The Warrior's Path

A great course about budo and the history of martial arts held at Dharma Gate Buddhist College in Budapest. The presenters were Szabó Balázs, Szemerei Márton and Abe Tetsushi Sensei.

Knitting for Friends

This winter I am a lot into knitting and doing hand crafted things. Stay tuned for more posts about knit items I made for my friends. I always include the free patterns, too!

Guest Posts

You are a martial artist and you have a story to tell? You have a beauty tip you want to share with everyone? Why not tell it here, on Beauty and Aikido? Any guest post is always welcome. If you want to feature on my blog just leave me a message and I will post your story.

Kawaii Makeup and Fashion

I love and follow the Asian fashion, skin care and beauty trends. If you are also a big fan of Asian beauty and style, stay tuned for my reviews, tutorials and hauls!

Presenting Aikido Dojos

This is a series of posts where I am presenting different aikido dojos from all over the world. If you want to feature too, do not hesitate to leave me a message.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Incense and the Art of Fume



I am preparing for my travel to Japan and I lit an incense tonight. As I was looking at the swirling motion of the fume coming out of it, I was inspired by its beauty to write a blog post and share some pictures with you. So I made this collage. The smoke makes such beautiful patterns that I want later on to reproduce in some of the vitreous enamel jewelry and art that I have been making. I will post about those too, soon. I created some jewelry and paintings that I will bring to me to Japan as gifts to special people I meet there. The themes I am using are from Hungarian folk art, so this way I will be able to share some of the Hungarian culture and the background I am coming from.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Martial Arts in the West

Source: http://benotdefeatedbytherain.blogspot.com/

Recently, a good friend of mine has shared with me an article written by Ellis Amdur about martial arts in the west: Koryu Meets the West. The article provoked a set of different reactions in me. When I started I was like...allright...another long elaboration on martial arts...let's see...huh? wait...he is making a point...oh! interesting! oh, he is so honest, oh! he is funny. Hahhaaaa laughing loud. Then a serious tone, touching words and an even more touching way of wrapping up the article. I have not read such a colorful and good article in a long time. Maybe this first read entertained me, but in the same time there are a lot of things I took away from his text.

Source: http://www.koryu.com/

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Teeth

Source: http://dentalish.com/

On this blog talk a lot about the beauty of the skin, hair, etc. In this post I would like to talk a little bit about the importance of keeping your teeth healthy. At first sight it might sound trivial. Of course you brush your teeth daily, more times a day. I also thought that it was enough and fine. But sometimes this is not enough. In my case, the dentist advised me that I should change my routine to the following steps:
  • Brush
  • Floss
  • Mouthwash
Brushing should be not the usual two seconds, I know we all do it to be over it, but the more thorough and focused brushing. Make sure to reach all teeth. The flossing is important for me because there is little space between my teeth where remaining food can get stuck. The mouth water in the last step not only prevents bad breath but also offers a longer protection to the cavity and gums.

So keep on smiling, beauties!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

How I Quit my Job to go to Japan



Hi Everyone!

I have some happy news to share with you. I have been planning for a long time to go to Japan to study more in depth about budo. For a long time it seemed like a wild dream, but when I have made the final decision to pursue my goal and talked to the right people, things started working out. Everyone has been really helpful around me. Old teachers whom I have not talked to for more then 5 years helped me with recommendation letters. Even my boss at work wrote a nice recommendation letter so I can apply for a scholarship. So I got accepted to Tsukuba University and will study about budo and practice aikido there. I am really happy right now, and hope that things will continue to work out just right. I have about one more week at my workplace and then I am free to prepare for the trip. Will be flying to Japan in mid September. Stay tuned for more awesome stories! I will keep active on my blog and share my experiences.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Military History of Japan - The Origin of the Japanese



Hello Dear Readers! 

As you might know, after the Warrior's Path Course that I started taking end of last year, I took up another course called The Military History of Japan. This time the only presenter was Szabó Balázs and we covered a lot of topics from Japanese warfare. The course started with talking about the origins of the Japanese, which caught my interest so I started researching a bit by myself. Then I thought why not put together a presentation with the information I have gathered and share with everyone. So I turned it into a prezi! The prezi is now here for you to watch. Enjoy and let me know in a comment what you think and whether you found it useful!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Blogger Friends - Fashionable Finance: The Costs of Trending


Hi Blogger Friends!

I have been mentioning on my blog that I love cooperating with other bloggers and having guest posts. Ella Moss, a blogger friend found me an asked me to share some thoughts about her article. So for those of you who are interested in the financial aspects of fashion industry, I would like to invite you to read her article. I find it is a well documented and neatly structured review of the financial mechanisms behind the fashion industry. She covers topics related to promotion, research and creating, on stage and revivals and wraps up the article with the controversy around cheap fashion. I invite you to read her article more in depth and share your opinions about it here or on the website where she has posted it.

Excerpt from Fashionable Finance: The Costs of Trending by Ella Moss

Fashion enjoys a vast world of inventiveness and diversity, exploring new trends and redefining identities, but this creativity doesn't come cheap! We investigate the cost of keeping on trend.
Woman Shopping
Fashion has a deeply integrated relationship with commerce and capital and have introduced new spheres of ingenuity through marketing and setting cultural trends.
This compels not only designers but schools of PR teams to establish the latest brand on the wave of a social shift in style.
But what about the cost of these new waves and revivals, and how do they impact on the greater public?

Read more...

Also I would like to remind you that if you are a blogger, a martial artist wishing to share an article about their dojo or a female aikidoka who would like to share her thoughts on how it is to be a woman in aikido feel free to contact me any time.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Presenting Aikido Dojos - Aikido Circle Budapest




Hi Everyone!

If you are a foreigner living in Budapest, you might have difficulty in finding a dojo where the teaching goes on in English. So here is one dojo where the instructor Keni Lynch is holding the training in English. He has contacted me a while ago and I am planning to make an interview some time soon with his wife for the Women in Aikido section of my blog. Her name is Marti Balla, I already talked to her on phone, she is a lovely person, so stay tuned for that. Until then, there is a great offer out here for you!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Aikido Classes in English. Sign up anytime before the 16th of June and get one month training for a 75% discount.  Send us a text message or call us to secure your place.  Only a few cards left, so be quick!

Contact:

Marti:
or 
Keni:

Thursday, June 5, 2014

MinsGame - Get Rid of Your Excess Stuff!


While I was having lunch with one of my good friends last week, she told me she found a really interesting webpage where people were talking about a minimalist lifestyle. I checked the minimalists also and found they were making some very good points. The more I read, the more attracted I got to the idea. Some of you might remember the post about my night stand.

I can see a lot of beauty in simplicity and empty spaces. I have always tended towards minimalism, but of course at the same time I still have the tendency to hoard things. Many times I keep things in a drawer or cupboard and never take a look if I really need them. Sounds familiar? Like most of us I also have my fits when I go through my stuff and throw out a lot of things I don't need. Usually this is a radical and tiring whole day event. But what about doing it slowly, making a habit of looking at things this way? The MinsGame provokes you to do that. Every day, you have to throw out or give away a number of things equal to the date of the month: one item on the first, two items on the second and so on. You can also challenge your friends. I decided to start this game with my hair stylist and blogger friend, Bella. Me message each other almost every day and send the picture of the things we got rid of that day.

I post the stuff I am getting rid of on my Twitter every morning around 7 o'clock CET. I think it is a good way to start the day. There is a whole community there playing the #MinsGame. It's really fun to see how others progress and to encourage each other.This week is still going smooth, but I will for sure need some inspiration and determination to keep it up until the end of the month!

Do you think this game is fun? Would you join? Let me know in a comment!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Voice Recordings - Who are your Enemies? Forgiveness Meditation


Check this out on Chirbit
Source: At Home in the Muddy Water. A Guide to Finding Peace within Everyday Chaos by Ezra Bayda

Hi Everyone!

Who are your enemies? You might say you have no enemies, that everyone is your friend. And I don't mean you should be paranoid about this and start seeing an enemy in everyone. But for the sake of simplicity we can call enemies anyone who takes you off balance, people with whom you dislike interacting at certain points. They are those people whom you blame for feeling bad, who ruin your day or a certain moment. In one word, you know...those bad intended guys. There is work you can do on yourself to deal this tension. Recently I have been feeling really tense in the dojo. I surprise myself many times thinking: "He is so annoying, he should stop doing that, he should just shut up." I am struggling with this a lot and realized that the problem has multiple dimensions. Comparing myself to him, disliking his attitude and personality (the little I know of it) and the list can go on. Sometimes I blame circumstances, other times I try to look at this as a necessary situation in life to point out something important that I should learn. So here is what I have been trying out. This is a forgiveness meditation, a sneaky one. You think you are doing intense work on the relationship with one or another person, but in fact a by-product of this work is that you start seeing yourself differently too, your attitude is changing. Sooner or later, the light into which these supposed enemies were put will change also.

Don't forget, as a very dear person to me always says: Everyone is work in progress!



Friday, April 11, 2014

Knitting for Friends - Winner of the Beauty and Aikido GIVEAWAY!!

Beauty and Aikido ©
You might all remember that one of the prizes in this year's giveaway was a cowl. The happy winner of the cowl is Jamie. She got my package in the meanwhile. She liked the soap and found the book really spiritual. She even got complimented on the cowl, which made me really happy. Knitting season is already over, but I might think of some sneaky way to knit some more, or maybe even switch to crochet. One day I saw this thin elastic thread and the shop assistant told me you can knit bathing suits from that one. How awesome is that? So I will keep on creating more hand crafted beauties.

If you liked the ones I made so far, you can see more projects and read more exciting Knitting for Friends articles here.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Beauty and Aikido Newspaper - 1st Edition is OUT!

There is a tool I am totally crazy about and which creates amazing presentations. It is called prezi, and it makes me really proud that it is a Hungarian invention. They introduced some new templates which made me think of making a Beauty and Aikido Newspaper. Just showing you some of the highlights that I have had on my blog. A bit of creative work, a bit of fun. Hope you enjoy the zooming!




Thursday, March 20, 2014

What to Wear for Prom, Wedding or Class Reunion

Sponsored Post

This year I am having lots of special events going on. I have my ten years high-school reunion in April, my cousin's wedding in August and who knows what other special event until the end of the year. So I started browsing the internet for different dresses. If I were to check all the shops and try on all the clothes I liked I think I would totally go crazy, so online shopping is always a good option for me. 

I have been considering at the beginning how fancy it should be. I know it is prom season now so many lady readers of mine might be looking for a prom dress. For this occasion you want to be as fancy as possible, because it is a great and exciting event. You want to go for something really fancy for this once in a lifetime event. All eyes on you! I think it is kind of the same in case of a wedding, especially if you are the bridesmaid. Here are some dresses I would pick for these kinds of events. If you want to look like a Greek goddess this is the look I would be going for:

Source: JenJenHouse ©
If you are a bridesmaid you might want to avoid white, and go for a more colorful solution. This one is really discreet and I could totally picture myself wearing it. The color transition is ombre, which is really fashionable right now.


Source: JenJenHouse ©

The next one is an intense royal blue color. What I like about this is the overlapping on the bust and the flattering form it gives to the silhouette.

Source: JenJenHouse ©


On the other hand for a 10 year reunion, you want to show another side of you. In my case, I want to show more like sense of personal style. Hopefully, it is in fact about you that people will want to know, you will have many fun discussions with old friends whom for some reason or other you have not seen for years (Facebook stalking not included). So for such an event my pick would still be a long dress, but more personalized style. Still princessy, but a pastel mild champagne color. I also like the asymmetry in the tailoring and the layering on the top area which looks very flattering on the bust.

Source: JenJenHouse ©


Of course when you pick your dress you have to think of the dresses that fit your figure best, you should feel gorgeous in the dress. Other additional things to think of are your hair color and style, undertone of your skin (warm or cold) and last but not least your budget. The good thing about JenJenHouse is that you can filter for the desired price, occasion, silhouette, neckline, straps, sleeves and what not. So if you have a vague idea of what you would like, all this filters will come in handy in picking the ideal dress for you.

Hope you found these tips useful. I am sure you will be the most gorgeous on that party!

Monday, March 17, 2014

How to Improve as an Aikidoka

Source: http://www.nanzan.hu/

I have set as a goal to myself about a year ago, to always practice with a beginner's mindset. This is particularly important when you practice on bigger training seminars. This weekend I had the opportunity to train on the training seminar held in Budapest by Kuribayashi Takanori, 7 dan Hombu Shihan.

Here are three basic ideas that he emphasized:
  1. Never Train Automatically
  2. Move
  3. Don't Train Selfishly

Never Train Automatically

You should not execute the technique automatically, just because you learned that it should be done in a specific way. Challenge each and every motion. Get to understand and then let go of the logic of the movements. But for that to happen first you have to understand why and how you step in the irmi, why and how you move your body in order to take uke’s balance for example. On the uke side, don’t take ukemi just because you know what movement is coming next. Wait for the tori to make you take the ukemi. Whenever I attend such training seminars I always feel like I am a beginner. Sometimes I felt a bit guilty of not having enough routine and stupid for not understanding how a technique works exactly. But when Kuribayashi Sensei underlined training with a beginner's mindset as a positive trait, I gained faith in it again. One should get rid of old habits and adapt to what is being shown there and then. Only this will improve your technique.

Move

Movement is important in aikido. Don’t be like a golf player, stiffly hitting the ball with the rocket without barely any muscle moving. Be like a baseball player, move around, adapt. Lower your posture. Especially for westerners who are not used to seiza, lowering their center is something they have to consciously build into their practice. As you lower, pay attention to move into the right point to execute the technique. Don’t get stuck at a certain point, always move along and develop.

Don’t Train Selfishly

Look around, pay attention to others. Train in a way that both of the training partners are learning something in the process.

He made several other points also, but these are the main ones that came into my mind. The seminar ended with the Dan examination, which I followed with great interest. We had to sit in seiza and sometimes in agura because this is one of the important skills of the aikidoka.


I hope this small article was helpful for both beginners and advanced people practicing aikido. Please also check my article from last year about last year's Kuribayashi Seminar here.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Coco Fashion Spring Review - Floral Tunic

Sponsored Post


Spring is here and I wanted to review some spring style clothing that I got from Coco Fashion. What I picked this time is a tunic with an abstract painting of a flower. I liked the grey, black and white contrast. What I also liked is the combination of the textures. Cotton combined with the smooth silky  and slightly see-through material from which the sleeves are made. The pattern on the sleeves match very well the floral pattern from the from of the tunic.

If you are petite, you can wear this tunic just with leggings. In my case, I had to pear it with a short blue jean skirt and some leggings.

You can browse more tunics here.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Presenting Aikido Dojos - New Video by NOLA

NOLA AIKIDO: PURSUING PEACE THROUGH 

MOVEMENT

Guest Post By Rebecca Marshburn

Living in a city known for its dizzying array of events, festivals, and good times, it can be easy to lose your center. Robert Brian Levy Sensei, founder of NOLAAikido, operates his Aikido dojo in Mid-City to reconnect practitioners with themselves, their communities, and their own sense of peace.

A native Louisianan, Levy moved back to New Orleans in 2007 when he couldn’t shake the feeling that “the city could use some balance at a time of so much instability.” After the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, it seemed more pertinent than ever to bring more Aikido to the New Orleans community, a martial art that focuses on “creating harmony out of discord.” Hoping to be a part of its holistic recovery, Levy put into practice his knowledge gained from Aikido teachers both in the US and abroad, having studied for many years in California, Oklahoma, Sweden, and Japan.Living in a city known for its dizzying array of events, festivals, and good times, it can be easy to lose your center. Robert Brian Levy Sensei, founder of NOLAAikido, operates his Aikido dojo in Mid-City to reconnect practitioners with themselves, their communities, and their own sense of peace.

At times misunderstood, the martial art of Aikido is “not about striking or kicking,” Levy states, nor “does one have to be buff or male to practice it.” In fact, Aikido is about “learning to redirect aggression, compassionately turning destructive and violent forces into peace in both the aggressor and [the victim],” says Levy, “and [transferring violent actions] to a place where those forces are no longer dangerous to either party.”

At NOLA Aikido’s dojo in Mid-City, Levy shares the art of Aikido with male and female students of all ages and sizes. Rather than a show of brute strength or blunt force, Aikido is “not about breaking things, but about using your body effectively.” In fact, the varied pupils improve one another as they interact throughout class, learning to “work with others’ personalities, emotions, and reactions, rather than avoiding them.”
Transcending physicality, Aikido aims to transform hostile thoughts into peaceful and productive choices and actions, encouraging its followers to “think deeply about their actions, reactions, and what kind of life [they] want to lead.” Likening inner conflicts and personal fears to “self-attacks,” Levy finds that Aikido strengthens more than the body, but also the mind, improving practitioners’ sense of calm and balance, and ultimately their intra- and interpersonal skills.

Beyond his Mid-City dojo, Levy hopes to share NOLA Aikido’s emphasis on “peace and harmony through movement” with as many students as possible. Following in its democratic tradition as an inclusive and interactive art, NOLA Aikido shares methods of non-violence conflict resolution at local schools, seminars, and festivals in an effort to mitigate violence within the city.
Steadily evolving to include more practitioners seeking to create harmony out of discord, NOLA Aikido’s dojo becomes a stronger family, and shapes stronger communities, as students interact and learn more about themselves and one another. Levy hopes to continue growing his dojo and the New Orleans community through the healing art of Aikido, helping to reconnect ourselves with one another and with our own spirits, one peaceful movement at a time.

NOLA Aikido is located in Mid-City at 3909 Bienville Street, Suite 103. To pursue peace through movement, visit NOLA Aikido’s website at www.nolaaikido.com or call their dojo: (504) 208-4861.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

GIVEAWAY! Three Years of Beauty and Aikido [CLOSED]

Beauty and Aikido ©

YAAAY! Another year, another GIVEAWAY! Thanks for following me so far. This year I want to offer a special hand made item to one of my lucky readers. I will be knitting the cowl you voted for on the poll. It will be a full cowl, I am starting right now as I am posting this. The bubble pattern that you picked through the poll voting refers back to the circle symbol from aikido. The other item I am offering is a skin care one. It is a black soap that I am using on a daily basis from the famous Hungarian brand of natural products called Ilcsi. I like this brand a lot because it uses only natural ingredients and makes your skin wonderful. The third item is a book. Because for me and I am sure that for the readers also, aikido is not only a path to train your body, but also for training your mind. So I am offering this book in the hope that it will help the winner in his/her spiritual path also. I cannot wait to see who gets to be the winner! Hope you will have fun joining!

Please make sure to perform all FOUR mandatory steps in order to qualify as a winnder! THANKS! <3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Three Years of Beauty and Aikido - Blog Giveaway!

Dear Readers,

I started writing this blog when I turned 25. Three years have past since and now as every year, I will have a giveaway for you guys. Through the giveaway I want to thank everyone who has been my reader and welcome all the people who are joining the Beauty and Aikido adventure only this year. I was thinking of making it special this year and offering you a knit item that I am creating for you. I will be adding other surprise items to the package, also. Stay tuned to find out more about this year's GIVEAWAY!

For now here is the poll I would like you guys to answer:

And the winner is the Budding Infinity Scarf Pattern!

The Warrior's Path - Course End Conclusions

Beauty and Aikido ©

When I started the course, I wanted to do a post every week about the topics discussed. In the end the material was so dense that I decided not to do that. However I have learned a lot and have assimilated a lot of information of which you will see future posts. This post is to thank all three remarkable teachers that helped us understand budo better. Szabó Balázs did a great job in talking about the history of aikido, going into great detail. Szemerey Márton approached the topic from a linguistic point of view and helped us understand some of the core martial arts concepts and technique names. Last but not least, Abe Tetsushi Sensei highlighted some of the most important budo terms and tried to convey to us some of the Japanese spirituality. All three presenters are really charismatic and great in the topics they presented. I really hope there will be a second part of this course. Now I am sitting down to finish up my paper which will be the evaluation of what I have learned on this course.

The Voice of Aikido

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