Vkus&Tsvet is a unique large-scale project. Someone knows it as a raw food cafe or as a yoga and meditation hall “Yakosmos”, but it is also a healing center, a blog, a youtube channel, an online and offline store of useful goods, as well as a platform for creative events. This multiform space hosts lectures, cooking classes, programs for mothers and children, yoga workshops with guest masters from India, as well as Yoga Beauty Days in collaboration with Yoga Journal. “Taste&Color” is aesthetics, convenience, freedom of expression, it embodies various well-directed ideas that a modern person may need.
Light colors, original layout and spaciousness, a harmonious combination of the strength of the Earth and the lightness of Air, impeccable cleanliness, large windows and a lot of light, a secluded summer terrace and outdoor yoga classes. The space is filled with important details that bring comfort to perfection and indisputability, leaving a feeling of subtle feminine care: green succulents, bright yellow tea cups and glass straws for juice with the inscription: “All you need is love.” The solar system hangs from the ceiling in the yoga room, and the “living room” is filled with energy by the painting by the famous artist Veda Ram, which was painted during the practice of 108 Surya Namaskar at the International Day of Yoga 2016. This energy concentrate was then bought at a charity auction.
The Vkus&Tsvet project is unique in that it has so many things in common. Probably, the owner of any yoga center or lifestyle store dreams of achieving such diversity and integrity, but it is very difficult to realize this in terms of both material and energy. Alena Zlobina told us about this – the hostess, inspirer and simply mother of the Vkus&Tsvet space, which she repeatedly compares with a child in a conversation.
“For me, all life is real magic,” Alena shares, “Starting from the fact that a child develops from some cells, is born, sits down in one year, gets on his feet …” So the birth of her own project remains for her kind of amazing. This was not her goal, dream, strong-willed impulse. There was only a thought, not supported by any specifics, or planning, or visualization techniques. Throughout the conversation with Alena, her recognition of a higher principle was felt, which led her in the implementation of this project. “It feels like I said: “Ah,” and they told me: “Oh, come on! B, C, D, D…”
The project developed quite quickly. It all started in the winter of 2015 with the Taste & Color blog. The creator and her team read many different articles and selected for the blog those that responded, that they really wanted to share. At the same time, the idea of a youtube channel with raw food recipes arose, the first release of which was recorded in July 2015 and shown in September. In the spring, Blagodarnost LLC was registered, by the autumn an online store was already operating, and in October a large construction project began at the Flacon design factory.
On June 25, Vkus&Tsvet celebrated its first birthday, because on this day in 2016 the doors of the cafe were opened for the first time, repairs in other premises were still ongoing. At first, only word of mouth was advertising for the cafe, acquaintances and neighbors from Flacon came. The rest of the space was ready by November, and then the official opening took place: for two days, every two hours, groups of 16-18 people came to Taste & Color and immersed themselves in an immersive performance. As Alyona explained, this is an action that involves a person and affects his emotions and feelings.
“People sat down, got acquainted with the master, filled in their data. This data was transmitted to the healing center, where human-design cards were prepared for them. At this time, guests with their eyes closed and audio content in their ears tasted food, then moved around the space, where interesting points awaited them, which affected their sense of touch, smell, mind and heart feelings … ”
Now Vkus&Tsvet continues to take shape: yoga practices have recently begun to be held outdoors, and the search for masters for the healing center is also ongoing. Alena wants to select the best astrologers, tarot readers, bioenergetics, massage therapists, data and theta healers and other specialists.
The ideas of the hostess are here in everything, including the menu of the cafe. Alena puts a huge amount of energy into this project. “It’s not a problem to invent, the problem is to implement, because how you feel it, how you want it to be, is the tip of the iceberg, and then the most hardcore work begins when you try to embody it, to be heard, to be understood exactly the way you want to see it.”
While working on a project, Alyona learns to convey her thoughts and feelings, delegate responsibility, receives hard lessons and fights to the last. “I stopped so many times:“ That’s it, I can’t, ”because it’s really difficult, a very large amount of diverse actions, a very powerful mode. It really drains and tests your strength. I wanted to close everything, to quit, just don’t touch me, please, but something moves, something says: “No, it’s necessary, it’s necessary.” Maybe someone needs to implement these things through me, so it happens that there is no option to quit everything.
Alena will have an annual trip abroad for the winter. And although she will be able to devote more time to herself and her family, now her soul hurts over which team she will entrust with the care of the project. “I want to assemble a team of people who will live it. Who are inspired by the idea and are ready not only to talk about it, but will be driven by it, to show professionalism. I want some return, understanding, interest. Continuing the analogy with a child, it is important for the creator to grow the project to an independent life. So that he is not like a forty-year-old adult who still lives with his mother, but also so that his mother is calm that her child is taken care of and loved. “This is not business for the sake of business, but business for the sake of creation, for the sake of something more global. When you understand that it is unprofitable, irrevocable, then you evaluate other indicators, how much it will affect your goals at all.
What goals does Alena Zlobina see in her life? Why all this hard way, what is Taste & Color for? There are several answers to this at once, and at the same time the answer is one. The mission of the project is to change the quality of life through a change in eating habits and way of thinking. And the quality of life is determined by the quality of energy. “It is in our power to create a springboard for people to cultivate positive energy in themselves, change their views, habits, create favorable conditions for people in their search, so that they do not lose faith, in every sense: faith in themselves, faith in change.” The Taste & Color space is a participant in the universal battle between good and evil, and its mission is to contribute as much as possible to the good. When creating the project, Alyona Zlobina planned to support people in their natural (inherent to everyone) need for self-development and – what is important – to give them the opportunity to develop in a complex way, since everything in life is interconnected. “Taste & Color” is about improving the quality of energy and fully experiencing the taste and color of life.
“For me, beauty and aesthetics is a value. I wanted to make it beautiful, combed, pleasant. You come – you feel comfortable, interesting, want to be there. There was an idea to attract a young audience through fashionable, beautiful, who still have a choice, so that at the moment of their choice they would have an example that esotericism and self-development are not necessarily a basement, people in Hindu clothes, stink sticks, Hare Krishna and that’s it.” .
We can say that the energy contribution of Alena Zlobina to the Taste & Color project is her personal service, which allows her to stay on the path of spiritual development, work through problematic aspects and grow herself along with the project. We can live the same here, thanks to the fact that all the conditions have already been created.