I come bearing gifts 🎁

Hi nerds -

It’s Leo season and with its roar comes the most exciting day of my year - my birthday!

The last year has been a redefining one for me:

• I quit my job. Twice.

• I broke my plant-based streak of 8 years strong.

• After years of heavy travel, I’m finally feeling settled.

• I’ve been reconnecting with my creativity:

  • I restarted this newsletter (!!!) and I’m about to publish an upgraded personal website.

  • Have launched 2 side projects, with a few more gems on the back burner.

• I’ve been reconnecting with my femenine energy more actively - largely thanks to Aurora Brenes’ amazing programs.

• The list goes on..

In this special nerd_splash edition, I’m spicing things up and sharing the best lessons I’ve learned this year 🌶️.

brain farts *15

1. The urge to control always stems from insecurity or fear.

2. Consumption doesn’t pay nearly as many dividends as action.

3. The body knows what the mind doesn’t understand. If we dare listen, it’s often shouting.

4. Run towards the hard to make peace with it. We don’t feel long-term fulfillment by doing easy things.

5. It’s not enough to reach the objective. For the joy to be sustainable, we must enjoy living in the process.

6. What we resist, persists. What we accept, dissolves.

7. Most things can be 10x’d if we just ponder on them for a bit longer.

8. Always shoot your shot. With every “no” comes a lesson, with every “yes” an opportunity.

9. Often enough, the best ideas come not from the grind, but from the break.

10. Big goals is how we get big results. But to get big results we have to prioritize smaller goals.

11. Traveling with friends matters.

12. Speaking about our problems is how we fuel their growth. Not speaking about them is how we get disease. The sweet spot is having a bias towards action.

13. Every transition requires a closure. If we don’t do it consciously, the unconscious knot hinders until we find courage to grief. Only then, are we able to let the new in.

14. Distribution »»» everything else.

15. Our emotions are the messages of the intuition.

smart goodies

42% of homes in Panama are in precarious conditions and more than 900,000 people live in extreme poverty. That’s almost ¼ of the country’s population.

My cousin is leading a volunteer group for Techo - an organization building homes for marginal populations across Latin America.

For my birthday, I’m helping her raise $5,500 to build an entirely new house for a family in Panama.

To support, please consider donating here to help a family sleep under a roof.

funky jams

Confession: I have a not-so-secret dream that my birthday will, one day, become a holiday (did I say I’m a Leo yet?).

And because the best holidays are spent with amazing music and books, here’s my favorite ones I consumed this year.

Thank you for reading - always down to connecting over juicy ideas.

If any of these resonate, reply to this email and would love to chat!

See you on cyberspace,

Jules 🤸🏻