Im siting here in Croatia in a coffee shop, listening to the clanking of teacups and the swooshing of the coffee machine behind me, watching the rain smack the limestone streets out the glass window in front of me. Theres something soothing about these rainy days here in Croatia, where the stone streets just seem to glow against the grey skies.
It’s been 4 weeks since moving out of America, and a little over 2 weeks since landing in a home here in Croatia.
And wow, this has been a pretty intense transition for me.
Before I share with you some of the details of what I’m learning and how its changing the way I lead myself & my clients, I want to share with you a little bit about how I got here… and why I chose to come.
8 years ago I had my first 6 figure year.
See, I hadn’t exactly planned on being an entrepreneur…
That most definitely was not my idea upon graduating college.
But it was clear after being terminated from one of my favorite jobs working at a gym in Stoughton Massachusetts, that in order to help people the way I saw they really needed, that I needed to do it my way.
My skills didn’t ‘fit the mold’ of a personal trainer or a massage therapist… I was so much more thank those titles.
So, long story short I opened my own pain management clinic in Canton, Massachusetts and started my own business, Mind Body With Leah.
That first year I made 6-figures.
Now you’re probably like, damn thats great for your first year, and it was.
I had the business, the clients, the wealth… but I still wasn’t happy. I hated being stuck in an office all day long, daydreaming of adventuring around the world.
And after living my life so happy for so long, all I craved was happiness. Not money, not fame… just happiness.
So I walked away. I didn’t sell the business, I just walked away from it.
At that point in my life I began exploring my love for travel.
I had the change in Europe for 4 months back in 2019 on a work exchange (a story for another time.) That trip showed me how much more there was to experience in life. When I returned to Massachusetts, I realized that life was way too short for me to continue staying in a place that I didn’t feel was expanding me as a person.
At that point I had gotten pretty good at adapting to change, so I made the decision to take a big risk, chase my dream of moving to California and finding my happiness.
I moved across the country Friday march 13th, 2020 - the Friday before quarantine, with a plan to start working in my friends gym. That plan didn’t exactly go as planned… What in life actually goes as planned? LOL.
This was when I leaned into helping people online. Although i wanted it, I chose it from a place of deep financial scarcity and need. Where I learned the pattern of pushing and working myself into the ground to try to make ends meet.
Over the last 5 years I have built an incredible online business that has transitioned from pain management work, to holistic healing, and now into Life, Leadership, Relationship & Business coaching & consulting for women. But regardless of the title, i’ve always been the same thing: help others feel more empowered to choose the life that brings them more love, more joy, greater relationships, more wealth, more freedom, and more aliveness.
For me, theres nothing worse than settling in life wishing I had a different experience.
That doesn’t feel empowering, that doesn’t feel fulfilling, and that certainly doesn’t help me be the best version of myself so that I can show up better for everyone else around me.
It has been 27 days since I left America.
It’s been one of the most stressful, traumatizing, heartbreaking, dark, and grief-filled years of my life.
Back in January, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life to walk away from some of the closest friendships I had ever had because I no longer felt met, communicated with, accepted or respected. 30+ friendships gone in an instant.
I whipped out my boundaries sword. I was done keeping myself in an experience that was draining me & negatively impacting my mental health. And then entered the biggest grief portal i’ve ever experienced… and wow have I grieved in my past.
In the grief process, theres a point where you re-organize & re-integrate. This is a point where you adjust back into the world, priorities & sense of self without those which you once had close by. A place where your past becomes a part of your story, where you reflect on your values and step into a new identity.
Much of what you step into here is your own personal choice. And in this process I came to the own that the life I was living no longer felt expansive & inspiring for me.
There comes a point when you realize… staying the same is actually the scariest option. That’s where I found myself & reconnected to an aspect of my power I hadn’t felt in a while.
Everything I had worked so hard to build, the home, the business, the community…suddenly felt too small for who I was becoming. It was beautiful… but it no longer lit me up inside.
I was walking through my days feeling disconnected, anxious about being seen in public, only felt safe when I was tucked away in my room and only felt free when I was dancing at Movement Mass (11/10 experience if you’re ever in boulder.)
I looked around at everything I had acquired in my community home in Colorado, and realized none of it truly was expanding me anymore.
I’d outgrown the version of myself that built that life.
I felt like a wild animal who’s simply grown too big for her cage (oof, and that was my sign.)
It was time to choose expansion over comfort and opt into a life where I was no longer feeling stuck in my cage.
It was time to create a life that actually supported the next-level of the woman & leader I was becoming.
As I sat in contemplation of the expansion, awe and wonder I desired to feel, I realized that solo traveling is when I felt those ways most.
Traveling alone puts me in this place where I am nudged so far outside of my comfort zone, where I feel most alive, and where I grow the fastest into my next level.
And as much as I love it, it’s also incredibly uncomfortable because its like diving head first straight into the unknown.
Since walking away from my office in Canton, MA, living my life as a digital nomad has always been a dream of mine that I never actually thought I could make possible… so I never prioritized it.
But here I am. Living in Europe, growing my business, and supporting women as they step into their next level of leadership and create the life that they truly desire.
I currently have no plan to move back to the states.
This month has been a pretty challenging transition if I’m being honest.
Adapting to the time zone has been challenging - but now that I’ve adapted, I actually love waking up 6-7 hours before the rest of America.
Finding things to do here that I enjoy, like dancing, hasn’t been easy.
The language here is very challenging and the people have this very rigid energy that reminds me of Russian’s… literally, no one smiles at you walking down the street and it seems every person working in stores is always so unhappy & on edge.
I was living in a place for the first 2 weeks that was in the town next to Split. It was a 30 minute bus ride from any social activities, I was living alone and I felt quite alienated.
75% of restaurants & cafe’s are closed during the off season, which leaves few places to work & dine.
On the last day in my first apartment, I was doing MFR on the floor, listening to sad music. I found myself face down, crying & spiraling on the kitchen floor. Im good, lol it was just a moment of moving emotions and overthinking everything… and then it passed… plus who wants to be a straight line anyways 😅
It’s absolutely beautiful here.
The sea is so clear & clean.
I have made a few good friends. One guy I sing & jam with, another that I go dancing with on the weekends.
l have been developing a lovely connection with a super sweet European man. This is the first time I’ve actually allowed my heart to open and feel emotions towards another person since all the chaos of last year. It hasn’t felt safe to until now. But I’m feeling excited & unattached and just focused on being in the present with it and receiving all thats here for me in the connection with no expectation. I am really proud of myself for continuing to honor my heart healing exactly where it’s at.
I live with 2 of the sweetest women.
My new place has in incredible amount of sunlight.
I have no wifi at home, which forces me to get out and about.
I just found a West Coast Swing dance group.
I continue meeting more lovely people.
One of the biggest & most important things I’m learning is to slow down (I wish I could underline that 100 times.)
It’s the winter seasons here, which means theres NOT a lot of things to do. It’s left me often… bored. Which has actually been really good for me.
There was a minute where I really questioned if I made the right decision coming here during the off season. But, the longer I am here, the more I understand why I was called here.
The Croatian people have this saying “Pomalo” which translates into “take it easy.”
It’s an entirely different way of life here that feels unfamiliar to my American, high-achieving, fast-moving self.
Living at the pace of life in Croatia has reflected to me how much stress I’ve been living in and putting my body through.
Its reflected how much shame & guilt I feel when I actually allow myself to rest and not push to accomplish the next task.
And its reflected how my mind wants to figure out what next.
Ultimately I’m seeing how much mental stress I’ve been putting myself under since 2020 when I started working online. Stress thats been woven into the foundation of my business.
The moment I actually landed in my 1st home in Croatia after spending a week slowing down on a yacht retreat, I got one of the healthiest & heaviest periods I’ve had in months. I’ve really struggled with healthy, consistent cycles since getting mold poisoning last year, so this was huge for me. Hormones are so incredibly sensitive to stress. It was eye opening how my body did what it was supposed to do the moment I fully landed to rest on my own outside of the environment where I had experienced so much stress & trauma.
All of this has made me pause and take an honest look at how I’ve been living, working, and leading in my life, my relationships & my business.
I realized that somewhere along the way, I started equating success with doing more, And that constant doing became my comfort zone.
And even though it looked like growth & success from the outside (in some ways it was)… inside, my nervous system was exhausted & burn TF out.
So I’m rebuilding from the inside out and from the bottom up.
I’m choosing a new pace. One that’s rooted in presence, not overwhelm.
I’m simplifying what’s been overcomplicated.
I’m creating systems that support ease instead of stress.
And I’m allowing space for rest, creativity, and inspiration to find me again.
Because I don’t want to just run my business anymore…
I want to feel it. I want to live it so deeply in alignment with the woman I’m becoming… a woman that squeezes all the juice out of life, and lives so presently in every single moment
Recently I set some new non-negotiables for myself. These are little rituals that anchor me back into my body and this mission everyday
Morning meditation to reconnect to my center before the world starts moving.
Energetic work to align with the next level of wealth and ease (I’ve been using my “Embody Your Next Level of Wealth” meditation daily).
Morning Pages I’m following The Artist’s Way to clear my mind and re-connect to my creativity again.
Weekly Artists Date to create space for me, myself & my creativity.
Movement — whether it’s dancing, walking through town, or myofascial release work on the floor of my apartment.
For months, I felt uninspired and creatively numb because my nervous system had been stuck in survival mode, even though I handle stress well.
Now, slowly but surely, I feel the light coming back, I feel the energy turning up, I feel my heart opening to love & connection again. I feel more joy in my cells, and I feel more aliveness in my life.
It’s these moments I feel so humbled by life; to have the opportunity to practice what I preach and hold myself, my nervous system, my clients, and my business through BIG initiations & recalibration chapters all at the same time.
And that’s what outstanding leadership is about.
Leadership isn’t about hitting milestones or staying ‘on top of it all.’
It’s about honoring yourself in every tiny step of the journey, having the capacity to hold yourself while holding it all, showing up with integrity, showing authentically, and being fully present IN every single moment of it.
Life isn’t about doing more and controlling the output.
The magic lives in the surrender. That surrender can only exist when you tend to your nervous system AND have the systems & structures that support you in leading with your feminine. It is there where you can allow life hold you & lead you exactly where you’re meant to be.
So, I’m so excited to soon re-open The Somatic Leadership Academy.
This is for the women who are ready to break free of the overwhelm and lead differently, not through more doing, but more BEING.
The ones who crave success without robbing them of their aliveness.
For the women who are ready to step fully into their power & let their systems do the work for them.
Who want to step into their next level and who are ready to experience success with more ease, fore pleasure, and without abandoning themselves.
If that’s you, and you’re feeling the pull… Join the waitlist here, and I’ll send you details soon.
Be sure to join my VIP Chat: The Fearless Leadership Portal - It’s kind of like my mini-podcast… and it’s free.
I’m currently running a special and I have three strategy sessions available for the woman ready to step into her next level of life, leadership & business.
These are single sessions (which I never do) to gain clarity in your up-level & help you map out your path forward.
Email leah@mindbodywithleah.com or DM me on Instagram to claim one!
Thank you for reading & relating,
I love hearing from you, so please leave me a comment, send me an email, or drop me a message with your reflections.
Big Love <3
Leah
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