How loving are you?

I am not talking about how loving you are towards other people, animals, or the world in general. We all know that our lives are better when we do well and have good intentions for others, when we are in selfless service for the community around us. In addition, I find it’s always easier to help and give, rather than receive.

Just look at how you react when someone gives you a compliment. Do you take it to heart and say thank you, or do you make a joke and brush it off? Is it easy for you to receive help from a friend if in need?

Most of us know that self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself, which grows from actions that support our physical, psychological, and spiritual growth. We know that self-love means taking care of our own needs, and not sacrificing our well-being to please others.

I would like to break it down into bite-sized pieces here and really get into this and see what it means, for me at least.

Let’s start with physical love.

To be honest, I still stumble here. It is not often at all that I compliment myself in my mind about my physical appearance. Maybe when I put some effort into getting dressed, putting on some makeup, and doing my hair, I throw a little wink in the mirror and think to myself that I’m doing pretty good.

Physical self-love does not stop with our looks. It’s on many more levels. What do I feed this miracle meat suit that I walk around in? Eating nutritional foods, supporting our bodies so we can be strong and healthy for years to come, is also self-love. Again, easier said than done with all the temptations at our fingertips. These days I try to do what I call 80/20, and that works for me. 80% of what I feed my body is good, and 20% in what I call the naughty stuff.

I like to break down the physical even more.

Our bodies are true miracle machines that we normally take for granted, as long as they function well and without pain. But if we start looking at each part of our bodies, how much self-love do we have and give?

Do you floss your teeth?

Do you ground yourself by walking barefoot?

Do you take care of your eyes by taking breaks from screens?

Do you breathe fresh air?

Do you work out?

There are so many ways to actually give your beautiful body temple self-love. I still forget or don’t do, but being aware and not judging myself for forgetting to give it the attention it deserves, is where I’m at.

Psychological self-love is not about being self-centered, selfish, or narcissistic, but rather about understanding, accepting, and valuing oneself.

I write in my journal each week;

“I love and accept myself just the way I am right now.”

This sentence I got from Louise Hay and her book “You Can Heal Your Life,” which is an amazing book that I had as my “bible” for some years. The impact is even more powerful if you look into your eyes in a mirror and say them.

A part of psychological self-love is acknowledging one’s own worthiness and letting go of self-criticism. For me, doubting myself creeps up in different areas and its constant work to keep it at bay.

Why is it hard to be kind and compassionate to oneself, just like we are to our friends?

Letting go of that nonsense, negative self-talk and doubt that pops up if you don’t guard it, takes practice. We all have imperfections, and I don’t know anyone who is perfect. Again, I try to accept and not judge so harshly, rather seeing my flaws as something I can develop, instead of weaknesses.

Now what about guilt, shame, and forgiveness?

I see them as obstacles that need to be sent away. They do not serve oneself one bit. Let’s make a deal and forgive ourselves and let it go, once and for all.

Spiritual growth came into my life quite late in my 30s. And for me, this is something that has helped me the most in the area of self-love. I did not have a spiritual teacher around me growing up, like most people in Sweden, where my body was born.

I had the questions within me, like; who am I?

Where do I come from?

What am I doing here?

Where do I go when I die? Etc. etc…

These days there are tons of books, podcasts, teachers online, Youtube and retreats to go to, which can share knowledge in the spiritual field, if one is interested.

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I was super lucky to stumble over my spiritual teacher, Nalanie Harilela Chelleram, who lived only 20 minutes from us. She has been and will always be my mentor, teacher and friend. I would not be the same person without her teachings, which are purely through the Yoga philosophy and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (the science of the mind).

I remember the first teacher training I did with her. It was a full year of classes and a couple of weekend retreats. The first assignment she gave us was to make a list of all the things we loved about ourselves, and another with things we did not like. And I remember her words to this very day, even though this is over 20 years ago now.

She said; now take the list with the things that you like and love about yourself, and ONLY focus on them. When you do that, the others will dwindle away by themselves.

So straightforward, and honestly not so hard to do when you set your mind to it.

And asking ourselves; Who am I? Is so very important.

Imagine schools asking kids this question before they get conditioned and programmed into what society wants them to be. I believe this is essential; to know who you are. Then it is so much easier to step into the power of gratitude and appreciate oneself for who we are and what we have accomplished. Acknowledging one’s achievements and positive qualities truly foster self-love.

I think growing self-love is a lifelong journey. I know I am a work in progress and will always be a student of life in this area. These days though I try to have more fun with it and not take myself so seriously.

So now repeat after me, with a smile on your face;

I love and accept myself just the way I am right now!!!

Tomorrow is a new day, and you will be different.

Until next week, stay curious and grateful.

Much loves,

Kim

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I want to ask you something I asked myself first, and honestly, I didn’t love the answer.

Are you contributing more than you criticize?

Because we are living in an era drowning in opinions. Social media, news, family dinners, work meetings. Everywhere you look, someone is pointing out what’s wrong. And look, I get it. A lot IS wrong. I am not here to tell you to slap a smile on it and pretend otherwise. But here is where I had to get honest with myself.

I was writing about how exhausting it is to be around people who only criticize and never contribute. And halfway through, I caught myself doing exactly that. Criticizing the critics. Complaining about the complainers. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

So let me start with something more real.

Criticism is easy. It requires nothing from us except an opinion. And opinions, as we know, are basically a renewable resource these days.

Contribution takes something more. It takes energy, intention and sometimes courage. And it doesn’t have to be grand. It’s not about becoming relentlessly positive or pretending the hard stuff doesn’t exist. That is just a different kind of dishonest.

Contribution looks like this I think.

You see something broken at work and instead of just venting about it in the corridor, you bring one idea to the table.

You disagree with someone online and instead of piling on, you ask a genuine question.

You feel hopeless about the state of the world and instead of doom scrolling for another hour, you do one small thing that adds something, even if it is just calling someone who needs to hear a kind voice.

Think about your recent interactions. Not to judge yourself, just to notice. Are you mostly pointing out what’s wrong? Or are you also bringing something in?

I have been in both camps. I still visit the first one more than I would like actually. There is honestly something that feels like relief when you just let the frustration out. I understand that.

But I also know it doesn’t last, and it doesn’t help and it quietly makes us feel worse over time.

The people who drain you and the people who fill you up, you know exactly who they are without me describing them. The difference is usually not about whether they have opinions or whether they see the mess clearly. It is about what they do with it.

So the question I am sitting with, and I am leaving it with you, is not how do I become more positive? It’s more like, when I open my mouth, or my keyboard, or walk into a room, am I adding something or am I subtracting something?

That’s it. That is the whole question.

It’s not about suppressing what you think. It’s about asking whether what you are about to say or do moves things forward even slightly, or just stirs the same pot that was already boiling.

In our crazy world right now where criticism has never been easier or cheaper, choosing to contribute something real is actually a quiet act of courage.

Until next time. Stay grateful and curious.

Light and joy,

Kim

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I want to ask you something I asked myself first, and honestly, I didn’t love the answer.

Are you contributing more than you criticize?

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I’m filled with a mix of excitement and exhaustion, all at once. It’s an odd feeling, really. When I listen to those around me, they often express their current state of exhaustion. I see teary eyes and sense an underlying sadness, even though they can’t quite pinpoint it’s’ cause or what’s triggering it.

There’s so much happening in the world, and I feel a similar whirlwind of emotions. One day, I’m brimming with excitement, fully immersed in my passions and confidently moving through life, full of energy. But the next day, I wake up feeling somewhat sad and super tired.

Why does this happen? I don’t have the answers, but the questions keep piling up.

What is normal these days?

Who really runs the world?

Will AI eventually take over everything?

How do algorithms shape our lives, with big tech companies seemingly in control?

Who can we trust in this complex landscape?

Is the frequency of the Earth changing?

Will there be a great reset, and if so what will that look like?

Where is it safe to live in this unpredictable world?

There are countless questions swirling around, and though we can search for answers, ultimately, we need to rely on ourselves, trust our hearts and gut and honour who we are. But I have to admit, it’s exhausting at times.

This isn’t the person I used to be, and these constant changes can be a tad draining. I do believe we all have to go through this process in our own way, and hopefully come out stronger on the other side. It’s simultaneously exciting and exhausting. It feels like a war, as if we’ve been through countless battles and are war tired.

Tired of the madness and out of balance with the world we live in. Thankfully, I don’t consume much mainstream news. I like to have a balanced perspective, so I follow, but very little these days, both mainstream and alternative news sources. It helps me chart the turbulent waters ahead.

When people ask where I search for information and news, I always recommend dipping in to both camps. You need to have two maps. One of the mainstream’s perspective, while also tapping into the alternative (very censored these days though) more truthful sources. This approach works for me and I believe it’s essential for all of us, so we can make good choices going forward.

The past few years have also brought excitement as more and more people open their eyes to different truths, breaking free from the limitations of the traditional TV-brain washing. They’re no longer weighed down by the world or swallowed by its demands. It’s incredible to witness these butterflies take flight and the increasing transparency that comes with it.

So, I keep going, even though I’m exhausted, excited, and sometimes sad. I’ve learned to accept and honour those emotions, giving space to the sadness when it needs it.

In the midst of this whirlwind, I find comfort in the fact that there’s a gradual shift happening. It’s like witnessing the world transform from chaos to clarity, from confusion to understanding. And while we may feel like we’re walking against the wind in a hurricane, there’s an underlying beauty in the connections we forge. People are coming together, supporting each other, and that’s how we’ll find our way through these rough times.

As we rise from our cocoons, we bring forth a newfound bravery and courage. It’s like we’re becoming these butterflies, ready to explore and fly in this world with a different perspective. The journey may be exhausting, but it’s also incredibly exciting. We’re shedding old layers, welcoming transparency, and finding the strength to be true to ourselves in the chaos.

I’ve written before about finding mental clarity and taking things at a slower pace. But ultimately, it’s about finding our own balance, honouring who we are as individuals.

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I appreciate the downtime, yet I’m also driven to take action. And in this blend of excitement, exhaustion, and occasional sadness, I recognize that we’re living through extraordinary times.

The world may seem messed up, but it’s also a time of immense possibility and transformation. We can let our tears flow, giving them the space they deserve, while holding onto the love within us. Together, we can find our way through this ever changing landscape, cherishing the connections we make and honouring the beauty of our individual and collective growth.

This too shall pass (good and bad).

Until next time.

Much love and light your way,

Kim

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Another year around the sun. Allegedly wiser, definitely still confused, just on a higher level. Which I’m told is progress.

Next year is a big one. The one that starts with a six. I’m not dreading it, I’m actually kind of here for it. But this year, 59, feels like the inhale before something shifts.

And somewhere in this past year, between the questions I still can’t answer and the ones I finally stopped asking, I got clearer about this little corner of the internet and why it matters to me. You matter to me. The conversations we’re having here, about AI, about staying human inside all of it, about what yogic philosophy actually has to say about this strange moment we’re all living through, I don’t take any of that lightly.

So for my birthday, one ask. Simple, friendly and honest.

If you’ve been reading and enjoying and maybe thinking about supporting me by going paid, today is the day. Not because of a discount or a bonus. Just because it’s my birthday and it would genuinely make me super happy and pay for my coconuts in Bali. It's only 5 euros a month or 50 for the whole year.

Come in closer. I’ll save you a seat.

Love, cheers and confetti.

Kim 59 and gloriously confused :)

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Let’s face it, life can be a battlefield at times. From battles with ourselves (hello, negative self-talk and self-doubt) to battles with others (um, have you ever been in a meeting with your boss and your arch-nemesis co-worker at the same time?), it’s no wonder we sometimes feel like we’re at war.

Joking aside, it’s natural to have disagreements and arguments, but sometimes these battles can become more intense and harmful than they need to be. Sometimes they are external, involving conflicts with other people. Other times they are internal, involving imbalances within ourselves. The question is, are you at war with yourself, others and the world? And if so, how can you overcome it?

When all the covid-madness started in Spain, where we lived at the time with lock downs, regulations, police giving big fines to people for just walking outdoors without a mask and the financial strain for a lot of people around the world, making families with babies beg for food and receive charity hand downs just to be able to survive, due to not being able to go to work, I can truly say I lost hope for humanity for a while.

During the Plandemic time I made a mistake and watched 5 min of main stream media news from India. That broke my heart even more. So many hungry people, yes I know there is poverty, but this was very different, due to all the lockdowns.

Losing hope can be a very difficult aspect of being at war with the world and yourself. When I lost faith in the goodness of humanity for a little while, it felt like I was completely alone in this type of struggle.

Whatever the cause, it can be a devastating experience, leading to feel anger, despair, and hopelessness, making it difficult to see a way forward. Luckily there are tools to take us out of that kind of mind-set.

For me I grab onto friends and connecting with light minded. I meditate more and start rolling things I am grateful for, in my mind, which always helps and lifts me. And my daily mantra, ‘This too shall pass’ (good and bad) has been with me for years. I even have a ring engraved with these words.

And practicing the Yoga philosophy has been a game-changer for me when it comes to dealing with life’s battles and obstacles.

I used to think the only way to win was to suit up in full armour and charge ahead like a knight in shining armour. But it turns out that approach just led to a lot of bumps, bruises, and bad communications.

Entering the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is the science of the mind in the Yoga philosophy. These teachings are like my secret lightsaber for surfing life’s obstacles with more ease and less stress.

One of the main principles is Ahimsa (non-violence), which is all about doing no harm and being kind and compassionate to ourselves and others. You might be thinking - “Uh, duh, I’m already nice to people!” But practicing Ahimsa goes beyond just being polite and nice.

It means treating yourself and others with the same care and respect you’d want for yourself. And let me tell you, it’s not always easy.

There have been times, when I used to have a boss and I’ve wanted to give him a piece of my mind or scream at the driver who cut me off.

But instead, I try to take a deep breath and remind myself that being kind is more important than being right.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not some perfect, enlightened being who never loses her cool. But by practicing Ahimsa, I’ve learned to handle life’s obstacles with a little more humour, a little more finesse, and a lot less shielding.

At the end of the day, the struggles we face with ourselves and others are a natural part of the human experience. And by practicing Ahimsa and nurturing greater awareness and compassion, we can learn to navigate these battles with greater ease and grace.

I would love to hear what tools you use.

Until next week, stay grateful and curious.

Much love,

Kim

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That feeling of being at war with the world is one of the loneliest places to be. Because it’s not just external. It turns out when you lose hope in people out there, you also start losing the battle inside.

What brought me back was simple and unglamorous. Friends. Gratitude. Meditation. And a mantra I have literally engraved on a ring I wear…

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If you have been watching the world shift, quietly losing trust in banks, in systems, in the idea that the old financial order is still working for ordinary people, this one is for you.

Not for the crypto bros. Not for the traders staring at charts at midnight. For the person who has been curious for a while, maybe even for years, but has not known where to safely begin.

This is where you begin.

It happens. No warning, no explanation, just a letter and a locked door. And quietly, steadily, inflation eats at whatever you have saved while the bank pays you almost nothing to hold it.

We were told banks were the safe option. And for a long time most of us did not have another one.

But the deeper thing is control. When your money is in a bank it is not really yours in the way we like to think. The bank can say no. No to a transfer. No to a withdrawal. No to sending your own money where you choose to send it. Most of the time this does not affect you. Until one day it does.

Bitcoin is not a perfect answer. Nothing is. But it is the first time in most of our lifetimes that genuinely holding your own money, outside a bank, outside a government, outside anyone’s permission, has been possible for ordinary people.

That is worth understanding.

I had been curious about Bitcoin for a long time. Years, actually. I listened to enough conversations, read enough, felt that knowing that something was shifting in how money works in the world. I was not naive about it. I understood the broad strokes.

But every time I actually tried to do something, I froze.

Worried about clicking the wrong button. Of sending money somewhere and having it disappear into the internet and never coming back. Of filling in a form wrong and having my identity stolen. Of the whole thing being one giant trap designed for people smarter and braver than me.

That fear kept me out for years, longer than it should have.

And one day I just did it. Slowly and one step at a time. I wrote down every single thing I did as I did it, because I knew I was not the only person feeling like this.

The thing nobody tells you

The crypto world has a communication problem.

The people inside it are so deep in the jargon that they have forgotten what it felt like not to know any of this. So the information that exists is either hype or incomprehensible.

What nobody seems to say clearly is this: the actual process of buying Bitcoin is not complicated. It is five steps. Each one is straightforward. The technology underneath it is complex, but you do not need to understand the engine to drive the car.

The fear is real. The difficulty is not.

Why I chose Kraken

There are dozens of exchanges. Kraken is one of the oldest, most regulated, and most trusted. It operates in over 190 countries. It supports British Pounds, US Dollars, and Euros. It is not perfect and no exchange is, but for someone starting out it is solid ground.

I am not affiliated with Kraken. I am not paid to say this. I just used it, found it navigable, and am passing that on.

The five steps

The first four are setup. The fifth is the one you have been putting off.

All five are below, in full.

One thing before you continue

You do not need to buy a whole Bitcoin.

I want to say that clearly because it stopped me for longer than I want to admit. Bitcoin is divisible into 100 million tiny units called Satoshis. You can buy twenty pounds worth. You can buy fifty euros/dollars worth. You can buy whatever you can comfortably afford to learn with.

A small start is still a real start.

What follows is the complete easy to understand walkthrough.

I have included:

· screenshots of each screen so you know exactly what you are looking at in Kraken

· a troubleshooting section for the things that can go wrong

· a downloadable 9 page PDF you can keep open on your phone while you do this.

When I started my crypto trip over eight years ago, I would have given anything for something exactly like this.

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This guide exists because I spent years not being here. Curious, but frozen. And I finally just did it, slowly, one step at a time, and wrote down everything as I went.

What you have in front of you is exactly that. The whole process, plain language, screenshots, a…

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The thing most wellness conversations miss. They zoom in on the green smoothie or the morning routine and forget that our nervous system is also digesting the news we are scrolling, the conversation you replayed three times before bed, the algorithm that fed you seventeen videos about everything going wrong in the world before you’d even had your morning cuppa.

Your body is not separate from your mind. Your mind is not separate from what you feed it. And neither of them are separate from the invisible dimension most people only remember when things fall apart, the spirit, the part of you that either feels alive or doesn’t.

Holistic health is not a brand. It’s a biological and spiritual reality that operates whether you believe in it or not.

The body keeps score on everything

Here in Bali I watch people take amazing care of what goes on their plate and almost no care about what goes into their eyes, ears and emotional field every day. And then they wonder why they feel depleted. Why meditation isn’t working. Why they can’t sleep even though they’re doing everything right.

There is a physiological reality underneath all of this that doesn’t care about your intentions. Every cell in your body is in a constant state of renewal. The raw material your body uses to rebuild itself comes from what you consume. Feed it real food, clean water, genuine rest, and it works great with that. Feed it processed everything, chronic stress and three hours of doom scrolling, and it works with that too. Your body is not judging you. It’s just building you from whatever you give it.

Now extend that logic outward. If physical food becomes physical tissue, what does emotional food become? What does a daily diet of anxiety-inducing content, comparison and low grade digital noise build inside you over months and years? What does chronic self-criticism and stress do to a nervous system that was designed for connection and rest?

The answer is not pretty. And most of us are consuming all of it on autopilot.

Pratyahara — the forgotten practice

Yogic philosophy understood this long before modern science caught up. Patanjali’s eight limbs include a practice called pratyahara, which is usually translated as withdrawal of the senses. But I think a better translation is conscious curation. Choosing deliberately what you allow into your field. Not as punishment. Not as spiritual performance. Just an act of true self-respect.

This is not about becoming precious or cutting yourself off from life. It’s about waking up to the fact that you are porous. You absorb what you are around. What you watch, what you listen to, who you spend time with, what you tell yourself when nobody is listening, all of it is entering your system and doing something.

The question is whether it’s doing something that builds you or drains you.

The 80/20 I actually live by

Here’s what I don’t do, perfection.

I’m not interested in it and I don’t trust it. Perfectionism in wellness is just anxiety, I think.

What I do instead is 80/20.

Roughly 80% of what I consume on all levels I try to make nice and good. Good food, real food, things that came from the earth. Content that expands me rather than contracts me. Conversations that leave me feeling more like myself, not less. Movement that my body actually enjoys. Thoughts I’d be comfortable saying out loud. Spiritual practice that keeps me tethered to something larger than my to-do list.

And then 20% is what I call naughty. The glass of wine on a Friday. The reality show spiral, yes I love them. The bag of chips I didn’t need. The gossip that went slightly longer than it should have. The morning I skipped everything and just stayed longer in bed.

I don’t flag these as failures. I don’t punish myself or spend three days compensating. I just live them and move on.

Because rigidity is its own kind of toxin. A life lived in perfect compliance with wellness rules is not actually a well life. Joy is part of the equation. Pleasure is part of the equation. Being a real human who sometimes makes the chaotic choice and laughs about it, that’s part of the equation too.

AI is now part of your consumption diet

AI is inside your daily information diet now whether you opted in consciously or not. It is shaping what content you see, how information is written, what feels credible, what feels urgent. It is moving faster than our nervous systems were designed to handle and it is not slowing down.

This is not a reason to panic. But it is a reason to treat your relationship with AI and technology the same way you’d treat your relationship with food. With some awareness. With some intention. With the occasional honest look at whether what you’re taking in is actually serving you or just filling space.

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What does your information diet look like on an average day? What are you actually feeding your mind?

You are the curator

Mind, body, spirit as a phrase has been repeated so many times it has almost lost its mojo. But strip the language back and what it points to is integration. The understanding that you cannot quarantine your wellbeing into separate departments. Your thought life shows up in your body. The health of your body affects the quality of your presence. The nourishment of your spirit changes what you can tolerate, what you can offer, and how clearly you can think.

You are not a passive recipient of your own life.

You are the curator of it. And curation is not about being precious or fearful. It’s about being awake. Noticing what you’re letting in. Making at least most of your choices on purpose. And giving yourself enough grace to be human the rest of the time.

Until next time, stay curious and grateful.

Loves and joy,

Kim

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It’s about what you’re actually feeding yourself. Not just on your plate. All of it.

Press play and let me know what tool you use.

Light and joy,

Kim

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I have been a prepper for many, many years.

Not in the bunker and camo sense. In the practical way, I’ve seen enough of the world to know things go sideways sense.

Over the years I have moved between very different worlds. I now live the reality of the humid, tropical intensity of Bali. I have lived the dry, scorching sun of Spain. And I have prepared for the bone chilling, dark winters of my native Sweden.

If you take a standard American Midwest prepper list and try to use it in the UK or Arizona, you will run into massive problems within 72 hours. In Sweden, your water freezes and your calories burn twice as fast. In Bali, the humidity destroys your dry goods before you even open the bag. In Arizona or Spain, the sun cooks your plastic water storage and renders it toxic.

Now I want to say something before we go on.

I’m not the doom and gloom lady. That is not who I am and it is not why I’m writing this.

But I would be doing you a disservice if I pretended I was not watching what is happening in the world right now. The narcissistic psychopaths making decisions that affect all of our lives are not operating from wisdom, care or even sanity. I think most of us feel and see that. We feel it in our bodies, when we read the news and then have to put our phone down and breathe.

I’m not here to spiral with you. I am here to do the opposite.

Being prepared is one of the most grounded, calm, sane things you can do in a world that’s increasingly unhinged. It is not fear. It is the decision to give your future self options.

One more thing before we get into it.

If you live somewhere with outdoor space, or even a decent balcony or windowsill, please add organic heirloom seeds to your preparedness plan. Not hybrid seeds, heirloom. The kind you can save, replant, and pass on. A small supply of tomato, bean, leafy green, and herb seeds takes up almost no space and costs almost nothing. But in an extended crisis, the ability to grow your own food is worth more than almost anything else on this list. I have mine, get yours.

The 30 day foundation

Before we get into the regional specifics, every human needs a baseline. I have built this blueprint around a 30 day foundation, but I want to be very clear: this is the minimum.

Once you secure your first month, is a good idea to look at your family and your inner circle. In a real crisis, especially a real famine, you will not just be feeding yourself.

The family multiplier: every quantity in this blueprint needs to be calculated for every person in your home.

The knock on the door: think of your closest friends and neighbours. When things get real, they will come to the person who is prepared. If you do not have a buffer for your circle, you will face an impossible choice. Turn them away, or starve with them.

Prepping is not about hoarding cans. It is about environmental intelligence, social intelligence, and the calm confidence that comes from knowing you have done the work.

Will you have enough to lead?

I have done the heavy lifting so you don’t have to. I have synthesised years of my own global boots on the ground experience into a Master 1 Month Blueprint that can be scaled for your entire family and circle.

Inside, I do not just give you a grocery list. I give you the Geographic Intelligence Modules. Whether you are in the Humid Tropics, the High Heat Desert, the Temperate Damp, or the Deep Freeze, I tell you exactly what to swap and what to double up on to survive a real world crisis.

The full Blueprint below includes the complete itemised checklist, the calorie breakdown for your 30 day pantry, and the five specialised Climate Modules built from lived experience across three very different continents.

The best time to have done this was last year. The second best time is right now.

Unlock and download the full PDF below.

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This is about preparedness. Not the bunker kind. The practical, grounded, calm kind that I have been quietly building for years across three very different continents.

Press play. Then download the blueprint below.

Welcome to the prepared side.

Global30dayprepperlist

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In this conversation with Catherine Edwards, we peel back the layers of the “AI Revolution” to look at what is actually happening behind the scenes. From the rapid race toward AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to the environmental and social costs of these massive systems, we explore the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

We discuss:

• The AGI Race: Why the world’s tech giants are racing toward machines that can do everything a human can—and why they don’t even know where it’s leading [04:34].

• Voting with Your Wallet: The importance of choosing decentralized or ethical AI platforms over those that prioritize military surveillance [21:35].

• The “Solar Punk” Future: How the younger generation is looking to use technology to thrive in harmony with the planet, rather than just surviving [19:07].

• The Ultimate Test: Why this technological surge is actually a call to become more human, more grounded, and more connected to nature than ever before [34:28].

As jobs shift and systems change, our greatest asset remains our intuition, our community, and our spiritual sovereignty.

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Until next time. Stay grateful and curious.

Light and joy,

Kim

There are people who were never going to fit the mould.

You probably know this about yourself. You felt it early, the way you asked too many questions, saw through things too quickly, refused to just go along with it. Not because you were difficult. Because something in you would not switch off.

It has not always been comfortable. People do not always know what to do with someone who thinks for themselves. But you stayed anyway. You kept following what felt true even when it would have been easier not to.

I am writing this because that quality, that particular stubbornness of spirit, matters more right now than it ever has.

We are living through a moment that is asking all of us, quietly and persistently, to hand ourselves over. To let the algorithm decide what we see. To let the feed tell us what to think. To outsource our judgement, our attention, our time, to systems built by people whose interests are not the same as ours.

And most people are doing it. Not because they are weak. Because it is frictionless and the world is exhausting and it is just so easy to let something else take the wheel. But not you, not entirely.

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You are the reason I started Awake and Unite. Not to warn people about technology. But to create a space for people who already sense that something important is at stake and want to think about it clearly, together, without panic and without pretending it is not happening.

Your path has probably had its share of solitude. Thinking differently is not always celebrated. But here is what I know after years of watching people wake up to their own depth: the ones who refused to disappear into the crowd are the ones who have something real to offer this moment.

The world does not need more noise. It needs more people who are genuinely, inconveniently, beautifully themselves.

That is you.

Thank you for being here. And thank you, four years on from when I first wrote something like this, for still showing up. It still means everything.

Until next time, stay curious and grateful.

Light and joy,

Kim

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I have been in the crypto space for eight years. What is happening right now is very different from anything I have seen before.

The headlines move fast, but the underlying “plumbing” of our world moves even faster. For those of us focused on sovereignty and staying ahead of the curve, April 2026 is turning out to be a landmark month.

While many were watching the news of a brief “peace pause” in the Middle East, something much more permanent was happening in the background: The world’s biggest financial institutions officially moved their chips onto the digital board.

Here is the breakdown of what is happening, why it matters, and how it affects our path toward self reliance.

The Smart Money Has Stopped Waiting

Eight years ago when I first got into crypto, the standard line from Wall Street was, interesting technology, not for us. That line is now officially dead. Morgan Stanley, one of the oldest names on Wall Street, has confirmed a Bitcoin fund offering to retail clients, making digital assets an official product line rather than a fringe experiment.

This isn’t just another crypto project. It is a signal that the old guard is now a primary force in the market.

At the same time, despite geopolitical tension, massive investment funds (ETFs) have continued to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Bitcoin and Ethereum. They aren’t trading for a quick buck. They are positioning themselves for a world where digital assets sit at the centre of the financial system. The question is no longer whether this happens. It is whether you are positioned when it does.

The New Architecture: How Money Moves Are Being Rewired

One of the most significant shifts right now is in how money moves across borders. For decades the world ran on SWIFT, a network built in the 1970s that moves money slowly and charges accordingly. That infrastructure is now being actively replaced.

Ripple’s XRP is one of the leading technologies being tested for cross border settlements. Banks across Japan and Southeast Asia have been running pilot programs, and the pitch is straightforward: faster, cheaper, more direct. Central banks are paying attention.

Honestly? I am not attached to which token wins that race. What I am watching is what the new system does to our privacy and our choices. That is the part nobody is talking about loudly enough.

The Rise of the Digital Fortress

We are seeing a coordinated global effort to digitise national currencies:

In Hong Kong: Major banks like HSBC have been granted the first licences to issue “digital dollars” for everyday use.

In Switzerland: Six major banks including UBS are now live testing a digital Swiss franc.

In the US: The GENIUS Act is moving through the legislature, aiming to regulate digital dollars while simultaneously giving the government deeper oversight into how they move.

What connects all three is not efficiency. It is visibility. Every transaction on a tokenised system is logged, traceable, and in the hands of whoever controls the infrastructure. That is the part the press releases leave out.

What This Means for Us

There is no going back to the old system. While the convenience and lower costs of these new systems are tempting, they come with a real catch: total transparency for the institutions. As the IMF recently warned, tokenising every asset from your house to your gold makes the market faster, but it also leaves less room for error and far less room for privacy.

I am not anti crypto. I have held crypto through three major crashes and I am still here. But I am clear eyed about what this wave of adoption actually means. This is not the decentralised dream of 2017. This is institutions building infrastructure they control and inviting us in on their terms. Knowing that changes how you play it.

Our Move: Three Deeper Steps for Sovereignty

Stay awake to the tech, but stay grounded in your own sovereignty. Knowledge of how these systems work is your best tool for the years ahead. Don’t just watch the price charts. Watch who is building the gate.

Learn to Hold Your Own Keys. Research the difference between keeping your assets on an exchange versus a private hardware wallet. If you don’t own the keys, you don’t own the money. And know this: losing your keys means losing everything, with no customer service line to call. Start small, practise the process, and only move significant amounts once you are genuinely confident.

Diversify Your Safety Net. Don’t keep all your eggs in one digital basket. Maintain a mix of digital assets and physical essentials like food, water, physical cash, or gold even that do not require an internet connection to work. After eight years in this space, the people I have seen weather every storm are the ones who never went fully digital. The grid going down is not a conspiracy theory. It is basic common sense and risk management.

Stay Informed, Not Entertained. Use privacy focused browsers and independent news sources. The more you understand the new architecture, the less likely you are to be swept along by it. Ask yourself with every financial headline: who benefits from me believing this right now?

The Bottom Line

April is showing us that the institutional era is not arriving. It is here. Your job is not to stop the shift. It is to make sure you hold your own keys to the exit door.

I have watched this space long enough to know that the window between “this is coming” and “this is already done” is always shorter than people expect. We are inside that window right now.

Stay sharp. Stay united.

And always grateful and curios.

Light and joy,

Kim

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The spiritual journey is like walking on a razors edge, yet it offers us the promise of finding inner peace, gaining wisdom, and reaching enlightenment.

But if you've taken even a few steps along this profound path, you know that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The razor's edge can be an unstable path, especially when it comes to maintaining discipline and practice. Let me share a personal peek into this challenging side of my spiritual adventure.

I’m starting my day with the best of intentions. I always rise before dawn these day, not my choice, it just happens. With a heart full of devotion, I light an inscent and sit down to meditate, hoping to connect with the divinity within me. But as I close my eyes, my mind begins to resemble a turmoil filled marketplace.

Thoughts rush in, uninvited and relentless, about work, family, and the never-ending to-do list which steals my attention. I try to focus on my breath, but my thoughts stray like persistent mosquitoes on a summer evening.

This is where the razor's edge becomes particularly sharp. The discipline required to tame the mind and cultivate a consistent practice can feel like an uphill battle. It's a struggle to resist the urge to check our phones and social media notifications, as well as dealing with all the distractions in our day-to-day lives.

I frequently face the challenge of balancing discipline and practice. There are days when the meditation cushion seems miles away, and the yoga mat might as well be on another planet. In those moments, I've learned to accept and acknowledge that meditation sessions can vary. It's perfectly okay to have days when my mind feels restless or disrupted. It is of no use to be overly critical towards myself. I remind myself that meditation is a practice, and like any other skill, it has its ups and downs.

The solution lies in understanding that these fluctuations are entirely normal. Our minds are very complex, and outside factors can impact our meditation experience. Instead of being harsh on ourselves, it's of course a lot more beneficial to be kind, patient and in acceptance of where we are on our journey.

Most of the spiritual path is off the meditation cushion anyway. When I was deep into my studies with my teacher and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (the science of the mind), I could pick one practise and really be mindful of that one the entire day. For example Ahimsa (non-violence). Well, that’s easy, you might think. But it needs to include thoughts about yourself, as well.

Ahimsa is a principle of non-violence and compassion. It encourages us to avoid causing harm to others, whether it's through physical actions, words, or even thoughts. It extends to all living beings, including animals and the environment. Ahimsa is about promoting peace, kindness, and understanding in our interactions with the world around us, and within ourselves.

The most difficult one for me these days is non attachment. In India, there's a saying: ‘Don't be like a monkey with its hand stuck in a jar. The monkey won't let go of the shiny object inside and stays trapped.’ Non attachment, or 'Vairagya,' means learning to let go of things, desires and outcomes. It's about finding freedom and happiness by not being overly attached to the material world. It also means not being attached to the outcomes and fruits of our actions. And this one can be tricky for me.

But hey, I’m a work in progress and will always be a student in this uni-verse-city. I fall off the razors edge and bleed sometimes. I do believe in doing my best in the present moment though, knowing that the results are not entirely in my control. This way, I can find contentment in the process, knowing that the fruits of my actions are subject to many factors out of my hands.

So don't be disheartened by the difficulty of maintaining a spiritual discipline and practice. Invite the challenge as a part of your spiritual growth. As you balance this delicate equilibrium, remember that it's the journey itself that reveals the beauty and depth of your soul. Keep walking, one mindful step at a time, and you'll find that the path becomes smoother with each day.

Until next week. Be grateful and curious

Much love,

Kim

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When life takes a nosedive and everything seems to be spiralling downward, finding your True North becomes pretty important. I've had my fair share of those moments when it felt like I was just wandering around, shooting aimlessly and hitting nothing but air. It's in those times that self-awareness becomes my guiding star.

That being said, it's clear that true self-awareness is like stumbling on a rare and precious find. It's tough to objectively evaluate ourselves without getting lost in the maze of our thoughts and emotions. Yet, when you do find your True North, it's like clearing away all the clutter in your mind and seeing things with clarity.

It's about understanding what truly makes you tick as a person and aligning your actions with those values. Some days it's a breeze, other days, well, let's just say it's a bit more of a challenge.

So, how do you find your True North in the commotion? I love questions and by asking yourself the right ones like;

• When was the last time you felt pure joy?

• What gets you out of bed in the morning?

• What thoughts distract you when you’re trying to go to sleep?

• If you could only use five words, how would you describe yourself?

• What does success look like to you?

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But no need to rush the process. Finding your True North takes time, and it's okay to be kind to yourself along the way. Self-compassion is key. And let's not forget, it’s not about a fast solution, but rather starting a continuous adventure of self-exploration.

So, armed with questions and a heart full of curiosity, dive in and explore:

• What makes you come alive?

• What are you passionate about?

• What legacy do you want to leave behind?

• What are you grateful for?

For me, my True North is something like this:

The feeling you have when you realise

what is important to you.

It's finding a place where you

understand your value and you

live your life accordingly.

It's when you have the

sense of whom you are

and finding what it is that enables you to live a life you are passionate about....

Truly... Madly... Deeply...

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Life is short and you deserve to have the vitality, time, and fulfilment of your dreams. It’s a wild ride, so why not steer towards your True North and make every moment count?

Until next week, stay grateful and curious.

Much love,

Kim

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Something changed in me this week.

I’ve been diving deep into the work of investigative journalist Karen Hao, and I haven’t been able to look at my screen the same way since. I figured out why in the shower this morning, which is where great ideas and thoughts comes for me sometimes.

I had been treating AI like an inevitable tide. Something massive and unstoppable that I just had to learn to swim in. But tides are moved by the moon.

This tide is being moved by algorithms and boardrooms full of white middle-aged men. And we don’t have to just let it sweep us away.

Karen spent years tracing the AI supply chain across five continents, from water activists in Chile to data labellers in Kenya. She is the one who gave us the term AI Colonialism to describe how tech giants extract resources from the many to enrich the few.

We talk about AI like it’s an ethereal, magical cloud. Karen’s new book, Empire of AI, pulls that curtain back hard.

AI isn’t just math. It’s a physical power play that looks a lot more like the 19th century than we’d like to admit.

The infrastructure trap nobody talks about

Think about the old empires building railroads. Those were 100-year assets. Even after an empire left a country, the tracks and bridges stayed. Permanent structures that local people could eventually own and use.

But AI is built on chips that expire in about three years.

That one fact stopped me cold.

Countries in the Global South can never truly own their tech future because the hardware dies so fast. They are stuck in a cycle of renting the newest chips from Silicon Valley just to keep their systems running. A built-in, permanent subscription to someone else’s empire.

The ghost workers

We are told AI is automated. Karen says it is actually human-powered.

Behind every clean AI response are millions of what she calls ghost workers in places like Kenya, the Philippines, and Venezuela. Paid pennies to label data and, more painfully, to filter out the dark and toxic corners of the internet so we never see them.

Every time we use AI, someone absorbed something ugly on our behalf.

In the old days, empires colonized land for gold, spices, and rubber. Today, they colonize our digital lives for data. Big Tech treats our photos, our words, and our creative output as a free natural resource, extracted without consent. They mine the internet, refine it into a model, and sell it back to us.

Let that sink in for a second. It certainly did for me.

So what do we actually do?

Karen is hopeful. Genuinely. And after thinking about all of this, so am I.

She talks about Sovereign AI and looking for what she calls the bicycles of this moment. Small, efficient, community-led tools rather than the massive steamrollers of Big Tech.

A few places worth your attention and support with links here:

Mozilla Common Voice is building an open-source library of human voices that no corporation owns. You can donate your voice by reading sentences aloud. Five minutes of your time quietly pushes back against Big Tech’s monopoly on how AI hears us.

DAIR (Distributed AI Research Institute) is doing community-rooted research on the real labor and harm stories behind AI. Their podcast, Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000, is exactly what it sounds like and absolutely worth your time.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been defending digital privacy long before AI was a household word. Their Right to Repair campaigns are directly tied to breaking that three-year hardware dependency cycle.

Algorithm Watch monitors how automated systems affect human rights. Less doom-scrolling, more actual journalism.

The Public AI Network (PAINT) is pushing for AI to be treated as public infrastructure, like roads or water. If Sovereign AI interests you, this is where that conversation is happening at government level.

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) builds tools so individuals and small groups can manage their own data without defaulting to Big Tech. Their Open Data Editor requires zero coding knowledge.

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The Part Where We Take Our Power Back

You have more power in this than you think. I have put together thirteen practical moves you can start today. No tech skills needed. No big lifestyle overhaul. Just real moves that actually matter.

Here are the first five, on me.

1. Practice Data Refusal Whenever an app asks to use your data to improve their products or train their AI, click No. Your data is a resource. Do not give it away for free.

2. Try Open Weight Models Explore tools like HuggingChat or Mistral’s own interface. These are built on open models that no single company completely owns. Same ease of use, significantly less extraction.

3. Support Right to Repair The longer a chip stays in use, the less power the hardware monopoly holds. Advocate for tech that lasts.

4. Pay Attention to Who Made It Before you adopt a new AI tool, spend two minutes asking: Is this company transparent about its labor practices? Do they acknowledge the ghost workers? Conscious use is still use, but it is not the same as unconscious consumption.

5. Practice Chat Hygiene Every month or two, clear your conversation histories, turn off memory toggles, and clear cached AI outputs. What the system does not permanently store cannot be repackaged and sold back to you later.

Steps 6 through 13 go deeper. They are the ones that protect your creative work, your original thinking, and the digital soil you are standing on.

If you have found this useful and want to go further with me, a paid subscription unlocks the rest of the checklist, plus future deep dives, exclusive tools, and a community of people doing exactly this together.

I built this because nothing like it existed when I needed it. If it's helping you, upgrading is the kindest way to say so and it unlocks the rest of the checklist, future deep dives, exclusive tools, and a community of people doing exactly this together.

YES, I WANT THE FULL CHECKLIST

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There is something about getting up before the world wakes up here in Bali. The air is fresh, the light is different and the traffic has not started yet. I feel like myself in a way that’s hard to explain. But even inside that stillness a question keeps coming up and making everything go soft and uncertain around the edges. I cannot shake it and honestly I am not sure I am supposed to.

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We have worked so hard to opt out of the systems that no longer serve us. We use crypto to bypass banks. We use local AI to avoid corporate censorship. We use holistic health protocols to claim heart led freedom over our own biology. In many ways we are winning the battle for autonomy. But there is one thing that bugs me. It is the one thing we are all a little bit too afraid to ask out loud.

Are we truly using these tools of liberation to set ourselves free? Or are we just building a bigger more efficient cage?

Recent numbers paint a picture that is hard to ignore. Seventy two percent of teenagers in the US have already turned to AI companions for emotional support. One in four adults overall now leans on chatbots when they want a listening ear with even higher numbers among younger generations. Studies are also linking heavier daily use to greater feelings of loneliness and a thirty percent jump in the odds of moderate depression.

None of this makes AI evil. It simply shows how powerfully it can reflect our longing for connection.

We are reaching out to digital echoes because we are starving for the soul connection. We are looking for a witness in the code because we have forgotten how to be a witness for each other. This is the hidden danger of our new systems. We wanted to escape the control of the old world but we are accidentally building a new world where we are more isolated than ever before. We are replacing human warmth with algorithmic noise.

This is the real battleground of 2026. It is not just about the tech. It is about the subtle pressure to trade our own inner guidance for digital validation.

Right now, today, people are being conditioned to look at a screen before they look within. To trust a data point over a gut feeling. To wait for a green light from an app before they allow themselves to feel healthy or successful or at peace.

And if you are reading this, there is a good chance it is happening to you too.

But true Self-mastery means refusing to outsource our self-awareness. It means recognizing that no amount of data can ever replace the raw felt sense of being alive in a body. If we allow the digital world to become the primary authority on our reality we have already lost the most basic freedom we have. The freedom to know ourselves from the inside out.

The 2026 jazz age anguish

The tech side of our niche is even more fascinating and more terrifying. The era of the personal agent. These are not just chatbots. They are autonomous entities that live on hardware we own. They manage our portfolios. They summarize thousands of pages of research for us. They optimize every single minute of our productive lives.

It feels like a massive leap for heart led freedom. We can delegate the heavy lifting and the data crunching to these digital assistants. But here is where the spiritual pinch happens. There is a creative pain that some are calling the 2026 jazz age anguish.

It is the pain of realizing that the time of perfectly generated output the soul can start to feel like it has no job description. If we automate all our research and our scheduling and our communication we have to be very careful that we do not automate our presence. We can generate a perfect piece of art or a perfect blog post in seconds. But that perfection is hollow. It is like eating a fruit that looks beautiful but has no juice or nourishment. The anguish comes from the realization that we might be optimizing away the very struggle that makes us human.

When I look at this through my spiritual practice I see a different road. I think about the witness. In our ancient philosophy we learn that we are not our thoughts and we are not our bodies. We are the silent observer behind all of it.

The reason this cage feels so real is because so many people are identifying with the tools instead of the consciousness behind them. If we use decentralized tools because we are terrified of being controlled we are still in a cage of fear. If we use AI because we are afraid of being irrelevant we are still in a cage of ego.

For me the answer is not a practice with a timer. It is more like a reset, a regroup with myself. After I have been in AI work for a while I can feel myself start to drift like I need to find my own signal again. So I paint. My Art Here Or I dip my body in the sea and let the salt water do whatever amazing thing it does. Or I just sit with the cats or the family and let nothing be productive for a while. No output, no insight required. Just me, being a body in a life that actually belongs to me. It’s not glamorous but it works. The connection back to myself is always shorter than I think.

I wonder what would shift if more of us named this out loud without sliding into fear or denial. If we kept celebrating the beautiful possibilities while also protecting the raw alive parts of ourselves that no algorithm can ever replicate. The laugh that comes out of nowhere with a dear friend. The uncomfortable feeling that turns out to be you growing. The knowing that sits quietly in your chest and does not need anyone to confirm it.

Maybe we built these tools to free us from limitation. The cage would not be made of steel bars. It would be made of the sweetest most personalized comfort we have ever known. Efficient. Always available. Perfectly tuned to us.

I’m still all in on the vision of staying healthy wealthy and awake around AI. I just want us to do it with eyes wide open and hearts fully anchored in our own inner light. The machines will be perfect. The data will be flawless. The algorithms will be undeniable. But they will never be able to watch a sunrise and feel the magical beauty of being alive and grateful.

That is our territory. That is our home.

Take a look at your tools today. Are they serving your spirit or are they just making your cage more comfortable? Let us choose the path of the soul every single time. Let us stay awake to the magic that no machine can ever replicate.

I love being on this ride with you. Its messy and it is unpredictable and it is beautiful. And that is exactly why it matters.

Let me know in the comments if you have been feeling that jazz age anguish too. I want to hear your heart on this.

Until next time, stay curious and grateful.

Light and joy,

Kim

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