About
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The Story of my Heart
Hi! I’m Anna.
As long as I can remember, I have always been drawn to helping others. It’s just how I'm wired. My deep desire to inspire others, as well as myself, to live a heart centered life really began in high school. At that time, I was studying Emerson, Thoreau, T.S. Elliot and the transcendentalists. I connected so deeply with their message of non-conformity, listening to yourself, following your own path and not the confines of society and the dictated paths that we should follow. Reading their words was heavenly to me. They were speaking the language of my heart and I had NO idea then how that deep knowing would continue to unfold throughout my life.
I gave my first formal speech on this very topic to my graduating high school class in 1986. What is ironic about that speech is that the principal reviewed my draft and thought it was TOO extreme and didn’t like my message of non-conformity and SHE wanted to write it. Seriously? I had literally exhausted myself for four years to achieve my goal of being the class valedictorian and here she wanted to write my speech because she did not agree with my message about following your own heart. I stood firm, wrote and delivered the message that my heart desired – “Listen to the beat of your own drum” as Thoreau said. This was just the beginning.
The desire to find a way to follow my own heart and encourage others to do the same took on another form when I started a women’s networking group called Leading Ladies in 1998. On Tuesday, November 17, 1998, I hosted my first official Leading Ladies event at the Old Ebbitt Grille in Washington, DC. It was pure magic! The energy, enthusiasm and joy of these women fueled my soul! As Leading Ladies grew to events in 7 cities, I combined my love for creating engaging, purposeful events that gathered people, particularly women; facilitating powerful connections that led to personal and professional development; and inspiring others to lead their lives according to their inner knowing, while having fun doing it.
The message of heart centered living led to more speeches and conversations on this very subject. One I remember in particular was called, “Painting Your Passion!” I roped a very dear friend and sister alumna into giving this presentation with me to a group of young women students at our Alma Matre, Wellesley College. It was SO fun, totally “un-Wellesley like and yet totally Wellesley like” that we were told many students continued to check out that presentation. We brought our own passion, energy and love to the conversation to inspire other women to “follow their hearts, their passion” and lead the life that resonated with them.
Another wonderful opportunity presented itself to me in November of 2016, when I was selected to give an Ignite Talk in Annapolis, Maryland. It was exciting and scary all at the same time. The Ignite format is 5 minutes, 20 slides, no cue cards and they auto advance your slides, which means you just GO! No control over the pace of your presentation. Well, once again the theme for me was all about following your heart and this time I packaged it in “Living in the Gray Can Transform Your Life.” During this time, I had just come through an 8 month separation from my husband that profoundly transformed me as we went from divorce path to reunited in a much deeper love. As I dug deep into my own personal and spiritual growth, learning to live in the “Gray” of life where things are unknown, uncertain, even scary, and fall outside of the black and white confines of society, I was drawn to share this message with others in the hopes that it would “ignite” a fire within them to follow their own heart, their inner knowing.
In August of 2018, I took one of the scariest leaps of faith into the unknown and left my safe, salaried job. My soul had been SO restless for years and life was getting increasingly demanding with 3 children in elementary school, and one of whom who has Down syndrome had just experienced a tremendously difficult year in school that left a deep scar in my heart and I knew I needed to make a change. Prior to taking that leap, my fear was keeping me safe, but small. Signs were everywhere, but I ignored them, discounted them and justified them….until one day my guardian angels had had enough of it. I was sitting with my boss who had become a close friend over the 12 years of my tenure at that job. I wanted to start my own business, to offer my skills and experience, but as a consultant so that I could attend more to my family while also working. I needed a new model. In our conversation, he said to me, “Someone said, why should we help her build her business?” In that moment, I saw my guardian angel standing to the left of my boss holding up this tiny, miniature gummy bear and saying to me “Is this what you want for your life? This tiny, itty, bitty bear?” The message was SO loud and SO clear that I went home, wrote my letter of resignation (that I had thought about for years) and gave my two weeks’ notice. Talk about a leap of faith and following my heart. Holy cannoli!
Well, heart centered living was about to be ratcheted up several notches! As I set forth on my path of figuring out what I wanted to do, in October 2018 my college girlfriends and I travelled to Iceland in celebration of our 50th birthdays. It was pure magic and for those of you who have not visited that beautiful country, I highly recommend it. On our first day out in the countryside, we pulled over to an area where there were tons and tons of beautiful rock formations, where people had stacked rocks upon rocks in a tower-like formation. The official name of these formations is cairns and long ago they were used as landmarks – how that message of direction has unfolded for me is a story for another time. Well, at this lovely location, I found my first nature heart. As my friend and I bent down to gather some stones to create our own cairn dedicated to our Alma Matre, I noticed this beautiful heart shape created from pink and green plants. This heart popped out, as it sat quietly, vibrantly amidst the black volcanic ash. There was little vegetation in this area. I thought, how beautiful and unusual. Then snapped a photo and moved on. More naturally shaped hearts revealed themselves along our travels throughout Iceland. Little did I know the significant role these hearts would play in my life….
Now, almost 5 years later, that one heart finding has inspired more people to find hearts, connected me with many other amazing heart finders around the world through Instagram, inspired a growing community through my Facebook group The Heart Finders, and most importantly to me has continued to help me spread the message of following your own heart, which in its purest form is your unique expression of Love. Each one of us has incredible, beautiful, magical gifts that the world needs. Decades later, my deepest desire still exists and glows stronger every day: I want to inspire, encourage and empower YOU to harness your gifts, to shine brightly, to play big, to go for whatever lights your heart up. This is YOUR life to live how you choose to live it in such a way that contributes to the good of all. Come follow your heart, as I follow mine.