Paolina Milana - author and writer for hire

Everybody has a story. I've been telling people's stories for decades. I'm an award-winning writer and published author with journalistic roots and a marketing background. Let me help you write or ghostwrite the story of your life. Also available for corporate brand storytelling.

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Defying Gravity

July 4, 2017 By Paolina Milana Leave a Comment

“I am Londolozi and the message I have for you is to defy gravity.”

When Martha Beck asked the 12 wayfinders who accompanied her this past May/June to South Africa as part of her STAR program to drop into wordlessness and to hear what the sacred ground and spirits of Londolozi were trying to tell us, each of us received our own unique message. Mine was “Defy Gravity.”

defying gravityMartha had told me during a conference call prior to departing for this trip that she was so excited to meet me because I was “the exact archetype” she wrote about in her book, “Diana, Herself.” The story is fiction, an allegory, about an average woman with a less than perfect past, a conflicted present, and a feeling that she’s an insignificant little girl. This character embarks on an adventure that awakens her to her power and makes her realize she is limitless. Diana initially refuses to believe in her power because she feels that to do so is arrogance. But as Martha explained, the true definition of arrogance is to claim oneself. Culture and language and society have translated the word to mean something that’s negative. Diana must kill the good girl within to become who she is meant to be.

Martha’s book as well as Londolozi’s message both resonated with me. Actually, the word “resonated” doesn’t do the transformation justice. “Enlightened” is more truth. Something within me clicked. And similar to the lyrics of “Defy Gravity” from the Broadway musical “Wicked”: “I’m through accepting limits cuz someone says there so…”

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Filed Under: believing in oneself, change Tagged With: defy gravity, englightenment, Martha Beck, power, Wicked

Embracing the Power of Now

June 24, 2017 By Paolina Milana Leave a Comment

So much was learned during my journey back to Africa. The first time I visited in August/September 2015, I felt myself dissolving into the land. This most recent trip in May/June 2017, I felt myself expanding into the sky.lion kill africa

I’m not sure I can explain the connection I feel with everything when in Africa. Maybe it’s because the animals are so honest. The focus is on the now. Even the experience of a kill is not dwelled on long after. It is part of the cycle of life. The predator has only one motive in its killing: food needed to sustain its life. The prey does not feel it did something to call upon itself an attack. And those left behind may mourn their fallen mate, however, they do not dwell in the past.

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Filed Under: believing in oneself, change Tagged With: Africa, Boyd Varty, courage, empowerment, enlightenment, Londolozi, Martha Beck, uncertainty, wayfinders

Wordlessness and Oneness

June 8, 2017 By Paolina Milana Leave a Comment

I embarked on a journey as one of 12 women, each of us strangers, to South Africa’s Londolozi Reserve. We were with life coach and author Martha Beck, part of her African STAR program. During our workshops, we’d set off every morning before the sun rose to explore the unknown, track the animals, drop into wordlessness and become one with the universe. When we’d return to camp, Martha would ask us to do a “three-minute capture”: to write down whatever thoughts came to mind of what we had just experienced. Here below are a few of mine. They most likely will mean nothing to anybody but me. And I love that.

africa tree

Caregiver to all from age ten. Raised by a schizophrenic mom, then to raise a schizophrenic sister. Tried to control it all to my own neglect. Failed in so many ways. Work became my identity. I ignored the work that was – for me – natural and more play. I always worried and thought of the next paycheck, in preparation for the next shoe that would fall. Now I am finding myself adrift alone. No anchor. Both good and bad.

 

The sounds: the gnarls of the lions and their breathing and sparring. The sounds: the gurgling of the elephants slurping water, splashing it over themselves, and I think toward us to ward us off. The sounds: of silence with a stealthy leopard and the padded feet of elephant that you just don’t hear other than crackling twigs beneath. The sounds: of interference and noise, of people chattering, even whispering, trying to overpower the peace, along with the voices in my head.

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Filed Under: believing in oneself, change Tagged With: Africa, enlightenment, Martha Beck, oneness, wordlessness

Recent Posts

  • Life Lessons From One Celebrated Lone Wolf
  • Normal or Nuts?: Fine Lines When Crazy Calls
  • The Courage To Choose: Reigniting Fires Within
  • Broken and Scarred: Wounds of Worth
  • Divine Intervention and Faith

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