Ode to good old London

I left you a few years ago and never felt happier. I was tired of you, bored and disappointed perhaps. Too fast, too cold, wet, indifferent, distant. This is how you made me feel, or rather this is how I perceived you after too many years of hard work, long bus waits, wet cycling nights and rental flats. For three years I felt free and far from you, I felt happy. I never ever thought I would miss you and want to come back.... ah, how arrogant of me! 
You embraced me again last year, you welcomed me with open arms again like a mother does to a child who wants to run away and explore alone but then comes back with nostalgia.
And you welcomed my little prince, my little English man, who is now growing and loving London every day more and more. I can see it in his eyes, how curious he is every time we go out.... he looks at you and then smiles at me. We are happy and grateful. We both love you and thank you for this new experience.

Love from Pushkar

Sand flies---BEWARE!

So, it all went smoothly (well, India smooth that is) until we flew to Delhi, where I was supposed to work as an English teacher for a few months.
It was over 30 celsius in the south and when we got to Delhi it was minus many degrees...and we were wearing sandals and summer clothes. Ehm, yes it was freezing, more than freezing. My brain was frozen for the first two days but the worst thing was that I had a high temperature straight away and breathing problems.
Anyway, I spent the week-end trying to adapt to our flat provided by the school and looking for winter clothes.
I managed to teach 2 classes on Monday, during which I really struggled as my temperature was way too high and neither the school nor the flat had any sort of heating.
The next day I decided to go to the Doctor's. My new boss sent me to a hospital nearby and they took me to the emergency room where they kept me for half a day, injecting all sorts of medicine into my body and doing some blood tests. At one point I even fainted and can't remember anything.
Anyhow, I was sent home and was told to rest for a week and take medicine (antibiotics, which I HATE).
Five days after I was worse and my temperature had gone higher....up to 43 celsius! We decided to move out of the freezer flat and find a warmer room in a hotel, with the hope that I would feel better.
We stepped into the hotel and I started feeling even worse so we jumped into a taxi headed to another hospital. We left all our luggage in the hotel and actually paid for 4 nights.
When I got to the hospital I was not conscious but Raffaele says they put me on this bed and took me to the emergency room where loads of doctors asked him a million questions about my condition and stuff. I only remember voices and a light but to be honest I felt like I was not in this physical world. It's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. I was not in my body anymore and I felt very peaceful but at the same time I wanted to stand up and explain to everyone my symptoms. I just couldn't, I could not move and I could not breathe.
I was hospitalised for a whole week. They put an introvenus into my arm and some tubes up in my nose so that I could breathe. They did so many blood tests, they just tested everything they possibly could (luckily I was in a private hospital, kind of like in an American movie, very very good one) and after one day they decided to put me into intensive care unit. Now, this was BAD. I could not even leave the bed to go to the toilet...I had to do everything while in bed in front of the nurses.
My condition improved and my temperature eventually started going down. I felt empty, no energy, no vital force, no life anywhere in my body. Being in hospital is the worst experience ever I think and for someone who never ever takes medicine it's even worse. I felt my whole body was poisoned and for the first time I really understood and experienced what all the spiritual books say about not being your body. I really felt my body was separate from my soul, it was just another entity and to be honest I didn't even care if it would just finish because I didn't feel it was mine anyway.
A friend of mine defined this a sort of spiritual awakening. I still don't know what exactly it was but I have been somewhat different since.
In the very end, I was dismissed as there was no more water in my lungs and I could breathe again and my temperature had gone and stayed down.
After a VERY high bill, unluckily for me as this year I decided to come here with no insurance, I got out of the hospital and felt like it was the first day of my life.
I am fine now, still getting better slowly and trying to re gain all the kilos I lost. I am grateful I got over that virus (which in the end it turned out I got through a sand fly bite on the beach in Sri Lanka!!!) and I am grateful I had my boyfriend with me, taking care of me all the time and keeping in touch with my family. Lucky girl. : )
Below some recent photos from Pushkar, where we are now. Very charismatic place, although too touristy for us but we have managed to find a quiet (Indian quiet) guest house with a great roof top from which you can just enjoy beautiful views on the lake.
Love and light to everyone. Om shanti

India 2013 OM OM OM

India again. Seems like yesterday when I arrived the first time and thought I was only taking a few months break from London. Here I am, my 3rd winter in Mother India and still enjoying every single flavour of it. This time it's even more special as I am here with my partner, with whom I am sharing  beautiful moments since this summer. Bless the Italian summer that brought such a sweet and unexpected gift.
We had problems with visas in Rome and our applications got rejected so we flew to Sri Lanka and got our 6 months visas there AND we discovered a beautiful island which we will go back to many many times!

We are now in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu and have just finished our Reiki initations. Raffaele and I found a very good Indian teacher who initiated him to level 1 and gave me level 2 as a continuation to last year. Now we can practise on each other and I can also do distance healing.... so anyone who feels like having a distance treatment just let me know and we'll arrange a time. Let's Reiki!

I wish all of you a happy new year and hope to write this blog more often from now on.

Also, my new yoga retreats dates for 2013 are on my website. I will also organise a retreat in Crete, Greece in an AMAZING place where you feel like you are in India (the place is owned by a very sweet Dutch man who lived in India for 25 years, so he's done the whole place up as if he were in India). Please check it out on my website and send any friends who might be interested in my retreats  www.yogawithbharti.com

Love&Light

Valentina Bharti

My new website is live!

I will be teaching yoga retreats here in Italy this summer and they are all on my new website

www.yogawithbharti.com   Please spread the word and come to one of the retreats if they take your

fancy. They are suitable for everyone and they will take place in a beautiful location here in the Italian

countryside, immersed in nature with great local organic food.

Love, Bharti
 

India-UK-Italy

Here we go again,

thinking I would stay in India til June and possibly longer, I took a detour on my way up to Omkareshwar and went from Gokarna to Puttapharti, finally!
I met someone who was on his way there and since I was stuck with no train tickets or no quick way to go up north, I thought yeah! Surely I would find a quicker train from Puttaparthi to Khandwa, right?
No...I was wrong again. I need to remember to surrender every minute and sometimes or actually very often I still forget and try to plan. Stop planning! my mind is still in office mode sometimes and my organisational and planning skills are hard to die.
Anyway, spent about 10 days I think in Sai Baba's Ashram with Giuliano, also from Italy, a devotee since a long time. I tried to get a ticket from there to Khandwa for 3 consecutive days. This means I waited in line at the station from 6am til 8,30am only to hear that there were no emergency tickets, let alone normal tickets. The thing is that with my non tourist visa I couldn't even get tourist fare.
I then completely let go and decided there must be something for me there and there must be a good reason why I wasn't able to make a move.
The ashram completely took me inside. Some days I couldn't even speak and just kept on giving myself reiki.
Then one day my father called and said I shoudl go back to Italy for my brother's graduation. Weirdly enough I had just looked at changing my ticket to surprise them all and just show up on the day of graduation, but it was way too expensive to change my ticket so I had given up immediately. Then my father insisted and got me a new ticket.... and that's when I realised why I hadn't been able to leave that place! So I went from Puttapharti to Chennai (where it all started 4 months ago--same airport I got to from Indore at the end of Dec for my Yoga Teacher Training) and then a long journey started. From Chennai I flew to Sri Lanka, where I waited the whole night til the next morning, then took a flight to MIilan and then after a few hours to Rome.
I spent the night at my father's place so that no one else knew I was there. I quickly dyed my hair with henna and tried the different sarees I had bought for the occasion. My father helped me and we were both going crazy with these 6 meters fabrics, so colourful and beautiful but so complicated.
Needless to say that when I showed up at the graduation the next day my mother almost had a heart attack! And it was sooooo nice to hug my brother on his graduation day. I was so happy to be there with everyone.
Here are some pictures

So as you can guess, I am now in Italy... after India and after London for 2 wks.  More posts to follow on my next project.
The bottom line of this post is that as long as I keep accepting whatever comes and happens I am peaceful and happy. Long gone are the days in which I would try to fight change of plans, because I discovered everything happens for a specific reason and even when it might not seem it's all for the best, it is in the long run. So all I have to do now is wait and see what happens! Plain simple.

Jai Ma Jai Ma Jai Ma

Sai Ram Sai Ram Sai Ram

Let go

Let go has always been a big issue for me. And that's why I keep on being tested time after time, ruthlessly.
I need to let go of my attachments and slowly but surely I am improving. It's just that there are quite a few attachments still and sometimes it feels like neverending.
Today I need to let go of my adorable plants. They have been with me for many years, they have seen many houses I have lived in, some of them have gone ill and then come back to life, they have seen my happiest moments and also the saddest. They waited for me for the last two years, while I was in India they stayed here in London and grew even more beautiful. They welcomed me again a few days ago and they let me take care of them as if I had never left.
I am enjoying my days with them this week but as I get closer to my departure again I can't help feeling sad. They are alive and they always fascinate me. They are so strong, I envy them.
Plants for me are another reminder of how powerful nature is and how weak we are.
I would like to introduce them here.

Tina

Mina

Nina

Lina

Cina

Pina

Gina

Bina