I’m living in Bali for two years now. It is nice to feel the differences between what you’re used too back home and the new impressions of a new country. Some things you’ll never understand while other things are getting ‘normal’ for you, without realizing you take it for granted…

Read my first story HERE.

How Bali Changed Me

In the two years there changed a lot. The biggest change occured within myself. I found myself, I am calm, I am not restless anymore. Another big change is my point of view of a lot of things. My point of view of Bali as well as my point of view of The Netherlands. In the beginning I saw Bali only through my pink sunglasses: living in Bali was like living in paradise, everything was better than anywhere else in the world. Of course this is impossible. No matter where you live in the world, the grass is always greener on the other side. And every time when I go back ‘home’ in the Netherlands, I find it fascinating how beautiful that country actually is. I can’t remember ever sitting in the train starring at the “polder” and enjoying it so much as I do now, since I left Holland. It feels that after two years I finally see everything in the right perspective while it was an emotional rollercoaster for me before.

The chill and relax vibe that Bali has vs. the stress and rush in Holland. There is no good or bad. I like it a lot that in Bali there is not much pressure, but at the same time living in Bali drives me crazy sometimes. For exapmle Last week, I needed to send a package and I went to 3 different post offices, they all ran out of stamps (isnt’t that the most important thing a postoffice need?) so I had to come back a day later (or two)
while in Holland people are complaining about all the ‘rules’ sometimes… I wish there were a little bit more rules in Indonesia.

For me I think I need the chaos around me to calm myself, if that make sense for you. Bali is a perfect mix between Asia and the western society (because of tourism), the hectic traffic and the secret and silent beaches. Half of the people are surfing of doing yoga while the other half is partying till early morning. I love the contrast, the balance, it think we all need that. Yin and yang.

he training was intense, I had to wake up at 5AM 6 days a week, I was finished at 7PM, it was exhausting, so much information in such a short time (5 weeks), my body was tired and at night I couldn’t fall asleep because my mind was taking over. After I finished the training I finally understood what they were trying to teach me during the training. Yoga is not only bringing both of your legs in your neck, its a lifestyle. It starts as soon as you wake up and you practice it all day long. The way you breathe, the way you accept things, the way you react on people, and so on – it’s all yoga to me.

I see my teachertraining as a foundation and from there the journey starts. It took me a long time before I started to teach yoga. During my first yoga class I only teached friends, which is maybe scarier than ‘strangers’ but they also helped me lot. They were critical and gave me good tips. After a while I had more confidence and I started to teach in yoga schools. As soon as I started I saw myself in this new role – Hey, I am a yoga teacher! – I felt complete. This was it. My new job, it doesn’t feel like work. It feels like me.