This is the Rosen Shine podcast featuring the Swedish sisters Josephine Bruce and Victoria Russellson They used to talk about New York because your experiences from our international lives and careers Well, hey Josephine now listening to our introduction I really think it's time for a fresh start even for that as we no longer live in New York and Stockholm Exactly, and I'm in the Swedish countryside about to move back to Bogota and you just moved Atlanta. Yes, exactly So actually we thought it's fitting both as in what we're doing, but also in the change of seasons It's an episode about making a fresh start and when to do it Exactly, so we wanted to as always inspire both ourselves and all of you listeners to to kind of consider What is the fresh start that you want to bring with you this fall whether it's at work or in relationships or maybe health? Yeah, exactly. So, but biggie you are in the midst of a very fresh start.
Yes move to Atlanta Mm-hmm. Can you tell me a little bit about it and what are there? What are the first starts taking place? Well, you know when you say fresh start It's actually really good because it sounds so positive and I'm right now in the midst of the craziness of the move Or maybe I'm just sort of slowly moving out of that getting into more the fresh start feeling But it's been a bit crazy So we've been here exactly three weeks now and Actually, what happened is that it's me and my daughter's moving fast because my husband needs to stay back in Sweden and finish up a few things So he'll go back and forth for the first year which means that I'm kind of doing this all on my own with the girls So we're joking at home that you're having you know an exchange year with a girl.
Yeah Well, it's gonna be a long year. Yeah, and we've rented this super cool townhouse and it's not entirely furnished yet But it's been super crazy. I also see the the fan chopping in the backgrounds. Yeah, kind of the summer heat is still very real in Atlanta The lovely Georgia heat.
It's wonderful. Yeah, but it's been you know It's been so much going on and I remember just actually on the flight over here I sat down with the girls and I draw them the culture chalk curve and you know talked about I think it's so great You did that. I mean that's so you and it's fantastic. You sat down and drew the curve with them.
Yeah, literally. Yeah, okay Yeah, what does it look like the culture shock curve? Well, it starts with like the honeymoon phase where everything is like super happy Wonderful, and then you kind of crash and everything is annoying and you're really upset that everything is different that you don't know how it works And all of that and then you slowly start to find your way around and find you know new friends and things that work And then you go up to you know finding that this is your new place and you like it Okay And I'd say that you kind of do like mini curves along the way And then there's something called reverse culture we can do an episode on that You know so the three of us come here and I think live like extremely positive and they got such a warm welcome You know in their high school to Swedish sisters and you know, they really got a great welcome But yeah now we're like in I think yeah, I've been in the mess like we're trying to figure out the new school system At the same time they are trying to do that I'm also trying to do that and sort of arrange our home and get furniture get social security card get an American phone all of that And I even had to retake my driver license exactly. I wanted to ask you about that.
So that's really a fresh start Yeah, a really a refreshing yeah, but like those are things that you know luckily I didn't know all of these things were happening I was sort of imagining that I would put forward my Swedish license since 25 years and you say hey Can I transfer this to an American? But no I had to redo the test I had to both like a written test and then a road test and like you know I managed to I must say the man who sold me the car because I couldn't get my brand new car before I had my driver license So it was either getting that or continue to rent a car forever and ever Yeah, I was pretty you know persistent. I would yes And then when I went there I realized that now I needed to wait like three weeks before I could do the driving test after I'd passed the Written test but then I overheard the the people standing just next to me and getting their things that they have missed to fill in some kind of a form So he wasn't allowed to take his road test. I'm like well, you know I just overheard so there should be like a slot here for me to Can I possibly do it?
You know I'm a mother on my own my car is waiting for me. This is like Like a mother on my own. Yes. Yes, I'm using this card a lot now So, you know, she managed to squeeze me in much to the annoyance of the very stern ladies that were actually, you know Doing the test and it was like I almost started on my Breaking the rules and yeah going against the system.
Yeah, but yeah I you know I had to bring like the big rental car and do first of all like parallel parking between the cones and I You know, I'm pretty good with parallel parking having lived in many European narrow cities So I'm like okay, I rock this but then they're like now you have to reverse in between these narrow cones I'm like really? Yeah And then a little driving around the blocks and then we came back in park and I was thinking like what if I fail? You know that will be quite problematic, you know, but it's like yeah, you can go inside now and get your driver license Yeah, because I would have been a fresh start you having to bike and then cross the Now so now I do have a fresh American driver license. Yeah, for sure, but yeah, and what any fresh starts for you right now And yeah, well, I thought we'll go into that No, I mean, it's fresh in the sense that it's very much getting into the fall season here not the Atlanta, Georgia heat Yeah, and no, it's just kind of inspiring Maybe a fresh start was that I actually didn't receive a job that I applied for and I actually felt happy about it I haven't told you about it.
No, but it's a little bit of a question. Thank you No, but the point on that though is that I think that there's I know so many exciting things coming up that I possibly rather want than Then that so yeah, I think it's a good thing. I think it is actually yeah, I haven't told you about itself I'll tell you everything about it But you know talking about fresh starts. Why do we need them?
Yeah, I think we identified a number a number of reasons But I for myself and for many with a change of season and so on There's something inspiring and new with fresh starts and I think we all need a little bit of that You know a change yeah, like you can start from zero and all your bads go away and you can just go for it It's a blank sheet of paper in a sense exactly and it also allows us to reflect a little bit on what is working well Already in our life and what is working less well? Yeah, so it gives us that kind of opportunity to decide okay These things I want to keep with me because it's not like we have to change our whole lives every time I refresh it I know but some things are working really well And then some things are like I could have probably dropped that and feel better I agree and what I like about fresh starts is and especially what I'm going through now It's you know you get a new perspective of things challenges your paradigm and being very often one is sort of set up in the ways That this is the way it works Yeah, but now you know there's so many new things and the girls and I we keep telling each other like they don't know what we don't know Which is usually like you know so fake it but now we're like so we need to tell them Hey, we don't know the challenges that when we also don't know what we don't know That's when we have a bit of a problem But that point of perspective is really important and I mean they're it's really beneficial that you know the moving and the Intercultural experience and so on I mean the girls and I hope they're okay with us sharing this the girls before moving They were like, you know, we know most things we have Instagram We can see what things are like in Georgia and the rest of us were like yeah, yeah Yeah, yes, there are so and I guess maybe that was it They didn't know what they know they didn't know no exactly And and that comes there's this quote that we also thought that we really liked by Nailed on a Walsh and it says life begins outside of your comfort zone Hmm, and I think that's pretty good because if you never leave your comfort zone You don't get to see what it is that you're actually able to do even exactly So fresh start is an opportunity to maybe to push out and do something yeah, yeah, which brings me to my favorite topic you learn Yeah, so that's really good Let's have a look at what the fresh starts said this fall that we have coming up and inspire all of you guys to have a Think about where where you could maybe have that fresh starts because whether it's in our career relationships or health We can all and you know decide what old things are we getting rid of and what new things are we are we adding to our lives? Yeah, for sure, so we'll start with the career So you just move to Atlanta and of course one of the key reasons for that is career. Yeah, what kick started this said this change this Fresh start for you.
Well, I mean that's interesting And I think we've spoken about that before but it was taking a little bit of a break from my normal everyday routine and working a little bit differently Two years ago, which has led to you know as becoming yoga instructors starting this podcast But it also led to me deciding to finally write that book I've been dreaming about and then as things happen I ended up writing that together with two of my American colleagues So then it made sense for me to come over here and work from here So it's a fresh start It's it's still working with what I love doing which is basically leadership development or growing leaders But it's in a completely new way. Yeah, so it's so nice because it kind of again Yeah, it pushes me out a little bit from my comfort zone And it's nice to see new things even though those are the topics and the content that I'm very very familiar with I still get a new Perspective on it. Yeah, I think that's such a great way of doing it I mean there's always different times of your life where there's different things, but what do we think? Well, how do you notice that it's time to change career?
Yeah, I think it's good to listen to your signals and and see hey Am I learning things like what I've said before am I enjoying it? Do I still get the same energy out of this every day like I used to do and I think it's good to do a little bit of reflection on that Yeah, and I guess if you're really really into changing your career and thinking a lot about that We do have a special episode on that one of our first ones Yeah, about changing career that you could go back and listen to as well if you wish yeah, absolutely And yeah, I mean listening a little bit to your gut and and then also of course We have some people that are jumping careers and wanting to change all of the time And then there are people that are more holding on to what they got and maybe more careful So maybe reflect a little bit on where your personality is and whether you need to put yourself out of that comfort zone Maybe that means staying or maybe that means leaving depending on on who you are yeah And and maybe it means also approaching the career you have and stay with it, but do it differently exactly So yeah, so what about that if you wanted to make a fresh start, but you're not changing your job We're all going back to work on Monday and we going back to that same old place But we need a fresh start well actually it makes me think of this Netflix movie that I saw you a few days ago and it was called about time and And the father or the men in the family they could travel in time or at least they could go back in time And they can go too far back because then they would change too many things and that would be really bad so there were you know But yeah, well watch the film it was a nice film But one of the points without giving too much away was that to the father said to son, you know what I do all the time I go back. I do my day I just go through like the normal day the way it is and then I go back once again And I redo it and this time I pay attention to all these little details and I see how can I contribute? So you know and to send us that and he's a little bit he gives that sort of friendly push to his colleague that is struggling And he sort of yeah simple things like giving that smile to the barista at the coffee place And you know but you see these little little things yeah made such a difference to how his days turned out Yeah, you know and eventually he he said I don't need to go back and redo every day I just try to make it nice and really good the first time around And if you know in the sense it's like okay, so I have this career It's maybe not what but I kind of like it.
What can I do to make it more special? What are the small details? So it doesn't have to be that extraordinary But how can I enjoy this day and make it more pleasant for me and others? Do you know what that small detail that just reminded me of anything I feel like I want to adult because I'm also move I mean, I haven't lived in Bogotá very long so for me It's also a big move now and it's also about creating a community and so on and that's about getting to know people by by names Yeah, not only people at work But getting to know you know the Burish staff you mentioned or the kind of the few local shops and grocery owners to know that My name because she creates such a a nice feeling and atmosphere if you do that the Americans are so good with that That's something that I'm gonna learn from them as well.
They're really great, you know Yeah, which I really liked that's a good one Yeah, you really do see people a little bit more but that brings us into the fresh start in relationships Yeah, we both need to make friends have you made any friends? Yeah, I mean, I'm well, you know, but it's you know, you're in this new ground and you don't really know anyone So I'm like, okay I'm gonna do the book club trick because that's worked for me whenever I move before to join a book club or start a book club So I'm gonna look for that But then he's like I was laughing at myself so the girls are in this course country team And it was like they have like a pre-meet past the dinner like on Thursday nights where parents are also welcome So of course they joined that because I'm you know, I'm sitting at the home now working a lot to read that mom Then everyone's like she's so active, you know going to all of her kids things Well now work is kind of kicking off a lot So I don't think so but anyway at this place I like I see this woman and she kind of reminds me of you a little bit and she's wearing this really nice scarf that I you know I really like I afterwards I'm like laughing I'm like I'm attacking her like she looks like a potential friend So I'm just like, oh, can I join you? So I'm doing my best. It's a little bit could join her or she just like step off.
No, no she was nice and French Yeah, I guess she didn't know what hit her, you know, but no, but honestly, she seems very nice So I'm gonna invite her out for coffee too. So I'm working on it, you know, it's my relater my colleague And reaching out and then at the same time, it's been so busy that it's a fine balance between having the energy to it as well Exactly. It's easily that, you know, two coffees is one coffee too many Yeah But it can be a little bit like that when you first you don't know anyone and then it becomes really really busy Yeah, yeah, and I mean you've moved so many times. What's your best advice?
Yeah, no, I mean, so we've started Steve and I to you know try to make friends with couples Yeah, because that's always very nice to have other couples with friends But then it's really, you know, so it's really Steve has been on the lookout for couples for us, you know And and then when he finds them because it's not always that easy because you know normally they are cooler than they guys or you know They're around that, you know girls are pretty cool. Um, so no so then when we find two then he'll you know, then we attack them too Then yes, they are going to be our friends And we invite them out we wine and dine them and double date and then we have some fantastic friends that we are couple friends with Yeah, that's cool So we have a few I think potentials in Colombia already and we'll hopefully make loads of more friends when we come back But then I also was inspired to you know fresh because fresh starts like within your existing relationships as well Mm-hmm. So one of our goals this year is even I especially now being in like the small young kids year years And is to have them not just have a date night because of course, but have a date night every second week is the plan And let's see if it becomes once a month, but we plan every second Oh, so once a month you have to plan a date night and then maybe make it a little bit more special than you know Just popcorn and wine and so far but actually doing something a little bit through some quite exciting about that. It's a good idea Hi expectations, I thought it's a you know So now that we're ready to be disappointed but you know me and Andreas now doing this kind of him being a stock old and me being in Atlanta kind of reminds me of when we just met and we were like I was for seven months in China while He was in Germany and we've done lots of that and also like me and Brussels he in London Yeah, so it's kind of a little bit romantic to start each morning with getting a what's up from him Because he's up already and before I go to bed I send the what's up to him so that he has it when he wakes up and you know That's also nice and we have we're gonna meet up in Europe and he's coming here I mean he'll be here in the week or so first.
Yeah, but you know it kind of reminds me of that part very lovely Yeah, so that's new start for relationships And I guess what I would say to everyone is if you think there's a need for a fresh start consider why and and do you think about? You know your friends your family and do you invest in them and do you get the energy back from them? Yeah, and again if you want to go deeper into this and think hey I need to increase my network and I need to get more friends a good one to listen to is the two episodes we did on building your network So moving on to our third and last fresh start to help one of your favorite fresh starts topic exactly So any new habits that we're bringing in with us this fresh fall of 2019 when it comes to health Yeah, do you have any is the what are you starting anything new or doing anything differently now in Atlanta? Well, I mean wise from experience from all my previous moves when it's so hectic That's when I fall out of the rhythm and tend to forget to do my proper workout and eat properly But this time I'm like no, I'm that's not gonna happen.
So I registered with a super fancy gym club and I have this Very intensive a personal trainer who's like I've done this test where you run and you check You know your oxygen intake and all of that. So I'm fighting it in advance Fat percentage is that that kind of yes? Yes. Okay.
Wow. It's him and this other lady They're super sweet and they want to you know create your health profile But they all immediately kind of just think that well Maybe this just happens to me, but that you're there because you want to lose weight, you know Like we're gonna get you know, well, I'm pretty okay You know like I don't really use to it to get skinnier, you know, I don't mind It's but it's funny that they immediately take that as a very sign. I guess I'm gonna be living yeah Yeah, yeah, what about you? Yeah, well, I'm I'm a really good routine No, but I'm following all of these like a postnatal programs and so on But I'm just about to head to Bali and have three weeks there Which is really really wonderful and to me that was too family But that is my opportunity.
I feel to really dig into the yoga again Yeah, so I'm like thinking of trying to know of course with two kids and so on But having like my own yoga retreat in Bali, you know, not organizing one But making my own one daily routine and then come back with that to Columbia and hopefully start teaching I let you all know if that happens, but that's the plan. That's the health routine. I want to bring into the fall Ah, that sounds so wonderful. Yeah, I also want to go to Bali and have a Send you pictures.
Yeah, yeah You can post some on our Instagram roose and shine exactly so but sending this out to all our listeners You know do consider Relationships careers health and whatever other things that you might want to have a fresh starting Remember it kind of it helps you to grow really it does really and to do that What I'm also going to think of and you know inviting you all to think about is also Is there anything that you need to let go of is there anyone that you need to forgive or a goal that you need to drop? Like if your goal has been for five years to drop I don't know a certain amount of kilos or whatever do you need to drop that goal or do you need to read W your efforts? Yeah, that's a good. It's a fine balance.
Is it worth it? Why am I really fighting for this? So maybe that's a fresh start of accepting that hey, I'm here and I'm gonna make the best of that. Yeah, exactly But so what if you are stuck and you you're trying to make a fresh start and you fall continuously back into old Patterns, I mean, yeah, you work on the sort of in the bigger picture country He's then you know in conflicts and any research on that that could help us here Yeah, so there's loads of course of conflict research and then loads of conflict research that is really talking to the Idea of being stuck.
Mm-hmm. So not being able to make the changes or making changes and actually not seeing the bigger picture changes Even if you're making the small changes Yeah, and it can often be the idea that we're kind of falling into old patterns Yeah, that can happen I think both on that or absolutely on a big country level but also on a smaller Personal level. Yeah, so I mean one method for that I think could be useful on a personal level too that we that we use in the conflict world and now working for the UN We think about that and but also in conflict studies more general would be that if you have a country that is in an Intractable conflict we say a conflict that has been going on for a very long time and that often seems Unresolvable. Yeah, then we can see that making a small change is not really going to make a difference Yeah, they're going to fall back into the old pattern So the metaphor would be if you imagine yourself in a valley the valley surrounded by two peaks The conflict down or the negative state in this case could as if it's a positive state It could just as well be that but now we're talking about a negative state that you want to change the negative state is in the bottom of this Valley So you have a big rock in this bottom of this valley and you want to change it to the positive state You want it to have it on the top of the mountain So you can then make small changes and kind of try to push this big heavy stone onto the top of the of the top of the mountain Mm-hmm But as you will see in that metaphor a small slip and the stone will just fall back rock We'll just fall back to the bottom of the game Yeah And even if you manage to put it all the way on top of that mountain It's really unstable that positive state is really unstable and a little slip up could confess everything up again So what do you need to do so what we think about then in the conflict world is okay?
How do you actually change what we call the conflict landscape? How do we not try to shift the rock in the sense trying to rock up? But how do we actually make a bigger change with a you know Lifting up the valley or lessening the peaks or actually changing the whole system so that when we do a small change The rock cannot just fall back again. I love that theory.
Yeah, and it might mean that you need to make many more changes Or you need to look at underlying courses not just what is surfacing right now But what is really you know what is really driving this kind of negative pattern for example? Yeah, I love that and it's so interesting because that's in the world of conflicts and big nations And I think sometimes in order to really change you need to make a big mega change And I also find that working when with leaders very often it's not about that huge change But it's about the small changes that will make the difference because they are usually you know doing lots of great things And we say like so maybe you need to revise some of your habits Maybe they're some like we were saying before but also maybe do things that you know are really good for you But make them habits not just that they happen at random And I think another thing that people do wrong or but you know That we focus so much on the end goal that we forget what is it that leads us to that end goal And that's where we need to put our time and energy and focus It's a little bit like if you want to lose and wait now we come back But it's such a nice simple, you know Don't focus all your time and energy on what it says on that scale every morning when you get up on it But focus your time and energies because you know, you know you need to count your calories or you need to do that workout So that's where you need to focus your time and energy and pet yourself, you know not that moment on the scale Yeah, so I think it's for yourself everyone listening if there are things that you want to change Don't put all your efforts and energy into that end goal But look at what are the small things that I can do that eventually we leave me into that and that's where you want to put your energy and time into it Yeah, and I love the idea of small changes I mean again, but like um don't have unhealthy things in your fridge Yeah, and then it's a lot easier to not eat them rather I mean so they are small things like that that you can do every day that will help you Yeah, it's almost like you celebrate after you've gone to the supermarket and only bought healthy stuff That's like a good thing to give yourself a patch on the back rather than yeah, so that's good So really I mean we're about to sum up But you know our best ideas is really to make this happen You need to stop a little bit and do that kind of reflection and before you is continuing old patterns check in on your values Think about what is it that gives you most energy know where you want to go and ask yourself what's stopping you Absolutely, and maybe take some time. I mean with a reflection if it's yoga for you if it's meditation If it's walking in the woods getting a little bit outside I think will help you to you know outside of some of your patterns will also help you to get a better fresh start Yeah, and something that I use for myself when I feel I'm a little bit stuck in different situations It's like okay, so if I could lift myself from the ground now and just look at myself from about and see you know How's Victoria doing you know what would I take out what would be like? Hey, why am I spending so much energy on that or why am I doing that just do that differently?
So that's something that kind of works for me or even like hey if I were to look back You're like a hundred years from now from somewhere else and see myself would this matter so much? You know try to lift yourself out from the situation Yeah, and that really is that perspective thing that we talked about in the beginning as well a fresh start allows for a new perspective But also you know take that time to yeah to get the helicopter view. Yeah, so talking about a fresh start Be who I love the statistics and you know our vision is really to sort of connect the world And I noticed that in the past few months we've got some new countries tuning in so either our listeners have moved countries But like we have Japan there and China warm welcome Hong Kong. Oh, that's really cool And I've also noticed that so our top three countries are the UK Sweden and the US and UK have passed Sweden Wow Well, and you know I look I obviously we don't know who all you listeners are and some of you follow us on Instagram But it's really nice to see all these little nice towns in in the UK all over so I'm thinking like a road trip in the UK A road trip with maybe some kind of a pub crawl slash walking in the woods.
So that would be great. Yes, let's do that public crawl that sounds like such a good your studies and thunderous Yeah, that's so many nice pups in the UK you can walk between my dear friend told me that you can have these lovely like hikes And the woods and then you stop in a pub, you know health and and pups will be lovely. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I see vacation coming up Yeah, it's super nice But you know so thank you everyone, you know all this gonna name and can just are up there to ball takes most of the European Countries we're so grateful for you listening to us really are yeah So and if you like us, you know Please do give us that by start rating and spread the word to friend if you think also would want to join us for this little chat and pep talk Yes, and follow us on the roost and shine and yeah happy more than a while Yeah, and a nursery they could be with us for over a year now So that's very cool So thanks also to all of our really loyal listeners and to our really good friends that are coming with feedback and suggestions And so on that's really lovely all of you.
Yeah, we love you all. Thank you so much for listening take care and let's talk soon. Bye. Bye