Gratitude as a path to healing: my journey through synchronicity, dreams and personal growth

No life change is simple, and when it happens in the middle of a global pandemic, everything is magnified and deepened. Moving from Zagreb to a smaller town was an act of great courage, but also a great challenge. I left a freshly renovated flat I hadn't even had time to enjoy, my workspace, my clients, my rhythm of life, the familiar dynamics of parenting and everything I had built over the years.

I arrived in the new town with my daughter, in a flat that was too small, at a time of total isolation and uncertainty. I was met by silence, closed doors and a host of problems I couldn't have foreseen. My relationship with my partner was far from supportive, and my daughter's sadness about missing her dad, along with the feeling that I had angered many people, weighed on me even more. I felt as if everything was collapsing – identity, security, support.

Even though I had worked on myself for years and had tools that had helped me before, this time it felt as if nothing worked. As if both the techniques and my faith in them had abandoned me. But the truth was actually different – each of those tools helped in its own moment. Nothing was in vain.

I went through phases – couples and individual therapy, facing infidelity, training, searching for something to hold on to. I tried psychotherapy – both group and individual – breathwork, sport, swimming in the cold sea, the Wim Hof method, meditation, psilocybin, writing down my dreams. All of it – every practice, every person, every insight – had its value. Not one cure, but many small steps, each in its own time.

Slowly I began to pull myself out of the state that had held me – depression, feelings of worthlessness, bitterness and despair. New people appeared, new relationships, new mirrors in which I could see myself again. And what began to give me back my strength more than anything was – a sense of gratitude.

Gratitude became my anchor. Every morning, as soon as I open my eyes, I give thanks. For my health, for the body that carries me, for my daughter, for the time I have, for the people around me, for the space, for food, for the sea and the air. During the day I remember to give thanks even when I least expect it. And the more I give thanks, the more begins to change in me and around me. My focus creates my world.

The dreams I write down, the synchronicities that appear, the feeling that nothing is accidental – all of it brings me back to myself. I feel that I'm once again part of something bigger, that my path, however winding, has its meaning. Gratitude is like a light that illuminates even the darkest corners.

My journey continues. I'm still learning, still falling and getting up. But now with more trust. Because I know that through all of it – the pain, the confusion, the love and the lessons – I've become even more of who I am.