This is my first blog post in this safe, personal growth space. As you read this, you are entering a continuous conversation and opening yourself up for mega shifts in your belief system and a deepened sense of connection. We are here to learn, expand and transform, individually and together.
So let’s begin with a question: Why are you here?
Our desire for personal growth does not happen by chance. Whether you are just starting out or you have been on this road towards the highest version of yourself for quite some time, I am sure that a certain degree of confusion about your life has gotten you here.
At some point we all find ourselves asking: What now?
Confusion has a not so funny way of sneaking itself into the most stable of minds. It disrupts all our certainties, our big plans, this feeling that we have finally arrived. At the job title, in the home, with the relationship and family, to our purpose. When this happens, we are rarely able to see confusion as a good thing, but it is and we are going to discuss why.
But first, let’s get one thing clear…
Personal Growth Starts from Being Human
So maybe you are like me, you feel great and then confused and then amazing and then desperate.
Well, darling friend, it is ok. Life is not all roses and rainbows. Life is one curve ball after another. It is real good and it is also real chaos.
Let’s remember that we are humans with human emotions, not robots. At least not yet.
So each day we wake up and we feel whatever we are feeling. From this moment on, no matter where you are in your journey, you are learning to embrace this.
You are allowed to feel. Feeling is necessary. All feelings belong. Once again, it is ok.
However, along with your smorgasbord of emotions, you also have a responsibility…
we all have a responsibility to ourselves and the external world to respond to our messy, confused lives and we do this by starting from exactly where we are in any given moment, including right now, with any degree of presence, balance, or fuzziness.
There is a place here for even the most confused souls. Confusion, when used as an asset, is the best kick-in-your-butt you could ever pray for. On the other hand, it is when we don’t use it, that we wind up feeling like an asset, minus the et. 😉
Using Confusion as an Advantage to Personal Growth
While none of us actually pray for this state of confusion, we can use it to our advantage. When we begin to ask ourselves questions like:
What else? Does my life have true meaning? Why don’t I feel happy or fulfilled?
It is here that we inevitably begin to discover what we really want and how to move in the direction of obtaining it.
Our moments of confusion, when not experienced from a debilitating state:
- guide us out of our immobilizing comfort zones and limiting beliefs.
- enhance our clarity regarding the world around us.
- stimulate us to take healthy risks which are necessary for personal growth.
- strengthen our problem-solving muscles and thought process.
- push us beyond the level of the mind and into our heart in search for solutions.
- often lead us to seek a suppport system, thus creating stronger relationships and a greater sense of connection with others.
Situations that cause us to question our lives, can be difficult, but they are also incredible opportunities to better understand ourselves and our life’s purpose.
My Story After Life Before
March of 2020 we were HIT. All of us were in some way or another. This time it wasn’t a mere hurricane (like the one I survived in 1995). It was global and it was here to stay for a while. It was something huge enough to forever after say, Life before...
Even with distance, it still feels utterly unnerving and confusing.
The pandemic changed everything. On a personal level, our free, nomad lifestyle just stopped. Everything that we had built up “before“, was gone, or at least that is the story my mind was telling me on replay.
We were stuck. By this time, our daughters were teenagers and we found ourselves in our RV, but instead of being on the road, we were forced to stay still in our original, hometown in Central Italy. Still was the fartherest place my mind or heart wanted to be at the time.
We had no job or money coming in, we didn’t have any projects and we had absolutely no idea of what to do or where to go.
As our daughters settled joyfully into normal, teen life, my free-spirited husband and I rumbled over what to do with the rest of our lives, or at least the next years. We did this for almost 2 years. It created even more uncertainty and at times, unbearable tension individually and in our family.
After years of soul searching and thinking that I was finally making progress, it felt like falling asleep again. I was back at the drawing board. Confused with a capital “C”.
Finding Purpose
I privately rumbled with this for a while, turning to my yoga mat as often as possible, which was alot since I had no idea what to do every day with this new life situation that the entire world had been rudely handed.
What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?
I repeated this as a personal mantra until one day a light bulb lit up during my meditation practice.
After almost a year of just emptiness, feeling completely impotent and with a fuzzy awareness that we were completely losing the sense of our family…
after all those months of literally forgetting how to dream, binging on Netflix, and not wanting to get out of bed in the morning, I decided that I absolutely had to do something:
Do me. Do me. Do me. My new mantra.
Finding strength and clarity and equanimity became my mission. I didn’t have a job so my work would become Danni’s personal growth. I would concentrate (selflessly) on myself. And, I was extremely serious about it.
Working towards feeling full. FULLER. Or at least less confused.
Daily intentions. Checking in. Reminding myself of my why… Uping my mindfulness practice.
Meditating, Contemplating, Journaling. (Btw, I love this self-exploration journal by Meera Lee Patel)
Falling, flopping and getting back up. Feeling overwhelmed, full of doubt and anxious. Sometimes exploding… and then refinding my way back through the practice of forgiveness, compassion and gratitude.
Embracing my imperfections and even more difficult, embracing this imperfect world. Offering something powerful to my family. Protecting our joy.
This is what I continue to do every single day. Consistency. Discipline. As with any difficult relationship… tons of patience. You can read more about my life story at MEET DANNI.)
And so, here I am.
It is not easy, but I am doing it and once again I feel myself waking up as I continue to question my purpose. Surfing on sudden waves of confusion as I create more and more meaning. Pushing past profoundly embedded fears. Cultivating a desire for even more simplicity as I grow towards wholeness. Understanding the power of deeper connection and the human need to give of ourselves.
Inspired with Danni is a result of all my experience during the course of a lifetime and these past 3 plus years, my incessant state of confusion thrusting me over the edge to discover something meaningful and more stable.
It is a loving, non-judgmental place to share what I refer to as my living practice, everything that I do every single day to kick myself (and confusion) in the butt and keep my words, thoughts and actions healthy, open and balanced. And this is where you come into this story.
Your Personal Growth Continues Here
I don’t need to know you to know that you have lived a full life up until now. You have tons of life experience hanging on your belt, and if you are here reading these words, I know that you are tired of feeling weighted down and confused, and that you are committed to defining and redefining a living practice that will effectively serve your personal growth and your journey through life.
Inspired with Danni is about us: Me and you.
Notice that I chose with and not by because I need you to inspire me just as much as I hope to inspire you.
So, thank you so much for choosing to be here with me.
I am in this for us and this beautiful, universal need for union. I know that the better I am and the better you are, the better the world will be and I believe that you feel the same.
May our experiences to meld splendidly together.
Life experience has brought me to the conclusion that confusion ends where true connection begins.
As I often say…
the most beautiful journeys are created individually and then generously shared.
If this resonates with you, let me know. CONNECT with me. Tell me a bit of your story. Remember to sign up to UPGRADE YOUR INBOX.
Tell others about this space. ❤
This is a collective experience towards continuous personal growth and an embodiment of our whole selves. Staying inspired requires us to work on all of our dimensions. This is what we are going to learn to do here.
So, if you are still asking yourself the question, Why am I here?… Allow me answer it with you: WE ARE HERE TO GROW up, out, around, over, beyond and together.
ANOTHER OPENING MESSAGE FOR YA…
Now please read this FULL DISCLOSURE MESSAGE. If you found this post helpful, you will also love HOW TO UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU MUST REDEFINE YOUR LIFE. (click title)
Disclosure
This post contains affiliate marketing. This means that when you purchase a product through the link provided, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. This is a small way that you can thank me for my writing. I really appreciate your support. If you want to purchase self-exploration journal by Mee
