Multiple Events · Ongoing

Love warriors spreading light in DooooBai.

22 volunteers, profound deepening circles, and ripples of kindness spreading across the UAE.

The Deepening Launch Story

How It Works The concept

Deepening Inner work

Launch Story The beginning

Photos From events

Connect Get involved

How It Works

Cooked with Care,
Served by Volunteers

Your Bill is Always
0 AED

You Pay-It-Forward
for the Next Guest

The Deepening

Preparing with Love

March 2016 — Before serving others, we first served ourselves

Over the course of the last two Karma Kitchens Dubai, it's been an incredible journey for ourselves to really explore our own connection to the values around KK, and ask ourselves what they truly mean to us. We realized that the experience for guests is far deeper when each one of us is operating from that space of purity, inner transformation and love.

So this time we decided to hold a deepening session for everyone who would be volunteering. 16 of us came together in a park, surrounded by trees and the lively chirping of birds.

Natasha invited us all to hold hands and we held a few moments of silence. Then each shared what they were grateful for — most were grateful to just be there in the circle! Then Natasha guided us through a beautiful heart meditation where we could feel a palpable sense of interconnection. When we opened our eyes and looked around at each other, there was so much love.

We were asked to share a story from our lives where we fearlessly experimented with our love. Such beautiful stories emerged — we had no idea we were living side by side with such fearless love warriors!

Held space for a cleaning lady at a toilet — their interaction resulted in a shift, where the lady declared she was going to be kinder to every being who walked into that toilet from that moment on.

Aimy

Had a hard time hugging people. Over time, inspired by Sonia & Chandni, she learned that hugs connect heart to heart — now she's ready to be Chief Hugger at Karma Kitchen!

Sunita

Spends every Friday, her day off, teaching children in India through Skype. She loves them deeply and recently got to meet them in person in Pune.

Adel

Had never meditated before, but during the heart meditation felt such a deep experience of being loved — he had a vision of himself lying in the centre of the circle, looking up at the vast, open blue sky.

Alex

Went from a meditation course into a corporate meeting with Oil executives — his expression of love was to invite everyone in the boardroom to take moments of silence. By day's end, 5 emails said those 10 minutes were the best part of the meeting!

We closed with Natasha asking each of us to share our intentions for Karma Kitchen:

Maryam: Plug everyone back into purity Shermeen: Make as many people smile as possible Sonia: To be love Chandni: Enjoy the process, not get caught up in to-do lists

"It's a true blessing to be able to hold space for others to experience the love, gratitude, kindness that we've received in such abundance from this ecosystem and let the ripples spread far and wide all over Dubai, UAE and rest of the world."

The Launch

Stories From Our Beginning

When Karma Kitchen first opened its doors in Dubai

This past weekend Karma Kitchen opened its doors in Dubai. And it couldn't have been more wonderful! It still feels like a dream that everything came together so seamlessly — and in the process touched us all so much that we're still carrying the joy well into the week.

Nitin Bhai's Gujarati Restaurant

The space was offered by a simple Gujarati restaurant, run by Nitin bhai whose smile reminds us of Jayesh-bhai. He and his wife treat every customer like family and always insist they eat "just one more chapati." If a customer doesn't have enough money, Nitin bhai lovingly tells them it doesn't matter — they can pay next time. It couldn't have been a more ideal space for Karma Kitchen to start!

The 22 volunteers came together so naturally — we'd got all the positions filled in 2 days! And even though most of us were meeting for the very first time, there was an instant bonding and lots of hugs and massages were exchanged.

We were a little wary since this is Dubai — the land of laws & fines — that customers would be skeptical and may not warm to the concept immediately. But boy were we wrong!

The guests would walk in puzzled and look up at the sign board to confirm they'd come to the right place, and then cautiously take their seats, wondering what they were signing up for. But just a few moments and interactions with servers later, they were telling us how this is exactly what Dubai needs more of.

Some guests who are alone here, away from their families, told the servers they were reminded of their moms and sisters. Others told us how they haven't smiled so much in awhile. One man who had been sitting there while we were decorating the place came back with his wife later, because he wanted her to experience this.

Two gentlemen even offered their own restaurants (famous chains in Dubai) to run the concept!

"But the most beautiful takeaway was really that sense of love, joy and exhilaration in the faces of volunteers, guests and the owners. And I can feel myself being kinder to people on metro, to my Mom at home, to my colleagues at work this week. That's the most powerful, wonderful thing."

Many bows of gratitude to all the ServiceSpace family for serving as inspirations many oceans away. We all thought of you guys and sent you so much love.

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