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Nature teaches different than any human.
I actually dont know how my mind will survive in the beginning without the ocean. This ocean specificly. The sound of these waves gave me so many answers that couldnt reach me from anywhere else. If I could’ve bottled the smell of a fresh sea breeze, i wouldve been a millionaire more than once by now. Breathing is more spacious in Nature.
Hello Charlé welcome to the childhoodmothers community, I really love your peace and the natural flair that comes from your Instagram page. What role does nature play in your everyday life?
Thank you for that complimentary observation Marie-Colette.
Freedom and nourishing. Always.
Nature is an Energy as well as a substance with so uncountable many more answers and lessons than we’ll ever comprehend. I see bit of a surreal correlation between Nature and meditation: both heal and strengthened more by removing extras from us (negatice energies, overstimulation, noise, rush, distraction, ego) than it actually adds. If used as tea or medicine, it also cleanses the skin, remove or destroy toxic cells inside the body. We need less than we think.
I used to live in Amsterdam for 27yrs. My lifestyle then included more flights than i can remember. I came to S-Afr with my daughter with one of main intentions for her to have access to Nature as a norm. That realised amazingly well after I bought a small holding 5yrs ago, next to this strong quiet mountain, while also 15km from several beaches. That specific combination I used to feed many a joy and grace and teachings from as a child. I’m more than happy and grateful for the the todler years she had grown up here… her picking up dead snakes (in spite of how her mum screaches behind her) and hand-picking herbs for cooking at night and recognizing different proteas during breathtaking hikes up the mountains and guessing how big the waves will be in the morning based on the size of the moon at night… thats an education that can never be taken from her. And that I as a person probably never could’ve taught her. Nature teaches different than any human.
For myself: when returning to Europe, I actually dont know how my mind will survive in the beginning without the ocean. This ocean specificly. The sound of these waves gave me so many answers that couldnt reach me from anywhere else. If I could’ve bottled the smell of a fresh sea breeze, i wouldve been a millionaire more than once by now. Breathing is more spacious in Nature.
I know you are a conscious woman,
If you could change the world, what would you do?
Jo. Save every child that needs saving in all the different ways across the world.
Instantly stop producing cigarettes worldwide. That is a like suicide in slow motion, to every one who uses it and those around them.
Any new plastic-produce may also stop per immediate. We have enough to recycle for another more than forever.
What was the biggest lesson life taught you?
Goodness you do only for yourself.
Love is not always healthy, even if real. Life is so rich, it didn’t teach me only one lesson.
🌈What life confirms to me repeatedly is Honesty. Always. Prevails.
Since when do you practice Yoga? How did it starts?
I started when i was 19. Sinds the first week I acknowledge how effective it is for my mind, keeping healthy habits, sleep patterns… the ripple effect on daily priorities are only positively influanced. Always in my case. I cannot recall once I stepped off the mat that I felt worse than when I stepped on.
A girlfriend got irritated when someone suggested yoga to her for her anxiety during exams, to support her I said I’ll join her for the first class. In that appear to be an opening for the upcoming teacher training… long story short, I did that training a week later, and didn’t stop sinds. I did several trainings and workshops over the years, incl trauma-informed training, which is what i work with mostly the last 6yrs.
In spite of having some inactive years inbetween, it was always appreciated the numerous advantages of yoga in different ways in any person’s life. For example when i couldn’t do an actual asana due to a serious car accident in 2000, I still in retrospect could see how the practices of the years prior contributed to strong recoveries during ICU, 14 operations and indescribable healings over a period of 3yrs there after. Same goes for my pregnancy: it is believed the 5hr labour without any painkillers was possible due to a zen mind and daily pranayama meditations during the pregnancy.
How do you forward this passion to your daughter?
At this stage its more yoga off the mat between her and myself. I’m happy to notice in the last year or two, that pranayama and a natural self-insight have got a more prominent seat in her mundane life. It’s noticable the contact she has with her own inner, especially in moments where she did somehing less applausable. (not that insight always prevent the stubbornness to do it anyway.)
She does not attend the group classes i teach to kids, however the smaller sessions with 2 seperate autistic children, she does take part in.
My personal weekly sessions are mostly on the beach (thank you Universe for that being part of my reality), where she will either play around me or join… i leave that up to her. We read Buddha night stories together, which i find give space for easy talks about different values and choicesas amongst all our precious souls. Her bookshelf also has content with yoga asanas and stories for kids, from which she will experiment different positions by herself or with friends.
I believe the subconcious is a powerful mordant in any child’s development, on an emotional and spiritual way more than with adults.
What is the benefit of Yoga when parenting?
Flux. Meditation. Follow the natural rhythm during a situation, as you follow your breath during the asana.
You do always know what is best, as your body will always tell on how far it can go in each practice.
What is your take on motherhood?
An immense privilege. Irrelivant of how that position came upon the woman.
Only relationship ever in my life that is all-consuming by choice, and in spite of being so confronting at times, it is eternally rewarding.
First that comes up here for me, is that she doesn’t belong to me. She is her own person. I think other parents might be critical towards me on that sometimes, even my own mum, however I find important that she can trust to listen to her own voice. At this younger age that does include re-capping or re-doing some things, which I rather now mostly try to take the time and patience for than for her not to be able to trust her own mind as a young grownup.
The intentions is to give and show my daughter best examples and information for her life, for her character and her needs, in honesty and integrity. I dont always succeed to example that perfect or even well, which then consequently becomes the lesson for me to show her the integrity in thát… to apologise when i get irritated, or when i snap or am distracted due to personal low energies and/or overloaded mind, whether towards her or another.
Believe I treat all childrens as little individuals. Those souls are all individual humans in their own way. It somehow is natural for me to accomodate their presence in my life, for whatever reason and however long or short, as such.
What are your morning rituals?
I’m not much of a ritual person. I do need quiet time by myself one way or the other, and a coffee. haha.
Whether in our normal school routine days or on holidays or alone or with people.
Either I wake up earlier than my child to create that silent solitude… pranayama exercises, journaling and enjoying silence.
Some mornings I’ll take her to school first, after which i can freely absorb my inner self at the beach. That includes a coffee from the best coffeeman at the one small beach, a stroll on the calming cliff path next to this long stretched-out coastline here, and then yoga and journaling on one of the more quiet beaches.
Twice a week that is by myself, another 2 mornings are to teach.
Less frequently I’ll take a hike up the mountain, also with some yoga and meditation up there.
Without intending to, I’m daily aware of the privilege it is to have these environments available before 9am any morning.
How was the little Charlé?
I think adventurous and free spirit, with a fiery intelligence that didnt have enough breathing space.
However that is based on the energies I pick up, not on personal experiences or stories as I never knew my dad.
All I have of him is my name… Charlé is his name without the s.
I was apparently expected to be a boy, arrived without the penis and in 2days Charles got altered to Charlé, which I’m very happy with for the rest of my life.
Like him, I was adventurous, though more by myself. I loved my solitude then already. I remember trees… always found a my-space in a tree where possible, or walks by myself. Then already I had a sense of not fitting in and where most dont like it, to me it was just an observation of the fact, with no judgement.
I didn’t like TV, enjoyed writing, though it was often used for harbouring privacy… leaves and flowers and notes to myself between the pages.
What did she dream of? Saving children, any child anywhere. I had a mature (self-) responsibility at quite a young age.
A favorite dish: ice cream. still.
favorite toy: swings and trees.
or book: Although I did enjoy reading, I dont recall a favorite read. Writing or note books however always, preferably pages without lines: under my mattress, in my wardrobe, in the tree. I’d build miniature wooden and rock houses for my books in the tree, with a pencil, for when it rains and so i dont have to carry it up and down daily. (practicality of a gemini haha.)
What advice can you give to woman or parents who suffer from stress and toxic relationships?
Somehow for me those two will be different groups.
Yoga for both. 😊
For parents specificly definitely rest. Rest is quite an overlooked essential in this day and time. Its not an award. However few minutes per day, find that quiet voice within amongst all the noise.
Delete perfection eternally from your mind and vocabularly.
For a woman: balance between a humble groundedness and intentions that can make you believe in yourself in such a way that a bulldozer cannot move it. Yoga can really help to sustain that moral. Then, doesn’t matter how and in what way you fucked up, that was what you did in that moment, it’s not who you are.
Also daily return to the stillniss within, its not jeans, nobody else’s peace of mind can work on you.
Thank you so much Charlé for opening your heart and your story to the community.
I am so happy to share your testimony. Much love to you!
Charlé Marais
A conscious mother of a wonderful daughterYoga & Medidation by the sea
Follow the conscious world of Charlé and be inspired by her wise words ! Feel free to share your story with the community and write a comment.
Stay close to Nature, Marie.