Ytterjärna, Sweden. What is life like as a young person in today’s world? We asked around. Answers from Charlotte Nussbaum of Germany who just finished the Youth Initiative Program in Ytterjärna, Sweden.
What does “home” mean to you?
Thinking about what “home” means to me leads me to thinking about “peace.” For me “peace” is a state of being I can find anywhere because it’s created by myself through what I focus on and what kind of energy I actively put myself into. I can feel peace in someone’s arms, and I would feel at home, but ultimately the feeling still comes from inside myself and I could find it in a crowded room as well as on a walk in the forest. It’s a kind of certainty that all will be alright.
I learned that I can make myself feel safe by living with integrity and by taking care of my needs with every choice I make. So eventually I feel—in my body—that, as long as I’m taking care of myself, I will be safe.
When do you feel happy? When do you feel content?
I’m currently experimenting with expression and movement and discovering a lot. All stuckness, heavy emotions and existential crisis, loosen up in action. For me it can be sports, dancing, walks, writing, drawing and, most of all, talking to someone else and feeling connected. However it happens, I feel content by letting it out, to set free—letting go of what I don’t want to hold me back, and to be proactive about that.
I keep coming back to the phrase “the opposite of depression is not happiness, it’s expression,” and through expression I find happiness.
Translation Paula Boslau
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