Behind The Glass with Charlotte Eriksson
By The Glass Child
āI wanted to turn my life into my art. My very existence into a poem. This is my story ā it might not always be easy, but it will always be beautiful.ā
Website: www.CharlotteEriksson.com
Instagram: @justaglasschild
contact@charlotteeriksson.com
Behind The Glass with Charlotte ErikssonOct 29, 2020
The art of moving away - Q&A
I have always talked about turning fear of the unknown into excitement for the endless possibilities. When you donāt know whatās going to happen, anything can happen. Everything is possible now. How exciting is that?! So instead of being scared of not knowing what's going to happen, you can learn to view uncertainty as something exciting. Honestly, I believe itās one of the greatest mindsets to learn because fear of the unknown will hold you back like nothing else. It will keep you hostage in dark relationships, stuck in a job you hate, or stuck in a city you donāt love because youāre simply scared to make a change. There is no better feeling than being on your way to unknown lands, truly feeling deep in your core that youāre driving towards unlimited opportunities in life, and now itās up to you.
š www.CharlotteEriksson.com š
I lost a friend
Losing people is a part of life, I do not think we can avoid it. So itās the way we move forward that counts. Iāve moved on from people without looking back; without wanting to spend any more time dwelling or thinking or reliving. But I also think you can move while also treasuring a place for them in your heart, forever. Moving on doesnāt always mean forgetting. Moving on can mean: building on, honoring, treasuring, and remembering. And maybe one day, when weāre old and grey, weāll find ourselves back in our hometown on Christmas Eve at the same old pub. "So, Dave, tell me about the last 30 years of your life". And heāll goā¦ "it started when I moved to Nashville". And I will smile and listen and laugh and cry and then Iāll tell him about Porto, where it started for me, and where I went after that. Weāll have another whisky and drink to life, for its wonderful and cruel ways of turning friends into strangers and, on lucky days, strangers into friends and friends into family.Ā
Find my books, music and links at www.CharlotteEriksson.com
My new life in Portugal the art of starting over
I'm back ā” I missed talking to you! I sold all my belongings and moved to Portugal. To start over, once more. Let's chat about it. Life is weird and strange and uncertain and absolutely wonderful.
DM me your thoughts and stories on IG: @justaglasschild
Find all my books and music and links at www.CharlotteEriksson.com
āWhat is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.ā
āĀ Jack Kerouac
People say there is sadness in my eyes
A writing from my book Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself ā”
They say you can trace a personās history, hidden emotions and unhealed scars in their appearance. How you act, how you walk, how you laugh. Do you have a broken heart? It shows. Are you in love? It shows.
They say bad skin reveals stress or anxiety. Do you blink a lot or do you keep a steady gaze during a conversation? Do you talk clearly with strong support from your stomach, or do you speak quietly and fast, running over your words? Have you ever tried not to eat, just to keep some sort of focus? Sad people either sleep a lot or not at all.
I often wonder what people see when they look at me. What energy do I send out? Do I look happy? Do I look sad? Do I look friendly? Do I look like someone you'd want to hang out with? Do I look like someone you could like?
Do I look insecure, or like I'm strong and sure, a role model to follow? Do I look like someone who threw my fist into a mirror because I simply saw myself in there and couldn't stand the thought of it?
People say there is sadness in my eyes but the sadness sits in my chest so I wonder what it is they see in my eyes.
Human interaction: the most complicated form of happiness [Book Excerpt]
An excerpt from my book Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself.
Pick up a signed copy of my book in my store here, or find it on Amazon ā”
They tell me I have an interesting life. Going places, seeing people, and I shrug my shoulders as I pour another drink, sitting lonely on my floor in my empty room, another Sunday, in another city, like Iāve done so many times for so many years and they tell me Iām lucky and should be grateful. And yes, I am grateful. I was grateful walking lonely through a freezing Berlin on Christmas Eve last year and I was grateful as I lied about my name and job and age to everyone I met and meet and if you seek the papers where Iāve been the last years you will find nothing. Or at best, or worst, a spread-out girl leaving small traces here and there, covering it up with different states of mind or jobs or name and there was a time they said I would go places.
I would go places, they said, once, way back when. And this is what I think of as Iām sitting lonely on the train home from another night of beautiful people, welcoming me into their homes with open arms. I played some songs and they hugged me like Iāve never been hugged before, by anyone who knows me, and they told me āthank youā and āI love youā and hugged me again, like Iāve never been hugged by anyone who knows me, and they were grateful. For me. And so was I. For them.
Human interaction: the most complicated form of happiness I will never figure out.
Random thoughts on art and social media from the country side š±
Come find me www.CharlotteEriksson.com š
I have no cares in the world [Book Excerpt]
This is a writing from my book Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself š±
"Youthful days are treasures and it has nothing to do with age.
Still young, I guess, but I remember younger days.
Wide-eyed on every bus to nowhere,
everywhere,
finding melodies and stories,
people to love and lose
and I opened up in different ways.
Shared made-up pasts, shaped and designed to tell and sweep away
like the poet that I am
they tell me.
Why tell them about me, when I can tell them about a different me?
Ā
... but life grows you ignorant.Ā
Ā
Iām walking on an empty country roadĀ
somewhere in SwedenĀ
and I have no cares in the world.Ā
Iāve fought and Iāve tried. Iāve seen things, I think to myself
but Iām not happy with what I did or made of myself
and I have no cares in the world.
I spit over my shoulder, get drunk on empty roadsĀ
in the middle of the day,
lying on fields in the cold,
cursing how little I grew; how I did not make it.
and I bought new shoes back then, a while ago,
but still wear my old ones.
no money in the bank, no birthday parties to get things wild
for a little while.
I have no cares in the world.
Ā
Time taught me to love old things. Iām collecting rings and jewelry and I wear them with tenderness, feeling holy, meditating by the water, in the forest, creating rituals to reach something higher, higher, higher ---
I want to get higher or deeper, somewhere different than this plain, static sense of existence.Ā
Love does the job. traveling too. writing does it. music.Ā
also art, whisky, dark-colored flowers and watching the landscape change in October. Driving on a small road somewhere in Italy with a beautiful boy and I donāt want to be anywhere else in the whole wide world than right there, with him, in that very car, smiling.
But I close my eyes for one second and the moment is gone. Iām back to getting high on empty roads somewhere in Sweden and Iām the loneliest girl in the whole damn world and I just want all things beautiful. I just want the music, the literature, the art and the moments of driving in a car with a beautiful boy in Italy.
but here, alone, I have no cares in the world.Ā
I have no cares in the world. I just want it all to be beautiful."
Life As An Independent Artist [REPLAY]
What does it actually mean to be an independent creator (artist, author, photographer...) and why did I become one? In this replay episode [from the archive!] I share my own story of how I built my little career and how you can too ā”
Travel Q&A: How to find cheap accommodation, how to pack, loneliness and friendships
Come hang with me as I answer ALL the questions about vagabonding, loneliness, travel hacks and more!
How I Get Through Hard Times [REPLAY]
The number 1 most popular episode of all time is back!
āYour relationship with your future self is the most important relationship in your life.ā
Future me, whom I looked up to 3 years ago, is me now, and thatās why I feel so familiar with myself because Iāve communicated with future me for years.
Iām really grateful to past me for putting in the work, pushing on, making plans, and creating, because without past me doing this, my life would look very different now.
So when I go through hard times, I try to think about future me in a year from now, or just 6 months from now. What can I do today, that future me will be really really grateful for? What can I do today, to make life for future me a little easier and more beautiful?
š www.CharlotteEriksson.com š
Long-Term Travel on a Minimal Budget š Tim Ferriss, Vagabonding, Remote Work, and Lifestyle Design.
Today we're diving into the topic of living a wandering or vagabonding life on a minimal budget. We'll explore how it is possible to create any lifestyle you want for yourself if you just want it bad enough. If youāre ready to sacrifice the lifestyle you have right now. If youāre willing to paint a little bit outside the box.
We will talk about how to create a remote working career and what doors it might open up for you, how to be smart with your money, how to live simply and minimally, and how embracing solitude can unlock a life filled with incredible experiences and long-term travel.
So, if you've ever dreamed of wandering the globe but thought, "I can't afford it" or "I'm not born into wealth" or "what about my job," this episode is for you.
My goal in life is to show by example, how itās possible to live a life on your own terms, a life that gets you excited to wake up every single morning, and how this life is 100% possible to create, if you just want it bad enough.Ā
The books I'm mentioning in this episode are:
- The 4-hour work-week by Tim Ferriss
- Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
- On The Road by Jack Kerouac
- The Nomad by Isabelle Eberhardt
Find all my books, links and story at www.CharlotteEriksson.com ā”
Charles Bukowski, poetry and going mad for what you believe in.
āWhat matters most is how well you walk through the fire.ā
āĀ Charles Bukowski
On the Road with Jack Kerouac: Exploring Nomadic Living and Beat Poetry
āNothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.ā āĀ Jack Kerouac,Ā On the Road Hi! Let me introduce you to one of my absolute favorite writers, Jack Kerouac, and three incredible books that have had a profound impact on me as a writer: "On The Road," "The Dharma Bums," and "Big Sur." What makes Kerouac so special? Well, he believed in embracing the present moment and fully immersing oneself in life, breaking free from societal norms and expectations. His words beautifully captured the raw beauty and intensity of his experiences, treating life itself as a work of art. With his philosophy of "spontaneous prose," he encouraged writers to follow the natural rhythm and flow of their minds, avoiding rigid structures and rules. Trust me, once you dive into Kerouac's world, you'll understand why I'm so passionate about him! If you decide to pick up one of his books, I'd love to hear about your experience. š¤ Don't forget to share and subscribe so you never miss an episode! And if you're curious about my own books and music, you can find them all at www.charlotteeriksson.com. Keywords: Jack Kerouac, Beat poets, Charles Bukowski, nomadic living, minimalism, Beat poetry, On the Road, literary revolution, rebellious spirit, counterculture, wanderlust, self-discovery, contemporary literature, unconventional lifestyle.
Freedom or Commitment? Conformity or isolation? ā¢ The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
As Iām writing on my 6th book, Iām going to share some of the books and authors Iām reading, studying and finding comfort in and that will massively influence my new book.
13 Truths About Being Alive || Part 3
7. Donāt think you know yourself. You're an ever-evolving incredibly vast thing. Youāre not static. Wake up every day excited to discover new sides of yourself. New passions, new hobbies, new talents. Be your own biggest change-supporter.
8. Have less, do more. Simplicity is the key to everlasting peace.
Learn to live on as little as possible.
9. Embrace unexpected opportunities.
10. You can never save people, but you can inspire them to believe they can save themselves.
11. Build a connection with the natural world. Greet Father Sky, thank Mother Earth. Meditate. Walk barefoot. Eat foods from the ground. Weāre all under the same sky.
12. Itās ok to spend a year on your own if thatās what you need right now. Itās okay to go quiet. Itās okay to pause that dream, pause that project, cancel the contract and just sit and watch the waves come and go in some lonesome town in Portugal. Itās all ok. Trust your story. Be where you are and donāt be sorry.
13. Your only task is to live.
š Find links to all my books, music, writings and socials at www.CharlotteEriksson.com š
13 Truths About Being Alive || Part 2
Part two of the 13 truths I have learned about being alive. Part 3 coming next week!
3. Donāt underestimate yourself. If you donāt have the necessary skillset now, you can develop it. If you donāt have the resources now, you can get them. If you havenāt met the right people yet, youāre just getting ready for them. Everything is possible if you just want it bad enough.āØ
4. Slow down. Stay in bed an extra hour. Sip your coffee while watching the clouds drifts. Read the instructions one more time. Fast is no longer useful. Slow, steady, conscious, and awareāthatās the way to go.
5. Uncertainty can grow into excitement if you learn to trust your own path.
6. Friends are hard to find. Take care of them when you do.
Find all my books, music, and story here: www.CharlotteEriksson.com
Find me on IG: @justaglasschild
Signed copies of my books: www.charlotteeriksson.com/shop
13 Truths About Being Alive || Part 1
What Iāve learned after 32 years on this planet ā¦
- People will come into your life to present you with moments or hard truths about yourself, and then they will leave. This is the law of constant movement. Life is not static & you must learn to flow with each season without looking back. Donāt desperately hold on to people who are meant to move on. Send them love & be grateful for the memories.
- When you forget about the HOW, go back to the WHY. When you know WHY you want to do/become/feel/achieve something, you will easily find your HOW.
The books I'm recommending in the episode:
Come find everything I do and create at www.CharlotteEriksson.com ā”
Breaking Up With A City
Relationships with cities are very much like relationships with people. Sometimes even stronger, or more formative. You fall into them feeling like a child. Everything is new and exciting, endless opportunities, everything is possible. You wake up in a rented bed, smiling not knowing what the day will bring, and you lie down at night taking a long exhale, perfectly overwhelmed by all new smells and sounds and sights and sounds. You feel like your life has restarted. You imagine yourself in this new relationship, who you could be now, who you could grow to be, the life you could live out. Shiny. Everything is shiny.
But you change and sometimes the person, or city, youāre in a relationship with does not, or just changes in a different direction, and one day you find yourself in an argument and you canāt seem to reach each other. Like suddenly you speak two different languages and nothing translates. You flail your arms, raising the white flag, not understanding where youāre being misunderstood, but off you both go and thereās a separation growing in between you. Something has changed.Ā
I left Berlin many times between then and now. Asked for a break, needed to see if maybe there was another match for me out there. Something always felt a little off but I never managed to put my finger on it. I felt in love, but also constantly daydreaming about something else. You know those people who say you just know itās right when you meet the right one? I guess I still want to believe in that. I guess I still want to feel that, certain, knowing this is it. I had secret affairs with Bali, with Barcelona, with Lisbon, with Pragueā¦ but I always came back. For a person, for a job, the wind brought me back, a flightā¦ I always ended up riding a bike through Friedrichshain in July. Flip flops and cheap wine from the corner shop. And I always found my way back to moments of falling asleep smiling, thinking, āmaybe I could be happy hereā.Ā
Joan Didion describes her time in New York as never really realizing she lived out a life there, like she only planned on staying for a few more months. But suddenly 8 years went by and she had lived out a life there, without meaning to. Thatās how I feel about every place Iāve ever lived out a life in, I never actually meant to stay anywhere, just a few months, which sometimes turned into a bit more. I wonder what it would feel like to actually intend to stay somewhere, live out a life, make some plans.
It was somewhere on the streets of Budapest that I realized I have reached the beginning of an ending. I have started my leaving. Like that moment in a relationship when you know there is no saving. You stand empty in front of someone who used to make you feel a million feelings per second and suddenly you feel nothing at all. And even though it will take months, maybe even a year, you know the breakup started for you in that second, and one day youāll say goodbye for the last time and it will feel heavy and free at the same time, because endings are always beginnings and they carry you forward, always to something new and different.Ā
Where to next? Not sure, I know Iāll find it when I get there. Maybe Porto. Maybe Prague. Maybe Iāll spend a few months dancing to rhythms in Ibiza. Maybe something brand new. I always wanted to visit Canada. Maybe a few months in New York? I have no one who will miss me, nothing pulling me back. Maybe Iāll go nowhere at all, for a while. Floating somewhere in between, feeling everything, holding on to nothing.
Coffee chat - Part 2! āļø Answering all your questions!
Hanging out sipping coffee, answering all your questions āļø
More stuff from little me here: www.charlotteeriksson.com
Coffee chat! āļø Answering all your questions!
What inspires you most? Will you go back to Bali? Whatās your biggest reward from sharing your creative work online? What makes you feel free and at peace? Advice for making friends when youāre in a new place and have social anxiety?
Come have a Sunday morning coffee with me while I'm answering all your questions ā”
Find all my books and music at www.CharlotteEriksson.com
When you're unimpressed by life... or your second mountain.
This conversation is for you who, like me, need a challenge in order to feel alive. We thrive on creating personal challenges as a way to feel fueled and fired up, excited and motivated. Nothing drives us more than growth, development, change, moving forward. Stagnation is death to people like us.
And this conversation is about what happens when you find yourself without that kind of challenge, and as a consequenceā¦ feel unimpressed by life.
š www.CharlotteEriksson.com š
Moving Away To Reinvent Yourself - Part 1
Have you ever dreamt of reinventing yourself in a new city where no one knows you?
Do you know that there is something more out there, destined for you, waiting for you?
But maybe you're scared... scared to leave your safety, your family, the place you've called "home" your whole life?
This episode is about moving away from home, starting over in a new place, chasing your dream and building your home in moments of belonging, no matter where in the world you might find yourself.
If you like my podcast and want me to keep sharing my thoughts and ideas with you, it would mean the world if you took 10sec to leave a 5-star review wherever you're listening. It tells me that you want me to keep doing it, but it also makes me feel less alone ā”
Send me your stories, questions and concerns about moving away from home and I will do a part 2!
www.instagram.com/justaglasschild
www.charlotteeriksson.com
Find all my books here: www.charlotteeriksson.com/books
Losing people you love
You can leave someone without leaving them behind. You can keep the warm, safe feeling of loving someone without wanting to be with them anymore.
You can keep your love for someone, even when they say they donāt love you anymore.
Think about it: whatās beautiful about human relationships is the feeling we get from them. Think about a time in your life when you were hopelessly in love with someone, romantically or as a friend: you had so much love for this person! It filled you up with energy and heat, made you smile and sing, and the thought of this person being alive made you feel both calm and excited and most of all just grateful.
Maybe something happened. Maybe that person decided to leave you, maybe you decided to leave her or him, or maybe it was a mutual decision to simply move on. Either way, it was not the other person that created that feeling of love and warmth inside of you, YOU created that for yourself. You let yourself feel love, for this person, but you can let yourself feel love for anything and anyone, life or yourself even, at all times. No one can take the feeling of being in love away from you. It comes from you. You can carry a gratitude of hope and safety with you, even though you have physically left him or her behind.
You can say goodbye to people without losing the beauty they gave you.
When your strengths become your weaknesses
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Of course I also discovered Jack Kerouac. Reading On The Road was my ticket out in the world. You can leave and live on the road and not chase material success but float from experience to experience and live with no belonging and just soak up the blue sky???? WHAT? It was mind blowing. I was in awe.
....
<br /><br /><br /><br /> ... A great leader will be aware of his or her own strengths and understand when they are useful and when they are not useful. The dark side of their strengths will show when those strengths are used in the wrong context. So letās say again this new leader took on his or her team with the same energy and independence and stubbornness as he or she did while climbing up to that position. He or she would then become a very harsh, critical, judgmental leader. Thatās when strengths become weaknesses.
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Another example, in my own life. My strengths are pretty similar to this example. Iām independent, I donāt need anybody to make things happens. I make things happen myself. I believe in my own ability to learn and figure thing out and I count on myself to always make it work. I believe these are strengths, that I am proud of. <br /><br />
But letās place me in a context of a relationship. And letās place those strengths inside of a relationship, and I say to my person: I donāt need anyone. I donāt need anyone or anything to make myself happy and to build my life and I can do this all on my own. <br />
Yeahā<br />
Strengths used in the wrong context will become your weaknesses.
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So what I have learned, a huge huge game change of a lesson, is that my strongest strengths, need to be my biggest awareness point, because letās place me in that relationship, knowing I am independent and strong and donāt really need this person. I need to be aware of how I let those strengths shine through. I donāt mean suppress them, I need turn them around. How can I instead, turn them into terms like: Stability. You can count on me. Loyalty. I will not let you down. I got your back, just like I have mine. If things get rough, you can count on me to not give up. Because I never give up.
See, if I can learn to be aware of my strengths, and learn to be aware and conscious of how I communicate them in certain context, they can stay strengths. But if I am unaware of them, they will become my weaknesses.
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Being independent inside of relationship. I am still using my strong, independent never-giving-up attitude, but in a gentler way. Saying, āIām not giving up on you and or me or this. You can count on me.ā
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What are your strengths? If you would ask your friends, what do you think they would say? Then ask yourself, in what context, if youāre being really honest to yoursel
The one thing that changed how I talk to myself and my people
Today I'm sharing one simple idea from the book Yes, And by Kelly Leonard that actually changed the way I speak to myself and to other people.Ā
Iām very critical of myself. I have high standards, I am my own worst critic and toughest coach. Whenever I stand in front of a decision, I used to always say.. āyes, butā¦ā āYes, butā¦ I am not skilled enough, good enough, pretty enough, popular enough,.. āYes, but, I donāt have the contacts, the resources, the energy.ā āYes, but, remember what happened last time, yes but things donāt ever go that way, yes but be more realistic, yes but but but butā¦"
What happens the second you say BUT is that you interrupt the flow of the yes. Itās basically a no.
The premise of this book I'll be talking about in today's episode is: imagine switching that but out to andā¦ Yes, andā¦
You will then start saying things like ... āYes, and... this has been challenging before so Iām going to have to be real smart about the plan forward." āYes, and, since you donāt have those resources youāre going to have to put in some extra researchā. "Yes and, since it feels little overwhelming right now you can ask for help or take your time. āYes, and you did the best you could.ā
See that difference? Switching out one word changed the whole vibe! It went from highlighting the obstacles and negatives to focusing on the ways around them.
BUT indicates an argument. Youāre saying NOT REALLY. Youāre saying I DONāT AGREE.
AND indicated that youāre building upon something. Youāre adding. Youāre adding another angle, another twist, another thought.Ā
Instead of cutting down your own or someone else's idea or thought with BUT, you can just add to it and invite them or yourself to see things from a new angle by using AND.
_______
Find my books at www.charlotteeriksson.com/book
Download a free digital version of my third book Another Vagabond Lost To Love HERE
Come say hi to me on instagram, twitter, tumblr, TikTok!Ā
When You're Being Tested and Redirected
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I have always had a deep, powerful belief in the universeās ability to guide and direct. I do believe we are the creatorās of our own opportunities and we can make things happen, but the universe will direct us, slightly, sometimes without us noticing.
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That guidance can appear as people. When I look back at my life I can see how every person who showed up in my life ultimately taught me something, or led me somewhere, or introduced me to someone, that in turn led me to the next chapter or opportunity or stage in my life. When I have fallen into moments of feeling like I have done all the work I could possibly do on myself and I am now complete and all healed, I suddenly randomly meet a person who makes me aware of all the sweet spots in my heart that I still need to work on and heal.
When I believe Iām ready for a certain opportunity, Iām presented with a rejection, or a hurdle, or I make a mistake that in turn leaves me thinking: I need to work a bit more on that specific area.
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This summer I found myself with a very effortless daily living. Everything was calm. I had calm, stable friendships, good health, making slow but stable progress with my creative projects and I slowly made myself comfortable. In the past I had moments when I was chasing something, I was on a mission, being challenged, growing every day, and I woke up with wide opened eyes ready to fight! But this summer.. I transitioned into long slow mornings, no challenges in sight and I might have made myself a bit too comfortable. Then suddenly, POOF, out of nowhere, things were turned around and thrown up in the air and I found myself yet again sitting wide awake at 4am plotting out a new plan.
For you, it might have been losing a job, losing a person, being kicked out of your apartment, the stock market crashing.. whatever it was that disrupted your peaceful existenceāhow did you handle it? How did you react?
Did you curse the people and the situation, or did you take a deep breath a glance at the sky, and then thought: āhow exciting. I wonder where this will lead me?ā
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See, the world is not static and the idea that we will get to a point where we got it all sorted is a fantasy that wouldnāt serve us. Trauma, loss or rejections CAN catapult you into action that speeds up your personal transformation in a way that slow and peaceful living never can, and looking back at my life, all the most important big moves in my life happened as a consequence of being forced out of my peaceful stable living.
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So how can we handle unexpected hurdles or redirections? We can panic. We can curse. We can cry.
Or we can learn to feel the universe placing a hand on our shoulder, saying āthatās not for you, keep looking, I got your back.ā When weāre presented with a person whoās triggering us, challenging us, breaking our heartsā¦ we can learn to feel the universe saying: āI sent this person to you for a reason. Your job is to find the lesson that will get you ready for the next person. Maybe the right person.ā
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Things will happen, that are out of our control, we can not stop them from happening because they were always meant to happen. All we can do is choose how we respond to it. Do we panic, wish for different circumstancesā¦ or do we trust in our story, take on the storm like a growth opportunity and embrace the lessons?
Can we even learn to take deep, calm breaths in the
Deep life questions with We're Not Really Strangers
The podcast where we ban shallow conversations and go deep š· Grab a journal or a friend and answer the questions from āWeāre not really strangersā with me! Send over your reflections on the Spotify app and we can share our stories with each other ā”
www.CharlotteEriksson.com
Find all my books here: www.CharlotteEriksson.com/books
Living Through Past Achievements or Failures
Maybe, today, I know that I am more interesting internally than I will ever be externally. My thoughts and ideas and goals and visions are grander and more magnificent than any external achievement Iāve ever achieved, so telling my past story feels small and empty because I carry bigger things inside, so I donāt often talk about myself anymore. I donāt need to. I know one day it will materialise and maybe some people will notice, or they wonāt, and I no longer care.
As long as I took pride in my past achievements I couldnāt actually completely move towards the future; I held myself back by trying to still fit inside my past story. But you will never fit your future story if youāre still trying to play small and fit in the past one. Youāve grown! Future you shouldnāt be able to go back, she or he should have evolved so much that there is no going back, and the past shouldnāt even be realistic or nurturing anymore because you are now a new you. Evolved. Bigger. More refined.
Connected to this is of course also living through past failures. Introducing yourself with a small tone of sadness because of something you went through, or a little bit of shame because of something you did not achieve a few years ago.
We can not show up in the present as our full magnificent new us if weāre still carrying younger us on our shoulders. We have to learn to move on and let go, good and bad. And that doesnāt mean we let go of the lessons. We hold on to the wisdom, itās ingrained in us. We carry lessons and wisdom and knowledge with us, but I think we should place the actual experience that let to that knowledge as a painting on the wall and only look at it with nostalgia and not as anything to introduce ourselves with. It was then, younger you. Be proud of younger you. But look up to older you.
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ā¦ Find all my books, writings and music at www.CharlotteEriksson.com
ā¦ www.instagram.com/justaglasschild
contact@charlotteeriksson.com
On Life as an Artist & Recreating Yourself with EVELINE [Songwriter & Artist]
An honest, vulnerable and intimate deep talk session with songwriter and artist EVELINE! š
Listen to Eveline's brand new single Under Pressure: www.listentoeveline.com
Follow Eveline on IG & TikTok: @listentoeveline
And you'll find everything you need to find on my website: www.CharlotteEriksson.com
Minimalism to Cure Overwhelm: in life, work and relationships
Having a minimalism lifestyle means having less and doing less in order to have more time, space and energy for the things that really truly matter to me.
It helps me free myself from overwhelm, stress, find clarity and straighten out my priorities.
When my own dreams and visions make me overwhelmed, I know I have made things too complicated. I have made life too complicated. I go back to reminding of myself what areas in my life I prioritise. These are mine, and I have this written down on the first page of my visualisation notebook: health, passion, intellectual growth, location independence, art and community.
This is what I care about and what I want in my life. Nothing more, nothing less. And these words are carefully chosen to make sure I donāt leave anything out that I know I would like in there.
Then I look at the goals that make me overwhelmed. Very often I then find that with time I started adding dreams and goals that really donāt have anything to do with my main priorities in life. Maybe I got caught up in a worldly trend or hype and started to think I also had to achieve that thing or own that thing or go to that place, but when I go back to my own values itās really not needed
I basically make sure that I only have goals and visions in that document, that are in alignment with my core life values and priorities. Everything else is just clutter, overflow and fluff. Itās not needed. I strike out every goal that feels unnecessary.
Trust your path and be always on your way [book excerpt]
So I know you sometimes feel like youāve lost track of that well-paved road you think you ought to take to get to where you want to be, but youāre exactly in the right place exactly where you are. Trust the process of how things go and donāt fight them; donāt curse them. No story is worth telling without the twists and turns. Make them count instead.
Now go be where you are, and donāt be sorry.
// in this episode Iām sharing an excerpt from my book āAnother Vagabond Lost To Loveā. You can read more about my books and find links to purchase on my website: www.charlotteeriksson.com ā”
How to find your people and your place in the worldā¦ Q&A episode!
Every time youāve found a poet you absolutely love, youāve found another relative. People who are spiritual relatives. And that means youāre not alone. It means that you read Walt Whitman and you feel that recognition and think āMy God! This is my strange great uncle Walt!ā It makes it easier for you to live. To know that youāre not alone. And so these poems become a part of your life.ā // Please come find all my books and links to social media on my website: www.charlotteeriksson.com š¤
Life lessons from the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Trial
1. Know what you want before you begin.
2. Donāt make assumptions.
3. Donāt speculate
4. State āIrrelevantā and move on.
5. Move on quickly.
6. Listen and ask more than you speak.
7. Tell a story.
Please come find me on Instagram @justaglasschild, and pick up signed copies of my books at www.charlotteeriksson.com/new-album š¤
Do I have another job? How to create daily opportunities and deal with self doubt!
Another episode in which I talk about questions, thoughts or struggles youāve sent to me. I would love to hear your thoughts on the things I talk about on this podcast! Send me a DM on Instagram @justaglasschild, and weāll create a community of support and belonging ā”
Bored of Traveling? My Anxiety? Limiting Beliefs? Q&A episode!
The search for a homeā¦ [from the archive]
www.CharlotteEriksson.com š¤
![Deep Talk & Wine with Elto [singer/songwriter] Music during lockdown, panic attacks, crypto and hope](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_episode400/3289693/3289693-1643464206590-1e30079b741f7.jpg)
Deep Talk & Wine with Elto [singer/songwriter] Music during lockdown, panic attacks, crypto and hope
In this episode youāll get to meet Elto, a singer/songwriter from Austria whoās currently working on a new album here in Berlin. Elto and I always get lost in conversations about everything and nothing, so we decided to catch over some wine and let you in on our conversation. We talk about everything from finding hope in the middle of a lockdown, crypto and NFTs, my winter in Portugal and much more.
Go give Elto some love at www.instagram.com/eltomusic
If you know someone inspiring you think I should invite for a deep talk, please let me know!
www.charlotteeriksson // contact@charlotteerikssom.com
Letter to Younger Me [from the archive]
1. Donāt be so scared. Donāt waste your days worrying about the next day, next month, 5 years from now. Just do what you can with today. Be what you are right now, and work with it. Youāre exactly in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. Trust your story, youāre going to be something wonderful one day but now you are something too.
5. Learn to let go.
People, seasons, cities and feelings will come and go. itās the natural flow of life and nature, and you must be a part of it. Nothing is static and you donāt want to be, you want to learn to grow and flow with the seasons, being in constant movement. Learn to treasure what you what when you have it. When they leave you, learn to smile, say goodbye and move on being grateful that you now will go on being one experience richer.
Lastly, live a little.
Put your feet up. Laugh, loud, with strangers and friends. Take a night off. Go to the party and stay the night. let someone kind walk you home, a warm summer night in July. Go to the cinema, read more books, visit museums and go to spain with that kind boy from ... wherever he was from. This mission of yours is really nothing else but an experience, a collection of moments and thoughts, feelings and lessons. Donāt waste it being tired and scared.
Say yes, say no, think with you heart and go against the current.
Life will be as wonderful as you make it, but itās up to you to make it so. Itās on your side, you know? You just have to join it.
On grief and loss
What is grief?
Grieving, to me, is loving.
Grieving is honoring.
Missing is honoring.
Missing the space this person used to take up on the planet, and now that space is aching, itās empty.
The problem with grief is that we make it about us. We always make things about ourselves, when itās really not about us at all and neither does it serve us to believe it is. Itās never about us.
Iāve had this one ringing line repeating in my head lately, saying:
āThere is no wrong way for reality to play out. There is no wrong way for reality to play out.ā
David Kessler is an author whoās written several book on the subject of grief, and I really recommend you to google him if youāre going through something heavy. In his book ālife lessonsā, he says: āBut like it or not, change happens and, like most things in life, doesn't really happen to us - it just happens.ā
The second we really truly start to live from this belief, so much will shift. Things donāt happen to us, they just happen. Itās not about us. There is no wrong way for reality to play out.
We are just here to observe the way reality plays out and what we control is how we choose to respond and react.
This is the world. Terrible things happen, and beautiful things happen. You canāt change that, and you canāt stop that. All you can do is decide how you want to move through the world and respond to things.
This doesnāt mean that you wonāt go out and try to make a change, help where you can and create your own opportunities, it just means that when weāre talking about things like death and loss and grief, acceptance really is key.
You most probably have heard of the 6 stages of grief. If not, itās a formula used by therapists when they work with clients who go through grief. This formula was developed by a woman called Elisabeth KĆ¼bler-Ross, and she has documented this whole process in a book called On Grief and Grieving, that I also recommend you to pick up if you are dealing with grief right now.
The five stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
No matter what you are dealing with, even if itās something a bit lighter and smaller, you canāt go from the event to moving on. You have to go through some sort if processing so that you can grow from it, learn from it, understand a bit more about what it means to be a human, and then you can move on. Itās the same with the 6 stages of grief. You canāt go from stage 1 to stage 6, then you are missing the whole point of grief. Grief, like any other heartbreak, can be the most crucial self development opportunity in your entire life. Donāt waste it. Face it and become a better person through it.
Healing and moving forward, doesnāt mean that the loss didnāt happen. It doesnāt mean that you will forget about them, let them go or deny. It simply means that you will not let the loss control you. It means you will carry the loss with you but you are in control.
Here is an important line I also found in a book on grieving:
āWhat would best honor the years they didnāt get?ā
This is so powerful. Honour them by the way you now will live out your life. Vast, curious, brave, honouring the people who did not get to experience this day.
I will end with another excerpt from David Kesslerās book āFinding Meaningā:
āAfter all my years working with the dying and the grieving, I have found that in this lifetime, the ultimate meaning we find is in everyone we have loved. Your loved oneās story is over. For unknown reasons, their time on earth has drawn to a close, but yours continues. I can only invite you to be curious about the rest of the story of your life.ā
The Year I Changed My Own Character
The year I stopped fleeing.
The year I took responsibility for my own becoming.
For my own happening. For my own success and happiness, home and surroundings.
The year I learned how to quit being myself, and instead design a new self, deliberately, consciously, maturely.
The year my heart broke, quietly dying. The year the vision Iāve had for a peaceful future was erased and gone, the house I thought I was living in was thrown up in the air during the calmest summer day, and I waved my arms screaming for someone to save me.
This was the year I learned to depend on myself. On my own ability to get by, even when I think I canāt, and this was the year I became my own saviour. The year I built my own home. From ground up. A foundation to stand on. A stronger character. A loving heart.
Because when a heart gets broken, itās wide open.
When a heart gets broken, itās wide open to take in and give out. To learn and to grow, stronger and wiser, and an open heart is a brave heart because it can feel and hear and see it all. An open heart is a brave heart, because it knows thereās no turning back. Only bravely facing forward, one foot in front of the other, slowly moving on to something better, something new.
This was the year I went to sleep some nights thinking, Iām done. Feeling finished. I had a good life. I learned a lot. the year I understood surrender. The desperate feeling of no longer wanting to be here, anyone, anymore, again. alone. alone. alone.
This was the year I sat down and faced the sky and screamed out with my arms wide open saying, āI just want to rest! In peace, in quiet, in assuring knowledge that all will be well.ā
But no one will come and save you. No one will take your hand and guide you to a better life. You must create it yourself. You must collect your mentors, dead or alive, and you must accumulate wisdom and knowledge, visions and goals.
You must decide what you want with your life. You must decide who you are trying to be.
This was the year I learned to no longer depend on other people to get by, nor be stubbornly independent without any help from anyone or anything.
This was the year I instead learned to say: you can depend on me. I will be your stability, you can always count on me.
I said it to myself and to others, over and over until I believed it. I will stand like a lighthouse in the storm and repeat over and over
you can depend on me.
This was the year I stopped begging for things to happen, and instead made them happen myself. This was the year I stopped living my life according to someone elseās needs, and instead explored my own.
This was the year I learned to stop begging people to love me. If someone wants to go, let them go. This was the year I learned that every person who shows up in your life is there to teach you a lesson, and they will stay until you have learned what you need to learn. Then they will leave, whether you want them to or not, and you must let them. This was the year I learned that you must dare to leave something or someone completely, leaving that space empty and aching, in order to open up space for something new. And you must know that there is a new lesson and a new person, in a new place with a new life waiting for you.
This was the year I learned that whatās coming is always better than what has been.
Donāt hold on to things that are over. Let them go, bravely.
// from my book āHe loved me some days. Iām sure he did.ā š¹ www.charlotteeriksson.com
My life in Portugal
My Instagram account was shut down (and what Iām learning from it)
Yes, that happened. 5 days ago..
Not just my access to the 30,000 people who found and followed me there but I also lost 8 years of memories that I had captured in my posts..
It truly hurts on an emotional level, but itās also detrimental for my business as a small independent author and songwriter since 90% of people who purchased my books every week found me through my instagram community, and selling my books is how I survive.. so, I panicked, Iāve cried, Iāve desperately tried to get it back. But also, I am proud of myself because I can feel so strongly that I have built my spiritual muscle, my undying belief that the universe is on my side, that feeling is so strong in me right now and, you know the purpose of choosing to practice any kind psychology practice, spiritual practice, mindfulness, meditation, going to therapy, the whole purpose is that you will be able to handle dough situation in life better and easier. Thatās the whole point.
Feeling Disposable in Relationships
A walk in Berlin #1: backtrack your happiness
How to make hard decisions
This is a powerful one. We often base our decision on if it will make us happy or not. And this needs another layer because depending on what sort of personality type we are, we usually lean towards making decisions that will give us instant gratification, we want the happiness now. Or we lean towards being future focused people, and then we tend to make decisions based on if it will make us happy in the future or not.
Letās take an example; youāre in a relationship that is not necessarily terrible, but neither is it amazing. Youāre trying to decide if you should stick it out, believe that things can make it work. Or if you should end it and move on.
You will walk around trying to decide if you believe that you can be happy in this relationship, OR if you can happier in a different relationship, or even by yourself.
But letās imagine that you knew, for sure, that you would be enormously happy and have a wonderful life in both choices. You knew for sure you would be happy in the relationship, and you knew for sure you would be happy if you also decided to leave the relationship. Then what would you choose?
This turns so much on its head because now youāre left with the question: do you want THIS relationship? The question is not if you can be happy in it. You will. But do you want it no matter what?
How to age consciously and gracefully.
Go back and make things right [Spoken Essay]
But have you ever tried returning? Have you tried going back to make things right?
Have you ever left a city small and sad, determined to never return
but then youāre out there for a few years, roaming the streets, intertwining with people. You make a few rounds, collect some hearts, some wounds, and one day you come to one of those lakes where everything is still and quiet. The clouds are reflecting on the surface and itās like you see your own thoughts and past and habitual ways in the sky, everywhere, telling you something. This lake can be real or not, either way this is what it feels like. You run and run and run and run and suddenly thereās a still lake reflecting clouds on the surface. You sit down, because lakes like these tell you to do so, and you sit there for a while, tilting your head, seeing your own ways from different angles.
Maybe that tragedy wasnāt so tragic after all? Maybe that boy just tried to go on well? Maybe this loneliness isnāt so terrible to live with as long as you know that you can meet new people any second of any day your whole life through. You can still reach out; youāre not an island.
You find yourself letting go of all the stories youāve held on to, things that happened in these cities, people they belonged to, and now you go back...
Iāve spent the first part of my life leaving places and people and versions of myself, but lately Iāve started returning. I go back to all the places I once left. I left them angry and sad, broken and small. Usually disappointed in people and situations. I have one person for each city Iāve ever lived in, and I kept thinking I could never go back because that city belonged to us, how we were then, and I thought I had to leave and never return in order to move on and get over.
But thatās not wisdom. Thatās not growth. Thatās limitation and giving a piece of the world to someone you think acted wrong.
So maybe thatās what true moving on looks like: learning that nothing is ever attached to something physical. No emotion or heartbreak or catastrophic escape is ever attached to a city or a person or a house: itās all in you. And you can change. You can move on. You can twist and turn around, take a new shape and let go. šš„ An excerpt from my book āHe loved me some days. Iām sure he did.ā You can find the book on Amazon or at www.CharlotteEriksson.com/new-album
How I deal with daily overwhelm: Graceful Transitions
Whenever I am transitioning from one thing to the next, throughout my day, I am practicing graceful transitions. This means that whenever I am moving from one task or meeting/conversation to the next, I am completely letting go of what I just did, and completely focus on the next things I'm about to do. Before I start the next task or leave for to meet up with a friend or whatever I might be doing, I go through the situation in my mind: how I will do this, why I will do it, what I want the result to be. This is not a long process. This is literally 30 seconds to one minute. I visualize myself do this next thing in my mind. I see myself doing it effortlessly, connected to source, connected to my nature, working with diligence, and a smile on my face. And then I get started.
Even if it's like, I go out to have a coffee with a friend. I quickly visualize what sort of person I want to show up as. You know, I don't just want to show up without having put any thought behind how I want to leave this person. If I go for a coffee with a friend, I want that hour to leave my friend feeling excited about his or her life. I want them to feel good about themselves. I want them to go back home and and have had a positive experience with me. I want them to think about me and say: "every time I meet Charlotte, I feel inspired. I feel supported and understood."
That's my goal in life. So therefore, before I go meet him or her, I visualize how I want to show up, what sort of energy I want to bring forth. What kind of mood I want to be in and just go through my character, to consciously show up as a positive light in the world.
This has literally changed the way I go through my days. And it also means that when I go to sleep, I can let go of everything that happened during the day and sleep. Itās the most amazing feeling to just let go and trust that process.
Answering ALL your questions about being an author and publishing books.
How to create your future
So now to my actual story:
End of February this year I decided to go back to Berlin after having spent the winter in Sweden. There was something going back that made me feel ā¦ anxious. Sad.. I did not want to go back. I knew I loved Berlin, I loved the city and my people, but it was the thought of going back to the apartment that made me feel off.. I realised, the girl that moved into that apartment beginning of 2020 was no longer here. I have evolved, a lot, and so suddenly my energy did no longer align with the energy in the apartment. It held me back.
I decided, my only goal and vision right now is to find myself an apartment in Berlin that not only aligns with who I am now, but even more aligns with the woman I want to be in 6 months from now. I know that woman, I have created her. I know how she talks and walks, how she behaves and how she feels.
To the story is that the release date for my new album AND new book was set to March 26th. That was an important date for me because releasing this album and releasing this book, I realised, was no longer just about sharing my work with the world, it had grown into the ritual of releasing the happenings in my life that made me create this album and this book. Releasing the sadness, the heaviness, the people, the stories, and most of all, letting go of that chapter.
I literally needed to move into a new chapter of my life. Mentally and physically. I had 1 month to find a new apartment, and not just any apartment, but my ULTIMATE apartment, the one I envisioned for myself, now!
Everyone whoās lived in a big city knows that finding a new apartment in 4 weeks is pretty much impossible. Well, this is where the magic happens again.
I knew exactly what sort of apartment I was looking for. I knew the size, the area, the rent, the energy from the landlordā¦ I went to 40 flat viewings in 15 days. I applied for 20 of them, I got 4 of them, but something felt ā¦ not 100%. Then I simply walked into my apartment. I knew it, the second I entered. This is my new home. The landlady who showed me around kept talking about that one summer she went to Sweden and within just a few hours I had my new apartment secured.
This feels like magic, but itās really not. Iād like to call it pure science. Psychology. Chemistry, even, itās about neutrons and plus and minus and all that.
See, what I believe is, the second I walked into the apartment I knew it was my new home because it looked exactly like the apartment I had visioned for myself. When I felt that, so strongly, my energy shifted. I stopped being a potential tenant, and instead started walking and talking like the future tenant of this apartment. Maybe the landlady didnāt notice, but she picked up on it. The human psyche is very predictable. You know there are those experiments that show how people mirror each otherās body language without thinking about it. If you stand in front of someone talking and he scratches his head, you will most likely raise your hand and scratch your head, without even noticing.
So the landlady mirrored my energy and I felt it, she talked to me like the person who would move in.
You really donāt have to believe in this way of moving through the world. Itās not a belief. Itās not a religion. Itās not even really spirituality. Itās being in control of your own future. Directing the energy to the right places. Directing your eyes to where you want to go.
Where you want to be in 6 months? How do you feel when you wake up in 6 months? Where are you? What are you wearing? Who are you with? Donāt just end up there, make sure youāll be somewhere you really want to be.