Eye on Wellness
This post is by Ritva Dale:
I had no reason to dream of another life while growing up in Finland. I had my parents and two younger brothers living under the same roof. My parents provided us a wonderful home that they built from scratch by hand with some help from their friends. We always ate well. My dad is a hunter and a fisherman and vegetables, fruit and berries were always found in the garden in our front yard. I had my best friend living in the same neighborhood and lots of other friends as well.
I’m not sure exactly when I started to dream about a life in America. It started small and the more I dreamt about it, the stronger it got. Finally, I could feel it in my whole being as if it was already true. I didn’t know at the time that I had set an intention and now I just had to figure out how to make it happen.
My best friend and another friend started talking about going to London for three months to work as an au pair. They asked me to go too. As exciting as that sounded, it was not the step to my dream. It gave me an idea to look into an au pair program in America. I found one, found a family and few months later I was all set to take off to America for one full year.
I packed up my big pink backpack, put on my favorite brown leather coat, waived goodbye to my parents and stepped on to the plane that took me to my big adventure.
The American Dream
When I first arrived in New York City, we had a three-day training, before we moved on to the family that we had chosen. I met my fellow au pairs from all over the world. I quickly realized that I was one of the few that did not miss home. Some of them had really difficult time adjusting and some had to leave early to go back home. I think the reason why I was so comfortable was because I was living the dream that I had felt so strongly about. I was excited that my dream was coming true.
My original plan was to stay in America for a year, then go to Germany for one year and finish my adventure in Australia before returning back to Finland and live happily ever after with a great job using all the languages that I had learned.
Well, that’s not what ended up happening. I have been living in good old Pennsylvania for 23 years now. Have not made it to Germany or Australia yet.
My earlier years as a “resident alien” had some challenges, but over all I stayed healthy. I was fortunate to have wonderful people in my life that helped me get accustomed to a different life style. Later on I became a citizen, felt good not to be an “alien” anymore. My most incredible accomplishment was when I had my wonderful baby daughter; everything about her has always been perfect. She is 16 now and is becoming a wonderful young adult, ready to take on the world.
The Changes
It was about 15 years ago when my life changed as far as my health was concerned. A lime disease tick “attacked” me. I went on few years not knowing that I had the disease and when it was finally diagnosed I had to get on a medication for a long time. I started having other health issues as well and gained some weight. So needless to say, I was not very happy. I needed to do something. The new dream was born…to be well again. Intention was set, now I just had to figure out how to get it done. I read all the books on different diets, tried them all. Joined the weight watchers, lost weight, but still wasn’t feeling that good. Something was still wrong.
The next step was to find help. I found a great naturopathic doctor and nutritionist and started to feel better, but still not completely well. It wasn’t until one day out of the blue, I was introduced to a nutrition school in New York City. The moment I heard a few details about it, I was sold. I knew this was the answer. I knew that everything that I had learned so far and the process of helping myself would be beneficial to others. I wanted to be certified to be able to do that. That’s when my life changed for the better. Not only did I finally figure out how to eat what my body needed in order to become and stay healthy, but also I made wonderful friends and I had a new career.
More Dreams
Having dreams is a funny thing…it never ends. When I received my certification as a health coach, I realized that food is very important piece of the puzzle, but having the life of your dreams includes more than that. You will need to have balance in your life, including the correct diet, proper exercise, getting rid of limiting beliefs and negative emotions and detoxing. Somewhere in there you will need some supplementation as well.
When I realized that coaching only the nutrition didn’t give me the tools to help my clients fully…yet another dream was born. I needed to learn how to get rid of negative emotions and limiting beliefs that hold my clients back from the life that is satisfying to them. Intention was set again and what do you know, email comes to my mailbox that took me to another adventure – Toronto, Canada. This training took me to another level that I could not have even imagined. My biggest discovery was that I was afraid to be me, because I was afraid to do the wrong thing. I always thought that life should be lived in a certain way and that you don’t have much control over what happens. Many hours of training in Toronto and eventually finishing a trainer level training in Las Vegas gave me the tools to heal, confidence to be ME and be in charge of my life.
I have many more dreams for the future. Dreams are important and fun part of life. I love to look back on my dreams and see how they DO come true.
Happy dreaming,
Ritva
Ritva Dale
Ritva A. Dale - Certified Wellness Coach and NLP Trainer. She is the founder and CEO of Eye on Wellness LLC in Kennett Square, PA
Ritva’s scope of practice includes Individual Coaching, Wellness Seminars, Success Seminars and NLP Practitioner Trainings all over the world
to the men and women that are looking to live healthy and successful lives. To contact Ritva send her an email to ritva@eyeonwellness.com
visit her website www.eyeonwellness.com