I’m so glad you’re here! In 2022 I left my corporate job in the US to fulfill a childhood dream to travel without time constraints. Three days later I landed in Europe, where I visited 12 countries in four months. By the end of my career break in June 2023, I had visited 14 countries and taken several trips in the US. Travel and writing bring me enormous joy, so I launched this blog nine months into my break to share my journeys around the world and into my soul.
My intention with this blog is for you to:
- Find travel tips and destination ideas for your next adventure
- Feel inspired to follow your own dreams, even if they’re not travel or career break related
- Feel related to another human who doesn’t have it all figured out. Life can be beautiful and crazy hard…often at the same time!
I believe that sharing ourselves is a spiritual act. Sharing (the good, the beautiful, the bad, the ugly) not only helps us process our own experiences, but can also help move, touch and inspire others to create transformation in their own lives.
A mid-life treat…and a leap!
I was born and grew up in Brazil before moving to the US and becoming an American citizen (so yes, English is my second language and I write with a “Brazilian accent!”). Texas is my current home. I was in my 40s, married to a loving man, and had a really nice job in a top global company before I embarked on a strategically planned career break. My life was comfortable, but mid-life arrived with a voice that grew louder and louder: when am I finally going to give myself permission to live life-long dreams? When am I finally going to feel fully confident in my own skin?
Taking the leap wasn’t easy. In fact, it was an emotional rollercoaster! There was excitement, but also fear and loads of self-doubt:
Am I crazy to leave my reputable job that affords me a really nice lifestyle? Am I going to find work and be relevant after all of this? Will I run out of money before I find a job? Will my solo travels impact my marriage? What am I trying to run away from?
In this article I describe the lessons I learned during my 15-month career break, but in sum:
- Taking a career break was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made
- I now clearly see that I was running away from an outdated life script that valued “rational” choices over intuition, other people’s ideas of what constitutes a good life over my own; a life that tamed my wild, free, feminine nature
- Sure, the travel part has been magical, wondrous, restoring (dancing in the streets of Valencia, Spain during Las Fallas Festival! Sailing in Lisbon, Portugal! SUP paddling in Montenegro’s oyster farms! Swimming in the deep blue waters of Malta!). However, it’s the life lessons I picked up along the way that have made this experience deeply transformative.
- If you’re really curious about how I returned to work, then read these posts: Finding work after my career break: how a jaguar rider rescued my confidence and Powerful lessons from forrest bathing sessions.
I’m not the same person I was when I gave myself permission to live this dream, and my ways of being continue to evolve. That’s the whole point of living: to grow! And we must (MUST!) live our dreams, even if the path to get there is overwhelming. My new version is finally learning to love and trust myself even with all of the unknowns. Even with all of the breakdowns that come in the process. I’m a woman on a path to live an aligned life.
Welcome to my world and thanks for being a part of it!
Juliana
How to navigate this blog
- Career Break: Reflections on taking a career break, from dreaming to actually planning it, from the highlights to the lowlights of my journey. My intention is to inspire you to create space to live your dreams. You can find Career Break Tips and Career Break Stories
- Travel: Travel tips, travel guides and tales of my wanderings in this vast planet. You may start with my 27 Travel Ideas for an Epic Career Break in Europe
- Soul: Stories from my soul searching and personal growth experiences (the beautiful, the transcendent and the gruesome). My intention is for you to find commonalities in what it feels like to be human. My voice in these stories may be more intimate and poetic, as my readers say
I’d love to hear from you
Do you like what you read, feel inspired, have questions or recommendations? Please send me a message by filling out the form below or connect with me on Instagram at @globaljuliana. Scroll down the page to sign up for my newsletter and receive blog updates (I won’t spam you!).
