“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”—Robert Louis Stevenson

What a gorgeous sunny day it is here in Toronto (at least it was when I started drafting this post)! The sky is filled with beautiful clouds resembling fluffy cotton balls and birds are helping themselves to freshly laid seeds on my grass (sweet). The air is a crisp 12°C but my heart is warm with the love I feel for myself and those around me.

Hello my sweet souls! I wish you all a glorious day and may you find your path to your dreams and your successes, whatever that might mean for you. I am finding it quite liberating to living a life that reflects my authenticity and just being in the present…a life of peace, joy, smiles, good hearts, and loads and loads of LOVE—that is who I am.

I am here to tell you I survived the corporate world…shockingly there is life after the late night lattes, wasting away in that expensive leather chair that did nothing for your posture wondering: is this life? Words like ambition, innovating, leverage, influential, performance, promotion, personal growth, setback, fortune and opportunity, have taken on a different meaning in my life—they no longer own me and my corporate ways. Instead, they serve a more meaningful purpose as I now navigate through life designing a new map of the kind of world I would love to live in as I learn to not think n’or view life with my analytical mind (let go of ego) but start viewing life through my spiritual lens, follow my heart, and allow myself to step into a reality that is true to me.

Life throws at you what you throw in it. Luckily for me it seems, I have sown seeds of beauty, peace, friendships and love as it continues to show up in my world. Kindness, has always been a priority for me growing up, it was especially present during my years in what was an unforgiving corporate world.  As my awareness deepened, it became evident that I no longer belonged in a space designed to hold endless meetings that suck up valuable time, where passion is never praised or rewarded, but a means to compete for titles and the amount of zeros your paycheck will reflect. As egos grow so does the toxic air and I soon came to realize that what once gave me joy, was no longer working for me, it became clear that I was not being true to myself…and so I left in search of recapturing joy, passion and to grow a deeper relationship with myself and strengthen my spirituality.

I am grateful for all my past experiences, each serving me as lessons in life that needed to be learned preparing me for what will follow. Right now I am in that sweet spot in life, taking in all the highs and lows, experiencing life with clarity, embracing challenges that help me move forward—taking charge of my destiny. I am reminded each day to maintain my humility, always, think first of others and place with intention every action and service that must come from a place of love—this is my authenticity. I can see clearly now, that everyone that I have met, have served as mentors in my life, all my experiences as guidance to a path of self-discovery. I choose to no longer cave into the demands or expectations of others. Like my dog (currently sprawled on my floor snoring away) teaches me unconditional love each time I open the front door, or the snail crawling across my garden bricks teaches me patience and to be appreciative of nature, and that toilet that keeps getting clogged in my daughters’ bathroom (that keeps me wondering what the f**k is going on?), never relenting, perhaps added humor to my current peaceful pace.  I take all the beauty around me as teaching tools and welcome them with open arms and accept them as my teachers.

Ambition once related to power and rank, is now my drive to achieve my ultimate accomplishment in self-realization, it will be my major drive for personal growth and development.  To always be innovating never complacent, always learning, to outdo my last performance while tapping into a higher vibration bringing on a contagious enthusiasm that will inspire all those around me. While in this higher vibration, I am able to leverage myself to a higher level of awareness, I hope to someday have the opportunity to be influential by inspiring and motivating others to be and do better—to live a life of compassion while remaining true to themselves. My promotion will be to successfully lift others; that they succeed in achieving their life’s purpose, to elevate, support and cultivate courage in them so that they achieve their goals, their dreams. I now learn to view setbacks as life lessons, embrace all the lows and sweet moments in my life that bring me good fortune, and acknowledge with excitement the doors that open to many more opportunities that help me accomplish great things while remaining humble and kind.   

I find myself happier now, experiencing every moment with a joyful heart. I learn now that this is the way life is intended to be lived.  These days, I find myself drinking from the cup of love, peace, joy and a whole lot of gratitude and I am enjoying this journey.

This world needs a lot of love and if we could all just do our part, by spreading it one person at a time with a simple smile, a kind word, a generous act—what a bright inspired world this would be. Let’s keep evolving and become better version of ourselves!

Remember to offer love to everyone, be kind always including your loyal and faithful pets!

Until our next visit together, stay kind and true to yourself.

To the powerful you,

Ana Spano