LAURA MARIA: A LIFE AS IN A PINK BALLOON

Laura Maria and her son, Sasha

When I first Laura Maria, she was a PR Manager for one the biggest independent radio stations in Romania. And a very good one. At some point in our lives, we lost contact and after some time, I accidentaly discovered her as columnist for a national newspaper and a blogger (life in a pink balloon).  To my surprise, Laura Maria was writing about her experiences she was having in her new life in…Brazil. I was amazed and happy and inspired. At the time, I was also a PR Manager in a advertising company but Laura’s story inspired me to believe in my dream. And imagine a different life than the one I was having at that time.  Because Laura Maria’s  journey to and through Brazil meant more than crossing the Ocean, to another continent. It was and I guess  still is a journey to her inner, authentic self. No wonder thousands of people were inspired by her. After all, isn’t it what we all aspire to? Being authentic and true to ourselves?

When and how did your spiritual journey begin? I have been on a spiritually journey ever since I can remember myself – God has always been a constant presence, interest, curiosity in my life, right from childhood. I was not older than 5-6 years old when I would sit on my knees and ask God to make us better, more loving, to teach us how to love each other, instead of fighting. I read the Bible for Kids at 7 and, beyond any concepts, the presence of God was always, somehow, in me. As a teenager, I remember that one of the most common discussions among my friends was if God truly existed. And for me it was such a certainty, a deep indubitable certainty… that I would just answer “yes”… but how do you know? I just know, I feel, is in me…Then, the work came and the carrier and the “pursuit of happiness” according to the standards of the system… and God stopped to be a main focus, but still always present in the background. Then came the 29 years old crisis and I began to search for God, this time with a mind full of ideas, books, concepts and intellectual approach to everything…

According to nowadays society standards, you were a successful person. You had a career, money, social status and yet you decided to give these up and start a new life. What was missing? All was good, until the moment when it wasn’t good anymore. Nature was missing. Truth. Authenticity. Deep true connection to myself and others. Time for really seeing, feeling, understanding. God has started to call me home. So I have really started to slow down and listen to my heart. I used to have a tree in IOR Park (Bucharest), he was my friend. I would go and sit next to him and ask him what to do, close my eyes and let him tell me… Of course, it was my heart opening and me starting to hear it. My “tree” was telling me about nature, freedom, God inside, was telling me to start doing what I liked and what was calling me, instead of continuing to do something just for social status and money… So I left the job, the position, the benefits and I stayed at home for one year, meditating, praying, doing courses, reading, breathing and, again, just slowing down.

You’ve been in Brazil for five years now. What made you stay there?  The nature. The weather. The relaxation and openness of the people. The open-mindedness.

Loving ourselves is knowing, at all times, that we are the children of God and that we are loved beyond imagination.

Your lifestyle is very different now than years ago, when we first met. How is a day in your life now? I wake up, I do body movement (chi-kung and body dance prayers), I meditate, I eat fresh fruits, I read, I walk, I take care of my son (when he is with me), I do stuff on my computer, sometimes I go and live in a friend’s forest house, where I live mainly naked all day long (you do not need clothes in the jungle), walking bare-foot in the forest, I cook, I do my spiritual practice, I talk to people, I do aura readings and mainly I look inside myself, I observe my thoughts, my emotions, feel my body, I sing mantras, I pray, make love, look at trees and birds and sky and stars and moon, I give my heavy stuff to the Holy Spirit for transmutation… Pretty boring, if you look at it from the outside. Right now, I am a too lonely girl. I miss people. I want to come back to live with people, not just with nature.

Modern society defines success in terms of material possessions, awards & prizes and social status? How would you define success? Success… It sounds like a very strange word to me… But I guess to me it would mean the ability of an individual to feel and walk the path of his/her own soul and to come back to this path, even if he/she gets lost and desperate at times.

What is the key to loving oneself? The ability to lovingly hold, accept and honour ourselves, truly, completely and deeply, not only in the moments of joy and easiness, but mainly in the moments when all our inner hell breaks open and we can’t even look at ourselves in the mirror… Loving ourselves is knowing, at all times, that we are the children of God and that we are loved beyond imagination. So when we are at our worst, loving ourselves is to pick ourselves up from the depth of the ugliness and remind ourselves, gently and patiently, that we are still innocent. Still loved and beautiful and perfect in the eyes of God, and in our own. Loving ourselves is being able to see ourselves just like God sees us. And when we manage to do this with us, we are able to do it with the others.

What is the key to happiness? What makes you happy? Living each moment as it is, as it comes, fully accepting and embracing it, without trying to impose my own will on it. Knowing deeply that there is a Greater Will and that this Will makes it all happening and all it is perfect just the way it is.Of course, in practice for me this is still very difficult to maintain. And what makes me particularly happy is to walk in nature, to be with my son, to make love and to not judge, push and try to perfect myself every 5 minutes. When I am able to stop punishing myself, I breathe and I am happy. Yu-huu!

We know that human actions are driven either by fear or love. How’s the alchemy of transforming fear into love? How did you do it? The Course in Miracles is actually the big, amazing teacher that really is bringing light in my life and soul about that matter. The Course in Miracles says that our actions are driven by only two possibilities: love or a call for love. So what we call fear, is actually us forgetting that there is only Love, that this love is us, in us, is the only energy and reality that exists, so we start searching for it, calling for it, in a very unaware way. We call that fear. In the moment we realize that we have fallen asleep and we have started to dream about lack of love again (and we start acting accordingly – fighting, running away, judging, accusing, feeling under attack etc), all we need to do is stop right there and ask for the Holy Spirit – which is the messenger, the connection between us and God – to perform a miracle for us. To bring us back into the state of Love. To flood us again with Divine Love and Truth. And that’s it! And that’s it for every single situation in our lives, when we are alone or with somebody or doing whatever or taking whatever decision – if we feel we are not in the space of Love, we just stop and ask for the Holy Spirit to perform a miracle.

There is no true purpose, gift without the Divine. The purpose, the gifts are Divine Grace.

I remember the speech you gave in Romania, telling us how God was always there, giving you a hand during hard times in Brazil. I call this help, synchronicity. How can one attract synchronicities in one’s life? I do not know if we have to do something to attract them. They just appear in the right moment, at the right time, it is not something to search for. It is just about always asking for miracles when we need them, and they come and we call them synchronicities.

How can one find one’s true purpose  in life?  By honestly, constantly listening, trusting and following the voice of the heart, which is the voice of the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit knows our path, purpose, gifts and talents, just ask for your path from God to be revealed to you, ask every day, from the depth of your being, ask to be used as a servant of God, ask to be put at service and just slow down and listen and follow the voice of your heart. Attention – it is not all rainbows and daffodils on the path of the heart. Because Love, when it starts flowing, will bring light and bring up to the surface each and every single aspect of you that you do not want to see, to know, to accept. There is no hiding. And it hurts. But this is part of the spiritual path – this cleansing, the allowance of that which is not love to be shown to you, so that you can choose, by your own free will, to give it to God, or to the Holy Spirit, to be transmuted into love again. There is no true purpose, gift without the Divine. The purpose, the gifts are Divine Grace.

What’s the meaning of life, according to your own life experience? So far, I have discovered that, for me, the meaning of life is to be alive, to live it fully, fearlessly, lovingly, with kindness and tenderness and trust and full presence.

Specialness is an illusion, that just continues to keep us separated from each other.We have been created to be together, to live together, to love and honor each-other, woman and man.

We know that children born in he 90’s and the new millennium are very special. You are the mother of such a child. What piece of advice can you give to parents, how should they treat their children? I do not like to call my child special, again the Course in Miracles is teaching that the specialness is an illusion, that just continues to keep us separated from each other. Sasha is a child like any other child, no super-powers, he plays, laughs, learns, cries, has tantrums, a strong ego, he is loving, open, honest and amazing, just like any other child. About Children – this is a long, long discussion. I would say just to try to understand that the love for our children starts from the moment of conception, every single gesture and emotion of love and respect that we exchange with our partners and with our child matters so much to the child and really affects his life. Do not be afraid to love, to give, to listen, to trust, to be patient and present. To caress, to co-sleep, to breastfeed at request, to fully completely dedicate yourself to the child in the first years of his life. And to listen, to be present, to feel and to observe, every moment ever after, too. All the rest happens by itself.

What is Womb Consciousness and why is it important to both women and men? Womb Consciousness is another name for the return of the Sacred Feminine, the awakening to our true intuitive, spirit-connected, loving, flowing nature. Not only women have a womb, the men also have it as an energetic space, it is called Hara. It is the place where we are deeply connected to the Great Divine Mother – the Creator into Form, from the Great Unformed, of All that Is. The womb is also the place where the memory of our wounds and traumas is stored, so starting to work with the womb brings these memories into consciousness, to be healed and returned to love. The Womb (in both men and women) is the seat of our Spirit, of our true divine power, of our inner master – all of this being all the time connected with the Great Spirit, God, the Divine Mother.This is not a feminist movement. But is it finally the coming together, into union, of the feminine and the masculine, of women and men, and the end of the sex-wars and competition between us. We have been created to be together, to live together, to love and honor each-other, woman and man, to create paradise together and this can be done only from and through a healed loving heart-womb.

How can we activate the Womb Consciousness  – even those living in busy cities? It is about changing our lives and lifestyles and living more authentic, true, conscious lives. More time in nature. Giving attention, breathing and love to our womb and pelvic space. Honouring ourselves, loving ourselves, not allowing abusive relationships into our lives – from people to foods to places to jobs to media and so on. Following our hearts. Slowing down. And, like in any other case – the pure, heart-felt intention of awakening the womb space. If one feels called, it is enough to just ask the Divine Mother to start working with you, to start cleaning and awakening you and flooding you with Her love. Slowly, it starts happening.

Romania looks like the most beautiful place on Earth

What is your morning routine? It depends if Sasha is with me or with his daddy. If he is with me, then the morning routine is Sasha routine – we wake up, we cuddle and play in bed, then we wash and brush, we prepare breakfast, then I do my practice while he is playing next to me and interrupts me every 5 minutes. If I am without Sasha, I start directly with the chi-kung and dance prayers, I meditate, I shower and eat fruits. Usually I read from the Course in Miracles every morning, too.

What do you think is the most important moment of the day and why? Is there one most important moment of the day? I do not know, for me any moment is a moment. I like the eating moments, because I like to eat, for example.

How can one make his dreams come true? Surrendering them to God and trusting that, for sure, God has better plans.

How does Romania looks from the place you’re living in now? It looks like the most beautiful place on Earth – I love Romania so, so much and I miss Her so much…

If you were able to bring something of your old life in Romania, to your new life in Brazil, what would it be? A bathtub. Romanian cheese. My car. And I miss my family so, so, so very much, that it hurts.

In love, and joy, thank you,

Laura Maria (Maria being the name of my Womb)

If you are interested in more details about Womb Consciousness, please check Laura Maria’s Facebook page.