Yoga Nidra & Bubble Baths: anti-stress the PhD

Few days ago I joined a yoga nidra class a friend had suggested. Lying on the floor, eyes closed, listening to the instructor’s guidance and reaching deeper and deeper into consciousness, the body is supposed to fall in an asleep state. I have practised yoga nidra few times before, but this time my body didn’t exactly respond as previously. Instead, motionless on the floor, I started feeling my thumbs locking, my knees aching and my ankles heavier than all the luggage I have carried thus far across places. I was meditating, but at the same time I was also fully aware of my body’s tensions; sort of a dual awareness. I realised that it wasn’t just me reconnecting with my consciousness down there. My body was also seizing the chance to reconnect with me, finally grasping my attention to show me all the things I had to take care of but was for long ignoring.

Awaken afterwards, I was inevitably conscious of all the aching muscles in my body and immensely grateful. I breathed out and was full of love for all parts of me that keep me going, as well as for the other people around me (which we have to admit that in our antagonistic fields, it is as rare as finding water in the desert).

Later that night, still aching and tired from the passing of another intensive week full of deadlines and scheduling, I filled the tub with bubbles and salts and simply dived in. Now, I have to say, bubble baths are not my thing and barely have myself one or two per year, ending them by being guilty about the amount of water I have wasted. But, that last time, I also felt that it was necessary; most of the aching was eventually gone and my joints were now smoother.

Bubble baths may not be your thing either, not to mention yoga nidra. But at these end points of exhausting weeks, or fortnights, or months, don’t neglect to take your much needed – and much deserved! – break. Keep up with your favourite hobby or experiment with new ones. You always have the option of doing this from the comfort of your personal space. For example, there is a number of guided meditation apps where you can select the programme and pace that suits you the best. Or, if you feel drained of energy to do anything at all, then consider simply having a promenade through the park or by the seaside.

Indoors or outdoors, introvert or extrovert, make sure not to lose the connection to your body; or if you very humanly do lose it for a while, find your own paths to recovering it. These numb toes and cracking fingers are just as important as your mind in pulling through your PhD!

Photograph: promenade through Parc Léopold, Brussels, in October 2019.

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Wolf nights in Bucharest

My demons sleep quietly under the full moon now, but other nights they stalk and howl like the ghost wolves of Bucharest. The large boulevards are as deserted as many their lights are, and of all the nights tonight with all the remaining Christmas decorations and lit up skylines, it feels the darkest of all. Yes, the city hosts its strangers and the youngest the children the more the milk the greater the need to undo and become again. Far from the shiny boulevards, the sideways remain true to their darkness not faking any kind of virtue not looking for temporary saviours. The animals human and other lick each other's wounds and carry on the hunt of the night before it's too late for apologies and too early for excuses. For every battle lost a soul carrier takes over, becoming and rebecoming never undone never out of opportunities, the last hope of the damning and the damned. The wolves howl tonight, the c...

Windswept

The moon plays with the shadows of the caves hiding and emerging once from the mountain’s peak and once from the dense clouds; it also plays with me. The rain falls liquid and malleable, like the skies it comes from; it carries itself especially forcefully through the island’s irregular openings; the drops are heavier when touched and they stay. The crows have already moved – together but in distance – to find shelter, as the rushed waves wash ashore killed dolphins. I touch the drops to hold onto something or to wash off the horror. The horizon is closer than most nights and I cannot feel the land anymore, nor do I want to. The moon, fuller than ever, shows and goes; until the church bells ring the first hour of the morning. April – May 2026, Samothraki.

Έγκλημα στη Σαμοθράκη

Συγκλονιστικές είναι οι εξελίξεις σχετικά με το μέχρι στιγμής ανεξιχνίαστο έγκλημα στη Σαμοθράκη. Η σωρός του Μολδαβού επιχειρηματία βρέθηκε τελικά σε δύσβατο κομμάτι του βράχου Βρυχού, περιφερειακά του οικισμού της Χώρας. Η αστυνομία κάνει λόγο για δολοφονία, αλλά δεν έχει δώσει προς το παρόν λεπτομέρειες για τυχόν υπόπτους ή για τον τρόπο που αφαιρέθηκε η ζωή του θύματος! Ρίγος στην τοπική κοινωνία εν μέσω καλοκαιριού! Θα επιστρέψουμε κοντά σας μόλις έχουμε νεώτερα... Ο αστυνόμος Μακρής έκλεισε το ραδιόφωνο με αργές, σχεδόν θεατρικές κινήσεις. Όχι πως ήταν λάτρης του σανιδιού · μάλλον το αντίθετο. Τον επιβράδυνε περισσότερο η σκέψη της τελευταίας φράσης που άκουσε. Θα επιστρέψουμε κοντά σας μόλις έχουμε νεώτερα... Ήξερε τι σήμαινε αυτό. Το τηλέφωνο θα χτυπούσε σύντομα. Στην Αλεξανδρούπολη επικρατούσε πνιγηρή ζέστη. Ο απογευματινός παραλιακός περίπατος περισσότερο είχε αυξήσει παρά ανακουφίσει τη δυσφορία που ήδη ένιωθε. Βέβαια δεν ήταν μόνο ο καιρός. Στην πρα...

Unconcluded lasting

A shy rain drizzles across the sea almost involuntary certainly insecure. All these empty moments their quietness and the silent awaiting, an unvoiced hope that walks the earth in the morning and fades in the depths of the moon at night, a light that sleeps and wakes wakes and sleeps illuminating nothing at all. Yes, even the light can wither without care without a word or with just saying empty, muted words. The rain drops like gold liquid light trapped in particles unsurfacing an awaiting permanently silenced; an unconcluded lasting. February 2026, Athens. Photograph: Corfu, January 2025.

The Rain vocabulary

The weather came in showers like hours pass in tandem; horizons threw on us gale. I can't imagine a world full of sunshine, said the lonely soil; and opened its hugs to the skies. The windows licked the drops before the wind could carry them away; before they would turn into salt a freezing sensation of ice. The storm had only started; and ducks fled the lake like children flee a war. The river only tried to stand for a second or a moment; the river tried to say it was soon going to go away. October 2023, Athens & October 2025, Lesvos Photographs: contemporary (above) & ancient (below) port of Mytilene, Lesvos, October 2025.

The London collection of short poems

Lambeth / Waterloo Bridge The summer early morning hours smell of fresh cut grass and they come as hesitant as the foxes in the garden; how do I love walking from home to the world’s opening. Tavistock Square An evonym lets itself into the world blossomed and ready – complete and the world takes it instantly; and so I watch the world noticing you and you watch me and there’s some uplift and quietness in this moment that both soothe me. Bloomsbury A radiant cloud settles; all this rain – soft & undecided – transcends London and moves me north while the colours multiply. Trafalgar Square / Westminster Bridge There’s a whole life that with each strike of the clock crosses the bridge and shares herself – so openly; she does so quarter after quarter hoping the right someone will notice. Borough Market / London Bridge I surrender to the controlled chaos and people carry me and at times I carry some stranger, and as I let it all happ...

Vanilla & lavender

You always sleep breathing peacefully in your bed (ever since). The house smells like vanilla and some lavender and you are always sleeping peacefully in your bed (for over a decade now). You will always sleep no matter the flowers in the house no matter the hours that pass. November 2025, Piraeus.

Perceptual haikus

I. The truth gives itself in pieces; it floods my eyes & mind. II. A tribe of hooded crows pulls me back up; or do they plunge me further in the deep? III. A drop falls in the Aegean; the sea licks my wounds unfathomably. IV. Things I’ve known before their time; or things that have crossed their place? V. Fragmented souls flying as dandelions ; they whisper in the atmosphere their fragility. VI. This moon tonight burns transcendentally; worshippers of any kind turn to the sky quietly. VII. The horizon crumbles one star & a cloud at a time; I’ve dreamt of this before with my eyes wide open. August 2026, Samothraki Photos: top – the August full moon rises from the sea on Samothraki; bottom – a hooded crow watches over Chóra of Samothraki.

Inner ocean

The faster I pace the more often I forget to catch my breath. Rarely I catch a glimpse of the waves crashing against the medieval stone walls, or hear the meditating sound of this moment from afar; and history slows me down inadvertently. Does it take an ocean to draw my attention now? I remember noticing once a “day launching itself unaware of what is to come and what is slowly slipping away”. i Today’s day escapes my attention again… If I were to sit on that coastline bench, I would come to realise I ebb and flow, one day to another one life to the next. October 2026, between Greece & Scotland. i Poem ‘Brexit’ (2020): https://poetic-movements.blogspot.com/2020/12/brexit.html

Down the rabbit hole

I. In my dreams I fall off the plane. Underneath me is the dark sea the only source of light the night ferries crossing waters from known to the unknown. I never make contact with the water; instead, as the distance from the plane increases above me so does the reach of the sea under the more I fall the farther I find the sea. The next night I fall all the same the distance longer this time. II. My dream starts and starts and starts again and again and always but never ends. Bound to endless beginnings. Sept. 2026 Kr a k ó w

Poetic Movements

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