As I write this, I’ve just got back from a pre-Christmas visit to my family in Sweden. I absolutely love this time of year, the four weeks that leads up to Christmas called Advent.
In Sweden Advent is the time when we decorate our homes with electrical stars and chandeliers in our windows. We burn a candle each Sunday for 4 weeks and stuff ourselves with saffron buns and gingerbreads, accompanied by “glögg”; warm wine spiced with cardamon, ginger, cloves and orange peel.

Looking back at this year I’m happy to be back working with in-person clients. I still do maybe 40% of my appointments on-line and I’m grateful that we also have that option.

I’ve also been back to Norway three times this year for work assignments at the small hospital in Nordfjordeid on the Norwegian west coast. For some time, I thought those trips would stop the more settled in Canada and the deeper into my work as a therapist I got. I now realize that I don’t want to stop working as a nurse. I simply love it! And because of my interest in personal growth and the trainings I’ve done, I’m also (in my own eyes) much more equipped today in my role as a nurse, meeting patients wherever they are at, with different health challenges and at different times in their lives.

Last spring, I started a training that will continue, and finish, end of January 2023. It’s a continuing education learning more about working with NDE’S (near death experiences) and surgical and anesthetic traumas. In a slow, mostly nonverbal way, it’s about supporting the client through touch work. So much history is stored in our tissues, intestinalis, bones and fascia and through supportive touch work we can create a safe haven for the body to heal.
So, I’m looking forward to going back to Saskatoon for my final week of this training in January.

As some may have noticed, my Newsletters don’t come out regularly every month as they did in the beginning. I noticed that when I put pressure on myself to be creative and “come up” with something wise to say or write, I become stuck! So, I’ve promised myself that it’s ok to write only when I feel I have something to share – and in that way You won’t get to many emails in your inbox 😉

The way I’d like to inspire is through example, and putting less pressure on myself hopefully inspires you to do the same. When we act out of joy and passion, the creativity flows and there’s no effort. I like to have more of that in all my areas in my life, starting with the Newsletter!

And if you feel you’d like some more frequent inspiration, please follow me on Facebook “Helena Swanström Somatic Therapist” where I also share more randomly, sometimes an article and sometimes just a quote or a poem.

And speaking of poem, ending this Newsletter with a poem by David Whyte, wishing You all the best for these last weeks of December and I’ll be back in 2023!

THE JOURNEY
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
painting their

black silhouettes
on an open sky.
 
Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
 
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
first, bright

and indescribable
wedge of freedom

in your own heart.
 
Sometimes with

the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes

of your life.
 
You are not leaving.
Even as the light
fades quickly now,
you are arriving.

With gratitude,

Helena