Warsaw, Poland
Ola Poems
Instagram: @poems.wonderland
poems.pl
Poems in Wonderland
Creating Everyday Magic
Modern Bohemian. Creator. Photographer. Traveler. Writer.
Collector of Feelings. Continuously in the search of a unicorn.
Creative Soul. Dreamer.
Protecting Your Spirit
I recently stumbled upon a great quote, sadly by an unknown author, which beautifully reflects my approach to this matter:
Your diet is not only what you eat.
It’s what you watch, what you listen to,
what you read, the people you hang around…
be mindful of the things you put into your body
emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
―Unknown
Nurturing Your Life Force
I try to make sure that everything that surrounds me nourishes not only my body but also my soul. It’s my all-time favorite playlists listened to on loop and the people I adore. It’s the tastes and smells that remind me of times I long for. The candles I light in the evenings and endless refills of tea brought back from foreign travel. It’s my beloved dog’s soft ears and long walks with my camera. Lately, I’ve also discovered the power of sleep, breathing, detox, and acupressure, which is almost as good as a getaway to the seaside or mountains! Nothing gives me a greater sense of freedom than a sea breeze blowing through my hair or a feeling of having a snowboard under my feet and speeding down the snow-covered slopes.
Authors I Love
Growing up, I lived in a house by the woods. It’s hard to imagine a better neighbor than a forest for a nature-loving, daydreaming girl, but I did have
another neighbor right next door—my truest friend. We used to spend days and nights together, selling lemonade and bouquets of wildflowers. We would climb trees and would later brag about who got more cuts and scrapes in the process. We also watched old movies, wrote short stories, and created scripts, but above all, we were passionate about books, which we used to read aloud to each other. And I have to say, it’s the authors from those days that have influenced me the most. The sentences by Gabriel García Márquez, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, and the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska resonate in my thoughts to this day and, in my view, exude sensitivity that I feel while writing or holding a camera.
Living with Yourself
Before we can truly love other people, we need to love ourselves first. It’s natural for people to come into our lives only to disappear later at various stages of our life journey… But you are the only person you are bound to spend your whole life with! From your first to your last days! We all want to spend time with people we like, appreciate and respect. So, why not become such a person to yourself…?
Don’t Postpone Your Dreams
One of the life lessons the world has recently taught me has definitely been not to postpone dreams. I’m so glad I didn’t just continue dreaming about remote travels and at the same time perpetually putting them off until unspecified “later,” but instead quickly start saving for a plane ticket and turn my dreams into goals. Thanks to that, I could experience something as wonderful as an around-the-world trip, which would have been a much bigger challenge now in the current
pandemic situation. The exact same lesson of not delaying dreams got to me when, despite earning my law degree and having worked for many years in law firms, I decided to pursue my childhood passions and make the best use of them in my adult life.
Comparison Crushes the Soul
The moment that dramatically changed my life happened when I finally realized that the only person worth comparing myself to is me. Me at different stages of my life. Me, who day by day becomes, even by the slightest bit, a better version of myself, compared to myself from yesterday.
At a closer look, it’s clear that we are all, in fact, sucked into a mechanism of continuously comparing ourselves since early childhood. It all begins at school when we first enter the race for the best grades and skills. Then comes the Internet and ever-increasing hours of screen time as we watch perfect lives of other people, forgetting that what we see are just snippets of someone else's reality. From the screens of our phones stare back at us ideal faces retouched by Instagram filters, smiling at us with snow-white veneers straight from the best dentists. We look at successful people, but we don’t see the winding, bumpy, failure-filled road they had to travel to get to where they are now. Also, we don’t even know what being there really tastes like, because it’s very likely that each success has a bittersweet taste.
Words for Women
When we are little girls we are told to be nice, polite, and submissive. Once we grow old, ironically, we are suddenly expected to be strong, tough, brave, and assertive. Let’s not allow anyone to tell us what we are and aren’t supposed to be, what choices we should make and how to live our lives only because we are women.
Taking the Time
For me, slow living is a journey of two kinds: a literal journey without a return ticket or itinerary, but also a daily time to travel inside myself and be close to nature.
Believe in Your Dreams, Sooner
I wish I’d known back then that in the future we live today, the list of professions would, in fact, be endless, and if we want to, we can turn our passions and
talents into careers! Fifteen years ago, when I was a lost teenager, the world held on to a belief that only specific jobs mattered. If I’d known the future would be different, I might have believed in my dreams sooner and wouldn’t have spent five long years studying law. Clearly, we can’t even imagine what people will be doing in another 15 years. If, for example, someone was ever looking for a chocolate taste tester to check the difference in taste depending on the latitudes—count me in!
Listen to Experience
It is worth listening to people who have already gone down the road we are only just beginning and to look up to them as mentors. Don’t take advice from people who do not necessarily understand your business niche. And one more thing. Instead of competing with other women in the industry, support them! Be happy for them and their success!
Great Biz Advice I Was Given
We are not so much defined by what we say yes to, but rather by what we say no to—this is especially true of online businesses. It might be worth considering what our goal is and whether the offers we receive are consistent with it and with us, our beliefs. It’s not always easy, but it pays off to be patient and not get involved in things we can’t put our whole heart into.
Creativity and Failure
Allow yourself to be a beginner at something, to be again in a position when you are doing something for the first time. And give yourself permission to make mistakes. Take small steps every day and create daily. Seemingly unnoticeable changes and progress will come as a nice surprise with time! And, most of all, enjoy yourself; make the journey the end goal itself! And because in a sense creativity is a story of you at your most vulnerable, take a moment and think of a rule created by Pixar, which says: “You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.”
