How to live a ‘reinvented’ life: An expat shares her experience of creating a ‘new future’

By Karla Freeman

I wrote Creating Magic in Midlife:101 questions and answers to navigate the terrain of finding and exploring new directions. Scary? Of course. But why not try? Dream, examine patterns, be open to magic. Using the easy to read two-page chapters in my book, your anxiety and confusion can be tamed.  As you learn, you can feel less anxiety. As a result, experience new energy and aliveness.

A shaman in Ecuador said: ”This is a good book. Have people pick a number between 2 and 209 (number of pages in the book) and that is their question to explore.” What number pops in your head? I often will do this with people with magical results.

Tango in Buenos Aires.

Reinvent Now
Hello, fellow reinventors. I know you might not think you can reinvent your life, but you can if you say so. I wrote Creating Magic in Midlife to help others but I actually did what I wrote about. From 2006 until now I am living my reinvented life/lives.

After I left Santa Barbara as a successful psychotherapist specializing in trauma, the magic followed. After 8 years in South American, now I am in Dublin starting a new chapter, a masters in creative writing.

People often say I am an inspiration. I want to share with you what helped me.

First, I went to a beautiful city of 14 million vibrant people. I lived two years in Buenos Aires as an expat, learned to dance tango, (it takes a lifetime, so take that statement with a grain of salt), started to learn Spanish, (como estas? and donde estas? with my New York accent). I started to feel like living each day could be fun. Yes, the life of an expat is very challenging, and I will share more about that in the future. A few of us English speakers started a writing group that I attended weekly which offered support and friends.

After Buenos Aires, I moved to Cuenca and immersed in the indigenous culture leaning into natural healing and how to live a sustainable lifestyle. They actually fix things instead of always buying new. They work hard and live their lives in harmony with nature. What a concept! Later on I realized I was detoxing from consumerism, and privilege. And I was becoming much happier than I had ever been.

Today, I live in a tiny house in central Dublin, Ireland, where I can walk everywhere (gave up the car culture for environmental and because I love to walk). My neighbors are friendly and the city is full of culture. As a writer I call it the candy store for writers.

Two suggestions:
1. Dream your future. You can use the question I use with clients: If you could have anything you want, what would your life look like? This means anything regardless of money, age, or any realities of your life. It’s only a vision. You don’t need to do anything about it.

2. Start looking for the people, places and things that give you energy. This is meant to be research. Again, you don’t need to do anything about what you are learning. My position is that motivation comes after taking seriously where we feel most alive.

In future posts, I will share more from the book, more stories and tips on how to explore more of your own dreams and also make less of my mistakes. If you feel intrigued, I would love for you to follow me and join a community in daily life-changing experiences. If you comment, we could have interesting dialogs on this site.

Take a few actions and feel your energy rise. Follow me on Medium for future articles. Take another step toward your reinvented life today and buy Creating Magic in Midlife available on Amazon as a paperback and eBook.
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Karla Freeman, MFA, MSW, SEP (Trauma therapist) was a Cuenca resident for many years who has lived in Argentina, Ireland, and Mexico since leaving Santa Barbara.  She is the author of Creating Magic in Midlife, available through Amazon She can contacted through her website www.KarlaFreemanStoryteller.com