So here we are, the damn blinking line flashing its fancy self at me saying come on…what have you got? I first heard Rob Bell talking about “the blinking line” when he was telling us about writing his first book. The blinking line is asking you: what will you bring into existence? He goes on to say…
“The blinking line, there is a reason it’s called a cursor”
Here I am in Bali, by myself, for one whole month! I arrived here on Monday 22nd August 2016 and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about taking this trip. My only job now is teaching yoga on Saturday mornings, and i’m not madly panicking about finding another job? What is wrong with me? Am I crazy? I have a mortgage on my own, i’m a single mum with a daughter (my dog) and I have no car. I have always had these things and more paid for by a well paid corporate job, and now I have absolutely no income for the next month or maybe more. I will tell you what I do have though which I haven’t always had…A DREAM, A PASSION, A GOAL and A VISION. I also believe in myself and am learning to drop the dreaded F word “FEAR”. It’s a word that has consumed me for most of my life, not only in my career progression but in friendships, family, relationships and just life in general. I’ve done a lot of work over the past couple of years on dropping the F word, and i’m finally starting to live from a space of non-judgment and living more from a heart space instead of a constant head space.
“You cannot find your soul with your mind, you must use your heart”
That’s not to say that all fear is bad, we need a certain element of fear in our lives, otherwise we wouldn’t know not to touch the hot stove, or stranger danger etc. It’s when you give fear the keys and let it drive, that is when fear gets in the way. I just read an awesome “letter to fear” that Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her Big Magic book.
So week one is drawing to an end, and when I first got here I arrived in Seminyak for three nights. It was absolute mayhem and madness about, and I was staying in the thick of it!! Some of you may have read my Instagram post about not being able to focus and feeling very uninspired, fear crept into my mind-space like a ninja swinging his sword around and doing whatever else ninja’s do…maybe throw in some nunchucks too. I didn’t try to fight it like I normally would though, I just sat with it and accepted that my own gentle practice in my room and some pool time was all that was going to happen during those three days. I did discover an incredible day spa called Cocoon when I was searching for salt therapy rooms in Bali. It was like walking onto the set of my labyrinth with spiral stair cases and full length mirrors that are very easy to walk into if you aren’t careful (I was warned, otherwise my clumsy arse would have totally done that!!). So going back to the labyrinth there were a few David Bowie look alike’s here also, and I quickly discovered that this is where the expats living in Bali come to get their botox and filler fix. I walked upstairs and I was sitting in the waiting area and offered a ginger tea with rosella (not the bird, the flower) in it and it was SOOOO delish and spicy. While I am awaiting the salt room, I overhear the owner talking to his PR company about how many celebrities come here when they are in Bali, and I just had visions of sitting in a salt room with Chris Hemsworth and…well you get the rest of that vision. A missed opportunity for Chris on this occasion, I had the salt room to myself, it was like being in a gorgeous glowing cave and I instantly forgot I was in Seminyak. The walls were lined with Himalayan salt bricks and there was a machine that pumped out fine particles of salt mist into the room. I was in the room for 45 minutes of bliss, when I got out my sinuses were so clear and I felt like I had pushed a reset button. Highly highly recommend this, especially for sufferers of asthma or respiratory issues. Better yet I went back and had a massage in there and that was new level again, I read somewhere that once you have a massage in a salt room you can’t go back to the norm and its true. I ate at my favourite places in Seminyak Sisterfields, Earth Cafe and also tried a new restaurant with my new friends from Melbourne The Plantation Grill and a naughty burger at the new Boss Man (best burger I have EVER eaten).
Next up was Ubud, and I was pretty damn excited to be leaving Seminyak let me tell you. I had an hour and 20 minute drive to Ubud from Seminyak, and when I arrived it was about 5:30pm. I had vaguely read the instructions from my Airbnb host, but thought I would just wait until I got there to check it quickly…I mean how hard could it be really?? 🙄Pretty damn hard when you have google maps telling you are there and when you ask around not one local has heard of the villa you are staying in. I tried to call my host but the line was bad and then the inevitable happened, FLAT BATTERY on my phone! So I just start walking with my 25kg bag and equally heavy hand luggage (still learning the travel light as per my previous blog post). I come to a no car section and this part comes back to me from reading the directions, he said I would come to a section that was Bikes only. So I continue my trek and it is one big arse hill which I would struggle to walk up at the best of times, let alone with 30kg of luggage combined. It was only a narrow hill too and not only do I have my luggage and the heat to contend with, there are motorbikes and scooters flying past me up this hill. I finally get to top and there were a mixture of really helpful Indonesian woman wanting to help me get to their Warung’s to eat. I politely decline and continue my trek, all of a sudden it dawns on me that there aren’t too many people around and its going to be dark soon. I need to try to find somewhere to plug my phone in so I can contact the host again. All I’m seeing are villa’s with no reception desks, when I come across Nyoman and his coconut stand and he welcomes me in with open arms. I ask him if he knows where my villa is and he says he has never heard of it before, and then thinks I may have got the name wrong and proceeds to rattle off the names of 50 other villas in the area finding humour in it every time I say no. Also at the coconut stand were a French couple, I explain the issue to them and they just so happen to have a portable iPhone charger (worth the investment I think). Only the phone is so dead, after 15 minutes it still won’t turn on. I finally come up with an idea and remember I have my Mac in my bag, so just for a minute I want you to picture this…i’m standing at a coconut stand on the side of a rice paddy in the middle of nowhere with a suitcase big enough to fit me and a small Indonesian family in it, my Mac balancing on top with my iPhone plugged into it just waiting. Then this gorgeous Indonesian student comes past and is desperate to help me, offering his phone and anything he can do to help (bless his little cotton socks if he was wearing any). Next minute the phone finally turns on, I retrieve the directions and I was a 2 minute walk away. Nyoman leaves his coconut stand, takes my bags and walks me to my villa. I gave him the equivalent of $2 which was all I had left after paying my driver and he was stoked.
I finally arrive at AIR which stands for Artist Inn Residency, but in the Indonesian language air also means water and this studio is right on a small flowing river, and let me tell you it was worth every bit of what felt like dragging my suitcase up Everest. It had this instant feel of calm about it and all of that crazy Seminyak energy just melted away. I was greeted by Ole and he showed me by gorgeous room. Straight away I saw there was A LADDER to climb up to my bed on a mezzanine floor, all of a sudden my inner child screamed with excitement…until I was on the ladder, and then the memories of my brother and step brother trying to kick my hands off the ladder so I couldn’t climb to the top bunk and hang out with the boys came flooding back. Having brothers gave me a strength I never knew I had, especially when it came to UFC tournaments in the “good living room” (there was way more room in there). Anyway back to AIR, my studio also had a living area with an external hard drive pre-loaded with inspirational TED talks, documentaries, fat freddy’s drop tunes and wait for it…cat videos and epic fails!! Do they even want me to leave this room EVER?? There was a desk overlooking the lush green gardens and valley with not a neighbour in site. I sat at that desk for hours and found so much inspiration come to me. I seriously could live in this place, and a lot of people do. They have made it so affordable, the room was only $50 per night (this is peak season also) and they do long-term rental deals also with the optional use of their upstairs studio, which is HUGE. So whether you are an artist, graphic designer, yogi, or any creative type for that matter, this place is FOR YOU.
It was time to jump back into scooter life and go exploring. First stop Radiantly Alive, where I did a Tibetan Heart Yoga class with Rusty. The class was full and there was an incredible energy in the room. We warmed up by raising our kundalini, for those who aren’t familiar with Kundalini, it is a spiritual energy that is believed to sit nestled at the base of the spine (root chakra). Kundalini yoga practitioners believe it to be the manifestation of the female energy, with the male energy resting on top of the head in your crown chakra. The goal of raising Kundalini is to help this energy rise up your spine, activating each chakra along the way, until it meets with the Shiva, or male energy to produce enlightenment. There are many ways to raise Kundalini and we did this by running back and forth on our mats, which was a very light meditative movement and we increased the past slowly. We then started a flow to open the hips, hamstrings and hearts. Then onto Pranayama (breathing) exercise, which was all about opening the heart and became a beautiful dance moving with the breath. Then onto some partner work which involved trust, which once you open your heart becomes a lot easier. Then back to our mats to a seated position, we were asked to think of someone who needed some healing in our lives and to picture that person while singing the mantra Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Say So Hung. This healing meditation is used to pray for healing energy for our friends, family, and ourselves. There were a lot of tears coming out of this meditation and it was just beautiful to see so many open hearts. We followed with savasana and finished the class with three om’s. *Raw honest moment* I am afraid to start the Om in my classes! I absolutely love Om’s and that feeling of it vibrating through my body, but I am petrified to start them because I’m scared some weird squark is going to come out to start with. I plan to sit comfortably with this by the time I return, so get ready to get your om on.
Next yoga class was with Sandi (the host of AIR) at Intuitive Flow, which has the most amazing view from a yoga studio I have ever seen. I did a gorg Yin class with Sandi and felt like a new woman after this. A cafe close by is Yellow Flower Cafe, I didn’t get to eat here as I needed to get home but have heard great things about it.
The only thing AIR didn’t have was a pool and I felt like an afternoon swim so I checked out Jungle Fish, which was very impressive. Again on the edge of a valley you will find a MASSIVE infinity pool. Entry fee is $10 (probably better to go in the morning to catch the sun and make a day of it) and they have a bar with lots of yummy cocktails, food and wait for it…swinging beds! There were quite a lot of Instagram model shoots on the edge of the pool, but who’s judging with a view like that…go for it!
Ok food time in Ubud:
Bali Buddha – opposite Radiantly Alive studio and I recommend the Tofu and veggie curry.
Clear Cafe – the old cafe which was right in the middle of town burnt down over a year ago now, which is a shame as it was such a beautiful place. However they rebuilt on Campuhan Rd (opposite Bridges Restaurant) and it is on the edge of the valley and have the most epic views. I recommend sitting at the top, and I can’t even tell you how good (and massive) this menu is. Anyone who knows me, will know that I suffer from order anxiety when there are too many options and that is exactly what happened here. I settled for the Dragon Bowl and Green Juice.
Alchemy – this place has tripled in size since last time I was here and it is still as good as ever. In fact it would have to be one of my favourite places EVER to eat. Someone please open up an Alchemy in Melbourne. Lucky for me they have now created a raw cook book and although this will probably make my luggage need its own private jet, I will be purchasing it. Dinner at my place anybody? They have the most incredible salad options and you can build your own, some of the yummiest toppings I have seen. I have had plenty of these, so I opted for the raw mushroom, spinach and cashew cheese quiche and it was new level!! BEST meal I have had in Bali to date, followed with a green juice. I came back again and had the nacho plate and tumeric drink which was also amazing.
Soma – great for dinner, this place is like a fairytale at night lit up with stunning lighting and candles. They also have live music with guitars, bongo’s and one insane pianist (this mans got skill). Some yogi’s join in for an impromptu chant, and the atmosphere is perfect while enjoying a nice cold cider and waiting for my delish fish curry.
Unfortunately I could only stay in the studio at AIR for two nights as they were heavily booked and I had decided to extend my stay in Ubud, so I checked into Villa Capung Mas. It has been there for a few years, but they have just extended and build four brand new villa’s which are fantastic. If anyone saw my Insta story you would have seen the tropical garden in my bathroom!! The pool was so refreshing and dropped off into (you guessed it) the valley.
So this is the end of my Ubud stay, however I decided that I will be back after Gili as I feel like I need to spend some serious time at Yoga Barn. So off to Gili Trawangan I go…stay tuned for Part Two.
Peace, love and bali bliss hugs 🙏🏾
Legsy xxx
Live Light Yoga & Wellness 
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