Crafting a Life of Joy & Intention with Dani Kreeft

Have you ever felt that indescribable pull to live a fuller life that radiates your true passion and expression? Dani Kreeft joins me to illustrate just how vibrant and fulfilling such an existence can be. Her journey as a writer and artist underscores the connection between who we are and what we create. By copywriting and ghostwriting for healers, Dani shares how the desire for genuine connection in business is getting louder.

The time to define life on our terms is now, and the only permission needed is our own. Join us to embrace the full spectrum of your being and the endless possibilities it holds.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Taking that leap of faith you’re afraid to take
• How we move through our fears
• Living for your passions first
• Living in the moment
• Dani’s journey with writing

Guest Bio:

Dani Kreeft is a writer and storyteller looking for the most conscious way to say the thing we most need to hear.

This episode was produced by: Six-Two Studio
___

Mari Roberts is an Energy Healer, Psychic Guide, and Lifestyle Mentor with over 15 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit world. She helps high-achieving women rise above the grind, find deeper meaning, and live into their most fulfilling life possible. Through energy healing, coaching and private mentorship, Mari places focus on healthy activations that welcome more balance and joy.

Resources:
Life Activated Course
Radiant Life Program
Community Energy Healing

Find Mari:
Website - marirobertslife.com
Instagram - @marirobertslife
Linked In - @mariroberts

Transcript

Mari Roberts:

0:02

You deserve to have the life that you desire. Your passions are a part of you for a reason, and when you don't follow your passions or listen to your call, things can get rough. You don't have to take some massive, intimidating leap. One small step each day leads to lasting change. So let's get started by accepting our passions are here in the first place, because this is life activated. I'm your host and guide, Mari, here to help you recenter life on your passions and purpose, so you can feel good inside, because you deserve it.

Mari Roberts:

0:44

Hello, welcome everyone back to the Life Activated Podcast. Today is a beautiful day and not only is it beautiful literally because the sun is shining here in the Pacific Northwest. It is beautiful because our guest today is going to, I think, fill your hearts and blow your mind and I believe truly, when you hear her speak and hear more from her, she's going to truly inspire you. One, to be truly who you are authentically. And then two, I believe, she's going to inspire you to really think about how you live your life and can you intentionally do the things that you're here to do in this world. I know this person is looking at me like what the hell, Mari? Why are you setting this up like that? But I'm just saying what's coming to me on my mind in this moment. So, without further ado, I am going to introduce Dani Kreeft. Dani, I'll have you go ahead and share with everyone who you are. Say hello, introduce yourself. Don't forget the woo stuff.

Dani Kreeft:

2:09

The woo stuff. I'll start with the woo stuff. I love it. You already know my name. I am a let me get this right Enneagram 8, the challenger which says a lot, with a seven wing, the adventurous fun haver. I'm a Gemini, a June 8th baby. I am a two, four Manifestor in Human Design, which really the manifestor really adds. And I am a. I think I'm primarily a writer and a and a seeker and an adventurer. I take many forms and shapes in those things and where I seek them, and I'm a copywriter, ghostwriter, memoir writer, author, so writer has such a big, broad umbrella to it. But, yeah, writer, seeker, adventurer, traveler, physical form, spiritually speaking, yeah, I could keep going, but I think that hits the major major notes. And I'm spiritually speaking, yeah, I can keep going, but I think that hits the major major notes. And I'm Canadian, as we, as we just figured out.

Mari Roberts:

3:07

Yeah, I love it. I love it and also just kind of going back to the Wu stuff, all of these things, if you're new to this podcast, this is how we do the intros and you know, for some people it may seem really far off, but for others this is just one more way to know yourself and understand yourself. So Enneagram is a tool, human design is a tool and we all know astrology. So just sharing with you more ways to know yourself and to know others. So if you haven't, you know, taken a dive into any of those, I would invite you to consider it. I think human design is amazing.

Mari Roberts:

3:49

Most people I know who have looked into their human design had a human design reading, for example feel like they've been the most seen that they have ever been. So I'll just put that out there and say that I love your introduction and how you express who you are. I feel like you. The piece that you also didn't mention, that I see in you is also an artist from the lens of photography, your photos that you share and the way that you share photos is very artistic and another, I think, way of expressing yourself and whether you are sharing the photos with something you've written or sharing the photos just on their own Like. If you definitely follow PS, follow Dani on Instagram. We'll have her link for that. But I think that you can feel your emotion in the photos that you share.

Dani Kreeft:

4:46

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I think sometimes because I because I quote unquote just put my photos on Instagram, it just feels like people are just watching me travel or with me while I'm traveling. It's never really been my job, so I feel like photographer is kinds of takes a bit of a backseat, but I but I love that you said that because it's it's. Everything I do is obviously through the lens of how I see the world, and photos are such a beautiful, particular romantic way to see it, so that's why I love sharing them so much.

Mari Roberts:

5:15

Yeah, and also, which I'm sure we'll talk about. You have your, your little, I don't know. Do I call it a book, periodical? What do we call the? I call it a quarterly zine you know like.

Dani Kreeft:

5:26

it's like, yeah, it's kind of like casual and thin enough, but it's like a throw in your bag zine. You know, like when I used to buy zines as a kid, but yeah, and I say quarterly, I don't know if it comes out quarterly, it's like one will come out.

Mari Roberts:

5:45

So they have your photography throughout there too.

Dani Kreeft:

5:47

So, and that's all film photos, yeah, which I really really love.

Mari Roberts:

5:52

Yeah, so just putting that, adding, adding that to your descriptors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'd love to start diving in asking you questions. I wrote a whole bunch of questions down. If you are watching this on YouTube, you will see that I'm looking down because I have a lot of questions. Oh, my God. And before we do this, because this is so laughable and I know that for anyone who listens on a regular basis, they're like Mari you always forget I have to do your card, to give you your card message.

Dani Kreeft:

6:26

I always forget.

Mari Roberts:

6:27

I forgot I didn't tell you before I forgot. I always pull an Oracle card beforehand.

Dani Kreeft:

6:32

And.

Mari Roberts:

6:32

I want to share the message with you and anyone who's listening just know that, yes, this message is for Dani, but it's really for you too, and me, right Like in the moment that you're listening to this. Take that, this message, and look at how it is fitting in with your life. Now, I always pull from Asia to shore her, guided by spirit deck it's, I guess, the deck of the podcast Again, I think I say that every time too. It's hilarious. I pulled the card before I, so I want to share with you the card and then we'll just sort of tap in for the message, but your card, which I love, is bloom, so I'm just showing you.

Dani Kreeft:

7:14

It's so gorgeous.

Mari Roberts:

7:15

It's a butterfly with like roses. It seems like it's predominantly roses. It looks like garden style roses and flower of roses.

Mari Roberts:

7:26

Oh, that's so amazing, that's like really amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, there's a lot there. So let's kind of see what's going on here. Sure, so, right away, I just heard like blooming with the fields and I see like this image of you running in the fields. Actually, okay, so I just heard, set yourself free of what you think isn't possible. So, while you feel there might be I don't want to say this like while there's so much in your life where you do feel free, there's this area where you've been. I heard she's boxing herself in. You're like boxing yourself in.

Mari Roberts:

8:08

So set yourself free and allow yourself to be like and this is a funny one because like again, remember I told you I saw you see infields it's almost like I see you in the fields running free, but also being the field of flowers fields running free, but also being the field of flowers, like, blooming free, like you can be both in one, all at the same time.

Dani Kreeft:

8:31

I love that. Yeah, does that make sense? Yes, oh yeah, we could probably just talk for the next hour just about that of like, where I'm boxing myself in and where I'm yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mari Roberts:

8:43

Yeah, and it happens right Like we live in this world of things that we think are supposed to be a certain way, and it's either because we were told they're supposed to be a certain way society, blah, blah, blah, all the crap but also sometimes we create our own boxes and because we perceive something having, I feel like I'm getting emotional. So there's a lot of truth to this. Because we perceive something having to be a certain way, we've created the own box that holds us back from receiving or achieving. I'm getting super emotional. So there's a lot to that.

Mari Roberts:

9:19

You've never had already with me, or probably haven't seen it, but if I get emotional and I feel like in my eyes it means deep love. Or probably haven't seen it, but if I get emotional and I feel like in my eyes it means deep love, also if you're new to listening. So that sense of emotion that I'm feeling is allowing that box to, you know, just disintegrate or to break free from the box. Removing the box means that you can experience and receive even deeper sense of love. And that doesn't mean like also receiving love from others. It also means like, how do you receive love from yourself except yourself?

Dani Kreeft:

9:51

even more. Oh, I'll drink that in.

Mari Roberts:

9:54

Yeah, yeah, I was like what a good card pull off, right? Hey, I have no choice. I just pulled a card and even actually actually it's funny with this one is I was like are you sure? Because usually I am pretty specific that the card has to kind of pop out. And it didn't pop out, it turned over but it was in the deck and usually I'm like that's not the card I needed to pop out. But this time it was like no, this is the card. And I double checked. I was like are you sure? It was like yes.

Dani Kreeft:

10:22

Okay, butterfly and roses, it was sure.

Mari Roberts:

10:28

Okay, now I can finally ask my first question. This is a big one, so I know a lot about you in terms of you being a traveler and you know again, I've been following you on Instagram for a long time. We've chatted before and if you don't know me people, I talk to people on Instagram. I will go into your inbox and talk to you, especially if you are inspiring me in some way. So that's just me.

Dani Kreeft:

11:11

So my question to you is how did your journey to self-expression through writing even start? It sounds typical to say, but when I was a kid I wrote my first book when I was in grade three. I like, wrote and illustrated a book called the Billy goats, the Billy goats, gruff, and I must've been what are you in grade three, like eight, and that was kind of a like a milestone of of. This was in my ether and like I was always good at, I was always better at English. It wasn't you know math kid, whatever, but I think it really developed when I. I just had journals all the time, like journals as a kid. That that was really where it came out and I never, I think, because we wrote in school. I never saw that as a definitive gift or a way of it was never called self-expression. It was just I don't know.

Dani Kreeft:

11:53

I'm a young girl and reading Judy Blume and Charles Bowen, like just whatever, and this is just what you do. As part of what you do, you kind of confess your whatever to your diary and so I think that's really where it, where it really started, at least for me. But then, the first time that I that I remember receiving very clear recognition of this is something that is particular to you is when I went to school in South Africa when I was 19. And I wrote my family emails of like this is what's happening and this was going on. And they were like I should look them up now I wonder if I had that email address, but they were so long.

Dani Kreeft:

12:31

But my mom told me she was like I when you sent an email, I would get a cup of tea ready, I would sit down and I would prepare to like be where you are for the next 10, 15 minutes. While I just drank it all in and and I think that was the first time that that I was like oh, it isn't just correspondence. You can. You can transport people and people that you love and you can bring them into an experience. And that was never my intent of like describe the red in the whatever. It just was such a natural storytelling way that I always had. But that was kind of the first time that I remember it being something validated or externally recognized as like a component of me that was particular, that maybe not everyone else had. That was, that was like a gift.

Mari Roberts:

13:20

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a gift, because I don't know anyone at that age who was writing emails that was, you know, transporting someone to a space, right, you know, back then it was probably like mom, send me more money, I'm having a great time.

Dani Kreeft:

13:40

Totally, and the fact that I like, really cared to tell them and bring them into the details. Like I, I think that kind of the the storyteller in me really wanted to bring people with me wherever I was, and the way to do that was through was through writing.

Mari Roberts:

13:56

Yeah, yeah. Do you know in that, in that same sort of thinking about that writing, if you can remember back, could your mom tell like your mood based on what you were writing?

Dani Kreeft:

14:08

Definitely, I think, one.

Dani Kreeft:

14:11

We're very, very close and she's so connected to me, obviously being my mother.

Dani Kreeft:

14:16

So I think that she, she was probably the first person who, even just in my life, but understood my language, understood the words that I used, like nothing would have been surprising or out of character to her and she would have been able to, and it'd be interesting to ask her, but I'm sure she would have been able to read between the lines even if I wasn't saying it, if I was a little homesick or you know any of that, or like just times on missing things, if somebody had a birthday, that kind of thing, I think she would. She definitely would have picked up on that and I think that's maybe that's why she was so encouraging. She's like when people know you and love you, they, they want to be brought to where you are and your ability to to transport people is something you should know that you do, because it was so unconscious to me it's just natural, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like your gift from the beginning yeah, yeah yeah, but my mom would definitely.

Dani Kreeft:

15:10

That would have been like her palm on the womb. Like she just knows, it's just instant.

Mari Roberts:

15:14

You know, because again back to like your photography, I do feel like I can get a sense of you know, are you feeling grounded or like are you feeling happy or like maybe there is there, like, maybe, a tone of sadness in it and I wonder if that is something others are. I'm actually want to say this differently. I actually maybe you are. Are you intentional about wanting to share that feeling, or do you think it's just if it's the, the day how you're feeling, that day it comes through the?

Dani Kreeft:

15:52

writing. Does it make sense? Yeah, like it can come across, yeah, more as tone or style, or even length yeah, you know if I'm feeling impatient or short, or or I'm too in the if I'm present in the moment.

Dani Kreeft:

16:04

It's not going to be a big diatribe, but I think you're totally on point. But it would probably be one of those like unconscious things to me where I don't know like, and I don't know that I would put out like a. I'd be so curious to kind of look at the like emotional palette of it, because I don't know that I put out like when I'm sad or when I'm really homesick. It's like my silence is probably the indicator that I'm in a different place. Yeah, um, I'm usually in awe, or I'm really happy, or I'm super inspired, I'm feeling really creative, or, on the other end, I'm like I'm railing against something, or I'm angry, or I'm upset or frustrated, or I'm I'm shaking something it usually sits in that range or it's

Dani Kreeft:

16:50

like a self-actualization, like you're, I'm realizing something about myself, or something becomes true, like I'm turning over rocks kind of at the beach. But I don't know that you could really skim through my Instagram and be like oh, danny was sad that day. Gotcha, you probably won't see that, because usually then I'm not writing. It's not that I'm like and I'm not sad, it's that I'm doing something else. It's like I don't go to the pen with certain emotions and yeah, I don't know, maybe I should try that.

Mari Roberts:

17:18

But no I don't know. I mean, I, I just always, I'm really just curious because, yeah, I don't necessarily feel like I'm like a really amazing writer, you know. So it is also my, you know, it's not my profession. So I'm just curious from the artist's lens how it works you know, yeah, totally how it works.

Mari Roberts:

17:47

You know, yeah, totally, because you know there are some of those writers who that's when their best work happens, when they're like emoting from that place, their deep dark place or sad place, whatever. Um, so that's just interesting. Yeah, I just wanted to know.

Dani Kreeft:

17:59

I was kind of curious curious from a non-writer lens no, and I'd be so curious to have like a lot of writers in the room and ask writing is always happening, but in the age of social media it's public facing or if it's private facing Right. And I think you know, we can not build a brand, but inadvertently build a brand based off of certain experiences or emotions and kind of become known for that, where people will get into my dms and like that really made me think or I had to, like you know, it's kind of like mental juice and so they're not, they're not coming to me when they're, when a nirvana song could do it, or whatever you know, right yeah yeah, yeah, I think there's load-bearing walls as far as emotions, that when you go into writing and sometimes that's an ease because it's just something you go into a lot- yeah, and invite people into?

Mari Roberts:

18:49

yeah, that makes sense. So I know we sort of touched on another passion, but I'd love to know, beyond writing, what are your other passions that like really light you up, that pull you in yes, I do love writing, and we talked about photography.

Dani Kreeft:

19:03

I love taking pictures. I would say traveling is so high up there because it's the apex of all of those things. It's new experiences, it's new food, it's being completely out of your comfort zone, it's photography, it's writing, it's everything rolled into one. And so I find that when I think about dancing or, yeah, just trying new things here in Mexico, doing different ceremonies or doing like a curtain sing along or going to like Mexican wrestling, like I find that traveling as a hobby or the lifestyle or as a choice, whatever you want to call it really brings out all of my hobbies, and some of them have been around forever, like the writing and the photography, and some of them are just I just want to try new things, I want to try new food, I want to meet new people, and so I'm really, really open to what that could be.

Dani Kreeft:

19:59

But you know, if you're asking on like a dating profile, I'd be like hiking, vintage shopping, photography, um, movies, you know like if I was going to spend a weekend at home, that would look a lot different than me being here, mexico city, and be like, okay, what do I want to do this weekend?

Mari Roberts:

20:16

and it's definitely not, whatever, I just did last weekend so so funny a little different, but but yeah, so funny and. I would say, like you said earlier, hobby and I think that's what I would switch around is your dating profile, is your hobbies? This part of your life is your passions.

Dani Kreeft:

20:37

Yes, it's my like essence come to life.

Mari Roberts:

20:41

Yes, yes, yes, okay can we just have a pause? I just want to restate that because I really want this to life. Yes, yes, yes, okay, can we just have a pause? I just want to restate that because I really want this to land living your passions, doing what you are here to do, cause I believe when you're living your passions, you're living your purpose, but you're here what you're meant to do. It's your essence. Come to life. I think that's how you said it, like okay, just hear that. So let that sink in. Let that sink in. So if you've been hiding from your passions, if you've been too afraid to take the step into your passions, just imagine life I'm getting emotional again If you allowed your essence to come alive.

Dani Kreeft:

21:26

Yeah. So like, come to the surface of your skin and give you goosebumps, like I have right now, and materialize the things that you think about, dream about, imagine or even imagine about yourself. It's, it's playing in the world, it's dancing in the world, it's seeing in the world, it's coming out through your senses and anything that's yeah, it can really resonate, obviously with an art, because then people read what I'm writing and and they feel that it brings, when you are acting, from your senses, it brings to life other people's senses and that's where you meet, and I think that's such a big part of being human and that's what I love about writing so much.

Mari Roberts:

22:09

So beautiful, like just beautiful. My next question for you I'm going to kind of dip around here is you know, even if you think about this and knowing you know that you travel and you do these, really I'd say, like in other people's eyes, free spirited life have you, and I'm doing the worst thing ever. This is a double loaded question. I know you're not supposed to do this, but I am, and I do it all the time. Okay, sorry. Which is, which is, do you worry or care or think about what other people are thinking of you?

Dani Kreeft:

22:45

And you know uh, yeah, buzzer, yes, a hundred percent all the time.

Mari Roberts:

22:54

Next question and then, how do you, even knowing all that, how do you move through fear and keep going and keep you know, bringing your essence to life, living your passions?

Dani Kreeft:

23:10

How do you move through fear? I think a component of that is very fear. Is your friend like reframing fear, which feels like an easier answer? Because I feel like when I get scared that I'm behind or I haven't checked the list or maybe this is a really stupid idea, maybe traveling isn't that great, maybe I should do this, maybe like when I should, all of this stuff. I think I come back to how I feel and I feel most like myself and that can't be wrong.

Mari Roberts:

23:43

Mm, hmm.

Dani Kreeft:

23:44

It can't. And so I get. I can get really afraid. I'm like, how am I going to make ends meet, how am I going to make some money, how am I going to get down this dark street? And, like you know, like there's physical fears, spiritual fears, emotional fears, mental fears, financial fears, and I think that when I consider what people could think of me or what I'm doing and and then I ingest that, internalize that and what am I doing? You know, I think I go back to there's a reason why I feel the call to do what I do, whether it's going to Mexico city, whether it's writing, whether it's being here with you, whether it's going to that restaurant and getting that food, whatever.

Dani Kreeft:

24:25

Like I'm, I'm going through an infinite amount of nudges and the more I trust my body, the less I am afraid of what's happening outside of my body. So I think that's how I moved through it and the older I get, the less of a shit I get like give, because it's I don't know. You, you kind of just figure out that nobody really knows what they're doing. So I like use fear, transmute fear into something you can use. Try new things, see if that thing actually happens. Try the beef liver taco from the street, stand and see what happens, Like just go and do stuff and I don't know, like you, you just kind of I think that a bit of that is an age thing you start to just like shed that, like leaves, like snakeskin and just like it's because it doesn't serve a purpose.

Dani Kreeft:

25:13

And but I have to really guard myself with that, because you can go on Instagram and be like, oh crap, I should have done this five years ago, or I should look like this, or I should have that boyfriend, or I should be doing, and then you lie awake at night and you just spin. So as long as I feel like I'm getting closer to the core of myself, I know there is no wrong way to be alive. So then, fear is a favor, a directive, a friend, a hugely informative piece of wisdom, and whenever I let fear win, I know that I've given it a definition that is untrue.

Mari Roberts:

25:54

So, so beautiful. Oh my gosh, and I'm like sitting here going. Oh my gosh, I needed to hear that today, right, you know?

Dani Kreeft:

26:03

I'll need to. When I listen to this back, I'll be like, oh okay, I, like you know, a writer is always writing what they need to hear in the Euro, and so you know. So I'll need to remember this when I'm walking down the street and then Mexico city later. It's just constant. You're constantly learning that, which is great because you need fear. I don't. I don't do that. Like what would you do if you weren't afraid? I'm like that's not. Fear is good. Fear is good. Conflict creates story. Tension, friction these are all elements of story that create a good story, and so eliminating them is just a boring movie, and that's not what I would want to be said of my life. So reframe it, reframe it and walk through it, and then the more you're doing that, the more you're like there's really nothing to be afraid of. You can go to any country, you can ask anybody out, you can write whatever you want. You can go to Mexico city on a one-way ticket, like you can, yeah. And the more you do it, the more you prove it.

Mari Roberts:

27:04

My mom always told us you know, I don't know, I feel so emotional again. This is like bringing up so much, and this might be why earlier, when before we were pre-talking, where I was saying there's so much energy. If you're listening, when I do energy healing work or even do readings, I can yawn and it's just releasing of energy and I was like there's so much energy because we were talking beforehand. Okay, back to the story. My mom always said why have an ordinary life when you can have an extraordinary life? And I remember times in my college years doing things that would be considered ridiculous who leaves their, who leaves college junior year to go to another college when you're about to you know, basically graduate, knowing you're going to lose credits and all this stuff.

Mari Roberts:

28:03

And my friends and I was crazy. Nobody really understood. I had one really cool professor in my seminar class who was like your friends don't have to understand. And then my mom, who was really smart, was like just take a leave of absence, don't just drop out. And I left and I got to see a DNF and, you know, had a lot of other weird googly garb, heartbreak-y stuff and I went back to St Mary's, st Mary's College of Moraga, california, ps. I think having that permission to remember that life doesn't have to be like everybody else is so important. And when you bring in that level and talk about fear, for example, it's to me almost in that same space of like reminding yourself of when you're alive, but to why have an ordinary life Like we are not?

Dani Kreeft:

29:02

here to have ordinary lives and we have short life. I think that was always my. I was talking about this to the friend actually just two nights ago. I was talking about how, from my high school years, I always looked at life from like expiration dates. I was like what's going to go bad the quickest? And so I was like well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to travel when I'm older and I won't do it in the same way. So I'm going to go to South Africa and I'm going to go to Kenya and I'm going to go to England and like went all over the place and and I did go to school, school, I did a diploma in that time, but I and then I moved into a different city, like I moved from Edmonton to Vancouver and I was like, and then I moved up to Whistler by.

Dani Kreeft:

29:51

There's pros and cons to that, but I feel like for me, I've always had a very sharp awareness that this is a really, really fast ride and it's incredibly short. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way, but I'm almost 40 and I feel like I was born yesterday. So I feel like, when it comes to fear, fear is temporary and you just don't have time to let it win. It just doesn't make any sense. So a short life really reminds me that I don't know. Fear is just not really worth it.

Mari Roberts:

30:26

Yeah, not worth living in your essence, not worth doing what you are here on this earth to do. Whatever that is, yeah.

Dani Kreeft:

30:34

No, not at all. I love that.

Mari Roberts:

30:35

It's so beautiful and such a good reminder and I really do hope that it is landing for the community listening that this is a great opportunity to reflect on what it is that you've been wanting to do and, even though fear is there, can you? Can you take a step?

Dani Kreeft:

30:59

And it never won't be there. The waiting thing is annoying. It's yeah, it's in the waiting room all the time. It's in the waiting room all the time it's so annoying.

Mari Roberts:

31:08

You just have to become friends with it, yeah, so I think this is such a great segue to the next question, which is how do you lean in on faith?

Dani Kreeft:

31:17

Two things.

Dani Kreeft:

31:18

I've seen myself do it before, so I know I can with whatever the fill in the blank is, and I also genuinely believe that I feel in my spirit, I'm like I know that there is a higher power, greater power, there's a greater intelligence at work in our lives and you can go by a lot of different names and look a lot of different ways, and that's the beauty of it and I've always had a really close relationship with that divine source since I was a kid and I've been through my ups and downs with like religious terms and church attendance and all the kind of like metrics of it.

Dani Kreeft:

31:53

Yeah, but I've always had a very honest, close, transformative, sacred relationship with whatever that force is and so, as long as that force is around, faith is just the invisible bridge that appears and it never doesn't appear. I have never, not once, stepped out and fallen flat on my face in in a way that that power has forgotten that I'm there or forgotten that I asked or whatever. I just have all the evidence for it. So faith is just a no brainer. It doesn't feel like a leap anymore.

Mari Roberts:

32:26

Yeah, I love that for someone who is struggling with, you know, either strengthening their faith or just beginning to kind of get into that place of faith. What would you say or how would you maybe you know if I was, if you know this person was on the other side of this zoom and they're your friend maybe one or two things that you might say to help them connect to that level of faith.

Dani Kreeft:

32:57

I think the first thing that comes to mind is that microdose it Like I think a lot of people get in their head about doing something really big and needing big faith, and like size becomes kind of an obsession, and I don't think that's it. Like I think you can have faith that you'll survive eating dinner by yourself at a bar with a book. Like faith. You have faith in so many different ways, so I don't think it has to be. I think you can drop the lens of it being like a big life change. Or should I marry this person? Like take divine, eternal elements out of size, like they're like big hitters at a ball game, and just take it into daily life and it will meet you there in whatever bridge you want to cross. Whether it's, I don't know, asking somebody out taking a night course, dming somebody that you've never even met, asking somebody to be on a podcast, like I don't think. I think we miss God a lot when we're looking for these huge opportunities because we're like, well, god's big, so I have to do big things and I need to live a big life and and I think if you're, if that is ever intimidating it takes a tremendous amount of faith to walk a daily life that is brave and courageous and interesting and alive, and so I would just take it down to faith in daily increments. I think that that's a lot easier way to you eat a sandwich through bites, not like a Komodo dragon, so just like do it in bites, faith in bites.

Dani Kreeft:

34:28

But also I think I don't know have a little log of all the times where you express faith and it totally worked out. And once you start writing cause you might not want to take a step or a leap or whatever because you're scared, but as soon as you compile the evidence and actually look at it and review it, you'd probably be really impressed. And that's actually something that I think the powers that be want to speak into and go. You didn't even see when you did this thing. You didn't even see when this happened. So I think we just forget, we go size and we don't remember. So just take it down a notch and also just start creating a log, whether it's like a note in your phone or a little journal or whatever, but start writing it down, because if you have 50 examples of every time faith has worked out, it's not as scary. Yeah, that makes sense to me. I don't have that journal, but I should probably have that journal?

Mari Roberts:

35:19

No, but it makes a lot of sense. There's so many things that came up while you were talking that I thought about and I was like, oh my gosh. I remember back to my college story, st Mary's. I only applied to one four-year college. I didn't apply to any others.

Dani Kreeft:

35:35

What Like all your eggs in that basket?

Mari Roberts:

35:38

And I really wasn't worried about it. I just figured I'd go to a junior college or something. But my later I asked my mom I'm like why did you let me apply to just one college? Like that's unheard of? And my mom was like I just knew you would get in. Yeah.

Dani Kreeft:

35:54

Yeah, but.

Mari Roberts:

35:54

I also wasn't worried about it.

Dani Kreeft:

35:56

Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think that sometimes we think faith is something that like meets us at the other side when we like win or get it or whatever. And no, I think it's just a feeling, it can be a certainty that you're like, yeah, no, this is gonna work out. I moved to active face.

Mari Roberts:

36:13

Yeah, I moved to atlanta sight unseen. My cousin called me and you know this is after my one of my best girlfriends, you know, tragically died and she called and said I should come and visit you know, and and I was like I think I'm going to move. I remember hanging up this back before cell phones okay, or actually I think cell phones were there, but you know it wasn't in my real, it wasn't in my world.

Mari Roberts:

36:37

Yeah, I remember. Actually that's not true. I guess they might've been huge. I may not have been living in the cell phone world, but you know, people still have still had land lines.

Mari Roberts:

36:45

Then too, it wasn't yeah. And I just remember hanging up the phone with her and I thought about it and I think I called her back the next day. I'm like, why don't I just move there? I didn't have a job, nothing, right. And I think where I'm really going with this is, as I've gotten older in some aspects of my life, that faith that it's going to be okay. I've allowed it to be foggy or fogged. And for me the best example is you know the business, you know growing, growing this business and having the faith that you know, do I need to stay forever in my corporate job? You know forever.

Mari Roberts:

37:29

I am quoting this, if you're listening, I am quoting, you know, or just, I don't even think I can articulate it quite the same way, but the younger me would have just been like well, fuck, yeah, you're doing this really cool thing that's going to help the world. Just go, Just do it, yeah. And again, I don't want to make light of this because I also know that you know if someone's listening.

Mari Roberts:

37:56

There are so many other elements that we have to consider, but how much more could I lean into faith, or how much more could we all lean into faith, that it's going to, of course, work out and to take?

Dani Kreeft:

38:08

the step that it's going to, of course, work out and to take the step Totally and letting go of what working working out means. I think that's been pretty key for me to hold onto faith, because faith is not outcome dependent and that can really hoop.

Mari Roberts:

38:21

you Repeat that faith is not outcome dependent.

Dani Kreeft:

38:28

That is so important. You make a choice and you're like I faith, I have faith, I have faith. It's not a guaranteed win and I think that's why we get upset at faith or like I'm not gonna do it, and we get all calcified and like curl in and fetal positions because we really take spiritual concepts and we put very human measurements like it's like a man-made tournament of limitations to it and it has to be yes, results it's, outcome it's yeah, you know, the trip has to work out, the airbnb has to be the best, the guy has to say yes, the marriage has to happen.

Dani Kreeft:

39:01

When I'm 24, you have all these ideas and, yeah, faith is nothing to do with the yes or the no, and you're like, oh man, you got to learn that in order to really like dance with it, I think, and like hear the music and not be like really stubborn, like well I'm only going to do this if it's a yes or whatever.

Mari Roberts:

39:19

And yeah, I had to learn that 500 million times yeah, such a good reminder, though, like that is a deep one. That is definitely a rewind and write it down moment for sure, rewind, write it down. I feel like there's a few already like nuggets of rewind. Write that down, put it on a sticky note journal on it.

Mari Roberts:

39:50

I love it. Oh my God, that's so good. So when you even talk about faith and we, you know, talked about your passions and your business, and I feel like this is a kind of a good sort of segue into this is like and being that I was just talking about my issues with faith in the business how do you have faith in your business and continue to grow and put yourself out there? And I say grow, I mean also like as a human being, not just like grow your business, you know, to 8 million dollars, grow by all stuff. I'm not talking about that. I just mean like girl bottle stuff. I'm not talking about that. I just mean, like you know, putting yourself in that position of being in faith, traveling around and trusting what's going to come and be presented for you.

Dani Kreeft:

40:40

Yeah, oh man, I'm in the middle of that right now, like I am in that ride where, like, did I save any money for this trip did? Do I do any marketing? Like does anybody like am I working enough? Like there's so, and that's genuinely what I really appreciate about traveling is it like it pushes at you and it it really makes you it? Yeah, it's it. It knows all your pressure points and so I want to answer is this, this? As though I know, but I'm the student who's like in that classroom, who is nervous and sometimes acts with like little faith.

Dani Kreeft:

41:22

You're just like I'm just gonna put on my credit card and like cross my fingers and go to sleep and like I don I don't even know, but I feel like the quote unquote success of my business, my writing, any of that stuff is very in proportion to my journey and endeavor into myself and the example I'll give to try to make that make sense is that I'm a huge initiator. I'm somebody who was brought into the world as a manifester to bring new things into being and the me, two weeks ago, five years, 10 years ago very afraid, judgmental, scared to not play by the books, play by the rules, wants to be expected, accepted, wants to be belong, wants to feel belonging. There's a lot of like, fears and beliefs and values and like good and bad and ugly that are really in the way of that and I think that really has hampered my business and my success, whatever, whatever metric I'm using for that. And so I feel like the way that I have faith that things are going to work out is that as long as I am in my design, as long as I am unafraid and clearing a new path and creating new things and not being afraid to be rejected and putting things out there like, as long as I'm in my divine gifts and superpowers, I'm still holding on to the like, the rollercoaster ride for dear freaking life, like I don't have it licked or solved or whatever. But I feel a very divine river of momentum and I just trust and have faith in that and it does work out.

Dani Kreeft:

43:03

Um, but yeah, do I wonder how I'm going to pay my credit card? I'm like, but yeah, the closer I get to who I really am, the less and less I'm afraid I am Like one of my in human design is I'm an informer. I need to tell people what I'm doing, and I never used to do that because I was just like I hate sales and I hate, and I have this whole thing about it thing about it. And just in the last week of being far more open, of like this is what I'm looking for, this is what I want to partner with. All kinds of seeds are sprouting and so for me, when I get far from who I am, that's where a lot of that frustration and like financial and all the wobbles kind of come into effect and I turn into Bambi and my way out of that and through that is further and further into myself.

Dani Kreeft:

43:51

And if I'm acting from a truer place. I'm not as afraid Again. Does that mean I'm going to make a lot of money? Does that mean I am going to fall in love tomorrow? Does that mean my Airbnb is going to be the coolest and cleanest, whatever? No, doesn't get into guarantee any of that.

Dani Kreeft:

44:09

But the reward is being who you really are, and that doesn't. That's yeah. That's not goals, results, outcome, any of that stuff. It doesn't mean it's all gonna work out, but that's the journey I'm on. So I accept the conditions of that and I make choices that feel like me in a deeper and deeper sense, like that is my commitment to life, that's what I choose. And so, who knows, maybe I'll die broke. I don't think I will.

Dani Kreeft:

44:33

But those are also just metrics, metrics that we get really obsessed with and we get really. We base our decisions on a bank account and no, don't be ignorant of it. But you'd be amazed at, yeah, how the bridge gets laid out under you, but you have to start going across it before it's going to. You know, one by one, brick by brick, and I've always been that kind of person. I'm like just jump and the net will appear, and it always has. I travel all over the place and I've been in such bogus situations and I've done crazy work and the net always appears Always, but it never appears when you're on flat ground, so just heads up.

Mari Roberts:

45:12

And also I think it doesn't appear when you back to like what you were saying about, like when you don't, when you're not living in like alignment with who you are, stuff isn't coming your way. And when you do, stuff comes your way. And I've tried to remember how you said it, but I heard you say that the sort of journey of life is being in your essence and the journey of your business and people coming your way is when you're in your essence. And I saw I told you I had been thinking about inviting you to the podcast for a while and then I saw you put something out there, you initiated it and I was like, since you're saying this, I have an idea.

Mari Roberts:

45:59

You want to come on to the podcast.

Dani Kreeft:

46:02

No, of course, I said yes, yeah, it's yeah, knowing. And to speak to those tools, I think you can pick and choose what tools you need, but I think, with human design especially, it's really given me a, an indicator of where my superpowers are and I know every time I lean into them and they always make me uncomfortable. I'm like, oh, why do I have these freaking superpowers? But whenever I do them, doors open, sees, part, and you might not see it now, you might see it later. But so that becomes more of the commitment Figure out what really makes you tick, what makes you really come alive, and journey into that. You'll find your people, you'll find your yellow brick road, you'll find all that stuff.

Dani Kreeft:

46:42

So, yeah, yeah, but that's recent, that's recent knowledge. Like I feel like I was in my own business for at least 10 years and it's just like what do people want? What do you want me to do? What do you want me to write? What should I write? Like it was very audience focused and only recently have I, you know, fallen under the spotlight and then everything else goes dark and and you're like, yeah, no, there's a reason why there's no house lights on this. Just like, focus on what you're doing and what you're saying, and none of that and just trust and faith and all that kind of stuff.

Mari Roberts:

47:14

But I feel, like I'm rambling. No, you're not rambling. I think um, sometimes it's I. I know I'm a repeater, I'm a repeater, but I think that's part of my I also, so I have the freak to genius.

Mari Roberts:

47:28

So, it's like I can have ideas and the way I present things can be a little bit like ahead of time or different, and sometimes I think when I'm in, when I do my repeating, it's almost a way for it to relay and in or to like sort of sink in or settle in, because I don't even know that I'm doing it. It's just I know that I it is after the fact that I'm like. I think I said that like five times, you know like this is really important, so I'm going to say it again. So how does it feel? This is a really hard maybe. I don't think it's gonna be hard for you. How does it feel when you are authentically you like, how does it feel maybe in your body? What does it feel like when you're authentically you? And I know that for everyone listening it may be different, but I do think it's a really interesting way to become aware of when you're in your essence.

Dani Kreeft:

48:32

Yeah, it feels really present when I'm in my zone or when I'm in something that's very, very like channeled or connected, Definitely very, very present. It feels very like childlike and excited and not self-conscious. It's very, I think it just. It's like joy that creates its own gravity and you feel this sounds corny but like one with the world and yet totally yourself, Like you're. You're separate and together at the same time and usually wonder and awe are really big indicators that I'm right where I'm supposed to be in the moment I'm in very present, Like I'm. It's usually an element of that. Yeah, it feels really good. I love that. Yeah, it feels very alive and very present. I know it when I, when I feel it.

Mari Roberts:

49:26

But I like that childlike peace and the joy. Do you say goosebumps? You get goosebumps too.

Dani Kreeft:

49:32

Yeah, present goosebumps. It's very heart-based. I'm not, I'm not thinking of I don't know. I'm supposed to email that person later and in that way, for me it's like it's better than meditation, because meditation I'm always trying to, I'm always like trying to get out of my head, but without noticing it, when I am myself, I'm it's not employed, I'm in my chest, I'm in my heart, I'm in my soul and therefore I'm far away from a lot of things that the head can create. There's anxiety or worry, or plan B, plan D, plan Z, plan whatever, what if you can't afford this? All the questions. When I'm most myself, I'm very at peace and the head doesn't have a lot to do. I don't give it a lot to do or it just kind of shuffles into the corner and waits to be abused again.

Mari Roberts:

50:17

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, you say all the words I love Joy, childlike heart, space, peace, all the things Love.

Dani Kreeft:

50:27

Yeah, everything Very big, alive. Yeah, very colorful.

Mari Roberts:

50:32

Do you experience that for, like, short stints, or do you feel like you experience it for can experience it for long periods? I'm just curious. So that's just came in like.

Dani Kreeft:

50:44

I feel like it can. It can really be both Like. I feel like and it's not that it just happens when I'm traveling, but I'm like, okay, I'm going to. If I'm going to be in Mexico for a month, I know that I'm already at a greater chance of really connecting with the part of me that is so overjoyed by color and new and fish out of water and all of the elements of travel just naturally is so. I know that there's the. It's almost like that's in the air, but I definitely ebb and flow out of it depending on what I'm doing, depending on what I'm.

Dani Kreeft:

51:16

It can be food. I can just be in a meal that's like the best that you're eating with your hands and it's just like you don't think about anything else. You don't even think about. If this is like. You know what the rating about it is on the internet, you're just like this salsa, this pineapple, this like this is insane and you're just there and you're just there. So I think it's both. I think you can definitely be in context where the likelihood is higher, but I think it's it has to be also very intentional. It doesn't just happen. You have to leave your house, you have to go. You have to find stuff, you have to wander around, you have to ask for directions, you have to be very vulnerable, but you know when you see it and you feel it when you are it.

Mari Roberts:

51:53

So good, so good. I mean, I'm telling you this is a repeater Like. If you're listening to this podcast, this is a one to listen to again for sure. I feel like there's so much goodness, so many nuggets of goodness. Now I know that travel is part of how you cultivate that feeling. I know, Are there other ways that you cultivate that?

Dani Kreeft:

52:20

Other ways that I cultivate that like childlike feeling that feeling of like you being in your full essence.

Mari Roberts:

52:28

Yeah, that joy, excitement outside of the big travel.

Dani Kreeft:

52:34

Yeah, totally, and I hope I don't make it sound as though like that's travel yeah, totally, and I hope I don't make it sound as though like that's this is the only time I meet, you know. I feel like it's very elemental. I feel like when I am cooking, I feel very much like me when I'm by water, I feel very much like me when I'm swimming, when I'm dancing. I just spent five months house sitting, my parents' place on Lake Hur and they live in a very small town and I was alone. And it's the exact opposite of travel. There's nothing exotic about it. You don't talk to anybody. It's totally opposite.

Dani Kreeft:

53:07

And I love that just as much as the exotic whatever of travel, because that really makes you focus in on everyday moments that you otherwise miss. So I think that's where I pull on light, like I'm a big sunrise and sunset watcher, like I'll get up for the sunrise, I'll look out the window, I'll take a walk. I think light is huge. Yeah, light, breath, food, dance, movement, laughter, conversation, all the stuff of like everyday life. I think travel just, yeah, just travel just gives you a different lens because you're just doing it with totally different people in unexpected places. But I really think that it carries equal weight with the sense of what you find at home and in what people would usually call mundane life, and I'm like no, that's the entryway, that's the gate, that's the whole thing.

Mari Roberts:

53:59

So both, both, but yeah, living living, the art of living, living in the present, basically, is what I also hear you saying.

Dani Kreeft:

54:08

Totally, totally, and I think that's where a lot of my photography can come from. You're just noticing, you're just awake, you're not staring at your phone, you're not reading something, you're just watching the world. And then all of a sudden you see this little dog standing by his owner while those owner washes the car and he's just like looking at you. And I got that photo this morning and I and I looked at it and I was like it's just this, very present. And then two seconds later he turned, he did something else. I was like it's, it's a, it passes quick. So, yeah, you just gotta be paying attention. But every day of life. And you said you use a camera, I use a disposable camera like a, yeah, like a Fuji film. No way you can get them developed in Toronto for like 11 bucks. It's crazy.

Mari Roberts:

54:51

I also didn't know that they still existed.

Dani Kreeft:

54:54

Oh my gosh, yeah, you can get them on Amazon, you can get them at London, drugs in Canada, but I know I can get them at um. I got them in LA at a few places, but um, yeah, but my whole zine, that's all of the photos I'm not taking, like you know, some 1940s that I have to wind up and I'm just. I like that because it keeps me present. It's just, there's nothing to configure. You're not looking at aperture and all the fussiness, You're just you see something and click and then you don't get it again and I really love that.

Mari Roberts:

55:21

It's that's it. I'm going to get one of those. My mom and I are going on our little girls trip next week and I'm going to get one of those.

Dani Kreeft:

55:29

It's a riot when you get them back. And you can get them back Like you don't even have to print them, you can just get email scans. But yeah, I had a friend actually who texted me this morning and she's like I'm I'm maybe going to go on an artist date later, like take myself out for a date, but I think I'm going to like organize my closet. I was like why don't you do the artist date first? And she was like I don't really know, like what I enjoy right now, like what do I want to do? And I was like go get a disposable camera, go get a fricking smoothie or coffee, go walk around, go somewhere beautiful, but just keep it in your bag, and that is.

Dani Kreeft:

55:58

It's like a mini artist date. Every time you take it out because you've seen something particular and beautiful, because you don't waste film like you do with a phone, and so you just your eye looks for very specific drops in time and you don't really know what you're looking for. But you know when you see it and then it's just when you get it back, you're just like you know and you see it and then it's just when you get it back, you're just like you know and it can never take it like a phone could take it. So if you're looking for an artist date idea, go get a shitty disposable camera and just play with it for like a month and then get the pictures back.

Dani Kreeft:

56:29

It's the best.

Mari Roberts:

56:31

I'm totally doing that. I'm getting one for our trip then. So, as we start to wrap up, what I like to know is this came in like last minute in my meditation and I was like oh, this is an interesting one, which is what's one thing that you will share with this community about designing life on your terms.

Dani Kreeft:

56:55

Well, the thing that you need to figure out when you're designing your life on your own terms is one you need to separate your terms from other people's terms, and that can be like paint water it just all mixes together and you don't really know what's yours and other people's. So you have to have a lot of brave discernment to not only separate those things but not judge those things. What somebody else is doing is their thing. What you're doing is your own thing. There's no good or bad, and I think sometimes we can construct a life out of just trying to be right all the time, and I don't really think that brings us into the center of who we are. That's never worked for me. So decide what your terms are, make sure they're separate from other people and don't wait.

Dani Kreeft:

57:39

I think that that's always been my ethos with trying new things, traveling, moving to different cities, trying different food. And yeah, it doesn't need to be these big moves. I don't want to present it as that, but just don't wait on it. It doesn't mean you have to do something big tomorrow, but I think micro moves are not that sexy in our culture. Making like incremental changes are not what advertising is about.

Dani Kreeft:

58:04

So I would say just don't wait, because you, you don't know, you get this body, but once you get this soul.

Dani Kreeft:

58:11

But once and I think it's it can feel kind of like placating, where you're like, oh yeah, we're all going to die and life is short and it can. It can start to feel like you know, live, laugh, love, like it just feels like something that people have in there. That doesn't really mean a whole lot, but I don't know. I have enough stories in my own life where people left early, or they left right before they're going to do that thing, or they've got brain cancer as soon as they retired. Um, and I don't want to be somebody who needs a lot of evidence to pile up, in order for me to move my feet and move my mouth and to move my hands and to just try stuff. And I think that the first part of that, as far as determining what's other people's terms and what's your terms, helps you commit to your own way of doing it, because that's all you got. That's why you're here. So, yeah, separate and then don't wait would be my advice.

Mari Roberts:

59:00

I love it. So beautiful, so true, so true. I swear, like everything you say, I give you stars and goldness because I agree. So, as we wrap up, how can people find you? And find you just because you're amazing, but also if they're interested in figuring out how they can work with you, or if they could get one of your designs. Like, how can people find you?

Dani Kreeft:

59:29

Well, you can definitely find me on the internet. Danny Kreeft writes on Instagram. That's probably like the best. That's the door. I think the lobby would be to sign up for my sub stack. There's a monthly newsletter that I do with an I asked a friend series. It's a quick Q and a series and that's totally free and that's a great way to kind of get get a little bit more Danny in your life.

Dani Kreeft:

59:53

But I think, yeah, if you want to move with the metaphor, if you want to move further and further into the house, on Monday I'm debuting my like paid sub stack, so I'm starting a podcast, which is really fun. I'm so excited. No, my first episode is about Pamela Anderson and I really do think all women should listen to it because it's it brought so much out of me when I watched your documentary. But so, yeah, so sub stack Instagram and yeah, if you want to work one-on-one, I'm a copywriter, I'm a ghostwriter, I just wrote a memoir for a client, but I write social media, I write websites.

Dani Kreeft:

1:00:27

Right now I'm really focusing on healers that want to sound differently in the spaces that they're in, who want prompts, workbooks, guided meditations, things that have very emotive properties. But once you read my writing, you'll understand like the way that I write doesn't sound like other people, and so, if you're looking for a way to differentiate in a field that is quite busy and full, yeah, I'm a copywriter, so, and then I can kind of write anything. If you want a press release, I can write that. If you want an intro to a book, I can write that. So, yeah, that's kind of the little pathway, but, yeah, find me on Instagram, say hi, ask me questions, look through my work. I'd love to look at your work and I feel like we find the things that we need through the people we know.

Mari Roberts:

1:01:22

So just don't be afraid to connect and say hey, and I'd love to see what your audience is doing. So, yeah, come and find me. I'm out there. You know where to find me.

Mari Roberts:

1:01:27

Danny, seriously, thank you so much for being here. You are just. You really do share your essence fully, and I'm getting all emotional again and I think that's what makes it so beautiful and you inspire me, I know, and I really do believe that this is going to inspire other people to you know, connect to what's true for them and to start to take the steps to live life the way they're meant to live it, because you know, this is the purpose, this is why we are here, you know, and so thank you for sharing your gifts and your thoughts and just all the amazingness of who you are. If today's episode resonated with you, share your thoughts and feelings in any review section, so let me know where you're at on your journey, sending you big love to bring those passions to life Because, remember, you deserve it.

This was a 6-2 Studio production. Find us at six-two.studio for all your creative sound needs.