An Introduction

 Today I am starting to write my blog... In fact, this is the first sentence in the first article. I am not exactly sure about how this will come out of me and how this writing energy will flow out of me, but I feel the need and desire to express myself and to create.

I guess I can start with a brief introduction, but I am sure I will be writing a lot more as this story slowly continues. I will be writing this blog in laymen's terms, as I am no academic scholar, merely a student of life and an armchair philosopher. In this blog, I wish to share thoughts about things that I learn and the people I learn from. I want to share my experience and my existence, and I hope that something, somewhere in my words, might bring some love, hope, encouragement, happiness or healing to someone out there.  
 
So let's start off somewhere – My name is Chris or Christine and I live in Namibia – a sparsely populated, developing southwest African country. Before you ask why I am so white – my heritage is from colonial remnants, and my family originally came to Africa from Europe as missionaries hundreds of years ago. Nonetheless, I was born in Namibia, and it is the only country that I have ever considered my home.  
 
I am what one might call a jack of all trades. I wear many hats. I know something about everything and nothing about anything all at once. I am the type of person that is hungry for growth and hungry for knowledge and I try to learn from every moment of my life... As for what exactly I am qualified and experienced in and what I actually do... Oh, let me take a deep breath, because this is a long list. 
 
My first job started as a youngster, around 10, when my brother and I started a pop-up meat (biltong) snack shop at the exhibitions where my father sold his art. My father is a renowned local wildlife artist and when I became 16, I started selling his art at the exhibitions, and only managing the meat snack shop. My mother is a stained-glass artist, and I am very grateful that she taught me how to create stained glass art at around age 9, as it became my art medium of choice. I studied health and skincare, completing my postgraduate qualification in 2011 and I worked in the industry for only two years, lecturing at a health and skincare collage, before running away to Thailand to get certified to Teach English Foreign Language. Around that time, I also started doing research and writing content for a website. In the meantime, I had also been practicing flow arts and fire spinning and people started offering me money to perform at events. From the beauty industry, I continued to practice as a professional make-up artist and doing occasional massages but for the most part, I left that world behind. I had some connections at a local production company they would use me on their art department when needed. I worked part time as an English foreign language tutor, teaching people that immigrated to my country – until covid time, when I moved to teaching online instead. Online I started working on Cambly and Preply, where I have been honing and perfecting my skills, as well as developing my own English learning methodology. In addition, I am busy co-creating with some friends – on an amazing podcast regarding healing and achieving our dreams as well as trying to pull together an NGO to try to make an impact in the education system in this country. I also recently got Reiki 3 attuned, I completed a Hypnotherapy course, a life coaching course, Akashic reading, and I am working on a whole load of others as well.  
 
As you can see from this – I am a busy body, and I definitely left some things off that list. The full saying in English goes, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but a master of none is better than a master of just one”. I believe everything I learn is for a reason and a purpose. Every moment and experience is a lesson from which I can learn and every day, I am in constant preparation for what I will face in the future, and so I can create my future, by what I invest my time into today. 
 
At the moment, I have the pleasure of teaching English Online, mostly to adults, but from all different countries, backgrounds and industries. I have met almost 4000 people in the last 3 years, from more that 60 countries. Every day, I consider a new opportunity to learn something new from an encounter that I may have. My English students teach me as much as I teach them, if not more. Very often I spread what I learn to friends and family or other students, creating a flow of always sharing and spreading the knowledge, allowing the ripples to skip across the continents.  
 
This blog is busy happening as a result of one of my students, whom I would like to introduce in this blog, but will undoubtedly speak about again. The student in question seems to be a kindred spirit to me. He is unrealistically optimistic and positive which is a trait that we have in common. He loves to read and learn about many things and he shares his thoughts on a blog just like this one. In fact, I will leave a link here, so that all of you may also enjoy his thoughts, ideas and way of thinking as well - Rolen's Blog
 
This student’s name is Rolen, and he lives in China and has a wonderful and optimistic outlook on life. We meet regularly and sometimes speak about some deep and profound thoughts and philosophies, some if which I will write more about in later articles. Most importantly, for this first article – Rolen was the person that encouraged me to start blogging, and even wrote a step-by-step guide on his own blog, to show me and guide me on how to do it. As a direct result of that encouragement and knowledge, I am starting this blog, and can share my thoughts and ideas with the world as well. That means that anything that anyone learns from my blog and thoughts on here, is as a direct result of Rolen, and he is having an impact on the other side of the planet as a result of a random conversation he once had with his English Tutor. We are all so intricately weaved together, and at the same time we are also the weavers...  
 
I think that leads me up to a beautiful truth that Rolen and I once spoke about, that I would like to highlight in this first article. Every day, you wake up and you do things, and you say things, and you go about your general routine. Every day you are exerting energy, in the process of doing and saying the things that you do. That energy does not just disappear into the ether and vanish. It moves, it changes, it transforms, and it affects you and everything around you, like a water droplet causes ripples to spread out from it long after the drop has fallen. This energy spreads and shapes the world. The effect that you have, with the energy that you exert in the world, is your purpose. It is what you are here on this planet to do.  It is your destiny. Every day, you are living your destiny.  
 
When we fully realise the power within that, we will start becoming aware of our own power of creation and effect. Every day we do many things, and when you realise what a powerful impact you have with the energy that you exert and the experience you have, you can start consciously changing the way that you behave, respond, act and speak, to create everything that you want.  
 
You can think about what kind of person you want to be, what kind of person you want to be remembered as and what kind of impact you want to have - and then you can start taking conscious action towards changing your daily habits and actions, to align with the person you want to be.  
 
Lets do it right now – take a moment and think about it – Who and how do you want to be? When your children remember you one day when you are gone, what do you want them to remember about you? Do you want to have a positive or negative impact in the world? Do you want to be remembered as someone who was friendly or someone that was grumpy? Do you want to be remembered as someone who was optimistic or pessimistic? Patient or impatient? Helpful or harmful? Humble or arrogant? Generous or greedy? Honest or dishonest?  Aggressive and angry or calm and passive? Do you want to be remembered as problem-oriented or solution-oriented? Always complaining or always motivating? This is all your choice; you can decide this. You can be whatever you want to be, if you focus on consciously being that which you wish, and then taking daily steps to maintain that state of being.  
 
The trick is the that the “BE” is much more important than the “what” which we desire, because the “BE” is the only thing that is always happening on a daily basis... You only have control over how you are BEING right now in this moment – The “what” people remember you as, is an accumulation of all the time your spent “being”... You can only control the “What” if you learn to control the “Be” right now.  
 
What kind of ripples do you want to leave behind? How will you choose to BE today?  
 
The magical thing about life is that we can choose what we want to make of it, right now. You can choose how you want to move forward, in this moment. If you have not been living in a way that aligns with the type of person that you would like to be and be remembered as, then you have the power to change that and start to be who you do want to be.  
 
There is no law that says that we always have to continue the way that we have been going so far... Nothing is forcing you to be anything that you do not want to be. What you do not choose to change in your life, is something that you choose to accept in your life. Choosing to change is choosing to break the cycles that have been holding you back, and that is choosing to consciously evolve.  
 
I have not always understood this, and I have not always lived my life in this way. In this blog I would like to share my story and my thoughts and perspective and share how I went from where I used to be, to where I am now and where I am going. It will not come out smoothly or in one, carefully planned out piece... Instead, I will just let it flow out of me in whatever way it wants to be delivered. Just trust in my intuition and let it flow... Soooo, here it goes. Welcome to my blog. A space for constant continuous conscious evolution. Where I even grow as I am typing here and observing my words. Where I even grow as I re-read what I wrote a few days ago, and today it resonates differently. Come grow with me.   With Love Christine VE