This past month, I had the incredibly blessed opportunity to travel to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel on a spiritual pilgrimage.

It was a trip I had planned with my mom in January 2020 for later that year, prior to COVID. The intention was to go with my mom, my sister, and brother-in-law to see the ancient and historical sights in the Middle East.

Well fast forward – COVID happened, my mom suddenly and unexpectedly passed on, and my sister and brother-in-law had a baby at the end of 2021.

Around the time I decided to leave my job at Goldman Sachs in early 2022, I pulled up the old itinerary. There was something calling me to take this trip, even if it had to be solo. 

I felt like I was being guided to do it as 1) a way to honor my mom’s spirit and the trip we planned together, 2) energetically separate from my job as an Investment Banker, and 3) connect deeply to ancient spiritual histories, the mysteries of the world, and the birthplace of cultures and civilizations. 

It was a trip with intention.

The three-week trip was beyond profound and I shared my journey on Instagram through my stories. I will go into the deep experiences I had in a number of videos and posts to come. 

However, to name a few highlights:

• I received intuitive downloads about things I need to create and bring to the world to help others
• I had deep feelings of my mom’s presence with me through synchronicities countless times along the journey
• I met people who have changed the course of my life
• I was guided through closed-off ancient Egyptian temples with my tourguide’s cousin (a lineage of ancient Pharaonic masons) who knew security guards that allowed me to meditate with 2,200 year old statues in secretive rooms of Luxor’s Kom Ombo temple not open to the public

I’ll get into the trip another time, but this post is a lesson I learned about following Your Perfect Path.

Overlapping with my planned trip, there was also an event being hosted by a personal development learning platform I use called Mindvalley.The event was called A-Fest (formerly known as Awesomeness-Fest), and it brought speakers from all over the world to the Dead Sea in Jordan for 5 days of custom-made programming. In order to go to the festival you need to send in an application. 150 men and 150 women are then selected from all over the world. Following a two-year hiatus due to COVID, this year’s theme was ‘creating deep human connection.’

Speakers for the event included Marie Diamond (feng shui and energy teacher), Dr. Shefali (clinical psychologist), Sonia Choquette (intuitive expert and spiritual teacher), Charlie Morley (lucid dreaming teacher), Linda Clemons (body language expert), Bibi Brozoka (conscious sexuality facilitator), Niraj Naik (soma breathwork teacher), Dr. Amy Killen (leading anti-aging and regenerative physician), Vishen Lakhiani (founder of Mindvalley), Florencia Andres (celebrity self-esteem coach), and so many others.

Over the course of five days on the Dead Sea, I experienced a TedTalk meets Burning Man experience on a global scale. The days were jam-packed with awe-inspiring talks and workshops, and the nightly events were home to over-the-top bedouin and local cultural production (the closing party was at a palace in Jordan!).

But at the beginning at A-Fest, things weren’t so easy for me. 

I met countless attendees and speakers who were all playing at exceptionally high levels. There were Olympic medaled and pro athletes, Miss Universe Canada, founders of seven-figure businesses at the age of 32, entrepreneurs across industries including dating, wellness, and software (some of whom have started and sold multiple companies).

I also met successful digital nomads living in Bali, TV, music, and movie producers, astrology and human design thought leaders, event production experts, sports performance psychologists, celebrity life coaches, fashion designers, culinary creators, and biohacking experts.

It was overwhelming to say the least. 

After being exposed to so many mind-blowing humans, my egoic mind decided to put a familiar record on my mental turntable – Questioning My Self-worth.

I was surrounded by some of the biggest changemakers I’ve ever met. There were people out here making millions of dollars in their businesses and changing the world in unique and inspiring ways… But what was I doing here? Did I deserve to be here under the same roof surrounded by such superhumans?

It took the first day to relax into the experience and trust the feeling that I was led to that experience because I was worthy of being there; but my mind didn’t want to budge easily.

Our dynamic host, Mia Lux, eased us into the setting by helping us affirm that we were open to meeting others, and others were open and wanted to meet us too.

Once I dropped down from my headspace into my heartspace, I relaxed into the festival. I calmed the ego and allowed full openness and authenticity to shine. I approached others with a genuine and curious open heart, and released into the joy and energy of the experience. The people I met were vulnerable, honest, sentimental, fun, and felt like a long-lost soul family.

I met friends and entrepreneurs from Australia, Germany, Malaysia, Belgium, Israel and all over the globe.

It’s easy to sometimes get caught up in wondering if you’re worthy of being at a certain place at a certain time in your life. Sometimes you can feel small in comparison to others’ achievements, but from what I garnered at A-Fest is that even some of the most successful and high-flying people in their fields feel a similar way when surrounded by extreme levels of elevated vibrations and energies.

My Core Takeaways About Self-Worth

Everyone is on their own journey, on their own path. You can’t want to put yourself in someone else’s journey because that’s theirs. Doing so will only make you feel misaligned with yourself. In actuality, your journey is the perfect journey for you because it’s exactly that – YOUR journey – nobody else’s. It has unfolded the exact way it needed to in order to lead you to where you are today.

Everyone needs to cultivate their own journey in order to feel aligned with their own self. By doing so, the collective body of humanity also operates at its own ideal vibration. Matias de Stefano has an interesting analogy which struck a deep chord with me. It relates to living your truth, and I was also able to extrapolate more personal meaning from it.

Take your human body for example, you have a liver and a heart. The liver has liver cells which perform a specific function, just as the heart has heart cells which perform a specific function. If you take a liver cell and put it in the heart, and take a heart cell and put it in the liver, your body won’t operate at its complete capacity and most vibrant health.

The collective human body of consciousness operates at a similar level. All too often, we see someone become Instagram famous, the next TikTok star, a supermodel, an actor, a business tycoon, a rapidly successful entrepreneur, or any multitude of things you can be in this world. Once we see that, we see the seemingly rosy life it provides them, but undoubtedly everyone is fighting a battle no one knows about.

Trying to fit yourself in someone else’s shoes isn’t the solution to finding your dream life or purpose. From personal experience, deep reflective and introspective work, daily meditation, personal development, conscious intention, and heart-felt actions and motivations have shown me the way. They have proven results which helped me tap into my intuitive guidance and lead me to the things that are most necessary for my highest wisdom.

By trying to put yourself in someone else’s story line, you are putting your heart cell in the liver and expecting your body and the overall collective consciousness to operate at its optimal state. It’s great to use people as energetic role models or examples of work ethic, but their narrative is meant to be different than yours.

Just remember, your path is perfect. You are exactly where you need to be. The comparison battle or feeling like you’re not worthy of being where you are is an egoic reaction to the elevation you’ve experienced along your path.

The ego is just doing its job to try and keep you safe, but your soul knows you’re meant for more and bigger which is why it’s leading you to these situations.

Your Perfect Path

Do your best each and every day.

Don’t compare yourself to others.

Don’t judge yourself or others.

You are just as important of a cell in the collective body of human consciousness as any other.

Your gifts are unique and your perspective has never been experienced by anyone but you.

You matter.

It can take a Chinese Bamboo tree up to five years just to sprout above the soil. However, in that fifth year, it takes just six weeks to sprout and grow up to 80 feet tall.

Toil away beneath the soil. Don’t compare yourself to others. Lay your foundation and strengthen your roots in the base of the earth and your sense of self. Without the roots, the tree of your life cannot grow.

Your journey is impeccable. It’s not meant to be without trial. The trial strengthens the roots for when the winds come as a full-grown tree.

Your Path is Perfect. Keep your specific goals in mind and work towards them. What’s meant for you won’t go by you.