The sweet scents of lavender, gardenia, and rose glide by me as I approach my garden waking up from a night of restoration. Birdsong is in surround sound, layered with the melody of the nearby ocean’s soft crashing waves.

There’s a luscious stillness in my heart interwoven with a faint yet familiar beating of anxious pressure from decades of striving, achieving, and worrying that it’s never enough.

I scan my garden, noticing new buds of life contrasted with a few signs of decay. Simultaneously, I scan my inner landscape and ask,

Where am I blossoming right now? And what’s slowly coming to the end of its cycle?

I’m reminded that life is all about change, and holy shit I’ve been through more than my fair share.

After a series of life plot twists that’d make a soap opera writer jealous, I gave up the fight and learned to accept the chaos and let my healing be messy, funny, and a big break from the expected.

From deaths, breakups, and self-worth struggles in my 20’s to walking away from a successful career as a doctor of clinical psychology, mental health consultant, and university president in my 30’s, I was forced to reevaluate my life and start anew.

This wasn’t a midlife crisis moment. It was a blatant slap in the face from my mom to stop working so hard before I ended up like her…dead.

So in 2015, I did the whole Eat, Pray, Love thing in Todos Santos, Mexico, a week after closing the doors to the National Hispanic University where I was the CEO/president. I gave away all my Manolos and Armani suits for gold sneakers and avant-garde gems. I lived for my slow mornings luxuriating in my surroundings and creating art.

In 2017, I created The Good Goodbye® Approach as an alternative to the common 5 stages of grief. I published The Good Goodbye: How to Navigate Change and Loss in Life, Love, and Work and got more media coverage for my thought leadership on change & loss than Kim K. at a Balenciaga show (I mean, not really but it was a lot).

But becoming the go-to for anyone going through a loss freaked me out. I didn’t want to be known as The Death Lady. So I pivoted hard and established an online education platform of business & leadership courses for entrepreneurs who wanted their life story to be the catalyst for creating an unignorable public presence and global impact.

Fast forward one year of watching my online business grow faster than bouganvillea, I spent 3 glorious months in the summer of 2019 roadtripping my way through Mexico with my pup, Lovebug. When we returned from our trip, I was met with: a death threat from a stranger lingering in front of my San Francisco apartment; Lovebug developing a life-threatening illness; my 9th car accident (don’t judge); and a clear knowing it was time to sell all my belongings and start a new chapter – with no idea where I was heading.

Two years and 17 Airbnb’s later, Lovebug completed her near-death chapter and decided to champion on as my ride-or-die. I had a thriving business I could easily give up for days filled with naps and finding seashells at the seashore. I still had no idea where I was heading, so I returned to Mexico in my MINI Countryman with Lovebug and two suitcases of my cherished gems to find “home.”

One day while driving in the middle of the Baja desert with no cell service or signs of human life anywhere, I threw my itinerary and false sense of security out the window. I accepted that I had no clue where home was, what the universe had in store for me, or when I’d find the next public restroom (there are none…you pee on the side of the highway while coyotes watch).

I found solace in my own Good Goodbye teachings of embracing the unknown and finding magic in the in-between. I practiced the nervous system-calming techniques I had taught to hundreds of clients and students to get me through those moments when I so badly wanted someone to reassure me that everything was going to be…fabulous. Because I didn’t want just fine.

And then in 2021, as if the gods of manifestation decided to sprinkle extra glitter on me, I stepped into my dream home overlooking the glimmering Sea of Cortez. I started an internationally-ranked podcast with my BFF teaching the world to live their best life by making death their BFF. I even got a taste of love again after a 7-year hiatus.

But I’m not here to give you a fairy tale ending or a hero’s journey. Because as much as I’d like to say all the things worked out, I’m just starting to get up from being catapulted on my ass again after…how does the script go…losing it all.

Capricorn stubbornness some say. Others say my soul’s being cleared out for something magnificent.

I say, sometimes life’s hard. And sometimes, it’s good.

And that is enough.

Those harder than life moments that broke me more times than my bank account turned me into a captivating force of nature with a soul-seeing intuition and a fiercely determined spirit.

Even though my background in running universities and businesses (and men out of my life) was enough to join the ranks of women who get movies made about them, learning to navigate change and loss with an openness to the uncertainty it brings put me in a league of my own.

I’ve designed an unconventional life where allowing the unknown is my compass (yes, Papi, I hear you about getting that stable university job).

I collect wisdom from stillness and connect to my power by living in the present moment. Some call it irresponsible—I call it clarity.

My energy is my most valuable currency. I fiercely cherish it, spending long stretches luxuriating in my own company—turns out solitude is more intoxicating than approval.

This kind of clarity isn’t learned from the top podcasts or personal growth books…it comes from finally letting go of needing to control it all.

Whether you’re mourning a death or a split with your BFF, having a career crisis, or going through a whole Phoenix rising from the ashes moment, my teachings help you uncoil your grip on life so you can make “what’s next” a full on invitation for anything and everything to be possible for you.

And.

I remind you to not lose your magnificent self when the other shoe drops. Because honey, it will drop. Many will. But that’s when you can turn to your own spirit and wise guidance to lead you through the downpour.

I believe we can make the twists & turns that churn our stomachs—and yet in some fucked up way inspire us to keep believing dreams can come true— into a fabulous LOVE Story…the story of your life.

Join me in creating the stories that celebrate the pure fucking magic of it all.

© GLADYS ATO 2024  |  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED  |  PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN BY INK AND PULP