Intuition is there for a reason, and you should listen to it.

The movements are relaxed. The gaze lingers, slowly blinking, with long, thick lashes, before shifting in a new direction. The pleasantly low voice and well-considered words flow in a steady stream. Mathilde Gøhler seems balanced in every way. As if she is her own refuge – a beautiful and calm oasis amidst a noisy, chaotic and demanding world.

- I think my sense of inner peace is innate. I also feel best when there is peace around me. I don’t react well to chaos or if people talk too loudly. I am very sensitive, so I need to create peace around me, and that also includes having a calm aesthetic in my home so that I can enjoy being present.

I don’t function well in mess and I'm so messy!!!
So, I’m constantly tidying up.

- I’ve always felt the need to seek places where there is peace, for that is where I am most myself. I grew up in the North Jutland countryside, which is actually very wild, but it also has something peaceful about it. That peacefulness is something I have taken with me and use in my adult life. If I'm having a bad day, I just need to go for a walk – for example in Kongens Have here in Copenhagen, where I live now. When I get home, my head feels clearer, and I can see things from a new perspective. It always helps me to go outside and look at something green. I am very drawn to nature’s greenery. It just does something to my mind.

If things are done very violently, it takes me out of my comfort zone,
where I feel in control, and that takes away my inner peace.

- I am affected by unnecessary, sudden turbulence. If the little things in life are done violently and are overdramatised, then I'm not very good at navigating them.
I just don’t get why people hoot at each other in traffic. And not because of the noise, but because of the feeling it leaves in the person being hooted at. Of course, you have to be careful in traffic, but I think people do their best – even if it's not always good enough. I could never dream of hooting at someone because it leaves such an uncomfortable, unnecessary feeling. I know that people can have different temperaments. But that sudden aggressive action disturbs my peace.

Peace feels nice and pleasant and beautiful.
And life has greater clarity when you have this sense of peace.

- I think that my inner peace feels like I am doing the best I can. This is where my inner peace starts. It requires an enormous effort to stay calm in busy everyday life. You can quickly get swept along by it all, but you have to do what feels right for you. Feel yourself. I can also be overwhelmed by it. I mean, I'm not the calmest, most perfect person, but I do care a lot about peace and try very hard to keep it, especially in this tough, fast-paced world we live in.

I am peaceful, but I also know when to let go.
It isn’t the kind of peace that controls me.

Mathilde is living proof that you can find peace, even if you’re busy. Her main priority is making sure she’s busy doing the things she's passionate about. Even though this means that she has to say no from time to time.

- I am very introverted and shy, which makes it harder for me to say no. At the same time, I'm also a pleaser... I want people around me to be happy. I've learned to say no the hard way, because if you don’t it has a negative impact on your health, both mentally and physically. So, it’s really important that you can say no.
My actions are based on my intuition. Intuition is there for a reason, and you should listen to it. Because it’s possibly the strongest tool you have in this life to act on in relation to, for example, how a person makes you feel or what your work does to you. And what attracts you and makes you tingle. You have to be open to listening to your intuition. Sometimes your brain tells you that this is what you must and should do.... But your intuition says otherwise. It’s best if you can listen to your intuition and navigate decisions based on that.

If I encounter a problem or challenge,
I’ll keep it inside until I have processed it thoroughly,
then I can come out with it in a rational way.

Inner strength and inner peace often go hand in hand. For Mathilde, the two feelings strengthen each other – both in everyday life as well as more stressful and challenging situations.

- My inner peace gives me lots of strength, and it’s this that helps me to know myself really well. And it works the other way round too – so that when I feel strong, it also gives me a sense of inner peace. Peace and strength kind of go hand in hand in that way. Look at childbirth, for example. For me, it is an extremely peaceful experience. I don’t say a word. I go into myself. It’s one of those occasions where it surprises me just how much the peace takes over. You lie there giving birth and think, I’m feeling okay now. It’s incredibly empowering.

It’s often the contrasts that make life interesting – and Mathilde is both attracted by them and embraces them, because the contrasts take her further into life. The goal is to continue developing throughout her life to become an increasingly better version of herself.

- I think the more contrasts you’ve experienced in life, the more insight you have in what makes you happy and how things make you feel. You need to feel your way and dare to be honest in how you feel. You also need to be able to admit that you’re not perfect, that you have imperfections, in order for you to be able to develop.

My sister Sophie gives me peace.
We don’t need to say anything or do anything.
We know how the other one thinks and how to approach one another.
She’s a cooler version of me. Yin and yang.
We are each other’s greatest place of peace.