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Preface for the English translation

Why am I publishing this book in English?

I have always loved being able to communicate in more than one language. It began with a student exchange stay in England 1966, three beautiful holidays in France (1967–1972) as an Au Pair, and summer jobs in London and Paris. One of my life’s highlights was an Interrail trip in 1970 from Germany all around Europe. I managed to see Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lapland, France, Spain and Portugal all in four weeks! One of the things that stood out for me was my realization that there are kind and helpful people everywhere.

So when I met my Italian future husband during a vacation on Sardinia in 1975 I happily used my French and Latin skills to communicate with him and learned Italian relatively quickly. Our children learned both of our languages from day one, because I wanted them to be able to communicate with their Italian relatives while being raised in Germany. Later on, to my great delight, they learned several other languages with ease.

For the last 45 years it has been normal for me to live in two cultures. I have experienced raising children in Sardinia and in Germany and I learned to find solutions where we were different. I learned to value the delicious and long Sardinian meals and, interestingly enough unlike many other children, ours never complained about these big family dinners. The fact that I have come to know and love mediation, negotiating between different opinions and points of view, certainly has to do with this very lifestyle.

My studies in Process-oriented Psychology got me in touch with people from all over the world, something I still experience as a great enrichment.

Now, what does all this have to do with feelings?

The two cultures I experienced could’nt be more different in how and with what intensity they express emotions. Through my husband’s Sardinian family I got to know a more expressive way of dealing with feelings and embracing each other emotionally.

16 years experience with the Gefühlsmonsters have taught me how beneficial it is when conversations about feelings become more lighthearted, when even difficult topics sometimes can take on a humorous side with the monster cards.

My vision is that the Gefühlsmonsters become a language, a language that supports mutual understanding everywhere. In this book I explain, that before you can build up mutual understanding you first need to know your own feelings. More about that later.

Because English is a world language, and after publishing the book “Feelings with Empathy” in English, it is now my very special pleasure to present my heart's project, “Sometimes Feelings are Monsters”, to all of my family, all of our friends and all of the Gefühlsmonster friends we have made by now – and their friends, …

Hopefully, with all of this work on our emotions, we will get to know ourselves better, and on this basis treat each other better in as many places on earth as possible.