It’s been almost two weeks since departing Dubai and simultaneously ending my career as a cabin crew for Emirates Airlines. I feel a mixture of emotions from grief to nostalgia as I close a chapter on a huge part of my life but also feelings of excitement with a hint of anxiety as I embark on this new journey. The change in path came as a surprise for many of my friends, family, readers and followers online as I appeared to be giving up what many assumed was the dream life and career.
“But I thought you were happy?”
“What happened?”
“Why would you give up this opportunity? Why? Why? WHY?”
I was asked time and time again by many curious souls, and the honest answer is because my heart told me do so.
It was December 2021 when I operated a flight to my hometown Melbourne, Australia. It was my first time operating the flight to Melbourne and also the first time I was heading back after two and a half years due to the global pandemic. I hadn’t seen my friends or family throughout that time as Australia was under major lockdown restrictions. The trip back to Melbourne was extremely emotional for me, not only because it had been so long between visits but because even then I wasn’t able to see my family as we cabin crew had to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival. I felt angry at the situation and heartbroken that I couldn’t see my family. I was an emotional wreck and spent the majority of the flight in tears. Looking back, I believe the flight served as a catalyst in allowing me to release suppressed emotions I had withheld throughout the entire pandemic.
I’ve written about it in previous blog posts, that I was personally affected by the pandemic in more ways than one. Not only in terms of my job due to the aviation industry taking a long pause but also in terms of not being able to travel home to Australia and be with my loved ones for such an extensive period. Like all adversity, I believe it always serves our higher purpose to evolve, grow and become better humans but that doesn’t mean that it makes it an easy process to go through. I learned a lot from the pandemic and the most significant of all the lessons was to detach from my job. I believe one of the main reasons why I felt so defeated when Covid first hit was because it threatened to take away my job, to which I had attached a lot of my identity. I didn’t know who I was without being a “Middle Eastern cabin crew”, I knew aviation wasn’t a forever job but I didn’t know what was next for me, I honestly didn’t believe I could thrive without the job.
What I learned to do during that period was to go within, daily meditation and yoga practices really helped me with that. I started to address limiting beliefs inside myself and one of the first hurdles I overcame was believing in myself enough to start a business. I had plenty of free time as flights weren’t operating so I decided to start a side hustle selling baked goods since baking is a passionate hobby of mine. It took me a lot to overcome my fear of putting myself out there like that. I kept having thoughts like “why would anyone buy your cakes? You’re not that good at baking, who do you think you are?” Despite all of these limiting beliefs, I decided to do it anyway. I created an Instagram page (@bakemecrazymelbourne) and started selling 10 dirham boxes of brownies to my fellow crew within my accommodation building. From there, my business grew and I created something beyond what I ever imagined. The moral of the story here is not that I quit Emirates to pursue my love of baking but what the baking business awoke in me. I woke up to the realisation that I don’t need Emirates to live a passion-driven life and I, Danielle Murnane, a sovereign individual, am the sole creator of my reality and I don’t need an airline to assist in that.
Since that lightbulb moment, something shifted inside me. The energy I once gave to Emirates, was redirected to my internal self where I began to explore my heart’s true desires. Without intentionally doing so, I began to create a clear pathway out of the cabin crew job which aligned more with my inner truth and what I believe is my purpose here on earth. I’ll get back to that in a little bit…
Now let’s get back to the flight to Melbourne that I mentioned in my opening paragraph. After spending the majority of the flight crying about how cruel life is, something spectacular happened to me as I woke up the next morning in my quarantine hotel room in Melbourne. A wave of clarity washed over my entire body and I felt a sense of calm as I received the message, “it’s time to come home“. Just like that, I knew 2022 would be the year I transitioned back to Australia. It may seem crazy to some, but for those of you who are in touch with your intuition, you’ll know how it feels when that inner knowing sinks in. The information received feels right in every part of your body, even if it doesn’t make sense to the logical mind. At that moment, I wasn’t entirely sure when I was going to move home, but one thing I know for sure, my heart was summoning me back to the land I was born.
After my trip, I decided to wait until my annual leave in February to make the executive decision as to whether I would resign from Emirates. I had to clarify what I felt was real and that I wasn’t just suffering from prolonged homesickness. At the beginning of my annual leave in February, I wasn’t sure when I would resign and move back home. However, by the end of my two weeks of annual leave, I decided to resign as soon as I landed back in Dubai. Being back in Australia for that short period of time only clarified what I was feeling, that urge within me to move home grew stronger and stronger each day I was in Melbourne. After arriving back in Dubai, I gave my one month notice period to the company and the rest is history. Since that day, not once have I looked back at my decision and would choose to do it differently. Even today I feel a strong sense of contentment in my heart that I have made the right decision. I feel it’s time for the next season of my life to begin.
Nature is our biggest teacher and we as humans, are an extension of nature, which means we are not meant to stay stagnant. We are meant to change like summer evolves to winter, grow like flowers bloom in spring, and shed what no longer serves us like the trees shed their leaves in autumn. Change is not something to be feared, it is something to be embraced. It can feel uncomfortable at times, and uncertainty is always difficult to navigate. We, humans, love to feel in control of our life, however, the beauty of this divine universe is in fact that nothing in our external world is in our control. Once you learn to roll with uncertainty and find comfort in the unknown, that’s when you set yourself free. You become free to open up the doors to new possibilities, perhaps some you never knew existed, and you challenge yourself to do better, to BE better. This is the very reason I have decided to leave Emirates. I know you were probably hoping for a more juicy story than that, but the honest truth is that I’m ready for a new challenge in my life, I’m ready to open new doors, I’m ready to take a plunge in following my dreams (and they doesn’t include serving chicken or beef on a plane). As grateful as I am for the job and the opportunities the airlines have provided me, I know that this is not my true calling in life.
If I’m really honest, my true heart’s desire, since I was a little girl, is to be an author, to write, to be a storyteller. I’ve always dreamed of writing a book, as I have always loved and still LOVE books. I read every day and I’ve been writing books since a very young age. I’m even more GRATEFUL to the airlines for giving me the inspiration to write the first book I intend to publish (and hopefully not my last). Since January this year, I have begun writing my story and plan to publish my work once it’s ready. I have a lot to share about aviation, my travel adventures to 77 countries and counting, living in the Middle East from a Western perspective and all the wonderful lessons I’ve learned from this crazy eye-opening experience I can proudly call MY LIFE. I’m hoping to use this next chapter to focus on completing my book so I can have it published as soon as possible. I hope my words can inspire readers to step outside their comfort zones, follow their dreams and appreciate every step along the journey.
Other than that (I am a Dani of all trades after all), I am currently undertaking a course on Feminine Embodiment Coaching. I am deeply passionate about this work as it will enable me to help women connect with their innate power, their feminine energy. This power lives deep inside the body and is tied to intuition, creativity, magnetism and pleasure. Embodiment involves being present in the body and experiencing life in the now, the way nature intended women, to be. This type of practice has personally worked a miracle on me, in terms of coming into stronger contact with my intuition and creativity, improving my health, healing past trauma and overcoming limiting beliefs I stored inside my body without me knowing it was there. I truly believe embodiment is the key to healing and living a more pleasurable existence. I aim to have my online coaching business set up in the next year.
In the lead up to that, I’m planning to produce content on many topics related to feminine embodiment on this blog and on my Youtube channel. I’ve also set up a TikTok account that is purely devoted to this. While I’m super busy on the creative front, I also need a little cash flow in the lead up to entrepreneurship. I’m not going to give all my cards away just yet, but let’s say I may soon be working for my THIRD airline 😉
While the end of any chapter can feel sad, I feel very optimistic about my future. I feel motivated and excited for what’s to come, even though it hasn’t materialised yet. I’m a strong believer in manifesting and I believe you can’t go wrong whenever you follow your heart. The heart omits nothing but pure love, and any time you use it to make a decision, it’s going to lead you right where you need to go, sometimes it leads us to things greater and far beyond what our limited minds could ever imagine.
So with that said, I invite you all to join me on this new journey, to follow your heart in whichever way it summons you and LEAD WITH LOVE ❤
Love, Dani xx
Danielle Murnane 
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