Season 3 Ep 4 - Finding Purpose and Joy in Your Success Journey

What happens when the relentless chase for success leaves you feeling empty and exhausted? Join me, Larisa Vakulina, on the Heart of Success show as I share my deeply personal journey of overcoming the immense pressures and emotional tolls of maintaining high levels of success. Discover how fear, anxiety, and the pursuit of admiration led to my physical and emotional collapse, and learn how this pivotal moment became the catalyst for profound self-discovery and change.

In this episode, I pull back the curtain on the hidden costs of relentless ambition and control, offering invaluable insights into recognizing the signs of personal distress and dissatisfaction. You'll hear about my awakening to true self-discovery and the life-saving lessons I learned along the way. Additionally, I introduce the transformative Ascara process—a roadmap to shift from a never-ending pursuit of success to a life of power, fulfillment, and happiness. Tune in, download the free brochure, and embark on this empowering journey with me to align your life and business with your true purpose.

00:00:05 Journey to True Success

00:09:37 Awakening to True Self Discovery

00:27:51 Unleashing the Ascara Process

Welcome to "The Heart of Success," where we redefine success with Larisa Vakulina – a multi-awarded entrepreneur, healer, and mentor.

Feeling unfulfilled despite your achievements? Larisa knows your journey. Each week, she shares powerful insights to help you blend professional success with personal fulfillment. Through her unique blend of business strategies and spiritual principles, you'll discover your true self and build a heart-aligned life.

Ready to transform your life?

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For more tips and resources, join my newsletter at LarisaVakulina.com. Stay connected, stay inspired, and remember, your success starts from the heart. Until next time, keep thriving and shining!

Chapters

• 0:37 Journey to True Success
• 10:09 Awakening to True Self Discovery
• 28:23 Unleashing the Ascara Process

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Hello, you are on the Heart of Success show and I'm your host, larisa Vakulina. This show and podcast takes you from relentless pursuit of success to a place of power, to a place of deep happiness and fulfillment. So today I'm sharing a very, very special gift for you, so that you can actually start to understand and realize that all your efforts and all your longings and desires that you have in your life for some reason are not coming into your life. For some reason, you cannot achieve them and you're struggling and striving for a much more deeper sense of success, the true success. And today I decided to share with you my own journey and story, from that relentless, very effortless striving to keep success that I achieved some years ago, and I was afraid to lose this level of success and I was constantly running that race to maintain the level of success.

Speaker 1: 2:01

But this attitude and this type of pursuing your goals is very, very harmful and damaging for us. Us not only in the sense of having our physical body struggling and wasting a lot of unnecessary actions and wasting a lot of energy, but it also affects us emotionally, psychologically, it affects us spiritually and affects everything around us that we are touching and we are paying attention to, because we are not in the right place of actually creating true success. We are in a place of the fear, we are in a place of worry, anxiety and we functioning and doing things from that really limited place of the deficit. So I'm going to share with you my own story and it is can be a really, really valuable gift for you to rely on or learn from, and I really would like to thank you all my supporters that are seeing value in my journey from being mega successful to the true success that now I'm living, and what's the difference between the mega success in the conventional way and also in the true success and what actually it involved. So I know that this episode is created more for a very successful business women, for women that are powerful in terms of taking responsibility for everything. They take responsibility for their families, for their children, partners, businesses. They take responsibility even for their friends, and they just try to control and keep it all under the supervision of their own presence, only because they feel not good enough. They spend so much energy into holding all of their layers of the influence in place by controlling it out of the fear to lose, to lose this control, out of fear, to lose the admiration, to lose followers and all that is gluing this construct for them together. It takes enormous amount of energy and it also, if you keep this structure for a long, long period of time years, 5, 10, 15, then you're going to pay the price, and the price is going to be very, very high, like it was for me.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Have your success ruined your life or have your success ruined your relationships? Have you ever looked at your success from the point of view that that may be the journey to success? Your moving towards this success is sabotaging all the other areas, important areas in your life that you value a lot and you're longing to have balanced peace and happiness in these areas. And you're longing to have balanced peace and happiness in these areas, but you see it through the lens of control and through the lens of keeping this and maintain this level of success, because you believe that people are following you, that people are respecting and loving you. Only because you have this success, and the fear of losing it drives you towards more and more and more effort, less and less and less taking care of yourself, working harder and harder and harder.

Speaker 1: 6:39

But really, in reality, what are you really valuing in your life? Is it the level and the size of your bank account? Or you valuing your relationships with your loved ones? Are you valuing having access to everything, like you know, all the clothing, all the fashion, all the luxury restaurants and hotels and all the awards and all the accolades? But, you know, are you valuing your taking care of yourself and have optimal health? Well, these questions are all here today because I was there myself. I was thinking that I needed to. I have to keep that level of success and constantly projecting that deficit, that sense of limitation, that if I'm not active, if I'm not running, I'm going to lose it all.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So, yes, so today I want to share with you a gift of transformation. It's a first step of really finding out or evaluating where are you at on your journey right now. Where are you at? Are you totally fully aligned with your purpose and your business is aligned with your purpose and your longings and all the needs are met through this expression of your true self, or you are somewhere in the stages of feeling that something is not right? Are you in crisis? Are you in professional is not right? Are you in crisis? Are you in professional, personal relationship crisis or any other crises that we are always confronting them if we don't understand from what place are we living our life, from when are we making decisions and from what internal landscape is actually driving us to make certain decisions. That internal landscape is connected or not connected to your external achievement. So, all of this configuration and all of these parameters, we need to analyze and at least, if not know them fully. We need to start to build awareness about all of these areas and parts of ourselves that to be able to regulate, to be able to control, not external representation of who we are, but internal state and feelings of what we are actually projecting and doing with our life.

Speaker 1: 10:09

So, if you really would like to get on top of your state whatever the state you are in I really would like and invite you to listen to what I'm going to say next and show you actually a little presentation. It is a very short little visual graphics that can really give you a little bit more understanding of how we are missing, the stages, of where we need to stop and contemplate, of if I'm in a stage of feeling tired and exhausted and worried, what does that mean? Mean is this is something that, uh, that is guiding me to look, uh, to look at and pay attention and see what it really saying to me. Or maybe you are already deeply in in the place of, uh, pain and crisis and everything is collapsing in your life, which which there have been some signs before and you didn't pay attention to it. So I have this little presentation, the visual things. So it's going to be moving all the time, but I'm going to take well, it's actually staying like that, so I'm going to take you from one place to another. So, at the bottom of it is awesome achievement.

Speaker 1: 11:46

I was mega successful. I had a multimillion dollar export business and I'm multi-awarded business woman that was listed among top 50 entrepreneurs in Australia and my company ranked number three fastest growing company in Australia in 2003. So I had a number of awards of Telstra Businesswoman Award, entrepreneur of the Year Award and all the awards and accolades. I could even imagine Everything was available to me. Could even imagine Everything was available to me the holidays, the clothing, the expensive things, the luxurious hotels and all things like that but I always felt that there is something missing, something missing which I couldn't nail it.

Speaker 1: 12:35

What is it? What is this that I feel that missing in my life. Anyway, I look outside and external, everything is sorted out, everything is under control the business, the job, the professional development, the family, the children, like on the outside, it was really good life, almost like a glamorous one. Of course, with all the busyness and all the involvement. I was running so fast. I was having this race, you know, having that fear, if I stop, I will lose it all. That fear, if I stop, I will lose it all.

Speaker 1: 13:25

And, of course, that feeling of something missing was constantly in my life, although I was trying to run away from it. I was hoping that maybe with my new project or my new contract or with my new windfall of the money, that will go away, but it never did so. I was feeling like I'm chasing the tail here and I didn't really go anywhere. I didn't ask for help, I was just holding it within and almost I was suppressing it. So then, of course, from something missing I moved into life crisis.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Eventually, as long as you're going to keep ignoring the signs of your intuitive self, you're going to be then run into another stage, which is going to be even more painful than the previous one. So I went through life crisis full. It was not only the life crisis, it was all crisis. It was crisis, professional crisis. I didn't really feel that I belonged to my business. I didn't really feel that this is something that I always wanted to do, but I felt like I had to do it. It was a relationship crisis, it was an illness crisis.

Speaker 1: 14:51

So, at the end of the day, all of this happened to me in one hit. I felt it all. I felt depressed, I felt anxious, I felt anxious. I had panic attacks, but I didn't really connect all of these signs into what I was doing in my business, in my life, what decisions I was making and what kind of actions I was doing. So, as we all know, when we are in this state, we go to see doctors and, of course, through assessment of the biology of the physical body, there was nothing. All the tests have been fine, but the pain was more emotional pain. The pain was the pain of my soul, of my uh, heart, that was longing for something different and that that was, um, this part of me was sending me this loud, loud messages and signs, but I was so ignorant to them.

Speaker 1: 16:03

So the only way I woke up, basically very quickly, when I was hit with my illness crisis, which was I was diagnosed with a disease which was a life-threatening diagnosis. Then I actually stopped for a moment and then I was just getting it. It's like the overload of information come to me with the voice, with the inner intuitive knowing saying to me what are you doing? Why are you surprised? You have never been living your own life and I was really puzzled. But I was curious as well, because I took this little moment of quietness and stillness and sit with this message and try to make sense of it. Of course, back then it wasn't make a lot of sense, because how could this be the way that it has happened? I'm mega successful, I have achieved a lot. I have mega successful. I have achieved a lot. I have built business, I have created everything under my responsibility and control. That was all manageable and was all providing great sense of pride and level of living. But yet I was hit with a life-threatening sickness and everything started to collapse in my world. So my success was not having any. It didn't really matter anymore for me. So then I had that breakthrough anymore for me. So, and then I had that breakthrough.

Speaker 1: 18:07

I start to contemplate and see what's the internal intuitive self told me and I was wondering what my life look like, what is my own life look like if I didn't live my life? It means I lived the life of many other people or many other beliefs or many other external, external standards and models of life that I was learning and programmed for in the past, and I really didn't know how to answer that. But my intuitive self again told me that that you need to leave your business, you need to leave and let go of certain people in your life, that you need to just give yourself some space and some time to really go deeply within yourself and start to understand is this is your purpose? What is your purpose If you're not going to believe in your life? Well, I understood with my diagnosis of breast cancer, I could easily just go, I would go on if I would not contemplate and not learning from this message that I received. So of course I went to doctors, of course I was offered some treatments and of course I was offering a lot of conventional medical protocols that I was hesitant to implement.

Speaker 1: 19:59

At that stage I was still working with my internal message that I was having within me and I was almost in the state of battle. So the battling was between my logical mind, the ego mind, the logical understanding of the reality, as I was told it is, and it was another part of me that was intuitive. That was this mystical part of me which we all have but we, for some reason, are not using at all. We're not using this greater integrated faculties of who we really are to utilize and see how we can use it as our navigation system. But then I got it. I got it and I said to myself I trust, I trust what it's saying to me. I'm going to sit with my diagnosis, I'm going to sit with my sign and let that diagnosis do its job. And I agreed that if it decides to take my life, well, I was actually accepting that too.

Speaker 1: 21:33

I know how hard it is. I know how much we are afraid, how much we hold the fear when we actually receive terminal diagnoses. But we have to start to understand that all of these physical signs, all the symptoms that we have in our bodies, are actually the way of communication with us. The body communicates with us and indicates to us that there is something not right, that there is something in your life that you're not living your life. You're living life that somebody created for you. You're not living your own life. You're living the life that was preset and designed by someone else. So this really is a very powerful and a very reliable way of looking at our lives and seeing am I living my life or am I living someone else's life?

Speaker 1: 22:50

When I had created terminal disease, my intuitive self straight away told me you haven't been living your life. You live life of everything and everyone that is external to you, and there is no surprises. So I took it very seriously and that was a breakthrough for me. That was a breakthrough moment and that was the stage where I decided just to sit with myself and give time, space, quietness and trust, and and that that is that is so powerful alongside with uh, this decision of just sitting with my intuitive self I my my logical self was was quiet because my intuitive self was the driver of my life. The mind was on a background and it didn't have any objections. So I felt like that is really where we need to learn to be able to recognize who is in the driver's seat of your life. That's why I'm sharing with you this very, very personal, intimate journey. I'm sharing with you my experience and how it worked out for me in a very, very powerful way that I was able to heal my terminal disease without any medical protocols.

Speaker 1: 24:38

I was sitting in the stage of the breakthrough and I was contemplating and I was checking up with myself who is driving my life and where the trust is. And I know a lot of times the logical mind would invade the driver's seat, would actually come forward and that's where the fear starts to come in and that's where I would start to think well, I have to go, I have to do this, I have to do something to have my treatments to get myself out of this quickly and for once. But the intuitive self would sit in the background and then take over the driver's seat and saying no, you sit and you feel what is within you and you feel your power of your trust, and then you'll be fine. So this is the story that I wanted to share with you today, and I really would like you to look at all of these five stages and see where you're at on your journey.

Speaker 1: 25:58

Is it that you're now enjoying your achievements? Are you happy? You're outgoing, you create a lot of projects, you have a lot of network, you have friends. You have all of this supportive stuff around you externally, but yet when you go home at night and you have this voice that is always saying or feeling something is missing. Something is missing. If you're going to suppress it and not pay attention to this stage, you can easily go to life crisis and all the other troubles and all the other pains if you didn't pay attention to this to this stage. So I really would like to invite you to look again at this visual graphics and find out exactly where you're at. I'm, I will be, and I am very happy if you are already here, if you are already in a true success that you have already all your areas of your life sorted. You have abundance of everything. You have abundance of all forms. You're professionally fulfilled, you're creating a lot of money, you're wealthy, your relationships are healthy and fulfilling, your creations are always the way you wanted them to be. This is the true power. Well, I'm going to tell you that I am here. I am at this stage of my life and it is I'm not even sure how to describe it for you what it feels like. It is unimaginably amazing.

Speaker 1: 27:47

So, if you have any questions for me, if you, if you have any um, any comments or, uh, you want to discuss something? Please just go in here. I just going to send you. Okay, let me just remove my presentation. Go to this link and actually, with my one slide, you can actually find a little brochure that explains all the steps of what I did then after I went through these stages of my life.

Speaker 1: 28:23

So there's a lot of other visual representation of the process I call the Ascara process. If you want to have that brochure, go into this link, download it, print it and you're going to be feeling, you're going to be reading all that I went through and that's what I'm sharing. Well, this is gift for you, from me to you, and I really would like you to take it and if it resonates with you, it's going to help you. It's going to change your life. For now, I'm going to say thank you so much. Please like it, subscribe to my YouTube channel and we're going to journey together from relentless success race to a place of power and fulfillment and happiness. Thank you so much.