Taranjeet Kaur

How I got here timeline

April 5, 2019

I’ve changed up my About Me page to something a lot shorter and current. I can’t let go of this well-put page as it has so much back story and it’s still relevant in some way. How I got here, how I got through a bunch of ‘stuff’ that life threw my way.

Throughout my life so far three things have been constant positive resources – yoga, art and writing.

I have done various forms from Hatha to Bikram to Kundalini, yoga and meditation are such powerful tools, to be experienced and used on and off the mat in real life.

I really enjoy soulfully painting with my fingers, intuitive brush work and mixed media journaling. I’m all for creativity and art making as a process, experience, a tool for self discovery and healing.

I have explored spoken word poetry as a spring board for free speech in the past, I enjoy writing poems on my typewriter and use free style morning pages to take out the trash! I write about my experiences, practises and sharing resources of what living a spiritual and creative full life is all about!

At 18 I got my first art supplies and turned boredom to curiosity and started playing in a journal. In my early twenties I discovered Kundalini Yoga and it transformed my life! On to my mid twenties where I learnt about Sikhi and started practicing in my life.

Read on to find out more about my background in Yoga, Art and Sikhi:

Let’s talk yoga:

At 13….

I started Hatha Yoga, I found a book one day in a second hand store titled just YOGA and practised the poses from pictures then I went onto follow along with a DVD every morning. My routine went like this: yoga, paper round, writing, school. Looking back I think yoga helped me immensely in school, as there were a few areas I really struggled:

Emotional balance
Self organisation
Balance and co ordination
Ability to focus
Nervousness/anxiety
Self consciousness/weight issues
Low self confidence

Although I was young and would find many ways to overcome personal challenges, yoga allowed me time and space to breathe, stretch and be more still.

At 20….

I took up yoga practice daily, this time Bikram (hot) Yoga. I was working at a job that brought me a great deal of frustration and sadness, each evening I would come home after cycling 4 miles, to do yoga for 90 minutes. Yoga helped:

Restore faith and trust in myself
To look at the bigger picture
To give me a boost of energy as I was very fatigued
To give a more positive attitude to the future and use it off the mat too

At 25….

I practised Bikram Yoga till my heating system broke and I could no longer practice it. I wasn’t sure what to try next so I stopped looking and one day before having an afternoon nap I read a preface in a book on Kundalini yoga and felt inspired and no longer tired. I mentioned it to my boyfriend at the time who encouraged me to do some videos on Youtube which I did and haven’t felt tired to nap since!

Around this time I was learning to drive and really struggled with my nerves and committing everything to memory, before my lessons I would do a Kundalini Yoga set and the instructor would notice a huge shift to driving calmly and encouraged me that whatever I was now doing to continue it!

I went along to White Tantric Yoga before my driving test and passed first time. Since then, Kundalini has brought so many positive changes into my life and I do it daily.

Here are a few:

I respond rather than react
I breathe fluidly and deeply, before I would hold my breath in times of anxiety causing panic attacks
I no longer get worried and fret about small issues
I feel a sense of support and guidance
I’m more present and have energy
I can communicate more easily with all kinds of people
I take better care of my skin and body
I switched to more nourishing foods
I live my truth from the whole of me – Sat (truth) Nam (identity)
I make life changes with less decision fatigue and more courage

At 26…

I went to a the Great British Kundalini festival and met wonderful people, one of them mentioned I should go to a talk by Basics of Sikhi called ‘Who is Guru Nanak?’ And though there was another great workshop at the same time and was tempted to go, I thought of all the times I’d sing a Kirtan song with ‘Guru’ in it and trusted the word of my new friend. That is how I came to learn about Sikhi. A faith, religion and way of life: remembrance to God, Waheguru, the one creator as an infinite source around us and the source of everything, truthful living, equality of mankind. Singing praises in holy company, meditation, honest living and serving mankind are just some of the messages of Sikhi.

Since then I have chosen the Sikhi path and continue to learn through videos, podcasts, books and going to Gurdwaras. (I join in with Christian celebrations and still have my own ways of being, my values have changed and realisations..)

At 27….
I did Kundalini Level 1 teacher training with Sahej Academy! For my own personal development, interest in yoga and meditation and to teach others.

Yoga and meditation are incredible tools that you can begin using right away.

Let’s talk Art and writing:

Writing has been a free tool that I have used since I started doing yoga at 13 years old, I used to journalevery morning between a paper round and school. I enjoy it, I write about myself easily and information that may be useful to people in some way. There is a beauty to writing, to being honest and not knowing who may stumble upon what you produce and the impact you have on their day, their life.

At 18 I started painting, I am mostly self taught through books, videos and blog posts. I have around 20 large paintings that are stored away and no photos of them, I feel like part of me is lost to the reader! I have attended some drawing classes and dropped out of a drawing course having learnt a lot of incredible things and really surprised myself to my abilities. Bottom line though: I am a painter, I paint and learn whatever I want, on my own terms. I paint in a range of styles: folk, outsider, abstract, expressionism with acrylics and mixed media. You can view my works in my portfolio.
I’d like people to feel their own aliveness and to look deeper into their truth in my paintings.

I used to have a big creative space, I loved it, I practically lived in it. However a change of circumstance minimised my creative space to about the size of a large box. I don’t paint BIG anymore, I don’t splatter my art brush like I used to, this prompted a website to combine yoga and small art in 2017. I am reminded that everything is temporary and to look at the silver linings. Creativity and Art are not luxuries!

Creativity and self development saw me through depression and a job change, to happier times.

“I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.”
― Frida Kahlo

My creative space expanded to a larger room and in 2018 I took a break from teaching yoga and began writing stories in a project I want to publish in the near future. This is the year I got married and I’m finally finding my feet again and drawing, writing, painting! Finding your way to happiness again in life is key. I feel blessed for the opportunity to share once again!

Here’s to failing, getting up, failing, getting up!

And a brief bit on Sikhi:

I found out about Sikhi one Summer and from there I learnt from Basics of Sikhi, Nanak Naam, GurbaniMC and attending my local Gurdwara, for a much more in-depth description read My journey into Sikhi, the long version.

Practicing Sikhi through Simran, Banis, Sangat and Seva has become the most important of my life that it’s impossible to mention in such a short paragraph! If your unfamiliar with these terms that’s ok, I want to use this blog as chance to educate people about Sikhi while also holding a space for creative living that absolutely anyone is welcome to visit and gather ideas and inspiration from to live a full happy life!

‘Make truth your self discipline and make good deeds the lines you draw; make chanting the name your cleansing bath’. – Siri Guru Granth Sahib

To find out what I’m up to now go to my new About page!

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Creating a moment of joy in minutes

April 1, 2019

There’s one thing I’ve noticed with all the time off I’ve had, it’s really only one moment in my day that I really feel joy from.

It’s not any specific moment either, like when someone will sit down and watch a TV soap for half an hour every day and that’s their quiet time. Or any show on Netflix either (though Working Moms is great!) It could be though if I made that my thing.

That moment of contentment can come in the form of making a cup of tea and drinking it outside, playing in my journal or as of lately, lighting a candle and doing morning pages. Or drawing first thing and turning on an aromatherapy diffuser in the evening.

Sure I may have enough time for a lot of joyful moments right now, so I’m savoring them. A 30-minute pregnancy yoga set from Bumps in motion by Patricia A. Anaya, an Epsom salt bath at 10am, watching two movies on a weekend. Those are things I love to do!

You don’t need a ton of time off to enjoy yourself.

Sure if you work in a mind-numbing boss draining job, you make want to take a few days off to unplug before you set up a day of me time. I know what it’s like to try and steal time in-between to do something you enjoy rather than being paid to do.

It’s those fleeting moments that count.

As a starter set up 10-15 minutes for yourself a day, where you can just be in your being. Set a timer. Watch it grow, your mood change and values are recognized inside and out.

What feel-good moments that bring contentment do you have you would like to share?

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After Life, being thankful in life

March 25, 2019

I have just deleted Netflix. Wait, I still have husband’s account to fall back on! I’m doing it to save that little extra money each month and I noticed that I was series and movie watching too often, it was becoming an unhealthy fall back habit.

Before I did that I watched Ricky Gervais’s After Life.

For those who don’t know Ricky Gervais’s characters and comedy, when you mention his name to people they tend to pull a face and say they don’t really like his stuff or agree that he’s funny.

After Life is about Gervais’s character Tony dealing with depression after his wife had died. He’s on a bitter hating spree and through videos, his wife left and experiences had he comes out the other side smiling.

The first set of episodes are pretty grim and of course, there’s the swearing. Though each one has a thoughtful angle and that’s what kept me watching.

The last two episodes had me in tears. Complete tears.

What is brought up has relevance to dementia, death and the people you love so it can hit hard.

There were some great actors (and new too) that I recognise from stand up comedy and Shaun of the Dead, it gave a certain nostalgia.

The end comes full circle back to happiness and changing yourself.

The other theme was on being thankful for the people in your life, really thankful. As in even the people that annoy you so much your head might explode, be thankful.

I have such people in my life and one of them called straight after watching the shows final episodes. I wanted to soak in the brilliance of the story and messages in it but I called them back shortly anyway. We spoke and as usual, I listened, they talked, I listened, they talked. I spoke authentically, even though our views don’t match up, this can sometimes cause tension.

Though now, I am thankful I have such a person.

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Creative process win, creative project fail

March 18, 2019

I read once about a man who plays went down horribly, it almost ruined him, his whole career was in a standstill. He thought he had cursed his creativity and didn’t know what to do next. His young daughter had a bike and she asked for it to be painted, so he painted it black. Then he asked if she would like gold stars on the frame too, she happily agreed it was a great idea. So the play writer spent his time painting tiny gold stars all over the frame. Soon other kids in the area wanted the same and he painted more bikes with gold stars throughout his creative rut. It awakened him from it and he went back to his creative work.

The story starts with a simple idea.

I’ve had these idea moments lately, at a time I have least expected it.

The first was one day when I pulled out a bright blue with white embroidery large baggy top I wear when it’s too hot in the Summer to stand regular clothes. Now my clothes were getting tighter as my pregnancy belly bigger, it was useful again. I noticed it was essentially one piece of material folded over and sewn at the neckline and bottom. I mentioned this aloud to family, that I could get material and make my own. I really didn’t feel up to starting another project as I have some ongoing, both of them being seamstresses with extra material, they took up the project and made me two!

The second was an idea I can’t even believe came out of my mouth. Not because it was so shocking or impossible-seeming but that I was so tired, literally unable to do the most simple tasks and an idea came out of my mouth!

The idea – to paint mandalas onto an outside table we were decorating.

Through the process and completion, so many creative themes have come up that can easily when you’re making art of any kind. There’s a great diagram in Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon, from the outside in it looks like it was an easy route to finish but there are stages along the way.

First, there was doubt, in having the idea to do Mandalas meant I had an opportunity to paint three onto the table, I knew I wouldn’t see it through if I made it complicated, so I made it the easiest task I possibly could. I had positivity from the husband too which really helped.

To make the mandala I found three sheets of large almost A3 paper and something circular to draw round. I found a few images online as basic inspiration then drew patterns onto one circle. I colored in grey the parts I wanted to cut and put all three sheets together so I could make three of the same.

I used my cutting tool (thin sharp blade) to cut around the shapes. Already, without any distractions, I went wrong and so I embraced the mistakes. I noticed where I had gone wrong and moved onto another area that wasn’t affected by it and came back to it and made the same cut the opposite side.

I used the power of grit to continue (in a small way) as all the way through were these thoughts ‘I don’t even know if it’ll make it onto the table’ ‘I think this whole project can be completed soon but it may just go into another ongoing project and I’ve wasted time’. I continued to colour and cut, taking breaks as my hand hurt often.

There’s usually some stopping or destruction in the creative process, something that’s out of your control. It’s the part in reality TV shows where the most emphasis on drama occurs. For our table project, it came in the form of rain and then the wind knocked it and chunks of paint were chipped away. Then you question the entire thing ‘Is the table surface really any good at all?’ ‘What will happen if we put more paint then sealant?’

I honestly don’t know.

This could have been a post on minimalism, how we saved spending £40 on a new table and revamped an old one for less. However, with the cost of paints, it’s cost the same. Projects are about taking risks.

Projects open up problem-solving opportunities, even if it’s just asking yourself ‘How can we make this work?’

How did our little project do?

Well, we cut it short, when the paint chipped we got the hint that maybe the paint doesn’t suit well with the uneven plastic surface. Even so, we added another coat and I got to work on painting mandalas with a stencil. I was flexible with materials as only one shade, Fuscia pink was anywhere near a strong acrylic. We still kept the faith that it would work out with a final magic coat of varnish.

However the homemade stencils failed, paper after drying paint in between shapes cut out became stuck to the table and as it’s picked off, the bottom layer is revealed.

We shelved the project.

We did what we could and fortunately (or unfortunately) depending on how you look at it, the weather hasn’t been consistently bright or beautiful enough to sit outside in at a table anyway.

The project was a fail though the process was not and it’s something we go through as creative people.

In bold I highlighted the skills we learned along the way: continuing through doubt, embracing mistakes, continuing through challenges, questioning the entire idea and process, exploring other options, being flexible to work with what we had and eventually, the wisdom and surrender to carry on or let it go.

It’s all part of the creative process, whatever you make. A process I have greatly missed that visited me one tired day with an idea.

Have you had any creative projects win or fail that you could share? I’d love to read it!

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3 ways I’ve adapted morning meditation

March 15, 2019

I touched upon this in a previous post on reading Nitnem in pregnancy (Sikh daily prayers) and now I want to go into the challenge of meditation. It could be as a beginner, with a busy mind, tiredness anything at all. Mine is hormonal pregnancy related.

I love getting up to stretch and meditate, it’s free and only requires a square – rectangular space to practice in. There you just breathe, listen to your sound.

However all throughout pregnancy, I’ve hit some blocks. I can sit easily for 3 minutes and breathe, hooray mini victory! Though it doesn’t see me through my day as 15-30 minutes would. I can’t chant mantras as they send me back to sleep and literally wear me out like I’ve been mentally power walking. I can’t sit for long before I feel hungry and want to get up to organise or use the creative side of my brain.

Here’s what I’ve found works, through almost 9 months of self-practice:

Malas are a great tool! Originally I was skeptical as I saw people use them mostly for fashion. Though turning each bead with my fingers while saying a mantra such as the Mul Mantra set off the mind-body connection and I can do it – for 11 minutes!

The four-second breath also called box breath or 10-second breath with more practice works fantastically! Breathe in four counts, hold four, out four, hold four. It keeps your mind on something, counting and slows your breathing down. I usually do it in the mornings for 7 minutes, it can be done anywhere too.

Similar are techniques are: Breath in 1 2 3, exhale relax relax relax. Or Breath in 1 2 3, exhale 6 5 4 3 2 1, the exhale is extended and if you let go, it’s really soothing.

I also play 4-minute affirmations while sitting now, they are birth related and really relax my whole self, though you could find any that fits you.
Try techniques out! Do what works and show up often!

What works for you when meditation is feeling hard or a little off? I’d love to know in the comments below!

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Top 5 resources when you don’t feel like doing anything

March 11, 2019

I’m writing this post at 37 weeks pregnant. It’s not essential for you to know that or be able to relate either but you may further along. See the last few days I’ve had to pull out all the inner resources I can to function in a way that makes sense, or in a way I can get any productivity done.

You may/may not be pregnant however you understand what it feels like to hit a wall and have to lay down and sleep immediately. Or to get up at 3.45am to pee and it disturbs your sleep. Or your feet feel on fire so you move around, put on spray, cream and nothing works till you sleep in the coldest part of the house.

Acid reflux, light sensitivity, low concentration I could go on.

You may experience these if you have chronic fatigue, are elderly, you have bad circulation or have ongoing sadness or depression.

At times, I can’t piece together what to do next. It’s important to feel, not to shut out everything and be kind to yourself. I remind myself of these often and they have become my top five go-to resources:

All great things require time, I have pinned up on my board. It applies to projects and also life matters as that little extra time you give yourself can make all the difference. Breathe and do one thing at a time – do it 10 seconds at a time if it’s too much for you.

Getting good sleep is obvious advice, if only it was that easy – I didn’t ask to wake up and pee at 3.45am then have nightmares till 6 am! Rest often is better advice. It may be in 3 minutes of resting deep breaths in and out in between activities or a 15-minute nap. It could be investing in lavender oil to sprinkle on your pillow, getting a healing eye mask and having warm milk or a spoon of honey before resting. All those work for me most of the time. As well as relaxing music, piano at the moment.

I will declare something ‘I can do in peace’, a phrase taken from author Martha Beck. If I’m overwhelmed and fatigued I won’t find it easy to make decisions however with those words, I can find something to do. It could be collage, listening to music or folding laundry. Whatever it is, it’s something, and I believe something can spur on something else and a chain of movement happens.

I feel like I’ve said this before but I love the energy and confidence that gets put out there with these words from author Wayne Dyer – All is well and I am perfect health. It worked for him through Leukaemia, he lived happily and longer than everyone expected. It can work for me for something much smaller.

To just do one thing and adapt to going slow, instead of feeling like I need to do everything and rushing takes practice but it’s worth it.

What are your go-to resources when feeling stuck, tired or down?

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