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Many people dream of turning their lives upside down: new country, new job, new love. Claudia Heuermann dared to jump – and fell on her nose. Still, she would do it again.
The day when the bear dismantled the chicken coop was the beginning of the end: “The bear had already looted our apple trees,” recalls the 56-year-old. “But that was too much: the barn was in ruins, the chickens had been eaten.”
Land or life
Not only did nature become a burden, the family also suffered from rural life: “My younger son only built high-rises with his Lego blocks – and things didn’t go well with my husband either.”
Everything had started so well five years earlier. Claudia Heuermann from Munich had moved into the North American wilderness of the Catskill Mountains with bag and baggage, her husband and two sons. “I dreamed of a self-sufficient life in the great outdoors, especially for my children.”
Legend:
Self-sufficiency project: At first the plan seemed to work for Claudia Heuermann and her family.
Claudia Heuermann
call of the Wild
The USA had done it to her. Claudia Heuermann had often been to New York before, where she made documentaries. She had met her husband there too. “When the children came, my old dream of living in the wild came forward. Ever since I read Jack London’s Call of the Wild as a teenager, I’ve wanted to leave. ”
Legend:
At the beginning the perfect idyll: A house in the middle of the wilderness of the Catskill Mountains.
Claudia Heuermann
Claudia Heuermann is what experts call «break-up»: They see their life not as a straight line development, but as a series of sections. “These people are actually always open to new things,” says Sibylle Tobler, who has been accompanying people in change processes for over 20 years, “even when there are difficulties they keep an eye on what is possible.”
Creature of habit human?
However, a different pattern is more common: people who are dissatisfied but do not change anything because they blame external factors. “They are more likely to see what they do not have in their hands than the things that they could change,” explains Sibylle Tobler. «We humans function very much according to habits. We usually only change our situation when we have to: When we lose our job, get sick or the partner leaves us. ”
Legend:
Another country, different tasks: for the Munich resident, milking goats and gardening were part of her new life.
Claudia Heuermann
It could also be done differently: “Neurobiological research shows that our brain can also be changed at an advanced age,” explains the specialist. “We can change thought patterns – but that takes training and perseverance.”
The time before the jump is decisive
Above all, you need a plan of what you want at all. “It is crucial to deal with your own wishes and interests. What is important is what happens before the jump. ”
The desire for the new is the better engine of change than the weariness of the old. “There are also people who constantly change this or that in their life – and thus run into a kind of burnout of changes,” analyzes Sibylle Tobler.
Claudia Heuermann always had a desire for new experiences. But she didn’t make her decisions headlong. The first years as self-sufficient on the farm in the Catskills were fulfilling, she says: “We bought animals, laid out the garden, the boys were outside a lot – that was fantastic.”
Until the bear came
Only with time did the idyll begin to crumble. Life as a farmer was full of privation – and Mother Nature was sometimes quite nasty: “I was completely controlled by my work: the goats had to be milked and the garden tilled. We also had poisonous snakes in the basement and there were tons of ticks! ”
Legend:
The bear plundering the apple tree. Claudia Heuermann and her family left the American wilderness – the bear stayed.
Claudia Heuermann
When the bear came, the sons found country life only desolate, and she and her husband had become estranged, it was time for Claudia Heuermann again for change. Today she lives in Munich again with her sons: “We moved to the countryside because we wanted to live independently – and we had to realize that we are much freer in the city.”
And yet. Even if the dream of country life did not last and the marriage broke up – Claudia Heuermann would do it again: “It was a phase of life that had its time – and led to a new insight. If I hadn’t done it then, I would still struggle with it today. ”