Ayuritual

What I Eat Every Morning That Brighten Up My Day, Always.

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 03:34:10 -0700

Before I share with you this frequently asked recipe of something that Kimmana and I always eat for breakfast, there's something important and personal that I'd like to share.

This writing below is inspired after I talked with a friend who got annoyed by someone who bad-mouths behind her back. And I think what I mentioned to her is something that's also worth to share with others.

Wouldn't it be nice to be loved and adored by everyone that knows us?

Yet at some point in life, we'll realise that it's not possible to make everyone loved us without sacrificing our personal happiness.

I gave up with the idea to make everyone approved the things that I do. Don't like to see me in swimsuit? Simply don't look at it.

Think of it this way.

There are billions of people in this world, having their own preferences of like and dislike.

Some of them are pretty judgmental of what's right or wrong (and of course generally people wanna be right, so other things that are different to them are judged as wrong).

And some others are pretty open and considerate with other's way of life. They'll think that everything in life is both right and wrong, so there's no use to judge people especially if we don't know much about them.

Sadly, most people comes under the first category, quite judgmental of other things that are different to them.

One of the most important lesson that I learnt from Kimmana is to not to judge others who are different to me, and accept them the way they are. Easy to say, hard to apply :)

Imagine if we need to cater everyone's preference so that they'll love us... We'll need to sacrifice what we think and feel right for us.

But the truth is, true happiness doesn't come from overly...Read More

The Truth About Feeling Envious of Someone's Life

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 19:49:21 -0700

Have you ever envied someone else's life?
Whether it's because you feel they're prettier than you, wealthier than you, have a better relationship with their lover than you, or living a better quality of life than you?
In short, have you ever felt that you're less than others?
Here's a short story that will change the way you think, and make you envy-free.
When I was in University, there was this girl that I truly admired. You can call it a girl crush, yes :)
Physically, she's not like a common Indonesian beauty standard. She doesn't have the bright white skin, in fact, the opposite, exotic brown skin. She's not a soft help-me-I'm-weak kind of girl (Asian man like that lol). In fact, she's a pretty independent and has a rebellious vibe as she always expressed her true self.
With all that quality, yes, I envied her.
On the other hand, there I was, a girl who didn't feel confident about her unique strength and beauty; a girl who wasn't able to express herself wholly, as she's afraid that people not gonna like her real self.
As I looked back, now I know the true reason on why I envied her and the lesson behind that.
No need to focus on fitting in to be liked by others. The right people will appreciate your unique strength and beauty.
I realised that envy is a sign of what I want my life to be, and the direction that I wanna go in life.
Which is why envy can be a healthy process to self-development, ONLY if:

We perform a real act to stir our life to that path that we envied from other people, and
NOT ended up bad mouthing about that person. This usually happens because we doubt our own strength and think that we wouldn't be able to get what we deserve. Instead, we wanna drag that person to our misery as an act of blaming others because...Read More

Here's Why You Don't Want to Hold Your Emotion

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 08:00:00 -0800

It feels really good to cry.
Almost two weeks a go, I had a motorbike accident. I was driving my motorbike, while suddenly there was another motorbike that turned right in front of me and cut my way.

If you haven’t drive in Bali, there’s only one rule you need to be aware of: pay attention to what’s in front of you. Which means, you don’t need to be worry on looking to the left, right, or back. You only need to worry what's in front of you.
I know this local driving rule, but that one morning wasn’t my lucky day.

I hit that motorbike, slides for couple meters and hit the ground with my headfirst.

At that time, I was on my way to a writing workshop at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, and I don’t have much time in between. So I didn’t much time to rest nor to process the whole situation after the accident, and continue with my journey to the workshop venue.
When I arrived at the workshop venue, my body started to feel tired. The shock as well as the adrenaline rush filled out my body and I felt like I couldn’t focus and continue with the workshop. But hey, I’m not a whimp. Only scratches and bruises wouldn’t stop me.
Two weeks later, I experienced pain in my left butt. Intense pain that come up every time I walk.

I look forward to be able to walk/run/climb the tree once this pain disappear!
After discussing with Kimmana, we know that this possibly the residue from the accident. While the scratches and bruises is already healed, the shock and the non-physical pain/suffering still left from the accident.

So couple days a go, I did a bodywork session with Kimmana. Read More

Zero to Hero: Turning My Challenges to Be My Best Gifts

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0700

Many of you might not know that I struggle and have challenge on expressing myself through speaking.
If you know me as I’m today and talked to me in person, you wouldn’t guess that I often stressed out because I found it hard to express my thoughts to other people without speaking too fast, which often ended up mumbling.

I still remember clearly how my brother expressed his difficulty to understand what I said because I spoke too fast :/

The challenge is not ended there; I’m ‘blessed’ to be surrounded by people who are difficult to be convinced.

My father is my communication nightmare because he’s so stubborn (I guess that’s where I got my stubbornness from :) ), and it’s really difficult to convince him on the things that I believe/wanted to do. Living with him is like a life training to sharpen my communication and diplomacy skill.
Funnily, I also married a man who is not easy to be convinced as well!
From one phase to the next phase, I’m still learning the same topic: communication.
I can easily see it as a curse for having challenge with my speech, or I can instead see it as my best teacher.
There are two types of teacher/learning experience: the uplifting, fun and has a vibrant energy learning experience; and there’s also other type of teacher that is serious, stretch us out of the comfort zone in a way that often isn’t comfortable, demand hard work, and not fun at all.

One is like kindergarten teacher; and the other is like high school algebra teacher.
And this communication challenge isn’t a fun experience at all. My mind move so fast that I found talking is challenging and useless because it’s not fully expressing my mind. When I’m too lazy to talk, I even would just make noises lol. My husband should made ‘Zia’s Noise Dictionary', as he...Read More

What I Learnt From Loosing My Mother To The Hand Of Death

Mon, 19 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0700

7 years a go, in 2008, my mother passed away.
That was a complicated story on how she passed away. No doctor knew exactly what disease it was, they thought it was blood cancer; some said because she got some voodoo/black magic disease on her; some said she’s been pushing herself to work so hard; some also said she’s been holding too much thoughts and emotions that stuck in her physical body; or it might be combination of all of that.

Anyhow, she passed away and it left a big hollow in my heart.
Even though at that time it was one of the worst thing happened in my life, 7 years later, in the present moment, I’m really grateful that she left me.

I was a spoiled little brat.

If you think you know me now, I was a total different person when she was still alive. I was selfish, ignorant, spoiled, debater, slacker, in summary, you wouldn’t love me :)

Loosing her has forced me to review everything that I’ve done in my life. Why is this happened to me? Is there something that I’ve done wrong, that made me experience this bitterness of life?

Well, yes. Many. I’ve got many aspects in me that need to be improved and evolved. And not only that, one of the most difficult parts is to forgive myself that yes, I’ve done something wrong.

Accepting that I’m just a normal human being that has my own flaws seems so much easier to be said, but not done.

But there are one character, one, that took me many years for me to change and improve, as well as for me to forgive it.

And that is to express my love to the people that matters to me.
Growing up in a common Indonesian society, there are many norms that need to be obeyed. It seems very rigid most of the time because there’s formality on it. The...Read More

One Thing the Society Taught You Wrong That Leads to Our Extinction

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0700

COMPETITION.
From stealing trade secrets (medicine formula, blue print of a technology, food recipe), racing to get the most sales, and even as simple as get the highest mark at school, we are so conditioned to compete with other human being.

The World's Greatest Rivalries
Coke Cola vs. Pepsi

Ford vs. GM

Thomas Edison vs. Nikola Tesla

Nike vs. Reebok

Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs

Airbus vs. Boeing

McDonald vs. Burger King

Procter and Gamble vs. Unilever

Visa vs. Master Card

Ferrari vs. Lamborghini

Fender vs. Gibson

Canon vs. Nikon

Sony Play Station vs. Nintendo

Marvel Comics vs. Dc Comics

BMW vs. Mercedes Benz

Pharmaceutical Company vs. Jamu Company

These are just some examples on the world’s greatest business rivalries that we’ve known of.

Interconnectedness of the World
In the global world that we have now where everything interconnected like never before, many of us see it as a challenge to compete even more.

Society believes that our rival isn’t only people who live in the same area, same city, or same country, but we now got competitor from all over the world. And the bad news is, some nations are more advance in some areas while other nations is still occupied on basic necessities like finding the source of fresh water.

It gets even ‘exciting’ because our society also adore the high achiever, and not the laborer. Many of us adjust to feel appreciated when we achieve something ‘good’, we adore the bosses and leaders, but not the...Read More

7 Seconds Mind Exercise to Invoke More Happiness

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 09:00:00 -0700

I have a neighbour – let’s call him A - who hate and judge B, my other neighbour.
Does B hate A as well? Yes, he does. The best part, they hate each other for the same reason.
They don’t talk to each other about this issue, but they talked to me individually. A doesn’t like B because he’s not authentic, and only think about money. And does B think the same about A? Yes, he does.

This coincidence of me becoming the person that both parties talked to, was a reminder to myself (again) that we are reflection of our own world.
The thing that we judge is actually inside ourselves.
It was such a powerful moment that struck myself about how often I missed my own flaw.

How often I judged myself through judging others.
I’m also realizing that I don’t give myself enough love because I don’t accept that part of me that I don’t like because I think it’s bad.

Instead of making peace with myself, I judge others because they do that 'bad' thing.
The truth is, it’s always simpler and easier to judge others for their flaws, instead of looking and reflecting on our inner world.

We think that it’s wrong to be a go-getter person, so we don’t let ourselves be driven. But instead, we judge other people who are passionate about their goal as a bad thing.
We think that it’s wrong to go to party and socialise, so we don’t let ourselves to relax and enjoy our life. But instead, we judge other people who do that as a bad person.
We think that it’s wrong to accumulate money and wealth, so we don’t let ourselves priorities our financial needs. But instead, we judge other people...Read More

Simple Exercise to Accept and Love Ourselves Wholeheartedly

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0700

One time, I had someone came up to me and said that I'm not being myself, that I'm not authentic.
Yes, I can be a fire-y go-getter person when I talk about business, enthusiastic and entertaining when I talk to close friend, present myself in more serious manner when I speak in front of people (especially when I share about wellness), so… which one actually is the ‘real’ Zia?
To be honest, I found this question funny.

Why funny?

Well, simply because… I’m everything.
Just like an actor who can play many characters and going deep in that certain personality, every human being is gifted with different layers of personality and characters that they can play with.

I'm a master of weird face expressions.
If we relate this character with the 5 Elements of Ayurveda, these multi personalities of ours can look like this:

Ether Element: Our spiritual, still, non-attached, and mindful part of us

Air Element: Our individual mind as human, intelligence, humorous, and if it’s imbalance can make us worry and anxious about things easily

Fire Element: Our focus, go-getter side, which can turned to be anger and impatience if this fire element is imbalance

Water Element: The loving, compassionate and sensual part of us

Earth Element: It’s that part of us that make us keep doing the same thing every damn day (which needed sometimes), that can also makes us...Read More

When Life Messed around with Your Plan, Here's the 5 Words Mantra to Bring Yourself Back Up.

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0700

If there were one principle that I want to live my life with, that would be…
“I'm open to all possibility”.

That might sounds cliché, but here’s the truth: we can never know where life will take us. No matter how perfect our plans are, life loves to give surprise.
I used to plan my way to become a diplomat, yet I'm teaching and sharing about wellness and balanced living now.
I used to say that I would never go to Australia (I have a tendency of not wanting to go to places where most people usually go), and I did. And perhaps I might live there in the future.
I even used to say that I don’t want to have boyfriend and even getting married, AND I DID! In fact, I got married pretty young compare to many friends of mine.

The truth is, life is full of surprise. We will never know where it will bring us. We think that if we plan certain things, then it will take us to certain goal, but often, we ended up in a total different situation.

Let’s put it into example with my life.
I wanted to be a diplomat.

So I planned every stepping stones that I needed to take to help me achieve that goal.

I went to law school and learnt international law; I learnt foreign languages (French, and I even learnt Turkish in Turkey for 2 months); I joined international student organization; but here I am now… advocating about wellness and balanced living.

In a glance, it doesn’t seem very correlated with my first goal.
What can be frustrating is when we are sooo attached with our goal and obsessed with our plan, but when things go out of our plan, we become cray cray :/
And as if things can’t go more wrong, along the way to reach this goal, we often ‘burnt’ our own body, and the friends and family around...Read More

Life Problems: One Rule to Quickly Get out of It

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:00:00 -0700

When life gets hard or we face some challenges, the easiest way is to - of course - don’t take a responsibility for it. Simply blame others.

Blaming others felt like the quickest way to get out of any difficult situation.

Jobless? Must be I’m too old to find a job.
Got a bad mark at school? Must be because the teacher gave a difficult question.
Came late to a meeting? Must be because of the traffic jam.
Got lung cancer? Must be because my father who smoke at home and introduced it to me.
Got a dull skin? Must be because of pollution.
Escaping the Misery.

For many other life situations, many of us are so accustomed of looking for the shortcut to feel better; to escape the misery of our own problem.

We often forgot that there’s always a meaning behind everything; that there’s always an underlying issue that we often try to put aside because we always want to see ourselves as a perfect creation.

Yet, we forgot that nothing is perfect.

A Deeper Meaning behind Everything.

We forgot that everything that we experience in life – good or bad from our human perspective – try to teach us something. And life, as we always know, works in its own mysterious way.

At the end, life always wants for us to evolve and help us realise our true potential.

Sometimes it works through a happy-uplifting ways of learning, and sometimes through hard work, challenges, and setbacks.

Simple Rule to Solve ANY Life Problems.

Therefore, one rule that will help us to quickly get out of any life challenges, is simply to check in with ourselves, and judge ourselves (not...Read More