Member Spotlight: Carola von Szemerey | Founder of the Sound of Sisterhood. Surfer, Sailor & Dancing through life with action and intuition.

Every other week we publish one in-depth story from an Ocean Nomads member. To learn more about each other, to learn from each other, inspire and be inspired, and to accelerate our adventures.

This week we shine a light on Carola von Szemerey. She knows the importance of living with nature, with the moon, following intuition and keeping close to the core value of nomadic and natural living. She has developed ‘The Sound of Sisterhood’ to help women realize their potential, with nature, and at the time of writing had already raised over 14.000 euro with her crowdfunding for it. Learn all about Carola, her impact project, and how she does it in this interview.

About Carola

Sunshine, Earth, Openminded, Fire, Moon

• Originally from: Germany
• Basecamp at the time: Germany
• Outdoor and ocean sports: surfing, sailing, hiking, dancing
• Biggest ocean achievement: I lived many years close to the ocean in Brasil and the first thing I did in the morning was greeting “Yemaja” the Water goddess and already feel fulfilled for the day.

Listen to the voices of your body.

Carola

Current big life dream

Publish my 4 in 1 Journal for women and create a sustainable exciting business, continue making a living from what I love, create the time and space for some sailing adventures, attract an inspiring partner, and create a home base where I can invite people to practice the art of being and enjoying the little things in life again.

What’s your story?

I grew up in Germany. Very normal life. Decided to go to Brazil after school and did my voluntary service. Changed direction and turned my life upside down.

Started to search for alternatives. When I was 21 I ended up at Knowmads, an alternative business school for changemakers in Amsterdam. This is 8 years ago. I started searching even more. I was involved in alternative education projects, organized youth conferences, and joined many different youth initiatives. Then I had an “aha” moment. I was overworked, stressed, no sleep, and completely out of energy wanting to save the world.

I figured out that I need to be fine to actually do that.

Change of direction. Started surfing. Started a training to become a bodyworker and meditation guide. Opened a hostel in Brazil. Lived in an ecovillage for 2-3 years, working in a retreat center.

But 2 things I didn’t follow up: sailing and dancing. #1 Sailing: Why? No port close to where I lived, as it was a very off region. #2 Dancing: Had a very jealous boyfriend, like many Brazilians. Both I sorted out and decided to go for it 2021 :))

So after years of personal development, retreats and trainings I also met the “Tribo da Lua”, a group in Brazil whose mission it is to pass on the memories of the grandmothers and hold space for ceremonies so that women can connect back to their cyclic being, their feminine power and embrace their beauty being a woman.

After I studied with them for 4 years, last year I received this mission to also pass this wisdom on, mainly in ceremonies and gatherings but also in the western world. I created this 4 in 1 journal “The Sound of Sisterhood” I am recently working on. Many memories are only being passed on in front of the fire, to receive with the heart and not always the mind.

This journal is like a retreat for women to connect back with their feminine intuition, embrace their cyclic being, celebrate their potential and create relationships that are nurturing and exciting.

When and how did you fall in love with the ocean?

As a child. Best moment of the whole year. Going to Denmark to the ocean to see my family there and spend every day at the beach. I fell in love with sailing the first time I stepped on a boat when I was 13.

Tell us about your current impact project

Right now I am working on “The Sound of Sisterhood”. It is a 4-in-1 journal: moon calendar, life planner, diary and female cycle tracker. It is a companion for women to dive into the magic and beauty of being a woman. Women can use this journal to flow with their feminine intuition and learn how to ride the emotional roller coaster. Furthermore, they can acknowledge their potential, boost their self-confidence, get things done and eventually find the dream partner aligned with their values.

There is some extra content with rituals and inspiration from my adventures. This year’s version will have stories of 15 more women telling us their stories about what happened when they followed their feminine intuition. Super exciting.

Some of the content is connected with QR codes that lead to a free platform where they find explanations how to use the book’s templates, deepening materials, meditations, extra videos and surprises to accompany the process and not carry around a journal thick as a bible. So kind of like integrating the good part of the tech side, but still having a real book to not spend even more time in apps and on the phone.

One of the best moments was when I had learned to open coconuts with the machete, and was feeling so at home in the jungle and nature, that I really didn’t need anything.

How did you start on this?

After living for more than 5 years in Brasil I had the call to come back to Europe 2 years ago. I didn’t exactly know why back then but I followed my intuition. Last year the why was revealed to me. I actually had planned 3 months of sailing, on 3 different boats, when I cut my foot open on an oyster 14 days before the first trip.

I didn’t want to accept the situation and was fighting for over a week, and was trying to convince myself that I can do it. Doctors told me no movement and no water. So I kind of understood that working and being on a sailing boat I would hit 100% of what I should not do.

I was super angry and annoyed but I decided to stop being angry at the universe and started to ask what would be my mission then. In one weekend I received all the ideas for the journal and put the puzzle pieces together which I had been collecting in the years before.

Now about 14 months later, I have a long story to tell about all the creation process but most important that I have now 8 days left to reach the first funding goal to print the journals also in English and German! I published the journal already in Portuguese in Brasil and it is being distributed there already. Let’s make the magic happen here as well! :))

So if you are a woman, check out the Sound of Sisterhood! This is your perfect travel buddy, to stay connected with yourself, and deepen the connection to your internal flow, the wisdom of your womb and tune more into the cycles of nature. And if you are a man, I am sure you have beautiful women in your life, this is the perfect Christmas present 😉

(The crowdfunding campaign ran in autumn 2020 and has since closed.)

Read more advice, tips, and reflections from Carola in the full interview story inside the Ocean Nomads network: the practicalities, struggles, and drive of being a nomadic entrepreneur, the good and the bad about the entrepreneurial experiences, balancing people, planet, and profit, lessons learned, and what’s next for Carola.

You can follow her and check out more about the Sound of Sisterhood on Instagram and on her website, carolaszemerey.com.

Would you like to connect with more ocean-minded nomadic adventurers like Carola? Join the network!

Would you like to share your story? Become a member and reach out. By sharing your story you encourage, inform and inspire others towards a more adventurous and conscious lifestyle, and you show the Ocean Nomads community your personal adventure and impact projects.

Come sail with us. 💙