• Daring to be vulnerable gives you power to be

      People are vulnerable as individuals and as a species. And fighting vulnerability is useless. No matter how hard you try. Simply because you can’t control everything and so your life can turn upside down at any moment of any day. You may be the King of the World, the Smartest Woman in the Universe or the Sexiest Man Alive; it won’t help. You can however hide from it. And most of us do. Behind a fancy job title, nice car or house. Interesting friends, a busy agenda, designer clothes or healthy hipster life style, but sooner or later vulnerability will find you. So what can you do? Well, it’s simple.

      Simply face it and embrace it. Because when you embrace it, you no longer need to fight it. You no longer need to run or hide from it, by keeping up appearances and putting energy in this hopeless attempt to avoid the discomfort of feeling it. You can now be as you are, vulnerable, instead of pretending not to be. The way I see it: vulnerability is indestructible. So by letting it in and become a part of you, in a way that makes you indestructible. Daring to be vulnerable gives you power to be.

      Vulnerability becomes a Strength

      Are you alive?

      From time to time it’s good to ask yourself: “Am I alive?” Because it’s not uncommon to just be busy doing what you’re always doing. To be caught up in a routine. And that routine may very well result in hours, days, weeks, months or even years of living, without actually being alive. Because there’s more to living, than just breathing. Imagine someone in a coma and it becomes clear… I recently attended a re-birthing workshop and I experienced the difference between A) normal breathing: a mostly shallow, kind of mechanic and unconscious way of getting the bare minimum of oxygen ‘shots’ and B) breathing with full awareness, in a rich flow, organic and fully open to receive life’s energy in all it’s splendor. It let me experience the meaning of the phrase: “Just because you breathe, doesn’t mean you’re alive”. And so I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to wonder: am I  really alive or mostly just busy breathing?

      Just because you breathe

      Who am I… or rather, what am I?

      I guess you’re familiar with this sensation: one moment you feel great, and the next… well not so great. I sometimes feel like I’m nothing and sometimes I feel as though I’m everything. It’s a really fine line, much like it is with being crazy or brilliant. John Lennon had a nice way of putting it. He said: “Part of me suspects I’m a loser. The other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty”. I wrote a post about that one too. Anyway. A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon the “I, a universe of atoms…” quote by the American physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918 – 1988). And it’s stuck in my head ever since. Because to me his words are both mind blowing and heart warming. The thought of “I” being a tiny, stand alone atom – and an infinite, whole universe at the same time, blows my ego off it’s socks. Because “I” isn’t (only) the ‘earthly me’. “I” is a single atom and an entire universe, completing one another. Think about that when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror. So yes, it’s a quote I gratefully meditate on. It’s so simple and yet so deeply profound. It makes me feel humble and larger than life at the same time – it’s liberating. Look at us humans. Look at you, look at me. We are both nothing and everything. Again. That’s just… wow.

      I, a universe of atoms

      focusNjoy #122: Stop searching, start finding

      Imagine you’re looking for something, but you can’t find it. Annoying. Yes. Very. But then, maybe you’re not supposed to find it. Or maybe you’re just looking in the wrong place. Or maybe… you already found it, but you don’t realize it yet. Whatever the reason is, you might want to stop searching. Why? Well think about it: as long as you’re busy searching – you’re not… finding!

      Stop searching, Start finding

      A fresh start for focusNjoy

      Dear friends, it’s been more than a year since my last post! Honestly, I needed the break but a lot of good things have happened to me in the meantime. Apart from a great time at Eyeworks Netherlands, where I worked as a Senior Creative with some great people at the Program Development Team, it were exciting times for me personally as well. Too much to tell you in one post. But I will share more in the coming months, because it’s been truly transformational.

      I’m planning on a brand new start of focusNjoy at the end of April. And this time, I intend to actually make some money haha – because running an ad-free blog is great, but from a financial point of view it wasn’t a success and one of the reasons for me to get back to television. Later in 2014 I intend to finally start with my workshops in Amsterdam. I’m super excited about that but let’s see how things develop. Anway – I’m back and I’m feeling fresh. Hoping to hear from you – always feel free to send me an email and say hi!

      Love, Stijn.

      focusNjoy back 2014
  • archives: all posts per month

  • Be happy now
    Every session is an exclusive moment for yourself, to get charged with inspiration and insights to be happy now. To achieve this, we are going to put things into perspective. We will zoom in and out, reflect and focus. Depending on your needs we will slow down or accelerate, just so you will feel good about the present and excited about the future. And whatever your goals are, big or small, in your professional or personal life – they all begin and end with you. You’re in charge: if you change, your world changes. Only question is: are you ready for it?

    Awakening up call
    John Lennon said: “Life is what happens to you, while you’re busy making other plans”. Well, that is NOT going to happen to you. Or is it? Because A) in pursuit of happiness we often forget to be happy. This isn’t very conscious living or logical even and yet it happens to most of us sooner or later. And B) in chasing after our dreams we often forget what they are. Because “reality” like to question the dream and challenge the dreamer. And so every session with me is what I call: an awakening-up call. To clear your mind, to remember yourself, that happiness needs no cause and to fuel your heart to live your dreams. It’s liberating, exciting and also challenging, because it puts you in charge over your life again.

    360° view
    Albert Einstein said: “We can’t solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used in creating them”. And so we’re going to think different. In search for answers, we’re going to dig deep AND dance on the surface. Another Einstein quote: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research”. And so, to get you real results, we’re going to use our imagination to facilitate the change you want. And one last Einstein quote: “Logic gets you from A to B. Imagination gets you anywhere”. We’re going to use both.

    Logic and Imagination

    This is your time
    When you think about it, life literally is a journey through space. And the universe is so big that we don’t know where we are exactly. We also don’t know exactly where or how (our) life began, nor do we know what happens after we die. And finally we also don’t know exactly why we are here or for how long. All we know is: we are here. And this is our time. This is your time. This is your time on a planet in a universe with more stars than there are sand grains on earth. This is your time to explore, to wonder, to learn, to fall, to rise and to grow. This is your time to be, to stop hiding, to start living.

    Happiness
    You are – at all times – entitled to be happy. We all are. But (spoiler alert) you won’t always be happy. And it’s up to each and everyone of us to deal with that. Strangely enough we don’t quite learn this at school. We are taught the capitals of the world, but not how to deal with a broken heart, getting older or feeling uncertain about our future. We are taught to strive for certainty, but not how to deal with uncertainty. My life coaching is about getting you a clear mind and an inspired heart, so you can deal better with all of this. My goal is to increase your awareness. To not only have you look around you, but to actually let you see your potential to feel free and choose your own way.

    2024 © focusNjoy