How My Month In Greece Changed My Life

It has been a while since I wrote an article for the Rising Women Newsletter or shared anything on LinkedIn so I wanted to return by sharing more about my month-long trip to Greece

There could be a lot for me to share so instead I decided to focus on sharing the biggest transformation that I experienced

For context, the first two weeks I was there with my family exploring many of the main historical sites connected to Greek Mythology as my daughter is a huge fan of Percy Jackson and we found the perfect family tour that was themed to the book series

The experiences, sights and moments we shared together will forever stay in my heart! It was truly magnificent to experience so much history, beauty and delicious food with my loved ones!

But it was quite packed because we were seeing so many sites and we wanted to maximize our first time in Greece so that meant we were hopping around from city to city every couple of days

I wanted so deeply for this trip with my family to be incredible that honestly, I was over planning and over managing EVERYTHING and I couldn’t really allow my mind to relax in the beginning

I realized how addicted to “doing” I still was … it’s like I couldn’t shut “the doing button” off even on vacation (argh!)

Instead of beating myself up for it, I allowed myself to witness what was coming up within me and went deep to uncover the “why”

It turns out that me doing, doing, doing… over planning… over managing… was coming from trying to “control things” so they would be “perfect”… can you relate?

I feared that if I didn’t try to control or manage everything all the time that things would fall apart and our vacation wouldn’t be as I dreamed

But here is the thing… when I intentionally created a vision for how I wanted to experience this vacation, I saw myself truly enjoying, relaxing, and being present

So in order for me to actually experience that, I needed to release my addiction to doing, planning, managing and trying to control things lol

By the end of our two weeks together, we visited the islands of Crete, Santorini and Mykonos and I was able to fully embody that vision which was wonderful

I remember one morning while we were staying at this incredible Windmill Villa in Santorini, I was sitting outside by the private pool, enjoying a morning coffee, watching the ocean in front of me, feeling the sunshine and the gentle breeze on my face and tears started to come down my face as I took deep breaths

This was it… I was living a dream that not too long ago I didn’t feel was possible

I was experiencing true freedom, love, peace, joy, and abundance while traveling to the most beautiful places on Earth with family

I remember reflecting on this and letting the tears stream down… tears of joy as I felt my heart expand even further

As our two weeks as a family wrapped up, I said bye to my family as they flew back to the US and I continued my Greek adventures for another 2 weeks

Saying bye to them at the airport was actually very hard, I could feel so much coming up from within to release

The idea that I would spend two weeks without my family in a women’s spiritual retreat in a small island in Greece called Ikaria felt so crazy!

In the past I would have never allowed myself to experience this... to gift this to myself due to guilt, shame and scarcity beliefs…

So that’s why I KNEW this would be such a transformative experience for me yet I didn’t fully understand the depth and magnitude of what was about to unfold

Ikaria is one of the 5 Blue Zones in the world with the healthiest, longest-living populations and after spending 2 weeks there I can see why

It is a paradise with the most beautiful sights, beaches, mountains and waters I have seen, the most caring, peaceful, relaxed and kind people I have met and the most fresh and delicious food I have had

We stayed at these brand-new villas up in the mountains with incredible views and the most dedicated host ever

We were so held and supported with so much love and care as we journeyed through some very deep and transformative spiritual experiences

You may not know this about me, but not only I am a coach now but I also work with multiple coaches myself that have been supporting my own growth, evolution and transformation

And in this retreat, I met in person some amazing souls that I have been journeying with virtually for almost a year! Meeting them in person felt sooo good, it was like a reunion from our hearts

It is hard to use words to explain what I experienced there

The closest thing I can compare to were my Ayahuasca retreats even though this time we were not journeying with any plant medicine

It was spiritual, multi-dimensional, quantum, and all things leading edge…

We experienced deep journeys releasing belief systems, conditioning or programming that had been keeping us stuck in fear, scarcity, worry, doubt or separateness…

And we also experienced deep journeys expanding our consciousness and frequency so we could remember more of who we are and why we are here

The retreat had many sessions in the villas and also at different sacred sites in the island, but it also had a lot of spacious free time throughout so we could fully integrate all that we were receiving

The truth is that when I saw the schedule with all this free time, I thought “wtf”?! lol

I was coming from the other side of the world to spend two weeks in a retreat, it was the biggest investment in a coaching program that I had made, so I thought it should be packed full with stuff, right? Lol

What I realized is that the space in between, the space for stillness, the space for integration, the space to enjoy the island and the beaches, the space to have fun with my soul sisters were some of the biggest gifts

I was able to remember “how to just BE”

As I mentioned before, I had been addicted to “DOING”

Doing, doing, doing and doing some more

Even after leaving my corporate job, I was still focused on doing a lot

I realized that I had been “doing” so much because I was coming from a place of “void”

I thought that if I “DID” more, accomplished more, made more, created more than I would “BECOME” the best version of myself

But the truth is that this was coming from a place deep inside of me that still didn’t feel whole, ready or worthy

So I was still being, living and creating from a place of “gap”, “void” or not enoughness

Maybe you can relate with that?

As I released fear, doubt, worry, guilt, shame, scarcity and separateness something incredible happened …

I started to feel whole, holy, complete and worthy NOW as I remembered the TRUTH OF WHO I AM

I am remembering and embodying that

I am love

I am light

I am abundance

I am whole

I am worthy

I am peace

I am ease

I am flow

I am a powerful creator

I am sovereign

I am free

I am divine

I am all of that NOW

Nothing to do, or prove or accomplish

And as I embody the fullness and wholeness of WHO I AM, I can still allow myself to easefully, gracefully, lovingly, joyfully expand and evolve further

I realized that many of us have “not enoughness” as a key driver for growth and achievement and we worry that without that we would somehow become lazy couch potatoes haha

But what IF we could feel whole, worthy and enough NOW and still open and allow ourselves to evolve and expand into higher and higher versions of ourselves?

Could wholeness, worthiness and enoughness be the key ingredients to our most magnificent creations, experiences and expressions?

Could remembering and embodying our wholeness, worthiness and enoughness NOW be the way we fulfill our fullest potential and create the biggest impact we are here to make?

I have been back from Greece for two weeks and I know in my heart that I am a different higher version of myself now

I am clearer on who I am

And I am clearer on why I am here, now

I am excited to share more with you as everything continues to unfold

With so much love,

Tatiana