Three reasons why it’s best to follow your heart.

1. You will learn the lessons that you need to

One of the travel muses that inspired me to travel back in the early days was Nora of The Professional Hobo. I’ve been reading her life snippets since way back in 2012 when I first ventured to South East Asia for an extended trip, to see if I could really live out my big travel dreams for real.

Nora has written continuously through the ups and the downs of her travel adventures, and has been chastised for being too honest lately (If being too honest is ever really a thing?!) She sent an apology out to address the complaint. I found myself reaching out to encourage her to keep going and realised my own folly in not doing the same when things got tough. If it helps just one person get through something similar then I’m glad to put myself out there and be vulnerable too. It made me realise I must get back to it.

One of my favourites of Nora’s posts was this about dating disasters on the road

I can definitely relate having had some of the best and worst dating experiences while overseas. From dreamy dates in Bangkok to finding out that a guy I was seeing was not only living with someone else but cheating on her too. I laugh about them now but at the time they were sometimes traumatic!

2. You will stop re-living the same lessons over and over again

I’ve been torn on many decisions in the past few years as my heart has fought with my head. I think my friends will end me if I start-up one more conversation about the pros and cons of selling my house to invest in my La Dolce Vita.

I have learnt as I pondered these options that whether the decisions are large or small, whenever my heart concedes defeat it always ends up diminished and sore and so many more steps away from where I really wanted to be. I do get back to the same place of frustration sooner but with a bigger cloud over me every time. As I know I can do better.

I’m often left wondering, “why am I here again? I learnt this lesson already!” only to realise that subconsciously I had slipped into old expectations about the world and was limiting my own potential/choices through my mindset. It was a crime of no one else’s doing but my own, my morning companion Paolo Coelho has given me a lot to think about in this respect with his book Manual of The Warrior of Light

 

 

3. You will be in tune with your true purpose

My heart streams all sorts of creative ideas all the time and my head fills my consciousness with doubts about my ability.

It all came to a head last summer as I was at the intersection of stuck creativity, debilitating PMT, lack of love for my work and living situation and lack of being seen in my relationship.

I realised that I could keep ignoring my heart and carry on trying to make it all work. Or I could let it go & really be true to myself.

“But you have?! you’ve done really cool things these past few years”

I hear you cry!

I have, but I know I’m capable of so much more. And although I have had some success and some of my happiest times on these adventures, they don’t match up to my perfect day. Which in a world where I have zero responsibilities (apart from a mortgage) it feels like utter madness that i’m not making it happen.

All I really want to do is live my La Dolce Vita and help other people create theirs too. Sounds simple right?

It is. But as I empowered myself by stepping into better opportunities to take me there I also realised I was also hit by a big tsunami of guilt and shame from the realisation that most of the decisions I had made in my adult life were counter to that. I had been unconsciously living small to please other people or hide from myself. I had functional goals in a PDP for my work life and some rudimentary goals about how much money I wanted to earn, but no real idea of my purpose or a plan of what I wanted to do with all that money.

Neither did I have any real clue about what really made me happy. I never even used to travel much in those days, save for trips that were initiated by other people.

From my career and education choices to my decision to buy a house. It was all designed to be secure and safe, when in fact I thrive on the growth that comes from change, disruption and the resulting learnings. That’s not to say I want to live a hair-raising life, but simple tasks when you are overseas stretch you beyond your wildest dreams (and nightmares sometimes!) Believe it or not finding tights in Melbourne was once a trauma for this homesick and tired Pom. I enjoy being out of my comfort zone, when I look back on my life the times when I was most stretched are the ones that I look back with most fondly as I developed as a person.

All of these experiences are sent for a reason, whether it’s to learn a lesson, be introduced to someone or to be humbled by a shift in circumstance. They all deliver something, it may come when you least expect it but there is always a silver lining.

My silver lining this year has been that in my path to letting go I have been introduced to the most beautiful network of healing souls. I have explored all sorts of natural and so called “alternative” therapies that have become mainstays in my daily and weekly routines. From floatation and ayurvedic therapy to hypnotherapy and kinesiology. I will tell more of the story about these in the coming weeks. (especially the progression of my 24 floatation therapy experiences… I think I have a problem!) the family of healers i have around me have become friends and even clients.

That’s not including all the inspiring business souls that i have met in the last year too!

It’s a beautiful and powerful shift that happens when I follow my heart. Even when the lessons are hard, they always eventually lead me to light, so i’m grateful for all they have exposed me to.

The marketer in me was worried about which brand/blog to publish it all under. I’ll find my feet with that over time, as there is cross over in some things but not in others. I’d love to hear feedback as i go! 🙂

I’ll be testing Medium as a platform for La Dolce Vita alongside some travel updates and ebook publishing on here (finally!). So sign up if you want to hear more!

I have met the most beautiful and inspiring humans when i followed my heart, they triggered seismic shifts in my life and perspective. So more of that please universe!

Time is our only finite resource on this earth, i’d rather die with notebooks full of funny anecdotes about things that I tried than ones full of plans that i was too scared to fulfil.

One big leap in following my heart for 2018 was booking two flights, one to see someone who was significant to me in early Feb and the other to see my Lagos family in March. More flights and tales will follow, as well as some news on new travel projects for later in the year…

Baci a tutti! x x x x