Wholeness in the city

06/03/2023

Declutter The Mind Meditation App - Lifetime Access by Declutter The Mind. Hosted by KingSumo Giveaways

14/02/2021

We want every day to be day of love. So everyone will treat themselves and others and the world around gently and carefully🌿

11/02/2021

The simplest thing that you can do everyday for a city is to say Good morning, Good day or Hello to it. Give some love to the place where you live right now, no matter what is behind your window, no matter what view you have there. Start your relations with giving some respect. You will see, the city replies to you back, and you will find yourself truly happy.


🌿

10/02/2021

According to World Cities Report 2020 by UN Habitat, cities will remain central to the sustainable development story. Honestly, Wholeness in the city is not against cities, but vise versa, it admits their important role in humanity history and humans' lives. The aim of Wholeness in the city is to make life in cities as meaningful, mindful and whole as it's possible.

I think that it is us, people, to make our lives in cities in such ways that will contibute to enviromental and economic equality, social equity, physical and mental health. Even in small details. If a city lives fast, live with your own speed, slow down when you need it.

Make your own choices everyday: what to drink, what to eat, what to wear, what to look at, what to read, what to say, what to think of.

We do live in cities, but we can change cities the same way that they can change us.

14/01/2021

What is Wholeness?

What does Wholeness mean to you? Do you often use this word or think about it?

I would say, Wholeness is the state of being complete and connected.

It feels like our lives are given to us as a quiz. We are to understand first that it is a quiz, to understand its rules, its idea and what we need to do, and then we start it. During the life we identify the components that we already have, and we need to find missing parts. We look at us as at the systems, where everything should be connected. So we start to connect all the parts. “Together” sometimes does not mean “connected”. We should connect and make it whole. “Whole” means “complete”. Which means “happy”, “peaceful”, “mindful”, “meaningful”.

That’s why I truly believe that Wholeness is something we need to put our efforts to, every day 💚

09/07/2020

In 2020 we learned the importance of balconies 🌿

02/07/2020

Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house reopened on June, 22, and performed its first concert since the coronavirus lockdown — to an audience that didn’t have to worry about social distancing.

The UceLi Quartet played Giacomo Puccini’s I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for 2,292 plants, one for each seat in the theater, instead of people.

The event was conceived by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia who said he was inspired by nature during the pandemic. “I heard many more birds singing. And the plants in my garden and outside growing faster. And, without a doubt, I thought that maybe I could now relate in a much intimate way with people and nature.. At a time when an important part of humankind has shut itself up in enclosed spaces and been obliged to relinquish movement, nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded", he said before the performance.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgvadprJFRc&feature=youtu.be

El artista Eugenio Ampudia inicia la actividad en el Liceu con un concierto para 2.292 plantas. El 22 de junio se emitió por streaming el ‘Concierto para el ...

10/05/2020

How green is the city that you live in?

If it's not that green, be sure that you are aware of all the parks and lawns. Sometimes you can find the green spot just near the house if you walk around. My friends in Tomsk (Siberia, Russia) have recently found the beautiful piece of nature with the river just in 10-15 min walk from their apartment house, and it’s the perfect place to interact with nature while keeping social distancing without using public transportation.

If your surroundings have lack of green spots, you can find various ways to keep interacting with nature in our article, link is below.

Stay safe during these times, and take care of both your physical and mental health.

https://www.wholenessinthecity.me/interacting_with_nature_during_selfisolation

05/05/2020

“My thoughts turn to something I read once, something the Zen Buddhists believe.

They say that an oak tree is brought into creation by two forces at the same time.

Obviously, there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into a tree. Everybody can see that.

But only a few can recognize that there is anther force operating here as well - the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void, guiding the evolution from nothingness to maturity.

In this respect, say the Zens, it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born”. - Elizabeth Gilbert, “Eat, Pray, Love”

Photo by

04/05/2020

If you are lucky enough to live near nature, near the sea or in the countryside, use this advantage mindfully. You can go out for walks, runs and bike rides. Just, please, remember to keep distance from other people.

Here are amazing photos made by my mother, in Tuva (Siberia, Russia). My parents take a ride to the nature places every weekend in order to have some physical activities as hiking and also to restore harmony by observing the beauty of nature.

03/05/2020

Look at patterns and colours in the sky outside (when you are at home, you can observe if from the window)

if you consider it quite strange, let me tell you that there is even a meditation practice within Tibetan Buddhism called sky gazing. We will learn it later but now let's simplify a task but still keep it poetic, magical and effective:

1. Make 2-3 long deep slow breaths.
2. Look at the sky. Identify what major color it has today. Mostly blue? Mostly grey?
3. Now identify other colors. Are there white clouds? Are there dark grey spots? Maybe it's evening, and there are already many red, violet, pink hues?
4. If there are clouds, what are their shapes? Like sheeps on a blue field? or the stretched stripes?
5. Can the sun be seen today? Probably, there is the moon? Sometimes it happens.
6. Now realize how the sky is vast.
7. Now realize that you are looking at the vast sky and you realize its vastness.
8. Now realize that your mind is also vast.
9. And with the understanding that both mind and sky are boundless, let them merge.
10. Let go of all bad thoughts to stay with the sky and be transformed to part of the sky.
11. Your mind stays with good thoughts and stays clear as the clear sky with no clouds at all.
12. Realize that it is your most fundamental and natural state.
13. Thank the sky. Close your eyes for a minute.

Return to it any time you need it.

02/05/2020

The process of reaching wholeness in metropolises can be very complicated due to constant distractions that every city is full of. Wholeness in the city offers different kinds of tools that can make our life in the city more meaningful and natural, to make each person complete and happy. Interacting with nature is the important part of this journey to wholeness. That's why we are going to pay a lot of attention to green policies of countries and cities around the world.

On April 22, 2020, World Earth Day, "Resonance Consultancy", a consultancy group for real estate, tourism and economic development based in Vancouver and New York, published its list of the world's greenest cities based on a series of criteria as
- percentage of public green spaces,
- percentage of total energy needs from renewable energy,
- percentage of population who use public transportation to go to work,
- level of air pollution,
- per capita water consumption,
- walkability,
- availability of city-wide recycling,
- availability of city-wide composting,
- number of farmer’s markets.

Here are the world's 10 greenest cities:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Munich, Germany
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Madrid, Spain
5. São Paulo, Brazil
6. Manchester, United Kingdom
7. Lisbon, Portugal
8. Singapore
9. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
10. Washington D.C., USA

We hope that more and more cities will become greener in a post-COVID-19 world, it's necesary both for the whole planet and for each individual.



https://www.bestcities.org/news/2020/04/22/the-worlds-greenest-cities/

On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the new index of the world’s greenest cities provides direction for urban design in a post-COVID-19 world.

02/05/2020

If the lockdown makes you think that all days are the same and your life is like a Groundhog day, try this practice: watch sunrise and sunset. No matter how difficult our lives are right now, every day is like a rebirth, a restart. Nothing stays the same, there are always microchanges, something happens all the time, every second. And, first of all, our state of mind and emotions change constantly.

So, greet the sun every morning with your gratitude and intentions for the new day. The sun itself then becomes a natural reminder to set and keep a grateful attitude.

And no matter what happens during a day, in the evening, while the sun is setting, thank the Universe for a day that you lived.

Remember, that every day is a gift. And you will never have this day again. Stay safe, hope for better and act smart.

30/04/2020

Grow vegetables and greens right on your kitchen.

It is a very interesting activity that won't take a lot of your time. Everything you need is a warm light place and seeds. If you grow your seedling in a pot from a biodegradable material as paper, you will be able to transfer a seedling later to the bigger container without causing any shock to the plant.

It's very easy to make a paper pot from old newspapers. Just wrap a pot or a bottle with paper strips and remove it.

When your seedling will grow bigger, just put the paper pot in a bigger container with soil.

A small tip: do not throw pulled weeds away - they have a lot of nutrient materials. Keep them in water in order to get natural luiquid fertilizer for plants. Also, your organic waste will be a great fertilizer as well!

29/04/2020

If you live in a flat and you are allowed to leave your house only for grocery, even if you live in a block in a very built-up urban area, just looking out at the the window is great. If you don't have much of a view, then use your grocery walks while staying in a queue instead of surfing your smartphone.

Look at shapes of the clouds. It's not just a fun game you can have anytime, alone or with your children. You can learn to simply be in a moment, a useful skill for self-awareness, emotional regulation and wellbeing. Cloud spotting can also be a fresh source of creative inspiration for ideas, drawings and stories.

What cloud shapes can you see? Think of ways to describe them.

Are they fluffy, feathery, round, straight, heavy?
Do they resemble anything, such as animals or cartoon characters?
Are they moving and changing shape? If you watch clouds in a group, make up a story taking turns.

A tip: you can also take a photo of a cloud and draw some elements or color it on a smartphone or a laptop.

You can make cloud meditation anytime, during and after the lockdown.

28/04/2020

I was born in the Republic of Tuva which is situated in Siberia, Russia. It is a beautiful place full of natural gifts as mountains, forests, plains, lakes; the great Enisey river starts in this center of Asia.

From my childhood I have strong connections with nature. Now I live in the big city but I am trying to bring nature back to my life because it influences a lot on who I am, what I am, on my attention and wholeness. That's why inevitably the idea of Wholeness in the city came to my mind (and my heart).

This song is created by the throat singing master Andrey Mongush, the People's Khoomeizhi of the Republic of Tyva. It is dedicated to the Earth, to the Nature, to our home. Now, when we have faced the horrible pandemic, we start to realize that we were treating our Mother Nature badly, we were causing a lot of destruction, and the planet was suffering for a long time. If we were taking care of the planet, it would not need to take extreme measures for self-recovery. We need to start respecting the Earth and the Nature to ask for forgiveness and to make a lot of efforts to help it to recover.

The song is in Tuvinian language; English subtitles are available in settings to the video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETVrMOZwlHA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2b_kpL06X6LTSGMKY0EnLWlcxWH6JWka1RqQq-0Mv1Kj0VSwRMM7EK2kY

“Have Mercy on us, My Mother Earth” (Motherland) How can we find a way To soothe the soul of this bright world? We’ve ruined the nature we’ve been given to l...

28/04/2020

This week is in UK, which is held in order to raise awareness of gardening and horticulture and to encourage more people to take part in the healthy and productive outdoor activity of gardening.

Wholeness in the city is supporting National Gardening Week. Nowadays interest in gardening and vegetables growing in cities is constantly increasing as people have a need in nature in these troubled times.

In case if you live in a house with your own garden or yard, there is a whole green space which is available for you. You can also enjoy the fresh air, make exercises there. Share your garden pictures in Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using hashtag .

A small tip: try to make photos of wildlife and landscape scenes, take some macro shots in your garden or during your daily outside exercises. It will be a great way to connect with nature more, to pay more attention to its details.

27/04/2020

Have some great fun while watching birds or listening to them.

During the lockdown I start hearing birds from the nearest tree to my window. I have been living in this appartment for a year, and I never heard them before because I never paid any attention. I used to meditate listening to calm music but now I replace it by birds singing which is all day long! I made a short video from my window to share with you.

If there is no tree around, make a birds feeder that can be attached to a window or a balcony. I believe that sooner or later, you will have a guest!