True North: Finding Your Direction Through Courage, Curiosity and Vulnerability

Shana Francesca-

Life can take us in countless directions. Sometimes it feels like we spin 360°. How do we find the right direction in life?

Ep. 96

Shana is a life designer, speaker and writer. She brought her unique and powerful voice to the world of design. Growing up in an abusive household, she found solace in developing her creativity; this included art, writing, and performing arts.

Shana’s creativity is now used to encourage others to lead lives that are empowered, where they can explore their potentials by embracing curiosity and drive with clear intentionality. Validating resilience through curiosity and being vulnerable gives us the power to make our desired changes.  When faced with adversity, you need courage to keep you going. 

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I think oftentimes we hold on to things that no longer belong to us because we are afraid of what might not be behind it. Finding a way to connect with people and getting curious. Connect with play. Curiosity and vulnerability are so closely tied to one another. To get curious you have to admit you don’t know. All these beautiful things are tied in together. When we tap into courage we gain access to all of those things.

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Shana firmly believes that we can craft a life that is conducive to well-being by making decisions with precision every day – this is at the heart of her work.   

Intentionality follows curiosity like a compass. Tackle the tough times with this episode to overcome adversity through your vulnerability and curiosity.

Find out how intentional focus guides you to your true north!

How does Shana Sail Through Life?

Her words of advice…

“There’s no way to avoid the discomfort. There’s going to be discomfort in loneliness, in staying the same, in having a life unlived or you can experience the discomfort of living the life and making weird mistakes and doing weird things. One of my favorite quotes by  Anais Nin — ‘And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’ You know, there’s no way to avoid pain or discomfort in this life. Our goal shouldn’t be to do that. it should be to experience as much of it as we can while we’re here.”

For more about Shana find her on Instagram, Facebook and her website Concinnate.World

Remember~ Stay Anchored ⚓

Listen to this important episode to hear more.

How do you sail through life? Join me on this endeavor!

I would love to grow this amazing support community! Learn more here.

** Sailing Through Life Podcast is intended to educate, inspire and support you on your personal journey and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content is for general informational purposes only. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

More from Shana:

Courage and Joy. Courage for me is being willing to lean into fear and know that fear is our wanting to control or sneak a peek at the outcome-our attachment to the construct of control. Courage is a request for growth, like a spiritual memo that we have outgrown our current self. It is time to go where we have never been before. There will never be any guarantee of what comes next, so we move forward knowing that what we want to happen may not happen. When we try to control outcomes we can no longer experience joy. Joy is the acceptance of what is, no longer struggling trying to make what is, what we want it to be, or trying to make it fit into our narrow understanding of the world. When we release attachment and reach for connection instead, we find joy. I think courage is a huge part of that.

Know you have a purpose-your story can have a purpose. I think so often we think our purpose will strike us like lightning and it will be this transformative moment. For me it didn’t happen that way. I kept living my life and taking steps in the direction I thought was best for me to move in, with what knowledge I had at the time. Many times, I have gained more knowledge along the way and changed directions. Somewhere along the way I realized I have been heading toward my purpose without even knowing it. For me, my purpose, in its simplest form, at least at this moment in my life, is empowering people to design their lives and in so doing, find joy. What I also realized is that, I think I have chosen my purpose, I always headed in the direction that felt most connected to empowering my life story to be used for good in a way that aligns with my creativity. You can choose to give your life purpose, you can choose to allow your purpose to grow and change as you do, it is entirely up to you.

Maybe you are not strong enough but you can become strong enough. There have been too many times where I was not strong enough to move through a moment. Moments where I was nearly crushed and I think, at times, I was crushed. Somehow, someone would see just a small bit of me and come remove enough of the load that I could get back up again and gain some serious muscle along the way. Letting yourself be seen and loved, asking for help, finding something to believe in, and knowing you can give your story and your life purpose are the ways in which we build our resilience muscles so we become strong enough.

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