Was it Fruitful?

So I went to London, I ate plenty of good food, drank the whisky and met some wonderful people too.

But Christina, you went to London to write! I didn’t see a lot of Insta stories of you doing that, so how fruitful was the trip really?

It was even more fruitful and creative than I imagined it would be! And the thing is, when I get into the mood of writing, that’s pretty much all I focus on, so that’s why I don’t show that much of it. And I can imagine that me posting a lot of pictures and videos of just me in a bar with my computer would be very repetitive and not really all that interesting to watch in the long run.

But I got down over 10 000 words on my novel! 10 000 words in 5 days!

There’s something magical with the relationship between me and London. My creativity blossoms as soon as I get a little bit of that London feeling.

A nice walk by the Thames, a coconut latte from Pret and then I’m all set. The words just pour out of me, and it feels so good!

And the best part of it all, is that the words have kept coming since I got home. It feels like I took a little bit of that London magic with me home this time around, and I’m so grateful for it!

I will be sharing more about my trip in the next couple of days! Have some wonderful restaurants to recommend to you guys, and maybe also a few personal stories to tell!

But now, I have to get back to my novel!

Hope you are all doing well❤️

Oh, and let me know; Do you have any places you go where you just get instantly more creative, or is that just me? And if you do, where is it?

See You There!

I’m way behind on getting ready for my trip, so instead of doing the post that I planned on posting today, I’m just going to share one of my absolute favorite talks by Alan Watts.

I constantly come back to this video and just listen. There’s something so profoundly wonderful about it all.

I hope you like it!

Next time I write here, I will be in Bucharest! See you guys there 💛

 

 

You Are What You Love, Not Who Loves You!

Back in the day, when I was a kid, I had so many plans for my future. I had plans to be exactly where I wanted to be by the time I was 25, and I would not even think about starting a family before that had happened. Needless to say, things didn’t really go as planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the truth for most of us when we look back on our lives.

I am now 30. I have a 10 year old son. I’m a dedicated YouTuber. I’m working on a poetry collection. The first draft of my first novel is almost done. I’m working in retail and I’m dying to travel more, see more, live more!

This wasn’t how I pictured my life would be at all. Some days that thought happens to get me a bit worried, but most days I enjoy life for what it has offered me so far. How I’ve come to be the person that I am today. And even though I haven’t reached all of the goals I set for my self as a little girl, I’ve already accomplished a lot.

I love the fact that my wanderlust just grows and grows. A lot of the things I thought would be important to me when I was younger, I’ve come to learn aren’t important at all. And some of the things that I never thought I’d care for, has become solid foundations in my life.

But there is one thing that has never changed, and I can say with damn certainty it never will, that is my passion for writing. I found it when I was so young that I can’t even remember it. I’ve been chasing it, and living it ever since. Writing and writing and writing! And I’m just as much a writer as everyone else who loves to write.

Fall Out Boy together with Elton John has a wonderful song (one of my absolute favorites) and in that song there’s a line that always gives me goosebumps:

"You are what you love, not who loves you!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cnBxSB1jUE

I love that line! And I find it to be so true that it sometimes hurt just thinking about it. We let ourselves be defined so easily by other people’s idea of who we ought to be. I know way to many who have given up their dreams for more sensible and safe options, and they almost always feel like there’s something missing. But HEY, that’s what growing up is all about, right? To that I say HELL NO!

I know my passion, my dreams! It has evolved over the years, for sure. Making videos for a passion in addition to writing just grew organically, and now they go hand in hand. Every single day I practice gratitude. And one of the things that I’m just as grateful for, every single day, is the fact that I still have that spirit of the dreaming child that was me so many years ago!

I look at my son now and I hope that he never loses it either. I see the sparkle in his eyes when he dances, or when he creates something, and I always promise myself that I will go down, kicking and screaming, for his right to have his dreams, to chase them, and to live them!

I will try my very best to teach him to LIVE A GREAT STORY, just as I am teaching and reminding myself to do the same, every single day!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE, NOT WHO LOVES YOU!

Don’t ever forget that! And I will be here to remind you of it, for as long as I can!

FIND IT! CHASE IT! LIVE IT!

I’m a LIVE Ambassador!

In my post The Story of My New Tattoo I briefly mentioned the Live A Great Story Community and that I’d become a LIVE Ambassador. If you want the story of my tattoo and how I came to know the Live A Great Story community then I would recommend you read that post first and then head on back here 😊

I’ve always believed that all things happen for a reason, and I find it to be so amazing that what started out as just a sentence that popped into my head, turned into my wall decor and then a tattoo, was something that lead me to this community of so many creative and wonderful people all around the world! I don’t think this was a coincidence! Some things are just meant to be, and I believe that I was meant to end up on this path and to find this amazingly inspiring journey.

So, what does it mean to be a LIVE Ambassador? 

Being a LIVE Ambassador means that you are part of a community of awesome creative and hardworking people! It means that you are focused on living a great story, and you want to inspire others to do the same! Weekly challenges! And a whole lot of love!

I’m super excited about the next three months of the Season 3 Ambassador Program that I’m a part of, and I can’t wait to share it with you guys!

If you’re interested in reading more about the Live A Great Story community, you can do so HERE ✌🏻

And if you think that being a LIVE Ambassador might be something for you, then I’m happy to tell you that Season 4 Applications are open now! You can find out more and apply here!Lots more to come! Talk to you soon Lovelies! 

Run Forrest, Run!!

Well I’m not planing on strapping on my running shoes and leave everything behind for an unknown amount of time, but I have been getting into running again. I started running again right before my vacation started, and I brought my workout clothes with me so that I could continue on with the good habit even though I’m away from home. And so far I’ve been doing really good. I’ve been out running every day  this week, and I can already feel a difference in my pace and endurance.

And one thing that I’ve noticed after I started taking my purple shoes out to get some air more often, is that my writing is flowing more smoothly. I’m very well aware that a healthy body helps out when it comes to a healthy mind as well, but I think the main reason why it’s having such a wonderful impact on my creative process, is this;

When I run, my mind clears up. I move through the forest and my thoughts run off to everywhere and nowhere all at once. It’s a form of meditation. A way to disconnect and silence all the inner voices that I shouldn’t listen to, and to connect with all that is good for me. The deeper into the forest I get, the deeper into my own mind I dive. And in the inner, most silent corners of my mind, I find the important parts. The thoughts that hides away in fear of being seen. The ones that shines brightly as soon as they are lifted out of the dark and into the light.

So that is one of the main reasons why I now drag myself out daily to sweat it out under the trees shadows.

I run because my mind need it. I run because the sounds of nature silence the words of doubt and fear. I run because I love how it makes me feel, and how it makes me write.

How To Age Gracefully

I was thinking about chapters…

When I look back on my life I see it as many different chapters. Some I remember with a smile on my face and others not so much. There’s been struggle, laughter, pain and smiles. This does not make me unique, it makes me human. But everyone has their own unique collection of chapters.

The thing about life and personal growth is knowing when it’s time to close a chapter and start a new one. I very recently did just that. I’m not going into detail about this at this very moment, but there was something in my life that needed changing and finally I got the opportunity to make that change. To start a whole new chapter that I’m very excited about.

Closing chapters can be bittersweet for sure. Even though the chapter wasn’t a particular good one it’s still the ending of something and endings can be difficult. It’s a weird thing, how something so much needed can feel like such a relief and in the same way so hard. Sometimes it can be about security and routine. About the fear of making changes to everyday life. Other times it’s the fear of making the wrong choice. To go into another chapter that has an even worse ending than the one you just closed. 

My chapter was one that was more a relief than anything else. Every new chapter comes with a new set of risks, new obstacles to cross and new roads to take. Roads that might take you closer to your dreams or they might guide you to a whole new dream. Some might feel like a setback, but any closed chapter is at least one new lesson learned. 

My new chapter is the start of something very exciting. Something that has taken me closer to my dream and my goals. It’s scary but I’m mostly overwhelmed with excitement and happiness. There was a time not so long ago when I felt stuck in a chapter where I didn’t really have any idea of where my life was headed. It was driving me crazy with worry and making it hard for me to stay as positive a person as I usually am. But now that I’ve finally closed that chapter and started a new one I can feel that positivity coming back to me and even though the last year has been a har one, now things are starting to work themselves out. I’ve worked hard to get here and to even be able to start this chapter at this very moment. 

There’s been a lot of pain and a lot of changes that had to be made. There’s been times where I was so tired of it all and felt like I really could have gone without the struggle, but now at this very moment I choose to look at it in a different light.

If I hadn’t gone through all of that, I might’ve not ended up where I am right now. And who knows where it will all lead? Because that’s the scary and wonderful part of it all. You live the book of life from page to page, not knowing what will come. Chapter after chapter, your character develops into something more, something different and something new. 

When you feel like something isn’t right then change it. Finish the chapter and close it up. That big dream of yours might be just around the corner. You just have to turn the page and start on your next chapter.

I was thinking about childish things..

There is something so utterly magical about how the minds of children work. And being one of them who’s (hopefully) going to be a child at heart for the rest of my days I find it particularly sad whenever I meet someone who doesn’t remember what it was like to be a child. To play and use ones imagination to the fullest and not caring if it didn’t make sense to anyone else.

I believe that writers (like myself) can easily access that door into their own childlike mind. Maybe it is that we partly just refuse to grow up completely. Because who would ever want to do that?

I’m not saying that being an adult doesn’t have its advantages. But there really isn’t much that can top that adventurous bliss of childhood. I would easily trade every party for the opportunity to climb that tree that touched the sky for the first time again. To explore the forest behind my mother’s house and look for treasures. To dream about what my life would be when I grew up before I even knew what being a grown up meant. To look at the world as my own and packed with the possibility to become anything I could ever dream of and never care about any form of limitation.

I could be the best unicorn rider in the universe. I could travel to any planet at anytime. I would learn to fly and to breathe under water. To talk to animals and shift into any shape. Tame dragons and be the greatest heroine of our time.

The possibilities were endless!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I still dream of all those things! And the greatest part is that I partly get to make them come true every single day. Liar, you say? No no! Let me tell you how.

I read and I write. 

This is my escape from the obligations, the bills and the boring parts of being a grown up. I get to be a child (yet again) every single day, if I want to! I can discover the wonderful universes created by others or I can make up my own. A place where I decide the rules and where I can explore everything for the first time just as I did with that forest behind our house.

I could never imagine myself a life without the possibility to enjoy this kind of imaginative escapes. And that is one of the things that I definitely wish for my son. For him to enjoy being a child for as long as he possibly can. To find the joy in reading books and making up his own stories and universes through storytelling and play. To allow himself to be childish even as he’s venturing into adulthood. To dare to dream and make his own future no matter how impossible it may feel at times.

There is so much joy in keeping your inner child alive. To stay creative and to explore.

Let’s run out there into our well known world as if it was completely new to us. Explore it and see it with childish eyes.

Come on! I dare you 🙂 

***

20 Things We Should Say More Often

Listen to the Kid President 😉

Needless Worries!

There are so many things that we choose to worry about that are in so many ways meaningless. Yes! I wrote choose, not because I think that we want to worry about these things, but because our mindset isn’t right. We tend to focus on the problems that life can bring instead of all the joys it offers. I’ve thought a lot about this the last couple of days and there are way too many worries to put them all into one post, but let’s set things straight with a few of them.

 ***

What if he/she doesn’t like me for who I really am?

I’m guessing most of us have thought just that at some time or another in our lives. We’ve met that special someone that spellbinds us and we so desperately wants to be the person that they want so we choose to alter the way that we act, dress or do things. We adapt ourselves to a potential partner for a potential that (when you really look at it) doesn’t exist at all, even though we want it to.

The simple truth is this: If he or she doesn’t like you for who you are, then you two aren’t meant to be together! It really is as simple as that!!

But I know that love is a little devil that likes to take us on a rollercoaster and sometimes surprises you by making it end up in the house of horrors, but we need to try to see things differently even in Cupid’s haze. We talk about looking for love and wanting all these different qualities and for some reason when we find that person that has a lot of them we tend to overlook everything else about that person that might hold all the warning signs and proofs that it wont last. We enter a fairytale state where we are in love with being in love and the reality of it all doesn’t hit us until it’s time to crash and burn.

Be yourself, look for a person that likes you for you and don’t settle for anything else!

I don’t have time to do the things that I love!

So you love singing, writing, photography, making movies, building model airplanes or drawing? You have a passion or a hobby that warms your soul and stimulates you creatively but you just can’t find the time for it?

I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but if you love it that much (same goes for dating and relationships) you make the time!!

Set your priorities right! Turn off the TV, put away your smart phone, decline that party invitation and do the thing you love. I know it can be tough to do this. Some days are long and demanding and when you get home you just want to sit down and watch some crappy TV show, but when you think about it that doesn’t really do much for you, does it? Think of how much joy and excitement you get from doing the things that you love!

Can we agree that the feeling that gives you is a way better ending to a rough day than watching what’s happening in the life of the Kardshian’s?

What if I fail?

You’re going to..

I know that sounds pessimistic, but it really isn’t. Look at all the great names in history and you will see that none of them got to where they were without failing more than once. Failing is a way of seeing the things that we need to change. It’s a motivation to keep on trying and to try even harder.

Everyone will fail and fall down, but does who succeeds are the ones who get up and keeps on going!

Be that person!

 ***

I could go on and on and on, but I’m not going to. I think you already get the picture! We need to be the change that we want to see in other people. We need to follow our hearts and not our worries!

Follow the love. The love for what you do. The love for a person loving you as who you are. The love of your goal.

Any kind of love really, as long as it is real true love!