Some feedback about my work:

Vivi is the most amazing, intuitive & compassionate therapist i have ever had the pleasure of receiving treatments from. Her massage tunes in to exactly what mind & body needs. I have never left feeling anything other than WONDERFUL. A truly marvellous experience.
(Claire, UK)

Vivi and her crew are sweet, welcoming and very professional. Vivi tunes into your body and treats what needs to be treated or just gives you a wonderful relaxing massage. In my case she cured me from an old injury that still bothered me until that time. No one else had managed to do that, but she did with only three massages!
Rose (The Netherlands)

Dear Vivi,,

Thank you again for this divine healing session...You are the incarnation of the Divine Feminine. If yu come to Paris or LA call us! 

Melanie (USA)

Really, the first thing I do when I arrive in The Gambia is to pass by and make an appointment at Mandala Spa! I am a middle aged man that first needs a massage to relieve the muscles from stress. Vivi and her crew can exactly feel where the stress has built up and take care of that in the relaxing atmosphere that is created in the room. Furthermore, I tend to do much more physical exercise when I am in The Gambia…, this gives me additional reasons for more visits to Mandala Spa to support recuperation of the tiresome muscles…. In other words: I very much enjoy their different types of professional massages!!

Paul, The Netherlands)

The In-between State.

The In-between State

By Pema Chödrön

It takes some training to equate complete letting go with comfort. But in fact, “nothing to hold on to” is the root of happiness. There’s a sense of freedom when we accept that we’re not in control. Pointing ourselves toward what we would most like to avoid makes our barriers and shields permeable.

This may lead to a don’t-know-what-to-do kind of feeling, a sense of being caught in-between. On the one hand, we’re completely fed up with seeking comfort from what we can eat, drink, smoke, or couple with. We’re also fed up with beliefs, ideas, and “isms” of all kinds. But on the other hand, we wish it were true that outer comfort could bring lasting happiness.

This in-between state is where the warrior spends a lot of time growing up. We’d give anything to have the comfort we used to get from eating a pizza or watching a video. However, even though those things can be pleasurable, we’ve seen that eating a pizza or watching a video is a feeble match for our suffering. We notice this especially when things are falling apart. If we’ve just learned that we have cancer, eating a pizza doesn’t do much to cheer us up. If someone we love has just died or walked out, the outer places we go to for comfort feel feeble and ephemeral.

We are told about the pain of chasing after pleasure and the futility of running from pain. We hear also about the joy of awakening, of realizing our interconnectedness, of trusting the openness of our hearts and minds. But we aren’t told all that much about this state of being in-between, no longer able to get our old comfort from the our side but not yet dwelling in a continual sense of equanimity and warmth.

Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It’s the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength.

Yet it seems reasonable to want some kind of relief. If we can make the situation right or wrong, if we can pin it down in any way, then we are on familiar ground. But something has shaken up our habitual patterns and frequently they no longer work. Staying with volatile energy gradually becomes more comfortable than acting it out or repressing it. This open-ended tender place is called bodhichitta. Staying with it is what heals. It allows us to let go of our self-importance. It’s how the warrior learns to love.