Where Spirit, Business, and Nature Align

How did I end up in Lisbon, working on a course through a university I had never heard of, focused on regenerative business with a friend that I met just one year ago? A series of synchronicities and meeting the right people at the right time has led me down this path of discovering a more aligned way to do business—one that honors nature and attempts to understand both the natural world and our unique role on the planet.

I am following the flow of life and allowing it to guide me to my truth. This six-month process of studying with Nova University in Lisbon will take me back and forth between Portugal and Prague. As I engage with the content and the people, I remain open to the possibilities and what life has in store for me. I am practicing the art of non-attachment, I am not stuck to one idea or outcome but  allowing the process to unfold naturally.

It has been a beautiful process to revisit the concepts of business from a more heart-centered approach. This time, I’m finding that I resonate with everything I am learning,  it is challenging both the beliefs of our society and the ideas I was taught during my time at university.

I studied business. I was determined to work in the fashion industry and made that my focus for years. In Menomonie, I studied retail and became interested in economics. In Florence, I dove into fashion entrepreneurship, and in India, business law. These experiences abroad opened up my world so much that, by the time I got my degree, I wasn’t so sure my dreams of working in the fashion industry in New York or California were aligned anymore.

However, I kept trying and began my job search after finishing my degree. But I quickly found that the business world felt very extractive—like I was only going to be taken from and used.

In most cases, the business practices of many American companies were manipulating and destroying the planet, often in ways that led to the destruction and loss of culture, tradition, and the use of child labor in countries around the world—especially in the fashion industry. I started to realize that the industry would destroy me.

I can place myself back in an interview in 2016. I wore a tight olive-green pencil skirt and carried an expensive bag from Furla I had bought in Milan. I felt powerful holding that statement bag and looked forward to all the things I would be able to buy with the money I’d make. I was eager to trade my time for things that would bring me “status.” I was hungry to feed my ego.

But then my stomach tightened. I felt hot and sweaty. I felt as though I were in a cage; I felt trapped. In the interview  I felt that I was not heard, not understood, and that my experiences were not valued. I felt boxed in—and I hadn’t even been offered the job yet. Sitting in the stale office, I felt my freedom seeping away like sand pouring from my hands. My uniqueness and passion would slowly be drained until there was nothing left of me.

They didn’t want me to be me; they wanted me to fit a model—someone who would serve them the most. They would take from me until I had nothing left to give. I felt this in my body when they explained I’d have ten days of vacation, but they wouldn’t necessarily be consecutive, depending on the needs of other employees. I saw my dreams of traveling the world disappear. I saw my soul shrinking, my energy diminished. My purpose for living, drowning in the tears I would shed each night as I sat in front of the TV, suppressing  with a bottle of wine—telling myself I was on the path to success, and dreaming of the day I would truly live.

One day, when I got “there”—when I had the accolades, money, and respect—then I would get my chance to explore.

I felt all of that in that moment, though I am only able to put it into words now. I didn’t have the understanding of my body and its sensations back in 2016. I didn’t know it was sending me signals and guiding me to what’s best for me. But what I did know was that it didn’t feel right.

I wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time, but it changed me. I stopped applying for jobs and started chasing a new dream. I was determined to have an adventure now, not when I was 65. I remembered the list of dreams I had written in my dorm room and realized the time to make them happen was now—not someday when things change or when I have more money.

I started looking into the  TEFL certification to teach English as a foreign language. At first, I was thinking Costa Rica, but the call back to Europe was strong. I did a quick Google search and Prague came up. I had never been, but I had always heard good things. I applied, and they called me back immediately.

My phone rang five minutes later. As I sat in the living room of the family I was working for as a nanny, I felt my world open up. I felt excitement, openness—it felt light and easy. It felt like freedom. It was a full body YES!

I decided at that moment to go to Prague and see what was waiting for me there. Little did I know, it was me that I would find. In the center of Europe, I would remember my center. I would discover the truth that had been within me all along. My spiritual journey began immediately when I arrived in Prague, within three days I had a job at a preschool called Adventure school, the requirement was two hours per day spent in the forest. This experience reconnected me with nature, she taught me to connect with myself deeper. Within that year I found yoga, which led to a journey of shamanic work, therapy, coaching, body work, conscious sexuality, breathwork and the list goes on. 

Through my breathwork journey, I have learned what my body was telling me all along: that those feelings were leading me to my truth. That when it feels wrong, it's because it is. I’ve learned that I not only can trust my feelings, but that I can express them—and that I can choose to say no to the things that don’t feel right. That I can make choices that are not logical and follow my heart. 

Through my plant medicine journey I have seen how everything is interconnected, each of us intricately woven to create the beautiful tapestry of the universe. I understand that we are not separate and that we are stronger when we come together in full love and respect. 

 I have been listening to my heart all along, but now the voice is louder, the feelings stronger. I have developed a connection with my body, and it continues to grow.

Now, as I reenter the world of business, I do so on my own terms—with open eyes, an open heart, and a deep trust in the wisdom of my body. No longer chasing external validation or sacrificing my soul for success, I’m building something new—something rooted in truth, integrity, and regeneration.

My spiritual journey has quietly been preparing me for this all along. Each breath, each breakdown, each moment of surrender has brought me here—to a place where I can finally merge the worlds I once thought were separate. The world of doing and the world of being. Of structure and soul. Of business and spirit.

This isn’t just a return. It’s a reclamation. A remembering. A reimagining of what’s possible when we allow our inner wisdom to lead.

I don’t know exactly where this journey will take me—but I know I’m walking the path of truth.