Here is my latest article that I wrote for the magazine Female First on why men seem to be drawn to older women.

Interesting what men told me when talking to them about this topic.

Hope you enjoy!

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/relationships/why-do-men-feel-attracted-to-older-women-871293.html

Recently I wrote another article for the magazine Female First UK about the topic “bucket list” and what I experienced when checking off the point “go on a road trip” on mine.

For those of you who don’t know what a bucket list is…well, it is a list where you list all the things that you would like to do and experience before you die and I have such a list that I adapt from time to time

Since there was a point saying “go on a road trip” and since from my experience, a change of scenery always helps to get new inspiration, I checked off the point “road trip” and drove through Italy and Croatia with my car and wrote about my adventures in Italy in my guest blog post for Female First UK.

Here’s the link for you to read: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/features/natascha-hagen-summer-guest-blog-exclusive-849171.html

You can see pictures from my Croatia trip on http://www.facebook.com/NataschaHagen or on http://www.instagram.com/natascha_hagen

Now back to my computer, piano and microphone. The next months will be very exciting. I have a lot of meetings coming up in relation to my musical activities, starting in September, co-writings, productions…

And as there is still a bit time left in August, I will most likely enjoy the summer and visit new places
Hope you all enjoy this wonderful summer as well and maybe you also start your own bucket list…it might help you really start doing more of the things you always wanted to do

Sending you lots of love from my heart!

Natascha

This week’s article for the online magazine “Female First UK” treats the topic “strength” and how finding out your strengths can increase your sense of well-being.

I came across the “24 character strengths” (CSV) , developed by two positive psychologists, Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson, and found this approach quite helpful, so if you have a minute, this could be of interest to you as well.

Dr. Seligman and Dr. Peterson claim that when knowing your personal constellation of strengths, your life will soon change for the better.

Here’s the link to my “Female First UK” article:

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/features/natascha-hagen-exclusive-guest-blog-strengths-837989.html

Have fun! Joy and inspiration to all of you!

Natascha

This time the article is about how I perceived Cannes during the Film Festival 2015 and about the controversy that came up, since security obviously denied women who were not wearing high heels access to film screenings.

Because of that, a discussion started if this should be interpreted as a sexist behaviour and if there is a justification for turning away women with high class flat shoes, and even more so the ones that suffer from medial conditions.

You can read my article here:

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/womens-issues/natascha-hagen-guest-blog-cannes-831045.html

Could it be that by striving for wealth and for success, you are looking for personal appreciation?

A lot of times, we are compensating unfulfilled wishes with substitute actions, like shopping, eating, going to the hairdresser, superficial affairs etc., but without finding satisfaction (or only for a very short time).

We are scratching on the surface of happiness, but don’t feel it profoundly.

Still we don’t have the courage to look at our real needs, because we are afraid of the consequences, we are afraid that we probably could find something that is inacceptable to the people that surround us, something that would require a major change in life, which could be very uncomfortable or an awareness which would shake up our moral principles or beliefs that we have been taught when we were little and which we have practised ever since.

We have been told how we should be.

We have learned that we are only accepted if we are acting a certain kind of way.

So we adapt and behave like the others want us to behave and as we grow older we store – layer over layer – information in our subconsciousness that prevents us to live the life that we would like to live.

We stay in unhealthy situations, like in relationships and jobs that are not good for us and daydream about something else.

Why don’t we just stop hiding from our deepest desires and face them?

Make happiness a permanent resident in your heart!

Start making a list of all the things that you are truly longing for.

Whatever it is, say “yes” to your needs!

Say “goodbye” to your substitute acts and “yes” to yourself!

Get to know your true self, your divine life plan, why you are here on earth and stick to it.

Then you are on the path to real happiness and fulfilling relationships

And for those people who have a problem with it: let them go with love, your ways are no longer the same ones.

More on Female First UK

You’ll find more on this topic in my blog post that I wrote for Female First UK: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/

I think that “Susan Gale” quote describes very well that unique connection between a mother and her child, this special kind of love – a love that knows no boundaries, no end, a deep, pure, an eternal and UNCONDITIONAL love.

However, why should it be that only a mother can feel this kind of love for her child?

Is there a way that we can practise unconditional love with other people, too? Even between lovers?

If we take a closer look at it, we encounter a constant battle between the so-called ego and the heart.

The heart wouldn’t have any problem with simply loving, cause it is pure and genuine, but the ego tells us: “if you give so much all the time – love, affection, understanding – if you do so much for this person, you should get something in return and of course at least in the same amount.” Our ego expects love, emotional security, passion, faithfulness etc and voilà – we are caught in a web of expectations, how the other person should be, react or what we should be given for our efforts so that from our point of view the “give and take” is balanced. 

If we think about it, a relationship almost reminds of a trading company.

The ego is behaving like a little child trying to get what it wants, but in the other person there is a little child as well that is acting up, both partners are dominated by their subconscious patterns and suddenly they act like angry, defiant, pouting little children. Emotions like fears, sadness, anger, jealousy, guilt and shame pull the strings, but actually, these little children within us would be longing for acceptance and for love.

Whatever we couldn’t get from our parents, we are trying to get from other people as adults.

Anyhow – true love doesn’t have any expectations.

As the word “unconditional” already indicates, true love is not based on any conditions and doesn’t have anything to do with expectations and with the belief that the other person should make us “whole” and happy and compensate our deficiencies.

Another person can never be responsible for our happiness, we are the ones in charge of our happiness and need to love ourselves first, before we are able to truly love someone else.

The challenge is to accept and love the other person the way he or she is.

We are all different, we have experienced different things, our opinions differ and everyone feels in a unique kind of way.

To practise unconditional love means to accept the other person with all the imperfections, with all the differences.

We can only decide for our own life, what we feel is right for us, but there is no way that we know what is right for another person.

Unconditional love means letting the other one determine the pace of his/her development without judging –

letting the other one choose how to live, what to learn, which experiences to make and with whom, even if it means to let that somebody go in love.

More on Female First UK

Every two weeks I write guest blog posts for Female First UK and this week, there is more on the topic of “Unconditional love” on http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/