Life is a complex machine, consisting of countless cogs propelling various events and related to them emotions. Have you ever wondered how these individual moments shape us as people? Why do we feel this and not that way? Why do we react in a given situation in this and not in that manner? Why our relationships aren’t as good as we would like them to be? How do others deal with difficulties? Why are they happy? Why do they create long-lasting, but most importantly, based on mutual respect relationships?

Nothing happens on its own. The image we can observe while looking at others isn’t always what it seems to be on the surface. And even if these people, who are the objects of our interest, cope more successfully with the reality around them, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to improve our situation in the future.

Each of us has a different story to tell, since we have been shaped by different patterns, events, emotions and even quite often ignored coincidences. Our life is like a map on which all the pieces of puzzle are imprinted. The puzzle whose key seem to be deeply hidden in our mind. We need to decide on a journey inside ourselves, which will help us close the portals of the past to find the door still hiding somewhere in a distance – the gate which needs to be crossed if we want to start a happy and certainly a more conscious life. I’m pleased to introduce you to my today’s interviewee – Magdalena Walczak – the author of a book, which can turn to be your spiritual and psychological guide to different levels of your subconsciousness and the secrets which it hides from you.

Passion Piece: Could you tell my readers a few words about yourself?

Magdalena: My name’s Magdalena Walczak and I have written a book for women. It sounds a bit banal, I know that (laughter). Of course, there are tons of such books for women, but ‘The Labyrinth…’ defines me most importantly as a human, thanks to which I believe it can also help my female readers to define themselves. Nay! I even believe that for some people it may be the task of their lives to get to know who they really are and to follow… this knowledge (laughter). I’m a person who has tried to master this art at the deepest levels, leading the search for self after separating from toxic relationships and the past. I’m a woman who got to know what she wants and what she needs in her life. Layered up, covered with patterns, dependencies, believes and opinions I’ve exposed my feeling in a metaphorical way. Who have I become? A girl who is mature enough to take care of herself in accordance with the principle: ‘You can’t get honey from a rock’. I’ve also gained a new identity: I’m a writer now (laughter).

Passion Piece: You’re a Germanist by education, a teacher by passion and a specialist in the field of fraudulent transactions by profession. What made you feel like sharing your thoughts with a wider audience?

Magdalena: Here I need to correct this description slightly – I’m no longer a teacher, this stage of my life is over. It was amazingly interesting to experience that kind of work.

Coming back to Alice, I noted everything down purely and simply for myself. It’s as if I had tried to find the way out of my own Labyrinth by means of poetry and literature. I experienced a tremendous personal crisis, I ran around in circles, making the same mistakes. The White Rabbit was a man. People do different things to break the deadlock, to finish a difficult phase or to cope with a problem, to give their lives a new quality. I started writing… (laughter), although I became brave enough to call this text a book only after finishing it.

Passion Piece: Everyone can publish a book, the question is if a good one? What principles did you follow while working on this project, whose the final outcome was a book titled: ‘The Labyrinth. Alice in the Realm of Patterns’?

Magdalena: I had no plan, my life project was… finding a way out of my own Labyrinth (laughter). This symbolic form defined a certain path for me and gave me some hope that I’ll have a chance to see a completely different world behind the last door. I wrote a spiritually psychological guide for myself. A journal of my own transformation. I was guiding myself in it (laughter).

Why is this book so special? Because it has a form of theatrical play. We can see the scenes allowing us to derive some morals and conclusions. Then we can proceed further. The Labyrinth presents what we carry inside us and what we need to face. The metaphorical world allows the reader to take an active part in my book and figure things out, which is necessary to take the next step forward. The way gains a universal meaning allowing the universal truths to grow. Alice is not for everyone. If one omits the metaphorical layer – one will be left only with empty walls. It’s not enough. My book invites us to a certain kind of a computer game – a game about ourselves.

Passion Piece: Who is Alice? Why has she decided to take a journey to such remote areas of her subconsciouses?

Magdalena: I’m Alice. Why does she need all this digging in her subconsciousness? The reason why she needs to do that is that she wants to change the patterns which determine her relationships. She wants to come back to factory settings of her own energy and needs to make the right choices (good ones for her). As she usually makes the bad ones, hurting and depriving her of joy. To avoid addictive choices. So she needs to go deeper because of the situation she has found herself in. Yes, it’s painful! Very much so, as it’s turned out. However, it’s the only way in the case of my heroine. She encounters assistants, advisors, family members and even the Guardian Angel. They are like a mirror. They just ‘reflect’ what’s inside her. She slowly comes ‘to herself’ – which can be observed by the reader in the pages that follow.

Passion Piece: Our family, past and childhood have an enormous impact on who we become in our adult lives. Can one break the negative patterns which make it difficult to find the right way to fulfillment, self-realization, and most importantly to one’s own happiness?

Magdalena: Yes, of course, one can do that! I don’t know if I would call it breaking. I would visualize these patterns as a certain kind of vessels, filled with various content. In case of patterns the initial ones were transformed, or I’d rather say deformed. Thus different believes related to ourselves, the world, love and relationships started emerging. It’s not that easy – let’s have a closer look at the notion of love. If it’s conditional love (‘we have to earn someone’s feelings by fulfilling someone’s needs’) and toxic relations, one should definitely gain grater awareness and make an effort to work hard on one’s subconsciousness. I keep using my language to say that one needs to reach primordial needs… and make them more ‘attractive’. And at that point one should come back to the quotation about Solomon. Without respect, love, trust and honesty to oneself we won’t be valuable outside – in the relationships.

Passion Piece: How do encounters with one’s own guides, helpers, past, emotions, the Guardian Angel and the lover help in gaining these aims?

Magdalena: As I’ve already mentioned all these characters guide my Alice and allow her to find out what she’s got inside. They don’t give her advice. They don’t preach her. They don’t generate opinions. At the moment when I look at all these characters which I’ve created in my book, I’d say that they represent a certain kind of ghosts of the past (laughter), who are deprived of the features that could hurt the girl at present. I’d even dare to say that they’re wise men, who know how to say sorry. I think these are ‘the best versions’ of these characters (laughter). While being in the ‘Labyrinth’ I conducted dialogs and I wrote letters, which had no right to appear in the real life. They brought forgiveness and relief or they ended a given situation. I know, I did it cleverly (laughter).

Passion Piece: All toxic relationships are certainly unhealthy. How do women and mean deal with them? Who escapes them unharmed?

Magdalena: I can’t speak for men (laughter). I think it’s not that someone deals with toxic relationships better or worse. Toxic relationships need to be ended. Getting involved in them means that we still need to focus on ourselves and work on the points in which these relationships are truly ‘attractive’ to us. As they are! The answers can be found in one’s childhood. It’s a type of work which will be ‘easier’ (it’s not the right word, but some will never take up this kind of challenge) for all women or men representing a conscious and courageous approach to life. People who will be able to get a little dirty in the subject area of their past to create new and happy future. This matter is very complex, but we are not cursed with toxic relationships. Who escapes them unharmed? Everyone who leaves the victim’s role… and decides to fight for oneself. Everyone who takes actions.

Passion Piece: You wrote the Alice to help others to work through their problems. Can everyone relate to the heroine in your book? What would you wish for your readers?

Magdalena: Yes! All women who are currently reading this book can treat it as their own journal of transformation or a collection of universal truths. Some women have told me that they take notes, highlight or underline the most important passages. I also received a message from one of my readers who revealed that the quotations from Alice hang on the walls of her apartment, because she needs them a lot at the moment. That’s beautiful!

I wish you girls could find a genuine and true vocation, as well as your needs. I’d like you to treat yourselves well first. Take care of yourselves – do it intensively and joyfully. I can guarantee you that a healthy relationship with a man will appear only when you’ll find a healthy relation with yourselves.

Passion Piece: What critical reviews have you faced? Were you surprised with such a positive reception of your work?

Magdalena: I faced only the positive ones and I’m really overjoyed because of that reason! Were I prepared for that? Not at all (laughter)! Neither that my book would be sold by Empik so fast nor that its reception would be so wonderful.

Passion Piece: What projects are you working on right now? Have you got an ace up your sleeve or maybe it would be better to say the next Alice up your sleeve?

Magdalena: I’ve written the next book within six months. I truly hope that it will be an ace up my sleeve (laughter)! At the moment Flexi Design – a graphics studio – is just about to finish my website and after that I’ll start looking for a publisher. Keep your fingers crossed! What is the new book about? Again… about love (laughter)! It’s a certain kind of a guide related to closeness built from A to Z. A room after room. A layer after layer. In a huge house, between two people, accompanied by the sounds of jazz, warmth of a fireplace and conversations.

Passion Piece: What are you passionate about? What do your readers not know about you?

Magdalena: If one reads my book, all my interviews and reviews, one will get to know them really well (laughter). I’m fascinated with psychology and learning it for quite a practical purpose – why practical? Because I use a lot of terms imported from its terminology which are helpful for me to define the reality and its different processes. I’m fascinated with writing, as it’s a means which allows me to close some experiences or to sort the future ones (laughter). My book has its beginning on the New Year’s Eve 2020/2021 (laughter). A great passion of mine is soul music. Not too many people know, that for many years, I was involved in the music industry and the management of a publishing company called Penguin Records in which I handled promoting the work of Paulina Przybysz from Sistars or the Poluzjanci band (Kuba Badach) just to name a few. And during a few crazy years I could see dozens of concerts whose stars were world-famous artists such as Prince, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Selah Sue or Jay-Z.

Passion Piece: Where do you see yourself in the nearest future?

Magdalena: My future has been outlined perfectly in my new book – even the place is right (laughter). There are journeys which I don’t only desire, but also need to experience new things and then… describe them again (laughter).

Passion Piece: Which motto would you like to share with my readers?

Magdalena: I’d like to tell them that there’s nothing like luck or lack of luck in love and… no, life isn’t awful. There is work which needs to be done. Each of us needs to do it.

Passion Piece: Thank you very much for this truly inspiring conversation and I hope we will soon have a chance to read your new book!

Where is your Alice hiding? Do you fancy setting out on a journey with her? A journey leading you towards new horizons? Towards new possibilities looming somewhere in front of you, but being unable to break the thick walls of the Labyrinth built on your patterns? Patterns which still don’t allow you to find the right way! The right path to a new and better life. If the answer is yes, don’t waste your time! Get familiar with the guide, which will give you a pass to clear relations with your own self and with the surrounding you world.

See you around!

Yours,

Passion Piece

Photos by:  Izabela Urbaniak