Nina Martin (29) from Unterhaching has escaped sudden cardiac death more than 25 times.
In her guidebook “Don't plan to live!” She deals with her fate and the value of life.
In an interview with Münchner Merkur, she talks about her life, her book and the “mosaic method” she developed.
In the introduction to your non-fiction book it says: "Without my mortality experiences there would be no mosaic method". How does a young person like you come to study death so intensely?
Behind this is my personal story: Since I was twelve, I had repeatedly had seizures with unconsciousness that were diagnosed as epilepsy.
A dangerous misdiagnosis, as it turned out only when I was 27 - I suffer from an arrhythmia that is relatively often fatal.
For some reason my heart kept beating, I nearly died over 25 times.
In retrospect, I asked myself: What would I not have experienced if I had died in specific moments?
I now have a defibrillator in my body - without it I was walking around with a ticking time bomb.
Always knowing that I can drop dead at any time.
Did that change your perspective on life?
This knowledge about my heart disease changed a lot and triggered a reaction in me: I started to think about how do I actually live?
The subject of death has different aspects, and one that I have dealt with intensely is the mortality and finiteness of one's own life.
As a result, I came to an implication for life: How do I want to fill it?
Do you now think in smaller intervals with your mosaic method?
Quite often I have the feeling, especially with people of my generation, that they think in big categories like their career - they divide their life into phases.
The overall picture seems more relevant to me, and that's how the mosaic came to mind.
I have assigned individual areas of life to different sized pieces of the mosaic: job, relationship, family, sport, friends, writing.
And are you moving these stones? A mosaic is variable.
My mosaic method is based on three principles.
First: I see my life as a flexible mosaic that I can design and judge myself.
Second, I try out new things in life in small, low-cost experiences before I permanently redesign my mosaic.
And thirdly, I consciously and honestly reflect on new experiences in order to orient myself to my real values and needs.
As a qualified psychologist, you also offer coaching. When someone comes to you, how do you go about using the mosaic method?
In the first step you paint your life as a mosaic picture and ask yourself: Why did you paint it that way?
For example, why is the family stone so far away from the other stones?
A mirror of the now.
In the second step, a mosaic is painted as I would like it to be, my dream mosaic.
Everything is allowed, it can also have a completely different shape.
Point three is: How do I get from one to the other?
This process is trial and error.
In concrete terms, why is a stone so small or so far away in my everyday life?
Microexperiences are about testing changes.
The aim is to build a system that fits into your own life.
Resolutions ... like smokers who want to quit?
A good example.
This zero-equilibrium bypasses our psyche and reality of life.
The small steps are more important: What exactly can I do to smoke one cigarette less the next day?
There are always things that can be changed.
In the end there is the perfect mosaic?
No, the most important thing is to consciously choose a particular life.
Let's do a two-week challenge: What can I do in micro-steps to achieve goals?
There is a constant interplay between self-reflection and experience.
Quite often we are not aware of the small tasks involved in a large task.
You should think in as little detail as possible.
If there is too much work in a change, that is a deterrent.
Values also play a role.
It's not just about having fun in and in life, but living it in a fulfilling and conscious way according to values.
It would be an illusion to believe that this always succeeds stringently - it is rather a constant weighing up of what I am currently prioritizing within my values.
For example, if both environmental awareness and family are important to me, can I fly to relatives who live abroad?
I work with reality as it is instead of tense up trying to become the most environmentally friendly person on the planet.
Your job title is psychologist, book author, speaker, innovation consultant and coach - but what you prefer is an experience curator. What does that mean?
Kind of a vision of what I want to be.
The term feels right, but it remains open what it is.
It is someone who creates experiences, for me or for others.
As a workshop leader, author, partner, mother.
Experiences are a conscious way of shaping life, a curator has something creative - the term doesn't limit me, but it's also not too guiding.
In your own life “without a master plan”, as it says in the subtitle of your non-fiction book: Are you still thinking about death?
It is now unlikely that I will die of heart disease.
But I'm grateful for the experience - it was a chance to get such thoughts.
I have a momentum mori inside of me, my defibrillator is ticking like a mortality reminder.
You write a lot about fulfillment - what would be yours?
Nothing ultimate.
For me I want to find out the personal setup: How much write, how many workshops?
I'm really looking forward to the youth novel I'm working on now - it will be about a topic that is relatively little talked about: dreams!
The book
"Don't plan - live" (12.99 euros) was published by Rowohlt-Verlag and has the subtitle "How to be happy without a master plan".
Benedict Probst, an environmental economist and friend of Nina Martin, is involved as co-author.
