Maria’s story highlights the transformational impact of defining success on your terms versus the materialist definitions society emphasises:

“I felt like I was on autopilot, sort of like a walking zombie just trying to survive and deliver.

I was living a good-looking life. I had a flat in the centre of Stockholm and I was travelling for work. I had weekend trips and dinners at restaurants, but it didn’t end up being so soul-nourishing for me at the end.

So what actually changed my life for good was a leave of absence that I decided to do. I took a leave of absence for six months to travel solo in Central and South America. I studied Spanish and learned surfing.

I think that trip gave me the headspace to really reflect on my life, get to know myself better, and kind of come up with some realisations about how I want to live and how I want to feel. You know, how I want to feel in my life, in this precious life that we never know when it’s going to be over.

So I didn’t want to just grind, and grind, and grind until I retire, and then I can live. No, I want to build my life in a way that I love it and I don’t want to retire from it.

That was a big shift and then a very clear realisation that I want to prioritise my well-being and my personal and spiritual growth. Those have been very clear priorities for me ever since.”