Apostolia

༄ Belonging ༄

Apostolia — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 11:34:12 +0000

༄ Belonging ༄

Apostolia Tue, 02/06/2020 - 14:34

It happens all the time in heaven,

And someday

It will begin to happen

Again on earth -

That men and women

Often will get down on their knees

With tears in their eyes,

Will sincerely speak, saying,

My dear,

How can I be more loving to you;

How can I be more kind?

Hafez ( excerpt)

Beloved friends, June is here marking the beginning of sweet summer and the Moon is coming to full this Thursday. I am sure you are aware of what is happening around the world right now. I am in deep concern as you are, about where we stand as conscious human beings.

The call for awareness and personal responsibility is urgent and very challenging. Identifying what it means to be "human" today is the clearest call I hear.

All parts of me are craving to stop the inner war between me and my soul and asking me to take responsibility, as what is happening now on our planet is deeply affecting me.

Just after the lockdown of Covid19 humanity proved collectively that can obey to authority control. Just after the death of George Floyd, riots all over the US claim for justice and human rights as racism has been a virus amongst humans for centuries now. A possible scenario of what's coming after this is more authority control so we can be "safe".

At the same time, in different countries, (Greece is one amongst them) crowds gather and protest against the new “Modernized Environmental Legislation” that gives easy permissions to private companies to develop businesses in protected Nature areas.

How can we still believe that invading a planet like earth and turn the entire Nature into business, as usual, will lead to progress? How can we still support that consuming more goods and working harder (so we can have a "fake' safe future) will lead to our prosperity?

None of the above is convincing our soul anymore as we feel it in all our parts of our selves. We feel more isolated than ever, more separated than ever.

WE ARE SUFFERING FROM DISCONNECTION WITH OUR TRUE NATURE.
WE ARE SUFFERING FROM SEPARATION FROM MOTHER NATURE.

Life itself is about belonging. Our Human DNA holds the remembrance that we are able to live in perfect harmony when we embody the divine love that created us, that created all life.

The secret of interconnection between species lies in the self-love and self-respect first and above all, so fear and isolation don't control our existence.

To reach a greater understanding of who we are and make conscious choices we need to repair our true belonging within and this can happen only by recognizing Nature as higher consciousness.

What would happen if all the people all over the planet feel this disconnection and decide to leave the cities now, starting a new life, living in harmony with nature, working from their green home, forming supportive communities, connecting with the divine that is inside each one and all of us, recognizing each other's gifts, creating art, listening, giving, receiving, understanding our light and our shadow, together?

Nature holds this immense power of helping us remember LOVE even in the form of thunder. Even in the form of an Earthquake. For we become humble for a millisecond, we step our of Ego and we remember in our cells, in our breath, in our senses, what the ancients knew:

Nature is our home. Nature grounds our being and belonging. Nature brings us home to ourselves. Peace, Presence, Belonging, Creativity, Community, Solidarity are values of our innate wisdom that can be ignited in our collective consciousness when each one of us invests in cultivating a reconnection with Nature.

This is my dream, my dearest friends, to remember our sacredness of body, mind, and spirit, as a collective and to embody that being in Nature is already being in the divine presence.

Oceans Love & Rivers of Light
Stay healthy, stay safe, stay kind

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༄ Mother's day Primordial Mantra ༄

Apostolia — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 04:40:25 +0000

༄ Mother's day Primordial Mantra ༄

Apostolia Tue, 02/06/2020 - 07:40

Ma is the first word we say. Ma-Ma is recognized from almost every human being in the world as the name we give to our first shelter. Our mother.

{Ma-Ma is a primordial mantra that I use in my teachings and connects us with Mother Love.}

Becoming a mom, 17 years ago was and is the greatest gift of my life. No matter the difficulties, the struggles, the work it needs to be a mother I would never change it as it taught me first of all to love my own mother unconditionally and to give her only gratitude. For she gave me life.

Motherhood connected me deeply with my wounds, helped me to face them, and heal them, helped me to recognize what unconditional love is.

{Ma-Ma leads to MaM when we are babies calling for food calling for Love }

Thank you to my mother, thank you to my son, thank you most of all to our Great Mother Earth for nurturing us humans with your abundant love.

Close your eyes and hum so you connect with the unconditional love inside you, the highest frequency of all:
Ma- Ma -Ma - Ma- Ma- Ma

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༄ Sacred Breath ༄

Apostolia — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 04:32:48 +0000

༄ Sacred Breath ༄

Apostolia Tue, 02/06/2020 - 07:32

There is an ancient breath breathing inside you.

She is longing to teach you how unique you are.

She carries gifts that can heal your wounds so you can lift the veil of your limited thoughts and remember your authentic myth.

It’s not about finding the meaning of life.
It’s about experiencing life as a sacred being in every breath you take.

Fully present. Fully loving. Fully forgiving. Fully grate-full.

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and tell me.

Can you feel your life is sacred?

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Home Courses and Support from Apostolia and the Happiness Retreat team

Apostolia — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 11:32:49 +0000

Home Courses and Support from Apostolia and the Happiness Retreat team

Apostolia Wed, 18/03/2020 - 13:32

My beloved friends and soul family,
I am safe with my son at home.
I pray, trust and hope that you are safe too.
Going straight to the point here.

I am here to support in any way I can
in this time of self-growth and radical collective changes.

I am an artist, a teacher, and a healer and
here is what I offer to you,
with my deepest gratitude for our connection,
so you can keep a healthy body a calm mind and an uplifted spirit

All my group and private offerings are by donation
or free to those that are in need.

We will practice online.

You can choose one course or you can attend both.
If you attend both you will have 10 days' everyday practice alternating Breathing exercises and Yoga each day.

Both courses are for all levels, all ages, all genres.

see all the info below

Course I: Powerful Breath Activation

When
༄ March 20, 22, 24, 26, 28

@4:00-4.45:00pm EET (Greece)

15.00-16.00(UK) 10.00am -11.00am (New York + Canada)

Learn more & Book

Course II: Yoga for Self Love and Harmony

When
༄ March 21, 23, 25, 27, 29

@ 4:00-4.45 pm EET

15.00-16.00(UK) 10.00am -11.00am (New York + Canada)

Learn more & Book

No worries if you miss a session or if you want to repeat the practice, the replay video will be provided to you right after each live session!

I am also offering free skype, messenger or what's app sessions
for those that need my humble support,

from March 20 - April 3rd,
Weekdays only,

from 17.00 -18.00 EET (Greece )
15.00-16.00(UK) 10.00 am -11.00 am (New York + Canada)

It will be a 10-15min free online meeting and you can book by sending an email to info@thehappinessretreat.gr

I would love to serve all those in need in any way I can,
if too many, these sessions will be served upon registration order.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄༄ ༄༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

The Individual Online Sessions are available

and you can find the information here

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄༄ ༄༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

Our Private Facebook Group

I keep on offering all the modalities I know in our private Facebook group which is comforting all of us and keeps us truly connected without bombarding us with too many posts.

You can join here the Happiness Circle group.

Recorded Videos of my recent live session on this group. You can practice by listening, not necessarily watching if you want to have less “screen” in your life.

1.How to boost our immune system with breathing exercises and respiratory system cleanse.

2. How to Pulse, Move & Shake to Raise your Vibration!

3. Guided Meditation on Love

4. Guided Meditation on Forgiveness

5. Guided Meditation on Gratitude

6. A song with my guitar

Finally, I thank my colleagues at the Happiness Retreat, Georgia, Areion and my beloved X that wants to stay anonymous for the moment, for helping me with their amazing work, enthusiasm, and creativity to put all these offerings online and to keep The Happiness Retreat concept a heartfelt space for all of us.

Oceans & Rivers of Love
Stay Safe

༄ Apostolia ༄

VIP 1: At this moment you receive this email from my personal mail address, please save info@thehappinessretreat.gr in your address book so it doesn't go to spam or promotions. This email is the one we will communicate normally.

VIP 2: You can invite friends, colleagues, family to connect with our circle by subscribing here.

VIP 3: If you would like more online offerings/practices from me just let me know what kind of modality/content you would like!

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༄ Growing older ༄

Apostolia — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 05:31:48 +0000

༄ Growing older ༄

Apostolia Tue, 04/02/2020 - 07:31

In every elder woman, I see my grandmother. Who’s the name I carry and it means mission.

Who was an intuitive healer at a small Greek village and taught me how to heal body and soul. Who was an artist of life, creating all kinds of artifacts. Who was singing and dancing every day just because she was alive and she inherited this gift to me.

Who was a true embodiment of Mother Earth feeding and nourishing her 9 children and 16 grandchildren.

Who was in love with my grandfather since she was 15 years old and at her 70s she was telling me: Look at your grandfather, isn’t he the most beautiful man in the world?

In every elder woman, I see my grandmother.

Who taught me that kindness to all living beings is the key to unlock your heart and spread happiness around you.

When I meet an elder woman I honor her with a smile, a warm truthful hello, a gaze of gratitude for her wisdom as I see the miracle of life in her.

No, it’s not elder women’s day or grandmother's day today...

It’s my birthday coming up in a few days and I am full of gratitude that I am alive and that you are alive just because elder women took care of our mothers and fathers and us...

If you read these words and you meet an elder woman today, be truly present. Maybe you can see your heart sparkling in her eyes.

Love always prevails.

Apostolia

The photo was taken in Koufonisi island, Greece while facilitating the Blue Bliss Happiness Retreat 2018.

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༄ Creativity - How we create Happiness༄

Apostolia — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 18:07:21 +0000

༄ Creativity - How we create Happiness༄

Apostolia Mon, 29/07/2019 - 21:07

My dear beautiful friends, blessings for this exciting July 31st New Moon that also marks the end of Mercury Retrograde! The intense pressure of the past month will be lifted and the rest of the summer will be more peaceful and enjoyable! Time for celebration and new intentions!

I am writing these words as I am on vacation on the beautiful Greek island of Kythera, Greece, enjoying quality time with my family and friends. Yesterday we visited a beautiful beach full of umbrellas and a beach bar (full of people) on the sandy part and stunning caves and stones on the other side. (nobody was there)

As we wanted to find a natural shade and some peaceful time to swim in the emerald waters we headed for the caves. We found this stunning large cave with a small private beach in front, the perfect home to spend our day by the sea!

But, there was a big problem! We couldn't really lie down as under our spine there were these big stones ....so many of them, what an "obstacle" we faced in this perfect place! Everybody was irritated, started complaining that they couldn't stay, some wanted to go to the sandy beach bar and some wanted to go find another beach.

I looked at the stones and I saw so much beauty, I saw how many years it took them to be polished by the seawater, I saw some incredible shapes and forms. Very silently I started excavating the stones and putting them as statues around a little sea rock.

I didn't do it on purpose, it is just my "inner child" coming forth. When I see "obstacles" I play and create, create and play. In a few minutes, my son (16 years old) started putting stones on a line and my best friend followed ...to make the long story short, everybody engaged passionately in excavating the stones SILENTLY without any call or instructions, creating an amazing "zen " garden, a stone altar, a tiny museum, a proof that human beings can create their reality. It is a matter of choice of how we see and feel when obstacles appear.

In 30minutes our little beach was clean of stones and we stayed until the sunset enjoying our beautiful nature "home". Most important is the way we felt. Happy, Fulfilled, Connected, United.

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up”
Pablo Picasso
༄
"The creative adult is the child who survived."
Ursula LeGuin

This story is a metaphor for our every day lives. In my teachings, I always say that there is no point to meditate, to practice yoga, to dance, to sing if you can not apply the principles of your practice in real life.

Creativity is an amazing tool to find happiness. It involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way. The way we "see" obstacles creates our reality - can be stagnant or playful and creative. Sometimes, what appears to be an obstacle is an opportunity to build something beautiful and new.

July Blessings

Remember you are born a creative being.
Remember that you have infinite possibilities.
Remember you are a beloved member of the soul family.
Remember you are not alone.

Oceans and Rivers of Love.
༄ Apostolia ༄

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༄The Journey Home-How We Create Happiness༄

Apostolia — Fri, 10 May 2019 09:06:59 +0000

༄The Journey Home-How We Create Happiness༄

Apostolia Fri, 10/05/2019 - 12:06

My dear beautiful one!

What a winter journey this was, what a gestation of a Spring that is coming and coming, trying to complete her flower lace dress as the clouds are playing hide and seek with the Sunlight!

Coming back from the Spring Celebration Ritual Retreat, where we worked on truthful presence, empowered ourselves with the courage to see who we truly are and who we truly want to be, with playfulness and in joy, I realized that playing hide and seek with our selves, not being as honest as we can be, not daring to tell the truth about our feelings, emotions, and dreams are just postponing our return "home".

It became clear to me that my life priority is to create ways in which we can grow and become stronger together as a tribe. I reaffirmed that our path towards happiness is revealed to us when we are sitting together in a circle, breathing together, dancing and singing together, sharing all our darkness and all our light, connecting with the cosmic forces of Nature.

We can be free to love our selves unconditionally, only when we drop down our masks, show our vulnerability, accept our shadows and trust this amazing journey home that is life! What a beautiful Dream we can create from the gift of life that has been given to us!

Keep evolving, keep seeing the dream you want to see of yourself and of all the web of life around you, keep embracing and softening your shadows and let the love and light come in more and more every day. Remember you are a beloved member of the soul family. Remember you are not alone. Remember you are love and only love.

May Blessings

With Love and Light

༄ Apostolia ༄

photo by Sea Eymere @sealua

Sharing with you one of my favorite poems of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish

We journey towards a home not of our flesh.
It's chestnut trees are not of our bones.
Its rocks are not like goats in the mountain hymn.
The pebbles' eyes are not lilies.

We journey towards a home that does not halo our heads with a special Sun.
Mythical women applaud us.
A sea for us, a sea against us.
When water and wheat are not at hand,
eat our love and drink our tears...
There are mourning scarves for poets.
A row of marble statues will lift our voice.
And an urn to keep the dust of time away from our souls.
Roses for us and against us.
You have your glory, we have ours.
Of our home, we see only the unseen: our mystery.
Glory is ours: a throne carried on feet torn by roads that led to every home but our own!

The soul must recognize itself in its very soul, or die here.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄༄

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༄ Dreamer of Dreams ༄

Apostolia — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 19:27:49 +0000

༄ Dreamer of Dreams ༄

Apostolia Thu, 24/01/2019 - 21:27

Dear soulful friends, Happy new year full of love, full of beautiful journeys to the world (and to the self) and full of Dreams!
Every great Dream begins with a Dreamer!
When we silent the mind and we open the eyes of the soul, we become Dreamers of Dreams where creativity and intuition are in perfect balance and we can create our life as we dream it.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄
A Dreamer of Dreams is a seeker
of the unification of worlds.
༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

Dreams are the ways that our soul communicates with us. Our soul wants to unify with us, she wants to free us from suffering, to guide us to be merciful, great full, loving, creative, happy. When we suppress our "dreams" to meet the expectations of our family, friends, and society, we are unhappy.

༄ The first step is to HAVE dreams! Night and daydreams, that will allow us to remember that we are born to live as Dreamers of Dreams.

༄ The second step is to listen mindfully to our Dreams and identify the "soul" messages.

༄ The third step is to work with strong intention before we sleep or before we meditate. To ask for the healing dream or the clarifying dream to come while we are in the hypnagogic state.

༄ And the final step is to manifest our dreams in THIS life, finding the courage that only or soul can give us and the trust that she is our most intimate guide.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄
A Dream is a journey, is traveling,

is a wanderlust to the realms of the Soul.
༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

For many years I keep dream journals and I work with my dreams to evolve as a human, as an artist and teacher. It was almost 2 years ago where this amazing dream was visiting me almost every night for 6 months.

I had a full sensory experience of flying really high, like an Eagle balancing in the sky on the level of the Sun and could see the map of Greece from above very clearly. But on the Greek land, I could see only ancient temples, sanctuaries, altars, amphitheaters, shining brightly in their timeless beauty, no cities, no roads no people.....just sparkling marbles in sacred geometrical shapes full of light.

As I have been creating performances and experiences in ancient Greek sacred places for many years I felt this consecutive dream was a strong invitation to create spiritual journeys in sacred destinations of my homeland and offer my teachings and insights on DreamWork that is extremely enhanced when practiced in high energy places.

Last summer, I created my first Happiness Retreat focused on Dreams and Dreamwork, in the Temple of Apollo Epicurius in the Peloponnese during the powerful week of the Full Moon and the Total Lunar Eclipse.

This May, I have prepared for you the Dreaming Wide Awake Happiness Retreat, a magical journey to Delos, the birthplace of the light, the Greek island of miracles.

DELOS island is one of the top10 spiritual places of the world, it could be referred to as the Avalon of the South. Delos is the birthplace of Apollo the god of Sun and Artemis the goddess of the Moon, with profound healing energy that reaches you, long before you reach this Dream destination. A place where energy can literally change you, uplift our soul and heal you from inside.

It is no coincidence, that the sunlight in Delos, is the most intense, compared to ANYWHERE around the globe. Scientists believe that this happens due to the ground’s texture which actually mirrors the light.
Delos is a living ancient sanctuary full of incredible monuments and it is uninhabited, so our Happiness Retreat Home will be in Mykonos, one of the most cosmopolitan islands of the world.
In Mykonos, I found the perfect secluded paradise of breathtaking scenery, a small complex of Eco-luxury villas located in the idyllic area of the Armenistis Cape with the mysterious Lighthouse.

Toby Israel, an amazing storyteller and Dream Journalling teacher will join me and co-create magic, while Esco Essence, our master chef and raw food artist will captivate our senses with his dreamy detoxifying recipes.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄
If your dream is to know more about this transformative journey of conscious dreaming,
I have prepared all the information for you
here
offering early bird prices until February 4th.
༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

Thank you for giving your time and energy to read my words. I am grateful to you.

Thank you for the beautiful human being you are. Thank you for your presence and for your presents. Remember you are a beloved member of the soul family. Remember you are never alone. Remember you are love and only love.

Blessings for a life full of Dreams.
With Love and Light
༄ Apostolia ༄

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༄ Nature and Gratitude ༄

Apostolia — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 05:49:00 +0000

༄ Nature and Gratitude ༄

Apostolia Fri, 07/09/2018 - 08:49

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄ ༄

How do we make decisions?

I used to sit and think a lot using my mind -that is so capable of making all kinds of stories, possibilities, and assumptions - and I was never happy with my decisions. Or better saying I was never in peace with my decisions.

Life brought me some very difficult moments that became my most valuable lessons and led me in deep connection with my breath, my heart, unity, and universal love so my mind started interfering less and less with judgments that were completely unnecessary to live a meaningful everyday life.

I started practicing meditation in Nature every time I had to take an important decision, sitting still, breathing, connecting with the trees or the clouds, the sun, the moon, a little flower, a bird, emptying my mind and entering the frequency of Love.

I live in the city but thanks to the creator there are sources of comforting elements of nature everywhere. We just need to acknowledge them.

This practice not only comforted me but also gave me a whole new perspective on what are my true needs, what I really want to be a sweet loving and compassionate human being.

I threw away many mindsets (that were not mine anyway) and I became lighter, more creative and courageous on crucial decision making.

I felt gratitude coming like a powerful stream of light inside me and an inevitable need to express my gratitude in any way I can, to Nature. Gradually I started expressing gratitude to Humans and especially to Humans I have love relationships (that's the hardest one!)

So September's newsletter is devoted to a big Thank you to the Trees, these amazing beings that supported me in August and gave me precious insights.

Take some time this month to connect with a Tree in your neighborhood and make some new decisions on how you dream your self. Sit next to it, listen, see, smell, breathe. It will speak to you in unseen, unheard ways that can bring happiness and peace to your soul. Thank your self for taking the time to be with your self. And thank the Tree for the unconditional coexistence or just leave a creative expression of your loving self!

Love & Light to you all.

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༄ Belonging ༄

༄ Mother's day Primordial Mantra ༄

༄ Sacred Breath ༄

Home Courses and Support from Apostolia and the Happiness Retreat team

Course I: Powerful Breath Activation

Learn more & Book

Course II: Yoga for Self Love and Harmony

Learn more & Book

The Individual Online Sessions are available

and you can find the information here

Our Private Facebook Group

༄ Growing older ༄

༄ Creativity - How we create Happiness༄

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” Pablo Picasso༄"The creative adult is the child who survived." Ursula LeGuin

July Blessings

Remember you are born a creative being. Remember that you have infinite possibilities. Remember you are a beloved member of the soul family. Remember you are not alone. Oceans and Rivers of Love. ༄ Apostolia ༄#howwecreatehappiness#thehappinessretreatgreece#apostoliapapadamaki

༄The Journey Home-How We Create Happiness༄

༄ Dreamer of Dreams ༄

༄ Nature and Gratitude ༄

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up”
Pablo Picasso
༄
"The creative adult is the child who survived."
Ursula LeGuin

Remember you are born a creative being.
Remember that you have infinite possibilities.
Remember you are a beloved member of the soul family.
Remember you are not alone.

Oceans and Rivers of Love.
༄ Apostolia ༄

#howwecreatehappiness
#thehappinessretreatgreece
#apostoliapapadamaki