Hello! I'm Courtney! :) I'm new to this couch surfing website, though I have camped on my couches (and in tents also), and hosted many people over the years in my career as an international explorer. I am from Australia. I am fully dedicated to Love, Truth and Expression! I am a creative who loves spirituality. I love two things a lot - helping people get fully connected to themselves and express that and making creative work. Bot of those things are works of insight and creation. I love it.

I am a spiritual person, and I'm also very real. I love curse words. I think they're great. They feel really round in my mouth. But don't worry, I won't swear around your children! ;)

I have traveled a lot. At 18 I left Australia for four years and traveled through South America and Europe, I lived and worked in the the UK and Ireland, I hit up Morocco (and remembered why I never travel in large groups), and South East Asia and returned home after four years. Since then I have also visited India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea briefly. I'm currently in the States having an advent of fun and creativity. The U.S seems like the best place to do that.

I run my own business online. There are two faces on this
The first is an eight week, online course I created call The BOOM! Experience. This course is a spiritual empowerment program for performers to embody the full range of their untapped expression. It helps people in their lives and hence, in their art (Anton Chekov said "If you want to work on your art, work on your life." He had a point.) You can check it out at www.courtneymariahalsted.com.

The second face is one to one sessions (usually over Skype), where I use a kinesiology based technique to help people permanently let go of the emotional blocks that hold them back from being the people they want to be and living the life they want to live.

This business is a great way to do something that contributes, whilst supporting myself and creating time for me just to make art. My intention for this trip in the U.S is start performing again more (physical theatre and performance art) and also finish off a screenplay I've been working on now for over a year (just got to get it done!).

I am a very grounded, respectful, centred, open, loving, joyful and playful human being. I love authenticity and it seems to love me back. I am a very honest person.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Cities without people are just blocks with spaces between them. People are what really make up a city. In the 11 years of my travelling career (I first set out solo at 18 to Peru! Holy moly! What a baptism of fire that was!), I have really found this to be true. I love to meet the people that really create a place and see the character of a city through their eyes. I really like to KNOW people and places, not just get a stamp on my passport or say I've been somewhere. CS seems to me like an amazing way to be a part of a community where those two things: sinking into the depths of a place and also knowing people, can be facilitated.

I am here first and foremost to meet people who inspire me, who I can laugh with (or be quiet with) and who teach me and receive from me also.

Interests

I love dancing
Nature
Dancing
Music
Theatre
Spirituality
Travel (of course!)

I love learning about the differences between men and women. I find it fascinating. Understanding also creates a lot more harmony in my life! (Alison Armstrong and David Deida are my two faves for this)

Good films (I love Miyazaki, The Watchowskis, and anything a bit mind bendy: Lucy, Inception etc. I also love Apocalypse Now and Melancholia)

Reading: Murakami, Ramez Naam, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Illende, Ben Oki, anything fantastical (I love Dianna Wynne Jones and yes, Harry Potter), also Chogyam Trungpa and anything on Spiral Dynamics or conscious entrepreneurship.

Running my own business has also made me aware of a latent interest in marketing. Something I never thought I would find in myself. I guess we have everything within us after all!

I love going on hikes and exploring art galleries.

I am a sucker for good food made with love.

• arts
• performing arts
• make up
• dancing
• dining
• running
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• hiking
• surfing
• business
• entrepreneurship

Music, Movies, and Books

See above.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I created an eight week course based upon archetypes and after running it for a year and a half turned it into an online course.

This required that I film both workshop footage and movement sequences (so the archetypes could be seen/felt), then edit it (on my own), upload it, and running the course with participants simultaneously.

This was a huge project which took me three months to complete (mostly working on my own with a bit of camera assistance).

I am very proud of this achievement, especially because I used to have story about myself that I didn't finish things. This story has been well and truly gone for a while now, and this achievement is a testament to that.

You can do anything if it's really important to you and you choose to be brave.

Teach, Learn, Share

We are the creators of our lives. We create what is in our exterior world depending on what is inside of us. We may be conscious of what is inside of ourselves or not. We when aren't conscious we unconscious create all the shit that's going down in our world.

Everything that is outside of ourselves, friends, relationship, situations happening, are all just a mirror for what is inside. when we become conscious of this and ask "What is that in me?" it allows us to take responsibility for what is happening and so change it.

When we change, through honest inquiry, who we are BEING, we can change, re-create the life that we are living.

That is true mastery and the path to happiness and fulfilment.

This is probably the best, most distilled thing I could share with anyone, anywhere, ever.

What I Can Share with Hosts

My happy, real, authentic and positive presence.
Great conversation (unless I'm jet lagged/exhausted and then I'm good to no one).
Yummy food cooked with love.
Fun boogying on the dance floor.
Creative flare.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, England, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, United States, Uruguay, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, England, India, Ireland, Scotland, Thailand