CURRENT MISSION

Giving hope and helping people in breaking barriers

ABOUT ME

* We (Noa and myself) moved to a lovely apartment in Ramat Gan (about 10 min drive east to Tel Aviv and nearby Hayarkon Park) and would love to host and meet you fellow travelers! We just came back from a 2 month trip in India and Nepal.
We have a pretty busy routine right now, so can't promise to be always available to host, but you're very welcome to try us and send us a couch request :-*

Now about me:
I'm Abir (which means "a knight" in Hebrew. You can call me "A-beer" if it makes you laugh :D).

I'm a curious person in my core and I love to enrich myself with diveresed experiences. I love people and I invest a lot of attention in developing my relationships.
Gratitude is a strong foundation in my life, and I'm greatful for all the blessings life brings uopn me. And for the challenges they bring too. I remind it to myself daily with a gratitude session every morning, a list of 'grace moments' I write every night and a greeting before each meal I eat. Generally, I believe happiness comes from good life habbits. Therefore, I cultivate other habbits too: I'm practicing meditation and Methaa (wishing well upon others) daily, doing sports and trying to do good for others (partically I like to give a baloons to random children I meet :)) and lately I started doing yoga regularly and I'm realizing how much my body and mind benefit from this great practice).

I'm really into Buddhism and also participated in a 10 day Vipasana meditation course about five years ago, which was life-changing for me. Eversince, I did it once more and participated in many other smaller meditation retreats.
I practice meditation daily and I find a lot of balance and wisdom in Buddhism.
I feel like I learn a lot every day about living in the moment, the dynamic nature of life and how to create a more peaceful and more meaningful life for me and for others around me.

I love doing things that I love, ones that give me the feeling of FLOW: playing soccer, dancing, walking barefoot, reading books, traveling, drumming, slacklining, climbing, language learning and juggling. Over the last few years I've been also discovering the wonders of resting and how good it feels to 'move to a lower gear' sometimes, so I try to find the right balance between doing and not doing, and occationally I take some parts of my day or my week to which I plan nothing and I can just BE. I partically love sharing those times with my dear partner Noa.

In the same way, I aim myself to finding balance between 'being everything' and 'being nothing' and that's an important guiding principle in my life:
On one hand, I believe in my capabillity and potential to do everything I'd like to do and I see the importance of doing, initiating and being active in life - being 'the captain of my ship'. On the other hand and at the same time, I also remind myself how small and insignificant is my life story, looking at it in a wider universal prespective, how many things are not in my control and how nothing is THAT important to be worried about. When my father passed away about 2 years ago I got to deepen even more into this understanding - in the experiential level.
When I'm right in between being everything and being nothing -I feel I'm in a good place for me.

Or as was beautifully said by Nisargadatta Maharaj:
"Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
And between the two my life flows"

Over the last few years I've been realizing that my life purpose is to give people hope and help them breaking barriers - towards themselves and towards others. I'm a social worker in my profession and these days I'm looking for ways to make my proffesional and life path even more accurate according to my goals. I'm starting Hakomi studying and training this October and I just started working in a lovely kindergarten in Tel Aviv.
So far, my job there makes me feel very satisfied and happy and it feels like the right place for now. I love children, charmed by them and think there's so much to be learned just from being with them. They teach me a lot about simplicity, honesty, curiousity and about being authentic and barrier-less.

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Traveling, CS and myself:

I love traveling and backpacking and meeting new cultures, people and sceneries.
Had the time of my life traveling so far -
had unforgettable experiences, made good friends for life and learned about myself and the world more than I can describe.
I traveled around the world for more than 3 years (on and off) during the years 2010-2013, and eversince I keep using any opportunity I have to explore a new area.

I just came back from an amazing 4 month trip with my partner Noa to NZ, OZ, The Phillipines and Burma and I can't wait for our next adventure :)

I've met loads of fascinating people through this beautiful community and have had so many great CS experiences during my travels so far - whether if in the U.S, Canada, south east Asia, Brazil, Guatemala, NZ, Australia and so many places in Europe.

And now - we can't wait to host and meet new people in Israel!

What else can I say, my friends?
I'd really love to know ya all!

And never forget -
A day without a good laughter is a wasted day! :D

PHILOSOPHY

Here are some quotes that inspire me:

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about -
so be kind.

"Harmony is an ideal state of mind, in which you're not seperated from wholeness by any strict dogma limitation"
(Gabi Nitzan in Badulina)

We are not the DJ's, we're just the dancers on the dance floor. It doesn't really matter which music is it - let's dance!!"

"Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken"
(Oscar Wilde)

"Smile at the world and the world smiles back at you"

"Look the difficulty straight in the eye, and it will look away"

"Be the change you want to see in the world"
(Mahatma Gandhi)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
(Mark Twain)

"Today is my lucky day!"
(Yoaz Menda)

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't; either way you are right"
(Henry Ford)

"A day without a good laughter is a wasted day!"
(Charlie Chaplin)

"Minds are like parachutes - they only function when they're open"

"Life is not a competition, everyone has their own journey"

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations" (Goerge Bernad Shaw)

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others"
(Marianne Williamson / in Back To Love)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Hosting and showing people around Israel.

When I travel, I surf too.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Surfed and been shown around by loads of good people in various places.

Hosted surfers on my couch several times when I used to live in Be'er Sheva.

Couch Surfing meetings I've been to so far:

Jerusalem, Israel - June 2010

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada - January 2011

Bangkok, Thailand - June 2011

Chiang Mai, Thailand - June 2011

Saigon, Vietnam - July 2011

Hanoi, Vietnam - August 2011

Berlin, Germany - October 2011

Düsseldorf, Germany - October-November 2011

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - February 2012

São Paulo, Brazil - March 2012

Madrid, Spain - May 2013

Lisbon, Portugal - May 2013

Milano, Italy - June 2013

Verona, Italy - June 2013

Budapest, Hungary - July 2013

Prague, Czech Republic - August 2013

Stavanger, Norway - September 2013

Amsterdam, Netherlands - September 2013

San Francisco, Cali, USA - August 2014

Granada, Spain - July 2015

Sydney, Australia - December 2017

Interests

• books
• festivals
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• running
• meditation
• partying
• movies
• traveling
• music
• hiking
• surfing
• scuba diving
• soccer
• extreme sports
• languages
• psychology
• hitchhiking
• volunteering
• games
• boardgames

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
American History X, Into The Wild, Seven Pounds, Truman's Show, The Matrix, The Bourne trilogy, The Lore of The Rings trilogy

Music:
Bob Marley, Gypsy Kings, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, Kyala Scintilla, Tanecious D, System of A Down, The Beatles, Queen, Infected Mushroom.
Shotey Hanevu'a, Infectzia, Itay Pearl, Monica Sex, Hadorbanim, Arik Einstien, Berry Saharof, Hadag Nahash.

Books:
Badulina / Gabi Nitsan
Momo / Michae Ende
Let Me Tell You a Story / Jorge Bucai
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance / Robert M. Pirsig
The Elegance of the Hedgehog / Muriel Barbery
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats / Jan-Philipp Sendker
Harry Potter (all of them) / J. K. Rolling

My "bible" and favourite guiding book is The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

other non-novels I like:
The Art of Love / Erich Fromm
Loving What Is / Byron Katie

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Watching the NYE 2018 fireworks by the Harbour Bridge, Sydney, Australia;

A 10 day silent Vipasana Meditation course;

Bunjee jumping in Queenstown, New Zealand

Visiting India;

Burning Man 2014 in Nevada. U.S;

S.U.N Festival in Hungary;

Sambodromo Parade in the carnaval of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;

Semuc Champey pools in Guatemala;

La Tomatina Festival in Buñol, Spain;

A wine festival+running drunk of bulls in Requena, Spain;

Watching the most beautiful sunrise around pagodas and hot air ballons in Bagan, Burma;

A full moon party in Koh Phangan, Thailand;

Tubing and partying in Vang Vieng, Laos;

"The Hitchiker Day" in Israel - once a year, a friend and I are picking up hitchikers all over the country and bringing them to wherever they want to get;

Sweat lodge ceremony;

Ski-diving in Habonim Beach, Israel;

Ski-diving in Glenorchi, New Zealand;

Ayuhasska ceremony;

Teach, Learn, Share

I speak Hebrew and English fluently, have a good level of Spanish, an intermediate level of Farsi and also speak a little bit of Arabic.
I'm an amateur drummer (and an excellent kazoo player :))
I can teach meditation (I don't concider myself an expert though).
I can teach various sports, including basic level slacklining!
I can teach juggling (with 3 balls - for now :)).
I love card games and also know a few cool card tricks.
I know a lot of social games.
I'm also willing to share my way of life, and methods to make your life better and happier (the way I see it).

I'm into studying anything new basically =)
In particular, I'm intrested in learning new languages, new hobbies, new sports, new various games, new card tricks, and I'm always looking for new traveling ideas - places to go and see and new adventures.

And also -

CAN YOU TEACH ME HOW TO WHISTLE?!
No one ever could so far.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Macedonia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Germany, Israel

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