One part

T’is the end of the first part of my journey! I cannot believe that 3 months in France have come and gone! I didn’t intend to blog so little while being here but from the moment I landed I’ve been incredibly busy! Initially, I thought I’d blog once a week. That didn’t work, so I did a post after the first month. I liked the theme of “One”. The first week was “WHOA!”, the first month was, “Wow” and the first part was, “Wonderful”

And now, I’m writing this blog post from the Paris airport, about to board my flight to Bali!

This is a quick summary of the last 4.5 months of my life: Quit teaching, got rid of 99% of my possessions, bought a one-way ticket to France, built my Coaching practice, and am living my best life travelling and coaching women. Three of those 4.5 months have been spent living in France which means I made the decision to quit teaching, leave Canada and start my Coaching practice all in about 7 weeks. I sometimes can’t believe it. Someone recently asked me, “Why did you feel you needed to leave Canada for good in order to coach women?”

You cannot grow in a safety net.

I left Canada for two reasons:

1) Canada was too familiar, too comfortable. And when you’re too comfortable, you don’t take risks. You don’t go all in on yourself. You slowly get sucked into old habits because you’re hanging around the same people, doing the same things, in the same environment. I didn’t want that for myself. I truly wanted a clean slate, somewhere new, that would force me to create new habits. 

2) Many women are unhappy with their lives but fear making the necessary changes for many reasons: I’m not brave enough, what will people think of me, how will I support myself, I can’t leave my family etc. I wanted to show women that changing their lives is not impossible. They only think it is because perhaps they’ve never met a woman who’s done it. After meeting me, they now know what’s possible. They may not have the courage to change their lives immediately because their fears still control them. And this is where the past year has given me the necessary experiences and tools to help these women. Tools and experiences I wouldn’t have had I not given everything up to live a life 100% for me.

I cannot believe what part 1 of this journey has taught me. Especially given that France is familiar to me. It’s not as if I went straight from my home country to an unfamiliar country. But I’m not the same Sara I was in 2011-2012 and France in many ways isn’t the same country. We’ve both changed. If you’ve read my earlier blog posts, I didn’t choose France as my first stop. France chose me. And I’m glad it did. Given how much I loved living here in 2011-2012, it was the perfect place to start this journey. While some feelings were familiar thanks to that year, I lived here (ex., language, culture, hospitality), many, many, many things were new to me because I am a different person having a completely different experience. So, I’m grateful that despite my familiarity with France, it wasn’t really a safety net. I still learned so much about myself, life, and running a successful coaching business. Here are some things I’ve learned:

1) In the beginning, you will see little change. That doesn’t mean you’re not on the right track.

2) My BEST ideas come when I’m in Nature. It’s where I feel the most inspired. Every element of Nature is living its purpose, how can I not be inspired?! Get outside.

3) There is always healing that needs to be done. Perfection is not a key on this journey. Even when you think you’ve healed wounds, things might trigger them and that’s ok! It just means you’ve got more self-lovin’ to do and that’s never a bad thing.

4) I love desserts, but they don’t love me back. Realizing that has been one of the main reasons I stopped eating sweets (if you know me, you know I loooooveeee my desserts) I only want to eat foods that love me back.

5) Healing is a constant cycle of awareness, self-love, forgiveness, and letting go. It’s a lifestyle.

6) Being in the country, surrounded by life, has made me not want to contribute to death. Loving life, and respecting it, has been the reason behind my decision to become a vegetarian.

7) Whatever you give your time, energy, and focus to will make up your life. It’s not the big gestures that make up your life but the everyday little ones.

8) What you believe is more powerful than what you think. Your actions are always in alignment with what you believe. 

9) I still have fears about my body that I’m healing. Post that picture of you in a bikini.

10) Yoga has helped me be more in my body. Believe the hype, people.

11) I am more resourceful, wise, and capable than I ever knew myself to be. Solo travelling revealed that. I highly recommend it.

12) You’ll have moments where you feel like you can’t keep going. It’s OK to step away from your dreams when you’re in low energy (ex., frustrated). Come back to it when you’re in a more elevated state.

13) Your dreams will only manifest if you take action. Take one step, then the next one. Don’t think 20 steps ahead, you’ll get overwhelmed and quit.

14) Be aware of your actions/inactions. They shed some serious light on what you believe at your core.

15) Avoid talking to people about your wounds/when you get triggered, if possible. It keeps you trapped in that energy and fuels it. If you must share with someone, let it be a professional who can help you work through it. 

16) Connecting with you and reminding you of your power and beauty is the greatest honour of my mortal life. Thank you for being on this journey with me. Thank you for sharing your story, honesty and vulnerability.

Can’t wait to see you in Bali! xoxo