Dear Dreamers and Mediterranean Lovers,
I remember a time when I felt I’d completely switched myself off to life.
I wasn’t doing what I loved and felt numb on the inside, as though a big part of who I am was walking through this life completely asleep.
The thing is, I wasn’t even aware it was happening. I had become so familiar with my autopilot life that it simply felt normal to feel this way. I thought: this was life…
I think about that time often and what would have happened had I not taken a chance and gone down this new path. The door that I would have closed on myself, and all that I would have missed out on.
But taking a chance and turning the handle of a door that I was so reluctant to step through has instead led to the most thrilling adventure. It has been full of experiences I couldn’t possibly have imagined – hosting and facilitating Retreats to some of the most beautiful Greek islands across the Mediterranean, sharing my passion and love for writing to support people in Empowering their Voice, chance encounters I didn’t see coming, being profiled and having my story featured in magazines across Hong Kong, having a two-page feature in the weekend edition of the biggest Greek newspaper across Australia, being profiled by esteemed brand agency TANK in Melbourne, as well as interviews that I have had the chance to share with inspiring creatives that have opened their hearts and shared their story with me, the sense of feeling the most inspired I ever have and having the most insatiable appetite to life. But more than anything, it also served to reveal just how asleep I really was before encountering this door and everything that was waiting to be revealed behind it.
Had you told me just a few years ago that these experiences were looming on the horizon, I would have shrugged it off dismissively and I would have said: you’ve got the wrong person.
But it did happen, it has happened and the reason why it happened was because I took a step in the direction of my passion. I decided that I wanted to open up my appetite to life and when I did, I was invited to the most incredible feast waiting for me to indulge in…
Here are 5 tips to coax you out of your life’s slumber:
- Pursue your Passion – what do you love, what lights you up? When was the last time you gave yourself permission to do it? Pursuing your passion doesn’t mean you have to change everything about your life right now, it simply means that when you invite happiness into your life, it shifts your perspective and sends through a flood of new energy that flows through you like a huge burst of oxygen…
- What have you never done before? Take yourself out of your comfort zone. Take the trip you keep talking about but continue to keep putting off, take a different path when you step outside of your house, walk somewhere instead of drive, go camping, wake up early and watch the sunrise, enrol yourself in a cooking class, learn a new language. Do something, anything to disrupt your monotonous pattern. You’ll be surprised at the feeling this stirs in you and how it inspires you to do things differently more often.
- Say Yes to things when you’re about to say No. Each and every time you say Yes, you are inviting new opportunities to come your way. If you’re the type that’s quick to say no, challenge yourself. The more you repeat the same patterns, the more you stay stuck.
- Start journaling. One of the most cathartic means of self-expression is journaling. This is where you can be as open and as uninhibited as you can. No-one’s going to read it so let yourself express freely. This opens up new ideas, helps you observe the patterns you unknowingly keep on repeat and when done regularly, it allows you to gauge the different stages of change you’re experiencing and helps you record your progress.
- Find your Tribe. Pay close attention to the people in your life that are weighing you down and keeping you from stepping into the enormity of your potential. Is it time to make new friends? Is it tome to say goodbye to friends that no longer serve you, or perhaps it’s just time you kept your distance from some of them. Either way, judge it for what it is. People that love you want you to be happy and see you smile.
When you open up your appetite to life, you realise how starved you once were. There is a feast waiting for you. Life has put on a spread that stretches from one end of the table down to the other.Why starve when you can sit down to a banquet? Your feast is here, waiting for you to open up your appetite to life…
Happy dining, Paula x
p.s: for those feeling adventurous and ready to experience the most delicious feast, you can join me on this September’s Emerge Retreat to beautiful Serifos. A Food, Writing & Creative Escape. An experience that’s all about opening up your appetite to life. Click HERE or email me: paula@mediterraneanwanderer.com
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