The picture above, artwork by Gonzalo Villar, is the best metaphor for what a zen room is -  it is a space where you can calm down, rest and renew your energy. It is a place of respite - safe, welcoming, but also abundant, so we can fill ourselves with what we need.

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Zen room is a space thanks to which you can feel yourself better, reconnect with yourself on a deeper level. As well as solidify. Part of the grounding process is understanding yourself - what I feel, what my needs are, where my thoughts flow, where I am in life and where I want to go. Grounding gives us a sense of security and helps us to balance ourselves. calm down. Feel more confident and better.

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A zen room can be a physical space - a place in your home where you can go to practice yoga, meditate, relax, or think things through. It is a "temple of reflection", but also a space inviting you to connect with your body in motion and with its wisdom.

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The first time I came across this term (“zen room” as a physical space) was a long time ago (around 2005), when I accidentally stumbled across a segment of the reality show The Osbourne Family on MTV. It made me laugh then, because they are a family of rock musicians - very "crazy", extroverted, loving a drama and showing off - maybe even a little too much for a healthy life (that's why I don't know them very well;). It turned out that they have a room in their house - a “zen room” - where they go to slow down, calm down, regenerate, meditate or think about something - whenever one of them loses balance.The room is called "zen room" because in our culture it is the Zen Philosophy that is most associated with peace and serenity.

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It amused me, but also captivated me. Because as a yoga teacher, I often came across the belief that those who practice yoga are so calm and balanced - by nature. Nothing more wrong! Yes, it is a friendly and easy form for introverts, and extroverts may also seem like that after practice. But it is most beneficial to those who are as far from calm as possible and need respite to balance themselves. Yoga is all about balance and it also teaches about balance in life.

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And I teach about it. Hence the name of my website, blog and my company - ZEN ROOM.

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Living in balance means that you can be a "balanced" person and therefore creative and with fulfilling life even when you are the type commonly referred to as "crazy", someone who is not calm - by nature, or by

a constitution caused by life experience, or due to the circumstances in which one was or is. You can be a highly sensitive, highly reactive person, susceptible to stimulation, experiencing and thinking a lot and always (and often too much), full of energy, in movement, or in chaos. Or just a person living under stress, someone who lives under pressure, has a lot on a plate. And you can still find peace and balance. And find the optimal harmony in life. My love for yoga developed exactly because, as a restless person (at the beginning of my path, for all the reasons mentioned above) it helped me, without exception, to "recover" and feel better. When I started my journey to find balance in life, I was a bit like the Osbourne Family, and yoga was my zen room. Now I know many more paths that lead to the zen room - within myself. 

 

Years of working with myself (at first to be able to survive at all, then to achieve the desired quality in life) and experiences, years devoted to exploring yoga, psychology, philosophy of The East, Western philosophy, Western science, spirituality, and everything that attracted me showed me and taught me that we don't need a special external space, designed to support the process, to settle within ourselves. So we don't need a physically existing zen room. Although, of course, it can make it a little easier and have a charm in itself. Zen practitioners have zen gardens, where they can go to contemplate. Beautiful design space made to support the journey to enlightenment. But also zen masters emphasize that we don't really need special surroundings and environment to practice, because we look for that zen space within.

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This space within you can be reached - anytime and anywhere - with proper practice. Sometimes you have to work a bit to create this space. Maybe not completely from scratch - because everyone has a sprout of serenity in themselves. But sometimes we need to clean the inner space up, get rid of unnecessary elements and equip with new, better ones that support mental and general health and happiness. This work can be difficult, sometimes painful, requiring time and energy. There may be ups and downs on the way. But the goal is within our reach. And at the end of this way we can find fulfillment. Although learning and development never really ends ;) 

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How this way is going to be for you depends very much on your experiences, personality, environment you live in, timing, stage in self-development you are on, motivation and training to overcome self-sabotage that may occur. And it depends on your needs.

It can lead through yoga, or through psychology. It can start with one of them, because on a deeper level there are many similarities in this work. And they often lead to each other. But it always starts simply with the first step in the right direction. For yourself and for your happiness.

 

In a metaphorical sense, a zen room is an internal space, without psychical pressure and expectations. A space where we regain contact with ourselves. With own body, feelings, emotions, with the inner world of own sensations, experiences and thoughts (conscious and unconscious mind, sometimes moving certain contents from the unconscious area through insight into the conscious area).

Therefore I focus my work on body, emotions and mind.

The Zen room is a safe base and a safe harbor within, to which you return again and again to renew and set out to conquer the world (or just for walks and trips, if you don't want to and don't need to conquer the world).

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The way to balance and well-being in life is above all the way inward. During this journey, we also discover our own wisdom, and we can gain contact with other dimensions within us e.g. spiritual dimension.

 

Because, as the ZEN ROOM motto says, all the answers we seek are within ourselves.

Everything you are looking for is already within you.

 

Although the knowledge we can get from others is also helpful and necessary. And sometimes we very much need guidance or help. Also we can benefit from the wisdom of our ancestors. So it's all about learning to (better) recognize and use your own resources. And about being able to connect with them.

Referring to the metaphor in the picture - it's about being able to find access to your own power you have inside yourself, and ability to draw from your own inner abundance like from a well. At the same time, it’s about taking care of how our well (resources) are treated and use. How well we are able to maintain our inner source and the connection that allows access to it.

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ZEN ROOM teaches about this and offers such guidance and help :)