Sunday Music Time!! Yaaayyyy!!!

A few nights ago I was cruising Facebook on my smartphone, and I was just about to log out as I stumbled upon this video. I am not sure why I clicked it, but somehow I felt like I had to. I spent the next hour on youtube, listening to this young man. I love raw, crispy voices. Always have and always will. And this one is no exception. This is simple, raw, crispy, genuine and in Swedish, but listen anyway. It will be worth it. There is something about this kid that makes me think he will have a brilliant future ahead of him. Listen, and enjoy!




This week is full of good things I am dying to tell you about, but this is not the time to do it. I might tell you further on though. I find life just simply amazing and I have got such a nice feeling in my body. I know that a big part of that has to do with meditation. It is really helping me keep in touch with my inner feelings of love, safety and peace. I have a feeling that all is well!

Today I am extremely lazy! The weather is fantastic, hot and sunny outside and I am inside reading on my Kindle. I love my Kindle by the way! Since the end of last summer I have been reading up on Agatha Christie, one of my all-time favourite writers. But, since I don't really spend that much time reading anymore I still have more than half of them to go. But, I don't mind, because I think they are brilliant in so many ways. There is a depth to a lot of them that a lot of people don't understand.

Who are your favourite writers? What are doing a Sunday like today?

Love
Carina

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it"

Yesterday I had a breakdown day. I was really tired, and spent my day sleeping, watching films, crying and thinking about this whole Empath thing. Of course, being me, I realized that it would only last for a day, or maximum two days. And I started to feel better last evening, already. Naturally, because that is how I function now a days.

"No problem can be solved from the same level
of consciousness that created it"
Albert Einstein

During last night I had a dream about a house. It was a big, white, wooden house of two or three floors. It had a lot of big open windows everywhere, and the feeling inside the house was that of love and harmony. Peace. But then came the winds. Hard and strong, and they swept in from all different directions, through all the windows and whirled around in the house. The house tried to close the windows, but they were all stuck. And then the winds died out again. Leaving the house in chaos, with leafs, broken branches, dirt, rubbish and wall papers coming off the walls. The love and harmony could still be slightly felt, but it was hidden underneath all the chaos. It took a few days for the house to get back to what it was. And the winds came back again.

Houses in dreams are said to represent the dreamer, so the house was obviously me. The winds I am sure represents the energies around me, that I take in, being an Empath. The windows that were not able to close felt significant after the dream had ended, but I wasn't sure in what way.

In the morning I usually meditate, and so I did this morning as well, and during this mornings meditation the thought came to me that instead of thinking of the winds, aka the energies, as intruders and enemies, I should see them as friends that come bearing gifts.

Being an Empath is a part of who I am. I owe it to myself to love all parts of that I can't change. I am not supposed to hide within a shell, or close those windows. I am supposed to build my house so the winds can sweep easily through it, taking what needs to be cleared out with them, leaving the good stuff that belongs in there.

This is a very nice realisation, because fighting against who you are never leads to anything good in the end. Now, I can walk into these situations with curiosity and love, and a will to learn from these energies.

Becoming aware of something that has causing you problems is a huge step towards solving it, but as Albert Einstein so wisely said: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it". 

Sunday Music Tradition!

Another Sunday, another sunny day! And I love it! Today I went for a coffee with my very good friend C. It's been a while since we saw each other since she's been away so it was very nice to catch up on things. There's nothing like a bit of sunshine, a nice cold ice coffee, a good friend and some proper girl talk on a Sunday afternoon.

Afterwards I came home and decided that I should make it a Sunday tradition to post a music video. I'm not really fond of must-dos, but this is a nice one to (have) to do, I think. I started out with an idea of what type of song I wanted, but couldn't find anything that felt right, so I clicked something else, search something different and have now spent hours listening to music, from Frank Sinatra, Etta James and Louis Armstrong to Maroon 5, Queen and Lady Gaga, and I almost forgot why I was doing it in the first place.

So, this is where I ended up. With one of my favourite Glee mash-ups, of two of my favourite 80's songs, from two epic 80's films (Risky Business and Top Gun), with the one and only Tom Cruise, who back then was incredibly hot. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with boys in this video either. Enjoy and please sing and dance along with it, so I don't have to be alone doing it!




And, yes, I am a total Gleek, as in a fan of Glee. Glee is absolutely brilliant, it makes me cry and laugh at the same time. So, shoot me, or better yet, join me!


Love
Carina

"I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet"

Well, this post isn't really about your mind, more about your energys and mostly about other people's energy's effecting you, but I still think this quote by Mahatma Gandhi kind of says it all.

"I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet"

I am an empath. I just learnt that, although I have heard it before, and have worked on some of the issues I've had because if it before. I just never really put them all together, but now I have. And you are probably wondering what an empath is, so let me explain it to you; an empath is someone who is overly empathic and overly sensitive to other people's energys (feelings, pain, health, thoughts, mood and so on). An empath often knows how someone else is feeling even when they are not showing it, or even if they try to lie about it. An empath might often find him- or herself pulled into strong emotions when watching the news, or films.

I remember when the Tsunami happened over in Asia some years ago, I was completely hooked. I was up all nights watching the news and I bought every newspaper I could find about it. I sucked in all the feelings, both the tragic feelings of fear, loss and death, and the positive feelings of joy, love and life. And afterwards I felt empty inside. Empty because those feelings were no longer there. This is a typical empath occurrence.

Empaths can also:

• Feel overwhelmed in crowds, and drained on energy after having been in a crowd.
• After having been amongst others an empath is often fatigue. This is true for having been to the grocery store, on the bus or a café, or maybe at work.
• Have I high need for solitude, often close to nature of some sort (beach, water, sky, woods and so on).
• Have a high need for the truth, because lies literally hurts them since they often just know when someone is lying to them. And being lied to hurts, as we all know.
• Dislike rules, routines and control, but will feel a lot less weighed down in organised and clutter free areas.
• Have a problem with fat around their stomachs, even though they are not overeating and are eating healthily. This is a way for our bodies to protect us from threats (and other people's illnesses, stress and negativity are interpreted as a threat)
• Appear to be disconnected or moody, and does not like to put on a happy face for others if they have taken on too much of other people's negative energy.
• Be free spirits, in to all things holistic and metaphysical, and are often daydreamers.
• Have an addiction, it helps them block out the energies from the outside.
• Be very creative people, and are often in to writing, music, painting and other creative stuff.
• Be great listeners, and are often the person people turns to when they need to talk.

I am most of these things. There are tests you can do, questions to answer, to find out if you are an empath or not. I found this one to be a good one for me. I did it twice, the first time I answered the questions from the view of before I hit the wall and crashed (emotional breakdown) in 2005, and the second time I answered the questions from the view of where I am today. Maximum score is 80. I scored 78 the first time, and 63 the second time. Both well within the limit of being an empath. 

So, how did I manage to get from 78 to 63? What have I changed in my life? What can you do to keep all that energy out? 

Answers do these questions, and more will come in later posts. This is something that explains so much about why things are the way they are sometimes in my life. Like why I was always slim while working in bars, but have excess fat around my stomach working where I do now. Or why I feel so bad on the bus if I don't have someone to talk to or music in my ears. Or why I feel so much better living here i Spain than I ever did in Sweden.

Do you have questions? Are you an empath, or think you know someone who is? Let me know what you think about this post.

Love

Carina

Diary

I had a really nice and relaxed Sunday. My Sweetie and I were invited out for lunch by a couple of friends of his. I had met them only briefly a couple of times before, so this was the first time we really hung out with them.

Anyway, we met down to a restaurant in the village we all live in for a drink first while waiting for another couple to come to show us the way to the place we were going to. I was talking the other woman, B, and it turns out that she is interested in holistic, mind-body, thinking just as I am. I am always surprised when I meet people that anything at all about stuff like EFT or that are all just big energy fields. My life lacks of people that I connect with in that area, (in real life that is, online I have whole communities) so it is nice to actually get to talk about such things.

View over the valley.

Eventually we were on our way to this tapas place up in the hills. Well, up the mountain. Up, up we went on this simple road, whirling our way left and right to avoid the wholes in it, and free walking cows on the sides of it. After about ten minutes we spotted a place, in the middle of nowhere, with parasols, tables and chairs. Sort of set on the top of a hill in the mountain. A lot of thoughts went through my head, and I am sure through the other's heads as well. Images of axe murderers, don't ask me why, and food poisoning came to me. But, hey, at least it was something new and different for us. The place was not new.

Another view, this time with the Sea in the background.

We walk in, and to my surprise there were probably at least ten people in the bar, and even more surprising was that there were about 15 people out on the terrace in the back. All sorts of people. I would not have been very surprised if the people had been farmers or mountain people, what ever that is, but again I was surprised that they were all sorts of people; young hip girls in their 20's, fashionable women in their 30's, men of all ages, different nationalities, you found them all there. But then again, that is the way it is here. Just our group of 6 had 4 different nationalities. The man in the other couple was a Frenchman, who spoke in a mixture of French, Spanish and English, and sometimes a little bit in Swedish. Very funny and almost impossible to understand except for Dutch guy in the company, probably because Dutch is a mixture of languages too. (Be careful ever saying that out loud to a Dutch person, as they tend to take as an insult.)

The food (well, tapas) was really nice, they had all the drinks we asked for and the bill ended up being on 40 euros for the six of us. The view was spectacular over the valleys with the Mediterranean Sea and the horizon in the background (unfortunately, my pics does not tell the beauty of it), and we had a really nice time with a lot of laughter.

Cows out on an afternoon walk in the sun. 

On the way down, back to our village, we had to slow down to get past the cows that had now decided to go for a walk on this already small road. We all felt like tourists going; "oh, look at that", "there's a pregnant one", and "wow, they are really big".

After a coffee and Baileys at the place where we met up a few hours earlier, I made my way home, up the hill (a nice 5 minute walk), to continue doing nothing at all.

A surprisingly nice afternoon, at a surprisingly nice place. In the middle of nowhere. This is one of the things I love about Spain. You never really know what will happen, if you are only open to the possibilities.

Love
Carina

Today I'm not doing anything

One of the things I love about living in southern Spain is Sundays! More or less everything is closed and it is a chilled atmosphere hanging in the air. Sundays are lazy days. A day to catch up on your reading or hang out with the family. I tend to spend most of my day in bed, just because I can.

I love Bruno Mars, and I just love this chilled out video. Enjoy him, it and your Sunday!

Love
Carina

Setting myself up for success!

"I've never tried that before, so I'm sure I can do it" - Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking)/Astrid Lindgren

This is one of my absolute favourite quotes, said by one of my childhood role models, Pippi, who was created by one of my writer role models, Astrid. Pippi is a strong, independent girl who do things her way, no matter what everybody else thinks. I related to that even as a little girl. I felt drawn to it. (I also related to Pippi because her dad, who she adored and loved more than anything, wasn't there with her very often. Although he was always on her mind. Much like it was with me and my dad. It was safe to know that if Pippi could handle it, so could I.)

I took this a few weeks ago, on my way home from work. This is part of my
success. In the front is some beach art, part of someone else's success! 

"I've never tried that before, so I'm sure I can do it". 

Isn't this the way we should be thinking? I think so. Instead we are somehow, and for some reason, more often than not taught to think quite the opposite. "I've never done that before, so I don't think I can do it". Isn't that the way you think in a lot of situations facing something new? I know I do. I know that it is usually my first reaction if put in front of a new task. I have had to re-teach myself. I am still re-teaching myself. I am a work in progress, as is my life.

Take this blog as an example. When I first started to think about starting a blog, this voice kept telling me that "you've never done that before so you will not be able to pull it off", and "why would anybody ever read your blog, you've never written anything big or important before". Well, I did start the blog and in the (soon-to-be) 2 years that have past since I have had almost 29 000 visits. Far from all of them have taken much notice of it, but then again, neither have I really. Why haven't I? Because I've never done it before, so I was sure I wasn't going to be able to do it. Or my move to Spain! If I had kept thinking like I used to think I wouldn't be living what in a lot of ways is my dream life.

But, times are changing, I am changing, and here I am with visions, dreams and hopes for this blog, and my life. And I am starting to believe that because I have never tried this before, I am sure I can do it! I mean, nobody can tell me I can't because no one can know. So I am thinking that I can. I might as well. It is more likely to bring me success than thinking that I can't. Since I have had almost 30 000 visits without really putting any effort in to it, just imagine what can happen when I do put some effort in! The difference between success and failure is your mindset!

I am definitely going to set myself up for success! I can do it, because I have never tried it before!

Are you setting yourself up for success, or for failure?

Love
Carina

Diary

Scented candles, bubble bath,  mediation and
 EFT is a great way to relax both mind and body. 

I have been working today, and I spent a lot of the time thinking about what I want to do with this blog, and what I want to write in it and other very important stuff like it. Every time I think about the Quality Inside And Out now I get goose bumps and feel a nice chill up my spine. I love that feeling!! I love having that feeling! Does anybody else ever get like that?

I am in pain today though, my muscles in my shoulders, neck and upper back are all tense and very sore. I must have slept in a very bad position last night. I made it through work thanks to EFT, I hid in the restroom every now and again to tap a bit on it to get the tension and pain down a bit. When I came home my son gave me a massage, and I put some tiger balm on. It helped for a while.

In a bit I will light some scented candles and get into a nice, warm, soothing and bubbly bath and after that I will do some more EFT and meditate. That should help relax my muscles!

I meditate every day now, it is so nice. I love it! It helps me connect with my inner self, and it gives me a clearer mind. I mostly use guided meditations so far, but eventually I'm hoping to be able to do it all on my own.

How was your day? What do you do to relax?

Love
Carina

I am back!

It's been over a year since I last posted anything on this blog. Last year I decided to move the blog to another host, for different reasons, but for some reason I never deleted this one. And for some reason I never really got into the right feeling with the "new" one, which led to not writing at all in the end. Again. Yes, I tend to fall into to that place every once in a while. But, hey, yesterday I made the decision to close down the "new" blog and move back to this.

My view at breakfast up on our roof terrace! 

I have changed the looks on it a bit, and I will probably keep changing it for a while until it feels completely right for me. Please bear with me!

So what is new? What has happened this past year? Well, inside I have grown a lot, I have collected more wisdom and knowledge. Do you know the difference between wisdom and knowledge, btw? "Knowledge is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in your fruit salad" - Miles Kington. On the outside most things are the same, except that my family lost a close family member, my Sweetie turned 40, and my son moved here, all in 8 days time in October. It was an intense week during which I learnt a lot about emotions and how to focus my thoughts.

I love our roof terrace and on my days off I like having a late breakfast up there in the company of my son. I love having him here.

I have found the tranquillity and peace of meditation, and I have learnt some other useful methods to relieve stress and find calm.

I did the 5th annual Tapping World Summit in February and had some major breakthroughs and during these last two weeks I have spent a lot of time listening to interviews with some of the worlds most successful inspirational writers during the first ever Hay House World Summit. Both these summits are online and completely free and I am looking forward to next years summits already.

I think this is enough for now. Until next time, walk in love and peace!

Love
Carina