I can’t believe 2015 is wrapping up, last year I wrote this email after celebrating New Years with V and David as they made their vows in the Malaysia rainforest while dancing to Amr Diab. Surreal.
This year I am on a train up to Aberdeen after experiencing one of the most intense two weeks of my life but before I tell you about it.
I wanted to share my theme for this year, at the end of last year, I experienced my first vulnerability hangover with one of the most beautiful men in the world. If you don’t know what that is, its having a really honest, open, non judgmental raw conversation where you take off the mask and you are just be completely you that the next day you feel like I shouldn’t have said that.
That made me realize that in this digital age, I have become less connected and that became my intention for this year. The best way to sum up my year is by these three chapters: Celebrating the Past, The Present and The Future
Celebrating the Past: #30by30 Love Notes
Every year before my birthday, I look at my bucket list to decide what to do, but none of the activities seem to fit into my theme of feeling connected. So… I decided to gift myself “time” to honor the 30 people that had the biggest impact on my life thus far and made me the women who I am today.
It also gave me the space to reflect on the last three decades. I first thought thinking of the 30 people would be a massive challenge but by time I was done with my first draft list I had nearly double that. From teachers, mentors, friends, family and first boyfriend, first love, the man I would be married if it wasn’t for religion.
I wrote two letters a day for two weeks and every letter transported me to a past version of me, a younger, more naive and much more insecure version of me. Not only was it wonderful to get beautiful emails back but this experience made me realize:
- We change millions of times in our lives and thats okay
- Everyone we meet is a blessing whether they are there for a minute or for a lifetime
- But the biggest lesson was because of our insecurities, how egos gets in the way all the time and that in the bigger scheme of things most things we obsess about don’t really matter.
I also got to celebrate my birthday with my best friends Nazly and Mai whom I have know for nearly 20 years as we went on a 3 week road trip. I am so lucky to have these ladies in my life.
The Present: The #MoveFeelBe journey
Something happened this summer that triggered an emotional breakdown, my first. Nothing to be proud of. Ill spare the details but being in business has taught me that every challenge, every breakdown comes with a breakthrough.
After 8 weeks of being extremely depressed and having the worst financial months since I started my business. My best friends suggested that I should come stay with them. At first I thought my situation would blow over, but as it wasn’t and since 90% of my clients are online I decided to become a digital nomad.
I booked an around the world ticket to leave 3 weeks later to what my friend called my own Eat Pray Love. But it wasn’t that, I wanted to my change environment so I MOVED, FEEL more connected with myself and BE at peace. That’s how MoveFeelBe came to be!
My journey began in Mexico where I was going to speak & mastermind at a Conquer Retreat and then go cave diving. Over 2 weeks, I kept getting signs from an EFT session, my first tarot card readings and meeting a Mexican buddhist all made me realise that the problem I thought I had was not the core problem at all.
With a slight detour in Knoxville spending time with a dear friend Gannat I headed up to New York where I started training for a 5K run I cycled and explored the city. New York was exciting and gave me headspace to work on my business that I had missing all summer and it also was amazing to be with some wonderful friends who provided a supportive and loving environment.
Ignorance is not a bliss
Next up I headed to London connecting with friends and family, before I did vipassna. For those of you who have never heard of it, its a 10 Day Silent Meditation to help end misery. Pretty bold statement don’t you think.
I heard about Vipassna more than a decade ago and I thought it was the most bizzare thing in the world. I thought meditation was pretty weird too, but as my world was falling apart obviously what I was doing wasn’t working why not give it a try.
Vipassna is supposed to be a silent retreat but it was far from silent. The thoughts in my head would not shut up and I realized I was hurting about things I didn’t even know I was hurting about. The Buddhist believe that the root of unhappiness is because of anger, carvings and ignorance and when you invite too much of that, it amplifies and it gets worst.
At first I cried when I realised what I was hurting about and then I realise that I had been projecting this hurt onto other people and that’s when I realised that ignorance is not a bliss and that we always need to come from a place of love.
The Future: 2016 is the Year of Growth
As we embark on a new chapter, a new page, a new year. My word for 2016 is growth. I want 2016 to be the year where I practice noble speech and be mindful of all the actions that I will take.
I also want to double the number of business owners to fall in love with sales, by launching a quarterly free guide and challenges like my 10 Day Sales Confidence Challenge.
In case you don’t know what I am doing now, I help microbusiness owners develop and grow their sales process.
I also want to build up the systems to give me more space to be more creative and to have space to write my book.
I am still in the midst of my #movefeelbe journey and will be in Aberdeen, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and New York over the next 5 months. So if you are in any of those cities and want to catch up and have our own vulnerability hangover than let me know.
May you all find happiness and peace
Yasmine
PS: I organized my email addresses for this mailing with a new software; if I grabbed the wrong address/contact (or duplicated the sending), please let me know and I will sort it out
Loved this post and your growth process. I wish you a 2016 full of new discoveries and plenty of meaningful experiences.