Sneak into my diary: 4 juicy breakthroughs of 2021

Gorgeous,

2021 has been a MASSIVE year and a holy baptism into a deeper understanding of who I am and why I’m here! There were highs (hello, dream home by the ocean) and revelations that took me deeper into service (goodbye, overwork).

I’ve worked deeply to restore my health, harmonize my work environment, ignite my intuition, and set bodacious boundaries.

As a gift to you for the festive season, here are the 4 key breakthroughs that have elevated my spirit and business in 2021 and carried me into a higher realm of leadership, self-honoring, and love — perfectly setting me up for 2022 and a deeper crystalline focus on service, soul, and connection.

Each breakthrough comes with an affirmation to help raise your frequency and set you up for your most powerful year yet.

So let’s dive in, diva.

About a year ago, I finally had an operation that completely changed my life. After spending my entire adult life in pain and undergoing surgery after surgery, I had a hysterectomy. And surprisingly, the most significant part of my months-long recovery was not the physical aspect but how it made me look at my sabotaging addiction to overwork and seemingly endless willingness to carry other people who were not stepping up.

The operation left me temporarily unable to do some of the things I previously did and at the level I was used to doing them. In the past, if someone in my vortex was incompetent or even simply lazy, I’d take on their duties and ‘carry’ them. That’s what the good girl and go-getter does, right?! If they were under-performing, I’d overperform.

I finally understood that this habit had caused a constant flow of stress in my life, and it was slowly twisting me into an exhausted wreck of a woman.

For me, it resulted in adrenal issues that left me depleted and on the verge of a breakdown time and time again. Adrenal fatigue is called the 21st Century Syndrome, as many of us in the modern age have suffered with it at one time or another. Some of us carry the hustle and addiction to fight-or-flight as a badge of honor. Work, work, work until we’re dead in the ground. Ugh! It works until it doesn’t and we’re brought to our knees, slammed into submission, and we’re either left waiting for someone to rescue us or we remain stuck in the grind for life.

I take full responsibility for having carried people in the past. I take full responsibility for the suffering I’ve experienced as a result. And I also now take full responsibility for no longer accepting this behavior.

Here’s the thing, gorgeous. You don’t build and maintain a global business if you’re stuck in overwork and overwhelm. My golden edge as a leader is positioning myself within my company to be focused on service, my vision, and creativity, and I can’t do that if I’m doing the work of others.

Recovering from major surgery stopped me in my tracks and made me reflect deeply upon my health, behaviors, and beliefs. What was I doing that perpetuated stress in my life? What was I allowing that meant I had to do more work than I needed to?

The key was realizing that the only way to ditch this pattern was to raise my standards about how I show up and how I allow other people to show up in my life.

I also realized that I was still dealing with the grief from my father’s passing. It was impacting my health, which means it was impacting everything in my life, so I faced all the grief and pain from his passing and my past. I won’t lie. This year has been intense, but I’ve come out of it with a deeper sense of my boundaries and what I will tolerate in my life. This has changed the entire way I run my business as I’ve ascended into a higher level of leadership and embodied crystal clear CEO clarity.

I know many women struggle with boundaries, particularly the visionary women who have had a lifetime of being suppressed and ridiculed for being the golden unicorns they truly are. But these old beliefs must now be laid to rest if you want to ascend, diva. It’s time to make your health, wealth, and dreams the priority of your life.

CHANT:

I am divinely radiant, rested, and nourished. I am healthy, hopeful, and happy with the boundaries I’ve built to truly honor myself. Thank-you. It is done, and so it is.

2021 was also the year I finally understood how important it is that every member of my team is a perfect fit for the energy of my brand. Energy is my barometer of the soul. If I feel it dragging with someone, I know something’s not right and will often then experience it as anxiety or pain. It may present as behavior that doesn’t fit my company’s culture, a resistance to uplevelling, or plain old gossip that I start hearing from other team members.

These are an immediate red flag for me because the second someone’s behavior diverts your attention from service, it becomes an energy drain for your business. It doesn’t mean the person isn’t ‘good’. (I find labels of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ unhelpful in most situations.) It means that they’re either not a right fit for the company and team or that they need some help to rise into a greater potential for themselves. But, diva, that requires them to actively grow (without you carrying them).

This happened with several team members over the year, and I released them, wishing them the best. Immediately, I noticed new energy flooding in. Not right or wrong energy — just new energy that was a better fit for the business (because when it’s not the right fit, the situation can become toxic at light speed).

Like breakthrough #1, this is also about building bodacious boundaries to honor yourself and others.

It took me a long time to do this though! I’d felt so suppressed and disrespected as a child and young woman that whenever I went to speak my truth, it would often fire out like a cannonball shattering everything in its wake.

The underlying resentment and anger layered my communication and often stopped me from asking for what I really wanted. Plus I wasn’t taught or shown that it was okay to ask for (and go get) what I wanted (like, hello, just about every woman on the planet until we shed the shackles of societal conditioning).

So I held back… until my daughter was born and surrendered, and finally took a vow to allow in everything I desired. Five years later I’d built a multimillion-dollar business online, but there was still work to do (there is always work to do). I’d supported my father with palliative care through his last year of life and was exhausted. I needed more support. Again, I surrendered and that’s when I opened to another level of receiving and self-love. I knew my team had to step up or I would unravel fast.

I finally realized that they needed to honor their roles and do their jobs, and that’s as deep as it needed to get. The emotion, the exhaustion, the constant juggling — I could let it all go. I didn’t have to feel ‘bad’ or guilty because I’m generous with my team. (That’s who I am — I see generosity as the antithesis to scarcity, so duh!) I don’t ask for them to give anything until I give something myself.

But our ultimate goal is to be of service to our clients and customers, so everyone is asked to step up and into their power. It doesn’t matter what position you hold, because it’s important that everyone understands and acts on their responsibilities. Hint: their healing is their responsibility too. Yes, give them space to do that but having bodacious boundaries in place allows you to ascend into a greater level of leadership as a woman who runs a multimillion-dollar business.

There’s no room for indecision, weakness, or my own issues to pervade the business environment. There’s no room to be a people-pleaser. And I work f#cking hard on myself to ensure I hold no discord within myself that can infect my business. Simply, I expect the same from people around me.

Diva, if you’re buckling under the pressure and disharmony of a team that doesn’t flow easily, then I invite you to build your own bodacious boundaries.

Commit to rising into who you truly are and accept nothing less from those within your vortex — and you’ll accelerate your ascension and manifest your wildest dreams at light speed.

CHANT:

I manifest the most incredible people around me who are loyal, diligent, intelligent and who bring their A-game every single day. I manifest loving, kind, thoughtful, proactive people easily in my life. My business is harmonious and full of joy. Thank you. It is done, and so it is.

I’ve always been a ‘do-er’. I used to be proud of that until I realized it wasn’t getting me anywhere except stuck in the poisonous rat race that’s set up to keep you in submission and in mediocrity — especially for women!

So now I’m learning to shut off from the outside world. Importantly, this means that I have to trust more. I have to trust that I’ve implemented all the systems, procedures, training, and standards in my business so my employees can do their jobs well. I have to trust that my managers will hold the space that I used to hold. And they do. Do you know how freaking liberating this is?!?

But when things mess up as they inevitably do from time to time, it’s still important to stop, reflect, connect (with yourself and your vision), and allow new opportunities to arise. Giving myself this time is actually a sign of divine success. I nourish myself with walks, massage, meditation, sleep, breathwork, and family time. I also have an exercise coach who takes me hiking. Can I go for a walk by myself? Sure, but if I hire a coach, I’m invested and I show the f#ck up.

Take a mini-holiday by yourself like I did for the first time this year. My 8-year-old daughter no longer needs me at the same level as she used to, which means I can do this. I’m now planning 3 girlfriend trips next year as well as a solo adventure. They’re in my calendar as non-negotiable because when I do this, they have a 99% chance of happening rather than just trying to fit them in ‘sometime’ (which is what most people do and why most people don’t ever get around to self-care).

With the space, solitude, and self-care that I’ve allowed in this year, my whole life has been re-energized.

Elizabeth Gilbert recently said that the revolutionary woman isn’t necessarily the fierce woman: it’s the well-rested woman. But my take on it is that you can be both.

To be a visionary woman who survives means you may have to be fierce, but not in the sense of fighting and pushing. Fierce can be calm. People sometimes think that high standards and boundaries mean you’re fierce and/or mean, but it really means you’re a champion for yourself. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.

So, diva, I invite you to focus on creating some space for yourself and raising your standard of self-care.

Go on a solo day adventure: walk in nature or watch a chick flick by yourself. Go out with your BFF and do something you both love. Dance, listen to music, laugh, and have some fun because when you’re in a pleasure state, your body and spirit will be stimulated into relaxation and creativity and your digestion, metabolism, and central nervous system will work better as a bonus!

CHANT:

I’m worthy of receiving space, pleasure, support, and ease. I now take the time to nourish myself and create sacred boundaries to ensure that I am deeply nourished. Thank-you. It is done, and so it is.

2021 finally brought to fruition a lifelong dream for me: a house by the beach. But… it took a shitload of rising above the fear to get there!

Chris and I had started the year with the idea that before my next rotation around the sun and our 10th wedding anniversary (both in October), we wanted to feel like we were living at the beach. And what better way to do that than by actually living at the beach?

Slowing down and giving ourselves some space meant that we had time to work on this intention, but it still happened super quickly. We started looking and immediately found something we loved (spread over 4 floors, one block from the beach with great views, and perfect for both our home life and running our business). It had gone to auction but was passed in. It’d been on the market for only 4 days but I knew that if we wanted it, we had to act fast.

The passing of my dad and COVID made me more mindful of how I was living my life. Was this my highest level? Or did I want to be living near the beach with more access to nature for my health, wellbeing and longevity? The answer was a HECK YES! To that last question. I realized that I’d worked really hard to grow my business and get it to where it was now, and now the business had to work for us. I was no longer tied to being in a particular location. Diva, this is the freedom I’d been craving all my life.

What does freedom look like to you, diva? How can you shift things to match that vision? How can you open yourself even more to the possibility?

CHANT:

I am now aligning with the highest vision I have for my life, my dream home, and my ideal lifestyle. I am allowed to have all this without having to pay penance. I can create whatever I want with ease, love and grace. I’m making money in the most effortlessly loving, divine and sacred way. Thank-you. It is done, and so it is.

So, diva, I sincerely hope that my breakthroughs have inspired you to examine some of your own self-sabotaging beliefs. Even I, the queen of my self-made multi-million dollar, am always learning and growing and ascending each and every day, and as I live by what I’ve learned, I look forward to the new lessons and wisdom that 2022 will bring for myself and for you.

Diva, if you truly want this next year to be THE ONE where everything changes, then you have to overcome your fear or you’ll keep floundering spiritually, physically, and financially. My team and I have crafted the perfect journey to take you and your business from mess to millionairess… and it all begins with an obligation-free phone call.

Book your chat with my divine team TODAY and we’ll help you map out your million dollar brand. This is not a pitch-fest: this is a full breakdown of your business and the starting line for your most successful year yet.

To your divine and sacred success,

Ingrid Arna is the founder and CEO of The Ingrid Arna Company and the creator of the Gucci of online business programs, High End Empire. Ingrid Arna and her company are leading the charge in teaching conscious capitalism and building leaders who are devoted to global healing. The return is massive impact and million dollar brands that give back.

Since becoming a mother, the only resolutions Ingrid has stuck to are swapping G-strings for granny panties and quadrupling her fees. She’s never been happier.