In 2017, with my son in college, I moved from my little flat in the New Jersey Buddhist center, closed my Sports Medicine practice, and headed into the unknown of digital nomading in Europe,  as a Transformation Life Coach, where I would study improv in Budapest, Barcelona, Istanbul and London, pet sit in the Alps and the Greek Islands and try my hand at marketing in the new age of “work-till-you-drop-tryng.”

Leading up to this, though, I found myself in a major healing crisis, maybe like what’s going on with you. 

I was having panic attacks, chest pains, and this feeling of complete dissatisfaction with myself and my life. The worst of it was the total inability to change anything. 

I got help and after a few months of intense inner work and coaching, I was out of the pit of confusion and pain. 

I never took medication. I was about to but decided on counseling and coaching first. Everyone has a unique situation. Meds help some people, I know. And some it does great harm. Do what you need. 

First, I learned to be present with my feelings, which was very hard at first.  That was a game changer. 

I learned to shift my beliefs in real time, as triggers came up, with the wasband (my ex) or the job or random emotional outbursts.

I was told to try new things to find my passion and challenge my comfort zone. So improv seemed utterly scary and intriguing. I was offered a role in a sketch comedy troupe and also gave speeches at my local Toastmasters. 

I remember the moment I knew I was out of that pit. Feels like yesterday. I surprisingly found myself standing in the kitchen making coffee. So random, I know. 

See, what I most struggled with was getting up in the morning. A pain would overcome me so horrid and sickening, I can’t even begin to describe it. But  I have since heard countless renditions of this same pain from my clients, so it’s apparently a thing! 

Anyway, maybe you can understand just how odd and relieving it would be to not have lain in bed for hours in emotional pain, and instead, just be standing in the kitchen making coffee! I burst into corny happy tears. It felt like Christmas magic!

I did two things: decided I would teach others how to get out of pain and made plans for Turkey and studying improv in Europe. 

I would spend the next four years traveling, coaching and discovering more about freedom and self-love.

Out of this came insight, from my own processes, sometimes on rocks at the sea, sometimes on walks through the Alps, London parks or the winding streets of Istanbul and Croatia. These were magical places. 

I found sparks of light and insights, kept track of them, used them in my coaching sessions and got feedback. What has emerged is EmotionAlchemy Coaching, a series of the exercises that worked best for self-love mastery for the highly emotional person.

I have set up HQ in Portugal. More magical freedom projects in the works! 

So really, truly, if I, a renegade emotional spaz, can do this: overcome emotional pain and build a life around my values from self-acceptance, so can you!