Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea HUNT.
Hi Andrea, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m originally from Minnesota, and my story really starts after high school, in terms of my travels and starting the journey of my life. High school was a bit difficult for me because I didn’t have an easy time after my parents’ divorce. I wasn’t very happy, and I didn’t know where I was supposed to find myself in the world. I just knew that it wasn’t going to be in Rochester, Minnesota, at that time. I will always love Minnesota but in my young years I wanted to go explore.
I saved up around $15,000 in about two years waiting tables at Applebee’s and a sports bar, and I set off to learn Spanish in Mexico to honor my Mexican grandmother, go to London, England, to do volunteer work with disabled children, and go to China to study Chinese. I ended up doing all 3 of those things, but in 10 years instead of 2. With some roundabout twists and turns relationships, love and loss, degrees, moves, cultures and languages.
During my junior high school years, I had the opportunity to go to Concordia Language Camp in northern Minnesota and study Chinese, which I was really enthralled with. I loved how unique it was as a language, and I was fascinated by the culture. I had no idea that I would end up living there later on.
In 1998, I packed my bags and left by myself to move to Mexico. This was before cell phones. I didn’t know anybody, I couldn’t speak Spanish, and I had no idea what I was doing.
To be honest, the first night, when I sat on my bed at the guest house, I suddenly questioned myself and wondered what the hell I had just done. The father of the house had let me in late at night and shown me the room where I would be staying for the next four to six months. I was alone in a brand-new country, 20 years old, and I didn’t speak the language. It was one of the most isolating feelings and I cried.
I never realized that decision would become the basis for the way I looked at life. That move to Mexico was pivotal in my personal development, as was my move to China eight years later.
Moving to Mexico taught me that I could be independent and happy in the world. I could meet new people, get out of my comfort zone, and learn new things. Most importantly, I learned that I was never stuck. No matter how bad things got, I could always make a small decision or a small change. I could always save up, travel somewhere, and start again.
After moving back to the United States from Mexico, I lived in Athens, Georgia, where I studied journalism at Grady College at the University of Georgia. I was able to take Spanish and Italian classes as electives. I saved up money working as a waitress to go to Italy for summer classes and to Argentina to study Argentine literature and photography.
After university, I traveled to South America for a few months to return to Buenos Aires and take photography classes. During that time, I went through a breakup from my long-term relationship with my Mexican partner. Given that I was 28 years old, I can’t say I had the emotional tools to deal with it very well.
I ended up extending my trip and staying until July 2006 so I could be in Argentina during the World Cup games, which are a huge part of Argentine culture. It was an amazing time to be there.
I traveled to Peru and Bolivia led by a romantic vision in my head of Machu Picchu. While I was in La Paz, Bolivia, eating at the pancake breakfast at a hostel, I met an American girl who had been teaching English in Korea and had now saved up enough money to travel around South America. I was fascinated by the idea that you could teach English with only a four-year degree. I had no idea that was even possible in Asia. She told me all about DavesEslCafe and told me to check it out.
I had always wanted to live in China, but at that point, I still hadn’t gone because I went back to Mexico instead of continuing with my original plan to go to China. I decided to return to the U.S., get my TEFL certification, and a few weeks later, I was on a plane to Hangzhou, China.
I worked at a boarding school for Chinese and Korean students. I had two classes of 35 students each, and they were five years old. It was actually an amazing year in my life. I lived in a Chinese city of one million people where I was one of only five foreigners in the entire city.
That was a truly amazing experience because it was the biggest test of being able to adjust and adapt. There’s nothing quite like being a million miles from your family and friends, wondering if you made the right choice. To be honest, at the beginning, I questioned that. But in the end, moving to China ended up being the best possible thing I could have done for myself. There’s nothing more empowering than going to start your life over on the other side of the world.
Now, I’m not going to lie and tell you that I was totally fine. I had to work through all the issues surrounding my breakup because even when you run away, you still have to deal with yourself. However, a lot of the learning and healing I did became part of my journey and my path.
I moved to Beijing a little later, in 2007, right before the Beijing Olympics. The Olympics were an absolutely fantastic time to be in China because it was China opening up to the world symbolically, culturally, and geopolitically. If you could speak Chinese, English, and another language, it was truly fantastic for job opportunities.
After the Olympics, in autumn 2008, the financial crisis hit. At the time, it didn’t make much sense to leave and go anywhere, so I stayed for another five years.
During that time in Beijing, I worked for China Radio International and for some expat websites, teaching foreigners how to travel around China, how to move there, what to look for, and how to navigate things. It was truly a magical time.
Later on, I met my German ex-boyfriend and decided to do my master’s program in Germany. He landed a job in Munich, so we decided to move here in 2012.
The relationship didn’t work out, and that soon became obvious. But I loved living in Munich, and I loved the mountains and discovering how much I loved nature and hiking. To be honest, that was one of the most transformational awakenings I’ve had. I realized that the mountains could be a kind of nature therapy and help calm your nervous system.
In 2020, during the pandemic, I got laid off, unfortunately, as so many people did. We were going into the second lockdown in Munich, and everything seemed completely unstable and unpredictable for the future.
I found myself sitting at home with the cold winter approaching, during the coldest, damp months of October and November, and decided to start my certification in transformational coaching.
As I was doing practice coaching sessions, I realized that when it came to confidence, people were often limited by their own belief systems but unable to push past them because of fear.
I had been doing EFT tapping on my own for several years to manage my emotions, stress, and anxiety, so I already knew how powerful it was. It seemed like the logical choice to get certified in that as well, since I was already doing the coaching certification.
By the time I had the breakup that became the basis for my Heartbreak to Healing EFT Tapping Coaching Program called The Release, Rebuild, and Rise Journey™ , I had already learned the values and practices of effective transformation coaching, and emotional release and regulation.
When my breakup happened in 2021, it was pretty horrible; I’m not going to lie. I felt like I had the rug ripped out from under me. And yet, I had to break my own heart to save myself. He had so much unhealed trauma that was being taken out on me and it had become toxic. After the breakup, it became clear that breakup triggered so many of my own childhood wounds. I realized it was finally time to look at things like my attachment style, effective boundary setting, and so many other things I hadn’t effectively addressed up until that point.
All of this became the basis for the coaching program I have today. I’m proud to say that I figured out an effective healing journey for my clients based on the Release, Rebuild, and Rise system I created to move somebody through the healing process in around 12 weeks. Of course, some people can take as long as they need.
The important thing is that my program integrates different healing stages and journeys, as well as EFT tapping, to release emotional wounding and old belief systems, address issues like boundary setting and people-pleasing, and help someone move into the next chapter of their life.
It’s about rebuilding confidence, looking forward to the future, and creating important structures in your own life so that you’re not looking for another relationship to complete you. You are whole as you are, instead of constantly questioning your value, your worth, and who you are as a person.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has absolutely not been a smooth road. My life has been amazing. I have had so many incredible experiences, seen places some people only dream about. I’m so grateful for all the lessons life has shown me that made me who I am today. But leaving your home country to go live abroad is not easy..
I think many people, especially in the U.S., have the illusion that living abroad is something glamorous, like influencers show you on Instagram, where everything is perfect and romantic and you spend your days frolicking in the sea and drinking margaritas.
That might be true for some digital nomads, but the reality is that if you leave your home country for many years at a time, you’re not really going to have that lifestyle unless you’re incredibly wealthy. There are many amazing things about living abroad, and I wouldn’t trade my life for anything. However, it’s definitely not been an easy road.
There have been times in China, for example, when they suddenly changed the visa regulations, and many of the foreigners working at the agency I was employed with almost got deported. We spent nearly a week afraid to open our doors and had to write a letter of apology to the Chinese government for overstaying our visas, even though it wasn’t our fault at all. The company we worked for hadn’t applied for our visas in time. While they did pull through in the end, it was extremely tense. We had to go to Hong Kong at the last minute to get another stamp in our passports and come back in.
The other thing nobody talks about is moving across the world to be with somebody in their country. It’s not as rosy as it sounds. Sure, some relationships do make it, and it depends very much on the couple themselves and how supportive the partner is. But it’s definitely not easy, especially when one person doesn’t speak the language of the new culture.
Not to mention, if you get laid off while living in another country, it can be extremely scary not knowing whether you’ll be able to figure things out.
While Germany has so many amazing things, it’s not always the easiest country to settle into. Many foreigners report feeling lonely here, as it can be harder to make friends, especially as you get older. Germany is a wonderful country, and I’m incredibly grateful to live here. But like any place in the world, it’s certainly not perfect, and the bureaucracy can be very confusing for foreigners.
But I love my life here, and I’m very grateful for it.
Getting laid off in 2020 during the pandemic was downright scary for me because, even though I had savings, nobody knew what was going to happen in the future. It was very uncertain what would happen to me career-wise.
Looking back, I’m really glad I took the initiative to start my own business, but it has definitely not been an easy road. However, that’s a story for another time.
The truth is as a new entrepreneur, there’s a lot you don’t know. Every business owner, unless they had somebody whose footsteps they could follow, will tell you that you make mistakes along the way.
It’s always a learning process. You need to adjust, learn, pivot, and believe in yourself even when nobody else does.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Living Deliberately Today?
My brand is called Living Deliberately Today, and the idea behind it is about trying to get the most out of life (even after setbacks). The name was inspired by a poem by Henry David Thoreau that I came across many years ago in Dead Poets Society.
For me, living deliberately is about making a conscious decision to move forward, even when things feel like they’ve fallen apart. Sometimes, when you’re dealing with heartbreak or going through a difficult period in your life, you have to push yourself to put one foot in front of the other. That in itself is a deliberate act. It’s about setting intentions, moving forward with authenticity and integrity, and healing your wounds so that you can show up for yourself and build a life that feels right for you.
That philosophy is at the heart of everything I do. Through my Living Deliberately Today: Heartbreak to Healing Coaching Program, I help people work through heartbreak, heal emotional wounds, rebuild confidence, and move forward without repeating the same patterns.
I also have Living Deliberately Today Experiences, where I focus on travel in Bavaria and taking people to beautiful places that make them feel like they’re really making the most of their day. This includes mountain escapes to breathtaking mountaintops in the Alps and Bavaria, as well as Munich Old Town beer tours.
I also have Living Deliberately Today Gifts, with the tagline “Authentically You: Unique Finds for Self-Guided Souls.” It’s for women who value their individuality, do things their own way, and want to live life on purpose. It’s about finding unique things that reflect who you are, what you believe in, and how you want to show up in the world.
For me, these different offerings are all connected by the same idea: making the most of your life, whether that means healing from something difficult, getting out into nature, exploring somewhere new, or simply making choices that reflect who you are and how you want to live.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
If people want to work with me, they can always reach out through my website, www.dreahunt.com, or through Living Deliberately Today Experiences. They can book a call directly to work with me, download my free EFT for Heartbreak e-book, or simply sign up for my newsletter.
Get my EFT now: https://ebooks.dreahunt.com/eft-tapping-book-heartbreak
Get my Heartbreak to Healing EFT Tapping book on Amazon: https://link.amazon/B00CUB3Yd
I offer a wide variety of options to help people heal during this difficult time. It’s not easy, but you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself, and I understand how you feel. I also know what it takes to get yourself to the other side, where you have hope again, enjoy life, and feel excited about the woman you’re becoming.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dreahunt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/living.deliberately.today/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livingdeliberatelytoday
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreahunt/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dreahuntlivingdeliberately
- Other: https://livingdeliberatelytoday.de/
