§ We came to this world to LIVE OUT LOUD!

How I Created Community During the Pandemic

Feb 2, 2021
Just like for many people, one of the hardest parts of the past year for me has been the need to social distance. It’s actually been the most difficult part of a challenging year.
I love people! And I pretty much need to see people on a daily basis.
A huge gift of the past year has been having my husband and girls home with me every day. That’s been wonderful! (When I focus on “what’s the gift in everything?” rather than on my girls’ need for socialization).
And it’s also not enough.

I’m an extroverted people person. I need to be with people outside of my family. Friends, acquaintances, colleagues, clients… real life people to talk to, laugh with, hug, cry with, do things with.

Another gift for me of this crazy past was being stuck unexpectedly in Florida for six-months. It really gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate our life in Colombia. To ask myself:
What’s working for me? For us, as a family? For my husband and I, as a couple?
What’s not working?
What would make our life in Colombia a “10”?
There’s nothing like distance to help me get perspective.
What I came to realize is that our life in Colombia is pretty wonderful, more than I realized. All that’s really missing for me is community. And this is no small thing, given who I am!
Even before this pandemic changed our lives, the hardest part of living in Colombia for me was feeling a lack of a like-minded community. I made a friend who is like a sister to me and a few other close friends, but it was challenging to find a consciousness-seeking group of people who I really connected with on a deep level yet had enough in common with to spend time with on an everyday basis. People here are very warm and friendly, yet everyone seems to have friends that go back to elementary school. And they spend time with their extended families, EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND. As a foreigner, it can be very difficult to create community when everybody already has theirs.
Another huge gift of these six months in Florida is that I had to rely on every tool in my toolbox to stay centered, grounded, positive, and hopeful.
I was living in a small Airbnb house with two cranky teenagers, a bored nine-year old and an anxious husband. Not knowing when we would be able to go back. Concerned about our pets, two horses and two cats, left back in Colombia. The teens worried about being able to go back to school and seeing friends. All of us worried about the great unknown – what’s life going to be like? Will it ever get back to normal? What’s normal anyway?

But here’s the great news – the tools I’ve amassed doing personal transformation work over the past 30 years really worked!

I was able to feel positive and hopeful and, most days, stay in gratitude for whatever was happening in our lives.
I had the opportunity to practice my 5 Keys to Creating an Extraordinary Life:
Have an attitude of gratitude
Focus your attention on what you want (not what you don’t want)
Open up to abundance
Use everything for your growth & benefit
Trust the timing/Enjoy the journey
It wasn’t always easy. I stumbled. I had moments of worry and anxiety rather than gratitude. I had many moments of focusing my attention on what my mind feared may happen rather than on what I wanted to create.
But I kept practicing!
My oldest daughter was able to go to boarding school in Armenia and we were able to manifest a free private jet back to Colombia as soon as the country came out of quarantine. It was magic!
But best of all, I came back to Colombia, only to fall in love with it again. I felt so grateful:
To be home
To be with our pets
To be able to spend time in every shade of green imaginable. Colombia is blessed with gorgeous nature!

And I was able to create a wonderful, inspiring, consciousness-seeking, fun community for myself and my family! During the pandemic! Who would have thought?

Here’s how it happened. As I was walking down the street in Bogota one day, I ran into somebody I had been on meditation retreats with over the years. We chatted for a bit and enjoyed reconnecting.
A few weeks later, he texted me to invite my family and I to join his family and some friends at a beautiful retreat center outside of the city.
Desperate for my youngest to be able to spend some time with friends (Who am I kidding? I too was desperate for social interaction!), I quickly accepted. We had all been locked up inside our apartments for months so I felt pretty certain that we could stay safe and connect while staying six feet apart from each other.
The four-days at the retreat center were so wonderful that we extended our stay to a week. The group of families that gathered got along beautifully. The multi-age gaggle of children ran around the huge farm barefoot, playing games and just being kids. The adults meditated, did yoga, went on hikes, worked in the garden, played board games and had meaningful conversations for hours.
It was heaven!
Casa Sumapaz became our refuge in times of need. During the past four months, we have been going back to the city to work, locked up in our apartments, and returning over and over again to this beautiful sanctuary where we enjoy the gift of community and heart-to-heart connection, even in these challenging times.

Once I learned to incorporate my 5 keys to Creating an Extraordinary Life fully into my consciousness and daily habits, I was finally ready to receive the gift of community. And there it was, as if by magic!

It never fails to amaze me. I do the inner work and whatever I want materialized in my life. Usually in the simplest of ways – a coincidence.
It’s really that simple.
Do you want to learn about my 5 Keys to Creating an Extraordinary Life and see how they can change your life?
Join my FREE Masterclass: Live Your Passion & Purpose (regardless of circumstances) in 2021! Let 2021 be the year that you create the life of your dreams!
Sign up for the masterclass here!
I hope to see you there!

Happy Tuesday!

 xoxo,

Natalie

 

P.S. What if 2021 could be the best year of your life?

You’ve wanted to live a passionate life for years. You’ve wanted to find your purpose. You’ve wanted to create an extraordinary life.

Yet you’ve watched the years go by with nothing really changing.

And now there’s a pandemic going on!

So here’s how I see it – you can sit around worrying about your present circumstances or an uncertain future or you can take charge of your life and make 2021 the year that you finally start living the life you’ve always dreamed of (Yes! Even in these challenging times!)

To help you do that and as a thank you for being in my tribe, I want to give you a special gift – an invitation to my encore absolutely FREE Masterclass: Live Your Passion & Purpose (regardless of circumstances) in 2021!

In this masterclass, you’ll:
– Learn my simple yet effective 7- step process to uncover your passion & purpose
– Discover the 5 key habits to create an extraordinary life
– Gain clarity on your passions, purpose and life vision
– Uncover what would make your life a “10” in every area
– Identify what’s getting in the way of creating what you want in your life so you can stop the self-sabotage
– Learn the #1 way to become easily inspired and motivated to take consistent action throughout the year
– Walk away with a concrete plan to start living your passion & purpose

If you join us for the live class, you will be able to ask me questions and get answers or mini-coaching right then and there.

But even if you can’t join the class live, you will still get the link to the video recording and benefit from my tools and strategies to live your passion & purpose in 2021!

Sign up for the masterclass here!

Let’s make this the year that you start creating your extraordinary life!

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