Following my intuition around the world and creating new adventures and experiences
Everywhere you look, people are setting goals, resolutions, making observations, sharing reflections, accepting or actively working to change what their future may look like.
Some big constants for me over the past decade have been:
- Trusting my gut (following my intuition)
- Making big leaps (or as I like to say…fucking my fears)
- Writing (sometimes sparingly, other times often)
- Learning new things (growth is always good)
- Testing my ideas (if you keep them to yourself…nothing happens)
- Changing what’s not working for me (boundaries, mindset, habits, lifestyle)
- Creating a new reality (sometimes very different from the current one)
That last one is a doozy, some of you may be like, “Amy, how can you create a new reality. Your reality is what it is…you don’t create it.”
Au contraire.
I believe you can visualize what you want (even if it is waaaaaay out there and seemingly impossible), decide to do something about it and take action in the direction of what you want.
It doesn’t always 100 per cent manifest (show up) in the exact way you envisioned because oftentimes it is waaaaaay better than you could have ever imagined!!!
Key learnings from the past decade
Life, love, health, relationships, career, education, intuition, travel. Different countries, cities, home/work setups, no kids/with kids.
They can be distilled as follows and are applicable to you regardless of your location or life stage. The best thing? They are all within your control and you can start today.
My life has been made exponentially better by:
- Refusing to give my power away (time, body, energy, mindset, money)
Believing in yourself and taking ownership over all things in your life seem small but have huge results. Thoughts really do become things. Be kind to yourself and take an active stance in teaching others how you would like to be treated. - Following my dreams and intuition (trusting my gut and taking action)
You will never know 100 per cent how something could turn out but if I have dreamt it, thought it or felt it, then I believe it has planted the seed for a reason. I go with it…sometimes kicking and screaming but whether I choose to follow it or not, it will come back to me in some way or another. - Writing regularly (thoughts, ideas, experiences, goals, dreams)
Getting things out of your head and onto paper–whether you choose to share them with the world or not is up to you–can provide clarity, speed up anything you’re trying to call into your life, serve as a point of reflection and is a wonderful marker of how far you’ve come. - Talking to strangers (about their lives, problems and connecting the dots)
Curiosity and child-like wonder have helped me make new friends in foreign places, get job offers, identify opportunities, solve problems, share ideas and create community. It’s magic in action.
I’ve been blogging about travel, creativity, intuition and international family life since 2010 and thought it best to show the evolution over the past decade.
Lots of ups and downs in between it all but the highlight reel is as follows:
- 2010 – Meet future Irish husband in Canada. Quit my job, go back to school in Australia.
- 2011 – Graduate with High Distinction and a LOT of student debt. Still manage to travel.
- 2012 – Lots of Australian immigration paperwork. Change jobs three times.
- 2013 – Get married in Ireland. Pay off my student debt. Leave Australia.
- 2014 – Move to Ireland. Irish immigration. Become a remote worker. Travel around Europe.
- 2015 – Move to England. UK immigration. Work trips to NY and Australia. Get pregnant.
- 2016 – First son born in London. Google for Startups program with baby. Canadian immigration.
- 2017 – Move to Canada. Buy our first home. Bring son to my job interview, get the job. Get pregnant.
- 2018 – Launch Babies, Business + Breakfast. Second son born in Ottawa. Bring him everywhere.
- 2019 – Still in Canada. Take kids to Ireland. Build BBB community. Get pregnant, have miscarriage.
2020 – More adventures, keep growing BBB and share learnings from the last decade!
Ironically, when I had kids and started having less ‘sexy’ expat travel adventures, my blog stats went up!
But it happened gradually over time, I started writing more consistently, sharing what I’ve learned and moved from idle thoughts to putting ideas into action, which in turn can help more people.
My first original blog (from 2010 to 2012) is now unpublished and for my eyes only.
It was a great online diary of sorts of those early days as an expat, not knowing a soul in a new country on the other side of the world…except for my now husband who I had met in Ottawa a few months prior to moving to Brisbane. Crazy, right?
Anywhooo….
I tell that story. All. The. Time.
To strangers, acquaintances and whomever tells me they love:
Love, Ireland, travel, adventures or don’t believe in magic, coincidences or serendipity.
Recent listeners have included: my local coffee shop baristas, my husband’s company founder and the woman who sold my sister her wedding dress.
They all love it because you know what? Deep down I believe, everyone wants to believe in magic, coincidences and serendipity.
But if you haven’t heard the story yet and you want to, here it is in 55 words or less:
I entered a competition to win a trip to Ireland. I didn’t win the trip but I met my future husband, we ended up moving to Ireland a few years later and now I have a couple of Irish-Canadian kids and a reason to travel there any time I desire to!
Now this seems like a lucky coincidence, right?
What I didn’t include in the above was when I met him I was already booked to move to Brisbane, Australia to study for a year, which I had been planning and saving up for since 2007.
The night I met him at the Irish competition in Canada, he happened to be in the same bar. And get this: He ALSO had plans to move to Australia the same month as me!
This is manifesting serendipity folks: How you envision what you want, take action toward it and allow the magic to unfold.
You cannot make this stuff up.
What ensued over the past decade has been achieved largely because I decided what I wanted and wrote it down (in advance), took action (in the present) and allowed it to show up however it wanted (in future).
No, I didn’t specifically ask for:
An Irish husband.
To live in Australia for almost four years.
To have kids in two different countries.
Life is a mystery and this is what happens when you describe what you want:
To go to Ireland.
Study in Australia.
Live in Europe.
Things beyond your wildest imagination often come to you alongside your desires.
And I look back in delight and laugh at the way things have unfolded!
If you prefer to read a list of wild-coincidental-serendipitous things which happened because I took action to get over my fears of the unknown and create a new reality, here are a selection, which I had no idea would happen when I started off the last decade:
Started blogging to keep in touch with family…10 years later my current blog has resulted in interview opportunities, TV audition requests, an advertising campaign casting call, creating a community and business ideas being validated.
Racked up a LOT of student debt in my first year abroad, made some mindset and behaviour shifts, took some scary actions (like changing jobs, learning new skills, getting up to speed in different industries) and by 2013, had paid it all off in full, alongside saving up for our overseas wedding in Ireland.
Learned how to play a new sport (camogie – women’s hurling) and was interviewed as part of a documentary film about the Irish in Australia. Then I became the State hurling and camogie club’s PRO, organized the first annual sports and business fundraiser and spoke often as a guest interviewee on Irish radio in Brisbane.
All with my Canadian accent!
The student internship I did at a local radio station really helped me with my on air speaking skills.
When I was 25, living in Brisbane and working at my Gov job, I decided I wanted to live and work in Europe before I hit 30 and started a family. Within two years I had become a subject matter expert on Australian industry news in a sector I never knew existed before I left Canada.
As a result, I was able to speak at conferences, launch the industry’s first online magazine, become my company’s first remote worker and spend three years travelling around Europe living the laptop lifestyle before having our first son in London.
When I did become a parent at age 30, I kept doing what I loved alongside my kids and brought them into business settings. When I was eight months pregnant with our second son, I launched a community focused on parent-friendly professional development and became known as an advocate for flexible work.
Ironically, six years prior I excelled in Social Marketing (using marketing in order to positively change people’s behaviour) while studying in Australia but didn’t really see how I could make it into a career choice unless I became a professor.
But it is exactly what Babies, Business + Breakfast™ is all about: creating more inclusive access and opportunities for parents and their families.
Was told by intuitive readers in Australia (2011) and Canada (2019) to connect more with my spiritual side and decided to actively make it into a regular practice through learning how to read tarot, numerology and astrology.
As soon as I decided to learn more, I was gifted a tarot deck by a stranger through a relative in Ireland, discovered a local Canadian shop I could perform readings at and started offering services to clients within six months.
Many people tell me my insights are uncanny–perhaps as a result of me spending so much time talking to strangers–and with limited advertising, I have now performed dozens of readings. It has all felt so effortless and enjoyable, so I’m seeing where it leads.
The past decade has been full of people, experiences, places, learnings and adventures I could not have anticipated in 2010.
I am constantly awestruck by life’s coincidences and unpredictable moments.
I don’t always connect the dots or make the right decision. But I am never bored and usually pleasantly surprised!
You can be actively seeking to create a new reality through visualization, goal-setting, manifesting or journaling.
You can be open to changing plans, making different choices, going with the flow, trusting in things to work out for the better and surrendering completely.
You can focus on living in the moment, being present, having fun, seeking joy and connecting with your inner child to create and play more.
You can be uncertain of how the future will unfold but still hold space for the kind of future you want to design, however unlikely it may appear in the present moment.
You can be completely content with your current reality, grateful for your blessings and not want to change a thing in the moment.
All of the above are good ways to create a new reality for yourself because as the quotes from Heraclitus go:
“Change alone is unchanging.”
“There is nothing permanent except change.”
Explore more in your own time with these Notes From Another Land blog posts over the past decade:
Thank you for reading, Happy New Year and best wishes for a wonderful 12 months ahead!
– Amy
P.S. Is there anything you’re hoping to manifest over the next year or decade?
Write it down, speak it aloud, share it with me if you wish! I am cheering you on. ✨
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Notes From Another Land 