Vanessa Pereira: From Corporate Success to Soul Awakening Through Loss and Divine Redirection

Vanessa Pereira sat in her downtown Toronto condo surrounded by all the markers of success—six-figure salary, her own home, a car, great friends, travelling to new countries twice a year. From the outside, she was the fun one, the put-together one, the one who always gave to others, the one who was energetic and positive. On the inside, she was crying to God most nights and feeling completely shattered not knowing what was 'wrong with her' and why she was feeling so empty and lost in her place on this earth.

"I even spoke to God and said, 'If you want to take me now, just take me, because I'm cool with it,'" Vanessa recalls. "I had suicidal thoughts, but I feared God so much I would never actually do it. But I had the thoughts wondering how people do it, who would say what at my funeral, what would happen if I jumped in front of this train".

Nobody knew. And that misalignment—the gap between her polished exterior and her internal desperation—nearly consumed her.

When Death Awakens the Soul

The unraveling began nine years ago when Vanessa's father, Gabriel Manuel Pereira, took his last breath in front of her after a two-year cancer battle. She was 32. "Something happened in that moment," she says, "but I didn't know what it was at the time. A few years later, it became known to me that it was my SOUL AWAKENING (my first one)".

The day after her father's death, she felt a perspective shift immediately and automatically big life questions flooded in: What is my purpose? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do for the rest of my life? She was in corporate for about 10yrs by that point, successful by every conventional measure, and suddenly none of it made sense. "There is NO WAY I can do this for another 30 years until retirement," she thought. "I cannot!".

So she did what many people do when grief becomes unbearable—she ran away to find answers. Three months after her father's passing, Vanessa took her first solo trip to Costa Rica, desperate to escape the weight of loss and the well-meaning people surrounding her. She was searching for something, but didn't know what.

"Costa Rica is all nature—God is everywhere there" she says. "And our guide's name was Gabriel! How synchronistic that my dad made his FIRST appearance to me in Costa Rica (his first name was Gabriel, though nobody called him that). I don't see anything as coincidence".

That trip cracked something open. Vanessa began doing small things for herself without guilt or shame. Using her money in ways she really wanted to in small doses at first...getting her nails done just because, doing things without justifying it, speaking differently. "We think these things are so small," she reflects, "but when you do them, they bring up a lot of 'I shouldn't do that' or 'I should give to others and exhaust myself because I'm a giver'. You get into this martyr energy of thinking self-sacrifice makes you better for God."

God kept redirecting her. He kept whispering: "You need to learn how to love yourself first beyond the surface, at a much deeper level".

The Divine Whisper in Depression

Despite listening to all the podcasts—Joe Dispenza, Marianne Williamson, Eckhart Tolle...spiritual teachers who spoke about God—Vanessa felt stuck. "I loved what they were saying and all of it made me feel like I wasn't alone, but nothing was actually shifting in my life. I'd feel good in the moment, then go back to my regular routine saying, 'Why do I feel so dissatisfied even though I have everything?' I'm grateful but there's still something missing".

She had everything. She knew she had everything. And that made the depression even more confusing.

She prayed to God heavily every night wanting things to change.

Then, during a walk, she heard a whisper: "Get a Life Coach".

"I didn't even know what a Life Coach did exactly," Vanessa admits. "I Googled it, got overwhelmed by a billion options, and closed the tab". But God nudged again (louder this time as He always does), prompting her to reach out to someone in her network.

That message changed everything. Within days, Vanessa was on a discovery call with a coach who didn't have a website, didn't have a big following, but had something Vanessa's intuition and soul recognized immediately. When the coach said, "It's $10K to work with me one-on-one for six months", Vanessa pulled out her credit card without hesitation.

"I love that part about 2022 Vanessa who was not afraid to make bold decisions in the midst of her chaos. I have always been the cycle breaker in my family without even knowing it. I just do these things. I'm like, Okay, $10K dollars? What's the worst that can happen? I'm literally in depression right now. I've tried everything else. It's only 3 paycheques. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme".

Unlearning Shame, Embracing Self-Leadership

Vanessa worked with that coach for 18 months in a row. The transformation speaks for itself! It wasn't about tactics or strategies, it was about unlearning shame, guilt, and self-judgement. It was about shifting focus to BEING > DOING.

"A lot of this came down to self-worth", she says. "I was looking for worthiness in everything outside of me—men who didn't want long-term commitment, bosses who didn't recognize my value, feeling like a 'nobody' in my family. It was the SAME lesson in different scenarios".

Within the first three months of coaching, miracles started dropping into her reality. Her difficult boss got transferred. New opportunities appeared. A different calibre of men started showing up. But more importantly, Vanessa started seeing the pattern: God was teaching her to stand on her own.

"God gave me good leaders so I knew what that experience would feel like, but then they would leave in under a year", she recalls. "I used to get so frustrated thinking I finally got a good one and now You're moving them? Over time, I understood why God did that. He was saying, 'Vanessa, you're not meant to latch onto anyone. You're attaching your value to whether you have a good leader or not. I'm going to show you how to stand on your own regardless of who is in your corner or not. YOU are the leader! You're not going to be at somebody else's table. I'm preparing you to CREATE your own table'".

Surrender, Identity Shift, and the Pruning

In 2025, Vanessa's word for the year was SURRENDER. And when she asked God to show her how to surrender, He responded.

Every door she tried to walk through in her corporate life...part-time roles, new roles, new projects...all scenarios resulted in a firm "No".

At the same time, her relationship she thought was headed toward marriage ended abruptly from infidelity.

The previous version of Vanessa would have crumbled into pieces from something like this (something she once thought was her biggest fear).

The identity of 2025 Vanessa saw it clearly: "God is removing this man because he's not the one chosen for where I'm headed. And these opportunities in corporate are a 'No' which means God wants me to be somewhere else. Okay, cool".

"I don't suppress my emotions anymore", she explains. "That's a big part of what I work on with clients, to not diminish any feelings like they don't matter. Because it does all matter. Go through the process. What you'll notice is that while pain is an inevitable part of your human experience, your timeline for suffering actually collapses because of your level of self-trust".

Continuing the shedding process in 2025, friends she thought would never leave started dropping like flies. It was hurtful and confusing, but once again Vanessa saw the pattern: "God was creating space for new people to enter my life, people who can handle my faith, my mission, my full self".

"I was craving people I could talk to about God openly. I want to talk about it because it's part of my everyday life. I no longer want to keep it private like I used to when I was in corporate. God heard my ask (as He always does) and He so divinely brought them into my life".

Co-Creating the Mission

Today, Vanessa is a Self-Leadership Coach / Speaker / Workshop Facilitator.

She got the call from God in 2025 to close the chapter on her corporate life as an employee and step into the evolution of her mission.

"I am clear on my WHY and WHAT, but the HOW I leave to God. My role is to take care of my vessel (through movement/exercise, being aware of my thoughts, rewriting disempowering beliefs, regulating my emotions, listening to my body for the actions I need to take). My body is the vessel that carries my soul. And God is my soul. This is how we're doing the work (co-creating)".

Vanessa no longer prays "to God"...she has conversations WITH God throughout her day. Gratitude isn't a morning routine; it's a 24/7 posture. When she needs words for a presentation, she prays, "Thanks for letting Your words flow through me God. Whatever You need the audience to know, give me the words. May Your Will be done, not mine". Then she drops it and the words flow effortlessly.

"I always let God know, 'I like this. I want more of this. More please. Thank you", she says.

She doesn't chase clients. She doesn't force outcomes. She trusts that God has already lined up the people, the opportunities, the husband, the funds, the tools and resources, the next chapter. Her only job? To live in her fullest expression of self, continuing to peel back layers that need to fall off from the conditioning attached to her previous identity. Examples: Say the thing she's thinking but afraid to say out loud. Talk to the person she's intimidated by. Share her truth. Make the journey fun.

"Every time I unlock something in myself, something magical happens. That's God working through me".

The Invitation

Vanessa's story isn't about escaping corporate to find peace. It's about surrendering control to discover the true joy of this life God has blessed us with. She adds, "It's about learning that God doesn't want us to put Him on a pedestal worshiping from a distance or trying to be a martyr for Him. God is calling us to co-create WITH Him, walking side by side, hand in hand".

For high-achievers exhausted by the pressure to perform, to have it all together, to keep the mask on—Vanessa's journey offers a different path. One where your breakdowns are your superpower, which allows you to create from a space of expansion (not limitation). Where your darkest seasons become the soil for your greatest joy. Where the whisper you've been ignoring might just be God saying, 'It's time. I'm ready when you are'.

What's the one thing you've been holding back that God is asking you to leap into? What if this week, you finally chose to action God's nudges?