How life as an Expat can prepare you for difficult times, like Covid19

Let's be honest, nobody was prepared for what we are living globally the last few months. Not even the most wild mastermind would have thought such an extreme plot for a Hollywood movie. Although to be honest scientists had predict it... This Covid-19 or better invisible terrorist, that have made billions of people #Stayhome for weeks! Huge health, physical, and psychological challenges for every age, every nation, every religion and every financial status. A virus that equalized the world, maybe something that happened for the first time ever, since the existence of civilization? No one knew, and lets face it still do not know, how to deal with this. But there is maybe a group of people that are a little bit more trained and resilience on a physiological level at least, than the rest of the world, and these are the Expats*. The world nomads, the people that have to restart their lives in new horizons. The people that have to start from scratch, over and over again. The people that know how is to be isolated, with no friends, with some restrictions, far from loved ones, and yes, who know how is to feel lonely. 

How acupuncture helped me

I love alternative medicine. I am fascinated about ancient civilizations and the healing methods they were using. Uses of herbs, flowers, spices, oils, meditation, natural approaches. Massages and therapies used as natural healers. Emotional healing and physical healing is possible through these path. Because most of the time these two are connected. I found that this methods have such a wholesome approach with main focus to bring to the person balance on mind and body. So after my great osteopathy experience and still having flair ups with my aching shoulder i reached out to a friend that is an acupuncture therapist and performs a 5 element acupuncture, to seek for help. Little didn't i know what i was about to find out... my shoulder was just an outcome, and outcry of something deeper... I was ready to let my qi (chee) flow!

What -a lot of- stress can teach you

My stress reliever 

It is the first month of the New year and since i rarely have resolutions  i will just go with you through some realizations and lessons i learned from the past challenging year i had, and still partially have, and maybe you had also, and you too looking for ways to overcome and move on. 

Red sign! STRESS was my biggest challenge of all.  I am not going to lie, i have never been the person that has the most cool reaction when there is an issue or a problem, but this time everything was seriously out of proportion. Mountains after mountains that i had to climb, and obstacles to overpass. Accumulations of  "you must do" and losses of "i want/need to do". 

Our move No 6 and ..."The most wonderful time of the year!"

After 4 whole months i am back here on my blog! Just a week before the holidays, to report and give you a hint about our second round in the States. Our 6th move, second overseas, is now behind us and we are running to adjust to our new reality, new house, new neighborhood, new friends along with the old ones, and new school routines for our little one.

It was 4 very stressful months that i am slowly trying to overcome, and i am so thankful that Xmas is in the corner. This year it took us longer to be ready for the big holiday, but we made it!

Next chapter soon: Why i will miss the (North) Netherlands...

Another move, another set of goodbyes, another time for wet eyes, and emotional farewell dinners and coffee mornings. The Netherlands welcomed our family so warm, that it is very difficult to let things go. I never expected to feel so at home in a country where, we just came for work, where i don't speak the language, (although my time in Belgium helped me a lot) where i knew nobody, and where i had to start from 0. Well everything happened so easily, effortless, and calm. We found a house close to my ideal kind of house, in an area where you can easily find anything you need on a walking or biking distance. In a beautiful setting surrounded by nature and animals. Where the rhythms of life are relaxed and organized. Nothing fancy or glamorous, just pure normal living. And of course i had the luck to be at the right place at the right time to meet my first friend here at the gym, who she generously open her house, her hug and her other friendships and shared them with me. They say, or i say, you only need one person to connect so to stop feeling alone in a new place. Well, i had the privilege to meet more than one wonderful women, mothers and seekers of a better life for them and their family. Netherlands has been a box full with surprises!

The Positive Thinking Trend: not cool for everyone!

Hello! Spring has arrived here in the Netherlands and things have started looking more colorful and more positive already, the temperatures though not there yet! So, this post it is not by me. I have the pleasure to have a dear blogger/writer friend, guest writing here on my blog. Lety Ponte is originally from France. but she has been traveling a lot for studies and later because of the work of her husband, so she is a serial expat mom like me! For now she lives here in the Netherlands and apart from a wonderful husband and daughter has a very beautiful site where she shares what she loves most "Life, Positive eating, Mindfulness and Spirit Guidance are ‘my things’" as she mentions at her site. Lety loves the earth. Forests and magical gardens are her hideaways, but she is also working a lot towards reaching and improving her higher self and has the gift to bring beautiful messages from high above to others. Many of this messages you can find them at her site or by simple asking her for guidance. Here she shares with us about the pressure of the "trend" of positive thinking and what are actually the real tools so to conquer  this! Enjoy and follow Lety here if you want some more light in to your life.

Greece's beauty motivates the Greeks

Greece is in an economic turmoil for a long time now. Is on the news everywhere in the world almost every month. Bubbles that burst and flooded the streets, the businesses and the homes with despair, financial uncertainty, unemployment and sadness. But Greeks are trying to take everything day by day, and right now the only motivation I see in their eyes is the country by itself. Greece is the gas that makes the motor run everyday. The beauty that this land was given is the driving force for Greeks to wake up and move on with their day. The hope of a bright, sunny day that will warm their skin and light the darkest spots of the cities. The blooming trees and flowers along the roads. The smell of lilac flower, and jasmine from the house fences. The barefoot feeling on the sandy beaches and the first touch of the Mediterranean sea after months of waiting. Greece is a feeling, it gets in to you even if you are not Greek, and it stays with you forever.

Positive people are rare, embrace them!

I am privileged to have some people in my life that by choice see the glass half full. No matter what life brings to them: health issues, money issues, personal matters, job issues, they manage to turn it to something positive and beneficial for them and for the others around them. These type of people are dreamers, are romantic by nature and they have a deep belief in others. They say I love you easily, a word that many people are scared even to think, and they mean it, because for them it means "I care for you", "I care for your wellbeing", "I want you to be happy", " I am here for you." What we don't understand is that these people are here and next to us so to protect us and our soul. To remind us that happiness sometimes is inside a very small box, that when you open it, it multiplies and spreads its wings like the butterfly when she is leaving her cocoon, and paints rainbows on the pavement and the walls and sheds warm light to our darkest corners, this powerful light that we all need so to survive. Positive and happy people are here to teach us to appreciate whatever we consider a given thing in our everyday life.