Shaking up Dreams and Making them Reality

2 years of wandering through South America

By Regina Roeder

October 24^th, 2016

Thoughts from my two years of wandering through South America

Everyday on this journey has been a real gift and every person and place I encountered has taught me something, made me more aware of myself and my impact on the world. I realized our little cosmos we call life in this present moment is just part of something way bigger, a network we call humanity. One that we have to keep on extending and connecting in order to learn and grow. We are affected by each person we meet along our journeys and therefore should aim for a positive impact on each place we visit, sharing and giving as much as we can.

I was fortunate enough to connect to such a diversity of whole hearted human beings, realizing we are all longing for the same goals: to be happy, be loved, and to feel alive. Supposedly we are all set in this world to be equal, but my journey once again demonstrated we are not. It made me aware that there is hope though in a world where values are shifted towards greed and fortune, where wealth is distributed so unequally and the gap is only getting bigger. And we entertain ourselves to deny what we are confronted with. Where choices are made in favour of ego and money not of love or health, neither the environment. Where gender inequality is present everyday and corrupt leaders are continuing to steal from the innocent while taking more than they need. In the end we are all taking more than we need without realizing that we are not owners of this planet nor its people. This time a powerful time to remember. An accumulation of misery and shadows to confront with our denial. Everything rising up to be transformed.

Imagine how our world would be, if it was not dominated by competition nor Ego, if envy and anger were non-existent and everyone was only taking what he needed.

Where has the heart and the creativity gone?

I see the children playing and see how innocent and honest they are - their free spirit has always been my inspiration so has their courage and their living in the moment. I know there are a lot of influences that can drive you down throughout your own journey. This has happened to me in my life, people tried to destroy my spark and discourage me to stay strong. Many told me how to live and what is important in today’s society and in the future, but no one encouraged me to follow my passion and my heart.

Create that space where you feel happy living

Not sure whether my stubbornness will drive me into big trouble one day, but so far it made me follow my path no matter what. Nevertheless, sometimes when I felt weak I wished someone came up telling me “Hey girl, keep your head up. That is not the end of the world, you are still a wonderful person.” This is why I feel it is my little mission to light up that spark for some to live their dream, love endlessly, be brave enough to show courage and stand up when no one dares to in order to create a place where we can live healthy and peacefully without anyone else dictating what to do. To preserve what we have and treat each other including Mother Nature with respect. Only in this harmonic state we can flourish and we as a community can thrive. Respecting each other and our natural cycles. Connecting to our inner nature. Our intuition.

When I see children growing up in peace with the elements, I realize, despite all the injustice, this is something that has sometimes been forgotten in our fast-paced environment: using our senses to explore, our imagination and hands to create while being fearless and one with the elements.

Shaking up Dreams and Making them Reality

Try to be that person you have always wanted to have in your life

On this adventure especially the girls have caught my heart as I know that women are confronted with a different story. But isn’t it us as a collective that we women no matter where on this planet are overcoming centuries of neglecting, abuse and oppression. We wanted to be equal as men to realise we are not.

I met girls that are scared of going home because they are awaiting humiliation by their dads, wives expecting the same if not worse. The gender roles are distributed differently and unfortunately mine has less rights than the opposite side. While taking my time talking to the girls I can see sparks of hope, girls looking up to me. Girls that are eager to learn, but have none to teach them. I cannot change a culture but I can encourage them to stand up for their gender that has been taught to be inferior from an early age on.

Ignorance is the parent of fear

Herman Melville

I often think about this phrase and it is true that our busy lifestyles make it easy yet very comfortable to ignore the damage we are doing to this world, its creatures including ourselves just for a what we call a “better life”. And further ignoring the pain while thinking short term only because we are too scared to actually loose that comfort we have worked so hard for. We numb our souls with alcohol and pills to stay strong and fit into this system, to work harder, live longer, look younger and forget the purpose of life is to be alive and in our hearts. Instead we blur out our dreams while being scared of our time running out.

Who tells you what is right and what is wrong?

We live in a time where everyone is trying to give us direction and steer us somewhere abusing our innocence and our disorientation, most of the times for their own profit creating a society based on fear. What to eat, what to drink, how to look like, what to wear, how to live. We have created a system that is not self empowering instead it gives the power of the Individuum and the community away. Question authorities and their suggestions on health, the environment and lifestyle. Listen to yourself, your own body who is constantly sending signals, little messages to be understood. Carve spaces in your daily life to listen to the wise woman or man inside.

Try different lifestyles & places and embrace change, but do it with patience and do it yourself without letting others tell you. Surround yourself by humans that lift your soul, but also learn to let them go.

There is a certain energy field that surrounds those experiences that are made for you. Those moments when everything flows and magical encounters happen. This is when we are in our own nature acting acording to our design.

Most actions are not about the environment, nor about human rights

While living with indigenous in the jungle I see fish dying on the shore because pipelines of American oil companies have exploded in the rivers, contaminating the water that locals are drinking and where their children are swimming. I see deforestation happening in order to construct a port to advance exportation and business relations with gold and copper thirsty Chinese. Deforestations for big rice companies drying out rivers just for their own profit destroying whole eco systems while using chemicals. Faster and cheaper transportation is established while plans exist to built at the same time a railway between Peru and Brazil to connect China once again. I see mining factories polluting the fresh air and clean water in this huge piece of land and big food companies telling moms not to breastfeed and buy their expensive chemical milk substitutes to raise more “intelligent” children.

Everyday I wonder how people can continue with these actions sleeping in peace knowing there are people and animals dying because of their greedy actions.

All I was invited to see was a wonderful invitation to dive deeper and see the roots of all these actions that we embody in this time and age. Not to blame anyone but to understand us as a collective. What we can learn from these systems and how each of us has the power to contribute to changes without feeling frustrated or desperate by what their facing. Finding new ways of living, working together, educating will be the foundations for a new chapter to unfold. When we face endless disease and natural disaster we are at a what the Buddhist call the dark ages or the Hindus Kali Yuga. It is and end that at the same time we can see as a new beginning. Just like nature goes through cycles, so do we go through a cycle of rebirth. A transformation that we go together while being reminded of our own imperfections and most of all speak forgiveness to the parts of ourselves that weren’t ready, that were in pain. And see the perfection in the imperfection the magic in a new beginning.

I find it interesting that we research and study so much the world surrounding us without giving too much attention about our body and its functions. We tend to expect the impossible from it within little time. There is no short track of becoming younger, living a balanced healthy lifestyle while being successful at the same time. Nature needs its time to heal and we need patience while making conscious, healthy decisions our priorities.

Healing is a never ending process and goes in so many layers. Putting one owns physical and mental health first is a courageous yet necessary act to do in a time where illnesses and diseases are threatening most of us of getting older, sick and debil, to not function any longer in this fast paced system. In the meanwhile it kind of has become normality to suffer from pain, allergies, anxiety & depressions and all most of us do is to numb these feelings while hoping to find space to cure it later.

Your body is amazing

We have such an amazing system working 24/7 to create energy and being able to heal itself. But still there is only a certain amount of tolerance to each body can endure: if we go beyond that, we get sick. There is nothing mysterious about sicknesses, but also there is not a superfood or pill that actually will ever be able to cure, this has to happen naturally while making healthy choices that work for you as each body is different and each body has different necessities depending on which stage you are in. All you have to do is listen.

I am kind of surprised we take so much time to clean our bodies from the outside putting on chemical products that are absorbed by our bodies and cannot be good for health nor the environment. But have you ever cleaned yourself from the inside? Rarely. Some never.

To my surprise – up to this journey I have not given this many thought either. Noone talks about it anyways. On this journey I realized how my body strives on real food. It takes discipline to get rid of certain food addictions and is not easy, but it says a lot about our state.

Dream & Do it

The most important thing on a journey is not to put on too much pressure but focus on each step at the time. What becomes ridged will eventually break. Be flexible like the flowers and all creatures of the plant kingdom bend to the winds of creation. Plans might and most likely will change anyways but only to allow a natural path to unfold for you. One which is inspired by wilderness, by surprise. One that might lead you to places and experiences that you never thought existed. This is such a wonderful invitation to come back to a place of intuition leaving control and left brain logic behind and allowing to let life excite us while instinctively knowing

I am enough

It takes courage to fully trust ones path and truly embrace what life provides. What is in front of myself in each given moment is what I am supposed to be dealing with. Even or especially if this feels uncomfortable. It is these moments that provide the biggest growth and the greatest transformations. Yet it is up to myself how to embrace them.