A Move To a New City, a New Career, + a Great Apartment!
Name: Alina Seredian
Where do you reside?: Portland, OR
What is your cultural upbringing and background?: I was raised in suburbia in Los Angeles county. It was a very standard upbringing. My parents were together for most of my childhood until I was 17, and a few years after their divorce, I moved to the Pacific Northwest to start a life of my own.
Are you currently a Pathway Member?: Yes
What was on your manifestation list?: I wanted a new job that was aligned with my very specific field. I'm a chocolatier, and my specialty is truffle making. I also had a movie on my list. My ideal move was to a new city full of freshness and opportunity, but not overwhelming like the majority of cities like Seattle or Los Angeles. I also wanted to live by myself in an apartment on the top floor in a vintage building (very specific, I know, but I love everything vintage and wanted my personal space to reflect my old-fashioned soul).
What workshops did you use and what blocks did you discover during the DIs & workshops?: At the beginning of this year, I started with Unblocked Love. Then I moved on to doing Unblocked Inner child for the third time and Unblocked Shadow—it took me three tries to finish this workshop, but I finally was able to see it through to the end this time! I was also taking Alexis Smart's Unblocked flower remedy for about two months up to my manifestations coming through. I also must admit that I moved fairly slowly through the workshops, but I frequented the Daily Practice quite often and found myself drawn to the Trigger DI and the Deservingness & Abundance DIs the most.
I was extremely triggered in my last living situation because, as much as I love my old housemates, they were a couple, and it brought up a lot of shadow for me, such as not feeling welcome or wanted (that was a whole lot of inner child to work through). My people-pleasing/accommodating inclinations became so inflamed I felt like I was tiptoeing everywhere, really for no real reason either. I just didn't want to be a burden on my housemates and associated my presence with being such. My housemates weren't mean, unkind people. But they looked out for themselves and each other, and I came to the realization that not everyone was going to grant you the same courtesies you'd grant them.
They were going to do what was right by them, and I had to do what was right by me. Not in a selfish way, but I had no one to look out for or stick up for me when I felt outnumbered, so I had to do the work (hello, unblocked boundaries) to find the confidence to stand up for myself. And as much as I tried to make sure everyone was happy and taken care of—often them before myself—I was hardly ever truly happy in the last handful of months leading up to my manifestations coming through.
What expanders did you find?: I'll be honest, expanders have always been tricky for me. However, I was able to find some fragment expanders that helped quite a bit. My first fragment expander was my mom. She's also been doing the work for a few years now, and last September, she jumped off a cliff and moved from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee, to start over and follow her passions. She's been in her new city for over six months now and absolutely loves it.
Another fragment expander was someone I've never met in person. Long story short, I was scrolling on Instagram and saw that a chocolate company I had applied to in town was posting pictures and blurbs about their team members for women's appreciation month. This post featured a young woman about my age, and the caption said that she was their newest hire—so obviously, I didn't get the job and realized then that there was no point for me to continue emailing the company as the position was already filled. Upon first glance, I felt a wave of envy sweep over me—coincidently, that month was the "envy and jealousy" month which was really helpful because I don't think I would have recognized that emotional wave as envy if it wasn't on my radar. Once I recognized that I was feeling envy, I went back to the post and took my time looking at the smiling young woman and reading the kind caption the chocolate company wrote about her until I didn't feel triggered anymore.
Now I was convinced that this was a sign from the Universe telling me that the very same thing could happen to me just as it happened to her.
And the last expander, as silly as it sounds, was me. I had moved a couple of times, and when I moved to Bellingham, WA, my home of 6 years, I found an incredible apartment and later an amazing job where I made some of my closest friends and found my passion. I figured if I'd already done it once, I could certainly do it again.
What tests did you face? Which did you pass? Not pass?: As far as calling in my job, the tests I faced weren't as challenging once I had the idea in my head that I wanted to leave Bellingham to pursue chocolate making. After that, I got phone calls and emails rolling in from a bunch of places I had applied to months ago, and I told all of them, "thank you, but I already found a job," even though I hadn't. I just knew that I wasn't going to take a job that didn't align with my passion, and as there weren't too many chocolatier jobs in Bellingham, there weren't too many dangling carrots. And honestly, once I was clear with myself, the Universe, and what I truly wanted, finding my job slid into my life like butter so smoothly.
Now, as for calling in my apartment, that was a different story. After getting hired at my new job, I started preparing to move as soon as possible. I was offered my job in mid-March, and ideally, I wanted to move by the beginning of April so I could start working as soon as possible. I knew I wanted to live on the Eastside of Portland because I'd be closer to work, and it's more quaint with neighborhoods, cafes, and boutiques rather than a bustling city like on the Westside. And so I began hunting through craigslist, Facebook marketplace, and occasionally an apartment hunter website (but I didn't care for those as much). I should also say I was quite picky about what I wanted for my apartment. I figure that if the majority of my earnings were going to be spent on a place to live, I wanted to be happy to write out a rent check every month rather than bitter or indifferent.
My space, my home, my sanctuary; it had to be just right, and it was something I knew would be worth waiting for. I wanted to live in a vintage apartment building on the top floor on the east side of the river in a neighborhood and be within walking distance from work. Needless to say, it was slim pickings. And over the weeks of hunting, I became more agitated and troubled with not finding anything on the east side, but there were plenty of apartments on the west side that fit my criteria that I reached out to but realized just as quickly that they were tests and would either cancel the viewing or view it just because it's fun to see the charming vintage apartments even though I had no intention of signing a lease.
As far as the apartments I saw on the east side; they were either too modern or vintage but too small to be asking for so much. After the first week of April came and went and I still didn't have my apartment, I was so tired of feeling anxious about it that I threw my hands up in surrender, went to checking only craigslist twice a day (which what a dramatic decrease from what I had been averaging) and within the next ten days my apartment came through.
Did you experience a magic dark period? If so, tell us about it.: Oh, I most certainly did. I'd say that I was in the magic dark for about 3-4 months. Last year, 2020, I quit my old job at an edible company to start my own small business in which I sold homemade truffles at the local farmers market. I did that for the full season, which ended in December. After that, I would make truffles casually or for special occasions such as Valentine's Day, but I didn't do much other than that.
I was in a terrible rut and a burnout—I love making and creating but having to go out and sell myself and my creations was exhausting, and I dreaded it. I loved making truffles, but I knew that if I kept going about it the way I was, I'd grow resentful of my medium, and to me, no prospect could be sadder. I also needed to start making money because I had no income without the farmer's market. So I applied for oddball jobs that I found on craigslist for a couple of months, and even though I'd get the occasional bite, nothing stuck. Everything just kept falling through, and I kept spending my days wandering like a ghost through the house.
Alas, I had a lot of time on my hands to do TBM workshops and fantasize about what I wanted, but I didn't take those whims seriously because I kept telling myself my life was in Bellingham and that I was locked in. This thoroughly depressed me, not because I hated where I was living, but because I felt trapped, and my aura felt stale. There's only so much opportunity to be had in a small city with a specific field, and I wanted more, and yet I kept urging myself to be happy with what I had. Like I said, though, I had been doing the work and resting, and I could feel something wanting to come through.
I just couldn't put my finger on it! Then sometime around the end of February/beginning March, I hit rock bottom and did what I usually do when this happens; I called my mom. My mom has been doing this work for a couple of years now, and immediately she called me out on all of my shadows, pointed out where I was playing small, and got me to verbally admit what I really wanted. After that, it was only another month of more focused intention and trusted surrender in the Universe that my manifestations came through.
How did your manifestation come through?: After I became clear with what I wanted and opened my heart up to possibilities, I took to brushing up my resume and going online to see if there was anyone in need of a chocolatier. I found an ad for Ranger Chocolate within the first few days of looking on Indeed, and I had remembered hearing wonderful things about the company before. So I sent in my application, and someone got back to me the next day. That weekend I drove down to Portland for my job interview (I brought some of my truffles along with me as well), and the following Monday, I got a phone call saying I got the job!
A month later, I found the apartment of my dreams and was moving down to Portland. I've been here a month now working at my new job and living in my own place. I have to say I still feel a bit dazzled at how beautifully it all came together and awed at just how much I love my new life here. My job is more than I could've asked for. I thought I was just going to be working as a team member and helping with the bean-to-bar chocolate-making process, but no.
I have my own department, fun new toys to play with, and creative freedom to make truffles all day long! Not only do I have creative freedom, but my boss and coworkers are some of the kindest souls I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Everyone is kind, supportive, and there's wonderful communication practiced in the workshop that is so unlike the last workshop I worked at. As far as my apartment goes, there are some weekends that I don't even want to leave. I love being in my new space so much!
How long did it take for your manifestation to come through after crafting your initial list?: After finding clarity and crafting my list, my manifestations came through within a month and a half.
How frequently were you using the workshops and DI's when you noticed the biggest shift surrounding your manifestation?: Probably 3-5 times a week. I was also taking the Unblocked flower remedy for about two months, right before I started calling in my manifestations and through the process of being tested and being in the magic dark before everything came through. I think the combination of the workshops and flower remedy was extraordinarily profound in helping me manifest my new life.
If you'd like, please include your IG handle: Personal: @brazen_broad Professional: @truffletroll
Is there anything else you think we should know? If you made this process your own in any way, this is the perfect spot to share that: I just want to use this space to say thank you so much to the TBM team! I'm overawed at how much my life has shifted over the years of doing this work and having had little manifestations coming though and now this big one! Between the workshops, the DI's, the podcast, and the Unblocked flower remedy, I feel more like my truest, most authentic self than I've ever had before, and it's such a wonder to be experiencing life from this place. I am deeply grateful and enthused to keep going forward with this work and seeing what else the Universe has in store for me now that open and ready <3
WORKSHOPS
Shadow / Inner Child / Love
