Who I am
My name is Marjolein and my mission is to share the amazing knowledge of Self Inquiry. Knowing who you are gives clarity, peace and lasting happiness. Be inspired to explore your own unique Self with patience, love and care.
I’m a Vedanta scholar, certified 500hr Yoga teacher, Marma therapist, ACT coach and Mindfulness trainer (category 1 certified). I’m very passionate about these topics and love to write, talk, learn and teach about this. This website is a platform to share the knowledge of freedom in a grounded, modern and approachable way. Sharing the uniqueness of the ancient scriptures without shortcuts and giving practical tools for daily life.
Background
I had a pretty normal childhood with a loving family, but at the same time had to deal with trauma at a very young age. Being a sensitive child, life felt sometimes unbearable and from a young age I knew ‘something’ wasn’t yet properly explained.
As I couldn’t put my finger on it I tried many things to figure this ‘something’ out for the last 20 years, searching within all facets of life. From party lover, diet expert, career- and relationship chaser to early morning Yoga practices, studies in Vedanta and Ayurveda, creating a more balanced life. From one ‘character’ to an other or strangled in many different ones at the same time. Always going from intense peaks of joy to deep lows of despair.
In 2015 I reached a very deep low and was done with this continuous cycle of sadness and joy. I’ve always been positive by heart, but the energy to keep on going like this just wasn’t there anymore. I was depleted, depressed and my body was literally rejecting everything that I was putting into it. I surrendered to what was there and made peace with the fact that I was sick and miserable. For the first time in my life I completely surrendered to what life gave me instead of holding on to the ideas of how it had to look like. And from that moment on things started to change.
This change didn’t happen overnight and I don’t want to sell ‘bliss fairy tales’. It took much courage, strength and willpower. Every new situation was a moment for me to practice gratitude, compassion, acceptance, patience and kindness, no matter what the situation was (and still is). My inner work (like Yoga practice and Vedanta studies) became daily, more intense and life around it changed with it.
Life didn’t became stress free or without difficulties. But everything started to make sense, space was created to feel, investigate and to act more appropriate. This made life instantly more pleasant and peaceful. Instead of swimming against the current I now had learned to move along with it.
Even today the practice of Yoga & Mindfulness give me self-esteem, confidence and stability physically and mentally. Ayurveda supports this proces in so many ways. And the teachings of Vedanta is like poetry, giving me knowledge of who I truly am. These tools give me the strength, trust and joy to handle life in a balanced, peaceful and mindful way. Although life isn’t always balanced and I still experience highs and lows, I do feel more ok in all of this. There’s a deeper sense of being ok when things aren’t ok, supporting me in moving through these difficult times with more acceptance and patience.
I think the biggest gift in all of this is, that I’m not ‘searching’ for joy or happiness outside of myself anymore. Of course I want my life to be joyful and peaceful! But it’s a fact that it can’t be like this all the time and nothing outside of me will ever give me this lasting joy that we all crave so much. Love & joy is find within while being human and moving through all layers of existence and experiences as they are.
Teachings of Vedanta & Sanskrit with various teachers like Swamini Atmaprakashananda and a Dutch teacher of Vedanta called Rommert to name a few. | 2015 - ongoing
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Coach
Stresswise Academy | certified | 2022 - 2023Prenatal yoga
Postnatal yoga
Mum & Baby yoga
Arhanta (in progress) 2021 - 2022Mindfulnesstrainer MBSR part 2
Centrum voor Mindfulness | certified | January - June 2020Mindfulnesstrainer MBSR part 1
Centrum voor Mindfulness | certified | March - April 2019Massage / Marma training
Dr. Lita Dash | Shankara Europe / Sri Sri Ayurveda | certified | 2018 - 2019Ayurveda Basictraining
Dr. Devendra Prasad Mishra | Yoga Vidya Bad Meinberg | certified | 20172-year Yoga Teacher Training | 500h
Yoga Vidya Rotterdam | certified | 2015 - 2016