by Katerina Nikolaidis, Australia
I recently had a very painful procedure to remove a tattoo I have on my body. For those who are unfamiliar with what this involves, the removal is undertaken over a series of treatments with laser therapy. This releases the tattoo pigment held in the body by causing little explosions, which feel like they are burning the overlying skin.
This was my third treatment, so I had a pretty good idea of what was involved and that it would again be very painful. On previous occasions I had observed how I would automatically go into a bracing and hardening of my body in order to be able to cope with the pain. But each time I did this, with the support of my wonderful physician, Dr Anne Malatt, I could feel that it is actually possible to stay open, without hardening, while experiencing the pain of the procedure. I could do that by simply connecting with myself deeply and honouring how much pain I could take at any given moment – going at my own pace and my own rhythm.
So this time around, as I lay on the table, I first felt the anxiousness that was in my body. I realised this was my body telling me I needed to deeply connect and feel something I may not be wanting to feel. As I began to connect, I first felt the sadness of where I was with myself many years ago when I decided to have the tattoo in the first place…. how I was so desperate to belong, to be seen as ‘cool’, as ‘hip’ and attractive. I felt the sadness of how much I longed for recognition from my then boyfriend, and from the party crowd we used to hang out with. I was so desperate to fit in that I made the choice to disconnect from myself and my body, and do things that deep down I never really wanted to do in the first place, such as getting a tattoo.
It was painful to feel all that (in pretty much a single moment), but I then made the choice to surrender deeper and feel what was underneath the pain. As I did this, I felt my tenderness and my stillness, and how beautiful I actually am. In the stillness I felt my true beauty, this amazing beauty that I had tried to cover up all those years ago with a tattoo and many different identities to fit in with the world. So I lay there on the table connected with this exquisite stillness, ready for the laser to begin, in what I can only describe as the vast, silky ocean of my own love.
We all worked together, the physician, the assistant and me, steadily and gently applying the laser to the tattoo on my body. We knew exactly when to stop, when to let my body have a break, when to continue.
I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman. Most of us are not brought up to know this as our truth – we are taught from young to brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves.
But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for. We are being held by our own love, the way a loving mother holds her young child.
And in that warm, delicious connection, we connect with everyone else. It’s no longer a situation of ‘us and them’, the patient on the table and the practitioner applying the laser treatment. We are all in it together, all of us playing our equal parts, simply getting on with what needs to be done – with this amazing stillness that comes from within us.
With the reference point that I now have from this incredible experience, I’m looking forward to building this into my everyday life, knowing that when I’m faced with the adversities that life can throw at me, that I always have another choice. To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour. Of course, this is a work in progress and I don’t aim for perfection (because then I’d set myself up to fail!). But what is amazing is to know that there is another way. A way that is so powerful, for it is pure love.
Words on Serge Benhayon 
We all have different stories to tell but the regrets are very similar in that we have all done things in our past that we wish we hadn’t done and that there was a deep knowing within us that what we were doing was going against these feelings just so we could fit in.
Maybe we need a little voice inside of us saying, and reminding us, ‘don’t do stupid things’.
In stillness we find the answer and the understanding of every situation we live, without judgement, just the immense love that allows us to rectify what doesn’t match in what we truly are.
Not only what you beautifully share Amparo, equally it feels lovely to be in stillness.
When we connect deep within, and let stillness be our guide we become agents of change.
That is exactly what I feel anxiousness is .. something that is telling us that we need to be aware, deepen and connect with ourselves and feel what is there to be felt ‘I first felt the anxiousness that was in my body. I realised this was my body telling me I needed to deeply connect and feel something I may not be wanting to feel.’ I feel I need this reminder!
We often contract, harden and brace ourselves in anticipation of pain and/or fear, but the safest place for us is to be in connection with our essence.
I can remember so many times when as a child I hardened and braced myself against what was being directed at me. It has taken years to reverse this process and to understand that when we are fully open to all possibilities the awareness this gives us allows us to observe and not take on other peoples ideals and beliefs of how we should be think and act.
Awesome to recognise that when we connect to our stillness it supports us to know what our next true movement is and thus we have no need to go into protection and brace ourselves against whatever pain we are trying to avoid.
Ouch! What pain we can put into our bodies and not only for a cosmetic look or appearance but the many hours of seriously hard training we do to get that so called good physic.
I have spoken to many people who have tattoos to ask them how does it work to get in some cases such intricate designs and then why did they decide to put a tattoo into their body? Some people saw their body as a blank canvas and for others it was a spur of the moment idea. Everyone I spoke to can remember their first tattoo and where is it situated on their body. And most admit to it being painful, especially if it is on the inner part of the arm to me it sounds excruciatingly painful to have a tattoo and just as excruciating to have it removed.
“Of course, this is a work in progress and I don’t aim for perfection (because then I’d set myself up to fail!).” I love what you have shared as most of us want to be perfect and so we are not aware that we set ourselves up to fail. That is for me a real illness and it is good to be more aware of the fact that we are already everything.
Stillness is so powerful, it is deeply healing and loving. When we walk into a room that is held in stillness, it feels deeply nurturing and yummy. When we move in stillness, it has the power to inspire, clear and heal wherever we go.
‘So I lay there on the table connected with this exquisite stillness…..in what I can only describe as the vast, silky ocean of my own love.’ I have been here too, Katerina, so lovingly in touch with my own love and the absolute knowing of this all-powerful place of being allowing me to retrace my steps and tenderly hold myself as I cross paths with the choices I made when living in a very disconnected way.
There are some things that just hurt us at every step. The body cries out when you bring it into the body. Then the silent hurt starts, sometimes leading to more or to the wish of removing it altogether. The pain we feel in the removal is not just the one associated with it but with what you have done to yourself altogether.
This blog has stayed with me since I first read it, as it makes so much sense to me to stay in connection to our stillness when we have pain. I remember years ago when I first began using the Gentle Breath Meditation and my back went into spasm and was very painful, each time the pain was felt I used the gentle breath technique to reconnect me to my soul and stillness and it made a remarkable difference to my pain levels, and I feel I recovered more quickly by being in my stillness, as well as using gentle movement to keep my back from getting worse.
Connecting to our stillness is way better (and cheaper) than any pain-killing drug that our doctor can prescribe.
That is an interesting and valuable sharing Melinda, that being in stillness supported your healing and pain tolerance ‘ my back went into spasm and was very painful, each time the pain was felt I used the gentle breath technique to reconnect me to my soul and stillness and it made a remarkable difference to my pain levels, and I feel I recovered more quickly by being in my stillness’.
Katerina, I love the way you turned this experience on its head and the gold that you then discovered, what a turning point to see that life presents and that we always have a choice with how we respond.
This is an example of true healing, clearing away the energy of our past actions that effect our current choices. Clearing those choices that where not loving to make more space for those that are.
Absolutely Leigh, our way to truly expressing comes from Love and not the artistic body work which so many identify with.
Makes great sense to clear away past choices and movements that were not loving and so not supportive of us evolving.
Reading this this morning I feel deepened in my own stillness.
Inspirational and, “But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for. We are being held by our own love, the way a loving mother holds her young child”, eloquently expresses the quality of stillness.
Very touched by the truth that there is nothing that love cannot do.
“To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour. Of course, this is a work in progress and I don’t aim for perfection (because then I’d set myself up to fail!).” I appreciate what you have expressed here that perfection sets us up to fail, the same as the getting it right which sets us up for getting it wrong, putting us back in the yo-yo of judgments. I have at times been in sever pain and i found that hardening only makes the pain worse, when I have been able to surrender to the pain it makes it so much easier to deal with.
As you say we are encouraged from young to toughen up to the world and just get on with life. So there is no place for stillness and connection to who we truly are. Allowing ourselves to reignite the stillness and the beauty that such a connection brings is exquisite I feel very blessed that I have worked on myself enough to be able to reconnect back to this inner most part of us all.
This is such a beautiful sharing and makes me ponder on what a ‘pain’ really is – that thing we recoil from, yet it calls back to a part of us where love was previously somehow not allowed to flow through in the way it could have and that could be physical and/or emotional, offering us an opportunity to go underneath it and reconnect. It’s just fascinating.
It is so awesome to read about a person discovering the ultimate strength and power that comes from being connected with one’s inner stillness.
The stillness we can connect with allows us to feel our strength and power, ‘I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman.’
Fitting in and being cool are so seductive to those who feel not enough as they are, but they leave you forever seeking and not knowing that you are enough. You need to have the latest thing, which is never just you being you. It’s like a constant hamster wheel and the fear of falling off must be exhausting.
So true Fiona and we tend to make unloving choices when we feel we are not enough, so it is so important to look at why we feel this way and what is the cause and heal it so we can embrace and live the truly amazing beings that we are.
Coming back to stillness can support us to make loving choices, ‘To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.’
That togetherness you speak of Katerina is true collaboration.
All the tension and conflict that can occur within myself or with another is BECAUSE I’ve left my Stillness. None of this ‘she said this/He did that’ stuff, that comes in after we leave our Stillness. Thank you Katerina for this reminder.
I am totally amazed at how we actually fight ourselves so that we don’t get to feel how powerful we are and how exhausting it is to continually fight our innate stillness. No wonder we are all living in exhaustion.
The more I allow myself to drop into the stillness the more I feel my own love the feeling is quite exquisite and I am left wondering why I put up such a fight to deny myself this love that I have craved all my life.
Allowing ourselves to feel the pain and go deeper allows for us to release so much more. We can then appreciate the healing that is happening and we stay connected. A lovely sharing, thank you Elizabeth.
It is quite interesting, that getting tattoos became so fashionable in the last recent years. What does it actually reflects back where we as humanity are at? Why do we need that kind of painful accessory to cover ourselves? What if those who carry those widespread tattoos are the most sensitive people, that actual rebel against the falsity they feel in this world and mistakenly but intentionally protect themselves with that kind of look?
You must be out of your own stillness and love for yourself when you decide to get a tattoo. How could you otherwise go somewhere to have pain?
How cool that you can even recognise there is another way. It isn’t until we open to the possibility that we are able to contemplate such a proposal and open the door to a whole new way of living that is more in line with our body.
As I read your blog I am reminded of the force that goes into life and the surrender that supports us when we take our foot off the pedal. That is what I can feel in your blog. Once we take the foot off the pedal and stop pushing through pretending we are not feeling what we are feeling then we can see why we did what we did and let go of the hurt and pain we have been carrying around.
What a gorgeous approach to life Katerina- to let go of control and our guard/protection and allow ourselves to feel all that is there. That stillness is always waiting to be connected to. Also, your blog reminded me of years ago when I first worked as a carpenter my elbow would get really sore and tendinitis from swinging a hammer every day. But then my boss showed me how to relax my grip and stay loose as I swung the hammer, letting the tool do the work. The results were amazing and to this day it is a life lesson for me to not tense up and grip issues or relationships in a controlling way, but to stay open and allow.
What you are sharing Michael is also gold because we do walk around tense and hold onto issues, hurts or relationships as a way to control our life. Because if we let go then what? We have been taught to live in fear, but what if we were to let go and something magical happened? When we hold so tight to life then there is no allowance for a different way to be.
I know this stillness you write about here Katerina. In fact I had a strong awareness of it this week. It felt like I had connected to my Soul and that the power inherent in the Soul was like a beholding ‘field’ within and around me. So long as I stayed steady and connected, the field remained. It is as you say – ‘We are being held by our own love…’.
Thank you Katerina this is such an awesome claiming of the power of stillness and how we can apply it in any situation. Perfect for me to read this today as I am facing a potentially tricky situation where my pattern would be to retreat into protection but feeling deeply inspired that there is another way that is always open to us.
It is worth remembering how powerful and supportive our stillness can be, ‘ in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us’.
“To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour. A way that is so powerful, for it is pure love.” Thank you Katerina for a really beautiful blog reminding me of the stillness of my own love that lies within me.
Our relationship with pain is always something that can either open a Pandora’s box of disconnection, or can reconnect us to the part of us that we have been working so hard to stay disconnected from.
So much effort put into pain killers and avoiding pain at all costs and yet it is a powerful evolutionary support.
I find when I surrender and connect to stillness, any pain I feel in my body heals very fast.
Wow. This really goes to show how hardening and numbing ourselves to avoid a pain robs us of a beautiful opportunity to be reunited with our innate power within that far surpasses and allows and heals what we think we are experiencing in a human body.
The power of stillness is beautifully described here Katerina, often we feel we have to brace ourselves against feeling any pain but when we surrender and allow the stillness we get to experience how we can be supported through this process.
When we connect deep within, we know that we are not the pain nor the condition that is causing it or is being treated; from that stillness we are then supported to graciously cooperate with the medical professionals and their wonderful skills.
‘We all worked together, the physician, the assistant and me, steadily and gently applying the laser to the tattoo on my body. We knew exactly when to stop, when to let my body have a break, when to continue.’ Amazing how the power of stillness works not just for ourselves, but invites everyone to be the same.
Absolutely. My experience is, no matter if a stranger ever talked or heard about an inner stillness, the moment, I reflect and live that in their presence, they suddenly realise there is something different. And in most cases, they are drawn to that quality, even though, they can´t describe what it really is they are drawn to. This is proof for the fact, we all know this stillness, either we live it or not. We instantly know it is something truthful and familiar.
This week I have definitely pushed through situations at the expense of my body and it has left me totally exhausted. I can feel a need to be much more honouring of myself as I go about my day and deepen my awareness of how I am feeling in each moment and what I need to support me.
MW I keep getting the word honouring drop into my body and it is such a beautiful word to feel. We have not been taught to deeply honour our bodies quite the opposite in fact. But my body is asking for this, so I am listening intently because there is more at play than meets the eye and if we listen to our bodies they can reveal so much back to us.
I am just at the tip of the iceberg in discovering the power in stillness. I know for example how bracing myself when I go to the dentist (not the same pain, I know) does not help me one bit. Trying to not feel what I’m inevitably going to feel makes no sense and probably intensifies any discomfort.
Amazing how even in the most difficult or painful situations there is something grander we can turn to that supports us to see the truth of what’s happening and stand for our truth.
Contracting our particles does not really help us. We are highly trained in doing it not to feel life. Yet, not feeling it is the worst possible outcome for us since we lose touch with what is to be responded to and how to do it in a way that also truly works for us.
If we don’t allow ourselves to feel what we don’t want to feel nothing really changes, we don’t get to learn the truth behind what has come to the surface to be healed.
It is gorgeous and so confirming when we work together as one. I got together yesterday with a group of people and the lady organising the group knew exactly what was true for me. As I begin to hold steady in my life and live a life that is true to me to the best of my ability I am less able not to allow reactions from others to affect me like I used to. What is offered I know everyone can feel and even though some may resist I know they will get it some day.
“To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.” This stops us going into a reaction of what we may have felt. It is amazing how much more we find out about our true selves when we surrender and connect to the stillness.
Giving ourselves the space to feel any ill-emotion in our body and in doing so allowing the emotions to leave is freeing the body to be and live in the expansiveness it naturally is. It is truly a wonderful gift we can give to ourselves and we are not a failure to seek support to assist us in the letting go.
‘To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.’ Beautiful, Katerina. The absolute antidote to that fact that ‘…we are taught from young to brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves.’ As I am finding, allowing stillness to guide me takes commitment as everything in the world wants us to do otherwise, as do my own patterns and momentums.
Connecting to our stillness, and allowing it to guide us, makes so much sense.
Very revealing that clearing the imprint and ink from a tattoo revisits the sadness and emotions that are held in the body from when it is first imposed on the body. If we were all taught when young to connect to our inner stillness then the tattoo parlours would be out of business.
Beautiful sharing Katerina.. there is so much on the surface that we are distracted by. Underneath all we ‘see’ in each other is the mechanics of the universe. We have divine creation and the dense creation that is all around us but there is so much more inside of us (all).
I love how you expressed this Katerina, and not something we always acknowledge, that under all this dense matter is our Soul, pure and divine. NOTED — “I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman.”
I have come to see that I learned to brace myself very early on in my life and part of the bracing was holding my breath, waiting to see what was going to come next. It is only recently that I have identified that the bracing and the breath holding have been part of my life since those early years but now they have been acknowledged heal the issues behind these harmful patterns are now beginning to be revealed and from there healed. I still find myself holding my breath at times but I catch it quickly and then choose to breath with gentleness once again.
When we are steady and connected to the stillness within, it provides an infinite amount of support in bringing a quality and integrity to whatever we choose to do.
Katerina, this line really hit home to me “knowing that when I’m faced with the adversities that life can throw at me, that I always have another choice”. How true your words, as often I see the hurts and dilemma in my life as something too great for me to contend with, whereas in truth this is not the case at all, just surrender, allow and accept, it is always about our choice, stillness is there awaiting our return to our true self.
I can feel the power of humility here. Thank you Mary.
Katerina this is a really gorgeous blog, you have shared so clearly how allowing ourselves to feel what we do, hurt, anxiety etc, can mean then afterwards we can experience a return to our stillness. The alternative is to also not feel, to keep running away from ourselves with behaviours and more anxiousness etc, and live in the permanent state of tension which is the stillness calling us back out of the angst.
The ability to connect to our stillness and know ourselves for that quality is one of the greatest resources we have to come back and reclaim who we truly are without falling prey to the illusions of the world.
Such a beautiful reminder that there’s nothing for us to do but just be. We are so conditioned to counter/deal with whatever we are presented with in life, basically living in reaction constantly, but there is another way to live which is actually very simple and effortless when we connect back to the stillness inside us.
Tattoos should definitely come with a health warning, much like cigarettes do, as the evidence is mounting about the toxicity of the ink and the risks that are inherent. And yet there is more to tattoos than just this, as Katerina shares, there are emotional reasons we look to get tattoos, deep unsettlements in our body, and perhaps we need to ask more of the why questions, delve a little deeper in answering the question of what we get out of having tattoos, because for sure the answer is more than just that they “look good” even if you believe that to be true.
I agree that stillness is ‘the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for. It brings a quiet steadiness and confidence that is unshakeable. Once you are in stillness, there is no such thing as needing safety as you know how everything you need is right there within you.
This description of how the laser removal works is enough to put me off ever wanting a tattoo! Once the pigments have been released by explosion, I assume the body must then deal with those toxins circulating in the system. Apart from the pain of the procedure, this is such a strain to put our body under.
To be able to connect to the stillness that we all have access to within us is probably the most empowering thing that we can do for ourselves in any given situation. And there is no amount of money that can buy this, for it is truly priceless.
Thank you for showing how gentle and loving we are allowed to be with ourselves.
I’ve never had a tattoo removal, however I can totally relate in that when I experience difficult times in my life, no matter how painful or difficult it can be it’s possible to connect to something much deeper and grander inside me that makes the biggest and worst situation seem like child’s play.
It is amazing how often we can do something we don’t really want to do, but override due to wanting to fit in… completely disregarding who we are and often the bodies we own. It is great that in this case it is something that can be reversed, and done correctly can offer a great lesson in making choices from love… and the harm we can do when we don’t.
I was never attracted to a tattoo or what it offered but I did get a belly button piercing done, for the same things you describe Katerina, wanting to impress the people around me at the time, to show I was cool, hip and chilled, and the most crazy one, I wanted to show others that there was more to me then what they thought. I say crazy, because this is the least way of truly showing the world all I am. My body immediately rejected it and I painfully tried to keep it going for a few months until my body started to push the piercing out of my body. Rejected myself and my body… my body rejected the falseness.
This is a beautiful supportive description how there is another way of dealing with painful procedures and uncomfortable situations in life and how we can support each other in that.
There’s always the choice to harden up and push through or to surrender into ourselves to our stillness within. The former keeps us running on the hamster-wheel of existence, whilst with the latter we stop running and start truly living, knowing every we step we takes brings us one step closer to our essence and our home.
I have not had a tattoo but I can relate to how you feel about having it removed with how I feel when I have work done on my teeth. There is an anxiousness and tension that goes through my body that I can feel I allow to dis-connect me from my inner stillness. I can feel the disregard and neglect in my earlier years that have caused a mouthful of fillings and this then reflected how I never really honoured or took care of my body until something went wrong. Tattoo feels like another form of disregard, a distraction from not wanting to feel how we really feel about our body.
This is amazing Katerina – I have heard accounts of how painful tattoo removal is, but working with Dr Anne Malatt, surrendering to stillness and clearing the emotional baggage that is carried in the original tattoos, takes this to a whole new level.
Thank you Katerina for a beautiful sharing, of the power and depth of stillness we can experience when we truly surrender, in your case to the pain, but it can be anything in life where we can be deeply held in the safety of our love. A depth of love that is available to us all.
What I understood from what you have shared is that there is a level of love we feel when we drop into stillness where everything is complete. There is no searching, no longing, it is full of our love and that is powerful and strong and connects us clearly as one. From that space I cannot imagine we would be capable to war, of hate or even of jealousy and comparison.
That is exactly it Lucy. Most of us would relate to going about our lives with something niggling in the background (or the foreground), something narky hanging around, and getting grumpy at some point during the day. That’s on one end of the scale. On the other end, we have the brutality of war, mutilation and barbaric acts that continue to this day – how does a fellow man do this to his equal brother?
Whether it’s the niggly little irritation or the extreme barbaric act, what has been abandoned first and foremost is the connection within ourselves, our connection to our stillness, and to what is this most sacred place within. It’s when we let ourselves go there, through right living and the choice to do so, that we feel the amazing love that we are and that we share with one another. There is no room for aggression of any kind, when we choose this quality of being for ourselves.
This is a totally different approach to pain than we learn to deal with it and it makes sense, instead of shutting oneself out by going tense to allow oneself to stay, and as you did drop more into your body and that way we know the rhythm in which to proceed.
This can be applied to many moments in our lives, giving birth comes to mind…. going within and allowing the rhythm of the body to do its thing, instead of clenching and hardening the body to make it through.
It’s often in those moments where the stakes are high that we make the choice to connect within and we find our stillness, that settles us more than anything. But it is when our life around us is seemingly ‘normal’, with no threats or unbearable pain, that we tend not to make that choice. The result is a life reduced, a life where we suffer from not being in deep and tender connection through our exquisite stillness to the preciousness we are and come from.
Katerina, this is beautiful how you reflect the power in re-connecting with oneself and giving permission to embrace the ever-present, living stillness within.
With an undisturbed body, we are far better equipped to move through life in observation and not get taught in the tangles of others. We say the world is lacking true love, I feel stillness is just as important to re-embrace and re-awaken mankind into knowing that love is eternally and innately within.
I re-read this again and had tears well up in my eyes as I felt the tenderness and depth of love I let myself connect to and that I chose to write this.. and so much more beyond. There is so much love within us, so much beauty and grace. When we choose it, truly, being wiling to let go of anything that is in the way, any luggage that’s weighing us down, our soul showers us with heaven. As is above so is below, when we say yes to love,
Stillness is the grace I carry with me all the time but often leave as I anticipate harm or try and protect myself and others from harm. Surrendering to stillness is surrendering to the Grace of God and nothing is really more powerful than that. Learning to stay with myself in this way and express in absolute love and truth becomes easier the more I honour and appreciate myself and the stillness that I am.
Tattoo removal sessions can be a healing experience when we allow ourselves to surrender and embrace our fragility. There is so much that is felt – not just the physical pain- but the result of past choices that no longer belong in our bodies and the more this is cleared the more we feel how beautiful we are.
It is ironic that our pain is our doorway to the thing we most crave. “It was painful to feel all that (in pretty much a single moment), but I then made the choice to surrender deeper and feel what was underneath the pain. As I did this, I felt my tenderness and my stillness, and how beautiful I actually am.”
Thank you, Katherina, this is so powerful, even though I have no tattoo’s I can feel that the simplicity, strength and power of this blog is very relevant to me and so to everyone. As we are the holders of truth (within us) and so we must adapt from this knowing place (within us, where we all feel from) and make choices in life. If this means revealing the hurts underneath a tattoo or hurts in a relationship of oneself or another – it doesn’t matter – the same power can be adapted by our own choice – to connect to what we know is true.
When we surrender to the stillness we hold within not only are we being guided by how our body feels we are also guided by a greater wisdom too.
Agreed Sally – in the settlement of being with the body, we are free to feel the flow of the Universe and the wisdom that our body knows.
I hadn’t considered that when it came to physical pain to actually not tense your body as it just seems like a natural response however I can feel when you do tense it hurts more as there is a hardness you are then enduring and working against- it makes sense to not harden for either physical or emotional pain as both have an impact on the body and then how you feel.
Could tattoos be a permanent symbolic reminder of where we have been in the past and actually locks us and all the emotions we were feeling at the time we got the tattoo in, and effectively keeps us marking time in that same place. In turn, this same mentality holds us back today because it does not necessarily represent where we are right now, nor appreciate our potential.
Yes… tattoos have now become a normality, an expectation that there will be a number on one’s skin, as the armour is called for more and more, as we choose to harbour deeper and deeper the pain of having separated from our true essence.
we can walk along any street now, watch most movies, go to most concerts and we will see the results of deep separation emblazoned upon peoples skins, as if something so appalling was something to be proud of.
An amazing read. These words were like poetry to read, in particular ‘So I lay there on the table connected with this exquisite stillness, ready for the laser to begin, in what I can only describe as the vast, silky ocean of my own love’ – what I feel reading this is how we have an exquisiteness inside us ready and waiting, for us.
The power of every man and woman is in their tenderness and the stillness within. When we start living from this place, we stay steady, dramatics and life as it us today happen all around us but touch not the sides. We are held by our own love and understanding of what’s going on for our brothers and sisters. And so in that love we hold everyone else too and hence the power that we hold when we let ourselves surrender to the beauty we simply and are.
This is beautiful to read Katerina and be reminded of the power of stillness. I have had similar experiences at the Dentist especially when I am having a filling and at times I will notice the incredible tension and bracing my body has gone into, this always makes it worse of course. I am learning to stay more connected to me and to release any tension I may be holding in my body – it is like a deep surrender and when I am in this space the fear dissipates and the experience is a very different one.
Katerina you describe the experience incredibly well, I felt like I was walking back through my own tattoo removal session. I was moved to tears on the table remembering the strength I had within and had walked away from. I felt great sadness also for what we put out our beautiful tender bodies in.
I often ask people why they got their tattoos and if they still mean the same thing to them today as when they got them. The answers can be quite interesting.
There is more to pain than meets the eye or our current senses. I have experienced a similar thing with going to the Dentist and it’s almost like the more I brace the more pain comes. When I get in the chair if I just allow my body to settle and listen to everything that is being said and asked of me it becomes usually less painful. There at times still is pain but it comes to you differently and you feel supported with it. It’s like when you tense your body in a way you are trying to fight something which causes it to be more. I try my best to keep it simple and as I said just allow my body to settle, rest or release whenever something is going on. I know my best work is done with a body that isn’t hard, rigid and tense. Thank you Katerina.
Whenever I feel pain I find it very difficult to surrender – so massive kudos! I find I really have to connect to something much grander and know what ever is going on is about something bigger than just me.
Your story is a beautiful example of surrendering to the power of stillness.
“We are being held by our own love,…”
To experience this feeling is exquisite, I agree! Thank you Katerina for reminding me that I always have the choice to re-connect to my stillness and with that can build a loving and steady foundation for myself.
The removal of a tattoo sounds like it can hurt quite a bit, great though that you found a way to deal with it in the best of ways.
“In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for.” An incredibly beautiful line within a truly divine blog. Thank you Katerina. I have recently felt the power of stillness after experiencing intense pain for 6 days. In stillness we are deeply sensitive and yet no pain can touch us if we allow ourselves to feel it all.
Within the stillness there is always freedom, and the power to make choices that heal our past disregard and momentum.
Beautiful writing Katerina, I don’t have tattoos but I would liken the pain to being at the dentist, there are times that can be uncomfortable or I brace for a pain, and the last time I did this I really noticed my body tense up really hard, and in that moment I knew I had to just let go as tensing would not make it less painful, in fact it would probably make it feel worse. It is this surrender that we can bring in to all of our days, not just the moments we expect physical pain but the times where we more subtly harden to not feel something that is coming our way.
Stillness is so very powerful, it is a way of being that is really solid, like being the eye of the storm. The description about it being a way we hold ourselves in love, like a mother does her baby, was really beautiful.
It seems almost natural to harden in the prospect of pain however it would be a neat experiment to see how the body responses when this hardening process doesn’t occur. Would we discover more about the process that is occurring rather than trying to block the experience out?
True group work in action – possible because of your willingness to connect to your stillness so that everyone could feel what was needed in each moment. The way forward for humanity – working together in brotherhood.
It is so inspiring to read how you were willing to go beyond your anxiousness and protection and feel what was underneath and where you were at when you got your tattoo. We have so many behaviours we go into to try and avoid feeling but it is so supportive to read how in your willingness to surrender you connected to the stillness inside that is available to us all – thank you for this great reminder.
Wow Katerina, I can feel the practical support that stillness is, and the reminder that when we do feel anxiousness that it’s an invitation to go deeper, to feel what is underneath. It’s so familiar to take those things we feel initially and identify with them and not actually go beneath to feel that actually no matter what there is a love in us, and we can connect to that love at any time, so right now even though my body is tired and in pain, I can still choose to go underneath and feel that stillness, or as you so exquisitely describe it the silkiness of our own love. Thank you.
“I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman. Most of us are not brought up to know this as our truth – we are taught from young to brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves.” Such an important point Katerina. And staying in the ‘doing’ is no protection at all – for the hurt just gets buried deeper – which must eventually come up to be dealt with. Connecting with our stillness is key – and from this place we can go about our day. Stillness doesn’t mean stopping and down tools!
I am finding of late Katerina that the stillness you talk of here is our absolute truth of self. What is astounding me constantly is the many, many ways that I have used and allowed that to keep me from living the power of stillness that you share here. It is a constant choice to see and feel this as each presents, but to steadfastly choose to return to my stillness.
This stillness that Katerina is talking about is indeed what humanity is hungering for and has for eons. And the connection within is still, and has always been the same doorway through which we go to access that stillness.
The wisdom in our body is incredible to feel, when we go there, and give ourselves permission to surrender simply into ourselves. All the answers are there, within us. It is when we leave our bodies that few and anxiety can take root. All our issues of mistrust come from trying to place our trust in something outside of us.
Thank you Katerina for describing how supportive and healing the energy of stillness we have on tap within us always is, when we choose to connect to it. The feeling of surrender to stillness instead of bracing and hardening against an insult, be it physical or otherwise, is an experience of true self empowerment which I celebrate right there with you from what you have shared.
The pain of having a tattoo removed is a very tangible way of accepting responsibility for all the harm we have caused ourselves by our choices. Every choice we make leaves an imprint and to choose self-love brings more love to the world.
It’s great to feel the joy of group work. Tattoo removal is extremely painful and your experience Katerina highlights the beauty and grace of what healing is on offer when we work together in love.
And this is what Universal Medicine is continually presenting to humanity… the opportunity to actually HAVE a choice.
“It was painful to feel all that (in pretty much a single moment), but I then made the choice to surrender deeper and feel what was underneath the pain.” I could relate to how the pain we feel can also be related to the choices we have made and the space we were in when we made these choices. Once I began to recognise that my back pain was more than just the physical work that I was doing, and that it was an accumulation of all my choices to not be loving with myself, my back pain subsided. Taking responsibility for why I had back pain was the beginning of the healing that was needed and now I very rarely have any pain at all
Love your winning formula – ‘To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.’ As you say, it’s a choice whether we go down this route, or opt for protection to ‘brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves’.
Yes Cathy, a choice in every single moment.
I love that no matter what, at any moment we can choose to connect deeply with ourselves and let the stillness guide our next movement…. A gorgeous way to live.
What I really loved about this blog Katerina is the fact that when we connect to stillness, we also connect to expansion, not only for ourselves, but the expansion that comes when we work in harmony and brotherhood with others… Pretty cool I say!
So true Angela, when we surrender into ourselves, and feel our stillness, our love, we’re actually surrendering into the love of the universe — and in that connection we know we are all the same, equal in that exquisite love that we feel. I don’t feel we can hold onto the feeling of stillness without being connected to humanity.
I agree Linda. We harden ‘thinking’ that’s what we need to do to protect ourselves, but it’s a mean old trick…. we harden to shut down our sensitivity, because we don’t want to be hurt again. But in doing so we hurt ourselves so much more because we shut down our heart and our love, which is of course the only thing that can truly protect us from hurt. The walls of protection just create more and more pain.
Within stillness, we are able to connect to who we truly are… Again this sounds so simple, and yet stillness has been written about for eons is one of the great doorways to reconnecting with the divine, and so what do we see in the world, but everything getting faster and faster, caffeine sales going through the roof, Internet speeds getting faster, and this reflecting in people’s bodies… What the world needs now is stillness.
Very true cjames2012. Just those words, that ‘the world now needs stillness’ come with enormous grace. The world is getting faster and faster, crazier and crazier because we miss ourselves so much having disconnected from the stillness within. Anything and everything to not feel the devastating pain of missing who we are… and so we go faster, crazier, more frenetic for if we were to stop we would first have to feel the honesty of what we’ve chosen and that would be a big shock. Ironically though right underneath that shock and blow, there is so much love.
“I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman”.
When we allow ourselves to connect to the stillness what a glorious divine feeling and what a quality we bring to our daily activities. Thank you Katerina for this lovely gentle reminder.
It is beautiful to read and feel your transformation from being disconnected to one of surrendering to the love that you are Katerina.
Katerina, I really enjoyed your blog and found many drops of gold all the way through it. Something that occurred to me while reading that you were able to feel the pain of long stored pain and hurt in a single moment, is that I have been missing such moments in regards to myself. I have had the ‘idea’ that in feeling deeper past hurts that it would need to be something quite prolonged and severe for it to be authentic but your blog has shown me otherwise. Not only that, but also that the key to all this is to keep surrendering so as to allow myself to drop deeper and deeper. I know this is simpler than it sounds but nonetheless, I feel your blog has given me some clarity around true self connection and healing. Thank you.
I may have already written this before in a comment on your blog but it seems to take me back to the stillness and strength I found in childbirth. You know another contraction is coming as a flash of anxiety arises, when in-braced the flow of energy is allowed to move uninhibited through the body and stillness and strength arises within. One steps out of the way and allows the body to do and feel all it needs to. I am just about to start my tattoo removal with Anne, it was great to reread your blog and feel the depth of healing this process offers.
It has been really interesting reading some of the articles here about tattoos and why people have got them, and even become addicted to having more – it seems to be a pattern we can fall into, that is just like so many others, like that urge to always need to get one more tattoo, win one more competition, get the next fix of a new dress, new car, new gadget, one more hot chocolate fudge sundae, run away on one more crazy adventure. We are trying to avert a rising sense of knowing what we are doing or being is not true, to numb out to not feel the tension of what is calling us to be greater and to honestly feel where we are at, and that it is not it – but to face the fact is seemingly more painful, than the tatooist’s needle. Thanks to Universal Medicine, and the powerful support of Serge Benhayon and all his family, it is easier now to turn around and heal what hurts so that there is no need to ever run again.
Agreed Annie. Dealing with our hurts is key and the only way to clean up the mess and truly move forward.
Katerina this is a beautiful blog and I feel my stillness from simply reading it. I love the way you describe working with the practitioner and the assistant together as a team – surely this is the way it could be at all times, with the client in stillness and totally connected to their feelings able to present the best possible body for the healing process.
Katarina, it is amazing how quickly we can go past our hurt when we choose to feel that hurt in full in our body. It can even be in an instant as you experienced.
Absolutely Christoph. Pain stored in our bodies does take up space, but when we connect to our love, this pain can melt away in an instant. We come from love and stillness is innate in us. When we choose it, what does not belong to us is gently but firmly shoved aside and out — pop, and out it goes 🙂
So true Katerina, everything about this world is geared towards taking us away from our natural stillness. Everything. and in being taking out, we lose connection to the only part of us that knows and discerns the truth. So we then lose our own inner guidance and understanding, and have to then rely on outside ideals and beliefs to guide us. The problem then of course is when one set of ideals and beliefs clash with another persons then conflict ensues from personal right up to half the world at war with the other half. Yet in that stillness we all have, we know each other as the same and equal. So there can be no conflict, no war or even arguments only an ever evolving unfolding towards even greater truth from within.
Hello Katerina Nikolaidis and I love this, “I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman. Most of us are not brought up to know this as our truth – we are taught from young to brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves.” This is so true and great to ‘out’ it like this.
Stillness feels so cozy and warm, there is consistent joy, we are truly enough just being with ourselves, yet we are also connected deeply with everyone else; in stillness, nothing can touch us, there is a strength and power that comes from beyond our physical aspect, a realization that we are more than just physical beings.
There is always a rhythm that is able to be felt, and people around us will gravitate to that flow, if we simply allow ourselves to connect deeply enough and trust and surrender.
I loved your description of stillness – ‘the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for….held by our own love’. Why wouldn’t we want that for ourselves in every moment?!
Katerina this was beautiful to read of your experiences with tattoo removal and how you connected to your stillness during this painful process. This is very inspiring for anyone dealing with pain of any sort and the power of stillness to support us with anything in life.
Thank you for sharing your experience of the tattoo removal Katerina and in a particular what you discovered is beneath the pain … Exquisite stillness .. Who would have thought!
Thank you for sharing, what is beneath all our anxiousness, is that what is truly nurturing us. A love for our self that is unmeasurable, and supports all to be who they are.
Thank you for such beautiful words Katerina, “we are being held by our own love, the way a loving mother holds her young child”.
Your beauty Katerina should have never been dulled when you were a child, and it is beautiful to feel you connect to that once again. The depth that you connect to, that you share is possible for all is an amazing place to hear you speak from and I am inspired by the absolute beauty and tenderness and preciousness that you felt. We are incredible beautiful beings and underneath all our hurts we have a beautiful soul waiting for us to sink into and feel the divinity of our true essence and grace.
What a gorgeous sharing Katerina thank you. When I see tattoos on people now I feel deeply hurt, hurt for the preciousness they chose to walk away from and hide, and the not knowing how truly beautiful they are without it.
Thank you Katerina for sharing this experience. The only time I remember going ‘with’ the pain and not against it was when I was in labor with my second child. The waves of contraction were very strong but every time they ceased I could relax and rest. It feels to me like a surrendering into the body instead of going into defence towards the oncoming pain. We have learned so much to protect ourselves, always being a bit on the edge that surrendering to what is to come is something we need to relearn.
When reaching for our stillness the heart understands what the mind pushed us to do and feeling the reason for our past actions becomes a healing experience. Thanks Katerina
Beautifully expressed Patricia.
Gosh. It is amazing what we can feel when we let ourselves. Thank you so much for sharing Katerina. It makes me wonder about what is behind a lot of my behaviours.. what I don’t want to feel.
I like your comment, “…it is actually possible to stay open, without hardening, while experiencing the pain…” I used this approach through childbirth and had a gorgeous experience. And I use it whenever I feel tense, most usually when I sense a difficult or complex work scenario is about to take place. I breathe, remain open to feeling, am honest about whatever emotions are there, like anxiousness or nervousness, and I offer myself the best possible chance to come through the experience with grace.
Thank you for sharing this as never having had a tattoo I have no idea of what the experience may be like.
It can be a wonderful experience to look back with total honesty to the what, when and why of the not so sensible and unloving choices we have made in the past. Not only is this very healing but it supports us to not make those choices again and lays the foundations for you to build more and more loving choices in to your everyday.
This has been very much my experience Suse. When we approach our past and current choices with an open and willing honesty, and a tenderness towards ourselves we can come to such a beautiful understanding as to why we chose what we did even when that choice might have been destructive or harmful. That’s the true way to heal and rekindle the immense wisdom that lies within that can then be reflected back to others inspiring them to take some honest tender looks into dusty corners of their lives as well.
The method you applied when having your tattoo removed can be applied at any uncomfortable situation. Sounds like having your tattoo removed was a great healing experience.
It was Joe. With every session I got to feel deeper what I had been hiding underneath the tattoo: Me. It seems so simple, and crazy that one small tattoo can actually hide the whole person, but that’s what I realised tattoos do. They give the person an identification but what they also do is bury who they truly are.
Sounds almost ‘evil’ to have a tattoo. Considering almost everyone has one or more tattoos nowadays, how difficult must it be for people to connect to who they truly are.
Connecting to your stillness during a procedure like that is really amazing and what a healing to feel where you were when you had the tattoo.
What I connected to whilst reading your blog Katerina was the power of group work.
Your experience, with a tattoo removal, is such a wonderful example of the Magic of God and the healing power of group work.
Katerina, I love what you have shared. Even when you feel sadness, pain or anxiousness you can still go deeper, to the root cause, to look back on your life with out judgment just pure honesty. Then go deeper again into stillness. The vast silky ocean of our own love in something we can all connect to.
Yes Bernard. Once we connect to our stillness which is innate in us all, we realise that the emotions we can hold and carry such as sadness and anxiousness are ‘add-ons’ we took along the way. 🙂
Great with your tattoo removal you connect to the rootcause of why you had it done. This is a removal in complete form, not only the ink, but the emotions hid in the tattoo… beautiful!
Yes Steffihen and that’s what was incredibly healing. I hadn’t realised how many emotions and insecurities were around for me to get the tattoo in the first place. Recognising this and letting them go has been the enormous healing — and the tattoo removal itself and embodiment of it.
Exactly Steffihenn, without this, it wouldn’t be truly healing. Without this the energetic scar would still remain.
This blog brings grace and spaciousness. “But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for.” Wow Katerina, these words are gold, absolute Truth and that Sacred Stillness is always there within us, thank you for this awesome sharing.
A beautiful understanding of yourself Katerina. “I then made the choice to surrender deeper and feel what was underneath the pain. As I did this, I felt my tenderness and my stillness, and how beautiful I actually am.” I feel that tattoos are a disguise in getting others and yourself to focus on the tattoo rather than seeing who you truly are.
Thank you Katerina for sharing this experience of the power of connection and stillness that is equally available to us all. It is simply a choice we have of going there. A huge inspiration.
A beautiful writing Katerina. How amazing it is that when truly connecting to the body and feeling the innate stillness within, it is possible to not harden the body in reaction to pain. Could this be the true way of pain control in the future?
Yes Stephanie, how beautiful would it be — and will it be — when this is known within conventional medicine and supported. There is a huge difference in us bracing our bodies, hardening prior to going under general anaesthetic for example, and being super still, with ourselves and then going under. The difference will tangibly be felt when we come back, and the days that follow – as many of us will no doubt attest to the fact that a general anaesthetic if we continue with this example, takes us out for days after, even weeks. But if our bodies received the general in a far more surrendered and open state, would it not perhaps be very, very different?
I was considering the same, how much difference it would make if this was known and worked with in conventional medicine. Pain gets so much worse when we harden our body or fight it and our recovery time is longer too. The true healing can come when we connect, like you so beautifully described, Katerina, to the stillness within.
It is beautiful to feel the truth of this Katerina, thank you.
What an absolutely precious and divine moment(s) to have you, your Physician and the Assistant working in tenderness and stillness. Your blog is very inspiring Amina, thank you.
I really enjoyed reading your article again Katerina, as it was such a gentle reminder of the power of stillness that we each hold within. What an exquisite way to hold yourself when facing such an intense pain, it feels so supportive and loving.
When people go for a tattoo they may wish to think that they are only covering the skin that will continue doing what it does for us anyway. The only difference, they may say is that it will look nicer and make you different from others. Yet, what if this is not true? What if you are attacking your body? What if the tattoo compromises the working of your body in subtle ways? What if you change as the result of the tattoo? And, as Katerina put it, what if you do not need a tattoo to feel how beautiful you are? Hence, what if by choosing a tattoo you may be choosing something you like whose beauty cannot even be a spec of your natural one, that is waiting for you for free? What if a tattoo is deeply harming in that feeling beautiful because of it, you will never even bother to discover your natural beauty?
You are right emfeldman, no tattoo or artwork can compare with your natural beauty. Only by being not willing to see ones own natural beauty would one vandalize that beauty with a tattoo. Your past does not matter at all if you have a willingness to leave it behind as Katerina has shown us.
I agree Eduardo and this is what I got to feel for myself. Having tattoo was a hook, a tantalising carrot that felt no different to the tantalising other vices that can be on offer when we want to escape from what we feel — because we don’t feel the love and beauty that resides within ourselves.
These days even more so, as I got my tattoo quite a few years ago, but now the pressure many of us feel to enhance ourselves someway or another because we don’t feel enough as we are, is enormous. It’s saddening to see people’s bodies literally covered in tattoos, hiding who they truly are underneath them.
It is saddening Katerina and it is so prevalent with tattooing seemingly on the rise. I have also been on the process of removal and as much as it has been painful, it has been incredibly healing, like I have got a part of my body back!
I loved reading this article Katerina and being reminded of how beautiful and simple life can be when we connect to our stillness.
What a beautiful blog Katerina. I love how you described how you went underneath your pain and your tenderness and stillness was there.
Reading this beautiful blog brought back memories of how I too was so desperate to ‘fit in’. I drank alcohol so that I would be accepted within the group of friends that I used to hang out with. It’s very clear to me now how I abused my body especially in giving my power away. Since attending presentations and workshops by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I am learning to surrender and connect more deeply knowing this is the way. I don’t need to ‘fit in’ with anything but remain true to myself… certainly a work in progress.
Katerina your article is exquisite, and reading it is to feel the stillness and the ease of living from that place.
Thank you for sharing this journey with us Katerina. As I read, I was with you all the way, from the old pattern of bracing, to the claiming of the stillness within you, and with it the wisdom that was offered – such a beautiful transformation.
“To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.” this is gold. This affords a constant detachment from me being identified with what is happening and from me being in the illusion that what happens is about me.
Beautifully expressed felixschumacher8…. when we are in our stillness we are part of the all and the individuality that keeps us separate and in the anxiety of what’s next cannot be. We know we are part of a grand and exquisite whole, that we are part of the divine plan and we move with grace onto whatever is next…
Wonderful to read about the power of stillness. It feels like it brings grace, clarity and true presence to the old two dimensional power of now which does a great job of enhancing the mental plane, but does nothing for the reconnection with our true selves, and has no understanding that the heart is the centre of stillness
Bracing myself in anticipation of possible pain and adversities – this is so familiar and for me it doesn’t have to involve actual physical threat, and I can so relate to the ‘us and them’ thing playing out in this. Clocking someone across the street walking with a cigarette in their hand can be enough to set me up for this. Thank you for sharing and reminding the power of staying deeply connected with stillness within. It’s totally inspiring. Thank you, Katerina.
Yes Fumiyo. Sometimes the ‘unseen’, more subtle behaviours and situations that aren’t even directed at us can cause more bracing and protecting in ourselves in that we often don’t even realise we go into it. The reality is that because we are made of love and come from love, when we feel something that isn’t love, it doesn’t sit right, and it’s normal for us to react. what I can feel is the key and one thing I’m constantly working on is to feel the reactions, clock it, accept it and not freak out about it and let it be, let myself feel my body, beyond the reaction and surrender. When I choose to do this instead of staying with the reaction my body stays open, whereas if I get caught in the reaction I’ve immediately become a toughie 🙂
Thank you Katerina for sharing. The choices that we make everyday hold a ‘Quality’ and we can choose what that quality is. The choice to bring stillness into your appointment for tattoo removal unfolded the awareness that you can choose this stillness anytime and anywhere. What a blessing.
Katerina, how absolutely exquisite to feel and read this blog. I felt the deep well of my own stillness and embraced it as I read. Thank you.
This was just so beautiful to read and feel, connecting to my own stillness as I read. Thank you Katerina.
Yes I agree Jeanette, she really invites the readers to connect to their own stillness by the beautiful connection she cherishes within herself.
I really like how you were able to feel and acknowledge your sadness around having a tattoo and why without it consuming you, but rather going behind it to be with your tenderness and stillness which made your whole process with tattoo removal a completely different experience.
Katrina I so loved reading about your experience. I actually felt my own stillness from all you shared. Thank you!
When reading your blog, I was reminded of how, when my children were young and hurt themselves, my immediate response was to try and distract them from their pain. I am also reminded of similar situations when I was a child. I was usually given chocolate, ice-cream or other sugary treats to numb it. I was never asked to toughen up, but was also never encouraged to deal with the reason that I was hurt or to feel what was being presented. Are we doing our children a disservice by trying to protect them from all pain? Is pain just another beautiful way that our body communicates with us, a healing?
You have shared so many amazing points in this blog, Katerina. One that really jumped out at me was your explanation of anxiousness and how you “…realised this was my body telling me I needed to deeply connect and feel something I may not be wanting to feel.”
Anxiousness is something I usually try to keep at bay, to avoid feeling. I am inspired to embrace anxiousness the next time it occurs, to connect deeply, and feel what my body is bringing up for me to deal with.
Katerina, you are almost mentioning it as an aside but it is an amazing ability to know when to interrupt and when to continue a treatment. How many people would be confident saying this?
Yes Katerina, I celebrate with you that there is another way. The power of our stillness is truly divine. I love how you have highlighted this – ‘I first felt the anxiousness that was in my body. I realised this was my body telling me I needed to deeply connect and feel something I may not be wanting to feel.’ – a great revelation you have shared here how our bodies are so beautifully designed to always guide us (if we choose to listen) to deepen our connection to the truth being revealed from within.
It felt amazing to read your blog, and feel the power of stillness in the face of physical or emotional pain. Rather than how we have been conditioned by society to brace ourselves and harden to the challenges of life, it’s a huge relief and letting go for me to simply be still, thank you for the awesome, insightful blog Katerina.
I could feel as I read your blog Katerina the power of the connection between the assistant, yourself and the physician all acting together as one. Reminds me of times when I have been with a doctor or physician myself and this sense of unity has not been there. The power of choosing to be in stillness. Thank you.
The stillness within is forever calling us to connect or go deeper- your experience reminds me that there is nothing we can’t handle when we know the stillness and love within us.
“But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for.” In our stillness we are held by our love and we feel that we are divine ~ thank you dearly Katerina for this beautiful and confirming blog.
I love your article on all embracing stillness, Katerina. I had a similar experience with an overseas dentist last year when I had a filling fall out while on holiday. I decided not to cringe as the dentist was poking around inside my mouth but instead go into stillness. The result was amazing. I felt my body drop into a place of deep relaxation and then the body of the young woman dentist did also. When we spoke, both of our voices had slowed right down and had dropped about an octave in pitch!
I tested by coming out of it and our voices rose again so I retuned to stillness and stayed there for the entire session. The quality of the treatment, the time I was offered, the post procedural care were all top notch and the dentist was most complimentary about my mouth also! Not your typical emergency dental visit!
Katerina I love this ” To connect deep within me, and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.” Simply beautiful to think that we can overcome anxieties by deepening our connections with our innate stillness.
Its so powerful how you described the feeling of anxiousness in your body, and when you recognised it you had recognised that it was a chance to go deeper into your body and feel something, the past experiences and choices which were coming up. So overtime we feel anxiousness, it can be an opportunity for us to connect with our bodies and read whats going on.
Exactly Harry, we can actually make that feeling of ‘anxiousness’ our friend — sort of! What I’m realising more and more is that it’s our body communicating back to us in a very sacred way that there’s something we’re not letting go of, something we’re not accepting or trusting ourselves to feel. When we do let ourselves feel whatever is there to be felt, the discomfort passes in seconds a lot of the time, and what we’re left with all this glorious warm space.
The power we have in true connection is like nothing else I have experienced. To connect in order to support yourself through this procedure is pretty amazing.
This is so beautiful and inspiring, hearing about true connection and how that inner stillness and presence support us gently and in tenderness.
This was a beautiful read and I experienced that same amazing, healing union at my dentist appointment yesterday…
Looking forward to removing my tattoos also!
It’s true, we are so many of us brought up, to brace ourselves, to toughen up, to get on with it. And yet I see within the eyes of Man, there most definitely is a light, just waiting for a reflection of another light, to bring it forth. And when that is brought forth, the true tenderness of who we are is there to be felt, in every shopping mall, train station, airport, everywhere there is humanity, it is there to be felt.
Another way to respond to challenges that occur in life, to connect with the ‘stillness’ that is within. I appreciate how you express this through our own experience. It has been lived and feels very real. Thank you.
Love this post Katerina, and your words “I realised this was my body telling me I needed to deeply connect and feel something I may not be wanting to feel” resonate so deeply. I remember someone once said to me to, “stop fighting your stillness” and only some time later did I get what they meant – to cease being so busy or purposely anxious to not feel – not just the hurt, but actually not feel or connect with the enormity of the power that is there inside. That in this active stillness, we find ourselves and so God. That everything that keeps us busy, stressed, emotional, driven, competitive, anxious i.e. in motion and the opposite of stillness, takes us further away from this divinity.
That’s it Zofia. It’s crazy isn’t it… To realise that there is immense beauty and power in every single one of us that we shun away from by creating anxiousness, dramas and the stresses of life. These are not natural or normal ways of being which is why our bodies suffer so much, as can be seen by the rates of depression, illness and depression. Stillness is a natural state that our bodies yearn for. We just have to choose it.
I can relate to what you are saying Zofia, sometimes I find myself totally in something like stress or thinking a lot and when I stop and feel what is really there it is a great beauty and amazing power in me and I realize I was indeed fighting my stillness. Thank you for sharing.
I love what you have shared here “in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught, – we are being held by our own love”. Thank-you Katerina
‘But what is amazing is to know that there is another way. A way that is so powerful, for it is pure love.’ And what I read and feel in your sharing, we are all included in true love.
I loved what you shared here Katerina. When you say “To connect deep within me and let my stillness instruct my next movement or behaviour.” I can feel the love in that.
I too have had a similar experience when having a tattoo removal session and it is through me connecting to that stillness within me that I am able to feel what I haven’t wanted to feel so it has been easier to abuse my body, and releasing it from my body creates more space for the love that I am.
It’s amazing what we will do to ourselves to fit in. What do we do to not fit in, now that’s interesting.
Dear Katerina, thanks for telling your story. I feel better prepared to face up to the inevitability of my tattoo removal with the wisdom of your experience to take along with me. Thank-you.
I always find it amazing that when faced with a situation (like a painful laser tattoo removal) that we can actually go deeper and experience something quite profound, like the indelible stillness you felt during your treatment with a wonderful physician. You could have hardened and disconnected completely in order to ‘just get through it’, but by choosing to stay connected you deepened a valuable life skill. Beautiful.
Katerina love is the antidote to every-thing
Reading your blog has given me the insight that no matter what the medical procedure, we can choose to hold our bodies in a different way. Thank you Katerina.
Yes Julie, that is what it comes down to — the fact that we have a choice. How we prepare ourselves for a medical procedure is a key part of this. Do we of in stressed, dishevelled, asking for the physician to fix the ill? If so our bodies will be in a state of stress and anxiety and that will most likely be our experience during the procedure. But if we take a body we have nourished and cared for, if we walk in without any rushing whatsoever and meet our practitioner physician as an equal partner in supporting our healing process, any medical procedure is likely to be a very different and indeed positive experience.
Yes and this insight can be applied in any circumstances where emotions play a part. Connecting to our stillness is like coming home to a safe harbour.
“ I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness” – what an amazing insight Katerina; one that has the potential to change so many experiences that we go through every day. In my experience, bracing hurts my body, and it often has happened before I have even realised it is happening, as I go into an automatic protection mode. To stop, feel and connect to the stillness instead, offers me the opportunity to truly feel what is going on and to change patterns and behaviours that I didn’t think possible. Now that is true power.
Thanks Katerina for your wonderful sharing on the power of stillness. The last line sums it up for me “A way that is so powerful, for it is pure love”. Beautiful
Thank you Katerina, your description of stillness was spot on. I too have experience such stillness in the face of painful procedure. In fact I went from dread of drowning, chocking and gagging in the dental chair to falling asleep while the procedure was being performed after taking myself into a deep connection to that very stillness you described so beautifully, all thanks to the teachings of Serge Benhayon.
in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught.”
I love this and have also found it to be true.
Thank you Katerina for sharing your story. I have had a similar experience with having a mammogram. I used to find them very painful as I hardened and tensed my body in anticipation of what I knew would be a painful procedure. I now find that when I surrender within myself and stay gentle and very tender with myself the procedure is only mildly uncomfortable as I work with the radiographer.
Katerina I will remember your great blog when I am in a situation where I am apprehensive about a procedure or have anxiousness and tap into that stillness within . Thank you.
What you shared so beautifully Katerina is another miracle which this blog site is filled with. The miracle of seeing beyond what is being immediately presented (i.e. procedure/pain) and deepen and surrender what is there to be felt (sadness in this case) and then surrender more deeply to feel the stillness and love that exists within us all. We are not shown as we grow up how to re-connect to these levels and we live so much in the procedure/pain level. I am deeply grateful to Serge Benhayon and through his presentations seeing that there is another way.
I loved so much of what you wrote and this line particularly ….”But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for. We are being held by our own love, the way a loving mother holds her young child.”. So gorgeously expressed, thank you.
So lovely to read such an amazing article Katerina. I too have had tattoo removal sessions with Dr Mallat and found the experience deeply healing – the tenderness and stillness you were able to surrender to underneath the pain is inspiring and your connection to the ‘vast, silky ocean of my own love’ is just divine. Such a great reminder of the power that lies within. Thank you.
Thank you Katerina for your amazing blog. I loved how you shared how you stayed open rather than bracing yourself to cope with the pain. What you have expressed has helped me look at how I have learnt to cope with pain and sadness and that staying open is foundational to coming back to my loving stillness.
Thank you Katerina for sharing your lovely blog, tattoo removal ,surgical operations, dentistry all offer us this commonality of connection and awareness to our self and others and the choices that lead us along the path of needing such procedures.
Thank you Katerina. I so often get caught up in the momentum of the day, but what I have been getting recently is that it is possible still to have a busy day, but not get caught up in it, that the body can remain steady, and in rhythm, without resorting to the anxious tension that often comes when we know there is much to do. I can also relate to what you share in regards to the tattoo removal process. There is a deep surrender and level of trust we can go into that allows us to deal with the painful part of any medical procedure, and I have experienced a similar thing as what you have described in the dentists chair, and before an operation.
I can definitely feel the positive difference in my body as it relaxes, expands and feels more tender and loving every time I surrender, accept and appreciate the stillness. Thank you Katerina for sharing your experience.
Love your blog Katerina. I feel after reading your blog that anything is possible when we connect to our stillness. Thank you.
You are completely right Katerina. We are all truly powerful in our stillness.
Thank you Katerina, your blog has inspired me to go deeper, in order to feel what is underneath my pain.
Katerina, reading the first part of your blog brought me back to child birth, where I had the anxiety come up in me, then I knew I was to go deeper and feel my strength. A pain that you can’t escape but discover is actually an amazing blessing to be with you and a deep well of beauty and strength. A great read for me as I’m just starting on the removal of my tattoo’s. I could feel while reading the reason for me getting tattoo’s and a great sadness is there too.
I agree Kim. I never had any tattoos but I had my belly button pierced for the same reasons Katerina describes in her post. I could feel the sadness as I read this.
I had a similar experience when I went through a dental treatment that was quite intense. I chose to let go of my tension and anxiousness and opened up to just be, allow and trust. I connected with the dentist and his assistant from my heart. Although my mind was telling me how crazy that was to be so unprotected and that the pain would be unbearable, it was exactly the opposite. I became very present, still and detached and the intensity didn´t affect me anymore.
Same thing at the dentist last week. I was offered a local anaesthetic or not (only a small procedure) and normally I’d go for the anaesthetic every time. However, I wanted to give the procedure a chance and it was a revelation – I was very focussed, a little bit anxious but also very present. Normally I walk out after something like that and it takes me some time to ‘recover’ whereas this time I felt the same, or even more connected than before!
I can very much relate to what you’re saying – much better to listen to your heart and connecting to the dentist from there. Listening to the head brings a totally different outcome, one of pain and the illusion of protection. Being open and accepting is our best form of protection.
I don’t have any tattoos but I do have bouts of anxiety that still creep in. What I loved about reading of your experience here Katerina, is knowing that when that anxiety starts to surface, there is always the call to go deeper and feel what is being offered. For me the anxiety is normally there because my body has ‘clocked’ something and my head is saying ‘no, no, no, don’t go there’ but when I choose to, like you have done, I feel the hurt but deeper still, I feel a warmth and a stillness that is never worth running from. It just melts the anxiety away.
Thank you Katerina, Liane and Jane. How we approach pain and any other type of emotional situation or any other state is definitely intensified if love is not included in the equation.
Thank you Liane and Jane, for offering a deeper insight into what the anxiety can mean when we feel it in our bodies. Just yesterday I had a situation at work where I could feel a tremendous anxiety in my body before going into a meeting to express something. I wasn’t quite sure what this anxiety was about, and as I walked to the meeting room I stayed as best as I could with my body and not indulging in any thought that was wanting to come in. As was revealed during the meeting, what I was anxious about was simply being so bare, as I was feeling extremely fragile and teary about something. To present this rawness to my colleagues was freaking out my mind, but my body was there in full. It was the ‘idea’, the ‘belief’ around what it is to be fragile, the ‘face’ one supposedly needs to put on, that my mind was holding onto and causing the anxiety in my body. And so this was another great learning not to react when we feel this anxiousness but to clock that there might just be something coming up that our minds don’t want to grasp, but that our bodies are more than ready to be open to and surrender.
Very Cool Liane, changing the way we view anxiety within can show that it’s nothing to fear but something to embrace.
Thank you Katerina for sharing your story and reminding me that when we are in our stillness we are so powerful and truly connected to the purpose in life that from this stillness we simply get on with what needs to be done. How much more simple life can be?
Indeed, the power of stillness is limitless. Thank you Katerina for writing this.
Thanks Katerina, I feel you have just prepared for my next (and second) tattoo removal session. It was so beautiful to read what we are capable of. Thank you.
There is so often deeper reasons why we make any choice, it was refreshing to read of your honesty in assessing why you got the tattoo Katerina, in doing so I can really feel how you offer up the opportunity for us all to look more deeply at why we we make the choices we do
Thank you for sharing this awesome blog Katerina. I’m about half way through the tattoo removal process – the first session felt like a hot knife searing my skin but since then i’ve prepared myself more lovingly and connecting to my stillness throughout the session has enabled a true healing experience each time.
While your blog is about tattoo removal Katerina, I feel the stillness you chose that supported you to stay connected to yourself and feel what it was that allowed you to have the tattoo can be taken to many other areas of life. I know when I go to the doctors or dentists or have tests, staying with me supports the procedure, and my relationship with the doctor or nurse is very different compared to when I check out and loose myself to the physicality of what is happening. Thank you Katerina for sharing a great reminder for my next visit to the dentist.
I have not had a tattoo but it seems a painful process to have one and have it removed. Lovely to read how connection to your stillness connected with you with everyone else and you worked together during this and how differently you experienced the removal. Thank you.
“I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness; that stillness which is within every man and every woman. Most of us are not brought up to know this as our truth – we are taught from young to brace ourselves, to toughen up and to stay in the doing in order to protect ourselves.”. This is so true Katerina this is how I was for most of my life, bracing myself and fighting against the pain rather than learning to go deeper and feel what was underneath the pain, making the pain the enemy, instead of a symptom of the choices I had made. Knowing this has changed my whole perception of pain and I no longer suffer the continual back pain that used to send me off to the chiropractor every two or three weeks.
Katerina I really enjoyed this blog thank you! I love how you say ‘knowing that when I’m faced with the adversities that life can throw at me, that I always have another choice.’ We so often forget that a difficult moment can be a moment of evolution, and it doesn’t need to be as difficult as we think it needs to be!
This is a great sharing, thanks Katerina and one I hope many get to read before making the decision to get a tattoo. I wonder how many people realise the real reasons they are getting tattoos before they actually take the plunge.
A lovely blog Katerina, which reminded me there is another way – I recently had a medical procedure to attend and by choosing to connect with that deep stillness and beauty within, it was far less traumatic than it would have been and I almost fell asleep on the table as I allowed myself to drop deeper and deeper into the inner stillness. The staff were amazed and gave the feedback I was a ‘star patient’!
From experience I too have felt that the procedure is much more painful when I am worried, tense or fearing the worst. When I relax on the table and focus on something practical like my breath, even if they turn up the power on the lazer it hurts less and I am not left with a lingering feeling of emotional pain from the worry and tension.
Tattoos are everywhere. At one time a tattoo was a badge of rebellion, trying to be different and stand out, today it seems to be an effort to conform and fit in with others for fear of being left out. Today those who are confident in who they are stand out for being different with no need of tattoos.
Yes, i’d agree that having a tattoo is a conformity, whether it is meant as rebellion or not, the act is more a removal of individuality than it is a stamp of being different.
Thank you for this sharing, reminding us that all we have to do is surrender to that stillness within and we are home. From there we let the magic unfold.
Great point here that often when faced by some issue or problem in life we tend to go hard and in protection as a reaction to the situation. We lose our connection with ourselves and then find it difficult to know what to do anyway. By stopping and connecting to that deeper essence and stillness we are in a better place to feel what is going on and make a more loving choice in any given moment or situation. It becomes more a loving response rather than a reaction.
Andrew. Your response is heart warming, there are times in life when we go into reaction, and try to protect ourselves. Sitting down and taking time to think, helps to bring back, being who we really are, and that is love.
A powerful and healing piece of writing that allowed me to connect deeper into myself and an awesome marker for you to live your life from, knowing that each moment is always a choice. Thank you for sharing, Katerina.
The power of stillness is indeed amazing, thank you for sharing this with us.
How beautifully you have expressed this Katerina. I have chosen to read this blog at a moment when I am experiencing a lot of back pain, and at the same time have volunteered to do some physical tasks that exacerbate it. Pondering on it all and how I have dealt with pain in my life, I realise I have either run away from it, or as you say, gritted my teeth and born it heroically, and then championed myself for that afterwards. You show me how neither is the way. It is not to run away from the task and the pain, or to harden myself to do it, but to find ways, as you did, to support yourself through it, and choose to connect with that deep stillness and beauty within that is more powerful than anything else. Thank you for the gift you have given me this morning.
A beautifully powerful piece Katerina. This touched me deeply “But in our stillness, our power is beyond anything we might have been taught. In our stillness, we don’t feel threatened or disturbed by what is outside of us, because we are in the ultimate place of safety we all yearn for. We are being held by our own love, the way a loving mother holds her young child”
Thanks Katerina, I remember someone telling me a few years ago that if you tense up and stiffen your muscles, an injury can hurt more than if you are relaxed and calm. Your blog has shown that there is actually SO much more than this, and that if we connect to that ‘stillness’ and not go into anxiety, then something like getting a tattoo removed can be a process of healing instead of just feeling the pain.
Lovely to read how a procedure that we would normally want to get ‘over and done with’ can be approached in a totally different way. How amazing is that!
It just triggers how I know I tense up when I have laser treatment – wanting it to be over. How you were in this situation – absolutely present – is inspiring for my next session coming up! Thank you
Katerina, what a lovely phrase, ‘the vast, silky ocean of my own love’. This is a wonderful demonstration of the power of connecting deep within yourself.
Great sharing Katerina, I have been quite keen on getting into tattoo removal myself and even went to a tattoo convention to check out the various lasers available at the moment. Your blog has been very helpful as preparing the clients properly will be an essential part of it.
“I realised then just how powerful we actually are when we let ourselves stop and feel, and connect to our stillness”. Beautifully said Katerina there is so much to be said in actually allowing ourselves to feel what is really going on.
Katerina it is amazing to stop and consider just how much we keep stored in our body. When you expressed how you felt the period in your life when the Tattoo was chosen and all that came with that it makes me consider all the times in my life when I’ve done things and “moved on” but let that image/pattern/imprint remain in my body just to flare up when something else provokes it. Yet the clear message I get from your writing is by connecting deeper and allowing oneself to feel underneath – the real truth of who we are is there to be felt.
Amazing blog demonstrating the power of stillness – I could feel it in me as I read your words, thank you for sharing your experience.
Thank you Katerina. The difference it makes being in stillness while undergoing painful procedures has been a revelation to me. If I tense up and harden to ‘cope’ with the procedure it is exhausting but when I drop into stillness and choose to work with the practitioner, be it doctor or dentist, I can feel the support and there is much less pain.
I agree Mary – I had this experience with some recent surgery – with dropping deeper into the stillness, rather than tensing up, the whole procedure with the team working on me was actually a beautiful experience.
Thank you Katerina, for sharing the healing that is possible with having a tattoo removed .
Thank you Katerina – this is so true. I will certainly take this into my day today.
An amazing example of the power of stillness and confirming there being ‘another way’ . Thank you for sharing, Katerina.
” knowing that when I’m faced with the adversities that life can throw at me, that I always have another choice.” That is such an empowering statement which, for me too, is a work in progress. However, gaining that insight has been such a liberation and I am in deep appreciation of Serge Benhayon for the inspiration.
Like yourself and others who have commented I am in the process of having my tattoo removed. It has been a painful experience but then asked why I am doing it I simply say ”It is not me anymore”. Truth is it was never me in the first place. I am much grander than a mark on the surface of my skin.
How beautifully said Leigh it certainly isn’t and wasn’t ever you!
Leigh, I love what you have shared here – ” Truth is it was never me in the first place. I am much grander than a mark on the surface of my skin”. Awesome!
I absolutely love your comment Leigh, we so often use things like tattoos, or particular clothing or piercings to help define who we are but I agree, the truth is we are so much grander than any mark, or hole or piece of clothing.
Like you Katerina, I am getting a tattoo removed, and reminded each time I’m on the table of where I was at, and what I was looking for when I got the tattoo in the first place. It seems so crazy to have taken that one fleeting moment of wanting to fit in, be cool and then imprint that on my body for the rest of my life. Its been a deeply healing process to have it removed, and I highly recommend it.
What a gorgeous blog. I can feel the stillness you speak of as I read it and how choosing that can be super powerful one to remember – thank you for sharing.
I have read and deeply enjoyed this blog before. Today what I connected to as I read it is my responsibility to hold my connection with me, and my stillness, and to offer that to my dog and his vet when we visit, and from that stillness to call out for my dog, when he has had enough, and needs to take a break, catch his breath, have a play even before he is examined or treated some more. I have tended to get emotional at the pain my dog sometimes experiences at the vet, and to react to his distress. The vet them reacts to both me and my dog. I loved how Katerina said that from stillness ‘It’s no longer a situation of ‘us and them’, the patient on the table and the practitioner applying the laser treatment ‘, and sense that this can apply equally with me, my dog and his vet.
Thank you Katerina for this beautiful blog. I love the possibility of going deep into feeling what we can sometimes work hard not to feel and allow the connection to invite us to surrender deeply as you shared. What an inspiration for my day.
Thank you Katerina for sharing your experience. I have watched the removal of a tattoo and I saw how painful and distressing the treatments can be. So for you to describe how you felt under the pain and found your stillness is truly inspiring. It is a great reminder, that if you can find stillness in that situation then we can find it within us in our day to day situations.
Thank you Julie. What you say here is very inspiring and I will take this into my day. So often I brace myself in situations, but as Katerina has so beautifully described – that there is a stillness within us that we can connect to if we just remember that.
A beautiful sharing, thank you.
Thank you for sharing this amazing experience, Katerina. I could feel today that I was semi-holding my breath after receiving an email that was totally unexpected and that shocked me. I am so used to not wanting to feel how it feels; how it feels to have this shock in my body and what else is there beneath that shock. Isn’t it amazing though that the way through is exactly that: the way through and not the detour around it, i.e.. feeling what is there to be felt in the connectedness and in the stillness. What a truly awesome experience!
A beautiful and inspiring story – and a lovely reminder of the glory and power within stillness.
Awesome Katerina!
What an amazing post….
Thank you, very very inspiring. In feel a lot of love, honesty, humbleness and delicateness from your words. It’s stilling to me.
Beautifully said Floris. This article inspires stillness.
Your words are so so true Floris.
This is beautiful, Katerina. Thank you for sharing the richness of this foundation of stillness you know within.
I have also found my life so changed in connecting to this – I am so much less ‘disturbed’ and thrown off centre by what is around me, while simultaneously feeling more connected and open to who and what is around me. In the stillness is my love. It just, simply, is.
Thankyou so much for sharing this Katerina, I’m so glad you introduced yourself to me!
Hi Katerina, this a great sharing about the tattoo removal process with Dr Anne Malatt. I am also getting my tattoos removed and as you have shared, during this very painful process, you do learn to stay connected to your stillness without bracing or protecting the body. You are supported and honoured to stay with yourself and the process is extremely healing.
This blog blew me away Katerina! I love your writing and can feel you in each word- so beautiful. I can feel that tenderness and stillness in you and in all others and it brought a tear to my eye to feel how sad it is that we all ignore this much of the time and harm ourselves in so many ways. Thank you so much for sharing – this was deeply healing to read.
It moved me to tears too Leonne. Such a beautiful piece of writing of how our stillness can be taken to a deeper level.
Yes Leonne, I agree. It is saddening to see how much we’ve pretty much turned things upside down — our stillness and openness which comes from being connected to our bodies and our tender sensitivity that we all have as human beings is our greatest protection. Yet we are taught from young and teach our own young that we need to toughen up in order to get by. Our true power is in our openness, in our fragility and in our stillness. When we drop into that tender space and let that be seen by another it is the greatest blessing, for they get to feel themselves that forgotten truth, that they don’t have to be hard and tough, and that there is great power in simply surrendering to ourselves, being fragile and open, in deep connection to our body. And it is also the yummiest most delicious way to be 🙂
Thanks for sharing Katerina. It’s a great reminder for me as to how simple it is to come back to me and be in that stillness no matter what!
Dr Anne Malatt is as you say a most wonderful physician and person providing a much needed service. If only people truly understood the harm tattoos cause and the healing Anne is facilitating there would be queues all around her clinic.
I went quite still reading about the power of stillness – this is certainly a divine place within myself that I yearn to be more deeply connected to.
I couldn’t have said it better Nicola – if people truly understood the harm of tattoos and the harm they’re doing to themselves and their bodies there would without doubt be a a very long queue!
What a powerful experience Katerina, thanks for sharing. I had a very similar experience when I had a small tattoo removed. The instant connection to where I was at, who I was allowing myself to be when I chose to get a tattoo – well I think that felt more painful then the actual laser on my back. But the choice for me to be open, to see & feel all of this, to let it go was a truly deep healing. It was like something cleared and allowed me to love myself (and thus others) far deeper then ever before. And I agree the support I received from Anne and Helen was so loving, so deep, to my bones, it was a joy to be in their healing hands.