Happy 2022 everybody!

I hope this year will be a good one for all of you! May you be happy and healthy. May your life be filled with love and abundance. May you feel empowered, inspired and motivated to make 2022 a fantastic year!

I truly hope that if things were not that great for you in 2021 — like for so many of us, I mean it was a pretty crappy year, wasn’t it? — may you have the courage and strength to take big or small steps to towards a life that is everything you dream of in your wildest dreams!

Sometimes all you need is the smallest step to set things into motion. You do not need to see the whole road towards your dreams, you do not need to have it all planned or have all the knowledge or skills to get there. The path will become clear along the way, you will learn, you will meet the right people to inspire and help you and I promise you the journey will be interesting and your heart will sing knowing you’re going in the right direction. All you need is those first little steps in the right direction…

Looking back on 2021

2021 was a year of big TRANSFORMATION for me. It was challenging from the get go. I started the year feeling super unfocused and uncreative. I was still struggling with my knee injury from autumn 2020. I needed plastic surgery on my forehead to remove skin cancer (a basal cell carcinoma, very common apparently — please protect yourself and wear sunscreen SPF50 when it’s sunny!). It had the ‘oh so lovely bonus’ of a massive black eye 😞 and a big scar on my forehead. A few weeks later I got the absolute worst hair cut in my life, it left me in tears for over a week and I went through all 7 phases of mourning! And I must say the black eye, scar and the horrible hair cut really did teach me some lessons on how much more I value my appearance than I thought I did! And then one more crazy thing happened, I only narrowly escaped with my life after the school building I walked by collapsed, 5 people died in the collapse, it left me covered in dust, deeply in shock and … with a renewed sense of having to make something good of my life!

So in the 2nd half of the year I decided to go after my wildest dream, the one I spoke about in this post… I got rid of almost everything I owned and moved to Portugal! And gosh, and what a good decision it has been! 

Ever since arriving here I’ve been feeling inspired and motivated to get back into healthy routines doing my daily meditation, qigong, physio exercises to strengthen my knee and hips, yoga, beach walks and getting lots of vitamin D. I’ve been super focused on getting my new creative projects of the ground. Meeting new and interesting people and simply enjoying being in a stunning and awe inspiring environment. I feel so much lighter and more vibrant than months ago. 

Looking forward to the year ahead

I’m super excited to see what 2022 will bring. Even though the world is still a bit topsy turvy I’m feeling very hopeful. I feel empowered, inspired and motivated to reach some new creative business goals. And I’m so excited to see where this Portugal journey will bring me, what new opportunities will come my way, which amazing people I will meet, which stunning places I’ll discover, … And I also hope health-wise my year will look so much brighter than the past one.

I have some specific goals for my creative business in the upcoming year. First of all to simply stay motivated, inspired and focused as these are all necessities to be creative and become successful. It means being disciplined, sticking to a good morning and evening routine, making healthy choices and taking plenty of breaks to recharge and to get new input from the outside world too.
And I want to turn my brand new Etsy shop — called Somewhere in the Wild, digital planners & journals to empower and to connect with your wildest self —that I launched just a few days ago into a raving success and create a steady income stream again. My shop is still like a new born baby, one that hasn’t even taken it’s first breath (I haven’t even made a first sale) so I don’t know if it’s viable yet. But it has all the potential to be so and I’m going to mother it the best I can. I’m feeling incredibly inspired by my friend’s Etsy success and I’m just going to give it my all!

My plan for my journey here in Portugal, where I’ll live exactly, how long I’ll stay in places, what I’ll do, … are vague and open. And I’ll just see where opportunity takes me. The ultimate goal for me is still to end up living in a small but lovely little house with a big garden for me to grow lots of flowers, vegetables, fruit trees and to be closer to nature, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there yet in this year. I will slowly be taking steps in that direction though and I have no doubt I’ll enjoy the interesting journey there…

And I have no doubt that Portimão is the place where I needed to be to start my journey. It’s the perfect place to get everything I need sorted, to learn the language, to get my creative business relaunched, to get my mind-body-spirit in perfect alignment, to be in awe with the natural beauty of the local beaches, to meet the right people with the knowledge and advise I need (already met some very interesting people and it’s just mind blowing to see how these people with the exact wisdom and knowledge you’re interested in at this moment appear on your path!). I’ll be here til at least the beginning of April and then we’ll see…

Anyway, life looks good right now! And I’m sure 2022 will rock!

All the best to you guys! Much love 😘

Portugal