Start Living Your Dream Life
I was chatting with some friends today about our lives. With unique variations, we are all women who decided that the lives we were living needed a shift. And we all ended up here, in a remote Pacific town in Panama, living simple, intentional lives and doing the work that we love.
I live my dream life every day. Some days it feels ordinary. I still wash the dishes, have to take the car to the mechanic, and have bad days. And when I look at the overall picture of my life, I wouldn’t change much! When I do see or feel something that needs to shift to feel aligned, I make that shift. I need more time for myself, I set my alarm and hour earlier. I need more energy, I reconnect to the herbs I needs and the plants that feed my body and soul. Once you set yourself up to live authentically, it makes each step along the way that much more manageable.
Honestly, the decision for me to live this way wasn’t hard. Is life hard sometimes? Yes. But that’s life everywhere. The choices that led me to this moment were undeniable. It’s almost like rather than choosing or forcing, I surrendered instead. It doesn’t feel like bravery or extraordinary luck. It feels aligned in such a way that it was almost easy. Let me explain.
I think I knew from a very young age that I would travel. At 12 years old, I would draw pictures of my dream VW van and map out my course across the US. I chose a college out of state, drove from the east to west coast to live at the age of 18. I lived a million lives over the next 15 years and wound up back in my home state of Connecticut. I’ll write a book someday but for now, the story I want to focus on is this one.
At the age of 32 I felt I needed to make a choice. Was it time to settle down? Relax into my community? Buy a house? You know, do the North American thing? And in all reality, I could have. I am sure my family wishes sometimes that I did. But something in me wouldn’t stay quiet. Something in me kept wrestling my thoughts, dreams and relationships.
In 2017, I went back to Costa Rica, a place I felt called to more than once over the past decade. And, I almost bought a house there with a friend but it wasn’t quite right and fell through. A few months later I got an email from one of my favorite yoga teachers, MC Yogi. He and his wife were leading their first retreat in Panama. Neighbor to Costa Rica, Panama was on my list of places to check out. What better way? I was able to book a stay at the retreat with a dear friend and off we went.
I landed at Sansara Resort in Cambutal, Panama and I never wanted to leave. But not in a dreamy kind of way, more in a gut wrenching, I need to see what this is all about kind of way. Besides the incredible experience on the retreat, there was something about the ocean, the land. It was calling me and I felt more connected to my true self there than I had almost ever.
On my last day of retreat, the owner asked me how the week was, and I told him I needed to stay and did he have any job openings. I will never forget this moment. He replied, “Well, I just found out I need a new massage therapist if you know one.” In a daze, I told him I am one, interviewed that afternoon and on the drive back to Panama City I decided that I was moving to the little town that I really knew nothing about.
The short version of what happened next: I went back to the states, told my friends and family, my students and clients that I was moving to Panama. I sold my car and most of my things. I said goodbye to my dog. And a few months later, I landed back in Panama, alone, a bit scared but knowing that this is something I needed to do.
And here we are, at the start of 2024 and I am living here in Cambutal with my husband and our daughter, continuing to shape the life of our dreams. It really is a beautiful story and I feel it all again each time I tell it.
This is the part I want to share with you most.
HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY DO IT?
It’s all well and good to dream, but how do you know what to do, where to go? How do you leave the job? The relationship? Your family? The comforts of the known? And the answer is, you just do.
First, find a practice (mine has always been yoga) that grounds you and connects you to your truest self. And start to listen to the rumblings underneath the surface.
Ask yourself, am I fulfilled in my life? If the answer is yes, INCREDIBLE! Keep reading just for fun. If the answer is no, then do some work to figure out what you envision as your dream life. Not sure where to start? Send me an email and I’m happy to help get you going in the right direction.
Then start. Take the trip. Start writing or painting. Take a class. Start somewhere. When you begin to tap into what lights you up, do more of it. Keep exploring that path. And then really listen to how you feel.
Your choices might get bigger from here. You may decide you need to quit your job, leave an unfulfilling relationship, sell your house. Those are big choices that your intuition will guide you into making.
You have to sit still long enough to listen. We spend so much of our lives distracted, rushing from one place to the next, one responsibility to the next. Take a moment to slow down. Minimize the distractions of social media, carve out time for yourself. That’s often when the answers start to come.
Nothing is permanent. You can always try and try again. This may be the most important part of learning to live your dream life. Sometimes your choices don’t work out. And that’s okay. That’s part of the journey. What if I moved to Panama and a few months in I knew it wasn’t for me? Well, I would have packed my bags, flown back to Connecticut, humbly asked my mom if I can stay with her for a bit, gotten myself back on my feet and started again. We are often so afraid of failure that it stands in the way of living our most authentic life.
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Now why aren’t you out there doing it!? Don’t be afraid to step outside the box. We aren’t all made the same and it serves the world when you find your true calling and follow it! If we all lived this way, the world would be a dramatically different place.
This may all seem a bit idealistic, but it’s true and it’s real. It’s not always easy, but when you open yourself up to possibility, it is undeniable.
What are your dreams? What are you struggling with? What are your perceived obstacles? And in an ideal world, what would you be doing? Where would you be living? How would you feel?
Leave a comment or send an email. I truly would love to hear from you.
With love and gratitude,
Loren