{"id":8607,"date":"2019-10-23T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8607"},"modified":"2019-10-22T19:43:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T02:43:14","slug":"reflections-after-a-year-of-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/reflections-after-a-year-of-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections after a year of travel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Guest Blogger Alisha Wielfaert encourages us to work through\nthe difficulties rather than be stuck in the mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This excerpt is from her December 4, 2017 blog post, with her epiphany about her year of travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glowing orange moon rose over the cypress swamp as we\ndrove home with tired limbs, hungry bellies and full hearts after a long day of\nkayaking. I had almost bowed out of this trip before it even\nstarted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maia called me on my last trip to DC before I left for Paris\nand said, \u201cWe\u2019re camping at Carolina beach and taking a few of my students to\nkayak the three sisters swamp to visit some of the oldest cypress trees in the\nworld.  Can you join us?\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maia, full of energy and excitement, just isn\u2019t someone you\ntell “no” even though I knew saying yes meant two days away from home\nafter only 3 nights in my own bed. That\u2019s how I found myself in a swamp in\nthe middle of nowhere, NC somewhere near the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunlight streaked through the bare trees and flooded over\nus, floating on the water with two adventurous women. I reflected that this\ntime last week I had been in Paris running next to the Seine then eating a\nbistro dinner.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s now December and I\u2019m in a swamp with muddy, soaking wet\nshoes and socks because I just jumped out of a kayak to see, touch, and feel\ntrees that are over 2500 years old. Older than Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This self-proclaimed year of travel has been a wild\nride. The backs of my eyes sting with tears I’m holding back as I realize\nthat this year of travel adventures has ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to a touch of sadness, there is also extreme\nrelief that these adventures are over because I’ve been spread thin more than\nwhen I was working a full-time job and running a yoga studio.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on this through the cypress swamp I’m suddenly\naware of the magnitude of everything I experienced in the last 12 months, and\nI\u2019m emotional.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve gained so much but also at a cost. I’m spent\nfinancially, relationships at home need tending, and I’m ready to give my\nnew business my full attention.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not ready to sum up the year just yet, there’s still too\nmuch to process and I need some space between the experience and writing about\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest lessons of the year of the travel has\nbeen \u201ctoo much of a good thing is still too much.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if I had followed that lesson I would have said no to\nthis camping trip and I would have got to rest at home, maybe even getting work\ndone, but I never would have got to car camp at the ocean, and connect deeply\nwith these men and women in the absence of many words while floating down a\nriver and visiting 2500-year-old cypress trees in the middle of no-where.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we were floating on the river, I realized that when\nyou’re on the right path it feels like you’re being pulled and the current will\ncarry you in the right direction.  Even if you do nothing you’ll at least\nbe ever so slowly pulled in the right direction.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you get off the right path you might find that you’ve\nlanded on a sand bar alone and getting back into the current can be really\ndifficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I worked in corporate America, I didn’t feel like I was\nmoving. I was stuck in the mud.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve had to claw and dig my way back to the current, to the\nright path, and now I feel like I’m being physically pulled in the right\ndirection.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back over this whole year I realize that as soon as\nI made my mind up to leave what didn’t serve me, I’ve been pulled in the right\ndirection.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly it’s not been a gentle process. It feels like I’ve\nbeen pulled through a class 5 rapids over the last 12 months and I’ve been\nhanging on for dear life trying to keep it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that’s a much better feeling than being stuck in the mud\nalone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet Alisha Wielfaert<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m a leadership, life and creativity coach who specializes\nin working with women. I do this work because my purpose in life is to use my\ncuriosity, empathy and listening skills to walk as a guide with seekers on\npaths towards clarity of purpose.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m the compass to point you towards your north to ensure\nyou fully step into your own power.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent over a decade in corporate America in sales for an\ninsurance company, a great company and a great career, but for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went about gathering tools, looking for the map and the\ncompass to find my own north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I became a certified yoga instructor, taught yoga classes,\nopened a yoga studio and created a program to teach others how to share the\ngift of yoga. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoga and the trainings I’ve received as a yoga teacher\nbrought me closer to my calling, it gave me the map, but I wasn’t quite there.\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After selling the yoga studio, I started leadership, life\nand creativity coaching.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in my life, I knew I could stop searching.\nI had my compass. This was the work I’d been put on this earth to do.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I coach individuals and groups, lead workshops to move you\nnorth of neutral, speak on topics to help others flourish, and lead retreats\nall over the world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work is my calling and it’s a gift to share it with\nyou.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we step into our power, we make the world a better\nplace. Let’s shine our lights brightly together! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger Alisha Wielfaert encourages us to work through the difficulties rather than be stuck in the mud. This excerpt is from her December 4, 2017 blog post, with her epiphany about her year of travel. The glowing orange moon rose over the cypress swamp as we drove home with tired limbs, hungry bellies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[1261,105,1262],"class_list":["post-8607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-alisha-wielfaert","tag-just-write","tag-year-of-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2eP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8607"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8611,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8607\/revisions\/8611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}