I create. That’s what I do, that’s who I am. I’m a writer, magazine maker, content manager and graduated as a holistic life therapist after a 5 year study. I dance, I illustrate and play the cello. Most of all I see myself as a multi-creative entrepreneur. The different expressions of my creativity come together in my multisensory lifestyle brand The Barefoot Diaries. It’s intended to be a nourishing place for myself and hopefully for you too.

Surrender to your life’s path

Lately I came across my preschool teacher in The Netherlands. I was in her very first class when she started teaching in her early twenties. She told me she always remembered that she asked the class I was in: what do you want to be when you grow up? After some firemen, policemen and a few ballerina’s it was my turn and I, a little introvert girl with white blonde hairs and a straight bang, said: ‘When I grow up I just want to become myself!’ I laughed so hard when she told me this, cause it’s so profound in a way and exactly what my whole life’s path turned out to be about :). Dare to let go of systems as they are provided to us in this world, systems that are not sustainable to me. Liberate myself, of unconscious patterns, believes, fears…, to be my most authentic self and as close to my essence, my source, as I can be. With endless curiosity and one step at a time as an ongoing journey.

Learning lessons through trial and error, by falling down and getting back up again. Learning through life experiences and through the more difficult situations I encounter. Many times I died a little (or a lot), gaining more aliveness at the other side.

Letting go of identifications

Several years ago I wrote an article for a magazine on how to extend that holiday feeling after the summer. My attention turned to a song on the radio: ‘It’s the year of summer, the year of summer is here.’

This question hit me: can I actually create a less stressful life, a life that ‘I don’t need a vacation from’? A life that isn’t a rat race? It was the first ignited spark towards a 5 year nomad journey. That might seem grand and compelling, but to me it was actually the opposite: embracing The Simple Life fully. A reset. In these years I let go of so much that I didn’t need anymore, literally and figuratively. I learned a lot about surrendering, I learned to trust life and daring to ‘not know’ upfront how the journey will unfold and what each next step would look like. For me that took a lot of courage. But in the end: we find knowledge in the knowing, but wisdom is rooted in ‘not knowing’!  

Now that I’m back at a more solid place in my life, with a base back in The Netherlands, I’m taking that question to the next level: how can I keep a truly nourished life in the midst of urban aliveness. It’s all about the quality of life. Cause it’s never about what you do, but always about how you do it!