I moved 9649km to chase a better lifestyle


But here’s what came with me:

-The guilt I feel when I rest
-The shame that creeps in when I say no
-The overthinking after delivering a workshop
-The urge to prove myself through productivity
-The tension that never lets me slow down
-The fear that if I stop, it’ll all fall apart

These things didn’t disappear just because I changed countries.

They don’t disappear when you change jobs, cities or relationship status either.

But here’s what did change:
How I relate to them.

I’m no longer at war with myself.
I’ve stopped trying to outrun these patterns and started learning how to be with them.

Six years ago, I took a similar trip.
But that time, I was running away.
Hoping a change of scene would mean a change of self.

It didn’t.

What made the difference wasn’t the move.
It was the inner work.

The breakthroughs came when I stopped trying to run away and started changing the way I relate to myself.

Through coaching, I faced what I’d spent years avoiding.

And now, I get to live and travel with so much more freedom.

So if you’re planning your next escape…
Just make sure it includes coming home to yourself.

Much love,
Alex

PS: What I’m reading: The disappearance of Stephanie Mailer - Joel Dicker
What I’m watching: Silicon Valley Season 1
Quote of the week: “If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” - Tallulah Bankhead




Alex Ostergaard

Join 600+ readers of The Confident You Newsletter for weekly tips & tricks on how to increase Self-Confidence and live a more fulfilling life.

Read more from Alex Ostergaard

Exhaustion isn’t weakness.It's a message.Your mind can ignore it.Your calendar can override it. But your body will always tell the truth. At first it whispers: fatigue, tension, headaches.Then it gets louder: insomnia, burnout, illness. And if you still don’t listen, it will scream. Because your body doesn’t care about your deadlines. It doesn’t care about your image.It doesn’t care about who you think you need to be. It cares about survival. For Sensitive High Achievers, this is the hardest...

I grew up believing that most of what I felt was down to other people. My Dad “made me feel insecure”. My boss “made me anxious”. That pushy salesperson “made me uncomfortable”. It’s such a normal way of talking that I never even questioned it. But here’s an uncomfortable truth: no one can make you feel anything. Not your boss. Not your partner. Not your parents. Every single feeling you experience is filtered through your own perspective. Through the meaning you assign to what happened....

You're stuck because you’re resisting what you feel.Most of us were never taught how to feel.We were taught how to perform.We learned to push emotions away.To hold it together.To stay strong.When sadness comes up, we call it weakness.When anger surfaces, we label it dangerous.When fear shows up, we try to control everything around us.But that constant suppression?It creates tension, overwhelm and the sense of being stuck in your own head.Eventually it turns into anxiety, numbness,...