We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maria Vandenburg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maria below.

Alright, Maria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Being someone who constantly strives for growth, I’ve taken risks for as long as I have been conscious of the fact that they exist.

There are three that are currently coming to mind:

1. Being brave enough to quit my stable job in Seattle and move across the world by myself, multiple times.
2. Quitting my corporate job THE DAY after I graduated from my MBA Program (instead of going to Disneyland )
3. The publication and launch of my own work (www.theakasharecords.com) which honestly still terrifies me to this day.

Maria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Tell us about The Akasha Records 

The Akasha Records is my first trilogy series. It revolves around the idea that every human being has a ‘Shadow’ who appears in animal form. Through working with them, we can uncover limiting beliefs, integrate our wounds to ultimately ideally learn to love ourselves on a deeper level than we currently do now. The caveat, however, in order to interact with and get to know our Shadow, we first have to be open to the idea of them.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This time has felt like its about coming to realize that expressing my pain is OK. I have been repressing it my ENTIRE life for fear that if I expressed it, it would be too much, and I would lose the people I love. I may have lost one, and that loss of that relationship I am not sure I will ever fully recover from. BUT, I have realized that there is really nothing more healing than allowing myself to feel my pain, and to know that it’s OK to sometimes not be ok I have been denying myself this forever, abandoning myself for fear of losing someone else, but losing my connection with myself in the process.

Blog on this is here:

(in order to see the image, you would need to click the link): https://www.justmariakv.com/post/30-days-of-authenticity-using-my-deepest-core-wound-as-a-portal

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are so many, but one of my favorite moments was my time with Charles Handy as part of my MBA program in London. He talked of the importance of “staying in one’s garden” and “being brave enough to leap”

His eyes sparkled at my announcement of my writing, but he also left me with a few gems of advice:

•  ”You can’t plan these things, but be ready to move, be ready for the chance encounters”
• ” If your eyes light up… do more of that”

And finally, he stated the need to “stand in the orchard.” Which meant the need to network, to place myself in the right environments, like this one with Canvas Rebel which I am very grateful for. How can I collect any apples if I’m not in the orchard?

Blog here: https://www.justmariakv.com/post/a-magical-evening-with-charles-handy

Contact Info:

• First Trilogy Series Website: https://www.theakasharecords.com
• Online Community (Becoming Authentically U will relaunch here: www.weare-justus.com
• Personal Website: www.justmariakv.com

Image Credits
Curly Hair: My mother Juliyya (Sheri) Vandenburg Everything Else: Me