We never know where our path is going to take us. We have desires for what we want our life to be, and we take action to make that happen, and then we get redirected towards our higher purpose.

I had a long, more than 20-year, career in accounting and finance. It was a well-rounded career that included advancement and burnout. In 2016, it became apparent that I needed something different. The career that I had nurtured for so long had become unfulfilling and unhealthy for me.

With the help of a career coach, I started to recreate my life. We started to dig into what I wanted, and it scared me to realize that I didn’t know. I couldn’t see my future path. From my coach Amy Van Court, I learned to release attachment to outcome.

This gave me the strength to take a chance and change jobs in 2017. I gained more work/life balance while at the same time reducing my income. My hope was that the improved work/life balance would give me time to find my next career. That didn’t happen and I ended up working too much and burning out again. I learned that it was unhealthy for me to work in a corporate environment.

At the same time, I started to get serious about my spiritual path. I was looking for more peace in my life. Yoga and meditation helped me relax, focus, and learn about my internal self. I learned to breath.

In mid-2019, a friend said that I should have my astrological natal chart read to help me find my path forward. The astrologer reading my chart, Michael Shankara, left me with two words, “trust and write”. It meant that I was to trust the universe and to begin writing. It was a mantra that I carried with me for years. That reading changed my life and I learned about myself from my astrology chart.

In the Autumn of 2019, I went back to my career coach. This time I was determined to find my new career and move forward. As the universe does, it delivered, my coach was hosting a career changing workshop for women looking for their next career. I signed up the next day and over the next couple of months, I learned that I wanted to become a coach. I wanted to help people find their way like my coach had helped me.

During December of 2019, I found my inner fire, it was my “Fuck it!” phase. It was when my desire for change became bigger than my fear. I signed up for coach training and began the process of changing my career. I learned to move past my fear.

Then, in March of 2020, the world seemed to change in a flash. I adjusted to life at home and after a pause my coach training moved online. My old career ended and a new one began. And, like everyone else, I learned to adjust to a new way of life.

My coach training at Co-Active Training Institute, offered much more than it promised on paper. I learned to manage my emotions. I learned to be with the most challenging emotions, I learned to process them, and I learned to help others move through theirs. It was more than coach training it was emotional intelligence training.

After completing my coach training, I launched my coaching practice in July 2020. I created a website and hired a marketing coach to help me learn how to market on social media. I learned to be more comfortable putting myself out there and I started to write a blog. I learned that writing was part of my path forward just as the astrologer said the year before.

My spiritual path continued, and I dove deeper into astrology and tarot, and I started seeing synchronicities. I took online courses, mindfulness with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, a consciousness course with Eckhart Tolle. I learned to nurture my spirituality.

Late in 2020, I hit an emotional wall. The frequent synchronicities stopped, my emotions quieted, and I began to feel lost again. It was then that I learned what a “dark night of the soul” was.

I found Christina Lopes on YouTube. From her video titled, “The 6 Life-Changing Stages of Spiritual Awakening”, I realized that I had been experiencing a spiritual awakening for a year and a half or maybe even longer. By the time I saw the video I was in the later stages of my awakening and all the changes began to make sense. I changed the focus of my coaching practice to align with that desire.

My meditation practice grew, and I started online meditation teacher training with Lorin Roche, PHD and Camille Maurine at The Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training. We dove deep into mediation, and I looked forward to adding it to my own coaching practice. During that course, I learned about spirituality and community.

I began to write about spirituality on my blog, and then published some articles at Elephant Journal. I was putting my ideas out there. I was writing about inner shadow work and alignment and flow. It felt like my work was starting to get noticed.

Then in March 2021, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Defiantly, I thought, “I didn’t come this far on my spiritual path to have it all taken away by cancer!” I vowed to stay on my spiritual path throughout my cancer and use both modern medicine and spiritual healing.

I paused my business to focus on what I called “My Cancer Journey”. It became the focus of my blog. I was still writing and trusting the universe. Through cancer, I learned about total self-care of my mind, body, and soul.

During that time, I wrote about my surgery, healing, radiation treatment, and continued healing. My website traffic climbed, my social media audience grew, and I started to receive comments about how my writing helped them in some small way. I learned to use my experience and my writing to help others.

As my body slowly healed, I started to wonder about my path forward. I gave myself grace and time to heal. My energy was limited as I continued to heal, and I wondered if I could go back to coaching. Again, I gave myself grace and time, but it wouldn’t take long before I realized that coaching no longer resonated with me. I learned that I needed more fun in my life.

While still healing from radiation therapy, I started to do what felt like fun and called it my “cancer passion project.” I created a YouTube channel called Exploring Spirituality. It’s me, doing what I do, researching, learning, and exploring all sorts of spirituality.

At the end of August 2021, I closed my coach practice. My new career is being a creator. I now write and create content about all aspects of spirituality. I’m still trusting the universe and writing.

Be well,

Nikki 

YouTube

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

For professional inquiries, email nikkideforest@gmail.com or DM via social media.

Copyright © 2021 Nikki DeForest All Rights Reserved