I’m  s t o k e d and very grateful for yet another fantastic year in this amazing life with all its experiences, lessons, high & lows  (just like the waves in the ocean), awesome wonders and presents that life ‘throws’ at us  -  quite often, when we least expect it!  All we gotta do is being present and mindful of the opportunites as they arise…

Yew, life is beautiful and so incredibly exciting and there’s so many gifts in it waiting,   it’s all up to us to grab them!   So many dreams to be lived and we shouldn’t wait to live them, we only have one life and the very ‘simple’ way of making the most out of it and THE very upmost important ingredient in the equation of ‘being happy’ is:  follow  Y O U R  heart on  Y O U R  very own personal path!

In this spirit I send my very best wishes to all of you:

MERRY X-MAS, where ever you are & a JOY RIDE INTO THE NEW YEAR !!!

Enjoy the holidays, relax, take it easy,
inhale the peace and energy of Mother Nature &
Carpe Diem guys, because “Life is not a rehearsal” 

Thanx to my sponsors North Kiteboarding, ION, Fanatic, and Oakley for their continuous support in living my very personal dream!

With all my love
Yours Gabi

In the freshly printed latest issue of the magazine that has just hit newsagents shelves all around my home country, I decided to cover a journey of a different kind:  “The Journey to Spirituality”.

I have recently had the incredible pleasure to see His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet live during his “A Man of Compassion & Wisdom, 2011 Australian visit”.

His Holiness spoke in Perth’s Burswood Dome in front of 14.000 people about “Spirituality in the Modern World”.

Since many, many years I have been extremely interested in the Dalai Lama’s teachings and have been reading many of his books as well as I practice Buddhist Meditation myself.

Having had the opportunity to be in His Holiness presence was a rare and wonderful one that I will never forget in my life. He is one of the most amazing and inspiring people of our time and each and every person on the planet could learn so very much from him. If all of us had only 1% of the Dalai Lama inside of us, the world would be a MUCH MUCH MUCH better place, more peaceful and way happier!

Thank you Your Holiness for giving us your words of wisdom and for showing us your unending compassion for all sentient beings.

That day, me personally, I have received some of his immense blessings into my heart and mind and I would like to share these blessings with all around me.

“I believe the purpose of our existence is happiness”
(His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet)

You can find more on His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, recent visit to Australia right here, and I can only highly recommend to get into his teachings, wisdoms, world views…   Also have a look at the website of The Office of His Holiness.

Enjoy my article in Für Mich Magazine and please send me your feedback, I always love to hear from you !
Yours Gabi

I’m not saying that everyone else is mad and I’m cool or that this time of the year doesn’t affect me at all, nope, I’m not an exception to the rule…  Although, it’s actually meant to be a time full of love, happiness, nearness to family & friends, joyous celebrations, sunshiny giving & receiving, and peace….   in our western society it’s rather defined by the opposite: stress and ‘duties’, forced shopping sprees, the necessity of ‘having to do… having to buy…’, everyone is going nuts due to time pressure and obligations, stuff that ‘has to be’ finished before X-Mas and the New Year…

As my mind has been going pretty insane over the last couple of days, I decided to read a lot, to take a step back, a deep breath, beam myself out of  all the madness and in a way ‘forcing’ myself to get in touch with my heart & soul, to find stillness in the noise.
It’s a bit awkward to use the verb  ‘forcing’  and  ‘into stillness’  in the same sentence, I agree.  Though, when times are stressful, it’s really hard to actually take that action of  ‘pausing the noise’  or in other words: ‘slowing down and pausing the mind’.

We all can do that at any stage, it’s suuuuper hard but SO incredibly important. Life is such an amazing gift, way to precious to waste days, energy, and time with negative emotions. It’s all in our power!

Saying all that, I would like to quote my very favourite author: Eckhart Tolle, one of the most inspiring writers and spiritual teacher of our times. Eckhart Tolle is also the author of  “The Power of Now”, to me, T H E  most powerful book  e v e r     –     oh yeah, if you haven’t read it yet, how bout getting it 4  y o u r s e l f  as X-Mas presie   !

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly — you usually don’t use it at all.  It uses you.”

or another one by Eckhart Tolle:

“Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind-dominance”

“Good-old BOB” (Marley), had realized the incredible importance of mastering our minds as well. Bob was a highly wise man and I always like to quote lyrics from his songs:

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!”

Check out another recent quote that I used of Bob here and cruize through all previous blogs in my category  “Soulwave“,   there’s lot’s of beautiful photos & food-4-thought !

In this spirit:  Breathe & calm down the mind…
Always stoked about ur feedback guys,
Gxx

“Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

This photo that was taken in a Maasai Village during my trips to Kenya earlier this year.  Smiles was the only form of communication in between me and the village people….

It’s easy to get caught up in our thoughts, stress and worries and also me, I often find myself running around with a grumpy face that could scare people…?!

Let’s not forget to smile waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more often at our sourroundings and the wonders that God gives us as gifts every moment of our lives!  Smiling on the outside, also will let us smile on the inside and that’s a wonderful feeling …

Gxx

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live !”

- Bob Marley

My vision since I was a little girl, growing up in a landlocked country in the middle of Europe, has always been to ‘connect + live with the ocean’… it was and still is a hard path that I’ve chosen, though, I couldn’t neglect my innermost and had to follow my dream… Today I truly  l i v e  my childhood-dream and having succeeded in achieving it is THE most beautiful, real-life case study that  e v e r y t h i n g  is possible in life, if you really believe in + go 4 it !!

In this spirit:  Dare 2 ride waves of passion & live YOUR dreams guys !
Living dreams is often not easy, it requires lots of courage, committment, and the will to take risks…  it’s certainly worth it, though, and I wouldn’t change my life + dream for the world !!

The photo was taken by Mark Thorpe, one of THE greatest photographers and most lovely guys that I’ve ever been privileged to work with Check him out on facebook!

I’m currently stuck in a city, typing my life away on the laptop but yeah, all good and it’s all part of the game. I can’t wait to head back down south, though, I miss the waves, surf and all the abundance of energy that Mother Nature has in stock  for all of us! However, I do find some special ‘power places’ up here in the city as well   Yeah, it’s important to be in touch with the planet and opportunities for that can be found pretty much anywhere !

For the time being I felt, it would be a good idea to blog some more of my wisdoms, thoughts, and reflections on life as part of my blog-section “soulwave”, check out what I’ve been writing in that category previously, plus here’s a new one for you:

“To enjoy your goals, think of them as sign posts, pointing you in a certain direction. They give you a focus and help you energy to get moving. The way you go is up to you; you can get very uptight focusing only on getting to you goal or you can relax and enjoy the entire journey, appreciating every unexpected bend and turn of the road, every new opportuntiy for learning and feeling.”

I have to admit, I’m pretty good in forgetting to enjoy the journey at times myself, yep, when I really want to achieve a goal, I often stress out about it and try to force it… though, I am working on myself and realize again and again that nothing in life can be forced. Everything at its time, step-by-step and getting caught up in worries & stress  is not good for the soul plus it’s counterproductive as you might miss out on exciting, new presents that life will bring to you if you’re in tune with it and go with the flow of things !

In this spirit:  Carpe diem, have fun what you’re doing and never forget to take time to chill & to enjoy every moment of YOUR journey
Yours Gabi

In this spirit folks, I’m wishing u a JOY-X-MAS with lots-a-fun, love & action    Me personally I’m currently at home in Vienna, thus there’s no X-Mas kiting or surfing for me, though, might head 2 the slopes on my snowboard soon

Have fun & Merry X-Mas !
Yours Kitegabi

P.S.  Check the X-Mas Card in the photo-gallery to the left!  It has a great ‘wave-of-life’-wisdom 4 u !

Today I would like to quote one of my most favorite authors, Eckhart Tolle -  if you haven’t read it, go and get yourself ‘The Power of Now’ !!!   -   which relates to THE JOY OF BEING:

“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.”

Photos in the gallery were taken on New Zealand’s South island: Sailboat at the lake Wakatipu in Queenstown and Dolphins in Kaikoura  -  the ‘capital’ of Whales & Dolphins, I loooove this place !!!

I have choosen a photo of a dolphin as the ‘header’ to this post, as dolphins are the perfect example, they are full of pure JOY. These creatures are so smart and if us humans would only live a bit like them, the World would be a much better and happier place for sure !  It might sound funny to you but I can only recommend to get in touch with these amazingly wise mammals (literally ‘in touch’!  I try to surf and swim with them as often as possible), to read and find out more about them and their way of life, trust me, there’s looooads to learn from my friends the dolphins

Have fun!
Gabi

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see te whole staircase.”

Photos in the gallery are from the breathtaking South island, New Zealand … luvin’ it there, sourrounded by that breathtaking nature, it’s easy to see clearly  – …even if there’s no staircase

When the body sends a signal, nothing should be more important to you than trying to discover the real reason and to work on getting it back into tune again.

One of the basic principles of holistic health is that we cannot seperate our physical body from our emotional, mental, and spiritual state of being. 

For instance, when we have a physical disorder, it is a message for us to look deeply into our emotional and intuitive feelings, our thoughts and attitudes, to discover how we need to take better care of ourselves emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, as well as physically. 

With this approach, we can restore the natural harmony and balance within our being !

The photos in the photo-gallery to your left hand-side are from my recent trip to New Zealand, the ‘Last Paradise’ as it is also known… and that for a reason.  Mother Nature in New Zealand is so incredibly powerful, full of energy and pure as I have not experienced before.  To me Mother Nature is my life-force… inhaling its energy can be stronger than any medicine, try it !!