My happy meditation spot

I have an unquiet mind, and in the past, it was hard for me to wind down in the evening and relax my thoughts. This led to many difficulties when trying to fall asleep.

One technique that helped me out tackle this problem is meditation. In 2015 I downloaded the app Calm and began practicing with discipline. Most days I sit on my meditation cushion and focus on my breath.

I use Calm in English and let meditation teachers like Tamara Levitt, Jay Shetty and Jeff Warren guide my practice. My sleep quality has improved significantly. I don’t have any racing thoughts keeping my mind busy when I lie in bed to fall asleep.

In Stuttgart I had a happy meditation spot in our small flat: it was in our bedroom, directly in front of the French door with a view of the city’s television tower. Since we moved to Weil der Stadt I have been searching for a new happy meditation spot in our new house. A few weeks ago, I found it: it is in our living room, also in front of the French door, that we keep open in summer so that, in the evening, I can hear the crickets in the garden. I love it, and it really calms down my unquiet mind.

If you are interested in giving meditation a try, just reach out to me. I have 30-day guest passes for Calm Premium.

Create your own little paradise

“Welcome you all, my name is Joan and this is my blessing: my little paradise”, so this wonderful old lady, named Joan, started to welcome us guests at her Christmas dinner. She is the owner of the guest house ‘Le petit paradis‘ in Wotten Waven on Dominica, where we spent the days around Christmas last year. “My husband Al, a former school principal now retired, and I started it with just one room. Now also my daughters are working with us”, continued Joan. As she spoke, you could really see the light in her eyes and the passion she invested in creating her little paradise.
I think this is what life is about: creating our own little paradise. Pondering about what we would like to be and to do with our time and moving in this direction. As Arthur C. Brooks, the Harvard Happiness Professor, says: “In order to build a happy life you need three things: enjoyment, satisfaction and meaning”. Nothing more and I think Joan definitely has them.

So full of colors: Le petit Paradis in Wotten Waven

The Leonardo Project

Today I would like to share with you a story about the past. My past, when I was almost a teenager.

So we are talking about the 90s in Italy, when I attended the “Middle School” (it. scuola media, 10-13 years old). Since my parents were both working in the production and logistic of two multinational companies (Unilever and Artsana), they chose to send me to school in the afternoon by subscribing me to a particular new project.

The name of this project was “The Leonardo Project”. Yes Leonardo as that Leonardo. What was it about? – You may ask yourself.

It was a full day school project. When I was lucky, I was able to be at home at 14:15 and when I was even luckier, I got the chance to stay at school for lunch and come back home at 16:15. Saturday was also a mandatory school day.

Why am I grateful about it even now when I live in Germany and I’m 36?! This question has a simple answer: I learned a lot of things at that time. Since I was good in school, I got the chance to learn Latin and German. I had the opportunity to learn to swim and play real hockey with my school mates. I had the first mobbing experiences because I was too sporty and the other girls too jealous. I had the possibility to learn art and art history. I felt passionate about writing and learned my mother language Italian in its depth. I could take part to a group of theater and even write a screenplay.

Giving your children to school care is always a good decision: you should never regret it or think you are an absent parent. I hope my mother and my father didn’t even think like this for a second.

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US and I’m grateful about that time, that project, those teachers and my middle school. I’m grateful about my parents who decided a very good thing for my education. I’m grateful about my sister which helped me out in dealing with mobbing with extreme class. I’m grateful about those boys and girls who shared with me that time.

I didn’t forget.

Grateful for my job

This week I had the possibility to spend three days in Maulburg, a small German city on the boarder with Switzerland and France. I was there on a business trip with the whole Technical Communication community at Endress+Hauser. They were three days full of conferences, reports and workshops that gave us the possibility to prepare ourselves for the next challenges in the technical documentation.

I felt so grateful to attend this event and to have the possibility to see my colleagues and our partners in person. When you start your day with such a breathtaking view, it can only be good.

The dawn seen from my room at Hotel Restaurant Krone

Celebrate your life

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Oprah Winfrey

It is when you start to focus on the small joys that you notice your life is full of them. In this process it’s important that you learn to accept your life as it is with all the challenges you are facing, seeing them as a possibility to grow.

Putting the light on the beautiful things in your life by naming and celebrating them will give you a sense of inner peace.

Happiness is love and you start to feel happy when you begin to love your life as it is without fighting against yourself. A positive mindset attracts positive things so that you will find yourself celebrating your life in every possible occasion. You will be able, for example, to notice and appreciate a small thing like a beautiful flower in your garden.

Recognize the beauty in your life

Recently I passed by this beautiful fountain which is on a street I often walk. I’ve never noticed it before and I got fascinated by the beauty of its architectural idea.

When we open our eyes to the beauty of the world it changes our perspective.

Everyday take a moment to reflect on what surprised you positively. By naming what makes your life beautiful you can train yourself to see the bright side of life also in difficult periods. If you do it regularly, you will be surprised how easy it gets to notice the beautiful things you encounter during your day.

A fountain that seems a tea pot – Weil der Stadt

On friendship during COVID-19

There is nothing I missed more during the COVID-19 restrictions than hanging out with friends.

Nothing enriches my soul more than an evening with friends, talking about everything, switching topics randomly, laughing and having a good meal together.

Maybe I felt the restrictions during the pandemic so difficult because I live far away from my original family and friends. The friends I have here in Germany are the people I can rely on immediately and not having the possibility to see them neither was really hard for me.

Therefore I especially enjoy weeks like this when I met twice with friends for dinner. I discovered a very nice World-Café in the city near Stuttgart where I work, I prepared for the first time pizza for four people and I even got a bunch of spring flowers.

It’s only when you share moments with others that you really feel that life is always worth living.

The force of life

An oak | Source http://www.fast-growing-trees.com

“My thoughts turn to something I read once, something the Zen Buddhists believe. They say that an oak tree is brought into creation by two forces at the same time. Obviously, there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into a tree. Everybody can see that. But only a few can recognize that there is anther force operating here as well – the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void, guiding the evolution from nothingness to maturity. In this respect, say the Zens, it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Throwback: one night in a tree house

December 2016
Reserva Natural Tanimboca, Leticia – Amazonia (Colombia)

We are spending the night in the highest tree house of the Reserva Natural and are both very excited about it.

Our tree house in Tanimboca: such an amazing experience sleeping there for one night!

It is late afternoon, about one hour after our arrival.

Dominik: “Let’s make a deal, Angy – OK?!”
Me: “Yes!”
Dominik: “Tonight, before we go to bed, we don’t look at the floor. Is it clear?!”
Me: “OK, I’m in!”

After this brief conversation, we experienced a night walk with our tour guide Richard through the jungle and could appreciate the wild nightlife there. We had a delicious dinner and nice talks with a ‘Gringo’, a young man from the US working in Colombia as a teacher, and a Colombian family, whose 9 year old son was learning Chinese in the school. They were also spending the night in Tanimboca. Then Richard brought us back to the tree house and Dominik and I read a book together.
After a while, we were about going to bed…

Me: “I know we had a deal… but I… I just saw something… there…”
Dominik: “What? Where?”
Me: “Behind you: a giant cockroach!!!”

A giant cockroach, picture from the internet. The one we saw was a lot smaller, I like to exaggerate 😂

OK, OK… It was not as big as this one in the picture, but for me almost.

Happy ending: Dominik did something very brave and ‘accompanied’ (read here: kicked kindly) the cockroach out of the door. I kept the promise and didn’t look at the floor anymore. Finally we fell asleep lulled by the natural sounds of the jungle.

As currently none of us can travel, I thought it would be a good idea to share this memory with you.
I would always repeat this experience in the tree house in Tanimboca, if I had the chance. I really would, a little bit also because of the cockroach: I’m honest!
I’m also very grateful that Ronny of Kolumbien linda Tours helped us to organize our journey in Colombia giving us the possibility to enjoy a fantastic holiday there.

There is nothing more magical than the sunset at the sea

My mother comes originally from a town near Salerno called Cava de’ Tirreni. This city is not directly on the sea but it is not far from the first city on the Amalfi Coast, called Vietri sul Mare. When I was a child I used to spend about one month in summer there and, since I have a lot of relatives there, I always felt at home. I have always been fascinated by the characteristic colors of the buildings on the coast, by the hospitality of the people and by the small ceramic stores that you can find practically everywhere.

This September we had the possibility to spend two weeks in Cava de’ Tirreni and it is incredible how, even if I never really lived there, I feel these places part of me. I feel a sensation of belonging especially when I remain so long on the beach that I can see the sunset.

For me there is nothing more magical than having the possibility to watch the sun going down below the sea level.

Riflesso negli occhi

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