What if . . . . ? It is pitch dark when I wake up in an empty room in a particularly nice bed. The dog is squeaking. Only half past five and I go downstairs to see what I can do for an old German shepherd with a very sweet face. She might be hungry. After she leads me in the direction of dog food, the old cat follows her lead. There is a bowl in the windowsill. After visiting the toilet, I go back upstairs.

Got on the train to Berlin again yesterday. Didn’t ride all the way, but reached my destination about 2 hours before. Picked up by my hostess and no idea where I am. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where the nights are dead quiet and pitch black. Exactly what I was looking for. And the first sound when I got out of the car was the snort of a horse, such a deep sigh. Lovely!

One year of Relaxed Releasing later

Last week I celebrated the first anniversary of my second book, Lekker Los Laten. Can be translated as: Relaxed Releasing. Writing that book, voicing it as an audiobook and reciting it in front of an audience has inspired me to want to let go even more. It has become an exploration of even more possibilities. A quest. What else can I let go of? And what does that yield? I have been saying for years:

For everything you dare to let go, something better comes in its place.

So let me explore that further then.

The madness in early 2020, in which we were all locked in (lock-down) gave me a boost. Not only me, of course. It made me worry and I thought more often, “What if?”

If you try a little bit to find the good in everything you will find it. This effect it had on me was in the end good about that shocking madness in 2023.

What if you ask better questions

Then you get better answers. I started asking more questions to myself instead of to the rest of the world and this made me take action. Fear is instilled and taught. And if you repeat it often enough, you no longer need anyone or anything to scare you. Then you do it all by yourself. Every morning when you wake up.

What if . . . . ?

• What if I no longer have a home in which to retreat?
• What if I assume I’ll always find a place to sleep?
• What if I take the train to Berlin?
• What if I move on to southern East Germany, because the nature there seems so beautiful?
• What if I rent a villa in Corfu and organise a retreat there?
• What if I ask someone I don’t know at all to come along and do some of the work?
• What if I ask my daughter to come to Corfu from Zakynthos to take care of the catering?
• What if I do this retreat in English so that people from my international network can come too?
• What if I go to Slovenia and take car of a herd of wild horses?
• What if I start sitting houses, dogs, cats and pigs in the Netherlands too?
• What if I then go to Germany again in autumn?
• What if it’s dark when I get there?
• And what if I arrive at a crazy station that looks like the Efteling?

All these questions I didn’t just ask in my head or on paper. I have done it all. And when I’m scared, because I am sometimes, I play the polarity game.

If you are afraid of the dark, than turn off the lights.

The difference between people, who don’t get what they want, and those who do manage to do it, is that some let fear hold them back and others don’t. With fear and trembling, with shaky legs, but you do it and that gives the experience. That gives insight and answers the question: what if . . . . ?

I have been learning a lot, every day. It’s not all good and certainly not always fun. But I know a little more every day. By DOING. Particularly doing what you fear or fear you will fail at. You only find out by doing it. With all the risks. And, of course, by thinking differently. By reprogramming yourself and believing in yourself and your own abilities, Your Inner Power. And that is exactly what you can learn in the retreat.

As for that retreat, it was very good and the participants were super enthusiastic. We have already made some changes to the organisation and I am glad I took the plunge. Corfu is lovely and we enjoyed working with the Greeks there. And a few days after returning, I booked the villa for 2024. If you do something more often it becomes less scary.

The website is not quite finished yet, but you can already take a look.