One Heart

In Fethiye we are used to seeing people from different parts of the world and especially from the UK. Yet , last week there was a youth group visiting Turkey as a part of an International Youth Camp and Exchange Program of The Lions Club. There is a Lions Club in Fethiye. The current president of the club is Mrs.Nurcan İnce. This year I became the secretary of the club.

With this exchange program 27 students from 14 different countries came to Fethiye for 4 days of activities. Of course these students stayed with different host families before coming together as a group and also travelled to Pamukkale before coming to Fethiye.

The Fethiye Lions Club is the supporting club for this international activity. On July 21st, the group was welcomed to Fethiye with a lunch at Taş Fırın in Fethiye. Then the group went on to their 2 days/1 night boat trip. Later on they stayed at a hotel in Çalış for the remainder of the program. Apart from swimming and enjoying the wonderful nature, the youth group went on a jeep safari and also to a Turkish bat, hamam.

On the day that the group arrived I had the chance to talk with some of the visitors. One young lady was from Ohio in the US. One was from Poland and it was her second time in Turkey; she loved lokma and tulumba deserts of Turkey. And one young lady was from Germany and I talked with her about my visit to Germany, especially my trip to The Neuschwanstein Castle near Munich, the original castle that The Disney Magic Kingdom Castle was designed after.

I did not have the time to talk to all of them in detail, yet one young man from Italy shared that he found Turks and Italians really similar. I agree. I find Italians a little more joyful than Turks though.

When I visited the students at their hotel with my fellow Lions Club members the night before they were to leave Fethiye, it was wonderful to see them so very connected as if they were all from the same country, as if they have been friends for a very long time.

The language of the exchange program was English and this made it possible for us to connect and communicate with them as well. My French was quite insufficient when I tried to converse with two young ladies, one from France and one from Belgium, so we continued to talk in English.

On their last night in Fethiye, the youth group had a surprise for us and for the guests of the hotel they were staying at in Çalış. They had prepared a show of traditional Turkish dances of about 30-40 minutes. They danced to tunes from different regions of Turkey. The students told us afterwards that they have been practicing for one hour every day. They were quite amazing and we really had fun watching them and so did the guests of the hotel. The students seemed to be enjoying themselves, too.

The Fethiye Lions Club is quite active with educational and youth projects in Fethiye. Also, for those of you who are interested or who are already Lions, I would like to remind you that The Lions Club in Fethiye meets twice a month, on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month, at noon at Ata Park Hotel in Fethiye.

For more information on Lions Clubs, check out the website http://www.lionsclubs.org/ .

I will try to share our local activities and projects with you in the coming weeks.

May you have a week filled with joy, fun and happiness.

With love,
Z.

Angel of the Week: Patience

Affirmation of the Week: “There is only one voice worth listening to, the voice of my own heart.”

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation: Many Lives, Many Masters By Brian, L. Weiss, M.D. The name of the Turkish translation of this book is Birçok Yaşam Birçok Üstat. I heard that the Turkish translation is now out of print. Yet, if you can get hold of a copy, please do read. I really recommend this book on past-life therapy by the prominent psychiatrist Brian Weiss.

Original or Pirate?

I was visiting one of my friends in İstanbul. She had visited me in Fethiye a couple of years. She showed me a book she bought in Fethiye, a very good book by Trevanian. The name of the book is Shibumi. It is one of my favourites. All is good so far. Yet she tells “Zeynep, I bought this book in Fethiye and I think it is a pirate copy.” Now, I do not know the proper term in English, I am not sure if there is one, but in Turkey we call books that are illegal prints of original books - pirate books (korsan kitap). I also looked at the book. The cover looked original yet the pages seemed a little strange. This book surely was not an original. She was really sad and so was I. My friend could not remember exactly where she bought the book, since it had been a couple of years. But she recalled that it was on the main seaside where tour boats take off.

I have always been very careful about pirate books. Since I get to travel to various cities and towns in Turkey, I also buy books when I am travelling, and I see many different shops that sell book. In the cities in Eastern Turkey I have seen a lot of pirate books on sale, and I try to be very careful to check the books. The ministry of culture puts on a lot of effort to stop illegal copy publishing of books, yet maybe this is an issue much grander than I give it credit for. My friends comment was not the first I heard about copy books in Fethiye, but it was the first time I heard it directly from a friend. And the topic suddenly became more real.

There is so much effort in writing, preparing and publishing a book that I find publishing and selling illegal copies of original books is something not to be tolerated. And since I have published three books this year, I am becoming more and more aware of the effort that needs to be put into a book until it makes it to the shelves. I would like to request your help to stop selling of pirate books in Fethiye. Let us inform in each other and protect the rights of authors, publishers and all of the people who work in editing, publishing and selling of book.


This March and April, two of my books “Reiki’yi Yaşıyorum-I am Living Reiki” and “Görüşler-Opinions” had been published. Recently, about a week ago, my third book “Dönüşüm Oyunu Gerçek mi?- Is The Transformation Game Real?” has been out. All three books currently only in Turkish unfortunately. I am really enjoying the process, yet I am also becoming more aware of the issues and problems of authors in Turkey.

In Fethiye you can find my books at Natur Bookstore, or in D&R and other major Bookstores in Turkey and through the internet sites such as kiapyurdu.com, netkitap.com or ideefixe.com.



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I was intending to write about a wonderful exhibition I had the chance to see at Tate Modern a few weeks ago. Yet, a visit to a friend in Istanbul took me elsewhere this week… Yet, I would like to remind you that the exhibition at Tate Modern is on Futurism and I really recommend it. The selection for the exhibition is filled with light, love and passion.

I wish you a colourful week.
With love,
Zeynep

Madonna, Jyorei or The Kyoto Garden?

I came from London to Istanbul tonight. I am happy to be back in Istanbul, yet I miss London. Although I got the chance to do a lot, it still was not enough.

I really like London. It is a city that I feel at home in. The weather was quite nice when I was there. Friends told me that London has been especially hot this summer although quite cool in these last days. They told me that about a week ago the temperature was over 30 degrees.

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On the first day that I arrived in London, I visited The Shumei London Centre in Swiss Cottage. That Centre seems to have a lovely energy and to me it resembles the energy of The Shumei Centre in Istanbul. They both have high ceilings, light colours inside and have special calming and cleansing energies. Of course The Shumei Istanbul Centre has a wonderful view of The Topkapi Palace and The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (The Blue Mosque) and The Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya). It had been a while since I received Jyorei last; so I really appreciated receiving Jyorei at the Centre. I feel empowered with this strong and cleansing energy. Some of you might know that Jyorei is a Japanese energy healing technique developed by Great Master Mokichi Okada known as Meishusama (Master of Light), who is also the founder of the Japanese organisation Shumei.

The head of The Shumei London Centre Joe Amanai Sensei was in Milan for an event that day and I would have to wait for my last day in London to see Joe Sensei. He is such a strong, wise, yet humble and friendly teacher. I feel his continuous support. Joe Sensei came to Istanbul quite a number of times, and I really hope that he can visit us in Fethiye in the future as well. At The Shumei Centre I had the chance to see two old friends, one originally from France and the other from Bosnia. Another friend who has Syrian origins was also visiting the Centre and I had the chance to talk to him a little as well. I always appreciate groups like Shumei who bring like minded people of all origins, nations, religions and traditions together.

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When I was in London, I went to the Madonna Concert, from her Sticky & Sweet Tour. It was the first time I watched Madonna live. I must say that this lady who is 12 years older than me seemed to have endless energy. And I think that she made sure that all in the audience saw it clearly as well. Her show was very well planned and organised although Madonna came on stage about an hour late and the audience was about to get restless as we kept on waiting. It was my first time to go to London O2 and I really liked the stage. Since the Jubilee Line was closed that weekend, we needed to take a longer route through Canary Wharf to make it to The O2. Still, I believe it was worth the trouble.





This weekend in London I went to several restaurants and some casual fast service Italian ones. If you like Italian food and you would like good food with fast service, you may want to try Princi or Vapiano. Also, I went to Babylon at The Roof Gardens very close to the High Street Kensington tube station for Sunday lunch. There was quite a breeze outside so we sat inside first. Later on for coffee we had the chance to sit outside and see the garden on the 6th floor of the same building. If you are in the neighbourhood you can just go up and see the garden.

The next night I went to The Oxo Tower for dinner. This was the second time. I think it was 10 years ago that I went to The Oxo Tower restaurant for the first time. The view from that restaurant is one of my all time favourites. There is a lot you can find in London, especially when it comes to good food. Yet I need to say that over the years Istanbul is starting to compete with cities like London when it comes to food and restaurants. And The Bosphorous in Istanbul with its shades of blue and lovely breeze welcomes all…

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Kyoto in Japan is a city that I also like a lot. Yesterday I went to a special garden in Holland Park in London, called The Kyoto Garden and while walking around the pond in that small garden, for a few minutes I felt like I was in the garden of a temple in Japan. I realized that I miss Japan a lot already. This Japanese garden in Holland Park had been constructed as part of The Japan Festival in 1991 as a gift. … There is a special stillness and timeless energy in Japanese gardens. It is as if the time stops, and life goes on in these gardens forever…


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When I was in London, I could not stop thinking about the sustainability training I attended a few weeks ago. I couldn’t stop thinking about preserving nature and also about "Transition Towns". Tonight in Istanbul I am reading the book The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins, who is the founder of the Transition movement. I keep asking myself, “Is it too late? Or can we still make a change?” Norman Cousins says “All things are possible once enough human beings realise that everything is at stake.”

I am in Istanbul, a part of me is still in London, and I am thinking of a lot of things…

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Angel of the Week: Respect

Quote of the Week: “Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfil his destiny.” Paul Tillich

I wish you a wonderful and lucky week. With lots of love,
Zeynep

Abundance

This morning I chose an angel card for myself and the angel of abundance came.

And I would like to invite the energy of abundance into our lives this week with some reminders and tips on how to keep the energy of abundance full and flowing.

Since the famous book and movie The Secret has been out we have been talking about methods to improve our health, relationships and finances. And indeed there are things that we can use to improve the overall conditions in our lives.

Richard Carlson and John Randolph Price are two authors who I believe really have something worthwhile to read. “Don’t Worry Make Money” and “The Abundance Book” are two valuable books by these authors. There are many more, and many of the books on the law of attraction are valuable resources to draw prosperity and abundance into your lives.

Gratitude
Attitude of gratitude is considered to be the simplest and one of the most powerful tools in creating abundance consciousness, which brings abundance to health, relationships, wealth, love and more. Some of you might know that I am also a Reiki teacher, and gratitude is a very important concept in Reiki healings to keep our energy high and strong. Gratitude means thanking to the sources that we believe brings the good into our lives. As the work of Japanese Masaru Emoto shows, words of thanks improve the quality of water. As we as humans are made up of almost 70 percent water, thanking – whether we say it or hear it – improve the quality of the water in our body. Our body energy becomes stronger in that respect.

Show gratitude in whatever way you can. If not to please anyone, most importantly to improve your health. How? Whatever your health or financial condition may be, everyday for at least 15 minutes feel real gratitude for whatever it is that you already have. Yes, fake it if you find it hard to make yourself feel gratitude. Because if you do concentrate on the things that you do not have, it is not possible to create the right energy to allow or attract better conditions and opportunities into your life.

If you are able to do the 15 minute a day gratitude exercise for 21 days in a row, new neural connections will form in your brain which will allow you to do this more and more easily from then on. Gratitude is a very strong tool. Please use it.

Power of a Smile
The power of humour and the power of a smile are hard to believe in before you try bringing more fun into your life. Smiling and laughing improve our energy immediately. Since we are able to feel only one strong emotion at a time, when we are happy and having fun, we cannot be sad at the same time. That is one of the reasons why to smile regardless of how you might be feeling, changes our mood so quickly. Smiling changes our hormone secretions and the results are very fast and effective. Try being sad and smiling at the same time. ... It will not work.

Please use this simple bit of information. Use it to improve your level of happiness. Smile at home, smile at the office. You will feel better as well as the people who are with you. And start by faking a smile when you do not feel like it. After a while, it will become genuine. Can a smile bring abundance into our lives? Why not give it a try this week and see for yourself? And better try for three consecutive weeks and observe the changes that will take place in your life.

What are your beliefs about wealth and abundance?

Although most of us want wealth and abundance in our lives, we are not totally aware of the negative connotations especially wealth has in our minds, especially subconscious minds. Many people tend to associate wealth with selfishness, greed, unjust use of power, even cruelty. In many of the coaching and healing sessions with my clients, we discover that if we are experiencing financial difficulties in our lives, this means that somewhere deep in our minds we believe that we are better off the way we are. There are beliefs engraved in our subconscious which we are mostly unaware of. Beliefs of our parents or families, beliefs and patterns of our community influence us since childhood. We grow with fears. And we do not even know what we are afraid of.

Do you feel or express any negative feelings or thoughts about wealth or money? What is the vocabulary that you use when you talk about people who are very rich and wealthy?

And of course to be able to attract abundance, we need to bring ourselves to the same energy level. Similar energies exist together. You cannot feel very unlucky and experience luck at the same time. It is not possible to concentrate on your lack of health and expect your health to improve. It is important to look into our health problems and find treatments and solutions. What I mean is - not to concentrate on the illness, but to concentrate on ways to improve it, and what we will see, feel or thinks when the healing is achieved. Mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Some teachers recommend keeping abundance consciousness strong from 40 to 42 days every day consecutively to break the habits of lack consciousness, lack thinking. At least 21 days are needed for the new connections to be made in our brain.
Whenever you catch yourself thinking about lack, talking about lack, reverse the thought and imagine abundance in the same intensity. This will help you short circuit the negative patterns.

I am aware that it is not easy to part with patterns that we have been brought up with. Yet, to use our full potential, to make our dreams come true, we need to discover and let those old patterns go. And not to fall back to old habits, we need to make new habits of thinking more positive thoughts and talking more positive words.

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This week please concentrate on gratitude and your smile. And be open and honest to yourself: What do you really want? ... That is a valuable question to ask. We will look more deeply into abundance with each week to come.

With lots of love,
Zeynep


From the Angels: Be honest with yourself. Look into your heart and you will know the truth of the situation. It’s safe to admit the truth to yourself, for we will support and guide you through any necessary changes. Lean upon us for courage and the strength to take good care of yourself. Focus only upon your true desires, and they’ll come to you upon angels’ wings.

Nonviolent Communication and More

I was in Bolu at Abant Izzet Baysal University last week for a workshop. The topic of the workshop was Sustainable Living. This was the third time this workshop was organised in Turkey.

Twice it was organized in Ankara at Middle East Technical University. This time it was in Bolu. The two main instructors at the workshop were Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland. May East and Michael Shaw came to Turkey to teach about social and ecological aspects of sustainability. This was May East’s third time in Turkey, and the second time for Michael Shaw.

I have deep respect for people who are not only taking about the environment, the pollution, the carbon emissions, but doing what they can to protect and to inform and awaken others. I have respect for the actions taken by Findhorn and its community members.

There was great emphasis on social sustainability in the workshop. Most of the people were expecting to hear mainly the ecological aspects, yet global experiences have shown that communities, associations, groups that bring people together for a cause fail unless there is social sustainability in the structure. Both May and Michael shared that initiatives fail not because there are not sufficient funds or there is not enough good technology; projects fail because people are not able to live together, are not able to work and create together. They have studied the ecovillage initiatives in the world and 90% of these failed, and the main reasons seemed to be the social aspects. For that reason social aspects and methods were an equally important part of this workshop as well as the ecological aspects.

Nonviolent Communication, decision making processes, spiral dynamics and the transition town movements were some of the important elements and tools of social sustainability. Nonviolent Communication, NVC as it is more commonly known, is a very strong and important approach which is becoming more and more popular around the world. We keep hearing more about it in Turkey as well. NVC is a way of speaking that helps to exchange information and resolve conflict between different parties. NVC focuses on our feelings and our needs that bring up those feelings. It is an honest way of communication that focuses on a deeper understanding of ourselves and the people were are communicating with. The structure of it was created by Marshall B. Rosenberg and he has written many books about it. Nonviolent Communication is the most commonly known book of his. Teaching Children Compassionately and Speak Peace In a World of Conflict are two other books by Rosenberg I just completed reading. I recommend all of his books deeply. Unfortunately most of them are available only in English. Some people call NVC - this way of communication - compassionate communication.

NVC aims to set aside blames, put-downs, comparisons and judgements. It aims to create a safe zone with respect and care. It brings a new approach to talking and listening. It encourages us to observe situations and dialogues without evaluating. This objective evaluation creates a common and acceptable common ground in communication. I strongly recommend you to look into NVC. It is not something we can learn in a day; we need to undo some of our old habits of talking, evaluating and even judging. Yet with time it surely becomes a very effective tool.

NVC encourages us to express our feelings. Yet, as we try to do this it becomes more apparent that we are usually not in touch with our feelings. Most of what we call feelings seems to be how we think others are behaving. People use words such as abandoned, abused, neglected, let down, unsupported and rejected to describe so called feelings. Yet these are actually words that describe how we interpret what others are doing. Words that express feelings are words like amazed, confident, calm, carefree, delighted, fulfilled, thankful, or afraid, angry, annoyed, bewildered, cross, discouraged, mad, mean, unhappy, worried, upset, etc. NVC encourages us to enlarge our dictionary of feelings to be in touch with how we really are feeling. After objective observation, being able to express feelings is another important element of NVC.

I hope to share more about NVC and the social aspects of sustainability in the future. For now I send all of you lots of love from Istanbul. Hope to be in Fethiye soon.

From Rumi: “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”