You've Got 5 Options

In this episode, Marta and Anna are solving a challenge sent by Anne, a single mum of a 3-year old kid, who is getting ready to start dating again. She’s wondering, how to make it all happen since she's almost always alone with her son? Anna shares her previous single parent dating experience and some great tips.

I´ve been alone with my now almost 4-year-old son since his birth, no contact to his father. I am ready to start dating life again... but how should that work? First, finding time to get to know someone and then the actual dating, the first months of relationship until being ready to bring a new person in my son’s life, when actually not having much alone time without my son.

What do I want from a relationship:

https://www.the5options.com/blog-articles/2018/4/3/one-exercise-that-can-totally-change-your-love-life

Five Things To Ensure Before You "Get Back Out There"

https://www.the5options.com/podcast/getting-back-out-there

Dating for single parents ideas:

https://www.single.dk/

https://www.partnermedniveau.dk/raadgivning/singleliv-dating/dating-for-enlige-foraeldre

https://www.parship.dk/magasin/dating/dating-for-enlige-foraldre.htm

https://www.singleparent.dk/

Some ideas:

Image by Bianca Mentil from Pixabay

In today's episode Marta and Anna, together again in the studio, interview Katarina, an amazing lady that turns out to know a lot about meditation and manifestation, at the same time being able to bring it quite down to earth, with processes and even a form of spiritual engineering.

During our conversation we dig into:

Katarina started meditating about 15 years ago, and 7 years ago she joined the supervised practices at School of Creation. She started her teacher's training 4 years ago, and she continuously develops herself. She is also Chopra Meditation Center member.
In her work with people, she combines many of the techniques she has learned with the focus on experiencing emotions, feeling the body, following intuition as well as connecting to the Divine within.
She teaches 10 steps process that has roots in practices of ancient cultures. It’s a method of expanding consciousness which results in better connection to yourself and gradual healing of all your humanly aspects by seeing them, acknowledging and accepting.
She co-creates with her husband and lives the life she consciously creates on an everyday basis. She is both a student and a teacher.

Joyful Meditation's FB

Katarina's Instagram

Welcome to our Annual Halloween Special where Anna is joined by guest co-host Candace Stephens and Dave, the Radio Technician, to tell you about the history of Halloween, its celebration in different countries and to read scary stories from our listeners!

Hop in with us on a Spooky Wagon and get some proper chills as things are about to get really creepy! After all, THIS IS HALLOWEEN!

Remember to visit our website at https://the5options.com/podcast/ep-171-halloween-special-2020 and vote for the best story!

Here's yet another, out-of-ordinary episode, where our radio technician and Anna's life partner Dave courageously steps into a Soul-guiding session with our favourite Soul Guide, Rasmus Jensen. 

Tune in for a real treat; an unpredictable, unplanned, guided session where Rasmus facilitates Dave to explore his blockages, beliefs and his past (a surprisingly old past). 

Experience an uncommon level of courage, vulnerability and softness.

Rasmus has recently told us a lot about himself and his unconventional profession.

You can listen to our soulful conversation here:

Ep 168: Unconventional Professions: What can a Soul Guide do for you?

Rasmus' website

Rasmus' FB page

In this episode, Marta alongside with a guest co-host Signe, receives two vulnerable testimonies from mothers moving through their child-related traumas. While Anna finally feels ready to open up to the world to reveal the story of baby Gaby’s traumatic birth, Fatema courageously unlocks her heart to share the story of her baby Kyler passing away just a few hours after he was born. Fatema in her humble, graceful and deeply vulnerable way tells us how she manages to move through the unbearable tragedy of losing your own child.

Fatema is a  beautiful and inspiring woman with one of a kind presence. Despite the tragedy she is still moving through, she emanates love and grace. In her every-day life, she’s an artist, working as a Senior Art Director at Lego, married to another quite amazing human, her husband Arun.

Anna, who couldn’t be at the studio personally, in a recording, shares the story of Gabi’s birth and how it has changed her and her life

Fatema shares the story of Kyler coming to life and soon after passing away

Fatema puts words into the unbearable pain, shock and state that can’t really be described in words

Fatema explains how her mind and her body attempt to cope with the trauma

Signe shares her beautiful and deeply touching poem

Fatema shares how the grief evolves with time and that it is not a linear process

Fatema shares some of her fears of baby Kyler being forgotten and how she decides to honour his presence in her life

We speak about the father’s grief and how we can sometimes forget that fathers feel the pain just as deeply

Signe tells us about a beautiful concept of Kintsugi, which literally means to join with gold; to highlight the cracks instead of hiding them. It can also be an approach for life; a philosophy.

If you're a parent moving through grief you can contact her by Messenger: Fatema Barot

Fatema's LinkedIn

Signe’s Instagram

grief has a way of bringing you to your knees

Again and again 

Without warning

A wave crashing in

Cracks your heart open

Like sand exposed

By the gentle touch of the aftermath 

Of silent waves that comes 

after,

The tsunami

Leaves you open,

Raw, cleansed

Completely surrendered

And it whispers in your ear;

Look at you,

Look at you

How beautiful you have become 

See, 

How you survived yet another wave

sharp edges on rocks

Water made you soft,

Made you gentle

Water from your tears

Streaming through your body

All the way down

to your feet

And back again

Passing through trauma of your ovaries

your place of birth, life, creativity

Your womb

Passes right through the four chambers

in speed of lightning

Up through your throat 

Cleanses, 

speaks the truth

Until it lands on your eyelashes

With thousands more to come

That water is heaven made, holy

And it flows into the Sea of Women 

coming before you

to you

and through you

Bring them to the Sea

And show them

softness,

Rawness and wilderness 

Show them the beauty of everything

we keep underneath

Because as above

So below

What you keep hidden

Will come to surface

The beauty of your shadow will always emerge

Will always seek the truth within you

light will always penetrate you

Like water making its way through mountains

One drop at a time

So I dare you,

Darling,

Be the fountain for the water to pour through 

Dive in,

Dive in deep

I will hold you when you weep

And listen,

Yes, I will listen 

When you are ready to speak

In this episode, Marta interviews a very special guest- Rasmus Jensen- who defines his work as being a Soul Guide. While Anna is taking care of baby Gabi, who is ill, Marta is finding out what such an unusual person can do for humans. 

Rasmus is a grateful, loving and patient person, an ex-golf player and businessman, who has embarked on a journey of becoming a healer. Rasmus' mum's disease and death served him as a turning point, from which he has started to grow into being a Regression Therapist and eventually a Soul Guide. 

Rasmus in Marta's eyes: one of the people I am truly grateful for meeting on my journey and having in my life. A very approachable guy with an amazing gift. A person with a beautiful heart ready to share unconditional love. Someone who can really help you when you're feeling stuck and can't figure out why. A real Soul Guide.

After going through Rasmus' journey we dove into:

Rasmus' website

Rasmus' FB page

Mambe & Danochilango “Cumbia Universal”

In this episode, Marta and Anna interview a friend of the show, Morten Bonde, following his journey after publishing his book "Dømt blind. Hva' så?" and now the English version "Sentenced to Blindness. Now what?". Morten tells us how he, day by day, keeps on choosing to see the possibilities instead of giving in to hopelessness, despite becoming legally blind.

Morten is an inspiring man, radiating good energy, connecting wisdom and boyish charm in a unique way. It is a true pleasure to speak to him.

"In 2002, at age 29, Danish art director Morten Bonde learned he had retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye condition that causes visual cells in the retina to die one by one. Today, Bonde, now 47,  has a visual field (the area of space you can see at one time) of four degrees. A person with a visual field of 20 degrees or less is considered legally blind."

Read more here

Living with Retinitis Pigmentosa

A chapter from the audiobook

Buy anywhere in the world:

mybook.to/sentencedtoblindness

Release video

"Is it possible to change who you are? Is it possible to teach oneself to see possibilities rather than limitations? Morten Bonde says yes. Morten Bonde has an eye condition that is slowly making him go blind. In 2016, his vision was so severely reduced that his life couldn’t continue as before. It had been all go with a family and a career at the LEGO Group. Then his whole world collapsed. But when everything was at its bleakest, he experienced a sudden clarity for how to regain zest for life and emerge from the darkness stronger than ever before. He succeeded in returning from hopelessness to regaining a positive and indomitable view of life.SENTENCED TO BLINDNESS – NOW WHAT? by Morten Bonde provides concrete tools and tangible suggestions for how to cope with life crises and challenges. It is a poignant and life-affirming description of how he—in less than a year and with only four degrees of vision—went from depression and stagnation to once again serving as senior art director at the LEGO Group, and how the key to such a transformation lies in our own minds! His story is an inspirational tribute to life and a testament to how we can all activate our inner strength and live the authentic lives we really want".

During the interview we touch upon:

If you're curious here's the link to the interview from March 2019

Morten's website

In this episode, Marta and Anna are solving Danny's challenge. Danny is going through a really rough rejection, feeling that it's very difficult to get back on the horse. Marta has prepared 5 ways how to deal and 5 ways how not to deal with rejection. And this is the very first episode with our new technician David Villanueva of SuperMoon Studio. 

Singing is my passion. My truest, deepest source of fulfilment and way to express myself. It is very difficult to make it in this business and I feel like I have tried it all. I have been going to auditions, I have been singing in cafe’s and bars, I have been organising events myself, I have been working to fund my own single. It has been years of rejection, one after another, with just a few breaths of fresh air. Recently I have become a lead singer in a band and we were doing quite well, I have put all my heart and passion into making this work. I have used my network to get us to play at a concert and when it started to look like we have chance to make it, I was asked to leave the band and someone I considered my very good friend took my place. It feels like a double heartbreak. I feel sad and angry and frustrated and so immensely disappointed. I guess after years of rejections this has been one too many and I feel unable to pick myself up and keep on going. How do I deal with such a profound sense of rejection?

Julian Maraboto "Madrugada"

Facebook 

Image by Steve Watts from Pixabay 

Welcome after the summer break! We have some big news! From now and on You've got 5 options is turning into a bi-weekly podcast, because... we are starting a new podcast! Small Business Rising! Find out more here. 

In today's episode, Marta and Anna are solving Alicia's challenge. Alicia has just come back from her vacation and she's not ready to enter the treadmill, so she's asking: How do I build a life I don't need a vacation from?

So… I just came back from vacation and after a couple of weeks I am supposed to be fully recharged and ready to come back to work and “normal life”. Instead, I feel like I just want to lie down in my bed and hide under the blanket. I simply can’t imagine entering the treadmill again. I am really grateful for being able to keep my job through the crisis but the number of requirements, politics and bureaucracy has increased so much, that I completely forgot what I used to like about my job. All the mess also causes me to work longer hours which I simply don’t have because I need to run to pick up my kids and attend to all the commitments around their lives. Just thinking about my everyday life makes me need a vacation. I want the life I don’t need a vacation from, how do I do that?

You could use one or more of the ways to create a vision...

Song "Still Up" by Sabrina

Facebook

Instagram

Youtube

Image credit: Image by Daniel Sampaio Donate if you want (Paypal) from Pixabay 

Challenge description: 

"I've become a mom two weeks ago. My son is lovely and sweet and I can watch him for hours. Unfortunately, not everything is as great as I wish to admit.

For the past couple of days, it's been really tough. I thought I will be more or less physically recovered by now, but I'm still in quite some pain. I visited the doctor and he told me that I should take it easy and take the bed rest. This is the first time I feel like I'm resting since we had the baby because there's always sooo much to do.

I and my husband are getting into a crisis mode a couple of times a day, every day. The baby is not sleeping in the night. He cries a lot. Doctors are saying it's because of tummy pain. He can be up for three hours in a row throughout the night time. I can see he's in pain and my heart breaks, three minutes in - and I cry with him. We are slowly learning some techniques to help him out; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So the nights are the worst. My husband can somehow come up with more practical approaches and calm our son down but I feel useless.

What would you advise us to do, so we can cope better?

PS: We are both foreigners in a country we live in and due to travel restrictions we cannot count on family support in the immediate future"

Option 1: Let Go of ALL Expectations and “Let It Be”

Option 2: Follow the Baby

Options 3: Take care of yourself 

Options 4: Ask For Help

Options 5: Survive it aka the autopilot mode, and remember “This too shall pass”

If all fails, check yourself (and your partner) for postnatal depression - Check episode Ep 129: The Kimberleys, Urban Legends And Can Men Suffer From Postpartum Depression (With Judy Wanijku Jørgensen)?