Living the vanlife has been an extraordinary journey of self-discovery and connection. The freedom and simplicity of life on the road have provided me with countless lessons, but perhaps the most profound is the art of tuning in and listening to my breath and internal wisdom. In this post, from my podcast "Raw & Radiant" [join the episode here] I'll share how the unique experiences and challenges of vanlife have deepened my practice of breathwork and helped me tap into my inner guidance.

The Journey Begins [tap here to follow along]

Two years ago, I bought a van, Alani 🚐 and took off on a wild ride across the US with the sweetest chocolate lab, Olivia Grace. From South Florida to Southern Idaho, down to Southern California, and beyond, each mile brought new lessons, opportunities for growth and empowerment.

Facing Fears: Overcoming Challenges with Breathwork

Picture this: driving through a torrential rainstorm with white knuckles and a heart pounding like it's auditioning for a heavy metal band. That was me, panicking behind the wheel from childhood trauma until I remembered to focus on my breath. Slowing my breathing, I found calm in the chaos and transformed my panic into power. 

Embracing Breathwork: Finding Zen on the Road

Vanlife isn’t just about epic sunsets and Instagram-worthy shots. It’s also about finding zen in unexpected places. Whether parked in a serene forest or along the ocean shores, each breath becomes a meditation, a moment of connection to my inner wisdom.

Tip for Beginners: Start by finding a quiet spot, either in nature or your van. Close your eyes, take a deep breath in, and exhale slowly. Repeat this process, focusing on the sensations of your breath.

Trusting Intuition: Listening to Your Inner Wisdom

Living on the road has turned me into a human intuition radar. From choosing safe parking spots to navigating social interactions, I've learned to trust the subtle signals from my body. This self-trust is my guiding light, helping me make choices that are best for me.

Here's an Example for you: One night, I parked at what seemed like a perfect spot, but my gut and my dog said otherwise! Trusting my intuition, how my body was reacting and my breath, I chose to listen to my inner wisdom. Dodged what potentially was an unsafe area. Tune into the show where I share more of the creepy details!

The Magic of Breathwork and Vanlife

Vanlife has been a profound teacher, guiding me to listen to my breath and cultivate internal wisdom. It's a journey that has transformed not only my relationship with myself but also my approach to life. I invite you to explore your own journey, embrace your breath, and discover the magic within.

➡️ I'd love to hear your story of self-trust and breathwork in the comments below.

Let’s inspire each other on this wild ride called life!

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TRANSCRIPT:

Victoria Starr:
Welcome to Raw and Radiant, the podcast that ignites your spirit and empowers your soul. Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey? Here, we give other women permission to embrace their truth, to find the courage to choose themselves first. Because guess what? You are not alone. Join us in this massive journey of empowerment and courage. Together we'll illuminate your inner spark, empowering you to embrace the radiant light within and show you how magical you are. It's time to unleash your potential and make a difference in this world. Are you ready to step into the raw and radiant version of you? Hello and welcome back Magical Soul for another episode of Raw and Radiant. I am so excited that you are here. This is a solo episode and today I'm going to be sharing with you how van life has taught me to tune in and to listen to my breath and to cultivate this internal wisdom within me. For so long, I've lived in a world in my body where I was so in my mental head that I was doing all the things where I actually cut off my wisdom and the voice of my breath and the voice of my inner sanctuary, my inner soul telling me and guiding me how to flow through life. when I bought my van almost two years ago, July 1st, 2024, will be my two-year mark, which I'm so excited to celebrate with you. But that's for another episode. One of the things that really has allowed me to cultivate this self-trust within me is being full-time in the van with Olivia Grace, my chocolate lab, as we have navigated driving the roads from South Florida to Southern Idaho, down into Southern California, Baja, Texas, North Carolina, and back. So many magical places we've been to, but when we first started out on the road two years ago, Self-trust was something that I was really leaning into, and I was trying to navigate and trying to cultivate this feeling within me of cultivating this self-trust. So van life has given me that opportunity. But one of the things that I really, really needed to do was tune in and listen to my breath, to tune in and listen to the internal wisdom within me. So van life is all about these magical wild adventures, beautiful epic sunsets on the coast, on the Pacific, or maybe across the desert. And sometimes maybe there's some questionable hygiene, but That's for another episode. It turns out that this nomadic lifestyle has some really zen perks, has some really growth opportunities, and has some really wisdom and magic within it. So I just want to share with you how van life has taught me the fine art of tuning in and to listening to my breath, to unleashing my inner sage. and maybe you wonder how breath work works or how it can change your life, but this journey that I'm going to share with you is about to get real and raw and how the open road has helped me master the magic of breath work and has given me the opportunity to lean into my internal wisdom to reduce stress and to unlock the voice that's within me. So as I started out two years ago, I had no idea literally what I was doing. I knew I had a van. I knew I had to drive it. I knew that there was a lot of challenges and changes and growth that was going to happen. So as I began my journey from South Florida to Southern Idaho, where I facilitated my first breathwork session for Open Roads in McCall, Idaho, I really had this fear of driving through really, really heavy rainstorms and hailstorms. Something from, I don't know if it's a past life or some trauma as a child that I had been in some really bad car accidents. But the universe delivered to me this wide open road with this massive rainstorm. And it was a deluge. And it was something that I really like white knuckled the steering wheel of the van. And I witnessed my breath being held in my chest, like almost as if I was holding my breath as I was driving down the road in this state of angst and in the state of panic and witnessing like the trauma that was coming up within me as I was driving. And so I just sat there with this as there were some incidences in front of me that happened with other cars that thankfully I was safe and I was being kept safe, but I was also being given this lesson to cultivate this trust within me by tapping into the slowness of my breath, just simply slowing down my breath to find my breath within my diaphragm, within my belly, within my parasympathetic nervous system. when we breathe from our chest, we breathe in this angst and this overwhelm and this fight or flight, this sympathetic nervous system. So as I was traveling down this highway with all these other cars and this deluge of this rainstorm, I reminded myself, I tapped into the wisdom within me to find my breath and my belly to really slow down, to find that long, slow inhale and that long, slow exhale, to calm the nerves, to calm whatever was coming up in my mind. So through that experience, that gave me the opportunity to remember and to rewrite my neuropathways within my brain that, A, I can create the stress. I can do this. And also I can manage the unknown, the challenge, the growth through the power of my breath. So fast forward, it took me about six days to make it from South Florida to McCall, Idaho, where, like I said, I was facilitating my first van life breathwork session. I found myself not knowing a soul, not knowing who I was going to meet. I was on my own, simply with Olivia, and I had to find a place to stay overnight prior to the event starting. So I knew I could stay in some BLM land in Idaho because that was something that I was familiar with since I had spent 30 years of my life living in North Idaho. I knew that was an opportunity for me. So I found a road that went down into some BLM land and I pulled off to the side. And I actually had a phone call, a conversation with my daughter. I had the side of the van open and, um, looking out over the trees. And it was really, really magical. The daytime was about two, three in the afternoon. Something that I've learned living full time in the van is where I'm going to stay at night. If I'm by myself with nobody else around is I know I want to get there before. it's even twilight, just to assess my surroundings, to be able to feel how the surroundings feel, to be able to walk Olivia before it gets dark, and just to really cultivate this awareness of my external environment and to really sit with how my internal environment is feeling. Does it feel safe for me? Can Can I relax? Can I witness what's happening with maybe other people or other surroundings that's happening? So tuning in and listening to my intuition, listening to what's inside of me and listening to my breath. So as I was parked at this pullout on the side of the road, having this conversation with my daughter, hung up the phone. I decide I'm like, I'm going to close the van. I don't, I remember there were some bugs coming in the van. So I closed the side of the door, had the windows up and I knew For safety's sake, I did have my location on for my daughter to see where I was, but I locked the doors because I was just gonna settle in for the evening. Well, while I was on the phone with her, I noticed this truck went by, it had a camper on it, and it was looking inside of my van as I was on the phone. I was just so profoundly aware of my surroundings, like hypersensitive, but that's not a bad thing in this case. So as I hung up the phone, like I said, the the truck came back by the same truck with the camper. I had the doors locked. I had the windows up. Olivia was sitting on the front seat. The front windshield cover was over. So you couldn't necessarily see inside the van. And he decided to get out of the van. He parked it. He got out and he walked around my van. And it was at that moment that I had this red flag moment in my body. The skin was crawling. My breath was becoming really hypersensitive to what was happening. Olivia was now growling and barking at this person that was walking outside of my van. And at this time, I knew I am not safe here. I am not staying here. As soon as he leaves, I was hidden in the back of the van so he could not see me. And I was actually encouraging her to growl and to bark even more. As soon as he left, I'm like, I'm out of here. I'm getting the fuck out. It doesn't feel good. I need to listen to my internal system. As I'm telling you this story right now, I have goosebumps and my skin is crawling. Just remembering how that felt in my body and how my breath was activated. Like literally, I had this fight or flight. And that's when that's really good for you to tap into that awareness and that knowingness that's within you because, hey, I don't know who this person is. What's gonna happen when it becomes night? There's no one else around. I'm leaving. So I did. I listened to my internal system. I listened to the wisdom that was within me. And I got the flip out of there. I found another parking area that felt more safe. But it's those moments living in the van that I have learned to be able to trust myself. I have learned to be able to tap into my breath. How am I feeling? How how is the environment being received into my body? Can I sit and quiet the noise that sometimes a lot of times happening within my brain so that I can get really aware of what's happening within me? Because there's so much wisdom and there's so much knowledge within the body that if you just simply sit for a moment and allow that external noise to go into the background and to just come home to yourself, and to listen to the breath, to listen to the goosebumps that are happening, to listen to those little nudges that happen when you're out there, especially as a solo van lifer. There's a lot of parking lots that are great to stay at. I stayed at some Cracker Barrels before that are a nice quick place to stay within the van that you can just stay overnight and get up and leave the next morning. It's not some place that I tend to loiter. Also, I have found that I follow this app. It's called Harvest Host and I pay for a yearly subscription because I like to find new experiences and this Harvest Host app allows you to stay at wineries, allows you to stay at maybe breweries or whiskey distilleries. I've stayed at sugar plantations in Louisiana. I've stayed at retired horse farms. I've stayed at alpaca farms and goat farms. I held a five day old baby goat. Like it really is this beautiful location that as a traveler traveling in the United States that you can find magical peoples that are willing to offer their space up for the night in exchange for a purchase of what maybe they have to offer, whether I bought goat milk, I've bought fresh eggs, I've bought so many things, alpaca socks. So it's really this beautiful exchange. But what I'm getting at is there has been a Harvest host two times that I have pulled in that I'm like, no freaking way. One of them was at, I think it was on Route 66 in New Mexico that they advertised as a great place. I've looked at the reviews. I pulled up to the place again during daylight in the early afternoon hours and my van needed to go into the parking lot. And it was a, ended up being a bar and there was a chain link fence that would close at night and that was a full body hard stop no fucking way am i staying here am i going to be trapped in this parking lot with the gate closed So I recognize that this self-trust that I have created over now, these two years of living in the van, that I can trust and rely on that internal wisdom. I can tune into my breath to witness how am I feeling in this moment. There was another time where I was in the same actually location in New Mexico where they wanted me to park behind a building between the building and the railroad tracks and that again was a full body hard no there was no way just looking at the surroundings that did not feel safe to me. So living full-time in the van has helped me cultivate the sacred wisdom within my body to listen to my breath. And when I don't know, there's some times where I'm like, do I stay? Do I not? Do I stay? Do I not? Like there's this ebb and flow and I'm not sure if it's right or not. I simply take that as a no. When the yes happens, it's an immediate yes. It's an immediate, my body feels safe. My breath is calm. I don't have those willies that are happening on the back of my neck. My hair's not standing up on the back of my neck. That has been this beautiful gift for me now to witness that I have been able to cultivate this self-trust within myself. So this story, I hope it resonates with you. I hope it allows you to receive the permission slip to do something for you. to witness that you can cultivate the self-trust within you. You can rely on your breath. You can rely on the wisdom and the magic that's within you that tells you the yes and the no's, that gives you the full body stops, that gives you the full body no's. And when it's on that teeter-totter of the ooh, maybe, then really take that as a no, because there's something better. There's something different. There's something maybe more profound for you. So I hope this resonates with you. If it does, please Just share with me in the comments. I would love to hear your story of inspiration, of learning how to trust yourself, learning how to tap into your breath, learning how to rely on your internal wisdom and your intuition. That would mean so much for me if you could also rate and review the show. It helps to get my message out to more people, to create this ripple effect of empowerment, of courage, of bravery, of stepping into the unknown. Also, if you are listening to Raw and Radiant this episode during the month of June 2024, I would love for you to share it on Instagram. Tag me, Victoria Lee Star, to be entered into a drawing for a free 60-minute virtual breathwork session with me. It's valued at $222. The drawing will take place July 1st, the start of my birthday month. That is 2022. And if you desire to connect with me in any other way, my website and my Instagram and my Facebook will be at the bottom of the show notes. Lastly, if you want to experience a Breathwork session with me, if it's something that has been nudging you to experience, I have a beautiful Breathwork membership that has been cultivated over the past two years of living full-time in the van. have 22 different curated breathwork sessions in there, each one of them with different intentions, each one of them with different playlists. It is always growing. I'm always dropping in more breathwork sessions in there. So it's called Soul Union Sanctuary. It's a breathwork membership. It is in the show notes and is also on my website. And if you just feel the hard body, oh hell yes, let's try this. I have a four-week private breathwork coaching trial that I would be honored and grateful to hold you in the space of allowing your breath to be the wisdom and the magic that your mind needs to get out of the way and to be able to trust yourself, to be able to cultivate that self-love, that inner knowing, and to find the wisdom and magic within you. So again, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for being here. You are the heart and soul of Living Raw and Radiant. Take this energy, this courage, and infuse it into every moment of your life. Remember, you have their permission to choose you. I invite you to stay connected, keep shining your light, and continue to embody the essence of living raw and radiant. Together, we are igniting a movement of empowerment, authenticity, and soulful living. Until next time, my friends, keep living your soul's desires.