The End of an Era
2025 has been...a time
I don't need to list all of the ways that this year as felt unprecedented. Both at a macro and a micro level, 2025 has been different from anything I've ever experienced. We have been talking about the impact of Pluto moving into Aquarius for a few years, but I am not sure even I was prepared for what this would feel like. We still have a month left to make this year whatever we want it to be. If you slept through the entire month of December, no one would judge you - at least not me.
One of the benefits of working in both healing and travel spaces is that one usually feeds the other. People want respite. They want an escape. They want to learn and grow. Once people step out of their roles, which they can often only do in a different environment, they start to reprioritize their lives. I have learned that the more people travel, the more they transfer meaning from material things to experiences. I have never met a person who travelled once. Once you learn how to explore and reap the benefits of new experiences, you can't go back to a life without respite and renewal. You don't just go on one retreat. You make retreats a part of your life, and you often rearrange your life to make more retreats, more travel, and more respite a part of your lifestyle. Having the opportunity to live in all of these worlds, as a travel concierge, as a tour company, and as a retreat leader. I get to see how so many people choose journeys for different reasons, but at the end, they all want the same thing. To actually LIVE their lives in joy and abundance. The truth is, that's what we all desire. We often just believe in different paths to get there.
In prepping for my retreat in DR this February, I had to do a lot of research on self-love. How we develop it, how, when, and where we often lose it, and most importantly, the tools and strategies people need to learn how to both develop and maintain it. For most of us, our ability to love ourselves is developed in the womb and in early childhood. The experience of first 6 years of our lives is a good indicator of how much we feel connected to and supported by our love for ourselves. One of the indicators of peoples struggles with self-love is an ACEs test - Adverse Childhood Experiences. Researchers and medical professionals have agreed on a set of 10 standard childhood experiences that may pre-determine how we experience life.
These are the original trauma categories measured in the Kaiser Permanente ACE Study
ABUSE
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Physical abuse
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Emotional/verbal/psychological abuse
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Sexual abuse
NEGLECT
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Physical neglect (not enough food, medical care, safety)
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Emotional neglect (no nurturing, affection, presence)
HOUSEHOLD DYSFUNCTION
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Domestic violence (mother or caregiver treated violently)
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Substance abuse in the home
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Mental illness in the household
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Parental separation or divorce
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Incarcerated household member
These are the 10 primary trauma exposures statistically linked to higher rates of:
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Chronic illness
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Autoimmune disease
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Anxiety & depression
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Addiction & compulsive behaviors
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Difficulty with relationships, attachment, trust
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Emotional regulation struggles
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Nervous system dysregulation
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Increased inflammation + stress hormone load
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Higher risk of early mortality
Gabor Maté in particular emphasizes that trauma isn’t just what happens, but how the nervous system internalizes unmet emotional needs, shame, isolation, and fear when support is missing. Understanding how some of these experiences impact your level of self-love is critical to learning how to reframe the narrative of your life and understand that you are not defined by your trauma, but that it is a part of a complex and nuanced experience that offers you a set of skills that people who have not survived adversity simply do not have.
My goal in all of the work that I do; introducing people to healing practices, teaching people how to connect with different places and cultures in the world, and connecting people to the land that I have fallen in love with - Dominican Republic - while introducing them to the family I have developed here.
If you need a story as evidence that no matter your experience, it is possible to love yourself so unconditionally that you are no longer dependent on external factors to make you happy, look at my own. I have loved and lost everything in the world, yet somehow I am thriving, in spite or because of all the hard things I have worked through. If I can do it, you can as well. You just have to be willing to take the leap.
As I wrap up my own 2025, I am feeling organized and locked-in. I have come to terms with my new body and its limitations and strengths, a different mind that moves more thoughtfully and less reactively, and a new environment that encourages rest, time in nature, and accessible health care. It's not the 2025 I imagined 5 years ago, but this was the year I evidently needed, and I am grateful for all of the hard, and all of the love.
I realized just last week that I currently have three separate business. Yinsa, an online membership platform and retreat company, allowing people to dive deep into their self-work using multiple modalities. I have a travel concierge business, connecting clients to some of the most sought after properties with VIP amenities and first class treatment. I also run a local tour company that I originally built for my husband, but now employs Dominicans from all over the island. Each of these adventures was born from seeing that a problem needed a solution. We all have ways of channeling our trauma, I have chosen to transmute it into revenue streams that solve problems. I use all of those revenue streams to support you.
For Travel Tuesday, (tomorrow), I am offering UNLIMITED scholarships to Dominican Republic, Portugal, and Bali. Each of these seats is $2,000. This offer is valid until Friday.
For those of you who often attend each of my retreats, I am offering you TWO RETREATS FOR $6,000 until the 31st of December. These are not scholarshiship seats, these are ways to bundle experiences.
I see each of these retreats as a curriculum that builds on one another. In DR, we begin to explore our stories as we have experienced them and unpack the impact of our experience on the amount of self-love we have. In Portugal, we learn how to be vulnerable and begin to share our story as a tool for healing. In Bali, we combine the spiritual practice of washing and burning away what no longer serves us, and using ritual to invite in the life we desire.
3 different experiences that lead to a lifetime of learning.
Everything we do is intentional and if you commit to showing up to one or all of these retreats, everyday, the work will be evident in how you show up for yourself and the life you desire.
If you haven't yet made your travel plans for 2026 or 2027, allow me to help you plan your trip at NO COST to you. I have a revenue goal of $300,000 in travel sales this year, and I am, at the time of writing this newsletter, $15,000 away from my goal. I have booked trips all over the world, and you can hear more about what my clients are doing below...
I want to meet you IRL! If you're planning a trip to Dominican Republic and want a SAFE way to leave your resort or airbnb, book an excursion with El Tio Tours. Everyone's favorite trip is the catamaran tour, with ATV's a close second. We can design a custom experience for you, and we have a separate newsletter just for our travel clients. Learn more about El Tio Tours below.
In closing, thanks for reading this very long newsletter. I think it's clear it's not AI.
I pray you have the time in between celebrations and frustrations to think about what this year has taught you. I pray you are grateful for what you've learned, what you've let go of, and what you've acquired. I pray you are surrounded by community that loves and supports you, and if you're not, I pray you find the strength to let them go. Lastly, I pray you know how grateful I am for you, how much energy I am willing to put in to support you in meeting your goals, and that even if you don't love you yet, I do.
I wish you a December worth living,
Daniele
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