pituitary gland, the nose, the ears and the pineal gland.

• #7 Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) - The only chakra to be found outside of the physical body, this is located just above the crown of the head in what is considered our “spiritual body”. There are less words about this chakra as it is the chakra associated with higher consciousness, pure unconditional love and a state of pure being (beyond words!). There are no physical organs associated, but it is associated with vitalizing the upper brain, and the color is a light purple or indigo, or white.

• Everything is about duality, yin and yang, like I’ve personally already written about this as well over here.

• The meridians are typically listed in Yin/Yang pairs:
• Large Intestine (arm-yang) and Lung (arm-yin) = Metal Element
• Stomach (leg-yang) and Spleen (leg-yin) = Earth Element
• Small Intestine (arm-yang) and Heart (arm-yin) = Fire Element
• Bladder (leg-yang) and Kidney (leg-yin) = Water Element
• Triple-Warmer (arm-yang) and Pericardium (arm-yin) = Fire Element
• Gallbladder (leg-yang) and Liver (leg-yin) = Wood Element

• For the Belgian people, as a reference for good food, they mentioned to take a look at Pol Grégoire. I found it very close to my raw whole food lifestyle today.

• About the raw whole food lifestyle, or also called Raw Foodism they mentioned that is not a whim of the 20th century. Revealed Essenes used this lifestyle more than 2000 years ago. Some of their members even lived 120 years. In the 20th century, it’s basically Ann Wigmore and Viktoras Kulvinkas that get again the attention to the benefits of this lifestyle by creating the Hippocrates Health Institute.

• There is also a reference to a study done by Paul Kouchakoff, MD, on the fact that the organism considers cooked foods to be harmful invaders.

• A little summary of it = A classic and profound study on the direct effect of cooking food on the human immune system. Presented by Dr. Paul Kouchakoff at the First International Congress of Microbiology in 1930 and later translated and published by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, the research focuses on the phenomenon of “digestive leukocytosis,” or the increase and mobilization of white blood cells in response to eating food. Dr. Kouchakoff observed that this immune response occurs only when the food eaten is cooked and, moreover, that processed food (which are often exposed to high temperatures in their preparation) incites an even graver response than cooked whole foods. Raw foods, on the other hand, not only fail to cause digestive leukocytosis but can prevent cooked foods from causing it if eaten at the same meal. Dr. Kouchakoff spent many years studying the effects of cooked food versus raw food on the human immune system, and it remains a great mystery and tragedy that no one has followed up on his startling findings. From Proceedings: First International Congress of Microbiology, 1930. Translated and reprinted by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research.

• Drinking regularly (ideally daily) a fresh veggie juice will improve your autoimmune system.

• Today in our lifestyle, we quite often take a fruit by the end of our meal, which is really a very bad idea. At the end of our meal the digestive tube is very heavily solicited by the meal we just eat. At that moment the simple sugar from fruits are stagnating and amplifying the fermentation effect. If fruits are eaten way before or way after the meal, then this process does not happen.

• Omega-3 is in my current way of eating really not enough present and a supplement will have to be taken for that. More information on this, see over here.

• A word on Calcium - The best calcium intake is a plant based intake. Contrary to a well-established belief, it is not dairy products that provide the most calcium. Dairy products are very acidic and tend to deplete bone calcium.

• There was quite some attention on essential oils, which can be very helpful, now they require quite some precaution and specialized advice. Nowhere else did I see so much red and warnings in the book than in the essential oils section. I personally prefer to leave them aside seen the possible consequences.

• What about medicines?

Well the medicines and pharmaceutics like we know them today only exists since 1950, so right after world war 2. Before that time, healing was only done with products provided by nature.

• Industrialization and capitalism made us forget all the healing force that nature provides. This is the basis of Naturopathic medicine to return that those roots, now this is of course much against the pharmaceutical business, who is trying to avoid a return of natural health in any circumstances.

• In general, Naturopathic medicine improvements will happen from high to low, so first headache, for example, will disappear before pain in the hips.

• To note also that the human body is a system of different sub-systems such as;

• Circulatory system (red blood cells have the function of transporting oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide, the white blood cells participate in phagocytosis providing protection against infections and eliminating by digestion of microbial elements. There is a complete separation between the oxygen blood coming from the lungs and the blood loaded with metabolic waste and depleted oxygen coming back from the different organs. Arteries bring oxygenated red blood from the heart to the organs and they bring black blood, vitiated, depleted from the heart to the lungs).
• Nervous system (The inflammatory reaction is also part of the defense mechanism. Inflammation is characterized by 4 signs; redness, heat, pain and edema. Heat and redness are due to vasodilation of capillaries and slowing down of the blood circulation. The pain is due to the pressure of the nerve fibers and the edema is due to the exudation of the plasma).
• Respiratory system (the breathing fulfills 3 functions: it brings oxygen to the organism, it evacuates the wastes, in occurrence the carbon dioxide and it participates in the regulation of the blood pH).
• Digestive system (the main function of digestive organs, is to transform food so that it can be assimilated and nourish all our cells. With the liver fulfilling the role of great factory of the body)
• Skeletal system (the human skeleton includes 360 joints, united by ligaments and tendons. Some are made mobile by muscles, fascias and slide thanks to articulations that facilitate movements).
• Muscular system (to ensure the movement of the body, to maintain the posture, to produce heat and to protect fragile noble organs in collaboration with the bones).

• A virus is unable to defend itself, so very easy to eliminate if the immune system is healthy and effective. 

• The development of autoimmune diseases is probably the result of the accumulation of several causes, such as genetic predisposition, pollution, vaccines, drug intake or diet.

• It is of course of no surprise that these systems are interconnected that I have to look for the complete picture.

What I discovered during this course, is that we know the majority of things within us, we just don’t take the time anymore to look there.

As a little exercise, take a normal day, write down what you breathe as air, drink as water, do to move and eat as energy.

Then look to what you have written down and set after it what feels to you like good, and what feels to you like not good.

Maybe we should look a bit more at animals to understand.

"Animals are the bridge between us and the beauty of all that is natural. They show us what's missing in our lives, and how to love ourselves more completely and unconditionally. They connect us back to who we are, and to the purpose of why we're here." ― Trisha McCagh

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #Naturopathy #naturopathicmedicine #selfhealing #Air #Water #Food #Physicalactivity #Relaxation #Herbalmedicine #Hydrotherapy #Breathing #Reflexology #Energy #Vibration #chakras #RootChakra #Muladhara #SacralChakra #Svadisthana #NavelChakra #Manipura #HeartChakra #Anahata #ThroatChakra #Vishudha #ThirdEyeChakra #Ajna #CrownChakra #Sahasrara #spiritualbody #yinandyang #PolGrégoire #rawwholefoodlifestyle #RawFoodism #AnnWigmore #ViktorasKulvinkas #HippocratesHealthInstitute #PaulKouchakoffMD #Omega3 #Calcium #TrishaMcCagh

Update on my own special food restaurant

Like I explained here, it is not easy to find a restaurant where I can experience the raw food taste. It is also something that a lot of people see as simple raw salads and such. Which it can be, now it doesn’t have to be and some select restaurants really show that as an alternative.

I mentioned select, since of course I find that there are besides the RAW desserts, not enough restaurants proposing RAW experiences. At some point, I even played with the idea, that I had to open my own special RAW food restaurant to increase the proposal. This looked like really predefined being a very difficult journey, difficult for me and not enough people wanting to experience it yet.

From the other side, I’m not at all a RAW food chef, at home, my soul mate is. I love the ingredients and personally I eat them majority of time unprocessed. Instead of eating a cheesecake, I can enjoy equally of eating some nuts and dates. In today’s culture, of course I cannot attract by just proposing nuts and dates, it has at least to be the cheesecake. My interest in creating a restaurant was to meet up with people, talk around food, share experiences… now it didn’t look like the restaurant was the best concept for me, especially not without a chef.

My soul mate mentioned she wanted to be the chef for some select events, so we started to become part of ‘Tables Végétales’, for me the feeling of occasionally being a restaurant and especially meeting up with all these amazing people. We are more than happy to provide the opportunity for everybody to experience RAW food in our house, have a wonderful evening talking around everything related to food and especially vegetables.

Last year we had 4 editions, met up with some great people and we continued to have a few in 2018 as well.

People maybe don’t always realize that that great food, requires quite some investment, time and preparation in order to have it ready. Of course, my soul mate has always set the level very high making the previous points even worse. The combination of the activity with ‘L’envol du Colibri’ and the ‘Tables Végétales’ starts to be very heavy to sustain on the longer term. And if we cannot make the experience great, it’s better to not propose the experience since it might damage the progress it is making.

We’ve therefore decided to set our activity with ‘Tables Végétales’ in the concept as it was, on hold for the moment.

Of course, if you have any questions related to our lifestyle, want to see things by yourself, always more than welcome to reach out and pass by our home! It would be my pleasure!

Love, peace.

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #rawfood #experiencerawfood #rawfoodrestaurant #RAWfoodchef #TablesVégétales

Discovery of tantra

On my wedding day I received a wonderful book of the kamasutra. I read it very attentive and it would be the reference for me related to Eastern relationships and intimacy. It had from one side a feeling of unachievable and nevertheless extremely attractive. When I would at some point hear about tantra, I would unconsciously link it to that eastern way of living and assuming it to be something similar.

When I changed my food habits, my relationship with intimacy changed completely and my way of experiencing general improvements of 4 senses; feel, see, hear and smell made me review my way of looking to this Eastern tradition. When searching more information about it, I found everything and nothing.

Since my food changing experience made me very open to new experiences, at some point, out of the information I found, Inge and Erik from Rising Heart looked like attracting me in order to further explore this. They propose regularly like exploration evenings, which I thought would be a good way to give it a try and which it definitely was!

It really made me connect with myself in a way, I never experienced before. I discovered simple things, that had such a big impact, that I could not imagine that possible for me. Things that I ignored so hard in my regular life.

One of the very strong experiences, is the staring each other in the eyes for a certain given time.

It provided me such a profound and open connection, something I had rarely experienced before.

Also blindfolded walking around in a room and getting in contact with other humans was an amazing experience. It sets me in front of all my prejudgments and clearly required a let go attitude in order to fully experience and enjoy.

I fell in love with it after that evening and wanted to further experience this. The next formulas proposed by Rising Heart, didn’t really fit in (or I was not willing to make them fit in) my schedule. Basically, because I’m the only one interested in it, my soul mate is not and so, I let tantra a bit on the sideline. It continued to get my attention, now I trusted in it, that I would see more of it, when I would have to see more of it.

Then one day, via Aaah of Julie Du Chemin, I saw a reference to tantra via Didier de Buisseret. When looking for more information around that, I also found AÏON Bruxelles, which turned out to be not so far away for me and really provide me a feeling of loveliness, openness, kindness, playfulness… it looked like everything felt right.

I saw they had a Modulo 1 in order to learn about tantra massage spread over a weekend. It felt like the perfect fit, which it definitely was. During this module 1, I went in such a deep, profound connection with myself, that is so beautiful and that I unfortunately ignored till than in my life. I discovered on these 2 days, so much about myself, met so many lovely people, that if I would have to describe my paradise, that would be it, if not very close!

When they then would propose a modulo 2, I would do everything I could to assist, which I did. I would again learn so much more and had everything I needed to be able to explore with tantra massage myself after these 2 modules. I loved it!

At the end of our journey, some students suggested to stay in contact in order to further progress, practice and exchange. I was still overwhelmed by everything that happened that weekend, that I ignored that signal. I have to say that after a few weeks when all sink in, had to try things a little out, I completely understand why that suggestion was made and felt a bit disappointed about not having reacted to it. Although I managed to apply a lot of things to my personal evolution and in my daily life, everything I learned in terms of tantra massage, would come to a dead end unfortunately for now.

Now, after this experience so far, my view of myself, the world, love, meditation, compassion, unconditional love… changed completely in a very positive way and I’m very grateful for that.

I found that during this contact with tantra so far, a lot of gifts are provided, with a lot of love to each person on their own journey at their own pace. Gifts to open when it's the right time, and let's say they'll open to you, when they have to open up for you.

'Everything you need will come at the perfect time'.

Thank you so much Inge, Erik, Mariane and Michael to do what you do and I look forward to next meetups filled with discoveries!

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #giveupfear #kamasutra #easternwayofliving #RisingHeart #staringeachotherintheeyes #profoundopenconnection #Aaah #JulieDuChemin #DidierdeBuisseret #AÏONBruxelles #paradise #Unconditionallove

Spectator of life and become calm!

With spectator, I don't want to say that I just passively observe life, I'm more very mindful living my life and take the spectator position quite often as a very meaningful direction. A direction that I didn't know the existence of before my changing food habits. Maybe something we realize also when we get older?

When a certain annoying thing happened in my life, I did quite often get into resistance to it and trying everything I could to remove it.

Some examples;

• when the baby would cry, provide a pacifier fopspeen as soon as possible.
• when the dog would bark, get to him and say to keep quiet as soon as possible.
• when a bee would come close to me, try to eliminate it so it can certainly not hurt me. 
• when I would need to park the car and it would surprisingly be a paid parking, I would try everything I could to not have to pay.
• when I would see a loved one in pain, not knowing how to re-act, do everything I could to hide myself and make that uncomfortable situation pass by as soon as possible. 
• ...

All kinds of examples that would make life unpleasant and to which I had to re-act immediately to get it back on track like I liked it. That kind of reaction looked like a strong one before, today after my food changing habits I have a different point of view on that.

All those things look today to me like resistance and lack of confidence, which I gained a lot after the food change. By learning to feel, smell, see, observe... much better in connection with nature, some things look today, so obvious, now I didn't see them for the first 35 years of my life.

Today it is very clear to me how much I learn by quietness and observation.

Let's review the previous situations;

• when the baby would cry, there is a reason for it, communicate, feel, connect and the answer will be very fast in front of me.
• when the dog would bark, there is also a reason for it, communicate, feel, connect also with the dog. In a worst case it just wanted some of your precious time.
• when a bee would come close to me, try to observe in how many of the cases the bee actually wants to hurt? Quite often it's just discovering life like I do.
• when I would need to park the car and it would surprisingly be a paid parking, accept, move on with life and see what it does to me.
• when I would see a loved one in pain, not knowing how to react, tell them how you feel and don’t know how to re-act. And stay just there, present.

In all these above examples I've been very pleased with the result out of quietness and observation.

I could never before imagine that life is so beautiful!

Give it a try, observe and let go, rather than resists and get nervous.

"I am a human being, not a human doing. Don't equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren't what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don't...you aren't." - Dr. Wayne Dyer.

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #giveupfear #spectatoroflife #observelife #mindfullivinglife #stopresistance #quietness #observation #etgo #humanbeingnothumandoing #DrWayneDyer

Yin and Yang

I've always been very passionate by the yin and yang sign. I remember as a kid during my skateboard period, we used to draw that sign on pretty much everything. Back then, mainly because it was cool, I had no understanding at all on what it might probably mean.

The basics of men/women, day/night, sun/moon, black/white, dark/light, summer/winter, warm/cold, north/south, left/right, earth/sky... I understood the link, now not much further than that. It is only later on, when I changed my food habits that I realised all that at a deeper level and see that such a duality is in everything in life.

Duality of love/hate, happy/sad, pain/pleasure, rich/poor… were quite obvious when thinking about it. Today, I have more and more the feeling that I need to experience both to really understand one. If I only see one, as a human I don't realise the other.

With that, I mean, that if there would be love everywhere, we would not realise that it is love. It is because that hate exists, that we know what love really is.

Does this mean that there has to be evil in order for angels to exist?
A rather scary thought for me.
What I realised is that it is not necessary for the duality to be extremely separated from each other.

In these modern days, we are used to sometimes take artificial, unreal and unnatural sensations that are so strong, that it triggers so hard our nerve system, that we tend to get bored by all the rest.

Some extreme examples of this are, a parachute jump, driving 300km/h with a car or a motorbike, a dead experience in a video game... they all trigger us and make us less sensitive for the reality. If we would do some extreme meditation afterwards, the duality would probably be respected.
Like there is an old Zen quotation; 'everybody should at least meditate 20 minutes a day, unless you are extremely busy, then you should make it 1 hour.'.

Of course in my day to day life I have no time to take care of that duality and I live only what pleases me. Well then somewhere down the road I have to accept that nature tries to rectify that whether I like it or not.

In my discovery, I realised that there is a lot of natural pleasure that I ignored their existence. I had heard about them, now never experienced something getting close to it.

If I cannot feel the natural ones, I of course go and search for other ones more accessible. Because it is unfortunate, now in the modern life all these artificial, unreal and unnatural sensations are more accessible than the natural ones. The only thing you need to get them, is money. And so my life turns around making money, otherwise I will not be able to have these experiences anymore and I will not be able to live anymore.

I used to live like that, it didn't feel natural, now I had no clue what was wrong.

It is when I started to look after my nutrition, making it as much as possible whole food plant based, that I discovered a world I only imagined in dreams.

I feel, I taste, I love, I experience... all things in a natural duality and there is no need for money in that world, nature provides them for free.

When I discovered this, all the artificial, unreal and unnatural sensations I used to love and crave before, completely went out of disinterest for me and I got fascinated by the natural ones.

I live today very aware of the yin and yang and find easier a balance in my life.

I’m very grateful for that discovery and wish everyone can experience it!


#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #yinyang #menwomen #daynight #sunmoon #blackwhite #darklight #summerwinter #warmcold #northsouth #leftright #earthsky #Duality #lovehate #happysad #painpleasure #richpoor

What about the tattoos?

Why all these tattoos?

When I was in my early twenties, my sister and brother showed me both their newly set tattoo. I loved it, I have always loved certain tattoos and the idea of getting a tattoo myself, started to grow inside my thoughts as well.

My ego loved the fact of getting a tattoo, since my sister and brother had a good tattoo male artist already, I could go to the same with low risk and I would just need to know what I wanted the artist to tattoo on my body. It should be something serious, with no regret afterwards, since removing afterwards was not an option, that was quite clear.

When I then got a serious motorbike accident, my protection leathers were completely destroyed on my left shoulder and surprisingly my left shoulder had nothing. It was for me a good reason to tattoo a part of my leathers on my left shoulder as a kind of a protection angel.

The first tattoo was a fact. The Dainese logo identical like on my protection leathers with a tribal sun around. The artist refused to colour the logo completely unicolor, so I had to find something for inside. My first thought was the 46 logo of my personal hero of that time, after my Michael Jordan period, Valentino Rossi. I was advised to not take something that was related to a person, since my point of view overtime might change (it didn't, now that I didn't know about almost 20 years ago). Instead, I went for my animation picture hero 'Wile E Coyote' who I found so fascinating, by being the loser and nevertheless the character that makes the series so fun. When I saw Valentino Rossi with a t-shirt from 'Wile E Coyote' my choice was made, that head would come inside the logo.

After that first tattoo, I would find it over time a little small. Tribal tattoos were very popular at that moment, so I asked to extend it with a tribal under the 1st one, so the second tattoo was a fact.

For a long time, for me, that would be the only tattoos I would have for the rest of my life. There was just the 'Wile E Coyote' with which I didn't feel in sync anymore. I would not have minded to have the 23 of Michael Jordan or the 46 of Valentino Rossi on my body today, now what I currently had was not in-line with that. My first idea was unicolor again, now the artist still refused to color the logo completely unicolor.

Yellow 46 overlay would not work and so I came up with a design with the first letter of each of my kids (2) which was feasible. So after what could be seen as my 3rd tattoo, I looked like set for life and no other tattoos would be set on my body.

That was without taking my food changing habits into account.
I discovered so many great things that I wanted some of them to give a space on my body and a next evolution of tattoos would be a fact almost 15 years later.

The 4th one was my discovery that my life is mine and that it is my choice to be happy. So I drew myself a 'Happy' in tribal style, to be slightly compatible with the tattoos from my previous life.

For the 5th one, I found the open distance on my arm between the tattoos not acceptable and made a design to fill it up. A link to my soulmate on top, my lucky number 6 which I used to have at school where I quite often was #6 and which would be the number of letters in my name, the one of my soulmate and the one of my 2 children. It's something I only discovered afterwards and made it quite sure there is something special with it. On the bottom I again made a design with the first letter of each of my kids.

When that tattoo was on, it felt like complete, now on the back, I had the same space that annoyed me, so a 6th tattoo was a fact. I would go besides the tribal sun I already had, for the duality of live, the moon of Valentino Rossi, finally. Under that I would set all kinds of words in a font I like that are all resonating with me and a good overview of what I had discovered so far.

I would start writing this blog and discover even more than I would have ever imagined. I made a new drawing reflecting strong further influences on my life and the 6th tattoo was a fact.
The duality of life, visualised by the yin yang sign.
The beauty of the earth, integrated in the black of the yin yang sign.
The tree of life.
An Ohm discovered via Yoga and incorporated into the tree of life.
Love for the animals and all life on earth, symbolised by a rabbit, a donkey and a duck.

Afterwards, when looking to that last tattoo, I would find it to male dominated. It misses, the female though I have in me as well, which I never really managed to draw myself on all my drawings so far.

So it was time to change the male tattoo artist, which has been the same since my sister and brother's tattoo and opt for female one in order to reflect me completely. A female mandala design would do it, the 7th tattoo was a fact.

I learned about 'Ahimsa' via the book of Mahatma Gandhi, it is something that I want to show to the world in a fine female design, people need to know about this and so the 8th tattoo is a fact.

Is this it? For now everything is on, so yes, this is it. Now I know that I will continue to learn here on earth until my last breath and I'm very open to new experiences that cross my path. So let's say that time will tell if this was the last one.

A few weeks ago, on the vegan summer fest in Gent, I met a guy that was very colorful and stylish dressed. I liked it very much and said that to him. He smiled, and said ‘You have to do it, like you feel it’ you know, don’t be occupied with what others might think'.

I liked it and it summarizes greatly my motto for the tattoos after my food changing habits.

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #tattoos #tattoo #protectionangel #Dainese #46 #MichaelJordan #ValentinoRossi #WileECoyote #Tribal #Happy #number6 #dualityoflive #yinyang #Thetreeoflife #Ohm #Yoga #Loveanimals #mandala #Ahimsa #MahatmaGandhi

What is that screen addiction all about?

I'm probably part of one of the last generations that grew up without too many screens. Besides TV, movie theater and some little game consoles, there wasn't much around. In terms of activity, these screens were nice, now I still preferred playing outside football, skateboard, bmx, basketball... with friends way more than being behind these screens.

Of course, being with friends together in front of these screens were nice shared moments as well. Then at some point, when I started working, I received my first mobile phone. It sounded like wonderful, I would be reachable all the time.

With that start, these screens have evolved to become very heavily brain stimulators, addictive toys and especially to fill up the empty moments that used to be the moments great ideas would come up. When I see these screens today, it looks like they are so much part of life, that people might panic without them. I’m even very scared for my kids and their possible heavy dependence on screens in the future. It freaks me out when I see people taking a walk with the pram or with the dog, and being on the phone at the same time. Really not a second without it?

I've always been sceptical with technology, I found it great inventions, now if they did not serve me, they would in my eyes not be useful. What is serving, can of course be interpreted in different ways...

Being able to call anywhere, didn't look like very useful for me, the email and sms, so the ability to contact someone to meet up, without time constraints, looked like way more of use for me.

Since we've a phone, we've to be always connected. How does that always connected serves me? It doesn't, so that is where it stops for me. I will get connected when it serves me.

When I'm waiting for the bus, not talking to people around me, not taking that moment of quietness and silence, not seeing what is happening around and just being attached to my screen, does that serve me?

When I would be addicted to my screen I would say, of course it helps me, it fills up the empty moments, I would not be able to do without... Is that not a sign of a dangerous addiction? For me it is. My changing food habits made me realise all this and I definitely moved away from it.

My phone is good for;

• calling or contacting someone in order to ideally meet up.
• a calendar to liberate my mind of things I might have to do in order to be able to live in this multitasking world.
• taking some interesting notes instead of doing this on the little paper notebook.
• camera in order to capture wonderful moments at a time that feels right for it. 
• an recently also a location search, although I've to say that I still prefer to ask directions to people around.

This useful technology for the tasks mentioned here above (and probably others I forgot), looks to me like taking a dangerous direction against my normal behaviour.

It serves for when I'm bored, when I'm lonely, when I'm shy, when I'm annoyed... I just dive my head in the screen, look for funny things, smile and everything is solved. I remember people used to use cigarettes for this as well. Is this better? For physical health probably, for mental health, not so sure.

If I now look into what it serves;

• the moment my creativity would work the best, is when I'm bored.
• I would and look for friends or community when I'm lonely.
• I would test things out in order to get more confidence, learn about myself and be less shy.
• I would get confronted with a situation and try to handle it the best I can when I'm annoyed.
• ... 

It's great that the phone is the solution for all this, isn't it?
Now is it really the solution?
And if it is, it means no life without it anymore. I know some brands that love that idea and encourage it heavily. Even spend billions to make these toys that way.

I don't like that idea, for me, life is meant to be without technology. If it can make my life truly easier, then use it, if not move away from it.

This is of interest and don't know how to start?

Some concrete steps to detox from the phone from easy to maybe more challenging. If they are all easy, there is probably no addiction which is great!

• Only have applications on my phone that really make my life easier and better less than too much applications.
• Set all notifications of besides call and sms.
• Make dedicated time in my day (2 times, for example), week... to check for notification in the application. I decide when to check, not the phone pushing notifications.
• Only connect to Wifi or mobile data when I decide so, for the rest I leave it off. My battery loves me, my mobile network provider will be obliged to invoice me a little less.
• Switch the phone completely off for some time, at least 2 hours before sleep and more if I can. I trust that real news that will have to come to me, will find his way to come to me.

Now these screens are designed to fill up life so heavily, that life passing by without being realized. It’s a choice, looking for a screen or living?

Live free, enjoy life, let technology serve you and if it doesn't, move away from it, it’s most of the time in for nothing.

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #giveupfear#livefree