Carolina Casanova‘s Podcast @ A Little More Sex with My Humanity
After reading The Rose, Teresa invited me to join her podcast for a conversation about the book and the ideas behind it. Together we explore intimacy, sexuality, emotional safety, desire, and the freedom that comes from telling the truth.
It’s a conversation filled with laughter, honesty, vulnerability, and a few unexpected turns. Very much in the spirit of The Rose itself.
Listen to the episode on spotify below
Carolina Casanova sharing the poem – Handcuffs, lust and a cruel reveal
If you ever see me step onto a stage, chances are you’ll hear this poem. I already know what’s about to happen. The room falls silent. Not out of politeness, but because of its rich, intimate, unapologetically sexual details. It always starts the same. A few men get a little too excited. The women blush. Then comes the twist.
I’ve watched audiences roar with laughter, freeze in silence, and pull faces of absolute disgust. It’s often at that moment that I lose part of my male audience… and gain lifelong fans and friends among the women. It’s one of those poems you’ll never quite forget. It might even follow you into your dreams.
Watch Handcuffs, Lust and a Cruel Reveal, along with more poems and stories from The Rose, on my YouTube channel.
Carolina Casanova featured in VROUW magazine and Telegraaf
VROUW magazine and The Telegraaf published an interview about my experience as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). Below is an English translation for my international readers.
Highly Sensitive
Carolina Casanova struggled throughout her childhood with feeling “different.” She now knows she is an HSP, a Highly Sensitive Person.
“As a child, I was extremely sensitive to other people’s behaviour.”
If someone was angry or shared a secret with me, I absorbed it deeply. Things that barely affected other children made a lasting impression on me. Injustice, for example, hit me very hard. I could become incredibly upset about it and completely lose myself in those feelings.
At primary school I was bullied because I stayed in the background.
When I started secondary school, I wanted to do things differently. We had moved to another village where nobody knew me as the quiet girl. I decided to reinvent myself as someone who appeared tough, fearless, and intimidated no one.
I behaved boldly and took up a lot of space. Sometimes I even acted in ways that made other children afraid of me. That behaviour became a wall that kept people from getting close. It gave me a whole new image, but at home I still felt completely overwhelmed by everything.
At that stage I began to realise I was more sensitive than other people.
I wanted to learn how to deal with it by accepting myself rather than forcing myself to be someone else. Finding peace in that acceptance was very beneficial for my emotional well-being.
The idea that I might be highly sensitive had never crossed my mind. In fact, I had never even heard the term. Some people suggested I probably had ADD, but I never took that seriously. Then, nine years ago, Alex gave me an article about Highly Sensitive People to read. I recognised myself from beginning to end. It was incredibly liberating.
Finally, I could make sense of my behaviour. I wasn’t strange!
One in five people is highly sensitive, I later discovered. What a relief. I wasn’t strange after all!
I don’t see my sensitivity as a burden, but neither as a gift.
I simply experience everything more intensely than people who are not highly sensitive. That means I can feel tremendous joy, but also deep sadness. When I become overstimulated, I withdraw and don’t need people around me. I see the same thing in my son. My son and I are always very open about how we feel. As an HSP myself, I understand better than anyone how important it is not to send mixed or confusing signals.
“Finally, I could make sense of my behaviour. I wasn’t strange!”
It is important that I surround myself with people who make me feel good.
I have wonderful friends who know exactly what’s going on inside me and respect that. The lack of understanding I sometimes experienced in the past, and the feeling of not being accepted, are behind me now. Partly because awareness of high sensitivity has grown, and partly because I know my own boundaries.
I feel happiest when I can simply be myself: a strong woman with a zest for life, humour, temperament, ambition, and yes, a great deal of sensitivity.
