Do you have a multicultural relationship, perhaps family and experiencing the extra challenges that come with it? I am happily married to a man from rural Africa and we raise our two thriving children. I am an anthropologist and co-developed the Creating Your Culture (CYC) method that brings us so much happiness! Create your own culture of happiness and check this out:
CYC is developed for multicultural families seeking happiness together:
A fulfilling relationship is not just for the lucky ones. It is something we create day by day. CYC is a step-by-step Program so you can bridge different cultures by creating your own culture, so you will have this fulfilling relationship and perhaps happy family you seek.
What is the CYC Program?
What you will learn with CYC:
Phase 1: What Makes You Happy?
You can only determine whether you are having a succesful journey if you know very clearly where you are going. In this case you want your journey to lead you to more happiness and fulfillment in daily life. So, what are the dominant feelings and thoughts you want to manifest in your personal life? The activities of Phase 1 will help you to sort out what you value and supports you to by pass false Picture Perfects that will not make you more happy at the end of the day. You will define your desired life for all Life Areas: Self, Social, Health and Wealth. They are all having a huge impact on enjoying a happy life.
Phase 2: Discovering Your Gap
Great you know where you are headed (Phase 1). Now you will need to know your starting point. What is your current situation? What Unwrittten Rules do you have going on that are impacting your happiness in daily life? The activities will help you to map your current mini-culture. There are Hidden Logics behind your current behaviour. That’s why it’s difficult for you to change them with only some will power. With the activities of Phase 2 you will deeply understand why you are currently behaving the way you do. There is a logic behind it that you will need to tackle. Phase 2 helps you to get a clear view on WHAT you want to tackle. The activities of Phase 3 will help you HOW to change them.
Phase 3: Bridging Your Gap
CYC gives you 5 different Windows to look and work on the thoughts and behaviors in your life you would like to improve (output Phase 2). This approach of the 5 Windows is based on the doctorate research of dr. Johan Boudewijns, one of the founders of CYC. In each Window you will receive practical tools to work on the Unwritten Rules you would like to change because they don’t fit in your desired mini-culture.
The 5 Windows of Change have supported large companies to ingrain a high performance culture by bending the Unwritten Rules. After being successful with this for 25 years we realized that these insights are so valuable at home.
Behind our front doors we constantly create a culture. The question is: does that culture supports us in creating a High Quality Life in all Life Areas (Self, Social, Health and Wealth) or not? CYC supports you to create the culture at home you desire.
A look inside the CYC Program:
My Own Experience..
In 2007 I fell in love with my Kenyan internship supervisor when we were working together on a research in the slums of Nairobi. The feelings were mutual. We were both looking for a life partner to settle down with. But preferably not someone living on other the side of the world. Love can’t be dictated, huh?! 
We were deeply in love ánd realistically wondering…can we really be a match? We were not naive. We knew about the worrisome statistics of relationships of couples with different cultural backgrounds. How could we make our relationship work? How could we create a warm home environment to raise our future children? Would we be able to tackle the puzzle of one of us migrating to the other side of the world? Finding work in another context. Relating to a family with different customs. Raising and disciplining kids. Agreeing on money issues, the division of labour and our health culture at home?
When I look back I think the fact that we made our life a wonderful experience is because of …
- Our promise to each other from the beginning that we would be looking for each other in each situation and that an argument like ‘I am used to this’ will undermine our desire to build a life together (we are obviously used to do things differently).
- The knowledge of discovering our personal Unwritten Rules and assessing how compatible they are and changing them as we are living our lives.
Hi, I am Anna with a background in Cultural Anthropology and together with dr. Johan Boudewijns I developed The Creating Your Culture Program. Johan did a PhD on how to effectively change Unwritten Rules and wrote 4 books about this. He has been advising companies for about 25 years now. I joined his consultancy firm in 2007. Together with our team of behavioural change experts we have been guiding large companies in different parts of the world through culture change processes and assisted them to achieve a high performing culture where employees are happy to work and results are attained.
The Unwritten Rules methodology that we use in corporations has been of such value in my home. With CYC you can discover what mini culture, what Unwritten Rules, you have at home with your loved ones. Moreover it gives very hands on tools to improve your mini culture and align it with your personal values.
If you are also in a multicultural relationship and you are identifying with the challenges that come when you the two of you are used to do things differently, check out the CYC program. Here you can see for yourself if this program can help you live your best life with the wonderful person you are having a relationship (and maybe even a family) with.
Let’s make multicultural relationships work!
Anna
