Wild Soul Centre

In today's brief but powerful YouTube clip, we dive into the art of three different standing postures.

Each posture strengthens our body's container, allowing energy to flow freely—think of it as the riverbanks holding the river safely within.

Explore how your habitual standing posture impacts your alignment and relaxation. This is so helpful when you're queueing in the supermarket, cooking food for your family, or relaxing with your favourite Netflix!

If you find yourself distracted or bored, use it as a meditation opportunity to reconnect with your internal body awareness. Sign up with the link below!

Join me as we focus on postures that enhance the health of the lungs, kidneys, and liver. Let’s align, relax, and flow together! 🌿

Have a great weekend!

(PS today's Weekly Sparkles newsletter is all about befriending your body - especially in times of pain, fatigue or frustration!)

What a treat! Spending time with the ancestors on Sunday morning! Stepping into liminal space even just for a few hours is so nourishing! What are you doing to reconnect with your soul-self today? See you on the other side :-)

Qi Gong is much like learning to move like water, fluid, flowing around obstacles, effortlessly downhill.

Going through my image library I notice many pictures that capture the mystery of water reflections. The second one I took in Brittany, near Carnac, the third one is a picture of me dancing in a lake that my dad took, and the fourth one is in a lake in Namibia where I was for a field trip to dance with the Kalahari shamans a few years ago!

Today's YouTube video is a snippet from the end of class when we really open the flow. By then, we activated qi, warmed, strengthened and stretched our body, then we can let the Qi work for us.

It has 3 water-like movements to clear tension, enhance your energy flow and reconnect you with a sense of revitalisation for inner balance and harmony. Experiment what it is like, to move effortlessly. Perhaps you can call a place to mind where you played with water and felt a sense of inner peace and joy!

I know it's a bore to change channels, but 'flowing' from one media to another, from one activity to the next is also a great life skill. So I heartily invite you to my YouTube Channel! You'll find a link at the pinned post at the top!

I'm very much looking forward to the first workshop of the season...

If you feel overwhelmed by a racing mind and struggle to find balance in your busy life, you're not alone. Especially returning after the summer break, it’s easy to feel disconnected from our bodies, caught up in the whirlwind of thoughts and to-dos.

You don't need any experience to participate. The most important thing is creating space for you! In these workshops we always start seated, tuning into the season, the element (which is earth this time!), and some taoist wisdom. Then we get up to move (about 45 minutes). And for some, the most delicious part is... the meditation at the end! We also have time to connect as a community afterwards.

I look forward to sharing time with you this Saturday, September 7th, from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM CEST, for Grounding an Active Mind, a workshop that is part of our *Move with the Seasons* series. This live, drop-in class will guide you through practices that help ground your mental energy, using the stabilising, nourishing power of the Yin aspect of the Earth Element.

It’s an opportunity to find peace, and a sense of wholeness, especially if you often feel scattered, disconnected, or simply too busy to catch your breath. Come as you are, and give yourself the gift of grounding and balance.

🗓 **Date:** September 7th, 2024
⏰ **Time:** 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM CEST
💻 **Where:** Online Webinar
✨ **link below to secure your spot!**

Do you feel tight in your body? Discover the power of Meridian Stretching! 🌟 This simple practice helps release tension, improve flexibility, and enhance your energy flow, promoting overall health and well-being. Start feeling lighter and more balanced today!

Stretching often has a negative connotation, but in Qi Gong it's all about creating space. In a way it's like dredging the river or the channel, so that the water or the Qi can flow through more easily.

Try it and let me know what you think!

Talking about mighty muscles (see my previous YouTube video), it was such fun to test the strength of our Qi in our Teacher Training earlier this month in Santa Cruz.

Here you see us pushing into each other, to see if we were rooted, centred and balanced!

The trick is to spiral your energy down into the earth into your opposite leg than where the push comes from, and to put your mind in your belly... Try this at home :-)

I'm very excited to start the Harvest Season classes in my Qi Studio Membership this Monday - and I'll be sharing lots of tips I got during my week with Qi Gong Master Lee Holden! Will I see you there?

Never say that you can’t get a good workout with Qi Gong! Today we’re going to power up our muscles. Please make sure you are sufficiently warmed up before you start. You can do last week’s video on the Dynamic Warm up, walk up the stairs a few times, dance on your favourite track, or do something else to prepare your body for safe strengthening.

This session includes a series of fluid, circular and dynamic movements combined with powerful and clearly directed energy. Each movement is designed to promote flexibility, coordination, and energy flow. This does’t only enhance your physical flexibility, the motion in your joints and muscles, but also your mental focus.

‼️4 tips to care for your knees ‼️

👉🏾 Pay attention how far you place your feet apart (narrower is easier on the knees)
👉🏾 Make sure that your knee is always traveling in the direction of your toes BUT
👉🏽 Ideally don’t let your knee pass your heel. If you want to bend deeper - place your feet wider apart!
👉🏼 Adapt any movements that don’t feel right because you know your body best!

https://youtu.be/WBlhgjm9Vj0

What a treat, teaching Qi Gong outdoors under a beautiful cherry tree! Thank you everyone for an amazing time - first in the pouring rain, then in the blazing sun, and on the third day a harmonious mix of sun and clouds… We dived deeply into the 5 elements, the 3 treasures and the microcosmic orbit.

It truly adds a different dimension to move together outdoors, yet my students also feel the power of inviting nature into their homes and offices when we move online…

🎪

In today's YouTube video I share a dynamic routine designed to clear your energy and invigorate your body. This practice combines flowing movements with rhythmic exercises to release tension and promote a sense of joy and lightness.

These movements can help you release what you don't need and invite a new sense of energy.

It’s a great routine to clear stagnant energy and refresh your mind, increase fluidity and range of motion in your spine and joints and stimulate the flow of Qi, increasing vitality and relaxation.

Enjoy your energy!

https://youtu.be/ZNQytsllpBM

# HealthAndWellbeing

You never knew Qi Gong could be so delicious 😋 Today, we're treating ourselves to a calming massage session. Perfect for relieving tension and promoting relaxation, you will learn gentle techniques to invigorate your energy and soothe your mind.

We'll be focusing on massaging key areas to release tension and awaken energy pathways. Each step is designed to enhance relaxation and energy flow.

This routine helps to release stress and muscular tension, especially in the lower back and legs. Stimulating meridians improves the energy flow throughout the body. It’s both a lovely start of the day, to gently and lovingly wake up your body, and also ideal for winding down and preparing for a restful sleep.

https://youtu.be/e7BbBakZEUE

# HealthAndWellbeing

Really special to be in Santa Cruz for my second tier Qi Gong Teacher Training! I’ll be coming back with loads of inspiration for the new teaching season!

#

Qi Activation is one of the core ingredients of a Holden Qi Gong class. We do this through tapping, stroking or massaging meridian lines or acupressure points. This is really helpful for supporting various body's processes like strengthening the immune system or the digestion.

Head over to YouTube to learn more! This latest routine gives you a a quick full body activation, that includes tapping the chest and front channel (conception meridian), abdomen, hips, buttocks, legs and arms. You can do this if you need a bit of quick energy, or if you want to balance your energy throughout your whole body. This can be helpful when you feel stuck in your head, a little 'outside' of yourself, or too much in a hurry. Great tool to come back to your body.

It really makes a difference if you help me give more visibility to this channel. So if you like the video, please take three distinct actions: Give it a thumbs up, leave a comment, and subscribe for more Qi Gong practices and tips. Thank you so much!

https://youtu.be/X3uEOZAViH4

# HealthAndWellbeing

It’s my last working week before going mostly offline for a learning/teaching/holiday break.

I’m reflecting on how much I’ve done this side of Christmas, if you allow me to celebrate:
🧘🏽continue to love my 4x weekly Qi Gong classes;
🍃started a monthly Move with the Seasons workshop series;
🎤participated in an American Speaker Training
🦋hosted 3x free Masterclasses on Transforming Overwhelm
🪑had my first 2 ‘high ticket clients’ for intensive mentoring
✏️returned to weekly newsletters
📽️established my YouTube channel
🪁launched a new course Qi Gong for Overwhelm Freedom…

It’s quite a list when I write it down like this. And I continue seeing so many QUESTIONS of how I can best serve you.

👉🏼How can I connect to your life in a useful and uplifting way
👉🏽How can I create and package structures, courses, community that serve your situation (in time, commitment, content and pricing)
👉🏾Do I profile Wild Soul Centre more as personal growth, health & wellbeing service, or nature-based spirituality?
👉🏿Where should I focus on visibility - Instagram stories or posts; Facebook; LinkedIn - and what content suits the audiences there (text, images, videos hybrids)?

👉🏻 And last but not least, how do I do this in a way that is also sustainable for me?

I realise I’m coming to the edges of my capacity. As a solo entrepreneur, I’m doing everything including content creation, graphic design, website building, live facilitation customer relations, accounts, tech trouble shooting, recording, editing, and marketing.

So as always, I would be grateful to hear from you what is your most urgent, heartfelt wish for Wild Soul Stuff…

And I’m going to use my time away in August to reflect deeply on the structural presence of Wild Soul Centre.

Have a great week!

I'm so happy to announce the launch of my latest self-paced course! If you are feeling overwhelmed in any area of your life, and you'd like to explore the power of movement to shift your inner state... this is for you!

In "Qi Gong for Overwhelm Freedom," you’ll discover how gentle movement, conscious breathing, and mindful intention can transform stress and anxiety into calm and clarity. With 10 specially designed Qi Gong routines, each just 15 minutes long so you can easily fit it into your schedule from the comfort of your home!

This course is perfect for anyone looking to let go of different aspects of overwhelm. This time not with journaling or meditating, but through movement! Each movement is clearly explained, making it easy to follow along and experience the benefits right away. You don't need any experience and can even do most movements seated on a chair, if standing on your feet is a challenge for you.

Here’s what you get:

🌀 10x 15 minute Movement Routines that help you navigate different aspects of overwhelm
🌀 3x 30 minute Bonus Videos to deepen your practice.
Lifetime Access: Return to the program anytime you like.
🌀 Eline's positive vibes and a radically different approach to managing overwhelm
🌀 Private Community: Connect safely with others in our supportive space away from social media.

And all this for just €49!

Endorsed by Qi Gong Master Lee Holden, I bring you a nurturing and joyful teaching style that makes Qi Gong accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

If you're ready to find calm amidst the chaos, click below to watch the trailer and learn more about this transformative course. Let’s move together towards a more balanced, peaceful, and empowered life, for all of us. Yes, YOU TOO.

https://www.elinekieft.com/qi-gong-for-overwhelm-freedom

What are you doing 17,000 to 30,000 times a day, every day without even thinking about it? Exactly! Breathing. It’s called involuntary movement, meaning it happens automatically and is not under conscious control most of the time. That’s a good thing (otherwise I’d have forgotten to do it for sure with pretty dire consequences!)

🌬️ In my latest YouTube video you’ll find a delicious 15 minute seated breathing and movement meditation. Our breath is the fundamental source of Qi, our life force energy. When we make it more conscious, and breathe mindfully for a small time everyday, we can boost our Qi to nourish every cell, organ, and system in our body, fostering vitality and longevity. 🌊

Regulating your breath is important - both when you experience fatigue or low vitality and if you have abundant energy. By practicing techniques like the 4-Phase Breathing which you’ll learn in this routine, you replenish depleted energy reserves and promote resilience and longevity.

And the nice thing is… you can do it from the comfort of your chair or bed! How’s that for self care? 👍🏾

I strongly encourage you to take those 15 minutes because your body will love you for it. But if you really don’t have time… just take a moment to put your phone down. *yes, now*. Connect with your breath, hands gently resting in your lap, feeling each inhale and exhale like ocean tides. Repeat 3x!

You'll find a link to my YouTube Channel in the featured section at the top of this page!

This week I was so lucky to see the kingfisher that lives near our pond. I saw a blue flash, gone in the blink of an eye.

Especially because these encounters are so rare, they always wake me up to the preciousness of the moment. They happen so quickly that I often wonder if I imagined it.

This is a beautiful metaphor. My shamanic clients often ask with these almost otherworldly encounters, “is this real, or am I imagining it?”

For me this is an invitation to stay true to your own observations. We all perceive the world differently, and that doesn’t mean that one person‘s point of view is more valid, or more true than others. It is about allowing yourself to acknowledge different layers of awareness.

For me the most important question is, what do we do with these flashes of inspiration, insight and teaching that fall outside of mainstream knowledge?

If they help us wake up to the wonder of life, to the preciousness of being alive in a warm and breathing body, able to love and live and play and work, then by all means nurture them, give thanks for them, and perhaps transform them into art, or poetry, or dance.

What would the dance of Kingfisher be like, I wonder?

If you like these kinds of questions - I have a 30-day Dare to Dance with nature course full of inspiration of the Moving Muse!

You’ll find the link in the bio!

Images from Unsplash by René Lehmkuhl, Ahmed Fareed and Vincent van Zalinge

How does your body relate to the structures around you? How do you fit into space & architecture? Does the environment meet or contradict your multidimensional, pliable and moving body? Does it feel like a prison?

Yesterday I spoke to a mentoring client, who lives half the year in London, and half in wild nature somewhere in southern Europe. It was an adjustment for her, to be back in the City. The squareness of things, the boxed feeling of her room, the apparent lack of nature around her.

Coming home to the centre of who we are, and belonging to ourselves first wherever we are, is a way of meeting the space around you from the familiarity of your body.

Inviting a sense of play, like I do in my hallway in these pictures, is a great way to physically relate to your surroundings. Where are you different, where are you similar?

How does the spiral staircase of your spine, as it is called in Chinese medicine, relate to the square steps of stairs? How does the softness of your skin contrast with the brittleness of the wall?

And how, wherever you are, and however much or little energy you have, can your environment invite you into play?

When I took these pictures, I was pretty exhausted. Yet I found a window of curiosity to explore a little dance at home. Improvising conscious movement without agenda, showing up exactly as I was. I received so much joy and insight from this very simple exploration and felt playful and positive despite my exhaustion. May it inspire you too, today, to see your environment through new eyes.

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

I'm looking for 5 Beta Testers for my latest self-paced Qi Gong course: Overwhelm Freedom!

It's specifically designed to help you move through overwhelm and find peace and balance.

What You'll Get:
10 x 15-Minute Qi Gong Routines: Transform overwhelm, calm your mind, ground yourself, protect your energy, and more.

Exclusive Beta Tester Offer:
50% Off**: Get the course for just 25€ (regular price 49€).

What I Need From You:
- 3 comments on the course platform videos
- A written testimonial
- Answering a few questions about the course structure

Interested? Send me a direct message, and I'll send you a secret discount code!

Cheers,
Eline

Cooking holds many treasures for me. It is my much needed practical break in my work day (lunch has been my main meal for over 10 years). It’s a way of slowing down and reconnecting to my senses. It’s a celebration of abundance and gratitude. It’s alchemical transformation from raw to “cooked” (excuse my anthropologist pun, this is a famous dichotomy by Levis Strauss). It’s a part of my spiritual practice of mindfulness and gratitude. It’s an altar to the sacred. It’s my creative outlet. It’s one way of looking after my health. And it’s such fun! Oh, I should tell you, I love eating too! I’m secretly known as the food monster and apparently I have a “food face” when I’m enjoying every bite in rapture.

Why do I share this here? No, I haven’t secretly turned food blogger. But cooking for me is truly part of my embodied spirituality, a way of reconnecting with the seasons, nature and myself. It helps me slow down to appreciate the produce that found its way to my kitchen… it’s part of my body love, self care, my relationship with my partner, and a great balance to all the online stuff I’m engaged in all day.

I’d love to hear more about your relationship with cooking and food. And if there are ways I could help you release overwhelm in the kitchen and by extension in other areas of your life, please send me a DM!

In the picture you see a gluten-free almond apricot cake, tart and crispy and absolutely moreish…

From yesterday’s Weekly Sparkles Newsletter, to go with my new YouTube video on Heart Healing ❤️‍🩹

Our world is constantly changing, and you may feel overwhelmed by the flood of global news and stress surrounding political developments. In my home country, the Netherlands, they recently elected an extreme right wing party. In France, where I live, they voted for extreme left. It’s like the balance swings wildly in all directions.

I believe most such decisions are based in fear and disconnection. My partner Denis and I often talk about the feeling of powerlessness, what can we do in the face of such uncertainty? It’s so easy to feel anxious and despaired. I believe it’s more important than ever to stay grounded and strong in our own energy. One thing we can always do is return to our centre, and cultivate values of empathy, compassion, and kindness. Once we fill up with those qualities, they can flow out into our world that is so thirsty for it.

You could call it the frequency of love, as a powerful, unifying force that transcends the chaos of daily life and makes real connections with your body, the land and people around you. Together, we can navigate these turbulent times with grace and resilience. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!

Sign up for the weekly newsletter to get more content like this, including weekly reflection questions around the theme! You’ll find the sign up form and the link to the related Heart Healing Qi Gong video in the…. link in bio !

✨ Hey dear heart! A soothing, heart healing movement routine is waiting for you on YouTube! It both allows you to nourish your heart, however you're feeling right now, and connect to a sense of compassion, kindness and gratitude!

Let's move together! (Link to YouTube in Featured post above!)

Wild Soul Channel on YouTube! Here you find the link with the latest videos ready for you:

https://www.youtube.com/

It's been a process of deep listening to what my original contribution would be, how I could best serve you there, finding my 'unique voice' and how I want to share my passion with you...

And yes there has been some self-doubt as well ('It's all been done before', 'I have nothing new to offer', 'I'm too late to the YouTube game', 'my sound quality isn't professional enough' etc)....

But I've 'danced' with these doubts and am really excited to show up there consistently, with a brand-new video for you every Friday.

So far there are 6 videos ready for you: Digital Detox, Boundary Boost, Calm Mind, Stress Relief, Power Within and Heart Healing coming right now!

It would mean the world to me if you'd have a look, move along with the videos and follow Wild Soul Channel.

It's a funny thing, in a world with algorhythms - it truly does make a difference if you like, subscribe and comment below the videos.

It might feel impersonal to you, but 1) it really helps me to keep going, and 2) your active engagement really creates more visibility, so more people can benefit from it... Will you help me help others?

Yesterday in our Wise Warrior Qi Gong class, we worked with gratitude. What are some recent moments you are grateful for?

I remembered last Sunday, swaying with the thistles, dancing with the river, walking with my love, marvelling at the dragon fly and enjoying a lovely (windy!) picnic by the waterside… feeling so grateful for life and love.

Gratitude practice is not about “putting sugar over sh*t” as one of my teachers used to say. It’s about appreciating the good and special moments so that we are feeling resourced & able to meet the challenges…

Evolutionary, we are hardwired to look for danger, we never have to be taught how to worry. Most of us are naturals!

However, we could use some instruction (often a simple reminder is enough!) on encouraging our amazing minds and hearts to tune to qualities of appreciation, joy, wonder and gratitude…

That’s what we play with in the Qi Studio at the moment… you’re welcome to try it out for free - (including yesterdays replay), and perhaps you’d like to check my YouTube video on Healing Heart that comes out later today (noon French time)… you’ll find the links in the bio!

But for now, before scrolling on… please think of 3 things you’re grateful for… I’d love to read them!

Have a beautiful day!
Eline